Penguincon 2011: It was Fedorable

boogle wrote:

My though is it is a rough but do-able one day drive from Norman, so I figure picking up people to alleviate costs would be kick ass.

That's a thought.

I'd like to split a room for Fri & Sat nights. I'm ok with being in the 3-or-4-in-here-because-theyre-cheap-people rooms, too.

Are they still $99 this far out? Can we use like hotels.com or do we need to call directly and mention the penguin?

Good question. I imagine there will be a way to link it to the account. She mention setting up an RSVP site for us, I bet that's how it's done.

And yes, 6 months out we can probably get rooms for $80 (in fact we can now if we cut out the breakfasts) but I think the room price is their way of getting us the venue free.

trueheart78 wrote:

I'd like to split a room for Fri & Sat nights. I'm ok with being in the 3-or-4-in-here-because-theyre-cheap-people rooms, too.

Are they still $99 this far out? Can we use like hotels.com or do we need to call directly and mention the penguin?

If I go (and it appears to be so), I would want to split a room as well. I have no need for a room by myself.

If can definitely get a room (would prefer to split one but can get a myself if needed). My problem is getting there so I CAN'T confirm until I figure that part out.

Where are you, Fed?

oilypenguin wrote:

Where are you, Fed?

Upstate New York.

Tanglebones, I summon you.

Shoot TB a message, I think he's up there. I'll put up a gdoc and we'll link it in the OP here and on the website (which will go up once we have a location).

What about everyone's stuff? Last time we had consoles and tvs, as well as rock band and a metric ton of board/card games.

Also, how much concern about planes overhead? It's been a long time since I've been in a similar hotel, so a question out of curiosity.

oilypenguin wrote:

Tanglebones, I summon you.

Shoot TB a message, I think he's up there. I'll put up a gdoc and we'll link it in the OP here and on the website (which will go up once we have a location).

Nah, I'm actually in the city, and am looking into flying.

I just remembered that the event is October anyway.
Not exactly prime time for students.

Like 70% sure I will have a 2 night room.

Knock on wood that I am able to come - I will get a room for two nights.

Penguin is full of win. Awesome find.

Count me in for a room for the whole weekend.

Oily, I can also help out with some of the start up capital if needed.

oilypenguin wrote:

You Sith Master commands you to come, TB.
.

The better to plan assassinations! (hopefully the game will be out by then

trueheart78 wrote:

What about everyone's stuff? Last time we had consoles and tvs, as well as rock band and a metric ton of board/card games.

Being staff, I'm likely to have my own room, as I'll get there a day early. I would be willing to store things there overnight if you're not comfortable leaving them in the conference room, BUT I will require names, phone numbers, and I will have an inventory sheet. I ain't getting blamed for people losing things. The phone numbers will be for me to call your lazy asses in the morning to come and get stuff. If you have crucial items, they're going to need to be down there anyway.

All in all, though, they should be able to lock the conference room(s), or have convenient locked storage nearby.

We will ABSOLUTELY have a sign in sheet and stickers for people's stuff so we can keep track of things.

I don't know about planes, TH.

You Sith Master commands you to come, TB.

I don't know that we'll need start up capital, to be honest. I haven't worked out details with the Sheraton staff yet.

@Fed: /shrug. I don't know what to tell you. If you can find the time to come, I'm sure someone is coming from your direction. We'll solve this on the (future) car-pooling gdoc.

Edit: Oh shoot, sorry. I should have mentioned this. That room? Only 2 exits that both lock from the inside. Also, it's off the beaten path. No rooms nearby and not in a public area. The room should be pretty safe. Also, since we have 24 hour access, I'd bet someone will be there all the time.

Not only that but we'll have nametags, we make those mandatory and we should be ok.

So we'll need some sort of security rotation or what?

trueheart78 wrote:

So we'll need some sort of security rotation or what?

Oh, nothing so drastic. We'll all know one another by sight, if not name by Friday night. We'll just have to make it a point to make sure the room is locked in the event we all leave it.

oilypenguin wrote:

@Fed: /shrug. I don't know what to tell you. If you can find the time to come, I'm sure someone is coming from your direction. We'll solve this on the (future) car-pooling gdoc. .

Sorry, I wasn't trying to complain or anything.
I was just saying the reasons not to go for me are stacking over the reasons to go
I'll just have to wait for another year where I fit into it more, I don't expect things to change or people to go out of their way for me.

I'm still working on convincing Mrs. Phish this is a good idea. The good news is I'm about 75% there already.
I will be very interested in knowing if/when we hit the 25 person pushover point. I shall be sad if my homebrew isn't welcome.
Also, is it possible you've got your greater than and less than signs confused? Surely you mean:

oilypenguin wrote:

The problem crops up if we're < 20 rooms. At < 20, not only are we paying full price for the room but we can't have outside food and drinks in there.

Ok, so I maybe found a place. It's in an airport Sheraton. And when I say that mean the hotel is right off the concourse.

There's a couple bars and a pool, it's not too bad. Rooms are $99 a night and the rooms are pretty nice. Here's the website.

Wired and wireless internet with 10 megs up and down, so not too bad.

The room I looked at is pretty awesome. It's an old bar that's right off of the hotel pool, there's even a door out to the pool directly from the room. Unlike some places I've looked at, we have 24 hour access to the room from Friday morning until 2PM on Sunday. That's killer.

