XOXO 2015 - The Best Conference I've Ever Been To

When I first heard about the XOXO Festival, it was described with a mysterious and mystical air, an elusive and exclusive technology conference in Portland. You had to fill out a form to get the opportunity to go and it boasted speakers AND attendees that were movers and shakers in the tech world. I imagined it was like a turnkey Burning Man camp.

I've had the good fortune of attending Burning Man twice, in 2012 and 2014, so I figured, hell, why not give it a shot, I'm a pretty diverse and interesting individual, maybe I have a shot at buying tickets in the lottery. And it was the best four days I've spent surrounded by strangers with a schedule of activities. Yes, even better than tour-guided vacations.

Thursday
The very first night, I met Sophie & Jenni from New Zealand and pretty much spent some part of every day of XOXO hanging out with them. They were fun, laid back, and it was easy to feel comfortable around them.

While wandering around looking at the VR games, we saw Brian Fetter and his sister Laura Fetter, who were repping shirts from Brian's game Keep Talking And No One Explodes and looking for people to demo the game. Luckily, we saw them right before they set up shop and pretty much hung out with them for the next hour. Pat Kemp (my partner) and Brian talked video game shop, while Laura and I had a leisurely conversation about all sorts of things and demoed the game to the couple of curious people that wandered past.

Friday
Was a blur of social events, meeting people, and DAN DEACON.

Ground Kontrol was free to play, so I got to play some more Killer Queen. I much prefer the setup at the Cards Against Humanity office in Chicago because it allows for more smack talk as well as sportsmanship.

And then I got to experience the joyous wonder that is Dan Deacon. This statement from Dan Deacon's Wikipedia page sums up, but in no way accurately describes, the experience of attending a Dan Deacon concert:

Deacon is renowned for his live shows, where large-scale audience participation and interaction is often a major element of the performance.

As I've been telling people, it was like a giant ice breaker performance art with the two hundred or so attendees of the concert. Afterwards, I was exhilarated and exhausted, my hands hurt, and I couldn't wait to wash my hands extremely thoroughly. I absolutely love performance art and being able to interact authentically with strangers and feel part of a whole. I also had the pleasure of giving Dan Deacon a high-five. I didn't want him to feel left out of the beautiful thing he created.

Saturday
The start of two days crammed full of inspiring and heart-provoking talks that gave glimpses into the struggles and victories of people from all corners of the creative technology ecosystem. On Saturday I learned "You can better show a thing than explain it."

I was impressed by the diversity of the speakers as well as the diversity of the conference attendees. Apparently, 47% of the attendees were women.

I was extremely fortunate to stumble upon and experience &maybetheywontkillyou, in which you role-play as a black teenager going to the store. It was made by Akira Thompson and I really enjoyed chatting with him afterwards. It's been one of main things I bring up when talking to people about XOXO as an example of an important and necessary creative outreach that should be supported and that space should be made for.

I had a delicious dinner with Samantha Kalman and we talked about the future of Invisible Arcade, an event that I've been helping her put on in Seattle.

Sunday
Started with the best breakfast burrito I have ever had. Even better, while we were waiting for it from the Fried Egg, I'm in Love food truck conveniently located by our AirBnB, we got to chat with Lucy Bellwood, a delightful individual who did all of the live sketches of the XOXO talks.

On Sunday I learned "Our designs are value systems."

I was lucky enough to be invited to lunch with a small group that included Andrew Ferguson, Tony Zhou, Spike Trotman, and Nicky Case, all of whom were fun and interesting to talk to. At one point, we had an entire table discussion on the difficult question of whether or not to have kids. From the conversation, Tony recommended that I watch (in order) Rosemary's Baby, The Babadook, and We Need to Talk About Kevin. I watched the first two just yesterday, back to back and am waiting for the third from the library. So far, I'm no less fearful of having kids, but the good news is that I'm no more fearful of having kids than before either.

At the Electric Objects Salon, one of its curators, Darius Kazemi, gave a tour of the exhibit, which was fascinating, especially because I had gone through the exhibit on my own earlier and missed so so much of the backstories behind each piece. Also, I love tours.

