And so it begins

Behold the Vat Of Dice. I've heard stories that claim it's fountain-sized - thousands of little polyhedral morsels of goodness waiting to be scooped out, paid for, and brought back to Iowa. How exactly does it work? What does it look like? How much does it cost? When will then be now? The Internet has only tantalizing tidbits of information - things like the picture above and disturbing references to "The most expensive freaking dice I've bought in my entire life!"

But soon that won't matter. Because on August 14 I'll be able to walk up to the Vat of Dice and see it (and scoop from it; damn the cost, this is like offering my roommate's cat a vat full of catnip) for myself. For we, Gentle Reader, are going to Gen Con!

That was an unclear use of the word "we." Oops. Let me clarify (having proven that I'm not the blog contributor who's paying his way to Indianapolis by teaching English) - "we" isn't you and I, it's me and my friend Pat.

(A parenthetical aside - I suppose it's at least possible and probably full-blown likely that no one but Pat or me will ever read this blog (the possibility that we'll get bored with it and never update it notwithstanding), so the forced second person perspective - as if we're talking to a third party - is silly and maybe even presumptuous. That said, what's the point of a blog if no one ever reads it? Let the illusion continue!)

I first heard about Gen Con from Pat, lo those many years ago in UNI married student housing. I was recently back from a Victory in the Pacific convention in Kenosha, Wisconsin and trying to talk Pat into going with me the next year. "That would be fun," Pat said, "but what we should do is go to Gen Con."

"To what now?" I replied. And so to the Internet we went, and Pat told me about the great Gathering Of The Geeky (at the time still held in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin), and we agreed that it would be a fine time indeed and that we should go.

We stayed at about that level of ennui for several years. Occasionally we would talk about going and how fun it would be to go. Occasionally we'd even look online at pictures or at registration fees. And then came last Saturday. Pat was in town to videotape a concert and the two of us had dinner afterwards and talked turned to things Gen Con-ish. As we had so many times before, we talked about how much fun it would be to go... and this time we couldn't find any of our standard "Yeah, but it'll have to be another year"'s that we've used so well over the years. I'm not going back to summer camp this summer, neither of us are in a married or with-very-young-kids situation. And so we talked a little more seriously about it, and looked at a map to see how far away Indianapolis really is (about a tank of gas). And while Pat was on the way home he called me and I looked up registration and learned that it opened the very next day at noon.

Let's be clear, here - registration for Gen Con isn't something that fills up. Hotel rooms, to be sure, especially the really awesome ones right across the street, fill up very quickly. Event registration for the really cool events will, we think, fill up very quickly. But registration itself - buying the badge that lets you get into the main event and just be there - you can do when you get there in August, if you like standing in line. The fact that we'd be able to register in the first couple of hours didn't make any practical difference. But it felt like a sign, and it was apparently enough to push us over the edge. Because we're registered. We're, with apologies to Joey Tribbiani, going to Gen Con, baby!

Exactly what this blog will end up being is a matter of curiosity to me still. Certainly there are more stories from the past couple of days to tell (I'll leave the Saga of the Housing for you, Pat) and probably more to come as we get closer. Hopefully it will be neither a bunch of "Gen Con! Soon! Yayyy!!" triviality nor six months of silence, but I'm not sure yet what else we'll fill it with. If there is anyone else out there reading, feel free to chime in with questions in the comments. Once the event's come and gone there'll certainly be some postgame and a picture or twelve. And hopefully we'll be able to throw in some useful information in a way that Google can find so this blog can be the sort of helpful read-through for new attendees in 2009 that we've had trouble finding so far.

Or maybe I'll just keep posting pictures of the Vat of Dice.