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The weekend got a strange start. One of the residence halls (that's what dorms are called nowadays) has always had trouble with a wonky cable-TV system that runs over the same fiber optics as our computer network. Last week it bit the dust, and people were in panic mode to get it fixed. Apparently the police was getting water cannons and riot gear ready to deal with the students that would have to spend a weekend without TV. We spent pretty much all of Thursday in a desperate bid to get it going again, and returned to the same task on Friday with a distinct sense of dread. Anyhow, many interesting technical details dealing with feedback sensitivity of Fabry-Perot lasers and fiber geometry, we figured out the issues and got the system running properly. This set off a spontaneous party in the dor... er, residence hall we were in, with students running out of their rooms and gathering around and cheering and stuff. Not exactly a bad reaction after all the extra hourse I had to stay at work. (And ditto for the contractor who had contorted himself and his fusion splicer into really ridiculously precarious places in some rooms by that time.)
Necronomicon struck me initially as a lot less inspiring than it had in the past years. Regardless, once I actually spent a little time there with my camera, things picked up and I got into the groove of things again. Alas, I got to spend precious little time there on Saturday, as I went to attend Kay's wedding at Madeira Beach. The wedding took place on the beach, at sunset, and was truly one of the most beautiful weddings I have attended. The weather was perfection itself, and I have always loved the sea, so spending time watching the sun set and frolicking among the tiki-torches was truly quite enjoyable.
The rest of Saturday night I spent returning to attend Staggering Dragon for a while. It was a fair bit of fun, and the world is smaller than expected; I got to meet much of the Life of Riley cast (by ClanBob), which I feel rather flattered about. On the downside, I did confirm that I can still be cowardly enough to be an ass.
Sunday morning I attended Micah's Girl Gamer panel, for which neither the host, nor the room organizers or other panelists bothered to appear. Some of the topics were interesting, on what makes a game interesting for girls, and how their style of gaming and expectations differ from those of guys. All admittedly in generalizations, and there were almost no girl gamers present, but it was still worth the trip, I feel. I did run into Greywolf twice, but the first time I was busy, alas, and the second time, he was running a game, so I didn't actually get a chance to talk to him.
The rest of the day has gone by while trying to sort through the ~700 or so photos taken since Friday...
Necronomicon struck me initially as a lot less inspiring than it had in the past years. Regardless, once I actually spent a little time there with my camera, things picked up and I got into the groove of things again. Alas, I got to spend precious little time there on Saturday, as I went to attend Kay's wedding at Madeira Beach. The wedding took place on the beach, at sunset, and was truly one of the most beautiful weddings I have attended. The weather was perfection itself, and I have always loved the sea, so spending time watching the sun set and frolicking among the tiki-torches was truly quite enjoyable.
The rest of Saturday night I spent returning to attend Staggering Dragon for a while. It was a fair bit of fun, and the world is smaller than expected; I got to meet much of the Life of Riley cast (by ClanBob), which I feel rather flattered about. On the downside, I did confirm that I can still be cowardly enough to be an ass.
Sunday morning I attended Micah's Girl Gamer panel, for which neither the host, nor the room organizers or other panelists bothered to appear. Some of the topics were interesting, on what makes a game interesting for girls, and how their style of gaming and expectations differ from those of guys. All admittedly in generalizations, and there were almost no girl gamers present, but it was still worth the trip, I feel. I did run into Greywolf twice, but the first time I was busy, alas, and the second time, he was running a game, so I didn't actually get a chance to talk to him.
The rest of the day has gone by while trying to sort through the ~700 or so photos taken since Friday...
