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Hitchhiker's Guide to Boston/PAX East - Updated 3/14
Rdr
RiderRegistered User regular
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Visit Our Website!
I've setup a website and the url is: http://www.hgpaxeast.com
About the Hitchhiker's Guide to PAX East
The Hitchhiker's Guide to PAX East is a guide that is easy to read about all things related to Boston and the PAX East convention. So if you're new to Boston or going to a convention then there will be a lot of information in the guide that will help make your life easier. If you're wanting to know how to travel around the city, find a cool restaurant or go do some touring it'll be in the guide. Need to know when things close and where to get a SIM card for your phone? It is all here.
Displaying the Guide
I am still coming up with ideas of how to display the guide to the masses. So far I am thinking it should come in the following formats: text, html and pdf. I plan to have a website that people can load up in a phone for easy access. If you have any good ideas let me know! This guide will only be distributed electronically as it will be changing so much that a paper copy will become out of date too quickly.
How you can contribute
If you want to contribute to a section then reply to this post or PM me. Below are sections showing who is working on them. So if you can contribute in some way or help make corrections then please speak up!
Important notes about this year's Guide
This year's guide will be basic. I imagine that when 2011 PAX East rolls around this will be a guide with some true depth!
The center of the Guide will be Hynes. I think it is safe to assume that the vast majority of attendees will be at one of the hotels <2.0 miles from Hynes. So when restaurants and bars and the like are listed it'll just include the ones within walking distance from Hynes.
Update 03/14:
I've been working on the Guide tonight. This year's guide will be basic but should have some good info for people up. The front page now has some available pages up.
PAX East 2010
Just contains a paragraph.
International Traveler's Guide
Taken from the forum thread
Tourism
25 sites/tours/etc with details info.
Community PAX Events
Picked the popular events and gave details on them. Some events have their own pages and these include:
PAX East Train Alliance
Magical Mystery Tour East
PAX Pokecrawl - Bar Crawl
PAX East Assassins
Cookie Brigade
PAX East DVD
-Had to change the colors of the legend cause of the white background on the wiki.
Suggested Handheld Games
Great Places to Eat Around Boston
Places to Eat Within A Mile of Hynes
Grocery Store, Gas Stations & Liquor Stores
Hospitals & Clinics Near Hynes
PAX Survival List
Getting from the Boston Airport to Hynes
Parking for Hynes
I've setup a website and the url is: http://www.hgpaxeast.com
About the Hitchhiker's Guide to PAX East
The Hitchhiker's Guide to PAX East is a guide that is easy to read about all things related to Boston and the PAX East convention. So if you're new to Boston or going to a convention then there will be a lot of information in the guide that will help make your life easier. If you're wanting to know how to travel around the city, find a cool restaurant or go do some touring it'll be in the guide. Need to know when things close and where to get a SIM card for your phone? It is all here.
Displaying the Guide
I am still coming up with ideas of how to display the guide to the masses. So far I am thinking it should come in the following formats: text, html and pdf. I plan to have a website that people can load up in a phone for easy access. If you have any good ideas let me know! This guide will only be distributed electronically as it will be changing so much that a paper copy will become out of date too quickly.
How you can contribute
If you want to contribute to a section then reply to this post or PM me. Below are sections showing who is working on them. So if you can contribute in some way or help make corrections then please speak up!
Important notes about this year's Guide
This year's guide will be basic. I imagine that when 2011 PAX East rolls around this will be a guide with some true depth!
The center of the Guide will be Hynes. I think it is safe to assume that the vast majority of attendees will be at one of the hotels <2.0 miles from Hynes. So when restaurants and bars and the like are listed it'll just include the ones within walking distance from Hynes.
Update 03/14:
I've been working on the Guide tonight. This year's guide will be basic but should have some good info for people up. The front page now has some available pages up.
PAX East 2010
Just contains a paragraph.
International Traveler's Guide
Taken from the forum thread
Tourism
25 sites/tours/etc with details info.
Community PAX Events
Picked the popular events and gave details on them. Some events have their own pages and these include:
PAX East Train Alliance
Magical Mystery Tour East
PAX Pokecrawl - Bar Crawl
PAX East Assassins
Cookie Brigade
PAX East DVD
-Had to change the colors of the legend cause of the white background on the wiki.