Finally, I spent much of the rest of the night, and a couple of hours on Monday, talking to Rachel Nabors and had her draw on my XOXO badge.

In Conclusion...
XOXO to me was a four day conversation that I had about my place in the world and how I can make it better. I was deeply inspired and humbled by all of the authentic and engaged discussions that I had with everyone that I met, not just those that I mentioned here. If you ever get a chance to go, I would challenge you to take every opportunity to talk with someone because at its core, XOXO is about people.

Know Thyself

I watched the Girl Walk // All Day movie last night. Chapter 7 is my favorite, especially the subway section, and I'll be listening to the Girl Talk All Day album for the foreseeable future. The whole thing is so beautiful and inspiring and bold. Performance art has always fascinated me and even more so, the ones that somehow interact with the viewer.

The other thing I watched was the most recent Brené Brown TED talk. Both of them are absolutely heart stopping. They've made me realize that I probably definitely have a problem with vulnerability. Realize, but not face. I'm still too freaked out to do that. I've always been good at presenting different versions of myself to different people. I always thought it was because I was good at adapting and knowing what people want. But maybe also, it's easier liking the things that someone else likes and putting on that pre-made persona and interests than really pursuing my own. I'm so focused on being able to relate to the people in my life that I don't carve out enough time for myself.

So what's the takeaway here? My longest passions in life have been dancing and writing. I should incorporate more of those two things into what I do in my free time.


Facts Before Fiction
I sat facing the lake, letting the flat, unchanging landscape consume my senses. I felt a slight tug by my elbow.
A small voice floated up into my ear, "What are you doing?"
I turned my head and smiled at him, "Why don't you sit next to me and see for yourself?"
He carefully navigated around the rocks and brushed away the unseen dirt before settling down facing me.
"No, no, turn to face the lake."
He gave me a wary look and slowly complied.
We sat in silence for a minute before I heard, "You know they're looking for you."
I stared straight ahead, anxiety gripping my heart. He glanced over, and seeing my discomfort, said, "I'll sit with you for a few minutes. They won't think to look this far out."
I managed to give a small nod, but my body was still tense, ready for flight at the slightest cough. I thought about the choices that led me to this particular lake and the circumstances that led to me sitting here in my Fiorvanti three piece suit, hours away from saying my vows.

Nick had been the backbone of the marriage movement. He came from a family of activists, so diverse and varied that you could have sworn they married based on which cause they hadn't taken up yet. So when he turned to me and proposed amidst the wild cheering and tears, I knew it was a moment he had been waiting for his entire life.

I, on the other hand, came from a family of easily distracted, laid-back yacht owners. How I ended up with someone like Nick is a constant source of speculation for anyone who has chatted with us for more than ten minutes. Yet here I was, looking out at Lake Garda, unsure for the first time of the direction my life was heading.

I rolled my shoulders and stood up. No one will be upset if the wedding is postponed a day. We're in Italy after all.

All the Dancing

I've been struggling with the feeling that I don't appreciate compliments as much as I should. And today, I went to my first hip hop class in several years. Nothing like sucking it up to really bring it home that yeah, no duh, I'm not the shit and there's always going to be lots of people way better than me.

So I recognize that I've been very lucky in life. I'm pretty, I make plenty of money, and I have people that love me. Though sometimes it's hard to think of things to say, I've had exciting adventures, read extensively, and engage in a wide variety of interests and hobbies. I'd like to think of myself as someone who likes trying new things and going out and doing stuff.

And what I've realized is that the combination of all of those things and a supportive environment has led me to not be as humble and modest as I should be. I was at Bootie Seattle last night and a girl came up to me and told me nice things and I thanked her verbally and with a smile. But it was brief and I felt nothing. In fact, the first feeling I had was that of expectation fulfilled. As an achievement whore, I think I'm also a compliment whore. Most of the time when I go out to parties or to hang with friends, I dress up to illicit compliments. Only recently, with my exploration of more masculine fashion, have I dressed up more for myself and trying on practically a new persona has been an adjustment. But even there, I know plenty of people that think I'm even hotter now for it, so it's a different level of fun to see their reactions. And those who don't think I look better and maybe even look weird, are nice enough to keep it to themselves.

