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newer entries...
12-30-99 reptile roommate
12-29-99 Belligerent Dave: The Return
12-19-99 Ne guiderez-vous pas mon sleigh ce soir?
12-17-99 I'm hit!
12-16-99 I hab a code
12-15-99 it's beginning to look...
12-13-99 oh for two
12-11-99 gonna party like it's 1999... ow, quit it
12-10-99 hindsight
12-07-99 muahahaha
12-04-99 Unstoppable!
12-01-99 eat plastic, punk
older entries...
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reptile roommate
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| 12-30-99 |
Jeff has been suckered in to this web thing and has been updating his site. Check out his Closet of Dreams and the "Diary of the Lizard Feeder". Crocodile Hunter, eat your heart out.
Speaking of which, I acquired another ferocious monster on today's "blow the rest of your Christmas money" trip. First it was off to the army surplus store to outfit myself for airsoft adventuring, then to the reptile store. David W. and his SO had given me a gift certificate and I had planned on buying supplies for Kalila and Poco.
Supplies are not this store's strong suit, though they do have more reptile books than I've ever seen gathered in one place, and wall-to-wall animals. There was a Burmese python big enough to swallow a Yugo, baby veiled chameleons that could walk through a paper clip without ducking, some very nice adult bearded dragons, tiny but feisty Chinese dwarf hamsters that were busy trying either to kill other or make more Chinese dwarf hamsters (it's hard to tell which), and much else.
I thought about the competitively priced and very nice looking blue ameiva, but they're large, not very tame, and they love to dig, which means a big glass cage, which means not cheap after all. I asked about the Standing's gecko hatchlings and balked at the price. I kept getting drawn back to the leopard geckos though, and finally picked one out that was finishing the shedding process.
This is Josephine, a female slightly larger than Kalila. She's active and yet very tame, not struggling when the store guy picked her up, not freaking out in the Chinese take-out carton that she rode home in, and not running away when I pet her. I went ahead and put her in with Kalila and they've been getting along just fine. Kalila seems to be a little more active than when she was alone, but not acting stressed or bullied.
Though they're both bright normal-phase leopard geckos, they do have some distinguishing features. All Kalila's spots are solid black, while Josephine has some true leopard spots (mostly on the head). Kalila has that crooked stripe on the back of her head that stretches from one eye to the other. Josephine's head is a little wider but her snout is short and stubby. Kalila is chubbier, but she's gotten a diet of mealworms without competition for the past few months, while Jo had lower-fat crickets and lots of competition in her cage at the store. And if I stick my hand in the cage, Kalila is the one that runs and hides. :)
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Belligerent Dave: The Return
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| 12-29-99 |
Don't you just love it when journal entries start with a painfully obvious statement such as "I'm back from my Christmas vacation and I'm updating my site again?" Good, 'cause this one does.
Every day of the trip I thought about updating my site. Instead, Saturday night I made some notes about stuff I planned on writing about when I got back. Due to circumstances I may not remember to write about (because I don't have my notes with me), I don't have my notes with me. So I'm winging it. Journaling on the edge, baby.
Both the departure and the return flights were at an unholy hour, otherwise defined as "any single-digit AM time after sunrise." I had to work my usual 5-3 shift the night before, so I was not exactly chipper for the flight down. It had been about 15 degrees in St. Louis and was chilly on the plane, so I had my heavy coat on, and cargo pants over sweats. When I stepped out of the plane into 79 degrees of Florida heat I thought I was gonna burst into flames or something.
I got put in the "pink room." Every house with one or more spare bedrooms has one of these, regardless of the actual color, unless it's kept unreasonably neat and called a Guest Bedroom or something. You know what I mean... a place to throw your junk when the garage is too full.
There actually is a bed (of sorts) in the corner you can't see. A mattress and boxsprings, orthopedically designed by the Marquis de Sade, sitting frameless on the floor. It was too short, too narrow and arced upward in the center in such a way as to warp the spinal cord and make sleep a grueling physical challenge.
My sister had just returned from her trip to London and Paris, and the most impressive souvenir she brought back was a nasty cold. She tried to share, but somehow I managed to avoid joining in the fun. She otherwise had a pretty cool time, despite the weird people she was staying with and the crappy hotel she was staying with them in. She got to see Fergie, who waved at her, and went to Paris to see the Louvre and eat (sigh) tuna sandwiches and chicken quesadillas. She's got me wanting to try a Red Bull-and-vodka though.
My aunt and uncle threatened to come down from Tennessee and visit at some point but we didn't know exactly which day(s), much to the chagrin of Mom who was trying to plan the big dinner thing and all. They finally made it the day after Christmas (Sunday) and were planning on staying the night and driving back. Their Buick had other plans though, and they wound up coming back for more while they waited on the diagnosis. My aunt had to be back to work on Wednesday, for the last three days before the company went out of business -- otherwise she'd risk getting fired and losing unemployment checks. What a mess. If all else failed they were going to borrow Grandpa's car, but late Tuesday morning it got straightened out and I presume they drove straight through to get home.
