Convergence!
I hadn't planned on going to Convergence, but Dan Bayn, the GM for the Star Wars campaign I've been in for the last few weeks, cancelled our Saturday game, and my mom decided to go up north to a cabin for her birthday weekend, so my weekend became suddenly wide open. And hey, I'm a geek, so I figured it'd be fun. Short version: I had a blast.
I didn't go Friday, since I'd already agreed to go to a party @ Alyssa's place. More on that in a later post. When I woke up, I scurried home, in time for Rob to call and apologize for being late, since we'd planned on going apartment hunting Saturday morning; I was magnanimous about it, especially because I still needed to shower. Not that I told him that. Anyhow, we spent until about 3pm looking at apartments, and found several good prospects. I'd agreed to drive Amy to the Con, but Rob decided last minute that he wanted to go to, so we drove straight to pick her up. Which means I wore my heavy long-sleeved shirt and classy work shoes to the con (it'll come up later).
We bumped into Stuart and Will looking disreputable and loitering outside, chatted a bit, and headed in. Took some time to find where to get in, but we found it eventually. At that point, I did my best to turn "we" into "I"; it was the last chance RobandAmy would have to hang out for a while, and it's a lot easier to get into my excited-happy-talkative-meet-new-people-and-try-weird-things-and-be-uninhibited state when I don't have to worry about other people. I've just hit a new phase in my life lately, which is making me feel unsettled, and prompting quite a bit of self-examination. Partially to avoid that self-evaluation, and partially to try and find the good things in this new phase, I've taken to pursuing anything that seems like fun lately. Nothing that odd, just dancing more, and meeting friends for coffee, eating where I feel like, that sort of thing. I imagine this self-indulgence will wind down in a bit, followed by the usual insular ascetic phase, but might as well enjoy it while it lasts. So, that said, I plunged into the crowds and started looking for entertainments.
I saw a poster on the wall advertising something called Matrix Tag, so I took the elevator up to where they were starting the next round. There was a wonderous variety of geekery on display as I walked to the meeting. Book readings, a CCG room, a very nicely arranged LAN room, several rooms full of epic one-shot games, and the Matrix Tag meeting room. And this is only one floor! Anyhow, I showed up a bit late to the meeting, but I got up to speed quickly. It helped that Mike, a post-army scrawny-but-fit RPG geek I know, was there and had already played for a round. Basically, the game was an excuse to scurry furtively around the con, hiding from Agents and trying to find where Neo, Trinity and Morpheus would be for the next five minutes, and trying to move as quickly as possible without running (which wasn't allowed). I was on an adrenaline rush for the next three hours, and loved every minute of it. Took a break afterwards, walked around and looked in the various rooms, bumped into RobandAmy, hung out a bit. I was surprised at how many people I knew there. From RPG circles, there was Mike who I mentioned earlier, Chris (who I met in Dan's recent campaign), a guy named Christopher Weiss (who ran the worst rpg campaign I've ever been in)(yes, that includes Dave Schnitzlein's D&D game)(and at least Dave had the excuse of being a first time GM), and Dan and Danni Bayn (who I didn't get to see, but I know they were there). There was a whole mess of people from MAS, as well as Joe, his friend Carl (a quality human), and of course Rob, Amy, and the illustrious Tae.
Also Stuart and Will, who I bumped into during my wanderings, who invited me along with them to buy liqour. Well, actually, it was just this one cute girl they were with, who wanted to buy Vodka and Red Bull. It was strange to be the only nonsmoker in a car. Will drove, belting out 80s tunes along with the radio (stick, by the way). He drove us, in fact, almost into the side of another car; not really his fault, the other guy wasn't paying attention, and I could tell he felt bad about it. Still, a nice flash panic for the evening. Anyhow. When we get to the store, we can't find packs of Red Bull, only singles, which is a bummer, since they're having a sale on the packs. Calamity! Except that the girl somehow had Grocery-fu. Seriously, she comes back not thirty seconds later with three grocery-folk, chatting with them about how her mom's a something-or-other at such-and-such-Rainbow foods, shoptalking and oh by the way where's the Red Bull packs? They gave us the singles for the same rate, and on we went.
I sort of drifted off when we got back, wasn't really getting friendly vibes from anybody, and I'd had my adventure. I think I found con-suite at that point, and had food with Rob, Amy and Tae. Rob and Amy wandered off, so I chatted with Tae for a while, then went downstairs and killed some time until the dance started.
Oh, and what a dance it was. They had quality DJs, including several from Ground Zero. I was there when the first disc dropped, and left about two minutes before it ended. 11pm to 5:55 am. Went and got water about every half hour, took a twenty minute break to try and find Dan and Danni, and besides that, non-stop dancing. Remember that bit about the long sleeve shirt and classy shoes. Oh yeah. 7 hours. I had a blast. No glowsticks, just used simple glowstick patterns and liquiding to keep my hands busy, some basic footwork patterns, and went from there. Maybe the competition was lower quality since everyone was a geek, but I felt for the first time ever like I was actually dancing well. Caffine I'd been pumping into myself over the course of the day helped, probably.
