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.

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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.

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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.



(Picture by Randal Schwartz, originally posted here.)

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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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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. 

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Wait a minute, I was ON this cruise!

It's already been a week since the cruise ended, and I am sure I'm not the only one having an increasingly hard time believing the whole thing ever happened. My new Joco twitter friends, the steady stream of content from the trip appearing on youtube, and the official Flickr group page go a long way to help keep my energy and mood high.

I have mentioned that I didn't take hardly any photos on the cruise. I'm just not a good photo taker, partially because I have no eye for such things and partially because that would require me putting down my drink. Luckily there are a lot of great photographers in our little group of sea monkeys, and I coincidentally wound up in a few photos. Some of them I knew about and some I was delighted to discover on the aforementioned Flickr page.

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I'll start with one of the photos I did take. My husband, Taylor (posting here as ghalidrim), was on the forums for the Joco cruise publicly gushing once he realized the Randal Schwartz posting was THE Randal Schwartz -- author of the O'Reilly book Learning Perl and general Perl guru.

I've only ever seen Taylor more excited once, when he found out Palpatine was going to be using a lightsaber in Episode III. The prospect of meeting Randal Schwartz evoked what I'd call an 8.7 on the "Palpatine-lightsaber girlish squeal and little dance" scale.

So when we were picking up our badges and there sat Randal Schwartz, Taylor "had to get a photo":


This was as excited as I saw Taylor on the entire cruise.

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Our first interaction with an official celebrity was with Jonathan Coulton
himself. During the launch party JoCo mingled to make everyone feel welcome.
Kudos to Rangerrick for this picture, which illustrates the following exchange:

Jonathan Coulton came to tell Famous Tracy how much he enjoyed her excellent essay on Mr. Fancypants, but stayed to chat with our circle of Portland-based friends. The conversation turned to Paul F. Tompkins, and Jonathon Coulton said, as he did during the first morning announcements (6-minute mark), that we should burn all the mustaches in effigy after the memorial formal. The conversation went something like this:

Taylor: To burn them in effigy, first you'd have to form them into one big mustache.

Aaron (in red Hawaiian shirt): That's a ride I'd like to take.

[blink, blink]

Taylor: Really? Really. A giant, flaming, mustache ride.

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I thought this photo was the closest I could come to proving the exchange I talked about with myself, John Hodgman, and Peter Sagal:


That's Taylor's arm holding the iphone with Paul F. Tompkins (photo from paulandstorm). I'm directly off camera to the right. Incidentally, the look on Hodgman's face is him asking, "Why is Paul in a Star Trek uniform?" I replied, "Why wouldn't he be? This is a formal occasion."

It turns out that Randal Schwartz, who took a lot of great photos and video on the cruise and manages the flickr page, actually got a shot of me talking to Hodgman
too.

It's a testament to his photographic ability how clear the shot is, because in my memory I was shaking uncontrollably. The only time I was more terrified on the trip was when I asked the question about pet peeves during the QA. Randal Schwartz also got a picture of that:

Video should be up from Cernoise soon.

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There's more, but I'll finish this post with a quick photo from the mustache formal. I got a lot of nice compliments on my mustache socks (here's another great Randal Schwartz photo):

I just wanted to pass it on that these are socks from Sock it to Me, a Portland company that has a lot of cool stuff. I'm completely addicted to their wares.

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale...

...a tale of a fateful trip.  That started from this tropic port with 400 nerds on a ship.

Not going on this cruise was never a discussion for Nick and I.  It was sort of hideous timing from a financial, scheduling, and work perspective, but even if we had to sleep in bunk beds and help row the boat, we were going to be there.  Which is not to say that it was an anxiety-free decision -- what if we all just sat around and stared at each other for a week?   What if we were actually too nerdly for other nerds to get along with?    What if we actually overestimated our nerdliness and we weren't nerdly enough?  What if the performers we've long appreciated and admired turned out to be raving douche bags?   What if the boat was full of screaming, flailing  younglings?   Add to that both of our near-crippling social anxiety (social anxiety among nerds...crazy, right?) and we were both terrified and excited at the same time about this trip. 

Skip to Sunday evening -- we wandered into the Crow's Nest for the first night party, which is half full of people who have already made friends.  We stood in the entryway, intimidated and stunned by the number of people all engaged in easy conversation.  To anyone who suffers social anxiety, you're probably familiar with that moment where you decide to either run away and hide or lurch forward and hope for the best.  We lurched.

