The Best Four Days in Gaming

This is actually from a couple weeks ago (GenCon is usually the second week of August), and it originated as a Facebook note. However, I've decided to put it here as well so that my loyal readers unfortunate enough not to have Facebooks can enjoy it as well:

Yesterday, I just got back from another four-day trip with my dad to GenCon, a worldwide gaming convention held annually in downtown Indianapolis known as the 'Best Four Days in Gaming'. Every imaginable type of game is represented, from rpg's to board games to card games (which is what I go for). And when they say 'four days', they mean four days: there are different tournaments and stuff going on around the clock, and everyone runs on no sleep and irregular eating times. Trolling around the huge gaming hall in between rounds, it's common to find people with their heads down among suitcases and cards, desperately trying to get just enough shuteye to stay alive through 14 hours of grueling card game tournaments (if you don't think fourteen hours of playing cards is tiring, then you have obviously never done it).
A quick overview of my schedule: woke up on Thursday morning at...well, it was early. We drove for a couple hours into downtown Indianapolis and commenced the card-gamery with a 'crossover' tournament wherein you played a deck made up of either Naruto cards or DBZ cards. Sounds great in theory, since both the games and the series themselves are strikingly similar, but unfortunately the games were just too different to really work together in a balanced way. When we finally checked in at our hotel at 10:00 (both the street we were supposed to take and the hotel had changed names since last year, causing some obvious confusion), we ordered some Papa John's for dinner. Remember what I said about irregular eating schedules during GenCon? It's not GenCon without pizza for every meal.Friday was another day-long tournament, this one comprised solely of DBZ. Nothing really noteworthy happened, other than the fact that (surprise, surprise) we didn't eat pizza for dinner. Instead we had some pretty awesome Angus burgers at eleven o'clock at night. On the way to the restaurant, we were offered a brochure from a group of revolutionary artists from West Virginia that told us to "stop bitching and start revolting". I don't know what the name of this underground movement was, but it was pretty hilarious and I laughed for a couple minutes afterward.Naruto took the spotlight for Saturday's big tournament. As far as the basics go, it was pretty much like the previous two days. However, things were a little shaken up when the fire alarm suddenly went off between the sixth and seventh rounds, forcing everyone to immediately evacuate the convention center. This didn't have as much of an impact on the tournament as everyone thought, since we were given the all-clear and were back in the convention center within half an hour. This obviously caused a slight delay, and we didn't get back to the hotel until after midnight, falling asleep immediately as we were too tired to even order pizza.
Some interesting/miscellaneous things I saw/did:
T-shirts: I usually spend my Christmas gift cards buying T-shirts at GenCon, and this year I used it to get three new Lantern t-shirts (because you can never have enough). I also saw a bunch of guys in Lantern shirts walking around; I think I saw close to five Blue Lanterns in the span of an hour on Saturday. As far as the shirts everybody else was wearing, I spied the usual "Han shot first" and Cthulhu shirts. Awesome graffiti: Most card tournaments are played on white tablecloths. Since they're not changed over the course of the four days that is GenCon, you would assume that people would eventually get bored and start doodling. And you would assume correctly. I must say, the table graffiti this year was above par. From scribbled messages like "the rare hunters are a' rare huntin'" to drawings of Boba Fett in a tuxedo, the graffiti really cracked me up.
Cosplayers: Here it is, after all the waiting...the complete list of every cosplayer I saw at GenCon 2009! Get ready: Sora, Auron, Joker, Rorschach, a Knight who Says Ni, the Witch-king, the ugliest Wonder Woman I've ever seen, Ichigo Kurosaki, more Toshiro Hitsugayas than you could shake a stick at, pretty much every member of Akatsuki, and tons of miscellaneous samurai, fairies, ninjas, and monsters. And although he doesn't exactly qualify as a cosplayer, we did spy one guy with the inscription of the One Ring tatooed on his arm. No freaking joke.That's pretty much all I can think of now. All in all, it was awesome, and if I think of anything else, I'll edit it in.

