I'm posting this from an airplane that is currently 37966 feet above Port Stanley, Ontario. It's -78 Fahrenheit about 7 feet from where I'm sitting.
And I am currently on the internet, while my position is updated on Google Maps in front of me in almost real time.
There's just enough turbulence to be annoying, but not enough to be upsetting or frightening. It should stop in in about 15 minutes, if I am reading the map I have from Weather Underground in another tab correctly. A small child a few rows behind me is having a full-on tantrum. I feel really terrible for her parents, who are doing everything they can to calm her down. I am very grateful for noise-cancelling headphones.
Now we are over Detroit. Hi Detroit, sorry I keep missing Penguicon.
This is the first time I've flown with in-flight internet, and while I totally understand that a lot of people take this completely for granted, it's pretty awesome to me that I can do this. You see, I remember a time when our headsets were nothing more than plastic tubes with uncomfortable foam cylinders on the ends. We paid up to $4 to use them, and we watched the most banal and idiotic programming ever, because it was all we had. I remember airlines switching to headsets that were deliberately incompatible with our Walkman (remember those?) headsets, so they could continue to charge us outrageous fees to be "entertained" in-flight.
The captain just turned off the seatbelt sign, earlier than I expected. (In my defense, I was estimating my position.) My Weather Underground map says that the flight should be smooth until we get over the Colorado/Nebraska border. When I was a kid, turbulence freaked me out. When I was a teenager, and understood what caused it and how planes were designed to handle it, it stopped freaking me out, but I always wanted to know about how long it would last. It's was easier to deal with something like that when I knew it would eventually be over. It blows my mind that I can not only be online, but I can access a map to find out that information for myself.
Behind the Google Map, I was listening – live – to The Rachel Maddow Show until it ended. now I'm watching Vanguard (probably the greatest investigative journalism show on TV today) on Current TV. Anne was watching a rerun of The Big Bang Theory next to me, and now she's channel surfing.
We're over Lansing, Michigan, right now. Someone with math skills may be able to figure out how fast I'm writing this.
I know it's not a big deal to a lot of people, but the fact that we can do this brings me as much joy and excitement as being able to carry a mobile version of the Internet in my pocket. I was so excited, the very first thing I did once I got connected was tell Twitter, "I don't know what's more amazing to me: that I can say, "hey, I'm online from the airplane," or that I can say it to 1.6M people at once."
All of this is prelude to something I really wanted to post about, which is in itself a prelude to what I imagine will be a fairly lengthy post about PAX…
Last night, I joined Scott Kurtz, his awesome former intern Mary, and Kris Straub in the lobby bar for a quick Guinness. We didn't get to see each other very much during PAX (I almost reflexively wrote that #PAX) so it was our only chance to catch up since we last saw each other.
The lobby was filled with gamers, playing all sorts of games: Magic, Dominion, Settlers, a euro board game I didn't get close enough to positively identify, but could recognize from the scoring track.
After I'd finished my Guinness (about 5 rings, I guess, for those of you who know what that means; it was the end of the con, after all) a guy who I figured was in his early thirties stopped me on my way back up to my room. He pointed to the guy next to him, who had some card games in his hands, including Zombie Fluxx and We Didn't Playtest This at All.
"Would you like to play with us?" He asked.
I told him I'd love to, but I was on my way upstairs to go to bed, because I'd had a really long day, and I was pretty close to dead on my feet.
He told me that he understood. Then, I saw this look in his eye that told me he wanted to say something more, so I waited a second, and he continued. I'm going to recall the things he said as best as I can:
"I've played games my whole life, but this is the first con I've been to," he said.
"That's awesome," I said. "You picked a great place to start, but I should warn you that you've been ruined for all future cons that aren't PAX."
He grinned and said, "I really wanted to play games with people, but I'm here by myself. I wouldn't have had the courage to find people to play with if I hadn't heard your keynote where you talked about playing games together. So I just came down here and found some people who were playing, and joined them."
I felt myself starting to tear up. This had been a theme throughout the weekend, because I lost count of the number of people who told me something I said in my keynote inspired or validated them in some way. Shit, I'm tearing up now just thinking about it (while I'm over Lilly Lake, Wisconsin, listening to South Park behind the map).
