Keeping Score

The P to the A to the X-Po

I made it back alive from the PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) this weekend, I'm happy to report. Overall I'd say I had a pretty good time.

Arrived on Friday night, and went out drinking with my old high-school buddy Schmitty, but first I headed on down to the Meydenbauer Center to take a look around. Robert had mentioned that the doors would be open Friday night for the bands to set up and do sound-checks, so guest speakers could swing by and pick up their badges or whatnot that night.

Security was a bit lax. I asked if I could get my "Special Guest" badge, and the girl who seemed to be "headish" of security said "Sure, here you go!" and just gleefully handed me a Special Guest badge. That was it. No ID check, nothing. I shrugged and headed off to a beer dinner with my buddy, wondering if I should have him come back with me and get him a Special Guest badge, as well.

The convention itself was very well run, I have to admit. A lot of folks are griping about the long lines to get in, and long lines for events, and pretty much long lines in general. As it turns out they didn't expect as many people, and the place was packed to the gills. These, as they say, are the kind of problems you want to have when throwing an event.

I attended the State of the Industry panel, and I found it exceedingly entertaining. Both of the panels I was on went really well, and I had a great time speaking on them. We joked back and forth a bit, and tried to answer people's questions as best as we could.

I have to say, it's a bit humbling to realize that 500 people showed up to hear what you and four other guys have to say about the industry. So I had to take a picture or two for posterity.

This was about the middle third of the "Breaking Into the Industry" crowd after Porkfry got them all to "throw up some horns" as it were. We had to keep encouraging them as my phone was taking its sweet-ass time grabbing this lousy, blurry picture of them doing said horn throwing.

Also, just because I wanted to remember the experience (::sniff:: /wipe tear from eye), I grabbed a shot of Pork while Vlad was workin' the mic, yo.