Now you're officially a 100% San Francisco faggot. Nice work Jon. My friend has one of those, seem pretty neat. Sturdier than I imagined from the commercials. Trying to type with that booty touch-screen must take getting used to, because I couldn't write shit with it. I think there's some verizon knock-off that's part touch screen and then flips open with a little keyboard. But yeah, I'd get a iphone over that too.

thanks guys! (well,actually thanks to enron - and NOBODY else) I ended up getting the iphone and so far it is the bee's knees!

jesus enron! not only do you dispense gnarly cell phone knowledge, then you bust out the mechanic's hat! what DON'T you know!? (besides BASIC social skills you big nerd! hahaha, jk...)

| iPhone

I really like my iPhone. The WiFi is nice at home, there is no need to carry a shuffle or Nano, and the voicemail is very slick. I still am learning to make the most of it but I have no regrets. That being said, there are a few deficiencies that must likely will be addressed in the future in either software and hardware updates.

For some reason Apple is staunchly against 3rd party development and seems to be very concerned with clamping down on exploits of holes in the iPhone's software. Perhaps they are afraid of DRM circumvention or more likely they have an agreement with AT&T. Let's also not forget that the iPhone plan with AT&T is a bit pricey by comparison to a traditional telephone; however, this is typical with most smart phones using unlimited data plans. There are also rumors that Apple may be developing in house software so that they can sell it via iTunes. More gravy for Apple I guess.

The major downside to the iPhone that could easily be patched is the lack of Multimedia messages. This is a mystery to me as to why they have not implemented it. I'm sorry but I don't want to go to a website to view a multimedia message when almost all current generation cell phones have this capability.

Those downsides that would require new hardware include a move to 3G (more bandwidth but less latency as compared to Edge) communication instead of Edge. Edge is just too slow. AT&T may still release Edge2, but again this would still likely require a hardware revision. The other downside that would require a hardware refresh is the battery life. When not using the web and moderate phone usage, I can get three days or so out of a charge. However, with heavy non-WiFi cell based internet browsing, the battery life dwindles to one day or so. I have not really tested the battery life when music is used as I have been very limited in my music listening of late.

If I had a functional phone, I would wait until the next hardware refresh. If my phone crappy and I couldn't or didn't want to string it along any further, I would get an iPhone. Who knows when Apple will release the next revision. As usual they are very tight lipped about such things. Most people in the industry seem to agree with your opinion on the next release date. Apple seems to follow a fairly regular annual hardware refresh schedule in its product lines. Late 08 seems to fit this well.

Your other option is to buy a non-iPhone AT&T phone/contract now and upgrade to the iPhone later when v2 arrives. AT&T does not check if you are eligible for an upgrade as a current AT&T customer when you upgrade to the iPhone. The plan is more lucrative and the hardware is not subsidized AND you are signing a two year contract. Thus, no extra cost and no penalties for early termination. At least that is how it worked when I spoke with the AT&T during the purchase of mine.

jA-El: If the radiator that is in your car is in descent shape, it is more likely not the radiator itself but that either the pump is bad and/or the thermostat is not working properly and causing the fluid to get too hot. Check there first I would say. This is assuming that the oil system is working fine and the engine is not damaged (cracked block or bent rods).

D>M>

Well, Xmas is over at last! I'm glad Rude and Enron could make it to Ye Poope Decke this year. This was a really fun one. David seemed to think that between probate, getting whatever hideous monstrosity will be erected on the site approved, etc., the Poop Deck/Mermaid might survive another year. Let's hope so!

Ja-El: your story about the rat was gross, vivid, and hiliarious. I can exactly picture the scene in my mind. Awesome! I wish I would draw, because if I could, I would do an artist's rendering of the scene.

My phone (Skelephone II) is such a piece of shit. Half the time when somebody calls me they can't hear me, or it is as if I were yelling to them through a wind tunnel. Between Xmas money and some work rewards (nothing as good as a bonus, the company's too poor for that shit, but like some Amex gift cards and shit) I wouldn't have to spend THAT much to buy an iPhone. Some people have said that a big upgrade is on the way, which will switch from the Edge network to a faster internet network. I don't think that is coming until quite a bit later in the year however, and I really need a new phone now... any advice?

| i hackedidid my psp

holy shit, I took the solo route of modifying the slim's battery (just a simple cut of a trace line, then after software magic is done, simple pencil in said cut puts the trace back together) and it worked. but it's now 4 in the fucking morning and im so wired on my agro hax assault. The HARDEST most hair-pulling part was trying to open the fuckin battery. You basically gotta cut around the edge with a blade to kill the glue. Fuck that noise. By the end I had a method, but I was at it forEVER. Then the actual haxoring part was like 5 minutes...

| Overheating problems with my car

So my car is overheating again, but this time it seems more serious. Water jets up a little when the rad cap is off when i depress the gas switch. I overhauled the radiator, replaced the spark plugs, hoses but the problem persists. Is there a way to test the water pump? If so i'm wondering how, and then is there a difference between 1 row radiator and 2 rows? According to the company mechanic, he wants to try to replace the radiator first with a 2 row one. I'm wondering if more capacity of water would make a difference in the flow.
Actually I'm thinking it's something more serious like a bad gasket or a cracked head, which means I'll be needing a top overhaul soon... I don't see any oil in the water, but the water does get kinda fuzzy, and it's hard to tell if there's any water in the oil...

i'm pretty bummed, cuz it's not really the money, just that it's a real time hog to deal with these issues.

On the home front, I had to deal with a huge rat in the house. Rats are pretty common here and no I don't live in a jungle hut. Anyway, I tracked it down and we had a brief staredown. Then I proceeded to grab a 3 iron from my golf set and smashed his brains in one foul blow. As it's head exploded, it's blood flowed on my kitchen floor as its twitching body gave it's last movements.
Rats 0, Humans 1

Gunther fucking rocks!!!!@#%!@#$!!! He's total talent.

Nice! Most of the grad school graduates I know had to fumble around for a few months after graduation before finding something. Glad you're not in the same boat.

Here's a little after-Christmas Christmas for you guys: here.

Jorn, yeah. Looks like we're kind of stuck here for the immediate future, anyway. I had a couple of firm job offers and another nice sounding opportunity that hasn't come to fruition just yet. I applied for a position with Station Casinos in their Executive Management Program on a lark and somehow won the position out of 1000 applicants. Then, through fate or whatever, just happened to run into a company called Holiday Systems International at a job fair (where I was trying to track down a recruiter for Palms). Anyway, making a long story short, I was going to go with Station Casinos and told HSI as much because I was trying to think long term and wasn't sure what my future would be like at HSI, and not only did the Operations Director / CEO personally call me to make it clear that they wanted me badly, but he explained what his plans were for me and bumped up their starting salary offer to a level I couldn't say no to. So, I took the job at HSI after all. Now, I'm waiting on a restaurant group to either get their stuff in order here in Vegas and make me an ever better offer, or I'll work at HSI for at least the next few years and pay off some debt, if nothing else.

All in all, a pretty great Christmas! =)

Oh, and part of the benefits of me working at HSI is that I can use my position to get family and friends insanely great wholesale rates on lodging and accommodations. Last month they had a two bedroom suite at a five star Paris resort for $300 (usually $6000!)

Anyhow. I'm being paged from the Bella Dancerella dance floor. Talk to you goons laters!

Haylee was crushed under a mountain of presents this morning from Santa!

Action Team gifts are received with much glee:

Dolls from all around the world gets a small reaction

Haylee gets moderately excited about an outfit

And now, I get to listen to Bella Dancerella for the next 36-72 hours in a row.

Merry Christmas, Action Team!

Congratulations, Art! What's next? Are you going to stay in Vegas?

Cool picture by the way, you sort of look like Satan.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Haylee Madison in the Christmas spirit

Art done got gradumacated!

Here's to 2008.

| Skip-Bo, The Game Of "Fuck This Shit"

I was digging through the last of the old crap I left at my parents' place (looking for my Doomtown cards -- so far haven't found 'em) and I came across this old classic game "Skip-Bo" that somebody must have given me years ago. I decided to break it out and what a piece of shit. It's like somebody shit into a box, put it in cellophane, and made me keep in my closet for 10 years. Sometimes classic games aren't so classic. (Another example: Yahtzee. Also Yahtzee is better than Skip-Bo.)

I mean, what kind of name IS Skip-Bo? They don't explain the history of the game in the rules or anything. The best my sister and I could come up with was that the game was the work of Skip and Bo Duke (Skip Duke being a lesser-known cousin).

I also found a Playboy from 1996, a Maxim that must have been Enron's, and my old, broke-ass Dark Tower unit (death by battery acid). I wish that still worked... that game was awesome!

Definitely hope you can make it Rude! Give me a call. We'll probably be there from 3:00 on.

| hey suburbia hey suburbia hey suburbia we're in love with you!

Pandora.com made a suprisingly good punk rock station with just inputting "nofx" - only one early misstep with a blink song from that first big album eric used to be into when he lived in san diego. other than that, its fucking rocking out. (then they played MXPX soon after, so maybe i'm jinxing myself - thumbs down fagot!)

HAPPY FUCKING CHRISTMAS YOU GUYS! I know ppl will not post around the actual holiday so there goes my shoutout now. I'm at work today doing some OT so I can leave early tomorrow. I had a good time last x-mas eve with kool(jon) and the gang, so if they let me out at a reasonable time (i'm hoping NOONISH fucking cocksuckers) then I'd love to see you guys at the poop deck.

Otherwise, have a safe and sane X-Mas everyone!

| The Poop

Yeah, there is a real likelihood the Poop will not be in existence next year. Sigh... Anyway, it often does have a mix of young ones and old grits, but on Xmas Eve, we are the party and often no one else is there other than the bartender. The Meatloaf was super excited to find out we will be showing up on Xmas eve for a little pre-holiday dinner festivities. Do it!

Budweiser and piss? Yes often it does have a odor roughly as such. Part of the spirit of the sleazy dive bar action on Xmas eve. Kinda like The Champagne of Beer no? Otherwise, not so great.

