Time well spent.

With me on twitter, I have not been updating this blog that much.

Here are some things that has happened in the last few months.

Emerald City ComicCon 2011
Here are some pictures from the convention and some videos of the panels I went to.
I meet up with Kirsten (@pkmn_trainer) and got to hang out with her.
I helped out Echo Chernik with her set up of her Artist Alley table.

SakuraCon 2011
Here are some pictures from the convention and some videos of the panels I went to.
Carpooled with my friend Rich who had a table in the Artest Alley area.

Epic Game Day 2
Here are some pictures from the Epic Game Day.

The last item of note is that all pieces are in place for San Diego Comic-Con International for me and my nephew. Convention tickets purchased. Flight booked. Hotel reserved. Now all I need to do is wait.

Last year in review.

This list is what I did in 2010.

The conventions I got to go to a few convention last year:

The local ones I went to:

• Emerald City ComiCon


• Sakura-Con


• PaizoCon
• Dragonflight


• PAX

The out of town convention I went to with some friends:

• Comic-Con International


• Gen Con Indy

Check out the pictures I took during the different convention.

I got to attend two w00tstocks this last year. w00tstock 2.0 in Seattle and w00tstock 2.4 in San Diego. Both were great fun and I even got a w00tstock 2.4 poster with in me in it by Len Peralta. (pix/video: 2.0, 2.4)

Check out the list of book I have read in the year of 2010. There were 35 books read and a good number of comic books and graphic novels read in between the books during 2010. With the last three years, I am averaging over 30 book read. Which is great for me. In my youth, I mainly stuck to comics book and only read a few books here and there.

I got to be in a video that was done at PAX called Paul and Storm Get Thirsty. I was on screen for a whole 44 seconds [0:28-1:12]. Back in January of 2010 I became a Paul and Storm minion.

This last year I completed some of my music collection and found some new ones.
Completed my collection of Kirby Krackle, MC Frontalot, Jonathan Coulton and Paul & Storm.
Found some new artist of Molly Lewis and Lady Gaga.

With comics, I used to get them a friend. His situation changed and I now get them from a local Comic and Game store.

A final note:
Check out my pictures on Flickr.
Check out me on twitter.

My summer of conventions.

Here is what I did during the summer.

San Diego Comic-Con
Had fun. I did not get to all the panel I had wanted to, but I did get a few autographs I wanted. One being was the full cast autograph of the Mythbusters and one I did not plan on was with two of the Farscape cast signed a Farscape comic book cover.
Got the chance to walk the floor of the convention more than the past and found some good swag and other items I did not know I wanted till I found them as seen here.


Here are the videos I shot at SDCC.


Here are a few panel I went to that were found online:
Mythbusters Panel Podcast from San Diego Comic-Con from the Nerdist Podcast.
Comic Con 2010: Joss Whedon Experience Panel (When Nathen Fillion shows up)
Comic Con 2010: Bones (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5)

A panel I wanted to goto, but could not get in to or end up skipping:
Comic Con 2010: Big Bang Theory (Intro song by BNL) (Part 3) from CBS, good camera placement, got the whole stage.
Comic-Con 2010: Castle Panel (Reads form Heat Wave) (Pranks on set) (Embarassing moments on set) (Ryan and Esposito's relationship)


GenCon

Here are the videos I took while at GenCon.

Some videos that I show up in that were filmed by the people at Fear the Boot.

Fear the Boot: Gen Con 2010 Booter Dinner (Buca di Beppo) - Video #1

Fear the Boot: Gen Con 2010 Booter Dinner (Buca di Beppo)- Video #2

Fear the Boot: Gen Con 2010 Wing Night

Dan Runs Star Trek

Here is a search on YouTube for the Wil Wheaton Panel at GenCon.

D&D Preview Show from Gen Con from Dungeons & Dragons Podcast.
Dark Sun Seminar from Gen Con from Dungeons & Dragons Podcast.

