KoL Con 3-D: Day One

So my day started normally enough, waking up at five AM. Being in a different time zone messes up my sleep cycles. Did you know the Soviet Union had eleven time zones? In any case, the previous night on the forums I commiserated with fellow Loather and forum mod stargazer67 about the state of the hotel at which we both happened to be staying. Although both of us had registered online to a Holiday Inn Express, the actual hotel is a Best Western. Even the taxi driver that drove me from the hotel that I thought I was staying at thought it was a Holiday Inn. She was also going to AYCE sushi in the morning and we met in the lobby around eleven today. We found Ninja Sushi without problem and met up with phyphor and Umbra_Angelus from the KoL Player Pics Page (who, coincidentally, stargazer67 was meeting to drive them to their clan house) and proceeded to TEAR THAT RESTAURANT DOWN! I mean, consume incredible amounts of vinegared rice. 39 KoL players in total enjoyed the succulent sushi that Ninja had to offer. I ate so much I nearly died (not really) as did everyone else. phyphor and Umbra_Angelus regaled us with the many differences between the UK and the US, including the irony of the penny. The two had also brought 25 pounds of chocolate over from the UK with them to distribute to, among others, the Asymmetric staff.

Hence, Xenophobe invited us to the Asymmetric Publishing World Headquarters.

Since we were expected, the security guards didn't trouble us too much as we parked the car in the secured lot. We took the gleaming chrome express elevator to the glassed-in offices on the 37th floor. We met Armak and Riff and got a tantalizing glimpse of one of the Eight New Zones, as well as the October item of the month and the list of things to nerf. I gave Riff the Tiny Plastic Riff from the Lego Cannon Museum and he set it on his desk (next to his thirty inch Cinema Display). Yay! We also happened to meet Xylinia as she stopped in to oversee the state-of-the-art shipping department. We hadn't gotten our preregistration packets so she hand-delivered them. I gave her the Tiny Plastic Xylinia and she put it next to her computer (a Cray of some sort, I didn't recognize it because it seemed to be a prototype of some kind). On our way back down we stopped in at the legal department on the eleventh floor and signed non-disclosure agreements so we wouldn't talk about the [redacted] and the [also redacted], not to mention Riff's Un-botable puzzle. I seriously didn't mention that right now. Everyone please stop by the pikamac dot com legal department for some signing when you get a chance.

Armak had a fantastic coffee place/hookah bar called Coffee Society but he was used to driving in LA traffic and stargazer67's rental car was not as nimble. We went back to the hotel, found directions, and made our way to the coffee bar. There we met Thor and Adra and I enjoyed a white mocha and several pulls on the hookah. Even though I don't smoke, the flavorful shisha tobacco (leaf tobacco mixed with molasses and flavoring) was smooth and stimulating. Fun!

Then off to Gameworks for free food and seven dollar Guinness and ciders. I got to shake Jick's hand, gave Skully his Tiny Plastic etcetra etcetra had two beetles fight each other, drew a ASBM comic, and got a 30 minute lesson in the finer points of the Tron arcade game from a non-KoL stranger. Also, I won three stuffed hedgehogs from the claw games (after offering to bribe the attendent he gave me many pointers).

Now it's four in the morning and I know there's so much I'm forgetting. I'm so wired from the espresso that I may not sleep at all tonight. But sleep I must, as the BBBQ starts tomorrow at eleven. After that is the costume party at a house rented just for the purpose of partying. I found out today the Minibosses will be playing at the party. Yeah. Also: open bar.

The official purpose of Sunday is this: Triage.