my mental sieve...
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| Evil Wayne my mental sieve... |
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Friday, February 25, 2005 MOONLAN is A Go For Launch We finally have decided on a date for the next LAN party (April 9th). While that might not seem like a big deal, consider that we've been tossing around ideas on an off for the last year and a half. Our last LAN was in October 2003, so it's been awhile.  Of course it's not all wine and roses. We're still trying to flesh out the games we'll be playing. Aliens vs Predator is so at the top of the list this year. That game was such a blast to play in a LAN setting. This time around we have three new players (Joe, Jorge and Dan of NELUG fame) and we apper to have lost just as many (Lee, Kevin and Dave are MIA). So it's a differnet crowd and that's had all kinds of weirdness to ti. While they're some NELUG guys, I know Kate has never met them, and Sean only once. But I was talking to Kate the other day and I think she's really just excited to play games socially. She almost doesn't care who with, "as long as they're cool." So, as you can see, we're in trouble. posted by Evil Wayne | 1:58 PM 0 comments Wednesday, February 23, 2005 Dream Sequence I was in some kind of real-life Aliens versus Predator game (the video game, not the movie). We were in a giant house, one of those four-floor plus an attic, plus a basement homes. It was more of a boarding school, I think, because there were older children running about as we tried to clear rooms. The kids were dressed in white gowns that came to the floor. So this appeared to be the early 1900s or something. But I was still a Colonial Marine and so were the guys I was with. As far as I can tell, they were nobody I actually know. In fact, I was the new guy. I had little idea what was going on as we came in the ground floor. My team went in through a window and the room was a mess. Torn apart and trashed. The lights were out, but there was this bluish light, the sort of thing you see in a movie to tell you it's dark out, but so you can continue to see. Furniture was turned over, clothes strewn about, it was a real mess. One of the guys said this was normal alien behavior and we started clearing rooms looking for it. Several kids, probably teens, were running around screaming and crying and we raced down the corridor to a room where the alien was. Then I was alone in the room with it. I don't really remember how I got there, but I was at the doorway, just inside the room and it was in the corner crouched down on the floor beside an overturned bed and lamp. In the dream, I was terrified, but the alien didn't exactly look like the monsters from the movies. It was a lot smaller and it looked more like a kid in a bad Halloween costume and a super killing machine. When it stood up, it seemed to have trouble seeing and walked into the wall. The head looked a lot like a black motorcycle helmet with crap glued to it than an alien. It even moved independently of the body, like someone wearing a costume. But I was still terrified, because it was still an alien in the dream. And then it seem to see me and came at me, growling. The bulky round helmet came apart to show the teeth within teeth as it started to run at me. I brought my gun up to shoot it, but I didn't have any idea how the weapon worked. I flipped some switches and still nothing. Real fright seem to take over as I fumbled with the gun, trying to get it to shoot. Then I was being pulled out of the room by some other marines. They rushed in and there was lots of shooting, leaving me on my ass in the hallway. Next thing we were in the basement, which was dark and had a dirt floor. It was small and there was some equipment, a boiler or something that we looked around. Then we marched up the stairs to the attic where it was boiling hot. I took off my helmet it was so hot, and considered taking off my suit. The attic was all this distressed whitewashed boards. There were several beds up here, cots really, with some sheets for separators. Several of the kids were up here, huddled in a corner and they clung to us as we came up the stairs. One of the guys told them we had killed the alien, but they didn't believe him. They kept saying it was going to come for them when it was dark. And some of them started to cry. There was a single window that I walked over to and looked out and suddenly I was staring out of my grandparents house in Lynn. The lived in the highlands and had this fantastic view of the ocean - you could even see out to Boston from there and that's what I saw. And there's about where I woke up. posted by Evil Wayne | 10:01 AM 0 comments Tuesday, February 15, 2005 Checkers Through a sheer coincidence, I ended up using MSN NetMeeting, something JoeC has been asking me about lately. But Kate was up online and I just happened to be sitting down to do a whole bunch of nothing on the PC. Actually, I accidentally started talking to her by clicking on the wrong button and one thing led to another and we had webcams going. The big downside is that audio refused to work in any capacity, so we were limited to making faces and throwing our respective offspring in front of the lens to amuse the opposite number. Eventually, I wound up talking to Sean and we tried a few other features that NetMeeting was offering and they were almost all a bust. Except one of the games: Evil Wayne: what's going on? 
