November 15th, 2007, 10:48AM EST, Hancock International Airport.
Weather: Heavy Rain, 5 Degrees C
Subtitle: Once again with feeling!
Yes ladies and germs it’s time to go on vacation! Where we going? Los Angeles for the Final Fantasy XI festival! Woohoo!
Okay, a few notes. Airport security has gotten way better. I got here at 8:20AM. I was through security, got picked for random inspection of my shoes and still got to the gate at 8:40PM. Wow. On my way to the gate, I got my required head butt to the nuts. This happened in Philadelphia during my Otakon trip. This time it was a girl though. Still didn’t feel comfortable. I really must ask though, why are a bunch of kids at the terminal? They’re dancing and fooling around and probably causing such a horrid ruckus. Man. I hate kids. At least their Game Boy Advance SPs tranquilized them for now. Flight should be boarding soon. Shutting down.
November 15, 2007, 12:03PM EST, 20,000 feet above sea level, somewhere between Syracuse and Philadelphia.
Weather: Well…I’m on the plane. There isn’t exactly weather flying through the clouds unless you want to call it a weird fog.
Subtitle: We’re on our way.
Airborne. First flight to Philadelphia for the connection flight. Those kids that were in the airport are also on my flight. They seem tamer simply because they cannot get out of their seats. The turbulence up here is nuts at the moment. It’s a bit rough to even type and I think I lost my bottle to rolling around. No matter. I won’t disembark the plane without it. I got out my laptop, but I don’t know what to do. Maybe code? Maybe play a simple game? Altana forbid image edit? Who knows. Let me poke around my goods.
November 15, 2007, 1:13PM EST, Philadelphia Airport (name later).
Weather: Cloudy but clearing with dreary rain, 10 Degrees C.
Subtitle: Or not.
On the ground again. Somewhat after I finished writing the last part I got the word that I had to put my heavy hardware away. Okay. So I’m on the ground plugged into my next outlet. My box is busy brute forcing into the Wi-Fi network here, but it’s giving me trouble. I might just try to sleep or something, but I’m only 40 minutes until I board again so I may just skip that and try to sleep on the plane. It’s a 5 hour flight so hopefully I’ll be able to pass out well. I really hope the weather in LA isn’t this gloomy. Other than all that, as I look around the gate entrance I see pretty much nobody who is identifiably going to the fan festival. Maybe I’m the only one flying in this place or what. Everyone here is in generic clothes and I am wearing my NHMK Tee with my “Brigade Leader” red armband, not to mention my Behemoth Laptop with headset. I should try calling mom again. Okay, half hour left. Let me poke around my laptop again for something.
That didn’t work. I just started watching the news. I really wonder why airports permit CNN to play. I mean, about all it seems to be doing is instantiating fear in the hearts of airline travelers. “Bomb components are smuggled past security checkpoints.” Or to the effect of. Let me be honest, that’s not something I really want to know about while I’m sitting at the gate waiting for a boarding call. Worse, they just flashed by “Two Planes have near midair collision.” Now let me say this. The system works. A mid-air collision hasn’t happened since I have been alive and probably longer. Air Traffic Controllers are good at what they do. The news just really needs to get their damned heads in the game and stop trying to scare the general populace (or at least the ones that fly) about something. The world isn’t going to end, stop playing these crappy stories every half hour.
I took a survey of the gate again. The number of Asian folks has jumped. But there is no clear cut festival going person. I think there is a couple based on the geeky persona and aura they emanate. As for the aircraft, it’s surprisingly large for an east to west coast flight such as this one. Boeing fuselage, dual engine and looks heavily loaded with cargo. Hopefully I won’t be in for too many strange things or surprises. Hopefully I’ll be able to pick out a festival goer from this group, but I’m not making bets.
November 16, 2007, 9:56AM PST, Anaheim Hilton, Anaheim California.
Weather: Who knows, not like we care.
Subtitle: Off with a bang.
I got in last night and checked in, got my temporary badge and got to the hotel for a nap. I ran into Frice and we talked quite a bit. It was a good time. About this morning at 3:00AM I got a knock at the door. It’s Aniero. Finally. The gang is all here, but I haven’t gotten Frice and Aniero together. I went to bed shortly after to prepare my body for the opening ceremonies that I’m at now. And the big announcement was that there is now a windowed mode. How? Well, that’s the fun part. They had the FFXI main page open and live Vana’diel looked like it was playing, but in actuality it was a window to XI that had been shrunk to fit the box perfectly, which was awesome. I swear there was five minutes of cheering. Right now we are going over the history of the world.
