Vic is totally P*ssing me off right now....

The car is giving me a hassle. It's felt 'off' for the past few weeks. Last week I put a new battery in it when the prior one mysteriously instantly failed overnight and could NOT be charged again. That in itself is strange! The car hadn't been driven for nearly a week, then I started it four times on a Saturday to go to the store, to come home and wash it, then out to a movie with Tori and back. Then Sunday morning.... kaput battery! Strange...

But with the new battery installed, the car developed new problems. It basically began running terribly... to the point that I was afraid to drive it because I feared I may be destroying the engine if something was slowly breaking. After diagnosing it and searching forums and getting no clearcut answer, I limped it down to Advanced Auto yesterday and borrowed their OBDII scanner to find out (as I was getting DRENCHED) that cylinders #5, #6 AND #7 were ALL missfiring. Doh! But that was only new to Friday, because the car had not driven THAT poorly yet at all. So I bought a set of plugs and installed them tonight.

After replacing the passenger side, I went for a drive and the car felt FINE. In fact, it felt GREAT. I felt really happy, and finished swapping out the driver side. Let me just say that this Ford 4.6 is a BREEZE to change the plugs on compared the my old LT1s. With the LT1s, the plugs were all located under the exhaust pipes and a PAIN to get at. You had to put the car up, get under it and then FIGHT for hours to get the last three in the back areas. On the Crown Vic they are all accessible from the TOP of the engine right from the intake manifold and I swapped them all out in less than an hour and twenty minutes. It means little to you guys, but that is WORLDS cooler to me.

Anyway, after cleaning myself up I went for a final check-out run. It went okay-ish, until I got home and it stalled out and tossed a Check Engine light. While driving it still stuttered a bit and acceleration is weak and sputtery... but DRIVABLE. Ok, so I am kinda mad when it died out and then practically stalled out again as I parked it.... until 10 minutes later I realized that I never plugged the wires for the MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor and the IAT (Intake Air Temp) sensor. Doh! Without those, NO WONDER it stalled. In fact, I'm surprised it didn't crap out on the highway since most engine computers switch over to open-loop operation after 5 minutes (and the drive was 14).

So I plug the wires back in and go for a 9-minute drive out to Carpenter and 68 and back. I feel a bit more confident in the car now that the wires are plugged in, but it is still feeling weak under acceleration. Didn't stall out or throw any engine lights, but it doesn't feel right yet. For now, I'm glad it can drive semi-safely. But I am really annoyed that I can't figure out what's wrong.

It could be.... (and Rob, feel free to express your thoughts on my comments here)
-MAF... the car ran more or less the same on both rides with and without the MAF hooked up, so the MAF itself may be going bad

-Transmission... I have had them either blow up all at once or have one gear get progressively worse. While neither of these quite fit the situation, it's possible nonetheless that there is a problem because while at a light I switched to neutral and revved the engine and it revved and ran fine.

-Manifold Crack or Leak... if the proper amounts of metered air are or are not reaching each cylinder correctly, it would account for the sputtering and lack of power under load.

-TPS, IAT, EGR... (Throttle Position Sensor, Intake Air Temp, Echaust Gas Recirculation) If any of these were crapping out, they may ALSO account for the lack of power and the stutter.

-Alternator... the battery died before, the new battery runs fine and stays at the same charge, but if the alternator were sort of on-again/off-again as it began to die it, too, might account for the stutter while driving and the lack of power as rpm increases.

So there's all sorts of "maybes" now, and nothing is certain. I AM glad I changed the plugs, because the ones in there were junked up and needed changing anyway. But I wish they had been the cause of the problems! I hope to find out more tomorrow when I bring it down to Advanced again in the evening. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Oh, and I'll try to post some info about the pageant from this weekend too. It was really a lot more fun than I thought it would be to judge the event, and I'll explain how I pushed the final scoring to get my top choice one of the two crowns. ;)

TGI Monday? LOL

BF2

Rob...

I finally made Sergeant last night. Now I have all the weapons I really wanted. I think the only thing I might want to add to the list would be the F2000. Anything else is pretty much picked over.

