Saturday, July 2, 2011

While We Wait

Now that we're in the middle of planning for the next cruise, it's time to wrap up last year's reminiscing. Since welcoming new seamonkeys and keeping everyone informed and up-to-date about Jococruise Crazy 2 has fallen onto the able shoulders of Tracy and Sara, I'll make one last post on Jococruise Crazy 1, then begin tapping my foot in anticipation for February.

I decided to wrap up my farewells with a post to Peter Sagal. It's the right time to do it. Peter Sagal announce a few weeks ago that he would not be on the next cruise. Two days later I ran my first half marathon. In two days I run another one.

These things are related, because Peter Sagal is my running hero.

He writes a column for Runner's World (Road Scholar). He not only qualified for the Boston Marathon, but ran it quickly enough to re-qualify. He also did this within about a year of being hit by a car!

Flash indeed. This photo lives in Ginamai's Flickr stream.

So, in all the world of bad-ass runners, why is Sagal my running hero? To understand that, it's important to know there are two kinds of runners: Runners who are good at it, and runners who refuse to be bad at it. I'm the second -- slow with no natural skill whatsoever. I run because of its calming freedom, because of the inherent challenge in it, and because, at the end of the day, you're never racing against anyone but yourself.

From everything I've ever read from Sagal on running, I think we're the same in this. The difference is he's been out there refusing to be bad at running long and hard enough, that he's actually become good at it. So. Hero status achieved.

He wears it well. Everyone on the cruise was cool, mostly in the way "bowties are cool," but Peter Sagal seemed completely comfortable. Perhaps that kind of skill naturally evolves from all the practice he gets talking to strangers on Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me, but I think there's more to it than that. This is someone who can hang with the NPR intelligentsia, then roll up at a swinger's party to research "The Book of Vice." (Fantastic read by the way. Highly recommended.) A few hundred nerds were not going to be any problem.

And Peter Sagal did so much on the boat. He and Bill Corbett performed one of his plays, an incredibly clever piece called Game Theory. He hosted our morning quiz, Hey, Hey, I'm an Asshole. And he performed live something I'd only heard through YouTube, the story of Number 57.



This video by Adhesivemedstrip lives here


I love this piece. It strikes such a chord with everyone struggling to find our potential, particularly when surrounded by talented people who make everything look so easy.

But I guess it's true in life too. There are two kinds of success stories -- stories about people who are good at something, and stories about people who refuse to be bad at something.

I miss all my seamonkeys, all my friends. I hope to see you soon.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Mustachioed Mayhem

Who doesn't remember the Paul F. Tompkins Memorial Moustache Formal fondly? A chance to dress up AND show off, or try on, facial hair? (It is a fond goal of mine to have wildly overgrown eyebrows, like a proper mad scientist, when I get old, but a mustache is probably too much to ask for.)

Here's a bit of video of the event from ThatGuyBSU's youtube stream, originally posted here. Lots of familiar faces in this snippet, including Storm, Famous Tracy, Randal Schwartz, and the ever-present back of my head.



I especially love watching this video and being able to say "Aha, that's who took that picture!"

Searching the Official Flickr photo stream for the word "mustache" gives you nine pages of results from the formal, and I really think they're the best photos from the cruise. Not only is there the whimsy of seeing a lot of people in fake felt mustaches, but there's also plenty of proof that we nerds clean up real purtey.

I'm including a few of my favorites below.
---
Clearly the best way to get noticed at a mustache formal is to bring your own. The mustache on a stick and the tie-on mustache were both show stoppers:

Original photo from Gina Mai's photostream posted here.

Original photo from ElLordHighBueno's photostream posted here.
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Turns out the only thing more photogenic than a lovely woman in a mustache is a baby in a mustache (little wonder).

Original photo from Joseph.Boss' photostream posted here.
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Sara (chicazul) continues to make everyone else look bad with her epic levels of off-beat beauty. Also, check out those biceps!

Original photo from Hijammer 42's photostream posted here.
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I love that Her Highness brought her own mustache. It's hard to tell in this photo, but it was fuzzy and pink.

Original photo from cajunjoel's photostream posted here.
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Finally, perhaps the world's only known record of a photobombing mustache?

Original photo from Hijammer 42's photostream posted here.

This last picture leads right into the speculation of what sort of organized events we'll see on the next cruise. Paul and Storm have hinted that a lot of the ideas discussed in the forums were already things they'd planned. We'll find out soon enough what they've got in mind, but here are some of the things I've seen go by:

The Fez Fete -- inspired by Wil Wheaton, Dr. Who, and the coolness of fezes in general. Don't have a fez? EDIT: Go buy one from Chicazul, who's making all manner of custom fezes to raise money for Joco cruise crazy 2. (You can dress up like a sultan in your cthulhu head hat.)

The I Crush Everything First Annual Bubble Social -- Take in the sea air, blow bubbles, and possibly fly tiny kites on the aft deck.

Talent show! -- for people with talent. Expect a lot of ukeleles -- the most portable form of stringed accompaniment, after the lute.

Bake off -- a chance to get together and get creatively baking or get fat off other people doing so.

The Snuggie Social -- an opportunity to prove that Jonathan Coulton isn't a fluke in our eyes (I mean, he's NOT a shake weight, for goodness sake).

Of course, we could always do the mustache formal again. In this case, we'd all get a chance to be rockin' the 'stache a second time (this time, it's personal).


This video from sarachicazul posted here.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Sea Monsters and Minnesota

When W00tstock came to Portland I thought "Wow, look at all these great guests! Paul and Storm, Wil Wheaton, Adam Savage, Stepto, Matt Fraction, Molly Lewis..." I was so pleased to live in Portland, where such cool things can happen.

Then they announced the next round of W00tstocks: Chicago and Minneapolis. Guess who was going to be there? Peter Sagal, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy. Suddenly I wanted to live in the midwest. Our tech-savvy, sardonic city of cool kids didn't seem so cool anymore. In a big way, the Jococruise helped make up for that, since everyone I missed by not living in the land of the hotdish was on the boat.

Now I wish I lived in Minnesota a second time.

Why? Sexy Librarian, the latest show put on by fellow seamonkey Joseph Scrimshaw and his theater company Joking Envelope, based out of Minneapolis. Everything I find out about this rock musical rife with literary references completely tickles me.

Let me back up a bit: the second night of the cruise, an hour into the mustache formal, we stumbled merrily down to the small theater midship to watch two plays. The first, by Peter Sagal, I'll talk about later (he'll get his own post). The second, by Joseph Scrimshaw and Bill Corbett, was entitled "My Monster."

I loved "My Monster," and not just because of the free-flowing alcohol. It was funny, really funny. And smart. But it also went a little sad at the end, which reminded me a lot of the best Chaplin routines (see the breadrolls dance, performed in a dream where the tramp is imagining himself having friends--most people forget how heartbreaking that scene is). In fact, I even used "Chaplinesque" to describe My Monster in the elevator back up to our cabin, where we happened to ride up with Joco himself. (And yes, using the word Chaplinesque does make you seem like a bit of a tool, but I was tipsy.)

The whole play is captured (blurry unfortunately, but enjoyable to listen to) as a series of YouTube videos posted by Simalot. First one below, but you can find them all in his stream:



Bill Corbett was fantastic, of course, and it was a true joy to watch someone I really adore and respect present something he was proud of. But Joseph Scrimshaw completely stole the show. At one point (it's in the fourth clip in the youtube series) his character, Spike Flambeaux, stormed off-stage to get a "real drink." In the spirit of the whole Jococruise, one of the seamonkeys leaned over and loudly whispered "you're doing great." I kept meaning to say so too, later, but was always too shy and intimidated by his wife, Sara, who seemed much to pretty to be a nerd. (Turns out she's very nice, another of my stereotypes ruined!)