Not Quite the Post I Was Expecting

Before I set off for China, I envisioned being able to get on the internet on a pretty frequent basis, and I wasn't wrong there, but what I forgot to take into account was the Great Firewall. Being unable to access Blogger took the pressure off of documenting my travels, but now, there's so much to document that really, the picture that I'm going to paint for you is a finger painting using only the primary colors. But that's not the subject of this post, so you'll have to continue to wait for that.

I could have gotten the China 2011 post to you earlier, but then I got hung up on having pretty pictures to show too. I created a Flickr for my co-workers and put up all the typical ones. I put all of the other pictures I took on a Facebook album. The problem now is privacy. How much do I want RoughDreamer to be tied to my name and is it already so tied that it doesn't matter anymore? I've been pretty laissez-faire about my online footprint but I have some pretty paranoid friends, and while Zach (who is also pretty paranoid) is the only person I mention by name on here (that I remember anyway), conceivably, this little web I'm spinning implicates a great deal of people.

But then there's the whole, really, who gives a fuck? Do I really think anyone important or malicious enough is going to put in that much effort to stalk me in order to ruin my life or the lives of people I know? I've been meaning to Google myself and do some self-stalking but keep on forgetting...but mostly I think I won't because there's large part of me who really just doesn't want to know what's out there. I have been pretty non-discreet. But how non-discreet do I want to continue living my online life is the question.

I'm not as whiny about my personal problems and issues online as I could be. None of my status updates/tweets are about how [insert emotion/physical ailment] I am, unless you count the ones a few weeks ago about my foot. But those were special. They had pictures! Speaking of pictures, I have grown increasingly fond of taking pictures using my phone and immediately sharing them. I love the fact that because of the wonders of the Internet, I can be doing something or looking at something cool and then BAM, by the power invested in my phone and technology, you too can practically stand right next to me and experience the same thing. It's the timeliness and immediacy of the interaction that makes it awesome.

For example, Wednesday night I saw Neil Gaiman and his wife, Amanda Palmer do a little show and dance. It was much more awesome than I expected and it actually kind of just felt like we were sitting around and they were just telling us stories. It didn't seem like a big production thing at all. Jonathan Colton was even there. But anyway, I knew some people would have been interested in the fact that this show was happening, so I took a picture of the billboard at the Moore and was going to tweet about it, but the network there was terrible or something and the tweet didn't publish. So instead of doing it way after the fact, I just deleted it. No point in letting people know about it now. It was just some thing that I did. The picture wasn't even that interesting.

The reason I don't post about negative stuff is because I dislike pity or even people feeling like they're emphasizing with me. Not specifically because of the whole "fuck you, you have no idea what it's like to be me", but mostly because I am ALL about managing how I appear to others. Yes of course I'm just as fucked up as the next person, but why should I advertise that? I'm happiest when everyone else thinks I'm happy. And luckily for me, I have a great group of friends that go out of their way to make sure that I'm generally pretty happy, so it's not really smoke and mirrors. Also, I hate dealing with my problems/issues/concerns/whatever over and over again, so if no one even knows to ask, then it's one less rehashing I have to do.

Dubstep

What is dubstep?

I read the wikipedia article and still have no idea. However, this youtube street performer was my first intro to "dubstep" a few years ago.

I am suddenly super into this type of music with an interesting, fast-paced bass and electronic beat. I stumbled upon SoundCloud, which has a dubstep tag today. It is way way better than my Pandora radio station that I've been trying to cobble together to listen to at work. Of course, now that I'm going out of the country for two weeks, I'm unlikely to listen to any of this.

I'm in a really groove-based, yet high energy wanting to dance mood. I think this actually started at PAX this year. There was a room, Jamspace, that I stopped by on my way to see what was up with story games. It was really awesome and I caught one or two of the last songs by these two guys, but I don't remember their names. I think one of them had was some sort of animal or insect name. I really enjoyed standing in the back and letting the music wash over me.