Unlocks:
G36C - Spec Ops - Good accuracy, I use it on single shot as an unaugmented sniper.
M95 - Sniper - does massive damage, but is hard to aim and very slow to reload.
L96A1 - Sniper - Cannot use it in SF.
G3 - Assault - Good all-around gun, stronger than the base unit.
PKM - Heavy Support - more accurate when prone, heavier round, haven't tried it in combat but I can see now how people were scoring one-hit kills on me with it.
L85A1 - Medic - average when in auto, but use zoom on semi-auto and it can probably be pretty swanky as a backup sniper rifle.

Also learned something I did not know before: Medic, Heavy Support and Engineer special weapons respawn. I can't believe I didn't know that!!! Now I am left to wonder why more Medics and Ammo guys don't spill supplies all over the map. Too bad the claymores or C4 don't refresh!

Ok, so now I think I can get out there and try some new characters a bit. SCHWEEEEET!

Had a tough time getting the rank. GTG was full of people from different clans and it got pretty hairy. Of course, I got mad because I joined JUST as the team I was assigned to lost. Then the next map they voted a different map and we lost before anyone could even move. What a rip! I hate that stuff because it negatively impacts my stats. Though I DID make sure to get a terrible revenge on them in Warlord. Their team would move as a group.... all 10 of them. Well, they got wiped out at the palace and suddenly they're all parachuting in at the base. I'm on the TV tower with SVD. Got 2 in the air. Three landed on one rooftop where I got one before the other two could turn, got the other before he could get to cover and lucked a headshot on number three as he was sighting in on me. To add humor to it, not long after that I got three claymore kills inside the TV station and 1 at the ladder by their base flag. Ooops! I seem to drop those things in the darndest places...

Anyway, glad I made SGT now. I don't feel so much of a noob.

Poision Ivy is t3h suxx0rs

I mean, in case any of you were wondering. It blows. It's not even very itchy, but the dang stuff likes to spread and before it even presented itself as what it is it had spread across both forearms. I quickly went through bandaids, so now I look like a ridiculous fool because I have opted for gauze pads kept in place by strips of duct tape wrapped around my arms. Quite silly I look. And I anticipate loads of fun removing said strips of duct tape from my hairy arms. Actually, I can at least remove the tape going in the same direction as my hair grows and I doubt it will dry-seal to my skin the way the bandaids did. And in the end, I'm not really sure WHAT this is.... I know for a fact that I came nowhere near poison ivy while in the woods, so this must be oak or sumac. Likewise, I didn't actually get it on the hike. No, I got it from the shirt I wore while hiking. Wore it again on Wednesday (having been washed) and didn't realize I was infected until Thursday night.

So I look a fool. What's new?

Oh, interesting.... I feel even more foolish now. I just looked up the photos I'm going to post with this and learned that poison ivy is NOT the little red leaf I was raised to think it was. Instead, its the dang vines/leaves you see practically EVERYWHERE in these woods! D'oh!

So what's new with all of you?

I Was Fooled..... a movie review

Both of the movies pictured above with linked trailers below are great in their own respect. They both have a strong cast, creative directors/producers, and an excellent story. More amazingly, BOTH of them fooled me.

As Tori will readily proclaim, I all too often spoil movies in my ability to predict or figure out the entire film before the first few minutes have passed. But both of these movies either surprised me or lead me to a neutral point where I had considered the end but had been given enough disparate information to not select that outcome without reserve.

All I'm saying is that they are both DEFINITELY on the list for my DVD collection. I'm not going into any specifics because I really don't want to affect your first viewing of these films. If you've seen one or the other, I invite you to discuss them with me. The Departed was great in its storytelling and the topic. The Prestige was likewise great, but it also led you down a murky path as you tried to piece together the disseminated details to the story.

The one thing I will say is that as the credits were rolling I realized that Hugh Jackman's character WAS correct in his claim that his level of commitment and sacrifice was greater. See the movie, think about it, then tell me why.

Pretty cool. I want to go see them both again, but 'Flags of Our Fathers' comes first.

