Report: Spring Break '99

Written by Serun

About a month before SB '99 I just so happened to stumble across Orange Juice. I say stumble because I had only been there about once or twice before. As the text loaded up something caught my eye, it said 'American Parties'. I was instantly excited and checked out the link to Bang!. I was disappointed, seeing as how I live on the west coast, to find that it will be held on the east coast in about a year. Still I was happy that there was going to at least be an American party so I thought about maybe going next year (I'm still considering actually). When I clicked the familiar 'Back' button I noticed under Bang! another party: 'Spring Break '99'. I decided I should at least check it out, maybe it wouldn't be too far away. Anyways, I soon found by scoping the page out that Spring Break was taking place at UCSD San Diego! This was exciting because I only live about an hour away from UCSD! I wanted to go, I HAD to go. So I went.

The night before I went to the party (I went for Saturday - it had already started on Friday) I unhooked my computer and made sure everything was clean and working properly. I cleaned out my keyboard, my mouse, my monitor, and my case (wow, cookie crums and chips find their way into the strangest places!). So, I got everything packed up, filled my backpack with the equipment that would fit, and stuck a few sodas and candy bars inside too.

The next morning, I went down to UCSD with my computer nuzzled between the two front seats. When we (my father drove me) got to UCSD we weren't to sure where to go exactly but after figuring we had driven right by the street we had been looking for, we found the party place and I went inside.

I went in and set up my computer in the room where people were going to be programming / tracking / pixeling. The room was about 20x50 feet with another room of similar size connected to it by a door. There were about 30-40 people in total, which I thought was nice seeing as how I was able to see everybody that was at the party. I sat down after getting my computer working and booted into Windows quickly to watch a few intros, play a few games, and to see if I could get on the network. The network wasn't working correctly so the organizers went through and rehooked the whole network and got everybody up on it (I thought that it was very nice of them). After I was up on the network, I checked a few sites out, and booted into BeOS. I open up my little game project and programmed some of it. About forty minutes into when I started programming, a small group assembled around a computer and started watching some demos. I soon gave in, stopped programming and went to watch the demos many of which I had already seen, but a few of which I hadn't.

It was now about one o'clock and my stomach grumbled trying to persuade me to find a place to eat. I asked a few people and found an on-campus Subway restaraunt. After eating I went back to the party and played a few more games, socialized with fellow sceners, watched some intros, and programmed a bit until about 6 o'clock, an hour before the compos were to start. Everyone was becoming anxious and an organizer told everyone to upload their entries and get ready to go to the theatre where the compos were to be shown. For the next thirty minutes I talked to a few trackers and watched a game about smashing pumkins with hammers. When it was time, we all headed down to the theatre and sat down in the first few rows. The compos started and animations / gfx were shown, all of which I liked, especially the 'Final Fantasy the Movie' trailer. The music compos were held, and as the intros started I realized that I had to leave since it was nine-thirty and my father was coming to pick me up within five minutes. I asked my dad if I could stay a bit longer when he arrived and he agreed so I got to watch some intros. I left at about ten to ten-thirty and drove home.

This was my first party, and I wasn't there for the whole time, but I liked it a lot. I am going to be there for next year undoubtedly and I hope that there will be even more people next year. Btw, I have a message to send out to the organizers of the party which is:

You guys did a great job, keep up the good work, see you next year!!!

- Serun