Half an hour later we'd found our first new friends -- a whole family of them.  (Too nerdy to be around other people?   Hrmm...these folks seems pretty damn normal and aren't scared of us.  Rambunctious younglings?  More like coolest kids afloat.  Maybe this whole socializing with strangers thing won't be such a big deal after all.)

After a relatively uneventful yet uninspired dinner, we meandered to the game room, to be greeted by a cheery "HELLO NERDS!" from Paulofpaulandstorm, who was merrily directing game traffic, thereby precluding the 'awkward roomful of people staring at each other' portion of the evening. After a few lovely rounds of Munchkin with some hysterical and patient folk we were headed back to our bunk-bedded shoebox to get some sleep in anticipation of our early morning rowing shift.

More updates from everyone else

Before I forget, we've got more posts from fellow Joco Cruisers.

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Another great entry in Stephen Toulouse's blog, this one covering the first two full days. Here he's talking about the question and answer portion of the cruise (a personal highlight for me):

"9am started off with a Q&A with Jonathan that turned into a Q&A with all the performers. My proudest moment up on stage with so many amazing people was a quick ad lib I did. During the Q&A John Hodgeman had inserted himself, hilariously, into several questions that had nothing to do with him. Wil’s son Ryan injected a *totally anonymous* question to Wil asking him to describe in painful detail how awesome his son Ryan was and I gestured next to me to Jonathan to hand me his mic and said 'I think John Hodgeman should answer this question.'That got a good laugh and was probably the first moment that I was able to stamp down the voice of doubt that had begun to plague me over my role as a performer."

How could you ever doubt we loved you Stepto?

Read the whole post with great pictures and links here. Stepto also has a book, which you can buy here. I have it in my hot little Nook, but haven't cracked it yet. Wow, that sounded filthy.

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Wil Wheaton also posted what we can only hope will be one of many Joco Cruise blogs. This one is about the next nerd craze -- the fez. Cash in on it before the hipsters do!

Check out Wil Wheaton's post here.

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Womyn2me pointed out a "normy" review of the specific cruise we were on:

"We also had a group on board who I think added a little something to the cruise, without them I think it may have been much more boring without their colorful hair and creative outfits."

See if you agree with the rest of the review here.

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Two quick links.

The first is the pool tags posted by for the flickr page posted by Randal Schwartz. I love the inclusion and prominence of "creepytowelanimals."

The second is a nice Shortpacked! comic from David Willis.

It's funny on another level because the last day of the cruise the pool band decided to cater a bit to the nerd cruisers, then proceeded to play the worst butchering of the Mario Brothers theme ever put to steel drum. Poor guys. They were trying.

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This just in! The unremittingly adorable Molly Lewis just posted her writeup of the cruise.

"It was bizarre to wake up to different scenery at my window every morning. It was bizarre to be invited into the company of all these guys I’ve admired and modeled my work after for years. It was bizarre to be recognized by strangers for my music. It was bizarre to stand in a crowd of hundreds, all dressed to the nines, and all wearing self-adhesive mustaches. It was such a drastic departure from my real life. From anybody’s real life, I think."

The rest of her post is equally lovely.

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Keep the great stuff coming everyone!

Photo Bombs Away

I finally read the flickr terms and conditions and found out I can link images to this blog post as long as I link back to the original. I will, of course, but if I step on any toes posting a picture, please let me know and I will take it down.

That being said, here are some of my favorite photo bombs from the trip:

Wil Wheaton has been a consummate photo bomber throughout w00tstock. I'll start with this photo from snowymama


This photo is posted on the flickr here.

Wil must have passed on the photo bomb bug to his wife, Anne, who gives as good as he does. Here's the unsinkable Molly Lewis and Wil Wheaton:


(Speaking of Anne... well done Mr. Wheaton! The first time I saw her on the cruise I told my friends "people get plastic surgery to look as good as she does.")

The photo above was one of the many great ones posted by Atom Moore. The original was posted here and re-posted with permission. Coincidentally, Wil Wheaton posted another Atom Moore photo on his own blog this morning. So don't I feel like a copy cat now.

This one is particularly awesome because it features my new friend Jeff, the quest giver ghalidrim talked about.