The Prestige - Trailer

The Departed - Trailer

This one will appeal to each of you....

So much to post after this weekend! Firstly, we had the horrific Halloween dinner on Friday night. Tori, who FLEW through traffic (told you you didn't need to, hon) made it and we had a meal of "Roast Beast" and several other assorted horrific yummies. Tori also brought a cookie decorator kit she got from Stop & Shop and we had fun being creative with them on Saturday night. Andrew made a VIP guest appearance for the Friday dinner. He seems to cling to Shelley wherever she goes and hasn't really spoken much with the rest of us poor schlepps. But he's a nice guy. Maybe if he kept the fuzzy bat bouncy headpiece on for more than 10 seconds he'd fit in better? =P

Saturday... once I could breathe again thanks to this nasty nasty sinus infection keeping me down, takes about an hour each day for me to clear it out enough to function... I was finally able to convince Tori to climb the mountain with me. We did fine getting up near the top. We did not use the wire, instead we free-climbed. But when I finally found a route over the rockface (as opposed to climbing the sheer cliff!) we got within 5 feet of the top before Tori let me know she is afraid of heights. So..... we couldn't get over that section and I had to calm her and talk her down from where she was. Thirty minutes later we were able to move laterally under the cliff and climb/walk over. Once on the top....? We DROPPED for about five minutes. Ah, safe! LOL But then I got this itch.... it said... self, we've never explored far to the right end of the path, why don't we find out where it ends? So, having already done ONE insane thing today, I convinced Tori we ought to see where the path comes out. Let me just say, Tori, you are a TROOPER. We ended up walking the entire length of the mountain. All the way to Tilcon and then we came back via RT 68 and the side roads into the next neighborhood, etc. I think we were both ready to pass out after that. I felt pretty good, actually. Tired, but good. No major aches or pains. Though I felt bad for having to assume such a forceful tone with Tori on the cliff. I felt I had to to get her mind focused on what she was doing so I wouldn't have to call Life Star. Glad you made it in one piece, Boo.

Hmm, what else? DnD breakfast on Sunday, a nice treat. Then I commenced with the cutting of the plum tree. Got it all down and managed not to take out the gutter, siding, or kitching windows. Go me! I did that using the 12" chainsaw on the extendable trimmer arm. It's not powerful enough or meant to cut the trunk of a tree, so my dad tried to get the chainsaw working. Couldn't do it, but after 20 minutes I managed to sharpen it and coax it to life and the rest of the tree is history. It actually makes the back yard look much larger.

