BEN has 388 chronicles

1. BEN in 2009
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Jul 15 2010

   2009 indeed surprised me, just as I had thought.
   
   
   As much as I think these annual highlight reels of thought will be fun to have in the future, I had to quickly skim “BEN in 2008” before I tried to do this again, haha. It’s been more than a year since I sat down and reflected on all the adventures life has brought my way…but here we go again.
   
   
   In a year that had many amazing adventures, it was marked by a major life experience. In 2009, it’ll be hard to get any bigger than Jodie and I getting married. I’ll get back into a more chronological order of events after this, but on June 25, 2009 Jodie and I got married in West Palm Beach, Florida. After the amazing 2008 proposal story from Wine Country, the fairytale continued its magic as both our immediate families flew down to Florida for what would become the perfect destination wedding.
   
   15 of us were at the Resort at Singer Island for this momentous occasion. With a few days before and after the actual wedding ceremony, the entire family had a wonderful chance to enjoy the ocean, warm weather, and everything that comes with a great vacation. Obviously the day of the actual wedding was something I’ll never forget. The anticipation, excitement, and pure love that flowed through this experience are things Jodie and I will talk about forever.
   
   I’ll never forget the feeling I had when Jodie came around the corner for the first time, walked up the stairs, and escorted by her Dad…walked down the aisle towards me. This image is not describable in words, but pure beauty and lifelong love are a few close thoughts that come to mind. The whole ceremony in front of the ocean view, we were smiling, laughing, some scattered tears, and loving.
   
   After the outdoor wedding ceremony in perfect weather and final photos were taken on the sunset-splashed beach, we enjoyed a very nice dinner with the family. Photos can tell the story, but nothing but pure memories will bring back such a unique experience such as this!
   
   
   Along with the actual wedding, which I could keep going on about but won’t for the sake of time, lol, Jodie and I shipped off from Florida to our honeymoon in Maui, Hawaii. We ran into a traveling situation with our flight that I’m not even bring up because it was so unfortunate, stressful, and something we still plan to bring up to the court system! The main thing that matters is that we arrived in Hawaii the same day we were planning to be there…just 12 hours and $2,000 extra dollars later, haha!
   
   This honeymoon was exactly what a honeymoon should be, a perfect mix of fun, relaxation, and special moments with my new wife. Each story from Maui makes it a destination that Jodie and I will never forget.
   
   When we finally got back to Iowa as Mr. & Mrs. McDougal, we welcomed around 125 of our family/friends to Glen Oaks Golf & Country Club for a Wedding PARTY in Des Moines. This was not a reception per Jodie’s strong requests, haha. Anyways, this night was a unique chance to bring a lot of close people together. It is not every day that the McDougal family is dancing to hip hop and techno music, but everyone was having such a nice time that differences were really placed on the sidelines and people only had a great time. My brother sang and played an amazing Killers rendition on the piano for Jodie and I, we did the “First Dance” and “Father/Daughter Dance”, cut the cake, and just had a wonderful evening. After the party, a smaller group of us took a limo out to the West Glen area and partied in our wedding attire. This night ended with an abnormally awesome experience that involved Jodie, our closest friends (Paul/CJ/Matt/Meghan/Denny), and I dancing in a sweet outdoor fountain in the middle of town for over an hour. Pizza helped us conclude the night and there were even a few odd stories that happened in parallel with this night, but we’ll keep that between this event and those who experienced their own celebrations.
   
   ________________
   
   
   So with a whole year of things that affected my life in 2009, I’d have to say this wedding experience and the new life Jodie and I have started together is the main highlight. As this is the case, it doesn’t mean that our wedding was the only thing that rocked this year. Let me get us back on a chronological path here, by rewinding back to January of 2009.
   
   
   Alright, so that aforementioned video game event with BlackBerry was a total success and a great way to kick off this year. It was neat to be back in the Disney area of Orlando again, but cool to be there on business instead of a family vacation.
   
