Transcript
[0:00] Music.
[0:09] Cucumber.
Hey,
Yes.
Alrighty. Oh, all the time. Enjoy me. As always, is Lee Anne Grogan.
End calls.
Oh.
I just I don't name him. I just love him and squeeze him and call him all George. Alright, you're you're the.
Sure.
[1:37] Strants.
I like that,
So we have this one and the blue one,
Cuz I got three kind of medium size. I want the really really big one that they're gonna have at the auction but there is no chance. Yeah, you probably are gonna need,
Not that disposable anymore. Oh, it's a strong.
That was like.
[2:36] No it's a web web comic,
I think there's also videos that it's been a long time since they've been thought about it but I remember I just like a little as a mask on and and.
Okay, very cool. Very funny.
You don't have to worry about.
[3:12] And also people in the parade you don't have to wear it but if try to go into Anthony Hotels after the parade they're gonna wanna see it so put one on your wrist or hide it wherever in your costume that you need,
There's that don't we can make friends of the football fans that are there I'm a geek.
John is a geek so you have to remember which way you are,
Both of us know about cheering for a losing team. John, which one's yours? Well, Kirk was currently, it's always been. FSU.
Okay well mine's in South Carolina Gamecocks and we have sucked for many many step up from last year but anyway,
I mean they won't but we can make friends so just nice to the people in the football,
Also remember,
I don't know.
[4:26] Okay and John John. Yes, ma'am. There are unfortunately. The more forced up.
The list kinda like doubled last night and so you might wanna look
Eh the best place to go is to go to Dragon Con go to featured guest
For four people being there and it's only gonna be three that's probably why. It's like it's a question for you. Is it on the app or is it not on the app anymore?
In other words really just take them off or do they,
We need to talk to people who know IT stuff and it has absolutely nothing to do with the app or anything else but we have people who make it so we can see and hear Dragon Con. Huh? And we got two of them right now. We do.
I know. Yeah, I've lost the screen. So, keep keep vamping because I've lost her life.
[5:35] I need I need someone to,
No, I know. Well, I know. We just call you. I just say that. You know about technical
And I'm trying to use a nice word for respect.
So how are you? We are we all ready for for this week.
Heck yeah, let's go. Tomorrow, no, not really. Well, you guys are tomorrow though, right?
[6:10] So lot a lot to be tomorrow like hey how do you start a day later than we usually start we normally start,
This morning but we we didn't get access to the hotels,
Hockey stuff.
[6:37] Steve.
Anyway,
Hey Facebook,
No.
What time is your call?
I do I I bring donuts and coffee in the morning,
It's right.
Hey Facebook if there's a sock and one of your books I didn't put it there,
Just a random sock. Here you go. Just walk away.
No no no.
[8:06] Zan says hello she's there ready to set up or take off slow tomorrow as well.
[8:20] So, how do you, okay, so you just said that you put it all in the atrium for the Marriott. You put it all in different ones for the different hotels,
How do you decide which hotel to start how do you decide or do you just have enough people that you can send them to all five hotels
It's really dependent on the hotel availabilities. So, we're we work with our hotel liaisons. They're like, okay, cool. You know, this room is available at this time or in this room is available at this time and,
We go we kinda start laying all that out of what's available and then we kinda lay it out with how many trucks we have that are coming from from the various places that we're getting equipment for from and,
And we're like, okay, cool. We have a plan. We can get in this location from,
Hey Facebook,
So, you know, obviously, we have that access to the room. We have to get equipment into the room and then we have to people that can come in there and hang this stuff. Wait, so the rigging stuff, that's not you, that's the hotel.
[9:22] They get the little thing that goes up,
Hey entities,
Reckon if they fall then it's not your fault.
Yeah, there's that liability thing. Liability, man. It's so tough. So, you basically just start wherever you can. So, if tomorrow at 845, the only hotel you can get into is,
Hey portal,
Okay and this is now I know you guys do your own load in but this is also while loading is going on for the other stuff like the load in for the dealers rooms when did I mean is that all going on at the same time,
I don't think that starts until.
[10:25] Loading in for the vendors and stuff in the mart doesn't really impact us because we we have very little equipment in the market,
Okay, that's really cool, man. That's easy. We didn't wanna tell people about the mark. We are pretty sure it's in. I'm Regina will Email me if we're wrong but we really pretty sure it's in America's Mark two and three.
For folks you need to know this the only way you can get to those is to go,
That little skywalk that little habit trail from the western to the,
Oops not probably not dragging consult I mean,
That they've had in the past.
[11:20] Damn.
No that's true cuz,
I don't know why. Well, but you guys get to be in danger too because you're the ones again that make us see and hear stuff. So, what do you,
I mean, what do you do? I don't even know how y'all set up a room. I know when I was a track director, all of a sudden,
Somebody would say hey take options here and I'd be like great,
So like take me into a track room what do you do if you walk into a track room and you gotta make it so we can see in here.
[12:23] You wanna start a soft calm lock? Sure.
The stand is gonna be over here if there's a platform or if it's just a table.
[12:43] And and it's gonna say okay we want six mics on this table so we go put six table mics out and we find a spot for the sound board,
Sometimes it's dictated. Sometimes it's find a corner somewhere. Depending on. Please help us. Find a place where you can put it. Right. Gotcha. Yeah.