It was a novelty to be by myself, at a mini concert. There's so few times that I'm not doing something with someone else to share it with that it's hard to enjoy things by myself. I don't remember the last time I watched a movie on my own. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've eaten at a nice restaurant by myself. I don't particularly think it's because I can't do things on my own. I like sharing things that I think are cool with everyone else I know. I'm that person who derives maximum enjoyment out of looking at art and shows when I can whisper my thoughts and comments to someone.

It's like I almost don't trust that my experience on my own will be as valid or real without someone else there to share the reality. I should probably get over this, but it's so hard because I don't want someone else to miss out on something awesome. I'm always optimistic that the things I go to are going to be awesome. Why wouldn't you want to want to come with me?  It's going to be awesome.

"Friday Night" by Lily Allen

Ooooooooooo
Ooooooooooo

Friday night last orders at the pub,
Get in the car and drive to the club,
There's a massive crowd outside so we get in to the queue
It's quarter past 11 now we won't get in till quarter to two.

It's quarter to and we get to the front,
Girl on a guest list dressed like a cunt
She asked security to check inside my shoes,
You can play this game with me but you know you're gonna lose.

[Hook]
Looked me up and down,
I don't make a sound,
There's a lesson that I want you to learn,
If you're gonna play with fire then you're gonna get burned,

[Chorus]
Don't try and test me cos you'll get reaction,
Another drink and I'm ready for action,
I don't know who you think you are,
But making people scared wont get you very far.

Ooooooooooooo
Ooooooooooooo

In the club make our way to the bar,
Good dancing love but you should of worn a bra.
Guy on the mike and he's making too much noise,
There's these girls in the corner wanting attention from the boys.

I see these girls and they're shouting through the crowd,
Don't understand why they're being really loud.
They make their way over to me,
They try to push me out the way,
I'll push her back, she looks at me and says,
What you tryna say?

[Hook]
[Chorus x2]

Oooooooooooooo
Oooooooooooooo


I heard this on the radio today and it made me think of myself lol. Oh it has been a long long time since I've been vicious and thrown some punches. The sucker who gets all that pent up aggression will definitely be worse for the wear. (Don't worry friends, I usually only hit strangers). I was thinking about it at work, how I would go about throwing down some punk ass and it's important when fighting a woman to make sure not to get your eyes gouged out and be prepared for a serious headache/less hair. I hope I remember to tense up my stomach and that if I get in the position to slam her head in the ground, that I remember to just rub it in the ground instead (don't want it to look too bad). Jail time for such a fight does not daunt me in the slightest. Just going through various scenarios gets my blood pumping.
....I should probably do some more yoga next week...

If you want to hear it, here's a funny YouTube Sims Music Vid of the song.

2 Songs that I Thought I'd Share

Eels - Fresh Feeling
You don't have a clue
What it is like to be next to you
I'm here to tell you
That it is good
That it is true

Birds singing a song
Old paint is peeling
This is that fresh
That fresh feeling

Words can't be that strong
My heart is reeling
This is that fresh
That fresh feeling

Try
Try to forget what's in the past
Tomorrow is here
Love,
Orange sky above lighting your way
There's nothing to fear

Birds singing a song
Old paint is peeling
This is that fresh
That fresh feeling

Words can't be that strong
My heart is reeling
This is that fresh
That fresh feeling

Some people are good
Babe in the 'hood
So pure and so free
I'd make a safe bet
You're gonna get whatever you need

I heard this on KEXP today and it was SO CUTE, some guy requested it because his wife was having twins and they pick songs for all their births or something like that, anyway, I got a little choked up. Violins and a good beat in the beginning is so perfect.


I Was Dancing In a Lesbian Bar - Jonathan Richman
Well I was dancing at a night club one Friday night
And that night club bar was a little uptight
Yeah, I was dancing all alone a little self conscious
When some kids came up and said, "for dancing come with us."
And soon...

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

Well I was dancing in the lesbian bar
In the industrial zone.
I was dancing with my friends
And dancing alone.
Well the first bar things were alright
But in this bar, things were Friday night.
In the first bar things were just alright.
This bar things were Friday night.

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

Well I was dancing in the lesbian bar
Way downtown
I was there to check the scene
And hang around
Well the first bar things were stop and stare
But in this bar things were laissez faire
In the first bar things were stop and stare
In this bar things were lassez faire.

