DLC9 wrapup: I-95, the absolute worst.

[superaielman]

For con wrapup stuff, photos, etc. Tide- I think I took a few on your phone, post em? Will type up  my stuff now that I'm home.

[metroid composite]

I'm still here, only one left.

Somehow didn't expect everyone would be gone by mid-day on Sunday.  Guess I should have checked the travel topic first....

[Dark Holy Elf]

We are safely back in Meepleland. Con was fun! Will post actual thoughts later.

[superaielman]

I drove up to NoVA on monday. The drive up was pretty miserable because I-95 is awful and route 1's once you get close to the district. Spent several hours waiting at a barnes and noble near the airport, waiting for Dhyer. Read a bunch of Rothfuss. Had a slight overheating issue but that was due to how brutally hot it was. Picked up Dhyer at Ron Reagan airport, drove into the district without an issue, checked into the hotel. We went out to dinner, BSed for a while, and then fell asleep. Tuesday was wandering DC day! I had never actually done much sightseeing in the city, so it was a treat. Saw most of the big monuments, spent all day walking. Also saw the Botanical gardens which were great but hell on my allergies. The bad news is that it was near 100 degrees and I was pretty dead on my feet by the end. Plans to see the National Mall at night were thwarted by severe thunderstorms.  Wednesday was museum day. We went to the natural history museum (sucked) and the american history museum (great). More thunderstorms on wednesday cut things a little short. We had dinner at five guys, talked for a while, and then walked back to the hotel. My powers of misdirection struck at this point, however. Dhyer's GPS would *not* work in spite of being in the capital of United States and it took a half hour to actually download a map app. That got sorted eventually. We got to Shale's with much profanity but no issues. We talk to Shale for a bit, meet his niece, and relax for a bit. Eventually Tal and Gate get there. We play some Hearts and then crash early.

Thursday was the day everyone else came in. I ride with Shale to pick up some stuff for the con. It's always fun to talk with him, since he's been pretty busy of late. I also go with him to pick up people as well. Shale is 100% awesome and makes french toast for breakfast in between picking up people. Tide gets in relatively early and absolutely refuses to ride in my car. He is a man of no taste. Anyway, people come in over the course of the day. I play a little more cards. Thursday involved a trip out for lunch with Niu and Dhyer. It was much of an adventure as always. I got lost on the way back (there was a lot of this). After that, we hung out for a while. Donna (Shale's wife)gets home, and wants to go to trivia. Dhyer and I agree and go with her to a trivia night at the local movie theater. It's a ton of fun. Not only do we have a great time, but our trivia team stages a massive comeback for the victory. After that, it's mostly just driving people back to the hotel and going to sleep. Friday is DC day trip day. After my earlier experiences, I had more than enough of the city. Dhyer, Niu, Xer, myself, Miki and his brother stay behind. I drop off Xer/Niu/Nick at the hotel. Dhyer, Miki, and I wander off to the air and space museum near dulles. I see the space shuttle (Holy christ that ruled) and kill an afternoon there. I had a blast there, minus being unable to find a onesie for my niece. Once we get back, all of us besides Niu go off to have lunch at the hotel bar. It's pretty good, though I make a total jackass out of myself by misunderstanding Xer. Whoops. Xer/Niu go to play games, the rest of us head off to try Elder Signs. We get eaten by the Great Old One, but we do have a Guile's Theme moment thanks to Miki and his brother. Fun was had by all. After that, it's just waiting for everyone to get back so we can head to shale's place. Games are played and people hang out till bedtime. Miki/Dhyer/Tonfa and I get a fair ways into another Elder Signs game, which ate up most of the evening.

