Manoa

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I don't have many suggestions, the closest to me is the Mission Inn, and I'm rather bias.

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Waitasec...Riverside??? A little far from the bay, doncha think?

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Yes… but it’s so walking distance to me. ‘sides, you already got a Meet ‘n’ Greet.

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True...but that meet 'n greet was most certainly not within driving distance!

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I don't have many suggestions, the closest to me is the Mission Inn, and I'm rather bias.

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Waitasec...Riverside??? A little far from the bay, doncha think?

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Metreon for San Francisco.

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Oh, that's a nice venue DD! In the City with parking and WiFi!

Is it too late to change my vote?

I would be game for either San Francisco or San Jose...though either I'd lean more towards in San Jose or that is within close proximity to SFO. Aside from parking (though depending on the venue, you may have fairly decent parking in SF) my primary concern would be ease of navigation. I'd be willing to speculate that if there are going to be devs present, there could likely be a fair number of players traveling from out-of-town/state and a venue that's easy to find would be best.

Another thought is that since the devs will be a huge draw...I wouldn't doubt that a lot of CO* players will want to attend. If this is going to be a NCSoft event (i.e. for all players for all NCSoft games), you may want to consider a venue that can accommodate a larger number of attendees. While it was a lot of fun having the meet 'n greet at the Dave & Busters in Austin, my main concern is that the event room(s) for the branch in Milipitas might not have adequate room to accommodate a larger number of attendees than the Austin meet 'n greet. If it does have plenty of room...Dave and Busters would be a fantastic choice!

Unfortunately, I'm not too familiar with many venues in the Bay area (particularly south bay). I have no idea what price range Cryptic/NCSoft is looking at, but if you're looking for stuff in the heart of the Bay (i.e. SF), I've attended events at the Presidio and the Burlingame Hyatt Regency. Both are great venues and would have ample room for a large gathering. The Presidio has ample parking...the only downfall is that it could be tricky for out-of-towners to navigate to/from the venue. Burlingham Hyatt Regency has plenty of parking (800 vehicles...though it's $5/night), is very close to SFO and if I recall correctly (it's been a number of years) is pretty easy to navigate to/from. There's also the potential of arranging event rates for hotel rooms for out-of-towners. If I had a choice between these three venues (Dave & Busters, the Presidio or the Burlingham Hyatt Regency), I'd lean more towards the Hyatt.

You should get in touch with Moggie! Some of the Austinites get together for lunch on a regular basis and I think that would be a great way for you to get to know some CO* players in your area!

Egads! I look chubby or preggers in that photo!!

*makes mental note not to have any more close-up pics taken in new "greek-style" blouse...full body shots only from now on!*

Great article Xury2!! It was a pleasure to meet you and the rest of the CO* folks at the meet 'n greet! And yes, I am indeed no "sidekick."

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There is/was a Meet & Greet in Austin? When? Where? I live in Houston and would love to come!

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Sorry Strykyr...this event now falls into the "was" category (it was last weekend). It's a bummer that you didn't find out until after the fact...hopefully they'll have another one next year.

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No sleep? No Problem! I make COFFEE!

Come on Neutra, let's go practice for the next time we see Ex.

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There's plenty of coffee in the Bay! Man, if there's ever a meet 'n greet in the Bay...y'all have got to come out to Cali!

And Defuser (dba Detective2416), it was such a pleasure to get the opportunity to meet you and congratulate you in person!

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Also never enter a drinking contest with a Scot!

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I can just imagine this crowd in the Bay...not a wink of sleep will be had that weekend!

Shhhh...you're not supposed to tell everyone! Next thing we know, Ex will pull down that pic 'cause Missy asked. And that'd be a real shame cause I actually look pretty darn good in a picture for once!

It's great to see that Ex's Texas Longhorn made it back to Cali safe 'n sound.

Linkie

(P.S. Somber's and mine made it safely too! They now have cosy little places in our home office. I dare not bring mine to work...I think I'd find him missing very soon! )

Great pictures Ex!

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Oh yeah...I forgot to claim bragging rights regarding prizes! This little hula girl won a time card, an Arachnos cape and a copy of issue one of the COH comic signed by the devs, Ex and Lighthouse.

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....*sics a ninja monkey at Manoa* good monkey! all the bananas you want for the comic!

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NOEZ!!11! My precious!

/em Golem_growl

Oh yeah...I forgot to claim bragging rights regarding prizes! This little hula girl won a time card, an Arachnos cape and a copy of issue one of the COH comic signed by the devs, Ex and Lighthouse.

Didn't you know that BBQ Sause is a threat to national security?

