Road to Nerdtacular 2015.

It's that time of year again.

      Last couple weeks of raiding has been not really happening.  Low attendance etc.. has had us running old content for kicks and having fun doing other things.  This weekend I'm hoping will be better but since I will be somewhere Saturday night.... The place listed in the title we will see.

     Maybe if I'm not there folks will show.  Who knows?

     Nerdtacular is over for me now.  This is my one big get away event where I go to hand out with Geek kind at Snowbird, Utah.  It is awesome to see how it has grown since the first year I went to see it and we watched Iron Man 2, then had a short Q&A upstairs.

     I wandered around a bit, caught some cool panels.  I really loved the ones on Podcasting and Comic books in Modern media.  However, due to the fact it's so big I had to pick and choose between panels and ended up sitting out hypothetical help and Sword and Laser.  All of these will eventually be streaming somewhere on the Frogpants Network among other places, and I recommend thumbing through and seeing if there are any you like.

My Fat head next to Chris Metzen's

      The highlight this year for me was that Chris Metzen was there.  I didn't talk to him much, but I managed to shake his hand and thank him for an amazing game.  I then embarrassed myself by not being used to taking selfies on my camera. (let's be honest, this is not a bad thing except in this situation.)  I did get this picture with him, and it is fun to be able to say I've met the man.

     If you only listen to one thing from Nerdtacular, I would suggest "The Instance" Podcast.  (Though you should listen to more)  Chris Metzen and Russell Brower where both part of the panel, and Chris essentially stole the show.  He talked a lot about the beginning days at Blizzard and how things have grown and illuminated the path they took to get where they are.  Whatever you think of World of Warcraft, and Metzen himself, I will tell you from the little bit I saw; the man has passion and while he's very smart, he seems very humble as well.  When they talked about Project Titan and the Values Blizzard holds to when releasing a game, I felt myself smiling.  You can tell he cares a lot about what he does, and about the people his products serve. 

Ever Wonder why I love living in Utah?

    Here I am though, two days of Nerdtacular past, and feeling happy about the time I spent there.  Here is the funny thing about me though, I don't talk to many people.  I sit there, by myself this year, and just watch the people around me and enjoy what is going on around me.  I did miss my opportunity to thank Jules from Tauren Think Tank and to say hi, as she had reposted one of my blogs from last year.  I need to email her and say hi and such, but I felt that I should have said something and I let the moment pass.  Once again, I am much better at typing my thoughts out here than approaching people in real life.  Especially when I have a lot of respect, and a little hero worship, for what they do.

     

     I even asked a question on the Podcast (building an audience panel) because I've been kicking around starting one to compliment this blog.  Nothing big, and probably just once or twice a month, but we will see what happens.  In all likely hood between work and school that goal is a long way off.

Snazzy new shirt.

     So, if you ever get a chance to find your way to Nerdtacular, I recommend the experience. Scott Johnson has created a wonderful experience and it's amazing to see how it's grown.

See you soon,

Lag

Comics Panel

Podcast/Building your audience Panel

    Yes I included a lot more images then normal.  But this was a special occasion.

Nerdtacular 2013 (Woot, woot!)

    So this post is going to be a little less Wow related then my normal ones.  I just spent the last couple days at Nerdtacular which, if you don't know is a small pod casting convention held here in Utah.  It was originally a very Wow centric, but has grown over the years as Frogpants studios (http://frogpants.com/) has grown and added more and more podcasts to the line up it puts out.

    This is web comic and podcaster Scott Johnson's company, and I first became aware of it when I started listening to "The Instance," (http://frogpants.com/podcasts/the-instance/) The World of Warcraft podcast that Scott Johnson, Willy "Dills", and Turpster put on.  I have been listening to this show since 2008 or so, and I have rarely missed a week.  They do a general mix of Wow information and news and are just fun to listen too.  Of course Scott Johnson has a guild on Earthen Ring Server named Alea Ecta Est (The Die is Cast) and I know at one point it was officially the larges guild in World of Warcraft.  I myself have a toon in that guild I log on to sometimes just to kill a few minutes and listen to that community chat.  Illyrea on Earthen ring.  (Yes, that isn't my only toon of that name.)

       I highly suggest if you can finding something like this near you.  Nerdtacular was a bunch of panels around podcasting.  Their shows are all based around Wow, gaming, Books, New Tech, and other such geekery.   Stuff that makes  people like me happy, and even if like me you don't talk to a lot of people, it's nice just sitting in a group of like minded individuals.  Cryptazoic (http://www.cryptozoic.com/) even donated a bunch of their board games and wow TCG games so people could chill and play between panels.

      The shows we caught were the Battles of the Frogpants all stars (A group of Frogpants Podcasters split into two teams and trying to outdo each other at games and trivia) Film Sack (frogpants.com/podcasts/filmsack/) Where they did Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Costume contest, Prizeocolypse,  The Saturday morning Stream (Normally the Morning Stream http://frogpants.com/tms/) and a couple of other things.

     My only big complaint this year is that during the Prizeocolypse I didn't get my name pulled for a third year in a row.  That is more a Karma thing then anything else, I guess I need to yell more or become more social.  Me and Matt (Shaqia) were sitting in the row right behind Scott Johnson's family, which was cool. Until when they were tossing shirts one of the dudes there blocked a shirt thrown straight at me, and then picked it up and tossed it way back into the crowd.  Matt, offered to punch the dude for being a douche, but we decided to shrug it off.  Wouldn't be good to get kicked out for picking a fight, 'specially with the hosts family lol.  (Not that we would pick a fight anyway it was just annoying).  Unlike last year, where I left with a bunch of blizzard shirts, this year I had to settle with just my swag bad and a T-shirt I bought.  (The Instance T-shirt)  There is something inherently disappointing about  that, but at the same time, I know Scott Johnson had asked blizzard not to send so many T's because anything left over he has to take home, and there was a crapload of T-shirts last year left over even after the attendees picked over the remnants.  So I'm trying not to be unreasonable in my head with this, because I know it's just me

       I am lucky to have a understanding wife who lets me do this once a year.  I've known and heard of people who don't.  But I do need to shout out to her for letting me express my nerdyness, and hopefully I will be able to drag her along one year.

      All in all, it was a fun wonderful weekend, but I'm ready to spend time with my family again and return to Azeroth with my adopted digital family.  And Moldie.  (Hee hee)

       Next post I will talk about Wow, I promise.

Dizzty, Lag, Lazyeye,