The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.- Homer Simpson
Different sets of my friends have a habit of going to Anime Expo, Otacon and PAX. My budget doesn't let me go to all of things, especially taking Mrs. Chaos. So the idea is to figure out which of the conferences Mrs.Chaos likes the most and just go to that one. A couple of years ago we took her to Anime Expo in Los Angeles and I think she had an okay time. The biggest challenge for her to deal with was the complete and utter indecisiveness of my friends. So we would be walking around unsure where to eat and everyone would confirm they were hungry, but no one would want to make a decision or express a preference, "Yeah I'm hungry. I could eat anywhere." "How about this place? It's British Pub style food." Of course, my friends express displeasure in a place through very passive means so when they respond with "Yeah, I guess that's okay" no one is quite sure if they don't want to eat there or are really indifferent and this causes long delays in any kind of decision making. Beyond that, Anime Expo just ain't what it used to be. The basic pass doesn't get you what it used, and all of the concerts and special events charge extra. So what's free? The video rooms - which used to be how we discovered shows, but now we've basically seen everything they're showing. It just doesn't work out. Anime Expo got checked off the list and we're probably not going back. We'll see.
This year we are trying out Penny Arcade! The internet broke PAX registration. It was pretty impressive as we were all waiting for it to go live, no one knowing when it would happen. The moment it went live we all started messaging each other and trying to register. A couple people were able to register, but then they took down the site because it couldn't handle the mad rush of people. It went back up the next week, and we repeated the activity of messaging each other and registering. Amazingly, tickets sold out in about 4-6 hours during the middle of the work day. More amazing? All six of us managed to get through and get tickets during that time.
I've never been to PAX before and I am super excited about going. I also have extremely high hopes that Mrs. Chaos is going to have a fantastic time. The only problem is she will be the only lady this year, but maybe having an entourage of six handsome gentlemen opening doors for her will make her feel like royalty and then she can convince all the other ladies to come in future years. Really what is PAX? Just watching cool people do cool things all day and then playing board games and CCG until 4am in the morning. Perfect!