I'm too far away to see Sexy Librarian live, but go check out the first song "What the hell is wrong with me?" If you live within driving distance, go catch the show. It runs all through May.

And maybe, eventually, someone will put it on in Portland.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

John Hodgman: Enigma

Note: I had this "in the can" as they say before yesterday's big news that there will be a Joco cruise Crazy 2 in February, which explains the tone. Don't worry that I'm going to start publishing daily.

What does the enigmatic smile mean? Politeness? Shyness? Or just some grander joke the rest of us can only guess at?

Image of Hodgman attributed to ETHAN MILLER / GETTY on the Time site.

I've mentioned before that John Hodgman was the one celebrity I was really nervous about meeting on the Joco Cruise. It wasn't just, as he's pointed out in the QA session, a fear of magical genies who live in my television coming out to get me in real life. John Hodgman is a dry wit, the proverbial straight man, and as such, it's very difficult to tell when he's joking, and when he's being sincere.

And that's intimidating. How often have I left a gathering to realize I was probably being made fun of the whole time? It's a scary thought. I'm not particularly good with sarcasm or irony, and I had a feeling John Hodgman could be the sort to wield these with surgical precision.

After my first nervous meeting with him at the mustache formal, and his very kind words during the QA (pet peeves: phoniness and frowns), I felt much more comfortable. When I saw him, or anyone else among the celebrities I would give a friendly but polite wave. Because when it came right down to it, I only had about two things to say to each, and I wasn't about to wing it.

The emperor approves in this photo from grimoire42

But did John Hodgman actually have a good time on the cruise? He called in to the WFMU show to talk about it and made it clear, saying about the seamonkeys:

"Really lovely people, and terrific folks, and very sea-worthy, I must say." He also calls us "smart and interesting."

You can listen to the whole thing here (Hodgman calls in at about the 45 minute mark):

http://wfmu.org/flashplayer.php?version=2&show=39064&archive=66748

Among the topics covered are:

Baked Alaska
Joco's huge room
Ice sculptures
A boring dentist from Michigan
The ship's smarmy art dealer

It's a few months old, but it's a nice trip down memory lane and a good way to get excited for Joco cruise crazy 2.

Miss you guys. That is all.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Joco Cruise Crazy 2: Even Crazier...?

Dang, I had a post all ready, but this can't wait. Guess I'll just have to update again tomorrow.

Remember how everyone was on the cruise, and it was pretty much the best thing ever? Then it all ended, and we were so sad.


(This photo of Sloop John B, the last song, lives here in Gina Mai's photostream .)

Yep, it's official. Jococruisecrazy 2 has just been announced. What we know:

http://jococruisecrazy.com/

Feb 19-26 in the South Caribbean.

A lot of people are speculating that it will be this cruise. Looks like it's a little more expensive, and I'm a little sorry it's still on the east coast, but you think I'll complain? If I have to sell my car, I'll be there. Who's coming with me?

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Seamonkeys: Watch them Grow

I found the Joco Cruise to be such a huge confidence booster. How many times did we hear, during the cruise and afterwords, that we were interesting, intelligent, and incomparable people from each other and the cruise hosts? It does good things to the ego to hear, "You know what, you can do that. Do it!"

It's been a couple of months now, and I have to admit, the good mojo is wearing off. Could be the Portland spring dumps. Could be the ridiculous work load I've got. Could be that time moves us on to other obsessions.

So I thought I'd make a quick post in praise of the people who really started doing something after the cruise. I love following these projects, and I wanted to share them. Because we're the kinds of people who cheer for the people who have the guts to do something.

I mean, just listen to us cheer the Presidents song.



Video from zenofben lives here.

***

I'm pretty sure no one reading this blog isn't already a fan of Tracy's Geektastic Pentameter, but I have become a firm believer that it's never wrong to say nice things about remarkable people. Her topics range from pragmatically clever and nerdy to soul-crushingly lovely. Here's a bit of one of my favorites:

Now, at “airplane,” I’m
a splinter falling from the phalanx,
a fletching dwindling, drifting
from the arrow, buoyed
for an instant by a hot
and angry breeze, a
wild susurrus whispering,
“I ought to be above this.”


These poems will go in a book one day, and people will carry them around in their back pockets, and get them dog-eared, and memorize them and quote them to each other, and smudge them with food and coffee rings. In other words, this is the real thing.

***

I've been enchanted by the idea seamonkey SunnyTana came up with to play a game of literary popcorn with an open ended story created by submissions each week:

http://collaborwriter.blogspot.com/

It's a lot of fun to see how the story evolves with each new submission, and I'd be delighted to see a few more people get excited about it. So far we've got a recipe for any number of adventures: Three young women, a road trip, and a mysterious stranger (eyebrow waggle here).

***

Immediately after the cruise the last thing I felt like doing was going back to the daily grind. So I particularly appreciated following the progress of ElBueno (Ray) on Twitter. He went to part time work at the day job so he can create his own video game. You can read about the the game, Fortress, here:

http://www.hindrances.com/

But it's Ray's wife Mel who has stolen my heart with her cupcake blog, launched right after the cruise. This has now become my secret obsession:

http://www.cupcakefridayproject.com/

Cupcaku!
The idea: Each week a new cupcake. During the week: reviews, recipes, and recaps. Every Friday I can't believe how good the cupcakes sound. I convinced Taylor to make the Sprite'cakes, but my mouth still isn't convinced you can pack so much flavor into a single food. Fantastic.

The other day Mel tweeted this:
"Cookies are my first baking love. I'm going to be integrating them into some Cupcake Fridays."

I just have to say, it's lucky I was sitting down when I read that. Otherwise, I might have fainted dead away.

The picture is of the "Vanilla bean cupcakes with chocolate mousse and Irish cream buttercream".

***

Those are just the people I follow, but I know there are others I've missed. Now's your time to shine seamonkeys. Who's been working on that pet project? And what can we do to cheer you on?

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

What'd I miss: P8 Yar har fiddle-dee-dee

Note: This series of events I regretfully missed while on the cruise was too long for a single post, so I'm publishing them in pathetically infrequent bursts until I run out, which I think I just did.

Given my love of Fluxx and gaming, how is it possible I missed the Pirate Fluxx tournament that went on during the Joco Cruise? That was one of the things I most looked forward to. A new, unreleased deck of Fluxx? Talk about nerd cred.

You can see Kristen Looney recruiting folks for the tournament in the rubik's cube video Tracy pointed out. Kristen Looney also speaks highly of the cruise in her blog here.

Does anyone know who won the tourney? Did any celebs play?

As a sidenote, the idea of "Pirate Fluxx" reminded me of this video. Taylor still occasionally mimics the epileptic shimmy the captain goes into at about 1:25.



Look in his eyes as he vibrates wildly, and you'll see bald desperation.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

What'd I miss: P7 The best in terms of dance

Note: This series of events I regretfully missed while on the cruise was too long for a single post, so I'm publishing them in staccato bursts (semi-)daily until I run out.

I am afraid of dancing.

How can anyone not be? There are elbows and feet flying all over the place. Your partner has 100 pounds and 7 inches on you. You're balanced precariously in heels.

I heard about the dance in the Northern Lights disco after the fact, but I only have these pictures that skirt the line between raving fun and madness to tell me what danger I escaped.

(These are all from cajunjoel's photostream. I organized them into a dance-party gallery here.)



