Today was a good day, but man is it cold here in Boston. I wish I had my winter coat, but all I packed was my rain coat.

We took the T over to Cambridge this morning so Adam could go to a Microsoft event with Major Nelson. While he was there, I walked around MIT in the cold. It was actually snowing when we woke up.

Then I realized I was standing in front of the Charles Hayden Memorial Library, so I went inside to check out the science and humanities libraries of MIT.

Definitely not a book I’ve got in my library’s collection. And there’s my reflection.

Then we came back to the hotel, which is attached to the convention center where PAX East is being held. We lined up at 1pm to try and get seats for Wil Wheaton’s keynote address at 3pm.

And we made it in! He is hugely popular with this crowd, we got 2 of the last seats in the house. AND we sat together because we arrived at our row while the usher was moving people together to get more seats pen. Sweet!

And there’s Wil Wheaton. His keynote address was fabulous. I only understood about half of the references, but he is an excellent storyteller.

I went to a really great panel about planning a fundraiser for Child’s Play, a gaming charity to raise money for children’s hospitals. It was one of the best panels I’ve ever been to at any conference/convention, hands down. I got some really fantastic ideas for fundraising, and they gave tips and strategies for how to collect money, deal with the IRS, market your event, etc. I’m thinking on a much smaller scale, like maybe our Christmas party this year, but I’m really glad I made it to this panel.

Then we lucked out tonight and found out about an X Play meetup happening at a local dive bar called TC Lounge not far from the convention center. We talked to Adam Sessler for quite a while and met some great gamers, including a guy named Matt whose girlfriend has a YA lit blog. Very small world.

Here’s Adam with Adam.

And the TC Lounge is pretty cool..

Then we stumbled into a Wagamama for dinner. I had no idea there were any in the US, delicious. Now we’re getting ready for Day 2.