This Friday, April 22nd!

Groove Gravy in collaboration with Mekanic and Magnify Music invites you to a night celebrating the release of The HighEnd Sound: Urban Lounge Supreme...


Come celebrate with Rudy "HighEnd" Mangual, the release of his first *official* album, The HighEnd Sound on Groove Gravy Records! Spread the word!!!

Where:
The Overlook
Los Angeles
1745 North Vermont Ave
(Just North of Hollywood Blvd./Prospect across the street from The Dresden.)



FREE with RSVP
$5 without

When:
April 22nd
9pm - 10pm: The HighEnd Sound CD will be spinning in the lounge for your listening pleasure.

10pm - 2am: Tony Watson, DJ Rain and special guests will be spinning underground grooves all night long.



Parking
You can park at the Bank of America lot for $3.00 (Secured) or
use the Valet at Electric Lotus. The Dresden also offers parking
for $2.50. Plenty of street parking as well.

MTA
Bus lines 181, 183, 204. There is also a Metro station 1 block south
on Sunset Blvd. Visit www.mta.net to plan your trip.

Taxi *
LA's Finest Taxi 323/661-7979
Northwest Taxi 323/463-0303
Z Taxi Cab 323/345-3456
Central Taxi Cab 213/663-9998

PS: Been listening to Bloc Party! They're fuckin album ROCKS! So good. Franz Ferdinand guys put them on, but theyre WAY better than Frazn in my opinion. Drummer is awesome. Go Brits! Go Mike!

OK, maybe NO board games is kind of extreme. But long-ass multiplayer games? I wish, then we'd be doing something as a group at least. I actually think the opposite is true, it's rare that we play anything substantial as a group at the cons these days.

JON: Let's play my awesome new German strategy game! We move around colored bits of wood for no reason. Also, we backstab each other.
ERIC: How about my new WWII game? This one has NAZIS in it!

Everybody falls in their own place along the blocks of wood/don't cross the Nazis spectrum but my point is that any two or three of us can figure out something to do but finding something for everyone is impossible. But everybody likes role-playing games and it's been a long-ass time since we played any! So I just thought I'd throw it out there.

Maybe it's not the board games so much, but just that I miss role-playing with you guys.

Update: something weird that happened yesterday that I just thought of

I was at an empty bus stop yesterday, leaning against the pole, when this guy and his friend come up to the stop and start chatting to each other. The first guy stands, completely casually, seriously less than six inches away from me. Way within my personal zone for no reason.

Anyway after a moment they leave and I see the bus coming. I stand out towards the stop and watch the bus approach for a hundred yards, and instead of stopping it just zips right by me. I got a glimpse inside the bus, and it was nowhere near full.

I decided to just walk to my destination and crossed the street. A car turning the corner just missed me, zooming maybe a foot behind my back without even slowing down.

Holy shit, I thought, what if I just turned invisible all of a sudden? I got really paranoid about it and even checked to make sure I still had a shadow.

Weird.

Update: I turned out not to be invisible. Thanks for the concerned emails though!

Awesome!

Here is the plan as it stands for Booblacon:

- Denis and I drive the truck up on Thursday night, and either stay at the hotel for an extra night (to make up for sunday night!) or stay at Jon's floor. It sounds like there is no such thing as Aaron's floor.

- Mike catches a 1pm or so flight up to Oakland (not SF, right? Aaron?) on Friday after his class ends at 12pm.

- We get him at the airport, go to Kublacon, and party like rockstars!

- Then Sunday night, Mike, Denis and I drive home, boo.

So, that is how it stands right now. I understand that there is talk of Davedefeat coming too, but probably flying, and now that Rudy is aboard, I think we might need to caravan again, which then means Rudy could drive someone up too, but I don't know if Rudy is all that keen on driving up with Davedefeat and no one else. So, that all being said, what is the plan fellas?

Also, I'm guessing I should just go ahead and get a room? We are all on board, right?

Separate Games

As much as I am all for WFRP, we can also always play separate games while all attending the same con! The two player games have been neglected over the years in favor of the long-ass multiplayer games, and that can change! We can get in some games of Axis and Allies: D-Day as well as some LotR: Confrontation, AND Ticket to Ride. And then some of us can enjoy Carcassone, while others enjoy a fine magazine, or some dealer-room time, or even enter a game with some other fools (not likely). Not the mention the most neglected game of all time: Banjo-Man Combat Fuck. So, cheers to WFRP, and also cheers to Memoir '44, Acquire and Puerto Rico!