Oh and there are comfy leather couches (not pictured).

some pics:

IMAGE(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-70cnQXBQkSM/Ta4ltk9kuuI/AAAAAAAAAag/TX8PKnFFqo4/s288/hotel%2B001.JPG)
IMAGE(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TlravskFsFQ/Ta4luK5MwWI/AAAAAAAAAak/wg2DjGHF5p4/s288/hotel%2B002.JPG)
IMAGE(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Kbh4_G4cT4g/Ta4ltS86lmI/AAAAAAAAAac/uZuKDcsWs6o/s288/hotel%2B003.JPG)
IMAGE(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-eg85Suy1hvw/Ta4l2m2yC0I/AAAAAAAAAao/2cgEHZmoNsI/s288/hotel%2B005.JPG)

Parking will be free for people staying there, as is a breakfast buffet every morning. Plus there's a shuttle service to take you places and access to the local bus lines in case we need to leave. Parking for locals is regularly $8/day but we'll get it discounted lower.

I can get this room for free if we have enough people get rooms for both day. Now at $99 a room, this is achievable. We get the room for free at 25 rooms. We're also allowed to have any alcohol or food we want in the room at 25 people. Between 20 and 24 people, I'll need to pay something for the room, it's a reasonable rate.

The problem crops up if we're <20 rooms. At <20, not only are we paying full price for the room but we can't have outside food and drinks in there.

I think it still might be worth the risk but I wanted to take a quick poll. If I can get 10 people to respond with an "I will get a room for 2 nights" by this weekend, we'll probably do it. If you're already planning on splitting a room with someone, please keep in mind that's just a single room if you both respond =)

Since this thing will be three days, I would think we'll probably hit 20, if not 25 but I'm aware that a lot of you will be splitting the costs with others. Hell, I'll probably get a room to crashout and shower in and my house is only 20 minutes away.

Oh, and the advantage of getting a room for free here is that I won't have to charge you guys very much per person for admission and all of that money would go straight into food/booze/child's play. I approve of getting this room for free.

So if you're planning on getting a room, speak up. I will say that this $99 rate is very competitive with what other hotels are offering.

Well, Fed, I'd certainly love it if you can come.

And this goes for everyone, short of actually paying for your flight or your room, if I can help to provide a resource to get you to this thing, I'll do my damndest to do so.

I have the luxury of having some awesome people helping me this year and this community is ridiculous when we set our minds to something. I have no doubts that we can do great things if we need to.

If we need to launch Operation: Get Fed (or whoever) to Ohio, then we have 5.5 months to make that happen.

Edit: Thanks, Phish =)

And no matter what, your homebrews will be welcome. If we need to run those out of one of our personal rooms, we will. They can't watch us all the time.

Fedora, you have to come. Boogle is coming. You have to spoil some female opportunity for him IRL.

I certainly think that looks great. It's probably a good idea to get a few other quote from other places (not just because I like the idea of Oilypenguin running all over NE Ohio meeting with people), but I'm glad we have such a strong contender so quickly. I love a) the old bar feel, b) being connected to an airport so we don't have to organize shuttle services and c) a free room.

"Out of the way" also means that we're not going to get angry hotel denizens storming in at 4am to tell us we're being too loud while we take shots during our second annual Ironman Battlestar Galactica game, right?

I will probably not be getting a room, considering that I live 15 minutes from this venue. However, if we're close to the cap and feel like we need some extra lockable space to put equipment and valuables, I'd certainly be willing to pitch in with a few people to get a room for storage or napping or something.

EDIT: Would a Google Map of attendees be useful?

FedoraMcQuaid wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:

@Fed: /shrug. I don't know what to tell you. If you can find the time to come, I'm sure someone is coming from your direction. We'll solve this on the (future) car-pooling gdoc. .

Sorry, I wasn't trying to complain or anything.
I was just saying the reasons not to go for me are stacking over the reasons to go
I'll just have to wait for another year where I fit into it more, I don't expect things to change or people to go out of their way for me.

Hey Fed, where in upstate New York do you live? Because I am moving to the Saratoga Springs area pretty soon and was thinking about going to PenguinCon. If I had at least one guy joining me to make it an official road trip, all the better.

oilypenguin wrote:

Well, Fed, I'd certainly love it if you can come.

And this goes for everyone, short of actually paying for your flight or your room, if I can help to provide a resource to get you to this thing, I'll do my damndest to do so.

I have the luxury of having some awesome people helping me this year and this community is ridiculous when we set our minds to something. I have no doubts that we can do great things if we need to.

If we need to launch Operation: Get Fed (or whoever) to Ohio, then we have 5.5 months to make that happen.

Edit: Thanks, Phish =)

And no matter what, your homebrews will be welcome. If we need to run those out of one of our personal rooms, we will. They can't watch us all the time.

Do we get to kidnap him from campus so he has reason to miss class?

I think more likely we calmly explain to him that he has 6 months to plan his homework schedule and we'll all think him very silly for missing on account of schoolwork. It's really more of a shame campaign.

@Luggage: Seriously? Awesome, I hope you can make it =)

Oh and I'll be getting at least 2 more quotes. I try to never spend money like this with less than 3 quotes to choose from.

I'll be getting one room for three nights. Myself and Mich, so not sharing.