24 HOURS FOR TRICOUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY!

Well, it really is an uneventful day today, other than being late for work because I couldn’t find my keys. I searched the house top to bottom looking for those damn things. Then, just as I was close to giving up, I placed my arms at my sides, where my left hand would brush up against my wallet (which I keep in my front pocket)… and felt my keys right next to it. I felt like such a moron… heh.

Last night was actually rather fun. I was feeling a bit bored, so I popped Mortal Kombat: Deception into my PS2 to play a few rounds. Then, I happened to look at my computer monitor, to see a couple of people that have talked about playing MKD online recently on the #mortalkombat channel. So, I challenged them… and I ended up spending an hour, hour and a half playing against them. I thought I did relatively well, considering that even if I wasn’t rusty, I’m hardly the best player around. :-) Still, it was fun… might consider playing a bit more online in future.

… and with that, I really do have nothing else to say. I’d better get back to work… heh.

The following is an email we received at MK Online’s mail address.

Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2005 01:12:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: ******** < ******@******.***>
Subject: For Game
To: mail@mortalkombatonline.com

Hi, for all who have disigned this site.

I’m a new member of your site although i don’t know how can i get / download this game (Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance & Mortal Kombat Deception) at free.

If it is possible, please let me know.

Thanks for all…….

*grumblemutter*

Perhaps one didn’t bother noticing through our news stories that Midway helps us with several of our news stories and features? Heck, one only has to look at our front page to see that the producer of the upcoming Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks has a recurring feature on our site. I’m REALLY sure they’d appreciate us helping people pirate their game. :p

Damn, people… just buy the fricking game and support the people making it. I know from first-hand experience that if there’s no money to be made, then there won’t be any future games. This is why Midway doesn’t put out PC versions of the MK games anymore: they didn’t make any money off them. That’s why every piece of software I have is either legally bought and paid for or open-source solutions.

*sigh* Still, it’s kinda discouraging seeing that, you know? I can’t imagine how the designers might feel…

Oh, well. I realize I tend to have a minority view on such things, but all I can do is stick by my guns.

Meh. Right now I’m sitting at my desk, taking a quick break from work, and realizing that I can’t wait for a vacation. I’ve got a vacation coming up next week (going out of town for a couple of days), and then at the end of the month I’ll be making my way over to Las Vegas for a few days. I always enjoy Vegas; this time I’ll probably try and spend more time at the table games than I do at the slots. It also helps that we’re staying at Bally’s again, as I really liked Bally’s the time we stayed there last time. Granted, Mandalay Bay was nice as well, but I’m not quite sure I could have afforded it on my own. :-) Oh, well… I guess I’ll talk more about that trip as I get closer to it.

I’ve decided that I REALLY need to lose weight. Yes, I know how many times I’ve said it. This time I’m actually trying to do something about it. I’ve already cut out all soda except for one Diet Coke a day (to forestall the caffeine withdrawal symptoms) and cut out the beer, and am drinking water the rest of the day. I’m also doing my best to eat sensibly during the day. When I get home at night I just have a light supper… usually a bowl of cereal. Next week or the week after I’ll start exercising with the stair-stepper equipment Mom bought a while ago that sits in her office. I don’t have time to go to a gym, and when it came right down to it, DDR wasn’t doing anything for me. Oh, well… we’ll see how well this does for me. I’m tired of looking overweight.

Anyway, enough of this break… time to get some stuff done. Fun fun…

Well, it’s official. David Tennant has been revealed in costume as the Tenth Doctor. Now, I only have this to say…

Is it me, or is ACJ the Tenth Doctor?

… you have to admit their dress styles are similar. ;-)

Hey Scott… something you might want to throw at the friend of yours who’s getting married:

http://www.bash.org/?101690

*wicked grin*

(Then again, he’s the best man and is arranging the bachelor party. This oughta be amusing later down the road… :-) )

What if World War II had been an online real-time strategy game…?

http://www.strategypage.com/humor/articles/military_jokes_20057151.asp

:-)

Well, another weekend has come and gone, and Friday night and Sunday were more or less uneventful. Saturday, on the other hand, was eventful enough for an entire weekend, more or less.

