unforum

[thunderclap8]

[LIVE EVENT] ATL Tombstone Hold'em Players report in here!

[urthstripe]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/urthstripe/sets/1346580/

That's all that I got. I had a great time and came home with some nice swag. It was great finally meeting all the people. You guys are great. Also nice to put faces with names, like he said. I, however, did not get sunburned. Luckily, I'm not that pale skinned. :-p I look forward to the next one, wherever and whenever it may be, it was awesome.

[Clayfoot]

I have over 20 videos from my little digital video camera, but I need a place to host them. I'm going to find my previous post about using Google Video and delete it, 'cause Google Video is way too much trouble for what I want to do. Suggestions? What video hosting site have you used that was less trouble than it was worth? Also, the camera creates .ASF video files, which are not universally viewable. What's a free, convenient way to convert them to something universally viewable?

[chippy]

http://www.putfile.com/ is good

[thunderclap8]

Here's a page comparing a bunch of video storage sites:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2005/11/06/the-flickrs-of-video/

[krystyn]

Clayfoot, I also have bandwidth to spare. I can set up an FTP for you, if you like.

[Clayfoot]

Wow! Thanks for the suggestions and offers! I didn't expect to get a response so quickly. Krystyn, just in case these prove to be popular, I'm going to spare your bandwidth bill and try hosting them on one of the free services, first. Based on the TechCrunch article suggested by Thunderclap8, I signed up at vSocial --mostly because they will allow me to string the videos together as a single story. If they look like hell, I'll try another site. Oh, and the Google video uploads have been deleted. As of this morning, Google still hadn't "verified" any of them, and I was tired of filling all of the required info, anyway. The videos will appear here as I upload them --and, no; I have no idea why it won't let me get rid of the 'christmas' tag:

http://www.vsocial.com/user/?d=223

[imbri]

wow. what a day, what a day! Unfortunately, I was having so much fun that I failed to take a single picture. Not to disappoint... I did scan in the instructions from the special favor as well as pictures of the holster & chips. They're uploaded to flickr. Sans pictures of the actual events, I'll do my best to let you know how it all went down...

Robogriff, Clayfoot, & I met up at the cemetery around 10:30 or so to wander around and work on some small favors. Thunderclap8 joined us shortly after that and we were enjoying the day so much that we only got a few favors done. One of my favorites was helping Robogriff complete the My Son favor. We found a plot where all of the stones had fallen over. We pulled a few weeds and put one of the stones upright - upsetting the many crickets that had claimed the underside as it's home (sorry little crickets!). The other stones were covered in ants or far too heavy, though we tried. We also played a practice hand of Tombstone poker in a small area at the top of a hill overlooking the city... I haven't seen the pictures from that, but if they capture that view, they'll be rather outstanding. We continued our rather aimless wanderings and found some rather interesting graves as well as some of the more famous residents, winding up at the lovely giftshop and belltower where we ran into Jane & Kiyash. We signed the guestbook which included visitors from as far away as Ireland and spoke with several of the people that worked at the cemetery - all of whom were very intrigued by the game and excited that we would be enjoying the cemetery that day in a manner in which so few do. They patiently answered some of our questions, told us a bit of the history of the cemetery, and provided us with a map of the grounds. Really, they couldn't have been nicer!

We then decided that it if we wanted to eat something, we should probably get on with it or we'd miss the first hand of Tombstone Poker. So, we headed across the street for lunch at Six Feet Under (the second of my three times there this weekend... it really is a great place and if you're ever in Atlanta, I'd definitely recommend it). We sat up on the deck overlooking the cemetery and watched an intriguing photoshoot with a scary clown and some sort of goth Alice in Wonderland types in the most bizarre and outstanding costumes. We also discussed the small favors and watched as heads turned when my booming voice mentioned myXXX rated almost blessing for Victor. After the great lunch, we quickly made our way back to the cemetery where Jane greeted us with 25 poker chips, a deck of cards, and the program for the event. We were pointed to an area of the cemetery with a great variety of tombstones and some nice open areas for dealing the cards. Iworkhere joined us as we began our search for Jokers, listened in on a tour, and waited for the other players to arrive.

