My trip to Blizzcon rekindled my interest in the World of Warcraft, among other games.  I’ve been doing a good job of balancing my time playing video games with doing other, non sitting around on my ass stuff.  Not [...]]]> Well, to quote Michael Corleone: Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in.

My trip to Blizzcon rekindled my interest in the World of Warcraft, among other games.  I’ve been doing a good job of balancing my time playing video games with doing other, non sitting around on my ass stuff.  Not enough, of course, but at least I’m trying.  Still, I find myself logging in more than I have in a very long time.

Still not playing much Horde, though.  I want to, I’m nearly there – seriously, I am.  Lots of drama happened there, lots of stupid people being petty and blaming everyone else for all sorts of crap.  Bleh.  It’s no wonder I stay away.  There are some truly fantastic people over there, though, and I am closer to going back and getting into the groove of things again than I was, say, a month ago.

In the meantime, I’ve been working on my Alliance side Paladin – arguably my first main character.  Pretty well developed RP-wise and when I played him every night, I had it down really well and as long as I had mana, I survived.  Playing him again after so long has been a challenge, but I’m getting the hang of it again.  I’m looking forward to the Lich King expansion, everything I saw at Blizzcon really looked interesting and the latest patch with all the new stuff has been a lot of fun.

Logging into him for the first time in a long time, I had to redo all his talents, spells, etc.  I also had to deal with the fact that he had no money – I’d sent it all to Morticai Horde side long ago.  So I set to work on getting him some money, working the Auction House (and doing a damned fine job of it), upgrading his armor and finally breaking level 60 after three years.

The funny came when I was going through my bank and found my tuxedo pants.  This reminded me of those early days, playing in a tight group and doing really well.  RP-wise, my Pally was engaged – hence the tuxedo pants.  When the call came to head to an instance, he was wearing said pants and I totally forgot to change them out for his plate.  So, I tanked Uldaman in tuxedo pants.  And I didn’t die.

If you know anything about the game, this should be amusing to you

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I have an alarm on my iPhone that’s set for daily – I forgot that doesn’t include Saturday – it’s just Monday through Friday, so it never actually went off this day.

D’oh.

I had people calling me early though, so I was able to [...]]]> Day four started just about the same as Day Three – I overslept.

I have an alarm on my iPhone that’s set for daily – I forgot that doesn’t include Saturday – it’s just Monday through Friday, so it never actually went off this day.

D’oh.

I had people calling me early though, so I was able to get up and get going, just not quickly.

I wanted food – people were busy doing stuff, so I went by myself.  Also, I had a mission.  It was at the end of this:

I’m talking about Downtown Disney.  See, Disney now has not only Disneyland and the California Adventure theme parks, they also have their own little downtown area complete with shops and restaurants.  I needed to hit the Disney store in that area to pick up something for my mom.  I’d asked her if there was anything I could bring her from Disney and she originally said ‘no’.  Then, -after- I’d visited the park and was well into the convention, she called and said she wouldn’t mind some ear rings if it wasn’t too much trouble.

Sigh.

So, being a good son, I walked to the Disney store and got her some ear rings.  While there, I also picked up a new hat for myself, which I wore for the rest of the convention.

I forgot to mention it but on the first day of the con, I met the cast of The Guild.  They were awesome people, very kind.  I got a special piece of art that had been done for them, and they each signed it.  Well, the second day, they were having their own panel at the con – I really wanted to see that.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to – there was a line like no other line to get into the room.  So I wandered some more, hooked up with Hukari and hit some of the other panels.  Eventually, we met up with the rest of The Monkeys and did a little gaming while the concert was going on.

It was the first time I’d ever played Diablo and I have to admit, I really liked it.  It was Diablo 3, the new game on the horizon in that franchise.  We played through twice – you got fifteen minutes and could be networked with 4 other players – it was really, really fun.

Here’s some photos from the day:

After dinner and a particularly fantastic rant on star wars by Brian (in the photo above, he’s in the back left, no hair), there was more hanging out and partying into the wee hours of the night, then everyone started to trickle out.  I was tired, sore and ready for bed, so I headed back to my hotel room and crashed for the night.

