Hella Rad Update

Ok time for a hella rad guest blog update, kids.

So, Cap and BGC are working together here to update the blog while Nick deals with work-related blueballs. Poor guy, he deserves a break with all the role playing and all the Jordancon and the blog all wearing down on him. Poor, poor guy. So we two heroes have stepped forwards to give him that break, and I guess we can do a pretty good job? Ehh, Cap?

ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ h e l l y e a

Hmm, alright.

This week, we're doing our best to keep the blog the same as usual, formatting wise, but throw our own little snarky twist on it. You all know cap has snark and sass in droves, so we're set in that department. We hope you don't mind the difference, and if you hardly notice, I guess that means we did a good job? Maybe???

sup, valucre

• Blood Diamond

• Ok so it looks like Roen has been messing around as usual, that big flabber mouth jerk *shade throwing intensifies*. It's not enough to be balls deep in WARP STUFF but he's gotta go and mess around with Gabriella DuGrace to boot, huh? Anyways, in here we see his lasting impression on the Queen of Orisa, and how she handles it all. She's obviously pretty stressed out about it, and who can blame her? I suggest reading this, it's wonderfully written as usual and full of all sorts of feels.
• Matchmaker, Make Me a Match~
• Sounds like something straight out of Mulan, so dishonor on you and your family and your cow, you know the schtick. Quoting from the thread, a Fae King has his little brother looking out for his interests, and is planning on finding some eligible bachelors and bachelorettes. So, if you want to be a royal, married to what is probably a really hot old fairy, and get set for life, you best go and check this thread out. Very important.
• Hella Rad Parties ???
• Some strange off-landers have arrived, crash landing into the islands of San Yara (which have just aligned with Terrenus). They’re here, queer, and ready to party hard. Where better to party than the tropical islands anyhow? So get over there and check it out stat.
• Casper is Looking for Captains
• With the Magic Regulation sweeping across Terrenus, there's a distinct lack of people who keep the law and the order (even though it's a shitty law). You can go to this thread, and set up a character as part of Casper's police force, and help regulate this (horrible) absolutely wonderful law. Quoting directly from the thread, "I'm looking specifically for master captains of the guard, one point of contact for the city in particular that would manage the law enforcement aspect of the city. Since it is in Casper it should enforce the law prohibiting the unlicensed use of magic but would apply for general crime and you are also free to recruit (friends or other players) to play guards."
• Gaianism I
• An open thread to delve into the idealism of the Terrenus religion. No shock that this should be hosted at none other than the Gaian Academy. Still, the thoughts behind every post are refreshing. Religion is something unique to every person, regardless of whether or not they call his or herself the same name. Therefore, it’s an interesting opportunity to put yourself into your character’s shoes and experience their take on religion, and how they interpret it.

other highlights

• San Yara to Bust Out Quests
• So I’m not just shamelessly self-promoting San Yara because it’s mine, but I genuinely think the quests to come are worth checking out (or at least staying in-tune to watch unravel). Butt’s been busting to bring out interesting lore and the bestiary has started to fill. Besides, who doesn’t want to sail the high seas, chase pirates, and search for ancient artifacts in the jungle? Who knows, maybe you’ll even have to stop a volcano eruption at some point.
• Valucre Site Market
• So the shop is temporarily down, if you haven't noticed. It doesn't affect a lot of stuff, but it's worth mentioning! Follow the link, and there you can find the old stuff you could purchase for your hard earned VB, such as name changes, advertisements, and your own little world for roleplays and stuff. Get to buyin'.
• Q1: Really bad according to Bastard-Tebo
• Alright, Tebo is famous for having really crappy computer components, while still managing to keep the site afloat. He deserves better, he needs better, and the site would probably be a hundo billy times better if he got this much needed equipment. A donation as small as five dollars could help him get there, and do you really need that overpriced coffee anyways? You can even get a reward for helping Tebo out! Refrigerator is giving away commissioned art in her Graphics Carnival, and higher donations get you better art. Can you say no to all of that? Hell no, so go and give Tebo some money. SUPPORT TEBO 2014 !!!

closing thoughts

I’ve the perfect idea for my closing thoughts. How about I talk about my Valucre experience thus far, ehh? Sounds like a plan, you’re a genius Chris. Stop talking to yourself, doofus.