posted by Evil Wayne |
9:30 AM
0 comments Monday, February 14, 2005 Happy Valentine's Day It's been a terrible weekend. It really started on Thursday. That was when Kelly got sick. And not just the oh-woe-is-me-lie-in-bed kind of sick, nooo. It's the up-at-6AM-puking-your-guts-out sick. The really weird thing was that she had no other symptoms and 24 hours later she was perfectly fine. But that couldn't be the end of it. Nope. Saturday morning, I let Tine sleep thinking it would put her in the mood for some hot lovin' later, but instead she came down at about 10 AM asking me if I slipped rocks into her stomach while she slept. Un-oh. She spent the day sleeping and puking. Many times actually. And when Tine pukes, it's pretty violent. I mean it sounds like she's giving birth to a very sharp and pointy alien up there. TheBoy™ kept asking what that noise was and I just kept asking back, "What noise?" while turning the TV up. This all meant I spent Saturday night with TheBoy™. He and I watched that cheezy SlipStream on SciFi (I'm a sucker for time travel in any form). We ate popcorn and he went to bed around 11. I went to be around 2 and then, when he woke up I went in and laid with him. Can you guess where this might be going? At about 5 AM, he wakes me up, calling me while sitting straight up. I knew it. Even though I was working on about 2 hours of sleep and there was this massive grey fog around my brain, I just knew what was coming. But I was really slow to react. I sit up and rub his back, "What's wrong, buddy? "Dad," he says in a combination of sadness and pain. And then there's this gurgling sound and he sucks in a breath as he convulses. It's like half of a hiccup. Only when the second half comes, it isn't that comical high-pitched snapping sound. It's a liquid churning sound. And it's not just a sound. My hands race to rip the covers off and form a cup under his chin. I have no idea why I do this. This has never really worked. It's like some attempt to keep it all clean. If I can catch it, I won't have to worry about the sheets, the blankets, the pillow, clothing... But it only works if he vomits up a cup of matter. I catch the initial mass. It's gooey and warm (mmm... you wanted to hear that, right?). TheBoy™ coughs slightly and combines a whine with it and, before I can think, he brings up the rest. Now it's just gushes into my already full hands and flows over. Fuck this, I think and just sort of drop what I'm holding on the bed with the rest of it. He starts to cry. I tell him, "Hold on," and leap up. "Daddy's going to clean it up." I turn the light on and it stings my eyes, his eyes. It makes him cry more and I try to reassure him as I run to the bathroom swearing. I grab towels and wet a face cloth. I swear some more and rush back to the room. I am not quiet. Tine gets up and staggers into the room as I'm cleaning him up. I strip him and we search for clothes to redress him in. He clutches to her and the both sit on the floor after he's changed. Then I have to strip the bed before it really sinks in and the pool of vomit looks like melted ice cream. White with small dark chunks. I think it has to be popcorn and milk. I ball it all up and find new sheets. The whole time, Tine and TheBoy™ are just sitting on the floor rocking. It's now about 5:30 and TheBoy™ is awake. He's scared. Puking is traumatic for kids. The younger they are, the worse it is. He has no idea what's going on. It's a shock to his system and he can't figure it out. All he knows it, it's not normal. We go downstairs and find something on TiVo for him to watch. Dora or Blue's, I can't remember. I send Tine back to bed so one of us can be alert later and I lie down with TheBoy™ on the couch, plastic bowl nearby in case of any more attacks. And he has them. But his stomach is empty so we only get spit and then some bile. He becomes less afraid of it and we lie there and I pass out around 6 or so. Sunday he was better. Not much, but he ate some dinner and kept it down. Tine on the other hand, can't seem to get the upper hand. She isn't able to eat anything until Sunday evening and even then still feels like shit. She actually crashed most of the day and turned in about 9 PM. So that brings us to today. I am the only one here who hasn't been sick in the last week (Michael was sick about a week ago, but it wasn't the same thing—or was it?). I've tried to be real careful about what I touch and washing my hands. But the funky thing is, I'm the one who ends up home today. We need to make sure TheBoy™ really is 100% better. It's not really fair to possibly infect other people. We have always tried very hard to make sure all the kids are well when we send them to daycare. Which has also meant I've been stuck inside the house every day since Friday. As a result, I never got anything for Valentine's Day. I told Tine that this morning and she seemed okay with it. She never got out either. So, I'm forced to break out Plan K: Happy Valentine's Day, Baby: 
posted by Evil Wayne |
2:13 PM
0 comments Thursday, February 10, 2005 Email Exchange Summary Steve: would care to this explain this attachement...[Mike's Pic of Mario in Alpha Team Glasses] ...in a way where you don't come across as a homo, fag! Evil: Did you click any of the links? I know there's a fair amount of reading and some big words, but I think you can get through it... And if not, the only non-gay answer I can come up with is: We were drunk? Steve: We were drunk? Who? You and and your bathhouse boy toys! Actually, I did read the links. Personally, I think its very odd where it lead. One of those things that probably seemed funny at the time but you being to question the next day. Do you know either of those guys? Evil: I thought you were making a Simpsons reference. The episode where Homer busts Bart and Milhouse dressed up like girls bouncing on the bed. Homer: What's going on here ...[shakes fist] And I want the non-gay explaination! Bart: We were drunk? Yes, I know them both. It's probably funnier because of that, I guess. Steve: the simpsons... where would you be without the simpsons? one silent motherfucker. posted by Evil Wayne | 5:08 PM 0 comments Wednesday, February 09, 2005 Happy New Year 
I have exactly one Chinese friend and he probably doesn't even read this (do ya Hans?), but WTF. I always thought it was cool that the Chinese had animal name for the year. But looking at this site, I see that perhaps Al Stewart was wrong, there is no Year of the Cat is there? posted by Evil Wayne | 1:30 PM 0 comments Monday, February 07, 2005 Getting the RTs Okay, if you really want the background, it starts here. But the horrible, horrible conclusions (of which we see below) are presented on Mr Rayhawks little web tirades. I present it here, in my own little effort to help the nebulous nature of the web in reproducing everything ad nauseum. 