Dragonflight
Played in some RPG game with some convention friends and played some new boardgames. Fun times.

See pictures here.


PAX

I got to be in a YouTube video that was shot at PAX with Paul and Storm, Molly Lewis, Wil Wheaton, Kim Evey, Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot and the 68 volunteers and PAX enforcers who showed up on a tweet.

I'm the one who took the bottle of water from Storm [0:28 - 1:12].

Click to watch.




Here was the basic idea (in video form):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGsqbpm7YZU

Behind the scenes pictures of the video being shot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/heathbar/sets/72157624750465359

Also check out the D&D podcast with the members of Acquisitions Incorporated that was done was at a panel durring PAX.

Update to the PAX video.

The video is out as you can tell from the post. I'm the one who took the bottle of water from Storm [0:28 - 1:12]. Click to watch.



Also added a few more pictures to "PAX Video Project":

My Friday at PAX.

It started at lunch, I checked twitter and fround a re-tweet of the following:

PaulandStorm Want to take part in a cool video project that
will take ~60 minutes of your time? Meet us at #PAX Bandland at 6 pm.

I got to the Bandland area before the time and ran across Storm (of Paul and Storm) and asked him what the video project was. I got a basic run down of what they whated to do. I said that sounded good and I will be there. He said that he would make me leader of some sort (with me be in the know of the project). We gathered at the place and others showed up.

Paul gave a speach (see the YouTube video for the speach):



At the count, there were over 60 people showed up to help.

I ended up being singled out to start the project. People were set up along the 2 and a half blocks from Paul and Storm's hotel. Me and two others were taken to the hotel. One was left just outside the hotel, one was left just outside the elevators on the first floor and there was me. I got to go to the hotel room and hang out for a little while it was worked out how this was start. It ended up starting with Storm handing the water bottle outside the room door, where I took it to the elevator where I rode it down to the lobby and handed it off to the person waiting down there. I was a little nervous, but I think it turn out fine.

Greg Benson from Mediocre Films shot the video on his Flip Video Camcorders in mostly on shot with a few pick up shots. From what I heard the video come out to be about 9 to 10 min long. After editing it my end up being shorter.

After my shot was over, I followed the action snapping some picture along the way, missing out on the final shots due to having to wait for the next elevator. I saw a little of what was filmed and it looked great. I can not wait to see it, for the the full final video and to see how my part came out.




This was one of the things that made the day great. I ended up meeting a friend from con past. We walked around for awhile and had some lunch. And after video project was over, I got to hang with a w00tstock friend I ran into along with Molly Lewis for a while along.

It was a great day with some great item purchased and great swag.

The time of ScoobyThulhu.

ScoobyThulhu is a game of Scooby-Doo with some Cthulhu in it.

The game was played 10 Fear The Booters on Thursday night at 9pm (That would be Aug 5th at GenCon). I am not sure of the game system, it is a quick to build characters.

The game was great. Laughter was all about and we had a full cast with 5 guest star characters. I was able to snag a few of the characters after the game (see below).

Cast:

• Freddie
• Daphne
  Gimmick: "But I'm so pretty.", +High Charisma, +Accidentally points out the hidden lever, -Dumb as a box of rocks, -Oblivious, Fatal Flaw: Damsel in distress
• Velma
• Shaggy
• Scooby-Doo

The special guest stars:

• Batman (I played him, I could have a little better.)
  Gimmick: Utility Belt, +World Greatest Detective, +Fighting with sounds effects, -Can't stay out of trouble, -Target for Villains, Fatal Flaw: Over engineered traps
• Don Rickles
  Gimmick: Hilarious, +Knows everybody famous, +Devil's advocate, -Winded on stairs, -Knows everyone famous, Fatal Flaw: Unable to be killed; Diplomatic
• Speed Buggy
• Davy Jones
• Vincent Price

See here for some info on other guest stars: http://scoobydoo.wikia.com/wiki/The_New_Scooby-Doo_Movies

Pictures taken durring the game:



More to tell or was in the game please comment on the is post.