I joined last year, near the end of November or the beginning of December, and was surprised to get something more than an automated response from the “admins,” like I received on Gaia when I joined in early 2007. There were people willing to extend a kind, warm hand to a new guy, and it make me feel good, honestly.

Soon after, I started roleplaying. At first with a few friends who migrated from Gaia along with me, but then I branched out, and met people that I can see being lifelong friends. I met Jay here, and that friendship became something more, which is pretty rad if I say so myself. I wrote, I became better with every post, but most of all, I became a part of something bigger. It wasn’t merely a community of friends, which I had become used to, or a group of people who just so happened to be in the same guild. Rather, it was an expansive community that stretched across the entire site, and into every nook and cranny one could find. You could roleplay with someone, down in Terrenus, who happens to be a major player in another part of the site, such as Tellus Mater or Genesaris. You could chat it up with a person who writes professionally, someone who sees this as mere sport, someone who sees it as a neat after school activity, and still someone else who sees it as an in depth hobby. The connections I’ve made on this site blow the connections I’ve made elsewhere out of the water, with very few outliers to the statement. I love Valucre, what it offers, and what I can offer it.

Also, it’s pronounced Val-u-cur, you pompous windbags.

-Big Gay Cockatoo

Sure, what he said.

But for real though, Valucre has been an awesome opportunity for me as well. Not only to better my writing skill and experience the techniques of others, but also to get involved in the community and make new friends (who happen to live like hours away but screw it).

Though I may be one of the younger members on Valucre, I always find myself incredibly welcomed and always enjoying things that go on around the site. Sappy words, sappy words, blah blah blah whatever. You’re welcome.

- Capricious

Jordancon Wrap Up

The one problem with doing a write-up on the con days after the fact is trying to remember all the details, all the little things that made this trip so enjoyable. Memories are funny like that, once rich and full and quickly filling with holes over time, making the specifics harder to recall than general thoughts and the feelings associated with them. Makes me feel like Mat sometimes (WoT reference)—always trying to get back those missing pieces, feeling like they remain just outside your grasp. Well, that’s how it goes, especially when you’re chronically sleep deprived. That isn’t to say I haven’t got loads of good memories from the trip, so to speak- I just can’t remember all the little details I wanted to share originally. I have got to start taking notes down, lol.

Saturday

Day two of the con! We all woke up a bit later than intended once again, but that’s what comes with staying up late watching bad movies. Stone made us all breakfast, which was both meaty and heavy on the oil- so deliciously terrible for us, but who cares, it’s vacation food. A few of us dashed down to the con thereafter, arriving in time to start hitting up some panels while the others stayed back with Amber, who was dressing up for the costume contest later that day. I got to sit in on a great panel on writing ‘Grit’ in stories, headed by Patrick Rothfus among others, and followed it up with a particularly bad panel on proofing (editors bitching rather than giving advice) and followed that one up with a fantastic panel on writing your first chapters.

The panels themselves ended and it was time for the costumed people to start gathering for judging. We stood around talking until the contest itself opened up to the whole convention, whereupon we took our seats and waited to see how things would go over. If you have ever been in Unval Chat when Amber did her belly dancing, you would be familiar with her costume then- and would not be surprised to hear that it was most certainly a ‘crowd favorite’ with the audience and the hosts. Her costume was a Tinker, for those who know the books. As it turned out, she was not a judge’s pick or a one of the top 3 winners, but she did hear from the hosts that “She should have won something”.

Pics for up to this point:

Amber Dressed as a Tinker

Dazzling the Hosts and the Audience...

All Contestants

Amber, possibly on the phone with her agent after the loss...

