Phone Post: Checking in from Origins

(no subject)

After finally buying $20 worth of event-pass coins, I spent the equivalent of a full workday on the Origins floor. Writing this while taking a breather/cargo-dump in my room (and boiling my gut out on hyper-expensive coffee; I surely appreciate the energy lift but don't think I'll finish it), and posting from the hotel lobby, which has free WiFi, hurrah.

Played in a small, friendly cribbage tournament held by the American Cribbage Congress. (Not to be confused with the money-on-the-table tournaments they're holding later this weekend, which I want no part of.) Won one game of three, against three different people. (It was supposed to go to five games, but time ran out.) Not winning enough to get any prizes, but I did get some satisfaction of being told "nice toss!" by one of the wandering ACC people looking over my shoulder as I made a very difficult hand-splitting decision for my opponent's crib. As I could have predicted, a significant portion of the players were New Englanders, and there was much conversation about people's personal cribbage-playing pasts. (In my case, it's the only game that I know everyone in my family plays; I was taught it very young.)

Had a two-hour workshop for learning bridge. (Don't ask me what kind; I don't know yet. It involved bidding.) The teacher, a professional bridge instructor, was visiting Origins for the first time, and seemed a little out of her league. An attractive middle-aged lady in a nice suit who beamed the whole time, and clearly was not used to dealing with a roomful of experienced cross-category game-players (about 12 people showed up for it). Low points: she repeatedly called for attention and shushed everyone in the manner a second-grade teacher, usually after all the players at all the tables were babbling excitedly about what they just learned (these being typically neophilic game-players). She also kept saying how we were the best class she had ever taught, but without dropping her seminar-patter tone, and so this came across as rather insincere and unnecessary. (However, she might have been truthful when she said that she'd never seen a group pick up the game so quickly.) High points: Hey, I know how to play bridge now, and she gave us each a copy of her book! I thanked her for coming to Origins and hope she returns, maybe a little more seasoned for it.

Haven't seen "the west coast people" yet; I bet they're arriving tonight.

Spent about $100 between Looney Labs and Cheapass. So far. This included a CD of Mac OS X games that Cheapass is selling, because how often do you see that? The Cheapass person warned me that I was buying Mac software, with the implication that I used Windows like everyone else. Wow, haven't experienced that since the last time I bought something from the EB in Bangor (where I got this treatment every single time). But I am not complaining. Actually, she also let me pick out a free Hip Pocket game because I bought so much crap, so hey.

Since I seem to be getting all my crazy non-Looney stuff out of the way today, I haven't spent a lot of time in the Big Experiment yet. I have been there just long enough to rap at Zarf about Volity and stuff, and has ts52 twice press me into photographing people winning Looney tournament medallions.