Finally, After Months of Waiting, A Detailed Story of How I've Spent My Summer Vacation

Now that I've officially started Bizarro World back up again, I think that I'll commence the latest wave of blog posts with, as the story says, the kind of writing that you used to have to do on the first day of school for the first ten years (or so) of school: how I've spent my summer vacation. Granted, it's not over yet, and rest assured I will have stories to tell about this year's trip to GenCon when I return on Monday, but since five-sixths (yes, I just worked that out) of it is over, it seems fitting to regale you with reasons (more like pathetic excuses) for why I've been so negligent of this here blog, interspersed here and there with interesting stories of the summer 2009 (which I fear will be known forever more as 'that cold, wet summer when Christian learned that summer school is most definitely NOT FUN no matter how many Study Halls it gets you). So, without further ado (and I apologize for the amount of ado that has taken up the last minute or so of your reading; I'm just excercising those writing muscles again after so long and it's just so darn fun I can't help but extrapolate), here is my summer vacation.
-Knowing that I was scheduled for three AP classes this year, I signed up to take Physics over the summer so that I would have a Study Hall, which in turn would mean that hopefully I wouldn't kill myself during junior year. When I told my family about this, they were almost mortified, giving me adivce/sucks-for-you comments along the lines of "You're going to hate it" and "You're CHOOSING to take summer school?". However, my hopeful optimism was not daunted by these not-so-helpful comments; I believed that five days a week wouldn't be too bad. However, it was pretty annoying; I spent eight weeks of the summer waking up at 6:30, and the second week we were stuck inside the air-conditioning-less LT North building in 90 degree heat. Luckily, the summer cooled down and we didn't have to face that again. Time will tell whether a Study Hall is worth going through such a harrowing ordeal (rest assured, I will update you when the new school year commences)
-Luckily, the Powers That Be aren't completely cold-hearted, because summer school starts after a week of summer. I spent this glorious week (the calm before the storm) cleaning my room for the first time in God knows how long (conservative estimate: 4 years). That was very worthwhile, as I succeeded in throwing away a crapload of papers dating back to the seventh grade, and allowed me to move in a new bed that is much comfier and much bigger than the one I've been stuck with for God knows how long (conservative estimate: 8 years). The 'last hurrah', as it were, of this week was this year's nightlong Relay for Life fundraiser, which I spent in a pink T-shirt and sombrero.
-After PhysX was over and done with, I embarked on my family's annual weeklong trip to the Chalet on the Lake resort in Michigan. I basically divided my time between swimming in the pool, swimming in the lake (all this swimming was much needed: it struck me in the midst of Physics that until August 1, I had gone swimming a total of ONCE this whole summer), and rereading trade paperback collections of Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic series (amazing stuff; I forgot how good it was). A couple years ago, I finished the last four volumes of Sandman on that trip, and ever since I've associated them together, so I decided to rent some from the library and reread them (needless to say, a decision that led to a lot of good beachside reading).

And that's basically my summer vacation in a nutshell, up to this point. As I've said, I'll update next week with how I spent GenCon, and if anything else happens in the last week (LAST WEEK! Jesus Christ!) of summer, I will most definitely post about it.

Back to Work, I Suppose

I was talking with my dad a little while ago, and he suggested that since I plan on being a writer and all that, I should really put more effort into making sure my blog is updated regularly. So, now that summer school Physics is over and my summer reading is near completion, I've decided to put forth my best effort to make sure this blog is updated every day (or at the very least, a couple times a week).
So far, it looks like this post is turning into a mission statement of sorts for the all-new, all-the-time, awesome Bizarro World! I'll update you, my loyal readers, on the goings-on of my summer so far in later posts. Look forward to reviews of every movie I've seen since May (there are quite a lot; not just new ones, but old movies that I finally got a chance to see), the painful but hopefully worthwhile (we'll see come fall) Physics summer school course, and all kinds of different things. Look for it!

So Yeah...