__

Saturday Night

After the contest, we ended up spending some time outside, standing around just talking and hanging out. Stone came out for a while with his friend Colton and we all had pocket conversations, mine centered on books (what else at a con for books?). We all decided not to hit the dance this year and instead headed back for the house, so we could get some food going. Amber made us a spaghetti squash spaghetti-dish, which- surprisingly was really damn good. Can’t say I expected what is generally a vegetarian dish (we added ground beef to ours) to turn out so well, but it really was quite excellent. 

On Friday, we had bought marshmallows because Amber said she was going to make Smores. At the time, she was trying to get Cody to participate in a game called, "Chubby Bunny" one that I am sure most people have heard of by this time- but if you haven't, it goes like this: You shove Marshmallows into your mouth, one at a time, and see if you can still say, "Chubby Bunny". The game itself seems kinda dumb, but as it turns out, watching other people trying to accomplish it is quite hilarious. Especially when said people begin to accidentally swallow the marshmallows.

After eating, we all spent some time outside, enjoying the pleasant evening air and each other’s company. Eventually, we decided to pack it in and put on some Monty Python and the Holy Grail, though by the end of it, Korrey and I were the only ones left awake. It was just after the movie ended that Stone gave me a buzz and said he was ready to come back from the con (he was there late this time around) so Korrey and I went and picked him and then came back. It was after we returned that I decided to call it a night myself and headed for bed.

Pictures:

Apparently, Jordan made us a replica of Stonehenge

Cody hates marshmallows. Therefore, he really disliked Chubby Bunny

Amber did not fare well either.

There is always one picture that capture's Amber's true essence. This is the one for this trip...

__

Sunday Day/Afternoon

Sunday morning, back up at early hours so I could get Stone back to the Con and then we had ourselves some breakfast before heading out on a hike. The park was fairly close to us and the entrance itself was nice enough. We went walking along a creek and found a pretty looking tree, before returning to the creek bed in search of the bridge that went over it. Along the way, we found ourselves a baby snake, and well, a couple of us seriously considered capturing it so we can check it out. A quick warning from Jordan’s cousin (a local to Georgia) reminded me that Georgia had a lot more venomous snakes than Oregon (we only worry about Rattlers in Eastern Oregon) and so I took some time to try and figure out what it was. Raze kept going after it, but it got away.

It was a very good thing we did not catch it.

Turns out, we had encountered a baby copperhead, which is a venomous snake. And babies are much more dangerous than their adult counterpart, as babies are more likely to pump you full of their entire venom supply, unlike adults who give dry warning bites or partial doses as a deterrent (babies just give the whole thing). Someone getting bit by that snake would most definitely have ended the good times during the con and ended on the note of a medical emergency—not so good.

With the snake left to its personal business, we moved on and hiked through the woods in pursuit of a waterfall Amber and Cody had found a day before. It took us along trails and bends, and then through some areas that are accurately described as ‘near platform jumping’, like were in some kind of Nintendo game- glad that falling would not entail an instant game-over- though it might entail getting wet. Nevertheless, we made it through and found the waterfall, which was quite a cool site indeed. Amber did end up leading us to a ways to get back to the trail that involved an offtrail path that turned out to have a sign saying “Do not use”- but yeah, we’re from Valucre, what do you expect?

After all that hiking, lunch was in order, so we headed out to a nearby ribhouse to see how their food would be. It had that quaint sort of southern feel to it, with hubcaps on the walls and the promise of free food for donated “Used” hubcaps (guess they have a thing against new ones). Go figure, the damn place tried to poison me with gluten, throwing a slice of bread right over tip of my ribs (~_~;;;) but they got me a new plate and my stomach was saved. All in all, pretty decent food, but they could have used more sauce.

We went back to the house after that, taking time to digest food, sitting around in the parlor room talking about Valucre and Role-play with Jordan’s cousin, who is thinking about signing up and joining the site. Stone apparently had been trying to get ahold of us to let us know he was ready to be picked up, but my phone was upstairs on the charger and everyone else missed the call, up until someone finally got it. I scooted out and picked him up, getting him back. He joined the conversation for a bit, and then we decided to do our last dinner at Dave and Busters.