D>M>

I'd heard that about the Poo Deck and Mermaid. All the more reason to come for what is probably the final year of a seven-year tradition! Put down that plate lunch and fly back from Hawaii for the day, jet-setter!

There's always been smoking there (one of their highlights is a machine that dispenses individual cigarettes -- another one is the old-school cloth towel) but I've never seen anyone younger than me there on Christmas. Actually, it's rare that there are more than two people besides our group there. Hopefully the youngsters will be too busy at home unwrapping their new Jettas and Nintendo 64s that day!

I am in Hawaii. Not to brag or nothin'...

Jon, this may be your last year to enjoy the Poop Deck. It is closing along with the Mermaid and Good Stuff. The owner of the property from whom the businesses leased, passed away. The inherited property was then sold for a pretty penny and I hear that there will be one of two businesses built in its stead: either 1) A hotel or 2) a Hard Rock Cafe! My vote would be to put your hands together, because frankly, fuck that city.

Not to be a killjoy, but I went to the Poop Deck recently and it sucked. I hadn't been there in a long while and it was full of a bunch of people who just turned 21, apparently they allow smoking there now, it smelled like stale Budwiser and piss and had absolutely no redeeming qualities to me... not even nostalgic or camp value. It will be missed by many though, just not me.

While I don't agree with Eric's complete hatred for Superbad, I only found it mildly amusing. I laughed really hard at the dicks part, but other than that, an occasional chuckle. I enjoyed Knocked Up way better. It was better scripted and just better done. Maybe it's because I already came of age, so to speak...

Happy Robot emancipation cycle!

| Happy Holidays Everyone!

Here's an update on my shit:

1. Project finished and (apparently) successful! Huzzah! I actually feel pretty good about this project (unlike some other things I've worked on) and hopefully the kids are gonna crap their pants over this one. Maybe our company's stock will even come out of the toilet! Let's hope that loud, scary, mysterious buzzing sound never happens again! :)

2. I'll be in LA and, as usual, Christmas Eve will find me at the Poop Deck. Better yet, through happy and completely random coincidence, Enron's brother is the guy working the bar this year! Craziness. Anyway, anyone who is in LA is more than welcome to come. Typically we're there from around 3-6, a lot of random people show up, it's always a good time and surprisingly full of the Christmas Spirit.

3. The special lady friend and I are hosting a New Year's party this year. I hope that a bunch of you guys can make it up! Aeryk, are you gonna be here? If anyone wants to stay, we've got plenty of floor space for anyone that wants to come up.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas! Even the Jews!

| Hehe funny picture

Heres a funny picture i found as a christmas picture card. It pretty much sums up what I do here and what problems the company faces.


Eric: I guess we all have our own problems. Mine, I am not the most well-liked person in the company by a longshot. I feel like the estranged fellow that Jon described in his company except I don't think I'm that weird socially. In fact the last count I think I have 0 friends in the factory. Ok.. maybe 2 or 3 but "friends" might be a far-stretched terminology. My biggest problem is I can't speak the language and just can't get past the wall of courtesy. It also sucks when you know they only speak english only out of considerateness. Example, whenever I go drinking with a group or in a social setting, people will be talking in their native speak and occasionally, after being silent for so long, I'll break in with a little chit chat (that's probably totally off topic) but then their conversation resumes as if I was an interruption. It also sucks the group laughs and someone has to translate for you, IF someone was nice enough to. Most times I feel like the facial twitch that you just can't get rid of.

What's worse is most of the time, it's easy for some people with unkind intents to fuel false rumors that spread around the company. Rumors are usually negative. I find some people that has never consorted with me, have some kind of prenotion about me either from their friends or friend of friends. It's really frustrating and infuriating, but I also can't help to find it funny how easily people are influenced. Heck, all of us at some point are brainwashed by media ads, newspapers telling us how we need to stop Iraq from having weapons of mass destruction.

| Propagandhi means thinking about politics.

Which I don't like to do, but I did for a little bit tonight and came up with this:

“I noticed that Time Magazine made President Putin the Time Magazine ‘Man of the Year,’” McCain said, according to NBC. “I understand that probably, but my man of the year is one Gen. David Petraeus, our general who has brought success in Iraq.”

Politics = lies, damn lies, lying statistics, money, more lies, murder, Satan and more lies.

As a side note, based on my love of the Rock Band drumz, Leslie gave me 5 drum lessons for xmas! I am nervous and when I can find time, I am totally rocking out to Rock band even harder so that I am not a total lamer when I take my lessons! Who cares if I don't own drumz!

If I start to rip at drums and start a band, it is TOTALLY gonna be called "Petraeus". That is and awesome name for a band!

| Speaking of Routine Riot...

Not really. BUT, when I first went to that myspace page, I was like, "Holy shit! Ryan's still in this band!?"

But anyways, last couple of days I've been lurking around YouTube watching videos of punk bands we used to be into. It's a trip to see vids of Propagandhi playing crazy packed shows all over the world, and looks like they put on a good show. AND play some of their old jams from those first two albums. I dunno, kinda cool to me.

Nation States '96!
Preachyness b4 hand but sounds like the records. Where's the Vagos!?

Nation States '07!
Sound quality from this guy is pretty horrible but he has most of the show and theres tons of old jams - man, wish homemade concert vids sounded better :(

Ska Sucks '96!
This is like the scary Vagos show we went to, haha. i can see why maybe back then they'd just play a few songs then yell at the crowd the rest of the time.

Ska Sucks '07!

OK, last one: this is just pretty rad. Their old bass player left I think after the 2nd cd (he was the guy who did the couple of love-ish kinda songs) and started his own band, The Weakerthans. Anyways here's him doing acoustic one of his songs from propagandhi. LOL but also good: ~**GIFTS**~
ADDED: Here's same song 96 at that scary show again haha. Vago Gifts!

Then there's tons of good nofx vids etc. Awww, the good 'ol days!

Not sure what ding-dong boxing is, but if it's what it sounds like... ewww.

Have you guys seen the new Joker (Heath Ledger) for the new Batman movie? Looks really scary, but cool at the same time. Way less campy.

Linkage

Enron's just the nicest guy in our whole gang, bar none! I'm usually reduced to a slobbering pile of tears and self-hate when I drink, so I can't imagine I'd want to call and talk to another human being at a time like that.

The new live NOFX album is fucking RAD. WAY good. They do some really neat versions of songs. They're just one of the best bands ever. NOFX > Bad Religion

I haven't posted in forever cuz I cleared my cookies and am so amazingly lazy, I couldn't be bothered to re-enter my username/password.

Geek out on this, fellow GRRM fanboys: ASOIAF PAINTINGS for a compendium coming out next year. Pretty fuckin rocking stuff. Kinda blows me away, the scale of the castles. GRRM is working hand in hand with this guy, so I guess its pretty authoritative, but I never really visualized these things so big.

I watched Eastern Promises this weekend. I liked it. I coulda done without the whole Naomi Watts subplot (or is that the MAIN plot?) and woulda preferred a more straight forward Godfather/Mother Russia version. I thought it was cool though. I love the ding-dong boxing in the sauna. BRUTAL.

- Aaron is really fun to drunken dial. I'm not sure why. Theories?

- The first wave of Rock Band guitars really sucked. Mine started making a loud squeaking sound and then broke the day after I got it. Fortunately the new one is a lot better. I haven't bought any of the downloadable stuff yet. I heard there's a whole Who album coming out for download all at once sometime -- that would be cool (although their song in Rock Band is a little too epic). I haven't heard Enter Sandman all the way through in at least ten years, but it's just as stupid as I remember.

- Superbad was one of my favorite movies this year! Oh well, we'll always have Mazes & Monsters (possible screening date: New Year's).

- Golden Compass was good, but the protagonists didn't bomb enough churches for my tastes. I also don't understand why they cut out the part where they time travel back and abort Jesus. Also, it had the worst theme song ever. Imagine JP if he was a woman, making up lyrics on the spot about how great the main character's soul is, to the theme of "Love Boat." That is seriously a lot what it was like. People were fleeing in terror.

- I have been reading the Necromunda rules! I now know that you can run four inches per turn and also shoot or fight in that same turn!

| Whoops!

Umm, there should have been 2 Routine Riot CDs - one for you and one for Leslie. If for some reason I made a mistake and didn't send two, let me know. Wow! That is really embarrassing!

| extra sacrifice this year

I'm putting in a little more effort this year and want to complete a few pending projects for 2008. That few added quotes hopefully will secure a few projects for 2008. If I don't do it and wait until next year, it may take longer for the project win, or worse may miss the opportunity which we can't really afford delays at the moment.
Hopefully next year, when the business is better, I can fly back more frequent/extended. I'm really starting to feel tied down here.

So on the beach front! I bought Pei Mei's chinese cookery and have been dabbling in the black arts. Its quite cool actually, when you follow the instructions, the food tastes much better than casual unorthodox-layman cooking. It's really important to follow the amount of ingredients and the cooking directions. Normally all my dishes turn out just blah, either all garlic/onion or dark soy sauce flavored. But now I can actually taste the different flavors of the veggies/meat! The dishes haven't turned out exactly like those in the pictures yet... Occasionally I'll do a mistep or forget what to add and when. Good cooking is hard! Starting with the level 1 stuff, then i'll move onto higher level casting requiring more concentrated ingredients like mandrake root and black pearls.

| Christmas Present

Wow, Ryan. That was just the most amazing unwrapped Routine Riot CD Christmas Present I have ever received, thank you so much!

My gift to you Ryan, is to publicly post this link to the Routine Riot MySpace page for all the Action Team to enjoy! Watch videos, listen to music, perhaps get the email address of Chris Eden and email him love letters. I don't know how you will best use it, but Seasons Greetings from Eric!

