For the amusement portion of the evening, we returned to the bridge of the Artemis for a few hours of space exploration. This time around, we set up a network of laptops in the office. The laptops were then paired wirelessly with iPads which controlled the laptops remotely. That way we could all stand on the bridge with nothing but a slick Star Trekky-looking slate and play the game.

We had all six stations in play: Captain, Helm, Engineering, Comms, Science and Weapons. It was great to see how quickly everyone fell into using the bridge communication patter we’ve all been trained to use by Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek. Even though the Artemis was destroyed more often than not, everyone seemed to have a really good time.

I’m amazed that Artemis is not more widely known. Thom Robertson could be the next Markus Persson, bathing in money. Artemis is the Rock Band of sci-fi games, hours of fun. If you have a couple of Windows computers, a large screen, $40, and some buddies, I definitely recommend you check it out.

I don’t like to leave things unfinished, no loose ends. But now I have this frayed blanket of partially read books, half-watched shows, unfinished video games, barely messed with apps, and board games still in shrink wrap. At one point these things were rare and hard won. As a child I created an impromptu garage sale to fund the purchase of the BattleTech board game, shutting the sale down the moment I could afford to buy. And then I played BattleTech for ages. Now everything is so easy to obtain, effortlessly plucked from the ether. But I feel like it takes a greater force of will to slow down and appreciate a single thing, knowing there are thousands more awaiting my attention. It is like touring the Louvre in a formula one race car.

I’ve decided I need to shift my perception of all this media, or at least to try. I’m trying to see it as another planetary ecosystem, something vast and ever present. In the same way that I do not need to play with every breed of dog on the planet, I do not need to play every game. If I see one I like, I will pet it and enjoy that moment. I’m really happy just knowing that all those things are out there and that sometimes my path will intersect with some of them.

Tomorrow night is the STAPLE pre-party at Austin Books and Comics. I’m going to roll in there like I know what is going on. But I don’t know what to say to a room full of indie comic writers. I’ll hang out there until I feel awkward and then bounce over to Reed and Laura Lee’s housewarming party.

Saturday is all about STAPLE. Got to get up early, drag some products over to the convention center, check in, find my table and act like I know what I am doing. My plan is to set up House of Whack and invite people to play. Also, I will trick people into paying $1 for The Stork when it is actually worth $1.45! Ha ha! No idea what to expect. I’ve never done an expo for reals and I don’t know if I can deal with sitting at a booth all day.

After that, there are several events that I will attempt to hit, depending on my energy level. My friend Jonathan is having a birthday party, there is the STAPLE BBQ dinner and the STAPLE after party. It will be at a club with a DJ, so I don’t know.

Sunday evening brings Fiction Circus. It’s a thing.

Monday = take a breath.

Tuesday is Boards ‘N Brews. That night’s double feature is Dungeon Lords and Cosmic Encounter.

Wednesday = dork around online.

Thursday promises an interesting mixer for the Austin Geocachers Meetup, followed by my friend Reed’s band, World Racketeering Squad at Headhunters.

Friday = video games.

Come Saturday and SXSW will start to ramp up. While I am not attending the insane industry fame fest proper, I will be checking out peripheral parties and events, like the one put on by io9 and Gawker media. MC Frontalot and Stormtroopers!

Sunday finds me hanging out with friends.

Monday there is a Meetup for all the Meetup organizers hosted by the Meetup bigwigs in town for SXSW. Supposedly we will be discussing strategies. My meetup is awesome, so I’m not sure what I will take home from it except maybe some beers in my belly.

The rest of the week is a question mark. Chances are I will check out a few SXSW things, but more likely stay at home.

Then there is a big lull the following week right before PAX East. I’m really looking forward to it. By all accounts, this looks like it will be the geek convention suited for me. I probably won’t do GenCon again and I’m not sure I’ll ever do a ComiCon or E3. But PAX seems like the perfect blend of those things.

I’m just over 100 gigs now, which is still a ton of music, much of which I may not have even heard.

This was the first time I had seen the Question Jar show, where he answers written questions from the audience between every few songs. He kept the answers pithy and amusing. It was a typical Doughty set, with a few Soul Coughing tunes and stuff from the new album thrown in. I hadn’t realized how similar the guitar riffs were on about half of his songs. It created a perpetual anticipation: Which song is this? Is it going to be Circles?

He played Looking at the World From the Bottom of a Well and Tremendous Brunettes, but no Gambler cover and no Pleasure on Credit. Can’t have everything.

I must get to bed. I have a plane to catch in the morning.