Pictures:

Sunday Morning...

Walking to Oxbo Park

Lots of Flowers...

Snake? SNAKE? SNAAAAKKKKKEEEE?
[Don't touch it!]

Gorgeous Area

Really, Really pretty

Waterfall!

Amber and Raze

Group Shot! [Amber took the pic]

Rib House!

__

Sunday Night 

Dave and Busters turned out to have some good food and all the sports televisions you could ever need, but the arcade was also what we came to see. The games themselves were in great variety and plenty fun, but man were they spendy. Dave and Busters has an odd way of selling credits and using credits on their games, and they definitely do not go very far. Still, we ended up having a good time, and Stone and I got into a long awaited competition over air hockey.

Just fair warning: He has no problems admitting that he will try to cheat.

Despite that, I still had a sound win at 2-0, even with Raze cheering against me.

I mean, how do you like that? A girlfriend who never has your back in these things. ><

After that, we got a three way game going at the up to four-player air hockey table, which was an interesting experience, albeit confusing. Every time I glanced away for even a second, Stone was just tossing pucks into the goal rather than actually hitting them with the paddle- like I said, watch the guy if you ever play him air hockey. >_>  Apparently, while some of us were off focusing on our air hockey, the others had a nice fourway match on Mario Kart, in which Amber pulled of a surprise victory. This resulted in Cody spending much of the rest of the night doing what he could to crush her in other things, because who wants to let Amber feel victorious for more than a moment, right?

We returned from Dave and Busters after the closed, Jordan’s cousin heading home and us back to the house. Amber and Korrey began baking cookies, whipping up a batch of gluten free cookies that I thought were fantastic (I ate a lot of them >>) while Stone and I watched the new episode of Game of Thrones- quite the satisfying one to be sure. It was made even better with the addition of cookies, which I proceeded to gorge myself on. After the show, there were pocket conversations until people began to pass out one by one, with Korrey and I again last among those to go to sleep (guess we’re the biggest night owls- which was perhaps ill planned, because we had the earliest day). She needed to be at the airport by about 1pm, and I was had volunteered to do it.

Pictures:

In a desperate act, Amber tries the 'cute card', but Cody has his T1 face on.

Not sure what this is, but it looks cool...

Girls, after Dave and Busters

__

Monday Morning (The end) 

We got up and began packing our stuff, and decided we definitely had to get a group picture before we left. We ended up doing two, one that was of the traditional sort, with Cody sitting on the railing as it was “The closest he would ever come to having a seat among the rafters” and the other was with most of us pretending to be so exhausted that we had passed out during the pictures. I say most of us, as a couple/few people apparently had not heard that and decided to look at the camera and smile anyway. So, perhaps a few us were utterly exhausted and the rest were okay?

After that, goodbyes were said and I ran Korrey to the airport for her flight. The ride there and back went decently, although dealing with traffic in Georgia is just a general blood-pressure raising experience for me (seriously, does no one out there know what a turn signal is???). I made it and helped get the car loaded up for the rest of us, as everyone else who was flying (everyone but Jordan) had flights that were all relatively close together (Amber, Raze and I all had the same flight headed for San Francisco, Cody one headed for New York 10min later and Stone for Texas about an hour later). We made good time getting to the airport, but alas, a trip without some kind of issue just never happens for me.

The people who handled my rental mucked something up with the billing, so I got to go stand in a nice long line for more than twenty minutes waiting for an available person just so I could pay my bill- thought one of my cards might have been having fits again (had issues with them because I was in Georgia, so they kept flagging themselves for fraud) but this time around, it was entirely on the renal company. Plenty of time wasted, we had to hurry up and get down baggage and security, rushing through getting our boarding passes, checking bags, and then getting through security. As it turned out, the three of us only just managed to get to our flight as they were calling up group 4 to board (we were group 3 out of 5) and so we had to scramble to get in line, while giving rushed goodbyes.