   So we hosted a neat Guitar Hero: World Tour element at BlackBerry’s 7th Annual VIP Reception at IBM Lotusphere, right? Well it was conceptualized to be a minor element of the party, but ended up being the main stage. Zach, Joe, and I went down there and did our thing. It wasn’t the largest production by any means, but it was fun, engaging for a semi-tough/hungry crowd, and professionally done. This was a 2-hour event that we were only in Disney’s Yacht Club for a matter of a few nights, haha, but still had a blast. Our new friends at Research In Motion have not reconnected for another event, but will.
   
   
   2009 was heavily affected by a global recession. “The Economy”, which felt like what everyone blamed everything for this year didn’t affect me at all. The only thing I suppose it slowed down was our company’s video game event management services. I suppose large companies don’t want to spend $10-$20K on single events when times are tough. I can see how it would almost look irresponsible and receive negative feedback, so that’s all I’ll say about the 2009 Recession…besides that I also took the opportunity to invest as much as I could during this opportunistic moment in the United States economy
   
   So even with times being tough for many around the world, I was able to continue making and being part of wild adventures all year long.
   
   After the big BlackBerry event in Disney, a small local gaming tournament, and another year working the gaming element at Children and Families of Iowa’ Kidfest, the next major story that spawned April 3rd-5th, was attending MLG Meadowlands. This was yet another chance to get to New York and I did it right again. The Major League Gaming event in New Jersey was the first Pro Circuit stop for the 2009 season, so the excitement was very high throughout the entire event. We did a neat photo shoot with Team Foxy and enjoy the entire MLG community throughout this intense weekend. I also continued to develop our company’s relationship with some great leaders in the gaming industry. MLG itself, the leader of KSI Global, and many other good business contacts were flowing through this weekend, so along with all the fun, I’m glad I was able to keep things growing for the GoG and Jet Set Studio.
   
   Although professional video gaming ruled this trip, a moment in my life that I’ll also never forget, happened this weekend in the Big Apple.
   
   Picture this if you would.
   
   You woke up over 21 hours ago, have flown to NYC, enjoyed an exciting afternoon at MLG, and now it is approaching 1:00am. What are you doing right now? You’re about to arrive at one of the most famous clubs in New York, the Pacha, to see soon-to-be-techno-legend David Guetta.
   
   Okay, so this event started at 10pm and was scheduled to rock until 8am. Oddly enough, we were over 3 hours late but arrived only a single song before the main DJ, David Guetta took the tables. Even odder, was the fact that this place was ACROSS the street from where we hosted the Massive Inc. Guitar Hero event in late 2008! I truly could not believe that in all of New York City, this place was on the same block as where we one of the best GoG events to date.
   
   
   So as we walk in Pacha NYC, the techno hit us immediately, as I anticipated what this place would be like. We stopped at the bar and I bought Natas (the KSI CEO) a round of fine vodka, which was over $25/drink, haha. This turned out to be the only drink I had all night and in the following paragraphs, you’ll hear why.
   
   
   Before long, I had decided that this night was going to be special, even if I had to spend it alone. I broke away from our group that was hanging out on one of the upper levels (overlooking the area and DJ station) and made my way to the stairs that lead into the main pit. This was right as David took over and I ended up getting stuck on the stairs as you could't move without getting violent.
   
   Eventually I made way down the stairs and decided to push (literally) towards the back center of the room so I could take this experience all in. The view of the entire pit was magnificent, but soon after dancing in that area, it was time to see what the front was all about.
   
   I admit it was not easy pushing and weaving my way to the front, but once I was there, I spend most of the evening enjoying the sound blasting into my brains, lol. Later I located Natas so he and I could enjoy the front’s pandemonium for awhile, before my body final started to shut down around 4:00am. As a techno fanatic, this was something I will never forget and I’ll forever be a fan of David Guetta and this epic place they call PACHA NYC.
   