Suggested Handheld Games
Great Places to Eat Around Boston
Places to Eat Within A Mile of Hynes
Grocery Store, Gas Stations & Liquor Stores
Hospitals & Clinics Near Hynes
PAX Survival List
Getting from the Boston Airport to Hynes
Parking for Hynes
Rdr on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
Goose, I like your POI map. Might be making a few just for specific things. I have to mess around with Google Maps and see the possibilities.
Also, above is just a rough ideas of the topics I think the Guide should cover. I know some of these have been answered already but I am not able to start filling in the blanks yet. Its pretty late over here right here but rest assured this weekend things will start happening.
If you want to volunteer to maintain a chapter/topic then let me know.
Awesome map, Goose! It'd be great if you could add the bars to your map when they're listed in this guide. I'd love to be able to use this as my main map of PAX!
What do you think? ><
Goose: I was checking out your POI map and noticed that you marked Newbury Comics as not having comics. I'll just say this once: Holy shit do they have comics!
No, no they don't, not if you're into comics at all. They have a small, token area. Newbury Comics is pretty much a big Hot Topic meets Spencers, less goth and more Twilight. It has it's reasons for going there, big music selection for one, but comics really isn't one. If you want comics there are plenty of comic book shops like Comicopia and New England Comics.
ITSATRAP!
The same way MTV hasn't shown music videos in years but just now dropped the 'Music Television' from their MTV: Music Television logo. A long time ago they have may have sold comics, now they just don't feel like changing the name.
I totally agree, although they do have comics, it is far from their main focus. Now it's more about music and dvds as well as other nerdy stuff like toys and action figures. It's worth a look if you've never been before, especially seeing as there is a location a few blocks from the Hynes Convention Center, on Newbury Street. However, if you really are looking for comics, I too would second the New England Comics stores. There's one in Harvard Square if you want to go. It's a little on the small side, but it is the more stereotypical comic store with a more complete stock than Newbury Comics has.
Not really. Getting good sleep, drinking fluids throughout the day, washing yours hands after the bathroom and before eating and coughing/sneezing into your elbow are great ways to avoid getting sick and they surely are not ways to get sick.
also, this is more a hitchiker's guide to boston than it is to pax, at least that's how it feels to me
No hes right.
ways to avoid not getting sick would be ways to get sick.
Double negative.
I don't know how much of PAX itself I should cover since I don't know what to expect from PAX since I've never been and I would think that PA would have that covered pretty much themselves.
Please, if someone has ideas or things I need to add then let me know and help contribute. I highly doubt I thought of everything right away
If anyone wants me to add anything to the map just PM me. I can also make you a collaborator, I think.
EDIT: You should probably make this like a big catchall. Like, talk about the PAX East Train Alliance and link to the thread, the Super Trip (if that's happening from West to East this year) and link to their thread. The PokeCrawl and link to that. Assassins and link to that. The current exhibitor list can go in here. Just cover everything. If this is supposed to be a guide you want to give the average joe as much information as possible.
That's kind of exactly what I did.
For those who might want to drive out to the Natick Collection or hit some outlets (Wrentham, Kittery, etc) or visit some places not on the T there are traditional car rentals places and there is Zip Car. I would suggest applying at least 2 weeks in advance in case there are any issues with processing but especially if you live in another ZIP Car it's a great deal.
I totally forgot about Zip Car. We'll definitely want to gather some intel about that and have it posted.
Also, Goose, about the catch all. Ya, that is the plan. A lot of cross referencing and coverage. I think I have a free domain name I can buy from my host(I get a free domain name yearly) and I'll setup a wiki tonight. I think that is going to be the best way. And then I'll have html/text/pdf formats as well if someone wants to keep a copy on their smartphone or something.
I've registered: hgpaxeast.com
I'll get a wiki setup tonight and start tinkering and making pages and stuff and then we can fill in the blanks.
Once you get the wiki up, I make no promise to focus on one thing, since I've built a small database up, but I'll pitch in here and there.
If someone is good around a wiki and would be able to answer my questions then please let me know.
I'll try to get some of the pages up and templates and such done tonight/tomorrow so people can start filling in the blanks.
