music that you are not listening to, but should be – 03

Brian Premo

Brian Premo

http://www.myspace.com/brianpremo

 

album: Thirty Years

personal favorites: I honestly can not select favorites. His work is simply amazing, end of story.

purchase music: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/BrianPremo

 

where you should be this Friday

september to now & music that you are not listening to, but should be – 02

So it has come to my attention that I have been absent since the end of August, all with good reason. The beginning of October brought my relocation to a lovely apartment. My social life has been pleasantly overwhelming. Honestly not one thing going wrong and then,… I got sick and went to the doctors only to be told I had h1n1. After medicine and alot of rest, I have kicked the nasty little flu and am back to 100%.

 

Anyway … also during my silence I fell a bit behind on my blog, however I did continue to take pictures daily and am basically caught up on all the posts. One of the highlights in September was the Utica Music and Arts Festival. The weekend for me consisted of alot of great music, several drunken hours spent with Anthony, meeting and hanging out with folk singer Bethel Steele, and of course a mind blowing performance by Draculatron.

09.12.09 Anthony (Draculatron)

October aside from moving and the flu,.. there was a rave with zombies and a little Rocky Horror Picture Show. What does the future hold you may wonder? … Now for those that remember that crazy little website I ran for several years will remember the events and parties I used to put together. Well, I have decided to bring those back to life and am in the midst of planning something for December. The one other major project is going to be recording with August. After much thought I decided this was an album that I could not produce. So with a little thought and alot of talking we finally found a producer that will do the album justice. The few that know of our decision are shocked and intrigued by our choice, so yes it is a secret for now.

 

So I have completely slacked off on ‘music that you are not listening to, but should be’ … so I have decided to only share one artist with you every other week. Unlike before I will not be describing the artist to you at all (I will share what my personal favorite songs are), so you will have to go listen  … starting right now! (yeah that coffee just kicked in)

 

La Roux

La Roux

http://www.myspace.com/larouxuk

album: La Roux

personal favorites: Bulletproof, As If By Magic, Tigerlily

Next time …

I will be talking about a couple of my favorite web series and why I prefer web series over television. Stay tuned.

Gaming: A lifestyle

There is a time and place for everything, including games and gaming.

In the begining… [The upsides of  gaming]

As a kid I spent endless hours playing things like Mario, Sonic, and even as far back as the Atari. I remember playing games that today might be classified as “violent” or “mature” before I was 15. I played Ultima Online, and Unreal Tournament when they came out… and when my parents wouldn’t pay for my gaming (or games) I started to play text-based games built, run, and managed by the players themselves. The older I got the  more games I played and the more time I spent playing games. I remember back in the days of a one-computer household having to beg for “just one more hour” or “do i really need to come to dinner? I’m in the middle of this big thing over here, and no it won’t wait.” Well those days are over and I’ve been a “adult” out in the “real world” for some time now.

When I see all the articles about “gaming and our children” and how “bad” it is, I tend to disagree. My own gaming experiance led me to learning computer code, to build MUD games. It led me to learning HTML to set  up websites and such based on games. It led me to games which required me to really honestly think, and write cooperatively with and against other players until it was very much like a book. That unfortunately is a genra and style of gaming that while not dead is certainly more of a niche these days.

Todays games in my opinion are no less bad for kids, in fact a great deal of them might actually be good. What will my future children think with an avid gamer parent? I really can’t say, for all I know they might hate games. I also can’t have any way of knowing what the future of gaming over say… 15 or 20 years holds. So I don’t really need to think about that right now, but there is no denying that games I play have merit. There is a niche for just about everything, and a time and place for them all.

Time-Managment games: I tend to call these brainless games but they really aren’t. Take Dinner Dash for example, you need to have fast reaction times and the ability to quickly understand the order, cook it, deliver, clean up. You get bonuses for seating people of the same color. Really, with the exception of the colors these are skills you really can use in a fast-food or similar environment. Having worked there myself I know speed, accuracy, and being able to complete simple tasks are a must. Yet somehow these are skills a lot of people seem to lack.

Strategy Games, and Puzzles: They make you think, need I say more?

Modern RPGs: Often offer moral choices to players, is it really such a bad thing learning the consequences of your actions?

FPS games: Think fast, move, where will that next opponent be. Are you working with a team? Can you keep your team-mates alive, better yet can YOU stay alive? Can you think fast and figure out where to hide, and think ahead far enough to get into a strategical location to take out someone else? These games aren’t just violence these days, they’re hard. They also make you dread working with an unfamiliar group of people since team-strategy is often what’s needed to do well.