"So I started playing with them, and that guy over there," he pointed to a guy sitting on the other side of a nearby table, "has a weekly game night that he invited me to. I'm going to start playing with him.
"I just wanted to say thank you, because if I hadn't heard your keynote, I wouldn't have come down here to play games, and I wouldn't have met these guys. This is something I've wanted my whole life."
Something was seriously getting into both of my eyes. I would have hugged him, but I was doing my best to leave a PAX without getting sick, so I gave him the Iron Guard Salute and told him how much it meant to me that he took the time to share his story.
See, I try to speak as eloquently as I can about why I believe games and gaming are meaningful and important, and why PAX is awesome … but it's never going to be as meaningful or as good an example as meeting someone who exemplifies those words.
I'll have much more to say about PAX when I get home and have time to reflect on the weekend, but now I'm thinking about watching something on-demand, just on principle … or maybe I'll build an amazing downtempo playlist from the giant MP3 library, and listen to it while I play my DS.
Whatever I do, I'll be doing it from the future, where I live, because I am one of the luckiest people in the world … but I'm waiting until South Park is over, because this one (about Catcher in the Rye) is surprisingly funny.
(For those of you who are keeping score at home and need closure, I'm now over West Liberty, Iowa.)
I so wanted to be at PAX, since Boston is much closer to us than Seattle. It just wasn’t in the cards this year.
However, despite being 8 months pregnant by that point and barring any medical emergencies, I WILL be at GenCon Indy in August, waving my VIG badge proudly. Because, not only is it the one thing I get truly excited about every year, it is also the one place my husband and I can have a “true” vacation together. Plus, this year, it starts on our anniversary, which will make it even more special. Gaming is one of the things that connects us and keeps our relationship with each other and our friends alive!
And, hopefully in the next year or so, we’ll be at PAX, and I can finally get your autograph. 😉 Cheers!
Well then yesterday was officially crazy. Not only did I get my special copy of Happiest Days out of my mail box (there were pics, it happened!) I was so excited you have proof in your email box… I was still in my car.
But then, THEN you flew over my house in a shiny metal tube hurtling through the air at superhuman speeds. Somewhere west of Detroit in my cozy little house eating my Indian food while you zoomed overhead.
THE FUTURE! I HAS IT.
Hi again Wil. I thought I would send you some information on this little con that is over in San Diego for a weekend. It’s usually a group of more then 30 people. Thought it would be of some interest to you and your gaming group.
http://rpg-sandiego.org/
The con that I am referring to on this site is Hyphen-Con.
Awesome post Wil. Makes me wish all the more that I’d been able to make it to PAX. Gaming is my passion (D&D, Munchkin, Fluxx, Magic, all of it) and the stories from events like this make me so proud of it. Hopefully I make it out next time. If not, at least there are your awesome stories and Tweets about it.
Also, by my crude calculations, it took you about 55 minutes to write this post (from Port Stanley to West Liberty).
Hmmm, that something in the eye must be going around. You know great writing when you can be amused, entertained and choked up all at the same time. Kudos on another great post!
Allright, Wheaton–I demand that you explain to me exactly how you flicked dust into both of my eyes from a plane four states away. Not cool, man. OK, it was maybe a little cool…
318 Words.
1776 Characters.
91 Miles.
318/91 = 3.49 words/mile
1776/91 = 19.5 characters/mile.
Average Cruising Speed of a 747 = 875 mph.
Approx time taken to fly from Detroit to Lansing = 6.24 minutes/374.4 seconds.
In 6.24 minutes you typed 318 words, so you typed 50.96 words a minute,
Or 0.849 words a second.
Alas, I am terrible at maths, so there is a good chance I am wrong :3
And might as well –
Lansing – Lilly Lake
227 miles (Approx)
875 MPH
15.56 minutes
933.6 seconds
34 words/minute
171 words/character
I guess – 45 minutes.
And we liked it!
I have a set from Bose. I forget the model, but they're fairly light weight and do an excellent job.
I remember when the stewardess would force me to put away my walkman because it would totally destroy the electronics on the plane and would make us all die in a fireball.
Now look at all you did in this post.
I told them they were lying then. She said she could have me arrested. She was still lying.
