GooCon: Siesta Key
Sarasota, Florida − October 24-26, 2008
 Aaron Shurtleff |
 Ines Sarante |
 Jeremiah Poisson |
 Kelly Lee |
 Matthew Preston |
 Scott Hardie |
 Steve West |
The following is Scott Hardie's remembrance of the event:
Thu 10pm - I nearly give myself a heart attack trying to get everything done on time. (244 goos in one day and more; what was I thinking?) Kelly & I pick up Matt at the airport. We stay up late eating tacos and catching up.
Fri 11am - Kelly had to work, so Matt & I pick up Steve at the airport. It's the third time I've met someone new from Funeratic, and somehow all three have been at airports. He was just what I imagined him to be, friendly and good-humored and at ease with us. He was also surprisingly versed in the site; I kept starting to explain old references, only to learn that he already knew about them from TC or the site history. Way to do your homework, Steve. :-)
Fri 12pm - We meet Aaron at the Linger Lodge, a weird local restaurant. The lack of grouper on the new menu (Steve had looked forward to it from the old menu online) turned into a running joke over the weekend. Steve snapped lots of pictures of the odd décor, and his camera wound up taking most of the pictures over the weekend.
Fri 2pm - The four of us stock up on drinks and snacks for the weekend, including a decorated cake for Funeratic's 12th anniversary. We head to the rental house and unload the car in the cold, wet rain. Steve is the only one of us wise enough to catch a nap that all four of us need. We cut out paper Rock Block cards, with the conversation interrupted frequently by "Cool! I didn't know [this band] was in the game!"
Fri 7pm - Kelly & Miah arrive with a PS3 and Rock Band (thanks Miah!). We play a site trivia game, with questions like What was the original name of Jackie's blog? and Who just became the first player to guess 1000 goos correctly? Everyone gets at least a few answers right, but Steve dominates the scoreboard, winning a "yo mama" comebacks notepad.
Fri 9pm - While Miah leaves to get Ines so they can eat separately, the other five of us head out to a late dinner at Patrick's. Football dominates the conversation. We're all tired and wet but glad to be together at last. On the way back, my car blows a tire; I'm very grateful for the help getting the spare in place.
Sat 12am - Finally all seven of us get together. We watch No Country for Old Men; reception is mixed. We're wiped out and head to bed.
Sat 10am - Kelly cooks a big breakfast for everyone. I finish up some code for the live goo game event. The band "Memberrank 10" is invented in Rock Band, with instruments passed around. Rock Block is played on cards now and throughout the weekend, as a competitions chart is slowly filled in.
Sat 2pm - We head to the nearby Lobster Pot for lunch. Miah & Ines are the only ones who order lobster.
Sat 4pm - Celebrity Goo Game Live at last! The game is played like Jeopardy!, with categories represented as columns on a big blue board. Gambling on daily doubles and final goos exists to shake up the dollar amounts. Ribbons go to the top three finishers each round, with bigger prizes for everyone at the end based on total dollars earned. Steve, Aaron, and Matt claim the first three ribbons. Everyone has lots of fun riffing on celebrities and writing joke answers on their dry-erase tablets when they're stumped.
Sat 9pm - We fire up the grill, with Matt & Kelly doing most of the cooking. Rock Block is played while we scarf down the food. Various people make use of the dartboard Kelly brought.
Sat 11pm - Second round of the goo game goes to Aaron, Matt, and Ines. By this point, we're all slap-happy from lack of sleep, and laughter reaches the highest mark all weekend as we crack each other up riffing on the game.
Sun 8am - Steve & I leave early to buy a new tire for my car. He provides sound advice on how to handle the site, mainly on the topic of what I should worry about and what I shouldn't. He also rightly suggests that I be more assertive about the schedule in order to keep us on track, giving me a lot more to think about in the process than he realized. We share insights about other site members (no gossip) and talk about the future of the site. I realize what will one day force the end of Celebrity Goo Game if it lasts that long: Google or some other company will create a tool that lets you supply an image on the web and it will find you other images that match that one closely, probably intended to help debunk doctored photos fed to the press. I can take photos from print sources and elsewhere not indexed by Google, but not many.
Sun 11am - After a little more RB & RB, we settle in for round three of the goo game. The final results are close, going to Matt, Aaron, and Steve. By now, Aaron has a huge lead in overall dollars and looks difficult to catch.
Sun 2pm - Miah & Ines discover that old friends are unexpectedly in town, so they politely depart for the rest of the day. The other five of us go to the Columbia Restaurant and have a great Cuban meal. A text message from Erik Bates, wishing us well, gets smiles all around the table. I unwittingly act out an old blog post, satisfying the "blogs over barbecue" event on the schedule. After we buy souvenirs for loved ones at the gift shop, Aaron gets a call from his wife, who is sick and needs his help. We're all sad to see him go, but on the drive back to the rental house, we cram in as many questions from Discuss This as we can. Many thanks to Lori Lancaster for being the only one to send in questions; they got us going. After we get back to the house, we scarf down cake, catch up on the Browns game score, and send Aaron off with consolation prizes for the games.
Sun 6pm - We play Scene It! and test our movie knowledge. I win a magic loops toy. "Discuss This" spontaneously continues as we ask each other questions that reveal unexpected things about each other. Steve asks (imo) the most revealing question, what flaw about ourselves do we most wish we could change. I knew Kelly's answer, but I was surprised at Matt's, and I learned something about Steve with his. (Sorry, we agreed not to share. What happens at GooCon stays at GooCon.)
Sun 8pm - The final round of the goo game has three players instead of six, so everybody gets a ribbon. Matt finishes ahead of Steve and Kelly. The big winner turns out to be Steve, who earns just enough to pass Aaron's total score and become the overall winner, taking home a trophy for his effort. The rest of the prizes are classic toys like a ball and paddle, a yo-yo, a tiny plastic orchestra, Gumby, a slide whistle, and more.
Sun 11pm - We lack a DVD player to watch another movie and too many people are gone to play another game, so we cook up leftovers and settle into an unwinding & cleaning period. Rock Block prizes are given out: Steve finishes one victory ahead of me for the overall highest score, taking home Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in a 25-CD set compiled by Kelly in a metal case. Other prizes include Kiss and Elvis puzzle cubes, a Hard Rock Cafe teddy bear, an Ozzy Osbourne vampire model car, and more. Steve turns in for the night, and the other three of us are about to do the same when Miah & Ines return to say goodbye and thanks for a great weekend.
Mon 8am - I take Steve to the airport, then Kelly & I take Matt to the airport. Kelly is sick and I'm exhausted, so we sleep for most of the day. The weekend is over. We're not sure when or where it will be, but we are sure that there will be another GooCon.