Tycoon Games: Yeah they are silly, but maybe you don’t realize just how hard it is to run that pizza shop, or sushi shop. Balancing supply vs. demand. They are easier than say Sim City, but some of them can be downright hard. Can you manage a zoo, or amusement park? Can you run a business in the real world? Oh wait, these are the basic skills and principles that game I was playing last week……. No, most players probably don’t even realize that they are learning how to keep their household expenses balanced via a game.

The online factor… [being one in a thousand]

You can’t tell me MMORPG’s will rot your brain. Any good or even decent player will tell you there is a lot of math involved with figuring out what spell chain is most efficient. What business and marketing principles apply in the auction houses and how to make money. Player interaction, how to communicate efficiently and strategize with your team-mates on how to best kill a boss. How to type, and be intelligent. How can I most efficiently gather this stuff so I can craft this, and then make a large profit…

While I advocate all of those things I am well aware that there is a growing number of players who just don’t care. They will spam buttons to kill stuff, never be a leader of any sort, and type with idiot-speak “u r stupid” and in-general act stupid and spam trade-channels with how much leet stuff they have, while being a brat in general chats. Maybe this downfall has something to do with the communities they get into. They want to be “elite” now, right this minute, not a year from now, or six months from now. So they pick guilds which promise just that. Rather than smaller more mature guilds which have heads on their shoulders and brains in their heads. Then comes the inverse reality of those same mature players (myself included) being just so utterly sick of newbies who don’t even TRY that we begin to systematically exclude them, or avoid them. Rather than mentor them into being a good player (which is what I went through when I was the young kid on the block gaming…).

For the sake of argument let me clarify. I’m defining immature players as people who don’t care to know how the game works, and don’t care about the community, and just want the best loot in the game, and more money. In other words “I win!”… Mature as the people who work towards a goal, understand game mechanics, and do everything they can the best way they can. Thats not to say they are all roses and quiet people, I can say from experience Vent can get rowdy and topics of conversation might make some parents turn beet red in the face. So thats another reason why some “mature” player groups might not want to have “young” non-immature players among them.

Being that my early days in gaming were mentored when I was still a kid (earnest, and overeager perhaps, but respectful to my elders) thats the same approach I take when dealing with someone new to games until they prove to me they really don’t care. I’ll mentor my heart out, but having it thrown back at you is not fun.

Bragging rights, the market. [...gaming is cutting edge, or at least the marketing is.]

Just because I am playing Aion, a new online MMORPG doesn’t mean I don’t do things like go to work, cook, or clean. Granted there is some truth to the phrase “Are you an Aion widow?” especially in the early-release days of a game. I know I’m guilty of neglecting Howard when a new game I really want finally comes out. He’s just as guilty. In fact that guilty-aspect is why I am writing this blog today because we’re both guilty of something else.

In the past two years we’ve purchased a Nintendo Wii, and subsequent games. A PS3, with subsequent games and plasma TV (justified by the included blue-ray player). A boat load of DLC content for PS3 Rock Band. Multiple computer hardware upgrades. 2 copies of various single-player PC games like Fallout3, and Spore. Even more multiplayer games like Unreal Tournament 3, and Left 4 Dead. Then even MORE MMORPGS with their subsequent monthly fees. Pirates of the Burning Sea x2, WoW x2, Age of Conan x2, EVE x2, Warhammer x2… At this very moment we have money going to Blizzard, CCP, and NCSoft for my new game AION.

Because of our love for video games we also justified spending money to  get out to Seattle to attend PAX a playground for gamers and people in the industry. At PAX my wonderful boyfriend Howard attended the Harmonix panel, and a Mod Developer panel. I remember when he came out of Harmonix he said “I just signed up for something, that might require me to get an XBOX 360 and Rock Band.” My first thought even while he rambled off all the reason WHY he really wanted to participate was “Ooooo I finally have an excuse to get an XBOX.” Which I’d been wanting for a long time because I actually like playing Fable. That however is not generally enough of a reason to justify buying yet another console. This was.

So today, when his acceptance appeared in his email we wandered off to best buy. I am now drowning in consoles, and realizing just how much money we spend on our entertainment. I think if I could trade artwork, or get free games for being a beta tester, or somehow get a job where I was only paid in new games and hardware I’d take it. I am dreading the next survey I have to fill out.

Q1: How much do you spend on games, hardware, and consoles yearly. A1: Well over 2k.

Q2: How many devices do you have for gaming right now? A2:  A PS3, XBox360 Elite, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, and 2 gaming computers.

Q3: How many gaming related periferals do you have? A3: Errr….

