Categories
Update

PAX and stuff

I recently completed the first day back from a 4 day weekend. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were pretty much exclusively taken up going to, attending, and returning from, PAX. The nerd conference/expo of choice for the Pacific Northwest it seems. I went w/ Pat, and we stayed at my uncle’s, so thanks uncle. Keston was also there, so I spent some time hanging out with him and his companions from Intel. The experience was much as years prior, only bigger, so fun and entertaining and expensive parking.

PAX is one of those things that is difficult to explain to people. People always ask what you do there, and when you answer the question literally, you say something like, “walk around and look at video games that are going to come out, and go to panels about video games and stuff, and sometimes play video games that haven’t come out yet.” But that’s not really what PAX is about or what’s cool about it. Part of what is cool is taking what is generally a isolated minority, nerds, and making them an overwhelming majority. Putting 50,000 nerds into one building has a strange effect. Everything kinda goes backwards. Like, you get peer pressured into playing Magic or D&D, and if someone finds out you don’t know what keyboard cat is they laugh at you. It’s a good change of pace from real life. So I’m going to say that this upside down social world is the real reason to go to PAX, and there are panels and video games as bonus. So PAX was a success. I mean, Pat had never seen another gphone in the wild, and I musta seen 20 @ PAX w/o even looking.

Pat was pretty sick on Sunday, so that sorta sucked, mostly for him. I’m told he feels mostly better at this point, and I still feel fine so I think I’ve resisted infection, so those are good things. News is out about a confirmed case of swine flu at PAX and a whole website has sprung up to report confirmed cases and what flights you were on and stuff, so if you went to PAX and you get sick, go to the doctor.

Monday, day of labor, I pretty much just watched Mythbusters. It’s a pretty amazing show. For me it’s a show I watch w/o really knowing why I like it. Although I have identified one aspect, and that is the actual building. I have very little experience, and, I think, probably, very little skill in the area of mechanically building stuff. The mythbusters are really good at it, and the show presents rapid fire problems and solutions in an interesting way, so I like that aspect a lot. Plus, I think I like guessing the outcomes of stuff and almost always being right, but not always always.

I also downloaded and watched the pilot of Leverage, which I didn’t really know anything about except all my celebrity nerd friends on twitter are talking about it, and Wil Wheaton is somehow involved. Anyway, it looks kinda cool. I have to watch more before I can really comment.

Yeah, so life is good I think. My newest pay check indicates that the amount I’m losing to taxes and other automatic subtractions is 3% greater than previously estimated, but that’s not very much. 😛 Closer to what I expected anyway. Lauren is starting school in Spain in about 6 hours. Everythings pretty standard and genial. ttfn

Categories
Update

PAX and stuff

Tomorrow is PAX! Big times ahead. Pat’s coming down today, and tomorrow morning we’re gonna head over the mountains and enjoy the nerdfest. The show is completely sold out in all it’s forms, and they bought the whole convention center and increased hours this year, so it should be crazy. I’m probably most excited to see Jonathan Coulton and the CO-OP and TRS shows, plus all the demos of video games to come.

In preparation I’ve already purchased many snacks while at Costco last with my parents, so I’ve gotta figure out how I’m going to carry all of that w/o smashing/melting it. I got PuzzleQuest Galactrix so I’ll have something to play while I wait in lines. I also want to buy ear plugs, cause I’m not into hearing loss. I’ve gotta get our sleeping arrangement figured out a bit better still, too. And possibly see if I can meet up with the folks and get the GPS and stuff like that.

Now that I’ve written all of that down I’ll probably remember to do it. What else? Pat and I might camp after PAX w/ his folks for a day, although I don’t know the odds of that since I haven’t talked to Pat in a bit. He’s always sleeping, or working. He apparently doesn’t get chances to chat much at work. /shrug

K, so in work related news, all the other interns left last week, so for this whole week I’ve had the biggest office in the building. People are circling, though, so I think others might be moving in soon. I’ve been told I’ll be moved out at the beginning of October, though. I’m getting an office with a window, and an officemate, but just one. Her name’s Cara. She seems acceptable.

I got my picture taken to be put in the records. I’ll be up on the wall and in the memory game soon, apparently. I also have to write up goals for the next FY soon, as the current one is ending. Not sure how I like the non-coding aspects of work, but it seems like they’re unavoidable.

Last post I mentioned I didn’t think I’d get to see Lauren again before she left, but I did. Mother was kind enough to find and excuse to drive me over there for the weekend so I got a good couple days to say goodbye right before she left. It was all good. I think she’s got herself aligned properly and she’ll be fine over there.

Also saw my cousin’s new baby. Mother and Aunt took many pictures with it stuck in my arms like a prop, so they might show up on the internet soon. I’ll stick in a link maybe.

Home life stuff… Aaron mowed the lawn, which is nice. (I’ll mow the lawn if you guys keep it clear of dog feces, ffr roomies) He also bought an aerator for the faucet in the kitchen so it doesn’t spray water everywhere. Kim and Kelsey paid rent early, so that’s going well. We still haven’t gotten a utility bill, so that’s a bit concerning. I think I’ve done all I can to try and get things set up, except possibly the check-up nagging. I really don’t see how society developed to require such nonsense, though. Seems like we should try and evolve past the need to nag.

Oh, also last post I said the aquatic ape theory discussed on that TEDTalk was probably bogus and to let me do research. Well, I didn’t have to, cause the Skeptical Rogues did it for me. Here‘s the episode of interest. The specific chunk is from about 29:30 to 46:10, but you should listen to the whole thing. 😛