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

In the first bar folks were drinking sips
But in this bar they could shake their hips,
In the first bar they were drinking sips
In this bar they could shake their hips.

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

(Guitar)

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

Well in the first bar, things were okay
But in this bar things were more my way
In the first bar things were just okay
But in this bar things were done my way.

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.

Well in the first bar things were controlled
But in this bar things were Rock and Roll
In the first bar things were so controlled
In this bar things were way way bold.

I was dancing in a lesbian bar.
I was dancing in a lesbian bar.


I was like wahhhaa? when I first heard it but this has seriously grown on me in a Jonathan Colton-kind of way.

Anyway, on to playing more Gears of War2.

Ratatat @ the Showbox in the Market

It kind of feels like I've been suddenly obsessed with this band, but I think it's mostly the excitement of discovering a great music feel and then discovering that tons of other people are similarly totally into it too. It's exclusive, but not so exclusive that no one knows what you're talking about. A larger inside joke if you will. Overall, the live performance of it was fantastic and it was great to rock out to it. Even with earplugs. I wouldn't have really imagined that I'd be jumping up and down for some of the parts/songs but it was pretty intense and I just love some of the parts so much. I kind of wish that I had been closer to the stage so I could actually see them, but it really wasn't that important. I'm not really invested in the band members, in fact, I've been thinking that there were only 2 members in the band, but there were three on stage.

The two cover bands were really kind of weird though. The first one, E*Rock, were these two guys with full head/face covers, like KKK, but black and not pointed and the one at the turntable type thing for some reason, had the Wii controller with the nunchuck around his neck and kept on acting like he was playing the Wii or using it somehow...which, even if it were true, was kind of weird.

There's a delicate balance required when using popular implements in an entertainment fashion. If you use it a few days after the thing becomes popular, it's usually considered extremely hip, but if you wait too long it becomes tacky and tryhard. Even more interesting is the relative quickness of tragedy-inspired jokes that pop up practically before you even have a chance to grieve. Each time people are like...too soon? And the answer has always been...nahhh, it's still funny...a bit grotesque/morbid/off-color...but still funny. We're curtailing human sympathies for a quick laugh.

In other news, we killed some time before the concert at Gameworks and Zach got me an awesome T-Rex from the claw machines:

OMG isn't it awesome?

PAX 2008 Re-Cap

So this marks my 3rd consecutive year of attending the Penny-Arcade Expo (PAX). Friday and most of Saturday were mostly not the awesome swag getting that I remembered from last year, but I made up for it on Sunday by getting 4 T-shirts within an hour, five if you count the one I bought. Six if you count the one that I got at the Rockstar booth for Zach (the woman just shoved small t-shirts at me and I came out with two). The other cool swag that I got were Penny-Arcade postcards depicting their first D&D 4th Edition Quest (which we also recently finished) and a air gun that shoots little balls. Speaking of balls, I barely saw any Bawls at this year's PAX. I maybe saw one or two empty bottles lying about, but it was definitely not at the forefront of anyone's consciousness. Maybe they're going under? Hahaha...no one likes the bawls. I also didn't see very many raffles and such going on; it was very hard to figure out how and when to get the swag. I didn't attend any extraneous panels this year, which is a deviation from previous years, and I feel like I didn't really miss out. Sadly I didn't get to see Jonathan Coulton, but it was probably for the best...I'm not sick yet from the lack of sleep and running around!
Okay, now, for the more detailed day by day recap:

Thursday
We participated in the Pre-PAX Pub Crawl, also known as the Tri-Wizard Tourny. It was pretty crazy, and we actually met some people, both of which we saw again later at PAX. So that was pretty cool. I was apparently dressed up as Ada Wong from Resident Evil. Maybe next year I'll be a little more accurate. It was pretty fun, though crashing at the guys' place was not so great. Highlights: the make-out session, cream cheese, onion, and ketchup hot dog, and people surreptitiously taking pictures of me.