It was a hectic exit, but all in all, it was still good times.

Most are zonked out...

__

Hey, I have thoughts from the others. Here is some thoughts and perspectives from other attendees with what they enjoyed:

Amber-

• Codeh initiating a game of Chubby bunny
• The night were I was apparently tipsy and was acted so. I personally think I was just happy >>
• Riding the typhaon ride with Korrey, wooo toy helicopter 
• Kicking ass in Mario kart 
• Grumpy facing the mirror with my witches 
• In hindsight, screaming throughout the entire game of that horror shooting game was pretty funny
• The last morning where Korrey Codeh and I were sitting in the kitchen floor, laughs, wrestling, flying into a door etc etc
• Dancing on stage was fun albeit nerve wracking 
• Larry Elmore asking me to be a model was flattering
• Hiking!!!!! Coulda have definitely been more adventurous though (like big bear >>) 
• Shooting zombies with Jordan and Jas

....yeah I am going to go on endlessly at this point.

Cody- I always have trouble starting things, I rarely know where to begin. What makes this worse is that it was my idea to have members offer up anecdotes to give the blog details that were missed. Nick does a wonderful job chronicling our adventure, something I'm not sure I can do. I can normally remember decent details about and event but I can rarely tell you when it happens. So I guess what I am saying is that if my account doesn't chronologically match up with Nick's it isn't because he is wrong.

Anyway I reckon the best place to start is where Jordancon started for me.... on the road.

As most of you won't know, I drove from New York city to Georgia with my mom and three brothers. It was a 13 hour drive that became a 15 hour test of patience that nearly destroyed what little sanity I have left.

While the bulk of the driving was done at night, in this eerie ass fog that looked like something from a horror movie, I didn't arrive in Georgia until about 2 pm. And that is because of two events. One was a rest stop to try to snag some sleep the other was traffic.

The first was far more amusing than the last. At around 4 am I decided I needed a rest and pulled over at a truck stop. I had just started to fall asleep when I hear this god awful sound akin to a pig being raped by a cow. Leaping forward, into the steering wheel, I spun around to find my brother sound asleep having some type of nightmare. A well delivered flipflop to the face, I think it was my mom's, promptly shut him up and I immediately returned to the task at hand.

Roughly five minutes later I was nearly asleep again when another peculiar event occurred. The serene silence of the cat was utterly destroyed by my brothers deep booming voice as he shouted at the top of his lungs, "How many what's do you want?" To this day I still don't understand the context of this question and I still find myself pondering when this question would ever make sense.

SCS Austin316 says, "What? Because stone cold said so!"

About ten minutes later I had finally settled back down and was about to drift off when from the rear middle seat the youngest of my three brothers demanded that the other two stop touching him. Figuring I'd nip this one in the butt I turned around to mitigate the situation. To my astonishment my youngest brother had his head in one of the others' lap and his feet in the lap of the the other. He was in fact touching them. At that point in time I think I gave up all hope and died a little on the inside. So I turned the car on and drove off into the sunrise.

Some hours later in South Carolina I hit traffic, lost my shit, and tried to drive the car into an incoming train because I just didn't give a fuck anymore. My darling mother who kept waking up every twenty minutes to ask if I was still awake or if we were still on the road decided to drive the rest of the way..... Probably for for best.

So I finally get to the house we are staying in and uh it wasn't bad tbh. It would if been nice if it had a hot tub but beggars can't be choosers. It was there that I met up with Nick and Raze for the second time. Raze informed me that I had some serious audacity walking into the house uninvited after not answering her PMs. It was at this moment I realized I was fucked. And not just any kind of fucked, certainly not the good kind of fucked. Oh no, I was the kind of fucked that involves waking up with my throat slit. After attempting to take nick hostage, only for raze to remind me that I'd be doing her a favor, I was able to temporarily sate her appetite for revenge with reminders of peace offerings and trinkets.

