> My road to judging at gencon and teh master professorship.
>
>
> Wensdayy:
> The airport is jammed as usual in albanya nd i gte in to find out i
ahve 1 hour lrft so i sign
> ina
> nd get to teh airlines with 10 minutes to spare. I get on and get to
detroit with no probblem
> but
> them my flight ius delayed so afterw akling oiver 2 1/2 miles to get
to teh terminal im waiting
> another hour. I sit and wait at mcdonalds near by for 30 minutes and
after i eat i fiund teh
> boarding has started. I get in and get toi milwaulkee. It was easy
getting to teh hotel but teh
> fun was finding out my room was booked 3 times over and i was checked
out a day early so i check
> in.,get to the centeer and find teh lines were 3 lines long so i go to
floor 3 and find mike
> guptal.  He gets me set uop with everytghinga nd assures me that the
hiotel problem will be
> fixed.
>  I get back to teh hotel to finbd a note that yoshi went to eat and
will return.  I ate my
> dinner
> and watched tv till he returned. I greeted hgim and we rested uo till
the enxt day knowing it
> woudl be hard. I went dow to find gamers but found all late night
gaiming starts tomorrow so i
> left to go to bed. I got up and crashed.
>
> Thursday:
> I( got up after yoshin almost thgrew me from my bed.  :)    WQe got to
teh center ok and found
> mike.  Yoshi got ahead because i was still getting ready. I got in and
got teh all powerfukl dci
> judge shirt.   AIA met lizard otcv and we all now knoiw eachother so
we judge teh unlimited
> event
> for teh day.  Itw as ok.  One person has a few problems and it became
> embarresing but we calmed her downa nd things ran welkl.  The 14- went

> well too. It was my first head judging responsibility.  Te event was
> funa nd to see teh kids build decks for this was interesting ebcause
> they looked liek starter decks with a little work.  It was kinda funny

> but one kid walked in with this massive deck and tore the
> competiuition apart.  I ended that tourney with good spiurits
> The night came oput better.  I got dinner at dominoes. they have GREAT
pizza!  Trust Me!  
> I then headed to the ccg room back at teh center for a raw deal sealed

> deck event.  That was fun but hard due to i never worked with a deck
that woudl do no more then 4 d fopr anby attack.
> The trish stratus deck ran well but i lost 2-2 and was 1 win short of
8 packs. 
> I came backa nd crashjed knowiong yoshi was already aslpeep i jyust
feel in bed and was asleep
> within minutes.  The next day ran welll. We got in early and i went to
teh dealers rtoom to play
> marvel heroclix. I learmed teh game and it rocks.  I love it so much i
actually got ina few
> games
> over teh weekend.  I got a few cool figuresa nd had a blast. As teh
1:00 pm clock tolls i
> returned
> top teh tournmant fileld to await futher instuctions. I was alsked to
help run things till 5 and
> then head judge another 14- event.  I helped yoshi and lizard ruin
things till 5 and then ran
> another 14- eventa nd thgis time yoshi was there till it ended like
thursday. He was a very
> determined judge.  We got it donwe well and then i got to run a daft.
That was awesome. It took
> a
> littlke to get it organized but round 1 i forgot to set time and
angered DMTM and round 2 i
> accidently made mistake 2 which he dident like.  By round 3 ui was
ok;. At thisn point it was
> the
> top 2 so it ended ok.  I remember the klast match was a brutal one
that went to the final bell.
> I
> decided to go eat and found quizno's.  Ok food.  Badn prcing., $9 for
a sub meal. the sub was 4
> parts but coem on subway dosent charge that high.
> I went to another raw deal sealed event where this time i got a ric
flair deck.  It flopped. It
> was slowly dominent till my opponent turned teh tide and annialated me
when my reversals came at
> teh wrong time.  Next rihd it went againt trish and itw ent to teh
final bell wherehe won by a
> certain card and ik was out. I played some with my regular decka nd
one 1 and lost 4 but at teh
> end a guy helped me fix m,y deck and it worked well. I learned stay up
till 5 am and you will
> PAY
> FOR IT!!!!
>
> Saturday:
> I wokr upo and teyh clock said 1:20 pm. I ran down to teyh center and
> by teh tiem i got there iw as 1 hour late.  Mike was ok about it but
> he said dont let it haoppen again and i got to help judge teh team
> event. Itr was amjn awesome eventa nd i saw a gilr i thoufght id never

> see again.  TR_Cassidy.  It rocked.  She went witha partner to teh top
8 and lost round 1 of it.  I rememebr lizard otc and
> his somn went to teh semi's befopre losung.   The winner i didnet
hear.  I went off to judge teh
> enxt event as the event was drawing to a close. This time the room for

> touenmants shrunk so low that we were crammed into te star wars area.