   As we left the club, Natas and I could not find the rest of our group, so decided to walk into Times Square. This was the second time I had been in Times Square at such a late and oddly creepy hour of the night. I must say that being in one of the busiest places on earth and only having a few people around is pretty neat. It is night time, but the lights make it feel just as bright as if it were high noon!
   
   
   
   Obviously MLG Meadowlands 09 and Pacha NYC made its mark on me in April of 2009, but before long it was time for E3 in Los Angeles. I’m sorry, but this story is just as hot and I don’t even care that I say it with so much aggression! In fact, I’m going to make you go to a new page just to make you follow along…
    
   Alright, so we made it to this new page and now it’s time to share my adventured in LA. Not only is E3 always a trip that’s hard to forget, the random awesomeness that occurred in Cali this weekend was something I couldn’t have even asked for, it just happened.
   
   Things got started well for Zach and me when a friend from MLG Meadowlands and Team Foxy member picked us up at the LA airport. Amanda lived around Los Angeles and enjoyed the huge show with us all weekend. It was neat to see Zach and her experience E3 for the first time, which brought me back to my crazy experience from just a year before.
   
   So this first night in LA, Amanda drops us off pretty late to our mediocre hotel just outside of downtown LA. In the lobby, we randomly meet two guys who would eventually splash this trip with crazy. Brian was a cool podcasting professional and Sumeet was the first person I met from Dubai. With our luggage and all, we jumped right into a game-oriented discussion with Brian and Sumeet.
   
   After the first day at E3, we were of course overwhelmed, but Sumeet asked me to attend a dinner with him and his contacts with Sony and the Arabian gaming connections he worked with in Dubai. I had met this guy a single night before this invitation, but I was at E3 in Los Angeles…it was time to play.
   
   Sumeet and I took a towncar to the famous Sunset Blvd. We meet an executive from Sony, two another guys from Dubai, and a South African fellow who was now living in the states. We all got along well and it was fun to throw out some broad gaming/industry/technology questions for the group and hearing their intelligent responses. From the Sony-paid steak dinner, we all decided to walk over to a place Sumeet had heard of, called The Viper Room. I would later see the losers on “The Hills” go to this club, but this place had some fun live music and after only a single drink or two, the group was going separate ways.
   
   Sumeet and I decided to bump a few blocks away (in a cab because we had no idea where we were at) to the Villa Lounge. This was the first time I saw Sumeet in action, as we were told we could only get in if we paid for a table and drank a minimum of $400. Let’s keep in mind that is was already around midnight at this point, but we talked them down to $350 and strolled in ready to drink…because we had to! Haha. You can imagine how many interesting experiences this night ended up sharing with us, but the next night was even crazier.
   
   After another full day at E3 which was highlighted by meeting the lifetime voice of Mario, 6 guys from Infinity Ward who watched the opening Modern Warfare 2 Trailer with me, seeing DJ Hero introduced, and getting the inside scoop on Halo 3: ODST from my last scheduled appointment with Microsoft…it was time for another night with my Dubian friend, who is some sort of Prince by the way, in LA.
   
   Even with E3 2009 closing down, the LA Lakers were playing the Orlando Magic for the NBA Championship NEXT DOOR to the Orange County Convention Center! It was such a neat atmosphere, so Zach and I looked into getting tickets, haha. They were uber expensive for how little Zach and I cared about the NBA, so after a wrong turn that lead us on long and dangerous walk in the ghettos of LA, we finally made it back to the hotel.
   
   Soon after, Sumeet and I were off for the last adventure of this trip.
   
   We took another pimp towncar, but to Hollywood Blvd. this time. We strolled up the famous street (with all the golden stars on the sidewalk) and somewhat stumbled upon a club that would soon change my life, LAX. We were considering a few different places to rock the evening at, but Sumeet knew a friend from a previous night and this is where it got interesting.
   
