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Feb. 15th, 2005 12:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogIt's time for the much anticipated Capricon report: full of exciting moments like hanging around in used computer stores and spending hours (that's right; hours!) hanging about a hotel room reading technical books on peer to peer computer systems. Yes, it's Stormdog's Wondrous Capricon adventures!™
It started with a nice trip out to the Chicago environs on Friday night.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wooisme picked me up at work and we dashed westward down Michigan avenue stopping only to check a thrift store for swim trunks since I'd been unable to locate mine and for Chinese food to eat on the way. Note to others considering such a course of action; saucy Chinese food is not the best option for consumption in a moving vehicle.
The trip out was uneventful and really quite pleasant. Spending time with my sweetie is a wonderful thing. We made fairly good time and arrive at the Sheraton at or around 10:00 central time. Festivities were, of course well under way, and we ducked into our room long enough to freshen up a bit (I badly needed a shower) and go back out to meet friends. We located many people who I am too lazy to code LJ tags for. No, no, alright; I really should. Here goes.unclevlad and rennie_frog, emrldgrrl, datahawk, wyldekyttin, and Rick (a friend of mine I haven't seen in a good while). (Isn't it odd how such a high percentage of people I know have Livejournals?)
That, however, was about the end of social happenings for the evening, at least for me. I felt nervous that my hanging about with Andrea and the other girls on their scavenger hunt would end up with me just being in the way. As they were all getting started, I kissed Andrea good night, telling her to have fun, and retired to my room where I perused my copy of Steal This File Sharing Book and napped. Then, Andrea got back. We got to bed about two in the morning I think. That's not to say we got to sleep anywhere near that time...
Anyway, we got up the next day sometime after noon. Andrea, when I asked her pegged it at one-thirty and that sounds about right to me. That's what weekend are for really, no? Especially when I have to get up at such an insane hour for my job. I never imagined myself getting up that early. But I digress. We decided that it was time to locate some lunch and Andrea remembered the way to the place we went during furfest; Lou Malnati's. Oh, that's good pizza. Their commercials used to play on WGN radio all the time. Their jingle is still in my head, but I'd never been there before last year. I'm glad we went. Oddly, it's a very home/Chicago feeling place even though I'd never been there when I lived in the area.
But before that happened, on the way to the pizza place, I calledboixboi to arrange the visit we'd talked about. We were going to get together for computer repair and other hanging out activities this weekend. I'd called him briefly from the hotel to arrange dropping by that evening and, after talking with Andrea, I called again to suggest Sunday on our way out of town. Andrea wanted to hang out with me during the early evening since I wasn't sure if I was going to be interested in doing the party circuit with her later. "Not a problem" I thought. We had planned for an early start toward Detroit on Sunday; we'd just be a little earlier. Roll leisurely out of bed at eight o' clock, get on the road by nine, and stop by Benjie's new apartment at 10 o' clock where Andrea would nap while I played with the other puppy.
*smiles wryly* Apparently, I'm really good at fooling myself. Did I really think I was going to get up that early on the morning after a night at con? I'm so sorry Benjie: I really wanted to stop by and see you and I still feel bad about messing up the trip. I feel like a major dork about the whole thing. Andrea and I created one rule for ourselves after Furfest; we are not allowed to attempt to put complicated costumes on ourselves the Friday night of a con that is more than 100 miles away from our place of residence. Now we have a new rule. We should not make plans to do things that take significant chunks of time while we are attending a con. It led to me being stressed and breaking plans; both things which I try very hard to avoid. Sorry Benjie...
Where was I? After dinner Andrea and I went over to the nearby used computer stuff store that we'd seen while driving around during MFF. From the outside it looked like a junkyard of aging computers, software, and peripherals. In short, my kind of place. I'd been waiting to get a look in there since November and I was not disappointed.
Shelves upon shelves of vintage computer games and utilities, most of them in their original boxes. Computer hardware stacked about willy-nilly, wherever space could be had. Bins of keyboards and mice, stacked up networking equipment visible around the corner of the door into the back room, and even whole computers on the floor, buried under piles of other geek-bits and labeled with taped on pieces of paper saying things like "Win2kPro PIII 900MHZ 256MB Need reload; possible virus". I could quite literally spend hours going through the stuff in this store. I just wandered happily through the shelves, my eyes glazed over as I tried to take in the splendor, quietly telling Andrea that 'This is the best store in the world.' *happy sigh* I need to go back.