Saturday starts with coffee and picking up snowfire from the Vienna metro station. He is as super talkative as always, going back and forth with Shale about a book about Sega during the console war days. We get back and the Elder Signs team starts up the game again. We win this time, yay! The Ciddy appears around this time. He makes his introductions and chats with people, etc. Puyo Puyo is played but I don't really get into it. I do get to spend a little time talking with Elfboy about FF5 and ET- he is going to have problems clearing the flameeater boss. We get a group picture and get ready to head off to bowl... except that Niu ran back inside to play more Puyo Puyo. He is a shameful addict. Anyway, we drive to Donna's store to p ick up some snacks and see some of suburban virginia. From there it's off to bowling. I actually think to ask Shale for his camera, so I took a bunch of pictures of bowling. (There were almost no other con photos). We spend a couple of hours bowling as a group. I don't actually bowl, but provide obscene commentary and spread my cursed luck to other people. If you think I'm joking, ask Shale/Tonfa about the magic 5 pin. After that, it's off to dinner. I grab MC at this point to ride in my jeep so I can catch up with her, as I barely talked with the people in her room during the con. She talks about GTA5 some and the crazy hours she tends to work. After that, it's dinner! I go with Tonfa and Tide at a Vietnamese place. It was decent and worth trying, and affordable unlike most everything else in Northern Virginia. We talk about our hometowns some and Tide in particular talks about the corruption in mainland china. We also plan to go clubbing with VSM in Helsinki or Hong Kong. Either way, this plan will end in death and comedy. Oh Tide: My luggage is Jeep branded (seriously). It may have come into contact with your luggage. Sorry about that. I spend about an hour talking waiting for everyone to finish dinner. An unspeakable incident happens (MY JEEP WAS FRAMED) just as everyone gets out of dinner. There's some more hanging out, but everyone's pretty tired and everyone calls it early that night.

Sunday I get up early and accidently wake up Dhyer and Tonfa with OMD2, which I had been playing on and off all con.  Whoops. I go out early with Tonfa to get gas and breakfast. Subway's closed and Tonfa is utterly unwilling to explore further due to my sense of direction and threats of Taco Bell. After that, people wake up and get showered. Cards against Humanity ends up getting going, which is pretty amazing. We play that all morning. I get up about two thirds of the way through to wander and chat with people. I ended up leaving around 1pm. Meeple's crew and one of Shale's groups were heading out then, and I wanted to get a head start on traffic. This fails. The only good part of the trip is Steak and shake on the way home. Short version: I get back home fine and fuck I-95.

Highlights of con: Sightseeing in DC, trivia.
Lowlights: OK not being able to make it, not spending any time with Elf/Ciato/Meeple/MC.
wtf: The goddamn amber alert. MY JEEP IS INNOCENT. I have no further comment at this time.

Thanks to Shale and his wife for being such lovely hosts, and fuck off forever I-95. Shale really did an awesome job with all the driving and hosting and deserves credit, etc.

[Tide]

Back from Con. It was awesome all around. Only wished that it could be longer. Well, along with a couple of other things, but in general, excellent trip at all points.

Day 1:
- Arrive, get picked up by Shale and Super. I leave my stuff in Shale's car. Somewhere along the way, the room get re-arranged because Meeple and Gate had to do some reorganization due to OK dropping and it was decided that I would go with the Meeplemobile.
- Lots of Mariokart. And New SMB. Also watched Ciato play Super Mario Bros 2. Then we played 4 player New Super Mario Bros. Tal and I proceed to die to Goombas. Repeatedly. Goombas 3stronk. Plz nerf.
- There was also a little bit of Brawl. I used my fighting style (the art of YOLO) and win a majority of the matches, or go out in a blaze of glory.
- Pizza for dinner. Simple but effective. RICHARD arrives but has no energy for dramatics because we were upstairs. #effort
- We get lost going back from Shale to the room Meeple/NEB/Ciato have rented out. Scumbag GPS is scumbag. It is a really nice room even if a bit pricier. We ate ice cream, drank tea and talked about Wild ARMS and how bad Rico is for about 2 hours.

Day 2:
- Wake up, eat breakfast and go with about half of the con's participants (Shale, Gate, Ciato, NEB, Tal, RICHARD, Meeple) to visit the DC museums. Some light Mariokart while waiting for everyone to be ready.
- Snowfire meets us along the way and we head to a food court for lunch
- Highlights of the museum include: A story about a seafarer named RICHARD who went out in a blaze of glory, YOLO cannons and the exhibit showing how Washington taught his men to use weapons where the only visible step is Step 7: Fire. In the words of RICHARD, "This is the only step that matters"
- Along the way to the monuments and on the way back, RICHARD and I talk about TF7 stuff changes and Laggy hacking methodology. The greatest.
- Dinner involved Thai Food. Rest of the evening was mostly spent playing Brawl. Picked up MC and I believe El Cid dropped in for some time. Don't remember much else before we had to leave.
- MC joins us for this evening where there was more chatting until the wee hours. This time about bad Magic Cards while everyone did something else. NEB plays Eviltype and taking notes, I re-route some bits of XF, MC checks her email, Meeple eats ice cream and Ciato sleeps on the floor for a while when we wait for laundry. Meeple and I sleep earlier then everyone else since we didn't have any laundry to do and just slept since we got tired.

