Recounting all of my gaming and convention experiences. As well as anything in gaming I may be interested in.**
Roll those 20's because you never know how lucky you will be.
Just thought I would post this for my own entertainment.
You are a d10: You are analytical, rational, and logical. You see the world around you as a succession of problems that can only be navigated via insightful and elegant solutions. You insist on precision are often forced to waste valuable time correcting others. Your attention to detail is extraordinary, and will sometimes focus all your attention on details that others consider unimportant. You are not so interested in doing the right thing, as you are in finding the best way to do it. In other words, you're a complete nerd.
Just letting you all know that there will be entries coming this week. I have been sick, so I've not had a chance to write as much (or at all). Three more, maybe 4 more entries regarding PAX. Stay tuned!
Since I was about a week from going on my first trip to Boston and PAX, it was time to get started on looking for a place to stay. The flight was no issue, I simply booked with my favorite airline Virgin America. I so happy that they actually fly to Boston because it made my trip that much easier. Though I should say that it was the easiest part of this solo trip.
The next thing I did was go to the PAX forums in which I became a poster and no longer a lurker. There was an ongoing thread for rooms there already, so I simply went to the end. It a thread along the lines of Have a room/Need a room. I posted my information up there about needing a floor to sleep on. Then I proceeded to to PM and email some people through the same thread that had open spots in hopes to reach someone within the day. I also sent emails to the two other people were accepted early on into the merchandise booth.
After getting reply after reply “nope, sorry we're fill but good luck.” I was becoming a bit distraught, to say the least. I almost contemplated buying a hotel room for myself but since I had just downed ~$600 for my flight alone, I wasn't about to down another $600 for a room that I was hardly going to be in and not sharing with anyone else. So I started looking into local hostels that had good ratings. In the end I found Hostell International Boston or HI Boston. The rate was not too shabby for 3 nights, I ended up paying $98 and was sharing a room with 5 other girls, 2 of which were attending PAX (none of this I found out until I actually got there). And it was just down the street from the Hynes Convention Center.
So finally the day had arrived for me to leave. Bur first I had to work a full day and go to a birthday party. Which meant in bed at midnight up at 5am, our of work at 3pm, biked home, took a shower and ran a triple check over everything to make sure I was completely packed. Then it was 4pm, so Sayler had picked me up so that we could go celebrate his 30th birthday. We were going bowling at the near by Lucky Strike. As soon as we got to the mall, I ran over to Gamestop to pick up the new Pokemon SoulSilver with the Pokewalker. Then it was back to Lucky Strike to wait for everyone to show up.
I started the night by enjoying a very strong Apple-tini, some snacks and then a margarita on the rocks while bowling and chatting. Then 7pm came around and it was time to head to the airport. Dad had picked me up and then dropped me off. I had then started to chat with some people who were from the Boston area and headed back home. I had talked to them about where I was staying and they had let me know that I was going to be in a very good and safe area. I simply thought “phew.” The nervousness was fading and I was no longer worried about where I was staying and traveling by myself.
I did my best to sleep on the plane, since it was a red eye and I was running on very little sleep as it was. As luck would have it, this would be the only time while on a flight that I was not able to find a comfortable place to sleep. I think that I was maybe able to get an hour or two of sleep on the plane in total. Once we had landed we had landed I ended up feeling really sick. I broke out in a in and sweat and started feeling really nauseated. I wonder if this was a reaction to my lack of food and all of the hard alcohol sitting in my stomach from a few hours earlier.
So I took a few moments to sit back and relax, kind of settle my stomach a bit, see if my temperature would drop back to normal. Well that time never passed, so I simply got up and just dealt with it. I had to get a move on sometime and I preferred not to have been wheeled out or helped out of the plane. I thought about getting something for breakfast but simply decided to go on my way to the bus that would take me to the T line. After getting directions, the bus arrived and away we went.