   First this friend pushes us past the line of others waiting for the club to open. She waived each of our $20 cover changes and encouraged us to enjoy free cocktails with the bartenders, so we did. The club opened a little while later and then she brought a music promoting friend up to us. He shared the unreleased Black Eyed Peas album, The End, which is still one of my favorite albums and means something special to me because I heard it all a few days before the general public had it released. So about 30 minutes after LAX started letting people in, I realized this was going to be a unique evening.
   
   I found that I may be the only white person in this club. Now I have no problem with this, but having the entire places filled with black people was intense and we just rolled with it. After VIP treatment all night and even a very brief outing on the dangerous dance floor, we ended up in a Hummer, cruising around downtown LA looking for the after party. When we finally found it around 5am, but I had to get dropped off at the hotel, because we had to leave for the airport that same hour.
   
   You can do the blood-alcohol math and figure out I decided to skip sleeping this night and may not have been sober for that flight back to Des Moines with Zach! Lol, what a trip to LA and yet another crazy adventure at the largest video game convention in the world, E3!
   
   
   Whew, that took some time to get through those couple of big time events and even though I did these wild experiences no justice with my writing, it’ll always be something that I’ll remember.
   
   
   Speaking of things I’ll remember, as a sort of bachelor party for Matt Ross (who got married to Fallon this year) and I…Paul, Mike, Matt, and I went to Kansas City to see The Killers live at the Sandstone Amphitheater. The first night was my first time to see the Power & Light District of KC. It was a neat mall-like place in uptown Kansas City and we rocked it all night. After getting back to our hotel early, we decided the night couldn’t end without a late night trek to a shady casino, but it all worked out and everyone had a great time before the big night which followed.
   
   So after this late night at the Power & Light District, we all got up and made our way outside of Kansas City. The Sandstone Amphitheater was kind of in the middle of nowhere, but with our hotel very close to the party, we prepared to rock. With a bottle of Ciroc, Black Cherry Bombs, and new techno I had brought back from NYC flowing through the crowd of new tailgating friends, we entered this event with our minds right. As Wild Light was just finishing their set, The Killers came on and were just as amazing (yet unique) as we had all seen when The Killers played at the Val Air in Des Moines. We stood by a cool group who were also from Des Moines and enjoyed a mindless blend of perfectly crafted music outdoors.
   
   Afterwards and totally beat/satisfied, I went up to grab a new shirt from the event and actually met the entire band that opened for The Killer, Wild Light. As you might have guessed, I shared a GoG Flier with them all and had a short conversation with rockstars, haha. What a trip and I can’t wait to cross paths with The Killers again soon.
   
   
   If we were writing in pure chronological order, Jodie and I’s June wedding would come right about now, but since was that the first main highlight I shared, we’ll fast forward past the wedding. After the wedding festivities, Jodie and I moved into our new “loft-style apartment” in Downtown Des Moines. Its main windows overlook the Des Moines River and the Iowa Cubs stadium. As I predicted, the fireworks from Principal Park are amazing to watch from our living room couch and our proximity to work and everything cool downtown has been a treat. Living with a female for the first time has had its transitional challenges, but our marriage has been wonderful and even though Michel Jackson died on the day we actually got married, it’s pretty neat to have our six month wedding anniversary on Jodie’s favorite day of the year, Christmas! Alright, enough lovey dovey, haha. The next big time event that happened in 2009 was MLG Dallas 09.
   
   
   Ok, I’m starting to wonder how long this story of BEN in 2009 is going to be?!
   
   Well as I share my MLG Dallas experience, we’ll have reached late July on the calendar, so the end is near I suppose. I’ll tell you one thing though, we’re not going to get any closer with me reflecting on the document’s length anymore, so let’s dive into yet another amazing experience that revolved around video games and our growing company that is privileged to manage www.GatheringofGamers.com, shall we! Stories from MLG Dallas 09 are coming your way now.
   