I saw you in the lobby of the Sheraton after the closing ceremony, but didn’t want to disturb you during your well-earned downtime.
If I had talked to you, though, I would have told you how much I enjoyed (and related to) your keynote address. I remember playing D&D back in 1976 – at one point even using new rules direct from Gary Gygax himself (I don’t recall how we got those copied rules, but it was one advantage of growing up in WI) – and I have a current group of friends who bonded over Shadowrun, so gaming has had an influence on my life.
I would also have told you how your “Get Excited and Make Things!” helped prod me back into being creative for creativity’s sake. My project is still in its infancy, but I’m actually doing something.
And finally, I would have told you how much I’ve enjoyed your writing (my Subterranean edition of The Happiest Days of Our Lives just arrived yesterday!) ever since I first discovered your blog.
Hmm, I guess I just told you all that, and didn’t even have to interrupt your Guinness!
I'm glad you told me that, too. 🙂
I surmise that since you didn’t get to spend much time with Scott K. that the next installment of Acq. Inc. didn’t take place. As Chris Perkins would say “ah, sadness.” But I’m happy that you had a good PAX East and look forward to meeting you at a Con local to me soon.
His name was Aeofel!
Gee Wil,
You make me leak. Between the spit takes and things in my eyes during your blog posts I should be as dehydrated as the Vulcan desert.
Sufficient greeting in addition to the Iron Guard salute would be a hearty “Jim Winks”, I think.
Killer Bunnies is a game I think you could get into. It culls geek references from across the spectrum of books/games/movies/tv shows though I have yet to see a Firefly or Dune reference.
Jim Parsons should go to a PAX with you some time… for giggles. Moonpie would have a blast.
Try to get some sleep. I saw @twitter that the dozer is going again. What are they building next door? The Uptopia Planetia shipyards or something? Sheesh get it done or go home already.
Thanks for the inspiration and the fellowship. Above all, the fellowship.
Love your PAX story! Nick, my husband, was so excited when PAX was coming to the east coast that I prodded him into getting a couple three day passes way before we even knew if we could go. We live close by, but have a two year old, so you know…getting to fun stuff like PAX isn’t always easy. We did manage to get there on Friday and Saturday. Our highlight on Friday was your keynote speech. It. Was. Legendary!
Anyway, Nick is really shy, but would love more opportunities to play D&D with others. Saturday we played one the convention delves and had a great time! It was great to have so many people with similar interests all in one place. It makes you feel a little more normal…
(For those of you who are keeping score at home and need closure, I’m now over West Liberty, Iowa.)
lol. You read my mind.
My story sounds almost exactly like the gamer you were talking to in the lobby. I was so hesitant to go to Pax by myself, especially being female. Once I realized none of my friends were attending, I almost chickened out and sold my 3 day pass. I had this fear of walking into the place, the only female surrounded by 30k guys… all of them either drooling over me or ignoring me, but either way, judging me hormonally.
But I forced myself to get up the gumption to go and I’m incredibly glad I did. Everyone I ran into was really nice. I joined in games and asked people to start games… I entered tournaments I knew I’d suck at, but still had fun… I played a friggin’ Colecovision(!) for the first time in decades… I had great, passionate conversations about Doctor Who and Joss Whedon and a bunch of other non-game topics.
I’ve honestly never felt more comfortable or welcome… or as Wil, succinctly put it “at home” in my life.
Your keynote was great, Wil. It set the bar high, but really did predict the experience I ended up having. It didn’t disappoint.
I really can’t say enough good things. In fact, I think my boyfriend and my other loser friends who didn’t go with me 😉 are probably getting sick of hearing about it.
Is it wrong to already look forward to next year? 😀
I’m not Wil, but I’ll take a shot at it. Sorry for the length.
Turbulence is caused by disruptions in the air through which the plane is flying. Lots of things cause those disruptions…the heat from the ground causes air to rise, weather fronts push air in different directions, and even a plane passing in front of yours causes a disruption.
Look outside the window when you fly and notice how the wings flex. That’s on purpose. If they were solid and static, the whole plane would have to take the turbulence. The wings serve to absorb the energy. That is also true of many of the other components of the plane that you can’t see. Again, this is a Good Thing.