And now for the loot report. From my sis, a giant Toblerone, marble Pocky, the Serial Experiments Lain first volume, and a goofy card promising she'd do the Seshat painting for me sometime. From the parents, both the books on my list (Cryptonomicon is massive enough that during the unwrapping process I thought I was getting an unabridged dictionary), a bagpipe practice chanter, assorted candy and beef jerky (an odd stocking stuffer but I like it), Best Buy gift certif's and cash. They also got me the memory card I asked for, which unfortunately was the wrong one 'cause I foolishly believed the info sheet at Wal-Mart... I hope they can take it back even though the packaging had to be destroyed to open it up and find out. From the Heberts, more candy and Best Buy gift certif's. From the aunt and uncle, a millennial t-shirt. From the second half of my Christmas bonus, a FA-MAS SV airsoft gun (more on that later). The Best Buy cards bought me Evil Zone and Xena for the Playstation and Morcheeba and Billie Holiday CD's, and I still have one card left to put a dent in Grand Turismo 2 if I ever catch them with it in stock. The cash bought me kneepads from The Sports Authority and (indirectly) goggles, Camelback and tac vest from US Cavalry. About all I need from the army surplus store is BDU's, hat and sling.
I gave my sis Driver for the Playstation, the second Austin Powers movie, a Pokemon graphic novel and a little Pikachu keychain. To Dad I gave a couple of classical CD's and a big Office Depot gift card (he's just started into day trading and being a geek). To Mom, an Estee Lauder Youth Dew gift basket and some snowman ornaments (she's collecting snowmen now). To the Heberts... I can't say 'cause they haven't done their exchange yet. The Tennessee relatives already had their collective gift from the whole family shipped to them 'cause we didn't know they were coming down here.
Highlights of the trip:
- meeting Lily, the family kitten who is both charming and destructive
- getting blown away 43-8 at NFL Gameday 2000 by my sister
- returning the favor by beating her in all 6 levels of head-to-head Q*Bert, which is otherwise a frustrating and annoying game, and lacks the charm of the original arcade game that had an electromagnetic thingy that made it go *clunk*
- wondering what the heck is up with the voices in Evil Zone and why you have to hit up-up-square just to jump
- aunt and uncle snoring together on the sofa while we watched A Simple Plan
- sleeping -- on that bed, it was so rare that when it happened it was a special event
- watching A Christmas Story and chuckling over "you'll shoot your eye out" while daydreaming about airsoft
- playing with Dad's CD-RW drive
- a week of free meals... though we missed on Jo-To and Don Pablo's, my mom cooks a mean roast
- and of course, being with family, even if they were coughing and blowing their noses and moaning most of the time.
This morning I got up before sunrise (remember, usually I don't go to bed until after sunrise), got on a plane and came back home. It was that plane's first flight of the day, which meant they towed it from the hangar to the terminal still dripping with the morning wash. And it was the smoothest and fastest flight I've ever taken, and comfy since the plane was only about 1/3 full.
I thought about sleeping, decided to come to the office to check out my new toy instead. My truck battery was dead. It did this to me during the Chicago trip too. There's a tiny light bulb in the radio that stays on all the time. As rarely as I turn the radio on I should just yank its fuse, but the fusebox is cleverly hidden somewhere in the engine compartment under the whatsit and between the thingy and the whatchamacallit. Heff (from whom I was gonna bum a jumpstart in addition to the lizard feeding and airport transportation) was asleep by that time and the weather was nice, so I decided to walk. Maybe it'll help get me into shape for those airsoft games (yeah, right). The box had been hidden under Heff's desk to make sure that the other airsoft enthusiasts didn't succumb to the temptation of opening it before I got back.
Splatball cleverly turned the box lid inside out so it looked plain, instead of a big photo of an assault rifle labeled in Japanese which might have raised some postal eyebrows. Minor bits of frustration but nothing fatal. They sent it without a manual, and it took a lot of messing around to figure out how to open the battery compartment in the foregrip (push the funky French trigger guard over an extra notch to unlatch). I still don't know how to adjust the hopup or exactly what the release(?) button is for behind the fire selector. The foregrip itself is excessively plasticy and squeaky, and I'm going to search around to see if anybody makes an improved one. The entire flash hider, about an inch and a half long, is painted in an obnoxious flaky orange -- MWRAA regs and general safety requirements call for the orange paint, but I may clean this off and redo the tip a little more tastefully. Stamped on the receiver is "FA-MAS 5.56-F1 SP 873," and no trademark -- but they permanently mutilated the "Fusil Automatique" while leaving behind the evidence that it was "Manufacture d'Armes de St. Etienne." Not a big deal since this won't be a movie prop, but it's too bad they took the unnecessary step.
Hmmm, that sounded a little like I'm not happy. I am. It's small stuff and I'm not sweating it (and I'll be happier when they send me my manual). I just need sleep.
After figuring out how it goes together I took it to the parking lot and put maybe 150 rounds through it in a very brief time (there were too many cars on the road to really stay out there with it). I can see that ammo costs are going to be an occasional concern... it fires 1000rpm and a bag of 1000 rounds was $10 from this place. I have little doubt that the Simu shooters will soon be buying in bulk.
The combination New Years' Eve party / Y2K Vigil is coming up here at the office soon -- but I can't tell you the date 'cause it's a big secret. Heh.
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Ne guiderez-vous pas mon sleigh ce soir?
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| 12-19-99 |
Weird stuff always happens on the day of the office Christmas gift exchange. Last year, a disgruntled GemStone player marched up to the door demanding to speak to Fawn, while we were in the middle of opening gifts, and had to be driven off by the ex-bouncer we had in Customer Service at the time. This year, the burglar alarm went off while lots of people were still around, then the silent alarm went off later and the cops arrived to investigate. Freaky.