It's a real bummer to hear that the Sause was confiscated by airport security. I almost bought some myself, but was concerned something like that might happen. I was thinking about ordering some from the Rudy's website...shall I order an extra bottle for ya?

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I'm a bit glad the first place we tried this morning was full, since it gave us a chance to switch to Rudy's and have The Worst BBQ in Texas. And no, I'm not being rude, that is actually their slogan.

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I don't care what their slogan is...it's still a zillion times better than any BBQ that you'd get in California! Californians just don't know the difference between BBQ and "grillin'"

Kerbey Lane looked pretty interesting and if I'm ever back in Austin, I'm going to have to give it a try. But Rudy's was fantastic! I'm still full from yesterday's lunch!

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Ah, there I go again, spelling words correctly.

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What are you doing using the British version anywho?!

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Isn't that funny? I think we ditched the king and went "And you know what? Screw all your extra letters, too! We don't need two Ls in stuff! And what's with the u in 'colour?' No way we're putting up with that! And just to REALLY stick it to you, we're going to rearrange the last two letters of 'theatre' and call them toh-MAY-toes. So there!"

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Ouch...my gut hurts from laughing so hard from that one Miss!

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Actually, it's Somber Traveler.
(Yes! Teh Boyfriend™ has finally been outed! )



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Ah, there I go again, spelling words correctly.



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Well, though his name has one "L," you're both right about the word. "Traveler" is correct, according to Merriam-Webster, and "traveller" is an accepted variant, like canceled/cancelled.

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Somber wanted me to relay a funny story...he was originally going to use "traveller," but he couldn't because of the old cap on the number of characters you could use for names. He did a little research and found "traveler" to be a proper variant. Thus, "Somber Traveler" was born!

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Ah, there I go again, spelling words correctly.

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What are you doing using the British version anywho?!

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Teh Boyfriend™ is also known as Somber Traveller.

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Actually, it's Somber Traveler.
(Yes! Teh Boyfriend™ has finally been outed! )

We arrived back home safe and sound! Somber and I would extend our warmest thanks to everyone for such a wonderful weekend. Everybody that we meet this weekend were so incredibly generous with their time and hospitality and we are so appreciative that you guys were able to take the time to make this weekend something to remember.

Special thanks to Missy and Moggie for all your "cat-herding" to set up the brunches and dinner/drinking excursions and to our several "chauffeurs" for guiding us through the wilds of Austin so we wouldn't get lost (not to mention you enabled us to return rental to the airport with a full tank of gas so we didn't have to pay Hertz $7.99/gallon or fill the tank before returning the car). And also a big thanks to Ex and CuppaJo for taking the time to spend some time with us CO* players outside of the meet 'n greet!

The meet 'n greet this weekend really exemplified that no matter where in the country you might live, CO* players are truly one big crazy family. The Austin meet 'n greet was such a great experience and we're crossing our fingers that Ex is successful in setting up a meet 'n greet in the Bay area sometime in the future. We're not sure if we'll be able to make the next meet 'n greet in Austin...but if we can't, at least we can still keep in touch through the boards and in-game even though we're several states away.

Now y'all don't be strangers now...y'hear?

Missy works in mysterious ways!

I had a *fantastic* time this evening all! I really look forward to more festivities tomorrow!

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Sleep is for the weak. ZZZZZZZZ

And the old apparently.



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Sleep is for the airplane ride back home!

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I can offer gas money to anyone willing to come up north to round rock. I wouldn't be begging if they would just stick a metro stop up here. PM me for a number or something *big 'o' puppy eyes*

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Check your PM box.



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You're awesome Tex! I would've offered, but I nearly got lost on my way to the hotel...with a GPS unit! Luckily, a couple "appraiser U-turns" got us (and the GPS) back on track! But it wouldn't have been good if Mad_Malkavian couldn't make it if his ride got lost!

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*sigh* Too bad I have to leave for work in ten minutes. If anyone's still up for doing something before or after the meetup tomorrow, though, I'm still up for it (off work until Wednesday night so losing sleep then won't be a problem for me).

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Lunch Saturday?

*tosses star back to Balorn*

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Ok, how's this for Friday night then?

Meet at the Dave & Busters flag pole at 7:30pm and figure out how many cars we'll have so we can go eat/pub crawl?
Sound ok?

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I'll be there, too. If there are a lot of us, we may want to consider Bucca Di Beppo, the family-style Italian place that's right next door.

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Teh Boyfriend and I was there a little earlier to grab a bite to eat before we checked in...but the food was sooooo good that I wouldn't mind eating there again! It's kinda funny...when we were there, I was thinking how the place would be perfect if we had a large group this evening!

So we arrived safe and sound and are all settled in at our hotel. We look forward to meeting y'all soon!