PAX East 2011 Part II

I'm back! With pictures!

Classic Arcade Games

Classic Console Games

Computer Games

Expo Hall. Soooo many people. This picture doesn't even begin to capture it.

Another shot of the Expo Hall

Pyre Jenga! This was crazy, and seemingly dangerous.

Paul and Storm

Wil Wheaton. He couldn't make it this year (he gave the keynote last year), so he sent Paul and Storm with a recorded message. Aww.

Jonathan Coulton

Jonathan Coulton and Paul and Storm

My purchases! My very own set of (purple) gaming dice, a pair of (purple and sparkly!) dice earrings, and a PS1 memory card. Also, a copy of Once Upon a Time and some blank Fluxx cards.

Me and Jonathon Coulton! I CDs and autographs from Paul and Storm, JoCo, and the VGO! I should not be allowed to meet famous people, I get giggly and fangirly. No good. Plus, check out the guy photobombing, I love it.

Me and Gretchen and VirtuWil

My signed pass! Huzzah!

Plus, there were a whole lot of cosplayers. I didn't take pictures of any of them, but here's a website that did, if you're interested.

So, it was a spectacular weekend, and I hope we can go again next year!

PAX East 2011

Way back in March, C and I went to a 3-day gaming convention in Boston called PAX East (PAX = Penny Arcade eXpo). It was AWESOME. I had never been before, and didn't really know what to expect, but wow was it great. Let's see if I can conjure up some words to describe it to the rest of you . . .

Let's start with Wikipedia's description:

"Created in 2004, PAX has been hailed as a weekend-long celebration of gamer culture. Defining characteristics include an insider keynote speech, game-inspired concerts, panels on game industry topics, exhibitor booths from independent and major game developers and publishers, after-hours parties, tournaments, and freeplay areas. Every PAX also features the Omegathon, a weekend long tournament of randomly selected attendees competing for a grand prize."
There were A LOT of people there. I've seen reports that the total attendance was 69,500 people (that's a whole lot of geeks). We watched the keynote from a satellite area (just barely missed getting into the main theater, sadly), went to all but one of the Omegathon rounds (Katamari, Bananagrams, Operation (missed this one), Pyre Jenga, Ikaruga), and went to some of the panels, including Parsely Games (look! see?).

We also spent a lot of time wandering around the expo hall (where a bunch of game companies set up booths and you can demo new games), playing games in the board game area (including Bananagrams and Chrononauts), and waiting in lines for the various big events (which was actually okay, because it was a good chance to make new friends, and everyone had handheld games and card games). And on Saturday night, there was a fantastic concert, featuring the VGO (Video Game Orchestra, who are a rock band AND orchestra), Paul and Storm, and Jonathan Coulton. It was awesome, just completely awesome. Have some youtube:

VGO - Zelda Medley
VGO - Chrono Cross

A bunch from Paul and Storm (these guys were hilarious. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard)
Paul and Storm - The Captain's Wife's Lament
Or if you prefer, this person posted all of Paul and Storm (I haven't watched this video all the way through, just fyi).

Jonathan Coulton (I might actually recommend watching this one entirely, because there was a lot of between-song silliness that might be worth seeing, although again, I haven't watched this in its entirety yet, so no guarantees, although I did skim it).
Some highlights:
-8:43
-around 20:00 (this song is sad and beautiful)
-38:21
-42:00ish (more water jokes) (here until the end is actually great, but I'll continue posting times)
-44:00ish
-50:22 (till the end. Seriously this time)
-51:47
Plus videos of Still Alive and Jesse's Girl, which were muted in the above video.

Thank you, youtube user's ajanta, BoffoYuxDudes, and pixyl for posting great videos. Thank you thank you thank you.

At this point in the night, it was late (wayyy late). We got in line at 5 for a concert that was supposed to start at 8 (haaa), and then each group went long. I think at the point JoCo came on, it was actually after midnight, and a bunch of people had left because public transportation shuts down around then. We stuck it out until the bitter end, and boy were we glad we did. I'd heard a handful of JoCo's songs before, but I had no idea how COMPLETELY AMAZING he is.

Whew. Okay. By the time we actually got home, it was 2 a.m., which magically turned into 3 a.m. (thank you, Spring Forward). And we still had one day to go!

Sunday (and some pictures!) coming at you in the next post. To be continued . . .

More Gardening

Goofus lost another leaf this morning, poor guy.

In other gardening news, I was telling a friend of mine about my avocados a few months ago, and he told me that he has been growing a grapefruit tree for a couple of years. What! How cool! C and I eat a lot of grapefruit, so I've been sticking all the seeds I find in soil for the last couple months, and watering them constantly. I'd pretty much given up on them, since they hadn't done anything, when I went to water them today:

See the little green loop in the upper left? Cool! A sprouted grapefruit seed! Hopefully it'll survive, and maybe a couple of others will poke through. I'm excited.