November 16, 2007, 5:09PM PST, Anaheim Hilton, Anaheim California.
Weather: Gloomy.
Subtitle: In full swing.
Alright folks, we’re into the down and dirty. Festival activities are good, just left watching the Quiz Show to come up here for a phone number, so I figure now’s a good time to write. Sofar I’ve done the Wings of the Goddess Tour. It gave us all GM clients and let us play around with Scholar and Dancer. I had a lot of information written down about the goods and will do a quick wrap up show tonight sometime after the developer’s panel at 9PM. As for what’s left, the Tarutaru Marathon was awesome. Someone won a new computer for it and it’s a pretty interesting idea. You’re in Mammok as a 1WHM/1BLM having to go to the other side and cast cure on a goal Galka. Good concept with lots of shouting going on and a GM camera. It was fun.
Oh, by the way, I got my picture with Sage Sundi. Apparently he speaks English! That’s interesting.
November 16, 2007, 10:20PM PST, Anaheim Hilton, Anaheim California.
Weather: Dark.
Subtitle: After the fireworks, before the bang.
Doing the webcast day one thing now. Going to go over lots of information.
November 17, 2007, 3:50PM PST, Anaheim Hilton, Anaheim California.
Weather: I can’t even see daylight.
Subtitle: Winding down.
Today has so far been a good time with no real events that happened sofar, but still having a goodtime all the same. I think the big thing that happened was meeting Taj and watching him walk up to the FFXIClopedia booth and introducing himself. Man was that funny to watch Merin react to him like: “I AM A LAWYER!” by saying “Well I’m Merin.” Psh. They still are as dumb as ever.
I did watch the costume contest. Now normally that’s not my thing, but I kinda dug it. We had a couple very interesting costumes, with the second place winner being a Galka Event Mule played by Gyudva from Fairy and guest on Limit Break Radio and the first being Cid. Cid won a computer which was cool. Overall the contest was more enjoyable than any cosplay contest I’ve ever watched.
The Saturday quiz show is a joke. The audience helps way too much and the actual contestants are dumbfucks. One of them thought that Port Jueno connected to Rollanberry Fields. Who in hell does this job? The host is witty by saying “Watch the cutscenses”. Next person up seems to not think for himself. The last person hasn’t a fucking clue around Whitegate. *Sigh* Developer’s Panel in 13 minutes. Hopefully it won’t disappoint.
November 18, 2007, 8:33AM EST, Philadelphia Airport, Gate F15.
Weather: Winter looks like it’s about to hit…
Subtitle: Why do I always seem to end up at this airport?
I mean seriously. Remember my Otakon trip? Yeah. Here I am again for the fourth time this year. Meh. Okay, last night after the developer’s panel we had to get the last wrap up show going and done with. We had a small crowd around us as we were doing the show and I think it ended up well. Now all that’s left is Aniero to cut the final product. I think we’re going good and he may get something he’s always wanted.
After that we had to go straight back to LAX to catch our planes back to the east coast. Man, did I sleep really weird on that plane. I slept for the first two hours of the flight and then woke up to pitch black. Yes, pretty much all the lights in the plane were off. For an Airbus A132 I thought that was crazy (Holds well over one-hundred passengers). It was creepy silent. Unable to sleep again I went to my media player. Man did I feel bored. I guess I can’t relax on planes. I have to be doing something. Like noticing the wings stretch based on fuel remaining, just like the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. Ha. I’m hungry, but once again food in airports are grossly overpriced, so I will tough it out until I am home in about two hours and can cook something nice or pass out on my own bed. Now let’s get back to doing something even less exciting…
November 24, 2007, 2:28PM EST, Zero’s Apartment.
Weather: Boring.
Subtitle: On the wings of a Goddess.
I’m back and living again after a lot of work and other things just holding my attention. Yeah. Anyway. Wings of the Goddess for XI came out on Tuesday. Problem: No store in this county got copies until today. *Groan* Oh well, I have victory attainted here today. I have a copy installed and ready to play. It’s time for me to dance like…well…the bad DDR player I am! Ha ha.