My Trip to L.A. for E3 2014 - Day 1, Monday, June 9th

Day 1, Monday

Day 1 started early in the morning and involved a long drive down to Los Angeles for Victor and I. The desire for a box of a half dozen Krispy Kreme donuts prompted a stop along the way, as did some delicious steak sandwiches from Harris Ranch a bit later on. Our initial destination once in the L.A. vicinity was to be the airport to pick up Chad, but his flight was cancelled due to mechanical failure so we rerouted to the apartment that we would  be staying in for the next view days. Being the middle of the day, there was zero parking anywhere nearby so I wound up just running our bags in as Victor circled the block.

Now we had a bit of time to kill, so we ventured to the Farmer's Market which was filled with many tasty-looking treats. It hadn't been all that long since we each finished the second half of our exquisite steak sandwiches, so our bellies were quite uninterested in food at that moment. Otherwise I'm sure we would have given in to the deliciousness laid out before us.

Our next activity of the night was to take place at The Float Clinic in Torrance, which neither of us had ever been to before. It was still a bit early, as our appointment wasn't for another couple hours, but we headed over there anyway since we didn't know how long it would take. And it's a good thing we did because we only had like a half hour left by the time we got there. We spent our spare time visiting a nearby Target to pick up a few supplies.

At the Float Clinic, we were given the spiel about how it worked and what to expect. We had the 90 minute float package, which sounded like quite a long time to lay in the dark doing nothing, but it was a new experience so I was ready to give it a go. There were three rooms available; I picked room one which was primarily white, and Victor choose room two which had a cool dark gray brick theme going on.

Once sealed in my room, the first step was to put in the earplugs. That was a bit more challenging than I had expected, but eventually I got them both in. Then it was time to strip down and shower off using their special organic, non-scented soap to make sure nothing but my bare-ass body was brought into the float tank.

I had originally envisioned some kind of coffin-sized capsule that we would lay in and close the lid, but in reality the float tank was more like a mini swimming pool in its own room accessed through a square hole in the wall. They are about 5 feet wide, 8 feet long, and maybe 7 feet high with about 10 inches of water, so it was far from being cramped. I closed the square door and was engulfed in blackness, then laid back and surrendered to the water.

Logically, I knew I would float, yet it still took a few minutes for my body to relax and trust in the salt. And there I lay, in complete darkness, alone with my thoughts. What did I think about? I'm really not sure. I don't remember too much about what went on in my head, but it was nothing profound, that's for sure. I think there were some thoughts about TV shows. I remember a couple of jokes from The Simpsons made a brief appearance. I didn't see colors or shapes or anything, which some people experience. There was the occasional ink-blot that seems to float across my eyes, though they were always dark gray and black.

My exceptions had been for experiencing 90 minutes of boredom, which thankfully turned out to be wrong. Although I didn't have any intense reactions like some people apparently do, or even mild reactions of seeing colors and shapes, it was still a pleasant experience. It was very relaxing and really not a bad way to spend 90 minutes.

Afterwards, we headed over to the airport to pick up poor ol' Chad who had been waiting who knows how long. I don't think I'd seen him since the last time we all went to E3 together, so it was nice to catch up a bit. None of us had eaten so we stopped at BJs. Chad had a BJs card for a free cookie dessert thing, but the guy who brought it over wasn't our waiter and for some reason thought it was for a birthday. It had a candle in it and everything, so we played along.

When we got back to the apartment Victor busted out the Oculus Rift for us to try, which is this cool virtual reality headset. You put it on, then add headphones and it feels like you're actually inside the game. The first program we ran was a roller coaster which was amazing. Just trying to stand up while you're taken through the coaster run is quite a challenge. Your body tries to compensate for what it's seeing, so you end up leaning back and forward and side-to-side. It would be a simple thing to just topple over without someone there to steady you. The resolution isn't bad, but apparently the next version is going to have a higher resolution which should make it easier to experience for longer periods of time.

And that was about it for the first day of my trip to L.A. for E3.