Spelly's Official Post-DEFCON Post! (told mostly in pictures because awesome)

So that whole liveblog idea got kinda, well, messy. I guess there are reasons people liveblog political debates and not raging four-day parties in Las Vegas... Oops. Lesson: learned.

ANYway, I can't tell you everything that Tasky or Cloudy did for most of their DEFCON21 experience, but I can catch you up on all the trouble I got into. Shall we begin? I think we shall...

That's one big ole sticker, I tell ya...

Thursday August 1st began at 05:30 with a cup of coffee, a peanut butter sandwich, and a brisk walk to the train station down the street...

Breakfast of champions!

On the way to the airport, Pandora played MIA's "Paper Planes". The caffeine and anticipation were just kicking in. I took it as a good sign, so I took a selfie...

"Sometimes I think I'm sittin' on trains / every stop I get to, I'm clockin' that game."

Hanging out on the tarmac in Phoenix waiting to get to my connector wasn't as much fun, but I survived long enough to take a less amused selfie...

And a picture of the backs of all these peoples heads...

After a bit more air travel, just a little fumbling through MacCarran Airport, and a decently short cab line, I found Cloudy, and Cloudy found me a drink...

And pretzels! And maps! Oh, my!

Tasky and a couple of our Scribe Friends joined us for lunch. We found our table number to be both fortuitous and appropriate...

The answer is ESP!

And then we were off to the magical world of the Rio, our hackery home for the weekend!

Proof of Badge is proof of life, yes?

Celebrity photo op!

Team Edward!!

After we got signed in and signed on, we met up with The Bestie of the Scribes. This lady is amazing. She's a pretty big part of making BayThreat happen every year, and she's not too hard on the eyes, either. She also surprised us with a super exclusive limited run of first edition ESP shirts!

And the Scribes rejoiced!

I can't (won't) go into the details here, but we made a discovery Thursday night... If you have to go to the security desk at The Palms, you're going to feel like you've entered The Hunger Games. But don't worry. They're too ineffectual to send you to a battlefield to kill all your peers... At least, I think they are... Then again, I only saw one or two of the people from that party again... Anyway, moving on... 

"Please, sir, may I have another?"

And, finally... If the view from your hotel room when you get back from your first night in Las Vegas is any darker than this...You're doing it wrong.

At the Queercon party Friday night, I found proof of Fabulous Life and some really cool ladies (yes, both of these occur at DEFCON, I swear. Proof...)

Try to find the unicorn...

That ESP shirt is probably the best fashion decision anyone has ever made. Evar.

And then I found Waldo -- I mean, Edward -- again!

We're pretty much BFFs by now...

Saturday proved to be a lot of fun, too. I learned about information leakage and how to stalk an entire city. Then I witnessed several rounds of a giant Jenga game and got to be part of a set of human dominoes (not pictured)... 

And then my phone died, and the only available wall socket in the entire casino/hotel/conference center was in the ladies room... So I took a selfie...

Saturday night's party involved a lot of really great music (hackers have good taste), including these guys. The Sex Havers are a pop cover band from LA, but they're not just any pop cover band. Their entire set is a mashup of every song you've ever heard on the radio, and some you might've heard on TV and/or Netflix (*ahem*Dayman!*ahem*). The conjecture has been made that they choose their sets by hitting "Scan" on the radio on the way to their gigs. I believe it. Also, they're a lot of fun!

Call me... maybe?

Sunday afternoon, after attending a talk on browser caching (in which I learned y'all can all stop making fun of me for using Safari, so there!), Tasky, Dan (another Scribe Bestie. We <3 him), and I found this...

Seems legit...

We never should've trusted a box in a hallway...

What are we gonna tell his wife?

How do we tell Cloudy we died by box-of-liquor-trap? He's gonna be so mad... 

Seems it actually was a trap, or...

Couldn't help it. Sorry, not sorry.

I wanted to give this guy a high-five on principle... but I was afraid someone might actually believe that the redhead who just fell for the liquor trap was actually a federal agent...

It wouldn't be seemly.

Then, on the way to lunch and naptimes (what? Have you not been paying attention? We needed some rest) before our respective plane trips home, we pulled off one last DEFCON Op...

"I AM A GOLDEN GOD!!"

And, finally, I learned that DEFCON is not the only place with no free wall sockets except in the ladies room. I give you: MacCarran Airport...

This is becoming a habit...

And now two out of three of us are home and back to our normal plots and schemes. We miss you, Cloudy. Bring back a little sunshine and a lot of stories for us! See ya soon!

-Spelly