David Rees apparently started the dance dance revolution. This photo lives here.



Mike Phirman aims both barrels at Sara Chicazul. This is what we think of Canadians. Photo here.



These are the lucky survivors. I can only assume the rest are in the infirmary with bloody noses and mashed toes. Original photo here.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

What'd I miss: P6 Ham it up, fuzz ball

Note: This series of events I regretfully missed while on the cruise was too long for a single post, so I'm publishing them in staccato bursts (semi-)daily until I run out.

What happens when you combine nerds, cameras, and time? Photo dramas.

On Half-moon Cay, Molly Lewis and Wil Wheaton destroyed some innocent child's sand castle.

You can see all these photos, plus some sweet behind-the-scenes shots from ckwright (aka, Darnit Chris, aka, Molly's fella) here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ckwright/sets/72157626100247762/

What's the best possible thing that can come from a misplaced camera? A found camera loaded with sneak peaks of the performers goofing around back stage. Here's the photo set containing all the images snapped where no mere mortal could go:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/voruzzz/sets/72157625783277396/


Take a look at all the photos. The captions are really funny too.

Finally, here's a series of photos of a friendly gathering gone wrong:

http://www.jessicaverma.com/jocopics/jocofight/

I particularly love the look on the face of the man just in frame on the left. "I just wanted some food, guys."

Sunday, February 27, 2011

What'd I miss? P5: Not the sharpest pencil in the box

All 400 Joco cruisers got a swag bag filled with goodies, among them the right to have our pencil sharpened by artisinal pencil sharpener David Rees.



This photo from Mirka23's flickr page lives here.

The closest I got was getting a number one night, but I am too impatient to wait half an hour, so my pencil remains unsharpened. Our friend Jeff also brought aboard some "bootleg" pencils to be sharpened, labeled "Team Joco".


Angela (Cernoise) was lucky enough to get video of the experience before Rees instituted the "still photos only" policy.



This video lives here.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

What'd I miss? P4: I'm Colleen you out

Note: This series of events I regretfully missed while on the cruise was too long for a single post, so I'm publishing them in staccato bursts (semi-)daily until I run out.

I spoke to almost all the celebrities on the cruise, to my own great joy, but there's one person I didn't say hello to. So I'm saying it now.

Hi, Colleen!

Let me back up.

I've made the comparison between the Joco cruise and PAX several times now, always favoring, highly, the cruise. This is largely because I'm not that much of a video gamer, truth be told, and since my friends mostly are, I wander around the event hall, watch other people play video games, fail miserably in my attempts to play the games, and generally get bored.

PAX 09 I decided this was the wrong way to go about it all. I brought along Zombie Fluxx and decided, shyness be damned, I was going to meet some people and play some games. So while the rest of my friends waited in endless lines to play 3 minutes of Dragon Age, I went up to wait in line for the musicians Q&A. Jonathan Coulton and Paul and Storm were all going to be there, and since I'd seen them live, I thought it would be a fun panel.

I was first in line, because I had nothing better to do. I sat there nervously for a few minutes before being joined by the second person in line.

This was Colleen, and she agreed to play Fluxx with me. I invited the two people behind us too, but they were too cool for such things (see, another thing that would not happen on the Joco cruise). So the two of us talked, and played, and she told me about how long she'd followed Jonathan Coulton (an insane amount of time, by the way -- like since almost his first show!). In the end, I think she won the game. After an hour the doors opened, and we went in. What I took from that was: Hey, I can get to know people pretty well if I do it over a card game. And people who like to play games with me are probably going to be worth getting to know.

And of course Colleen was on the cruise. This is the Joco Superfan after all. We never ended up in the same circles, so I never got to demand a rematch. Or generally catch up. And that was something I regretted.

So thanks for being cool, Colleen, to me that very first time I dared ask a stranger to play a game. If you'd been mean or dull or any of a hundred other things, I would never have used the same trick to form the new friendships I did on the Joco cruise. And that would have been truly tragic.

Here's Colleen's post on her blog about the Joco cruise:

http://colleenky.livejournal.com/149248.html

And here's a bit of cruise life I'm so glad Angela captured of Colleen's mini ukulele performance. If you could boil the non-celebrity parts of the cruise down to its best parts, I think it would look just like this:

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

What'd I miss? Compilation edition.

I've missed so many new posts, ack!

I missed most of the late night shenanigans and tomfoolery because I was sleeping.  If I don't get at least 6 hours of sleep I'm a zombie, and I had to wake up early most mornings for work stuff.  In retrospect, zombie mode beats the hell out of next-day regret.

I missed participating in the Deep Sea WiFi Temperance Brigade.  I'd  just been assigned to a new project and it seemed bad form to disappear at that point.   By about Tuesday I was sort of bitter about having to sign/call in every day, and it colored most of my mornings a hazy gray.  Lesson learned for jccc2:  it's my vacation.  I've earned it, and I deserve it.  All the other stuff can pound sand.  (big words now, right?)

I missed The Bombing of the Nick because I was sleeping.   In many years I've never seen the guy tipsy, and I missed out on what sounded like a fabulous opportunity. 

I missed taking a trip to the spa -- nothing to blame for this other than my own inertia.

I missed my daily intended intake of 2 pina coladas.  This will be rectified the next time. 
 
I missed meeting at least 150 of you.  This will also be rectified.

Many of these lead me to "What'd I learn?" -- may have to flesh some of those out for a future posting.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Da Six-Fingered Mon: If Count Rugen Were Jamaican

Hello, I'm Angela, and muahahaha, I now have access to post on this blog! Taking over the world will soon follow (you can tip me later.) I drew this JoCo Cruise Crazy/The Princess Bride crossover comic:


You're probably all Sea Monkeys, so I don't need to explain as much here as I did when I posted this on my blog. But if you are not familiar with The Princess Bride, you might want to watch these clips. I decided that Westley would say Fezzik's line in the last panel so that I could make the others say 'Shut up, Westley!'

If you missed the Q&A session, you might also want to watch this video from about 19:48 onwards. Credit to Kevin Murphy for the idea of braided beards, although I'd already thought of it about ten minutes before he said it. There's also a quote from My Monster in there, which I missed half of and must get around to watching on YouTube.

It's not that I didn't enjoy Jamaica at all. Jamaica was the low point of the cruise in the same sense that the perigee of the International Space Station is a low point.

By the way, I’m perfectly aware that the characters are standing in mid-air or on a railing in the first two frames, and Count Rugen changes colour in subsequent frames. If I’d had a better photo with ‘Welcome to Ocho Rios’ on it, and any illusions of being able to draw well, and an iPad app that kept the current colour between documents, I might have tried to fix that. Instead, I stuck with what I had drawn on a leisurely evening with my iPad in a café-bookshop.

Also, I can’t remember whether the touristic signs in Jamaica used ‘Da’ or ‘De’ for ‘the’, and the wikipedia articles on Jamaican English and Jamaican patois don’t seem to say one way or the other. I suspect there is no official spelling. So I went with ‘Da’ in the title of this post; if that’s not correct, I’d love to hear why.

What'd I miss? P3: Band of Beardalos

Note: This series of events I regretfully missed while on the cruise was too long for a single post, so I'm publishing them in staccato bursts (semi-)daily until I run out.

I wouldn't have been allowed into the meeting of the beardalos anyway, since I haven't reached that special time in every woman's life when I sprout my first chin hair. (Although I did secretly hope the meeting of the beardalos would be nothing but women in fake beards a la Life of Brian.) But Taylor was excited about the experience, though, and was disappointed when, after an hour or so at the farewell party, nothing had come of it. He gave up just a tad too early to make it into the group photos, of which there are many on the flickr stream. Atom Moore, Beardalo President, also took quite a few fine individual shots.

