My second, and probably more realistic guess is they obsessively saved up all year because they have absolutely nothing else to look forward to in life.
This. There's classes of people in the US who don't really have lofty goals in life. With the nerdy people in that category, most of their life is online, not IRL, so they don't even spend money on going out to eat or spending time with friends.
They work at walmart or in warehouses lifting boxes and they live in little basement apartments. And once or twice a year, they pool their funds and splurge by going to conventions and blowing every last cent they have. Then they return home with bags full of anime girl figurines and hotel bills, ready to begin the cycle anew.
Heh, at magfest, it's groups like that that rent the retardedly expensive atrium suites in the Gaylord hotel. Like $1k/night or some shit.
If he even goes - I think it's a 50/50 shot that he blows the money before the time even comes.
Totally. But at this point I won't sell the guy short on losing and gaining that amount 3x over before the actual event. The guy just made $1,300 in 3 days.
The fact that Chris has bronycon on the mind is telling. If Chris is worried he might not be able to go, and then someone just gave him a big chunk of money for it, I think Chris will make the decision on whether or not to go very soon. Like in the next few weeks, I would imagine. (Unless things are really dire at 14BC, which they legit might be.)
So when Chris goes over his finances and does a rough estimate of the mortgage in the months coming up, he'll estimate whether or not he can go. He'll buy a ticket and he'll reserve a room. Once he crosses that threshold, then that's it; he's going, come hell or high water.
It's like when he wrecked his PS3 and moved mountains to get another one in a week. He'll make it happen.
The only thing that might screw things up is if Barb is hiding something from him about the mortgage. Like if they get an extra two (one wouldn't cut it, but two might) mortgage payments right before he's about to leave. I don't think Barb hides those things from Chris, but it's a possibility.
Also I think as far as bronyfest, Chris is overly comfortable in environments he feels at home in. He'll set up shop in game stores and fast food joints like they're extensions of his own room. In that kind of environment, I bet Chris is more outgoing than %90 of the people that would attend this thing.
Oh yeah. Chris is pretty gregarious at these things.
This meme is p much on target.
He doesn't stalk kf. He'll go to kf when an Idea Guy or someone similar says "hey chris, look at this". Or if there's some other reason he needs to get some info, like when Jessica Quinn was active.
The reason is because during the more famous sagas, he'd lurk various forums trying to figure out who's fucking with him. However there was contradictory information everywhere, and the trolls did a good enough job at finding fall guys, to the point that Chris concluded that he wasn't going to find anything illuminating by squatting on the troll haunts.
Reason I know this, is because there'd constantly be speculation on sites like /cwc/ that outright spelled out people's plans. Chris was completely ignorant of that info until we linked the specific post to him. Then he'd flip out "omg what is this???"
I have posted on here (and elsewhere) just completely openly, without filter, because I've never been that worried about Chris finding it. Back then we'd have a troll talking to Chris, and I'd more or less just post about what's going on publicly and nothing ever happened. (We left out the most damning details, but a smart person could figure out what was going on. The threads were pretty straightforward.)
Chris has been checking kf more often than he used to, but even then it's not very frequent.
I know this because Chris unblocked me on twitter a few months ago. I was confused because my twitter account has pickles and stuff on it (like, pickled cucumbers, not dongs), so it's pretty clear I'm some kind of troll. Chris said something like "OK you troll, I am giving you another chance, but do not talk to me for a whole month" and then he unbanned me. Anyway, things were cool for a few months, and I said hi to him at magfest.
Heh, well, after magfest, he suddenly blocked me again. It had taken him that long to notice who I was on kf, and that's why he blocked me. His block message was "I'm sorry [Marvin] but you are too much trollble[sic]".
Weird time to block me. I haven't trolled him in years.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