Andrea was so patient with me. She managed to find a couple of software titles that piqued her interest to peruse (I think she found a Pocahontas clip-art package with Meeko pictures. Whee!) while I chatted with the staff (owner and employee I think, and probably the only two people who work there. It's a fairly small store.). I even ended up trying to help troubleshoot a Windows ME failed Windows Update issue. I don't know much about ME but I think I found some useful links for the guys there. I had such a great time there and when I told them about moving out west they asked me whereabouts. Would I be flattering myself to think they might be interested in employing me? I was also happy to find a hundred and twenty dollar ergonomic keyboard (one of these) for eighteen dollars that my sweetie bought for me as a Valentine's Day present. Best VD present ever!
We got back to the con and met up with friends for order-out Chinese dinner in the Congenial party room. Sitting and talking and eating with friends was a good time. Soon enough, we went down to the room and put our fancy clothes on. I don't know how to put into words what Andrea looked like on either night. She looked fantastic and she, along with her companions, was turning heads from one end of the hallway to another in both her Friday night school-girl ensemble and her Saturday night skirt and corset collection. I may post some pictures of her from the con assuming she's amenable to such. I, wearing my thigh high buckle boots and pirate shirt, looked passable. Andrea was nice enough to put my hair in a braided half tail which made me happy.
The group of us (Was it five? Six? I'm not honestly sure.) wandered about the party floor 'till late into the night. I got overwhelmed by people and noise and constantly varying lighting a little after two o' clock I think and again went back to the room early where I wrapped myself up in blankets and waited for Andrea. I was kind of lonely until she got back, but at that point things swiftly improved.
The next think I remember is waking up to the alarm clock going off at seven o' clock. I had intended to set it for eight, so attempted to reset it and went back to sleep. Considering that I had fallen asleep perhaps three hours previously I probably was not conscious enough to properly set the alarm clock because next thing I knew it was 11 o'clock, just a few minutes past check out time and I was being awoken by a cell phone withboixboi on the other end wanting to know what happened to me.
I explained and apologized to Benjie, called the front desk for an extension on check out, showered, and swiftly began the packing. We got everything out to the car and made a last circuit of the con to say goodbyes. We found most of the people we needed to see there and even found a new one down by the consuite!
fitzotter was really fun to talk to for a span before we finally had to go. She was talking about her life and her current relationship and the more Andrea and I heard the more her situation proved to be uncannily similar to what she and I found ourselves in almost two years ago. It will be really neat if I have the chance to meet her boyfriend at Congenial this year (he sounds kind of like me) and to see how things develop for them.
Finally we were on our way home, a trip which again was fairly uneventful, even including our stop at the Lion's Den. *grin*
It was an interesting morning today, but that's another entry for another time. 'Till later...
It started with a nice trip out to the Chicago environs on Friday night.
wooisme picked me up at work and we dashed westward down Michigan avenue stopping only to check a thrift store for swim trunks since I'd been unable to locate mine and for Chinese food to eat on the way. Note to others considering such a course of action; saucy Chinese food is not the best option for consumption in a moving vehicle.The trip out was uneventful and really quite pleasant. Spending time with my sweetie is a wonderful thing. We made fairly good time and arrive at the Sheraton at or around 10:00 central time. Festivities were, of course well under way, and we ducked into our room long enough to freshen up a bit (I badly needed a shower) and go back out to meet friends. We located many people who I am too lazy to code LJ tags for. No, no, alright; I really should. Here goes.
unclevlad and rennie_frog, emrldgrrl, datahawk, wyldekyttin, and Rick (a friend of mine I haven't seen in a good while). (Isn't it odd how such a high percentage of people I know have Livejournals?)That, however, was about the end of social happenings for the evening, at least for me. I felt nervous that my hanging about with Andrea and the other girls on their scavenger hunt would end up with me just being in the way. As they were all getting started, I kissed Andrea good night, telling her to have fun, and retired to my room where I perused my copy of Steal This File Sharing Book and napped. Then, Andrea got back. We got to bed about two in the morning I think. That's not to say we got to sleep anywhere near that time...
Anyway, we got up the next day sometime after noon. Andrea, when I asked her pegged it at one-thirty and that sounds about right to me. That's what weekend are for really, no? Especially when I have to get up at such an insane hour for my job. I never imagined myself getting up that early. But I digress. We decided that it was time to locate some lunch and Andrea remembered the way to the place we went during furfest; Lou Malnati's. Oh, that's good pizza. Their commercials used to play on WGN radio all the time. Their jingle is still in my head, but I'd never been there before last year. I'm glad we went. Oddly, it's a very home/Chicago feeling place even though I'd never been there when I lived in the area.