Blizzcon was over.

I was trying to figure out what it was all about, this Blizzcon thing.  I made a joke: “I figured out what Blizzcon is all about.  You spend close to $1,000 to take a trip to stand in line for 5 and 1/2 hours so you can buy a $20 shirt.”  It didn’t go over well.

But that’s not what it’s all about anyway.  I did figure it out.  It’s about people.  Good people, good friends, hanging out and talking about the stuff they all share and enjoy in common with each other.

What this meant for me was that I found myself energized for gaming again.  I was really interested in the panels for the World of Warcraft and the changes they’re making and plans for the future that they discussed.  I really enjoyed playing Diablo 3 and thought about picking up the first two (which I did when I got back – can’t play the first one though, it wants OS 9 and I don’t have that).  To top it off, I was itching to rp in WoW again, something I haven’t been interested in for about a year now.

The Drunken Monkey Brewery is filled with fantastic people.  All guilds should take a page out of their book.  When it comes to people getting along and surving for the long haul, they know what they’re doing.

The next day, I got up and flew back to Denver.

~P

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Wow.  What an event – it was Huge.  And so many people!

I started my day later than I planned due to the night before.  I was to meet Hukari as I had his pass and he couldn’t get in without me.  Only, I couldn’t find him.

Candice found me almost immediately, and together we sought out [...]]]> Blizzcon.

Wow.  What an event – it was Huge.  And so many people!

I started my day later than I planned due to the night before.  I was to meet Hukari as I had his pass and he couldn’t get in without me.  Only, I couldn’t find him.

Candice found me almost immediately, and together we sought out Hukari and gave him his pass.  Here’s a shot of the elusive Hukari:

Once inside, I was blown away by the sheer size of the place – they had two major halls setup with areas for gaming, vendors, food, stores, art, more games, statues, a giant ice throne – you name it, they had it.

I went to a couple of panels with Hukari while Candice and Brent were inline for the store with some other people.  I didn’t understand why they were inline, but later found out that there was some fear that the Blizzcon store might sell out of certain things, which has apparently happened in the past (and did happen, I found out the next day as people tried to get stuff that was gone).  After I’d wandered around by myself for a bit, and got some lunch, I jumped into that line as I had my eyes on several things that I wanted to pick up.

I ended up being in that line for 5 and 1/2 hours! O.o!

Boy, I was wishing they had the Disney Fast Pass >.>

After that, well, more accurately -during- that, they started the contests up on the main stage area.  I watched from my spot in line as the one liners, movie and music contests went down.  Then they had the costume contest, which was just amazing.  Here’s a link to the photo galleries on blizzcon.com.  I got out of line and met up with The Monkey’s again, which was heaven because it meant I could sit down again.  We watched the rest of the show, including the dance contest, which Andy took part in – female Gnome dance ftw!

Here are some photos from the day – it was dark, and my camera wasn’t doing so well, but I tried:

In the sixth photo above, you can see a blurry banner – it reads, “Retro Arcade”.  Oh.  My.  God.  Blizzard went online and purchased a bunch of old game systems and had classic games running.  Like: The Lost Vikings!!!  I remember that game!  It was so much fun!  I picked up the controller and it was like I was a kid again.  Something similar to this comic from Penny Arcade.

Blizzcon Day One was long and followed with dinner at Dennys and more party fun, then back to the hotel room for foot soakings and sleep.

Tomorrow: Blizzcon Day Two

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I really didn’t want to wake up early, and yet, I did.  We had plans.  Plans of planned things.  Plans of things to do and be done.  So, I woke up, showered and shaved and headed out for the day.

First up: BREAKFAST WITH MONKEYS!

After breakfast, Disneyland!  I admit, I failed at taking [...]]]> Day Two dawned slowly…

I really didn’t want to wake up early, and yet, I did.  We had plans.  Plans of planned things.  Plans of things to do and be done.  So, I woke up, showered and shaved and headed out for the day.

First up: BREAKFAST WITH MONKEYS!

