By now, you're probably sick of hearing about what a great time people had up in San Francisco this past week. Frankly, after reading Ark's sufficiently descriptive post, I felt like I had nothing else to say about it.

That was true, until I remembered that I took the above video.

Re-watching it, I wish I had gotten more video than this mere eleven seconds worth of Mr. Concelmo. I wish I had video of Charlie playing the R-Zone while pretending to order a hamburger. I wish I had video of .tiff and Dyson's epic wrestling match. I wish I had video of RevAnthony frightening the Asian woman outside of the restaurant, and the ensuing five minutes worth of laughter. I wish I had video of Tactix completely tearing up the Rock Band drums.

Alas, I don't have any of those things, so you'll have to take my word for them (except for the wrestling match, which was broadcast live on Stickam).

Now, like I mentioned, this post is pretty late. Hell, it's 3:30 in the morning here, and I have to be up by eight tomorrow, but this is literally the first opportunity I've had since returning home on Sunday night to do anything but work on school stuff. It was definitely ill-advised from an academic standpoint (not to mention a financial standpoint) for me to take 48 hours away from home in order to drive up to San Francisco for a day and a half of hanging out with other Destructoid peeps.

Do I regret it? Not at all.


Some people cosplaying Cobra of GI Joe fame

I caught up with some people I've hung out with before, and I met some new people along the way. Some of the people who really stand out in my (sleepy) mind right now:

Ceark: Definitely one of the most hospitable people I've met. Without him, neither Charlie nor I would have been able to get up to San Francisco, and we would have missed out on the festivities entirely. In addition to that, he pretty much singlehandedly saved Chad from being homeless, gave people rides to the airport, and in addition to that is a pretty talented artist. I look forward to more hangouts with him.

Aaron Linde and Reverend Anthony: Two of my favorite editors on Destructoid. Aaron because I feel like we share really similar tastes in games, and Anthony because he writes stuff that makes Destructoid unique among gaming blogs. I'm glad to have finally met them both. Anthony is hilarious in person.

Ron Workman: Gave me a cashwh0re shirt. For free. Which is kind of ironic now that I think about it.

Chad Concelmo: Amazing as always (see above video), but he also helped sneak me into Wondercon for free by saying I write for Destructoid.

Tactix and topgeargorilla: For taking the chance to hang out with a group of people who were almost entirely unknown to them. Additional thanks go to topgeargorilla for bringing Rock Band, and to Tactix for completely rocking at Rock Band.


"Hi, welcome to McDonald's, can I take your order?" "Bitch, can't you see I'm busy!"

.tiff: She let Ark, Charlie, and me stay in her apartment for two nights. I'm so grateful that we didn't have to get hotels or anything, it would have made the trip that much more difficult to justify if we had. Also, she does an awesome Asian girl voice.

Dyson: He put on one hell of a party. I know it's been said, but literally every room in his apartment had at least one TV and game system. The bathroom had a TV with his not-modded XBox in it, for cryin' out loud. He made sure everybody was having a good time, though with that setup, I don't see how we couldn't have.

Dan Paladin: For doing the art for Castle Crashers. I played it at Wondercon, and it was even better than I expected it to be. At one point, a six year old kid cut off my character's head and then laughed at me.

There are others, as pretty much everybody I hung out with this weekend is awesome, amazing, hilarious, and/or a pretty cool guy.

That's just about all I've got to say about the weekend. For an in depth recap (and just a really entertaining read), definitely check out Ark's post. For those of you who don't really like the whole "words and sentences" thing, check below for some photos.




Ark and Charlie on the drive up, some time after 11:00 PM


Chad, hilariously engrossed in watching Castle Crashers


Lou Ferrigno looks better than I expected for his age



Chad wipes a tear of laughter after watching a game of Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure


No, I wasn't making up the whole "XBox in the bathroom" thing


Look out Tactix! A wild Polo Guy appears!


Stickam was the focal point of the retro gaming room


Anthony playing an updated version of Space Invaders that is surprisingly excellent


CTZ nuzzling himself firmly between my legs


At the end of the night, Ark slept on the stairs...


...Tactix slept in the Rock Band room...


...And topgear, Charlie and I nearly froze to death in there.

That's all I've got. It was truly an outrageously entertaining weekend, and I can't wait for the next time I get to hang out with the rest of the community that I honestly hold dear to me. Will there be anything between the two year anniversary and PAX?