I went home with a lot of stuff, from people I didn't expect to get gifts from, and found myself wishing I'd bought something for them.
My Secret Santa bought two things off my list (she couldn't resist the temptation to cheat) and my Mom apparently had bought me both that same day and had to take them back. Gotta coordinate that a little better next time. Between that and the Amazon.com wish lists that you can view to see if somebody's already bought you something, Steph and I discussed ways to set up a secure Christmas list that your friends can check in on but you can't. There are some possibilities there. It wouldn't surprise me if somebody offers such a service next year, with banner ads or something.
Jeff got me Quake 3 Arena. I still like the gameplay better in UT, but Q3A has a certain macho feeling to its weapons that isn't captured as well in UT, plus some cool models with unique personalities. My favorite one to play so far is the gargoyle, least favorite is the whiney skate punk girl.
Here's Zoha as you probably never imagined him, unless maybe you were on the wrong side of the lockout cell. I wanted to find a picture of Morpheus from The Matrix for comparison. I wonder if he knows kung-fu?
I got my quote from DEN Trinity on the FA-MAS. It looked good until it hit this line:
Shipping and Handling to the US (By speedpost, 2-3 days service)--USD 96
I guess I should have expected it... but I could almost have *myself* shipped to Hong Kong for about that much. So, discouraged a bit about the whole expensive mess, but more encouraged by the coolness of Bardon and Solomon's new toys, I poked around online a bit more. I was thinking about Asia Pacific where Solomon bought his, but they don't carry the FA-MAS (though they do have accessories for it). While still dithering between the MC51 and the G3A3, I wandered through some more links and found Splatball. They're in the U.S., they not only have the FA-MAS SV in stock, they have a big picture of it and a recommendation on their intro page. Cool. Their price looks bad at first compared to DEN Trinity's, but if you consider that it includes the battery and charger and their shipping is a flat $10, it makes up for it. Their prices on magazines are inexplicably high, but it's cheaper to go ahead and buy it from them on that same $10 shipping than it is to get one elsewhere. So overall, it cost me $20 less than DEN Trinity quoted me. And psychologically I'd rather be able to say I have a $300 gun and got a great deal on shipping, than say I bought a cheap gun and got screwed on shipping. :)
So I was happy with that, until the next day rolled around and Splatball told me they could only ship to my billing address. I always get stuff sent to the office 'cause it's more secure and 'cause I'm usually asleep when deliveries arrive. And in this case, I'll be in Florida. I gave them my billing address and my sad tale. They wrote back to me today (a Sunday) and said since they confirmed my address they'd go ahead and ship to the office. So it'll be here waiting for me when I return from my Christmas vacation. Whoohoo!
I'm looking forward to it. I'll get to meet the "new kitten" (who is older than Kalila) and enjoy that nice warm weather and home cooking and Noreen's subs <cackle> and all that. I probably won't be updating my site while I'm there, so 'til next time, happy holidays and don't let the evil giraffe eat all the leaves.
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I'm hit!
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| 12-17-99 |
I told myself I was going to lay off the airsoft chatter for a while. It's been a whole day though, and I figure that's enough.
The Boss got his MP5SD6 today. After the initial drool period, the frist test was "let's see what it feels like on full auto." Not bad. There's not exactly a realistic recoil, but the ability to spray BBs all over the place is amazingly cool. To the point where it's almost as fun to watch somebody dispense plastic death as it is to do it yourself.
Then there was the accuracy test. Pretty decent. My FA-MAS should theoretically be a little better thanks to a longer barrel. The cardboard box BB trap got shredded, though they lost some velocity on their way out the back at least. :)
Then came the pain test, in which Solomon, Bardon, Zoha and I took turns being shot in the back. Recreating a scene from the Blair Witch Project, each of us in turn stood facing the corner while being "killed." It generally wasn't too bad, except we can all tell you that getting hit in the back of the (unprotected) head stings like a mother. At least we know how much in the way of protective clothing we'll need... keeping in mind that this is with a stock gun, about 290fps. Solomon's shoots something like 430, which he'll have to downgrade before anyone is willing to be at the wrong end of it.
Then there was cleanup. Hundreds of little white BBs littered the floor and the vaccuum doesn't pick them up (though Zoha found a snow shovel works well). We'll probably be finding them for months, like tinsel or Easter grass.
The one hitch seems to be with the high-capacity magazine. With that type, you pour BB's in and then turn a wheel on the bottom of the mag to wind up a spring that feeds them. Either Bardon wasn't turning the wheel far enough or the spring isn't strong enough or something, because several times it started sucking air when the magazine wasn't even close to empty. I hope this works out and isn't a recurring/common problem, because there apparently ARE no standard mags available for the FA-MAS, just the hi-caps. I suppose I could get a shop to modify one of the M16 1000-round drum magazines to fit the FA-MAS receiver, it's supposedly not that hard. Then I'd have a whole minute's worth of ammo without reloading. :)
Solomon is now going crazy waiting for his wickedly upgraded gun to arrive, hopefully tommorow. Meanwhile I await news from Mr. Chen and am champing at the bit. There's no urgent rush since I'm going home for a week in a few days anyway, but there's a MWRAA game on January 7-8 that I hope we'll be going to.