That's Paul Sabourin of Paul and Storm and John Roderick of course. What a nice looking couple of beards. It's another great shot by Atom Moore; the original is here.

But when it comes to awesome beards, you can't get any better than the President of the Beardalos. Here is Atom Moore himself photo bombing a snap by bitsronaut.

The original flickr photo is here.

There's a lot more great photos on the jococruisecrazy flickr page. I'll be trolling it for a few more weeks, wishing I were back there.

JoCo Cruise Recollections

JoCoCruiseCrazy started, for me, with a quest giver.

My wife and I were eating breakfast in the hotel restaurant the morning of the cruise when a man walked by wearing a t-shirt with a golden exclamation point on the front.

“Huh, quest giver” I said to my wife across the table. I then started laughing when I saw the matching golden question mark on the back of the shirt.

“Well, I bet he’s on the cruise” was her only response. From this point forward, I knew things were going to be quite different. I told my wife she should ask what his quest was. She politely refused, reminding me she is far too shy to walk up and speak to random strangers.

There she was, however, 40 minutes later asking if the fellow had a quest for her. The entire cruise weekend my wife would actually take the lead on introducing us to new people, through games and shared nerd experience. She opened dialogs with more people than I think I have ever seen her speak to at any gathering of any sort. She doesn’t even speak to many people during my family reunions. When Jeff (or Mr QuestGiver if you prefer) reported he, sadly, had no quests to give, we invited him to play Fluxx, this brought another JoCoCruiseCrazy participant over to our end of the lobby, and we had a rousing game which I did not win. This is how we met our first two new friends on the ship, Jeff and Tracy (yes, Famous Tracy it would turn out).

We had come to JoCoCruiseCrazy with 3 of my coworkers and their various SOs. I had done such a good job explaining how amazing the cruise was going to be that I convinced three people who had only vague notions of who any of the performers were going to be to come along, and they dragged along spouses and girlfriends. I thought about asking for a commission from Insight Cruises, but I figure they were doing enough in organizing the thing to begin with.

I had kind of expected my wife and I to run with this comfortable familiar circle for most of the cruise. We tend to be the home body type, and this seemed like a place where we would yet again stick with the old team, not get out of our comfort zone. I should have known that the other people on this cruise would BE a comfort zone. With very minor exceptions, every person I talked to on the trip was someone I could generally see myself spending time with. If they lived near me, we would invite them over for a weekend game night and beers. The cruise seemed to appeal to the same people we enjoy spending our time with. I attribute a large part of that to the entertainers booked for the cruise. Every time a new entertainer was added, we were shocked to see another person that we were already familiar with and whose work we followed. We anticipated either the best or worst time of our lives.

Our last cruise experience had been an epic failure. We received a free cruise in lieu of a bonus from a job. It was a short, three-day trip from Los Angeles to Ensanada, and we really didn’t have much interest in getting off the ship in Mexico. We spent the entire three days reading, usually on the cold deck of the ship in the wind bundled up in sweaters and jackets. For this trip, I took along a Nook full of reading material, just in case. I think I read a total of 20 pages of any of the books I brought. There was not a time when I felt like we were bored and looking for something to do.

On the second day of the cruise, we wandered up to the game room to see if anyone would like to play anything we had brought. We had half a dozen card and boardish game we had packed in our luggage. The game room was actually kind of empty (probably the only time it was), but we found a table with a couple who didn’t seem to be playing any game currently and my wife asked if they wanted to play Bohnanza, a favorite of hers. We played through a full game and had yet again made a couple of friends we would spend a good amount of the voyage with. We didn’t know at the time that they would become the Queen of the High Seas and her royal consort at the show that night, nor that we would be helping the queen drink her official regalia (which consisted of several mini bottles of flavored rum) a little later in the week.

More to come...

Video Highlights

The videos are pouring in, and I want to make sure I don't miss any. Here are some of the best points of the week as shown through Youtube. Don't worry there will be more:

1) John Roderick performing the song that made us ALL cry and fall in love with him. Even the men.



View the original video posted by frithuswith from its creator here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4yLRl7TgRQ

2) Big Dick Farts a Polka Live. What more can we say?