Back when we left our little fan girl Becky, she had just spotted a tweet by Paul and Storm in regards to staffing their merchandise booth at PAX East.
So here I was so excited to see this possible opportunity arise that I had started to email Paul and Storm before I could even get a breathe out. I jumped so fast at getting the email out, afraid that the opportunity would be snagged up before I could even email them, that I believe there may have been many grammatical errors along the way. I should go back and check that. In all honesty, I was doing everything to show how professional I could be, all the while not coming off as a total fan girl. Though, now when I look back on it, I may have come off as being too cold. Yes in case you are wondering, I over think things way too much.
So a week had gone by and I had heard nothing and with my over active imagination, I figured "ok it appears that they have their team." Which I had accepted with no other thoughts then "oh well, maybe next time." I must have done well enough because a day later, I received an email about potential merch holder positions. I have a habit of adjectivally checking my email (thanks Google, I can't seem to get away from you!). I had done another dance in my chair, while at work mind you. I have the kind of cubicle where everyone can see everything that I am doing. Kind of like being on display in a zoo.
I promptly emailed Paul back as quickly as I could while doing my best to to have an answer for everything that he had brought up in the email. I am betting there were mistakes in this email as well, considering how quickly I was replying back to him. Excitement equals not being able to concentrate on what it is that I am trying to say or type. So it happens quite often that I make a bumbling fool out of my self because I am just so excited about something. Even I can't understand myself sometimes. Sigh...
Back at work checking my email again and what do I see? An acceptance email from Paul and Storm! w00t! I'm in! I raised both hands in the air while doing a bigger dance in my chair, saying "Yes I got in!", with a super huge dorky smile on my face. This dream and hope of mine, had just become a reality!
Stay tuned for the next entry.
Until next time dear readers, roll those 20's because you never know how lucky you will be.
It is Sunday night and I am on a flight home from Boston, MA. You might be be wondering what it is that I was doing in Boston, or you might not. If you were one of those few wondering, well thanks. I had made a very special trip last minute trip.
I had gone out to PAX East 2010, the very first PAX on the east coast. Yes I am aware that there is a PAX on the west coast and I live on the west coast. So why on earth did I go clear across country for this PAX and not wait until PAX Prime?
There was one reason above all: Paul and Storm. Another question would be who are Paul and Storm. Well follow that link and find out! In my opinion they are a super cool funny band that I feel in love with musically upon hearing them at w00tstock v. 1.2 at the Largo. They play catchy songs that make me giggle and just in general make me happy. I am sure everyone has a different feeling when they listen to them but we still love them all equally.
Of course this happiness feeling that I get from Paul and Storm I get from other favorite people / idols of mine, all which are geeky or nerdy in their own right. Why don't I list those now? Gotta show some love, ya know. This would be Wil Wheaton, Adam Savage, Grant Imahara and one that not many would understand because he is (not yet) full force in the geek / nerd community, Jonathan Davis. I bet you were expecting I was going to stay Jonathan Coulton and he comes in right after JD.
So back to the story of my reason for going to PAX which somehow involves Pail and Storm. So one unexceptionally slow day at work, I was perusing my Twitter feed. As I am scrolling down to follow up on the recent but past tweets, I notice this tweet from Paul and Storm, whom I have been following since wootstock.
Does anyone out there want to work merch for us at PAX East in exchange for weekend passes? Email us: info "at" paulandstorm.com.2:08 PM Mar 10thvia web
So who in their right mind would turn down this opportunity to help work their merchandise booth with them as well as get a chance to go to a convention that they would not otherwise be able to attend. Not this girl! Especially since I am a Paul and Storm lover, later turned minion.
The fact that Wil Wheaton (my biggest television crush since middle school) happened to be giving the keynote at PAX East made me soo very excited for him. I have been following his weblog and tweets for sometime now. He would write about the amount of work he was doing for this keynote in hopes that he would top his 2007 keynote. So out of nowhere, something that at I would never-have-a-chance-in-a-million-years to see, I now have a slightly more probable chance to see. This was just sooo exciting, it was hard not to run around with the pure possibility of it.
