www.chrisdarbro.com – Chris Darbro

07.28
Ah last night was a blast. I had a little trouble waking up this
morning. I wanted to puke a little, but my body just didnt want to
do it yet. Other than the slight wanting to puke, I had a very minimal
headache, if it could have even been called that. About 15 minutes
after waking up, I started to realize how lucky I was to be sitting
there awake, much less feeling as good as I was. I easily put back a
minumum of $250+ worth of drinks last night. I shouldnt be here, hell,
I should be in a hospital or something, or worse. This measly half
hangover was a very very small price to pay for last night. Anyway, I
tried to get down a little bit of water and headed downstairs. It was
the second day of briefings, also the last day of blackhat completely.
This meant we’d be a little busy today packing things up and such.
About 15 minutes after heading downstairs the morning duties were taken
care of, and my stomach it seemed was ready to start getting ready of
any evidence from last night. I took advantage of our short break and
headed back up to my room where I spent about 15 minutes taking care
of that and cleaning myself back up to head downstairs. The headache
got a little worse at this point, but I kept reminding myself how much
worse off I could have been. The rest of the morning and part of the
afternoon were mostly spent packing things up to take to the other
hotel for defcon. About 3pm or so Neil got a call from frazier at the
other hotel saying he needed some more help down there, so he sent me,
which worked out because I was ready to get out of caesars and see
and help with everything at the other one, that and although I’d be more
busier at the other hotel, i’d have less lifting and misc manual labor
to do, which I really wasnt able to do at my full capacity right now
anyway. Got all my things together, hopped a taxi across town and after
some minor problems finally got into my room and got changed to go help
out. From this point on I spent from about 3:30 to about 8:30 working
the defcon swag store/booth, which was fun because I got to say hi to
a lot of people I hadnt seen in a year as they came to check out the
booth and buy things. Nicole showed up at about 6 or 7, which of course
put a smile on my face. I talked to her for a few minutes then got back
to work. After that I spent a couple hours wondering about, visiting
with people, and headed across town to the VIP party at Club Pure at
Caesars Palace. I met Neil and krissy and the rest of the gang that
had showed up there. It was a decent little party, though I think
it seemed kind of tame being that pure is supposed to be the hottest
club in the U.S. right now. Anyway, that ended at 11 or so, and as we
were leaving I remembered we were right next to the pussycat dolls
lounge, and I got a little bummed out that I didnt get to see their
show like I had planned to. It was right then that we were stopped, so
that one of the pussycat dolls could leave the dressing room and get
past us to the side/back entrance of the pussycat dolls lounge. I may
have not gotten to see the show I came to vegas to see, but the show
my eyes got standing 2 ft away from that pussycat doll as scantilly
clad as she was was enough for me Scratch that one off the list.
I later headed with some friends to a party down the street at club
down the street called tangerine. Their security are big jerks about
letting most people in. Luckily we got in after not too long, though
once I was inside it seemed pretty lame. Some girls giving table dances,
and everyone being pretty fake. I just wasnt feeling it at all, so I
left after about 15 minutes and went back across town to catch some
sleep. Back at the hotel I bumped into Patrick Norton, who’s a favorite
tech journalist of mine, who I’ve gotten to know kinda well the past
couple years, so I went and hung out with him in the bar for a couple
hours. Conversation was good, talked about life, jobs, friends, family,
and of course, a lot of tech/geek stuff. It was a fun time. I then
headed back to my room, and promptly passed out so I could be up to
help with the store again in the morning.

07.29

Ahhh It has begun. The first day of Defcon 13. I rolled out of bed and
perdied myself up to go help get the store going. I was a bit shocked
when I got there and saw that the space we had to use for the store was
half of what we had last night. I knew today was gonna be interesting.
Other than nate, being the saint that he is, I probably spent the 2nd
most longest amount of time working the store that day. It was a good
day, good sales, albeit there was much box hopping due to our very small
space. I had also noticed last night that one of the shirts for sale had
the slogan I came up with emblazoned on the back. I was totally stoked,
but even cooler was the fact that this shirt was one of the best selling
item’s. People thought it was a kick-ass slogan. For those that are
curious as to what it said, here’s the direct quote:
“def•con (dehf-cahn) n. 1.A tactical diversion by hackers to distract
a large group of feds for a weekend.”
yeah, it rocked. At one point nicole stopped by the booth and we
chatted for a little bit, she got a 20% discount on one of my shirts
After the work at the swag booth was done that night, I headed back to
my room to change, stopped by the dunk tank for a while to talk to
some of the staff who seemed a bit hard up for some extra help because
they’d been working long shifts at it all day. Got to my room and changed
in to some non-uniformish clothes, and headed to the tent where
tonight’s hacker jeopardy was being held. About 10 minutes into the
game some moron pulled the power to the tent out back. After about
10 minutes more all was well again and things continued.It was a fun
night and went rather well. Although unknown to many, during this whole
event while everyone was out in the tent, the ATF had arrived in the
front of the hotel, and had arrested the hotel manager for selling
tobacco to minors. At this point there wasnt really any hotel staff
running the hotel, and it was pretty much being run by the defcon
goons/staff. Oddly enough, most of them were drunk by this time.
After Hacker Jeopardy was over I was recruited to help get/move
people out of the tent for the night so it could be cleaned and taken
care of. Right after that we walked out and the ambulance showed up.
That’s the great thing about defcon, the adventures and antics never
sleep. Someone had passed out and or had alcohol poisoning in the hotel
lobby and they needed goons to come help keep gawkers and the rest of
the curious out of the area from being in the way, and people to keep
the doors open for the paramedic’s and such, etc. So I went and helped
with that for a while and then was told I was welcome to go head to
sleep or whatever, but If I could stay up and help keep eyes on things
it would be appreciated, I figured why not and stayed up a few hours
longer. I felt better knowing I was around and awake to see/help
someone out if they needed it than to not be and risk hearing about
something bad in the morning that could have been avoided. About 4am
or so things had tamed out and gotten down to a quiet calm, so I
headed to sleep, I was beat.