And I have to admit that I spent about 3 hours tonight after dinner playing BF2 online. Finally made Lance Corporal and decided to unlock the G3 for the assault player and the M95 for the sniper. The G3 actually turned out to be useful in the Warlord map where I kept respawning in the insurgent's rear flag point and mowing everyone down. Eventually, I switched to a sniper and kept dropping claymores everytime before leaving the room. I was pretty satisfied when I spawned, dropped a pair of claymores and zipped out the window (going for flag across the way, just to mess with the guys) and was rewarded by the claymore detonating and taking out FOUR enemies. LOL At first, I was pretty crappy with the M95. It took two rounds of Night Flight for me to begin to feel proficient in it's use. Played as the SAS and put a whoopin' on the Insurgents. First from my spot covering the plane.... I should note that the enemy team in this case was pretty skilled and at least three of them made continual concerted efforts to move as a group. They DID manage to spot me eventually, and even moved in on me. I got the two in the back, but the first guy was a bunny-hopping asshole whom I couldn't hit with the rifle. I switched to pistol when he got close but no luck, so... I RAN! As luck would have it, he killed me but it was as he stepped into range of the claymore I always lay out as a lateral defense and he got blown to kibbles. Reminds me of another round of Warlord (medium size) where I was using the M95 and got up to a roof on the right side. I was able to spot and kill 3 of the enemy snipers. See, the problem with the server I was on is that it autobalances. So I couldn't join the stacked team. I was stuck with a few decent guys and a bunch of lame-o's. So all I could do was just fight my own fight - we had no chance of winning. So I kept behind this tall wall on the roof (not an AC unit, but not a door either) where no one could see me. Then I would shift out slowly until I spotted an enemy sniper and I'd get a headshot. So I got one on the satellite roof, one on another roof covering a flag, another back towards the enemy base, and then I happened to look down on the roof RIGHT below me to the north and there's an enemy aiming down on one of my guys. So I guess I got four of them. I also managed to kill a guy who came up the ladder after me. He got a face fulle of claymore. But at that moment another sniper got me from point unknown. But it had to be above me, because then he zip-lined in. The funny thing is that I had placed another claymore at my feet in case someone snuck up on me. Well, he came around the corner and got his body blown off the roof. Ooops! Then while I waited to respawn I learned a decent rule to sniping.... take advantage of the zip-line. I realized they were hunting for my last remaining teammate and they just kept zip-lining in everywhere. SOOOoooo... back to the Night Flight map. I'm the sniper on my team, and there's this guy KellerMeister or something on the other. We are both, as it turns out, sneaky bastards. We kept orbiting around one another until we'd find each other and it got nutty. At one point I was on the Airport Terminal roof and I realized he was on a hangar rood opposite me. He took out one of my guys behind me by the flag. He hadn't seen me in the relative dark of the corner and I popped him one, but didn't kill him. They dropped supplies on the roof for him, so he healed. I sat silent. A minute later I was able to make out the crest of his skull and squeezed off a careful round. Got him! The round kept going and my SAS team was losing. I got wacked at some point and respawned at the original starting point. I found a GREAT spot up on the construction building. After laying my claymores towards the stairs, I hopped up on a pile of lumber and went prone. From here, I was relatively well-protected. And hard as HELL to spot from the flag area. So my guys captured it. Then I saw 4+ enemies moving for it. From where I was sitting I could actually shoot DOWN on that roof, so I was very calmly taking my time and popping them non-stop. Rob, I kid you not, I got at least 10 kills from there before they even SPOTTED me! Some poor medic healed one guy three times before I knocked the medic down. One guy finally spotted me and loosed a few rounds, but didn't hit me. I popped him almost instantly. When he came back, it was obvious he had told his buddies where I was. They brought in two snipers, one on the ground and one on the 2nd floor. I got them both. The one on the ground was scanning looking for me, but never found me. Or if he did, it was too late. In any case, that was a lot of fun. You ought to remember that spot because it is MUCH juicier than the position covering the plane. From that lumber perch I could shift and cover most of the roof as well as the flag. If I hadn't become overzealous in my shooting at one point, they never would have found me. Their first instinct (after running or going prone from fear) is to look down or towards the inward areas of the map or other rooftops much closer to them. I didn't try, but seeing as I am slightly above that roofline I bet we could clear the roof and then zip-line to it from the construction roof. Handy!

A new map I did tonight was Surge. Haven't tried the large map yet though. The one we did had 3 flags. I think it was the small map. I mostly sat in the crane at various levels and offered fire support until they spotted me. Then I would move to the sides and do the same. Decent map. Got a lot more experience on Mass Destruction tonight. More fun from the Chem building windows. It also appears that I have a specialty for clearing the junkyard. My team lost all our flags and I was the last one alive (typical). So I snagged that one and held it against 4 guys until my team came back. Was shown an interesting spot I hadn't noticed until tonight - you can climb onto the roof of some of the train cars. From a prone position there, you can cover the Spetznaz approach. I found this out he hard way.... But I was also able to pop the two snipers who were up there. That is the problem with the other snipers. If I SEE them when I am killed, I WILL kill them. Almost without fail. So I made sure tonight to move regularly. In the case of Night Flight, that worked to my advantage. I had been out sniping guys near the plane. My team had no hope of winning in this first round (I was Insurgent and had not yet unlocked the M95). As it turned out, I was the last man alive and we had no flags. If I had known that, I would have moved for me. Alas, I did not. But I must have played for another 7 minutes with the other team absolutely unable to find me. I popped this one guy MedicHook (who is actually pretty good) 3 times by the plane. I got him the first time on the ramp. They thought I might be inside. I got him the second time on a respawn. As soon as I killed him I ran to a new spot, counting to 10 before dropping to prone and turning around. Not too long later I see MedicHook emerge from the edge of my vision on the right heading towards my last spot. He had circled around where he thought I was. He was right, but I had moved, and he caught another headshot. By this time I figure they must have dropped a UAV over me, as all hell broke loose and half his team showed up with flashbangs and grenades. Unfortunately for them, I had quickly ducked inside an open hangar and managed to kill one and wound another before the support guy got me.

