The map in Mark's ~diplomacy directory is most definately wrong. It actually has never been right. The jpg on the desktop of the mac in the robot factory is correct. Anyone with an idea of how to do scp from an os9 mac should share their knowledge to correct the map issue.

Mark

It's not just you.

I finished 10-2 in the regular season of my fantasy football. The agonizing playoffs await me.

My final regular season fantasy football record is 10-2. Now it's on to the playoffs.

I played about 4 hours of football (you know, actually running around and stuff) yesterday at the local park. After the first three hours some young kids ranging in age from 12-15 showed up. We spent an hour teaching the kids to respect their elders. I'm a bit sore today.

Yeah. Mark seems to have teased us with the original map and now he's left us hanging.

So the picture in Mark's ~diplomacy directory isnt correct, right? I mean, its not just me?

Here's an idea for Mark. His work on the online status of the board was spectacular. WHAT IF . . . he continued to update the picture and it was a main link on the blog sidebar. Hmmm . . . how about that . . . ?

I hope everyone had a good turkeyday. I did my usual running around to different houses and had a good time. Now that I have been adopted by so many families, and in particular the Johnsons, it is difficult to find time for all of them. So I think that I will spend more time with the families I missed this christmas (that would be the Honeycutt's and Heacox's). Hopefully that will even things out a bit.

I've been playing a good bit of games, but have had that ability cut at the throat. I have homework due monday and a test this wedesday. I also had homework due wedensday, but the CDL was closed so I couldn't hand it in. Why they would give me homework both the day before and the day after I have no idea . . . oh wait, they are evil demons that want only to fuck up my life and eat my children.

Well, at least I got to play a few games before I got stalled out. Mark and I have gotten pretty decent at killing aliens with guns, or as Mark prefers the energy sword. Halo 2 isn't as good as Halo 1 with regard to story like, and while I think they improved the engine a bit, I don't think it is a great as everyone else says that it is. But then again, we don't have live anymore since our Xbox is moded. Mark started Metroid, and said that it is hard. So hard that he can't finish the first boss. Granted Mark isn't the best videogame player, but he's good enough to get past the first boss of something, so I imagine the game is indeed hard. I wouldn't know, because my time has been sucked into the suck-gun of Ratchet and Clank:Up Your Arsenal. This game really isn't very different from the last one, there are a few new weapons of course, but the plot is great as always and like many of the sidescrollers, you don't need to have a radically different game for it to be good. The difference between this and Halo 2 is that Halo 2 was billed as being this radical improvement, and I think that it was in the multiplayer, but the co-op and single modes are the same as before. RaC:UYA is the same great game as before, but that is all they ever advertised and that is what they delivered. The plot is great as always, but the rest of the game hasn't lost a beat from the last two which I thought were two of the best games I have ever played. One cool feature that they have is when you walk into two of the shops, they give you an employee discount if you have saved data on that card from the previous two games. It is pretty cool.

Well, I think that is it. I wish there were more wacky stories to tell, but things are pretty fucking mundane right now. We'll see what life brings in the next few weeks. Out.

M

I ran on Sunday. I'm averaging about a run a week. How pitiful.

Speaking of pitiful. I endured my second loss in fantasy football in an epically average scoring battle, loosing out to Caucasian Persuasian with a score of 121 to 113. On a high note, the only team that could catch me for the division lead was defeated, thus I have secured first place. I have officially turned a medicore profit off of fantasy football! Something like $20. Whoopee!

So I was doing a little research into Diplomacy and it seems the consensus among Diplomacy scholars is that Italy is probably the hardest country to play for novices. Not that I'm trying to make excuses...wait, of course I'm making excuses. Regardless, I feel I have everyone right where I want them. Suckers.

Well, just to tell mark mainly, I DID run today . . . at 11pm during the monday night game . . . but I did run. Although his wallop on my shoulder was warranted, I just wanted him to know I wasn't bullshitting him when I said I was going to run.

See you all tomorrow. Chowning will be over, and I will be doing much homework in between my playing of Diplomacy and whatnot. Out.

M

i was actually very impressed with mark's map - i was hoping to see a windows paint program style sketch!

i'm currently writing from pittsburgh in a room full of graphics geeks. we saw the incredibles last night - talk about geekfest! i feel bad for the other audience members.

i'll be at game night tomorrow, hope to see you all then.

I still want to come up with a way to get a round in between Tuesdays. I know theres a way because Martin was all about getting a cross country game going when everybody didnt live in Atlanta. Or did that involve a referee?

To respond to Mark's post of when the next orders should be due, I suggest 8:30 not 8 to give people, especially Mickey, a chance to collaborate before the rounds are in. Out.