Here is one of my favorites group shots (not the official one, but a nice one):



The original photo lives here in cajunjoel's photostream.

I know there's also a shot of John Roderick patting Jonathan Coulton's beard, but I couldn't find it in the 3500+ photos. So if someone knows where that is, or where the official photo is, please send a link in the comments.

Monday, February 21, 2011

What'd I miss? Tracy edition: Rubik's Cube Madness

I'm going to snag Maria's theme for a minute and talk about a thing I missed. Here's a thing I missed on Wednesday, as I was going back and forth between the Rock Band room and the game room, depending on whatever caught my fancy. I'm very sad that I didn't wander up to the Crow's Nest at some point and catch this as it happened.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you one of Angela's fantastic videos, in which Kristin Looney (of Looney Labs, maker of Fluxx) solves a Rubik's Cube in about a minute, as Mike Phirman, John Roderick, Peter Sagal and others look on.



In case Kristin's Rubik's Cube prowess isn't enough encouragement, John Roderick mixing up a Rubik's cube is one of the most delightful things I've seen all day.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

What'd I miss? P2: This cruise is Joco Crazy

I never went to any of the Joco Karaoke shows, once because it corresponded with Famous Tracy's scrabble battle against John Hodgman, and once because we were getting the queen's consort, Nick, completely sloshed on sake. I've seen a good number of the videos of the karaoke, but my favorite was this one, as recorded by Sara Chicazul:



(The video lives here.)

EDIT: here are the official lyrics, which were posted in the video's notes, but somehow I missed that, like a dummy.

JOCO CRUISE CRAZY (reinterpreted "Tom Cruise Crazy" lyrics)
By Table 73

Our cruise is so in love with Coulton,
At least Wil Wheaton tells us so.
And while other cruisers dance to Michael Bolton,
That's not the way we choose to go.

A closetful of geeky shirts is proving a distraction,
It's a good thing we're not fanboys anymore.

REFRAIN (John Hodgman):
Our cruise is JoCo Crazy, just be glad it's not the crew.
If you had John Hodgman's troubles, you might be JoCo Crazy too.
We'll flash a big white shiny badge and buy expensive booze,
And we'll be the only ones on board who get to enjoy the cruise.

JoCo is always getting bolder, he'll never be no one again.
When Paul F. Tompkins gives him the cold shoulder,
He'll get a new comedian.

He knows some day he'll have to play to old retarded grandpas,
While someone younger wears the fancy pants.

REFRAIN (Mike Phirman):
Our cruise is JoCo Crazy, just be glad it's not the crew.
If you had Mike Phirman's troubles, you might be JoCo Crazy too.
We'll flash a big white shiny badge and buy expensive booze,
And we'll be the only ones on board who get to enjoy the cruise.

JoCo knows somewhere there's a place for him,
He's not just landbound anymore

Somewhere in some secluded cabin, Rees sharpens pencils artisanal
And if you use wi-fi you'll get a stabbin'-- we just won't go online at all.

We hundreds are glad we came, and JoCo knows we love him,
And wishes that we'd just leave him alone.

REFRAIN (Molly Lewis):
Our cruise is JoCo Crazy, just be glad it's not the crew.
If you had Molly Lewis's troubles, you might be JoCo Crazy too.
We'll flash a big white shiny badge and buy expensive booze,
And we'll be the only ones on board who get to enjoy the cruise....who get to enjoy the cruise...who get to enjoy the cruise.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

What'd I miss? P1: The Puzzle

Note: This series of events I regretfully missed while on the cruise was too long for a single post, so I'm publishing them in staccato bursts daily until I run out.

Taylor mentioned there was going to be an in-ship puzzle on the cruise, which I really wanted to do. It was part of the reason I first talked to Jeff, our questgiver.

The real game started in the games room, and after the first day I always [begin snooty Boston accent] took my gaming on the Lido Deck in her majesty's royal cabana [end accent]. So we missed out on a lot of the game-room antics.

Here's a link to the Joco cruise puzzle. Seeing it now, I really regret not even trying out the game. However, on the upside, investigating the Joco puzzle clued me into Portland's active puzzling group that does a monthly treasure hunt. The prize? Beer:

http://www.puzzledpint.com/

So I'm opening up the question to you guys. Did any of you do the puzzle? Did anyone win?

Friday, February 18, 2011

On Gratitude and Airplanes

TL;DR version: Sea Monkeys, I owe all of you tremendous thanks … all of you collectively, and so many of you individually.

I took a bus from Atlanta to Miami for the cruise. It was a nice bus. On the way there, I wrote my silly essay about “Mr. Fancy Pants” and posted it, and I watched some “Leverage” and listened to the audiobook of “The Areas of My Expertise.” It didn’t feel at all like I’d been on a bus for 13 hours.

I expected the return trip to be the same.

The reason I spent 13 hours on a bus rather than an hour or so on a plane is because, since 1997, I’ve been stuck with a crippling phobia of flying. The kind that comes with nightmares and makes you say things like, "No, you can pay for somebody else to go to E3. I'd have to fly."

It started out as an ordinary fear, which I decided to get over my senior year of college. I got a grant to present a paper at a conference in Austin. Forty of us, as a group, took a flight from Asheville to Atlanta, then on to Texas, and the reverse coming home.

I couldn’t have asked for a better trip out, and when we landed in Austin I gloated about how handily I’d conquered my fear of flying. I was badass and insufferable.

On the trip home we had a problem. It’s a story I’ve told so many times that it’s started to sound like a rehearsed fiction.  On the ship, I didn’t want to get into it because whoever I was talking to was almost sure to be boarding a plane in a few days to go home.

Yes, there was turbulence, with free fall that broke things in the cabin. When the flight had smoothed out and my adrenaline plummeted, I fell asleep for a while, and the pilot’s voice woke me up. He was telling us that they thought the fluid coming out of the engine for the last 45 minutes was coolant from the generator. I learned later that, while I was napping, the co-pilot had left the cockpit and looked out one of the rear windows to try to diagnose the problem. In the air.

Add to that the pilot saying, “There’s no reason we shouldn’t make it to Atlanta.” Add that we were given priority clearance to land, entirely skipping the two-hour holding pattern the pilot warned us of. Add that nobody announced our approach, so for a moment, two hours before we expected to land, we all thought we were crashing. Add that, since we were all honors students, we were smart enough to realize that something else must have been going on to keep everyone from having time to tell us we were on approach.

Then, to all that, add that on the plane were 40 honors students from my alma mater, most of us seniors, and 10 or so highly favored professors. We were all imagining headlines like “Graduating Class Decimated in Fiery Crash.” (My alma mater is fairly small, and “decimated” would have been technically accurate.)

Yeah, once we got back to Asheville I never got on a plane again. For more than a decade. Until Tuesday.  

When I first heard about the cruise, I thought I might conquer my phobia and fly to Fort Lauderdale as a reward. I stalled and stalled and stalled until a friend told me about a fancy bus called Red Coach. In my mind, the return trip would be easier than the trip south. I’d be relaxed and happy from my vacation, and I’d read a book in the airport until time to go, and then I’d sleep overnight, since the bus was leaving a little before 7 p.m. and arriving at about 7:30 a.m.

What really happened is that when I got to Miami Airport to catch the Red Coach home, I was exhausted and heartbroken and missed you all terribly. I couldn’t stop thinking about everyone I hadn’t managed to say goodbye to before disembarking from the Eurodam. (Why did you go to bed so early? Why did I? How did we miss each other? Do I have your e-mail? Your Twitter name? Something?)

