WorldCon/Chicon '12 Day 2: Orbital Mechanics Don't Apply

Started out the day meeting some friends in the lounge for some breakfast. The cuts of meat they put out are phenomenal. Then my first seminar of the day was an interview w/ George R.R. Martin of Game of Thrones fame. Here's the line to get in:

I (ab)used my press creds. to get seats in the 2nd row. It was sitting/standing room only.

Some highlights from the interview.  Most of the changes fans of the series have seen between the TV series and the books have been money based.  Examples were removing the chain, bridge of boats and the 3 whores (trebuchets) from the Battle of Blackwater episode. Apparently Martin also has not so much influence on the show which is another big reason for the changes. On a question as to how he sucks in so many people... His reply (tongue in cheek)  "Sheer Brilliance"  and he openly admits that making us enjoy a character and then crippling or killing them is to mess w/ our heads.  Why?  Because he hates predictability and it's hard to make things unpredictable w/ today's audience. The example he gave was the new Twilight Zone.  People were figuring out the plots early on no matter how much they tried to give a surprise ending. As to the stories themselves, he calls himself a 'Gardener'.  He knows the basic plots and major events but the specifics and details come up while he's writing. His favorite characters to write about?  Tyrion and Arya.

(Update:  Podcast here.  Huffpo article here. My question is at the 1:05:00 mark)

I got to ask a question and got what I consider to be the sarcastic answer of the day.  I asked just how unstable is the orbit of the GOT world.  The reply.... "It's FANTASY.... Orbital Mechanics do not apply...  The moon is made of green cheese."  The side answer by Maureen Ryan of Huffpo was "The seasons are as long or short as George wants them to be."  That made my day.

I hit the huckser's room to do a little shopping and ran into an old friend. We chatted for a few hours then I started wandering again.  Picked up another t-shirt, some old AD&D modules and the complete Uncle Remus anthology.

Fire team of 'Colonial Marines' from Aliens (I also saw these guys dressed up as Jedi's, Imperial Snowtroopers and several other characters but wasn't able to get photos):

The gaming room:

Heading out for some food then likely some get togethers this evening.

Got served drinks by Ming the Merciless:

And I got to hang out w/ GRRM at the fan club group:

While at the fan club party, I bought a few raffle tickets.  10 for $1 ea,  Figured what the hell, it gave me an excuse to hang around.  I won THREE times.  A GOT board game and expansion signed by GRRM, I gave back the 2nd win to not be a jerk then gave the rest of my tickets to my sister and then SHE won w/ one of my tickets, picking up a 4 pack of the GOT card game.

This was a fun evening.

WorldCon/ChiCon '12 Day 1

WorldCon/ChiCon '12 Day 3: Con Crud Apocalypse

WorldCon/Chicon '12 Day 4: The Pile of Hamsters Disperses

WorldCon/ChiCon '12 Day 1

 After nearly 5 hours of driving and facing the traffic of Mordor, I am finally here. Still waiting for my room to be finished (two hours later) but I've been browsing the dealer's rooms etc.

 The folks from Off World Designs.  I bought my dragon tshirt from them 21 years ago at Worldcon '91 . It was time for a new one although the original is still service-able, it has some holes.  They'll be putting up a photo of my tat on their FB.


SJ Games' Chaos Machine.  No Steve Jackson as of yet. I really want to meet him and get an autograph on my original GEV game.

Artist Phil Foglio displaying his wares.

Name that movie uniform.

Finally got to meet Steve Jackson and he signed my old copy of GEV given to me by my sister when I was about ten.  SJ's comment when he saw it. "That's one well loved game".

Poster 'TWB' from the SJGames forums put on an OGRE demo w/ his custom map of the St Louis area and playing pieces. A number of people were in attendance including some of the next generation of gamers.My suggestion.  Nuke East St. Louis.  He had apparently thought about making it 'rubble' markers as the norm.

The 'Geek Prom'.  Lots of bustiers and t-shirts and very loud music. The guy in the green box is from 'Minecraft'.