We used to lose aircraft in thunderstorms all the time. Now we know better. Aircraft (and controllers on the ground) are equipped with radar systems that allow them to miss most (if not all) of the weather. Pilots are better trained to avoid it.
And pilots talk to each other. If the one ahead of you is encountering turbulence, you hear about it. You can try to work around it…choose another altitude, or even another route of flight.
I’ve flown for most of my life in all sorts of planes, from the single-engine prop jobs to the four-engine jumbo jets. I still get anxious when I fly. (If it really bothers you, anti-anxiety medications help.) But I also know that turbulence is temporary and you just have to “ride it out”. It is still one of the safest forms of transportation.
Hope this helped. My apologies to everyone else.
I was thinking how I missed the days when my employer couldn’t find me because I was on a plane.
Soon we won’t be able to get away from cell phone conversations on the plane either.
I’m a techno-geek, but sometimes it goes a little too far.
Hey it’s nice to know that I was not the only female there by herself. Having come from the west coast to the east coast, I was really afraid. Especially when staying in a hostel in a town I’ve never been to.
I ended up coming down for breakfast one morning and met 3 guys who were going as well and a girl I met who was sharing the same room as I, that were all attending.
Everyone was super nice and I never once felt afraid being surrounded by like minded people at the convention. I had even made some friends along the way, who I hope to see at the next PAX.
You never know what will happen if you don’t try. I can tell from the replies here and on the forums, that this was a lesson learned by many people who attended PAX.
And why wait until next year, what about PAX Prime?
I had some doubts about going to PAX, I played D&D and magic in highschool and I still play video games now, but didn’t know if I was ‘enough of a gamer’ to fit in. Your speech did a lot to help me feel welcome, like I was a part of a larger community. The overall awesomeness of everyone else I met made the event unforgettable. I went from feeling doubtful about whether or not I’d have any fun at all to wishing I had gotten a three day pass.
I can’t wait till next year!
I live in England, so I’ve never been to PAX. This would be bad enough, but I’m currently on a university placement in Holland, so I’m away from (among other things) my friends, most of whom are gamers, my university roleplaying society and my boyfriend who is as much of a geek/gamer as I am.
I teared up watching your Keynote on youtube because it articulated not only what I miss about my own country, but also why I’ve wanted to go to PAX for so damn long. So I came to a decision – while flights to Seattle from the UK are obscenely expensive, flights to Massachussetts are about four hundred pounds. On a student budget, that’s stupidly expensive. Needless to say, my beloved and I are starting to save now. Fingers crossed, this time next year, I’ll be flying home myself.
So, it took me forever to post my response to this blog on my own LJ, but finally I managed it. This is the relevant info:
I understand this all too well.
Some of my best friends in the world are friends I’ve met through Stargate and Firefly and, yes, Star Trek.
One of these friends once said that it’s an uncommon love of a common thing that binds us together. I think she’s right.
And while I’m no celebrity blogger like Wil Wheaton, I have had fellow fans tell me that my small contributions to the fanfiction world have have affected their lives – sometimes in quite meaningful ways.
So I guess what struck a chord here and what I mean to say is don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. You never know who might be listening… and whose life you might change.
I’m not gonna lie to you, Marge – I’VE got something in my eye now too. And, unlike Moe, it isn’t a piece of glass.
I’m not a gamer, but I understand the feeling of isolation and freakishness when you’re rabid about something that’s on the fringe of acceptability. There is a warmth in coming to know you’re actually part of a community.
Thanks for helping people come to that knowing, Wil. You are made of awesome.
Everyone who’s met Wil should get a T-shirt made that says “OMG I MET WIL WHEATON” and then all meet at a convention sometime, wearing the shirt. :>)
Or create their own convention. I have a feeling it wouldn’t be difficult to construct an entire weekend of Wheatony awesomeness.
Love that story.
I’m a tabletop gamer (RPGs, board, card, dice) but not much of a video gamer (and hence don’t really read PA) so I don’t get the Iron Guard Salute reference. To me, the term has very bad connations indeed so I’d love to know what it’s all about. Googling only linked to the PA strip and a few PAX East related blog/forum posts.
Thank you!
Andrew~
Thank you so much!! I’m going to pre-buy my weekend pass this weekend at Happy Harbour Comics which is a bike ride away.