After breakfast, Disneyland!  I admit, I failed at taking photos on this vacation.  I took a few here and there, but nowhere near as many as I have in, say, Rocky Mountain National Park.  Here’s some good ones:

Candice and Brent (Xynth and Trogbob shown in the first photo), were kind enough to play tour guide for me and take me through the ‘new and improved’ Disneyland.  I say ‘new and improved’ because they’ve changed some stuff: specifically cool is the fast pass.  You can get a fast pass every so often that allows you to cut in line on certain rides.  So, if a ride has a one hour line, you can get a fast pass, come back between a certain time and cut right up to the front.  It’s pretty slick.

In no particular order, we rode: The Submarine ride, Space Mountain, the old railroad roller coaster whose name escapes me, Pirates of the Caribbean, the ‘Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Xmas’ version of the Haunted Mansion, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, Star Tours & The Indiana Jones Ride.  Lunch was had in tomorrow land.  In the California Adventure, we rode one ride: Monster’s Inc.

Then I got a call from Sharra and Andy, who were in town and wanting to meet for dinner.  I made plans to meet them in a couple of hours.

We left the amusement parks and headed to the convention center, which was on our way back to our respective hotels.  We had the thought that we’d pick up our passes and goodie bags.  We were walking along when Brent decided that he was tired of the heat and opened a door to the convention center.  We followed him inside, past a security guard and up to the check in areas which were broken up alphabetically.  I lost Brent and Candice, but got my stuff.  I headed back the way we came in and ran into Shara and Andy, who were excited to see me and asked how long it took to get my stuff.

“About ten minutes,” I replied, then headed to my room for a shower.

Little did I know – we snuck in!  We totally bypassed a line that was wrapped around the OTHER side of the convention center!!

>.<  D’oh!

Anyway, after they were done with the line *cough*, Sharra and Andy met me for dinner:

Following dinner, we met up with the Monkeys once again for some partyness:

There were a few more people behind me, I didn’t get them in the photo – dangit.  People like Pazo.  Ah well.

It was very late when I left that party and made my way back to my trick hotel room door.  I was tired, I was sore, hot, miserable – my feet weren’t doing so well in those shoes, but I realized that I hadn’t even so much as peaked in my goodie bag yet.  SO, I decided to take a look.

Talk about a haul!  My god – there was a ton of stuff in that bag!  Here’s the short list: Warcraft Comic, Inflatable Bubble Hearth, Trading Card Game, Forsaken Mask, Mousepad, Figureprints Horde Necklace, Starcraft mini game & Warcraft Postcard.  There’s more, it’s just too much to list.

After I checked all of that out, I filled the tub with hot water to soak my aching feet, and eventually made it to bed and some sleep.

Tomorrow: Blizzcon.

~P

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Day one was all about traveling.

Woke up not so early – it was nice to sleep in.  I like [...]]]> Okay, now that I’ve settled in, I want to talk about my vacation.  It’s going to be in multiple parts as I think this is the only way to do it without an endless rant of paragraphs.

Day one was all about traveling.

Woke up not so early – it was nice to sleep in.  I like sleeping in.  Sleeping in is good.  Showered, shaved – all that bit, then finished up packing up my bag and headed off to get a little something to eat and then to the airport.  I was leaving my car in long term parking as there was no one to take me or pick me up when I got back – timing was just bad on that.

Oh well.

I’d already checked in the day before, so I didn’t have to worry about that – did want to check my bag though.  I admit, for a couple of years I was the power traveler.  I never checked my bags – everything was a carry on.  But with all the new security stuff, it just isn’t worth the hassle anymore, so I checked my suitcase and carried on my backpack.  Went smooth as silk and I was soon kicked back in the boarding area with good book and some tunes on my iPhone (those shoes ended up being my bane).

I flew Southwest.  You just can’t beat them for price and convenience – I mean, they fly everywhere (or so it seems) for $100 or less.  Luckily for me, I was in the first boarding group – this is ultra convenient as they are a ‘first come, first serve’ airline when it comes to seating.

Little did I know that the flight wasn’t full, so it really didn’t matter.  I ended up having the whole row to myself, which was comfy.