With my near death experience temporarily avoided I had the pleasure of meeting Jordan and Korrey. My first impression of Jordan was based on his demand to sleep in the fireplace, which seemed reasonable enough. Korrey on the other hand was polite and soft spoken. As a former introvert I thoroughly enjoyed those qualities.

Shortly after arriving it was time to go pick up amber, who I insisted on lying to every few minutes. I had been texting her on and off throughout most of the day insisting that I was stuck in traffic in South Carolina and wouldn't be making it is until much later.

Ooooh I'm getting ahead of myself! We actually met up with stone at one of the hotels first! Talk about a strange meeting. We locked eyes, we shook hands, and we made awkward facial twitches at one another trying to get a reaction. It wasn't until stone blew me a kiss that I lost my cool and broke out into laughter. I should have countered with an ear wiggle but alas hindsight is 20/20.

After our brief meeting with Stone we finally got to the airport. There I stood off in the distance and waited for nick to find amber. I'm not sure if gingers just stand out or if Amber has codyradar but she made a b-line for nick and then made an abrupt high g j-turn and boomeranged her way over to me. The next few minutes were filled with the unintelligible sounds of Amber's excitement. I can't really tell you what was said or done in those minutes because my inner ear was bleeding.

There really wasn't too much to the day beyond snagging dinner. It was at red lobster that Colton, Stone's friend asked the million dollar question. "If they haven't read The Wheel of Time, why are they here?" I'll answer that later.

The next day didn't start the way I had imagined it. I had intended to go on a run but after staying up into early morning hours talking, it didn't happen. Instead I cooked breakfast! And while I completely miscalculated the number of eggs we needed, 16 apparently wasn't enough, I thought everything came out well... Especially the pound of bacon.

So I can definitely say that my very first day at jcon was a total waist. While everyone else went out to do panels and what not I decided to hang out with amber... Who went to the art exhibit. I'm am pretty damn sure I spent the entire day at the art exhibit that day. Unfortunately it wasn't because it was big or grand but because Amber spent more than an hour talking to one of the crazy craft ladies. I was 100% positive that she was going to walk out of there completely covered in chain mail.

I however did get time to talk to Stone, who probed me about my utter lack of knowledge regarding anything and everything involving writing or the fantasy genre. Sorry to disappoint people but I read Dr. Seuss now, you can't expect much from me. It was also during this time frame that I met a champion tea duelist. While I won't even try begin to explain the complexities of tea dueling, I can assure you that free cookies are involved.

Anyway nothing really stands out in my mind for the rest of the day. there was a guy named Dave who reeeeaaaally liked Amber's hat and who was pretty much wasted. ANYWAY! Someone made dinner, there wasn't any hair in my food... Oh fuck it was Shepard's pie. Now I remember. Ugh I have eaten so much fucking Shepard's pie in my life that I can promise you I'll never like the taste of it. However I will say korrey did a pretty good job of cooking.

Anyway the day went and passed we move into the next day. Today! Today was the day for a run and run I did. Not only did I run, I jump ravines, landed on crumbling platforms, scaled up mountainsides, and ended up only going three miles in three hours. I blame my running partner, amber, for this. Thanks to her I nearly fell into a raging river, nearly fell down the side of a mountain, and probably killed a trick who tried to suck the lethal blood of a ginger.

Anyway after three hours of running, hiking, free falling, climbing, and skating along the edge of oblivion we finally made it back for breakfast. Now I'm not 100% sure I can identify what exactly stone cooked. There were eggs, potato, and sausage for sure. However what I can 100% say is that there was enough oil in it to drown a few people, or maybe a medium sized elephant. None the less it was heart clogging good and one of the best meals I've had in while. I'm pretty sure Jordan ate his with peanut butter.

So that day’s events at the con started with me waiting around on amber to finish getting dressed for the costume contest. Leave it to her to decide to dress as something from a book she has never read. So we ended up going to the convention late and went back to the blasted art exhibit. I'm pretty sure we did speed friending this day too.