I’m always sad at the end of conventions and whatnot, but not like this. The only thing I wanted more than to still be on the Eurodam with this amazing community of people was to be at home in my own bed.

Before I’d even reached Orlando, where I’d be spending a 6-hour layover on the way home, I started to see tweets from people who were home. Or, worse, waiting for a connecting flight at Hartsfield-Jackson, where I’d have flown if I’d had the balls to fly. I still had about 15 hours of travel ahead of me.

All the Sea Monkeys, save a few who booked a hotel a night after the cruise (and Chicazul, whose journey home seemed interminable, and maybe Angela, who was flying over an entire ocean, and John Roderick, who was in a Mustang exorcising his wanderlust or something) would be sleeping in their own beds that night.

Not only would I not be sleeping in my own bed, but I would be sleeping on a bus. Overnight.

That’s when I came to a very important conclusion, roughly paraphrased as, “This is some bullshit.”

So I decided to fly, for real this time. And you all came out of the woodwork. Sara started a hashtag on Twitter that led to a playlist of songs for the airplane (beginning with John Roderick singing “Sky is Open”). Maria and Taylor made a video (a video? seriously? an entire video? First you made me cry and then you made me laugh, so much). I got well-wishes when it was time to go and congratulations when I landed. I am floored and flabbergasted and so, so grateful. 

This isn’t at all to disparage or diminish my Atlanta friends, who kept checking up on me, or my work colleagues, three of whom nearly made me cry in the airport with their thoughtful e-mails, or my family. But you all – you were the tipping point. You prompted me to fly and then you – so many of you that I still can't quite get over it – stuck with me in spite of my angst while I did it.

So thank you.

I’ll see you at PAX East. Which I’ll get to on an airplane.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The Roderick Effect

I will admit it. I only started following John Roderick on Twitter once he joined the lineup for the Joco cruise. I had thought about it before, particularly during a Paul and Storm "Following John Roderick is like" running joke-a-thon, but never actually committed.

Turns out, John Roderick is a cracker-jack tweeter. Within a few days he posted one of my all-time favorite tweets:

"I think America's problems really started with the advent of Personal Wipes. Now everybody thinks they're owed a personal wipe."

I read with delight everything he posted in his column in the Seattle Weekly. Then he posted a link to this video. Great, right? I bought Putting the Days to Bed, picked my favorite song, and decided I was ready to meet John Roderick.

So, there he was on the cruise--tall and fuzzy and clever and friendly. He helped me down as I left the hatch to take the group photo. I knew he knew about Stumptown from the video above, so we talked about Portland a bit. I liked him. A lot.

On the third night we decided to watch John Hodgman face off with Famous Tracy in Scrabble. Suddenly there was John Roderick, right behind me, talking about how sore a loser Hodgman is, so Tracy better not win.

(This photo originally posted on Flickr here by our friend Jeff, aka Theanderblast. He also posts one of my favorite photos from the cruise here.)

We chatted. I told Roderick I appreciated that he was a tall musician, particularly when everyone now seems to be going for that malnourished, 8-year-old man-child look. (We saw Spoon in the airport once, and this impression of them has always stuck with me. It didn't help that they were picked up by a soccer-mom minivan.) He talked with the couple behind me about his collection of vintage eye wear (180 pairs, good grief!). Then he and Kevin Murphy broke out the ukuleles and started singing. Paul Sabourin joined in for an all-out jam session.

(Photo originally posted here by Mirka23.)

I know I've alluded to this before, but what an experience! They started with White Christmas, because that was the only song John Roderick knew. Then they played it again, for the same reason. After that they opened up the floor for suggestions, and I made a few. A Horse with No Name, came to mind immediately because it has two cords (easy to learn, right?). Taylor trumped me by suggesting any Andrew WK song, because those seem to only have one note. They played neither, but Roderick did ask who suggested the America song. I'm not sure if this was to scold or praise me.

All this was happening while I stood between Kevin Murphy and his wife, Jane (that's her holding the wine glass in the pic above). Jane kept passing on my suggestions, because I tend to mumble. When I told her I was having a great time, she stopped them both and pointed me out. "This woman says she's having a wonderful time." Both players gave me warm smiles, which I return as long as I could without happily fainting.

(This great photo of me, Taylor, and the stars, lives here in konomike's photostream.)

By the time Roderick played his concert on Thursday night I had nothing but warm, fuzzy feelings about him. Then he started singing and damn near blew the speakers off the walls. I was thunderstruck. I have never heard anyone who could sing so clearly, powerfully and seemingly effortlessly. He also ad libs in the space between songs like a vaudevillian. You can see it in some of the videos below or in any of the youtube videos from the cruise (I recommend Cernoise's, of course).

My immediate favorite song when I bought Putting the Days to Bed was "Honest," not because of the song's plot, a simple cautionary tale about being a groupie, but because of the vocal note progression on the chorus.

Honest, it's alright to be a singer,
but don't you love a singer
whatever you do
whatever you do.

When Roderick played "Honest." I shouted out it was my favorite, and he made a joke appropriate for the song's subject matter ("the roadies came and picked me out from on the barricade"). I swooned, I won't deny it.



I was teased mercilessly the next day. "Oh, Maria, there's John Roderick. You going to be able to concentrate on the game?" "I noticed you and John Roderick went to the bathroom at the same time. What were you up to?"

But then the final concert came, and John Roderick sang "The Commander Thinks Aloud."



After that powerful performance, the teasing didn't stop, but it mellowed.

Friend and fellow jococruisecrazy-fan poster Famous Tracy wrote a poem about the experience of watching the song on Geektastic Pentameter. It's as touching as the song itself. Go read it here.

Want a print inspired by "The Commander Thinks Aloud"? Check out this sublime piece by jadegordon. You can buy it here.



Commander by ~JadeGordon on deviantART

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

For now.

I'm starting to feel like if I don't start committing some of the other awesome things that happened to writing that I run the risk of losing them, so here we go in a format that's not even going to pretend to be narrative.  This is not comprehensive, and I'll likely be back with more once I can form coherent thoughts.

Being in Famous Tracy's entourage
Fully expecting a rumble from Hodgman and his ilk during the Scrabble Royale, Tracy's entourage posse'd up in the lounge.  Luckily (for them!) his crew was reasonably well-mannered, and fisticuffs were avoided.  In truth, this ended up being one of the more surreal moments of the week.  "The Queen requires music," proclaimed the Hodgman, and off scampered Kevin Murphy and John Roderick to do his (my?) bidding.  As the game unfolded the duo became a trio, and cocktails were fetched.  At some point I realized that the crowd surrounding the game was 3 or 4 deep, with many of the entertainers observing from the fringes.  I expect a far better accounting of this epic challenge from Tracy's perspective (*nudge*), but as a hanger-on it was wonderfully weird.

The farewell party
At the end of the week, emotionally exhausted, I crashed at a table and had a really wonderful (but far too brief) conversation with Kim & Shawn.  I'm probably not the first person to say that Shawn is going to run the universe some day -- ridiculously smart, quick, and perceptive beyond the capacity of many her senior.  I usually approach younglings with trepidation, but I enjoyed each encounter, whether discussing sudoku strategies, people-watching, or planning a wedding .  Kim is divine, frank, hysterical, and all around good people (and gorgeous!).  Add in Dick, Diane, and Paul, and its inconceivable that one family should possess so much awesomeness.  Not getting to really talk to Rick is one of my very few regrets from the cruise, as I feel like I shortchanged myself on another component of the awesome.