Because not not all rooms do we manage during,
We just set it up and we check on it throughout the day but we don't have a check ups person sitting in that room all day
And so. Well, yeah, no. I mean, I didn't know you had anybody that sat in a track room all day. I know you have them in the ballrooms. But yeah, in in the ballrooms, and some of the track rooms get
A little bit more TLC because of their size. But we for the most part, the people that sit in rooms all day are are just in the ballrooms. You are correct. Yeah.
Where and I know these charts y'all I did it in Excel cuz I was like I want this is a table and things like that but.
[13:53] If you have a room where and there are a lot of rooms at Dragon Con that are funky. Cuz you have like these.
In one room that we used to have over the Sheraton there was just these columns in the middle of the room and you have some of those on nine can't remember elsewhere
What do you do? And some of those rooms are kinda big. How in the world do you move around that so that.
[14:17] Yeah so the hope is that we have a tractor around that we can ask questions to about how would you like to use this room so we can kind of help,
Help deliver the vision that they have in mind for the space,
Okay in the absence of a tractor we just have to make an educated guess about how would I set up this room with,
Where doors are? So, you know,
This this isn't just about okay can we put a speaker up can we put a microphone up can we make it so you can hear somebody on stage or do we have a TV or projector something like that but
Where are exit doors for the room where egress you know ingress egress points where we have to take down cables where we can't block a fire door where,
You know, all of that kind of stuff. So, you know, some of it's we can only do what the room allows us to do. Some of it is, you know, how does,
It's it's kind of a little bit of all of the above and we just have to roll with it,
And I didn't understand how important tape was.
[15:27] We bring down.
What?
We don't do that tape typical
So much time.
Yeah. But you know, we have cases of it that are in our operations room. So, we have you know,
We have cases over to come down with the, with the trucks, all the equipment, and things like that. I mean, basically, any cable that's on the floor, if it crosses a doorway,
Otherwise it's a trip hazard.
You know and if it goes over a doorway in larger room so like let's say in Centennial and Hyatt
Tape isn't an effective method of manic.
[16:36] So I will you know what? It's been a while since I've looked over Centennial one. I will be looking around going oh the tape is above the door this morning.
The the stuff coming from four towards two and three you'll see AA cable snake that goes above the wall yeah
Okay I kinda know what you're talking about now okay so then after you tape it all down you also try okay hey man can I borrow some tape,
I have to tell you I didn't know what to know we don't have enough we still don't have enough you cannot have it,
I didn't know how much what gaffers tape was until years and years and years ago. Probably in the area of 25 and every year, we would always be like, oh my god, we need to make sure we get gaffers tape. Well, as.
[17:22] The track transition to new directors. We went through boxes. Guys, we had like 14,
Rules.
It's ridiculous. How much a roll? I said 2020.
And how many roles you said you had,
33
[18:08] So, wow. How many?
But before Con even starts what is how many rooms do you have to set up? Roughly.
Like the 60s, 70s,
Somewhere. Yeah, I don't I don't remember the exact count but I I feel like it's in the like 75 rooms ballpark of how many rooms that we set up equipment.
[18:51] Minutes that's what 15 ballrooms like 15 of the the larger spaces were actually setting up you know heavy duty,
You know another 60 some odd track rooms worth of of small stuff or TVs or things like that,
That would make a lot. Oh, wow. And I did, yeah, 15, fifteenish ballrooms. So, that's really interesting too cuz you gotta start thinking about those people especially if you're in and I'm gonna get it wrong. Is it Regency,
The one that goes like this way yeah the one that goes kinda,
Vertical of a ballroom.
Move this move this wall and do it and then you gotta put the wall back and then retape and things like that so,
Well, yeah, I don't know that we reconfigure regency too much. There's there's recently five and they're 6767. We don't really reconfigure but we do use it for other purposes like,
You know, the robot battles and stuff in there where it's more arena setup not audience styles than a,
Okay.
[20:13] Raslyn is that how,
Yeah when and we help bring all that into the the wrestling ring and all of the,
All of the rope and the mats and and the springs and the steel plates and the steel bars all that plywood all comes in with that got flavor as well.
Wow.
Clear mall go with Dave says thank you for making all the tech work. All the tech work.
[21:03] Galway.
Hey Facebook,
60 or 70. It's a lot of TVs. It's it's a,
I think we bring like.
[21:40] These aren't. Yeah. Anywhere from,
Where did they go? Jack Rooms, ballroom so for example, we are just talking about the Regency six seven in the Hyatt.
So for the last couple of years in Regency so a long time ago the way we used to set up Regency six seven is when you're looking at the stage up to the left side of the stage we had a projector back there and it was filling a big projection screen.
[22:11] For the last several years, we've actually put I think 275 inch TVs in there so they they flank the stage and you have 275 PDs, 75 inch TVs that are way up in the air,
Okay and then, also, people may not know this when the guests are on stage. There's also usually a like a little monitor TV or whatever right there,
So do y'all put those up in as well or you're not doing that anymore,
We typically only have those in spaces where we know we have a request for somebody wants to send content from the stage and that way that they can use that monitor over there as a pre,
Popcorn very common one for that.
