Pencon 2012

rabbit wrote:

CHeck out the threads here on homebrewing. Its the gift that keeps on giving.

Filthy skimmer! I posted there just the other day.

Are we willing to set one of these up at Pencon?

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/HPNr8.jpg)

See the Artemis thread.

Has anyone warned LifeCoach and DJ Incompetent of these changes? Those guys are the hardest partiers I've ever met. LifeCoach was rocking a flask of diet cherry pepsi & Everclear last month which just blows my mind.

Don't worry about Artemis. I'll send Thom an email today to make sure he's available in October.

Also, I'll cross-post this in the Artemis thread but here's Tim "Tuvok" Russ playing Artemis at a con recently.

Rooms around PenCon booked! We'll be there from Thursday night to Monday morning!

One more thing... I don't know if I posted this in the MiniPenCon thread but here's a NSFW (language) video of Artemis being played...

Just remember guys, our internet connection is out of this world. Literally. It goes to and from space to get to us. Meaning it's Hughes.net satellite internet. And it is horrible. Really, really, horrible. And only available in the main building.

I can fix the latter problem, but there's no point in extending wireless range when the bandwidth is more like bandnarrow.

I am working on getting DSL available. One way or another I'm going to make that a thing that happens. But I don't know if it will be a thing that happens in time for PenCon. Set expectations re: connectivity accordingly.

Teneman wrote:

Just remember guys, our internet connection is out of this world. Literally. It goes to and from space to get to us. Meaning it's Hughes.net satellite internet. And it is horrible. Really, really, horrible. And only available in the main building.

I can fix the latter problem, but there's no point in extending wireless range when the bandwidth is more like bandnarrow.

I am working on getting DSL available. One way or another I'm going to make that a thing that happens. But I don't know if it will be a thing that happens in time for PenCon. Set expectations re: connectivity accordingly.

Artemis runs locally on a LAN so no bandwidth problems there. Personally, I'm excited at the idea of an "analog" event. What's the cell reception like, though? My wife will drive me nuts if she can't reach me.

Yeah, nothing I'd plan on trying to organize would require bandwidth, unless we tried to do a live podcast. Given the constraints, we just won't try to do that, and will put it in the can instead.

Teneman wrote:
LockAndLoad wrote:

What's the cell reception like, though? My wife will drive me nuts if she can't reach me.

Invest heavily in messenger pigeons...

Cell service is unreliable. There's a booster on the roof, but I don't know if it's working. I'm going to increase the number/strength/orneriness of the boosters to try to help things out.

I've also heard you can actually get mini towers from Verizon that create rather than boost the signal. They're supposedly all nice and camouflaged so they don't look bad either. This is a thing I'm investigating. The "Things I'm Investigating" list is pretty darn long though, so I make absolutely zero promise that this is accomplished by October.

You might want to look into these covers for routers:
http://www.swiss-miss.com/2012/05/di...

LockAndLoad wrote:

What's the cell reception like, though? My wife will drive me nuts if she can't reach me.

Invest heavily in messenger pigeons...

Cell service is unreliable. There's a booster on the roof, but I don't know if it's working. I'm going to increase the number/strength/orneriness of the boosters to try to help things out.

I've also heard you can actually get mini towers from Verizon that create rather than boost the signal. They're supposedly all nice and camouflaged so they don't look bad either. This is a thing I'm investigating. The "Things I'm Investigating" list is pretty darn long though, so I make absolutely zero promise that this is accomplished by October.

For perspective. That little pin there? That's pretty close to the actual castle (ground zero is a bit off to the right if you scroll all the way in, you can actually see the castle). If you look around it, we are literally surrounded on all sides by no less than five state or national forests.

LockAndLoad wrote:

Has anyone warned LifeCoach and DJ Incompetent of these changes? Those guys are the hardest partiers I've ever met. LifeCoach was rocking a flask of diet cherry pepsi & Everclear last month which just blows my mind.

Yeah I talked to them two days ago (DJ was errr, possibly the most drunk I've ever seen him, which including smashing a pinata and then the light fixture in his garage...). They're not sure if they can make it, but probably can't. They have wives/girlfriends that want to do Haloween things. And heavy drinking...

Also, regarding PC/Internet--just think of this as an opportunity to focus on gaming face to face (board games, card games, role playing games, console video games)!

I'm all about wandering random conventions with a flask, but out of respect to our landlords liqr license, will probably leave the flask at home this time (grin).

Trying to convince my wife (who's marginally a gamer) to come.

rabbit wrote:

OK, I'm as confirmed as I ever am for anything, I just booked "the clocktower" for the day before and after PenCon -- fingers crossed I don't get kicked out. My hope is that it can be the home-base for whichever of the podcast crew I can get to attend. Very excited to go to something like this where I'm not the host, and i can just be stupid the whole time!

I am definitely in for this, I am almost always in for PenCon anyway but this one is like a 3 hour drive for me. Perfect!

Damn, well, I guess I won't be getting drunk this PenguinCon. White, and even Black Russians, unless had in high quantity, barely faze me anymore. I've built up a tolerance rather quickly. I'm just not down for choking down that much beer, either.

Just talking with Pyro -- we can for sure bring my copy of Joust, if we can wrangle some move controllers. By then, of course, it might be commercial!

Flight is booked. I'll be getting into Columbus on Friday the 26th and leaving on the 29th. I'll see about getting a car as well. If anyone is arriving in Columbus around the same time, we could share a vehicle, if you're interested.

We have booked our before and after room as well. I look forward to telling my wife we need to lock our son to the dungeon for nap times.

MonoCheli wrote:

We have booked our before and after room as well. I look forward to telling my wife we need to lock our son to the dungeon for nap times. :)

Off the alcohol discussion.

I saw some people mentioning flying in to Cinci... Look at prices and if its a huge difference I guess cinci is okay, but Columbus if possible is a much better option I think.

Columbus : 1 hour 20 min
Cincinnati: 2 hours 53 minutes

rabbit wrote:

Just talking with Pyro -- we can for sure bring my copy of Joust, if we can wrangle some move controllers. By then, of course, it might be commercial!

The planning committee desperately wants this to happen.

I believe my plan will be into columbus on thursday, out on monday, and could use a ride, as a nondriver...

Just to confirm - rooms are not available to book yet for Pencon proper, only days before and after?

SallyNasty wrote:

Just to confirm - rooms are not available to book yet for Pencon proper, only days before and after?

YES.

Hey, has anyone said if the rooms are available to book for PenCon yet?

Minarchist wrote:

Hey, has anyone said if the rooms are available to book for PenCon yet?

See, now that's just Trolling.

Minarchist wrote:

Hey, has anyone said if the rooms are available to book for PenCon yet?

You must be trolling, but I will still answer you: no.

Wait. Rooms are available to book? How have I not heard this?

SuperDave wrote:
Minarchist wrote:

Hey, has anyone said if the rooms are available to book for PenCon yet?

You must be trolling, but I will still answer you: no.

hehehehe

Frog Prince booked Thurs/Sun. Decided an isolated cabin was the best location to enjoy bath salts. I mean, what? If it gets booked up and/or people want to split, and/or can deal with me, we'll figure that out later.