07.30
I woke at roughly 10 or 11. I had today and tomorrow free to do what
I wanted with, but I felt kinda bad for the guys at the dunk tank, so
I went and checked out some things and then went over to the dunk tank
just before 12 and let em know I wanted to help out and relieve someone
from their shift if it was needed. I stayed there till about 6:30 or
7pm or so, and after called nicole to see what she was up to and see if
she was hungry. She was coming back from fry’s electronics and hadnt
had any dinner and was hungry as well, so we cleaned ourselves up and
decided to walk down to this place that neil had recommended. We had
never been so we werent entirely sure where it was, but the walk and
each others company was more fun at that time anyway. On our walk we
heard a honk and an SUV pulled up. It turned out to be Krissy and
Annie, who’d come down to help out, with dave in the back seat. They
offered to give us a ride, so we took em up on it. We later ended up
at the restaurant, which was pretty cool. Kind of islandish, it had
a great atmosphere, and best of all, it wasnt too loud, which is what
we were looking for. There was 2 really good items on the menu that
we were both eyeing, so we decided to order both and split them. We
spent the next couple hours eating, drinking corona’s, and talking
about just about anything you could think of. It was a great time. We
stayed till close and then decided to head back to the hotel. When we
got back all the saturday night parties were going in full force, but
we decided to enjoy some of the quiet and just take a walk. We walked
around the hotel and spent a bit of time out back, looking out across
a field towards the airport, watching the world and talking more.
After that we decided to walk around the hotel some more, and while
doing that, we came across a little toad heading towards the party
areas.. We knew if he’d made it much farther he wasnt gonna survive
the night. So through our team effort we were able to catch him, and
held him in our hands while looking for somewhere safe for him. We
looked pretty funny, walking around holding both of our hands together
in a loose ball between us, when I heard someone say my name. My heart
sunk a little because I realized how funny this looked and I was
wondering who saw us. It was my friend sketchcow, packing some stuff
into his rental car out back. Try as we did, we eventually explained
the awkward situation to him, which was pretty funny, and then
went on our way. we eventually found a safe field for him and sent
the little toad on his way. We hung out some more on some high up
hidden away stairs that overlooked the top of the hotel, and continued
to talk quite a bit more. We’d known about half of each other’s life
stories at this point. haha Anyway sometime after 4am things were
winding down, and she was ready to head back to her hotel across the
street..

07.31

I asked her if I could walk her back to her room, and she accepted,
so we headed back that way. At the hotel we decided to check out
the pool there that she had been telling me about. We sat down and
stuck our legs in the water and just sat there talking more. At one
point out of nowhere she just decided to hop in the pool, all
clothes on and everything. Her spontaneity brought a smile to my
face, and I let her pull me in with her as well. There we were,
dancing in the pool together in the dark at 5am. The conversation,
the mood, the setting, it was all amazing. We hid away in this rock
cave/mini grotto that was built into the pool as the sun started to
come out. It was about this time that things heated up even more,
and hands wandered, and we eventually shared our first kiss. It was
great! hehe. At about 8am we decided our pool fun was over, but our
fun with each other was not. So we went back to our rooms and
changed into some dry clothes, and agreed to meet for breakfast at
the hard rock hotel in 30 minutes. We met and shared a booth and
shared a very delicious breakfast, and then later headed back to her
hotel room, where we were both very worn out and decided to pass out
together and get some sleep on her very comfy bed, away from the
other hotel and all the noise and things. When we later awoke, I
asked her what time it was. She looked at the clock and laughed.
I knew this couldnt have been good. She said ‘you really wanna know?’,
eh, I might not have wanted to, but sure. She told me it was 8pm.
whoa. I almost jumped out of the bed. I had missed the rest of defcon,
as well as the awards ceremonies and beginnings of after parties
and such. wow. *sigh* not much that could be done now. we got up
and headed back to the hotel defcon was at, talked to a few people
and decided we were hungry, so we hopped a taxi to the In-N-Out on
the other side of town.Yes! finally some in n out! I hadnt had any
for about a year (since vegas last year) and had a huge craving for
it. After dinner we decided to skip a taxi and walk back instead.
She had already missed her plane home, so we stopped while walking
so she could call the airport and reschedule her flight for the
morning. We then continued to walk around the strip and check out some
of the various casinos and things. We then walked down towards caesars
palace and went to this karaoke bar across the street from it, and
watched people sing and just chill out. It was fun. At about 1am
we decided to head back to the hotel and started walking. When we
got back to her room we hung out there for a while and then slept.
In the morning we got up and hung out a little, said our goodbye’s
as she headed off to the airport and I back to the hotel, to pack
my things and help get things packed up from defcon. That was a blast,
we ended up wrapping neil in shrink wrap at one point, it was hilarious.
When we were done we still had a good 5 hours+ til our plane, so we
went across the street and had some food. after that most everyone I
was with was getting a bit cranky about having so much time till the
flight and having nothing to do. I really wasnt up for listening to it,
I generally try to make the best of a bad situation most times, or just
deal with it if it’s not a big deal, so when they decided they were
gonna head to the airport early, I decided to stay behind and hang out
with neil and nate in their room and watch some tv with them for a
while. It was time to fly out, so I headed out for that, hopped on my
plane, and went home, another year of vegas in the bag. It was
DEFINATELY a birthday/vacation to remember.