Puppetry. Oh, puppetry. That makes sense. Yup. Yeah.
[23:10] Very cool. Very cool.
[23:13] After you unpack all this,
Yes so we have an amazing how do you know what goes back and what box?
Yeah.
There's a color coded sticker on every box and so that tells us what hotel it needs to be in so we know what,
If you just pick up a random box and showed up somewhere and it's got a sticker on it, we know, hey, it belongs in this hotel and they can look at the label and go, it goes in this room and it goes, you know,
The ballrooms,
But in a track room yeah there's probably not a place to put you know all the boxes it takes to do that so where we can stick stuff under a stage sometimes we stick it under a stage but we have a quick rooms and all of the hotels so we typically bring all the boxes and cases back to,
Like a local equipment room for the Hilton for the Marriott or for Highton so you don't like.
[24:28] Yeah.
Let's roll the box. Let's go. There's magic.
[24:46] It's magic. I will say the,
Or anywhere like that,
Leave it alone or we're gonna tell on tech. We're gonna tell on you to check ups and they will come and put you in one of those cases, not really but that's a, that's a good threat though.
Yeah you don't you don't need to see what's behind the curtain just just follow us in his word
How did you two get involved in tech ops,
Was there was there a fake ad place in a newspaper,
You wanna go first count lunch? Alright.
So, I started going to Dragon Con in 2015. 2016 was my first year as a volunteer after the 2015 show. The group that I'd come with was it coming again and I was like.
[25:56] I'd like to find some new people and I've done,
Stage work and live event work throughout my childhood to my adulthood and so I was just like let's see if there's a tech crew that needs help,
And I happened to see a plea for help that Wolfman had put out and was just like oh sure I I did theater for 6 years.
[26:23] He said can you tell the difference between,
Can you? Okay. Yeah. You can help.
And I love watching it. All of a sudden, you're like, they're saying, alright, this is a problem and then all of a sudden, you turn around, there's somebody crawling out from under something. You're like, you okay? They're like, yeah, we're fixing it and like,
Hey,
That's what's under the skirt stager at that,
Yeah, so this was a very, very long time ago.
A long time ago when Dragon Con was young and so was the earth,
I was actually coming to Dragon Con for a video game tournament.
[27:33] So, I was here competing in the 64 player elimination for the scent too,
And,
I was basically on on the volunteer crew by the end of that show so that was 27 years ago.
That is.
I'm not sure if that's an accomplishment or not condolence. That's a pretty, no, I mean, that's,
I don't wanna say go for it that's not the right term cuz all of our volunteers you know that's not the term but you started and then kept going up and up and up,
Into what you do now which is you get to tell people to go under the state,
Along with you sometimes. Hey, I go under the stage sometimes too. Yeah.
And so, but yeah, I think it's so funny too because when I talk to people and tag ops, they're like, we were always the people that helped AV in high school,
Right? For my for my age, that's when I was first starting a drink. I'm like, let's take up and they're like, oh, we do all the AV stuff and I'm like, oh, good. No.
[29:03] I did it in high school. Never again. I was always worried. I was gonna break the projector or something else.
It's really funny because like for the, for the most part, I started learning, you know, really audio visual doing work at tech ops with dragons. Oh, I mean,
I've been doing audio visual professionally for 25 plus years now so I mean. Oh, okay. Like, this is what I do for a day job as well. So,
Oh, wow.
No I'm I'm a software developer by day though I do I do help with AV at the number of other conventions I've always I've always kind of kept,
Working with AV so I started in middle school,
Technically minded and I need somebody to run lights for my little like.
[29:58] One act stage production. I was like, okay.
Okay yeah and and I just kept doing it through through middle school and high school I did a little bit in college but I was mostly focusing on on becoming a software developer and ever since I've just kind of kept it as my as my hobby,
Oh man. Sounds kinda cool though. I like it. I just I always love us too. John and I.
Occasionally we'll we'll go we did used to go to a con,
Kevin Point I think it's a wolf man,
No I think Wolfman no no no like thinking about the steps he's admitted that,
He is in text. He's a man. He's powerless to the microphone. He's admitted that he is powerless to get out of tech ops.
And he's admitted he needs help.
[31:09] I can show you over here by turning this up and then going like that.
Big volume adjustment.
Okay.
Going in the feedback or.
Right because I know sometimes you'll have gas to orp or anybody who's like really kind of they're very soft spoken. I don't understand people like that because that's just not how I do.
In real life.
Don't make fun of me anymore wolf man.
Megaphone at the parade is sort of pointless. It's a hat on the hat. It helps. I don't I don't know why you bother.
It helps me have a voice but you do. I've seen you guys going up the game and gone.
[32:23] No can you turn up this mic I've done all I can there's no more,
Further away from the table and they keep talking and you're like,
I can only make the microphone so loud before we start going into ringing for the room and there's just some pianos that just,
Really super duper soft.
There, you know, tricky to microphone, you know, tricky to run a mic for for these reasons, whatever. So, just something else to be aware of. Yeah, just something else to be aware of. We're gonna give them one of the cordless mics because everybody in the front is gonna have that and this person's gonna be rolling behind them.
Trying to talk in this just easier to give my cordless mic so or although I don't think I've ever seen you do that but hey never know.