Day 3:
- We wake up, clean up and pack stuff since we need to check out at 10. I buy some fruits since I think it was generally agreed our past couple of weeks was missing that as part of the diet.
- I spent most of the morning watching Super, RICHARD, Dhyer and Jim finish their game of elder signs. In the meantime, I go back and do some re-routing in XF. Eventually, Snowfire starts up Tishu and teaches people. At one point, I walk downstairs and see Niu battling people in Puyo Puyo. Tetris too strong.
- We make a few trips including 1 to the game store (bought Braverly Default!), Wallgreens (Shale abusing his power) and then bowling
- Bowling was pleasantly surprising. Good snack food, and lots of fun. #swagbowl between RICHARD and I. I also renamed myself to YOLO. Going up the clerk when paying and saying "I am YOLO" and watching his reaction was worth the price of admission
- Dinner had everyone picking something and then going off on their own. RICHARD and I had Pho. Super tagged along and we discussed about home towns and the amazingness of peaceful China. Amber Alert gets issued while Super is with us, so yes, jeep is innocent. Sadly.
- Return back to Shale's, we set up Live Backstab and get a little gameplay in against Siren. I prevail over RICHARD by serving him a taste of his own medicine via Goblin PAUNCH
- Head to Best Western, where Gate and Tal are staying. Apparently, Gate told the innkeeper that "There will be a guy in a distinctive white/orange jacket who is staying with us" and this must have stuck because I got word from Meeple/Elf pretty quick on where the room ended up being.
- Find out that lock is busted on suitcase, so can't get stuff out. Mooch off the inn and went to bed after a brief chat with Tal and Gate.

Day 4:
- Still couldn't find lock cutter. Get breakfast with Ciato, Meeple, NEB, MC, Gate and Tal then wait for Shale to come by and pick us up.
- No spades with Super but we settle with Cards against Humanity. We find out that everyone is a terrible terrible person, but especially Gate (29 vs. low 20s for most people).
- Shale drives Gate and I to the airport. Gate and I spend some time in each other's company and eat Burritos until flight leaves at about 2:30.

Highlights:
- Swagbowling. Telling the clerk my name is YOLO in a completely straight face
- El Cid and Snowfire dropping in, even though I didn't get much of a chance to talk to either.
- Boxception and "Son, if you want to join the Harlem Globetrotters I won't stop you. Just steer clear of White People". EDIT: Actually the entire game of Cards against Humanity. I completely forgot my favourite moment, which was when RICHARD played the "Poor Life Choices" card. I specifically like how RICHARD was the one who had the card and he saved it specifically for me.
- DC Museums was a cool visit for certain
- Hanging out with other people in general. Wild ARMs talk is always a blast.

Shale is an awesome host, being able to juggle the travelling and logistics while we were down OK for a bit. In general, I do the same thing as I did in other meets and general chat/talk to different groups of people. Lots of time spent with NEB, Ciato and Meeple due to the rooming arrangement, which was great since I think we didn't get much of a chance to chat during DLC8. Also lots of time spent with RICHARD and Tal since there was no Mahjong this time! Less time spent with Niu for certain and Xer. I think they were both busy showing off games and were in the ground floor most of the time (whereas I was on floor 2) so there wasn't many chances. Also Niu avoided bowling and was into Puyo Puyo like I am into speedrunning, so that didn't help.

On a slightly different note, Super's obsession with me getting into his jeep is as bad if not worse than Niu's obsession with Puyo Puyo.
 

[Grefter]

I grab MC at this point to ride in my jeep

I will hurt you.

[superaielman]

Stop being jealous, bitch. I also felt bad for putting MC in my car, as the 6'5 woman is too damn tall to ride in the car, not enough leg room.

[Grefter]

I am sure you hate how uncomfortable the bomb vests you give to small animals are too.

[superaielman]

Translation: Wahh super got to spend time with my one true love and I am jealous. Go be emo elsewhere.

[VySaika]

- No spades with Super but we settle with Cards against Humanity. We find out that everyone is a terrible terrible person, but especially Gate (29 vs. low 20s for most people).

