Work Time
Wednesday I left home at 6:45am to get to work 8:00am. I have been working some administrative temp assignments until I can get back on track with my career goal: Public Relations. In the meantime I have been doing an audit for over 7,000 patients for a dental office that has been in business for 32 years. Unfortunately this temp job ends mid September so I have been stressing for the next job opportunity.

Drive to Dallas
I took off from work at 1:30pm and borrowed Fat Boy Slim, Prodigy, Morcheeba and a handful others for the drive to Dallas. At around 4pm we stopped to grab something to eat since I missed lunch. I drove up to this Subway that had a drive-thru. The outside of the building looked abandoned and the neighborhood looked ghetto. All I imagined was a roach instead of olives, with a dash of ants for pepper in my food. I took off in a hurry and happened to find a better subway five exits down the highway. This Subway also had a BBQ joint that shared the same building. I ordered a Mediterranean salad for the first time and was surprisingly impressed with it. For a fast food chain, this salad was amazing. I hit Grapevine at 6pm.

Once again, Yahoo's map directions weren't entirely correct. I ended up getting lost trying to find the hotel. I asked a guy at the gas station where it was. He pointed to head over the bridge and as I looked in that direction out the window I saw the top of the Hotel Resort in the distance.

Where's the Garage
For some reason - I don't know if it was because I was fatigued from the drive or from sleeping 4 hrs the night before - I couldn't find the parking garage for the life of me. I went all the way in the back and came to a dead end. A lot of people were hanging outside in the back, mainly smoking cigarettes. I went around to the front and saw the arrow once again pointed to go to the back of the building. After getting a little more frustrated I skimmed my surroundings and noticed a parking garage area. Entering the garage I had a shot of adrenaline - maybe it was from the lack of sleep or my butterfly-tummy from not knowing what was going to happen next. I found a parking spot about 2 lanes from the lobby entrance and forced myself to keep the car there for the entire event. My truck turned into a convenient locker close to the convention!

Press Registration Not Until Tomorrow?
I was upset to find that the press registration booth wouldn't be available until Thursday morning. I tried to find someone who knew me but there wasn't anyone who did at the registration desk. I walked down the BYOC line to check to see if I knew anyone but again, no such luck. As I walked back near the entrance I notice Marty Stratton from id Software walking out of the convention area with a box in his hands. I waved at him and he walked up to chit-chat. I told him my situation but he said not to worry about it. I'd be in with my computer before the evening ended. That was a relief. Coming early almost wasn't such a good idea until Marty came to the rescue.

p24t Sponsor Hunt!
p24t and Silence were coming out the Qcon doorway entrance. I talked to Silence for a few minutes, then p2 took me in the convention area and we began hunting down more sponsors for Ms. Qcon while they were setting up in the vendor area. After talking to many of them, A-bit desired to have our finalists of MsQcon Tournament to fight against Fatality in Doom 3. 

The extra sponsors Krazyannee, Spicey and p24t were able to come up with were: Via Sicuru (speakers), Bawls (cases), A-Bit, Linksys, Alienware (swag), Nvidia (video cards) and AMD.

Knower's Sugar Fix
This hotel was simply amazing. It had such a romantic feeling from the dim lights - very dramatic. I really missed having someone there to share how awesome it was. Its one of the places you want to grab someone's hand and just take a stroll down the pathways. I checked out a few places, and ended up at a Cups & Cones. As I was checking the menu for a cafe mocha or mocha ice cream someone called my name. I looked over and saw Knower! Knower is a guy I worked with at Gamespy. He also was the guy who was able to see me play Paintball for the first time at a Paradox/Activision/ Gamespy event in 2001. I didn't realize how much I missed him until I saw him there. The last time I saw him we briefly talked while I was leaving last year's Quakecon. He had an ice cream made while we talked. He took me for a little tour around the resort as we caught up on old times and talked about his new girlfriend. w00t! You go boy.

-beta, what's that SMELL?
I went back into the convention area and noticed a blonde girl with a bright blue blouse. It was -beta with a handful of her friends! She began running around like she always does and then came back so we could hang out for a bit. As we were walking to her place in the BYOC line I noticed this really fowl smell. I asked -beta, "Is it just me or do you smell that?" She giggled and said she did indeed smell it. We looked around and noticed many different people had their shoes off. Talk about la'peeyew. We talked to
FLC-Magic in line as he took a few pictures and showed us some stuff on his computer. He is such a sweet guy!

Amerz' MadSkillz!
During my walk around the convention area I noticed signs with cute character art. I found out later that Amerz created them. When I was asked to run Ms Quakecon, Amerz helped a lot in the early process to give us concept art that we needed. The MsQcon girl doll was her idea. She is so talented.

Krissy The Beach Bomb?
As -beta and I were headed to our hotel room, I noticed a girl that looked familiar. -beta noticed her too and walked over to talk. I blinked a few times and noticed it was Krissy! I felt so bad; I didn't recognize her since she was so tan. Krissy is one of those type of girls I would picture at the beach. Even before her tan, she just has that laid-back surfer style. Go figure - she's Texan all the way, baby! I really enjoyed hanging out with her more this year. Last year was too hectic and saying, “Hi!” or waving can only get you so far to know someone.