Gallant and Goofus

Meet my avocado plants, which C has nicknamed Gallant and Goofus. Can you guess which is which? Poor Goofus lost a leaf this morning; he has a few new ones on the way, so I'm hoping he makes it all right.

Here We Go Again

After another long and accidental hiatus, I'm back! There are many things to catch up on, and I'm going to try to get to it all at some point.

I don't know how many of you blog (I don't really know who reads this, aside from Mom and Dad (hi!)), but I find it to be a bit of a long process (figuring out what to write, writing it, checking for typos and errors, uploading pictures...). I admire people who blog every day, I don't know how they do it!

Not that I've ever been very diligent about writing regularly, but by way of explanation for the last break, two things happened: I started a new job, and I started taking a class. After the last job, I was a bit nervous about whether this one would go well (it is), and the long commute left me very tired. And then, last spring, I started taking a class (Medical Anthropology), which seemed to eat the rest of my free time. And I've taken a class every term since then, save summer.

So, no promises, but I'll try to at least post the things I've been meaning to, and then we'll see.

Picture! Here's the Boston Public Garden from last spring, and why I wish it would hurry up and get warm. Boston really is gorgeous.

Cape Cod!

This past weekend, C and I took a vacation to Cape Cod! I realize a have a lot of catching up to do on my life (like 7 months worth, to be exact), but I wanted to write this down before I forget details, and because it was the most fun I've had in quite a while. It was an amazing vacation.

We left Friday after lunch and after the long, trafficky drive to Cape Cod we arrived in South Yarmouth at our hotel, the Clarion Inn. Definitely check out the pictures in the gallery on that website, this place was great! The people were really friendly, the complimentary breakfast was tasty (and included make-your-own-waffles!), there was an outdoor AND an indoor pool, and that hot tub is much larger than it looks in those pictures (it was HUGE).

We checked in and settled in, then went out in search of beach gear (an umbrella, chairs, a towel, a paddle ball game) and snacks for the room. We succeeded only in the umbrella (at a CVS) and snacks (Shaws).

Next we headed in to Hyannis to check out restaurants for dinner. After driving around (and making good use of the Droid to check reviews of the places we saw), we decided to go to the Raw Bar on the recommendation of one of my friends. We each had a salad and a giant stuffed scallop and then split a massively large lobster roll. Yum!

We debated whether we wanted to race back to the hotel to try the hot tub (pool area closed at 10:30) or head somewhere for ice cream. We decided to drive the 15 minutes to the recommended Four Seas Ice Cream (not realizing that the ice cream place right across the street carried their ice cream), where C had a root beer float and I had a coconut hot fudge sundae. Also yum! Even though we didn't make it back to the hotel in time for swimming.

Next morning, up, breakfast (wheat toast with apple jelly, yogurt, and a muffin for me) and straight off to the Edward Gorey House. What a neat place! I do have a few pictures from here, perhaps I'll post them once I've uploaded them. It was a great way to spend an hour in the morning.

 Then, we headed to a weird touristy shop called Pizazz to pick up paddle ball, a towel, and a shovel). We grabbed sandwiches from D'Angelo's (nothing fancy) and headed to the beach! We got there at about 2:45, and it was rather crowded. We just went to one of the public places on the south side right around the corner from our hotel. We found ourselves a tiny strip of beach, set up our umbrella, and lounged around. I went in the water (much warmer than Gloucester the previous weekend!), although C chose to stay up on the beach. Around 4 the crowds started to leave, and C and I broke out the paddle ball set. It was tons of fun, until a lady seagull mistook our bright purple ball for food and flew off with it in her beak (and everyone left on the beach laughed at us). C chased her down and managed to get it back when she dropped it. Whew!

We headed back to the hotel for a swim and hot tub, then got dressed up for dinner (I wish I had pictures from this, because we looked really good, but I forgot to take any. Oops). We tried to go to the Black Cat, but there was a 40 minute wait (at nearly 9 pm!), so instead we went to the Roadhouse, another place that had caught our eye the previous night. We had decided to make this our fancy dinner, so we had blush sparkling wine, the calamari with marinara, I had the baked seafood casserole and C had the filet mignon, and then for dessert we split the mango and passionfruit sorbet with fresh fruit. All yum yum yum! There was also a woman playing the piano, which was very nice. It was a wonderful, really fun, really delicious dinner.

The next morning, up, breakfast (raisin bran, yogurt, and a muffin), and then off to the movies to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (which will probably look very confusing if you haven't read the books, which you should, lots of fun!). It was pretty good, fun, although not nearly as great as the books (of course).