The cold is progressing. It didn't entirely stop me from sleeping but it didn't help either. It's not debilitating but it's uncomfortable. Since most of my colds usually hit like a freight train and this was slower to get started and milder so far, hopefully it'll go easy on me and go away quickly. I don't want to have my vacation messed up by my nose. :P
Tommorow is the office gift exchange party thinger. The second half of Steph's gift finally arrived today so it'll be just in time. I was going to make my mom's sweet potato casserole/dessert thing but in deference to illness, I'm just bringing a Beef Stick.
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I hab a code
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| 12-16-99 |
Yup, it's that time of year again... sore throat and plugged up nose season. I haven't had nearly as much serious sinus trouble in Mooville as I did in Florida, but colds happen.
Snow's swirling around lightly out there. Wouldn't be surprised if a little accumulates tonight/today. I thought about how human lives are sort of like snowflakes, tossed around out of control on the wind, eventually melting. How every one of them was unique, and once in a while we stop to think about that and appreciate that but mostly we just get annoyed by the stuff as a whole.
And then I snapped out of it.
I'm still reading the Silmarillion. Or technically, the Akallabeth, the story of Numenor. I fell asleep reading it today. Maybe 'cause I'm coming down with something, maybe because it wasn't keeping me awake. It's got some great moments but generally it's very dry and there's too much to remember about who's the son of who and who is or isn't subject to the curse of Mandos and who lives in what kingdom and all that. Some of the characters' stories are enjoyable and might have made good novels on their own, but overall, I think LOTR's tantalizing glimpses of background were cooler than having it laid all out.
Poco has, I think, finally finished shedding. For a week or so his tail was just paler than the rest of his body, then for another week there were ragged bits falling off and big chunks still stuck on. He's been standing in his water dish to drink and I've been spraying him, so it's not a dryness problem. Unlike the meticulous Kalila, he doesn't eat the skin when he's done but leaves little bits all over the place. I better clean it up before I go home for Christmas.
It turns out that DEN Trinity doesn't have G3A3's in stock, so I put in an order for a FA-MAS F1 after all. Funny how that worked out. :) Also there's a Dutch auction on Ebay of a Luger CZ-100 Bulldog, made by some unspecified Korean manufacturer, for $17. It's probably not very accurate (no Hop-Up) and has a very limited capacity, but to me it looks cooler than Solomon's Beretta. I don't have any problem pointing it out to folks since he's got 100 of them up for sale. Whee.
So I am I driving you crazy with all the Airsoft babble? Scaring you off? Making you lust after, say, James Bond's Walther P99, or a tricked-out HK51 modified for sniping, or maybe a cheap mini MP5? Or am I boring you to tears?
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it's beginning to look...
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| 12-15-99 |
Christmas has always been my favorite holiday regardless of religion. I'll admit that yeah, I like getting stuff. Who doesn't? But it's great to see other peoples' reactions to gifts I give them, it's sort of like watching DR players explore your newly opened area. It's nice that at least people who know each other are nicer to one another than normal. Awwww. Of course complete strangers in malls and parking lots are another matter... and I've always wanted to ask Salvation Army bell ringers "If I give you some money, will you quit making that horrible noise?"
I have Christmas lights strung in my cubicle now. If you can't tell from the photo, they're very festive. Fa la la la la and all that.
My new credit card and my Christmas bonus (in the form of a check, which has to go to Florida to be deposited, because it was assumed this would be more convenient than direct deposit despite the fact that direct deposit is offered because it's convenient, but that's neither here nor there) arrived together Monday and I got much of my shopping done. I still have to buy for Mom (difficult), Grandpa (fairly easy), and the Heberts (easier) and I'll probably get an extra something for my sister (really easy).
Solomon went crazy with his bonus and bought the MP5 From Hell. The retailer where he reserved it apparently got the wrong one shipped to them and the slick salesman talked him into it by giving him discounts on stuff. Practically everything has been upgraded -- gearbox, battery, motor, spring, barrel. In fact he had to buy another spring to downgrade it to comply with site limits... but he's gonna have one heck of a rate of fire on that puppy.
As for me, I found out from Solomon that the MWRAA plays at an outdoor site near Warrensburg and that there's a group of 7 people in the St. Louis area that drives over there to play on occasion. The key there being that yes, somebody within driving distance does play, and that it's outdoors. So I'm getting a quote from DEN Trinity on a Tokyo Marui HK G3A3. It's about 3 and a half feet long (the largest Airsoft gun aside from sniper rifles and the long versions of the M60) but doesn't weigh much more than the MP5. The length makes it a very bad choice for indoor CQB style games, but it does use the standard sized battery that lasts all day, and it has a nice visual intimidation factor, I think. I'll probably get one of the ultra-cheap minis for indoor for the time being, and think about other stuff later.
Though now that I'm waiting for the answer on that quote, I think my other choice is the FAMAS. While it's one of the oldest AEG models around, it's still a favorite because it's reliable and cool. It has a more humble motor and older gearbox design, but it has a rate of 1000rpm, higher than any other AEG. It also has a certain funky chunky visual appeal (why is it I like guns other people think are ugly?), has the large battery, a long enough barrel to be good for outdoors and a short enough body length to be good for CQB. It also adapts well to cheaper, lower voltage RC car batteries (though that drops the rate of fire). In fact I've just about talked myself into it here. We'll see.
I also updated my Christmas list, now that I know we'll be playing outdoors. Whee.
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oh for two
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| 12-13-99 |
Once is just an event, but twice is the beginning of a tradition. I'm talking about my abysmal luck with John Ratcliff's holiday party gift games.