And most cheers of all go to Anachronism right now...

Rudy, you planning on coming to Kubla? If so we need to get some caravan action going on!

Anachrnonism!

EDIT: So many typos. Too lazy to fix. Them. *sigh*

Holy shit, I won a game of Acquire!

Much as I like that game, I've never ever won it or even been close. And then whaddya know, as soon as I put up my boardgamegeek list in which I describe myself as the "Glass Joe of Acquire," I win! Awesome.

RPG Con

I propose that at KublaCon we skip the board games and play WFRP 2. It's getting harder and harder to find board games that we all like, and I know it's been a long time since I did any role-playing that wasn't pixel-based.

Back from the dead by snoo snoo

Indeed. I was captured by philipino bushwackers / extremest bin laden terrorists / Iraq grillas and severly slapped in the butt before escaping only to live again! I'm good fellas, no worries. I have a driver, a maid thanks to cheap 3rd world labor, but i traded off with comfort and my friends! what a tradeoff! woo hoo! =)

So far work has been hectic and a mad learning session and all about the factory. weee! The good thing is everyone is very helpful and informational (uh could it be that the boss is my uncle?) and I haven't encountered much barriers. So, it's all about absorbtion at this point.

Notable events:
I don't have too many things to share of worthy note, as i'm sure most of you don't want to be dulled by daily life, but recently i had a sitdown private dinner with the Senate president of the country of benin and his congressmen! It was definitely a good experience. He might run for president next year.

Work = 6 days a week, 9 hours a day. man.... doh... back to the grindstone.

i'll try to post when i can... lats!

Johnny

P.s Rudar,... that was a funny clip. I could see how a person who didn't take the time to figure out how he got killed would jump to those conclusions. Actually, that's usually the first response (mine included). Some people just never go beyond that initial thought.

UblabooblaKhan

Yeah last year it was $25 for early pre-reg, $30 for pre-reg and $40 for on site. Speaking of Kubla, David is very interested in going. I am having him call you Elzar, to try and sort out car arrangements. More than likely there is not going to be vehicular room for him so he may have to fly up, but if he is going to do that he is going to need to book a flight real soon.

Actionshots... Yeah right... Hmmm... I have been meaning to put that jazz up again. I will try and get that up soon.

Jon have you been yelling at Kimco. Try calling them some mo'a. They seemed to respond better when I was calling them a little more often. BTW your online game list was pretty funny. I liked your comments on the Talisman expansions.

jA-eL, you still alive? Any good man-Hookar stories. Did you get kidnapped by the all hot women, all the time, muslim foreigner kidnapping extremeists? If you did, three cheers to death by Snoo-Snoo.

D>M>

Pathetic.

Wow. I just woke up from a dream in which my temp agency called and offered me a part-time job, and I was the happiest man in the world.

Off to craigslist I go!

Action Shots

Where are they? I need 'em!

Booblacon

Everyone going to Boobla should pre-register by the 15th of April! They raised the prices on us to $40 pre-reg and $50 on site... yikes! Isn't that like a $15 dollar increase from last year? I can't remember.

Also, Art says he is a solid 50/50 on going, but with wife and child, I can see how abandoning them for 4 days MIGHT be difficult!

Anachronism! Play it! It's super fun! And if you want to win out of the package, without any modifications or customizations to your "deck" (5 cards total) get Leonidas! Mike killed all challengers with that pecker! He slaughtered the Amazon, Spartacus, the Ninja, Caesar, Achilles, some Norse chick that I can't remember her name, and Alexander the Great! But it is a really fun game that plays in like 3 minutes per game, so the slaughter at least wasn't too painful to sit through!

Also, Ticket to Ride: Europe is delightful! The same but different! Hooray games!

I've put most of my game collection into an online list at BoardGameGeek.com. Huzzah for unemployment free time!

Hmm, a game about picking up chicks

Well, I checked out the game Jon, but I didn't have the patience to build up my chat/strength etc enough to even get one to talk to me. (Maybe it was that attitude that resulted in my early dating failures!) Strange, and I can see how you could waste a lot of time on it - not that I've had a lot of time to waste... ever really. So the news of the moment is that Aeryk convinced to me to come to Kublacon! Actually, I was hoping something of the sort was planned, but now I'll just have to make sure I'm prepared in advance for the next week's lectures and away we go! Should be a blast - can't believe how long it has been since I've been to a con - seems like a lifetime ago really. Ok, that's all the news, I'm back to work again, and No Enron - there was no pee involved in the first lecture. Actually, yesterday's went really well.

