Found Laying Around the Shop

Thursday, August 23, 2007

on the eve of distraction: Fat goeth to PAX (what rough beast slouches toward Washington)

It's rarely difficult for me to pack--what I lug around on the daily is more than enough to carry me thru a couple days of travel or whatever (I Dress for Adventure). Seriously. I never leave the house without at least the following:
DS or other beloved little handheld
Leatherman multitool
mini-Maglite
Benchmade stabbing knife
arm warmers (in case of inclement, typical Oregon weather)
extra layer in case of chill (ranging from extra tshirt to extra hoody)
brace of pens/pencils
notebook
travel mug for coffee
chewing gum
largish purse, or, during the rainy season, giant purse
small flask (in case of snakebite...or untenable, awful, wretched sobriety)
spare pair of socks, in case of waterloggedtoeitis

This means that rolling to PAX is largely a matter of finding my large flask and throwing a couple of pairs of extra socks into my giant purse. Maybe another tshirt... (And all available chargers, of course.)

The fun part is always choo-choo-choosing the media to lug along. Trains are dull, and hotel rooms aren't much better, and I didn't co-found a videogame fansite to not play videogames in dull environments while at a videogame convention. My DS has been waning a hair of late, so all I really wanted to take along was
Star Trek Tactical Assault, so maybe I could finish it, finally
Gunpey, because I just can't quit you, Gunpey
maybe Sprung, which Canada found for me at Fry's for a fucking five-spot.

Gibson's new one, Spook Country--I've always had good luck reading new books when I roll up to Seattle, and. Well. It's Gibson's new one.

For my beloved little micro, I wanted to pull along
Metroid Zero Mission, which I hit a wall on today, but which is pretty much all I need to play lately
River City Ransom, because sometimes nothing else will do (and gimmie a break: noway is Daddy leave-behind the democratically-elected OFFICIAL GAME OF REVIEWIERA)
Polarium, because sometimes you have to stare at some static puzzles instead of moving pictures
and I'd had a strange craving to play Yoot Saito's rather good Tower.

Kept nagging at me, though: I knew I had to prepare for the awesome social possibilities offered by the DS and its delightful wire-free fi. I mean, I never leave the house without Metroid Prime Pinball anyway, so of course PAX wouldn't be any different. Then, last night, after a boneriffic lap dance, I finally checked the schedule.

There's a lounge, all day every day, entitled "Handheld Lounge". There's an abberrant hour and a half labeled "PSP Games", but the remainder is like most of my time: wholly dominated by DS titles. And certain blocks of time are to be devoted to, I would assume, tournament-type play. So I had to dust off
Meteos
Metroid Prime: Hunters
Osu! Tatake! Ouendan!

So there's three games I've barely touched for eons. At all of these, I'm sure to soak up abuse and failure. --I expect to be at least competitive at Metroid Prime Pinball, but then again, competing with the sort of people willing to travel to a videogame convention? Man, fuck me. Fuck me! With any luck, I shall exhibit a typical Reviewieran level of sportsmanship and decorum, however...

Confidential to DDT: please keep some time freed up o'er the weekend in case I need you to bail me out of some ass-eaten Seattle jail cell, after clubbing some doughy putz about his scabby melon after attracting that two dozenth sniggering headshot.

'K. Off to recheck the schedule, and top off those flasks.

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