Subject:
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San Antonio TEXLUG Meeting - June 7 & 8 (That's a Wrap)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.org.us.texlug
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Date:
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Tue, 10 Jun 2003 03:14:46 GMT
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Viewed:
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3897 times
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My Fellow (and mostly absent) TEXLUGers:
The meeting (if you can call it that) took place on schedule at the University
of Texas at San Antonio in the fairly new Business Building on the second floor.
PREFACE
I had not seen the campus since my graduation in 1995, and I didn't recognize it
at all last Saturday. In the fall of 1995, the iron framework for the Business
Building was just going up, and the Faculty & Staff slimeballs had not yet
assimilated all of parking Lot #4 in the northeast corner of the campus
(apologies, Chris...).
Now, the big turnaround/circle drive that runs past the Administration Bldg and
John Peace Library is blocked off due to construction of the parking garage, and
the very impressive Business Bldg is complete. Have to express some concern at
the lack of payphones in the place; the designers must have assumed every
student would have a cellphone by completion. But overall, very easy to access.
I parked in a 15-minute spot on both Saturday and Sunday, and I had no conflicts
with campus police (our gracious sponsor and host, Mr. McDougald, pledged to
resolve these in any event if they did occur). Naturally, I had our newest
member, Mr. Mark Bagnall, in tow, even though Mark elected not to bring any of
his own LEGO on this trip.
SATURDAY
Mark and I had spent Friday evening roleplaying our collective heads off, and
subsequently we did not arrive at UTSA until just before 11AM. Surprised were we
to walk into the 2nd-floor conference room of the Business Building to find only
Chris surrounded by the tiniest fraction of his collection (only 25 or so
massive cases in other words) and an already impressive train layout on about 12
tables; the dimensions were about 20 feet by 10 feet. Mark busied himself
digging through Chris's "Extra-Bricks" tub and turning out a few random MOCs,
while I assisted Chris in placing his many LEGO Town™ sets inside and outside
the big loop of track. We saved the engines and train cars until last, and tried
to really get into the "city-planning" aspect of putting the town sets where we
thought they should go. Chris had laid out both his road plates and the highway
plates from set #6600 in a nice fashion, and we deemed a full third of the table
the harbor section where we could set up the watercraft and marina sets. My
description doesn't do it justice; guess you HAD TO BE THERE (sorry, sorry, I
get carried away...) or have a gander at Chris' photos.
That first day, we were visited by Chris's friend Alfred and Chris' girlfriend
(can't remember her name, she was so quiet). I got to introduce Mark, Chris,
Alfred and...uh, her...to Pappasitos' Cantina with its phenomenonally slow and
overworked waitstaff and its as-famous Mexican food. Chris attempted to pay for
all of us...nice try; I do appreciate it, though. Hope you all had a good lunch
on Saturday, too...WHEREVER YOU WERE (sorry, you see what I mean, I just get
carried away...). I spent the rest of Saturday afternoon sorting my own LEGO
from the previous TEXLUG meeting in Houston and dabbling with the only MOC I
brought...my pinball machine. Chris helped me improve the launch mechanism and
suggested the LEGO Soccer launchers as a replacement...whether they have the
power to drive a 5/8-inch steel ball 13" up a 25 degree incline remains to be
seen.
SUNDAY
Mark couldn't join us since he had church that day, so it was just Chris and
myself. We did a lot of trading that day; it's amazing to me what Chris
considers trade goods; since he is mainly a set kind of collector, his
Extra-Bricks tub is chock full of goodies. All in all, he is very fair in his
trading and quite generous in the variety of parts he trades away.
We were visited by a nice family of 4 that day and their 2 and 1/2-year old and
8-year old children were fascinated...that made the whole weekend worth the
effort, in my view. The parents were very polite and asked lots of questions
about LEGO, while the kids had a great time operating Chris' train and driving
his radio-controlled car all over the room. When it came time for the nice folks
to adjourn to nearby Sea-World, the little 2 and 1/2-year old boy did not want
to leave to go see Shamu, as he had found himself a niche with Chris' LEGO; as
Chris pointed out, a future TEXLUG member.
We started packing around 2 PM, even though the dismantling of Chris big train
layout took him much less time than expected. I stopped sorting, jammed what
Ziploc bags of parts I could into the plastic tub I had brought (as well as the
now-familiar blue parts tub) and the unsorted rest went back into the bedsheet.
Chris really only needed assistance taking apart the 3D Robotics maze WHICH NO
ONE SHOWED UP TO PARTICIPATE IN BY THE WAY(sorry, everyone, sorry...) and we
loaded that onto the utility cart for the big trek across campus.
Afterwards, Chris and I said our goodbyes and that was that. We finally just
agreed to keep it fairly civilized in our posts and bite our typing tongues
(er...in a manner of speaking). However, there is no doubt that this meeting
will go on TEXLUG's short-history memoirs as "Lowest Turnout to Date".
AFTERTHOUGHTS
Well, if you've read this far, then you might as well stay for the last.
Upon reflection, I still realize that we all have obligations and lives outside
LEGO, and with that said, I must stress that the points I will make here take
that into account.
To sum it up, you all missed what could have turned out to be one HELL of a
meeting. In my opinion, the room Chris had for us ranks right next to Laura's
room at National Instruments...it was that nice. Plenty of room, plenty of
tables, plenty of chairs.
Chris really went to bat for us, and pulled a lot of strings through his job at
UTSA to nab us the place. Fortunately, Chris rebounded with all the enthusiasm
that he organized the meeting with, and as you no doubt read, he is ready to
host the Spring meeting for us at UTSA again or his new house.
As Laura has pointed out, we are a quiet group; we may be the most
non-communicative group on LUGNET. But I believe that, while it serves its
purpose as a somewhat humorous aside, it is also having a negative effect on our
ability to coordinate activities.
I mean, after all, aren't the events we organize and participate in supposed to
serve as the very heart of TEXLUG's existance? We cannot achieve these things
without regular communication. By comparison, the week-long exchange of email
before the Houston meeting was what we should be doing before every meeting. We
can let TJ off of the hook, at least; he was able to let Chris know that he
would not be here. And to be fair, I include in the exclusion model those folks
whose shining faces we have not seen for some time now: Jason Spangler and Tom
Reed are the names that come to mind; hell, even Tom said he would not make the
Houston meeting due to a bad back at the last minute. As I recall, I learned a
valuable lesson about checking email every day for a week before the meeting.
Sure enough, not a whole lot of traffic this time around.
Well, I've said my piece. I might be in Dallas for the official LEGO hoopla the
first part of July, but I might not just the same.
But I'll keep in touch.
Pat
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