Just a quick note to let ever’body know that I’ll be at Quakecon in Dallas this weekend. If anyone happens to be going (yeah, i know there’s a 10^-50 chance of that), drop me a line here and we can meet up there. Just gotta put that out there. You never know.

I’ll be there as a photographer, so you can probably expect some cool stuff on the flickr. It’s probably not exactly going to be my cup o’ tea, gamingwise, but I’ll make the best of it.

I’ll add a little on my thoughts about conventions later, but I’m pretty excited about this.

Update! Thoughts on conventions!

Okay, I haven’t really liked conventions. I haven’t been to one in years though. I used to be a lot less comfortable with myself, self-confident, able to talk to people, etc etc etc, than I am now. I loved going to them because there’s always lots of cool things to seem, but I hated going because they’re full of people. People who seem to be singlemindedly obsessed with whatever the theme of the convention is. Guitars, anime, copy editing, whatever. It’s… weird.

Another reason I think they’re dumb is because there’s not a lot to do after you look at all the pretty stuff and blow all your money. Except hang out with other people. And I’m back at point number one.

But I’ll have a purpose here. To find interesting situations and exploit them. And I’m better about meeting/talking with people and all that crap now. Especially since my job as a photographer for the community paper required me to talk to people and find out who they are. A lot of them were actually very nice.

So. It should be fun. I’ll have a camera, a DS, a GBM and a farcical attitude toward FPS fans. How could it not be fun?

Update, day zero. (The con starts tomorrow)

There wasn’t much going on but more messy setup. I snapped a few and vowed to return the next afternoon. They’re up at you know where.

Update, day one.

I shot random computer users in the BYOC area. Most notable was this case with a Gamecube built in. WHAT. They were playing Smash Bros. on it. Also, the big server has a Touching is Good sticker inside. That’s awesome.

And then there was this talent show kinda thing. This guy did some amazing bubble tricks before it starts. Check out the series.

I maxed out my 2GB SD card today with pictures. Many of them should be available on the Quakecon site soon. I’ll put up a link when they do. In the meantime, the ones that are the best (to me) will be at the flickr.

Update, day two. I wore my fedora today and brought 3 friends to the convention. The fedora just rocks. I kept doing the “flustered reporter” gesture for kicks. (lift hat, wipe brow, look exhausted and overwhelmed, then look determined as you pull the hat back down) It sure made me feel like a member of the press. I got some weird looks after the convention at a restaurant. I mean, I looked pretty odd. Fedora, camera around my neck, purple They Might Be Giants shirt, big backpack of photo stuff, creepy-tired expression, messed up hair poking out from the hat.

Mainly, I shot the Guitar Hero contest. What I learned is that shooting two hours worth of people playing Guitar Hero is about as interesting as shooting two hours of someone sleeping. People don’t really do a lot of interesting things while they’re playing. Heck, most people don’t even play that controller like a guitar. They push the little strum bar with their thumb. Not me though. I made it to round 2 of the tournament. I rock back and forth on the bar. I smack it like a guitar. I play guitar with remorseless fury sometimes.

I couldn’t take pictures of myself though.

I think I’m going to sit out the rest of the con. It’s just wearing on me. I didn’t really feel like staying after GH, so I left.

All in all, I liked the convention. It wasn’t exactly interesting to me, since it was all about FPSs and graphics cards, but I managed to fit in and enjoy myself just as well. The tonnage of people was really what wore me down and made me want to leave. After two days of noise and crowds, I’m dying to be somewhere lonely and quiet.