Photo Shoot

Had a great time at the photo shoot yesterday.  Here is a quick shot of my wife wearing her It’s Just Begun shirt by DJ Funktuall – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1204481232 or check out his YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/funktuall. 

Birthday celebration

Had a great Sunday with the family. Instead of the usual breakfast at Denny’s then coming home, we decided we would have breakfast at home then head to Bird Bowl (local bowling alley) for some fun.  We ran into the manager (a great friend) who did a little playing with our scoreboard. Yes, we were celebrating my belated 40th birthday (since it was the first day off with the whole family). Somehow we ended up with extra time for our games (thanks to the manager again). Then from there we headed to Dolphin Mall to try and get the two little ones some books for school but they closed down the Borders and put some stupid toy store there.  So we walked around the mall looking for some snow jackets for our trip to Tenessee in January to no avail.  Then we headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings for some lunch and watch a little football.

AT&T Fail

I have had nothing but problems ever since installing U-Verse for my internet. On Saturday, November 12, I had a female tech show up and was told that this was for the INTERNET ONLY. When the second tech showed up, he was told the same thing. He told the female tech not to touch the landline as I was only getting the internet part. She said no problem. Once everything was done, he asked my wife to call in and out from the landline to make sure it was working. She did and everything was good. Then, Monday morning NO LANDLINE. I immediately called AT&T U-Verse and spent over 3 hours on the phone with them (from my cell phone). I was told that by close of business that night, I would have my phone line back. Tuesday morning, checked the phone line, and still NOTHING. No dial tone, NOTHING. I again called AT&T U-verse from my cell phone and spent over 2 hours explaining to them what happened. They patched me through to a Wayne Johnson who told me he was the evening supervisor and that in the morning he would be turning this over to the morning shift manager and he would be getting back to me. Next morning NO CALL, NO DIALTONE, NOTHING! Went to work and spent several hours on the phone with a Veronica (ID# VC0977 out of the Ft. Lauderdale office). She told me that nothing had been submitted so she was going to be on top of it and it would take 24-48 hours to get remedied and that she would call me back to give me an update. Shocker! No CALL, no dialtone, NOTHING. Then on Monday, Nov 21, my wife called AT&T U-Verse and she was told that a technician would show up on the 29th (WHAT?!?!?!?! 17 days without landline for something THEY screwed up?) Today I resorted to going onto their Facebook page and left a comment on their page. Low and behold, my post was answered within a few minutes (wish I had resorted to this beforehand). I was then put in contact with ATTMartyC@att.com who called me and told me that he was sending this to the AT&T escalation team and that they should be in contact with me sometime within the next 24 hours. Let’s see what happens.

Reflections of 9/11

September 11, 2001

I remember that day like it was yesterday even though it was 10 years ago. I was staying with my mother-in-law in Maitland FL (outside Orlando). I worked till 1am that morning at Dominoe’s and finally got to sleep around 3 am. My wife had just got home from taking our son to school that morning. I woke up just as the first plane hit the first tower. I remember wondering ‘what the hell happened to make a plane hit the WTC’? As watching the coverage of that, I saw the second plane banking behind it as it was making an approach on the second tower. And stood in shock as we watched it hit the second tower live on TV. I remember people jumping to their deaths to escape the tremendous heat from the fires. Then we received the phone call from the school that they were closing the school, to come pick up our son. We went to pick him up and Orlando was a ghost town. There was rumors that Orlando was a target for a possible terrorist attack. We stayed watching the news all day as they were trying to make heads or tails out of the days events. I called friends who were on the police force and were in the military to find out what they were told and make sure all was well. Everyone we talked to were in as much shock as we were. My heart sank as we were watching the events unfold as they did and heard about the third plane hitting the pentagon and then about the fourth plane that the courageous passengers brought down before it hit its intended target (still speculation about where it was headed). This is the first time I had ever felt that we were not safe on American soil. Having worked in law enforcement at a military installation, I knew that what was being passed on the the public was just tidbits. I knew we were under attack. I knew that being in a major tourist town such as Orlando, there was a possibility of an attack much closer to home. I went to work that afternoon and while delivering pizza’s, I had never seen anything like I did that day. Orlando was a ghost town. Noone was on the streets. Everyone was home watching the news unfold. I still to this day get choked up when thinking about the events that happened on that somber day. My heart and prayers go out to all those that died needlessly that day and friends and families that were affected by that horrendous attack that day. And to all those that are fighting for our rights as Americans, God Bless you and your families and friends. Let us NEVER EVER forget about those that gave, and still to this day, give their lives for us to enjoy the freedoms that we have today as Americans.

GenCon Indy followup!