But before that happened, on the way to the pizza place, I called
boixboi to arrange the visit we'd talked about. We were going to get together for computer repair and other hanging out activities this weekend. I'd called him briefly from the hotel to arrange dropping by that evening and, after talking with Andrea, I called again to suggest Sunday on our way out of town. Andrea wanted to hang out with me during the early evening since I wasn't sure if I was going to be interested in doing the party circuit with her later. "Not a problem" I thought. We had planned for an early start toward Detroit on Sunday; we'd just be a little earlier. Roll leisurely out of bed at eight o' clock, get on the road by nine, and stop by Benjie's new apartment at 10 o' clock where Andrea would nap while I played with the other puppy. *smiles wryly* Apparently, I'm really good at fooling myself. Did I really think I was going to get up that early on the morning after a night at con? I'm so sorry Benjie: I really wanted to stop by and see you and I still feel bad about messing up the trip. I feel like a major dork about the whole thing. Andrea and I created one rule for ourselves after Furfest; we are not allowed to attempt to put complicated costumes on ourselves the Friday night of a con that is more than 100 miles away from our place of residence. Now we have a new rule. We should not make plans to do things that take significant chunks of time while we are attending a con. It led to me being stressed and breaking plans; both things which I try very hard to avoid. Sorry Benjie...
Where was I? After dinner Andrea and I went over to the nearby used computer stuff store that we'd seen while driving around during MFF. From the outside it looked like a junkyard of aging computers, software, and peripherals. In short, my kind of place. I'd been waiting to get a look in there since November and I was not disappointed.
Shelves upon shelves of vintage computer games and utilities, most of them in their original boxes. Computer hardware stacked about willy-nilly, wherever space could be had. Bins of keyboards and mice, stacked up networking equipment visible around the corner of the door into the back room, and even whole computers on the floor, buried under piles of other geek-bits and labeled with taped on pieces of paper saying things like "Win2kPro PIII 900MHZ 256MB Need reload; possible virus". I could quite literally spend hours going through the stuff in this store. I just wandered happily through the shelves, my eyes glazed over as I tried to take in the splendor, quietly telling Andrea that 'This is the best store in the world.' *happy sigh* I need to go back.
Andrea was so patient with me. She managed to find a couple of software titles that piqued her interest to peruse (I think she found a Pocahontas clip-art package with Meeko pictures. Whee!) while I chatted with the staff (owner and employee I think, and probably the only two people who work there. It's a fairly small store.). I even ended up trying to help troubleshoot a Windows ME failed Windows Update issue. I don't know much about ME but I think I found some useful links for the guys there. I had such a great time there and when I told them about moving out west they asked me whereabouts. Would I be flattering myself to think they might be interested in employing me? I was also happy to find a hundred and twenty dollar ergonomic keyboard (one of these) for eighteen dollars that my sweetie bought for me as a Valentine's Day present. Best VD present ever!
We got back to the con and met up with friends for order-out Chinese dinner in the Congenial party room. Sitting and talking and eating with friends was a good time. Soon enough, we went down to the room and put our fancy clothes on. I don't know how to put into words what Andrea looked like on either night. She looked fantastic and she, along with her companions, was turning heads from one end of the hallway to another in both her Friday night school-girl ensemble and her Saturday night skirt and corset collection. I may post some pictures of her from the con assuming she's amenable to such. I, wearing my thigh high buckle boots and pirate shirt, looked passable. Andrea was nice enough to put my hair in a braided half tail which made me happy.
The group of us (Was it five? Six? I'm not honestly sure.) wandered about the party floor 'till late into the night. I got overwhelmed by people and noise and constantly varying lighting a little after two o' clock I think and again went back to the room early where I wrapped myself up in blankets and waited for Andrea. I was kind of lonely until she got back, but at that point things swiftly improved.
The next think I remember is waking up to the alarm clock going off at seven o' clock. I had intended to set it for eight, so attempted to reset it and went back to sleep. Considering that I had fallen asleep perhaps three hours previously I probably was not conscious enough to properly set the alarm clock because next thing I knew it was 11 o'clock, just a few minutes past check out time and I was being awoken by a cell phone with
boixboi on the other end wanting to know what happened to me. I explained and apologized to Benjie, called the front desk for an extension on check out, showered, and swiftly began the packing. We got everything out to the car and made a last circuit of the con to say goodbyes. We found most of the people we needed to see there and even found a new one down by the consuite!
fitzotter was really fun to talk to for a span before we finally had to go. She was talking about her life and her current relationship and the more Andrea and I heard the more her situation proved to be uncannily similar to what she and I found ourselves in almost two years ago. It will be really neat if I have the chance to meet her boyfriend at Congenial this year (he sounds kind of like me) and to see how things develop for them.Finally we were on our way home, a trip which again was fairly uneventful, even including our stop at the Lion's Den. *grin*
It was an interesting morning today, but that's another entry for another time. 'Till later...
