Friday, July 6th
I woke up at 4:00 am to post some cosplay pictures on my deviantART and say good morning/bye to a few of my friends. You'd be surprised at the number of people awake at 4 in the morning.
My dad and I left the house at around 5:45 am so we could get through Cincinatti before rush hour. Most of the ride was devoted to random conversations. I believe I only pulled out my GameBoy SP once.
We arrived in Columbus at 10:00 am, just in time. We met with my aunt, Angela, and a friend, Mei. I left my dad to his usual Origins business and followed Mei and Angela to the scavenger hunt.
The hunt was interesting, to say the least. There were some very odd items to take pictures of. A sleeping person, something scary, a tattoo of a cartoon, the inside of someone's backpack, a four person kickline, and a guy in a kilt, just to name a few.
We found everything on the list except 2 things and ended up getting 3rd place. :) I felt very accomplished. I think the hardest thing to find was a tattoo of a cartoon. You would think that in a giant building filled with thousands of geeks you could find at least one tattoo of a cartoon, but you're wrong. Finally, at the last minute, we found a GAMA ( Game Manufacturers Association )employee who had a Batman tattoo.
I don't believe I bought anything, besides a basic set of limited edition dice from Crystal Caste ( $10 ), on my first day. Any part of the day that wasn't spent searching for cartoon tattoos or kilted men was spent wandering through the dealers room. Mei and Angela bought books and a Bag of Holding.
For lunch we met up with a few of Angela's LJ friends, Nikki and Tonya, and they took us out to eat at the Mongolian Grill. It was absolutely delicious and totally affordable, especially since Nikki paid. XD
After lunch all five of us went to a beginners plotting seminar. Omit the few annoying people who also attended and it was an overall pleasurable experience. I learned a few new writing techniques and a couple new ways to get myself unstuck while writing.
That night was the Smithee Awards. It's an award ceremony for some of the worst movies ever made.
A few of my favorites:
Inane Dialogue: Dialogue in a movie that just makes you say "Yeah, right" or "NO SHIT!!"
(Matango)
*Man and Woman sitting in a room*
Man: "It's been raining for the past 3 weeks!"
Woman: "It must be the rainy season!"
(???)
*Man is dragged on screen with a large shot wound near his heart*
Cow Girl: "He's been shot!!"
(???)
*Two girls locked in a room, girl tries to open door and discovers that it is locked*
Girl: "It's locked!" *pauses* "From the outside!!" *pasuses* "I can't get out!"
Worst Science: Really bad science.
(Night of the Blood Beast)
Alien: "I can now communicate using photosynthesis to send messages to you."
(Invasion of the Bee Girls)
Scientist: "We can use androgynous hormones to combine human and animal DNA."
There were tons more, but it's much better if you actually see them for yourself. The ballot collectors were friends and family of the host, Smithee. our collector was a man dressed as a Luchador who refused to say anything to anyone besides "Muchos Gracias" and "Thank you".
Saturday, July 7th
Another day spent wandering through the dealer's room, only this time I was in costume!!!
I dressed up as a Pokemon Trainer, Mei was Zatanna Zatara, and Angela was Robin. The three of us were quite a sight as we traipsed through the dealer's room along with other costumed gamers.
Once again, I was too frightened by some of the prices so my wallet stayed safely in my backpack, except for once. I bought a blakc belt with the Batman insignia on the buckle ( $18.73 ), which soon became nicknamed the "Utility Belt". It's definitely my favorite belt.
For lunch the five of us, plus a new member to our adventuring group, Red, went to Zen Sushi, a conveyor sushi restaurant across the street from the convention center. The sushi was aboslutely wonderful and the design of the restaurant was really cool and modern looking.
After lunch we tried our luck at a type of LARP. We were in a group of 15 people, 10 "Space Marines" and 5 "Civilians". I was a Civilian Engineer with Mechanical skills and a really small hand gun. I had wanted to be a Space Marine with the really cool big gun, but I gave up my spot to more enthusiastic Marines. Everyone, except our Synth-Human, could shoot things and it was really awesome. The point of the LARP was to go through a preconstructed dungeon and reinitiate a broken reactor without getting our butts kicked by the aliens lurking about the dungeon.