The answer to that question is over the past two years we’ve bought (not necessarily with JUST gaming as a justification): A sidewinder mouse, A Fatality Keyboard, A D9 mouse (all of which are expensive), 2 gaming headsets (and subsequent replacments), multiple extras for Rock Band and Guitar Hero…

It’s really no surprise when at PAX I drooled over the latest and greatest gaming headsets, chairs, glassess (by gunner and yes I got some because yellow tinted glasses are awesome), specialty bags, controllers, mice, keyboards. You name it, it was there and it was expensive. Or at least the “Good stuff” I look at (and howard) was.

Which brings me to a conversation I had recently. Gamers, especially avid gamers are willing to (when they have it) spend money on the “Latest and Greatest” to make their experience better. As a Graphics Artist myself, trained in advertising arts (even though I don’t -do- advertising per say) I couldn’t help but notice and analyze the advertisements at PAX. Some appealed to me more than others. For example, a card I was handed was printed on this awesome paper, it was well designed, and laid out. Now I wouldn’t want to hand that card to say, my boss at work, or a business associate. But I would want to hand it to a gamer. Because it clearly conveyed the message “We are cutting edge.”

Gamers, in game and out of game are a competitive group. On one hand having the latest and greatest is good because the companies selling the hardware and accessories don’t mess around when your reaching deep in your pockets. You can expect most of the high end stuff to last, it’s an investment. It’s also bragging rights. Accessories someone owns tells you a lot about what sort of person or gamer they are. For example, someone might really really like a certain game so they modify or buy a keyboard with that game. Howard and I don’t have anything specifically game related, but you can certainly tell we’re gamers. From the myriad of consoles, to the game boxes.

In the end… I don’t regret being a gamer, I’m sold for life. Now if only I could find the money to buy the next three dozen games and accessories I want… Maybe I should put some of those game-learned-and-enforced money making skills into real-world practice. Or get a job in the industry.

A little help.

What would you think if I sang out of tune,
Would you stand up and walk out on me.
Lend me your ears and I’ll sing you a song,
And I’ll try not to sing out of key.
Oh I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm,I get high with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends.

A few weeks ago I got up on a stage surrounded by plasma tv’s and plastic instruments. With John Lennon’s Rickenbacker 325, and a microphone I got to rock out with three of my friends, in front of a few hundred other friends. Literally days before the game came out (and if you don’t know which one I’m talking about you have issues) and there were just TONS of people gathering to watch or line up along the stage for their turn to rock. It was so much fun being part of that crowd singing along, and a little bit nerve wracking being on the stage.

So after I returned from Seattle and got marginally better you can bet one of the first places I went (other than work) was to best buy. Granted we already have RockBand 2, and all that jazz. So I was expecting to walk in, pick up a 50$ game and walk out. Then Howard (who happens to have all the Beatles albums on original capital vinyl) started making this pitifully sad I just stepped on the puppy’s tail sort of sound. My eyes fell on the 259$ ultimate-super-duper limited-edition shining-boxes on display. I heaved a (very fake) heavy sigh waved my arm through the air, and in my best “ell we really shouldn’t…” voice said “go ahead love, get it” and then happily walked out of the store.

Before going home to actually -play- I had to stop by my mothers house and show her. She too managed to somehow pout well enough to make me wish I had brought over the PS3 for her.  I left her feeling guilt-ridden and consoled myself that she could come over and listen all she wanted. At home Howard admired the efficiency and brilliance of how everything was packed into the box more than he drooled over Paul McCartney’s Hofner bass. Then everything got set up, and bronchitis and all proceeded to systematically get through 3/4ths of the game. The rest to be finished the next night when more friends joined in.

Since that fateful day we’ve found we have a love-hate relationship with the plastic bass. We’ve had it out and played it virtually every day, and surprisingly enough the standard RockBand2 has not gotten neglected. Nor have other games in our collection. BlazBlue being the most popular, followed by Soul Calibur 4 and then the games that  GameFly shipped us. Valkyria Chronicles is wonderful but even I have to make sure I have at least 2 hours to get through a campaign, and admittedly it does seem a bit “slow” as far as progression. This is a tactical game, not an action packed one. Action on the other hand came in the form of Call Of Duty: World at War, which after playing for approximately 4 hours I’d decided I’d died enough to send the game back. Its replacement arrived Friday in the form of Tales of Symphonia for the Wii. Which I have not had a chance to play as of yet.

