Got back from Marscon unscathed. I am tired now.

That we got there at all was really the story of the con itself, though. Before our original planned departure, I hopped online in order to check the address for our hotel, only to find that the reservations I thought I had made weeks ago didn’t actually exist (anymore). Luckily, I was able to knock out a new set in short order, though the whole business was rather frustrating.

After piling in the car, we got about ten miles from home before coming to the realisation we forgot something, and turned around. The ramp re-entering the interstate we used turned out to be the home of a really nasty pothole; a pothole that eats tires. So, I pulled over to the side, and changed the rear passenger tire, discovering a nice one-inch diameter hole on the inner sidewall (guess what I did on Monday?). Donut installed, we headed home and moved all our stuff into the other car, and made our way out again.

Luckily, once we got to Williamsburg, things got better. We played a bunch of games (I won several nice prizes playing Munchkin Booty and Toon in the game room), engaged in interesting chit-chat with all sorts of fans, and came back with some nice loot.

Amongst the stuff we accumulated were a few stuffed dragons (everybody got one but me – they’re really cute), some interesting dice (including a 34 sided die which is interesting, but serves no obvious purpose I can identify), and a signed print of The Biting Pear of Salamanca by artist Ursula Vernon, which many of you may know better as the original source of this:

Besides the print from Ms. Vernon, who besides being sort of bemused by the whole experience of birthing an internet meme, is terribly pleasant to talk to as well as the author of a couple of children’s books, we were able to have several books signed by Guest of Honor Jim Butcher, author of The Dresden Files series, including my copies of the sourcebooks for the relatively new Dresden Files RPG, which I (and a bunch of other fans) were able to also get autographed by a couple of the game system authors and artists who were in attendance.

Our timing for some of the panels (which, to be fair, weren’t as nice as RavenCon) worked out well – we were able to get a seat at the Guest of Honor reading (which was held in a VERY small room), where we got the chance to hear Jim read the first three chapters from the forthcoming Dresden book Ghost Story. We also managed to grab a spot in line for the signing early enough that we were through in a relatively short span of minutes, which was a better deal than some people got – the con staff rather underestimated the popularity of their guest of honor, and weren’t always prepared with adequate space.

All told, we had a pretty good time, though honestly, I’m kind of peopled out for a while, though I suppose I’ll be ready to wade in again by the time RavenCon comes to town in April.

…Con.

That’s where we’ll be heading in a few hours – Marscon, in lovely Williamsburg VA, to rub shoulders with science fiction authors, artists, and fans all weekend, and hopefully have a little fun and a bit of an escape from all that work. So, don’t go looking for me.

Don’t worry, I’ll say hello to Kuato for you.

Why am I just seeing Molly’s 2010 Halloween video now?

And why hadn’t I noticed that “Tik Tok” and “California Gurls” are the same damn song? I’m sure the local top 40 station I occasionally tune in to (to see what the kids are listening to) has played them back to back at some point.

Though both tunes make pretty good metal (or polka metal) tunes. Yes, I’m still convinced Katy has a decent rock voice, and will probably keep harping on about it.

And surely, brushing your teeth with a bottle of Jack can’t be good for your dental health.

Yeah, it’s been one of those weeks…

Welcome to Washington DC:

Epiphany.

Reading this piece maybe made me have one.

Please consider this your first “slacktivist is worth reading” post of 2011.

As I was driving back to the hotel tonight after work, I noticed a business in the area, a gaming store(!), Curio Cavern, which just opened today. I am quite excited that I might have a nice place to hang out and game after work, at least until they move me to the other side of the metropolitan area (which they almost certainly will now that I have a place to hang out).

Anyway, if you’re in NoVA, check ’em out.

Oh, and I bought pretty new dice:

Sure, I have several hundred dice at home already, but these are pretty translucent orange, and the d4, d6s and d10s are barrel-style, and that weird lumpy one on the right is a d3!

Oh well, I thought they were cool, and that’s all that matters.

just sayin’. I totally skipped it this year; I was asleep by 10:00pm. That’s what the flu gets you.

So, summing up the year; not bad overall. In terms of life, things got better, in terms of general health and welfare. I’ll take it. Of course, typing this up as I’m feeling sick as a dog, it doesn’t shine as brightly as it probably could, but if I could push aside the haze of this cold, it would surely look very nice.

Given how I feel today (I almost surely won’t make it to the New Year’s toast this evening), this post is going to be short, just running a few numbers by which to measure the year, or at least put things in perspective:

• Books Read: 107
• Books Written: one (though it’s so bad, it’ll never see the light of day)
• Miles Bicycled: roughly 1100
• Pounds Lost: roughly 30
• Nights spent in hotels: 112
• Ren Faires visited: two
• Live musical performances attended: 2
• Movies watched: lots
• Windows Replaced: nine
• Baseball games attended: five
• New Jobs started: one
• comics and sci-fi conventions attended: three
• Zoos visited: two (or was it three?)

So, that’s the year, more or less. Happy New Year, everyone.

One more reason for my continuing (and not-at-all-creepy old guy) crush on internet music phenom Molly Lewis:

Amazing hand-painted Doctor Who themed Matryoshka dolls, given freely as a Christmas gift, humbly posted on twitter, and garnering thousands of admiring hits.

Assuming licensing issues could be worked out, she really ought to market these. Though mostly, I just love that someone came up with the idea, and that these exist at all.

Happy Boxing Day, everybody. Being that Christmas is behind us, and the last week of the year is beginning, it’s getting to be the time for reflection. So, I humbly present what you might call “a year in review”, of a sort, at least.

To start things off, I’ll deal with this little space you’re reading. In 2010, at least through today, right nowish, chuck dash parker dot net received 5295 page loads, which isn’t a speck of dust on say, one day of scalzi’s blog, but then, I don’t have several best-selling award-winning novels under my belt. My number is, however, within about ten percent of average for the last couple of years.

The day with the largest number of hits, for what it’s worth, was April 22, 2010, with 206, which, coincidentally, was the day the most popular post of the year went up, which was my little Doctor Who examination, from WHEN comes Amelia Pond?, which I can’t seem to coax out specific numbers for right now, but I’m still getting a handful of hits a day on. It is, one could say, my own personal bacon cat.

I could pull up more stats and stuff, but I don’t feel like it. I’d rather just put up a list of some of the posts I put up this year that I liked, so I shall:

a few good posts from the last year:

put up or (don’t) shut up
cause good ole days weren’t always good, and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems
politics, popularity, and game shows
time time time, see what’s become of me
embracing the awesome
stuff I like a lot – “Vincent and the Doctor”
responding to the “suck fairy”
that thing
I would like to register a complaint
Ask. Tell.

Just a couple of posts I thought were, if not particularly well written, at least enjoyable and maybe honest. Enjoy.

In the next couple of days, I’ll probably do some more things like this, if I get around to it. It’s cold and snowy outside, and I finally have a copy of Gran Turismo 5; I could be busy.