2012 Player Summit? Information?

So if all goes well, me, Bloodspeaker, and Jade Crush will be arriving in SJ at around 2:30pm or so on Friday. We should have room for one more person in our rental car if you're arriving at about the same time (MAYBE 2 if you're both skinny), and we'll be staying at Dinah's.

We'll be flying out of SJ on Sun late afternoon/early evening.

For those Justicites attending - I take it we're doing bacon waffles on Sunday morning, as per usual?

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Dang with everybody flying into San Jose, as SFO is cheaper from Seattle. Sigh.

--NT

Okay, I'm confirmed as going. Tickets are bought (though I got insurance just in case).

I should be getting in to SJC around 9:30 AM local time. Yeah, way early, but gives me time to do shopping and stuff before the con.

I'll be leaving out on Sunday at about 1:40 PM. I tried to get a slightly later flight, but the later flight would have had me in the air or laying over for the better part of 10 hours and getting back after start of business the next day (BIG NO-NO).

Getting a full-sized car (something like an Impala). So if anyone else is getting in early (or needs a pickup shortly thereafter) let me know. I'm going to be packing fairly spartan for this one. Mostly clothes and a toothbrush in a small check-bag, and then my laptop as a carry-on. Due to the silly airline restrictions I'm going to be picking up soap and toothpaste and stuff once I arrive.

This'll actually be my first time flying since most of the 9/11 TSA bull went into effect. Kinda looking forward to getting groped...NOT!


Heh. Dredged up a funny memory. Ask me at the event about the "Ice Cream Game".

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Every time I fly into or out of America I request the most handsome TSA agent to pat me down. I get strange looks, or laughs. Only once has it happened due to the low rate of female TSA employees working that day, however it was ''over seen'' by a female ID checker. Talk about a buzz kill. The guy was pretty cute too. Never works for my hubby when he requests a beautiful woman tho

I usually get a grouchy lady who is older, or a rather erumn larger than life lady who hasn't heard of the word deodorant. The few times I have gone through the full body scanner I make sure to tell the person running it to print out a copy for me so I can sign it, that way when I become famous they will have their ticket to riches. Never worked out for me that way..

Well, got in contact with my bud at nVidia. Looks like I'm going to take a tour there when I get out.

Him: "It's kinda boring here."
Me: I'm a hardware geek, I can look at a pick and place machine for hours or just stare at a bunch of boards on a desk!

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Still haven't bought my tickets.. waiting till I get more info but looking for advice on airlines and what airport to use etc Is Southwest the best to use I guess? (FYI, flying out from Philly)

Another thing to consider when trying to book your flight might be other nearby airports. I regularly check flights out of Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Corpus Christi when I'm flying to California. There have been several times I've flown out of Austin to Houston and caught a connecting flight to San Jose since it was cheaper than just flying out of Houston.

Of course, the time to get to the airports in Austin, San Antonio and Houston are all relatively similar due to where my hometown is. Corpus is a bit closer, but I've yet to find a cheaper flight at the times I want. I've found cheaper flights coming in later, but not when I wanted to be there.

I don't know what's within a reasonable distance from Philly, so I'll leave it to you to check that out. Of course, my definition of a reasonable driving distance is based on Texas driving. Other parts of the country seem to find my distance definitions to be rather odd.

I'll echo Tony's sentiments about remembering to include the extra charges for bag checks when you look at the price. If I fly Continental and charge it to my Continental Credit Card, I don't get charged bag fees for the first bag (I've only ever checked one bag), but if I charge it to a different card I get charged fees.

I'm still not really happy with Southwest over the way they treat "passengers of size" (this was the phrase I heard Kevin Smith use after his Southwest fiasco), but I may just fly Southwest this time strictly due to the cost in relation to flight times. Flights into the Bay Area (SJC or SFO) fit my plans and pricing, but the flights back that I'd like to take raise the cost well over what I'm willing to pay ($100 or so more before adding in the baggage fees).

In any event, I'm planning on being in early Friday morning, getting a rental car again, hitting Schaub's for lunch then seeing how things go from there. I'm waiting for a definitive answer from Dramen about whether he's attending so that I'll know whether or not I'll need to look for a roomie. If Dramen is coming, I'm set, if not, I'll be looking for a roommate.