I just realized I haven't updated in like a month and a half. Sorry about that, but I've been immersed in schoolwork, studying for the AP Euro exam (which I just finished), sleeping, eating, and reading a lot of books. I just finished Frank Herbert's Dune, which didn't live up to the hype, and am about to finish Roberto Bolano's 2666, which is amazing so far. I also just finished Rage of the Red Lanterns and am looking forward to Blackest Night this summer despite the mediocre ending to "Red Lanterns".
Heroes, my favorite TV show, just finished its third season. Despite the constant redos and bad reviews (the writers have been slow in learning that you can't please everyone) I loved the third season finale. It definitely made up for some of this season's weaker moments.
As I mentioned before, I just finished the AP exam for European History. I feel good about it, but unfortunately I can't really discuss it in detail.
I'll try to keep updating this more often.

Rock-a-Thon in Review (Among Other Things)

WLTL's annual fundraiser Rock-a-Thon isn't over yet (it goes for 88.1 hours) but our shift is. If any of you are in the area and are reading this before it's over, try to call in and donate. Now that the shameless plug is over, I think it's time to discuss our shift. It was fun, nerve-wracking, exciting, and exhausting all at the same time. I got involved in a pie fight, cleaned it up, sang Beyonce on the air for money, had a lightsaber duel with Pods, and a bunch of other stuff. A few of the managers and supervisors got annoyed and even mad at us, but all in all it was a great experience. In hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have done it a week after my first show ever, but whatever. Our music show, "Nerd Talk", is still on Fridays from 7-9, and I can't wait for it because it'll be much less stressful.

Speaking of nerdy things, I am really enjoying the "Rage of the Red Lanterns" arc in Green Lantern. I like how Geoff Johns is making every corps different in their own special way, and I really love the Blue Lantern Corps. My dad got me a pretty sweet Red Lantern sweatshirt; now all I need is a Blue one.

Also, on Friday I gave my "This I Believe" speech (modeled after NPR's contest of the same name) after rewriting it three times. My final version was about comics, and I'm glad I got the chance to mention not only Watchmen but also 100 Bullets and Fables in school. We had a class vote to see who did the best, and I won. Not bad for a nerd.

On Radio, Sweat, and Fugitives

I've got a lot of stuff to talk about, but I'll start with my radio show. That's right, radio show! I wasn't able to get my own show, but Pods did, so me and Boots are DJ Assistants on his show. If you want to listen, it's from 7-9 on Fridays on WLTL 88.1 fm LaGrange. We had our first show last night, and it was epic. Our engineer didn't pass the test she needed to past, so she had to re-take it at the beginning of the show! Me and Boots were stuck in the studio for a few minutes without knowing what to do, so he freaked out a little bit. Once she passed the test and we got back into the groove of the show, though, it was fine. More than fine: it was awesome! It was a lot of fun, and I plan on doing a lot more shows! We did make some mistakes, unfortunately: we had dead air a couple times, and the first 10 minutes of the show was just constant music while our engineer re-took the test.
I've already started my New Year's Resolution by becoming a member of the YMCA; I'm glad I was able to fulfill my promise to myself, and glad I finally started working out.
The second part of "Heroes" season three, "Fugitives", has started out pretty well so far. It's definitely different than the last half. Here are my thoughts on certain characters and what I think should happen to them (SPOILER WARNING):
Peter Petrelli-The man is back! Not only does he have his original ability back, he's also gained powers he didn't have before, namely Tracy's freezing and Mohinder's spidey powers. Unfortunately, some powers are irreplaceable since Ted, DL, Isaac, and Usutu are dead. I hope to see him get back at Nathan and HRG by the end of the season!
Nathan Petrelli- What a douche. If he is not dead by the end of the season (preferably killed by Peter or Sylar), I will be mad and disappointed.
HRG-Another douche. I can't wait to see a fight between him and Claire! He used to be one of my favorite characters, but now that he's sided with Nathan, I'd like to see him dead as well. I don't think there's any more to say about him anyway; the Bennet family drama has kind of played itself out.
Sylar-Oh yeah! At least someone can fight back against the hunters! You just knew when you saw those guys going after him: "None of them are leaving this alive." I'd like to see him collecting more powers, and eventually be a part of taking down Nathan.
That's all for now! Listen to our show if you can!