Last year each of us brought a gift, and based on order of arrival, chose a gift. There was some awesome stuff, including cruise tickets and a Color Game Boy (which was brand new and hard to get one's hands on at the time). Me, I got the "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" board game. I know there are some people out there who would be delighted with it, but it's about the last game I myself would choose to play, well after Candyland and Name That Bacteria. I guess on the theory that gifts should be things you wouldn't buy for yourself, it was a winner. Heh.
This year to make it easier on his family, John changed the rules. Guests supplied the food and drinks and they supplied the gifts. Everyone starts with $236 in play money and plays 5 hands of blackjack with very generous rules. Then there's an auction for the 12 best gifts, and everyone else picks something at random from under the tree. I figured this was my big chance, and feeling only slightly silly about it, I wrote something to the effect of "may I end up with a gift that makes up for last year" in that day's prayer.
Guess I should have been more specific. "Mom" has a sense of humor that's hard to describe, but "wacky" is close enough for our purposes here.
After her 5 hands of blackjack, Steph had $1400. After his 5 hands, Jeff had $1200. After my 5 hands I had this to show for it:
(Yup, that's John on the $10 and his son the cutthroat blackjack dealer on the $1.)
Well, I figured, I can at least jokingly bid $11 on each item. But the bidding started at $100, so I just sort of watched. Then when the post-auction gift grabbing frenzy happened (there were 85 people and 12 auctioned gifts), I chose a box that was a little larger than the others in its vicinity and had some heft to it. And thus the solitary event of last year has become a holiday tradition:
Not only am I doomed to receive things that come in pink boxes, it plays "Que Sera Sera." What will be, will be... I knew at that moment that "Mom" was laughing. So instead of trying to figure out which relative to foist it off on, I'm keeping it. :)
As it turns out, I did wind up with a truly cool gift that night. Don't tell anyone, but we'd been borrowing DavidW's copy of Rogue Spear most nights to play on the LAN. He's been in Florida lately though, and his office locked, and the CD innaccessible. So rather than spend another night trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for why his door was broken down, Steph stopped at Wal-Mart and bought a copy herself. And then gave it to me as a Christmas gift. Whoo hoo!
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gonna party like it's 1999... ow, quit it
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| 12-11-99 |
Tonight's the big party at the Ratcliffs' (you know, the guy who did the 3D engine for CS2 and HJ). In fact it's in a couple of hours, and I'm on duty tonight. I'll be dragging the electronic ball and chain with me and hoping and praying nothing crashes, and not drinking much. I picked up Hardcore brand black cider though and I'm looking forward to giving it a try. And, because I'm not much of a chef, have been working 10-hour shifts, and am not Martha Stewart, I'm bringing a tray of storebought cookies. At least they have petit fours and stuff like that included, that should save me a few face points.
I haven't started Christmas shopping yet. I suppose I should do some of the online stuff ASAP now that I have a little space on my card or it'll be late. I was mostly going to wait until payday though. I need to buy for Mom, Dad, Sis, the cats, the Heberts, Steph, Jeff (and a birthday gift too), the person whose name I drew for the office gift exchange, and some stocking stuffers for the office. And probably some small live crickets for the roommates.
My sis goes to England on Monday. She gets back the day before I fly in. She asked if there was anything specific I wanted, but she doesn't think she can fit a castle in her carryon luggage.
Solomon's airsoft pistol he bought on Ebay came in. It's made by UHC, who are not renowned for the attention to detail that the Japanese manufacturers are, so it does seem a little toylike. But still, it's cool, and there's no denying that it's got some power to it. There's now a round 6mm dent in Zoha's wall, and Solomon says he can confirm that it stings to get hit with one. But apparently it dropped a pellet when he ejected the magazine to show me, 'cause I found one on the floor in my cube. May there be many more to come!
I'm wavering. I looked at my options again in a new light -- which would be the coolest airsoft gun to get for just shooting paper targets around the house even if we never get into it as a sport? A shotgun style thing would be kind of a waste for that. I kind of like the style of SMGs more than carbines or full rifles, but I've read the gas blowback are generally just not as reliable and efficient as electrics, depend on temperature, can't be fired sideways/upside down... So probably the Uzi, which has a built in "real shock" feature that gives it more of a feeling of recoil than the MP5's. Its main drawbacks are the ones Marui faithfully reproduced from the original: bad ergonomics. It's a feature, not a bug.
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hindsight
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| 12-10-99 |
It's getting close to the end of the year. It's time to look back and reflect upon what happened and/or didn't happen. In fact, the Terrible Trio already did that over dinner a few nights ago...
| Jeff: |
We got cable modems. |
| Steph: |
None of us got ovarian cancer. |
| Dave: |
<blink> |
In my highly neglected offline journal I had a habit of going back over the whole thing every once in a while and commenting on it. I'd say it's self-referential but that would be redundant. Hah. Little joke there. Very little.
It was probably much more meaningful with a journal that spanned years, was updated less than weekly (and often less than monthly), and was definitely a chronicle of changes in my life. But I figure my "old" entries here might at least trigger some updates or commentary or something.
06-27-99: I mentioned that David W. was showing off our HJ prototype and trying to score us a publisher. That process has hopefully finally hit its final stage and we should be hearing from someone soon. I've felt like I've been in limbo most of the year, as I withdrew from DR to prepare to work on HJ, but HJ development hasn't started yet. It's pretty frustrating at times, but I hang in there 'cause I'm excited about HJ's potential.