Missyloo!!
I borrowed a cell phone from a friend for the weekend. I gave out the number to some of the id Software peeps, along with a few others who were going to help me with the tournament. Missy called to let me know that she had arrived but didn't know where to go next. She sounded a bit lost. I asked her to describe what she was wearing so I could walk back to find her. She mentioned that her brother came as well and was wearing a cowboy hat so he would stick out like a sore thumb.

p2 happened to be with me at the time so we both wandered down the hall to get to the hotel resort while asking Missy to describe the area around her. Finally when we were near the Texas Station Grill I spotted her talking to a blonde girl that had to be Ms.X from Girlz of Destruction. We all headed up to p2's hotel to count the t-shirts Geekwearz was kind enough to provide for the tournament participants.

Hunkola
Passing through a smoking area someone called my name. I looked over to find Yossman and two other guys sitting down. They asked me what I was up to so I gave them the latest. I recognized DLister since I talked to him earlier but didn't even check to see who the other guy was. My mind was set on what I needed to get done next. I finally noticed that the third guy wasn't saying a word so I glanced over to find it was wendigo looking dazed and confused. I briefly talked to him on the elevator last year, and ever since then he has intrigued me. He seemed to stand out back then, and this year he did the same. I pointed at him and said, "Oh its YOU!" He just grinned at me. I desired to hangout more to talk to them but there were too many things on my mind on preparation for Ms Quakecon.

Let Me In BYOC, Marty!
Around 9pm I started to think that I wasn't going to get in the BYOC area before the night ended. Even if Marty said it would be a sure thing. hehe. I noticed Todd, Nash, Wolf and Marty near the entrance and talked to them a while. Marty was a sweet as normal and told Eagle to get me hooked up. Not much longer p24t grabs some guy whom I have never met before.

Trunkneck's Muscles
This big hefty muscle looking guy walks up as p24t says, "Lets go get your computer." Trunkneck reminds me of a guy who would be in the Popeye movie. I believe he eats a lot of spinach indeed! ;) They escorted me as I teased them, saying they were my body guards because of the way they were walking at my sides. We went down to my truck to unload the crapola of PC goodies I had. As we came back up to the BYOC area, both Todd and Marty were laughing at me. I don't know what they were saying... but I should send them a nice package of goodies for their kindness... just for old Quake3world.com sake! :D You guys rock.

OH MY GAWD ITS D'FORCE!!!!!
One pleasant surprise was meeting a person I wasn't expecting to! Eagle1 escorted me to the line and pointed at a man he desired me to talk to. I walked up, and didn't have all of my information I needed. (This was my first year with my computer, so sue me) I was blondefully clueless on the procedure. He told me not to worry about it, Marty gave a thumbs-up, and things were headed on its way. I said my real name and alias to look up he said, "Wait, CaliGirl? I'm D'Force from Clan HOP.w!" I was completely and utterly shocked at that moment. I couldn't believe the words he was saying! It was so great to finally meet him in person. It seems like it’s been ages since we talked online. Back in the Quake 1 days Husbands of Pissed wives (HOP.w) clan were always so much fun to hang out with online. It was such an honor to meet one of them in person.

We went on and talked about old times. I actually felt a little guilty with the thought I could be holding up the BYOC line, but I couldn't help it! These guys were my Quake 1 roots! I resisted the thought that I was being greedy by talking to him. I asked if there were any other HOP.w guys at Quakecon this year, and he mentioned there were two others besides himself. The clan leader, Wormburner, wasn't able to make it out this year, and my other good friend Crazz was no where to be found. Although I am definitely going to look him up since he lives nearby. We also got on the funny subject about Hatriq - I have played him in games like Quake 3 in the past, but he doesn't chat in a game at all. So, I'll sit there typing, hey long time no see and NOTHING. I'll even spam chat. NOTHING. He acts like he doesn’t know me. Then I'll get an email from him every once in a blue moon asking how I have been and so forth. D'force and I decided that Hatriq has the chat menu off, or he simply can’t multi-task. ;)

-beta & CaliGirl Ramble
Since I was staying with -beta and her crew of buddies just for the night, we went up to the hotel to hang out. We stayed up until about 3am talking, and since both -beta and I were tired we began our girly girl ramble, you know? Girls can be like a locomotive when they are empty headed with hardly any sleep. We just won't STOP. Since -beta lives about 15 minutes from me, we have rambling sessions from time to time. We'll ramble and ramble about the weirdest stuff, only this time -beta and I happened to have an audience; four of -beta’s guy friends. I forgot they were there after a while because they were tired themselves (or they'd just snicker at our comments). I think after that night, some of the guys knew why they didn't have girlfriends - because girls talk way too much! Much lub to you guys for putting up w/our nonsense Sly, Thricky, Nightmare and Blaze/Earl!

[Back to Quakecon 2004 Journey]

Note: Thanks to FLC-Magic for the Cali/beta photo, Gamespy
for Missy photo, foto for Krissy/earl/nightmare picture.