ECCC 2017 Part 4

The next morning I did not wake up and get ready for the ferry. I had timed out the need for Sacrament before I left. It’s a difficult thing to do when you are religious, but also want to do a good job. Add to that, it was the first Sunday of the month, which is the traditional Fast Sunday. So I went without food, knowing snacks would appear for takedown.

I didn’t know the exact route to church, and my GPS got lost a few times. Luckily I left early to make sure I got there before opening prayer. I had to go down a hill, but was told to keep going back, and it felt really far from the last time I tried to make it.

Luckily I arrived during the opening song. It was interesting, because I was dressed for the show, not church. I had an arcade t-Shirt on, and shorts. But most of the people didn’t mind. The guy who sat next to me was off key. My Dad sings exactly the same way, so I tried to not laugh.

Ahead of me was a guy in full tattoos. He wore a tweed jacket, and glasses. He was old, and looked wizened. I wondered how he got the tattoos. The designs were from Mexican gangs, and had several meso american pictures within. I wondered if he was a fellow anthropologist.

He gave the opening prayer, and sounded like any other old man who had spent years at church. There was no hair on his head, and his voice grumbled as he spoke. No explanation was ever given on how he acquired the tattoos. No one cared, he was part of their congregation.

The sacrament was blessed and passed. I read scriptures on my phone as it happened.

It was fast sunday, so it is the sacrament meeting where the congregation is invited to come up and speak about Christ, and how their knowledge has helped them in life. The person conducting usually gives his testimony first, and then says the mic is now open. This time though, he invited a girl to come up and speak. She had just been called to the St. George Mission in Utah. Yes, there are missionaries in Utah. No it isn’t easy, and comes with weird perils.

I wanted to stay and listen to her, but my ferry ride would leave soon. I got into my car, and drove quickly to the ferry station. The parking lot kept having things that I needed to run to my car, and check, and then back for the ticket. It added to the pressure because the ferry was already docking when I parked.

The time was so close I, and others, were running to the ferry to catch it. I barely made it on when it left. There had been just enough time to enjoy the sacrament, and leave.

On my ferry ride, I wrote about all of the loopy thoughts, and actions I had done from lack of sleep at the convention. I had worked hard to not overwork myself, but several days of it was still taxing.

Loopy thoughts:

Last night I was thinking about pixel ratios and render effects when I realized the screen I was looking through could totally do this effect because it was a window.

At church I analyzed a guys tattoos because they reminded me of Aztec art. I honestly wondered if he was a really cool cultural anthropologist.

There are people who dress up to make their lives look cool, and people who dress down to hide their awesome lives. I told that to a cholo on Friday.

Lady with a bookshelf design on her jacket. Without thinking I yell, "Get on with your book shelf!"

Yesterday I couldn't think the word flyer. I was handing out miniature portraits with information.

People laughed at all of this, but it was all true. I really had forgotten how to say flier. The word did not come out of my mouth. I couldn’t think of it at all. I had given up trying to say it. Instead, I just handed them out, and didn’t mention what it was.

It was Sunday, and Fast Sunday at that. So I hadn’t eaten breakfast. I knew food would show up around breakdown, so I wasn’t worried. My job was to stay vertical, and working while dealing with various folks.

My brain couldn’t handle everyone at the same time. At points, I was trying to thank people for coming, and asking people to come in, and then got dizzy trying to do both. There may have been a beautiful woman that walked by at some time, and I was left speechless as well.

People walked up to me to chat. They asked how I was doing, and if I could keep going. I said I was having difficulties staying vertical, but would be able to make it. That was the saying, Staying Vertical. I asked about what it was called, the feeling of loopiness and sleep depravation? Most called it Con Funk, but that’s getting a mutated cold, Flu, and other stuff from all of the attendees.

The comic book bag was still around, so I basically claimed it, and said I would take it home with me. I was now one Batman comic up. Woo hoo.

Then one of the volunteers showed up with his son. He mentioned donuts. I smiled at this, but knew better than to ask for one.

While standing at the door, a volunteer walked up to me and talked about non convention goers at this floor. I had been under the perception that this was the freeflow area, and anyone could play, so long as they looked prospective. Apparently some homeless people had all signed up for a competition, and were forced out because they were not attending.

I told the volunteer I didn’t mind folks playing the games. We had a conversation about it. This is an interesting topic because the entire convention center is paid for by the Emerald City Comic Con runners. The floor I was on could be accessed by anyone, but we had convention things going. People I spoke to had been rebuffed about showing up, where as I wanted more folks at the arcade. It meant more prospective visitors to our convention.