> Mike went to clear out casual players to make room and i held teh
> unlimited tourney.  LOJNG but fun event,  The field was poaved wiuth
> all sorts of decks. The wijning deck was a powerhouse. I think it had
> sneasel buzz in it.  The winner was the only one undefeated.,  After
> teh round me and yoshi wwere beat. YToshinwanted to do a f7un sketch
> but noone sticked aroiund so i wentr to tyhese two girls who were
> looking for gamers.,  IO remember walikiung to this guy with a BRIGHT
blue shirt and black hair and plkaying this game called crypt which
turned out to be realllllllll fun. I had a blasta nd teh craetor let me
in on
> some more tables and i got to play a 2nd time after i was knocked out
of the tournament.   The
> 2nd
> game was dropped after many had to go to bed and i figured ophgh well.

> i thanked teh guy for letting em test out teh agme and good luck on
> it. Its a great game. The guy shook my hand and tsaid thnks. He game
> me a bosoter which was nice. I went to baron vangor torth (Raw Deal
> Co-Designer) and asked him to sign a card of mine he opormised he sign
after he was way to tired
> to signb it the night beofre.  I thanked hima nd left due to i ran
short on fiunds to enter teh
> last sealed event. I giot back to find yoshi in pain. His foot was in
major pain so he stayed in
> bed while i got him tyenol.  He rested kinda hard that night on his
injured ankle and i rested
> well. The next day we woke up early and
Sunday-Day4:
We all got up early and i got in to say hi to mike g who was happy to
see me up on time.
I talked to MTM and found out he was so buzy he cant battle and what he
said next provoked me to do this. He said: "Why battle you now? If i
make you wait then there is something to live for. if i battle you whats
left to achieve??" I went over to the klingon jail and bail and decided
to put a warrent out for MTM's arrest due to MTM was not buzy and
revenge is sweet. The guys came uo to him and you hear mike moan:
"joeeee,joeeee,why?? " Mike was brough up and called in front of the
judge. he stated: "This man has been tried for crimes against the
klingon army" "He constinly avoides battle." "He chosses weedle as his
favorite pokemon" He said do you have anything to say. All MTM could say
was uhh i dont know. They guy threw him in the cage for 5 minutes. It
was so funny. He laid down and the gueard said this is jail,Get Up!" MTM
said ohh its my first rest on the job all weekend." They made him sing
this really bad diva song and the guard said im gonan lean on this post
and watch you. You better make it good. He sang like william shatner. It
was so damm funny. After the sonbg the guard said: "it was too good".
Next 2 more prisoners were thrown in and they were all forced to sing
the barney I lve You song. It was really funny but next they had to sing
what i thought was moonlight bay and it was torture to the klingons. One
said: "Weere suppose to torture them and thier singing is torture to
us". After the final song MTM was released and as me,him and yoshi
returned he said :Now i dont think ill have time to battle you" We
returned and i decided to calm my laughter and see yoshi's pics. They
were perfect. He will have them up as soon as he can. I went back to the
exibiters hall to test out the simpsons game. For a trading card game
its fun but a tiny bit complicated. I liked it. After that i went to
play pokemon and mlb showdown. Now i know why mlb showdown is so much
fun. I decided to stand in line for the wheel of prizes. This line was
to long so after 30 minutes i left. I rember one physical challenge that
made everyone laugh hard. This guy was a packers fan and the judge was a
bears fan son the judge said as a physical challenge the guy had to
stand on top of the ad research booth and say. hi,Im from wisconsin and
i like the chicago bears". He had to do this for 5 minutes. The guy went
up there and said that but he added something. He said: Hi,im from
wisconsin and i like the chicago bears. I like to watch the bears get
beaten by the packers. Thats is why i like the chicago bears. The guy
got his packs but if it wasent for his daughter i think the judge would
of threw him off with no prizes. Next i left for the judging area and i
was to head judge the unlimited at 1. It was fun but easy because i had
much help. The event ran well and whne it ended i was relieved. At this
time we got our boxes for judging and said our goodbyes. As yoshi and
lizard otc departed i stayed for a few games. In had my fun and lost all
the games but 1 because i need to improve my grass deck. 
I left after saying goodbye to mike guptal who if you ever meet is one
of the kindest guys you will ever meet. I said my goodbyes to all the
MT''S making sure MTM was last because he was the guy ill miss the most.
Mike said good luck in college and hope to se ya in the future.
I left for the hotel and bought a dominoe's pizza. I rested till the
next day

Monday:
My way out was quick. Woke up early,got packed and was out by 11. At the
airport i was called back due to my electric toothbrush went off and the
staff thought something was wrong with my bag. going through security 2
times can be tiring. Probelm solverd easily and i got on the plane. The
ride home was ok. when i got back unpackinbg was the hardest part. The
memories will last a lifetime and the sadness will be with me for a
longgggg time.

Props to:
Wizards and Comic images. Ran their events well and both did a gidin
job. To comic images head man: Barron Vangor Toth: Thanks for everything

To wizards staff: I had a blast. Thanks for all your support.

Slops to:
Poeple who tried to make space. Too many complaints in the weekend
because not enough room. Oddly enough origins had more room then gencon
did.

Till i travel again this is FireFighter Signing off





Thanks
Joe