EDIT: I didn't consider the drive from SFO to San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara/Milipitas/Mountain View/etc to be that bad since the airport has easy access to 101 and the traffic moved rather quickly both going into and out of the airport. Then again, I'm used to Texas driving distances.

Lady Shroud and I are all set, though we might have to bug out a bit early on Saturday, as she's running the Big Sur marathon on Sunday.

--NT

Looks like if I do go, I'm driving.

the flights alone cost more than the site-price for the rooms for two nights, and that's if I drive more than half (more like three-quarters) of the distance from my place to Dinah's in the opposite direction to take the cheaper flight.

Driving I wound not have to worry about transport form the airport at least.

Rajani, where are you travelling from? That can make a big difference in the decision of whether or not to drive. For me, it would be a multi-day drive to get there, so flying is easily the better way to go during the work week.

Someday I'll map it out and figure out exactly how long it would take and approximately how much gas money I'd need for the trip.

I think it's something like 30 hours drive time going through Lubbock, Albuquerque, Flagstaff and Bakersfield or 27 hours going through El Paso, Tucson, Phoenix and Los Angeles.

To do that trip by driving I'd have to take off Wednesday through Friday and then Monday and Tuesday of the next week in order to not be totally bushed at the end of the drives both ways.

That's a bit too much during the middle of the school year. The district is pretty nice on me taking days off, but not that nice. Anything 3 consecutive days and over requires a doctor's note or me taking actual vacation time. They won't grant vacation days during the middle of the year, so I'm stuck with flying.

Live in the Rogue Valley - basically southernmost section of I-5 in Oregon. Might be able to grab a car-buddy, which would help. Biggest issue I have with driving myself is not only has it been a while since I've done a car trip that long, I've never done one that long by myself. Well, I've done a round trip about that long in one day, but i was also freaking about about the spa on the trailer I was pulling for the first time XD (not to mention the way there, GPS gave me the windy twisty road, vs on the way home...)

Also was looking at Greyhound, which would be half the day, but it's about... 10 minutes away from the hotel by city bus, or so google says.

Flying, you'd probably get a better price than me! (Local airport is trying to expand flight options, but it's a slow, painful process)

On a side note, is anyone else planning to cosplay their creation(s) aside myself?

I haven't heard whether or not Liquid and Fatare are going, but Fatare has come in costume at the first HeroCon (I don't recall seeing her in costume at the second HeroCon, but I could have just missed seeing it) and the first Pummit.

A few others did a bit of costuming at the Pummit so I'd say it's a safe bet that there will be "some" cosplay involved, but not nearly as much as some other venues such as SDCC.

Now, if they hold a costume contest as they did at the previous HeroCon events, you might get a few more people coming in costume for that portion alone which has generally been during the Saturday evening meal or after.

I pretty much fall in with the same thought process as Tony on this.

My limits of artistic abilities mostly fall in musical areas.

I can't draw a straight line with a T-Square. True story, I only passed my one drafting class in college because the instructor saw the effort I was putting in to "try" to get the assignments on paper, even though I should have failed. He knew I could visualize it in my head but just couldn't get it on paper.

The closest I've come to any cosplay was appearing as a total [self-censored] [self-censored] during and after the Saturday night dinner at the first HeroCon. Those that were not around me that evening were fortunate indeed. I'm still trying to repair some of the fallout from that night over 3 years later. I'm fortunate that several of those that were around me that night knew me well enough to know it was not my normal behavior and helped get me out of the area before I got myself into trouble that would have required a trip downtown. They also helped try to let people know it was out of character for me and I'm very lucky that they call me a friend.

Okay, I have one other thing that's close to cosplay. I had some shirts made with the colors and logo that almost all of my characters wear. BAB was kind enough to whip up a quick image for me in Photoshop and I've had a few shirts made with that logo. It's really the only logo I use for any characters. A tiny handful of characters (2 or 2) have no logo at all. I do wear those shirts at least once during the event, so you'll likely see one if you are at the Pummit.