M

That is why I love Mark. The computerized version is great . . . not pretty, but highly funcitonal especially for all you cats who don't have the board at your house. Speaking of which, I wonder how much diplomacy emailing is going on right now? Or maybe people are too busy with work. Or maybe people are saying they are too busy but really are conspiring against me. Aaaaaahhh!!

Well, it looks like we might have some visitors for next game night. Chowning will be over, and it looks like her brother might be coming over as well. I don't know what they expect, but it should be interesting at least.

In other news, Chowning and I are headed to the mall and blockbuster today, so there should be a new batch of games hitting the house today. Expect Halo 2 ot be here by nightfall, which means we should think about getting even more Xbox controllers (not looking at Mark who has already helped the cause). I think that I will also get the new Ratchet game since the last two have been some of the best games I have played.

School goes relatively well, on both fronts. Tech has me doing homework for the day before thanksgiving and then taking a test the wenesday after (fun!). Harrison . . . sigh, I don't know what to say. I'm getting a groove going for my regular kids but my honors kids are not getting it done as much as they have before. It might have something to do with me changing the structure of the class, but that was to make it more accessable. For whatever reason it isn't working and I think this group of kids are going to leave physics ill-prepared. It pisses me off because it is a reflection of my teaching. Sure, there are other factors involved, but my teaching is a large part of it, and it isn't getting done.

What is getting done is rehab. I'm starting to cut, and running 1.5+ miles everyother day. I'm trying to start cutting weight. During the summer after my ACL and into the fall I was a whopping 80kg (176lbs), I got that as low as 75kg (165 lbs)for a while, but then I'm back up to 77kg (170lbs). I'd like to get back down to 75kg, but I also need to start lifting more. We'll see what happens. I should be running every other day, so if you see me ask me if I ran that day. If I say no ask me if I ran yesterday. If I say no again, just hit me in the arm. Out.

M

On the diplomacy front, I have taken it upon myself to computerify the map and status of the pieces. A sample
map and status can be viewed. I don't know the exact positions of the board (since I'm at my hizzy and not the RF) but that map is the basic gist. Also, there will be a computron 4000 calculating the moves after they have been entered. Please see the above link for correctly filing out text lines of moves. The computron 4000 can accept numerous commands but is really kinda dumb. We should have a deadline of when the next moves should be in and I vote Tues at 8:00pm.

In other news, my cat's breath smells like cat food.

Mark

Diplomacy is fun. Even as I suck.

Now that I've got my nice new sound system, some people need to come up and watch some movies with me. If you're waiting for me to get a bigger TV, that's fine but you'll be waiting a while. Then we can all go out back and rake leaves. Yeah!

On the handwashing front, I also think it is silly to turn on water and fake wash your hands. I also feel that a male does not need to wash his hands after handling his penis. I know that I for one just lift the pant leg up a bit and thats that. I don't even touch the snake really. If I get a bunch of urine splatter on my hands, I'll consider washing them. Aside from Martin (who deals with nasty children) I (and maybe Ted too) am one of the ones that should most be washing his hands. I deal with random people, I take public transit, I eat finger type food most days, I work with construction tools/materials, and I pick my nose and ears. Even after all that, I still don't wash my hands near as much as society and the CDC say I should. On another note, I have also been in a house situation where I have turned on the water to fake out the others that I was washing my hands. I did this because they kept a really clean house and the bathroom walls were thin. I also did not wash or even wet my hands because they had only the for show towels on which to dry my hands. So, I am guilty of fake hand washing.

Games: I think that we need to start playing diplomacy. We'll do a turn a week and see how it goes. Lets get this started though and we'll work out the kinks when we come to them. I'm then up for playing another long ass game of involvedness afterwards. I could also play the smash melee as I did that just about all sunday and monday. Brad left some things uncleared and I'm finishing all the little odds and ends. I got the last stage unlocked too. I can also dodge and do some reasonably good combos. Thats my story. As for the question of is it better than N64 Smash... I dunno. Jury is still out.

Lastly, this past Saturday Jeremy got tore up. You should ask him for a story if you want to hear it but some highlights are peeing on a bush, peeing on another bush, puking on a bush, puking on a car window, and going to sleep on the bathroom floor. At the last point is when Matt and I were watching Biker Boyz on HBO. Oh god do I _not_ reccomend that movie. It was awful. Matt was also trying to say that the actress in it who was once Lenny Kravitz girlfriend (and is black) was Marisa Tomei. Which is not true.

Mark

9-1 fantasy football record. I still haven't locked up my division because of the guy with the 8-2 record behind me. bah! I just need to win one of my 2 remaining games to get the $150 division winner bonus. I'll also get a bye past the first nerve racking week of the playoffs.