(heh, heh)

| Sands of Aging

Forgot?! Nay. Intentional malicious intent more likely. I distinctly remember hearing from the that the DM specifically asked if my character should take action, and the group laughingly decided to leave me to my fate... TWICE. j4rks. But never fret eLzar, I will be sure to be completely impartial in the matter were I given your character to run. Impartial... as to HOW your character dies. Oh Shit!

D>M>

| Rock Bandz & Role Playingz

- Leslie picked up Rock Bandz for us last week sometime, and it has been a hoot for the whole family. Leslie loves playing the drums as much as Wylie and I do, and as far as the guitar goes, well mine is awaiting a nice return box from EA because the 'pickups' strumming part either a) misses strums altogether, or b) does a double strum when it should do one. Makes rocking out on some Coheed and Cambria solos pretty tough. I am not sad at all tho, cause playing the drums is SO. MUCH. FUN! I played the first block of songs on expert, and have been making my way up the ranks on hard. I feel like a real drummer and wanna get a drum kit and start a band! Wait a sec. I'm not 15.....

So yeah, Rockband is awesome. The Metallica downloads are mandatory! Blackened!

- I have started swimming with Leslie. She goes like 6 days a week and swims 2000, and I have been going 3 times or so, swimming 1000. I hate swimming. I mean, I like that I CAN swim. And I like waterpolo, but swimming is teh sux. So, to circumvent my absolute boredom and focus on the effing splashing sound after every stroke, I picked up a waterproof case for Leslie's pink Nano. It is the Awesome. Listening to music is nice and it keeps me swimming harder than without; anything other than kick ass metal songs doesn't work, it actually slows me down for some reason. Tim Armstrong? Fuggettaboutit. Today I started listening to some George Rape Rape Martin and it worked really well. Get it Ryan! It makes swimming fun!

- Superbad the Movie = Super Bad Movie. I laughed pretty hard the first 15 minutes, then smiled twice, and laughed 3 times during the rest of the movie. Maybe. It is like the Nexus Ops of movies: Too long for what it is. Not to mention my little fear that this is what the new generations 'coming of age movie' is. Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, and Lucas no more! Now it is 'fuck' every other word, pussy, vag, cumming in faces, dick, vag, pussy, etc. Wylie's coming of age movie will consist of a repeated soundtrack of the word cunt being screamed, robots raping sheep, and intravenous super-drug use through the penis. Good times.

- As far as regular attendance for gaming in the SF area? Sounds good. Much more difficult to pull off in practice. I couldn't commit to anything regular, but would like to come up (an have you guys come down) when possible, of course. So, if you get a regular game going Jon, YOU play my character when I am not there, DON'T let Enron play me. He will find the largest hourglass full of character aging sand, and make me stand under it just cause he is bitter we left him under it that one time and forgot him for a few rounds...

| Indeed, O rugs did Drunk dial...

The conversation mostly consisted of relentless laughs, hiccups and many utterances of I can believe I still have service. In fact, Rugs called me while taxing on the tarmac and stayed on the phone for at least two minutes beyond takeoff before the cell service finally petered out. One comment, in the I am too drunk to control my volume kind of way, must have thrilled the other passengers, "I hope I am not fucking with the instruments in the cockpit." Wow. I told him the flight attendant was going to club him when they leveled off, but I imagine he got sick before he/she even had a chance to do that.

Pretty much the only thing I was able to get out of Rugs was: Seattle, Las Vegas, 3 bottles of wine, flying, hiccups and the only intelligible phrase with regards to cell service and cockpits. Good stuff.

jr0n: In the mannerisms of O Rugs... Necromunda Good. Role-play Good. Hiccup. Bwahh hahahahah! Hiccup. Hahahahaha... Etc...

jA -El: Booooo! No visit to the Bay area this winter! Booooo! We haven't seen you in a year you know.

D>M>

| shots at the airport?!?

So how does that go? Are these complete "I don't know em" strangers that you've just befreinded sitting at the airport bar waiting for your flight? If so, kudos man... I don't think I could picture myself doing that unless it was a sports bar and the lakers played Houston or somthing.

The details are fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure Aaron was the recipient of a very ugly drunk and dial yesterday.. which was very shortly followed by me throwing up in the airplane toilet for the majority of the ride back. Doing shots with people in the airport bar.. not so much a good idea, no.

Greetings from my working hell! As usual, I find myself on a project that just will not die. Or rather, we think it's about ready to go, and then once every couple days, this particularly ugly little bug pops up its head like a gopher, and we just. can't. find it. And we have to make a very monetarily costly choice on whether to ship this thing to manufacturing in the next few days, or wait until January.

Frustrating!

Anyway, a question for you NorCal peoplez. I'm losing it without some kind of regular gaming thing these days. The occasional gaming get-togethers are nice, but they don't really scratch the itch in the way that getting together consistently for Warmachine every week or two was. A couple of ideas:

1. Necromunda? I've been looking over the free updated rules )(here). This game was always pretty much hella/hecka fun, a campaign would be fun to play, we already have tons of terrain, and you can get a gang for about $30 if you order it from the war store.

2. Role-playing? This could be harder to organize, but I would be more than happy to run an extended role-playing session once a month or so. Probably either my old favorite, but rarely run game, Earthdawn, or D&D flavored Savage Worlds.

Thoughts?

| wtfowns??

anyone play 2Moons yet? Looks pretty awesome, I DL it last night just to try it out, but apparently on Dec 3rd they stopped allowing non-NA residents register. I checked out some PVP videos on gvids and it looked pretty cool... Free. Name is pretty lame though, 2 moons. A friend of mine also recently introduced me to FFF (stands for fly for fun), whatever. The name is gay but the game looks ok. haven't played it though, a little too cartoonish for me. Anyway, I don't have time to play one game let alone two, so i think i'm gonna try my sea legs in 2 moons.

EDIT (after at the batcave):
Pros:
It's Free
It's an MMO (fits the bill)
The graphics is realistic not cartoonish
Theres a complex system of talents/stats much like wow

Cons:
Can't jump
Can't move off hills, cliffs, edges etc, as if theres a barrier (poor engine)
Monsters don't chase you or they stop (except bosses, bad AI)
quests are worse grinds (kill 50 agramars, 50 spiders etc, not 10 or 15)
Low exp from monsters = slow leveling
hard to manuever camera with mouse = slow
can't move while autotacking

Anyway, seeming that I won't return to WoW and shell out 19.95 a month, I'm just gonna stick with this nico-mmo patch and ease the craving. Anyway, this won't suck in all my time as you quickly get bored after an hour or two.

| December Festivities!

It was a hard decision but I opted not to use the return flight coupon this year. First, I really hate flying, especially long 16 hour flights. I just can't sleep on the plane, it's really not so much the engine noise, but more of the uncomfortable seats and the ass touching proximity to the person cramped next to you, unless it was some really sexy ass, but so far I am 0 for 7 on getting a seat next to a young, short skirted, thong-exposed vixen.

Then you have to deal with the time change. Some people claim to adjust to the time change without much difficulties, but me, maybe it's all the college booze that destroyed my internal clock, I suffer for about a week.

Long story short!

Have a great christmas all!

I'm about to go to a christmas party (first of 3) from our company hosted outside my dorm.

My family went plastic tree years ago. We're very bleeding edge Blade Runner cyberpunk that way. Christmas just isn't the same without the smell of warm vinyl.

An Escape From L.A. sounds good. But I probably won't be able to do it until after March. I'm in the process of planning a trip to Japan in February. Going alone. Since I don't speak the language, preparations are that much more involved. It's basically going to be a shopping trip. Hentacle '08.

This bit of news is enough to make me seriously consider moving out of the country:

WFT?

I actually ended up buying Hellgate: London. A bit buggy (luckily for me more annoying buggy than crashy buggy). I've only played with a sniper character, so game play is like a so-so FPS. Storyline is ok. Quest based missions (kill X, kill X number of X, go to X) like WoW (question marks, pick your reward, etc). It does play like Diablo II though. The emphasis eventually becomes that of finding better equipment. The equipment customization is interesting enough to keep you grinding. So that's an improvement over Diablo.

Does anybody know any good books on game theory by any chance?

Ok, so I lied.

THIS is the best thing of the day

Best Thing Of The Day:

Baby Got Back, Gilbert & Sullivan Style

Seriously. Watch this. LOL.

- My family went and got a tree from a farm one time. Some of you may not know my step-dad, but it truly was an adventure. He was a little more of a trooper back then- a little less curmudgeonly, but still... . I remember four things about that year's tree: 1) Every morning my mom had to collect every ornament that fell off the tree the night before. The tree's branches were too limp to sustain most of the ornaments that we had. 2) The tree fell over at least 4 times over the three weeks that we had it. I have never heard my mom say "fuck" more times in the span of three weeks. 3) My mom declaring at the top of her lungs, upon the last "tiiimmmberrrrr" of the tree, that, "this is the last fucking time we'll ever do this!" while I had to leave the room to contain my laughter. 4) At the tree farm, it was the first time I had ever seen two dogs fucking in real life. I don't know why I remember that in particular. Maybe it was scarring?

- The waves were super-huge here too. Even with the lifeguard stands pulled back from the shore, the water was still washing up past them. They were easily 10-12 foot faces. There wasn't anyone surfing in Torrance where I was watching, but I heard that PV had perfect peeling waves off the point and guys were out there... some pros too!

- I'm leaving for Hawaii on the 21st to spend Christmas there until the 28th. Heather and I are planning to carpool up sometime in February to visit during a three day weekend. The drive will be less brutal with more than just me. Not quite sure about the exact time or weekend, but that is the plan. We'll hammer out the deets later, but I'm sure if Rudy or Dennis want to come, for a small gas fee, we can squeeze you in the 4-Runner.

- Mrs. McCallister stole Brandi and Tate on Thanksgiving and didn't invite my mom, my step-dad or me because she is bitter that they are coming to Hawaii during Christmas. To me, all of the extra bullshit does not seem to outweigh the "joys" of marriage and fuck her anyway. Your glasses are on your head dummy!