Friday
PAX begins!! I get up early and take the bus down to the WA Convention Center to stand in line. Zach does not come with because he drank too much the night before and was still feeling ill and needed more sleep. About being in line for a while, I've finished going through the PAX schedule and decide I'm bored enough to try to make friends with the nice looking guy standing next to me. He's not especially talkative initally, but luckily Ben spots me and comes to stand in line with me. He subsequently steals my new friend that's supposed to entertain me and starts to talk shop. And I'm still mostly bored. Once inside the expo hall, three seconds later I spot Zach. Turns out waiting in line was completely worthless. We wander around and completely squander the fact that we're early to the expo (i.e., we should have stood in line for something worth playing, like Left4Dead and RockBand2).
Highlights: the beginning of the Q&A Panel was f-ing BADASS EPIC AWESOME. Everyday I'm hustlin', everyday I'm hustlin'...

Saturday
My fave day at PAX, hands down. In the morning, we got up early and headed over to help some friends move. They had some difficulty getting the van and stuff so they were about 1/2 hour late. It was kind of cold outside and I didn't bring a jacket since I assumed I'd be getting pretty warm from moving stuff. It was warm inside, but Zach was just sitting and sleeping and outside, I chatted with the guys for a little bit but then they also retreated to their car to sleep. So I was bored. I ended up entertaining myself by climbing around and jumping off the porch. However, since I was launching myself off to get the most air to do a cool move before hitting the ground, the momentum practically forced me to do a roll after landing. It was exhilarating, silly, and slightly embarrassing, which resulted in me laughing uncontrollably. It's been a really really long time since the rebellious daredevil f-what people think (sort of) side of me has had an opportunity to get some fresh air. Though I guess the rocking out dancing I did for a RockBand song last week counts too. I used to do that kind of shit all the time. But over time it became more important to me to be the cute, silly, slightly befuddled girl than it was for me to be badass and do things for the shock value. I guess it was growing out of being a teenager. Anyway, I did it to impress people and shake their impression that I was just some quiet asian girl and I think I'm more stable now about who I am as a person that I don't need to do outrageous things to convince myself and others that I'm not stuck in some box. At the same time, it is completely refreshing and freeing to know that I'm still capable of thinking up and following through with my harebrained shenanigans.
Anyway, then at PAX, we hung out in the expo hall until it closed, with a short break to Starbucks near the end. I didn't get very much accomplished, I think I tried winning a t-shirt and failed miserably and kind of played the new Viva Pinata, but I couldn't figure out how to do anything. The coolest thing was watching a game that's not out yet, The Maw. The environment just looked really beautiful and cute. In retrospect, if I had known it was a PAX 10 contender, I would have voted for it.
After the expo hall closed, we putzed around for a while and then stumbled upon the RockBand freeplay area and they were playing Weezer and everyone was singing along and clapping along. There was some really great community there. Then we went over to the Annex and I got to participate in a large manual, old style adventuring quest, Action Castle, which was pretty cool, even though I almost "used" the fishing rod on the lake. I got to demo Burning Wheel and managed to kick some major ass as the lowly rat guide. It seemed like everyone else also enjoyed watching the demo and that it was a pretty good indicator of what the game play/style/fights are like. The guys actually talk a little bit about their experience doing 5.5 hours of demos on their forum. It looks like there'll be a podcast about it on Tuesday from Front Row Crew. I'll be interested to see if any of my demo session was worth mentioning :). It was a great time, though I was pretty anxious/nervous/hyped up and had the shakes for a good first half of the demo. Then we went back over to the RockBand area and stood in line for a really long time and played Highway Star for everyone. It was super exciting performing for a crowd though the drums were quite a bit harder to play due to the height, chair, and they seemed modded so I had to hit them quite a bit harder for it to register. I didn't get to see any of the cool stuff that everyone did to warm up the crowd, but it seemed like everyone really liked it. I got a high-five afterwards from some random guy. It was a good way to end the night.