The times of Then, Here and There.

Its a busy year for conventions. Looking at 7 major/large conventions this year. The largest number for for me (so far).

Emerald City ComiCon
- I only went one day this year and with some great panels, I did not get all the time I would have like to look around. I will be doing the full three days next year.

Sakura-Con
- Three days of fun. I even got my tickets for next year.

PaizoCon
- Great SWAG bag. I did not get in on any of the games. Did sit in on a few of the seminars. Saturday was Free RPG Day and had a good game of D&D with a preview of the new Dark Sun setting. I will try it again next year and register early to get into a game or two.

Comic-Con International
- This is 3 days away with w00tstock the night of the first full day of the convention. The schedule has been reviewed and some plans have been put together (in my head) that I hope come to pass. Now I just need to finish packing.

Gen Con Indy
- This will be my first GenCon. Going with two friends for a first time all around. I have done my research on what to expect, but time will tell on how much fun will be had.

Dragonflight
- A local RPG convention with people I have played with in the past. The games they have listed look great, with the full weekend of playing games.

PAX
- I have my full weekend ticket already purchased (this year), with the passes now sold out. Looking forward to the geek bands and such for the conventions. With some good swag from what I picked up from PAX past.

This is one last trip planed this year. It would be to see my brother and his family over on the east coast some time mid-September around my birthday.

It has and will be a busy time. Fun times.

The time of the weekend.

The weekend started after work on Fridays. Headed out for a meet up for some food. After the consumption of food, we went to the place of gaming. One of our group was not there and after arriving at the place one of the other player were not feeling to well and was not up to gaming, but was OK for boardgames. A boardgame night was not planned and we did not have a large choice, luckily there was a copy of Ticket To Ride available. Fun was had and I came in 2nd with 132 points with a good end game scoring, but lost out to Norm, who scored 153 with some good passenger scoring.

Saturday was here and I headed over to PaizoCon. Picked up the swag bag that you get with the convention. Score. The bag had 3 books, 2 modules, a magazine, a minature, a game map and a game aid. With not being able to getting preregistered for any of the games, I checked out a few of the seminar. With a break from PaizoCon, I headed over to Dragon's Lair (in Bellevue) for Free RPG Day. I had wanted to pick a free game they had available and ended up signing up for a D&D 4th ed game of the module they had free for Free RPG Day, Bloodsand Arena (a Dark Sun game). Fun was had and after the game (with a roll off of 17) I was given Tomb of Horrors (the D&D 4th ed update of the original module). I was informed by the Wizard GM that ran our game, that the module is not being sold and is only given away as a prize by Wizards. Score.

Sunday. I sat in on a few more seminar and called it a day.

That was my weekend.

My new minicards.

Ordered a set of 100 minicards with my contact info to hand out to people that I meet up with at conventions and such.

For the info side there is a drawing of myself on the left side, my name, email and other links on the right.

• 2x Location shots (New York and Seattle shot I took)
• 2x Paintball shots (ones that I really liked, that took a while ago)
• 2x Costume shots (single person shot with a great costume)
• 2x RPG related shots (two that fit nicely in the frame)
• 2x Gaming related shot (with the click shot it had the grouping and layers; with the Apples to Apples, it was a my winning hand that I snaped a shot of)

Found 10 pictures that would fit in the 1.1 in x 2.76in frame.

MiniCards by MOO USA
us.moo.com/en/products/minicards.php

My time at Sakura-Con 2010

Day 0 (Thursday)
After work, me and Rich headed over to the Washington State Convention Center to pick up our badges for the convention that started the following day. After dealing with some trafic and a quick line, the badge was in my hand. Next was for Rich to set up his art in the art show. With that set up, we got a bite to eat at the Subway outside the convention. Home we went to rest up for the next day.

