“This just keeps getting better!”

“If the Penny Arcade Expo has a star, it’s not Gabe or Tycho. It’s not special guests like MC Frontalot or Wil Wheaton. It’s not even veritable champions of nerdery like PAX ’08 Omegathon winner Joey Gecko. No, it’s geeky culture itself. And when we gather to celebrate our own, wackiness invariably ensues.”

– GeekDad Z, Wired’s GeekDad blog.

“Best Thing About PAX: Ownership. PAX is everyone’s so everyone tends to add their bit, creating something new or innovating. It’s just part of the makeup of this demographic that things don’t get left alone. I think that’s what I like best of all, is how most of the con goers think of it as their convention, not just one they attend.”

–Fellow PAX owner Steph.

The night before I left for PAX, I hardly got any sleep at all (thank you, ribacge, for picking Thursday night to hurt like a bitch) so by the time I got there on Friday afternoon, I was already down to single-digit hit points, and taking a -5 on all my rolls.

But an unexpected thing happened as soon as I set foot in the convention center. As explained by the quotes above, this weekend is our time. It’s Goonie time, and the moment I walked in, I got +10 to all my stats and was restored to maximum HP.

Sometime on Friday night, though, I failed a critical save vs. ConSARS, and by the middle of the day on Saturday, I was feeling pretty terrible. I think I played though it pretty well, but I missed the concerts on Saturday night, and felt a little “off” for the first 15 minutes of my panel on Sunday, until I picked up another +10 from the ohmygodstandingroomonly crowd. By the time I got on the plane to come home yesterday, though, I was hovering around 2 HP, and I’d picked up a familiar I’ll just call Wil’s Sinusital Ooze (Level 4 Disgusting Annoyance. Gives owner -8 to all abilities, -15 CHA, and -6 to all reaction rolls. 5 successive Fortitude saves ends.)

I’ll have to give a full report when Wil’s Sinusital Ooze isn’t launching Slimers out of my head every five minutes, but I think I can sum it up in five words I repeated dozens of times during the weekend: “This just keeps getting better!”

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66 thoughts on ““This just keeps getting better!””

  1. I was looking at your page on IMDB, and was particularly tickled by the following quote – “I was such a geek that if I could go back in time, I would kick my own ass.” I was thinking to myself, after all that geekyness about saving throws and hp and all that how nothing much has changed?
    :-p

  2. Sorry about the sick. I was a sad fan unable to afford going to PAX (maybe next year!). Glad to hear it was worth you going despite the SARS. 😉
    I actually came here to thank you for an off-topic matter (didn’t know where else to say THANKS!). As a fan with differing political views, I just wanted to thank you for refraining from commenting on the RNC. I really don’t mind people posting thoughts on their blogs; I just don’t read those posts. But on Twitter (where I’ve been getting bombarded) it’s a little harder to pick and choose what doesn’t pop up in your feed without unsubscribing. I just really appreciate the class that it takes to not openly bash the other side. I’ve been a fan since your Stand by Me days and was delighted to find your blog in the last year. Thanks for not alienating your “red” fans.

  3. If you were to shake your head from side to side in a rhythmic fashion as the snot came out, would it then be called Wil’s Sinusoidal Ooze?
    Get well soon sir.

  4. Praying for your speedy recovery Wil,
    Your 2 millionth congratulator here. Finally caught up with you on Sunday as you were packing up your booth. I didn’t want to bother you with normal fan pictures or signings. But I just had to thank you in person for your keynote last year. It was one of the main reasons I actually came to PAX this year. This has been my one and only convention. I’m glad I went and was surrounded by so many like-minded gamers of all sorts. Like you stated in ’07, the only thing that mattered is that we are all gamers, and PAX is for us.

  5. Let me guess, you got the Bad Horse Chorus? I’ve been seeing footage of some of their ambushes on YouTube. Brilliant fun! I wish I could go to one of these things, but the Atlantic is sort of in the way.

  8. I thought you looked and sounded great at your panels and signings. You hid your illness well, perhaps to avoid being devoured by predators?
    On a tangent, I don’t know if the Casual versus Core panel was recorded, but I have a decent video of it, so if you’re interested, please let me know.

  10. I wasn’t sure wether or not I was going to come down to your panel… until I met you at the signing booth (I bought your chapbook, and you signed my wife’s DS in a bizzare example of “I’ll show your mine). Anyway the point is that I really enjoyed the panel, and I’m so glad the excitement of the crowed envigorated you.

  11. Just had to share this. My 3 year old daughter just saw the pic I got with you at PAX and she said it was “You and daddy!” because her daddy has dark hair and a beard/moustache dealie, similar to yours. I corrected her and said “No, that’s not daddy, it’s a guy named Wil.” She said “Who’s Wil?” I replied “He’s a guy who writes books and was TV. He’s a very nice guy.” (In retrospect I should have explained you were on “the space show” as we describe Star Trek to her…anyway!) She pondered this for a moment and then responded “Maybe we should go see him sometime!” Haha! I guess we’re bringing her along to Emerald City Comic Con and/or PAX next year! Your newest fan! 🙂

  12. Wil,
    Hope you get better soon. BTW, your D&D-ified version of sinus trouble did make me almost snort my beverage.
    For those who missed PAX this year, I was busy last weekend covering PAX 2008 with eMagLive for (PS3Center.net).
    You can find it here:
    http://tinyurl.com/6g7gwh

  13. I am SUPER late on this post b/c my computer at home was acting up (or my ISP was) and I was not able to get the frackin thing to POST! ANYHOW….
    The Jewish mother in me would recommend (doing a veg. version that is) the following:
    A boiled soup with plenty of dill, garlic, onion, carrots, celery, thyme, a pinch of black pepper, salt to taste. You can use a vegetable bouillon cube to fatten it up a little bit. Warn the family you might smell a little after you eat this. You can add some black eyed peas in there or lentils to make it more of a meal, but definitely enough broth to clear out that junk.
    As a singer, I also recommend drinking the following mixture to help relieve some of the pain (and you can first steam yourself by holding the cup under your nose and inhaling the vapors of this mixture slowly before sipping) OK – here it goes. It will NOT taste good:
    In a mug of boiling water drop —
    1 bag of Celestial Seasonings Lemon Zinger
    1 bag of Celestial Seasonings Peppermint
    1 regular (yellow bag, not sugar free) Ricola drop
    and if you want, 1 licorice lozenge from Smith Brothers
    The steam will feel good in your nose. Sipping slowly will feel good on your throat and may even help loosen the junk. It will NOT taste good. But it’s helped me many a times and I used to be prone to NASTY upper respiratory infections.
    I hope this helps! Though the ZPak will likely knock out that sinus evil quickly. This is more of a soothing and boosting remedy than anything else.
    Lotsa love from Boston!

  14. Sorry to hear you were sick! We were in line for RB2 when you came by to play on Sunday, and our group was having an internal debate – were you playing guitar on easy or bass on expert? Just curious. 🙂

  15. I was playing expert Bass. I would have chosen a more difficult song, but I didn’t want to stand there on stage forever and make people wait even longer. As it turned out, I was feeling so crummy, I could barely get 90+% on a song I should have aced.

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