I am not proud of this. -_-;

[Luther Lansfeld]

I decided to fly to Jersey a few days early to hang out with Meeple and do some sightseeing. Went to a Jersey shore but saw no absurdly tanned people or boob jobs. Mini Meeple is now a teenager but is still definitely his minion. We watched her play a lot of Megaman. We drove to Philadelphia on Tuesday and saw the Liberty bell, which is a fun piece of history, and the Franklin Institute, which is a little pricy but a neat little adventure for kids (Mini Meeple recommended it to us.) We met up with another Meeple sister who went with us for good food and ice cream and crashed at her place.

Wednesday we headed to DC and saw the Holocaust Museum which invokes a large range of emotions. It was pretty damning toward the Allies with respect to the Holocaust as well, which surprised me in an American government sponsered museum. We spent about three hours there and it was emotionally exhausting. We also went to the Lincoln memorial which was cool, but damn did my feet hurt afterwards.

Thursday was the start of Con and I mostly played Mario games. Was happy to see that Xer made it. Friday was the more patriotic DC trip, where we met up with the always informative and lovely Snowfire at the America History Museum, including an exhibition on the War of 1812 for the Canadian contingent. Vietnam Memorial is a very simple but powerful display of the horror of war. I was pretty exhausted by the end but was happy to see MC when she came. I later fell asleep on the floor as I listened to people talk about Sorrow something, a MtG card that is apparently dogshit and takes your life. Tide loves it, of course.

Saturday Gate and Snowfire and I discussed Bravely Default and walked to pick up shoes for my poor feet, but we discovered that it was too hot and paved to walk back, so Shale rescued us. I learned Tichu again but didn't play long enough for thr inevitable ragequit. I got a question in the Music Quiz which is a modern miracle, and then ate Indian food which is my favorite. I think this was the day of four Captain Falcon fights but i'm not sure. Bowling was pretty good, ended up getting third overall. Glad Tide had to tell the guy his name was YOLO.

Sunday was sad, parting is such sweet sorrow. It was really nice to meet both Cid and Azi and great to see everyone again. Thanks Shale for being fabulous~

[Shale]

MC left for the airport this morning, so DLCon 9 has officially come to a close. (At least as far as I'm concerned, RICHARD is still touring his domain.)

First off, thanks to everybody who came down, it was awesome and I had a blast, especially since it had been three years since I saw most of you -- hopefully with more vacation time coming up next year I'll be able to make DLCX.

Hosting went about as smoothly as I could have hoped for, really - OK bailing at the last minute and a slight Meepling of hotel arrangements (basically, Meeple's hotel for Thursday-Saturday was 40 minutes from the rest of the con, and we juggled people to minimize driving....only for the drive to happen anyway) are pretty much par for the course, and we were able to work around both of those. Huge thanks to the Cid for pitching in with the driving despite coming off a hellish week. I owe you.

Wendesday: Hanging out with Super, Dhyer, Tal and (eventually) Gate. Got a "holy shit, this is actually happening" feel when the aiel showed up. Finally gave him the signed WoR I picked up when Sanderson was in town three months ago. This was the start of much chatting with Gate; I think I talked with him and Xer more than anyone else.

Thursday: Arrival en masse. House full to exploding, but many good times are had. I finally get Donna and Serena (my niece) to meet their fellow Oklahomite Ciato, which I'd been looking forward to for a while. I didn't get to do much gaming in between the airport runs and food and such, but there was a good amount of chatting with people, at least. Super and Dhyer took my place at the weekly pub trivia that Donna and I do, and kicked ass – went from eighth place out of 14 teams to 1st, basically at the buzzer. Awesome.

Friday: DC! It took us a while to get everything together logistically but we finally got into the District a little after 1 and met up with SnowFire soon after that. Lunch at L'Enfant Plaza, then a walk over to the Smithsonian's American History Museum, which we heard good things about from everybody who'd been there. It pretty well lived up to the reviews. There was a bunch of cultural stuff from the distant and recent past – stuff ranging from a teapot with pro-Jefferson political slogans and Native American stonework up to an iPod, Archie Bunker's chair, and Miss Piggy. We saw the original Star-Spangled Banner, a whole bunch of war history, The Most American Thing Ever™ (pictures forthcoming)...great times.