Last day in Indianapolis as we wait in the Super 8 lobby on our taxi to the airport.  Diana and Chris are playing Redakai while I type up this blog post and as we charge all our electronics for a long trip home.  I am saddened a bit that this week FLEW by and another GenCon is over and done with.  In hind sight, I think we did just about everything we wanted except get some more mini painting in.  Only had a 1 hour beginners class and thats it.  The Killer Breakfast was great.  We had a blast talking afterwards with Tracy and Laura Hickman.  We spent quite a bit in the dealer’s hall, but all in all, happy with our purchases.  We had planned on going in the pool at the hotel, just couldn’t fit it in our time.  By the time we hit the hotel every night, we basically went right to sleep.  Pretty much laid off the BAD foods.  My blood sugar increasingly went down daily on our trip.  Met many wonderful people that I have either met last year or have talked to on the GenCon forums, tweeted with, or facebooked with (why does that sound naughty?).  Unfortunately, we were not able to eat at Bynums steakhouse nor hang out with @Kat Armstrong, but maybe next year.

 

GenCon Day Three

Today was the busiest day of our GenCon 2011 trip.  Got up at 5am to shower and get ready.  Unfortunately the toilet refused to flush so had to get maintenance to come and fix it. Waited around till 6am but they didn’t show up so had to go back down to the front desk to find out where they were and eat continental breakfast while waiting.  After eating breakfast, we headed back to the hotel to see if the toilet was fixed which it was.  Got ready and called a taxi as I really didn’t want to have to walk the couple of miles to the bus stop.  The taxi got us to the convention center in approximately 10 minutes (as opposed to 30-35 minutes had we taken the bus). At approximately 8am, we headed to room 500 for the Hickman’s Killer Breakfast.  We ended up being about tenth in the observers line which gave us a GREAT seat.  Chris had no clue what to expect and was happily surprised.  Tracy and Laura did not disappoint.  If you attend GenCon and do NOTHING else, attend the Killer Breakfast.  It is WELL worth the price.  And this year, Tracy did 2 breakfasts, one on Friday morning and his original on Saturday morning.  From there, we had grabbed lunch and then off to the comedy show, Who’s Line Is It Anyways.  This was hilarious.  If you have ever seen the TV show, this is just like that with a slight gamers edge.  Diana and Chris went up on stage several times.  Absolutely worth the ticket.  We will be doing this again next year.  We had to leave there slightly early so we could make it to our miniature painting class.  Michelle (minipainterink@yahoo.com or http://MiniPainterInk.wordpress.com) was a great teacher.  We then ran into Lyn Stahl (search her on Google+ and tell her I sent ya) that we met last year at the miniature family paint and take last year.  Hopefully she will read this post and get in touch with the wife and I.  After the class, we ran downstairs to catch the costume parade.  Many great costumes.

From there we headed back to the dealers hall and the Bandai (http://bandaicg.com) to spin for Naruto booster packs.  Chris won three, I won a deck case and Diana won a double booster pack.  Then off to the Reaper minis booth (http://ReaperMini.com) to purchase the GenCon exclusive 12 paint case and bought the LAST three brushes they had (which upset several people that were there including one that was in the mini painting class with us).   From there, we headed to the XDM booth with Tracy and Laura Hickman to sign up for the Dragon’s Bard Blackshore (http://dragonsbard.com or http://scribesforge.com) treasure chest and purchase the book.  We even picked up Tracys newest book, Citadels of the Lost.  Spoke with Tracy and Laura a bit and they even agreed to take a picture with Chris.  They are such a great couple and very approachable and will talk with their fans.  They even extended a personal invitation to Chris to join them up on stage next year to die an extra special death.  This really made my son feel good and he agreed he would.

And for our final planned event of the day, we went over to the Fantasy Flight Games (http://fantasyflightgames.com) for Chris and Diana to demo the card game Rune Age.

GenCon Indy, Day 2

The day started off bad, woke up late. Forgot to set the alarm on the iPhone so had to skip a few demos and head directly to the This Just In podcast (@TJIPodcast) with my buddy Daniel Perez (far right) and his partner, Rich (far left).

From there, we headed to lunch. Luckily, there was NO line and they actually had pizza (unlike yesterday). Ate that and then headed to the dealers hall. Bought a Yu-Gi-Oh binder and several booster packs for my son. Then walked around and went over to my buddies at Fat Dragon games (http://fatdragongames.com) to get their EZ Dungeons 3 and Cliffside sets. Tom, the owner, is great. As my son was playing M:TG on the PS3, Diana was talking with Marooned, the pirate singers. Bought several of their music CD’s and had a nice conversation with them about maybe heading to Deerfield Beach for the Florida Ren Faire.
Then we headed to the Sagamore Ballroom to play The Legend of Drizzt D&D boardgame. We all had fun playing this.