   In 2008, Zach I had driven down to Dallas, Texas to experience an MLG event for ourselves. The GoG community was getting more and more involved with this elite group of gamers, and 2009 was no different. This year Zach was unable to go and it almost ruined my own plans of attending MLG Dallas 09, but like it was destine to happen, another friend stood up and wanted to join me. Instead of driving, we were able to fly this time. A direct flight with a friend from Texas waiting to pick us up was quite a bit better than a 12 hour one-way trip, haha.
   
   Then we landed in Dallas…
   
   _______________________
   
   
   So I have to admit, it’s May 22, 2010. I’m late getting this written! lol
   
   I wanted to sit down and write into this, I don’t know, adventure guide called “Why You Don’t Give Yourself Nicknames)…most recently on my 28th birthday last Wednesday?! I’m a bit late obviously, so it’s going to be harder to highlight intricate details from crazy months, days, hours, and moments. Let me tell you about MLG Dallas 09…
   
   So the friend from KSI/TXI who picked us up at the Dallas airport and his girlfriend, picked jmisel and I headed towards downtown Dallas straight from the airport. We went into downtown and landed on a neat street with restraints, clubs, and Texas favorites, haha. We choice to go simple and hit up TGI Fridays, which was easy and the MLG event DID start that afternoon!
   
   We all shared a nice meal and also a few cocktails, shots, and a few beers. Nothing crazy, but it was a fun way to catch up with Texas and then head over to the venue we’d live at for a few awesome nights.
   
   
   So we get to the MLG Dallas 09 venue…
   
   
   Sort of last minute, I was asked to be on a team for 4v4 Halo 3. Obviously I’m not taking them to the top of Main Stage or anything, haha, but we enjoyed playing Xbox Live as a team so it was a neat way to compete at an MLG event. I wish this gaming experience had more winning involved, but it doesn’t!
   
   lol, I think we lost almost as mathematically as fast as humanly possible!
   
   I had just had a nice time in downtown Dallas and as we first came into the venue, things were just getting underway and we spend the whole time catching up and saying hi to friends. When I sat down to play, every hour I put into practicing was last as I barely got on the scoreboard and had entirely too many deaths. It was an amazing eye-opener, but that was it. We got a sneaky bye to allow us to say we got to Loser’s Round 2, but we lost the first two games we played and allow the second one (against a member of Team Foxy).
   
   
   
   Luckily, we weren’t at MLG Dallas to provide the fans with the games top moves and gameplay. That was our friend’s job. No, we had fun the entire time and never thought this was an event that we wouldn’t enjoy.
   
   As I’m noticing that photos weren’t used in the first round of writings, I thought I’d add the photo resource I’m simply scrolling through and talking about! It’s a few threads/pages back to get to this time, but here:
   
   www.Video-Game-Tournaments.net
   
   I’m such an inbound whore, I’m sorry, but it’s there, so I thought I’d share
   
   So we enjoyed almost the perfect room in the main hotel at the venue. This was a meeting/party room that even had the bed going into the wall for more open room space. The nice long glass conference table would later show itself to be the perfect base for some LAN gaming within parties. We enjoyed the bar and the 50 inch HD TV didn’t hurt the view into downtown Dallas. If/When we get back to a Dallas MLG event, I’ve already called this room again! haha
   
   Anyways, we enjoyed seeing a ton of friends, spreading the GoG to new friends, and watching/playing some serious gaming. These MLG events, like I’ve shared, are awesome and a true success with live tournament organization. When I see what they put on and how they’ve connected everything so intelligently, it’s nice to know their friends and also a little bit of allies. Leaders, players, family, and MLG –related events continue to expand our network and build even more neat relationships with in this odd network of pro gamers.
   
   I raise them up and have nothing but good things to say about almost everyone within that community, so when we helped support Team Foxy again at this event, connected for a great time with the PMS Clan, met up with the DSO Clan, pro friends that seriously play on Main Stage: Kyle Elam, Walshy, Hokum, Totz, Joe Fries, FlamesworD, SK, Mazsik, and others.
   
