Preview
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRSAC Autumn Partyreport
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Written by Dr. Doom of IRIS
Ok, first of all, I was ORDERED to
write this article, it was never my
decision to do a party report. I hate
this.
Right, TRSAC then. This party has
become somewhat of a tradition around
these parts. It's hosted by a bunch
of Danish Amiga owners, users and
sceners, as well as (we assume) a
bunch of sorry PC gamers. The location
is whatever hall is available and big
enough to accommodate the fairly
impressive number of sceners who
usually attend. Sceners travel from as
far away as Norway, Sweden, Germany,
and even from the UK in order to
attend, which is quite impressive. It
features the standard compos you'd
expect from any party (even a 4ch
compo, get that, Mekka people?), and
whether you like it or not, PC sceners
are allowed inside. They are even
given a few compos, which I think is a
very decent gesture on behalf of the
organizers.
This semester the party was held in
some sports hall on Amager, a small
island east of Central Copenhagen. The
facilities (toilets, baths, etc.) were
good, in fact as good as anyone could
hope, and the hall was very big, in
fact there were plenty of tables left
unused despite the large number of
attendees (I'm not sure of the exact
number, but the impression I got was
that around 200 people showed up). In
other words the party hall itself was
very well chosen, however its location
did leave something to be desired. The
nearest pizza place was miles away,
which bugged us somewhat, and shopping
facilities of any kind were hard to
find and took a while to get to as
well. The building itself was
constructed much like a maze, with
pointless dead ends, locked doors all
around you and never-ending hallways
everywhere. So although there WAS a
cafeteria IN the building, it took
about TEN MINUTES to get there. And
when you did get there, you would turn
back immediately upon seeing the
ridiculous prices.
The party progressed without too many
unfortunate incidents, such as people
hurling on the big screen, knocking
over speakers, and so on. So in that
respect you could say it did get a bit
boring. At one point we were forced
to drive around the hall in shopping
carts to keep our spirits up.
Surprisingly enough, the organizers
didn't mind. It was nice to see
relaxed, laid-back organizing (such as
you'd see at a party like
Scenemeeting), really a breath of
fresh air when you're used to
dealing with the fascists who run The
Party in Aars. They did not, however,
allow us to enter in the wild compo.
And we had the perfect entry; it was
me, being spun around in a shopping
cart, until I got sick at 120 RPM.
Wicked, hm? Anyway, we were denied
this, and there was much relief.
The deadline for some of the compos
was a little early, since the party
was shorter than most, but on the
other hand the organizers were
reasonably flexible. They didn't come
dressed up in riot gear, they didn't
call the police the minute we opened
our mouths, and they didn't mind if
an entry was an hour or so late, so
long as they had time to enter it. We
were even told that they'd arrange
any compo as long as they received
enough entries for it. This was
impressive and again added to the
relaxed, friendly atmosphere which is
essential to a good party.
Now for the really good part and the
really bad part: drinking was allowed
but smoking was not. Any smoker knows
that a cigarette hanging casually from
the side of your mouth makes you look
twice as mature and intelligent, and
any smoking coder knows that Asm-Pro
simply doesn't work if you are not
smoking at least once every half hour.
Besides, it really disrupts everything
if you have to leave your computer
every once in a while to satisfy your
urges. So why weren't we allowed to
smoke? Well, being a civilized human
being, the first thing you do before
you light a cigarette is search for
no-smoking signs. If you see none, you
ask the people sitting next to you if
they mind, assuming you don't already
know whether or not they do. If they
don't, you go ahead. So where's the
problem?
Apparently one of the organizers had
a problem with smoke. A really old
jerk, probably a PC scener (yeah, I
know, there's no such thing, but I am
TRYING to be kind here). He wanders
the hall, telling everyone to take his
filthy habits out into the hallway.
So, we head for the hallway, find a
nice stationary ashtray (apparently
people are expected to smoke here),
and are greeted by a makeshift sign
saying "Smoking by stairs" with a hand
pointing towards the stairs. The mood
is slowly switching from annoyed
towards agitated, so we ignore the
sign (and the seemingly dead Norwegian
on the floor) and grudgingly do our
thing, all the while wondering why we
weren't allowed to do this inside the
large and well-ventilated partyplace.
This negative attitude towards
smokers really puts a damper on any
party, no matter how well organized.
I mean, if it's the smell that
bothers anyone, they should enforce
mandatory daily showers for everyone.
If it's a health issue, well,
everyone is filling up on cola, beer,
booze and junk food anyway (and
probably plain junk as well). But
never mind.
Let's not be all-negative here. The
entrance fee was reasonable, around
100 DKK which equals about 25 DM or 9
UKP for those interested. There were
no prizes on the other hand, except
painted plastic ducks, but this is as
much a good thing as it is a bad
thing. It's nice to go home with a
trophy to put on your shelf rather
than a slightly heavier wallet which
will eventually be restored to its
natural vacuum-sealed state anyway. In
addition, I gather it promotes genuine
competition and makes votefaking that
much less justified for those who are
sinister enough to do it in the first
place (hello Loonies).
The equipment was quite excellent, a
large big screen, large speakers, etc.
Sadly, the organizers didn't know how
to operate all of it. Here's a hint
guys: although the bass knob can be
turned all the way up and the treble
knob can be turned all the way down,
it doesn't have to be that way! But
whatever, it wouldn't have been so
bad if we could have avoided the
infantile Loonies with their
supposed-to-be-annoying-in-a-funny-way
Livitas music. While we're on the
topic, Leet Radio was there, playing
their gabba-hip-hop music or whatever
it was. It was ok FOR A WHILE, but
really not diverse enough to be
interesting. But then again, we in
IRIS expect scene music when we go to
a scene party. So while slightly
disappointing and annoying to us,
others may have been delighted. Who
knows?
The compos were good, though, and as
usual there was an oldsk00l compo,
which we think is a more than
excellent initiative. A hand-drawn
graphics competition was held as well,
another original idea, involving
actual pencil sketches and real
paintings, delivered physically to the
organizers, then scanned and shown on
the big screen. The usual compos
had their usual, not entirely
overwhelming number of entries, and
they were enjoyable. The HD-throwing
compo was cancelled though (much to
the dismay of Ransom/IRIS who
possesses an unusual talent for
pitching retired hardware across
football fields), but there was no
appropriate location for it anyway.
With that, we left the party and the
capital, heading for home. We were, on
the whole, satisfied, although TRSAC
Autumn was by no means the best party
ever. It ranks somewhere between "ok"
and "good" (which is not to be taken
lightly, of course). We are sure to
remember a few moments from there
when we grow old and grey. So thumbs
somewhere between up and down. Eh..