Speed friending is about the same as speed dating except it is way more awkward when people want to talk about a series you've never read, and then they are unpleasantly surprised when their expectations aren't met. Fortunately I did not incur any of their wrath. Instead my alter ego, Chuck the refurbished bible salesman did.

Anyway at some point I ended up in an illustrating class with Amber, Korrey, and Larry Elmore.

It is at this point in time that I want to point out how awkward this has been to me. These illustrators, these authors, and those twotcast guys all walk around as gods. People want their autographs. They want their attention. And some would probably sleep with them just to say they did. For all intensive purposes they are the Brad Pitts of nerds. I have no idea who any of these people are and I honestly didn't care. However to stroll among ants who had their gods walking with them was a very uncomfortable feeling. (I promise you I don't think anything bad about the fans or the subjects of their undying devotion. I had the same reaction when I met George Lucas at a star wars convention in Indiana.)

Anyway we three are in this class with Larry fucking Elmore, someone referenced him that way once and it stuck with me, and I realized that I have no interest in drawing nor can I draw. But this mother fucker starts dropping philosophical knowledge bombs on me. While he is drawing he starts talking about how we don't see shapes but symbols of shapes. When we draw a person we draw a circle for the head. But heads aren't circles. So part of being an artist is looking past the symbols we are trained to see and to look at the real shapes around us. anyway the only thing I really got out of the class was how to shade a tree. I did it once, Korrey told me it looked like shit, so I decided to never do it again.

We had time to kill until the costume contest so we went to elves of something another building worlds. Apparently it was half way over when I went in so all I had the pleasure of hearing was that they were repurposing familiar ideas to make them different, kinds like twilight vampires. Also high elves are also Nazis. Anyway I've had a deep seated hate for elves for years, that hate has been reinforced.

Anyway while amber went through prejudging Jordan's cousin Chris and I went to the bar and shot the shit. We talked about many things. The military, the economy, global politics, PTSD, and the issues with our own government. About thirty minutes later and the price of an overpriced soft pretzel we met back up with everyone and went to the actual formal costume contest. Needless to say amber didn't win anything. Although she was easily a fan favorite and probably made a few people hit puberty. Anyway with that all said and done we headed back to the house for dinner, a movie, and chubby bunnies.

So amber made dinner that night and fortunately I found no hair in my food. She actually made pretty good food. At that point everyone started cracking into beer and win. And if you've never seen amber one drink drunk I totally recommend it. Although I was pretty sure Korrey was going to file sexual harassment charges against her by the time the night was over. At some point in time bubbles realized that she lost her belly beads.... Dun dun duuuun! After a while of searching for them she finally gave up and became depressed. What was a best friend to do? Chubby bunnies. No I didn't go to the playboy mansion and have at it with a few overweight gals in bunny ears. No what I did was far worse. I shoved marshmallows in my mouth and said chubby bunny until I nearly puked.

Marshmallows have an property to them. Especially when. They start to melt and slide down your throat in a pseudo liquid for. After ingesting something like 20 extra-large marshmallows I decided I was done. Amber, who found it funny as hell, decided to do it as well with roughly the same level of effectiveness as me. Guess her mouth is just that big!

Anyway the rest of the night was filled with questions of the air speed of unladen swallows, powerful testaments that it is only a flesh wound, and a bunch of knights that say ni. I ended up passing out before the movie was over.

The next day we skipped the con, went hiking, at BBQ, took naps, shot the shit, and ultimately ended up at Dave and Buster's.

We did four way Mario kart. Smoked time crisis, did a 4d zombie shooter with amber that ended with near screaming for damn near 3 minutes straight. And spent the whole night playing shooters and racing games. I only took one break to play guitar hero, which I haven't played in years.

Among the highlights of my night were pitting two girls in need for speed carbon. Apparently purposefully spinning other players out isn't s normally acceptable strategy. Nor were they really happy with the Lamborghini that stole first place from them by several seconds. Black is a great color.