And I have to say, I REALLY hate it when guys dive prone while firing wildly and manage to kill me with ONE SHOT from a weaker weapon. That's pretty annoying and it happens all too often.

One last story. At some point on the Warlord map while playing as SAS I ran into some guy shooting at me while running through an archway. I had gone prone and hit him with the M95. He could have SO killed me while I reloaded, but apparently he was both almost dead as well as out of ammo! He ducked behind a crate. I thought just to get out of my sights, then I saw hiw rifle verticle while he exchanged clips. So I took the chance (I was also almost dead) and charged him with the pistol. I got there JUST as he was about to lock and load and put three or four in his chest. It felt good until I went around the corner and got hit with a grenade.

Never got around to figuring out how to fly the helo. The only sensible way would seem to be to remap the keypad for it, but then I would have to move some other keys. So I first need to reset the others before learning to fly. I was too interested in getting my first set of unlocks to worry about the helo. Maybe tomorrow night if Rob is up for it.

TGI Monday, guys!

Battlefield 2: Special Forces MULTI-PLAYER!

This one is more for Rob, since he'll certainly appreciate it a little bit more than you other two. I'll let you all give it a shot anytime if interested!

Ok, so my first foray into the online version of BF2 was... interesting. For my first few maps I consistently had my ass handed to me. As I got used to the speed, the problem persisted. But I finally realized that this was LARGELY due to the fact that the Autobalance function does not mean your team is really balanced. Firstly, my team had two fewer players. Secondly, three of my team were not playing.... ARG! Thirdly, the three or four BEST players in the map were all on the other team. So although I was the start student on my team, we kept losing.

One thing I realized is that I NEED to learn how to fly the helicopters. I found them to be the dominant force on several maps.... able to destroy tanks and trucks, and also to put a hurtin' on ground troops while remaining relatively untouchable.

But here's a good story.... I was on Mass Destruction map and we were getting pressed back to the chemical building. I had been a sniper, but switch to anti-tank and go out the top floor window onto the sub-roof. Right in front of me is a Hind hovering over the water after blowing up everyone by the flag there. He was already smoking. It seemed like the pilot JUST saw me as I leveled the RPG launcher at him and fired.... he was pulling max pitch to fly over and past me but the rocket slammed into the cockpit and he blew up on the other side of the building.

Later I played the same map on a different server where there were no vehicles allowed. This made it MUCH more fun for me. So I played on both teams with my sniper rifle. By this time I'm getting handy with it and people are learning to be wary of open spaces.... particularly the train tracks, the island flag, and the junkyard flag. I just kept hopping walls and sneaking off shots at people. Was a lot of fun. One guy had set up shot and was icing my friends on the island. I managed to sneak up behind him and knife him. =)

The Warlord map was early on when I was still getting my bearings. Played as the SAS and tried their sniper rifle... HATE IT. It's bolt-action, so it takes forever between rounds. The problem is that I KNOW I will have hit someone, but the shot doesn't kill them and then I get nailed. Not fun. So I switched to anti-tank and went wall-climbing in random spots looking for juicy targets. Didn't enjoy this map so much.

My FAVORITE map was one I haven't played before. Night Flight! Played first as SAS and drove them out of town. I played as the assault character with the grapple hook. The enemies had two last flags and one was on a roof. I grappled up the side (couldn't find the stairs) and quickly ducked behind an air vent. Hucked a grenade forward, then charged while firing. Got two guys on the roof and a third as he came up the stairs and managed to hold the spot.