My new favourite name (given to me by a student email yesterday):

Professor Michael

The Doom 3 Boardgame Is Really Fun

I gave it a shot tonight at my Wednesday Board Game Night. Eye-gouging pieces aside, it's great. (And the pieces looked less eye-gouging, for some reason. Moodier lighting, perhaps.) The rules aren't really that much like Space Hulk, but the gameplay has a very similar feel -- small group of jarks with limited resources against unlimited foes, etc.. But the cards and variety of marine abilities add a lot to switch up the game (each marine gets 2 random special abilities -- I was tough and fast as a mofo). Generally, the bad guy player has more mean tricks to screw over the marines, but also the marines are a lot tougher than in Space Hulk -- you have armor and hit points. Also since it's Doom you can "respawn" which makes the threat of dying a little less intense, although the bad guy scores points for killing marines so it's still something to avoid.

Great game. If I have money by the time KublaCon rolls around I'll definitely pick it up.

2D6 Scary Spyyyyders

Jon: that sounds very bad. Something along the lines of the game "Stroker" that Art discovered in his collection of pirated Commidore s/w. Man was that ever a jem, but sounds like your may take the cake for vile early teen sex humor.

Edit: Jon, how long did you play that game for? My lord it takes forever to get anywhere.

MotoByke: Good to hear that the whole lecture thing didnt lead to pools of urine and students with keys.

Anyone played the Counterstrike for half life 2? I have been playing it a bit this past couple of days pretty fun. I still get supAr pissed if I die right away and I have to sit and stew over my mistakes/misfortunes while everyone else has fun shooting stuff. I donno, I never liked the original but I guess this one doesnt get me as agro. I gotta say I suck compared to the other players. Booo...

D>M>

Immediately after reading these posts I typed "retard porn" into Google.

Now I feel ashamed.

No, I didn't find any good links either.

I've definitely been more generally productive since quitting WoW, but my mind always needs a way to slack. I've been downloading emulators lately. Been working my way through the Sega Master System classic Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap. Absolute classic. Also here is a stellar Flash video game -- Alien Hominid. Hard as a mutha, though.

I also spent a shameful amount of time playing this stupid game. It's this weird, shallow Japanese dating sim where you spend all this time wooing a girl and taking her out on dates. You increase her happiness meter by giving her boots and answering multiple-choice questions about her shopping preferences and bust size over and over again.

Anyway, one of the goals listed is "have sex with her" but given the innocuous nature of the game I figured it was just one of those things where you would see her panties or something or even a little T&A (this is Japanese after all) and then fade to black.

Nope. After taking her out on all the dates it cuts to a closeup of her bizarre anime vagina and then there's an "orgasm meter" which you press the up arrow to increase. At first I thought this meant repeatedly hit up like in Track & Field or someething but actually, it just meant hold the up arrow down for a few seconds. You see your guy's wet fingers jamming in and out for a few minutes. When the orgasm meter fills up then she spews a bunch of white liquid out of her vagina and for a few minutes you know what it is like to be Something Awful's hentai reviewer. I was bemused.

(PS How 'bout a Rico update so I can live vicariously through you? Also did you guys see Blizzard's parody of EQII's /plzza command?)

Creepy!

Yes, I think I would have found that wierd too, and agree that it's mainly the ANAL lettering that makes it so; for instance if he'd been holding a Playboy mag, you probably wouldn't have been so disturbed by the scene. Society seems to be going through a real love-hate-love relationship with that particular kind of sex... it's so strange, hearing 18 year old, g-string-popping out above the waistline girls talk about it when the idea has the same effect on me that it would seem to have on you guys, but then, can't say I've got any experience in that regard, so maybe I should just shut it.

So, two lectures down now. First was a bit flighty and disorganized, but the one just now, really good (except at the end when I got rushed by running out of time)... It's sooooo bizarre to hear the phrase 'professor Anderson' - just not me, no way. So, Aeryk, you up for getting together this weekend? I think I should have time, as my system seems to be working - just so long as you don't get slappy drunk BEFORE I get there...

Enron, sorry to hear that you're still on the temp circuit like me, but then, I guess it means we don't have any real commitment to the institution - makes taking crap a bit easier I always think.

Greetings Johnny, I've been out of it for a while - where are you and why? I second the motion that Johnny has to make after dinner speeches always now, and further it buy saying that port must always be served for the speech. Hello to everyone else too, sorry if you didn't get a specfic mentions (might make you glad to know that you appeared in my acknowledgements in the front of my thesis!

Prof. Myke.