And the music: freaking fantastic! They played goth-fanservice stuff from The Cure, and VNV Nation, and even Wolfsheim, along with Techno/Trace tracks and old 80's classics and the Mortal Combat theme, and Spybreak from the Matrix (lobby scene) and the song that plays in the rave scene in the Matrix Reloaded (oh, did that one get the couples a'grindin). Perfect dancing music. I even danced with a few girls over the course of the night. Twas a blast.
My only regret is that I didn't hit on this one girl who was doing industrial sort of dancing, really cool look. Had an intelligent face, really got into the music, wasn't doing the slutty dancing some of the girls went for, looked to be there to enjoy herself, not show off or try snagging a guy. What can I say, I like aloof. But, she left when I wasn't paying attention, and when I saw her at a booth the next day, I just told myself "nah". Dunno. Probably the right decision.
Anyhow, when the dance ended, I wandered over to where I'd seen Tae earlier (er, about 7 hours earlier), not really expecting her to be there. She was, but she was with a boy, so I wandered off. Didn't have a place to sleep. But I figured out that if you curl up between a table and a bench in one of the nooks by the pool, people can't see you. Hard tile covered in pretzel salt can feel pretty darn great when you're exhausted. Got about an hour and a half there before I woke up cramping. Found an unlocked room on the RPG floor, and kicked back in a chair with my feet up on the table. Out in seconds. Woke up again in a couple hours when someone came in to set up an event, wandered down to the Con Suite and grabbed some food. Wandered until the Dealer Room opened, bought the only non-tacky shirt I saw (navy blue w/ black pants, I know, I know, but I was desperate. I'm sure the fashion-pope can grant me an indulgence in this case), went to the bathroom and changed. Watched the last hour of The Cat Returns, which is a fun anime movie. If I had a sister of about 10-13, I'd totally recommend it to her. Drank caffine every hour or so, to keep up, but I honestly felt really good, still riding on the adrenaline high of the night/morning. Bumped into Joe and Carl, played some card games (really fun, ask Joe about My Dwarves can Fly). We went to a panel about killer robots, which was entertaining. One of the guys was involved in the local version of battle bots, really fun stuff. We finished the con by watching a bootleg of a Russian movie, Night Watch. Intelligent twists on folklore, and a spine-sword! Very cool. I'm looking forward to seeing a less grainy version when it hits theaters here in the states.
We were going to grab a taxi, but Tae overheard us, and insisted on being nice and giving a ride. I felt bad about that, I don't like taking advantage of people's goodheartedness, especially when I could see how exhausted she was. But not agreeing would have caused even more friction, so there was no point. So I got home, and slept, for a very, very, very long time.
Next year? I'm so there.
I didn't go Friday, since I'd already agreed to go to a party @ Alyssa's place. More on that in a later post. When I woke up, I scurried home, in time for Rob to call and apologize for being late, since we'd planned on going apartment hunting Saturday morning; I was magnanimous about it, especially because I still needed to shower. Not that I told him that. Anyhow, we spent until about 3pm looking at apartments, and found several good prospects. I'd agreed to drive Amy to the Con, but Rob decided last minute that he wanted to go to, so we drove straight to pick her up. Which means I wore my heavy long-sleeved shirt and classy work shoes to the con (it'll come up later).
We bumped into Stuart and Will looking disreputable and loitering outside, chatted a bit, and headed in. Took some time to find where to get in, but we found it eventually. At that point, I did my best to turn "we" into "I"; it was the last chance RobandAmy would have to hang out for a while, and it's a lot easier to get into my excited-happy-talkative-meet-new-people-and-try-weird-things-and-be-uninhibited state when I don't have to worry about other people. I've just hit a new phase in my life lately, which is making me feel unsettled, and prompting quite a bit of self-examination. Partially to avoid that self-evaluation, and partially to try and find the good things in this new phase, I've taken to pursuing anything that seems like fun lately. Nothing that odd, just dancing more, and meeting friends for coffee, eating where I feel like, that sort of thing. I imagine this self-indulgence will wind down in a bit, followed by the usual insular ascetic phase, but might as well enjoy it while it lasts. So, that said, I plunged into the crowds and started looking for entertainments.
I saw a poster on the wall advertising something called Matrix Tag, so I took the elevator up to where they were starting the next round. There was a wonderous variety of geekery on display as I walked to the meeting. Book readings, a CCG room, a very nicely arranged LAN room, several rooms full of epic one-shot games, and the Matrix Tag meeting room. And this is only one floor! Anyhow, I showed up a bit late to the meeting, but I got up to speed quickly. It helped that Mike, a post-army scrawny-but-fit RPG geek I know, was there and had already played for a round. Basically, the game was an excuse to scurry furtively around the con, hiding from Agents and trying to find where Neo, Trinity and Morpheus would be for the next five minutes, and trying to move as quickly as possible without running (which wasn't allowed). I was on an adrenaline rush for the next three hours, and loved every minute of it. Took a break afterwards, walked around and looked in the various rooms, bumped into RobandAmy, hung out a bit. I was surprised at how many people I knew there. From RPG circles, there was Mike who I mentioned earlier, Chris (who I met in Dan's recent campaign), a guy named Christopher Weiss (who ran the worst rpg campaign I've ever been in)(yes, that includes Dave Schnitzlein's D&D game)(and at least Dave had the excuse of being a first time GM), and Dan and Danni Bayn (who I didn't get to see, but I know they were there). There was a whole mess of people from MAS, as well as Joe, his friend Carl (a quality human), and of course Rob, Amy, and the illustrious Tae.