This video is from zenofben and can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peESPA6NKNw

The audio quality is a bit better on this one from snotwadd20, but the video is shakier:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYI8P060lDQ

3) John Hodgman's theme:



The video and audio is fantasitic in the above, from realmerlyn, but it starts a bit into the actual song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRX6MojKdOM

You can view the entire segment with reduced audio quality as posted by Ijustdiedinside here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASYsoLbFLcs

4) The final song of the cruise Sloop John B from the Beach boys. I think Storm might have been the only person who actually knew the whole song:



Check out this video and more from adhesivemedstrip. Here's the original link to above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OgGKT7Yz6c

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Finally, here's a fun little clip from years ago with John Hodgman, Coulton, and Roderick (with The Long Winters):



See that at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oVstSOFxRY

Posts from friends

The recollections are already rolling in from fans and "the talent." Here's a few of the ones I've been reading. More updates will follow as I see more posts:

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Let's start with the big thank you from Joco himself, Mr. Jonathan Coulton, who says:

"Of course all of the performers were wonderful, as I knew they would be. I was delighted to watch some of you hear and see a few of them for the first time, but it was even more exciting to watch them meet YOU. Everyone felt welcomed and loved, and I was not surprised, because that’s how you make me feel all the time no matter how much I suck (witness: you loudly applauded the very worst performance of The Presidents I have ever done)."

Read the full writeup

I can't imagine anyone had as much fun as me and my fellow fans did on this cruise, even (or perhaps especially) the performers. But it's easy and gratifying to be nice to people who are already being nice to you!

***

Stephen Toulouse promises an epic writeup, which begins with this post:

"Never mind that many of the fans (and performers) had never been on a cruise before, never mind that many of the fans (and performers) either explode or broil in direct sunlight, never mind that Internet access would be sketchy and expensive at best, and never mind that everyone had to not only pay for the cruise but also get all the way out to Florida and back.

"And just about 400 people did indeed say: Never mind all that."

Read part one here

We had seen Stepto at w00tstock and looked forward to getting to know a bit more about him. We were delighted by the selection from his new book, A Microsoft Life, and bought it immediately when we got home.

***

Famous Tracy, who became a real friend (and remembered the "little people" like us) during the cruise also posted a teaser on her impressions of the cruise:

"Anticipating a quiet, relaxing vacation, I was expecting to lie around on a giant ship, eat some good food, be entertained by some of my very favorite entertainers, meet some nice nerds at dinner or whatever, and maybe get to say hi to some of the famous people.

"What I got was that turned up to 11."

Keep reading here

I'm not sure if my geek out over How Stuff Works on the first day helped form the idea of "Famous Tracy," but I'm going to take credit for it.

***

Finally, a nice writeup from Virginia Corbett, lovely wife of Bill Corbett:

"I had real conversations with people I've admired for years (one in particular since I was 12 years old), and got to meet their amazing families. I met new friends and grew real connections. Thank you so much, Jonathan, Paul and Storm, Liz, the Universe, for putting this all together."

Read more here

I don't think any of us can say it better. Thank you everyone who made this possible: Thanks to my new friends, my new obsessions, and my new outlook on life. Keep the blog posts coming. As long as we can reminisce, it won't be over!

Joco Cruise was Joco Cruise Crazy

Cruising is not a typically nerdy pursuit. We're white and pasty. We don't like giving up basic human needs like the internet and solitude. We don't play well with others, no, not even Bingo. And despite our love of pirates and ships (space mostly, but hey), we are prone to seasickness, sunburn, and a general malaise in the face of "fun."

So when I explained that I was going on a nerd cruise, the Jonathan Coulton, Jococrazy Cruise, a lot of people didn't understand the draw. Who'd want to hang out with a bunch of awkward outcasts for seven days? I mean, we've been to the Penny Arcade Expo, and seen and smelled (mostly the latter) the crowds drawn there. As it must be at any con, nerds at PAX run the gamut. There's the douchey frat guy who plays a couple video games and calls himself a geek because he can quote Big Bang Theory. There's the lump of human flesh with skin like mashed potatoes who emerges, blinking and hissing, into the sunlight just long enough to clutch some free t-shirts before retreating with a DS to the sumo chairs. There are the cos-players, inexplicably fit and be-girlfriended. But always there is the smell, caffeinated body odor, bad breath, excitement and despair. What unknown hell to immerse yourself in that for a full week?

I was taking a chance. The cruise was not cheap, nor particularly convenient. This would, I figured, weed out the casual fans and the too-odious to be employed. A decided lack of photographers and photobloggers would cut down on the people just there to be drooled over as Princess Leia. And ready access to showers would eliminate or greatly reduce the smell.