I am now enjoying some Jasmine Green tea, which a very nice thing to have on this flight. Especially with the amount of turbulence that is going on from time to time throughout this flight. The tea has also helped my brain and hand slow down from the pace it was going about 5 or 10 minutes ago when I started this blog.
Sorry for the tea interruption, appears as though I have trailed off into my own happy thoughts. I am trying my best to document all of these experiences before we land so that I can simply type them into my Google Documents and get them posted within the week. It appears that this will be my breaking point for part 1.
Until next time, thanks for reading. Whoever you are.
So I have noticed over the month that my entries have been few and far between. What with a full time work schedule and part time class schedule, not to mention my gaming schedule it makes it near impossible for me to write anything. It's something that I believe I need to make more time for. As I now have 2 blogs to keep up with. One for my gaming and one for my photography. I am going to do my best to write in this more often. Like tonight, provided I don't lose my concentration and focus. I will just start mapping my little posts and see how much I get completed before running off to PAX East on Wed night. PAX East was my reason, or should I say reminder, for updating my lonely gaming and convention blog. So look forward to a post or two in the upcoming week, though 2 might be pushing it.
So this was taken last Saturday. It is showing a mix of both games we were playing. The mini's are from our test Hero run. The dice and character sheet are from our Shadowrun game that was after a ramen dinner run. The geek glass has Stone Smoke Porter in it.
So I am adding some of the pictures I've taken from a few board game, gaming sessions with my group. I'm sure there will be more to come overtime. Especially from Strategicon.
1st: Enjoying a good beer @Skuld's house, while playing Dominion
2nd: Brian thinking during Power Grid
3rd: Desmond replacing supplies in Power Grid
4th and 5th: Carcassonne
So yes, this is a lame title but I was out of ideas for a title of this entry. This will pretty much wrap up the few convention experiences (until 2010 at least) I’ve had, be it staffing or as an attendee. So the very first convention that I attended was Anime Expo, way back in the early to mid 90s. The exact year always escapes me but I do remember I went with Alice and her dad. For some reason I remember my ex Adam (boyfriend at the time) being there but I could be mistaken.
This was one of the years where it was still being held at some of the Disneyland hotels. To be honest I can’t remember too much, other than seeing people run around in costumes. This was a big thing for me because I love dressing up and some of the costumes were really well done.
Fast forward about 10 years or more into 2007. Anime Expo was still alive and going, but this time I had inside access because my friend Alice who I first went with, had been staffing it for ~ 5 years. She was working in the Exhibit Hall and seemed to be having a really good time doing it. This particular AX was still at LBCC, which I later learned was not such a smart move. I rolled with it and still had an enjoyable time as an attendee. I did spend a good chunk of the first morning waiting in the super hot sun (at least with my parasol) and my two friends Eder and Robert. We had a good time because some of us had our DS’s, which I learned was later a common thing in conventions. Had a good time there and was looking into staffing the next year.
As of 2008 I had talked to Alice and was in the door to being a staffer for the Exhibits Hall at AX. I even talked my boyfriend into staffing as well because he was going off to Switzerland for a month, a week or 2 before my birthday. So he was in AxeCon and I was in Exhibit Hall. We didn’t get to see other as much as we would have liked and he ended up hating it because he worked 15 hours days on his feet, which he is not at all used to. He’s a computer nerd and spends most of his time at work sitting down. Needless to say, most of our time at the convention was spent working. I didn’t mind it too much but after that he was not willing to go back.
Then we hit the year 2009 and I was back at Exhibit Hall with my friends. My favorite thing about staffing was all the friends that I made and getting to see them for more than a day at a time. I roomed with my friends Sharon, Val, Oscar (Ogre) and Alexis (Rainbow). Again, most time was spent working but Val and I did find some time to escape and relax a little. Of course after this last year, I decided that I wanted to be an attendee, but at conventions I had never made it to before.