I used have a subscription to GAMES a long time ago. What a great magazine. I can't remember why I stopped getting it but it was probably due to laziness.

I decided against getting Donkey Konga, but I think I will get Mario Power Tennis. Seems like it should be enjoyable multiplayer game.

I'm definitely bringing DDay on Tuesday. Whether its played or not is up to other people, as I'll be willing to play. its 2-3 players. And we'll have to sort through some new (significantly) rules, but I think this one will be much shorter than the other A&A games. Since the scope and scale are smaller, (which is where a lot of the rule differences come from) I think we'd probably be able to get at least 2 games in a night. I need to go pick up my second reference from another Japanese teacher, so I'll be down there and I can set it up as soon as somebody can let me into the building.


You can find the rules here, but since you all have jobs I dont guess you'll have any time to look at them.

Aside from that, I got nothin right now. I'll be leaving for my interview Wednesday afternoon.

Well jeez, I've missed a lot of stuff haven't I?

To chime in, yes you might as well wash your hands if you are going to get up there and turn on the water. I mean, the water is alreadt running for christ's sake!!!

I'm glad mikex0r bought DDay. Does this mean that we are going to be playing DDay this tuesday?? It will take some time (which I think is the requirement for this tuesday's game). However it is bound to have new rules that we will need to learn and I don't know if we were planning on going oldschool this week. I'm fine with whatever.

Actually, what I mean by I am fine with whatever is . . . I have a shit ton of work to do before wednesday, and I don't know where I am going to find time to do it. I've got a meeting monday afternoon that is basically a test to see if I can naviagate a microsoft application (Excel, Word, Power Point, I think they might even try to get me with Access . . .oooooohhhh!!!!!). Regardless, it is pointless. I have PT tuesday and lots of grading to do. So . . . we'll see about tuesday. I love games, so there is a very good chance that I am in, however it won't be until 7pm because of PT. Sigh, I want less shit in my life.

Speaking of less shit . . . holy shit there are so many fucking games out that absolutely ROCK!!!! Aside from the time vortex that Halo 2 is going to be, there is the finishing of Paper Mario 2, then there is the new Ratchet and Clank game that is out, and ANOTHER Jak game that is out. Then there is all this new hardware that is coming out. It is fucking ridiculous. I know that I am speding some of thanksgiving with Chowning, however I need to find time to play these games. Ack!!!! how am I going to do it all.

Mmmm in other news, I saw the incredibles, and despite a few pans that I read on the way to the theatre, I thought it was a great movie as always. It was obvious that PIXAR had done a great job improving their hair quality. It also is alway good to try to find Ken Lao (Paideia Grad '95) in the credits everytime. The storyline was predictable, but it is a fucking superhero movie for kids, what do you want?

You know what I want, kids like the kids I had a school on friday. I don't know what had gotten into ALL of my classes, but they all were great. We were able to discuss momentum in an intelligent fashion, and my regular kids took their test and then continued their addiction to the variety of word/puzzle games that I have gotten for them out of Games Magazine. They are like all other children who are obsessed with a new toy. They love it, at least some of them, and then the rest of them start to enjoy them either because they feel a need to conform, or because there is no one else to play with so they might as well do what everyone else is doing.

O.k. time to go to breakfast/lunch (isn't there another word for that combination??). I'll see jeremy later on today. Out.

M

So I did it. I'm weak. I know. I bought Axis and Allies DDay. I hang my head in shame.

i agree that if you're going to go right up to the edge of doing something because you're self-consious, you may as well go through with whatever that thing is. my point was that if you're going to do something, first ensure that it's not a fucking waste of time.

Well, the issue is the number of tuners in what ever set-top box you have. Motorola makes the comcast one, and they have 2 models: a one tuner, and a 2 tuner model. But comcast doesnt say that they sell the single tuner by default.

Brad's broader point is valid: if you're going to take the time to look like you're doing something, actually do it. or dont.

ah, well, my penis happens to be filthy. i should probably stop using it to type but it keeps the repetitive stress injuries from bothering my wrist so much. now let me address my nazi friends attempts to discredit my propaganda. a) i am a whackjob, just ask anyone who's seen my typing recently b) brainwashing is great for kids. this is definitely the #1 reason people wash their hands c) peer pressure is great for kids

on a serious note, you really should wash your hands every time you touch your elbow or touch your head or touch money or before you eat or after holding someone else's dick in the bathroom. unfortunately, sinks are usually only located in kitchens and bathrooms. because of this tragedy, people generally feel pressure to wash their hands only after using the bathroom. join me friends. let us fight for a sink in every room. what a wonderful world that would be. so just to reiterate, the point of my previous post was that people that do fake hand washes are silly. if you're going to go to all the trouble of turning on the faucet you might as well lather up.

i can record a show and watch another with my tivo. i get two satellite signals from direct tv. what i can't do is record two different shows and watch a third different show. i'm not sure if it's just direct tv that provides the two signals for tivo. like mike said, people don't want to advertise that they suck.

Oh yeah, and the thing the DVR and Tivo ads dont tell you is that you cant record one program while watching another. Which you might want if you dont live alone. But you can record while playing another recording, so its one step forward and one step backward.

Blogger just erased my fairly long post. I'm not going to type it again. If youre going to wash your hands, wash them before you eat. Dont sit through the Incredibles credits expecting extra stuff. My penis is clean.

Blogger just erased my fairly long post. I'm not going to type it again. If youre going to wash your hands, wash them before you eat. Dont sit through the Incredibles credits expecting extra stuff. My penis is clean.

the way i see it, i thoroughly wash my penis mostly every day and it stays mostly secluded from the outside world. my hands? shit, they've been handling money, touching doorknobs, picking my nose, picking up stuff from the shop with years of grime and weld spatter and grease on them.

i wash my hands before i use the bathroom.

fuck that noise. your penis is covered in skin like the rest of your body. you don't rush off to wash your hands every time you rest your head in your hand or scratch your elbow. unless you're holding someone else's dick in the bathroom, you're not going to pick up anything that isn't already in/on your body. people wash their hands in the bathroom for the following reasons: a) they're paranoid whackjobs like brad b) they're still brainwashed from their uptight parents/teachers telling them to wash their hands all the time c) they think someone is looking.

few people, even from group a) wash their hands at home. what strange thing is happening to your hands in a public bathroom that isn't happening in your own wc?

i also believe that a few germs here and there are good for people. even a lot of germs. don't wear shoes. get poison ivy. catch a cold. drink liquor. show your body who's boss. it'll keep you healthier in the long run if your body remembers how to fight shit off.

I am amused by people that pretend to wash their hands after using the bathroom. Why do you even go to the trouble of touching the faucet and spreading your germs if you don't use soap and treat the water as if it was going to eat you? Don't people realize that there is scrubbing involved with a proper hand wash? I feel obligated to spread this propaganda now that I'm working for the CDC. Nazis don't wash their hands. Be a productive American. Wash your hands. Fight the flu.

You are right Martin.

subversives? Well I never . . . o.k. maybe I have, but only that once and the guy said I'd be o.k. . . . anyway.

Gameday #2 went off without a hitch. We played zombies!!! and Smnash Melee and much fun was had. I believe next time we go at it we are going to try to play a longer game. We'll see. I don't know how long this homework is for me, but I know that I am currently behind on grading and will be gone for the entire weekend. That usually means that I don't get as much work done. This does worry me a bit, and perhaps monday will be a day from hell getting work done. Who knows.

Today is Chowning's birthday . . . unfortunately it is also the day she gets her cast, so I will be playing the support role heavily today. We will hopefully be seeing the incredibles, and I'll see how she likes her gifts. So far it has been mix-CDs, but today she gets a new stuffed animal and a few clothes. Not exactly my best birthday gifts ever, but I feel constrained in a variety of ways.

On to my rant about public schools. It is constantly amazing to me how difficult they can make processes. I'm sure there is a reason for this. I'm confident that the people who are our administrators aren't idiots and understand how difficult it is to follow ansinine mandates and teach children with so many days missing. So I wonder what their side of the story is. What is it that makes them force this shit down our throat? Is it pressure from the county? If so the county can go fuck themselves because they are so removed from the students I don't think they have a good idea of what the students WANT. Many of the things that the administration pushes on the students are things that not only do they not like, but even the mature of them can't see the reason in so they can't rationalize it. So we're forcing education on the students and do it in a way that they do not like. We've created the adversarial relationship between the students and us and that just doesn't work for educating people. I shouldn't be trying to educate people despite the students, just like the students shouldn't be trying to learn in spite of the teacher, or despite the other students in the class (a slight reference to classroom behavior in HONORS classes). We also shouldn't be tryting to work in spite of all of the meetings they make us go to. I've never understood what the point of making things unecessarily difficult is unless it is for the sake of making you work harder. And I'm o.k. with that rationale, but I need to see the rationale in order to buy into it, and without buy in you don't get as much priductivity out of people (am I right Brad?).

So the big thing is now they don't have enough teachers next semester (or they have an over allotment of PE teachers) and as a result they want me to forgo my planning period and teach another class. That will put me with 3 honors classes and I AP. I'm not too keen on picking up more work, but it does pay more and that is good. I have 17 people currently signed up for AP, but this might also let me do something I've wanted to do for a bit. So, I think the other honors teacher and I are going to force the school to make two classes (during the same period) gender specific to see if we can increase the effectiveness of our classes. I'm sure there will be more about this later, but I have to go to the bathroom. Out.

M

IF I get said job, I'll need a security clearance.

Unfortunately, you are all subversives who must be dealt with. Which I know you take pride in.

congratulations, ted!

i think that tonight we should play this 'shoots and ladders' thing. we could go across the street and jump the fence to the spire construction site then climb around and a) shoot tequila, b) play laser tag, or c) fire air rifles at unsuspecting passers-by. maybe we should combine a) and c) and see if we can't get the cristmas story prophecy to come true.

So first of all, it is cleary "Chutes and Ladders". Your character climbs up a ladder, then slides down a chute. The game has nothing to do with scaling walls and shooting prison guards, although that's not such a bad idea.

Secondly thank you, Martin, Mikex0r & Mark, altho there won't be any little Thomas Edwards running around for a long while, mainly because of what Martin touched on: Kids are stupid. If they had earing potential (besides sewing soccer balls and shoes), it might make more sense to get some kids. We've already got 3 cats that are too lazy and stupid to get jobs and might be getting a greyhound that couldn't keep its job. Also, I don't commute to the city, i commute out of the city and into the sticks. Also my parents don't live on a farm. Farms produce goods for their own use or possibly for sale in markets. My parents are strictly consumers and just happen to have a little land out in the sticks. I doubt they could grow much there, the ground's too rocky by far.

However i couldn't agree more that learning how to build a fire and competantly use a firearm are good skills to have.

Yes, the wedding will be in Chicago. There will be an open bar. That's the extent to which things have been planned so far.

What kind of table are you building? Leaving building materials outside will totally get them stone cold stolen every single time (or rained on).

I almost watched The Big Lebowski last night, but no one calls him that. He's the Dude, man. Or His Dudeness or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing. Then I almost watched Office Space, but i decided to play some gamecube instead, helped Nikki with her german homework and tormented the cats with a laser pointer.

Mikex0r got a job interview with the Redstone Aresenal in Huntsville. They want him to test ordinance like Bugs Bunny did in the cartoon by hitting them on the nosecone and writing DUD on the ones that don't explode.

first of all, I would like to point out that it is "Chutes and Ladders" not "Shoots and Ladders."

Second, I love me some Halo, and would love to play, however it will consume my soul, so I must only play in Co-op mode to prevent that. Looking at you Mark . . . or anyone who can handle an FPS that doesn't involve a mouse (I know that makes me an infidel).

Third, kudos to you Ted on the engagement. I look forward to the big day.

Lastly, I'm off to bed because I have to work in the morning. Kids are stupid. Hopefully someday they wont be, but I don't know what I have to do to get that to happen. I'll keep working on it. Also I think my potential move to a private school might help that factor.


M

Oh fuck yeah! Ted and the girl getting married! Thats awesome! Is it going to be in Chi town? I assume so. Can't wait man. You know, a house, a ring.... soon there will be little Thomas Edwards running around. Then, you'll get fed up with commuting to the city and buy yourself a farm like your parents have. That way your children will grow up knowing how to scare geese and shoot guns and start a bon fire. I'm very happy for you Ted.

In another note, game night should have music on (looking at you Jeremy... possibly while high) instead of the TV so that we pay more attention to the board and move things along. I propose something like Axis and Allies or Samari swords. But, shit, I'd be happy with shoots and ladders. :)

Also, I think Jeremy won twice in the smash last night. I play much better on a team than in the free for all... no really. :)

Also, the conga people need to get their asses in gear to get about 10k coins to buy the other mini games. I also propose that you turn the game on and leave it on for a while incase there is a timed unlock feater of something.

Halo 2 anyone? Anyone? I think that Aaron and his workplace are shutting down for a week to play Halo 2 non stop. Tee hee hee.

I left my wood for my table outside for a bit and it got col' ganked. Lesson learned: cut all wood at Habitat and assemble inside. The expensive stuff was brought in but the 2x4's are gone. Booo.

Lastly, I have been unppacking more of my shit and found my copy of the big lebowski. The other Jeffrey Lebowski. The millionaire. So, that is three copies at the robot factory plus an additional one in my room.

Thats my story. And I'm sticking to it.

Mark

Nikki and I are getting married. The Big Decision took place over breakfast on Halloween. It looks like mid-september 2005 is when we're thinkin about having the action.

Aye Brad, I have begun to remember how to play smash well. Both mark and jeremy should still have bruised arses from the collective whopping they recieved last night. I think I won every game except for one, where the computer won (fucking computer). Regardless, hames are fun, and I am working hard so that I don't have to play the school night card.

Yesterday was spent in the ER as Chowning has fractured her wrist. I don't think I posted that last time, but I'm not sure. She was knocked over yesterday while playing and braced herself with her arm and fractured it. It is her left, which is her writing hand, so that really sucks for her right now. her birthday is coming up this thursday and I'll be spending much of the week and weekend up there.

So everyone should show up tomorrow for game night. I have to go to a seminar for a while but I will be showing up after that to get in the festivities. The big kicker is if I can get my homework done tonight and also get my work done for my job.

On the videogame front, I've been getting back into GBA games since I spent 5 hours in the ER. I'm basicaly playing Super Mario Bros again. I'll also soon be back in the DDR swing of things. Not at full tilt, but I'll be able to hop around in a week or so. I'm looking forward to that.

I'm also looking forward to the incredibles. I'm hoping to take chowning this wednesday or I'm going to explode soon. Well, that is all that I can think of. See you all tomorrow.

M

I also saw the Incredibles this weekend and thought it was very good. I liked the knitting on one of the sweaters as far as realism is concerned. They have made the hair look great. Definately PG and not G. As for seeing it again, I'm up for it. I will wear a rain coat if I see it with Matt so that I don't get too much of a shower when he comes all over the movie.

As for game night, I bought the expansion for Seafarers of Catan if you want to give that a try. I don't know if I like the board set up rules as much as the regular one. We will have to play some time. You can move your ships though which is kinda cool. If you don't have longest road, just move you ships into position and you could. :)

I like lego.

I also like crack.

Mark

I had a nice relaxing weekend down in Florida near Pensacola. It was weird to see every other house with blue tarped roofs and beach front buildings with no back wall. Hurricanes. I also saw The Incredibles this weekend. Even in a movie theater without stadium seating or advanced sound it was a great movie. I thought the movie looked real purty. I didn't notice anything in particular about any individual elements but the animation itself was top notch. The characters were full of life. The action sequences were fast and visually stunning. I also thought the voices were very fitting. Also noteworthy were the many kids in the theater that behaved themselves allowing me to enjoy the movie.

Game night was good. Getting whooped in Settlers was a fine way to spend an evening. I also think luck had nothing to do with my victory in Smasy Bro. I believe it had everything to do with me playing through single player Smash Bro. Melee and retaing all the muscle memory and strategy. As more games were played, my advantage wore off, especially over Martin, who quickly remembered how to beat our collective ass.

8-1 in Fantasy Football now.

i too saw the incredibles this weekend. good movie. i'm going to go and see it again. kate hasn't seen it, but she won't be able to go till next week. matt -- can you wait that long, or will i be going thricely? the movie was quite good. i haven't read any of the press about the graphics and shit, though mark said that people weren't raving about the technology. i don't know. a lot of it wasn't apreciably better than previous movies, but cartoons aren't really supposed to be photorealistic. the really impressive parts graphics-wise were the hair, and fire. a couple of oceans looked really good too.

i'll add my commendation of games night. it's a good thing (tm). i think one night everyone's going to have to suck it up about the 'school night' thing and play diplomacy. that game is soooooo sweet i want to crap my pants.

also, don't talk to mark about your crack addictions unless he shares them. he'll mock you and can't understand how you could like your nerd-vice. yet he spends hours (poorly) painting tiny models of fictional characters, sinks hundreds of dollars into 'bitz', rules, codices and other hobby shop shit so once a month he can go and hang out with his fellow nerds (since none of his 'cool' friends play this shit) and circle jerk with tape measures. except that he works during the tournament days. so actually he just buys the stuff and does nothing with it.

no hard feelings mark. you jackass.

Instead of leaving stats in the last post, I just made the Excel file an html table. The link is on the left side bar, above "Blogger.com"

Theres still 6 mos of archives not there.

I saw 'The Incredibles' on Saturday. It was great. I'm even going to throw this out there: Best super-hero movie I've ever seen. Pixar has outdone itself again. Also, the short at the beginning worth half the ticket price.

As far as the election goes, right now it seems like those couple of weeks just after Christmas. Anti-climatic, nothings really going on, and you wish people would take down their friggin decorations.

I concur with Mark -- game night was fun. We're definitely going to have to make that a weekly thing, starting two weeks ago. I'll even go so far as to nominate myself (some purists might say 'volunteer') to keep it organized and let people know when, where and whats going on for a given week. (and hire goons to make them show up)

I looked for software that might keep track of blogging statistics, but I couldnt find any. Then I thought about writing software when I couldnt find any. But then I remembered the guy who said "People go through a lot of work not to actually sit down and think about a good way to do something" (or something like that... I think it was Thomas Edison or Henry Ford) (of course, if theyre so smart, how come they're dead?) So anyway, I ended up counting things by hand... (see my 11/1 post) though I'm not quite done yet, here are some preliminary results:

(I took out the results since they werent complete and wont mean anything when they are done. Read the next post.)

The thing about counting by hand is, if you think of a statistic you want to add later on, you dont want to go back and count it, because its more tedious than, say, adding a few lines to a Perl script. But I figured number of posts, and total words posted would be pretty fair indicators of how active somebody was for a given time period. So those up there are the totals, and I'll describe my methodology:

The stats come from the archives, so if any archives were lost, they obviously arent counted. First, I counted the posts per person per month. Then, for every person I cut and pasted each of their posts for a given month into a Word file. Then I said "word count" and when nothing happened, I selected "word count" from the "tools" menu and thats how I got the words per month. Then I created some cells that would total all the numbers in an Excel file. I'll release the Excel file when I'm done.

Right now, theres about 10 months I havent done yet. They're not the past 10 months, they're the months where the blog became the "Martin and Jeremy Blog" and later the "Martin completely overpowers everybody in terms of posting Blog"

And another thing: I'm not entirely sure how MS Word counts the words, but I'm hoping that diffeneces in peoples posting styles will statistically cancel out. Also, I neglected "empty posts" so the number of posts wont match Blogger's official count when I'm done. (I've only found 2 so far though)

I also neglected audio blogs... because they never caught on (there were 2, I think) and I'm not that anal. (only anal enough to count all this shit)

With more time on my hards I find the ability to post again within 24 hours. Does anyone know if there is a way to get stats out of the blog. I'll go look for it in a second. I just wanted to echo Brad's question about is the Factory now interchangable with the Fort???? Don't really need an answer, but it IS an interesting thing to think about.

In other news my knee is doind pretty well. I'm having a hard time running for distance but that is because of my back more than anything else. By the time we get to running in my workout I'm beat from squats, jumps, and other shit that is taxing on my back. Well, that's all I've got. I'm supposed to be working on the packaging for Chowning's b-day gifts, but I don't have the paper here that I need. Sigh, I'll have to find another route. See you later.

M

Well, it is good to see some life being breathed back into the blog. I don't know what the reason is, but I have time to blog now. Perhaps it is because I am in Athens and can't be working right now. Regardless, it brings comfort to my heart. You know what else brings comfort to my heart . . . beating the shit out of people in Smash Bros. Yup, although it does take a bit longer to get the mojo out of the bottle, I still feel like I can win more games than others on average. Jeremy is always a battle, and I think we tend to split 60/40, Brad is also a challenge, but he can be stopped. I'm thinking that next time Brad should bring Smash Melee. Although we all think that it is an inferior game, it still would be nice to let Brad play on his own format. That way he can feel like the top dog.

In other news work is going pretty well. School is going pretty well, I got my test back with a B-, A and A on my three problems. That makes me feel pretty good, however the homework is getting harder. We'll see how this saga ends.

I haven't really gotten into my ferver over the election. Let is be stated that if nothing else, I am very dissapointed about Amendment1 being passed. My PT put it best when she said that "gays are the new niggers." Something will have to be done at some point, so start making molotov cocktails. See you all later, the department of homeland security should be knocking down my door soon so I need to pack clean underwear.

M

Ha Ha... Matt joined the 21st century only four years too late. :) Game night was fun. We had 5 player settlers and I won both games. Boy, that game is fun. The people playing were Brad, MikeX0r, Jeremy, Jeff, and a guy named Micky from Jeremy's workplace. After that Brad stayed over and smashed it up with Martin, Jeremy, and myself. I didn't win a single smash. Brad was the victor a fair amount of the time. He attributes that to his playing Smash on the Gamecube but I think he was just lucky. :)

If anyone wants to come out and do Habitat anytime before Christmas I would love for you to come out. We have a few houses without too many volunteers to work on them. The sooner one comes, the more heavy stuff there is. Later it is more painting and what not. Its all fun to me; I'm very weird though.

I do want to see the movie the Incredibles. If anyone else is up for it, lets go go go.

My dad's birthday is today. We are having a family lunch in the 'burbs Sunday. Aaron is in town. Woo hoo.

My infected finger is no longer infected (thanks to neosporin) and its almost completly healed. Thats good.

I got the last of my crap out of the storage unit. My room in now full of stuff. I desperatly need to concatinate before next I move.

Hope all is well.

Mark

well, i've finally caved into greg and gotten a cell phone.
my number is 404-514-9973
there's a game on it called stuntman: a whoopin and a hollerin

how did game night turn out? what'd y'all play?

I got my vote on. I forgot to get a receipt though.

Mark - You referred to the location of Tuesday Game night as residing at the "Fort". Has the Robot Factory and Fort become an interchangeable term? Just want to make sure I've got my lingo down. That's what consultants do. We nail down the lingo. Yep. No really, I've sat through hour long meetings where 3/4 of the time was spent discussing what terms were appropriate to use and which ones were not appropriate.

I've been so focused on my fantasy football (and yes, I'm 7-1 now) that I forgot to mention that I got a new speaker setup and receiver for the Bachelor Pad (that would be my place). If you like big subwoofers that can really move the air then you are in for a treat.

Howdy. Actually I do read the blog (every couple of days or so) but I just don't post because I'm a big loser. I invited Ian a couple of days ago to tonight's shindig, but he said he's not coming because he has been pulling all-nighters and wants to sleep. I would call him names and say that's a lame excuse, but I figure he's telling like it is since Ian is so very interested in the outcome of the election.

Something weird just happened to me as I walked into the TSRB. We have GCATT-style buzz-card checking security in the lobby. I've been walking in almost every day and therefore know the security guy, Larry, who's always there. For the past 2 or 3 months, I usually just walk right in and nod to Larry. Just now, he said "can i see your buzzcard?" i chuckled a bit and looked at him like "it's me!". he gave me a scary serious face. so, of course, i stopped chuckling and busted out my buzz card. he kept his serious face and said "thank you." now it will be awkward to walk in and out of tsrb.

Roxy and I just voted, hurray! My poll is very very different from the church poll from where we lived at Peachtree and Trinity. This time, I was most definitely *not* the only white guy voting. Our poll is now the Park tavern at Piedmont Park...

brrrrrraaaaiiinnnnnns....

hi-ho. jeremy's clone here. everyone who comes to tonight's games (and comedy-central-election-watching) party will be eaten. by an evil zombie clone. or maybe you'll be given a coke by the real jeremy, depending on who's there. see, we're never seen together.

i do things, but they're largely uninteresting.

matt does not read this fucker, i bet, so someone should call him (maybe that'll be me) and tell him that he needs to contact ian.

also, this is the first time i've read in a while. way to go previously non-posting peeps (looking at you, mark and brad).

my excuse for not posting (or even reading) is that i was working on the most beautiful post ever crafted by man. but i got distracted and then i actually sort of forgot about this thbrrrrrraaaainnnnsing. there are many distractions at the fort right now. for instance:

1. tetris
2. donkey kong jungle beat featuring the donkey konga.
3. lego -- don't get me started.
4. watching dry paint not get wet.
4.1 sitting
5. anything but important things, for instance:

a. writing my cv, taking gre, getting into graduate school
b. writing letters to my aging family so they know that i'm still alive and that i know they're not dead
c. cleaning anything
d. projects, for instance:

i. building a new cd storage solution
ii. building a table to keep some of the shit in the apartment hidden/organized
iii. putting up some shelving action
iv. computer projects, for instance:

b. figuring out why the static-ip-ness is borked
k. recreating everyone's accounts
47. getting services back up and running
(. regular maintenance
.. the big ldap project of doom

I've begun a task that is so fiendishly difficult, that it ranks as a 3 on the "Impossibility Scale." But after I ranked it, I realized I had to define this scale. so here goes:
1. Possible, but stupid
2. Theres nothing else better to do
3. Not impossible, but theres a better way
4. Takes forever
5. 5
6. 6
7. Impossible as hell
8. Are you insane?
9. Are you retarded?
10. Are you insane AND retarded?

I dont know. It may even be beneath the scale I made up for it, since it'll probably only take a couple days.

For those of you who I didnt tell, which I think is everyone who reads this, I went to the intellectual hub of Georgia, Statesboro, this past weekend.

This is why. My aunt was inducted into the hall of fame there. So we went down for the ceremonies. There was a dinner Friday, and then something at halftime at the football game. Since GS was pounding the crap out of the South Dakota Jackrabbits, (42-7 at the half) we left after the plaque presentation.

Whats the deal with people who play cymbals for a marching band at halftime? Do they feel like they have to complicate their performance just because they're playing probably the simplest instrument out there? The Georgia Southern cymbalists were dancing around and rolling around on the grass and all sorts of crap during the half time show. it was funny.