Ever Had a Bologna and Potato Chip Sandwich?

This weekend I had the pleasure of going out to Anaheim California for Blizzcon '08. Of course, this means I'm probably a WoW player, and I am. I'm a huge Blizzard fan, and I even threw my portfolio at them in a probably vain hope that they'll give me a little call. While I was there I met up with a bunch of my guildies in WoW (some 15 to 20 of us went! Party!)

Now, I live on the east coast, which means my vacation had to start two days early. Wednesday (after taking a midterm, no less) I drove 6 hours to Norfolk International Airport. Thursday my flight left, and I got to Anaheim Thursday afternoon. My first surprise after checking in and heading down to the convention center was just how many people were coming to Blizzcon. The line to pick up our badges stretched out of the building, down the street, then back in again and into another huge convention hall where it wound around quite a few times. It actually didn't take too long to get through, an hour and a half maybe. Also, while we were waiting several people came in with blowup swords to have mock sword fights, or carrying banners for the Horde which is my WoW team so I was cheering for them with the rest (Nerdy, I know. But you can't really stop when you're surrounded by so many others)

The opening ceremonies on Friday were just what I thought they were. The CEO of Blizzard came out and talked to us, gave us a few announcements. Diablo 3 is getting another playable class, the Wizard, which from my experimentation this weekend is totally awesome. After some lunch, myself and a couple friends decided it was time to go to the store. This was what I spent my Friday doing. 5 hours later I stepped out of the store with a very nice messenger bag and a beautiful cinematic artbook. I was just in time to see the costume contest with the rest of my buddies. 2 of them were actually taking part, which is awesome. Once the contests were through, we all met up at Joe's Crab shack, where we basically took over the place. Two words, Shark Bite. We went back to the Hilton bar afterwards. After that, the Days Inn for me, because $60 is so much less than $150.

The next day was basically spent confirming my thoughts that I need to go home and install my old copies of Starcraft and Diablo 2. I played their sequels, which are so very very fun, but I never beat their predicessors because I'm lame like that. I'm especially excited about Starcraft 2, which is good because everyone who went to Blizzcon is getting a beta key. The closing ceremonies were great. Despite the fact that I'm not a big Metal fan, I really enjoyed Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain, which is a band made up of people that work at Blizzard. The lead singer is also the lead Art Director. After them Video Games Live played. I love those people. Video Games Live is a full symphony and chior that play just video game music. I really hope they make a CD with the Wrath of the Lich King stuff on it because I'd be on that like lice on so many of the nerds I was spending time with this weekend. Afterwards, we went to the Hilton again, but we decided that spending $6 on a beer was rediculous. So we ordered Pizza, went to 7-eleven and bought some 6packs and went up to the 5th floor community patio where we wiled away the hours until finally it was time to part.

My next day was spent with my brother, since he lives in LA and my flight was at 10:45pm. There's nothing much to describe, except that my brother has the most comfortable chair in history and putting people on a flight for 5 hours in seats made of cement is the same as torture.

Anyway, I have a lot of pictures, which I shall now place here because I can't figure out where else they should go.