I'm running Darkstep on my home machine now, a very stripped-down configuration, with popup menus and small task icons only. It does seem to have some kind of memory leak in conjunction with Internet Explorer, as my GDI resources will dwindle to nothing after a hard day's web browsing. I haven't checked Fahim's site lately to see if it's been updated though. |
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06-29-99: I'm going through the same process with Airsoft that I did back then with reptiles: reading up online and making sure I know what the heck I'm about before I spend the money. It's not that I'm a tightwad (I bet I'd be in better financial shape if I were) but I actually enjoy all the research into new things.
I also mentioned the Product Developer schedule. We're still on that 4-on 4-off schedule, but definitive steps have been taken toward moving us to a short day shift with rotating 24/7 on-call. I can't wait. |
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| 07-20-99: I still have Mandrake Linux on my machine. I still don't use it much. But kSame (or was that xSame?) is kind of fun to play once in a while. |
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| 08-03-99: I did have a hot dog once since the Blair Witch incident. A couple of the brats from McDonalds in fact. They didn't make me sick, and that's about the nicest thing I can say about them. |
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| 08-12-99: If you wondered why I switched archive pages in the middle of the month, it's because the vacation was a religious retreat that took place over the Kemetic New Year. I'd learned and changed so much at that point that it was worth more than just a new archive page, but at least I could make a token gesture. I still haven't figured out the full implications of some of what passed that week, but those are more private thoughts than I want to go into here. |
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| 08-19-99: I never did explain what I liked so much about Sixth Sense. It was partly the clever, dodgy twist that most of us didn't see coming (though Steph's sister apparently did). It was partly the fact that I was more scared for the kid than just plain scared, since I figured he was in for a really traumatizing bit of abuse from either his mom or (more likely) other kids. It was partly the fact that the kid reminded me of somebody I know who has, let's call it a very different outlook on life that other people have a hard time understanding, and I really sympathized. And it was partly the shocking revelation that Bruce Willis can... act?!? |
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| 08-20-99: We still haven't tried any but one of those restaurants I found online. Yemanja Brasil rocks though. |
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| 08-21-99: One of these days I'm getting rid of the guestbook, though I'd like to replace it with a forum or something. It worked for Pamie. |
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08-26-99: The recipe comments remind me I have no idea what I'm bringing to the Ratcliff Christmas Party on Saturday. Hmmm.
I still have some of that chai mix left. Maybe I should throw it out. |
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| 09-03-99: I've had one Y2K dream since then, after we'd played a little Rogue Spear but a lot of the Counterstrike mod for Half Life. Jeff and I had AK47's and were defending the Simutronics building from looters. Heh... that was before I fell for Ms. FN P90. |
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| 09-12-99: Homeworld. Heh. I played the demo until I was hearing the serene voice of Fleet Command in my sleep. "The mothership is under fire." I've played it maybe a total of two hours since I bought it. It's not a bad game, in fact it has a certain slow, stately, beautiful appeal. But I've just been doing other things. |
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| 09-26-99: It's not CyberStorm but yesterday I installed Heavy Gear (the original one that came out when 3D acceleration was a new and uncertain thing) and have been playing it a bit. Steph, from one cube over, says it sounds boring. I have to admit it's not highly action-packed. In the beginning of a campaign you're trying to kill the other mechs before they take out your leg and you get to spend the rest of the battle face down in the dirt. At the end of the campaign you're running for cover right away because there's 32 Anti-Gear Missiles headed your way before you can see anybody, and practically the only way to deal with them is to get cozy with a boulder. In the middle, you're wiping the floor with the enemy 'cause you use a rapid-fire bazooka from behind a hill and the best they can manage is not-very-effective supressive fire with rockets and autocannons. But it's kind of entertaining in a vaguely undefinable way, anyway. |
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| 10-01-99: I'm wavering on #3. I think I'd have to say Britney Spears now, for she is second only to the Gap Kids in her evilness. |
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| 10-11-99: One of the neatest things about the historic district is all the restaurants with patio seating, where you can sit there and toy with the birds and enjoy the breeze and the 150+ year old scenery and the rumble of the Harleys. Or maybe I'm just saying that 'cause I'm kinda hungry. |
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| 10-17-99: DR is under alpha testing on an Intel server, so I guess that means we're gonna get rid of the last SGI box soon. And Genie is going to shut down on December 27th. It's the end of an era. |
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| 10-18-99: The Total Annihilation dreams didn't last long. Now I see Rogue Spear in my sleep and mull over which Airsoft gun I should get that's cool, effective in CQB, has enough range/power for outdoors, cheap and reliable. Stated that way probably either the SPAS-12 or Benelli M3... they apparently have the same internals or close to it, and though they're shotgun-styled I've read that the spread is very small and they're accurate enough to snipe with. But I better stop before I get going about Airsoft. |
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| 10-20-99: Kalila and Poco have gotten along very nicely compared to Li's original reaction to Emmer. But I wouldn't try putting them in the same cage. He'd poop on her, and she'd eat him. |
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| 11-04-99: I still have scars from the Reptarium assembly. And did Steph ever answer that question? |
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11-09-99: I want to see Princess Mononoke again. Will probably have to wait until it's out on video.