Then there was of course the 4d shooter with amber. It had a heart beat sensory in it to measure the players panic level. Where mine stayed at about 88 ambers flat lined at 115.

Admittedly I think I ran around playing more racking games with Korrey than anything else. We even had the pleasure of trying to balance on these snowmobile things that made it impossible to race.

One thing that really stuck out in my mind was the number of damaged and inoperable games at D&B. including a gun that shot about a foot to the right and up.

Anyway at the end of it all we went back to the house and went to bed. Amber and I woke up first and went to the kitchen to hangout, Korrey joined us and well how anyone slept after that is beyond me. I ended up chasing amber down the hall on all fours and causing her to crash through the bathroom door. I was pretty sure I had killed her but uh apparently not.

The day eventually ended with us all at the airport with no time for a proper good bye.... And uh that is all she wrote.

Jordan-

The hike was my favorite part. I love the woods and stuff. I get so much childlike energy, especially when in a group, despite how I like to venture off and just keep going and going here and there. Some good sights at the waterfall, though I still have nightmares about Jasmine sitting with her back turned. Ever seen The Ring?

Shepherd's Pie and spaghetti were also at the top of my favorites. Both were delicious meals. Breakfast in the mornings was always a welcome treat, especially since I never had to cook (unless you count bread in the toaster). I made tea..?

Mixing wine with beer was only fun when I preemptively made myself throw up and laughed about it at the mirror. That probably made my whole night. 

Monty Python... Who can't watch that in a group and not remember it? I'm still waiting for the day that I stop laughing at that movie.

Racing with Korrie, Cody and Amber at Dave and Buster's. I narrowly made 3rd place, but apart from the thrill, what I enjoyed was Amber's reaction to -almost- beating Cody. "It doesn't matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning's winning!" -Vin Diesel in The Fast and the Furious 

Beating Stone at air hockey. That'll teach you to steal my covers.

Korrey- 

It's hard to choose favorite moments from the weekend, to be honest. Trying to cram 6 bodies into that small rental car, fresh out of the airport. Experiencing Jordan's randomness first hand, and event throwing him off with a quip of my own, at least once. Listening to everyone chatter and laugh together, while sitting on the porch in the lovely weather. Making fun of Amber for putting frozen yogurt in her wine. Laughing as Cody coaxed Jordan into speaking with his British accent while we were eating dinner at Dave and Buster's.

I miss everyone already. ]:

___

There were two others I wanted to get to do this, but I did not get an answer from them. One in particular I kept harassing in person (*cough* Raze *cough) and still got nothing out of. Some people. ><

Final Thoughts:

I’m giving a summary here, and perhaps it is a bit on the dryer side, but half of the magic of this trip is not in the detailed retelling I can give, but in the magic of the moment. In order to fully appreciate the humor, the bonding, and the general good times- you have to be there. Much of the humor and pleasure comes not just from specific little things, but in the way that it was put, or how our interactions just naturally work, and all in the setup that follows. Jordan con was quite enjoyable, with convention being well worth it for me (I am a huge WoT fan after all) and the meet up once again an experience I personally enjoyed, and it seemed like everyone else did as well.

This was the second time I got to meet Stone, Cody, and Korrey and the third time I have gotten to hang out with Amber. This was the first time I ever met Jordan (Die Shize) and I am glad I did. You get a better gauge on that humor of his, with moments of seriousness suddenly derailed by a random comment or thought that comes out of left field. Best of all, it’s delivered with a combination of Southern/Georgian accent and hidden British, or sometimes, for our amusement, delivered entirely with a British accent (because yes, he is from England as it turns out).

Goodbyes ended in talks of ‘next time’, and it’s the way I like it. I enjoy these meet ups and think of each as not the last time I will ever see these fine people, but just the start of the time lapse between the next time we can make it happen again.

I said it last year, I’ll say it again- if you get a chance to do one of these, you totally should.

/End

The Faces of Valucre