Geesh, after re-reading their little transcript, I'm getting the RTs... posted by Evil Wayne | 10:52 PM 0 comments Pats Win I don't watch football. I don't really care about sports too much, but we watch the SuperBowl mostly for the ads because we're stupid consumer whores. This year, I was really waiting for the new War of the Worlds trailer I heard was going to premiere during the game. I shouldn't have expected too much as the film is still like 6 months away. And there were 2-5 seconds of really cool destruction including an elevated highway being ripped up. But clearly the FX aren't finished, because the thing tearing up that highway was missing, so it just looked like some invisible force was clearing roadway like it were weeding the garden. I'm just hoping they go with real tripods this time. I spent the weekend trying to sort Lego and get a poster I recently received framed; which turned out to be quite the rude awakening. Turns out they wanted about $300 to frame and mount it. To her credit, the girl helping me was completely understanding at my apparently frozen-in-terror face when she told me the estimate. Obviously, she gets that a lot. Something about glass going up exponentially as the image size increases. I'm not sure what she said as the words three-hundred-and-fifty-five kept bouncing around in my head. The lowest it could come down to would be about $180 and that's still too much. Which means, I'll have to try to do it on my own. Not impossible, but it won't look as good. I always had trouble mounting projects in college. I couldn't get mattes cut right—even when using a matte cutter, I still managed to fuck it up. I think I got 3 good mattes the entire time I was at school. Things are slow going on the sorting front. I have managed to empty about a half dozen of the older bins I had been using, but there's still quite a bit to go. I think that I'll be exceedingly lucky to have it sorted by Springtime and that's not a joke. I was going to try to adopt Shaun's philosophy of no building until the sorting is done, but I can't see it happening. The next BrikWar game is scheduled for March and I really need to build something this time. I just can't be done sorting before I need to build. I'm still at the gross sorting stage, where I've got two main catagories: Plate and Brick And am just throwing parts in one bin or the other. I've got a couple of strays that I pile on the floor as I'm working, like 1x1 modified plates or clips, but it's mostly 2 bins and I pull a piece out and put it in one of the those. Unless it's clearly something else. A lot of minifig items, doors, windows, stuff like that. I just leave it in the bin. I've consolidated a few bins like that. Hopefully, when I'm done with gross sorting, I'll have three bins: 1 Plates 2 Brick 3 Other The biggest problem there will be sorting Other because it will be everything I didn't know what to do with the first time around. I fear there will be this ongoing Other bin that, hopefully will get smaller and smaller as I go, but will, ultimatly remain because I just don't know what the hell to do with some of it. posted by Evil Wayne | 1:15 PM 1 comments Friday, February 04, 2005 You Want Paranoid? I'll Give You Paranoid: Social Security. This whole thing is a smoke screen. Or a distraction. Bush either wants to make it look like he's trying to do something domestically, or -worse- he's trying to make us look in the wrong direction. It won't pass. It can't pass. It's stupid to screw with something when it's just needs a little TLC and not an overhaul. And they know it. They know it won't pass, but if they sink money and time and talk into it, it will *look* like they're doing something other than bombing the crap out of the middle east. It's all about showmanship. You think the administration's hard, unbreakable rule about holding elections in Iraq on Jan 30th was anything other than getting it in ahead of the State of the Union address? And don't think it also wasn't coordinated that we wouldn't know the exact outcome yet. Because they don't really care at this point. They only wanted to show that elections could and would be held. There's nothing beyond that. It's a dog and pony show. So it looks like positive things are on the rise. They trot out Social Security and give it the whole Iraq treatment by using scary words and fuzzy math skills to whip the uninformed into a pro-administration frenzy. It's a win-win for the administration. They get to first look like they're doing something domestically. They're looking out for your future! Nevermind that it's a not really a crisis. They can spend all the time, money and resources coming up with whatever plan they want, because they know it'll never pass. It might make it through the House. But not the Senate. And they know it. And they'll blame it on the Senate. It's a win-win for the administration. They get to claim they were trying to help. They had a plan and the Senate wouldn't pass it. The Senate is who's at fault here. Bush risks nothing by advancing his plan. He can't loose. Now, you want real