October 11, 2005
Okay, I'm back.entry, October 11th, 2005
I'm back. Revoluticon was small, but we had a lot of fun.
Most of what went on was gaming -- there were Magic: The Gathering pick-up games being played all over the place, and a complete Dungeons and Dragons campaign got played on Saturday over the space of about seven hours. There were several rounds of Munchkin and Munchkin-fu -- played with the decks combined, obviously. Beware the dwarven yakuza.
There were also board games going on, like Carcassonne. One couple played this really cool-looking civil-war strategy game, with all kinds of different unit types including spies, miners, and bombs. Yeah, that's right. They were kickin' it old-school with Stratego.
Oh, and there was some Warhammer 40,000 happening on Sunday. So many pretty pieces... I really didn't care who won, as long as they let me watch.
My Saturday evening panel went well. In retrospect, it was equal parts autobiography, business lecture, and comedy routine. Unfortunately there were several people in the crowd who took it as a motivational speech, and are now threatening to quit their day jobs to become full-time cartoonists. I TOLD THEM NOT TO DO THAT! (It's hard work, and I don't need the competition.)
I didn't get to see much of Asheville. I ate breakfast at the local organic foods place, "Greenlife," and determined that under no conditions should a vegan cook be allowed to prepare biscuits and gravy. There's supposed to be GREASE and CHUNKS OF MEAT in that gravy. This stuff tasted like lentil flour and oregano. I finally made it out to a place that served REAL biscuits and gravy (with fried eggs laid over the top, and a side of grits!) only to find out that my host, noted astrologer Kelly Lee Phipps, couldn't find a single item on the menu that he could eat. So he watched me put away a greasy plate of stuff made by, from, and without the consent of animals, and then grabbed his own vertebrate-friendly breakfast at Greenlife.
Kelly was a great host, by the way. Being housed in a person's home is much different from being put up in a hotel. We had to be careful, for instance, not to stay up too late playing Jade Empire on the XBox, or just talking about stuff. I've never met someone who not only believes in astrology, but actually preaches it. And I'm not going to knock it. I'm not sure which house Jupiter was in, but somehow Kelly came back from being three strokes behind and beat me by one stroke at the Richmond Hills Disc Golf course. Sure, it COULD be the fact that he's familiar with the course, and that I'm still recovering from a separated shoulder, but I refuse to make lame excuses when it's possible that the stars are to blame.
Anyway, I'm back now, and I've got to get some work done. Here's a big shout to all the Schlockers who came to Revoluticon and helped make it more fun for everyone involved. Some folks drove several hours to see me, and I'm humbly grateful and very flattered.