Now I’m jumping around a bit here and going off into another convention experience I had, 2 years in a row. So at the time I was completely addicted to World of Warcraft, so when I heard about Blizzcon I just about went crazy with excitement. I had never been so excited for a convention in my entire life. I was able to get tickets in 2007 and boy was I excited. But I was going solo. Oh well! I still made the most of it, bought too much merchandise and had fun making friends with people I have never met before. In 2008, I was able to get my best WoW friend Richie to come, as well as people from AXCorps guild. Now Richie was my friend before WoW and he had been playing it for years. I kept finding excuses not to play it, but lo and behold I joined up. Later going to the Horde side, of course. I had the greatest time with all my guildies and Richie. It was the most nerdy weekend of my life at that point.
In 2009 I did not make it; I went to the Stone Brewery 13th Anniversary party which kicked butt. But I can’t forget the convention that really made me want to go to San Diego Comic Con, which was the very first LBCC Comic Con in late 2009, which I attended with my 2 best friends Alice and Brandy.
So as you can see I haven’t too much in the way of conventions but that will be changing. This year my conventions will include SDCC Comic Con and Strategicon. And in about 1 week I will be at Orccon, the first Strategicon of the year, where I will game it up with my gaming group, the Electric Mayhem. But that will be for a later entry.
Next entry, Shadowrun sessions with Electric Mayhem.
Hello everyone and welcome to my blog Monazite's Travels, my name is Becky, otherwise known as Monazite in the gaming world. You may be wondering why I created this blog and if it will be meaningful to you at all. As the last part will be easiest and quickest to answer, I'll start with that. No I don't think this will be meaningful to anyone but me. I decided to create this blog as a way for me document all the gaming sessions that I have been and will be doing, as well as conventions that I will be attending. It's also a way to keep me from being bored when I'm not gaming, in class or at work.
I'll start by giving you a brief history of my gaming experiences prior to 2009 when I started gaming again.
It all started about 11 years ago when I was dating Adam who lived in San Pedro (while I was in Torrance). He was a geek and gamed on the weekends with his friends in Harbor City. After hanging out with them a few times and going to watch him play D&D, I had stated to get the urge to play as well. So I played for a few months until that relationship ended and I found another geek who didn't game. Aww how sad. Well after 8 years passed and I had been with my current boyfriend of 9 going on 10 years I wanted to game again. His name is Mike by the way, and he is a nerd but does not game.
Now finding a group to game with was hard for me to do. I didn't know where to start looking, other then 3rd Planet but with no car and no license to drive, it made it hard for me to get there, which was never. So for the last 5-6 or so years I have been getting into MMORPGs, which was satisfying me up until late. I started with Ragnarok Online, thanks to my friend Alice. Then moved over to...dun dun dun...World of Warcraft. Big surprise. After playing that for years and slowly getting burned out, I decided to play Aion. Another one I just recently fizzled out on. My mind was ready for things to make me think harder and get more creative with. Thus my urge to game grew more.
Thanks to my friend Brandy who found a gaming group in my area (wow finally!) I had somewhere to go and people to game with. After a nice lunch at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in Long Beach we decided to go back to my house and game. Snacks were brought, chairs set up and we started. It felt good to be back in it if only for a short time.There were 4 experienced gamers, 1 semi (me) and 2 newbies. No names will be named, at least not until later. It was a lot of fun, even though I forgot some things but it wasn't that hard to pick back up.
Well for now I will depart and work on my next post, about the games I've recently started playing and my little con experience as well. Until next time dear readers. If there is anyone actually reading this.
P.S. If you have any questions feel free to post them and if I was too vague ask for more detail and I'll see if I can go into more. Tried to not do too much detail because who wants to read a novel on a blog in one sitting.
Posts
