But if only QuakeCon was tooled up and ready to play.

I was planning to go Thursday – Saturday. Thursday was going to be my Carmack keynote and get free stuff day. Friday and Saturday were going to be for LAN.

On Thursday, things started off poorly. I missed Carmack’s videogame keynote, because I was in line to get my stuff checked in. But I was able to catch his rocket keynote. John Carmack and Richard Garriott talking about rockets for 2.5 hours. It was fascinating. This year, the free swag wasn’t overflowing. Compared to ComicCon, QuakeCon was a barren wasteland. There was some cool stuff, but only in very limited quantities. Nvidia were giving away a snuggie that I really wanted, but failed to grab. In the end, I got nothing. Kian got a free hat. I had also previewed the LAN and found out that there was no internet connection. This was going to be a problem. But the staff did say that they were working on it. And after all, it was the first day. On Friday it should be fixed.

On Friday, it wasn’t fixed. But luckily, I had made sure offline mode in Steam was working before I left the house. I have all my games on Steam. Steam is wonderful. But if you can’t login or get into offline mode, you can’t play anything. But during the course of events, I messed up my offline mode in Windows. So I had to switch over to MacOS Steam. Where really the only games I can play are Altitude and Civ IV. TF2, DOD, CS are all too slow on MacOS. And did I mention that the BYOC was packed? I had trouble finding a seat. In fact, I had inadvertently stolen a guy’s spot. But, he didn’t mark it, so it was his own fault. I offered to give it back, but he was nice enough to acknowledge that I got his spot fairly. My first BYOC was not going well.

On Saturday, I didn’t bother going. The network problems and the crowding were the big issues. Long and Surren were planning to go as well. And if we couldn’t sit together, it would be kind of pointless. So instead, Long came over, and we played Starcraft 2. Long will tell you he’s no good. But that’s the Long Con.

So what did I learn from this QuakeCon?

1. Not having a LAN mode in your game is frustrating. Depending on an internet connection to authenticate is a nice way to deter piracy, but it really sucks when you’re in a LAN and have no internet access.
2. Those 4G Hotspots are pretty awesome. They were the only way you could get a reliable internet connection.
3. Picking up chicks on IRC is easy

Take a look at Blur, the videogame

compare that to Blur, the band

Obviously, Blur the band wins. They were first and they are better.

Meteos: Disney Magic takes Meteos and rotates it 90 degrees and also introduces the ability to move horizontally as well as vertically. Those 2 small things make Meteos fresh again.

You can watch your Web Courses, which are Real Video streams, on your TV using XBox Media Center. You are untethered from your computer. Think of it as a really boring episode of 24.

It’s the future of E-Learning really.

But the good news is that I did pay off my mortage yesterday. It felt nice. But unfortunately that feeling wouldn’t last, I ordered an extension on my house. So I’m back in debt, 120,000 bells.

Hey, that’s me! Except I just sorta parked outside of McDonald’s and couldn’t get a good wireless signal. Didn’t bother going in, cause you know I wasn’t hungry.

Which is just weird. I mean credit cards and expensive electronics go hand in hand.

My friend code is, 369426 645531 feel free to add me.

On Saturday, I was over at Larry’s, Long’s cousin, birthday party. See Larry is friends with one of my cousins, Drona, so I was there to even things up. We were playing various games on the Xbox. Eventually we got to Kung-Fu Chaos. Like most games, they trick you into playing it by locking certain features. That way if you want to play multiplayer properly, you should beat the game 10x over. Long’s sister was talking about this wonderful ice stage in the game, but unfortunately it was locked. So just now, I went and got a game save with everything unlocked and tried the ice stage. And guess what was on the soundtrack, Wish I Was Skinny by The Boo Radleys. See, I brought it back.

The Boo Radleys – Wish I Was Skinny

It was such a strange place to hear that song. I don’t think The Boo Radleys were commercially successful in the US. And the game has songs like “Kung Fu Fighting”, it’s not filled with britpop gems from the 90s. Just seems out of place. I guess one of the developers must’ve loved The Boo Radleys.

I received a Nintendo DS for my brithday from Jenny & Long. I wasn’t really expecting it. But looking back, all those conversations with Long about what I thought about the DS were a big clue. The color is officially “Electric Blue”, which in my book is the best shade of blue ever. It changes from blue to purple, depending on the light source. Under fluorescent lights, it’s purple. In sunlight, it’s blue.

So what do I think of it? One word, “Surprising”. Like, “Wow! This is really quite fun. Who knew taking Tetris Clone #64 and letting you use a stylus would keep you up at night?” It really is a charmer. It’s really well designed also. I have the original Gameboy Advance, and using that for extended periods would make your hand hurt. The DS is of a similar size and more rectangular, but it’s comfortable. Making use of the extra plastic, it has a wonderful set of speakers. And I love how it has two slots for cartridges, one for DS games and one for GBA games. The wrist strap even has a little piece of plastic that you can use as a stylus. They were really thinking when they made the DS. Plus I love the logo.

I rented two games, Meteos and Advance Wars: Dual Strike. Out of the two, I enjoy Meteos the most. It’s a puzzle game, like Puyo Pop or Dr. Mario, except it’s up to you to save the universe. Advance Wars is just like the previous Advance Wars, except the presentation is amazing. I’m still at the beginning in Advance Wars, and the characters just keep talking. I just want to go blow stuff up.

And you want to know the best part of the DS? The sleep mode. You’re playing a game, and you don’t want to play anymore, just close the lid. It’ll sleep. You don’t have to power it off or anything. And when you want to resume, just open the lid and you’re back where you were. No menus or anything. Also, I think it’s powered by a tiny imp. The battery life is incredible. I got it on Thursday, and after the initial charge, the battery status is still green.