Day 1 (Friday)
With the dear's room not opening till noon, we had a lazy morning. We made good time and got there before the dealer room opened. Rich was not able to get a Artest Alley table, but was able to split a table in the dealer's room. With a borrowed exhibitor badge I was able to get in before the others and help Rich with a quick set up at his table. With the doors open I was free to look around. After once around the dealer's room, I headed off to a pannel and then watch some anime where I rested my tired feet. I had brought my Pokewalker to keep track of the steps durring the convention, I had noticed a good number of people had the same idea. With moving the Pokewalker from my belt to the lanyard I was using with my badge. With that move I had a good number of people come up and do the friend connect.

Day 2 (Saturday)
With this being main day of the convention, we headed off earlier from the day before. The dealer's room was already open when we got there. I did my walk thru for another look around to find some thing that I may or may not know I am looking for. One item that was found was at the Ninja-Bot booth was a free Level 5 Mudkip with some great Battle Moves. I also got a chance to look around the Artest Alley and picked up some Iron Man and anime postcard art.

Day 3 (Sunday)
The final day with a lot of walking around the dealer's room and around the convention center for the final rounds of looking and snapping some pix of the people in costume. I also paid for next years Sakura-Con for a low cost of $30. When the 6pm time frame came, the convention end and closed. With the exhibitor badge I was able to stick around for a while. We got some food and did a final walk thru of the empty dealer's room (which was not the dealer room any more). It made me a little sad that the convention was over for the year. :-(

With the Pokewalker I kept records of the stats:
Day 0: 02291 steps
Day 1: 08659 steps, ~13 friend connects
Day 2: 09572 steps, 30 friend connects
Day 3: 11930 steps, ~29 friend connects

For totals, if you keep in mind that 2000 steps = 1 mile, I walked over 16 miles with over 70 friend connection during Sakura-Con.

Check out all the pictures I took during the conventure.

My day at Emerald City ComiCon

The day started with waiting for my car pool pick up. We got there a little before 10am. I had preordered and just walked up to the badge pickup window and got my badge. I spotted the DC booth was near the door with that was starting to get a little long. I got in the line for the freebies. While I was waiting for the line to move I spotted Shannon and Matt from the Seattle Geekly Podcast. After my grab of comics and such, I started to head over to the media guests area when I spotted the Kirby Krackle booth where I picked up heir new album, E for Everyone. I continued on my way to nice sized line for Wil Wheaton, where I waited for a while till it was my turn. He commented on the shirt I was wearing, the How We Roll shirt, which was a highlight of the day. I picked up the Memories of the Future book, which he signed along with a picture I took of him last year. I also got another picture of him with the picture he sign. I had a idea that will take some time to complete. Like this shirt Wil had on Sunday, when Wil is in Seattle again (ether PAX 2010 or Emerald City ComiCon 2011), I will get another picture of Wil holding this year's picture to have a picture of a picture of a picture in it. That the plan anyways. After meeting Wil there was still some time before his panel started, I decided to play it safe and find a good seat for the Wil Wheaton Awesome Hour. The panel was great, I had heard the story before, but it great to hear it live by the person who wrote it. With me staying in my seat, the next panel to begin was Spotlight on Leonard Nimoy. I have not been to a panel with him and it was a great one to start with. I found out a few things about him I did not know of before. With me in the same seat, the next panel to begin was Spotlight on Stan Lee. It was great to hear him again. After these panels I had about three hours to look around the convention floor. I one stop I needed to make was to pick up the 3rd Season of The Guild signed by Sandeep Parikh, Jeff Lewis and Robin Thorsen. I continued to look around, found some item I wanted to but, but held off till I get a good look around. I found for something I was not actively looking for, D&D Miniatures. I sent the last of the cash I brought with me on 22 figures. The price was good, but had a weird way of determining the cost of the figure. It was higher if the figure could be used a playable character. The convention closed their doors at 6pm, but there one last thing to do. Down on the first floor we has a Seattle Geekly Meetup which total of 22 people showing up along with Larry Nemecek and the hosts, Shannon and Matt. Had a great time and won a Star Trek: U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (Battle Damaged with DIECAST metal with Display stand) by answering what alien had yellow blood. A few wrong answers were given, and gave the only other alien I could come up with. A ferengi. After this I got some food with some friends and then headed home.