The Aion release loomed out on the horizon, and by Friday my low-on-cash self was trying to find virtually any way I could come up with 50$ before the official release. I didn’t really mind if I missed the head-start, or pre-select but I really wanted to be able to hop into a game with my online friends again. By late friday I’d begged, pleaded and convinced Howard that I would forswear out-to-eat foods for a entire thirty days (quite the daunting feat) if he would BUY it for me. Yes Buy is the keyword in that sentence.

As it turns out, another very wonderful friend of mine whom I cannot thank enough gifted me the collectors edition via Steam. The collectors! Not the standard! Which means ::drumroll:: that I was able (in theory) to get into pre-select and the head-start. But before I go into -that- let me first whine about how I really should have made Howard put the agreement in writing. Making a deal with him is worse than… well a lot of other things. Basically it comes down to terminology.

“I will forswear eating out for 30 days if you buy Aion for me.”

“Sure I will GET Aion for me.”

“Really? You’ll buy it for me?

“Yes, I will get it for you if you are really going to give up eating out for 30 days”

“Agreed.”

“Ok then, I will get Aion for you.”

Now, after knowing him for so long I suppose I really should have caught onto how he stressed the words. Certainly after the fact I can admit the conversation seemed odd but I was in a state of happy bliss and didn’t notice. This is why I am finding it difficult to extract myself from the agreement. Howard spied for my friend ensuring I did not buy or otherwise obtain a copy of Aion before it got there. Therefore Howard is claiming he “Got” it for me. Which, he didn’t. My friend “Got” the game for me, Howard just provided the necessary assistance. Gah!

At any rate, upon opening my email Saturday I found out I had a copy of Aion. Three hours downloading and patching (while suffering an hour long internet dysfunction) and I found myself at the login screen. Now, if all went well I would be logging in, and making a character and basically reserving my character/faction/server of choice. All did not go well however and the server Zikel which [OMG I'm Drunk] decided to roll on, was locked. It remained locked well into the night and I finally gave up and went to bed.

Sunday morning I woke up and, it was still locked. Not only was it locked but servers would be down until the 3pm launch of the game. I went and visited my mother, ran a few errands, and returned with 30 minutes to spare. I hopped onto vent with 10 minutes left. There I whiled away my time in the slowly filling vent-channel with last-minute info and much semi-good-natured name-calling. Then we all fell prey to Aion. Literally, half of us got pwn’d within the first 3 minutes of logging in. How? By becoming victim to the British word “Queue” which Aion used to successfully beat us back while we rabidly flung ourselves out their servers. Brilliantly I might add.

I had pressed “login” less than 30 seconds after seeing the game Developers twitter pop up “go go go! servers are up! welcome home!” and I was 200-something in line. Ok not bad. My screen goes blank! Noooooo! My laptop was unplugged! I scrambled, and as fast as I was… I returned to the number 800-something. Egads! “Your estimated wait time is 20min” Ok, thats not bad. Except it got stuck there. I suffered less horribly than some of my guildies who were 5, 15, or as much as an hour late… They faced numbers like 3000, and times like “5.5 hours” Ick.

So while waiting I got more coffee, and found myself heartlessly threatened by Howard and FallenAphrodite with “Router firmware upgrades” and “oooh look is that a wireless button I see on your laptop? What happens if I press it.”

Miracles of Miracles I got in a little over an hour later. I’d been hearing horrors of people trying to compleete quests and having mobs/fruitbaskets/ect ganked by limited spawns and too many people trying to all get the same thing done. So, I was very happy to discover that the flood of people I was released into the world with, were either slow or much faster than me. I wandered through just about every quest without much issue, catching up with several guildies rather quickly. I didn’t suffer rubber banding, or lag, or overcrowding… It was, in effect a smooth launch possibly one of the smoothest I’ve seen, and possibly due in part to Aion knowing enough that sometimes a firm “no, you must wait” will make it all that much nicer in the end.

While leveling friends stopped by, Beatles Rockband blared, GO got played, a BBC program ran on the TV. It created a sort of familiar confusion where at times I couldn’t hear my guildies via computer-speakers, and at times the whole room broke out laughing because they heard something being said via my computer-speakers. I took a very very short break to get Pizza, and then I was back at it. Closing in on 2am I’d finally gotten to Pandemonium (yes thats the name of the first city on Asmodian side) and explored it well enough to know that in nearly every nook and cranny there were characters seated on stools with banners. Identifying features of someone who’s set up a shop.

Typically these read “mana stones for sale” or “weapons, cheap.” But the later it got the more I saw “AFK” and “SLEEP” and even “Does this message mean I went to bed? Yup.” While I would buy sleep, I was shocked at how they were blatantly advertising that they were going to leave the game/computer running rather than risk getting stuck in a queue again. While on one hand I hope it worked, on the other hand it means the people in queue at that time couldn’t get in because server was still in efftect “full” which means tomorrow, theres a possibility that when I try to log-back in I will be stuck once again in a queue.