Monument tours got cut a bit short, sadly, but we were all (save SnowFire, who is some sort of robot) tired and hot and ready to go back after the Washington Monument, WWII, reflecting pool and Vietnam Memorial. After that, MC arrives (yay!), Thai food for dinner, games back at my place, and we disbanded around midnight. I think it was this night when Jim showed off his domination at Vocaloid rhythm games. It was impressive.

(This is where Cid came in to pick up MC while other drivers were on the trip, only to end up sitting at the airport for an hour and then leaving because her phone had died so they couldn't actually arrange a meeting. Oy. Did I mention I owe him?)

Saturday: Games, games, games. SnowFire made a surprise appearance, which was cool, Cid came back, and we had the fullest house of the weekend. Awesome. Puyo Puyo Tetris emerges as surprise hit of the con, and after a few hours of solid play Tal, Niu and Xer run into the solid brick wall of a boss that I don't think they ever cleared. Niu running back in to challenge him again after the group picture was classic. Music quiz went without a hitch (unless you consider Utter Elf Domination a hitch), which was nice. We hit up Donna's store, which was an odd intersection of DL and real life even for a con. (Reminder: those surveys on your receipts – it would help us out a lot if you do them. If you left yours behind I will PM you the details.)

Then bowling! I sucked, didn't break 100 in either game. Everybody else was great. Super got the lane itself to flip me off, which is impressive. Dinner afterward took way longer than we anticipated, but the Indian place had tasty entrees and really good naan, so I'm not complaining. Plus the Amber Alert came through right as we were leaving, and everybody about died with that one. There was only time for an hour or two of hangouts after that before everybody was ready to pass out, sadly.

Sunday: Cards. Against. Humanity. I had been looking forward to getting Super into a game of this all weekend and it did not disappoint. A terrible, wonderful time was had by all, and Gate should simultaneously hold his head high in pride and hang it in shame, because that is what it means to win CAH.

After that it was mass exodus time, which happened very suddenly. At 12:30 everybody was milling about being awesome, and then at 1, Super and Meeple both headed out with Elf, Ciato and Dhyer in tow, and I took Gate and Tide to the airport, which they seem to have survived. Xer, Tonfa, Tal and MC were the last holdouts; we got lunch (by which I mean “enormous plates of sugar”) with my family at a local diner, Tonfa destroyed a slice of chocolate-covered-chocolate-cake the size of his head (and what's more American than that?) and an hour later everybody but MC was gone. So the four of us spent the final night of the con eating cheeseburgers and watching EVO finals on the living room TV, which I call a win.

Wow, that was way longer than I expected when I started it. Short version: You are all awesome. I've been absent from meetups and barely-there on the site in general for too long, and hopefully this weekend does spur me into more activity, because, y'know, awesome. Hosting was more tiring than stressful, which was a pleasant surprise all things considered, and gave me the opportunity to chat with people on the car rides and such even though I was floating around a lot when we were actually at the house. Dinner Saturday was great for that, as was the DC trip. And Burgers and EVO with MC was I think the most time I've spent with her one-on-one, certainly in quite a few years if not ever.

[superaielman]

Re bowling: It wasn't just you that it flipped off. I saw a *ton* of 5 pins left as the only pin up, which I completely credit to my aura of misdirection. My personal curse is getting stronger. The only ones immune to my powers of bullshit were MC (Too nice) and Tal (too pro).

[Meeplelard]

I have nothing big to add.  I had a good time, even when the GPS decided to mislead us into a route that involved going to 5 miles North to head 10 miles South enroute to the Hotel, and the drives to and from the Con were a lot less painful thanks to Elf and Ciato.

I will state that this con probably wins the award for the least time I spent on any of my portable consoles (very close to none; I basically opened it for Street Passes at one point and that was that), which I guess suggests I was talking to more people than usual or something!  Also, amusing how the two most hype things were Pushmo World and Tertris x Puyo Puyo.  This is not an exaggeration in the slightest at all.


Also worth noting that we almost died on the way back from Con due to some jerk nearly side-lining us on the I-95.  We managed to avoid an incident but the fact that we got as close as we did was quite a heart jumping moment.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I'd normally say super is complaining too much about the I-95, but I guess, as Meeple notes, we were almost killed on said highway northbound through Maryland because apparently lane changing three times in a row without checking of said lines are unoccupied is a thing some people do.

