origins again

[jazzfish]

Um. I went back and forth between the Lab and the hotel room a lot trying to remain functional enough to run Fluxx tournaments and still have some amount of fun with uilos while breaking the fever. Didn't work terribly well, although we did manage to get to a single outside-the-Lab event (Shear Panic, which has awesome sheep and is an okay game) and walked the exhibit hall a bit. On what I guess must have been Friday night I pulled myself together enough to send heptadecagram on a Kroger run for ibuprofen and orange juice. He returned with these things and also with an Ohio State sweatshirt, in which I remained bundled for most of the rest of the con.

Games. Convinced rbandrews to purchase Duel in the Dark, a two-player game about British bombing raids over Germany. Basically, the British player preprograms the flight path of the bomber, then the German player sets up static defences, then the bomber makes its run while the British and German fighters try to defend and attack it respectively. It's neat and not very wargamey at all. There was the aforementioned Shear Panic. I acquired Inkognito, an interesting partnership deduction game featuring the Nun of Fate, and Attribute, which looks kind of like Apples to Apples if that were a game and not merely a party activity. And a couple of very nifty-looking small-press RPGs, about which more anon (probably in the media log).

People. Missed seeing practically everyone from Boston (xalolo was just about it; ndkid isn't really "from Boston"). Managed to meet a few new people (a handful of Fluxx players, and elvenyukiryu who gives backrubs, and apparently-LJ-less Jessie Clark from just north of Abingdon), and met and remembered this time muzikmaker21. Didn't get nearly as many hugs as I would have liked due to fear of contagion.

Food. North Market is of course made of awesome. Maybe next year I'll get to try their ice cream. Ongolian was closed on Wednesday for the Fourth so we went to a place where they give you too much good Italian food to split among a bunch of people instead. Tasty but, well, it's not Ongolian. Other than that I didn't really eat a whole lot, or taste much of what I ate.

I really do feel like I missed half of Origins this year. I didn't even get to compete in the IIT. With any luck next year will be better.

Comments

you know

[cthulhia]

you could visit boston. >.>

Re: you know

[jazzfish]

It's a possibility. Someday when all my vacation time isn't eaten up by "Seattle" it will even happen. (Arisia is, what, in January?)

Re: you know

[zyxwvut.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's Martin Luther King Day weekend.

Official info here (http://www.arisia.org).

Z

P.S.: Thanks for helping score those IIT games.

[rbandrews]

Didn't take much convincing, once I saw it worked single-player.

I got to try North Market's ice cream, and it's pretty good, but no better than the Ice Cream Crank.

[uilos.livejournal.com]

They have a variety of flavors that probably never would have worked for Ice Cream Crank. And you didn't try any of their weird stuff. A quality vanilla ice cream to me is pretty indistinguishable from another quality vanilla ice cream, but lavender-early grey or chili-chocolate are something you just can't get at normal ice cream places.

Speaking of which, if you ever make it up here we're taking you to Moorenko's.

[jazzfish]

There /is/ a certain point beyond which homemade ice cream just depends on the flavors available. (As E points out, Moorenko's in McLean has cinnamon, and pomegranate sorbet, and thus is worth going to.)

[rbandrews]

Pomegranate I've found is a flavor I like only in Pomegranates. Otherwise it's just too sweet.

[uilos.livejournal.com]

This is gloriously sour, make your face pucker pomegranate. Or maybe that's the grapefruit sorbet I'm thinking of.

[rbandrews]

Well that sounds good then. : )

[ndkid.livejournal.com]

Were there people from Boston at Con that just never made it to the lab? (I can think of about three Bostonians, and I don't remember seeing any of them. Oh, plus yvraine, so I feel confident I would've noticed if she were actually at the convention this year.)

Do I never get to be from Boston because you lived with me in Blacksburg, or is it one of those things I can earn with extended years here? I can try talking about "pah-king cahs" if it'll help, but I won't like it.

[jazzfish]

Nobody I associate as "boston" was there except for you and Chris. (Zarf is Boston by default, since I don't really /have/ a place with which I associate him.)

You're B'burg because that's where my primary association with you is. Kind of like how Sugarbaker is "berkeley" despite living in Portland, or Atlanta-Cat will always be Atlanta-Cat.

[ndkid.livejournal.com]

Oddly, I think I associate Zarf with the Pittsburgh Warren.