Sunday
Got to sleep in a little and got to PAX around 11 or so. Hung around the expo hall doing pretty much nothing else but get t-shirts. We were quite successful at the endeavor too. I stood in line for the second Q&A and not a bit too soon since I managed to be the second to last question. I felt like I stuttered a lot of was weird sounding but Zach said that compared to the other people, I sounded great. After that, Zach and I lounged around on the Sumos for a while and then went to the console freeplay area and checked out Boom Blox. It was entertaining, but we're probably not going to buy it. I have pretty unsteady hands which is a liability in that game. We have so many Wii games that we haven't finished either even though they're just go through mini games. Then we stood in line for some Taco Del Mar food and waited in line with the guys to see the final Omegathon. Which was okay, it turned out to be Vs. ExciteBike. It was f-ing hard, like many of the ancient games. It was also a total shut out, which was too bad and the guy that I was rooting for didn't win :(. Hopefully next year's final round will be cooler. I also didn't win the drawing sadly. Some girl named Grace Wong won though. It would be cool if a girl won the Omegathon someday.
Zach and I ended the day by watching Tsotsi.


Overall, I had a great time at PAX and will need to come up with a better plan next year for making the expo hall a little more worthwhile. The lines are always ridiculous (no one got to play Left4Dead or RockBand2), and the swag was more challenging to get, but there was still cool stuff to see and a surprisingly large number of booth babes this year too. Still undecided about how I feel about that. All I can say is, I can't wait for next year's PAX! I'm so glad I live in Seattle and don't have to pay tons of money to attend it. It's totally worth it.

Modeselektor - Hyper Hyper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBmdfL7hgtM - no animation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AON2R-HCQ3E - weird kid + two girls

This is really more trance/dance music so I had a hard time finding lyrics.

Hyper Hyper! Bass Bass Drum! So Beautiful...see your hands in the air.

Yeah, that's about it. I'm listening to a bunch of their other stuff right now, and it's all pretty sweet. Maybe I'm suddenly into trance now? I used to think it was so boring with such little variation, but the beat is just awesome enough that I don't mind listening to it for several seconds with little to no variation. Man, this would be good music for visualizations. ;)
This one is pretty cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p-1NUoapQc - just a pix

I might have to make this CD #2 to get...though I dunno if Best Buy has it?

Shittt....I could do this all night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THQPeNIvvyc
Maybe I'm just really in the mood for techno trance right now. What is the difference between techno and trance?

Some Interesting Stuff

Common Errors in English - An interesting site that has TONS of commonly misused word pairs. Choose/Chose is a pretty good one. Also, since I have so many friends from TX, Y'all. If anyone starts using all y'all...that's going to be trouble.

Also, a song that has one of the best one liners..."I've got soul but I'm not a soldier"...very relevant to these days:

All These Things That I've Done - The Killers (Official Vid, UK Version-the better one I think)

When there's nowhere else to run
Is there room for one more son
One more son
If you can hold on
If you can hold on, hold on
I wanna stand up, I wanna let go
You know, you know - no you don't, you don't
I wanna shine on in the hearts of men
I want a meaning from the back of my broken hand

Another head aches, another heart breaks
I am so much older than I can take
And my affection, well it comes and goes
I need direction to perfection, no no no no

Help me out
Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the blackburner
You know you got to help me out

And when there's nowhere else to run
Is there room for one more son
These changes ain't changing me
The cold-hearted boy I used to be

Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the blackburner
You know you got to help me out
You're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down

I got soul, but I'm not a soldier
I got soul, but I'm not a soldier
...

Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the blackburner
You know you got to help me out
You're gonna bring yourself down
You're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the blackburner
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down

Over and out, last call for sin
While everyone's lost, the battle is won
With all these things that I've done
All these things that I've done
If you can hold on
If you can hold on

Thou Shalt Always Kill - Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou_Shalt_Always_Kill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoN6XfyQsr4