More About the Inauguration

I know I already talked about Obama's inauguration, but after reading the last two issues of Time, I found I actually had more to say about it (but not that much). Some people who like focusing on little issues ('little q', as Dr. H would undoubtedly say) lambasted Obama's inaugural address for the supposed lack of historical catchphrases. Since presidential speeches upon inauguration have only yielded timeless quotes twice, both by presidents known by a three letter acronym (FDR's "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" and JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you, etc."), the perceived lack of such a phrase was not as crazy as some people have made it up to be. However, after reading two seperate articles that repeatedly quoted the speech, and after listening to the speech again and grading it with a rubric in IPC, I have found a few memorable quotes. They are:
"The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small but whether it works."
And
"What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them-that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply."
Both of them are lengthy quotes (I shortened the first one to make it more basic and memorable), but I think they underline everything that President Obama is all about. One of my friends, skeptical of Obama, said that Obama's "Change" message is stupid. "Change? What change? You want to be more specific?!" He has asked multiple times. These quotes outline the response to that question, which I know is not limited to my friend: Obama's 'change' is a change on a very basic level, a change on almost every layer of our existence. No more of the old "big gov't vs. small gov't" talk; no more of the focusing on the little q's. We need to change how we view others and how we view ourselves. We need to change our views towards war, science, religion, and politics. We need to come to a decision about our role in the world at large and decide how far we are willing to go, and how much we are willing to sacrifice, to feel secure. We need to change our government and how we view our government. We need a government that respects us and the Constitution from which it derives its power.
As Obama said, perhaps what skeptics like my friend fail to understand is that this change is already beginning.

Impressions

I haven't been able to post for awhile, so here are my impressions of Barack Obama's inauguration and the start of second semester.

I know the inauguration was ten days ago, but I just thought I'd bring up how ridiculous I find the concept of reading prayers at a Presidential inauguration for a country based upon freedom of religion. For some reason, I'm the only person I know who's bugged by this. Don't worry, I go to church a lot and am even a lector at my church, as well as being a huge fan of President Obama, but I believe in the words of Jesus (or was it St. Augustine?): "Give to God what belongs to God, and give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar."

Two weeks ago, I finally delved into the comic book masterpiece that is Hellboy. If your only knowledge of Mike Mignola's fantastic creation comes from the Guillermo del Toro movies, you MUST read the comics. I love them so much; maybe I'll put a real review up one of these days.

My second semester has been interesting so far. My IPC class is fun and exciting, and I really like my teacher. Health is quite possibly the easiest class I've ever taken, but I've learned a lot in the few days I've been there (even though I'm miffed that I can't take the SCUBA class next year). I actually like my new Euro class a lot; even though I was in 10th period for an entire semester, I still know more people in 9th than I did in 10th. I still have Drogos as my teacher, thank God. And I'm grateful I get to end the day with Guitar, another extremely easy class.

Finally, today I auditioned for a music show on WLTL with Boots and Pods. I was really nervous, especially during the interview (my experience as a lector helped the vocal section more than I could have reasonably expected). I should be informed of whether or not I made it tomorrow or Sunday, so expect to hear about it.

That's all for now.

Happy Birthday

It was this weekend, one year ago, that Bizarro World started. Whooo! Made it a year with more frequent updates than most! I'm not sure if this is the exact day, but today is the day after finals ended, and I remember that that's when I started this blog last year. In celebration, here's a pretty long post including New Years' Resolutions and other interesting tidbits.

New Years Resolutions (because I keep forgetting to do them)
-Get active: If I keep laying around doing nothing but reading and posting on this blog, I really will get fat and lazy. I'm going to try to run more this year over the spring, summer, and fall, and maybe work out more.
-Write some stories: As I type this, I am simultaneously typing stories for the school's literary magazine, Menagerie, and have a detailed plan for a story with one of my friends. This is the year I actually start writing my stories down.
-Get straight A's: Unfortunately, with a B in AP Euro first semester, this is not going to happen first semester. But since my second semester seems like it's going to be really easy, I'm going to really throw my full weight behind AP Euro in the attempt to get an A in every class. Let's do it!

That's all for now, folks!