Day 1

Justin and I are currently chilling at our hotel after visiting Penny Arcade Expo East.

Some highlights of the event thus far:

1. We failed to get into Wil Wheaton’s PAX keynote.  I was horribly depressed; however after we went and walked around for a bit we came back to the VIP signing area just as people were queuing up.  I got in line for Wil Wheaton, and while waiting Justin held onto my place in line and I went over and bought a CD from Jonathan Coulton and got it signed.  I was then able to run back to the Wil Wheaton line in time.  I’ve bought three of Wil’s books in audio form and as a result didn’t have anything physical for him to sign.  I brought my D&D 4th Edition Players handbook for Wil to sign and he was happy to, writing “Roll 20’s.”  I told Wil that I really enjoyed his writing, that I used to write a lot in high school and college and his writing wanted to make me get back into writing.  He responded in a very positive voice “You should!”
2. Qdoba food is absolutely delicious when you haven’t eaten for six hours.
3. I have to say it was great seeing so many different types/classes of geeks in their element.  I have to really hand it to Gabe and Tycho, they have created the perfect event for geeks of all kinds to mingle and be themselves.  I know that the internet has made it possible for geeks to understand that they aren’t alone in their school/town/workplace/whatever, but it’s another thing entirely to be in the same place as 15,000 geeks.
4. We enjoyed a great panel discussion on the nature of geek parenting, and one of the guys who asked a question was this guy:
5. Enjoyed dinner at Jerry Remy’s restaurant on Boylston St., where I was happy to discover that they serve Dogfish Head on tap and Justin ate a burger the size of his head.

So far it’s been an amazing event and it’s only the first evening.

Day 2

We got to the Hynes relatively early, enjoying the slightly-warmer-than-yesterday weather.  We arrived too late to get wristbands for that evening’s concert, which was disappointing but I was more accepting than yesterday about the fact that we weren’t destined to see everything.

Saturday was Friends Day for Justin and I.  We met up with Juan (future contributor here on LGOD), his kids, and Tom and Tracy Marston.  We then wandered around the Expo Hall for a while, checking out in more detail the stuff we had breezed by on Friday.  Some product highlights will be detailed in separate posts here, but some highlights for me:

1. Antec showed off some gorgeous cases, including a fully modular one that (gasp!) enables you to have the motherboard on the right OR left side of the case.  I feel embarrassed about the fact that I find this simple fact so utterly amazing.
2. Much like CES, 3D was the name of the game here with many vendors showing off 3D technology.  I was pleasantly surprised at how mature the technology appears to be.
3. GeekChic was there with their gaming tables (as mentioned in PvP).  Gorgeous furniture.
4. Skate3 had probably the best demo participation of the event: participate in a contest to get the high score on a bone-breaking competition and win a skate deck.
5. Wizards of the Coast had a fun demo area where you could walk through a simple D&D encounter with a basic character sheet.

We broke for lunch at which point I realized I hadn’t taken my pills for the day, so I walked back to the hotel and got back just in time to get in line for the Rooster Teeth panel.  Highlights of that panel

1. A live-action video short where the Rooster Teeth guys drive a truck third-person-perspective style (hopefully it will get released so I can link it up rather than try to explain it.
2. The debut of the new season of Red vs. Blue: Revelation.
3. Announcement that Monty Oum of Haloid fame was joining the Rooster Teeth team.

Wow, could we take any more?  But yes!

We had a delicious dinner at PF Changs, where Justin and I talked with the Marstons about getting a D&D campaign going.  Everyone seemed excited about the prospect, so I decided to head back to the con after dinner to see if I could buy a DM guide.  We passed the Main Hall where the concert was getting set up to find out it was wide open.  We guess that after the wristbands ran out in the morning everyone decided they wouldn’t bother trying to get into the show, and thus there was plenty of space.

Highlights of the evening concert:

1. Video Games Orchestra were very talented and had some great arrangements of classic video game themes.  I was surprised they didn’t feature the Halo theme, perhaps it’s copyrighted.  They were asked to play an encore and didn’t have anything prepared.
2. Paul and Storm were utterly hilarious.  I had heard plenty about them through Jonathan Coulton but had never heard any of their music before.
3. Jonathan Coulton wrapped up the evening with some fantastic music.  Highlight for me was his take on Mr. Fancypants using a Zen drum: