We’re Humped.
November 30, 2008
This was a phrase I uttered numerous times tonight, usually after a big fat guy vomited all over me. This would, of course, get him shot.
I spent some quality time as Orangelo™ ( as Louis, the black guy ) with Squillis™ ( as Zoey, the chick ) and PCounts™ ( as Bill, the old guy ) playing Left 4 Dead, a new zombie-apocalypse first person shooter.
Let me just say, it was fun as Hell. Before playing, my only knowledge about this game was based on this video – needless to say, I was instantly sold. Paul and I went through most of the No Mercy campaign and Squillis met us up partway through. Unfortunately, Paul disappeared at the start of the final level (presumably due to interwebs issues), leaving Squillis and I to finish the campaign.
The game, while playable in single player mode, is so much more fun in co-op. Computer players will fill in the role of the missing ‘survivors’ (in our case tonight, Francis) if needed. Unfortunately, neither of my friends had a working microphone setup, and mine was at best hacked together. Still, they could hear me, and react accordingly (if desired).
Hopefully next game, all will be good. Will be nice to hear the rest of the team.
The problem, I believe, resides with OSX. L4D is a Steam/Valve product. While it is generally awesome, it does not have native OSX/Linux clients. I was playing on my pc, Paul was on a Mac (using BootCamp), and I don’t know about Squillis’ setup. I do know that I’ve been trying to get it to work properly with my MacBook via Codeweavers Crossover Games, and while the main menu screen runs flawlessly, the rendering of the actual game play is downright horrendous.
I guess it is all for the best though. It would be nice to go over to someones apartment and play in the same room though. I’ll keep plugging away at it as I get time.
I’ve got to admit it’s getting better
November 24, 2008
Well, things are a bit up and maybe down today, despite my mild hangover.
For the definite up, my pay cut will be $5k, not $10k. Definitely makes me feel a bit better. I was feeling better about the $10k the other day, as new work with new clients was developing. I am very excited about the project, and this is where we get to the maybe down bit.
Depending on how some things play out, the gig may be canceled. I hope it works out, as I think it would be a fun project, and would pay for my new furnace/condenser and the Home Depot debt.
Cross you fingers for me, internets.
Oh, and WHO DAT!
In other words, I’m a racist.
November 21, 2008
This past Saturday found myself and ~240 other people running, biking, and canoeing all through our great city. Well, not all through – the closest we got to uptown was Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar, but close enough.
It was the final of a 7 race series called “Racing to N’Awlins”, put on by Gulf Coast Adventure Racing . Adventure racing is simiar to a triathlon, except fun. We bike (mountain only), run, and canoe. It isn’t bike 25 miles, then run 8, then paddle 5. It’s mixed up. Do a little running, then biking, then a challenge to find the next checkpoint, then bike to the canoe, then run, etc. etc. etc. I guess I’d have to say that hashing is to a marathon as adventure racing is to a triathlon.
I did it with my friends Scott and Meghan/Orleans Perish/Sazerac Attack last year and had an absolute blast. We mixed it up this year. Team Broken Racket had 3 coed teams of 3 this year, and we basically all rode/paddled/ran as one team. While it did slow us down as a whole, it was still fun. Since we had three teams, and I more or less ‘captained’ (ie registered/prepaid for the three of us), I got to name our ‘subteam’.
What did I come up with? Broken Racket’s Galactic Monkey Squadron. Yeaahhhhh…
Anyways, here are all nine of us, doing the ‘ant walk’ for a challenge outside of the Audubon Insectarium on Canal:
Hard Times for a Sonofabitch
November 18, 2008
Bea and I sat down and did rough math on monthly income/expenses. We hadn’t done this yet, and considering that my pay cut takes effect in January, it was time.
’09 will be interesting. And that’s not just for us – it seems to be a general consensus amongst those I talk to it about. Like the not-so-long-ago continually rising gas prices, it think it will actually be a good thing.
“Good thing you ass? You know how much money it takes to fill up my car and how often and blah blah blah?” I hear you say. Yes, I think events/times like these are good. It forces a re-evaluation that you usually only talk about doing. I saw and heard of more people riding their bikes, carpooling, or *gasp* using public transportation during that gas price increase than I had in a while. People actually planning out and condensing multiple trips into one. Not only that, there’s been a big push for more fuel-efficient and green technology.
Let’s face it kids, the world could use more regular (and higher) doses of personal responsibility, forethought, and actual analytical/critical thinking.
This is still unfortunate for us though, as there is still work needing to be done on the house, and furniture/molding/insulation/etc. to be bought. And it all needs to be paid for somehow. The warchest for the Alocasian Holocaust™ runs low right now. The upside is that it costs nothing to keep the yard covered with visqueen. Priorities, priorities.
Well, I guess this is the perfect time to say ‘back to work’, so adios.
… And Cancel Christmas!
November 14, 2008
Right now, there are two guys installing $6k in parts and labor to replace the furnace and condenser for the a/c for the kitchen, den, and backroom.
My 401(k), like many others, has seen better days.
Due partly to Katrina and the maritime insurance industry being as cyclical as it is, we’ve hit hard times at the office. We’ve been concentrating on reducing spending and waste as much as possible, but sometimes that just isn’t enough. Not only are there no bonuses this year, I’m taking a $10k salary reduction. One lady here, who is both great at her job and as a person, is losing her job.
Time to tighten the belt and just put my nose to the grindstone.
150 Miles, 1 Gear.
November 5, 2008
October 4th and 5th was the Louisiana MS 150 – a thousand-rider-strong bike ride for Multiple Sclerosis. Every cyclist raised at least $250, and many raised much more than that.
Prologue (up to Friday):
We (Bea and I) didn’t actually do a whole lot of training. Unless injured, I ride every day – and yes, it is only a few miles in general. Bea? not so much. Bea rode an on-loan Zonal Scattante which had dumped her twice already and dumped its actual owner in a violent enough manner to require that her jaw be wired shut.
So there’s that.
Friday night found us at Scott and Beth’s house (our team captains), enjoying a glass or two of wine, inhaling some wonderful Eggplant Parmesan, and roughly fitting our newest member Brent (he joined up at our Mahony’s Fundraiser) to the bike he’d be riding – my KHS Flite 500 road bike named ‘Blanche’. While he bought his own gloves and shorts, everything else was on load. Helmet and shoes from Scott, pedals from Jason, bike from me. We gave him a quick run-down on shifting and how to clip in/out of the pedals, and I gave his what may have been a damning warning: everyone falls on their bike when they first use clipless pedals. I’ve done it, numerous riders before have done it, and even more will do it after me. It’s just how things go. We broke up relatively early as we all had to get up quite early, and I believe we all had yet to actually pack. I don’t think sleep came until midnight or so.
I chose to ride Molly (with green monkey Julius), my single-speed track bike instead of my road bike. I know that the gears would have been nice, but I just feel more comfortable on the track bike, and there’s something to be said for that.
Stage 1 (Saturday):
00:dark-thirty came entirely too soon, as it usually does and with it came all the sorts of last-minute packing and preparation that we all know. We each ticked through our mental checklists a number of times, and I’m glad to say that the only I forgot was chapstick. I think that Bea got everything.
We met up with the rest of our team at a gas station, right on schedule. After a quick and error-free caravan (aren’t those the best?), we arrived at SLU in Hammond – the start and finish point of our ride. I donned my kilt (a portable and stylish changing room), and made the final preparations – number pinning, bike check, iPod setup, final clothes change, and luggage drop-off. We didn’t want to start at the very front with the super-serious people, so we lagged back and took out time starting out.
Our team eventually found our own tempos and broke up. As promised, I for the most part stayed with Bea, trying to give her advice and/or pull for her as much as possible, without sounding condescending. The hills were fun (both ascending and descending), the rest stops were placed at decent intervals, and the next thing we knew, we were at the lunch stop.
Lunch was roughly the same both days: ham or turkey sandwiches, pasta salad, rest stop food (cookies, bananas, oranges, granola bars, etc.), cokes/gatorade/energy drinks, and the soggiest, gooiest, most delicious PB&Js I think I have ever had the pleasure of consuming. This was also the point in my weekend that things were the oddest. While walking back to get something (more food, most likely), I got rickrolled. In the middle of Louisiana/Mississippi. I could not believe it, and Never Gonna Give You Up was stuck in my head until we hopped back on the road again and made our way to the destination for that day, Percy Quin State Park.
We continued along at about the same clip we had all morning, stopping at all the rest stops but the last, for that all-important refilling of the waterbottles, a quick snack, and the application of Florida Water-soaked paper towels to the backs of our necks. The last mile or so was in the deliciously cool and shady Percy Quin, where we climbed up a hill to the endpoint and were greeted by a man on a mic, plethora of riders and supporters, and perhaps the most important thing of all: beer.
The announcer, amongst others, had noticed that I rode on a single speed, and proceeded to either ask me about it or mere look/point and talk from a safe distance. At that point, I had a few critical items on my agenda (in no particular order):
- swap out the lycra cycling shorts for my kilt
- beer
- food
- beer
We made it to our cabin (our ever-resourceful leader Scott had fenagled that one somehow), showered, changed, and headed back out for dinner and drinks. Needless to say, we called it an early night and once in our cabin our moods mysteriously and quickly devolved into some sort of ridiculous middle-school style gigglefest. Deep sleep followed the theatrics, and was a welcome segway to day two.
Stage 2 (Sunday):
Everyone was in surprisingly good spirits Sunday morning – not a whole lot of complaints of soreness, which is always a good thing. While the ride back was similar to the ride up, it did take a different route. Somewhere after lunch (I think) Bea and I hit the first of three snags, all rooted in the same problem: a rear tire pinch-flat. It wasn’t caused by glass/nail/etc, but by a light shift of a protective piece of tape that lines the rim of the wheel. On the third occasion, we had run out of spare tubes, and considering that the next stop was almost literally a mile away, Bea flagged down and hopped into the SAG wagon (Support And Gear) and had her wheel attended to.
This would luckily be the only failure, mechanical or physical, that the two of us would encounter for the entire duration of the ride. I will certainly take that any day. Our teammate Brent however, would suffer a bit more of an embarrassing fate. I had warned him about the distinctly possible and almost inevitable fate of hist first jaunt with clipless pedals: he would fall while clipped in. And it would almost certainly be at a slow speed.
Well, I was right. After we finished the ride and had again traded lycra for kilt, we ran into a group of people we know through rollerderby – the Krewe of Rolling Elvi. Yes, they wore Elvis paraphernalia. One of the group, the only fellow single-speed rider and husband of RollerGirl ‘duMaine Attraction‘, told Bea and I how a guy had fallen on him at a traffic crossing (they had to stop). He had ice strapped to his knee at that point, and everything with it would luckily turn out just fine. When we caught up with our team and Brent embarrassed, said that he had fallen on another rider, I immediately knew who it was and proceeded to laugh. Hard.
Well, after inhaling food and Abita, we signed up for next years ride and proceeded to drive home.
Here is our route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2100034
I look forward to this challenge again next year, and wish to thank everyone who sponsored both Bea and I, our team, and the MS Society in general. So thank you very much, and I hope you will help out again in 2009.
– Will, Team Broken Racket
Team Broken Racket: |
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Jason: |
Brent: |
Bea: |
Beth: |
Scott: |
Yours Truly: |
And finally, the burn/tan line: |
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