I had never heard his roommate, Laura Lee Imhoff, play before and was curious how she sounded.  Fantastic, as it turns out. The bar above Katz’s Deli went from empty to full in the space of 15 minutes as people came in to hear this gorgeous voice akin to Annie DiFranco at the height of her power. Isaac and his fiancée Darla showed up, as did Shaggy. After the gig there was some milling about on the patio before it was decided that Isaac, Darla, Reed and I go down to the deli for a sandwich.

They thought they were introducing me to a long-standing Austin fixture, but halfway through the meal (I had a tasty pot roast sandwich), I realized that Katz’s was the very first place I had eaten in Austin, even before moving here. When Dave and I came out for Butt-Numb-A-Thon, that’s where we had eaten breakfast. Isaac and I had a great conversation about the works of Alan Moore and shared our horrified reactions to Frank Miller’s All Star Batman and Robin.

Isaac and Darla called it a night. Just as they left Shaggy and his friend walked up and invited us along to a Rock Band party. So off we went. Shaggy wasn’t sure exactly how to get into the apartment complex where the party was happening. No problem. We just ran into a girl he happened to know and she gave the entry code and coordinates.

This was a really slick pad with two beers on tap out on the balcony. Two of the people at the party were bartenders and there were about 50 bottles of liquor on the kitchen counter. But never mind the drinks and the hot girls. I need to tell you about the Rock Band setup. Big flatscreen, okay, I’ve seen those. Wireless mic, nice. Full size and weight replica guitar, wow. Someone actually bought the stage kit with colored lights and smoke machine? Hold on. What’s that in the corner? Is that the Ion drum set? No. Better. It was a complete Roland drum kit modded to play Rock Band. It had its own 19″ LCD display for the game. Amazing. Reed and I jumped in for a couple of songs. But then we headed back out.

We hung out at Molotov for a while and watched all the twenty-somethings do their thing before leaving to check out the new Ginger Man and people our own age. The new Ginger Man is actually an improvement over the original. They kept the warm vibe, the reading room, the hundreds of taps, etc. But the patio is better, there’s a kind of lounge now and the overall flow is nicer. We had a few drinks there and then headed back to our cars.

Good times.

My music collection has been digital for years, save for a few collectibles and albums by friends. I’ve gotten my DVD collection down to about 17 boxes. Out of print films that you can’t get on Netflix. So I’m no longer buying movies of the common variety.

I don’t have very many video games either. When I finish a game or get bored with it, I sell it. I just signed up for GameFly, so I will never buy another video game unless it falls into the small, evergreen category where Rock Band resides.

Movies and games are both heading into an all-digital delivery system. There are many reasons for this, but a big one for the publishers is that the secondhand market will die. You can’t resell your digital copy of The Dark Knight to someone on Amazon. GameStop will eventually become a store for classic used games from the 2000s. One day it will seem ridiculous that digital information was bonded to physical platters and cartridges.

I’ve thinned down my book collection to two small book shelves. As I finish books, I’ll sell them to Half Price Books or give them away. Again, I’m only going to be purchasing hard to find items or books which make practical sense to own. I converted a majority of my Amazon book wish list over to a reading list for my brand new account at the Austin Public Library system. Holy shit, is this a slick operation! The online catalog system is robust. I can have books held and delivered to my local branch. I only stumped the system once or twice whilst searching for graphic novels. Their collection of every series I care about is comprehensive. They even had a copy of the out of print Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana, which is basically steampunk porn. All for free. Why didn’t I do this sooner? Also, if there is a Kindle version of a book available, I’ll buy that over the dead tree version. The Kindle iPhone app is actually pretty great and I’ve been enjoying 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea on it.

The board game collection remains pretty large. I’ll probably thin it down over the course of a few years, getting rid of the so-so games, keeping only the ones I truly love.

I’ve also been untethering my online life. I’ve moved more and more documents up into the cloud so I can access them from anywhere. I stopped using desktop clients for mail, scheduling, spreadsheets, and twittering. It’s all web-based now. I can do all of my communication from anywhere. It feels good to shut my computer down when I’m done working instead of having to check in on it for new messages.

My iPhone is proving more and more invaluable. Today I set up a wireless storage app so I can keep my writing and important documents backed up on a password protected micro web server. It’s like having a magic extradimensional 16GB pocket I can reach into at any time.

When I can afford it, I’ll probably replace my computer with a laptop. I like the idea of being able to grab a backpack and take off, bringing my entire world with me.

I feel lighter.

So to Speak – DJ? Acucrack

Falling Slowly – Glen Hansard

Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well – Mike Doughty

Tender – Blur

Lollipop – Mika

Going On – Gnarls Barkley

Chase the Morning – Sarah Brightman

That’s Not My Name – The Ting Tings