WallyBR's Blog - 2old2play

Here's what I did Saturday afternoon - my LAN story

In honor of the launch of Halo 3, my wife graciously allowed me to let my house be overrun with (somewhat) sweaty gamers for a few hours. In an effort to be fair, we let a group of ladies come over to the house Friday evening for a ladies dinner & movie night.

Here's what went down at my LAN. I invited my entire Sunday School class over for some good old Halo goodness. I also invited my local 2o2p buddies. AlphaMongoose was able to come - and brought delicious goodies (mmm, Key Lime pie and cheesecake). Unfortunately Phlizzer was not able to join us. Some nonsense about a wedding anniversary or something.

We ended up having 7 360's going with at up to 10 folks in the room. As much as I play online with folks from the site, it was nice to consistently be in the top 2 people in the room (more on who was my nemesis for the night later). I'm used to being the worst in the room - with the exception of when Cranefolder graces us with his presence. I'm serious - I could stand in the corner and throw grenades at my feet all game and have a more successful match than that n00b.

My buddy David (GT: KwiqNiss - a 2o2p member, but not frequent participant) brought his 55" Sony RPTV over to put in the den, and the rest of us set up in the bonus room. David was kind enough to bring his steering wheel for one attendee who'd been dying to play Forza 2 with it.

David & Alex downstairs:

Upstairs we had folks playing on my projector and 5 people in the back of the room on LCD monitors.

Foreground: Eva (screen name: a girl), Ryan Background: Wes (AlphaMongoose), Jacob (eXtreme), Jesse (LifeIsBeta):

Jon with his setup and mine:

Ryan and Eva playing on the projector - really, they're not staring at a blank wall :

Closer view:

It was a great time, but the time flew too fast. We were scheduled to go from 4-9p, but we only got less than 2.5 hours of H3 goodness. Time flies and all.

And by the way, see that innocent-looking young smiling girl in the photos? She was probably the best player in the room. And it doesn't help that her screen name was "a girl". You were sniped by a girl. You were beat down by a girl. A girl ended your killing spree. How embarassing.

This event has only served to increase my frothing demand for a great trip to Stryker927's house this month for his LAN. If you guys ever get the chance to have a get-together in real life to play together, do it. It's a wonderful experience.

And if you sent me messages Saturday afternoon & I didn't respond - now you know why.

[8 Comments]

Sorry so late - Thank You Mr. Soup Nazzi!

Here I am, like 7 months later finally taking pictures of the sweet shirt that SoupNazzi gave me for being his #10,000. Uh, blog viewer #10,000 that is.

Thanks again for the shirt.

[5 Comments]

Before y'all go feeling all sorry for Crane...

Let it be known that I own that guy.

Love ya, buddy. Welcome back!

[6 Comments]

Pimping another man's blog

After reading (well, okay, skimming) Cranefolder's rant (it was, wasn't it?) about the state of next-gen I decided to submit it as a story on digg. If you can please digg it & help a brother out:

http://www.digg.com/gaming_news/Older_gamer_dissects_the_Next_Gen_videogame_offerings_versus_PC_gaming

[3 Comments]

Gotta brag a bit here about my wife

Over Labor Day weekend my wife and I went to Virginia Beach so she could run the Rock'N'Roll Half Marathon. We went with 5 other couples from our church and we had 8 runners. I was, um, they called me "the coach". I guess I was also the chauffer.

She's been training for the race since about April & has put lots of work into getting ready for the race. She finished the race in 2 hours, 12 minutes and 24 seconds. That comes out to a 10:07 mile pace for just over 13 miles. I'm very proud of her.

Being a parent & working full-time is a real challenge for both of us, but she's managed to run 3 days a week & cross-train 3 days a week for over 5 months now to prepare for the race.

What can I say - I'm proud. Here are some photos:

[6 Comments]

Meet Boj, the newest member of my household

He's a pretty cool cat.

Once my girls met my in-laws' new kittens, I knew it was only a matter of time until one of them came home with us. His name comes from the restaurant Bojangles. If you don't live in the Southeast US, you'll have to google that name to see what I'm talking about.

I'm a bit allergic to cat hair but who can tell their 3 year-old girls that no, they can't have a kitten...

[4 Comments]

While you guys were having a blast at the LAN...

Here's what I spent that entire weekend doing.

Aahhh, getting pwn3d by 400 pounds of wood, plastic, fiberglass and a grocery bag full of nuts, bolts, screws and NO instructions. At least I got a deal on it.

Oh, did I mention the need to rent a $150 stump grinder (those things are so much fun to use, I recommend it)? Not to mention about $200 worth of mulch. And the fact that it was 90 degrees plus outside?

The things we do for our children. They love it & us for building it.

[5 Comments]

Why is it so much fun to pick on Cranefolder?

Is it because he makes himself such an easy target? Do I enjoy the punishment I'm sure he's about to return? I just don't know, but it gets me giggling at work & that makes it all worthwhile!

Love ya,man.

P.S. This is what I'm referring to: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v611/WallyBR/71dfd5a3.jpg

[8 Comments]

I have a confession to make...

Well, you see, my twin daughters are 3 years old now. Theyre starting to get their own style and such - picking out their own clothes et cetera. Theyre also learning about money. We went to the local mall (Concord Mills) a few weeks ago to ride the merry-go-round and shop a bit. My daughters took their little billfolds with them and their birthday money (less than $10 each) and we went shopping. In the Hello Kitty store. And I loved it. There - I said it, its all out there. Hello Kitty stuff is so cool. I love that store.

I dont know if its the whole Japanese style-thing, or just wonderful product & graphic design, but I wanted to buy everything in the store for my girls. We ended up only getting them HK backpacks - it sure beats carrying a diaper bag full of sippy cups, toys, books, etc. - for thier Easter baskets. Casey & Kylie each picked out a pencil, some gum and some stickers and paid the nice lady behind the counter with their own money. I think their whole transactions came out to less than $2 each, but they learned a bit about money in the process, I hope.

Am I a sick individual in need of help, a spend-crazy parent, a cool dad for little girls to have, or something else? I dont know. All I do know is I love my girls & have a soft spot for cute big-eyed Asian characters. That is all.

[8 Comments]