Brought to you by the letter R

Yaahrrrr!  I be talkin' like this ever time I talk about the grog me bought.  Okay, maybe not.  That would just get annoying REAL quick.  That and I probably sound more like Mr. Krabs than a pirate when I do that. 

So, yesterday I cracked open one of the drinks I bought: Sea Dog Root Beer.  Most of the specialty root beers I have tasted, I'm not too fond of.  They just don't have the right balance of sweet, bitterness, carbonation and foam to really be excellent.  By far and away, the best root beer I have ever had so far has been Henry Winehard's, with one or two others being decent.  But in the Sea Dog Root beer, I believe I have found another root beer that has solidified it's way into my top three.  Despite the fact that it has a name that will conjure up images of German u-boats, and a cheesier than baked brie label, I happily give it two thumbs up.

Avast, ye shoppers! Arrrggghhh!

Went to this tiny little specialty and gourmet market today.  The place is called Pirate O's , and they have all sorts of insanely fine and rare stuff there.  You know the store is a winner when they have a BMW Isetta sitting on display in the front, and have a pirate theme on the inside.  The only possible way I could see it getting better is if they also sold machetes and blunderbusses.

This place had everything.  A plethora of fresh organic cheeses?  Naturally.  Strawberry-rhubarb preserves?  They got it.  Beeman's?  Of course.  A giant cadbury creme egg the size of a football?  You betcha!  A gazillion different varieties of specialty sodas?  Unfortunately for me, yes, they have that too.

Yeah, I spent nearly $30 on more than two dozen different types of sodas I had never tried, or even seen before.  Sheesh, good thing I don't drink alcohol, eh?  As I came home, I was fearing what my roommate would say about me hauling a cardboard box chock full of sodas with me, but thankfully he was busy with other things and didn't see me.  No risk of triggering an intervention that way.  

Update: I just found out that it's a rule that all employees of Pirate O's MUST observe "talk like a pirate day!"

Working conversations

There's a person that I really aint too fond of.  Let's just call her Cheryl.  I try to avoid conversing with people I don't like, and when I'm unable to, I attempt to be as polite as possible.  But she annoys me to the point that I've told her blatantly that I don't like talking to her, but she keeps pestering me anyways every now and again.  It wouldn't be too bad if it was the normal small talk one engages in, but she's always gotta be gossiping or just gabbing about how she hates certain people.

Last week she decided to approach me and she asks me a question, "Hey, what do you do when someone is being a total b*tch to you?"
I respond, "Uh, I guess that depends"
She follows up with, "So, what did you do the last time someone was like that to you?"
I remark, "Well, the last time that happened, I just straight up told you: Cheryl, stop being a b*tch"

I don't think she'll be bugging me for a while.

Squeeee! (girly nerd scream)

So, it's a Tuesday and when I woke up this morning, I already thought my week was looking bleak.  But, after checking my email, I realize I get to be in another closed beta.  This time for Black Prophecy.  An MMO (I know, don't kill me) which is an interesting blend between a space sim/shooter with RPG elements.  Awesome!

Battlefield claymore

Well, most of my friends and I are exited about Battlefield 3 releasing later this year.  Other than drooling all over the details that are slowly being leaked, it also gives us an opportunity to re-play Battlefield 2.

It was a great game, but always seems to have some kind of significant flaw, no matter how many patches are released.  Because of this, now we also have to re-live relating to the "BF2 in real life" vids on youtube.  These have got to be the greatest fan-made videos about a game.


Battlefield 2 real life partie 1: la classe by flokillerdu29

Funny...the guy that made these vids doesn't have them on youtube anymore.  Oh well, here's links to the rest of the series on another site:
Part 2: The Battlefield
Part 3: The Awards
Part 4: Patch 1.2
Part 5: Battlefield Claymore

Holy malevolent magnum, batman!

Saw via Say Uncle's bolg an advert for the uber-awesome Coonan .357mag 1911 style pistol.  How have I not heard of this before? 

He who controls the spice...

So my roomie works with another mutual friend of ours, who professes to be a big nerd.  He's a gamer, trekkie (yes, I said it), and he generally likes the same sci-fi movies we do.  But, a few days ago, we were quoting Dune (1984) and, apparently, he had no clue what we were talking about!  That's when my roommate hushes everyone, points at him and says, "you are no true nerd."  He aint gonna be living that one down for quite some time.

Bloody weather

Was hoping to go shooting today, but because of the insane amount of snow last night, that's now a no-go due to everyone else canceling.  So, with nothing better to do, I'll see if I can't organize the house a bit and write another post later today.  In the meantime, here's some good music to hold you over.