But then I played as the Insurgents!!! Back to my precious SVD semi-auto sniper rifle. I am SICK with this thing! Instead of charging off with the group, I start picking non-obvious spots to hide and cover a lane of fire. Usually this meant being out in the open surprisingly. But the other team couldn't deal with me. We won the map at 53 - 0. So it was long-fought battle. At one point everyone is firing away in a big fight on the east side amid the buildings. I move west and discover my DREAM sniper realm.... the runway! First time out, I was content to sit in the divits and try to spot guys. Had some success here before getting killed. Then we took the flag at the plane and I set up shot northeast of the nose by the edge of this 20-player map. I went prone and just started having fun. The SAS came for the plane and managed to take it. But I just kept dropping their guys left and right. Outside the plane, on or among ground equipment, even INSIDE the plane going up the ladder, LOL! But I totally wiped out THREE whole respawned groups. They got pissed and learned to stay away! So several minutes have gone by. My guys drop a reload and I ammo-up. Then I move further north and get some cover behind a low mound with a bush. I'm not there longer than a minute when I see an SAS guy crawling in from the side with a knife in his hand trying to get the drop on what he thought was my position. I didn't do anything extravagant, just whipped out the silenced pistol and dropped him. =) But then I did get popped by a grenade. =(

So on my final life in this particular map, I tried finding a spot on the west side of the runway. I actually found a deusy. (Deusenberg - "It's a Deasy" - that is the origination of the term) Anyway, there's a hangar with a small building next to it. This is just south of the tail of the C5 and the small building is actually raised on cinder blocks..... I can't get UNDER it, but I CAN shoot under it. =) So I sat here for a LONG LONG time. They couldn't find me. TWICE I found and killed a sniper who was running along this way or that trying to anticipate where I might be. He wasn't happy, but he put up with my slaughter good-naturedly and kept swearing "I'm going to find you." Nope, never made it. But I was able to pop a bunch more guys from here before the end. The BEST part of all this is that the SAS team got spooked when they were near the plane. By then end, whenever I fired and there was more than one of them they all hit the dirt!!! Plus, I DID get some sick humor out of this one guy who I dropped. The medic revived him. I killed him. Medic revived him again. I killed the medic. The first guy is still prone, trying to crawl "away" but remains fully visible. I give him a minute to breathe, thinking he's safe. Then I pop him in the head. =) Oops! It is definitely fun when I get to take people down and they don't know where I am shooting from. I'm putting my mind to work finding creative spots. One obvious spot was the same sub-roof in Mass Destruction. When we played without the vehicles I got up there once when it was an enemy flag area and would jog back and forth between the windows. I was rather successful!!! In one life I managed to totally surprise and kill 5 guys. Then when I went to change windows I ran across the room as a Heavy Support guy came up the stairs and wiped me out. But when you go across any map there are 'obvious' spots like rooftops, knolls, windows and the like. I'm trying to find spots that DON'T draw the eye so much where they might pass over me without noticing while I pop one of their guys from behind. Once I got a little better at the game, I highly enjoyed the 'shoot and move' approach. Too much fun!

One thing I do NOT understand is why the programmers would equip the sniper with a zip line? Useful for a quick escape or something? Total waste. Snipers need the grapple hook, dangit!! We have the good guns, and we ought to have an easier time getting to elevated positions or rooftops which are inaccessible to others. Ah well.

When I quit, I was still a Private. My next level bar is about 99%, so I'll get my first promo next time I play. I just can't wait until I can unlock some new weapons!

Hope I get to play a few maps with Rob soon. He definitely has the time/skill advantage on me, but I'll catch up. Would be fun to play on the same team and give everyone hell. Tandem untis I have thought of are: Medic/Support, Sniper/Sniper, Sniper/Assault, Sniper/AT. The rest of the units are fine, they just don't have the advantages I look for. And we DEFINITELY need to learn how to fly the helos!!! Not just ok, but GOOD like the guys I was against tonight. It really swayed the battle in their favor. That's another way of saying that it REALLY SUCKED having to try and deal with the armored flying buggars who kept firing unending missiles and bullets down. By my reckoning, if they have AT guys in the game and snipers with zip lines, why don't they have an AA rocket guy? One final pet peeve was that I would often get several rounds off and miss or hit but not kill a guy... and this is me getting the drop on them... but they would managed to jump, go prone or just let loose a burst and I would be toast. It seemed a bit slanted to me.