(Reminder: those surveys on your receipts – it would help us out a lot if you do them. If you left yours behind I will PM you the details.)

Just seconding this, it doesn't take very long and you don't need to think much (prepare to be extremely satisfied with everything), and anything we can do to help out Shale after he was such an awesome con host is a good thing.


I had a lot of fun on this trip, I think it was one of my favourite DLCons in a while. You can pretty much see Ciato's post for most of the details due to obvious reasons.

Random highlights for me:
-The two trips into DC. Can't hype the fact that all the museums are free enough. Holocaust museum was really excellent in particular, very powerful and effective. American History museum was great too. And it was nice to see some of those monuments which are just so iconic.
-Xer showing up; I wasn't expecting this. We chatted a bunch about upcoming and existing games; always fun to pick the brain of someone who keeps up with the industry so well.
-First full cons for Snowfire, Cid, and Jim's brother. Had a blast walking around the American History museum with Snowfire. Didn't get to talk with El Cid much but it was great to finally meet him at last. Jim's brother was fun to meet even if he is super-quiet by DL standards; we mostly talked briefly as he watched my adventures with Eviltype.
-Live Backstab%. Just wish there was more of this. Siren choosing the winning team by putting team RICHARD to sleep is just cruel.
-Rooming with Tide, since I've never had a huge amount of time to talk to him in person before. I am in awe of his dedicated Wild Arms fandom and love of all things hilariously terrible. We stayed up too late and multiple nights talking about such things. It was also great to see and room with MC and Meeple but that's nothing new.
-Owing Eviltype Cranes despite being underlevelled and Super's claim they would destroy me. Then getting destroyed by the Burning House repeatedly.
-Niu running back into Shale's house yelling "Destroy... destroy... destroy!" I believe it was related to Tetris x Puyo Puyo. Or at least, I certainly hope it was.
-DL bowling was good fun. We kept all the scores so as not to disappoint DL bowling overlord Sopko; Aziraphale will probably post them later I imagine (or I think we still have the paper copy...). I managed to average over 100 so I'm fairly happy; I got 9-then-0 far, far too often though. I bowled with Ciato, Meeple, and Cid; this is where I wanted to talk to Cid more but the background music made it difficult to talk without shouting and I'm not really a fan of shouting at people I have just met.
-The amber alert about a green jeep with a Virginia plate. I see, user superaielman.
-At one point on the final day we literally took an exit to Warp Drive. Northern Virginia is henceforth in my good books just for that.
-Cards Against Humanity with Shale, Gate, RICHARD, Tide, and Meeple. Fun group, and a fun game with the right group. I am a fairly horrible person but I bow to Gate's superior skills.
-I've said it before and I'll say it again: Shale was a great host, and a great guy to just hang out with as well. His positive attitude is simply infectious. Didn't get to talk with Donna much, so was glad we at least caught up with both a bit at the Indian restaurant. Thanks for tolerating the internet invasion of your house, Donna!

As usual, the only regret is that I wasn't able to talk in close settings with a few more people; I never think about this until it is too late. It was a lot of fun, though; everyone was great and it was wonderful to see all of you.

[SnowFire]

Saturday: Games, games, games.  SnowFire made a surprise appearance

[22:46] *** Now talking to Shale
[22:49] <SnowFire> yt?  For DLCon - what's your mobile number?  (I have the number of a few other DLers but probably best to have yours in case of emergency).  As a reminder I'll meet y'all in DC on Friday morning (presumably in the National Mall area?), and for Saturday, I'll request a pickup from Vienna metro back - just triple-checking that'd be fine.
[22:49] <Shale> You may beat the rest of us to the Mall, I'm aiming to get to the metro around 10:30 or 11.

Saturday: Games, games, games. SnowFire made a surprise appearance, which was cool,

Okay, I'll allow it.

[Shale]

In my defense, Past Me completely failed to write that down because he thought I could remember things. That guy is a total a jackass.

[Hunter Sopko]

In my defense, Past Me completely failed to write that down because he thought I could remember things. That guy is a total a jackass.

Note to self, remember to flip future-me off.

[VySaika]

Anyway, con-wrapup post Mk.Gate.