A potentially much-slower moving queue since it seems a good number of people are too-scared of said-queue to log-out. Which means next time someone who was nice enough to log-out gets stuck in the queue, they might suddenly decide, “Well if these people over here are making it hard for me to get back in and enjoy the game because they are afk/asleep then I guess I really have no choice but to do the same.” And that convoluted logic = fail.

Yet, if it goes on for too long and becomes this “worst-case nightmare” I’m seeing in my head. I might find myself doing the exact same thing thereby falling victim myself to this pack-mentality fear. I know myself well enough to know that while I try, I’m not a saint and if I have to wait again and again and again to get back in, I will certainly be trying to find a way to stay in.

On the other hand Aion promises server balance, and I can see the potential for those stuck in queue (who maybe can’t get on with half their guild) deciding to rage-quit and go to another server. Then after the initial rush (which always happens) the servers will relax because people are back to their jobs and normal playing hours. All of this should make things like staying logged in pointless measures.

Aside from these vexations at the players: GAME IS FUN! Or at least as much fun as AoC and Warhammer and Pirates of the Burning Sea, and Chronicles of Spellborn were in the early days. Give me a month, or two, or three and see if I am still there. That is the real test.

Seattle Day 3-end (PAX!!)

Okay, I know this is coming belatedly. The three days spent at PAX I was up by 7am, and not back at the hotel until 3am. That left very little time to update. The day I’d planned to play catch up, I woke up sick. Suffered through the overnight flight home Monday, layed in bed all day Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. Barely managed to scrape myself off the couch long enough to go to work Friday. I’ve been slowly getting better. I had bronchitis and have spent so much time just resting it’s not even funny. So now, let me go back and see if I can remember everything that happened. (I have included some of my tweets from this time-period to make it seem a bit more like I did this when I was actually IN seattle.)

DAY 3-6: PAX, and Coming Home. <PICASA PICTURES>

[twitter: Awake, its 6:50am local time. I need coffee. 8:48 AM Sep 4th from web]

I found out I lost my wallet, which put a certain damper on my day. I figured I’d either left it at best buy, or BlueCSushi neither of which opened until 11am, so we went to PAX. The two hours we spent waiting in line was a blast. Between beach balls [twitter: beware the flying beach palls in the queue room at #pax. they are red, white, and like to bounce off your head. 11:27 AM Sep 4th from txt] and the GetInLineGames it was awesome. They were handing out TShirts, copies of Lord of the Rings online, Dragon-Age blow up swords, buttons, cookies. You name it, it got shoved at you or you had a chance to win it while at PAX.

I got to try TRU:Blood Blood Orange, it was an amazing drink (I wanted to keep going back for more), this booth was directly behind the Blizzard booth which featured the new WOW, Diablo, and Starcraft games. I spent a lot of that first day wandering around just to see what was there. (Sooo much!!!) BlazBlu was sharing a booth with Mana-Pots which they were nice enough to give you samples of. Borderlands had a impossibly long line along with Left 4 Dead. I met up with the OMG I’m Drunk guys Cutler, Mort, and their friend Tim? We played Global Agenda and I think Cutler became addicted to it since I kept finding him over there.

Around lunch time Argrim/Howard/Doug and I went to retrieve my wallet from BlueCSushi and ended up eating at JohnnyRockets. Back at PAX I was sitting in the 6th floor vending-area with Cutler, Mort, and Tim when the IntelGameOn guy found me, so I walked away with a “BUFF Your SYSTEM” shirt. We then went to the L4D tourney which we lost in the first round. (It was fun while it lasted!) Towards the end of the night I wandered down to the Handheld Lounge where they had all the very comfy sumo beanbag chairs and rested. Then I went back up to the 6th floors Console room, where I wound up playing a mech-game with a huge set of controls. That was fun.

[twitter: Sore feet makes testing games unfun I cant "stand" to play some of these games for very long no matter how good they are. No seats = fail 4:59 PM Sep 5th from txt ]

Day 2 I played a lot more and attended the Freezepop/Paul and Storm/JoCo concert. Day 3 I played even more. There are plenty of folks who were less sick than I during the past week reviewing all the games that I played so I won’t bother doing that. I will just list off the games I really want to play again and/or find-out more about (some of them were only trailers that looked good, or sneak previews)…. listed in no partiuclar order.