And this part of the cruise was exactly what I expected. My fellow nerd-travelers immediately revealed themselves to be a combination of all the most talented, intelligent, polite and genuinely friendly nerds you could hope to meet. I had no trouble striking up a conversation with the (I will admit) easily-identifiable fellow Joco enthusiasts. And the friendships we made in the first day or two lasted throughout the entire 7 days, and I hope will continue on for years to come.

And then there were the performers themselves. For my non-nerdy friends imagine a dozen of your favorite bands, comedians, actors and writers are not only gathering together but inviting you to come along. What's more, they mingle freely with the guests and are naturally friendly. They graciously accept your praise, and when you've exhausted your string of "I love you from -blank-" comments, they seem truly interested in finding out more about you.

I knew things were going to be great on this cruise before we even left port. We headed to the buffet for lunch on the ship and there was Wil Wheaton standing in line -- with the plebes. The man behind him, proudly enrobed in a w00tstock shirt, struck up a conversation. This seemed like a bold and potentially damning move, so I mentally measured him for a scarlet W in case this was the guy who offended Wil Wheaton into avoiding any fan interaction for the rest of the trip. I proceeded to my table to eat my lunch. After I finished eating, imagine my shock at seeing this same man alone at a table, in rapt conversation with Wil Wheaton, both clearly finished eating and simply enjoying each others' company. Yes, this was not going to be your average set of celebrities.

John Hodgman was particularly terrifying for me. Imagine earning the disdain of one of the sharpest, driest wits of our time for some thoughtless comment made in a moment of star-struck idiocy. So it was with real, unmitigated terror that I found myself face-to-face with not only John Hodgman, but also Peter Sagal-author, playwright and host of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. I broke into the conversation to tell Hodgman how much I loved his This American Life piece on becoming a celebrity, haltingly told him it made me realize that I act like as much of a boob around "regular people" as I would any celebrity, and asked to shake his hand. He said I must be completely petrified talking to him, and I agreed. On the verge of fainting I backed away and said almost offhandedly to Peter Sagal, that I was so nervous my knees were knocking (they were). Then we must have had a 5-minute conversation about me, of all people. What a perfect one-two punch. John Hodgman to knock the air out of my lungs and Peter Sagal to provide a practiced ear for a probably nearly incoherent babbling fan. These two gentlemen are true class acts.

But the same could be said of anyone on the cruise. Different performers had their own comfort levels. Some exercised more reserve, which we all recognized as shyness rather than egotism. Some mingled mostly with each other but did so in public ways we all enjoyed. Probably the most surreal experience I had was standing a few feet away from John Hodgman playing scrabble with my new friend Famous Tracy while John Roderick of the Long Winters (who is amazing!!) and Kevin Murphy of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax jammed on a dueling ukuleles (joined occasionally by Paul of Paul and Storm). Does that not sound like something that could only exist in a mad lib?

(Incidentally, Kevin Murphy's wife, Jane, wins the best sport award for being amazingly friendly and truly lovely to everyone she came in contact with. I don't know who's luckier in that pairing.)

Particular praise must be given to Paul Sabourin from Paul and Storm, who can't have gotten a lick of rest on the cruise. He was constantly mingling, stopping for a few minutes any time he saw a nerd gathering. I honestly ran out of things to say to him, having exhausted my two topics of conversation (how great they did on their set, and how fetching his beard looked). There can't be a nicer person in show business. Seriously, there can't be, because anyone any kinder would have no time to produce music. Any nicer and Paul Sabourin would immediately take over as Santa Clause.

All the other performers were truly amazing. The ones I didn't know too well knocked my socks off: Roderick, who I am now going to call the Pixar of live music because of his ability make me cry in public, and Mike Phirman, whose razor-sharp wit makes Groucho Marx look like Homer Simpson. These men should both be much bigger stars.

And now I'm going home. My heart, head, and eyelids are heavy, but my heart is soaring. The creative, positive energy of the performers and fellow fans has renewed all of our zest for creativity. We're all going home to finish our novels, learn an instrument, avoid the easy but deadening ways through life. Turn off the TV. Uninstall StumbleUpon. Stop working late in the jobs you hate. Stop working those jobs at all, as soon as possible. In two years, in 10 years, lets make our own waves and then we will be the ones to sail!