- Blood Bowl? FTW?

| Nugs

Rugs: If you are looking for the Raiders conspiracy, look no further for motive on the part of the NFL... Al Davis. Everyone hates that bastard.

eLzar: Crocs? Fur lined or not, a croc is a croc. Just don't take it out side the house . After all, I have a pair of Uggs that I wear in the house sometimes, but never outdoors.

My parents used to get Xmas trees from farms when I was a little kid in Ohio. I have vague memories of driving out to them and watching my dad saw the tree down. Last year my gf bought a fake Xmas tree from a retailer that wanted to get rid of their display tree. We bought a $200 tree for $20. It's pretty cool, pretty realistic and doesn't have some of the down sides of the usually Christmas tree. Although I do very much miss the smell of the real tree. I don't think I would spend 200 on a tree like this, but at 20, it works out real nice. Storage is the biggest downside though.

It is hard to tell which is more green since there are a lot of pluses and minuses to each type. Of course the fake ones are often made from PVC, not a real eco-friendly plastic that can sometimes contain lead. On the other hand the real trees can be a pesticide issue and a municipal waste issue. Since I got the tree second hand, I don't feel so bad though about the plastic bit.

The waves were huge here too after the big storm hit off of pacific northwest. 12-15' swells. I don't know how big the waves were but they were brutal.

So, Thursday we had our company party from 1pm until 4:30pm and then our tenant party from 5pm until about 8:30pm. I didn't do too bad keeping myself moderated until the after party. My manager, her husband and another friend decided it was a fantastic idea to go out and drink more. Despite my better judgment, I went along with. Oh boy, after my 10th drink, I was feeling pretty good. All the way until I got on the train to go home. After the usual bumpy, jerky, twisting, turning ride on the N line, I barely got off the train in time. Got sick three times in the gutter while walking one block home from the train stop. Ooof. Next morning I discovered I got splatter on my suit jacket, pants AND dress shoes. Boy do I feel "smrt". Not the worst hangover ever, but definitely in the top 5. The best part of the night was when my manager asked me to help her walk while holding on to my arm. Well here I am drunk, wearing leather sole shoes in the rain and "assisting" another drunk in heels. Next thing I know I ask myself, "why am I being pulled down?" and I fell on top of her. Good job eNron. I didn't feel so bad though when another one of our group fell down a couple of minutes later.

I don't know if I told anyone this, but the Strategicon has returned to the classic home: The Radisson formerly known as the Wyndhym, formerly known as the Hyatt. I guess David will be attending this President's day. Also their website, while plain and simple, is a HUGE improvement over the previous "1996" supped up animated gif, <HR> frenzy that it was previously. They even updated to PHP. Maybe management has seen the light. Or perhaps new blood took over.

eNron [D>M>]

BTW.. last week the referees unexpectedly forgot the "fuck over the Raiders memo" and we actually won a close game. This week, against the NFL-darling Brett Favre Packers, we get back to back bullshit penalties on what would have been drive-extending plays. GRRRRRRRR... >=(

LOL.. and just now, our kick returner runs back the kickoff all the way back for a touchdown, with no whistles... and the refs get together at midfield for a long conference and magically declare he was "down by contact", which SURPRISE, isn't reviewable nor challengable. OMG, going to punch my computer screen!


GAAAAHHHHH

That Greg Costikyan rant was EPIC. Still great to go back and read, thanks for that.

| Winter is Coming

- My pace has slowed reading Storm of Swords due to other duties, etc. On page 270 or so, so it is just starting to get good. Not that it wasn't good before, but some interesting twists are happening so I might catch the reading bug again soon.

- We went to a Christmas tree farm this year, my first ever, and it was a pretty neat experience. Definitely a change from buying a tree off the Target lot, and a better quality tree to boot! The farm had 160 acres of trees, which is all he grows, and you take a cart and a saw and go tree huntin! You are supposed to cut the tree off with above the first layer of branches so another will grow in it's place years down the road. It was fun and for those of you who like xmas, I would highly recommend trying it some time. Not sure how many farms there are in LA, but if you all moved to NorCal....

- The surf has been EPIC here. Peeling, glassy, big. I was watching some kids take off on monster, probably 8ft, heavy water waves totally without fear. It was exciting. Also, the surf was so heavy this past week that most of the beach has washed away, which is crazy because normally the surf breaks pretty near shore and is usually well formed, but small, so no much happens with regards to sand shifting. But man, there are telephone poles, driftwood, tree stumps, and seaweed all the way up to what would be the equivalent of the Strand in LA. Awesome.

- Played Starcraft the Boardgame with the SC Panzerspielgruppe last week and had a good time. We had 6 players, 2 with chronic analysis paralysis, so we only finished 2 turns before calling it, but I saw a whole other side to the game and experienced quite a new variety of event cards, tactics, etc. MAYBE we will get together on Sunday (today) for another game, and failing that, probably wednesday. I will report back my findings to the two people on the Action Team that care.

- I am shocked at myself, but am now a total believer in the woolly, fur-lined Crocs shoes. I know. I hate the hell out of normal Crocs, and their colors are repulsive, not to mention their overall look, but these things are about the sweetest pair of functional shoes I have ever owned. Unfailing arch support, warm, light, comfortable. It's ridiculous how moving to NorCal has changed my needs for clothing, as well as what I am willing to wear based on function.

- Anyone done any significant sports betting here? I got this fine 'newsletter' from betus.com, which is a sportsbook run in Costa Rica where Americans can actually make bets online. It looks fun, and was wondering if anyone has really dabbled much in it. I'm looking at you Art and Johnny.

- Quick and late response to Johnny's question of "How do you have time to read or play games?" Answer: Don't get hung up on making or spending time at a gym in or out of work, rather spend it reading and playing games!

- So when is the LA to SF Holiday Roadtrip 2007 happening? It's been awhile since we have seen or heard of the likes of Rudy, Ryan, and Denis. Do it! Stay at my place! DO IT!

- This made me smile, and I know it is a few years old, but I couldn't get past thinking about it as I sit and play Assassin's Creed. Yes I bought it, yes it is neat I suppose, yes I am bored with the repetitive gameplay encapsulated by stunning graphics. Good old Greg Costikyian (creator of Paranoia!).

- Humorous snippet from the Fortress: Ameritrash blog: It is really weird when you hit that "collecting plateu"...you sort of 'shut the door' so to speak and really take inventory of what you've gotten yourself into. Then you open your War of the Ring, pour plastic figures all over you, get drunk on cheap rum and then start calling all of your ex-girlfriends in alphabetical order, telling them how you'd like some of their "Lembas Bread".

Because you homos are all in hibernation or something, I'll continue posting.

LOOK AT MY BALLS! LOOK.

Oh. My. God. Just when you thought people couldn't get any stranger.. maybe the best personal advert of all time, this side of the time-traveller guy.. This guy advertising on Craigslist is not gay, but looking for a jack off buddy!

In other news, I got to witness some smack down on a mail-fraud ring today and I was the crusader of all that is good and holy in the world. Woot!

I tell you what though, these fuckers are getting SLICK. I received a letter of some-such basis, something about a government grant program for home improvement / equity relief or something.. whatever. It came along with a check for $4,000 that passed every measurable standard I could come up with. On a whim, I even took it down to a branch of Wells Fargo to have them look at it (the indicated bank of origin) and THEY were ready to cash it because there were no qualifiers on the check like "not valid as a financial instrument" or whatever.. it was just... a check. Even though it said I needed to call some phone number to pre-approve the process or whatever on the letter.. a check is a check and it was a valid account with money in it, even. Come to find out, it's a check written on a legitimate account but through identity theft. Plus, with it being sent through the mail, that constitutes a federal offense. When the people at the fraud center in the bank called these people to feel them out, the WTF PWN stick came out and the hapless idiot on the other end of the phone was shitting his pants. LOL. It was pure awesome. I don't think the guy knew he was 'employed' by a scam artist firm. Anyway, thought it was worth sharing. My good deed for the day.


Also: Playing the Wii topless is NSFW, but awesome.

| Work Gym

Kinda neat, i was talking to this guy at work about inadequate gym facilities around the area, so him being a gym rat as well, we decided were going to try to make our own workplace gym in the factory! We'll all be pitching in, he's going to bring his dumbell sets and I'm going to buy the bench press bar, then we'll weld some makeshift benches. Cool thing is it'll be indoors and next to my dorm! I'm excited cuz it actually has an reasonable chance of working out. Hopefully other people will start chipping in by bringing their excess home equipment, then it might actually turn out to be a pretty cool workplace gym.

Work has been hazardous lately. We have an ISO audit in 10 days and during an internal audit my department had 2 deviations and several observations. So I have to correct those asap. Then it's that time of year where all the bidding begins with our customer, so lots of quoting for 2008.

Got cable recently, so have been watching an insane amount of BoobTube. Saw some Chris Angel stuff, and we get mostly reruns that aired in the states a while back, so i'm still getting references to Chris Rocks latest movies. But Chris Angel mindfreak show is pretty cool magic show but the thing is when the whole "magic gets revealed", magic really loses it's luster. Most of the easy tricks can be solved and even the more high-powered copperfield stuff is just a bunch of elaborate and expensive smoke and mirrors.

Hahah, that was a really subtle ytmnd. I was like, what's radiohead have to do with WoW? And I thought that image on bottom was ads they run on their site now or something. CLASSY! :)

The sad truth about World of Warcraft:

http://sadwar.ytmnd.com/


Yes, I'm up at 2:30am, desperately trying to fix the half of the 80+ page paper and 60 slide powerpoint I didn't already write myself for this fucking group project. I even told myself I wasn't going to do it. Then, here I am. Finished, tired, and a little sick to my stomach that I'll be giving an hour long presentation in front of the class on about 3 hours of sleep.

Yet, I take an extra 5 minutes to spead some joy to the Action Jackson Team.

Holiday Cheer.

Woot.

| Obi-Wan never told you...

Since you're into ASOIAF now Eric, here's a part of the discussion on the SA books forum where they talk about doing Warhammer armies based on the houses in the books:
The whole thread is very spoilerrific so BEWARE!