THEN to the Skipper for lunch (crispy fish tacos for me (wow, yummy) and some kind of sandwich for C). Then, across the street to the beach (see?). That's the same beach we went to the day before, by the way. It was repeat of the day before, except C joined me in the water. More paddle ball, no seagull interference this time.

 We went back to the hotel for a swim and hot tub, and then to Mini Golf!. Fun! Crowded! But fun! I won by 2 strokes, and was only 4 strokes over par, and had 2 holes in one! Hooray!

We went to Captain Parker's for dinner. We split a cup of the chowder (yum) and I had the broiled seafood platter, and C had the lobster and seafood fettuccine. Yum yum yum again! No room for dessert tonight.

Next morning, we called down to the front desk and learned that no one was staying in our room that night, so we could do a late (very late) checkout. We had breakfast (raisin bran, clementine, waffle (yum!)), then decided to check out Nauset Beach in East Orleans (despite the high 60s, overcast, drizzly day). There were very few people on the beach with us, but it was still nice. The water was very cold, although the waves looked huge. We didn't make it all the way in but waded a bit. We grabbed lunch at the beach concession stand (Liam's). I had lobster bisque, C had a hamburger, and we split some onion rings and a "Girl Scout" milk shake (oreo ice cream and mint chocolate chip ice cream). Delicious for beach food.

It was getting chilly, so we decided to head back to the hotel for one final swim and hot tub before saying goodbye to Cape Cod.

It was such a wonderful vacation, I didn't want to leave!

Flashback to Summer

It occurred to me that I never mentioned the Freezepop concert C and I went to with some friends over the summer. It was great fun! They are from the Boston area originally, although now they play all over the place and are rarely here. This is the second time I've been able to see them live; they came to Dartmouth while I was there (Junior year, I think). This is me with The Other Sean T. Drinkwater, one of the band's members:And this is the band (plus special guest whose name I don't remember):> This is The Duke, one of the original members, and it was his last concert with them in Boston as he is moving on to other ventures: I brought my old Kodak with me (smaller than my newer, beautiful one), but the picture quality is not as good, and the video quality is really not as good. Nevertheless, here are two videos (warning: terrible sound quality:)



If you want to hear more of what they actually sound like, check out one of their videos here.

Freezepop has added two new members to replace the Duke, and I'm hoping I'll be able to see them next time they are in the area!

October

The room
From this:And this:To this: I love my IKEA furniture!

Gloucester
C and I decided to take a weekend day and visit Gloucester, MA. We chose an absolutely beautiful day to go. Here's our day in picture form:And then . . . we went to the Gull for dinner and had delicious lobster. Yum! It was a wonderfully fun day.

Merry Christmas!

You know how sometimes time goes by so quickly that you can't seem to get to everything you want to do? That's been me lately, with my to-do list getting longer by the day and I can't seem to catch up to it all.

For the moment, Merry Christmas! We had a lovely Christmas home in Vermont, but more about that later. For now, I'll leave you with our beautiful tree and the promise that I'll update on the last few months soon!

A Work in Progress

The new apartment is coming along nicely. Slowly, but nicely. It will be fantastic when we're all done.

For now, pictures of my room.

These are pictures of how it looked when I first moved in, before I painted:As you can see, the color isn't terrible, but it is kind of a dark greenish-gray. Just not a very nice color for a bedroom, particularly a smallish bedroom. I found the paint can, and the color is "Stone Fence."

So I decided to paint! "Sea Sprite" is the color, and I absolutely love it. This was my first time painting a room, and I think it came out pretty well. A few issues here and there, but they'll mostly be covered by furniture anyway.The room, a sea of boxes and random odds and ends at the moment. I'm planning to put a desk in the left corner there.

The bookcase, which is the first thing I sent up after the paint dried. The blue crate bookcase may be moving, depending on the size of the desk, but I think everything will fit.

Top of the bookcase, with the Tiny Puppy Army, pictures, and Wall-E and Eve (Birthday presents from my sweetie).

The brand new Ikea Malm dresser, which I put together all by myself! It does not actually have a random streak on the left side, must be something with the camera. I quite like the dresser, it seems fairly sturdy and almost all of my clothes fit. It felt great to unpack, I can't remember the last time I was fully moved out of suitcases. I'm pretty sure it was my Junior year of college. Sad.

My bed! Bookcase in the back also from Ikea, with my giraffe collection on top. Also, my lovely quilt, made for me by Aunt Nancy for my high school graduation present. I love this quilt. My favorite fabric is the fireflies, you can see them down in the right hand corner. So neat!

There you have it, the mini tour of my room. Once everything is set up I'll post again, and include pictures of the rest of the apartment.