Random snippets of conversation overheard
To me it felt like home, but I can only imagine what the other passengers thought when eavesdropping.


Cabanarama
If you'd guessed that the number of people we could fit into a cabana was 8, you'd be correct.  Depending on the day and time there was anywhere from one to eight crashed out poolside.  It was the perfect venue for me to take early morning conference calls without waking Nick, and to just slide into the day gently with some coffee.   There were days that I'd wander off and come back to find my legendarily awkward guy holding court with passersby or friends.  The drinking of the crown & scepter (and dipping into Schatzer's bottle of rum), accompanied by games, rum cake, and rum fudge (there's a theme here) was a simple and wonderful end to to the trip, in the company of the folks who put up with me all week.

Sound check
After standing in line for the second concert and having someone come fetch me with "they've been looking for you in there," I started coming to sound checkAt first it was in order to not have to be hunted down, and I learned that if I scooted into the theater on the balcony level about 20 mins before the show I could circumvent some of the bowing.   You were all such fabulous sports about respecting the crown that I sometimes felt guilty about my presence requiring people to stop their conversations or relinquish their comfy positions, so I'll admit to actively avoiding the show line.


But what started as a shirking of royal responsibility really ended up being one of the privileges of power that I most enjoyed.  I've always suspected that the camaraderie on stage between the various performers is real, and I got to see it firsthand when they weren't in a position of having to be 'on'.   While producers were valiantly trying to herd cats, performers were having fun and honestly enjoying each others company.   I had the esteemed position of bouncer in the Emperor's box a few nights which likely amused me far more than it amused the Emperor.   I met many of the performers during sound check who were terribly sporting, if not confused, about the lady in the booze hat.

A few of many necessary mentions
 To Peter Sagal, who Nick believes I scared the bejesus out of by gushing:  Sorry if I creeped you out -- I'll keep my enthusiasm a little more in check next time.

To Emperor Hodgman:  You, sir, are a gentleman and a class act.

To Paulofpaulandstorm:  Once more, for the public record...dude, wow.

To Molly23:  You never let on that there was anything strange about a commoner in a straw hat laden with rum hanging around.   You have a gift for putting people at ease when they're in your orbit.

Dammit Liz!:  You are a force with which to be reckoned, and watching you at your craft was a treat.  Congrats on the new gig, and we'll see you at c2e2.

To JoCo:  There is not enough gratitude for your brave leap into geek cruisery. 

To the rest of the entertainers who bowed, curtsied, and moved along before I had the opportunity to actually introduce myself:  Hi, I'm Aileen, and I'm a fan.

To the rest of the fans:  Geeks come in a huge array of sizes, shapes, colors, genders, and subcultures.  One of the things I have always appreciated most about geek culture is our natural tendency to be inclusive.  We understand what its like to be picked upon, singled out, and excluded, and we've collectively channeled that into being an accepting society.  We ask questions and encourage discussion to better understand other people's perspectives, rather than just rejecting them outright.  We understand that liking everyone is not mandatory, but being respectful is.  Be an example to the newer/younger geeks who are still confused about their place in the world -- let them know that its okay to be different, and encourage them to embrace & promote the same acceptance that veteran geeks have come to enjoy.  You're all brilliant in your own unique ways -- use that power for good. 


Never least
Nick:  You are so often the silent partner in our relationship, and I hope that no one confuses your quiet calm for lack of thought or opinion.   You handled the week, and me, with a level of grace and patience that made it seem like it was all easy for you.  There is no person with whom I would rather spend any week of my life, good or bad, and I'm so tickled that you feel the same way.  I am a lucky, lucky girl.

In closing...for now
I know my reign officially ended at around 9:00am on January 8th, and now that I think I've recorded many of my thoughts, I'm hanging up my empty crown with a wistful glance to the empty miniature rum bottle wired to my badge, which hangs in my office to my right.   I'll see you all next year, yes?

The Monarch is dead, long live the Monarch.
 

    Friday, February 4, 2011

    ...in which I take the red pill and see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

    (I've been looking at a virtual blank page for this blog entry for way too long, trying to figure out where it begins, where it ends, and how to turn a blur into words.  Rather than continue to psych myself out of it, I'm just going to mentally regurgitate, and hope it makes sense.  I thank you in advance for your patience, dear reader.)

     We quickly hopped back to our shoebox to change into formal wear before the show, and found ourselves tight on time.  A look at the clock showed that we either had to leave right then to get in line, or risk finding ourselves out of panty-throwing range -- and who really wants to get all dressed up and then not be able to throw some underwear at people on a stage?  So I decided to skip makeup to get us out the door 10 minutes faster.  I mean, really -- why would anyone be looking at me anyway?  (HA!  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)

    Chronologically displaced side note:  the night before, I think as we were falling asleep, I'd reminded Nick of the Monarch of the Seas competition, having been reminded by some sort of announcement at the sailaway party.  I was concerned about how he might react if by some remarkable chance it ended up being him.  Our conversation went something like this:

    A:  In the exceptionally unlikely event that your name is called tomorrow, you need to take a deep breath, suck it up,and not freak out.


    N:  What the fuck -- can't I just renounce the title?

    A:   Nope.  Besides, its not going to happen -- the odds are what?  250-1 against you.  Hell, 125-1 against either of us.  (HA!  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)

    N:   What if your name is called?

    A:  HA!  HAHAHAHAHAHA!

    So we zoom out of the shoebox and jump in line outside the theater -- the doors open a few minutes later, and we grab seats stage left (is stage port actually just starboard?), 5 or 6 rows back.  At this point, I am concerned once again about panty-throwing range, and the ability of my man to frisbee a pair of squirrel underpants on a cardboard squirrel 50 feet without winging someone in front of us in the back of head, or taking Stormofpaulandstorm out at the knees.  Ah here are the morning announcements, cool.

    Gaming room hours, got it - reminder of the formal tonight, awesome - new dining room procedures, noted -  Monarch of the Seas is named, applause...why is Nick staring at me?   Why is Nick poking me in the side?  What the hell did Paulofpaulandstorm just say?  (mental instant replay engaged -- its not just for football refereeing anymore!)

    Oh shit.

    Ok, breathe.

    Ok, now stand up and wave, then sit back down and maybe they'll sense your minor panic and let you stay here.

    Yeah...that's not going to work.  Let me try to get on stage without falling, in the words of Helen Mirren, ass over tit.

    Wait!  This will put me in prime underpants position, let me grab them from Nick and then resume my non-regal stumble to the stage.

    The concert itself has been documented aplenty across the interwebs -- there's not much I can add to that awesome experience, other than my own bewilderment at my sudden change of location.  I think my wish to someday be front row for a Paul and Storm show has officially been overfulfilled -- really, you haven't lived til you've experienced the magic from a 30 degree angle behind.  (upon rereading this was unintentionally filthy, and as such it must stay)    Ten-Finger Johnny -- yes please!  Wil, thank you for being so captivating as to allow me to forget my own awkwardness at being perched upon the throne.  Thank you to the folks front row stage right who put my precious squirrel underpants back on the stage when I overthrew my target.  Thank you, all of you, for not screaming at me to speed it up when I was in my own headspace and meandering out of the theater, not fully realizing I was keeping the whole load of you from going to dinner.

