NC Soft: Fan Meet And Greet 2010

I'm quite of a gamer, an mmorpg gamer. Although not a very good one, I've been gaming for about 6 years. At the moment, I'm playing a game called Aion. And when I heard about NCsoft's Fan Meet and Greet in NYC, I was pretty excited.

After work today, I went across midtown to Hudson Hotel and waited online to get it (didn't know there was a line). My first impression is not that good...... The hotel was quite shady because you can barely see the entrance. I walk past it before I realize where the entrance was. When I went inside, there was a security check point that asked you for your ID (18 and over only). Apart from the normal line, there was a VIP line (you had to email or contact a gm for that....which I didn't know about until the event) and they were let in first. When I went to line up for the 'normal' line, I saw about 30 ppl online, most of them looked like students and typical gamers (if you know what I mean).

At exactly 7, we were let in and I got the following:

1. One Raffle Ticket
2. One drink voucher/ticket for a free drink


And one the table they had a variety of free items for each game from NCsoft:
But I got the following:

1. an Aion figurine (made in china i supposed)

2. Aion pc dvd-rom online software (awesome right?)

3. Aion stickers (very appropriate...don't you think?)

4. Aion laptop sticker

5. Aion Assault on Balaurea 15-day time card , Aion Energy Boost Pack

6. Limited Edition Aion Poster

7. Aion T-shirts (M size, they only had M and X-large)

8. Lineage T-shirt (was given to me from someone who won the prize of aion bookbag with t-shirts)

9. Aion key holder thingy (don't know the real name)

They gave out prizes such as
1. 4-5 Aion bookbags with couple of random t-shirts inside
2. 5-10 mouses
3. 3-5 mousepads
5. 5 awesome graphic cards

And of course I didn't win anything.

During the mingling, they had waiters serve some appetizers such as spring rolls, and little hotdog thingys and chicken fingers. They also had computers from Alienwares for players to try and they were separated from game to game by sections.

I got to meet some people who played Aion, some who didn't play anymore, some elyos and very few people that I actually know. Most of the around 200ish people there played other games....which I thought was upsetting!!!! LOL  I got to speak to two of the GMs briefly. I actually thought they would be making some announcements and have the event more like a seminar where we can ask questions and they answer.

I didn't stay for the after-party because I was tired and didn't have to get home late?

All and all, I enjoyed the event. It was better than I expected actually. Hope they come again next year.

Thanks NCsoft!

Koumpounophobia: Fear of buttons

he fear of buttons on clothing, known as button phobia or koumpounophobia, is an irrational phobia which is, perhaps surprisingly, a fairly common fear.
Most people who suffer from this phobia are convinced that they are the only ones in the world to suffer from such a strange fear, and they are often teased or taunted by others who do not understand or believe that they are telling the truth.
Irrational fears may be evoked due to traumatic happenings in early childhood, however, most people who do suffer from button phobia seem to admit that they have been afraid of buttons for as long as they can remember. For some people, the fear can also extend to all button-like objects, such as small coins, sequins and other small discs.
Types of buttons
Some people find that plastic buttons are worse than metal ones (like the ones on jeans) or that buttons with four holes are more fear or panic-inducing than those with two.
Degrees of severity
There are several degrees of severity to the phobia, ranging from cringing when others wear buttons and chosing not to wear buttons yourself to not wanting to breathe next to buttons in fear of inhaling one or washing your hands with soap for an extended period of time after any (accidental) contact with buttons. In some people, the sight of buttons may induce vomiting.
Some patients have found that hypnotherapy has been of help to overcome or make their button-suffering less severe.

source: http://dipsolect.com/koumpounophobia-fear-of-buttons/

What does this have to do with me? I have Koumpounophobia since as far as I can remember.
As a young child, I have no choice on what clothes to wear and was forced to wear clothes with all sorts of buttons. But as I grow older, I believe I've gotten even worse due to the lack of wearing buttons. The only types of buttons I wear are those with jeans. They are about the only ones I would be able to stand.

It's a button-filled world out there and I'm only limited to clothes that don't have buttons (which isn't much).
Especially now, that I'm working....... Have you ever tried to look for business casual to formal clothes that doesn't have buttons? Very rare!!!! Almost impossible. There was several instances I bought clothes slacks with buttons and had to ask my sisters to help me cut it off.

How did this irrational fear came to be? I have no idea. Why is there such a fear? We, as human beings are so weird. It isn't like other fears such as fear of heights, or fear of spiders, where there are somewhat of an explanation of why there may be a fear. That's why I've chose to keep this fear to myself. Only my family and close friends knows of this. As kids, there were even instances that my sisters try to touch me with buttons and chase me around the room.

How bad do I hate buttons? If there's a loose buttons somewhere around the house? I would throw it out using a napkin to hold it while throwing it out. If it was near food, I will not have the appetite. If I touched it by accident, I would wipe my hands on something or wash it right after. I want to kill the person who evented  buttons!!! Why can't we just use zippers?

In recent years, I've discover that there's a lot of people who also have this same fear. I'm glad I'm not the only one. XD

There's even a facebook group for it:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/kuompounophobiathe-fear-of-buttons/441529010439#!/pages/kuompounophobiathe-fear-of-buttons/441529010439?v=wall