PAX Day 2

The non-profit Cookie Brigade was back in force this year. My friend Irene brought along a particularily clever contraption for hauling her cookies about.

We started the morning off playing a new card game from Steve Jackson called "The Stars are Right", which is vert similar to Gin Rummy, except that you yell "Cthulhu!" instead of "Gin!". I enjoyed it so much that I bought a copy on the spot.

I also purchased a copy of Telltale Game's re-release of Monkey Island, and intend to purchase the game Osmos which is a refreshingly slow and calming take on puzzle games.

Another game I'm watching carefully Torchlight which is an obvious Diablo clone, and while I doubt it will be as good as Diablo 3, the word on the street here is that that won't be released until 2011. Whereas Torchlight is coming out in 2 months and will only cost 2 months. So I have decided to support them, if only to help feed the illusion that Blizzard has some semblence of competent competition.

One sad note of mention today, during our wanderings through the Expo Hall today we came upon a barely clothed waif of a girl, presumably having wandered into the convention center to seek shelter from the rain. I offered her my coat to cover up with and asked if she knew where her parents were. She insisted she was fine, and that they knew where she was, but an extra glint in her eye betrayed the lie. (Honestly, whatever they pay these girls to put up with people like me is simply not enough.)

The capping of the night was the Jonathan Coulton concert, while this year he sang similar songs as last year, one of the big differences was that I was no longer the only person loudly singing along. In fact, the entire thing resembled something more of a "Jonathan Coulton lead sing-a-long" than a proper concert. But it was still amazing, and well worth the pain in my feet of 6 hours of precarious balancing in my meager parcel of personal space. It is now nearly 5am CST, and I question whether I am perhaps too old for this aches in my knees. =)