So it was a free to pass area, but not free for the convention people. Having a homeless person go into the convention center was difficult. There were bathrooms that were only for convention goers, because homeless people did weird things in them. The appearance of the convention center fell because of these freeflow areas. The battle between free, image, and cost is a constant thing.

Keep in mind, a few days earlier I had watched a homeless man talk on a non existent cell phone, and talk about sex, drugs, and homelessness in at times very vulgar and graphic ways. This is not something you want a businessman to think of when they talk about the convention center. Heck, it lowers the image of any convention in it. Someone will say this is a convention goer, or somehow the convention center is not safe.

This is part of Seattle life. The poorest part of town, is within blocks of the richest. The best and most expensive stores are two blocks away from the train station, where many homeless live. The style of clothing in Seattle makes it difficult to know if you are talking to a millionaire, or a homeless man, or even a barista.

At the ferry the night before, I wouldn’t have realized some of the folks were homeless, if it wasn’t for the bags they carried with them. These were people charging phones, and kindles, checking on prices and even having a sophistication about themselves. There were others who were in rags, and seemed slightly out of it as well. But you could see the same in many of the volunteers at the convention at the very moment. Going further, I knew convention volunteers that were homeless, or staying at hostels to be there. They have paypal accounts, and some of them are friends on facebook. In Oregon, it’s a thing for a friend of mine and myself to invite people to lunch, so then we can pay for their meal.

The conversation was great, and I appreciated hearing his side of things. This is a difficult balancing act, and it doesn’t always have happy answers.

While sitting at the front table for the arcade, the guy who had built his own machine walked up. He had pictures to show off, and talked about all of the wiring he had to work on. He used a multicade set up, but there was a full JAMMA set up to keep things going. Before the work had begun, he had a basic tool set, but every time something was needed, he got a new one. His garage filled with tools, and wonder.

It turned out, he was a graduate degree adviser for Leadership at the University of Washington. His skills with wiring, and any of that was not natural. That filled me with a bit of joy because if he could do it, so could I. Though I’ll be honest, he has a bigger budget than I do. I would need to ask friends for help.

As he chatted with me, and showed off these amazing photos, the woman who talked about cars with me the day before walked up. I gave her a shaka, and nod, but wanted to continue checking out the awesome photos. It was simply, a hope she knew that I considered both conversations as amazing. I had even looked up the midrange air cooled thing the night before.

She nodded back, but didn’t talk with me. That was a bit aggravating, because I wanted to talk with both of them, but on two completely different topics.

The volunteers son showed up. I usually only see these guys during the Emerald City Comic Con, so it was a chance to catch up. The son was the one who figured out the perfect tipping point for an arcade machine. That is a difficult task, but once you figure it out, is so useful.

They brought donuts, and some extra folks to help out. We chatted, and then ate. I was told an entire box was open to anyone. So I dug in. I knew there would be food, but still, it was nice to have.

I also took pictures, and spotted the perfect shot.

I made sure to get permission from the Dad. The girl is wearing a wig, and no distinguishable marks are shown, so it was fine. All sorts of amazing things that day.

On the internet, a friend asked how long I had been loopy. I answered about the length of the show, not realizing the real joke he was making.

We closed up, and I never got a chance to go into the main floor again. The Art Super Highway was never attended, and I felt pretty bad about it.

Soon, the doors were shut, and we started unplugging machines. The owners would take care of the pinball machines, and I worked to organize the arcade cabinets into the proper shipping order. It was pretty easy, and we had a list to work off of.

It was cool, many years ago I was the new guy who didn’t know what he was doing. Now people referred to me as the experienced one. I taught people how to move machines now, even though many of these people had shown me ideas and tricks. They were right though, I had worked at several conventions, and even been in charge of volunteers over shipping in and out.

While moving things, I took pictures of the displays being taken down. An Uruk Hai had to be tilted over, and placed in a box. Several stacks of comic books were all around me, and I remembered all the cool things I had wanted to buy. Sadly, this was not to be.

Our truck was on the parking bridge for loading and unloading. The view is actually really cool, even if it does start raining.

I made sure to have an assistant with me for most of the locations. It was an interesting time. There were people going into the elevator with us, and some of them had way bigger carts. I’m talking fill the entire elevator, which can take full sized trucks big. It would be difficult to describe what these loads looked like, but they were long, and made of metal.

I worked with volunteers and friends.

I asked one of them what the loopiness is called from conventions.

“I don’t know, I’ve never had it,” he said.

Then someone tried to talk to him, and he didn’t notice.

We moved everything to the trucks, and the drivers placed them as needed inside. It was fast but tiring work, and I was glad to have what energy I could use. There would be a party for volunteers, and I smiled at the idea, but felt too tired to care.

