I just came back from QuakeCon 2007. Setting out, I had big plans to get into Dallas early, do some volunteer work to get it set up, meet up with some friends, spend the weekend playing Open Beta 2, and working on my 4Newbies site.

None of this came to pass and things started to go wrong from the very beginning:

Despite repeated looks at my itinerary, for some reason, I had it in my head that I was departing from SFO at 6:35 AM. Lo and behold, when I try to check in on-line on Tuesday, it says I can't, it has to be 24 hours before the flight. What! I frantically check my flight info again and I see DEP SFO 6:35 PM. Crap, that blows my entire plan to get in by lunch time and put in some volunteer hours. After some searching around, I resign myself to the fact that I can't change this and doing so would cost more than it's worth.

So I finally get on my flight and head out to Dallas. We arrive at midnight and I collect my bags from the baggage claim and call Super Shuttle for the pick up. The driver arrives soon, but waits 40 minutes because he has another scheduled pick up who hasn't arrived yet. Periodically, he drives off and circles around back to the terminal. I start getting frustrated. The driver finally gets clearance to leave the fare and we leave the airport -- it is now 12:40 or so. No sooner do we get out of the airport than he gets the call that his passenger has arrived and we do a u-turn and head back into the airport. Shit!

Finally, we get to the Hilton Anatole around 1:10 AM and I'm really looking forward to checking in and getting some sleep. Guess what, the lady at the desk informs me that someone called at 12:24 AM and canceled my reservation. Besides QuakeCon, they have a Mary Kay and a Deloitte & Touche group here and there are no more rooms. Sigh. Fortunately, I stay rational and she is able to help me. She can get me a room with a king bed tonight, but I'll have to change rooms the next day. Fine, but I ask her to comp me breakfast for the trouble, which she agrees to, with the caveat that she doesn't have access to them right now but will slide one under the door. OK, I'm going to bed.

I wake up early the following day and at 6:00 AM, lug all of my computer stuff down to the Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) registration area so that I can get in line. We sit there for close to 3 hours before they start opening registration. Meanwhile the line grows behind me. We shuffle up, one at a time, to get our equipment inventoried and checked for security reasons. While in line, I get a call from one of my friends (Dave/Detox) who tells me he's still on the road, but has another friend Aaron/StrikerV) who's already there and asks if I can help him out a bit, as this is his first QuakeCon. Sure, no problem. We play a little bit of phone tag but finally hook up and we continue to shuffle forward in line. Finally, I get my computer into the door and find a place to set it up, which I do. As the last check, I power it up to make sure everything works and, it get a warning notice, but everything fires up -- Cool! Turn it off and head off to do other things -- like changing rooms, getting Aaron's computer, obtaining the breakfast voucher that was promised me, and stuff.

After getting this done, I head back to the BYOC to power my computer up and get in some playing. Nothing! It's stuck in a boot up cycle and I can see a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) floating by very quickly. Shit! This is not turning out to be a good start to QuakeCon. I find a helpful guy at the Help Desk and he runs some diagnostics and seems to think it's a hardware problem, which for liability reasons, they are not allowed to touch. He suggests that I try remounting the HDD, GFX card, and the RAM units. I do this ... nothing ... my computer, which I dragged + monitor, all the way from San Francisco is completely dead in the water. My spirits sink lower and lower.

Wait, there is a possibility I can still work on my website and post some updates on the new maps being shown. FTP is blocked! I can write stuff, but there is no way to post it.

So, I basically will not be able to do anything that I have been planning for all this time. Everything that could go wrong apparently did. My carefully laid plans were struck by the golden bb of misfortune.

But you know what? I had a blast:

- Met up with .bebop. and Guns from the Austin Server for lunch Thursday. We were supposed to meet Old Vet too, but apparently he got a little confused and went to the wrong hotel. Thereafter, continued to see them as well as jp, Peter Jennings (handle, not the real one), and his girl friend.
- Shared pizza in the atrium with some of the 20ID guys just chatted about ETQW and games in general. Continue to see and chat with them over the weekend.
- Enjoyed evening beers upstairs in Detox's room with Icculus, Odin, RedAnt, Stronghold, and a couple of other people from the ND80 servers and else where. I continue stopping up at their room more or less every night and getting to bed around 2:00 - 2:30 or so.
- Sat through a great key note talk from Todd Hollenshead and John Carmack, watch a ton of great ETQW and Quake matches, including the 1 v 1 quick draw contents

http://www.quakecon.org/coverage.php <-- GGL match videos and shoutcast

- Collected t-shirts and swag from throughout the vendor area - it's for the kids
- Saw some very cool things coming down the road, like the Phillips abBX system which delivers 360 degree ambiance
- Played lots of QuakeWars on the demo machines ... on 42" plasma displays and find that my config is included as part of the build
- Found [SD]Badman and chat with him throughout the convention. He's the community relations manager for Splash Damage and I chat with him on a regular basis on IRC. We even manage to team up a bit on Island to shoot some noobs.
- Finally got my comp breakfast and filled up Friday morning ... didn't have to eat again until dinner (after the key note)
- Sat through a really fun closing ceremonies with the Quad Damage and ETQW finals being played up on the stage, as well as some Guitar Hero 2. id provide free beer and hors d'ourves. Imagine a kind of a rock band atmosphere, but with gamers. Lots of t-shirt give aways and other prizes being given out.

Oddly enough, in the midst of one of the largest LAN parties in the country, because my computer wasn't working, this was the most disconnected I've been in a long time, which was kind of nice.

Lastly, a big shout out to Susana and the kids for letting me come all the way out here to play. Every night, when I talked to Matthew and Benjamin, Matthew would ask, "what games are you playing?" and I would report, "I'm playing QuakeWars", which he would dutifully report back to Benjamin, "daddy says he's playing QuakeWars".