Anywho, fun game. HL2 was a little more fun, imo, but since that game has gone to hell BF2 will definitely fill the gap!

TGIF, guys.

Revenant Dreams

Had an interesting one last night, though it really wasn't recurrent. This one was new as far as I could tell. It took place in an odd high school setting. The school or building itself seemed to be attached also to a shopping mall, although that mall looked more like the interior of a Sam's Club. But I never saw the exterior of this complex as I meandered around. We, as students, weren't being taught so much as we were being trained. I participated in an arena combat sequence where the room itself was surrounded by metal walls which curved in at the bottom forming a bowl. Around this ring were windows facing what was obviously a main corridor where students traveled. Inside the ring, there were parallel barriers centered in the room which resembled the Roman numeral II. There were other assorted barriers, such as burned out vehicles in the way. But it turned out that it was myself and two others trying to eliminate a fourth 'student' who had superhuman abilities. Not godlike, but certainly unattainably faster and immune to pain. Even though I was the new student, I was able to retain our opponent's attention long enough with my fire at one point that I ran him straight into my female partner's stream of fire and we won the match. To be honest, I don't know if the opponent lived or died. I just remember trying to catch up to the chick in the hallway afterwards. =) She seemed upset. Only later did I realize that the oppenent probably WAS KIA, but also that he had been a friend of hers previously. Now it became apparent that being the new kid with a star on your shoulder isn't the greatest thing. This school came with its share of enemies, you see. The first of which being the 'enforcer' of the local bully. Both bully and enforcer happened to be quite strong and somewhat gothic. They looked pretty bad-ass, but I took them for typical anti-establishment types. And right now as the new kid, the establishment was my only friend. In any case, the guy I just hosed was apparently the enforcer's friend as well. He didn't take lightly to my participation in his demise and made that publicly clear between classes when he tried to scare me down. I didn't scare down. But I DID miss my next class, and with the halls empty I had no one to ask for directions. I'm lost? Greeeeeeat. So I go wandering around. This is when I found the connection to the big hangar that looked like Sam's Club. I couldn't get in though, since it was still school hours. So I kept meandering around until I came across the enforcer and the bully and some cronies together. They didn't really make fun of my being lost, but did 'suggest' a way to go. I knew they were full of it and going that way would probably get me in trouble, but when I DID go through that door I realized they actually meant to either scare the life out of me or get me really hurt. Behind this door were the tops of two floating staircases and I found myself clinging to the handrail on one for my life as it swung around, free from any tethers over a dark pit. Just when I'm thinking I'm toast, one of the cronies... apparently as important as the bully himself, came through the door and with a tired expression gave me his arm and got me off the staircase. Oddly, his features looked similar to Heath Ledger, so we'll call this guy Heath. His challenge to the bully's rule was not taken well, you could see the hatred in everyone's eyes as he led me back past the crew. But no one dared reproach him in any way. From there it was the end of the day, so I went home. I woke up the next day (or perhaps time had passed) and there were construction workers in my house remodeling everything and expanding the house. It felt weird, and may have tied in with a dream from the other day where I walked into my room... but it wasn't my room. The same furniture and accoutrements, but moved all around, a new extra window and some bookshelves built into the wall next to a small gym. Strange. Anyway, the house is in a state of flux and some of the construction crew are people I know. A friend from my youth, a guy I worked with at Pomperaug and a few others. It was weird, but fun to see some faces I knew. But then it was back to school. It was now becoming clear that this certainly WAS some sort of training cadre. This was partially made clear by the reverence shown me by people I had known all my life. They showed deference to my family for what I was doing, and for the risk which seemed inherent to it. So I ponder this as I travel. When I get there, we are assembled outside on a large grassy meadow that sloped gently down to a focal point. We do not all sit in rows, tightly packed. Instead, we spread out as though enjoying a mid-summer picnic with trees and bushes dotting the meadow. I have found a position in some shade when 'Heath' finds me. He is calm, yet distressed. It is apparent that he is under a great cloud of concern. He gives me a syringe filled with a clear liquid and bids me to hold onto it for now and use it only when no one is looking. Then he gives me a conspiratorial look and claps me on the shoulder before moving on. I watch as he disappears around the lip of the bowl in the valley. I notice the bully is opposite him and nodding discrete orders to his crew, who I now notice are moving even more discretely through the crowd dispersing syringes to a select few while trying to remain unnoticed. I tend to think the syringe has some sort of drug in it, so I have hidden mine under the edge of my blanket. Then I happen to catch the Enforcer sneaking up behind me. We share a meaningful glare at one another and I notice that he has several syringes in his pocket... and a knife in his hand. He's here to do me in. But while we're locked in this momentary locking of the eyes, he shocked at being caught in the act, me scambling for SOMETHING to do... I gently pull back the blanket and reveal the syringe. He sees it and his face turns to a shroud of frustration. This syringe is the key to some sort of puzzle. It seems that he didn't expect me to have it, but since I do he cannot hurt me, as though obeying some law. He gives me a look that speaks volumes... I'm safe, for now.