Jane and Kiyash brought us all together where we were welcomed, once again, by Jane as well as by one of the directors of the cemetery. He let us know more about the cemetery and the renovation that is going on (if the already completed areas are any indication, it's going to be outstanding once it's done) and gave us a few safety hints in dealing with some of the raised plots (common throughout the cemetery). Not surprisingly, he was happy that we would be exploring the cemetery in such an unusual manner but didn't want us to get hurt in the process. There was a decent crowd gathered and we split into two different tables for the play, which lasted around an hour or so.

We crowned the winners (woo! Clayfoot & Robogriff!) and were excitedly talking about some of the hands when we set off for the first clue - the Koi pond. Unlike in NY, I think that everyone that participated in the Tombstone Poker (including some very cool random cemetery visitors) came along for Lucky's Special Favor. One of the 'randoms' had taken the cemetery tour last week and knew right where the Koi pond was, so we all followed her to it. After a bit of looking, I found the holster with Lucky's next instructions hidden underneath the flowers which surrounded the little raised pond. We set off on a great journey that invited us all to think just a bit more about ourselves as well as those that were buried there. At each stop, several of spoke up based on the topics suggested by the epitaphs and Lucky. One of the nicer moments was when we all sang Amazing Grace by the graveside of a young musician.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to recieve Lucky's broadcast. While it was a bit frustrating for those of us anxious to hear when we'd be heading, it gave us a few more minutes to talk with everyone that had come out and played. A few were anxious to learn more about Lucky and we were quite willing to let them know about the crazy ol' man. Other's were fascinated by Unfiction and ARGs and so those of us "in the know" talked about that a bit as well. Finally, we decided that Lucky's radiofoo must have been just a bit off. That or those that we were visiting were just so excited that they wanted us to stay just a bit longer. Lucky had given us enough of a hint as to where we'd find the next puzzle and so we decided to let him work out the radio kinks while we went over to the little saplings and recieved the nifty little puzzle. Thunderclap relayed the info via chat and photo and we all began to make our way over to Six Feet Under.

Six Feet Under is a great little bar overlooking the cemetery. We had a great, but chilly, section on the exterior deck upstairs where we were able to hook into some free wireless and soak in the setting sun. We hung out there for a good while, sharing stories of the game and learning a bit more about one another. Really, we all agreed that is one of the best things about these games. Not only are you given the opportunity to learn a bit more about yourself, but you have the chance to meet some really great people. It's fun online, but it's even better when you get the chance to do it over a beer or soda. However, as much as we enjoyed each other's company, the day had left us all quite tired and by 7pm we had said our goodbyes and began making our way back home.

[thunderclap8]

Nice wrapup, Imbri! And Clayfoot's videos are fun to re-view.

This is the pic Imbri refers to that we took for the tombstone poker favor:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hiddenpeanuts/62617720/

[imbri]

ooo that is a good picture! How'd I miss that when I was going through your photos? Sometimes I really do wonder how I manage.

[Clayfoot]

Pictures uploading

[ariock]

Um...no pictures of the scary clown??!!

[Clayfoot]

[urthstripe]

Yeah, the clown was incredibly creepy, but I wish I got a shot of him, or any of the goth ladies. Oh well. That was one of the more odd things that day.

I haven't got a chance to look at the videos, but be sure to check me and thunderclap's amazing stretch (for victory!). Alas, it did not secure us the win, but we tried. The rest of the videos are pretty funny, too, because they are completely raw and probably completely shaky. So, be sure to take your motion sickness pills.

[thunderclap8]

I'm beginning to think we mass-halucinated the clown and co. Because nobody got any picture of him at all!