Sorry about neglecting you during E3 this year. The behind scene stage show stuff and pre-e3 set up kept me quite busy. I honestly didn't have that much time to twitter or post any blogs, especially since my laptop fan died (as explained in my twitter). The video I recorded at some point also didnt get uploaded. Maybe I'll get some time later this week to at least share tidbits from that video.
Let me catch you all up on some of the excitement!
Pre-e3 had numerous complications prior to the flight. I really felt confident early on thinking I know what to do when I get there, I got this E3 made. By the time it was 11pm the day before my flight I realized I didn't pack yet. I stayed up until 2am, well, Twin Peaks film had me distracted too. I was being a little too confident. By 6am I jumped out of bed wondering why I didn't recall having two badges. Where did I put the press badge? I only have the exhibitor badge in my purse! I forgot that I received the press badge a month prior via snail mail so it was in my drawer at the office. I drove like a wreck-less person to work, ran up 2 flights of stairs to grab the press pass and ran down them having the security dudes wondering what was up. I didnt want to miss my flight.
I drove my truck to the long term parking area, but couldn't find where it was located because I normally have someone drop me off or take a cab. Why didnt I take bart or a cab? Because the street cleaning fees can't be expensed, which would total to about 120-140 range for two parking tickets. I already planned on getting 1 street cleaning ticket for my scooter not being moved! :/ So, I rushed down there only to find that I had no idea where the long-term parking was and the signs were misleading on the freeway. After circling around like a crazy women on and off ramps I found it! I rolled up to grab a ticket for the long-term parking only to be told it was full. I kind of freaked out by then. I knew I was cutting it super close as is and while I didnt have to take a shuttle to the airport now I still considered if I would miss my flight. The awesome news? They offered me long term parking fee of 14 bux a day in the short term parking. WIN!
I rush back to the short term parking to park at terminal 3 parking not realizing that I needed to be in the terminal 1 parking where Southwest was located. I am used to flying on United or Virgin. What can I say, I am a creature of habit. So, after finding Terminal 3 parking I go up an elevator to find Southwest check in booths only to find there is none to be found. I ask the people that work there and they said you need to walk to terminal 1 by exiting the front door and walking a while to get there. So I am running with my heavy backpack (grr, heavy laptops) and roller luggage. You know, thinking about it now I was fine by the time I got the ticket print out but that was extremely crazy to start off my E3 week.You should read later on what happened on my flight back though because it was the first time I was treated like a criminal.
Let's see, lots happened while I was at the event. Here are the highlights:
- Spacey Booth: The booth was roomy this year, even if i rarely had time to sit at my assigned seat (many people sat there since it was the only place really open to sit because I was normally running around for the stage show). [Pictures]
- looniboi in the house! I enjoyed seeing looniboi in person and on the Tonight on the Spot episode (in case you didnt read my twitter stating this. Looni and I go way back in the days we were both news peeps on different websites, I think he also did stuff with GameSpot at some point. [stage demo | Tonight on the Spot episode near the end]
- Invasion of privacy. The Kinect sticker in the bathroom mirror was super creepy and startled me enough to jump! If it was red text instead of purple I probably would have screamed. LOL
- Old friends! I had a chance to see a couple of the id software dudes and I am sure I'll see them again at Quakecon this year. Yvonna Lynn, Jeff McCallister (quake3world.com), Dennis Fong (gamers.com/raptr/com/xfire.com), Tom Ohle (from Mplayer days), Paul Brown (Quakecon buddy), and a couple of my old clanmates dropped by. Carrie Gouskas, Rich Gallup, and other former GameSpot employees also paid a visit to the booth!.
- Games Galore! The games actually surprised me this year. Medal of Honor looks quite sweet, Rage is looking good as expected, Dance Central looked to be quite fun, Hot Pursuit is super rad, Witcher 2 and Hunted also was intriguing,
- Awesome Makeup Artists. I am sad I didnt get a picture of the professional makeup lady that temporarily helped our regular professional makeup artist for the stage show guests and hosts. She was pretty cool and reminded me of the chick from Paramore. I have to say, all of the makeup artist we deal with are so awesome and our guests often rave about their makeup (aka de-shining) and hair (yes, they do hair too!).
- Meeting Brotal1ty! I had a chance to meet Johnathan Wendel's brother this year on the last day of the show. I nick named him Brotal1ty (get it?).
- Classy and Scary Booth Babes! I dont really care for booth babes and I rarely notice them, but Mafia II ladies and dude rocked the outfits and hair, with the Zombie chick as a runner up.
- Fetching water for an unmasked Isaac Clarke. The costume looked quite heavy and not well ventilated for him running around the show floor. Before he was on the stage I had a chance to fetch water for him, and man can I say, there was an extremely handsome man under that mask, let alone everything he said was full of humor. [stage demo]
- Lady guests on the show! We had a variety of lady guests this year, and every single one of them were a delight to work with. To name a couple, Tanya Jessen with Epic, and Grabriel Shrager from Ubisoft were nice to work with. Eve Torres from Smackdown vs Raw is always a delight to talk to as well. Obviously, there were numerous public relations people that were cool to deal with, but those were the peeps that you'd know about for watching the stage show.