Never know what might happen. Okay. So,
No. Well, not so much. Yeah. Yeah. That's all that's true too. That's why you're especially if you don't, you know, that's a problem. Of course, because especially if you have, don't everybody in the room with you.
[33:42] Don't have a tech ops person actually on the board,
And hope that
Hope it works. Nobody who ever volunteers in the track, ever, ever, ever, touches, I'm no. Nope. Nope. Doesn't happen. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
To the point that Calnoc made like you know we we just kinda make a best guess for you know where we can put that for a board that we're leaving and a track room but like,
You know, it's a real problem. It's why we have operators in ballrooms because the the audio systems that are in the ballrooms are much much more powerful than what is an attract room. So,
You know, unchecked. I mean, you're talking about permanent hearing damage to people in rooms like it's
That would be very very bad. And some of us already had cuz we're old or already having hearing problems. Let's not make it any worse. So until we have to,
So, yeah. So, to that end, actually, Sharon asked a question earlier is like, do you guys have any great stories? For example, did a speaker really catch fire before a panel 1 year.
[34:52] Wasn't before a panel. Well, it wasn't a panel.
There was a so I mean,
You know either very high voltage or very high amperage depending on what we're doing with it,
Things happened. You know, it was pretty, pretty apparent. The the thing that happened in the Sheraton a couple years ago.
Other incidents in the past, some of which we can control, some of which we can't. So, would you be talking about others you can't?
Well I mean as a story I don't remember I don't remember the axe involved so this is you know relatively anonymous and that,
And they had AA glitter
Like a glitter pop or or you know something that shot glitter out in the crowd.
The errand takes for the amp rack that was sitting on the side of the stage and it's oh,
I mean stop we can't control there's no way we could have predicted that was going to happen nor could the person with the glitter gun I'm gonna promise you they did not think they were trying to break anything doing that other than glitter being the STD of crap,
Yeah other than that.
[36:13] Or or the example you know when the when the water the ice bucket challenge thing was like a big deal you know there was a group of people that were gonna go up,
Not realizing that we have condenser mics on the stage in there that are 48 volt DC so like you do not wanna be hanging on to a microphone that's running 48 volts DC through it and pour water on yourself you're.
That will not be good. No,
No. No. I don't know. Kali, you got any good, good news, good stories that you wanna share?
No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No that you can tell. No, I I other than I happen to be nearby and convenient when we had a power strip that was overloaded.
[37:06] Was able to prevent a fire
That's good. Well, prevent
That I was a firefighter at the time and so the running joke was I was also an actual firefighter that year because I prevented,
I'm sorry. All I could think of is that's not the name I would've wanted to name that group. Only because,
That's just asking for trouble calling you a firefighter. I'm just like, oh, that's. Look at.
Look at how I mean like for me that I the fact that I've been doing this this long look how long it dragging cons been going like how long I've been in tech ops
And pretty, it doesn't, I mean, it's not even one every couple of years. It's it's really frequently.
No.
[38:08] I know Cal Knox and I T so,
Something will break.
Yeah, I know. Well, I literally keep a piece of wood next to my pic so I cannot, it's like, hey, how's how's Dave?
Now Sharon does ask me the question which is why do you guys use code names and her husband apparently is in the house?
So there's there's no availability that's why so anything goes down no one knows who they are.
Hey,
How many Jason's John Scott's.
[39:10] You know, Jennifer, Stephanie,
And you say, hey, hey, Jason.
Or better yet better you say hey Jason and part of your transmission gets cut off how many people are gonna respond to that traffic at the same time,
So
Really from the beginning it's you know it's just it's how we've always kind of operated and it's been more effective because when you're when you're trying to call out somebody's name it's usually something,
Very unique or unique enough that we know exactly who you're trying to pinpoint,
Our badge names when people are coming into the system so that
If it sounds enough alike we have to kind of get one person to change,
Yeah say in Volkman you probably not gonna have a Volk van even though that might be this really obscure heavy metal,
Rock group that might be your favorite you cannot be volcan on this because on radio it'll sound like Wolfman do you have a Valveda.
[40:30] Yes.
If I call for ready whip on the radio one person knows exactly who we're calling for.
[40:42] Did i call for ready whip at home never mind.
I actually started packing today by the way. You guys are unpacking tomorrow. I just started packing today. So. I started making the list. I started making the list and it does have that I have to have my sodas.
And my protein bar.
Sierra says most times your first aim doesn't stick.
So it's funny when a lot of times so a lot of folks don't when they come in to tech ops they don't really have an idea what they,
Some random name that gets assigned to them out of an encyclopedia,
Sometimes that that's changed. Yeah, I mean, you know, I see some examples popping up here.
What was the one antidote?
Hey Facebook.
[42:08] I'm sorry over here.
[42:15] Phil Collins, I think is making AA lead joke. This is another short video,
I'll say it. I ain't got no problem. But yes. So, that's kind of amazing and that. I just like, I, is there a velveta? I'm like, have you gone through all the cheeses yet?
Like a monster, a Colby.
[42:39] We may have a call.
Jack Tedder yep or text Jack I guess.
Ideas we may have to add them to the suggestion names list. There you go.
We had when I was in college there was a person a couple of years before me who her name was Spike.