Gloomy Sunday - Billie Holiday

Operation Canadian Bacon: Part Deux

It's no small secret to those who know me that I love specialty sodas.  Among my most favorite is Jones Strawberry Lime soda.

 Half the fun of these things is getting the little fortune in the bottom of the bottle caps.  But, today's fortune was a little different.  It read, "You will benefit immediately if you co-operate for now."  Is it just me, or does this sound less like a fortune and more like a threat?  If that's the case, I'll be waitin' for ya, you dirty Canucks!

He's got a gun! Oh, wait...nope.

Sorry if it seems like I complain alot but this is something I gotta put up with everyday, so just bear with me here.

There's this guy I work with that can only be described as a poser.  Now, I generally like to be personable, and I do think he's a nice kid so, I talk to him on a regular basis.  The one thing that bothers me is that....well....like I said, he's a poser.  He's one of those dudes that likes to make a point about being "inactive military".  Been to Afghanistan and Iraq on "black ops", blah, blah, blah, etc.  It seems as though whenever he sees a Rambo movie, or some other cheap action flick, he has to tell everyone that he's totally done crap like that before.  I mean, you could dream up the crazyiest Vietnam movie scenario and he'll say that it was based on him before you can finish your story (and probably claim he was in DaNang while he's at it. He's about 23, btw).  It begins to get really annoying after a while.

The sad part, is that he's totally banking on the ignorance of others, because it lacks some serious credibility, even to a person with no military background such as myself.  He takes it totally seriously too, which almost makes me feel bad for him, if it wasn't for the fact that I view it as an affront to people who do risk all by actually serving in the military.  Hell, I've probably been shot at more times than that guy (another story for another day).

After some especially outrageous bragging, I decided that I should call him out on it the other day.  I told him that he should totally go over to a couple of other coworkers who are ACTUAL Afghanistan vets, and swap some stories.  Just as I predicted, he starts to blab about how he's supposed to be all hush-hush about it, and that he probably shouldn't have even told me about his exploits, and promptly leaves to do something else.  Highly entertaining.  I think I'll just go ahead and keep up this routine until he cracks, or he admits his bullcrap.

Just remember kids, the real world has real people in it. So if you're gonna lie about it, it better be your job to do so, otherwise you're gonna get pimp-smacked by reality at some point.

...with an emphasis on the random!

I love it when people are taken aback by my randomness, even after I've warned them about it...but enough about how much I love myself. 

I was just surprised to learn today that a fair number of random people from the interwebs are invading my blog!  To them, I say, "How dare you make me feel somewhat interesting!  Do you have any idea how this knowledge will cause me to be intolerably annoying to the people I talk to on a regular basis?!"  In all seriousness though, thank you.  I really just started this thing to 1) have a open journal-like thing to vent my craziness onto, and 2) have a way to keep in touch with people I love....without actually having to keep in touch with them.  So, to me, its kinda like cheating on the test of life.

I've been somewhat disappointed with myself as to the number of days I haven't posted anything, and was trying to find some more motivation to get back to writing more things that don't really matter in the big picture.  So, rest assured, more nonsense will follow.

Tactical Counterfit

So, my roomie was looking for a grip pod last week.  It's a nice rail mounted fore grip with a bipod that recesses into the grip.  He found some for a reasonable price, and ordered them.  When they arrived, he eventually found out that they were cheaply made Chinese counterfeits that were made for airsoft.  The website that he bought them from, advertised them as the real deal, and said nothing to the contrary.  He immediately got a refund, and managed to find a genuine grip pod for cheaper than the crappy clones.  An interesting story, but what I want to know is, if they make the REAL grip pods for cheaper and of a higher quality than the clones, why in the crap does anyone buy the crappy clones?

Here's a side by side comparison of the two:

Not a whole lot of differences visually, but once you hold each in your hand and examine them in person you can tell a big difference in quality. The one on the right is the real one, btw.

Ignorance has already become cliché

So, because I'm a rabid fan of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, I saw the new movie Paul today.  Decent story, (mostly) great characters, good action, and (mostly) good humor.  I liked the movie, but nowhere near as much as Shaun of the Dead, or Hot Fuzz.  Now, it could be that I expected way too much from this movie, but in the Americanization of this film, it was pretty predictable, and I think it lost some of the British originality of the previous films.  That, and the fact that Pegg and Frost's characters seemed more like supporting roles than actual main characters.

The other thing that bugged me was definitely more of a personal ideological gripe than anything else.  Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

Well, that's just the shat

So, it's William Shatner's b-day.  As much as I'd like to just thank the guy for his improvements to the Star Trek universe (except letting that whole fan-dance fiasco happen), I can't.  I think we should take this time to campaign for another Star Trek game that isn't all shatty, um I mean, crappy.  I swear, it's been almost a decade since a good one has been out, and because I'm sure that's what Shatner would want on his birthday, someone bringing up his only exceptional role.  Khaaaaan!