- Live camera tour of the showfloor gave you all the opportunity to have Collin as your slave doing your bidding. [live came tour page, Collin and the heavy backpack]
- E3 Booth shots provided by Anthonyr1! Anthony Roman, known for his web design all over GameSpot including emblems since 2005, was kind enough to take majority of the photos in my E3 2010 booths album while using my Sony DSC H50 camera. I simply had no time to visit the booths and didn't know I would get a chance to do a 45 minute run around South and West Hall on the last day.
- Tonight on the Spot was awesome once the technical problems were dealt with as well. I hope you enjoyed those episodes.
- Tim Surette rocks! I miss working wtih Tim so it was so much fun to see him representing GameSpot again. [picture]
- Last 45 minutes of the show was exciting. I created a Run Jody Run album of my tweets and some random photos.
- Lakers crowd were crazy this year. However, there was a downside because we didnt get to hang out with many staff from the video team on the last night because the road blocks. [pictures and videos of the crowds, plus profanity in the videos, so dont listen to us!]
- Frank Adams rocked as the producer of the show like he does ever year. I am always proud to be his assistant. :) [picture]
- Bethseda booth requests galore! Collin told me that many GameSpot members begged him to see the Bethesda booth so I grab Justin Calvert to see if he can get you all in there! [day 3 reel]
- Singing our hearts out! We had karaoke night light last year. I had a chance to sing about 3 songs, but man, if you could only see the Lady GaGa poker face song that Guy Cocker and Shaun McInnis sang. Epic. Even the dude that worked there said they should go on a road trip making fun of songs.
- GameSpot Staff rocks! Every GS staff member in the GameSpot staff album rocked their socks off at the show year (and numerous behind scenes at SF offices did too!). They did a great job, and while we still are dealing with probably half of the team we had years before, they all deserve a HOORAY!
- GameSpot members also made me happy because you knew where to direct Colin, which made the live cam so much more interesting for our new viewers, and plus, you all made me proud when you were so kind to Jane Douglas for her first time on the live stage show. Thanks again!
- Thanks to GameSpot moderators and Dracula68 who made it easier for me to have peace of mind while doing the stage show. Thanks so much for doing such an awesome job in the chatroom and general help with the forums.
Now that you know my highlights, guess what happened on the flight back? Some odd things. Let's start by sharing the line to get a print out first. That wrapped around and went outdoors! Next, I noticed two of the GS Live guys up ahead and one of them got stopped, asked to remove his glasses, and the airport security guy inspected his face and his I.D. over and over again. Meanwhile, I had some cute security guy trying to pick up on me and he wrote a pink heart with his highlighter (I should take a picture of it for you) on my ticket instead of a highlighter slash. I found out later the gs live video guy was asked why he had a different hairstyle, and he responded to the security guy that he got a haircut.
So, while the line curved around I asked him what it was all about, and he told me what they asked him about his hair looking different. So, I guess because I talked to him I was the new target of a possible target? So, I get up there to load my stuff on the belt during the baggage check. I do everything proper for inspecting and I pass through the security gate without it beeping and the lady must have had someone on the headset that said I need to be inspected (grr) so she yells FEMALE ASSIST when there was no beep. So, I get in this little corral and slouch against the bars waiting for the lady. While I am waiting, the 2 GS live dudes are laughing at me so I slouch over the bars asking them to take a picture of me because I'm in jail. Little did I know then that the two gs live dudes were the reason for this whole thing. So, I guess the security lady was waiting for them to leave or something, so they did. She comes out all mean and says hold out your hands. I do, she wipes cotton on me and I thought it was a chemical. Then she starts interrogating me about talking to the two gs live guys and how I knew them. So, I said I know 30 people flying on this airline today. We are all from E3. She gave me a sigh like yeah right and took the sample of my skin to get inspection. Still, I have no idea why they did this to me until someone explained later why they did it. I slouch once again against the bars waiting impatiently while she does the tests. She comes back and says you can go now. I waited there for a bit to talk to a nicer security lady asking what they wiped on me and they said it was just cotton and nothing else. That was creepy! It didnt stop there. They were STILL watching me. I kid you not.
So, I am walking down the halls and all eyes are on me? I see people talking into a headset each time i pass different people so I try to overlook that. Maybe it's all in my head, right? I pass two restrrooms and get to a restroom closer to the sitting area of my flight. I leave the restroom stall and when I come out?! The same lady that wiped my hands is standing there counting my bags. :/ So, I smile at her and she gives me the square eye. lol.
Just goes to show... dont talk to people you know at the airport if they are being checked out by the airport security. We also had over an hour flight delay, but thankfully I had my itouch and Angry Birds game to keep me occupied. I hope some of my excitement taught you something, or made you appreciate your not-so-crazy airport experiences. Speaking of, anyone have any interesting airport stories worth sharing?
Oh, and who loves Angry Birds!
Log in to comment