Since I finished with WinHEC early, I went sightseeing and shopping. As a result, I completely missed the anti-DRM flashmob demonstration that happened outside the convention center.

Damn it all… Why did I have to be in such a hurry to find good chowder??

For those interested in seeing some images from WinHEC, check out my Flickr space.

And for video of nerds playing videogames, check out my YouTube space.

I would just like to say… I ruled in DDR. But then, most of them had never played before.

So yeah, the CDT didn’t print me talking about looking for books that examine the sexual mores of American culture, but still, they quoted me.

It seems like nearly any time I’m out and about in State College, I spot because we have similar haunts (90% of the time, it is either in or near Webster’s). While I’m always tempted to introduce myself and say “hey”, there’s just something way too creepy about meeting somebody for the first time by saying, “You don’t know me, but I read your blog.”

That’s the same reason why, upon meeting Bagel at a LAN party, I didn’t follow up with, “As in ‘ofangst’?”

Thanks . Your friends list has provided me with any number of opportunities for uneasy introductions.

Here’s a tip to you, from me.

Do not polish off a jar of Tostito’s Salsa Con Queso at nearly 2AM and then immediately go to sleep. If you do, you might end up at 6AM with your chin resting on the edge of your toilet while you marvel at the consistency and color of acid soaked tortilla chips.

It has been several years since I’ve last vomitted. I had forgotten how unpleasant it could be.

I haven’t flown anywhere since Brandy and I went on our honeymoon in ‘99. Pre-9/11. When getting into the airport was relatively easy.

Now, not only do we have to go through increased security, we also have a disabled child coming along for the ride. I’ve been hanging out at the Transportation Security Administration website to see what their tips were on this process. It’s definitely a pain, but something about this part just made me groan:

Know that if your child is unable to walk or stand, the TSO will conduct a pat-down search of your child while he/she remains in their mobility aid, as well as a visual and physical inspection of the equipment.

Not because it’s difficult, really, but just because I’m very saddened by the fact that my four year old son will have to be patted down to make the world a supposedly safer place. Fortunately, Gareth is relatively used to strangers handling him in odd ways due to all the medical attention he has received. But still, this just feels wrong to me. Sure, it is possible that somebody would strap an explosive to a kid with cerebral palsy in a wheelchair, but it is certainly not probable.

It wasn’t bad enough when I registered a MySpace account (only to get to the Guitar Hero profile, I swear), but now I’ve gone and posted inane material to YouTube. Not even Bob Saget would want this stuff.

Perhaps it is time to take my internet away.

Side note… The original Star Wars theatrical releases are coming to DVD! FUCK YEAH!

I don’t know what’s up this year, but I seem to keep going places. That’s odd for me since I hate leaving my house, but just over a month ago, I had a trip to DC with the family. In two weeks, I’ll be off the Seattle to attend WinHEC. Then, two weeks after that, it’s another family trip to Disney for the last Star Wars Weekend of the season. Then, in October, I’ll be hitting the Video Games Expo in Philly.

Thankfully, I just received my spankin’ new Sony DSC-H2, so I’ll at least be able to amuse myself with some poorly composed photography.

So I went to my first FITHlan in months over the weekend. We had 9 people, which was more than any LAN since I bowed out. Was it a good time? For everybody else, yeah. I had an okay time, but nothing stellar. Even playing a “new” game (SS2) was boring to me. For the most part, I just don’t enjoy the typical LAN environment any more. Mostly, I can’t get into smack talk. I don’t really enjoy dishing it out, and I don’t enjoy receiving it. Being loudly referred to as “retarded” for an errant shot that cost my team a flag capture made me wonder just why I thought it necessary to come back to FITHlan.

Seriously, I just don’t enjoy insulting people while playing games. Everybody else, however, seems to love it. It just ruins the experience for me. Same for Xbox Live – if I’m playing with somebody who is just hurling insults over the mic, I’m done.

Brandy attributes this distaste to “maturity”. I’m not convinced of that considering all of the other immature stuff I do, but I guess it’s possible.

So, what do do? Largely, I’ll just stick with Shackers on Xbox Live. My experiences with them so far have been stellar. They’re really a great group to game with and, to date, I have not heard one person put down another, even in jest.

It also looks like I’m going to be starting up a quarterly LAN party at work. There are about 10 people interested in doing so, which is a good number for something small. We’ll probably have our first MiniLAN in September. We’ll see where that goes. The usual LAN issues apply - not everybody is available on the same day, has the same games, et cetera. One interesting twist is that all of these people have family lives, so they don’t want to spend more than four hours playing. We’ll need to stick to fast games with low learning curves in order to make the afternoon worthwhile.