We also picked up a card game called Redakai (same as the cartoon on the Cartoon Network).  Its a 3-d card battling type game.  Really cool.  If you like those type of games, I highly recommend picking this one up.

 

 

GenCon Indy Day 1

Good morning!  This is the will call line for this morning.  There had to be at least 500-600 people in the line.  Yesterday, the line was half the length and it STILL took 45 minutes to get our will-call items.  Next year I am going to get the items shipped to my house with insurance.

We first started off with the Basic Chainmail dice bag.  We all had a great time.  Its alot harder than it looks. I almost finished mine, Diana and Chris still need to do quit a bit. Jessica & Matt were crazy, but very helpful.  I just wish I was able to finish it.  Now I dont think it will ever be finished.

Then we went to go TRY to find food.  First place, no meat.  Second place, only two slices of OLD pizza.  Third place, the hamburgers were still frozen so we had to wait for 15 minutes to get burgers.

After lunch, we walked around the Dealer’s Hall to pass some time till Chris’ event to make his foam sword.  Chris bought a box of 200 Yu-Gi-Oh cards.  After that, he went to his last event of the day, Learn to play LOTR card game while the wife and I went upstairs for our Cardstock Modeling class.

Then we left and jumped on a broken bus that kept overheating so no a/c.  Hope we don’t have to go through that ever again.  Then dinner at Bob Evans (since Chris had never eaten there).  That was a mistake.  I ordered the meatloaf with mashed potatoes and corn and it arrived ICE COLD.  Had to send it back.  By the time they brought it back, Chris and Diana had finished their dinner and I lost my appetite.  Hopefully breakfast is better.

Now we are back at the hotel looking at things we picked up and reading on how to play some games.

Revised GenCon 2011 Itenerary

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

0800 – Depart Ft. Lauderdale Airport United Airlines #1505

1056 – Arrive Newark Liberty Int’l

1324 – Depart Newark Liberty Int’l United Airlines #4737

1527 – Arrive Indianapolis Int’l

Pick up Will Call tickets and Badges

1700 – GenCon Meet n Greet @ Scottys Brewhouse

Thursday, August 4, 2011

0900-1100 Basic Chainmail Bag – WKS1117975 Marriot::Lincoln

1400-1500 Crafting Foam Weapons WKS1124255 ICC : Hall K : Active Combat Area

1500-1700 Intro to card stock modeling WKS1124316 ICC : 201

1500-1700 Learn to play LOTR CGM1128574 ICC  Hall F : Fantasy Flight : HQ

Friday August 5, 2011

0900-1000 Dungeons & Dragons Convention Delve RPGA1126839 ICC : Sagamore Blrm : RPGA HQ

1000-1100 Mage Wars Demo BGM1129083 ICC : Hall E : Arcane Wonders : HQ

1100-1200 TJIGenCon Podcast SEM1128231 ICC: CSO4

1400-1600 D&D Adventure Board Game BGM1126903 ICC : Sagamore Blrm : RPGA HQ

1600-1800 Art of the Dungeon Master SEM127779 Marriott : Indiana Blrm G

Saturday, August 6, 2011

0900-1100 Hickmans Killer Breakfast ENT1118154 ICC : 500 Blrm

1200-1400 Who’s Line Is It Anyway ZED119308 Marriott : Indiana Blrm B

1400-1500 Mini Painting for Beginners MHE118074 ICC : 210 : 3

1600-1700 DM’s Roundtable SEM9540 Westin : Chamber

1700-1900 Rune Age CGM1121251 ICC : Hall F : Fantasy Flight : HQ

Sunday August 7, 2011

OPEN – Dealer Hall Walk – Pick Up Games

Monday, August 8, 2011

1730 – Depart Indianapolis Int’l Flight United Airlines #4628

1928 – Arrive Newark Liberty Int’l

2049 – Depart Newark Liberty Int’l Flight United Airlines #1608

2359 – Arrive Ft. Lauderdale Int’l

Well there it is, the *REVISED* Itenerary.

3 weeks till GenConIndy, the best 4 days in Gaming

Just picked up my business cards from Staples for GenCon. I am starting to pack my things (must haves for GenCon) and making decisions on what to take. Can’t wait. Will be blogging from the hotel when we make it back there from the days activities. Hoping to pick up lots of bag swag as well 🙂 Things I am really looking forward to are the Family paint and take miniatures, Hickman’s Killer Breakfast (even though actual breakfast isn’t served there), and learning to make a chain mail dice bag. This year we (the wife and I) are taking our oldest son. He is looking forward to some Pokemon B&W games and possibly Naruto pick up games.