It would be very easy to do a Bretonnian army themed around one of the great houses. Just stay away from Pegasus Knights and paint the appropriate heraldry on each of your guys. Bretonnians are very much based around heroic lance charges though. A more tactical, infantry-heavy army would be more more effective with the Empire list (with no guns or wizards, obviously), though most of the Empire model range would look a bit out of place.

Here's how I'd do various major players:

House Lannister: lots of large spearmen regiments with detachments of archers and militiamen. Use Bretonnian knight models with the Empire rules. Tywin Lannister counts as an Empire General (or with Ld 10 for +25 points). Jaime Lannister, with two hands, counts as a Templar Grand Master (+10 pts for WS 7). Gregor Clegane counts as a Templar Grand Master with Frenzy (+25 pts). Tyrion Lannister counts as an engineer or something equally useless, but with a 4+ ward save to represent his incredible luck. Have a couple of cannon on the sideboard for those occasions when you actually want to win a game.

House Baratheon & House Tyrell (Renly's army): sure, they never actually fought any battles, but it'd be fun to do nonetheless. Make it a straightforward Bretonnian army. Rainbow Guard count as 7 Grail Knights . Loras Tyrell gets WS 7.

House Stark: The Middenheim list would be ideal, but it's not valid with the release of the new Empire book. I'd treat it as Empire with lots of militia. For knights use either Kislevite Winged Lancers without the wings or Knights of the White Wolf with lances instead of hammers. A direwolf counts as a daemon hound of Khorne.

House Greyjoy: proxy human models for Beasts of Chaos - I think their ambush and raider rules reflect the Ironborn's style of warfare pretty well. Allowable units would be Wargor (Leaders), Beastherds (Raiders), Bestigor (elite Ironborn). Named Greyjoy characters count as Wargors with an extra point or two of Leadership. This wouldn't be a competitive list in the slightest, so I won't get anal about points costs and stat tweaks.

House Targaryen: Dogs of War, I guess? You'd have to take models from all over. Dragon hatchlings could probably count as great eagles. Dothraki would be some form of light cavalry but better than the entry in the Dogs of War list. The Unsullied would be spear-armed infantry with the Unbreakable and Immune to Psychology rules - does any existing Warhammer unit fit the bill?

I lol'd:

Hal A. Lewia, biology beamline specialist

The internets never cease to amaze.. the shit you stumble into!

Tom Bombadil and His Forest of Faggotry

| Aliens

- Here is a little flash version of the game (without the expansion). It is totally fun, but on my crapola monitor it is a little dark, so often times I run right up to an alien and get torn apart cause I couldn't see 'em... perhaps a little TOO realistic? Good stuff.

- Song of Fire and Ice Update: I have finished Clash of Kings and am 57 (of 1130, or so) pages into Storm of Swords! Wish me luck! It is some of the best stuff I have ever read! Awesome!

- I d/l'ed the demo of Skate., and it was fun, though a little exact. I am still contemplating picking it up at some point and using BioShock as a credit. I just can't devote the time required to play long games that have a learning curve anymore so BiShock was awesome for the three nights I played it in a row, and now after taking a break it is hard to get back into. Guitar Hero/Rock Band/Wow are my cuppa teas - I can play for 10 minutes, get my fix, and not really forget how to play between sessions. As much as I want Assassin's Creed, I think it would be a waste of money. Skate., on the otherhand seems perfect.

- The Goonsquad videos for Skate were hilarious and at the same time boring. The slams and clipping errors were really funny, but the 'check my awesome line' vids were boring. I was thinking if it were really a skater doing those lines, then yes I would be impressed, but it is a video mans doing the 'tricks'... ho, hum.

- Combat Commander: Mediterranean and Paratroop Pack #1 came in the mail a few days ago. They are all clipped and ready to be played (solo) for all of you that care! So much good CC stuff now! 25 maps! Wheeee!!!!

- The F.A.R.T video Art posted was absolutely hilarious. I highly recommend you click it, fools.

- After hearing about the repulsive/steal any niggling amount of belief in childhood and humanity BME Pain Olympics videos, I decided to dig a bit deeper and find out what I could about this horrendous 'event'. Not a lot of info about it, but what I did find was the BME website, which I WILL NOT LINK TO HERE, and did a quick scan of the BME encyclopedia and apparently it is basically an extreme body modification gig. Some terrible stuff people do to themselves is talked about, photoed, and explained. I used my hand to cover up the images while I read about the few topics I could bring myself to click on, and just don't recommend you go there. Ever. Not for any reason. Please. Just don't do it. No, this is not reverse psychology. Just don't do it. Simply acknowledge that the world is messed up, people are messed up, and leave it at that.

- I feel like crying a little bit now.

Either I have been bitten by the dreaded Aptos tse tse fly, or the last few days of overeating and mayhem are catching up with me, because I am worn the hell out.

However, I had a fun Turkey day. Thanks for hosting Enron. I have not been that overstuffed ever, that I can remember. Also great to see your place Aeryk. Can't wait to come back sometime! Aptos definitely reminds me of circa 1985 South Bay. Nice feeling to the place.

If any of you guys are interested in picking up a couple of games, Fantasy Flight is having an overstock fire sale and some of the card games and board games are in there. I picked up Kingdoms and the Lord of the Rings expansions for $5 each.

Hey Eric didn't you or one of these guys say you had that game SKATE for the 360? I was just watching a bunch of vids and it looks really awesome and everyones all saying its better than Tony Hawk. Oh yeah, so I joined SA Forums recently (man, i pay 10 bucks for drinks when Im out whining and dyning the ladies, so fuck it) and they got a site called GoonSkate which has a bunch of their vids. LOOKS rad game!

I LOL'd: F.A.R.T.

AAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrronnnnn

Two bits of lovely goodness for the 20th of November:

Frigging AMAZING Images (wait for it, the first page sometimes loads slow)

Binocular Soccer (LOLZ)

| The Front Fell Off

Silliness

Not Safe For Work:

My Pussy Is Burning

| read books and play games

How do you find time?

Maybe it's the Saturday workday thing, but I'm pretty much busy most of the times, after I get home I hardly have enough time to cook a good dinner before shipping off to anchors.

But good stuff.

My dad visited me this weekend from California, so we went to Tagaytay mountain, which is famous for a small volcano that last erupted in 1964, since then it's dormant. The view is great as it looks down the oceanside. My dad went to this place when he was a kid, so it was quite nastalgic for him and it was cool that he took me there to continue the tradition, I thought. Then we went to the casino across the street! I won 4000 pesos, in about 5 minutes. I doubled down twice, I figured I try my luck in a row in Baccharat (such a lovely gentlemans game)

Sunday, I didn't do much except grocery shop and excercise.

Glad to hear No Country for Old Dudes is good! I wanna see it, but I def wasn't into some of their movies. I'll try to catch that one soon. I'm actually looking forward to Beowulf. Neil Gaiman baby! Haa, I'm a fucking fanboy. The reviews have been pretty positive (people say the story is pretty good) but the stop-motion looks WEIRD to me, so i dunno... but fuck it.

Tell me what to read! I'm almost done with the re-read of Storm of Swords and I kinda don't wanna go right into the 4th book afterward. I need to give it some space or its gonna read just as so-so as it did when it first came out (think I was going through burn-out at the time also.)

I might re-read Maus. Just looking at some websites about it and I got all watery-eyed. That shit was sad (but good.)

Oh I got the Sega Genesis Game Collection for the PSP - pretty rad... SOME of it! Oh my god, how awful was Altered Beast!? CRAP! But Sonic 1 & 2 are tops, Vector-Man is actually cool, Comixzone is surprisngly decent, and then theres all the Phantasy Star games (but I dunno if I'll ever give them an honest go... I have Final Fantasy Star Tactics taking up my RPG Mojo right now.) Oh god, Golden Axe 1-3 are pretty darn bad (wish they woulda put Streets of Rage on there! That was an awesome game!) There's a bunch of other random ones on there. 3 Ecco games (tried 1, it seemed cool - never really played it b4)

It's funny, there's a bunch of "unlockables" on the game, like interviews, some other arcade games, etc.. but the interviews!!! They're with the various game designers... Japanese dudes... speaking Japanese... with NO subtitles... Gee, thanks for those sweet unlockables! :(

That was hilarious. I couldn't bear to watch the video, but I listened to the whole thing....

I saw No Country For Old Men, the Coen Brothers' new movie, today. Daaaaamn. It's really brutal, and very good. There were some really strange choices about the storytelling in it (well, one, really -- but it's a doozy) but they really make it work. Definitely up there with their best stuff, even if I won't see it a billion times like Big Lebowski or Raising Arizona.

Also saw American Gangster recently -- another really good one.

I also, and this will make Eric proud I think, picked up the DVD set of Flight of the Conchords. Holy shit, this show is HILARIOUS. Even more bizarre than the music clips make it seem like (although they're always the highlight). I especially liked the one where Jemaine keeps insisting Bret is bulimic. And that putting a wig on him while he was asleep, and spooning with him, wasn't gay, because he was pretending he was a woman.

| holy shit

stop the war

| FUMBBL Night?

d00d! When should we start FUMBBL night? Lemme know when you have a lazy weeknight. Wednesdays I go to gayme night in SC, but any other night I am good! The Marienburg Rivermen shall ride again!

Also, now is a great time to get into Warmaster again! There are some sellers on ebay selling HUGE lots of armies for cheap. like 6$ a unit-ish. Do it! I also have a pretty sizeable Orc army I picked up along the way in blisters, so if anyone is interested, they can have them IF they make an attempt to paint and play with me...

I busted out my paints last night, and started on a unit of halberdiers! I am back on the wagon!

| Recap of Kings Comeback

From a 4 goal deficit in the 3rd (of 3) periods, the Kings scored 5 goals in like 5 minutes, took the lead, then the Stars tied it, pushed it to overtime, and the Kings won. Someone on Letsgokings.com made this storybook ending into a visual recap. I laughed, your results may vary.

| I will totally play FUMBBL

Totally. I may need your help to get it set up though. I'm a fatso.

| OMG, a battery?!?!?

