Dragon*Con 2010

So, I finally made it back to Dragon*Con this year!  This is a good thing, as I really needed a vacation.  Andy and MSG had a room for me, which I shared with my old friend Marie and one of Andy and MSG’s friends named Alan.  I’ve met Alan before and all was cool, so I knew the room situation would be to my liking.  We were on the second floor of the International tower of the Hyatt, and that was an incredible room.  As usual, I brought way more stuff than we needed, on the off chance that it would prove useful.  As it turns out, we ate about 2/3 of the food I brought, used some portion of all of the supplies I brought (even pulls some meds out of my first aid kit), and we never found ourselves *needing* something for our visit.  Even if I caught some flack for over packing, I think the benefits of that outweighed the ribbing.

The trip there was kind of a bitch… my phone was being a real pain the whole way, and that had my GPS and navigation info on it, so finding the hotel was kind of a pain in the ass.  Parking was $75 for the weekend, and I had to park a block and a half away from the hotel, which made getting my gear too and from the room difficult.  Then there was the 4 hour wait in the muggy Atlanta evening before I got my con badge.  After that wait, in which a very nice fellow con-goer took pity on me and bought me a bottle of water to stave off heat exhaustion, I made it back to the hotel where Marie and Alan helped me unload the car.  We called it a night and got ready for the con to start bright and early on Friday!

I made it to more panels than I expected too, including one on Eureka and one on Warehouse 13.  MB Weston’s panel on Zombies vs. Unicorns was a hilarious group debate, and Cherie Priest’s reading and discussion about her Clockwork Century books was lots of fun.  I was a bit disappointed to see the DC Universe Online panel canceled, but I got a Beta Key for the game anyway, and have already given it away to my buddy Bobby, who’s dying to play it.  I didn’t make it to the Eureka/Warehouse 13 crossover panel, but between the other 2 panels and what I saw on DCTV, I got enough of a fix of both shows to be happy.  I really like the actors behind both shows, and it was really nice to see them out of character and talking as real people.  Also, Erica Cera (Jo Lupo, from Eureka) was crazy Hot in person.

The real fun of Dragon Con is rolling around the crowds, admiring the costumes and meeting up with old friends or making new ones.  I new the costume watching was off to a good start when the first group of people I saw was a Deadpool Universe group!

Thos of you who know me, know that I’m a huge Deadpool fan, so this sort of set the stage for me and the crowd over the weekend.  I took about 160 pictures total, and Andy, Marie, and Alan all took as many more themselves.  I need to get their collections…. Alan got a good shot of the entire Ironettes group, with Rhodie and Tony Stark.  I also somehow missed the bad ass War Machine costume rolling around the con.  However, of all the pictures I took at the con, this one is my favorite, showcasing some of the top badguys from the recent Batman Arkam Asylum game:

Predictably, I was blown away by that Harley Quinn costume.  I’ve always been a big fan of Harley, but the new outfit from the Arkam game was too hot for words, and the level of detail this chick went too on that costume really did it justice.  She even had the warden’s name badge on, with the character portrait from the video game.  Two Face and the Joker’s costumes both looked custom made, and the trio put on a fantastic show, just sharing drinks on the patio out behind the Hyatt.

While I was there, I managed to catch the Voltaire concert and his Q&A panel, both of which were a blast.  One of the big pieces of news at his Q&A panel was that he’s got 2 new CD’s out this year… one was a kid’s album (mostly a compellation), and the other was a Country CD.  The country CD took everyone in the room by surprise, and even got some Boo’s at the Q&A, to which Voltaire responded ‘THANK YOU!  That is exactly the right response, because I hate country music!’  He wrote this in the style of Johnny Cash, and it’s making fun of country music and country music ideals.  I’ve heard a few tracks off the CD, and love it.  I bought a copy of it and had Voltaire autograph it for Melissa, who will get it in the mail as soon as I’m done ripping the tracks ;)  I bought myself the live CD and his CD from last year, which I never got.  After his show, I even got V to pose for a ‘snarky’ picture, just for Melissa.

All in all, I had a blast!  I got to meet some interesting people, I got to hang out with old friends, and I got to really enjoy myself for the weekend.  It was totally worth it, and I'm already looking forward to next year.  For reference, here’s the cost of the vacation:

Food and Supplies bought before the Con:  $200
Room for the Weekend (split 3 ways):  $300  (or $900/3)
Parking for the Weekend:  $75
Money Spent at the Dealers Rooms:  $150
Misc food/gas/snacks/etc:  $75

Total Cost:  $800

Not bad for a 4 day vacation.  I’m going to shoot for the internationally tower in the Hyatt again, that was a stellar room, and if I can get it low again, it’s much easier than waiting on an elevator.  2nd floor was super awesome, even if we could hear the crowds out front of the hotel late at night.  Not a big deal, since we were all so exhausted at the end of the day that we slept through them anyway ;)