Oops, it's almost 9:30. There isn't too much more to the dream after this, but I'll come back and flesh it out later when I have time.

Have a good day!

South Park - World Of Warcraft PART 3

South Park - World Of Warcraft PART 2

South Park - World Of Warcraft PART 3

That Mitchell and Webb Look - That's Numberwang Part 2

What the deuce?

Medical Drama Sketch - That Mitchell and Webb Look

Oh no, he WAS fine. Now he's pawly from too much electric.

One thing's for sure... he liked butter.

German SS Officers - "Are we the baddies?"

ROTFLMFAO!!!!! This is SOOO for Rob....

Hope you're feeling well enough to watch this. Apparently, it just came out.... VERY funny!

http://www.flabber.nl/archief/017920.php

Fricken HILLARIOUS!

For Lack of a Better Post

The comic is for Rob, our favorite tech support guy, who is going on a medical leave to fix his third leg. The one that hangs to the left. You know, the one with the busted knee. What did you THINK I was talking about, silly? =)

Yeah, you've all busted my ass for reducing the quality of your workdays by not posting more regularly lately. Well SOOOOO-RY! Been a wee bit busy losing money hand over fist on the stock market. It's fun, let me tell you. At this point, if I thought I could make money, I'd rent my girlfriend out! =P (Kidding, honey. No one in this part of the state could afford you.)

OK! So now that I've dug myself as deep a hole as possible... what's going on in my life lately? Well, firstly... I have spent roughly two weeks of agony with what I can only presume to be walking pneumonia or something close. My sinus has never been this bad and I'm lucky I didn't totally suffocate with asthma. The only reason I DIDN'T is because I basically didn't sleep at all for two weeks. I have this nervous switch in my head that doesn't allow me to sleep when my sinus is pouring crap into my chest at night. So I stay awake doing what I can to move said sinuses however possible. After two weeks of extreme sleep deprivation, low oxygen levels, and increasing side-effects from said two problems... I'm finally turning the bend and have had two successful nights of sleep. It feels SO good to bag at least 5 hours solid and not wake up choking or feeling like I'm drowning. All of this, plus trading has recommenced. I'm definitely stumbling a bit in my first few days as I apply what I've learned in practice to the real deal. Right now I'm just laying the bulwark and learning the ropes with the new approach. This means only trading one contract and moving pennies around back and forth. Bah! But it's still fun! =)

So all of that aside, my car is still running iffy, but I've got Paul on the job trying to find a new transmission. I figure with all the Crown Vics he's around, he ought to know either a good shop or a good source. We'll cross our fingers.

Yay for the weekend! (Even though Tori Poopy Pants isn't going to see me tonight. FRIDAY night.)