Archive for Uncategorized

RTX in 1000 Words or Less

So I was in the middle of writing a full recap of RTX, but it started running long and I decided to scrap it. I may finish it one day, but probably not. I hate the fact that I am a long winded writer. I mean, look at this, I’m already over 50 words and I haven’t even made it to the meat of this post. Anyway, RTX recap, bullet-point style.

10 things I learned at RTX

  1. I love the internet

    Seriously, I <3 everyone I met at RTX. I had only interacted with a handful of you before last weekend, and had no idea what to expect once I started meeting people. I certainly didn’t expect to make so many friends and miss everyone this much. I can’t wait until we all get together again!

  2. The Austin-American Statesman’s Bat Hotline sucks

    Don’t even get me started. “The bats are currently flying between 7:45 and 8:15” was bullshit, and everyone who I talked into standing on that bridge knows it.

  3. I take the +10 against heat that every Texan gets for granted

    It was hot last weekend. Not unbearable, but it was hot. What I didn’t realize is that many of the people visiting had never had to deal with that heat for an extended period of time before. I knew better, and stocked up on Gatorade and soaked in the A/C when I could. It didn’t occur to me that others didn’t know to do those things. The trip to Barton Springs on Friday morning was just icing on the cake.

  4. Austin has some amazing food

    I already knew this, but all the places we visited for SideQuest made me really appreciate it. Seeing all of these people experiencing Gourdough’s and Salt Lick and Amy’s Ice Cream for the first time was pretty eye-opening as to just how lucky I am to live here. I love you Austin. Don’t ever leave me.

  5. I’m an RT fan, but I was at RTX for the community

    Something that became painfully obvious over the weekend was that many people went to RTX for the sole purpose of meeting the RT staff and gushing over them. Now, I’m not judging the people who were there for that, that just isn’t me. I was there to meet a bunch of like-minded people and show them a great time in Austin. Honestly, I would have been just as happy if everyone on the staff suddenly became extremely ill right before the event started and didn’t show up. In fact, I only spoke with a few of them, and it was only to say thanks for putting on the event. Do I regret it? Not one bit. I went for the community, and I loved every moment of it.

  6. Knuckles Dawson is an overachiever in real life too

    Checkpoint!

  7. The bottle-friendly alternative to shotgunning a beer is called a strawpedo

    I had no idea this existed until I watched a Brit do it at last-call in Halcyon. Put a straw in your beer and bend it upwards as you begin drinking. The straw lets air into the bottle and lets you continue drinking without having to stop. My mind was blown.

  8. I suck at pool

    But I only sucked a little more than Vicki. She was pretty horrible too.

  9. My drinks of choice are either rum+coke or long island iced teas

    With the exception of the first night, thats pretty much all I drank all weekend. There were a few other random drinks in there (especially during the bar crawl!) but I stuck to the rum+coke or LITs for most of the weekend. And they served me well!

  10. I love the RT community and need to get more involved

    This was my first time doing anything with this community, but it certainly won’t be my last. I don’t know what I’m going to do to stay involved (Besides keeping SideQuest going) but I’m going to find something. RTX 2012 is too long to wait, so I’ll have to find some other way to get my fix!

And that does it for my RTX recap. Maybe one day I’ll finish the long winded version, but I doubt it. Now I have to prepare to digest all the E3 news that’ll be hitting tomorrow morning. Maybe I can even get TexBot in on the action!

Also, the original title of this post was “RTX in 100 Words or Less” and I’ve been editing it every time I hit a different word count. I finally gave up and just added an extra 0. REALLY need to work on keeping these things shorter…

My Internet Alter-Ego

It occurred to me when changing my Twitter profile picture earlier today that I never properly introduced my internet alter-ego, Geoff Barnes. In my old profile picture on Twitter (and current one on here) you can see one of the earliest representations of Geoff (as he came to be called) courtesy of an old internet buddy who made some awesome wallpapers.

To explain, one of the first online communities I joined was big into creating your own avatar (as a character, not just a profile picture) for various purposes. At the time, mine was just GB, or GB330033, or Geebs, or a few other things. As time went on, he evolved into more of a caricature, not a representation of me. Since then, he has been my go-to for any games where you get to create a character. He has a pretty well defined set of traits that I try to stick to in any game:

Blonde/yellow hair with a goatee
Absurdly Texan (Country/Cowboy garb when possible)
Always decked out in orange (burnt if possible) and white
Generally lawful good, but sometimes chaotic good
Tends towards strength based skills, with dexterity coming second

Geoff has been a rock star (Rock Band and Guitar Hero), Spartan (Halo: Reach), Lone Wanderer of the wasteland (Fallout 3), a member of the Saints (Saint’s Row), Hero of Albion (Fable), stellar athlete (NCAA and Madden), and many other things.

Oddly enough, my avatar on Xbox LIVE isn’t Geoff, because I think it should be a representation of me. Strange how I’ve come full-circle with the whole avatar thing…

Hey! Look at that…

Time Warner Cable reached a deal with Disney. And included ESPN3 access. Awesome.

Football starts tomorrow. I can’t wait!