The first time in this English class it was like Elizabeth Elizabeth Liz,
Beth and it was like and I got to the next Elizabeth and went and your spike and she was like, okay. And she was spiked for the rest of her college years. I was like, you should have that on your diploma. She goes, I thought about it.
Not gonna do it. But yeah and a moratorium, we do have moratorium on Katie's and cats. Well, yeah. Y'all already got a cat.
You can't do another cat. Yeah. We we have a cat and we have a Katie and that's it.
[43:52] Not gonna get anymore. Wait, invisible monkey? That's pretty good. Yup. Monkey.
I like these. I, they're always fun. If you, and this is why they, when you're doing your dragon guns, it's something they're like, what's your badge name? And I'm like, Lee.
That's pretty boring,
As opposed to other years.
You wanna start with this color?
Sure. So we touched on it earlier. Don't look under the skirts.
That is that is probably one of the biggest and easiest things to be kind to us.
[44:48] Try turn up to you know,
Rapidly full cables in between panels,
We may not have the answer for you.
And let them do it and then they'll talk. Yeah, that's a big one cuz whoo don't interrupt. Cuz they'll ask you how to do it.
No idea. So, yeah. Alright, so those are two good ones.
Yeah.
[45:40] Remember to to bring your adapters so if you wanna plug in your iPod to HDMI cable okay great it'd be really helpful if you bring your adapter to do that or,
You know, your laptop or whatever device you wanna plug in. We do have some but you know, we can't always be everywhere at the same time.
And it is called a dongle if you're using it for trying to show your Apple into something or whatever it's called an Ongo bring your dongle I'd had no idea what that was bring your dog,
John would you like John is going through his,
I actually have boxes of just adapters that I bring with me
Splitters various.
[46:47] Justin.
Without with that adapter box and dongles and and adapters and things like that. You know, the other,
But earlier you can get with us to work that out like you know hey I'm doing something weird in this room tomorrow at you know 4 PM can we get together beforehand and let's.
That helps us out a time when you when you come in you know fine tech ops early and say I have a some unique request but we need to work out,
Yeah I'm sorry was that director snow Thursday.
[47:28] I said please don't give us a thumb drive 2 minutes before the panel and expect us to be able to play audio off of it,
You know, we don't have laptops lan around. Yeah.
Be flexible and patient just like anything for for dragon that's probably the best thing you can do for take outs because they've got.
I have seen this like something will break in a room, right? Maybe the, for whatever reason, the the board stops working or or a microphone goes out in your short microphones or whatever you need it AV that you didn't know you need before.
Or you need a screen and nobody told you until 30 minutes before a pan.
[48:23] So what are some of the other other kind of things that you wind up having to do in the middle of of Con a Miller show.
[48:32] Figure out the middle of the show like that? Yeah, I mean, what are some of the other other thing, where are you the responsibilities during the show?
We recognize I mean we recognize that the track directors don't always have all the information or always have the latest information and I totally understand the respect that and we work very hard to try to meet,
Make those things happen again that's why I say the earlier you know about it and can tell us the the,
The other side of that is is I mean we do have.
We do have kind of an extra stash of equipment to accommodate some of that to a degree. Yeah, but I mean we have,
We know, we know we're always going to have random requests. Yes. We can all, we can't always accommodate those random requests because we may not have equipment available to do that,
That equipment may already be deployed somewhere else because somebody else got their 30 minutes earlier or we had something,
So
And you guys are wonderful with that. You if it can be done, you guys will do your best to do,
Don't try to say this bothers me when I walk over it.
Learn to just train yourself to not if you're gonna always be in that ballroom and you know you're gonna trip there just train yourself to walk over it I have done it for 20 plus years.
[50:02] And it's big and who knows what their reason is but it's not my reason to move it,
Cuz I've seen people try to do that like well this tapes and no it's not. That tape is not in your way. It's on the tape.
It's like talking to 2 year old sometimes.
I think the other thing I did wanna ask you guys though is yeah you
I just like mini attract director and many other people have come and gone okay I'm really really sorry,
And the basic thing I've always had I've gone in and Jason has seen me and I've gone.
I swear I didn't know
If she, if something comes up, do it that way and remember, it's gone. Try to, you know, not be a jerk and just,
Go with the flow and ride with the Todd it's okay we're gonna do the best we can.
[51:08] Yeah. And the contact up. Okay. Yeah. I hear this all the time. Yeah.
But we've already heard Regina talk about the dead dog party which is for volunteers if you wanna have that fun you gotta volunteer and put yours in but.
What do you all have to do before you in tech ops are allowed to go and.
[51:38] Yeah. So, remember that that load-in thing that we do that we usually.
[51:50] Hey,
Every piece of equipment that we put in everyone of these spaces untaped from the floor broken back down into its components put all the cables back in the boxes get it all loaded under trucks,
Get the trucks under the doctor start with and then get it out,
The hotel get it back to where it belongs unload that truck and have the truck come back so we can load it up again.
What,
There is often somebody waiting to set up these rooms.
[52:38] Dragon Con ends it.
They're putting something new in there because Atlanta's a big convention city and we're getting we're not as huge as it was but,
Yeah.