• Left4Dead2
• MAG [twitter: Mmmmm #MAG is yummy, now I want to go home and play with my beta key. 1:06 PM Sep 6th from txt]
• Aion
• Diablo
• Starcraft
• Borderlands
• WET
• SplitSecond
• BRINK
• GlobalAgenda
• Divinity2
• No More Heros 2 (most appreciated advertisment: toilet paper)
• Dungeon Fighter Online (it seemed fun, and they had the most useful advertisment: Bag)
• BioShock2
• RockBand: Beatles (We got this one yesterday)
• DeadSpace2 (on the wii, it looks crazy)
• Wacom Cintiq (oh wait, thats not a game is it… oh well I want it anyway)
• Assassins Creed 2
• Nostalgia (third most useful advertisment: Baggage-Tags)
• SinsofaSolarEmpire:Diplomacy
• Muramasa (they gave you a drawstring bag – very useful)
• Dantes Inferno
• Alteil
• KuroEight
• All Points Bulletin
• The Secrete World

Note that some of these were just teasers or trailers and I didn’t get to play-test all of them. I can see however that with just those I did play, which will be out within the next year I’ll be broke for awhile. Once PAX closed its doors (sad), the four of us took a walk down to Pikes Marketplace (also closing) and after much searching decided to have dinner at Pikes Brewery.

The next morning Argrim and Doug departed, and Howard and I packed up for one last day on the town. During which we visited the Aquarium, and a last trip down  to pikes. [twitter: Just found a guy flying a nice home made kite down at pikes market... i wish i had a kite. 1:34 PM Sep 7th from txt] We ended up coming home with a riddicoulous amount of stuff. It was hard not getting freebies at PAX, if you had a bag or anyway to carry it you just took what was offered and hoped it was a beta-key or something useful. Even the card-advertisments I came home with turned out to be useful in reminding me which games were what and what I liked and wanted to play agian. So, it’s all good.

I should have grabbed the PURELL!!! Blizzard was smart and had it to hand out and all I could think of was “man thats going to dry out my hands if I can’t find hand lotion” so I never used it… Now, I have bronchitis because I was oh-so-smart and playing on the same consoles and such that a few thousand other people were… I washed my hands, but that appears to not have been good enough.

I still go to sleep thinking I have sore-feet, and wishing for a Sumo Beanbag. [twitter: dear #sumo brand #beanbag chairs at #pax I love your comfy "replenish energy" feature. 3:58 PM Sep 6th from txt]

I wonder if I will get one of those for christmas. [twitter: hmmmm "I got Beanie" feels like the most satisfying thing to say right now... #comfy 9:02 PM Sep 5th from txt]

Seattle: Day 2

Pictures from Day 2 are now up on my Picasa.

My day started quietly – we stopped for batteries and a mocha then puttered around in the hotel room. Once we determined Argrim and Doug wouldn’t be arriving until 2pm Howard and I jumped on the Light Rail into Seattle. Its a 30min ride, but its smooth and nice. We got off at University Station and  then headed off to locate  the convention center where PAX will be held tomorrow.

Then we turned around and walked allllllll the way back to Pikes Marketplace. Where we spent the day exploring nooks and crannys we hadn’t seen yesterday. I’m sure there is still more to see but it’s not as obvious. We stopped for lunch at a place Howard had been eyeing yesterday. Bayou on 1st, a “Cajun and French” place. He got chicken and sausage gumbo. I got a po’boy. I might not care for the hard french bread, but even I have to admit the sandwich was good.

Then we wandered off and immediatly found a section of the market where more and more eateries were pumping delicious smells into the streets. Why hadn’t I found this earlier? If I wasn’t so full I’d have just kept on eating. We got down to an area where the market crowd quieted and then headed up  the hill to explore the next street. and zig-zagged our way back to Ranier Square? I Think thats what the area is called, its back towards the Convention Center. I found a starbucks and spotted a sign, {Public Restrooms 3rd floor of Westlake Mall}. A mall?

Didn’t have time to check it out we were too busy texting Argrim and Doug who were seeking parking for a {needs 6′5″ clearance truck}. Then we found them, and wandered into the Hyatt so they could get their PAX Badges. Howard and I got lanyards (our passess are in our bags). With only 2 hours on the parking of  their truck we went to the Westlake Mall. It was actually a MALL! Which sort of surprised me, why put a generic-ish mall in a city that has such a wonderful place as Pikes Market?

I haven’t found the answer to that question but we did find Japanese shop on the bottom that I believe was a dollar store. I bought a few things. We got another cup of coffee, and headed back to the Truck. Its a beautiful truck, and Doug likes nightwish. It made me happy. We got back to the hotel, settled for a bit then headed off to yet another mall. Then another plaza. We were hitting every game-stop, and best buy around because Doug wanted a game which hadn’t been released in Canada.