Crash

Oh, the conversations I have with my mother…

So, I went home for lunch today, to find my mother (who’s in town visiting this week+), watching some space exploration show on the Science Channel.  The talking head on the TV made a comment about how we could potentially have a man on Mars by the end of President Obama’s second term.  Now… my mother is not a fan of the president.  At all.  She’s convinced that Obama isn’t a citizen, is a Muslim terrorist, and is selling out our country to the Chinese.  I’m not really sure when she became a rabid right wing nut job, but there it is, clear as day.  So, when mom heard that statement about Obama and space travel, her first reaction was ‘NO WE CAN’T!  OBAMA TOOK AWAY ALL THE MONEY FROM THE SPACE PROGRAM!  RAWRRRR!’  Of course, being the more rational of the two, I felt obligated to correct her…

I reminded her that Obama didn’t just call up the heads of NASA and have them all summarily shot in their faces.  Instead, he’s repurposed NASA towards more pressing terrestrial scientific endeavors, and turned over the task of manned space exploration to the private sector.  When asked who she would rather see running the show on space flight:  the Government or the Private sector, mom was forced to concede that we’re better off in the private sector’s hands.  The government bureaucracy is so inflated right now that between budget arguments, congressional committees, and ceaseless politicking, nothing serious would ever get done again.  However, in the past 6 months since the private sector has been let loose on the issues, we’ve already seen our first 100% private run and funded orbital object launch.  (Way to go, Space X!)

That’s the thing about my mother… she loves to argue politics, but she’s so mired in the conspiracy theories, hate and fear mongering, and eternal pessimism of the right wing that she can’t make a single argument that stands up to fact checking or the slightest amount of reason.  I make a habit of shooting down anything like that I hear her say, especially when I’m home for the holidays.  It would be hilarious, if she and my grandmother didn’t get into screaming matches over these very same things when I’m not around…

Anyway, little conversations like this make my day, especially when they result in mom having to admit that something the President did is working out positively.  I wish it was that easy to convince the rest of the folks around here of all that… but at least it’s something ;)

 

Crash

Starcraft 2… full of win!

So, I’m kind of a Starcraft fan-boy… have been for 12 years now.  It’s not that I’m a huge fan of RTS games, because I’m not.  In fact, the only RTS games I’ve ever really played are the Starcraft and Warcraft series.  However, Blizzard is a master at crafting epic and engaging stories to go with their games, and they suck me in every time.  The fact that they keep their RTS game play fun certainly helps though ;)

Anyway, it’s been 12 years since Blizzard released the first Starcraft.  My oldest friends (the ones I made in my ill-fated stint at Sewanee), remember how that game affected me back then.  Many people would lay the blame for burning out my junior year squarely on the feet of Starcraft and the Brood Wars expansion… They would be wrong, mind you, but I can see why they would say that (truth is, I was burned out either way and if I wasn’t obsessively playing Starcraft 2, I would have found some other equally distracting activity that didn’t involve doing my schoolwork).  Either way, I played a LOT of Starcraft back in my college days.  I was never a pro-gamer, counting my APM or any of that crap, but I spent a lot of time in that game.

So, with that kind of history, it’s no wonder that I got all kinds of excited when I heard that Blizzard was finally pushing out the sequel.  Blizzard being what they are, I knew it would rock story wise, and I had every faith that Blizzard would keep the game fun to play as well as engaging.  I didn’t pre-order the collectors edition (because they weren’t taking CE pre-orders anymore when I got to my local GameStop and ordered my copy), but when I went to pick up my copy on launch day, I found my GameStop had an extra CE copy, so I snagged it!  Bonus!

LAUNCH DETECTED!

Launch day was agonizing… I picked up my copy at 10:00am, then had to spend the rest of the the day at work.  The box was sitting in my car, just begging to be played, all day long!  I didn’t get home until around 6:30, and I had only gotten about an hour and a half of sleep the night before.  Still… for those of you who know me, you’ll know that I wasn’t about to let a little thing like sleep deprivation deter me from cracking open my shiny new collectors edition and fire it up!  The installation went perfect and a few minutes later I was watching the trademark Blizzard cut scene intro to the game.  I only intended on playing for an hour or so, because I’m trying to finish a research paper.  Before I could blink, I looked up and saw that I had been playing for 4 hours.  I did that again last night, playing until 3:00am without realizing it.  Nice!

So, the game itself is flat out fantastic.  The game play hasn’t changed much from the formula that made it such a success 12 years ago.  There are new units, new buildings, new tactics, and new tricks to learn, but largely the game plays just like it did back then.  I was happy to find that the hotkeys I remembered from SC1 still worked in SC2, and I was happy to see how naturally I fell back into my SC gaming groove.  The first SC2 game is Terran only in the single player, but there are a handful of bonus missions you get to play as Protoss.  The full Protoss and Zerg campaigns come out as separate expansions, which may be as far as 18 months out between releases!  CRAP!