Our load out has been hindered by the the teams or or groups that were in our spaces that we're getting out and we have to wait for them to get out before we can come in,
So, I mean, you know, when we talk about,
We essentially have to talk about loading and setting up five hotels in a, you know, in a two and a half day window before we go live on Thursday afternoon. I mean, that's it's still a lot of stuff to to set up even just a net time.
There's a whole lot and yeah.
[53:43] We rewrap the cables. Oh, really? Okay. Not that. Not over here. No, no, no, no, wrong way. No, no, no. That's the wrong way. How do you do that? That's the wrong way. Okay, how you don't know?
Yeah, don't don't do that. Listen to that for yourself either.
Hey,
When you drop the cable on the floor it basically doesn't tangle itself so you can you could just throw a cable across the room and it'll go out straight it won't it won't make enough.
[54:20] I am looking this up now how to properly,
There it is.
I didn't want to do that. I just wanna watch. I know. I just wanna know for my Christmas lights. I'm just trying to figure out for that and.
There is their heart folks I have now already I think I'm counting like 35.
Then more.
That's one way.
So, yeah.
And it'll just end up in a big knot.
Okay. Well, I've been doing it wrong forever. So, good to know. John, we don't need to see the video.
[55:39] There we go. There we go. And then,
There and then there,
I said tables didn't I? Sure.
I've already said other things. Because otherwise,
Alright. What's the most.
There's so many that are tied.
[56:24] I don't know it's,
You got, you know, we have to get the stage built. So, we have to have somebody deliver all the stage pieces and put all the stage together. We have to have, you know, the crews that are coming in that are hanging the lights and the projection screens and things like that so they can get all the stuff up in the air that we have to, you know, build,
And we have the people that are doing the pipe and drape around it all. So, we like it's just coordinating all that kind of stuff in those rooms.
And you know, all of the things that go get involved with just making that work in that room like, you,
80% of our complications are with with kinda doing setup.
[57:12] Is there anything else that.
There are,
Yeah that's it,
Yeah that's the.
[57:49] So, yeah, I'm sorry.
It is something that people are always like, when are you, you know, it's hard. So, try not to get in their way on Monday afternoon. Try not to be the person who's like, I still wanna panel. No, time to go home now.
Go home now.
Yeah cuz you said you're not full. For loading and load out.
Hang on. I can tell you in one second. Live from eventy. Yup, live live from Aventany. 187 although that is not actually correct.
Had two people messaged me today that they unfortunately have caught the plague.
Yeah and and will not be attending.
Yeah, never enough.
Yeah we currently have 187 on paper which is gonna end up being I don't know 165.
[59:19] Any of folks just to let you know,
You know I got my kids but I can help you right now.
Go and ask. I mean, you know, they sign you up. You got 15 trucks starting tomorrow.
Speaking of which how if if people do wanna volunteer or you know.
[59:57] So we have a,
There's it's pretty obvious. There's a there's a pirate cog on the on the logo so you'll find the right one.
Message us through there and that's kind of the quickest way to reach us. If you're on site and you wanna you wanna come volunteer, put in a couple of hours, even if you already bought your bag, you just like, you know, hey, I wanna see what took out is,
Combine our tech ops office in the area where in L 504505 it's behind the concierge desk on the main lobby level of the Marriott,
And that's over by Regina's area too, right?
Hey Facebook,
You can go down that way and talk. Yeah. Otherwise, you're gonna kinda block that one out.
[1:01:04] We'll we'll have Mary outside,
Okay so I just love it and I do I really wanna know somebody named Velvida and
Somebody needs to be like come volunteer with us Lee we'll we'll make your,
That's okay we have lots of rules that still that still fit for that,
I have yet to see one thing where y'all don't have to lift or bend with what you do.
You're sleeping there?
[1:01:47] I don't personally do it,
Put in put in the number,
Yeah cow knock is not a free elf just everyone else,
Huh.
We broke him. Hey, we broke him. Alright, we'll count knock. We'd like to we'd like to play games with our guests at the end of the episode. So, you should see the private chat a well, you just head over to Jackbox TV and the room code is there,
If you have another,
For the next couple of days.
Wolfman has been indoctrinated to the point that he doesn't know a life without it.
[1:02:59] If you're not, if you check out, we'd love to see your fun little name playing today when John shows it out for everybody else.
And I'm about to do that. Yeah.
On their lanyard not ribbon anymore. Lanyard. Be nice. Say thank you.
[1:03:24] Wave at wave at them.
[1:03:32] Can you hear the audio Lee?
[1:03:44] Sock. I know. I tell you man, I got cool socks too. I'm bringing them some socks. Alright, we're gonna we're gonna play set course for sci fi tonight.
Set course for sci fi. Well, we're playing.
Sure.
Don't,
Everyone is playing should get a couple of prompts into their device. Just fill out best you can. If you weren't able to get into the game,
Sorry about that. Limited number and otherwise the game will go on forever. But please join the audience and vote for your favorite in the audience.
Naomi says no really we have a ton of roles for folks at all skill levels and levels of accessibility we are more than there are more than.
[1:04:59] We are more than a couple of folks wrapping cables and turning knobs and throwing heavy things. So, there's lots of and and Matt also points,
We have a lot of different kinds of rules. So, yeah, don't think you have to be technical, don't think you have to lift heavy stuff.