Tomorrow may hit the Adler Planetarium, attend some talks, line up for some book signings, etc.  Playing it by ear.
 

WorldCon/Chicon Day 2: Orbital Mechanics Don't Apply

WorldCon/ChiCon '12 Day 3: Con Crud Apocalypse

WorldCon/Chicon '12 Day 4: The Pile of Hamsters Disperses

Your Tax Dollars at Work

Chief Diversity Officer at the U.S. Department of State 

Quite a title, eh?  And how does he spend his day? Why researching expressions like 'Hold down the fort' and determining if they're 'racist' or not. I'm not kidding.

Apparently all of the worlds problems have been solved and our country is in the strongest place ever that he can focus on such important aspects of the State Dept. and their goal to have unicorns wandering the streets filling them w/ rainbows and gumdrops.

Gamers of the World UNITE!!

It is the PC's who own the the means of gaming. Break the chains of GM tyranny.

Yeah. I'm a born again gamer geek. I admit it. I've been re-reading all my old books, dusting off character sheets and  dice, having my mini's painted, etc. What really got it all going was my discovering the relaunch of one of my first table-top war games called OGRE through Kickstarter.  This weekend I am going to WorldCon '12 in Chicago hopefully getting my old copy of GEV signed by the designer, Steve Jackson.

During this rebirth, a friend of mine (the same one painting my mini's) pointed me towards a couple of web movies and shorts. The movie was called Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising. An indy film about gamers by gamers. I laughed my @ss off. He also pointed me towards a mini-series called 'Journey Quest', now on its second season.

All of this has been funded through Kickstarter and private donations and they're trying to get the funds for their third movie: Gamers 3 Hands of Fate.  They've got a week left and need more help.  I REALLY want this movie made and have pledged what I can. Here is a message from some of the cast:


If you haven't heard of these, give them a watch and pass it on to your groups. Then help them make the 3rd installment. It's worth it.

And a teaser trailer:

Concealed Carry in Chicago. Wait! What?

It has it according to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanual: 

“..but we have to pass stronger gun laws in this state. We’re not talking about repealing conceal/ carry, but making sure we have a tougher set of laws dealing with assault weapons and other types of guns.” 

 There is no other way to say it. The man's an idiot. Not only, as Miguel notes, does the Mayor have no clue about State laws, but he trying to distract the virulent gang and poverty issues of the city on the shoulders of the rest of the law abiding gun owners of Illinois.

Maybe he should have taken those millions he spent on trying to keep the populace disarmed and instead put it towards more/better police.

Chicago got what it voted for now I have to pay for it.  It's going to take a lot of money to convince my dead grandma to elect him again.

The Pants Say It All

15 yr old takes a gun to the first day of school in Maryland. Take a look at this model student:

 Yeah.  Pants halfway down his @ss, one leg pulled up. Wanna-be thug. I'm sure his momma's going to say he was a 'good boy'.

Maryland.  Universal background checks, licensing, registration, 1 gun / month, ballistic fingerprinting, waiting periods, ammo registrations, CAP laws, effectively no CCW. 

MORE LAWS!!!

Spin & Lies: Gun Control's Bread and Butter

CSGV claims that open carry is legal in Florida then deletes any comments showing the correct information knowing they're lying to their supporters.

The NYPD police are 'highly trained' yet shot/wounded 9 bystanders so that means we need to make more restrictions on guns for civilians because they 'might' hurt someone if a similar situation occurs but hasn't yet. 

The NYC shooter's gun was legally purchased in Florida and he didn't register it in NYC so we need to pass stricter laws on trafficking. No mention that the legal purchase was 21 years ago.

 Illinois has licensing and defacto registration statewide so it's the fault of 'anarchists' (aka firearm advocates) that gang bangers use their friends and family to buy guns for them outside of Chicago where most guns are banned and the homicide rate is 5x that of the rest of Illinois.

Any Questions?