What’s really got me hooked is the story!  In SC1, and even Warcraft, the story was told mid-mission, through scripted events, and between missions, through the occasional cut scene or scripted event.  All you ever got to see of a character was their unit in the game, and a small portrait image in the UI.  You were either looking at a loading screen, or loaded into a map for the duration of the game.  In SC2, they’ve taken that to a whole new level by borrowing the setup of the Normandy from Mass Effect.  Now, between missions, you retire to your own personal battle cruiser, the Hyperion.  There, you can talk to your crew, look after research projects, check the armory for new permanent unit upgrades, or hire new merc units in the bar.  I find myself spending as much time in the ship between missions as I do in each mission!

I’m only 2 days into the game, and I’ve knocked out the first 10-12 missions so far... those being the easy ones that teach you the basics of play.  I’ve also stumbled across the bonus Protoss missions, which I’m rocking my way through right now.  In terms of levels, I’m about 1/3-1/2 of the way through the game, but in terms of time, it’s more likely 1/4 of the way through, at most.  I’m sure the later levels will get much harder much faster.  As long as the story keeps pace, I don’t mind.  I’ll play the game on easy mode if I have too, just to get to more of those juicy story bits!

So anyway, if you can’t tell by now, I am totally in love with Starcraft 2.  If you’re any kind of blizzard fan boy (guilty!), you should totally pick it up.  Even if RTS’s aren’t your thing, the story is worth the game play, and you can play through on easy (or even cheat!) to get past the missions.  I know I’ll get more enjoyment out of this than the next 3 bluray movies I buy (which cost as much as this game did).  Seriously, I can’t endorse this game enough, just for the single player campaign alone.  Of course, I haven’t touched multiplayer yet, but I’ll get to that in my own sweet time ;)

--Crash

Oh, the silly things we do...

So, I recently came into possession of a rather large merchandise card for Office Depot. This was to replace a chair that broke a month after I bought it. I long since replaced that chair with an even more expensive one (which, oddly enough, didn't cost me anything), so I had no need to use the card to buy another chair. So, what do you think I did with it? That's right... I bought monitors! I now have 2 new Acer V223 Wbd 22" widescreen flat panels on my desk at home. This replaces the 22" widescreen Dell I had previously. Don't get me wrong, the Dell is a better monitor, but when I go dual screen I am very particular about matching my monitors. So, I've moved the Dell off to my other computer (which is currently stuck with dual 15"), and I set up the new monitors on my gaming/dev rig. So far, I really like it. The new monitors aren't quite as crisp as the Dell, even though they are on a DVI connection, but it's not enough to bother me. Also, the bases are much lighter, which means the monitors are very wobbily if I bang into my desk... fortunately the desk is pretty solid and I don't move the monitors, so again, I don't see a problem. If it bugs me, I'll get a couple of arm mounts and be done with it.

Anyway, I think I'm going to to leave both 15" on my other computer and insert the 22" in between, meaning I'll have 3 full monitors on that box. I use that machine for bill pays, music streaming, torrents, and general office type work. I have to install a spare PCI video card I found while packing up my computer room last month before the move, and I need to get a beefier power supply for that computer, but I think I can make it work. When I'm done, I should have the 22" monitor in the center, as my primary monitor, and the matching 15" on either side of it, as peripheral monitors. I think I will like it.

I still don't know what to do with my Poweredge server. It's got a brand new install of Server 2008 on it. I've thought about putting it in my living room as a Media PC connected to my TV, but that seems like a waste. I've also thought about making it a virtual server, to host my various VMs for personal dev project, school work, or the Ride Yellow site. Actually, that might not be a bad idea... if I can punch the right holes in my router, I could let Sharron connect to that machine to work on the ride yellow code directly.... I'll have to think about it. I also wanted to make that box my Domain controller, and get my network on the domain. I should do that *before* I install the Windows 7 RTM on my workstations and laptop though, so I don't have to set up my environments twice.

Either way, I'll probably still set that machine up in the cubby behind the TV. I wonder if I can run media center on server 2008...? Oooooh, there's an option... screw WMC, I can use XBMC on Server 2008, or even Boxy, now that it's got a windows client.
http://xbmc.org/download/
http://www.boxee.tv/
A quick search reveals that Boxee and XBMC will both work on 2008. So, here's my shopping list to finish my home network madness:

1. PSU for Workstation
2. Wireless Draft N card for Server
3. Inexpensive wireless Keyboard/Mouse for Server
4. TV-Out card for Server

I'm pretty sure I'm using onboard video for the server, so I'll have to buy a cheap TV out card. I don't really care about turning it into a DVR machine yet, but that might change. It's only got a 320 gig hd in it right now, and I want to use it as a server too... I'll have to play around with it. I don't want to spend too much money on the project anyway. I'll start with the NIC and PSU tonight and get the basics working, I'll worry about making it a media PC after I get my domain built.

I should probably get back to work now...
Rich