I mean we're like a size by medium business so we have all kinds of roles in the middle.
But you are about the size of the company I work for right now.
Government. Yeah.
Kevin Point said I'm bringing a newbie not a dragon kind newbie but a con newbie. Oh wow. And he's volunteering with tech ops this year. Nice. So first timer end.
[1:06:02] Thanks number 12. You ruined it. I don't what was that? What was that?
[1:06:10] No. You did it. You have oh okay. Back there. You always have 11. That's all we have. 11 live is.
[1:06:21] Jeff Goldblum or sticky floor to consuite.
Jeff Goldbloom or sticky floor to con suite.
[1:06:35] Cheesy poops. I get to go get some cheesy. See?
[1:06:44] Quick blast goes to the pal family with sticky floor to consuite. I love you.
[1:06:54] How how you'd pass the time stuck on Mars for a couple of years?
[1:07:00] Lots of earthgazing or set up satellite.
[1:07:07] Set up satellite.
[1:07:14] So
[1:07:28] 86% to Gabe. Sorry Calnoc.
[1:07:37] The ninth thing you do if you had a time machine.
[1:07:48] Make misfits of science a 20 year or 20 season show.
I I said night. Oh.
[1:08:13] First thing you'd say if you made first contact aliens on behalf of earth.
You were supposed to be vaulting for.
You were supposed to be vulcans or.
[1:08:36] I'm sorry I just watched Lower Decks the other week and.
[1:08:47] And you're supposed to be bulking winds.
[1:08:53] Hey,
A personal flaw that would immediately get you kicked out of Starfleet Academy. Brutal or itchy trigger finger.
[1:09:11] Did you.
[1:09:17] And Reno ends with itchy trigger finger.
It was supposed to be brutal honesty. Oh brutalized. There you go. Yeah, the problem of this game is you can't go back and change your answer when you see it. Oh, actually.
Aliens have landed on earth the first thing they say is take me to your.
[1:09:42] The first thing alien say to you is take me to your blank,
It looks like we split the room.
I've got candy on my mind right now.
[1:10:11] Who is your little friend or hey bud you got a little something over there. Over here.
Something if your friends would say if you had an alien stuck to your face hey bud you got a little something over here or,
Those who's your little friend,
Looks like Chris one with hey bud you got a little something like,
Of scared cat noises or zap zap,
Before phew phew lasers used to make the sound zap zap zap or scared cat noises.
[1:10:59] Okay. Now, I understand what the US.
[1:11:05] Scared cat noises wins that was Gabe.
Now I understand what Zam was saying cuz there's 11 people in the audience and then someone the 12 person came into the audience,
Let's see who's winning Gabe is winning with Chris and Pal family right behind,
Welcome to round two,
Okay, so while they do that and go through some more of these.
[1:11:53] Oh, actually yes. So, earlier.
[1:11:57] Earlier Shannon Sharon excuse me said the sound for Cybers Cybertronic Spree is always great,
That has to be the most complicated show and or the symphony.
[1:12:11] A lot.
Orchestra. So, it's it's a lot of setup. We have to get and we usually don't have a lot of time to get them turned around and get them on stage and get all the mics in place and even just music stands and and instruments. It's.
[1:12:32] That's one of my favorite shows one of my favorite events at Ed Dragon Con those one thing I always try to make sure I go seeds totally worth your time.
[1:12:41] What day does it.
Came in earlier.
Gets reset several times international or south and west gets joined in split if I recall,
We're that's when we're talking about what rooms have to,
In Morgan gave us a quote on on tape from earlier $18 for a two inch with $36 for four inch with,
And that's per,
Oh my.
Unlimited breadsticks or intelligent people.
What invention will eliminate the need for government.
[1:13:52] Sierra so shut off the central team you guys are amazing.
Centennial certainly set no for me. That's why I can never find it.
Create with this ring the stargate or another lantern,
Which were then create another lantern which would then create another one. Unlimited breadsticks won the last one. Oh, and let me bread sticks. Okay.
[1:14:20] One thing Green Lantern isn't allowed to create with his ring the stargate or another lamp.
[1:14:27] Getting rid of that bad streamliner movie.
[1:14:34] That was a really good line from Deadpool though like and don't make the suit animated.
You're welcome Canada.
Something bad.
The only thing.
[1:15:04] Ah.
Do great.
[1:15:19] What humanity will evolve into after a one 1 million years?
[1:15:26] Hey portable all knowing machine that farts or.
A lot easier,
It's been a long long 50 days.
[1:16:00] How do you know your smartphone smartphone? Yeah, your smartphone. Your smartphone is plotting against you. How do you know your smartphone is plotting against you?
You.
It's a war. It's a smartphone. How do you know your smartphone is plotting against you? It's a smartphone or adds for FU which let's just put I'm assuming someone.
Mess up typing but I actually kinda like ads for FU.
[1:16:30] A funeral homes, funeral homes. Funeral home. Yeah. That's a good one. That is a good one now.
I actually thought it might be ads for flu. The quickest way to get spark mad at you.
Do the sign wrong oh and hey somebody even put in the emoji well do the sign wrong or stupidity.
[1:16:54] The quickest way to get spark padding.