Sheesh. These tech nerd have no limits. I mean, okay, exploiting unpatched versions of games to allow for emu's is fine. Even people writing their own firmware, supar techie, but still fine. Using a fucking BATTERY as an exploit to get around Sorny control of their PSP's?!?!?! These guys are double bacon genius burgers, fo sho.

- To Mike, and anyone else who wants to play around with ASL online, or other Vassal modules, go here and follow the instructions. Then after installing, get skype or some other chat tool (the phone works too) and hit me up so I can walk you through getting it up and running. Then, we play! There is no ASL rulebook online, so you will either need to believe all the shit I lie about while I 'teach' you the game (just ask Rudy), or pick up a copy of Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #1, 2, or 3. Get em here!

- Ryan and I, aka the two worst coaches in fantasy hockey, are facing off this week. As are two of the not so greatest coaches, Johnny and Enron. Let's see here, last week I went 0 - 8 - 1, and I think the week before I went 0-9, so as my favorite singer of all time, Howard Jones, sang, "Things can only get better". We shall see my pop singing friend, we shall see.

- I REALLY want to get back into Warmaster. I dug up my remaining units (one unit of halberdiers, xbows, knights, and a hero) as well as a bunch of unopened blisters and the rulebook (including 2002 and 2003 annuals!) and really want to play it again! I loved that game and was sad to see it go so soon before I ever beat Enron and his stupid 4 hit dwarfs... So, is anyone with me? *tumbleweeds* Anyone still have their army kicking around and want to give it a go, and maybe even pick up some new units which are still available on GW.com as well as ebay? *crickets* Warmaster armies LOOK SO COOL and the system rawks!

- So Art (I think, my memory fails me) had these dwarfs for Warhammer that he painted in rather bright, diverse colors that became known as the Rainbow Squad. He took some shit, especially from JP, about them and I don't think ever played with them out of shame. Fast forward to 1999, and George RR Martin steals the idea from Art and puts it right into his brand new book, Clash of Kings, as the Rainbow Guard! I think you should sue, Art.

- FUMBBL anyone? Wanna start that up again?

- WoW anyone? Doc Norvell dropped leatherworking and is now a lvl 189 Miner and 200 Engineer, and is currently trying to mine enough Mithril to get his membership with the Gnome Engineers Guild. Good times.

- I also found my D&D minis, so Enron if you find your dwarfs and play me, I will in turn play you with my old school D&D warbands. Not before. Do it! Can I use my Gargantuan Black Dragon that Denis gave me?

- Thanks Jon and Janice for letting me sleep on your floor! i woke up at 6.30 and hit the road. I also Upper Decked both your toilets before I left. Fortunately you don't need to manually pull the chain in the tank anymore, otherwise you would have to scoop my poop out. Instead, you can just leave it there for the next tenants whenever you move.

- When are you moving up here Ryan? The surf out front has been gangbusters for bodysurfing! Also, James is moving back before June, and Mark Sterner lives I think across the blvd from me in Aptos. Go figure.

| This guy is friggin amazing

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2610964813918301633&q=beat+box&total=37767&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4

I could almost swear, this guy is singing one melody, 1 drum, and 1 base beat at the same time...
There's some other human beat boxes on the google, but by far this guy is the best.


Been watching Gattaca repeatedly... great stuff. Uma thurman was hot in this one. She didn't age well though in Kill bill

Oh man, figuring out Emu/Homebrew shit is damn near impossible for me, BUT I did a lot of research and I guess the main method used nowadays is a thing called a Pandora Battery. Basically you get an old spare battery (the new batteries don't work apparently) then by some process using someones psp with custom firmware you turn that battery into a "pandora battery" which can be used to load custom firmware on ANY psp (fat or new slims.)

You can get em off ebay, or make em or pass them around. Even a dude on youtube who will do it for 10 bucks if you send him a spare battery (he's like a super hack/mod nerd who does all these PSP NEWS vids, and I actually believe the dude would send you the modded battery back.)

So, yeah - not something EASY, but it's possible looks like. I followed some forums and people with new PSPs got it to work.

Something Awful PSP Homebrew Thread. I looked at this shit then vids on Youtube... so yeah, pretty sure POSSIBLE, but definately a project. I'm in no rush. (But if I get/order/make/find a thingy that works, i'll pass it on to you 4 sure)

EDIT: This here site, HERE
is pretty easy on the eyes and seems to explain stuff ok. STILL, we need to find someone rocking custom shit or bribe someone to help us.

Rude: I got a PSP thinking that I was going to be in emu heaven. As it turns out, it is impossible to d/l anything because my firmware is too new. If you got the new slim version, I am afraid you might be in the same boat. I'm not sure about your whole battery deal, but I got some legit games for it (baseball, tony hawk, puzzle fighter, etc.) and I enjoy it fairly well. If you figure it out, please let me know.

As for BSG, I am wondering if the last season will be postponed indefinitely like everything else because of the writer's strike. I know the new season of Lost is going to be postponed 'till at least the summer if not longer, 24 is being postponed indefinitely as well. Most shows are getting the shaft, and I fear BSG might be in the same boat.

Saw Dan in Real Life. Pretty good. Started out kinda slow, but picked up and had a good ending. A little chick-flickish, but that is what I tend to like. Steve Carell could act in just about anything and I'd go see it, except Evan Almighty. Even I have standards.

| (+[__]::)

Yup. Got a PSP! Came with Daxter (platformer - its ok - good graphics but no Mario game thats fer sure) and then I got Final Fantasy Tactics. Cool game. I played the hell out of the GBA version, so not quite sure why I got this haha, but whatever - good material for sittin on the can, so hey. God of War game coming out soon looks really cool and theres some other ones I want.


I'm not gonna jump into the homebrew/emu thing quite yet (besides I need a "pandora battery" from someone whos already running custom firmware, and I just wanna chill b4 trying to figure out the madness of crackin this thing.) But I got loads of GBA roms still on my comp, so whenever I do get around to it, I should be in good shape.

That's one thing holding me back from buying that Sega Genesis collection. Has a ton of games on it (including sonic 1 which rules) and i assume theyre kinda optimized for the psp as opposed to running an emu, but, I dunno. We shall see. Oh, I think u can also rip iso's of ur UMD games to run off your memory card (if u got the 4gb one) so maybe ill go rent crazy and down that route if I ever crack this thing.

BSG: I just watched the Battlestar Galactica movie RAZOR (which I think airs this month on Sci-Fi) and it was very awesome. Good little stand-alone movie based around the Pegasus and its time b4 meeting up with the big G and then when Lee Adama was in charge of it. Mostly stand-alone, but has a few gnarly "bridges" to the end of the series, so MAN, can't wait to see how this shit turns out. I REALLY think its gonna have a bummer/sad ending (in a good way, not dudes flying around los angeles on hover-motorcyles)

Well, I can't look at these links without giving something back, so:

Save yourself before it's too late!

Get your nerd on:

A band gets together in LOTR Online and plays Ave Maria.. I guess you can bind notes to your keyboard keys? Crazy. For what it is, pretty damned impressive!

Ave Maria

And here's one for Nothing Else Matters, pretty well done, actually.

Nothing Else Matters

| run 4 da hillz

if u like iron maiden and drums this is a good video 4 u: video

EDIT: ERIC, DO U HAVE A PANDORA BATTERY!?

Oh my gosh. Oh, so I start my new job Wed! I have 5 friggen days off (crazy scheduling and city holidays) so on day one of my mini-prejorb vacation I'm already getting bored and restless. I'm REALLY thinking about getting a PSP. I dunno, at first I never had much interest in it, and like DS seemed like it'd be more my style, but PSP is closer in price to the DS now and I'm browsing game reviews n stuff, and it looks like a pretty fancy little piece of hardware! Like the games look kinda fancy!!!

I know Eric has one, anyone else? And I'd probably buy whatever new model is out, so yeah, probably no emulation I'd assume (didn't they snuff that out way back when u first got urs eric!?) But whatever, there's just some cool looking games for it (Final Fantasy Tactics, what a great game!) so I dunno...

Whoaaa Art, that shit was really funny! I haven't seen any Onion stuff in ages. I kinda just burned out on the website a long time ago. Just seemed like more of the same. That fake news shit though, wow, pretty funny at times and I'm surprised at how ballsy. I thought they got bought out by like google or some shit a long time ago.

Oh, this video is really funny: 24: 1994 Pilot. Like a little blast from the past. WELCOME

Holy shit, Art is aliiiiiiiive?

It finally dawned on me in the hit-you-between-the-eyes kind of way that I'm graduating here in a month. As in, no more classes, papers, bullshit busy work. At least in the academic sense.

BTW, I don't think I've seen folks mention this before, but I can't recommend this site enough.. so funny. LAWLS. I highly recommend the porn star video, just beware that it is NSFW.

BREAKING NEWS: ALL ONLINE DATA LOST AFTER INTERNET CRASHES

| My New Motto Is, "Fuck Private Enterprise"

At least when it comes to the Post Office vs. UPS.

I have never had anything but problems when I get deliveries from UPS. Conversely, the post office has never lost anything of mine and seems to deliver things roughly when you'd expect them to.

Case in point:

I ordered two things from the War Store (online gaming company). One order on Sunday, 10/28, the other on Sunday, 11/4.

The order I placed 10/28 was shipped on 10/29 by UPS. It still isn't here.
The order I placed 11/4 was shipped on 11/5 by the post office. It got here today.

Fuck UPS!

| welcome to 1998 eric

Now that I've totally offended eric and he'll come back with a totaly mean low blow, GLAD u like the book!

Sidenote.. I'm blogging from my goddamn cellphone (full qwerty keyboard tho) cuz powers been out here since around 130 and good thing I took off from work early today to sit in my fucking powerless house and fuck ya it got dark early and its cold as shit.