This year I only went one day and I did not have the time to hit all the booth I would have like to. Next year they changed from a two day, to a three day convention and I will be doing the full three day. I only had the cash on me to spend. Next year I will bring more money to spend.

It was a great convention with some great panels. This was a great start to the convention season.

See all the pictures I took here at Flickr.

My Swag and Loot from Emerald City Comicon
(Click on the pictures for the labled items.)

Three is the number.

Last week prereg opened up for Gen Con. I have my badge ordered, along with two friends. A room was booked a few weeks back and has been used to judge with what can be found thru the Gen Con Hotel booking links. So far that what we booked before is the best. Two queen beds, a fold out couch, a mini fridge, free WiFi and a free continental breakfast. For the location, it is about a mile or two away.

At this time we have 3 people confirmed and a maybe from a moved away friend that I have left a message on Facebook about this trip. At this time there are 184 days left to Gen Con, the first I have been to. From different podcasts, I have heard many stories and interviews of the good times that have been had and I look forward to that time. Its is going to be a busy time. About a week before there is Comic-Con, which I am going to with a friend from work and a friend of his, like we have for the past few years. The week after Gen Con is Dragonflight, a local RPG convention for the Seattle area.

Plans are being made to make the good times roll in. The time ahead look good. See you there.

The first post of the new year.

Looking over what I posted last year as compared to the year before, the number have gone down a lot. In 2008 I made 102 posts and in 2009 I made 28 posts. If I had to point a finger of blame, I would point to Twitter for that. Its micro bloging made easy. At this point I have 1,444 post or tweets as they like to be called.

Another look back to the books I have read, in 2009 I read 37 books as compared to the 32 books I read in 2008. I had set a goal to read more than the year before (not counting comic book) and have meet the goal for the last two years. Check out my profile over at Goodreads, a great site for those people who are reader of books and such. Sign up if you dare.

There are plans to attend to two big Cons this year. The first would be San Diego Comic-Con for the full time with a few friends from work. This will be my 4th year going. The second one would be Gen Con (two week after Comic-Con). This years' Gen Con would be my first time going. With the Pod Casts, Twitting and blog post from the last year I had wanted to go at least once (maybe more) for some time. Luckly my friend Norm had the same idea and wants to go too. A hotel room has been books for the time frame. The number of people the are positive at this time only number two, I am hoping more. In our game group there are at least 2 maybe at this time and also another maybe from a old gaming buddy (that had move away a while back).

And last but not the last, I have found or been point to some great geekie music (as seen in the below links):

Kirby Krackle
MC Frontalot
Jonathan Coulton
Lemon Deamon
Garfunkle & Oates

The August Post

With posting on twitter, I have not posted as I once posted. For the blog I going to recap the basics of last month.

With Dragonflight, I had some great fun. Played a hand full of RPG games, some with Norm and others that played with at past conventions.
Got some nice freebies, picked up a few good deals on some RPG books and filled out on some D&D minis.

Check out the pictures I took at Dragonflight here.



With Comic-Con 2009 over for this year, I am still working on going thur the all the pictures I took. I have uploaded all the pictures from the main floor, the stars that had a booth or were in the autograph area and one of panels I went to. I still have a good number panels shots to review and upload. I should have those up soon.
Check out the Comic-Con Set link here for what I have uploaded so far and check back later for the other picture once I upload them.



Also this month we got some more play time in our newly started Hero System game. We now have 5 games under our belt.

Check out my character blog: http://gamesandgadgets.org/theblogs/kross/

The last note was that my brother has move out of the New York area to live in a house in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. The move is complete and they get to play whats in the box.

My time at Comic-Con.

From the blog post on Ninja Robot Dinosaur, I would like to answer some items from my time at Comic-Con.