We found a place called Blue C Sushi, a very nice place where they actually had the conveyer-belt sushi like I’ve heard they have in Japan. Where each plate is a different color/price. I wasn’t quite up to sushi, but I ate some teriyaki chicken, some really sweet thing I can’t remember the name of, and a piece of Crab sushi. Then I had Mochi ice-cream. Yummy.

While we were at the resturant I found out that Cutler (from -OMGI’mDrunk- the gaming-guild I’m in) and Mort were still driving and weren’t due in Seattle until 3am. Ouch. I’ll be finding them tomorrow to hand off some shirts I printed and am looking forward to hanging out with them both.

After all of this, I had a killer headach. Which had actually started when I walked through a section of the mall so saturated with purfume that I had a hard time breathing. I wasn’t very good company for a good long while, and wound up taking a quick nap once we got back to  the hotel. Thankfully my headach is gone, and PAX is tomorrow. So, it’s 11:38pm local, 2.37pm east-coast time now. We’re planning on being up around 6:30am local for breakfast then getting to  the center between 8:30 and 9. PAX doesn’t start until 10 but it won’t hurt to be early either.

Now it’s time for sleep. For real this time.

Seattle: Day 1

The day started off uneventfully enough, a nice flight on united airlines from SYR to Philly. Then it got wonky, our luggage was snatched (and I mean snatched so fast by a guy I thought it must have been his) and I didn’t exactally see the red tag we were supposed to have on it so I figured it was his. A bit later, after waiting and waiting. Only one piece of luggage is left and it’s not ours. They look it up, and theres a good chance it’s owner has my bag, and should be heating to Seattle. Hope of hopes! Rush. Sure enough he had our bag, and a airport manager returned his bag to him. They were then searched down at the boarding gate. I was surprised however, that when I said our bag had been snatched and another left in its place that the red alarms didn’t go off all over the airport and people start searching it immediatly. To my knowledge they never opened his luggage until the boarding  gate. Which was when they searched ours (right when we got it back.)

Followed by another lovely flight to Seattle. Oooo Mountains, breathtaking. I am not sure I can do the view coming in justice.

So we called up the hotel van, and got our room. A mistake of mine left us one day short on reservations which was easy enough to remedy. Then I wanted dennys, had in fact seen one on the way in to the Hotel. “We can walk it’s not that far.” Or so Howard claimed. I however recalled differently and told him so, “No no it will be fine, we need to streatch anyway.” So we pass the bus stop, then a second, and at the third I am ready to do more than grumble at him. “I am going to say I told you so when we get there.” To which he responded something to the effect of “Well it can’t be too much further, and we already came this far we might as well keep going.”

Meanwhile buses are zooming by. 4th stop, “Told you so.”

He admired the black-berries growing massivly along the road. “I thought you were going to say  that when we got there?”

“Yeah well, this seems to be a fitting spot to say it.”

Another block or so later. A total of 45min walking and 3 something miles, we FINALLY got to Dennys. At which point he appologised for having been so misguided and unable to remember how far away from the hotel Dennys was, and conceeded that I had been right. We rode the bus back, past the hotel, and all the way into down-town where we got off at Pioneer Station. It was an intresting ride with a stream of commentary from one man, to one woman (and somehow to us as well being nearby) and back again continuously causing him to say, “go read yo’ book.”

(At this point you can go through my Picasa that I set up for the Pictures I’m taking.)

We wandered, with no sense of direction initially and found some really nice park areas. A toy-shop, a book-store, and then when the ocean came in view we walked along the board walk until we ran into some honest-to-god Arcades. Like seriously, old arcade areas. Then we veered back up the hill, into Pikes Market. At which point my camera died. We did a preliminary perusal of the area but intend to go back tomorrow for a more in-depth search.

I ended up buying a chineese name-stamp from a man who was carving them, mine has an elephant carved into the top of it. I was told the Kanji he used to sound out my name “Krista” was (I assume loosely translated) as “First” “Thinking” and “Arrive” those were his exact words but he seemed to have trouble finding the words in english he wanted to use to describe the Kanji.

We wandered, and wandered and wandered. Got some tea, had some coffee, wandered some more.

Sat down in pioneer square just outside the utilikilt store (which made me happy) and had a ciggarette. I was approached by a woman who wanted to buy one off me, so I handed it to her. While she dug in her purse for change I said “don’t worry about it, you don’t have to pay me” She gave me a look like I’d gone crazy. “You do know this is Pioneer Square right?” Apparently there is some place about a block away and the people from there never have money for a cig but want one anyway. I was told there are more likely to steal my pack, than my wallet. Odd. But I will keep it in mind and not smoke near  that area again unless I want all my ciggaretts bummed off me.

