I can not fathom, where life would have lead me, where I would be now, if I had discovered Carl Sagan, and his Cosmos, at a young age, instead of just in the past year or so.  It makes me a bit sad to think about sometimes, but on the same token, it gives me something NOW, to discover, and be inspired by!  And that is no small thing.

Thank you Carl, for your amazing words, and invigorating view of everything around us, and within us.  I hope you are resting in peace, and I wish I could have met you, just once in my life.  May your legacy not be wasted, on the people of this planet, who so need your viewpoint on the universe, and your advice, even posthumously.

Anonymous asked: Describe your involvement with the Penny Arcade Expo and it's community and how you got there.

Well, I first started going to the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in 2005.  Both that year, and the following two years, I attended the expo with a couple of friends I grew up with, and wasn’t much involved with the community.  Just before PAX 2007 I joined the forums, but didn’t get myself involved with much of anything. 

PAX 2008, was another beast entirely!  At this point, I’d had a year to integrate myself into the amazing community I found on the forums, and starting in about July, the IRC channel.  Boy what a year.  I attended every possible community event and meet up I could squeeze into the sparse 24 hours there were in a day, and left little time for sleep.

The people I met there, the awesome friendships I created, have kept improving, and expanding, ever since.  And I hope they will continue to be just as awesome, until I’m old and grouchy!

In 2009, I caught the Enforcing bug.  I figured, I’d gotten so much enjoyment out of PAX at that time, that it was time to give back.  I signed up, and joined the BYOC crew, securing the doors and equipment of PAX goers of all ages.  It was a glorious weekend!  It was also one of the most exhausting periods of time I’d had at that point in my life.  On top of trying to be true to my Enforcer commitments, I again fit in every community event I could into my schedule, to maximize the awesome!

Now 2010, was a much more grueling year.  Not because anything in particular, just from the amount of time I spent at the convention center.  From my calculations, I spent 7 days at the convention center, at an average of about 16 hours a day.  I’d say about 80% of that time was spent on my feet for one reason or another.  During this PAX, I ended up cutting down a lot on community events, as I had shifted my focus a bit more toward my Enforcing responsibilities, and hanging out with as many of my out of town PAX friends as I could, in the little time I had.

I suppose that covers most of it really.  Between the years, there have been many many epic parties, gaming sessions, LAN’s, and just all around awesome times.

This group, has become the largest, and best, group of friends I’ve had in my life.  I wouldn’t trade them for the world!

The quintessential testing first post!