Top 5 Things to Remember at Comic-Con:

"Buy water and food at a grocery store, not on the floor (it’s expensive and sucks)"

I mostly planed ahead for the time at the convention. Knowing that in most cases that I would be in a panel during lunch. I packed some energy bars and a few snacks for those time. For water, I also brought the On The Go packets and a resealable 16.5 oz container that I filled in the morning or a free water source during the convention. I did check the prices and they were high. I only got one food item at the convention.

"Line-ups and crowds are a fact of life at Comic-Con. Going to comic-con and complaining about line-ups is like going on a cruise and complaining about water."

From what I recall, there were only three time I just walked into a panel. Two of those time the panel was a off main stream topic and the third was half way thru the panel that was mostly full. The other times there was a line. The kind of line that was long, that stopped/started and took some time to go thru (the longest I recall was between a 1 to 2 hr wait to get in. Most of of the panels I wanted to see were in the same room, mostly right after another panel I wanted to see. Once in the room I would stay there. The main area of the convention floor (ie Fox, Marvel, DC booths) were crouded and took some pushing to go thru. Same thing with for the swag. There was always a line for the large bag for the Fox booth. Also some of the booths had autographs with some of the stars, you should see the lines for thoes times. Fact of life for Comic-Con, there will be lines. Have fun, talk to the people next to you, people watch, read a book or play your DS.

"99% of pros at Comic-Con are normal people – don’t be afraid to say hi (the remaining 1% are total nutters though – be afraid, very afraid.)"

The few I talk to were normal and I am glad I did not run into the 1%.

"Don’t be distracted by 50% discount bins – Did you spend over $2000 on flights, hotels and food to save a few hundred dollars on graphic novels?"

I did keep a eye out for some good deals or special items. On the last day I did get 50% off a Doctor Who t-shirt and a good deal on 2 graphic novels. I did not buy much, about half dozen items. But I did come back some good swag.

Comic-Con is Over.

I got back home (Bellevue, WA) last night. Took it easy and watched some TV. I have the next two day off to relax and reflect on Comic-Con. Currently I am going thru my swag and loot I came back with and next I will be going thru the pictures I took.

Now for the numbers.

By my count I took 931 pictures. More than half are shots of the panels. The others are stuff at the con, costume shots and other things.

I made it to 15 panels.

I missed, did not go or could not get in for 9 panels.

For 2 of the panels I get in half way thru or left half way thru the panel.

Time was not wasted, I was ether standing in line for a panel or down on the convention floor walking around picking up swag or looking around.

Will post a few other posts about Comic-Con. I will be working on sorting thru the pictures I took to upload them to flickr.

Check out my twitter post during the convention here.

My time at Sakura-Con

It started out on a Thursday after work. Me and Rich headed over to the Convention Center to pick up the weekend pass and have Rich drop off some of his art for the Art Show. We made good time and found a parking spot. We got our weekend badge with around a 20 min wait in line, which went fast with the book I was reading. Headed over to the Art Show room to find they need some help with the stand ups they use to display the art on. It took about 2 hours to get them standing and ready to be used, after that we headed on home to get some rest for the next day.

We got to the Con around 11:30 am on Friday, before the dealer’s room opened. Rich set himself up at Artist Alley while I waited in a line for the Exhibitors' Hall to open. From last year, things were moved around. The Exhibitors' Hall and the Registration were next together, which gave a lot of foot traffic to the Artist Alley which was right outside the two rooms. I did my look around the Exhibitors' Hall and found the isles well spaced and easy to walk thru and with the traffic the con had it was needed. After my rounds in the Exhibitors' Hall, I went and looked around. I found the Main Stage, the Autograph area and the Video Rooms. From the layout of last year, the Video Rooms were above the Main Room (were the Concerts were), not below. So when the Concerts were playing the wall did not vibrate. The day was mostly walking around the main floor area or outside taking pictures of the people in costumes and when I needed to get off my feet, I headed back to the Artist Alley or headed up to the Video Rooms, if there was anything good playing.

