I'm only at -5, not quite dead yet

Well I made it back from Gencon alive and .....well ..not quite well.  The convention was a lot of fun but unfortunately I caught a horrible cold or flu while there on the first day I woke up.  If not for NyQuil and DayQuil there's no way I would have gotten any gaming done.  As it was I felt like an obnoxious jerk for actually gaming while so sick, spreading my germs, but it WAS Gencon and I'd already payed my money.  This year I went board game crazy more than anything else.  Got a crap load of various board games, as well as the Pathfinder Core rulebook, WH40K Rogue Trader, and a starter army box of the Sov Red Blok for AT-43 (which is VERY competitively priced now).  I'll get the video of the opening ceremonies posted up as a follow up soon.

Roll the dice

It's almost time for Gencon.  I'm damn nervous and excited.  I look forward to this convention every year but sadly this will be the first year I'm going without my friends.  It sucks that they can't make it this year, and it just won't be the same without them.  Since I won't be hanging out with friends at all I went super ambitious and lined up an insane non-stop gaming schedule.  Ok, so I left some breaks in there for food and the exhibition hall ....but not much.  Anyway, tomorrow I must do laundry pack all my bags etc.

Update on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 10:33AM by Thaddeus

All set and ready to go.  Soon it will be GenCon time, I can't wait.  I'll game more in 4 days than I have in the last half year.  I will miss my friends dearly though, just won't be quite the same without them.

Otakon Blues

Sadly another Con has come to a close and it makes me sad already.  I love this con every year and so look forward to it (even with all the jackasses).  This morning's "Fist of the North Star" showing was ruined by all the jack asses constantly thinking they were funny for yelling "witty" things at the screen.  I say "witty" because quite frankly there were just fucktards trying to get a laugh and I would love a con without these jerks.  Regardless of these annoyances though, the Anime World Order folks did some cool panels and "The Old Timers of Anime" were entertaining as well as Frederick Schodt's panel.  I checked out a number of different anime while at the con such as: Kaze No Stigma, Murder Princess, Sgt. Frog, D Gray-man, Giant Robo (awesome classic :), Hajime No Ippo (also fanstastic) and Shigurui: Death Frenzy (weird ...very weird ... see last post).  I attended the AMV overflow this year and it was fun as usual (next year I'll make sure my ballot counts).  I'll be happy to sleep in my own bed tonight.  I think I'll start an anime section on the site after this con .... right after I get all my photos edited and posted in the convention photos section!

Update on Monday, July 20, 2009 at 10:35PM by Thaddeus

I will not be staying at the Radisson again.  They overbooked badly and then pushed people who had reserved doubles, into singles with roll away beds.  I was told that the decision came from management and that they were very sorry and that was all they could do.  I suspect the hotel knowingly overbooked figuring that people would take what they could get, given that all the other rooms in the area were also booked up with the convention.  Also the room itself was the size of a sardine can.  Strangely it had a sleep number bed, as if somehow this would make up for the other inadequacies.

One day down

On my second day of Otakon and so far it's a good con. The Vamps concert was awesome and Mell's concert was INCREDIBLE! I found some nice bargains in the dealer room on items I've been trying to get a hold of. The Otakon folks decided to guarantee every person who was in line by 11 Thursday night a badge. It was pretty cool of them since originally it was only those who'd made it inside the doors by 11. I Caught one of Daryl Surat's panels yesterday (one of the Anime World Order podcast hosts), and it was educational as well as entertaining. Also went to the Madhouse panel. Apparently there is a Trigun movie that's been made and will come out early next year I believe. Madhouse creates some very cool anime! "Shiguri: Death Frenzy" is one hell of a bizarre samurai anime. Here's some footage of usual crazy registration line

Back at work

TechEd 2009 was great, but I was a little disappointed that the Thursday night event was sort of lame compared to past events.  Anders Hjelsberg, Scott Hanselman, Jason Olson and Mark Russinovich were all great presenters and I really regret missing Mark's big session on the last day.  I'm looking forward to using Visual Studio 2010 and it's new tools.  I'm curious to see how the MEF addon system will work when we have multiple addon developers that clash in some areas of functionality.  The big take away this year for me has been that I need to adopt more agile code principles and unit testing.  Just not sure how to implement unit testing in Navision's rather closed up and proprietary system.