theshaggyfreak

Despite the Waves sale, I'm steering clear. I've never been a fan of their draconian licensing. A lot of people like them, though.

I'll be coming over to the hotel Thursday morning. It's a pretty short trip for me.

I've know a few people who switched to tablets for this very reason. I have one that I sometimes use but it definitely takes some practice to use them. In the end, I found it was the shape of the mouse that was the problem for me. A smaller sized mouse always strains my hand much quicker.

Here's some tips from me to you... For those who like coffee, DO NOT use the little coffee vending type machines you'll see around the hotel. I'm not a coffee snob but the stuff these things serve is vile. There is, however, a little Starbucks like coffee place in the hotel that serves a fairly decent cup. Price wise, it's about on par with Starbucks and the like. They also serve sammiches which are over priced but decent. For those who will be coming to the area for the firs time, there are plenty of places to eat around the National Harbor area. Be aware, though, that they get quite crowded in the evening and at typical meal times. Potbelly's is one of my favorite places. They have good sammiches and they're fairly quick to get your food to you. A lot of the other quick serve places get bogged down quite quickly and you might end up waiting 45 minutes or so to get your food. Pizza places will deliver to the hotel but their hours of doing so are kind of weird from what I remember. The place we had the most like with was Pizza Boli's It worked out quite well when we made an order of like 15 pizzas for a huge lot of us. If you can, bring snacks with you. I tend to keep granola bars and things like that around for when I feel my sugar dropping. It's not that far of a walk to get to the convention area to where your room is. This will also save you from buying too many expensive snacks from the hotel itself. Speaking of being close to your hotel room with concerns to sleep. Despite not being much of a partier, I often found myself hanging out with people into the wee hours of the night. Being so close to your room makes power naps an option! I'm old, though. Us geezers need our naps. Still, taking a nap here and there made it so that I could enjoy events that I wanted to see. Hrm...I think that's it for now.

I'll pretty much be around prior to MAGfest. We don't really have any plans for NYE or anything either. So, if anyone wants to play some games or jam around in my studio, you'd be welcome to do so. Also, I know that many of you would enjoy going to Starland and it's right up the road from me.

If package stealing becomes an issue, get a PO Box. You can ship stuff from Fedex and UPS to PO Boxes now since the USPS can provide you with a physical address for this purpose.

Everything. No limits.

Let's try to keep most of our clothes on this time.

Yay! I'm looking forward to hanging out with everyone. Good times shall be had!

Let's start our own website! There are times when I've actually thought about doing it. I know that it's a lot easier said than done but I wouldn't mind being a game reviewer if I had the chance.

Most of these type of 'award' shows are industry people patting each other on the back. It's that plus giving certain people face time with the media. There really isn't a single thing unbiased about them.

I have found reading to be a very important part of the learning process. There are a number of concepts and ideas that I would have gotten a handle on if it wasn't for studying being part of what I do. The other key thing for me is to physically watch someone work but I'm rather visual person. Also, if you can afford it, take some classes whether it be online or from a local community college. Yes, you can learn a plethora of stuff by trial and error. I would never make that my one and only choice for learning, though. There's just too much to gain from another persons experience. Never stop learning.

Speaking of Secret Santa gifts...mine came in the mail today. Thanks, Santa Rexy! I was rather amused at how the packaging for DS games is different in the UK. I didn't know that for some reason. I ordered the Christmas Booster pack for Cards Against Humanity and that came in the mail today too. I still need to get the original deck, though. I should probably do that at some point soon.

My SS gift should go out today. Hopefully they'll be pleasantly surprised.

Harmonicas are great because they're cheap and anyone can learn to play them fairly quickly. Not only that but they fit right in your pocket.

I'd have to agree with this! Right now I only have on in the key of G that I was given years ago. I need to get more at some point.

Yep. They're these: http://usa.yamaha.com/products/music-production/speakers/hs_series/hs80m/

Will PM you right now. I'm definitely in.

Kate and I loved it. I loved it enough to buy this:

So, I'm finally starting to get back to doing weekly one hour compos that go along with my web comic. I'm trying to get back in the habit of doing this sort of thing since it does wonders for my brain. This is a little jazzy sort of thing that I just kind of threw together on the quick. I have to say, I really love that sax patch and am pretty impressed that it's just FM synthesis. Anyway, here's the linky... http://www.bsodcomic.net/2012/11/09/run-through/

Here's my desk sporting the new monitors.

Problem solved! Apparently this exists: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/embeddedform?formkey=dGUyRjZpY01sZTc5VTBzVG9WNGRYT0E6MA

Right now I'm trying to confirm who to speak to so that I can make sure I'm in the OCR room block. I had put in my hotel reservation quite a while back. For those that don't know, Marriot is now doing all of the Gaylord's reservations as of the beginning of this month. I called and spoke to someone at Marriot and they didn't have anything in their system other than my hotel room being for MAGfest and that she didn't have anything in her system on room blocks for sub groups of the convention. So, I'm not waiting for the hotel coordinator, Colette, to call me back about all this. If anyone else has better information on the situation, please let me know.

Oh, I also do have a four channel headphone mixer that I need to get rid of. http://www.zzounds.com/item--BEHHA4700

Hrm, I'm going to have to pass on the iPad. With the iPad mini being $329, I really can't justify spending $250 on a 1st gen iPad. I think the most I could offer is around $150.