It was a fun and interactive maze that involved lots of input from everyone in the group. We had to fix broken doors, find keycards and reactor parts, and best of all; kick some alien butt with our bb guns.
That night was the Meta-Mega Smithees, an award ceremony that only happens every five years. It takes the winners from every catagory from the past five years and we get to vote on which is the best one. I missed the first half of the ceremony because I went to the live reading of KoDT ( Knights of the Dinner Table ).
For the live reading everyone puts their name into a hat and someone draws names to see who gets to come up to the table and read. After the comic strip is over the readers get to roll a d20 to see which of 20 different prizes they can get.
I got to read as BA, the GM, in a comic called "Carvin' Marvin". Though my lines were few, I still had fun watching the other "players" bicker and argue about whether to let Dave have Marvin, the egotistical sword with a mind of his own.
During the dice roll I got a 19. The prize was *drum roll* "The shirt off Dave Kenzer's back." I was really surprised that such a ridiculous prize was on the list, but I accepted anyway. I'd rather have the president of KenzerCo's shirt than have to wear the Hubcap of Shame while dancing or getting my butt kicked by a KenzerCo employee.
Sunday, July 8th
The last day.
I admit, I totally splurged on Sunday.
I bought two games at the Out of the Box booth, Blink and MyWORD! ( $2.50 each on sale ), a Bag of Holding ( $21.25 ), a tiara w/ dangly gem ( $8.00 ), and a hair stick ( $5.00 ) for my sister. I really love my Bag of Holding, it's probably the coolest ( read: geekiest ) bag I've ever owned.
I play tested the board game called the Game of Gamers, which was a lot more fun than I expected, and then finally left the convention after a final venturing through the dealer's room.
The ride home was spent talking and sleeping. My dad stopped at a rest area to do some maintenance on a geocache he had left before and I spent that time sleeping and sweating in the car. DX
I woke up at 4:00 am to post some cosplay pictures on my deviantART and say good morning/bye to a few of my friends. You'd be surprised at the number of people awake at 4 in the morning.
My dad and I left the house at around 5:45 am so we could get through Cincinatti before rush hour. Most of the ride was devoted to random conversations. I believe I only pulled out my GameBoy SP once.
We arrived in Columbus at 10:00 am, just in time. We met with my aunt, Angela, and a friend, Mei. I left my dad to his usual Origins business and followed Mei and Angela to the scavenger hunt.
The hunt was interesting, to say the least. There were some very odd items to take pictures of. A sleeping person, something scary, a tattoo of a cartoon, the inside of someone's backpack, a four person kickline, and a guy in a kilt, just to name a few.
We found everything on the list except 2 things and ended up getting 3rd place. :) I felt very accomplished. I think the hardest thing to find was a tattoo of a cartoon. You would think that in a giant building filled with thousands of geeks you could find at least one tattoo of a cartoon, but you're wrong. Finally, at the last minute, we found a GAMA ( Game Manufacturers Association )employee who had a Batman tattoo.
I don't believe I bought anything, besides a basic set of limited edition dice from Crystal Caste ( $10 ), on my first day. Any part of the day that wasn't spent searching for cartoon tattoos or kilted men was spent wandering through the dealers room. Mei and Angela bought books and a Bag of Holding.
For lunch we met up with a few of Angela's LJ friends, Nikki and Tonya, and they took us out to eat at the Mongolian Grill. It was absolutely delicious and totally affordable, especially since Nikki paid. XD
After lunch all five of us went to a beginners plotting seminar. Omit the few annoying people who also attended and it was an overall pleasurable experience. I learned a few new writing techniques and a couple new ways to get myself unstuck while writing.
That night was the Smithee Awards. It's an award ceremony for some of the worst movies ever made.
A few of my favorites:
Inane Dialogue: Dialogue in a movie that just makes you say "Yeah, right" or "NO SHIT!!"