More wandering, but my feet were dying. We’d looped back and forth between Pikes and Pioneer about 3 times in a meandering sorta way. So we hit the Light Train at Pioneer Station all the way back to the last stop. Which just happens to be a block from our hotel. I have to say something now because it seems important. The Travel Lodge I’m staying in looks old, its the official outdated motel-style buildings with simple but clean interiors. The immediate neighborhood has a few equally old shops on the same side, and fast food oposite. It was the cheapest one I could book.

It just so happens to be a stones-throw away from the spiffy new Light-Train terminal. Every other hotel is quite a ways up the road back towards the airport is quite a bit further away from it. While all the other places are new, spiffy, shiney. Near dennys. I’d much rather book this one again. If I can walk 2 min, hop on a Train round-trip, wind up in Pioneers Square (which is right downtown btw, nearly everything else is walkable.) That sounds like a really good deal to me. So… Seattle’s Travelodge at the Sea-Tac Airport. It’s the one to book for cheap efficiency in my opinion.

Night, it’s officially 12:11 east coast time, and… 9:14pm local time. So my sleep schedual is all messed up. Combine this with the fact I’ve been in-flight with minor naps, and walking around the city all day since… 5:30am east coast time, 2:30ish local… Yeah. I need sleep.

Arrivals and Departures

Today I am filled with pre-trip excitment meshed with anxiety. Will I forget something? Did I remember to pack the chargers? Do I need to bring my knee braces just in case? Will we have trouble at the airport?

I don’t expect or forsee any real problems but I woke up this morning from a dream where I was doing quick reviews of my luggage. With that aside this weekend (and what little of the week I’ve had so far) has been a blast.

Amid the Chaos of Friday and Saturday (two days I hadn’t expected to be quite so busy) we found time to meet up with Randy Stern.  He’d contacted me at almost the last minute through CouchSurfing to see if I could host him for a night or two when he came up for his show at the Clinton Arts and Music Festival. I unfortunatly had to turn him down since I was expecting other travelers and had a lot to get done before the Seattle Trip.

That didn’t stop us from taking my niece AaliyaNora and braving the pouring rain to go see him play, and have dinner with him in Clinton. Because of the downpour we arrived moments too late to see his first set. He was a very down to earth guy that loves meeting new people, and his music was wonderful. If Aaliya hadn’t been way past her bed-time we’d have stayed for more of the music. The second set that is.)

On Sunday we welcomed Monica and Tau into our home, a pair of travelers who’d arranged (via couchsurfing) to stay with us sunday/monday. They’ve been doing a lot of traveling around the country and they departed this morning bound for Niagra Falls. We had some really intresting and intellectual conversations about organic farms, and the world as we know it, and what it might be years down the line.

On monday night they joined me for Aikido, and I think fell in love with my Dojo. I on the other hand fell in love with Tau’s bike + sidecar that I didn’t really find time to ask for a ride in (though one was offered) we just seemed to be so occupied conversing and doing other things (like work.) Even with the chaos of packing for Seattle and getting my fridge cleaned out and my house cleaned up, I was glad I’d decided to let them stay.

Monica and Tau

That brings us to now. My video camera is charging, my jeans are in the wash. My bag is 99.9% packed and I think I’ve remembered just about everything. We have our Red 3-day Badges for PAX sitting on  the desk at home. I have 2 new books the new Alpha and Omega book by Patricia Briggs, and a new one I can’t remember the title of at this exact moment. I intend to read that one tonight and on the flight out.

By the time I reach Seattle I’ll be even more jittery, seeking good Seattle coffee. Then counting down the days to PAX while seeing the sights. Yay! Until my Return – you can follow my twitter. I don’t know when I’ll be actually hopping online to check anything.

Not a Cabbit.

Jack the Wabbit

Not a Cabbit: Jack the Wabbit. It’s actually a Jackalope…  JesseD’s suggestion… I really wanted to use the catch phrase “Check out my Rack” or “Jackalopes for Jessee: Vote Racks.” but I didn’t and stuck to my so-far theme of “not a…”.

Not a Unicorn.

Narly, and Whally.

Not a Unicorn: Narly and Whally, the Narwhals. Doing narwhals was MyrMyr’s suggestion which I had a really fun time making (even if I did kill my brain for an hour on colors).  Now I’m off to make a Jackalope, I think.