Wednesday - Long flights sitting behind obnoxious people who want to recline in their seats. Fun times. And by fun I mean hatred. Was already ZombieGate when Shale picked me up, and I was bad and forgot to call Jenna until Thursday. ;_;

Thursday - Checked into hotel, had delicious french toast made with that special bread Shale and Meeple would always hype. It was fantastic, thanks again man. Mostly just hung out and played games that day, and had good peruvian chicken. Tried new stuff(yucca, or however you spell that), it was alright but nothing I'd get again. Got to play some Samurai Warriors 4 with Xer, the new shinsoku/godspeed/whatever they'll call it over here mechanic was great, makes alot of chars who had trouble before more usable. Though what the everliving FUCK they were thinking buffing Ginchiyo in basically every fashion I will never know. She was already borderline OP, now she's about as balanced as the average kappa. I rode in the dreaded jeep at some point that day. It was less death than expected. We didn't get lost either, two minor miracles there.

Friday - DC day. American History Museum was great. The first exhibit we went to wasn't all that exciting for me(something like america through the years, or whatever). The African American History exhibit was interesting, I got separated from people multiple times because I stopped to read almost everything. And I'm glad we went there first, I wouldn't have had the energy left to absorb any of it after the War exhibit.

The War exhibit hit me like a hammer, I'll be honest. I was expecting a bit of "AMERICA FUCK YEAH!" mixed in with stuff, but there wasn't any of that outside of the revolutionary war period that I saw. Instead it was very frank about how nasty war is. I somehow missed the WW1 exhibit by taking a wrong turn, and wound up in WW2 before I wanted to. Along with Shale and Meeple. We kinda sat there for a bit just taking things in, watching the clip about the atomic bomb...didn't have much to say. It was draining.

Monument row after that was a looooong walk followed by a quick look at a few interesting things....and then the Vietnam Memorial. Which was the other end of the hammer. My dad fought in 'nam, looking at that seemingly endless amount of names made me think of how easily any of those names could have been him instead. And I wondered how many were people he knew. Were any of those Clarks I saw up there(I spotted 5, who knows how many more there were. Common enough name) related to me? I don't know.

I don't remember what else we did friday. I may have played some games? Waterpizza with Xer was either Fri or Thurs, I can't remember which. That was fun, whichever day it was. Things all sort of blurred together after that.

Saturday - A walk, a shopping trip, lots of talking to folks that day for me. Meeting Cid was awesome, I like getting to meet people I've played DnD/other RPs with a bunch. Bowling was funtimes, Super spreading his curse was hilarious and Tonfa's swag bowling was the best thing ever. Glad I for once managed to not injure myself before DL bowling. Had dinner with Meeple, Dhyer and Tal at a hibachi grill. Was so much better than the ones we have out here, and they even had hibachi tofu as an option for meep(only one I've seen out here offers that). I was again reminded how bad this deadzone I live in for food is.

Sunday - Apples to Apples(and CAH by extension) are like the only board/card games I'm good at. I think Elf might have won if he had been in the whole game, he was stomping the late rounds hard. Super and I have agreed that we need a CAH game with Gate/Super/Elf/VSM/Grefter/Shale/Jim as the players at some con. This could only end in hilarity and shame for everyone. Mostly shame. Except for super, he has none.

Tomorrow I will join Tonfa, Tallychu and the Lagcreature down in Santa Clara for extended con shenanigans. I expect to make it out alive, but the meat dimension may have other plans.

[superaielman]

http://www.geekswhodrink.com/assets/image/IMG_20140710_220628868.jpg Photo of the trivia champions. *Cues FF victory music*

[Tide]

I later fell asleep on the floor as I listened to people talk about Sorrow something, a MtG card that is apparently dogshit and takes your life. Tide loves it, of course.

The card is "Sorrow's Path". It exists to basically mess around with blocking mechanics that effectively results in doing nothing or being useful in only the most niche of situations. Oh, and everytime you do it, you pay 2 life. Because it wasn't bad enough already. And yes, I do love it. If I played Magic competitively, I would be one of those dudes actively thinking of ways to incorporate this into my deck just so I can say to people,"I play with Sorrow's Path competitively. YOLO".

[Shale]

Pictures!

[DjinnAndTonic]

Why did No one Mention the Fennekin Hat?! That is AWESOME!

[Meeplelard]

Why did No one Mention the Fennekin Hat?! That is AWESOME!

Because the AMERICAN!!!! Hannukiah sort of one ups everything else in that regard.

[DjinnAndTonic]

The what?