[1:17:06] I think we know the correct answer. I don't know what that was for but.
[1:17:12] Hey Gabe get super quick lash.
[1:17:24] Honestly,
Bill in your own joke there.
Some pizza. Some pizza. There you go. Pizza. What was it Wolfman? What were you typing?
I was gonna go for like a breathment or something like that.
[1:18:01] Slow zombies are terrifying. Fast zombies are worse. The scariest zombies are the ones that say come give up murals.
But that one was mine. That was a good one.
Hey let's see where right now do you need to go
I'm going to send each of you a prompt that requires.
[1:18:47] Okay, well, they do that.
Again.
No, that was a question that I was actually gonna ask earlier. You guys keep typing and I'll just put it out there.
How many people.
How many accidental open mic live mic incidents have you guys witnessed? Oh. Over the years.
[1:19:24] A lot,
I don't remember any specific bed open mic issues that have happened but none that were like,
Egregiously bad. Right. They just didn't realize they turned off. They're in there. You continue talking. No, there was a really fun one that I was running audio for with Alan Tudic, Nathan, Phillien, and Marina Bakerin, Marina wasn't
There, she called, they called her on their phone.
[1:20:04] That was funny.
Brian says I I had to cut the mics once,
Kevin says one of my favorite tech ops memories was was the first year I was in Centennial. I got it right that time. For the symphony, watching a lights being run, it,
Pretty amazing.
Alright, we're back. Let's see. Three most awkward things about being a simulated by the board.
Unopened cheese and the neighbors,
The fashion sense, unopened cheese, and the neighbors or shared consciousness, shared memories, and weird implants.
[1:21:00] The unopened cheese.
Wolfman,
Oh, sorry excuse me. Three things we we should have put on the voyager golden record to really get aliens that just a community.
Or ticktock videos in real housewives,
Three things we should have put on the voyage or golden record to really get aliens that just of humanity.
And Rayna gets it with proper anatomy, bad tweets, and Beyonce.
[1:21:55] I swear that poop just burnt,
The three worlds I want to experience are.
[1:22:17] Both very good answers.
[1:22:22] Forget Westworld the three worlds I wanna experience our.
[1:22:34] Besides electronic sheep.
[1:22:50] Having friends gaming without hacks and watching dragon con live stream oh.
Live stream brother.
Having friends Game Bill Hacks and watching Dragoncon live stream wins alright final scores.
Well we don't know yet.
Gabriel's.
[1:23:41] Okay. Now, as we're leaving this, I wanna ask you to one last question.
What is something.
[1:23:57] My radio headset.
Yep alright same.
[1:24:24] Jerky and granola and dehydrated strawberries and fruit leathers and all that stuff like we have to survive so it's food.
If if we're talking more of AA general good shoes.
And I have those i have ones that are they are already in my Dragon Con Big Bag which is the one I pull out and go through and then say yep,
Number one i've got the good memory foam shoes.
John, what about you? What is the one thing you make sure you put in.
[1:25:06] Which is a portal cell phone charger.
Chris says you all can. Thanks for another great season of 50 days dragon.
I'm gonna tell you one from our intern that works here and lives here,
That's actually a very good point. Yeah. I mean. Yeah. That's,
And Zan does a reminder about water bottle. Water bottles are probably must have. Water, water, water, water, water.
My camel back sit right over here on the floor.
Well, that and I mean,
Wow.
[1:26:16] And somebody else said they make sure they bring dude wipes look that just rather funny that's a good answer look I think all I think all parties now should have a bidet so I'm ruined,
Don't forget to pack that,
Alright,
I bring flashable wipes yet save the,
There you go.
And oh Sharon does point out there are actually travel bodes
Well, there you go.
Meds, of course, yes, don't forget to pack your meds.
How I'm gonna give away so so our Canadian friends gave us a couple of limited edition Trochy things we have we have we have giveaways right.
[1:27:38] If you come up to me I only have a very limited of them so you're gonna have to catch me probably on Friday I'm not sure when they're when it when I'll see Steve Marina but.
If you come to me introduce yourself as Dwayne Johnson.
[1:27:56] That's my,
Okay, I got it. Come up and serenade me. There you go. There's your, so, so, our friends gave us, again, they're just.
They're very cool. I've seen a picture from the very cool. I haven't said, I haven't seen a person but.
Anyway.
Until next time. I got a bunch of stuff I'm gonna throw up here. I'm gonna throw up here some comments as as we're rolling the credits cuz there's a lot of stuff that people are recommending you bring.
But we do get a roll so and these guys gotta get some sleep before you know the big next couple of days without sleep.
So, until next time. We're Wolfman Calnock and Lee, this is John saying until next time. Peace.
[1:29:03] And I probably should have the thing ready to go but I don't travel the day. And there's travel there right there.
[1:29:11] That's just a picture of a water bottle.
[1:29:16] This was a production of the unique geek.
That say 133210884.
[1:29:35] Follow the uniquely on Facebook and Twitter.
[1:29:44] Music.
[1:30:01] Lee. Portable today. Hi.
I'm in a sweet to see you in a couple of days. See you in a couple of everybody. Thank you all for listening. Thank you. Cuz we wouldn't do this without you. Promise.
No, we might. Oh, no. No.