Thou shalt not steal if there is direct victim.
Thou shalt not worship pop idols or follow lost prophets.
Thou shalt not take the names of Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, Johnny Hartman, Desmond Decker, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix or Syd Barret in vain.
Thou shalt not think that any male over the age of 30 that plays with a child that is not their own is a pedophile… Some people are just nice.
Thou shalt not read NME.
Thou shalt not stop liking a band just because they've become popular.
Thou shalt not question Stephen Fry.
Thou shalt not judge a book by its cover.
Thou shalt not judge Lethal Weapon by Danny Glover.
Thou shalt not buy Coca-Cola products. Thou shalt not buy Nestle products.
Thou shalt not go into the woods with your boyfriend's best friend, take drugs and cheat on him.
Thou shalt not fall in love so easily.
Thou shalt not use poetry, art or music to get into girls' pants. Use it to get into their heads.
Thou shalt not watch Hollyoaks.
Thou shalt not attend an open mic and leave as soon as you're done your shitty little poem or song you self-righteous prick.
Thou shalt not return to the same club or bar week in, week out just 'cause you once saw a girl there that you fancied but you're never gonna fucking talk to.

Thou shalt not put musicians and recording artists on ridiculous pedestals no matter how great they are or were.

The Beatles - Were just a band.
Led Zepplin - Just a band.
The Beach Boys - Just a band.
The Sex Pistols - Just a band.
The Clash - Just a band.
Crass - Just a band.
Minor Threat - Just a band.
The Cure - Just a band.
The Smiths - Just a band.
Nirvana - Just a band.
The Pixies - Just a band.
Oasis - Just a band.
Radiohead - Just a band.
Bloc Party - Just a band.
The Arctic Monkeys - Just a band.
The next big thing - JUST A BAND.

Thou shalt give equal worth to tragedies that occur in non-English speaking countries as to those that occur in English speaking countries.
Thou shalt remember that guns, bitches and bling were never part of the four elements and never will be.

Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music

Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music

Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music

Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music

Thou shalt not pimp my ride.
Thou shalt not scream if you wanna go faster.
Thou shalt not move to the sound of the wickedness.
Thou shalt not make some noise for Detroit.
When I say "Hey" thou shalt not say "Ho".
When I say "Hip" thou shalt not say "Hop".
When I say "he say, she say, we say, make some noise" - kill me.
Thou shalt not quote me happy.
Thou shalt not shake it like a Polaroid picture.
Thou shalt not wish your girlfriend was a freak like me.
Thou shalt spell the word "Pheonix" P-H-E-O-N-I-X not P-H-O-E-N-I-X, regardless of what the Oxford English Dictionary tells you.
Thou shalt not express your shock at the fact that Sharon got off with Bradley at the club last night by saying "Is it".
Thou shalt think for yourselves.
And thou shalt always,
Thou shalt always kill.

The artists claim that the title, and final line of the song, refer to 'killing' in the sense of performing excellently.

This is a super awesome song...even if it's also super British and many references are of that sort. The music vid is pretty entertaining and catchy.

Man...Ratatat...

I am SO sad that I discovered Ratatat just a few weeks too late to see them perform live in Seattle...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlGx0nJsOkM&feature=related

It would have been so awesome.

Band Names are Silly

And so are the names of most songs. Is there a band out there that named their songs in such a way that they make up a paragraph or story or something? If not, the world is sadly, sadly missing this vital artistic expression. Like, that's another thing that sometimes bugs me about listening to KEXP, just how nonchalant everyone is about spewing forth this mish-mash of random words strung together and how ridiculous it all sounds. Completely ridiculous, pompous, and that word that means you're trying too hard to be artsy, you poser you, but I can't think of it at the moment.

I think it just seems worse right now because bands have outrageously long and high-fluting names that just add to the confusion. Band names should be limited to 3 words. The fewer the better.

Ratatat...You Blow My Mind

I've been listening to KEXP more and more at work lately, just cuz it's really really good background music, most of it is nothing that I know, there's a lot of kind of techno-y stuff with no words. The only thing is that their announcer DJ people are kind of annoying and weird. They do this continuous wave inflection thing with their voice when they're saying stuff and it's weird.

Anyway, since I've been listening more, I've been recognizing some of the songs and one of them I heard today has no words in it and I thought it was really innovative and went on their site to see what band it was and it was Ratatat's Mirando. I decided then and there that I was going to Best Buy the next chance I got (which was today after work) and get their newest album LP3.

Every single track on here is amazing and is blowing my mind. I LOVE THIS CD!! Damn this stuff is amazing. I got the CD because Zach and I need some tunes to listen to during long drives when the radio goes out.