Saturday was planed as a full day for me, with getting to the Con about 9:30am and leaving well past midnight. With some more walking, picture taking, sitting, video watching and eating (not all in that order) the day was enjoyed. With night time here, the Main Stage was full of people jamming to the DJ waiting for Smile.dk to play. At one point glow sticks and such were tossed from the stage and I was lucky to get a rebound off the ceiling into my hands. The place was jumping, you could literally feel the music. For a white boy that can not dance, I think I did good. I just copied the people around which was basically jumping up and down, waiving your hands (like you don't care) or doing a fist pump. My feet started to be a pain and I took off to the Video Rooms for some sit down time. After some time I got a text from Rich that it was time to call it a night.

Sunday was another day. If you wanted to be technical it wad the same day, just with five hours of sleep. We got there a little before the Exhibitors' Hall opened. They had pre-registration open for next year for just $30.00 for the full weekend. I grabbed the paperwork and head for the short line. With one person on the window, it took some time, around 30 min if I recall correctly. With the pre-registration done, I went thru the Exhibitors' Hall one last time to see if I missed anything and then did some more walking, picture taking, sitting, video watching with the day ending around 6pm.

For the anime that was showing in the theaters, I wish I had planed a little better to catch some of the ones that I missed. I did catch Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, some Code Geass, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and some Shin-chan.

One thing I can say about the Exhibitors' Hall is keep a eye on what they have available. I picked up a few figures one day and looked for them the next finding they had sold out. Another item I found was at a good price of $6.00. I went back the next day to pick a few more up to find the cost showing was $70.00. Looked like I got a great deal on the one I did picked up. I should have picked up the full set of 4 at the $6.00 cost the first day. Keep your eyes open.

The item that I got a lot of work out of, was the digital camera I got for Christmas. I tried out a few of the setting to find they worked out great for what I needed them for. A few of the pictures came out bad, but that is what the delete button is for.

This was the first time doing the full weekend at Sakura-Con and I had a great time. Took over 400+ pictures. Went over my spending budget (a little) and got a chibi charature done of my self.

. . . and I am doing this again next year.

(Currently uploading the pictures I took at Sakura-Con up to flickr, you can see the growing pictures here.)

My time at Emerald City Comicon

Emerald City Comicon was last weekend. I did not go the full weekend, just Saturday. I car pooled with Rich, a friend from work, that was in the Artest Alley and got my tickets at the door. From last year it seemed bigger and better. I found some items I had been looking for (four Mighty Muggs) and some item I did not know till I spoted them (two art prints: <1> <2>). I spent the day looking around and taking some pictures.
Wil Wheaton was again at Emerald City Comicon. After I got in the door I headed over media guest area. There was a short line of about 6 to 7 people to see, talk, get and have stuff signed. It was my turn. We shaked hands, told him that I did the composite of his Criminal Minds ep that his posted on his blog. I got that picture signed, a picture of him last year, his first book and got a copy of Sunken Treasure (that he signed, as you can see here). He handed them back and good bye. It was not till a few munites later that I relised that I had not paid him for the Sunken Treasure book. I went back from where I exited the line and handed him the money for the book. From Will I got a "Thanks for being honest." from him as I left.
The convention closed and I left. I had fun and I will come back next year.

See my picture set from the convention here.

Next: My weekend at SakuraCon

Me and ConQuest

This year ConQuest was not as close as it was last year. I did not know where the place was directly, it took a little longer to find the place. I missed the first game I had planed, it filled up and had already started.

I had a chance to look around and found a miniatures game called Golden Age of Hydroplane Racing. Fun game, played a game, came in second in the race and went around again to see what others were playing. One of the players of Hydroplane Racing game was someone I played a game with last year and after some time talking, some others showed up. It was a lunch time and we ended up at Denny's for some food.