Anyways. Funny thing, this chick at work I sit next to, kinda a book worm too. Few months back I'm all, "hey, ever read harry potter?" no she sez. Read it I sez. She does, gets hooked and jams thru all the books. What's next she asks? Oh try some neil gaiman. She jams thru american gods and a few others I haven't read (but sandman doesn't really do it 4 her.) Neeext? Oh, try some fuckin game of throrns! She loved that shit too! She's about where ure at eric on book 2.

I been re-reading along with her so we can discuss, but ima bout half thru book 3. I got book4 in my storage unit so ill knock that out soon too. Here's where u can prepare 2 be bummed eric. Aint no more books after 4 cuz that fat cunt of a writer is too busy doing fantasy conventions and molesting kittens! Argh! He sez ya maybe next year is book 5... ya right. But ull enjoy what's out there. The endless waiting part just bites.

Yeah, 2nd read thru, names and relationships flow a lot easier. 1st time too, my ass was truggling. Something that kinda helps and are fun 2 read are the 2 short stories he did set in same world (but 100 yearsish b4) that they made into graphic novels. "The hedge knight" and "sworn sword." Cool stories, but best part is u get 2 see visualized lotta cool stuff like the different coats of arms and just general armor, weapons, etc kinda shit. And gives u some backstory on some of them last names u read and "heroes" that get mentioned. Fuck ya, that series rocks.

And hbo series is gettin worked on, GRRM sez he had 1 script written 4 first season, and he'll exec produce rest. 1 season per book. Lets see if that show ever actually happens.

Goddamn, I fuckin hate having no power. Too dark 2 read, I can't do nothin, fuuuuck

I'm glad to hear you finally got through it Eric! Do you like avocado, turkey, and bacon? And George RR Martin? Then welcome to the fuckin' club.

Personally, I think EVERYBODY who is part of this blog would like this series. I think Mike was scared away when we described that it's occasionally pretty graphic in the events that occur, but to be honest, it's not like it's "George Rape Rape Martin's Rape-a-thon," there's just some harsh shit that happens in war and he doesn't turn a blind eye to it just because it's a fantasy book. If anything it makes what happens to the characters you care about all the more engaging because the stakes of what can go wrong are SO high. Also, we are tough guys. As I remember we once got a lot of mileage out of the idea of fucking a home-made vagina made from beef liver.

Heck, my dad normally just reads spy books, and he thought it was a good read.

As for the board game, I'll play you anytime! Hell, maybe we can fit in a game at Enron's BDay party! I realized just now that not only is it not in storage, it is on the game shelf that is exactly at eye level to me, precisely in the center, with the words "GAME OF THRONES: THE BOARD GAME" prominently feature in eye-catching text.

| Untitled

- So, Jon got me sick too by talking to me over the phone and Skype. Jerk.

- If you have ever wanted to debate the fact that Tolkien's Balrog had, or did NOT have wings, here is a place you can go for debate ammunition. Never knew it was that big of an issue, but then again, I never knew a lot of things.

- I finally got through Game of Thrones! It is AWESOME! Driving to LA and back, I listened for something like 9 hours of the book on mp3, and it covered something like 250 - 300 pages of the real book. Well, of the real big book, not the smaller one, so actually now that I think about it, it probably covered more ground because the big book only has like 600 something pages... but I digress. Please, post no spoilers about it as I am totally enthralled with it, and I think of everyone that would read it, probably has, and everyone that would never read it (Ryan, Art, Denis, and Mike) me talking about it shouldn't really matter much. So here are my quick thoughts, and if you WANT to read it, skip over the

**************************SPOILERS****************************************

- I feel weird about reading this kind of fantasy as most of the crap I have read in the past is fairly tame, and by tame I mean written for 14 year old boys. So there is a lot of fighting and blood sprays and whatnot, but a lot less truly graphic stuff. Not that GoT is graphic in combat, just everywhere else. You know? From the pervy, sexy Dany chapters to the Cersei/Jaime hot lovin', to the killing of babies and all that, it is a much more mature fantasy series than I am used to, but I like it!

- It was great and unexpected how Ned died, as well as Drogo (and Lady as well as the butchers boy, Arya's first sparring partner, to some extent). They were shocking, unexpected, and were written about with much less fanfare than I would have assumed. Good stuff.

- What really helped me finish and tear into the next book was to learn how to read GRRM. He has lots of filler, that while nice for illustrating and fleshing out the world, is really less than important to the story. I mean, I was SO hung up on trying to follow who everyone was the first, second, and third time he mentioned them, I was getting pissed because it was becoming work to read. Then I learned to just gloss over almost everyone's names, because if they are important, they will be repeated enough so that you realize they have a place in the book. Also, using multiple names for the same person pissed me off. Ned = Eddard, The Hound = Sandor Clegane, Peter Balish = Littlefinger, etc.

- No one is squeaky clean, and ALMOST no one is truly as evil as they seem. It is all a matter of perspective, and I like that. Even The Hound, evidently... but not his brother...

- The only comic relief comes from Tyrion, and most of his quips are self-referential regarding his "short" comings, whores, being unloved by his family, or horrendous acts of violence it seems. A fitting bit of 'humor' for such a dark and gritty book.

- Makes me want to play GoT the boardgame BECAUSE of all the backstabbing and lies that abound thoughout the book. It would make no sense to play the game any other way, but without my knowledge of the book, I would still never want to play it ever. Does that make sense? I look forward to having my Gold Cloaks turn on me at the worst possible time!

******************************SPOILERS*****************************************

So, yeah. I liked the book and am 100 or so pages into #2. Wish me luck!

That cat picture cracks me up every time I see it. Good call.

I'm still too sick to return to work, but I'm just healthy enough to feel completely stir crazy. I've been putting some effort into going back and beating the first two Guitar Hero games and I must say, it has been a banner day.

Guitar Hero - FINALLY beat Cowboys from Hell & Bark at the Moon on Expert.
Guitar Hero II - FINALLY, FINALLY beat that fucking Heart song "Crazy on You," as well as the Stray Cats song. The Stray Cats song isn't bad, but it's really tough. The song by Heart is probably my least favorite song in the whole series with the possible exception of the Sonic Youth song in GHIII. Not only does the song blow but the first minute of the song is incredibly challenging. I also managed to blow through two of the Tier 7 songs on my first try, and seem to be doing OK so far with "Madhouse" (Anthrax) and Psychobilly Freakout.

I also played quite a lot of Oblivion for the 360 yesterday. I gotta say, I totally see what Art is talking about now. This game is really fun. My experiences with the previous games was that they were buggy, crash-prone and ugly, and slow-paced. In this one the user experience is very smooth and the graphics are great. Exploring the big dungeons is really fun, and I like the idea of playing a game that isn't too directed for a while. I can see myself digging into this one. Thanks for the loaner Aeryk.

Sick time = video game time. I think I only said about 100 words all weekend.

| happy bday enron (?) !!!

| Four months until I am 1/3 of a century old. Ooof...

One day I may just let you get older than me jr0n.

In the fine tradition of being old, I went to sleep last night by 10pm. Today I got a headache and stayed at home after I did a little shopping for Xmas. Pretty weak.

You know AT-43 looks cool and all, but the prices are pretty stupid. I would be willing to give the game a try and see if it worth it. Never know, maybe the game play is really nice.

I like gamescape and all, and I am a proponent of supporting the local game store, but sometimes they go out of their way to make it unavoidable. Limited stock, ridiculous restocking waits, mark-ups above MSRP. Uggg... Sometimes I just end-up at www.thewarstore.com.

D>M>

| Your gonads are a year older!

After 30 they say the hairs start getting deeprooted... maybe not.

Watched these fine movies this weekend:

Pirates of the Caribean: - delicious. I remember falling asleep in the theatres but that was due to fatigue more than anything else. Disc1 was rather funny, but I think the humor died in the end.

More : Ants in the pants??!? (Gnarlante hunde or whatever Lookitup urselves)- what a crazy name but it's an American Pie knockoff. Do they have German pies? But of course all german girls do. hehe badoom!

The best little thief in the world: sleeper, silent sleeper. Lucky it was a homeV. I fast forwarded 80% of it. Stole a good 25 minutes of my time, including popping the dvd in the track

Gattaca: Everytime I watch this movie I feel invincible and i wish I had an engineered doll like that.


-Logged in a game!

Happy birthday Enron! Thanks for consistently being older than me -- I really appreciate it!

In other news, being sick is totally awesome!

Hey, Joss Whedon is doing another tv show! AND its gonna be on FOX!!! Oh, it's so gonna last... BUT, at least we'll probably get a few episodes of a rad show b4 they can it. Here's the interview - sounds interesting.

CLUCK!

| Best Halloween Costume Evar

I only wish I was that cool back in the day.

Thanks for hosting the party Enron. "Ghoulies" was a marvellously stupid movie and a fun movie to drink beer to. Also, congratulations on your astonishing outlay on D&D Minis, you've far surpassed my collection in one fell swoop! Brutal!

Meanwhile, I've gone a little nuts buying stuff on ebay for this pre-painted squad-based wargame called AT-43. It is kinda pricey at MSRP, as a squad of pre-paints costs about the same as a similar box of nicer unpainted stuff for Warmachine, but at 50-75% off on ebay or Warstore it almost seems reasonable.

Meanwhile, it looks like some distribution problems with AT-43 have caused some brick and mortar stores to actually increase their prices over MSRP on the minis. Gamescape has a decent selection of the minis but their prices are completely insane. They were asking $96 for the starter, which has an MSRP of $80, and similiarly crazy price increases for most of the unit boxes. Endgame also has marked up a lot of the box prices for $5 or more. Not as bad, but enough to make me default to buying online. Way to compete with the online environment, guys.

| 4 day vacation in Mango Paradise!!@#@

National holiday 'ere and what am I gonna do with all of it??

