Sideshow & Syrana

I’m interrupting the BlizzCon wrap up posts to share this bizarre dream I had a few nights ago.  This is not the first strange, game blended dream I’ve ever had, but it’s the first time I wrote down as much as I could remember as soon as I woke up.  Have a laugh and help me analyze it!

Samodean and I rode in a passenger mount to a wedding.  I think it was a mammoth one, but I’m not certain.  I just know I wasn’t “driving” and we weren’t in a car.  The wedding was for a friend of mine from back in high school… someone I have not talked to or seen in years.  (Like, they aren’t even on Facebook, I don’t think.)

It’s sketchy, but somehow we make it to the reception hall.  The banquet room next door is holding some sort of gaming conference and Blizzard is there.  I leave Samo and wonder off into the conference.  There is a game demo going on, which I stumble into.

A LIVE game demo.

With real zombies. (continue reading…)

With November fast approaching and Onyxia scheduled for a facelift, a few of us decided to go peek at her… and lop off her head.  I was never at level cap during Classic (or “vanilla”) WoW, so I never got to experience the thrills and headaches of 40man raids.

And I’d never faced Onyxia.

We figured now was a good time to do so and get the achievement before the re-tooling that will be done for WoW’s 5 year anniversary.

You notice how Maagrom looks scared?

Wuss.

Keeping with the recent theme of BlizzCon posts (and with more to come!)…

You have to check out this video if you have not done so yet.  It features @Spoonwolf of Spooncraft showing his readers the lovely hotel room he was staying in while at BlizzCon.

It also features a near injury.

Sideshow and I got to hang out with him post video antics.  I don’t know about you, but videos of people falling are hilarious.

But, they are even more hilarious when you know the person.  Enjoy!

Of course we had to get some BlizzCon loot, right?  The loot drops started with the goody bags.  Now, this was our first BlizzCon, so I don’t know as well as others how this year’s swag bag compares to the BlizzCon’s of past… but it sounded like this year’s was a little light.

The main two items in the goody bag are pictured above: Raynor nOObz figurine and a StarCraft themed authenticator.  We’d seen these in the “preview” prior to BlizzCon and figured there would be more stuff.  However, there really wasn’t anything else.  There was a bottle of handsanitizer with a BlizzCon label and lots of ads. [EDIT: I totally forgot to mention Grunty.  /facepalm]

I’m not sure what Sideshow and I are going to do with yet 2 more authenticators.  I think we are going to have to have another contest or donate them to someone else’s giveaway or something.  We don’t need this many!

The cool thing about Raynor though, is that it is exclusive to the goody bag.  That’s right, no more will be produced of this particular one.  At BlizzCon they were selling several pre-designed ones as well as blank ones that you can design yourself.  So, if you didn’t go to BlizzCon and you really want the Raynor one, you’ll need to check eBay.

Sideshow and I also hit up the BlizzCon store.  I’m not sure if I missed some cool merchandise (quite likely) but we did get a few things.  I just had to get both plushy murlocs, Murky and Lurky.  Aren’t they adorable?

We also purchased the set of 3 cinematic posters.  They are too large for me to take pics of at this time, plus, they need frames yet.  I wish I’d gotten a shirt or two, since BlizzCon was the only place they’d be available for purchase.  There was also some other murloc pet thingamajig, but it was sold out.

The other 2 items I bought I cannot reveal on here yet, because they are yet to be given to my parents.  I don’t want to spoil any surprises!  But, I’ll be sure to share that after I get a chance to see them.

In hindsight, I wish I would have bought more stuff.  It would have been different if I could have thoroughly perused what was available without holding up the line.  Unfortunately, we were unable to take advantage of the pre-con store ordering since it had to be through the account that purchased the tickets.  (A guildie did the initial purchase for us.)  Bag space was another concern… how to get everything home! I had packed an extra carry on bag just for this purpose, which worked out well.

What is it with me and posting multiple parts lately? Well, with BlizzCon, there’s no way I could write just one post to cover it all.  Ok, so that’s a lie.  There are 2 ways:

1- Use thousands and thousands of words that would take days to read

or

2 – Use one word: Epic.

Since both ways are such extremes, we’ll go for bite-sized pieces.

Ideal vs. Real

Remember how prior to BlizzCon I shared with you my ideal itinerary?  Yeah, so, it was practically impossible to attend all the panels I wanted to.  But you knew that would happen, didn’t you!

Here’s how it really went down: (continue reading…)

He’s going by the name Prince Caponikus from now on.

Although today was the last day of BlizzCon, this will not be the last post regarding it.  I still have stories and photos to share as well as thoughts, impressions, and the like.

We fly out Sunday, back home.  Sure we are taking home souvenirs, but the greatest gift I’m taking with me is the connections and friendships with the people we met and spent time with.

So, please, look forward to posts yet to come about this epic adventure we went on.  (I crazily had anticipated more time to post these things during the trip…. ha!)

For now, to sum it all up:

Sideshow. Out.

If you are just joining us or looking for a refresher: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

When exactly does this move from Generation 1 to Generation 2?  Well, I think once Aerissa reaches adulthood, we’ll consider the story to be focused on Generation 2.

Generation 1: Darcy and Brian (continued)

Darcy and Brian are both getting older, having reached their adult years.  They are no longer young adults, newly married, or the like.  They have both become well established in their respective positions, although they both continue to have high aiming ambitions to reach the top of their professions.

The children are doing well.  Aerissa continues to paint and has started writing some children’s books, which she illustrates herself.  At first, Darcy and Brian were concerned that she was working too hard outside her schoolwork for such a young age, but Aerissa’s grades are tip top.  Xander’s too!  They both consistently make the honor roll.

Caleb is growing like a weed himself.  He quickly learned to walk; faster than he learned to use the potty chair or talk!  It’s been an adjustment for Xander to share his room with a toddler, but his sweet disposition has made the transition fairly smooth.

How quickly the children grow up.  Aerissa has entered the next stage of her life: adolescence.  The transition to high school was fairly smooth.  Aerissa’s grades dropped a little as she adjusted to her new surroundings, but it was not long before she was back on the honor roll.  The homework was tougher and the teachers were trickier. (continue reading…)

I apologize for the lack of twitter updates today.  AT&T epically failed when thousands of people got inside the convention center and wanted to share all sorts of cool news.

I had no signal for most of the day, which was not cool.  One, because I couldn’t tweet out updates to those interested.  Two, it made it damn near impossible to find anyone.

As much as I’d love to give some updates now… I’m exhausted.  But, I wanted to let everyone know that the first day was a blast.  It was a lot of standing in line, but fun.  The TNB meetup tonight was awesome.  There were lots of interesting conversations, drinks, and laughs to be shared.

So, now that we’ve walked the 20 minutes back to our hotel room and it’s almost 1:30am… I need sleep to get up and do it all over again.

Here are some photos you can check out of our day: BlizzCon and TNB Meetup Photo Stream.

If you haven’t seen the Insanity Flowchart on Cracked.com, I recommend it.

And, yes, purple does exist…