Thanks for all the help guys!
Edit:
This is what I have thus far:
I tried to make it subtle.
Thats a good start, Goose.
Late tonight I should be getting knee deep in this project.
I've been to Boston a few months ago, was my first time there and was definitely in Tourist mode. Here's what I learned and hopefully it will be good advice for Paxers who chose a hotel that is a bit out of the way.
Driving is complicated - Use public transportation if you can.
We booked at Hotel in Cambridge that was in viewing distance of the Bruin's hockey game (can't recall the name of the arena). None the less we got lost countless of times just trying to get from point A to point B. This goes for all other places we wanted to visit actually. Things got even more frustrating when we noticed we took the ramp for some bridge (yet again), meaning we would have to pay some toll (yet again). I guess it's to be expected from a city that has so much history, old street designs and all. Surely this won't be a problem for those who booked their place in walking distance, but for those who did not, I would personally opt for the public transit system. I did notice that some areas where "smoother" than others, and don't know what the Hynes is like, but for my tastes I knew that my Boston experience would be easier if I did not have to drive around so much again. The good news is that we where saved countless times by free WiFi and my iTouch, I would use it (desperately) to get our bearings straight. Free WiFi was often available in most places we where walking. A plus for Canadians who can't afford the roaming charges to use their smart phones.
Parking is tough - And not just down town
No surprise here, it's a freaking city. We had parking problems left and right, but not just downtown. If you decide to visit the campus in Cambridge you will be driving around forever until you find your spot just as well. There are public parkings of course but they tend to charge a bit much. This goes in tandem with the above suggestoin.
Free WiFi was often available
Either the "Iles sans Fil" free WiFi for all of Montreal project really sucks (...) and I need to get out more, or we where lucky/blessed to find countless free WiFi spots wherever we where. Even walking down the streets. Great if you need to get your bearing straight with your gadgets.
Cheers was actually cool
The famous "Cheers" bar is officially known as the Pub and Finch, but they do advertise as "Cheers" so you should be able to find it easily. It's more of a restaurant than it is a bar and the interior is not designed like the stage set but it is decorated / themed just the same. You are also greeted by the wood carved Indian but I have no clue if it's the same from the show. You will find typical grub here, burgers, fries, ect. The prices felt decent and tasty enough, a person could eat and have a beer for about 15$ (if memory serves, at the very least I attest it was decently priced). You can pay a bit extra an leave with a Cheer's mug. I was glad to have set foot in the place, hopefully it will be the same for you.
It lists tons of garages and rates and will even give you rates per hour/ day/ weekend. There are hundreds of garages in this city and 90% of them have cheaper weekend rates, and on Sunday meters are free. Many also have night rates for those who drive in for dinner/drinks. There are also metered lots in Cambridge and Brookline and in Brookline they're all along Beacon.
Kinda got caught up with some irl friends and sleeping in on my precious weekends.
Tonight I plan on getting all of the Tourism pages more or less finished minus the cross-referencing. Roughly 32 tour pages.
Here's an example of how they'll look: http://www.hgpaxeast.com/index.php?title=Boston_Common
Picture, paragraph explaining it(taken from wikipedia or the tour website), tour/event info(location, hours of operation, admission, tour info, website, contact info), comphrehensive directions(car/walking(if within 2 miles)/public transportation) from hynes and the 10 hotels sponsored by pax and parking.
The food and bar places will have a similar style but different info and I'll only focus on food/bar places within a 2 mile radius of Hynes itself.
For the record there are two locations for this the Original which is roughly 1.1 miles from the hynes. This is the one Frugus is referring too looks like it from the outside but inside not even close other then theme. There is also the replica not exact yet again but has a closer resemblance on the inside to what you saw on tv. so just making sure if you include it make sure you get right info. additionally pricing on most items is 10.95 or less few things are more like the Giant Norm Burger this is 16.95 (not positive but this burger i think will put your name on the norm burger hall of fame). Dimple mug is 10.95 there's also other items you can buy. theres also printable cheer bucks that can be used in both retail locations not sure if it applies to food.
That is all i know on said bar
Nice, I am looking at the website. It'll be a good source of info.
I want to edit it to show approximately where PAX is, so people know the stop.