We decided to try our hand out at the next game that I had planed to try which was called Savage Traveller and was hosted by Steve Schonberger using the Savage Worlds system. For the game all I can say was, good try. Steve did not know Savage Worlds too well, he used money as a prop when he did not have to, items need for the game was not provided and mapping when need, did not work. We each ended up playing a few characters each and with the plot, there were these robots that could only be killed by one of our many players. The game ended when it was decided that we could not continue, we packed up and left. It was a little fun with the other players, but not too enjoyable.

The next game I planed on was a Call of Cthulhu game. I was the only played to signed up for it. We gave it some time, but no one else showed. The game was reschedule for 9am Sunday. There was another Call of Cthulhu game going on next door. We moved on over and played the game. For a first time game master, Adam knew his stuff and hosted a great game. It was not till the end game that I recalled I had played this long ago, but this came out with a different out come. The night ended with me heading home to get some sleep.

Sunday started out cold with me deicing the car. The drive was not uneventfully. The entry ramp was icy and had already had one car slide into the side bumpers. Take the ramp slow, my car did skid a little and was able to get around the accident and not add to it. On the freeway there were some slow downs also. Some how a car had ended up on its side, bring the road down to one lane. I got the con at a little after 9am to make the Call of Cthulhu game that was original schedule last night, called Mystic Alliances by Kamal Lombardi. Counting me, there were a total of two players. The game was enjoyable. Could have been planed out a little better. The characters sheet were put together on a copy machine, info was spread out and some times missing. Handout were good, but they had game master info on them. Nowadays computers are widely available, he could have done some typesetting and greatly improved the game feel. This was a home brew game and even had a magic components to it, which I did not even use. Basically a good game.
The last game of the day called The League of Extraordinary Cats by Sophie Lagace using a system called Cat, which we play . . . cats. A great game and enjoyable story. I had held onto my character from last year and was able to play him with a few minor adjustment. A nice item that she continued with was little cat miniatures to get a feel for our characters (and we were able to keep them.)
Overall a good convention. There were not a lot of role playing games (excluding D&D) to chose from, but fun was had.

(Picture will be added soon. Just need to upload them to Flickr.)

ConQuest is near

The game convention will be this next weekend and for the RPG part of it, here are some the possable option that I may go to.

http://www.conquestnw.com/

Time Block H: Sat 9:00AM

HR-119 Web of the Spider Cult

by John Reiher, Jr, Savage Worlds, 4.5 hrs, 4 players, Game, Some gaming, Characters/Armies provided

When you find a dead body in your house, especially one which belongs to a notable explorer, you know it’s not going to be an ordinary day. Web of the Spider Cult takes the heroes from the corridors and galleries of the Boston Museum, to the bayou of Louisiana, and onto the dark jungles of Mexico. There, amid the ruins of a centuries old temple, the adventurers face their greatest enemy so far in their extraordinary adventures.

Time Block K: Sat 2:00PM

KR-253 Savage Traveller

by Steve Schonberger, Savage Worlrds, 7 hrs, 6 players, Game, Kids, Characters/Armies provided

This is an adventure in the Traveller setting, but using Savage Worlds rules. More details will become available closer to the event date. Players need not commmit to the whole time slot.

Time Block M: Sat 7:00PM

MR-113 Mystic Alliances

by Kamal Lombardi, CoC 6th edition, variant setting, 4.5 hrs, 6 players, Game, Kids, Characters/Armies provided

Play teenage COC investigators in this variant setting/ruleset for Call of Cthulu which is set several years in the future, during a time in which Mythos threats are once again on the rise in Seattle.

Time Block S: Sun 11:30AM

SR-122 The League of Extraordinary Cats

by Sophie Lagace, Cat, 4.5 hrs, 6 players, Game, Kids, Characters/Armies provided

When the Cheshire Cat, Duchess, Orlando the Marmalade Cat, Ame Tomoe, Lion-O and Schrödinger's cat team up, is there anything they can't do? A simple game, character creation takes 5 minutes, and new or younger players are welcome.