I’ll be honoured to meet you. I’ll be the middle aged Girl Geek:) Better make a t-shirt order too at ThinkGeek.com so I’ll blend in;)
Fiona
Edmonton Alberta
PAX has meant so much more to me than I could ever anticipate.
This was my first year and I almost didn’t come. I bought the tickets with my then boyfriend of almost 6 years. About 3 days before PAX(the night of my 23rd birthday) we decided to break up. I was devastated. I took the badges out of my purse, left them on his table, and left his house. I didn’t even want to think about spending a whole weekend with him. (We were sharing a hotel with one bed.) We talked and he eventually got me to agree to at least go to PAX saying “It’s PAX. You have to go.”
So I went, not knowing how I was going to hold myself together, and I will admit I was very emotional throughout the whole thing. But the experience there made me forget about all the sorrow. Made me forget about what I was losing. Made me remember how much joy and love I felt when we used to game together, game with friends. He was the one that really got me into gaming and being surrounded by people who loved gaming so much made me realized what a tragedy it would have been for me not to have gone.
And then when I heard to words “Welcome home” I was immediately taken over with this sense of calm.
Thank you so much for being there, and even though I wasn’t able to make it to your keynote, just hearing about it and hearing those words have made me realized that I am strong and I can make it through this and my games will be there for me.
Wait, wait wait wait. Anne went with you to PAX? I think it would be super interesting to hear about what you guys did, whether you played games together, and what her impressions were.
To the best of my knowledge, the Iron Guard you find while googling (the fascist movement) has nothing to do with the Iron Guard PA took the salute from. I believe it's from a video game.
It really means a lot to me that you chose to share such a personal story.
I'm glad you came to PAX. It was my honor to welcome you (and everyone else) home.
I’ll be wearing SJ Games shirts (probably mostly Munchkin, but I’ve got a closetful). Come by and say hi, please!
You ARE strong and you WILL make it through this. You were strong enough to share your story and you made it through to the end — that’s the first and hardest step.
That’s what I assumed. I just hoped the answer was more obvious, especially as googling for “Iron Guard Salute” didn’t bring up anything, unlike, say, the Vulcan salute would have.
Thank you for taking time to reply, Wil.
Wil,
I feel like the lobby Thursday night had already felt that spirit of joining together to game. My friends and I came down to play some Munchkin and before we even started playing we had invited five other people to sit and play who had never played before. After that first game we split into two games so more people could comfortably play. This is when you stopped by to see us using our Lego men as levels.
It really was a time to come together and play games. I met a bunch of great people over the weekend by playing games.
Wow. Um.
Yeah.
I just watched the keynote on Youtube. To say I was impressed would be a gross understatement. Honestly I’m at a loss for words right now but I just want to say, I’ve always been proud of my geekery and listening to you made me feel more proud than ever.
I’ve been making plans and saving money to move so I haven’t been able to make it to a PAX yet, but I’m certainly looking forward to going when I can afford it.
Did anybody figure out the rate at which you were typing this post? I’m curious now that you had mentioned it!
Totally choked up during that story. I feel extremely uplifted as I too am much like that man searching for an honest friend to play games with. Being a girl, it’s extremely hard to find someone to take you seriously. It’s even harder to find someone who is not solely interested in what’s under my shirt. I have yet to find just an honest friend to play games with. This post was definitely my feel good moment of the day. Thank you!
Wil – Thanks for giving the speech at PAX, it was my first. A few lines in and I knew I was in the right spot — that I was “home”.
(I signed up with TypePad to leave this comment — I can’t believe I got THAC0 as a username..)
P.s. Whoever had the idea for the free flu/antibacterial spray at PAX was a total genius!
Andrew~
I surely will stop by:) I’m also trying to talk my son into flying up for the weekend from Oregon. He is a gamer/geek too:) might be slightly my fault..LOL
Fiona
Edmonton AB
I love this.
To go through life making a living just being you must be the most awesome thing there is. While gaming is not what makes me a geek, though I played a bit in college (oh so many years ago), I do have a video gamer for a son. I know he is an awemost kid.
Then there is my daughter, the reluctant artist. I hope that someone like you will inspire her to make a living just being her.