    I left the theater and ducked into the empty piano bar, where Nick immediately found me.  Somehow Maria and Taylor found us shortly after that.   Now, on Sunday night when the assigned seating was in effect, Nick and I found ourselves at a 4-top without tablemates. We were a little disappointed and felt highly conspicuous -- like we were somehow either antisocial, or unworthy of table mates.  The thought of going back to our lonely table in my new regalia was only going to intensify my concern that people would think we were unable to play nicely with others or just plain snobby.  "Pleasepleaseplease,"  I begged the Fishers, "can we eat with you guys tonight?  I just want to have a normal dinner with folks who aren't trying to crawl up my ass, and who will treat me just like anyone else."

    And lo, the Queen's Guard of Portland, Decatur, and Ann Arbor was born.  Maria, Taylor, Mindy, Schatzer, Annie, Chris, Jeff, and Famous Tracy -- you guys took us in, let us be goofy, inappropriate, and vulgar, warded off some of the akwardness, and shared your table, your wine, and your warmth every night.   We could not have lucked into a greater group of friends, and so many of the moments that absolutely made the week were in your company. 

    Yippie-ki-yay, motherfuckers.

    Monday, January 31, 2011

    Q&A baby that spells Q&A

    One of my unexpected favorite events on the Joco Cruise was the Q&A session. So many unplanned things happened, and thanks to Cernoise's Youtube channel, we can all watch them again and again. She managed to record dozens of unexpected nuggets on this cruise. Go follow her on twitter (@macaronique) and check out her cool blog.

    ***

    C'est la vie, C'est la vie, look what you've done to me

    I spoke in this post about the question I asked during the Q&A session. I remember being extremely nervous, and that certainly shows in the video below, but what I didn't remember was the couple of laughs I got before scurrying off to my seat.



    Video originally posted here.

    ***

    Keep Portland weird

    We also had an odd experience that all started with this question, where Wil Wheaton talks about saving Dave Foley from an overly familiar fan in Portland. (You can skip to about 4 minutes to hear his story, originally posted here. First half of the answers is here.)



    That's Taylor wooing for Portland. It's a good story, and it gave us a chance to cheer for our favorite city, which we love in spite of the hipster quotient (and John Roderick's disdain for it). Meanwhile, our fellow Portland friends Chris and Annie didn't make the Q&A, so they didn't know anything about this.

    Two days later, the four of us all swam with sting rays on Grand Cayman, then hiked over to get Caribbean Lobster at a place called The Lobster Pot. While we ate, we talked about the Q&A session, and we mentioned how Wil Wheaton talked about watching fireworks at the waterfront on the Fourth of July. That's as far as we'd gotten when Chris broke in.

    "You know what happened on the waterfront on the Fourth of July? We were all watching the fireworks when suddenly our friend sees Dave Foley. He actually invited him back to his house to play Cornhole."

    Cue our jaws dropping. We told them the rest of the story, and we all marveled at the coincidence.

    Ten minutes later we stopped into a little shop to buy Cuban cigars, and there stood Wil Wheaton himself. So Chris and Annie got to go over the story again with him in person. Wil Wheaton joked about the whole thing, and said, overall, the experience makes a great story, and that's all that matters.

    Here's a pic of Chris and Annie being mustached by Paul of Paul and Storm, with Peter Sagal just peeking into the frame on the left.

    Chris and Annie mustache party

    (Picture by Randal Schwartz, originally posted here.)

    ***

    Is it any wonder you are too cool to fool?

    Finally, you've heard about the ascension of Famous Tracy during the Q&A session. Here is video of the event.



    I like to note how, when faced with the mic and all that attention, I bob and gesticulate wildly; I look like a spooked mare. Meanwhile, Tracy comes right in and owns the room.

    This goes to prove you were always famous, Tracy. The rest of us just didn't know it yet.

    Tuesday, January 25, 2011

    Bits and bobs for doing your magic

    I'm at the mercy of other people's YouTube uploads for a few more things I have planned to talk about, but here are a few highlights that have come up.

    ***

    The Fancy Pants Parade.

    Chances are your pants are not as fancy as most of these pants:



    I had an idea for some fancy pants, but I did not spend the hours it would have required to make them. After seeing what other people came up with, I'm glad I didn't bother. I also can't wait to hear her majesty's thoughts on what must have been a very surreal experience.

    The original video is here, part of zenofben's channel.

    ***

    Phirman goes viral

    When IcemageTravels dropped his camera, Mike Phirman knew just what to do.



    I've mentioned before how impressed I was that Mike Phirman managed to present material specific for the cruise, and this video showcases that too. Original video link is here.

    ***

    They say the camera adds 10 pounds, but they don't say where...

    It was a particular treat to hear 10-fingered Johnny (a favorite) live and truly a cappella. Plus, Cernoise had staked out a prime spot on stage for her camera, and came away with this:



    Original video here.

    ***

    Dammit Liz, can't you see what we're trying to say is we love you?

    Stage Manager Liz
    was one of the people who commented on my mustache socks the second night of the cruise.

    "Everybody here is so cool," she said.

    "We love you, too" I replied.

    This video by Cernoise, recorded the last night, proves it:



    Original video here also features a few seconds of Wil Wheaton being recursive.

    Monday, January 24, 2011

    My Very True and Accurate (side of the) Famous Tracy Story

    When I was a kid, I spent five summers doing musical theater. I was absolutely certain that when I grew up, I was going to be an actress, in theater, preferably on Broadway. The fact that I had no talent in singing, dancing or acting was no deterrent.

    At the end of every play, there we’d be, 60 or so heartbroken theater geeks, crying all over each other, reluctant to leave our new friends and go back to our regular schools where nobody could quite get why it was that we spent our entire summer in an auditorium. The production itself was only a little piece of it. The bigger story was how we became kind of a big, crazy family, which we really hated to leave when the curtain closed. We’d spend the whole year looking forward to seeing each other again, either at a winter restaging of the play or the next summer.

    One of the reasons behind my deep love for the “Lord of the Rings” movies is the way the cast has spoken about the relationships they developed with each other during production. I remembered that sense of pseudo-family, and I envied them for it.

    Without going into detail, I also envy a number of other friends of colleagues who have wound up being, well, famous.

    I’m being circuitous here, but bear with me.

    So I went on JoCo Cruise Crazy. I expected a nice vacation topped off with entertainment from some of my favorite entertainers. What I got was the closest I’ve been in my adult life to that sensation of community and family that I used to feel after six weeks or so of nonstop theater rehearsals. It's easier to describe if you've been there. I’ve gotten a tiny taste of it from conventions and whatnot over the past few years, but never like this. So, thank you all, and I miss you. I thought I'd hate leaving the perfect weather and the piles of food and the constant access to delicious beverages ... but what I hated leaving most was the rest of you and the nerdy society we established on the ship.

    I also, somehow, got to be famous. It’s a funny story. At the risk of ruining the Famous Tracy mythos:
    1. I had an ulterior motive when I got up to ask a question during the Q&A panel. That ulterior motive was not to wind up on stage. David Rees was asking people what was on their shirts. Months and months ago, I had gotten a crazy idea that a T-shirt referencing both the Insect Swarm plasmid in “Bioshock” and Eddie Izzard’s "Covered in Bees" bit would be wildly hilarious. I got my friend Sarah to design a shirt for me. Less than a handful of people I've met while wearing the shirt have fully grokked. But Sarah is awesome. I saw an opportunity to show off Sarah’s shirt. Sarah is a huge fan of John Hodgman, and even though she wasn’t there, her shirt was … it just made sense to me at the time. So I thought of a question in the hope that David Rees would ask what was on my shirt. David, I’m sorry for manipulating you in this shallow manner. However, I’m glad you gave me the impetus to think of that question, because I genuinely wanted to know the answer to “Who makes you star-struck, and how do you get over it?”
    2. Sadly, I have no idea of who makes anybody other than John Hodgman star-struck, because while everyone else was answering, all I could hear was my brain screaming, “ZOMG I AM ON THE STAGE FOR REAL WTF.” I know someone said my name at one point. I think maybe it was Wil Wheaton (OMG WTF). Other than that, just like Hodgman said, it may as well have been a grown-up talking to Charlie Brown.
    3. This is all because, for reasons unknown to me, John Hodgman suggested that I was famous, and someone else (I have no idea who) suggested that, as a famous person, I should be on stage. If you know who that was, feel free to fill me in. I’d like to buy them a cookie or something. 
    Nothing else that happened to me during the cruise was planned, at least on my part (including the Scrabble game). I planned to go to shows and play some games, but never expected to be applauded by anybody when I walked into a room. In spite of seeing videos on YouTube, I still feel a little like I dreamed all that.