   
   
   Along with some great amazing gaming of course, these MLG events are not complete without a good time at the event, around the city, and at evening gatherings around the venue. We hosted some awesome after-parties at MLG Dallas 09.
   
   Each night the gathering grew and thanks to my team and their friends, we rocked a 4-8 person Halo 3 LAN setup. Along with the 50 inch TV, we had a gaming haven…and oh yeah, the bar had Ciroc on the first night and Black Cherry Effen for Black Cherry Bombs on the next, lol.
   
   We kept things friendly, safe, fun, and full of gaming/techno. Along with these great parties in the GoG/TXI fueled party room, it was a neat experience to come down from hosting the second night’s party upstairs. I went down to the hotel’s central bar and sat to chat with Walshy, the Xbox Live community representative, and numerous of the MLG top executives. It was a great chance to connect over cocktails with numerous friends that I only had talked with on email or the phone. Let’s keep in mind that I had a lot of fun up at our 60+ person party for hours before these encounters, so that made for even more unique twists.
   
   The event was a great time and yet another chance to share GoG as a video game community that was committed to the entire spectrum of gaming, including the TOP level of console and even PC gaming!
   
   
   
   Alright, I’m not sure if I should have gone into that much detail, but the story was just being replayed in my mind, so I was sharing them as fast as I could type. So let’s keep moving.
   
   After coming home from MLG Dallas 09, the holidays started to arrive and we found the GoG community starting to push towards the 5,000 membership milestone. This represented a lot of hard, fun, intelligent, and responsible work…so I was ready to host and throw a neat event to celebrate. The GoG 5,000 Party.
   
   This event would be the culmination of the past two years and it was only fitting that we’d host a pre-party, ride in a limo to Cyber Ops, and then hosting a free event for 60+ people that started at 7pm and rocked until 7am! Unfortunately for you, this was held in January 2010, so you’ll have to wait for “BEN in 2010” for the full story on this mini adventure, haha
   
   
   One quick thing that I forgot to mention was the creation and three seasons we recorded for the “Community-Driven Podcast”, better known as the GoGcast. We were learning as we went, but hosting this show that had 4-14 GoG members on the line was pretty neat. It seemed like we started to gain a lot of steam with this effort, but it was a lot of work being on every show, keeping the conversation flowing, and then editing the hour long episodes each week. Like I mentioned, we developed three solid seasons with 10 episodes each. I’m sure we’ll fire this show back up again in 2010, but I’m hoping to find another host to lighten the workload.
   
   Alright, we’ve reached the end of 2009. As another amazing year came to a close, the holidays arrived as Jodie and I enjoyed our first Christmas as a married couple. Jodie is so cute during this time of the year and I got into the Christmas decorating spirit, so it was fun to have our 4th floor loft decorated to the nines. As we’d done four year in a row, we enjoyed a showing of The Nutcracker. For this year, we cruised down to a snowy Kansas City. Jodie found a beautiful room overlooking The Plaza, so we enjoyed that area of the city, ate great food, drank great wine, and enjoyed the best showing of The Nutcracker that we’d ever seen. It was a great trip and a neat way to celebrate the season.
   
   2009 was a year that was definitely highlighted by Jodie and I getting married, but David Guetta in NYC, our event with BlackBerry in Disneyland, E3 in LA, The Killers concert in Kansas City, and a few awesome pro gaming events also rounded out the awesomeness of this year!
   
   As I finally finish this chapter, it’s already in the middle of 2010, so I’ll need to focus on not letting this memoir-flavored writings slip so bad next year. In fact, maybe I should start on this great year that is 2010 right now?!
   
   
   
   …nah, I wouldn’t do that to you. BEN in 2009 is a wrap and we’ll do it again very soon…

   
   

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