I snapped a few shots once they said I could:

I thought they were cool. 

Once I got to LAX, I went round and round the airport in the Super Shuttle while the driver tried to pick up more people – I have a post about that, so I won’t repeat myself here.

Here’s a picture though:

I -think- that’s the old terminal thingie and they’re restoring/renovating it or some such.  We passed it several times.

Got to the hotel around 5:45 and had fun with the trick door.  I couldn’t get it to work.  I had to go get someone to open it for me.  There was a trick to it.  I eventually learned the trick, but it was still a pain in the butt.

Once settled and, as I knew none of my friends would be arriving til much later, I ordered myself a pizza and a six-pack of Mt Dew (which covered me in the caffeine area for the rest of the week) and chilled out.  I tried to blog from my room, but the internet was unreliable at best, and my iPhone coverage was extremely disappointing (I had to stand in one spot, near the refrigerator, to get a signal – not even the balcony by the front door got service -.-).

Around 11, I heard from some friends and made plans for breakfast.  It was an hour later for me, so I made sure my alarm was set and went to sleep.

Day Two tomorrow.

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It seems weird to me, going on an actual vacation.  This is not something that I ever do.  I don’t ‘get away’.  I don’t ‘take time off’ – it’s all very foreign to me.

And yet, here I am, about to take off to California for a week to chill out and relax [...]]]> Just a quick post.

It seems weird to me, going on an actual vacation.  This is not something that I ever do.  I don’t ‘get away’.  I don’t ‘take time off’ – it’s all very foreign to me.

And yet, here I am, about to take off to California for a week to chill out and relax with some friends.

WEIRD I TELLS YA!

As first real vacation’s go, I suppose this is a good one to take.  I’m heading to Blizzcon, Blizzard’s massive convention to celebrate all things Blizzard.  Additionally, I’ll be hitting the Magic Kingdom for a little R&R.  I can’t imagine being offline for any prolonged period of time, so I’ll have my iPhone with me and a little laptop- I may even do a little posting from the convention if something cool comes up (which I’m sure will).

Interesting to me was news today that people should bring food to the con.

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One week til Blizzcon.

I’m starting to get excited!

Believe it or not, for me, it’s more about getting away and seeing friends than it is about going to a video gaming convention.  WoW has made me a lot of good friends and hanging out with them is going to be fun.

It’s been a while since I’ve [...]]]> So.

One week til Blizzcon.

I’m starting to get excited!

Believe it or not, for me, it’s more about getting away and seeing friends than it is about going to a video gaming convention.  WoW has made me a lot of good friends and hanging out with them is going to be fun.

It’s been a while since I’ve flown anywhere – a little over a year, actually. That was a Denver/Chicago trip to meet up with family and head down to Kentucky for my grandmother’s funeral.  This time, I’m heading into LAX – one of the busiest airports in the nation – not that Midway isn’t busy.  It’s just that I’ve been to Midway a lot and can find my way around without much incident.  LAX – I’ve been there once.

I remember it well.  It was huge, of course.  This was pre-9/11 and there were a lot of college students running around the place.  They were doing some sort of social study.  Basically, they had someone come up and ask you a bunch of questions – take a survey.  The survey itself didn’t matter much to them – they were gauging responses to the people themselves.  They had a cute girl and a not so cute girl, a handsome guy and a not so handsome guy – and they were seeing which of these people were better received by the interviewees.

I never found out what their findings were.

LAX was what I exptected LAX to be.  Saw my first Hare Krishnas there.  Yes, they were dressed like monks from an old episode of Kung Fu, had their heads shaved, those large beads wrapped around them.  They were singing and dancing and doing their thing.

This time around, I won’t be sitting there waiting for a plane to Sacramento – it’ll be a straight shot to the waiting shuttles and onto my hotel (hopefully).

The days after that will probably be a blur what with Disney, the actual convention, hanging out, buying stuff, eating, sleeping and whatnot all.

I’m taking stuff that would probably allow me to blog from there if I have the time – we’ll see how that goes.

For now, exciting!

~P

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