    It’s been two weeks since we all got back, but I still feel like the luckiest person in the world, because not only did I get to relive that sense of family and community that I used to get from being in summer theater, but I also got to be famous for the whole trip. It seems like everybody with a JoCo badge played along, and for that I want to thank everyone. You've lit a fire under me to get moving on some creative pursuits I've had waiting in the wings for far too long now.

    And to the real famous people … I’m not sure whether that was polite tolerance or active encouragement on your part, but I have to thank you all, too. You were amazing. I’m still blown away and tremendously grateful. I want you to do this again, and I'm already stockpiling funds for when you do.

    Beans beans, on magical cards...they will bring you Portland-arrs.

    We awoke bright and early for our shift at the oars the next morning (ok, it was actually just me waking up early, and it was for a conference call...because nothing says vacation like being glued to a phone at the asscrack of dawn at the low low rate of $2.20/minute.  Yep...I was that guy...working on vacation)

    We'd reserved a lido cabana for the trip, as sort of a compromise for booking a cheap cabin.  It was my earnest hope that we could turn it into a poolside gaming haven, but I believe Nick honestly thought it would either go unused, or we'd end up hiding from the other folks up there.  It also served as an early morning office for me.  Honestly, if I have to work on my vacation, I really can't complain about being able to do it under warm, sunny skies while passing by tropical islands, while my cabana butler brings me coffee and fruit.

    (...while on the topic, and lest I forget in future posts, Mykey and Bernard the cabana butlers were too fab.  It didn't matter what time of day we were there, or how many people we squeezed in for ice cream, champagne, or chocolate covered strawberries, they brought us whatever we asked for and were always delightful and politely inquisitive about the nature of the cult with which we were sailing...)

    Monday was Half Moon Cay day -- neither of us being beachy types (sand, uck!) we decided to stay aboard the ship and chill.   Feeling emboldened by our Munchkin success (success = not faceplanting) the previous evening, we wandered down to the game room to see what was afoot.  A handful of folks were already set up playing interesting looking things.  Not wanting to intrude, and having no idea what the etiquette is for joining a game in progress, we camped an empty table to see if anyone would show up looking to start a new game.

     It wasn't long before a couple approached, bag of games in hand, and asked if we were looking to play something.  Ten minutes later Nick and I were in the easy company of new friends Maria and Taylor, and learning how to plant, grow, and harvest magical beans out of a deck of cards.  "Holy shit" we thought with our Borglike collective mind, "These folks are weird...like us!!" 

    Just as we started to play, we gained a fifth player...at that point we only knew her as New Friend Tracy, but that would soon change.  Beans were cultivated, zombie fast food was prepared, Paulofpaulandstorm magically appeared with lemonade and aloe vera sunburn lotion and suggested that the Chickabunga Conga should be the next order placed.  As we were wrapping up for the afternoon, Maria mentioned that they were going to go get dressed for the evening, in anticipation of a busy slate of show, dinner, and Paul F Tompkins Memorial Mustache Formal.  We were originally planning to get dressed for the formal after dinner, but Maria's logic made sense, so off to our shoebox we toddled...a suggestion for which I ended up being extremely grateful. 

    Monday, January 17, 2011

    New updates from new friends

    It was about the worst that the weather gets in Portland today -- sky the color of a madman's nightmares, cold, and insidious rain that resists umbrellas. But I'd tucked away a few recaps of the cruise for just such an occasion, and now, warm and dry finally, I'll share a couple with you.

    ***

    Stepto's finished his epic and enjoyable recap of the Joco Cruise at his blog. What a treat to see a bit behind the scenes. He reveals a few things that we secretly wondered, like how big Jonathan Coulton's stateroom really was, something we'd gossiped a bit about ourselves. He continues his loving tribute to Mike Phirman. And he tells us what it was like to get up and perform something new for us all:

    "Dear JoCoCruiseCrazy members, I didn’t even blink in the transition. You were so awesome, and reacted so well, that I moved from a performance that was practiced and defined to one that was all new and never performed without one single ounce of fear or worry. You guys were so awesome and so receptive that you made anyone on that stage feel like they could take the riskiest possible choices and you would entertain the notion, and would cheer even harder if it didn’t work out, just because someone had the guts to try it."

    The amazing thing about the Joco cruise was how often I heard everyone say the same thing -- not just the performers, but even the lowly sea monkeys like me. The positive attitude, the reward for trying, the appreciation for getting out and being different, flowed both ways. I can only imagine this is why so many of us have resolved to pick up those lost projects start doing something we enjoy with our lives.

    Here's the video of Stepto's new material, as posted by adhesivemedstrip. It's from his book, which you can order in a variety of formats, but the nook version is here.



    ***

    I also enjoyed a post from a fellow fans, Mageuzi. He makes this spot-on observation:

    "Besides the concerts, I just have to say that it was a really strange sensation being in the same location as all these well-known personalities. It wasn’t uncommon to, say, walk through the buffet restaurant and see Wil Wheaton come from the other direction, passing right by you. Or doing the lifeboat drill, and finding Jonathan Coulton standing a few feet away with his family. Or walking out by the pool on the Lido deck to see John Hodgman and John Roderick sitting at a table, the former wearing a large sun hat and sunglasses so as to not be recognized – unless you already knew he was on the ship, of course."

    Go over and read the whole post, which provides a thorough look at the experience from another angle.

    ***

    Chicazul, maker of all things awesome, provides the first in what I hope will be many posts about the trip, where she describes the hazards of making and supplying the sea monkeys with 400 servings of Nanaimo Bars:

    "I never actually asked permission to bring four pans of dessert on to a cruise ship. The closest I got was emailing Insight Cruises to ask if I could bring baked goods for my friends, neglecting to specify just how generously I defined 'friend.' I rallied around the brief reply of 'Yes baked goods are allowed' and hoped to learn to talk fast if anyone challenged me."

    I'm not going to spoil the ending for you, so check out the rest of the highly entertaining post here.


    There's Chicazul and the Nanaimo Bars. View this image and a whole gallery of Chicazul's awesome outfits, some of which she made on the boat itself, in Angelastic's flickr page. And if you have the money, go ask Chicazul to make you something amazing. Everyone will be jealous.

    ***

    Finally, Wil Wheaton has updated his blog with a touching post about his family, who were all on the cruise. The Wheatons, as I've alluded to before, were a bit of a shock, because they were all just so darned good looking. But they were also level-headed, fun, kind, and gregarious. For example, when we met Wil Wheaton in a cigar shop in Grand Cayman (subject of an upcoming post), Ryan made some easy, off-the-cuff jokes with us about the $200, 3-foot long cigar on display.

    You just don't expect such attractive people to be so nice.

    Go check out the blog, featuring more of Atom Moore's fantastic photos.