1) Strategize in revamping my Fantasy Hockey Team to kick some AT and NOn-AT teams bee-hind. PF team been really suckin it the last few weeks. Made some really necessary changes in the net and some really deep cuts in left wing and defense. What can you do.. they got complacent to the easy living in Jones city.

2) Take the missus to enchanted kingdom ---- aka magic mountain. I doubt this place will be any good, and truth be told, probably a little more riskier than MM...

3) Go to girlie bars when the missus is not here

4) Do some work related stuff and do some off reading.

That's all!

| Happy Samhain (pronounced /ˈsˠaunʲ/ from the Old Irish samain)

How the fuck does that "pronounced" help!? I thought it was pronounced SAM-HAIN ... I stole gif from SA, it cracked me up at work so here, on this spooktacular night.

So far I am pwning teh noob in this one (4-3 isn't really a pwn I guess), but yikes with the broken team. Fuck sakes, I should have named my team Redondo Made-O-Glass. I don't think I have ever had a full, healthy squad. It's on Aaron, or should I say, Erin! Ha! Burn!

Kind of reminds me of Blood Bowl, when my team was totally broken, my opponent kept rolling a 19 or 20 on the injury chart, and I only have one play with one turn left- that is to go for it twice to try to tie the game, and its Thanksgiving. Was that how it went, Eric?

| Fantasy Hockey Matchup of the Week

The game we are ALL watching pits the SF Frostgiants against the Redondo Anger! The most notable bit of trivia regarding this matchup is that there are 10 players on either the IR or are listed DTD between the teams!

PS My GM and coaching skills are terrible, just terrible. My team is a poor sack of poo poo.

| GH3: Post Mortem

So, I beat the sumbitch Devil, and it was as they said it would be, either all or nothing. I broke him pretty easily, so I think it has to do with which power attack you get, and which on he gets. If they are too brutal, or not brutal enough, just start over cause there is no point in trying. Your results may vary.

I have taken to playing difficult songs on expert practice so that I can't fail and still have fun trying to get through the song all the way. My high score, and first try on the Dragonforce song was 187,449 on expert. BEAT THAT JORNATHAN!

Fun game. And the hammer-ons are TOTALLY responsive and there are parts in songs that you can only hammer-on which is a new way to rock! I likes it!

Anyway, looking forward to co-oping with anyone sometime.

Rawk outs with yer kawks out.

I like GH3, but the problem I have is that the tracklist balance is out of whack. There aren't any songs the '90s or the 'Bushies until Tier 4, and I was feeling a little bit of classic rock overload.

I've only battled Tom Morello, but that was the lamest shit ever... it look less than a minute to finish. Not the epic I was imagining.

Definitely gonna be Rock Band FTW I think.

At least once I beat the Devil, I'll own Eric's soul too!

| GH3:Revised

The songs get better, and more fun certainly. The Boss battles (new feature!)vs. Tom Morello, Slash, and the Devil are kinda lame. On hard, for me anyway, the final battle to beat the devil is unpossible. So I looked online and everyone says one of two things:

1) You are ghey and a fag and should get better at GH3 n00b.
2) Wait til you get one special powerup, then deliver it to him at a certain time and you will win.

Either way, it kinda sucks. So far, he hands my ass to me because he has first shot at a powerup, then gives it to me at the worst possible time, which included my chance for a powerup, thereby sealing my fate because I can never crawl outta the hole he puts me in. Not much fun, but whatevs.

I used a cheat to unlock all the songs, because to unlock some like Dragonforce, you need to beat the game first, and I ain't gonna beat it against the Devil. So, all the songs are available to me and they are fun! Playing One, Number of the Beast, etc. is a blast, so GH3 succeeds in delivering some fun songs, but the tedium to unlock them legit is a little rough, but using the cheat somehow validates all the work so far and I look forward to rocking out some co-op!

| Guitar Hero III: An Early Take

I have the PS2 version and as is my standard rocking out procedure, I play though the game on hard first so that I can see all the songs before getting stuck on any of them and getting frustrated. So far I have rocked 30 though the 42 basic songs and am relatively unimpressed.

I know you gotta stick the crappy songs somewhere, but so far I have played:

Tier 1: Starting Out Small
1. Slow Ride (as made famous by Foghat)
2. Talk Dirty to Me (by Poison)
3. Hit Me with Your Best Shot (as made famous by Pat Benetar)
4. Story of My Life (as made famous by Social Distortion)
5. Encore: Rock and Roll All Nite (as made famous by Kiss)

Tier 2: Your First Real Gig
7. Mississippi Queen (as made famous by Mountain)
8. School’s Out (as made famous by Alice Cooper)
9. Sunshine of Your Love (as made famous by Cream)
10. Barracuda (as made famous by Heart)
11. Boss: Tom Morello’s Original Boss Battle Recording
12. Encore: Bulls on Parade (by Rage Against The Machine)


Tier 3: Making The Video
14. When You Were Young (by The Killers)
15. Miss Murder (by AFI)
16. The Seeker (as made famous by The Who)
17. Lay Down (by Priestess)
18. Encore: Paint It Black (by The Rolling Stones)

Tier 4: European Invasion
20. Paranoid (as made famous by Black Sabbath)
21. Anarchy in the U.K. (by The Sex Pistols)
22. Kool Thing (by Sonic Youth)
23. My Name is Jonas (by Weezer)
24. Encore: Even Flow (by Pearl Jam)

Tier 5: Bighouse Blues
26. Holiday in Cambodia (as made famous by Dead Kennedys)
27. Rock You Like a Hurricane (as made famous by Scorpions)
28. Same Old Song and Dance (by Aerosmith)
29. La Grange (as made famous by ZZ Top)
30. Boss: Slash’s Original Boss Battle Recording

Meh. None of these songs are all that memorable, nor interesting to play. At least on hard, maybe expert will liven things up a bit, but I am certainly not fulfilling any RockStarDreams by pretending I am in AFI, or Sonic Youth, or Aerosmith in the 70's.

I know the best is yet to come, and I don't really know what there is left, I mean I do know a few but not all, so I am at least still hopeful.

I do think the Co-Op Career mode sounds cool!

We haven't gotten out and seen the city much lately so we decided to go to Bernal Heights, get lunch at one of two restaurants, and go to the Farmer's Market.

The restaurant famous for its chicken pot pies was closed.
The Peruvian restaurant was closed.
The Farmer's Market was closed.

D'oh! At least we got to the Bernal Heights park, which is pretty amazing. One of the best 360 degree views of the city I've ever seen.

We also saw Darjeeling Limited. Disappointingly, but I guess unsurprisingly, it wasn't very good. It wasn't bad either, just "meh." Considering that Rushmore is, like, the best movie ever made, it's too bad. I don't expect Wes Anderson to hit home runs every time, but a double or triple once in a while would be nice.

(That was a baseball metaphor.)

And oh yeah. Chili-covered chocolate is quite good. A little bit of chili is also quite good in hot chocolate. Try it! Just don't put any in your fucking eye!

| Eww

I just saw Henry Rollins doing a NASCAR teaser/intro thing on TV. Pretty gross. I mean, fuck I'd do KKK recruitment ads if there was some GREEN involved, but I figured that dude was more "fuck the man" than me. He looked old as hell too, like they had all these close-ups and he's all "NASCAR is the POWER to drive on!" or whatever, but he looked like bruce willis almost hahaha. DOOOSH.

| Good Laffs

I had seen the first strip before, but it still cracks me up. The second one is pretty damn funny too. I half expected the strip to include "Skull-Fucker" in there when I saw the word Skull.

And so I am LA bound this weekend. Visit ye old family. YeeHaa.

jr0n: I feel for you man. While cooking/chopping chilies, I have on several occasions made the awful mistake of rubbing chili oils into my eye balls. Not fun. The Chili (cayenne coated) chocolates I have had are pretty good. Aimey also made some cayenne choclate cookies that were pretty damn good. I recently tried a few chocolate oddities at a cool shop in Noe Valley that had, among over flavors (natural extract flavorings not artificial BS), Cardamom, lavender and Bacon. The bacon was truly odd. Savory while slightly sweet, yet it grew on me as the taste lingered i my real purty mowth. Bizarro.

D>M>

"I did do the nasty in the pasty" -Philip J. Fry
"Verily" -Nibbler

| Again with the Humor

i thought he meant a piece of slimy poop, so then he got pink eye. never had chocolate with chili on it. that a weinershnitzil or tommys thing??

| Chili-Covered Chocolate?!??!

:(

u got pink eye?

| I Guess I Shouldn't Have Rubbed My Eye After Handling That Piece of Chili-Covered Chocolate

MOTHERFUCKER!

| Eric's Musical Tastes and Takes on the Mix

Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple
Through the Fire and Flame - Dragonforce
Black Fire - Dragonforce
Starfire - Dragonforce
Set this World Ablaze - Killswitch Engage
Stand Ablaze - In Flames
In Flames - In Flames

| No taboo goes unturned

Maybe...

Metallica - Fight Fire with Fire or Jump in the Fire
Prodigy - Firestarter
Doors, the - Light my Fire

D>M>

the most obvious omission: jimi hendrix - fire
and bloodhound gang? isn't that like one of those "fat-rock" bands like barenaked ladies?

| Burn mother effer... Burn.

To help "commemorate" the unreal firestorm we are having, I was thinking about making a "Fire Mix 2007." This is what I have so far:

Ring of Fire- Johnny Cash
Beds Are Burning- Midnight Oil
The Roof Is On Fire- Bloodhound Gang
Disco Inferno- The Trammps
I'm On Fire- Bruce Springsteen
Smoke Gets In Your Eye- The Platters
Lake of Fire- Nirvana
Los Angeles Is Burning- Bad Religion
We Didn't Start the Fire- Billy Joel
(Regretfully... I hate U2) The Unforgettable Fire- U2
Boogie Wonderland- Earth, Wind, and Fire (this is where I started reaching)

... Any suggestions? Is this in bad taste? We had to cancel a game and shut down my girls' practice by order of the school district. The air quality was unhealthful to dangerous. Yikes!