Also Stuart and Will, who I bumped into during my wanderings, who invited me along with them to buy liqour. Well, actually, it was just this one cute girl they were with, who wanted to buy Vodka and Red Bull. It was strange to be the only nonsmoker in a car. Will drove, belting out 80s tunes along with the radio (stick, by the way). He drove us, in fact, almost into the side of another car; not really his fault, the other guy wasn't paying attention, and I could tell he felt bad about it. Still, a nice flash panic for the evening. Anyhow. When we get to the store, we can't find packs of Red Bull, only singles, which is a bummer, since they're having a sale on the packs. Calamity! Except that the girl somehow had Grocery-fu. Seriously, she comes back not thirty seconds later with three grocery-folk, chatting with them about how her mom's a something-or-other at such-and-such-Rainbow foods, shoptalking and oh by the way where's the Red Bull packs? They gave us the singles for the same rate, and on we went.
I sort of drifted off when we got back, wasn't really getting friendly vibes from anybody, and I'd had my adventure. I think I found con-suite at that point, and had food with Rob, Amy and Tae. Rob and Amy wandered off, so I chatted with Tae for a while, then went downstairs and killed some time until the dance started.
Oh, and what a dance it was. They had quality DJs, including several from Ground Zero. I was there when the first disc dropped, and left about two minutes before it ended. 11pm to 5:55 am. Went and got water about every half hour, took a twenty minute break to try and find Dan and Danni, and besides that, non-stop dancing. Remember that bit about the long sleeve shirt and classy shoes. Oh yeah. 7 hours. I had a blast. No glowsticks, just used simple glowstick patterns and liquiding to keep my hands busy, some basic footwork patterns, and went from there. Maybe the competition was lower quality since everyone was a geek, but I felt for the first time ever like I was actually dancing well. Caffine I'd been pumping into myself over the course of the day helped, probably.
And the music: freaking fantastic! They played goth-fanservice stuff from The Cure, and VNV Nation, and even Wolfsheim, along with Techno/Trace tracks and old 80's classics and the Mortal Combat theme, and Spybreak from the Matrix (lobby scene) and the song that plays in the rave scene in the Matrix Reloaded (oh, did that one get the couples a'grindin). Perfect dancing music. I even danced with a few girls over the course of the night. Twas a blast.
My only regret is that I didn't hit on this one girl who was doing industrial sort of dancing, really cool look. Had an intelligent face, really got into the music, wasn't doing the slutty dancing some of the girls went for, looked to be there to enjoy herself, not show off or try snagging a guy. What can I say, I like aloof. But, she left when I wasn't paying attention, and when I saw her at a booth the next day, I just told myself "nah". Dunno. Probably the right decision.
Anyhow, when the dance ended, I wandered over to where I'd seen Tae earlier (er, about 7 hours earlier), not really expecting her to be there. She was, but she was with a boy, so I wandered off. Didn't have a place to sleep. But I figured out that if you curl up between a table and a bench in one of the nooks by the pool, people can't see you. Hard tile covered in pretzel salt can feel pretty darn great when you're exhausted. Got about an hour and a half there before I woke up cramping. Found an unlocked room on the RPG floor, and kicked back in a chair with my feet up on the table. Out in seconds. Woke up again in a couple hours when someone came in to set up an event, wandered down to the Con Suite and grabbed some food. Wandered until the Dealer Room opened, bought the only non-tacky shirt I saw (navy blue w/ black pants, I know, I know, but I was desperate. I'm sure the fashion-pope can grant me an indulgence in this case), went to the bathroom and changed. Watched the last hour of The Cat Returns, which is a fun anime movie. If I had a sister of about 10-13, I'd totally recommend it to her. Drank caffine every hour or so, to keep up, but I honestly felt really good, still riding on the adrenaline high of the night/morning. Bumped into Joe and Carl, played some card games (really fun, ask Joe about My Dwarves can Fly). We went to a panel about killer robots, which was entertaining. One of the guys was involved in the local version of battle bots, really fun stuff. We finished the con by watching a bootleg of a Russian movie, Night Watch. Intelligent twists on folklore, and a spine-sword! Very cool. I'm looking forward to seeing a less grainy version when it hits theaters here in the states.
We were going to grab a taxi, but Tae overheard us, and insisted on being nice and giving a ride. I felt bad about that, I don't like taking advantage of people's goodheartedness, especially when I could see how exhausted she was. But not agreeing would have caused even more friction, so there was no point. So I got home, and slept, for a very, very, very long time.
Next year? I'm so there.