The movements was weird. If someone didn’t have a pass on them, they could not join us, even though they might be assisting me. We had to use several paths to get around all of the traffic. This was including going through a breakroom.

On the last pass, I realized I didn’t need to head back to the arcade room. I grabbed my stuff, and placed the game. Then I walked through the hallway I had barely seen before hand. There was a jellybean drawing of Wonder Woman.

With that, I was done. I took the normal people elevator down, and walked out. I had some spare money on me. While walking, I bought a newspaper, and told the person to keep it. The last of the cash was given to a guy playing spoons on the path to the ferry. I bought my ticket, and then began to analyze everything I saw and heard.

It was hard to think, so I decided to be more careful. I was going to drive a lot the next day, and there was extra money to make sure I was ok. The big question was having a place to stay for the next two conventions. My buddy would be away, but his wife would be there. It was a lot of questions, and thoughts. I would deal with them in the morning though, and I wasn’t going to sleep as well as I could.

It was a nice long sleep, and I enjoyed it. I couldn’t tell you what the dreams were, but they had joy in them.

The next day, I slept in, and made sure to be rested for the long drive back.

As I was preparing, I saw my buddy’s wife -once again, girlfriend and wife are the same word in Spanish- and asked her. She responded it didn’t bother her. She barely even noticed I was there. So, in June, I would cover the NorthWest Pinball and Arcade Show, the Seattle Retro Gaming Expo, and through the internet, I would watch the Electronic Gaming Expo. That’s three conventions in a single week.

I packed up, and got into my car for the longish trip home. I wasn’t going to head straight home. That would be insane. Instead, I would hit Round1 near Renton, and maybe my favorite Gamestop and Barnes and Noble.

There was traffic from Tacoma to the exit to Round1. There were a couple times where it came to a complete stop, and it looked like it would get worse. Which is why I took the first exit to the mall. On the top is the amazing arcade, which I checked out the year before after setting up for ECCC. It was my birthday present to myself.

The arcade wasn’t open yet, so I grabbed some food at McDonalds.

I had a sausage mcmuffin as well. This was all about making sure I was a safe happy driver on my way home. I was tired from all of those trips, and I knew there were more to come. It would take a lot to recover correctly, so I might as well start at driving home.

After a nice meal, I checked out the local Best Buy, and it was closed as well. So, I drove to the local Target. This is the same Target that I bought a pair of slippers from. These slippers were supposed to be easy quick replacements for the ones that broke while working at my first NWPAS. The entire Switch selection was sold out. It was pretty amazing.

After that, I checked out the Best Buy, and found the same thing.

Finally, the arcade was open. I played so many games. There was the Nessica units, with multiple games set up, and ready to play. Also, the brand new Cruis’n and Batman games. Every time I walk into this arcade, I fall in love. They have modern things, and it makes me feel like I did as a kid, looking for something cool to play.

I will write up all of the games I played for the next article, but for now, know it was amazing. It perked me up quite a bit.

After all that driving, I had figured out the area pretty well. I had arrived, and gotten lost fairly easy, but now I was spotting signs and figuring out things. Way out on the road, I found my favorite GameStop and Barnes and Noble. That sounds like a weird way of saying it, until you see how they are connected.

It is literally two sides to the same building. I saw a few games, and asked about the new Zelda game for Wii U. It was sold out. The entire store was great, but I wasn’t going to spend any money unless I had to.

I took a few wrong turns, but ended up on the right path to Spokane. I also missed a ton of traffic this way as well. Since there was no timeline for me to come back, I could relax, and take it easy. My phone had been breaking down, and I decided to buy a new one on the path back.

The roads were not covered in snow. But the piles blocked the view. It wasn’t that bad, and I enjoyed myself as much as I could. My big disappointment was I couldn’t take a picture of my favorite view. The lake had frozen over, and the small island in the middle was covered in snow. But my phone couldn’t have taken the picture anyway.

At ellensburg, I bought gas, and some treats. Ahead of me was a grandmother and grandson who were buying things, and some gas. Then their credit card was denied. I felt awful, but I didn’t pay for that. I did give some change to the guy begging for stuff at the entrance.

The rest of the trip was boring, but I still enjoyed it. The tunes played, and I didn’t worry about traffic or people trying to do stuff. It was a really enjoyable trip.

When I got back, I was tired. I knew it would hit me hard, so I let it. A lot had been done, and now it was time to write notes for all of these things. I had a good deadline, and could complete it all soon.

Little did I know, that I would buy Minecraft for my birthday.