The planning begins for NWPAS 2017

This year has had several false starts for me. I started several articles about the end of the year, and did nothing with them. I am sure you noticed that part. What you haven’t noticed is the lectures I have been giving on intercultural history at the local college. Nothing major, just two lectures, but I have had to delve back into my work and find a way to explain it to communications majors. So far, I have not.

There was also a really cool VR meetup in Redmond, but my car broke down the day I was going to head out. That was very disappointing.

Oh, and I also slipped on the ice and smashed my head on a brick. To answer the question, no, coins did not come out. I did see stars though and had to take the day off.

The missteps got annoying, but yesterday I was able to drive out to Lynwood. It’s North of Seattle and right off I-5. I had one guy that didn’t understand the concept of merging, and kept pushing around people to get a better spot. He was pulled over by cops, and I laughed heartily.

Also they added the new tunnel on the mountain range, but the markings for it were not painted on yet. That caused me to slow down and take it a little more careful.

When I got to Lynwood I turned on Siri to head over to my Aunt and Uncle’s place. Siri led me to the wrong spot. I kept rechecking, and it was always the same spot that was nowhere near their house. I called them, and got some directions, but those turned out to be messed up as well. Eventually I downloaded the Google Maps entry, and took it from there. The only screw up it made was the wrong part of the road. I had to cross the street to get to their road.

The moral of the story is Apple Software does not work in Microsoft territory.

At their house I chatted, and got to see my cousin. I hadn’t seen her 8 or so years, so it was really cool to have a chat. She is still as excited about life as ever.

The next morning they prepared pancakes and some hot cocoa. It was all tasty, and the conversation was a lot of fun as well.

As soon as I got to the meeting place in Snohomish, I saw they were serving more food. It was really tasty food as well. I was already full of pancakes.

The set up for the meeting was for a 2 year olds birthday party. There were dolls and decorations everywhere. I felt weird grabbing snacks because I thought I was stealing from the little girl. Her Finding Nemo theme kept staring at me.

The big thing to see was the new poster for the show. It took a year and a half to make, and is excellent. I especially like the cow placement. There were stories about the meaning of the car, and who was driving it. Apparently it was a character from Whoa Nelly, who was actually a designer, and had a truck just like that. I thought it was Hawaiian Santa.

There was discussion on new things. Apparently the pinball tournament is the second largest in the nation. It easily has more players than anyone else on the West Coast.

This trip not only marks my fourth year doing the show, but also the 10th year of the shows existence. They made new designs for the sticks and hand outs with a golden shine to the NWPAS logo. There are also guests from the last 10 years coming to visit, and many games for display.

I made a real Faux Paux, and will admit to it. They asked if there was any other comments, and I mentioned the pins seemed to overpower the vids. What I was trying to say was the pin team seems to be doing great, and I wondered if there could be a similar team for the vids. But instead I made it sound like the vids were being neglected and stuff.

The reality of shows like this is we have sign up sheets, talk to tons of people, and often work hard to get people to show up. Last year there were more pins, it happens. Talking about stuff like this is hard because the group in charge feel like it is a direct insult to them. The reality is, its one of the best run shows I have worked with. I was trying to make a suggestion for a well oiled machine, not say it was rusted. That was my mistake, and I thought about it on the drive home.

I grabbed some sandwiches for the drive. North Bend became a quick stop to grab gas. The really annoying thing was the machine there would only allow a very light touch, and was gittery as well. So I had to stand there and pump instead of be in my car and wait. But, I hit my sum, and went out.

Oh yeah, there was a sign on the 405 that said, “Highly Flammable material not allowed in tunnels on I-90”. All I could imagine for the next few miles was a gas tanker in one of the tunnels.

It was a good trip, and NWPAS will be this June. It should be a fun year.