As for Tom Clancy's mind control rays, my will finally eroded and I bought Shadow Watch (the novel... though I'll probably go for the game too when it's released). Steph and I both admit to wanting to read Rainbox Six. |
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| 11-15-99: Donna, if you're reading this, you should update more often! Show the world that quantity and quality aren't mutually exclusive... |
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11-27-99: I still have leftover turkey. I wonder how long it lasts before it goes bad. It's already too late for the gravy, but luckily my mom's dressing is good stuff even when dry.
I'm not so sure about my choice of pistol in the LWM guide. The Glock 20 with .224BOZ rounds is mighty powerful. It's just loud. Sometimes its volume is actually useful for drawing out those terrorists who lack something in the self-preservation department... they must think somebody's throwing flashbangs. |
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| 11-28-99: I ordered The Silmarillion from Amazon and have been reading it. It's got some very slow and dull chapters, and some excellent bits of story that could easily have been novels in their own right. The problem is finding a beginning and ending point... |
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| 11-29-99: It's worth throwing a note in about a different type of gun safety... as much as I'd like to encourage people to get into Airsoft and make the sport common enough that its enthusiasts don't have trouble finding others to play it with, those guns are very realistic. Don't scare people with them by brandishing them in public, or somebody will probably shoot you with the real steel. That's news I don't ever want to read on the XRing Forum. |
Thus concludes 6 months or thereabouts of journalling. It doesn't really reveal a lot I don't think. One of these days I'm going to have to go over my offline journal and summarize it here. That should be good for a few laughs. I almost can't stand reading the oldest entries because I was such a weenie then.
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^
muahahaha
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| 12-07-99 |
In the offices of Simu, no whiteboard is safe.
Somebody keeps drawing cartoons on them. Hmm, I wonder who that could be.
In the latest installment, the Diabolical Belligerent Dave and his Lizard Lackey Sock Puppets of Doom have kidnapped Oobli, and it's up to Super Heff and Super Bamber to save the day. Uh... okay.
Anyway.
Been doing more web surfing about Airsoft stuff. I'm starting to put together a wish list. Heh. The original plan was to get a dirt-cheap mini-AEG and spring pistol, wait and see if we actually got into the sport (surely there's gotta be a group in the St. Louis area) and then blow some portion of Christmas bonus on a full AEG.
But now, I hope that bonus is a nice big one. I haven't even tried the sport yet, but here's what I'm drooling over so far:
| Electric: |
Something cool, but generally useful for either indoor CQB or outdoor longer range stuff. David W. and GM Solomon both seem to be looking at MP5's, which are nice and functional and have a whole lot of available upgrades and accessories. But of course I want something a little different.
Rumor has it somebody's releasing an electric version of the FN P90 next year. It's my favorite CQB weapon in Rogue Spear and it just looks incredible. Some people don't like it 'cause it's too weird, not macho enough, totally unfamiliar to people used to more traditional guns, etc. To me it looks a lot more threatening than any M16 or MP5, but I guess it's a matter of taste. ToyTech made a gas-powered version of it but according to this review it was pretty pitiful... leaky and slow. I'd be disappointed if it didn't crank out near 900rpm like the real one or the Rogue Spear one.
But until that electric version hits the market and gets good reviews, I'm looking at the MC51 by Tokyo Marui. It's about the same size and power as their newer MP5s, with a much higher capacity. The downside is a small battery that doesn't last too long, but it's not that hard to upgrade.
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| Gas blowback: |
Blowback (a system that forces the slide back when you shoot) is a feature that makes the thing more realistic and fun, while wasting gas. Still, the cool factor is a major part of the hobby, isn't it?
There's only one semi-auto gas blowback pistol I'd go for, and that's the Western Arms Colt Limited Master. Though I can't find the URL offhand, I read an excellent review of it by a championship marksman. He handed it off to another shooter and she thought it was his actual competition gun. Apparently it shoots enough like it that he practices with the thing indoors. Wow. The downside is that it costs almost as much as any of the other guns I'm listing here, and as far as the sport goes, it's not as practical.
As far as SMGs go I'm torn between the boxy Ingram M11 (either by Maruzen or Western Arms, though WA's comes with a silencer and has more capacity) or the KSC Steyr TMP. The real downside of the M11 is it looks cooler when you have one for each hand. Sigh. I'm not going to buy two of them no matter how big the bonus is.
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| Spring: |
The spring-powered Tokyo Marui SPAS-12 shotgun may or may not be as practical as an AEG. On the one hand, it needs no batteries and no charging... just an arm that's not too tired and a palm that's not too sweaty (or a custom grip for easier pumping). On the other hand, it doesn't give you that cool feeling (and occasional tactical advantage) of firing on full auto. On the other other hand, it's the meanest looking airsoft gun in the known universe (except for this monster) and with it I could live up to my belligerent nickname. When it comes down to choice of which single weapon to spend a couple hundred bucks on, it's hard to say whether I'd go for an AEG or this puppy.
As far as spring pistols go I don't have any real preferences there, except low price.
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| Other gear: |
Eye protection is not optional. I'll probably use a standard cheap paintball mask. But beyond that, there's cheap flightsuits and tac vests perfect for airsoft, which are practical and look good. I might go for that.
I really don't plan on scopes, flashlights, laser sights, etc. I'd want a sling for any of them. If I get the SPAS-12 I'll probably want the custom grip, and if I get the MC51 I'll probably want to upgrade to the larger battery.
But I won't go overboard. Oh, no. not me.