Virtual Misdemeanor

Well, I've said before how I don't like most social networking at all, and now someone has come up with the perfect website for those who are like minded.  If you signed up for twitter, myspace, or facebook, and have had the reality of their evil sour your taste, then now you can not only delete your accounts, but it will remove any trace of you ever being there.  All posts, comments, account history, ect, will all be eradicated.  Hence the name of the site: Virtual Suicide Machine.  So, for those who just wanna end it all, here's you're noose. Enjoy.

Concluding Week

Well, I have a complete lack of things to post.  Unless everyone is dying to hear some unrelated workplace drama.  Didn't think so.  Blogging may just be a little light in general this weekend, because things are gonna be crazy.  Gonna be shooting with some friends on Saturday, then after that we're gonna watch some UFC, then follow that up with another LAN party.  I'm so exited, I think I'll puke my brains out!

Now, since it's been a while since I posted some music, and I'm feeling in a nerdy mood, here's some really nerdy nostalgia for ya (circa 2003!):

Desert Combat 0.35E alpha intro theme

Good times.  Double kudos to those who actually experienced the Desert Combat alphas.

Update: Yeah that's right.  I forgot to title this post... ugh.  I need some caffeine or something.

It's St. Booze day!...um...i mean...whatever...

Yep.  It happened.  It happens to me every single year.  Someone asks me if I'm wearing green, then I get pinched.  Every year I take the pinch.  The problem is, every time this happens, I DO have something green on me, I just ain't willing to show it to people.  Maybe I'm finally starting to understand this whole "socially acceptable actions" stuff.  Because it probably wouldn't have gone over well at all to show my green item at work:

Some of my coworkers would freak.  Others would be green with envy.  Probably because that's a restricted item at my workplace.  Yeah, I celebrate St. Paddy's day; in my own way.

So, on that note, enjoy your Christian holiday, founded by pagan Christians who thought their original pagan Christianity was too Christian even though it's really just pagan.  Happy St. Patrick's day! Now, to get to the real reason for the holiday, to binge on corned beef!

Just too proletariat

I have one friend, who whenever I am around them, I tend to do things that are generally reserved for the more bourgeoisie than I.  Things like going to expensive restaurants, ski resorts, art galleries, etc.  I have nothing against these things, but I am usually rather annoyed with some of the other type of people who do these things as well.  I get fed up with those few annoying people that truly believe they have earned all the respect in the world just because they have money.

So, instead of focusing on the noun at hand, I end up brainstorming about ways in which I can destroy the atmosphere with some kind of obscene spectacle, or joke.  I end up really entertaining myself more with that, than whatever event I am attending.  I do it so much, that I fear that one day I will end up doing something absolutely horrible and not even realize it, until it's too late.  That being said, if you happen to see me at some kind of upper class venue, in which I look very distracted just staring off into space, that's EXACTLY what I'm thinking of.   Or if i go through with my plans, I'll look like this:

A little explanation

So we tried to have a little LAN between my roommate, a friend, and myself, trying to play some game that had a coop mode.  We started trying to play GRAW2, that didn't work due to CTD's.  After an extended troubleshooting session, we still couldn't figure it out, so we switched to R6 Vegas 2, but that game was just crap, so we tried Vegas 1, only to be hampered by CTD's and failures to connect (reasons still unknown).  After that failed, we attempted to get GRAW1 to work, but we eventually gave up and just played some Sacrifice of Angels instead.  So, as a visual aid to what went down, here's what it looks like to try to get Ubisoft games to work when attempting a LAN:

I hate you, Ubisoft.  I hate you because you seem to hate the PC gamer, and dare I say, anyone with more than a single digit IQ.  May you all become bankrupt and destitute, or just die in a fire.

I just want to say...

That Ubisoft is the devil's incarnate, and that I hope they all die of some horrible STD infection.  May Tom Clancy have mercy on their souls.

Be careful what u wish 4...

Being the not-so secretly evil person that I am, I've always yearned for the ability to completely destroy the lives of my enemies; despite the fact that I don't have a whole lot of those (enemies that is).  I did not want to physically harm them mind you, that's too simple.  I thought of destroying all of their social connections.  So, imagine my surprise when I find out that I have already contributed to the nullification of someone's social life without trying to or even knowing about it.  Now, this person probably deserved it, but it just takes the whole joy out of everything knowing that I didn't plan for, or work towards that happening.  Phooey.  Dare I say, I even felt a little bad about it.  Total killjoy.  Well, I guess it's on to Plan B; hold the world ransom for one trillion dollars!  Bwahahaha!