paranoia? Okay, it's not just a Look-I-Tried/Pretend-to-Care campaign. They really mean it, because there will be no more money in Social Security once they get to Plan X. I can't tell you what Plan X is, but it's dark and secret and it's going to be the most terrible of events and it when it happens, they'll need all the money they can get their hands on. Then we're all screwed. posted by Evil Wayne | 1:37 PM 0 comments Thursday, February 03, 2005 Shark's Teeth I rounded out my Pick-A-Brick purchases last night with a couple of X-Pods. Mostly, because I was going to come in at about $21 and you don't get the Loyalty Card [1] stamped unless it's $25 or more. I really wanted the new green pod, but Alfred got the last one (you bastard! Wait until you see what I did with it at dinner... muwhahahah!). Anyway, I ended up with the new blue Aqua Pod (4339) and purple Monster Pod(4338). I just built the tiny shark. Which is a really neat little model. There's also this groovy 1x2 modified plate that looks like a flag clip. That's probably not the best description. But, while I dig the blue pod, I was a little disappointed to see the shark's teeth are the glow-in-the-dark variety. I don't care for glow-in-the-dark Lego. It looks wrong. Milky. Off-white, like there's something diseased about it. And- beyond the minifig ghost-shell, which I can accept as diseased glow-in-the-dark Lego because it is, at least expected-I don't really see any reason to have glow-in-the-dark. They have limited reuse overall and don't mesh well with regular brick - almost like they're going to infect the bricks around them. [1] I'm also not a fan of calling it a Loyalty Card. Somehow it strikes me like some kind of cult member status. Or worse; some Nazi/Commie, hard-line party, fidelity membership blood-oath. I mean, what happens if I buy Lego somewhere else? Thugs dressed like the Brickster show up at my house and break my thumbs (they're jealous like that). posted by Evil Wayne | 7:50 PM 0 comments !Zombie! We had our little !Zombie! game on Saturday. It was a lot of fun, despite the fact the rules were untested and there was some goofiness regarding the use of Holy Water (among other goofiness). This time I brought a long my video camera to capture some of the fun and geekatude. I caught about an hour of video which I distilled down to just under 12 minutes. Again, it's a RealPlayer file (because RealPlayer has a nice trade off of file size and quailty). I set up a quick webpage for the game that currently has the rules, links to images and the movie. !Zombies! Joe C. and I have been talking about editing video and other creative stuff along those lines. He bought Premier Elements and I'm extremely jealous of how much more it can do over the program I'm currently using. At the meeting last night, we touched on how we might start doing some filming at other events and start trading data to edit. I love doing this kind of thing, and more of it would be swell (but not too much more; the video probably took me 10 hours to edit and compile just those 12 minutes). posted by Evil Wayne | 1:49 PM 0 comments Wednesday, February 02, 2005 24 Rebuttal Steve's Response to my latest post: workings of a nuclear power plant. It's called the Simpsons. Trust me, we're better off having terrorists in control then the "nuke-clear" technicians. I thought the only man Jack could have trusted would be Palmer. How cool would have that been if he had rescue Jack, guns blazing? As for Tony, it's been eighteen months since seasons. The judicial system isn't worth shit in this country. posted by Evil Wayne | 1:15 PM 0 comments Tuesday, February 01, 2005 24 Tony's Back! Making him the only one (so far) to make it into every season besides Kiefer Sutherland. When Jack called "the only person he could trust" it was either going to be Chloe (and I'm not sure how that would have worked) or Tony. Now where the hell has Tony been that he's close by, with a gun, and not in a Federal Penn getting chummy with the soap-on-a-rope - and Jack knows this? Current Plot Gripe: This Override device that can cause a reactor to overload; there's no fail-safe device at the power plant location that can't manually override a software intervention? I mean, even if it's labor intensive, I can't believe that engineers running the plant can go in and manually deal with a reactor core. Surely, this can't be true? And what was up with those previews? Way to blow the suspense? Not that we didn't see the fact mole-chick #4 was going to pin her spying on the new girl. I just don't get the reasoning behind previews like that. I'm a fan. I'm already watching. I'm not likely to stop. Who are these scenes for?!? Finally, I meant to post Steve's comment earlier: "Here's another thought, black woman. In the 24 universe, they're serious, big-balled bitches. Somebody on the writing staff is still channeling Sherry." Which says nothing of CTUs mole-magnetic properties. But combining the two; I can't tell if that's genius or just laziness. posted by Evil Wayne | 1:26 PM 0 comments |
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