One of my coworkers has a semi-annual Texas hold em tournament he holds at his house. Well, yesterday was the fourth such tournament, and I was obliged to attend as I’m one of the regulars of the somewhat-biweekly poker game. This time, though, I brought Worff (who some of you might remember from EFNet #Vampire) along with me. After a lunch at Hooters (which was right by his apartment) and getting beer from Kroger’s, we made our way to the tournament. There were 25 people there, and we each put $100 in; all in all, $2500 in prize money, to be divided up as follows: 50% to first place, 25% to second place, 15% to third place, and 10% to fourth place. The tournament started at 3:30 PM. It was a long and hard fight, but in the end… I was knocked out at around 8:30 PM or so in fourth place. Worff ended up winning third place. I’m actually kinda happy… I did better than any of the regular poker game attendees, and I also outlasted all of the T3 employees. I’ll probably hear all about it when I get to work in the morning. After the game, Worff and I headed back up to the north side of town; we stopped in IHOP for dinner, and then I dropped him back at his apartment.

Today’s been more or less uneventful, other than doing a little MK Online related work in preparation for tomorrow’s downtime. (We have some changes to the moderation system that need to be implemented.) I also played some Counter-Strike: Source for the first time against bots. I’ll do some more practice before I bother playing online. I also spent some time downstairs in the kitchen so that Chase could get more used to having me around. I should have spent it cleaning my bedroom up (especially the computer desk and area in front of my closet), but I can always do that next weekend. In any case, like I said, I just did nothing worth noting today.

Anyway, it’s time I headed off to bed, as I have a long day of work ahead of me tomorrow. Fun fun…

Okay, so, I’ve already talked about the geeky things I did this weekend in trying to get Linux fully operational on Samus. That’s not all I did, of course… I did go out and be social. That said…

Once I got off work on Friday, I made my way over to Louie’s apartment. From there, he and I decided to hit the Cheesecake Factory in the Galleria for dinner. As usual, it was excellent; I had the double BBQ burger without the middle bun (though the waiter accidentally misheard me and thought I meant no bun whatsoever), and Louie tentatively decided to try a steak which it turned out was REALLY good. From there, we made our way over to the entertainment complex over at I-10 West and Silber to spend the evening at Drink Houston. The idea was that we had heard there would be salsa dancing in the Rain video room, and Louie was wanting to check it out. It turned out that the salsa there was nonexistent. :-/ On the other hand, we did get to check out Center Stage, which was their new karaoke room. I ended up going on stage and singing “Turn the Page” by Bob Seger. While singing, I happened to look down and see a couple of guys in referee costumes (the Party Patrol) holding up lit cigarette lighters. Then, after I got finished and people were applauding, I came down and Louie went up to sing “After the Lovin'” by Englenert Humperdink. The Party Patrol guys came up to me then and gave me a free drink coupon. They said it was for being a good sport; I hope that meant I was a good singer and not that I really and truly sucked. Heh. Anyhow… once Louie came down (and he did much better than me), we hung out in the karaoke room and 8.0 Retro for a bit, and then hit the road back home.

Saturday afternoon was the big day. I went down to Louie’s apartment to meet him and Dave… and I brought the DVD of the movie Dave and I had made out of the footage we had taken at Louie’s PE party. We sat down as he put it in the DVD player… and then he sat down and hit Play on the remote.

I guess I had halfway expected him to kill us for some of the stuff we did. Instead, there were several times he was dying laughing at what he saw. Apparently he really enjoyed it; I just have to create a new master copy of the DVD when I get Nova back to see if I can do anything about a couple of the audio pauses that had gotten into the final movie.

From there, we decided to go eat at Fox Sports Bar & Grill in the Galleria. When we got there, we were being shown to our tables, when the weirdest event of the evening happened. A waiter passed by me and said, “Hey man, that was a great job singing last night.” I guess he had been at Drink Houston the night before and saw me sing. I was too shocked to do anything but say “Uh, thanks…” as I headed to the table. Once we got done eating, we went outside… and were stuck. We had no idea what to do.

Finally, Louie came up with the idea of going to the SkyBar again to see Scott Gertner and his band perform. So, off we went… and it turned out to be a hell of a show. We watched a full set and a half… but by the time the second set was underway it was just too damn crowded and we were starting to feel a bit claustrophobic. So, we left and headed back home.

The final verdict on both were that they were definitely events we would do again. It really depends on Louie’s schedule, so I guess I’ll have to wait to hear from him and see what he says. Maybe one of the next few times we go I’ll actually take the time to ask a girl to dance with me. Oh, well… we’ll see.

In any event, that’s it on the weekend front… heh. And now, I have a couple of items to do that just arrived. Fun fun…