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| BTW, X-Ring's AirSoft Hobby Site seems to be a great place to start looking... I haven't read it all quite yet :) |
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^
Unstoppable!
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| 12-04-99 |
You know, I had entries planned for the past two days... but Steph gave me Unreal Tournament for my birthday. So it's all her fault. Or something.
If you ever got so much as a mild thrill out of anything remotely resembling Doom, you owe it to yourself to get this game. The graphics engine is incredible (it was gratifying to see they borrowed one of the cool lighting tricks from CyberStrike 2), the sound has its moments, the taunts and orders and requests for backup do a lot for immersiveness (even in such a Mortal Kombat-ish surrealist setting), and the gameplay is fantastic. This game's been getting only the highest scores from reviewers, and I'm with 'em.
Quake III Arena is nothing but Deathmatch. UT includes regular Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Domination (where you score points by controlling key areas of the map), Assault (where one team tries to reach an objective and the other team tries to prevent them), and Last Man Standing (rather than racking up kills, you win by surviving to the bitter end). All of these can be modified by a variety of "mutators" which can drastically or subtly affect gameplay. Several mutators are included, more are available for download, and you can create your own. One of my favorites is Insta-Gib, where every hit is a kill -- it makes Domination very fast paced and Last Man Standing very tense. Sniper Rifles Only and Low Gravity also make for an interesting game.
It's so much fun against bots I haven't even played it multiplayer yet... just against bots, and just in the so-called Practice Mode. With just a few exceptions where they get stuck, the AI is very good. You can tweak their aggressiveness, awareness and accuracy as well as customizing their names, skins, and favorite weapons. The main problem I've had is that if you lose Last Man Standing against the lower level bots, many of them will stand around waiting for someone to shoot while others will patrol a very small area, so they'll never meet and finish the round. Also, if you have too many bots in the arena, you'll often die immediately when the round begins because it's started someone else right on top of you.
It doesn't replace Rogue Spear, because even in the Insta-Gib LMS games there isn't enough time for the tension to really build up to the point where you're afraid to go around the corner. Nor does it diminish Half-Life's great single-player experience. But if you were thinking about Q3A, forget it and go for this instead.
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^
eat plastic, punk
| | 12-01-99 |
Maybe that FBI profile was right after all. I get 6 out of 7 one day, and the next I'm wearing a black trenchcoat and surfing the internet looking for good prices on guns...
I better explain.
It's gotten down into the 20's the last couple of nights here and my thin Tyvek jacket just wasn't cutting it. I have a coat my dad wore once on a winter trip to Baltimore and then gave to me when I moved up here. Sleeves are a little short and it needs cleaning but it does the job. I wouldn't mind a leather one but I'd probably just abuse it... and I'd have to get shades and everything too. I mean, you can't wear a leather long coat without shades. It wouldn't be right.
GM Solomon came into my cube grinning yesterday and told me there was something I had to see. He pointed my browser at
this scary place. I thought he'd flipped, then proceeded to explain Airsoft to me (more or less).
Airsoft is a category of low-power guns that fire 6mm plastic BB-like pellets at muzzle velocities of 200-400 feet per second. They tend to be extremely realistic looking (except the US versions have a bright orange marking at the muzzle and removal of copyrighted logos so they comply with the law) and are used for law enforcement training, movie props, collectors' items and paintball-like sports without the paint. They can sting a bit when they hit and you do have to wear eye protection, but by all accounts they sound safer than paintball, and cheaper and cleaner too. In many cases can use accessories made for the real weapons -- scopes, flashlights, laser sights, etc.
The more I read about this the cooler it gets. David Whatley is planning on getting into this and Solomon's already bought a pistol on eBay. I've been looking and have a wish list already, but I'm likely to stay cheap unless a bunch of people from the office really get into this as a sport.
Some Airsoft guns are spring-powered single-shot models -- these tend to be the cheapest ($20 to $150 or so) but are no less powerful or accurate. You just have to cock it after every shot. Fancier models are select-fire or full-auto, many of them firing at rates comparable to the real thing. Some of these are powered by "green gas", and may even have a blowback feature that simulates the action of a real gun, while "AEGs" are powered by electric motors that drive a piston that compress the air. Gas and AEGs range all the way up to $1000 or more for sniper rifles or M-60 replicas, but tend to be in the $300-$500 range. Den Trinity has some very nice AEGs in the $200 range (though batteries, charger and shipping from Hong Kong are extra).
Even $200 is more than I want to spend on something I don't know we'll actually do... but there are Mini-AEGs for as little as $20-$30 that fire 5 rounds per second at about half the velocity of the normal AEGs. They are unable to pierce a paper target at point blank... but from what I've read they're a lot of fun and actually decent for close quarters. I'm thinking one for each hand would be cool, or maybe one mini and one spring pistol.
Then if we really get into this stuff (and David gives us big Christmas bonuses) I'll look into an MP5 or Car-15 or Mac 11 or maybe the sexy FN P90.
I was always mildly interested in paintball but never played it. I've only played Laser Tag a couple of times -- once at an SF/Fantasy con, where we played in the woods behind the hotel, it was getting dark, the mosquitos were coming out, and I (completely unaware we were going to do this) was wearing a white T-shirt that screamed "shoot me." I had one of the LT geek's modified rifles that had a scope and a longer range beam... it didn't help. But I'd like to give this Airsoft stuff a go.
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