(Matango)
*Man and Woman sitting in a room*
Man: "It's been raining for the past 3 weeks!"
Woman: "It must be the rainy season!"
(???)
*Man is dragged on screen with a large shot wound near his heart*
Cow Girl: "He's been shot!!"
(???)
*Two girls locked in a room, girl tries to open door and discovers that it is locked*
Girl: "It's locked!" *pauses* "From the outside!!" *pasuses* "I can't get out!"
Worst Science: Really bad science.
(Night of the Blood Beast)
Alien: "I can now communicate using photosynthesis to send messages to you."
(Invasion of the Bee Girls)
Scientist: "We can use androgynous hormones to combine human and animal DNA."
There were tons more, but it's much better if you actually see them for yourself. The ballot collectors were friends and family of the host, Smithee. our collector was a man dressed as a Luchador who refused to say anything to anyone besides "Muchos Gracias" and "Thank you".
Saturday, July 7th
Another day spent wandering through the dealer's room, only this time I was in costume!!!
I dressed up as a Pokemon Trainer, Mei was Zatanna Zatara, and Angela was Robin. The three of us were quite a sight as we traipsed through the dealer's room along with other costumed gamers.
Once again, I was too frightened by some of the prices so my wallet stayed safely in my backpack, except for once. I bought a blakc belt with the Batman insignia on the buckle ( $18.73 ), which soon became nicknamed the "Utility Belt". It's definitely my favorite belt.
For lunch the five of us, plus a new member to our adventuring group, Red, went to Zen Sushi, a conveyor sushi restaurant across the street from the convention center. The sushi was aboslutely wonderful and the design of the restaurant was really cool and modern looking.
After lunch we tried our luck at a type of LARP. We were in a group of 15 people, 10 "Space Marines" and 5 "Civilians". I was a Civilian Engineer with Mechanical skills and a really small hand gun. I had wanted to be a Space Marine with the really cool big gun, but I gave up my spot to more enthusiastic Marines. Everyone, except our Synth-Human, could shoot things and it was really awesome. The point of the LARP was to go through a preconstructed dungeon and reinitiate a broken reactor without getting our butts kicked by the aliens lurking about the dungeon.
It was a fun and interactive maze that involved lots of input from everyone in the group. We had to fix broken doors, find keycards and reactor parts, and best of all; kick some alien butt with our bb guns.
That night was the Meta-Mega Smithees, an award ceremony that only happens every five years. It takes the winners from every catagory from the past five years and we get to vote on which is the best one. I missed the first half of the ceremony because I went to the live reading of KoDT ( Knights of the Dinner Table ).
For the live reading everyone puts their name into a hat and someone draws names to see who gets to come up to the table and read. After the comic strip is over the readers get to roll a d20 to see which of 20 different prizes they can get.
I got to read as BA, the GM, in a comic called "Carvin' Marvin". Though my lines were few, I still had fun watching the other "players" bicker and argue about whether to let Dave have Marvin, the egotistical sword with a mind of his own.
During the dice roll I got a 19. The prize was *drum roll* "The shirt off Dave Kenzer's back." I was really surprised that such a ridiculous prize was on the list, but I accepted anyway. I'd rather have the president of KenzerCo's shirt than have to wear the Hubcap of Shame while dancing or getting my butt kicked by a KenzerCo employee.
Sunday, July 8th
The last day.
I admit, I totally splurged on Sunday.
I bought two games at the Out of the Box booth, Blink and MyWORD! ( $2.50 each on sale ), a Bag of Holding ( $21.25 ), a tiara w/ dangly gem ( $8.00 ), and a hair stick ( $5.00 ) for my sister. I really love my Bag of Holding, it's probably the coolest ( read: geekiest ) bag I've ever owned.
I play tested the board game called the Game of Gamers, which was a lot more fun than I expected, and then finally left the convention after a final venturing through the dealer's room.
The ride home was spent talking and sleeping. My dad stopped at a rest area to do some maintenance on a geocache he had left before and I spent that time sleeping and sweating in the car. DX
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