PAX 2007

Every year, the popular web comic strip Penny Arcade hosts the Penny Arcade Expo, a 3 day convention, celebrating video game culture. This year, with two long time gaming friends turned professionals J and Stephan and their patient wives Chris and Shawna, I attended day two. Now, I'm an avid gamer, but I feel at odds with may facets of the stereotyped game culture. And every stereotype of gamers was on display in full force this weekend. Men in kilts. (Far) Less than model-esque Women dressed as their favorite video game characters. Bad hair cuts painted just about every color. Random rants on the console war between Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft. Legions of teens to twenty-somethings lounging out in hallways entranced by their Nintendo DSs. Rows of tables of Magic the Gathering. And enough body odor qualify the Washington State Convention Center as a weapon of bio terrorism. But ... I had a great time! As much as I cringe in embarrassment at what this crowd must look like to the rest of the world, or what must be thought of me for being one of them (note: NO, I did not wear a kilt), this is my industry. This is what I do for work and for play.

The show floor had booths filled with yet to be released games, presentations on issues in the gaming community, plenty of bean bags for comfortable portable gaming, and a room dedicated to LAN gaming. Everything you need to geek out. Also worth noting, I entered a contest to win my body weight in Ramen noodles (supposedly, a little over 1000 packets. Wish me luck). Probably most exciting for me was a live recording of my favorite podcast, 1up Yours. Afterwards, I met the show's cast. Awesome!

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/MrSharps/PAX2007

5 years old

A running joke of mine is that all of my major life decisions (a career in video games, owning a Porsche, and not eating eggs) were made at the age of 5. This week, I celebrated a different 5th birthday. On August 19th, 2007, I entered corporate America and have been working for the same company ever since. To celebrate, a small celebration was held in my honor, cakes were carved, and I was awarded a crystal to recognize my service. So, does being a 5 year professional mean I have make a new set of career decisisons?

Lunch Break

Ok, there is the occasional perk to the job. Today at lunch, Babyface performed in the office. It was a short (four songs, about 1/2 hour), but wonderful performance. He did 3 songs off his upcoming album, 'Playlist' and his classic 'When Can I See You'. Three things came across about him over the course of the event. First, was his mastery of the guitar. Second, his handlers should be fired. The clean cut nice guy that you can relate to seems completely at odds with the faded designer jeans and trendy blazer they shoved him in to have, 'the look'. And Third, his ballads will never get old.

Where were you when Bonds hit #755?

Everyone who knows me knows I'm a supporter of Barry Bonds. I simply feel that if amateur athletes realized that they could reach the top of their sport with steroids in the 80's (Ben Johnson in '88), then professionals who could go from earning below a living wage in the minors to millions in the majors would do it too. So if a sport chooses not to police itself, it is colluding with the cheating players. Even if you believe Hank Aaron is a better baseball player than Bonds, he most like was not competing for a roster spot with 'roided up teammates to face 'roided up pitchers. Plus, without hard evidence on any of the players, you'd need to put an asterisk next to every player in this 10 year window who makes it into the hall of fame.

But I'm rambling. Where was I when he hit #755? At Safeco Field watching the Mariners play the Red Sox. They flashed the rerun of his hit on the jumbotron to a chorus of boo's and my cheers. The game I attended was great. The Mariners ultimately lost 4-3, but staged a late game rally. Shannon's a big Yankees fan, so having a chance to watch their nemesis go down at the hands of the local club was worth getting good seats. We were just a few rows back of the right field wall, enjoying hot dogs, beer, and chili fries!