Dr. Evil - They might be giants

Lazy or just retarded?

I have some weird priorities sometimes.  For example, I had a both a bookshelf and a dresser that were broken.  I use the dresser much more often, and it was probably easier to fix than the bookshelf, but my infinite logic made me decide to fix the bookshelf instead.  So, I endured a broken dresser until I overcame my laziness.  Sometimes I wonder about my own sanity.

Where the young go to retire...

Someone recently recommended the new sketch comedy show Portlandia on IFC to me.  Hilarious!  It does nothing but make fun of the generation-x hippie wannabe's, centering on the Portland area.  Everything that you can't stand about those people, they gladly make fun of.  It's definitely got a few misses as far as the sketches go, but the hits are pretty darn good.  Mostly because, if you've ever been to a major city in the upper half of Oregon (ie. Salem, Eugene, etc), you know people that are just like the characters.  Here's one of the sketches that really made me laugh.

Dream of the '90s - Portlandia

Pretty funny stuff.  If you still ain't convinced, here's another sketch that's great.

Put a bird on it.

Woke up in a cold sweat

Not that I'm trying to jump on the whole 'blog about my dreams' bandwagon, but I had the worst nightmare last night.  Dreamed that someone was trying to break into my home, and that they knew I was there.  I grabbed my shotgun then went for my bandoleer, but the moment I removed the first shell to load it into the gun, it disappeared.  I kept going for more, but it would just happen again and again, until I was completely out of ammo.  I thought about trying to find more, but it was the middle of the night, I had no flashlight, and by this time the threat had entered inside my house.  Probably the scariest dream I had in a while, if not the most frustrating.  Weird.

Update: apparently I am the only one among my friends that would have a nightmare about being out of ammo.

Shore Leave

So, it was the birthday of a friend of mine last week, and I totally forgot.  So, naturally we had to go hang out last weekend to make it all better.  I gave him a cake that I got for free at the farmers market (my friend present at the time) to make amends.  That wasn't quite good enough, so I ended up cruising all the way to Park City to quell his disappointment (on his dime as well).  Ate some good food while we were there, and possibly ingested some 'special' brownies (unintentionally).  Didn't quite pan out the way I planned, but enjoyable nonetheless.  So, on that note, happy late B-day buddy!  Though I'm sure his internal dialogue is screaming, "I'm not your buddy, friend!' as he's reading this.

I can safely say that's how my whole weekend went in general.  Spontaneous, in an interestingly fun kind of way.  The only way it could have gotten better, is if I had gone to that Venezuelan drug lord's dance party to salsa the night away.  Oh well, I guess a Libyan revolution will have to do.  SAS are not invited, apparently.

Um, hello?

I swear, I'm not dead!  Just captured by Venezuelan drug lords.  A plethora of posts will soon follow, but until then, here's some more tunes.

Remix

Well, being the nerd that I am, I keep some pretty nerdy company.  A good friend of mine sent me an email with a wonderfully sci-fi re-write of Goodnight Moon.  Everyone around my age who had a childhood, should have had Goodnight Moon read to them more than once, so let this satisfy both your sense of nostalgia and the inner geek.  I give you Goodnight Dune.  I recommend that your genetic payload be offered a reading of this every night.  Just be sure to remember, the slow blade penetrates the shield.

What a day...

Oh what a day!  But now my tuba will not play.  A nice Shel Silverstein reference for ya.  Things may actually be looking up, or ...er falling up maybe?  Okay, that's the last Silverstein reference, I promise.  So the good news is that I managed to con my way into a job interview tomorrow!  No more ghetto whiskey-tango job for me!  Let's hope it goes well (and by well, I mean I don't randomly stab anyone).

I should also be getting my grievance check from 'the man' for ripping me off then giving my money to socialists.  So that should allow me to not only pay bills, but I might be able to buy a new processor with that (Battlefield 3, here I come!).  Maybe a new video card too, if I'm lucky.

I'm also selling my mom's old shotgun today.  I just put the ad up on KSL's classifies this morning, and I already got some guy coming over this afternoon to check it out.  So, with that, I can not only get mom that new pistol she's been wanting, but I'll be able to get some ammo for it as well.  I hope all this good fortune keeps with me for the rest of the week!

Ducks and Beavers!

After having lived in both the Corvallis and Eugene areas of Oregon, I gotta say, there is no sports rivalry I have ever seen that is more intense than OSU vs. U of O.  When there's a game, the whole state practically shuts down.  It gets to the point that whole towns and even families get divided, and I wouldn't be surprised if the cops themselves started to shoot at one another.  Well, now they can do it with pride, cuz now an Oregon gun company is offering Ducks and Beavers themed AR15's.  Yeah, Seriously.



Got the story via The Firearm Blog.