All for the love of Pot(ter) ...

...And other geeky posts...

1) We woke up at 6 am today (read: Ondine and I, not me and Molly) and dragged ourselves out of bed on a Saturday morning. Why? It's 16th of July and we had to make it down to Borders before 7:01am. If you're not too sure why, you obviously haven't read the paper, nor have you been paying attention this last week. For those who have been in a coma, the raison d'etre for dusting off ye olde reading glasses and shutting off the idiot box for a week has arrived. It is yet again time for the masses to pretend that they actually read a whole lot (if at all) while actually showcasing the herd mentality of "avid readers" and latching on to the whole Dan Rowling literary bandwagon. Yes, avid readers, Potter 6 was released at said time in bookstores today. And Borders seemed like the place to be. There was a sleepover for the kiddies (for which there was a queue) with a movie marathon and jellybean counting contests. It was almost like Australia, without the cute little robes.

We arrived late of course and we basically had a fun time lining up outside while we heard screams of elation from the happy people who got their hands on the book. No, not 6 year olds, they were more in their 20s or so. (Who says we Singaporeans are unemotional and repressed?) There was a bunch of kids (read: teenagers) that actually dressed up as denizens of Hogwarts and not only as the good guys. (Ondine overheard a boy proudly proclaiming that he was Draco Malfoy...and he certainly looked arrogant enough to pull it off.) Wow...Fanboy/girl enthusiasm. Haven't seen that in a while.

45 minutes later, we left with book in bag and headed over to TC for breakfast. I am currently waiting for Ondine to finish the book before I get to start. :I

Weirdest sighting: 2 wizards in tudungs.

2) Bloggers.sg conference. DXO. I had tuition so I showed up late. It's a weird feeling being in the same room as a whole bunch of people whose lives you've shared digitally, but have never met face to face. I split my time (and attention) looking out for people and listening to the speakers while looking at the hilarious IRC conversations going on on the 3 screens positioned above the speakers. (Next bloggers convention, bring Clover...participate in IRC chat)

Sat a few seats down from Xiaxue. She's even shorter in person than my impression of her from her photos. (No mean feat...she looks quite tiny in her photos) Mr Miyagi looks like a young Pat Morita. (Hence the namesake? "Before you can blog Daniel-san, you musta wax on, wax off...") Mr Brown. Pretty spot on. Agagooga came as a rather large surprise. I bought a t-shirt off him. Missed Li'l Miss Drinkalot though...She was someone that I was actually looking forward to putting a face to.

There was a lady who was sitting beside me sketching out a cat. I caught some glimpses of her artwork as she flipped through her sketchbook. If you're reading this, Lady in a black top with the funky handbag, I was very impressed.

Overall an interesting experience. Next year, come hell or high water, I'm staying for the after party. Geekness not satisfied yet.

3) Finally, a postscript from the GV blow up. GV has written back to me apologising for the horrible experience and has offered me 2 free tickets. Like a $2 whore looking for a quick fix, I crawled back to them and handed them my dignity for my 30 pieces of silver...Bah. Sadly, I have my principles* but they just keep getting in the way of free stuff.

Sometimes I just loathe myself...

(*They wrote back asking for my address to send the tickets to and I caved...If they send a pair of hitmen called Tony and Vince instead, I will definitely send a letter of complaint...)