I'm back from a week in Columbus, OH for this year's Gathering of Friends. The trip home was a bad dream (not quite a nightmare), with the Minneapolis airport shut down for a few hours thanks to tornados. The 1.5 hour flight from Columbus to Minneapolis was delayed 2 hours and then took 4.5 hours to complete, including about 45 minutes on the ground in Minneapolis while a) another airplane was assigned the same gate as ours, b) strewn baggage blocked the tarmac, c) the jetway at our gate ceased functioning, and d) we were finally towed to another gate. It was like the airport was being run by the Keystone Kops. Fortunately my connecting flight to Seattle was also delayed, and I was able to dash to that gate and hop right on board thanks to my foresight in checking in for the flight from the hotel computer that morning (even got myself an emergency exit row that way-- huzzah!).
I've got a week's worth of television saved up (although I watched Survivor and The Apprentice from Columbus-- with Kathy gone, the only person worth rooting for (Rupert) has no chance of winning; although at this point, I'll officially start the "Anyone But Amber or Tom" campaign), and look forward to vegging out a bit this week to catch up.
As for my game show, I'd say it went pretty well. We had about 110 participants, which was more than I expected (I'd written the software to handle up to 26 teams, which was 6 more than I had last time, and we could have gone to 28 or 29) and a new Gathering record. There was much merriment, the game didn't end in a tie, there were no software snafus (although there were some hardware issues-- the speakers I brought were terrible and as a result the sound was much softer than I'd have liked; the hotel microphone couldn't reach the center of the room, so I had to emcee from the side), and I got many compliments for both the programming/presentation and the content. It appeared that most people had a lot of fun. As expected, the first round was the hardest of the three but the third round was the most fun, so I think I made the right choice in ordering them as I did. I think I raised the bar for myself yet again with this event. Thanks to everyone who played, and to Michael Adams for helping to run it, Chris Lohroff for bringing the data projector, John Garnett for use of his laptop and data key, and Greg Aleknevicus for helping to set up the room.
Posted by Peter at April 20, 2004 02:38 PM