SpawnPoint

So yeah...  during last night's TWL match, I dropped a 20 bomb on each half.  I almost dropped a 30 bomb, having a score of 29 at one point.

That was fun.  Para rushing and all  lol

The last round was funny, because we rushed mid with paras just for s***s and giggles, and the other team decided they were gonna stick like 2 or 3 AWPers in spawn, picking mid.

Someone rushed mid with me, and he died, so I ducked into the lower B tun to wait, and during this time, I hear a lot of gun fire going on at long A, T spawn side, so I run out with my knife to try and beat the AWPers (if they were still there) to mid, and then go around them to support my teammates.

By the time I get there, they were all down, but they took 2 down with them, so it was me versus 3 guys.  At least 1 of them had an AWP.

I think to myself, "I'm dead."

So I started walking as soon as the gunfire ceased, and I hear someone making noise by T spawn, by the ramp or in front of it.  I round the corner and yup, the guy's running around like a chicken with its head cut off on that little walkway between the T spawn ramp and the wall there, so I para'd him to death.  I don't remember if he hit me or not, but I certainly didn't die.

Then I look up the ramp to the B side of the T spawn to look for those AWPers.  Sure enough, I look up, and there's one looking at me, so I open fire and he misses me.  By that time, I had HS'd him and killed him.

The last guy, seeing his buddy die, decided he was gonna finally rear his ugly head from that side of T spawn too.  So he starts firing AWP shots at me, and I'm doing 2 shot bursts with my para.  Mind you, the only thing I can see of him was his head, as I'm still at the base of the ramp, and he's at the top, over there by B side of T spawn.  He was able to get 3 shots off towards me, not hitting anything, and by that time, I had enough time to aim and finally killed him with a HS for the match win.

There were quite a few amazing shots that I pulled off, both from me having a good day and me having practiced a new way for me to fire off shots lately.  I'm not one that gloats usually, but I am very proud of myself for finally proving to the team that I can pull this off, and doing a fine job at it.

The team that we beat were being jerks at the end though, saying that they were going to report it like we didn't play out, and that we barely won with a 16-14 score.

OK........  [rolls eyes]

It was more like 25-5, and we gave 5 up because most of those were us screwing around and not even playing seriously.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure they're gonna say I'm hacking or something, so I'll have to turn my demos in.

Oh well, I guess that's the price you pay for playing bad teams, with bad attitudes.

So yeah, I love those dogs.  Pembrokes, that is.  I don't really like the rounder ears and the long tail of the Cardigan as much as the Pembrokes.

We have 2.  I would get more, but I don't think we can handle that many dogs.

Recently we bred our older corgi, whom is the awesomest dog, evar, and she just turned 3 years old this January.  Hopefully she gives us many cute corgi puppies.  We won't know if she is actually pregnant until a couple of weeks later, but so far, she's been acting beside herself, in that she doesn't play as much, and just lays around with a "I don't feel good..." look on her face.

Hang in there Tia, if you're pregnant, we'll take it easy on you, and not be as "strict" on you as Cheza :)

Cheza is our younger Pembroke that we got as Tia's companion, but she's not full corgi, we just know it, because she acts so much like a terrier sometimes, and she actually has the trade mark terrier tear stains around her eyes, which true corgis don't get.  Plus her chest isn't as deep and big as Tia's, which is a full bred corgi.  She's just a little bit taller than the breed standard, and has smaller legs, and is a little longer.

I first found out about corgis from the anime Cowboy Bebop, and I'm sure that's where a lot of people my age found out about them, as most of the corgis that I come across is named Ein.  How original?

I originally wanted to get a male corgi, with Ein's markings and all that, but alas, when we met Tia, we just had to get her.

I'll throw some pics up here in the future, or in the pet thread for all to see.

Honestly, I have no idea how hard it is to get a scrim going on.

I've had 2 separate clans IM me over Steam Friends to scrim tonight, and guess what?  Out of the active members that were on tonight, we couldn't get 5 together.

Yes, we had some people that were not feeling well, and others were ready to go, but getting 5 together seems to be our problem.

After some clan drama, a person that I will not name signed off, and then another followed, and we were stranded afterwards.

Don't go around banging drums and crashing cymbals for others to scrim only to leave for no reason, or a petty reason.  Leaves a bad taste in other clanmates' mouths.  Plus, it's not like you have to be in the same vent channel as the other clan...  shoot, during the scrim you don't even have to acknowledge their existence if you don't want to.  This is the same person that wanted to learn the map and practice it for the match tomorrow, and backed out with a BS reason.

So if you guys are all fired up to challenge PHXX to a scrim, make sure you do your little dance and make a little prayer before you send us the first IM, because we might not have five.

So, for Christmas, I got some stuff for myself, and I also got some stuff that I have never expected to get.  I was gonna list them all in that thread in the general forums, but figured, eh, I won't bore the people w/ a long list of stuff that people probably don't care about, so I'll put it in my blog, so only the people that do care will read it and maybe share some of their gifts w/ me.

So, for this Christmas, I got:

1) Guitar Hero 3 for PS2 - I am pretty much addicted to this game because I do play guitar, quite well actually, and I swore to conquer this game
2) Front lower control arms for my car - I think mine got bent back in the day when I used to drift my car on the street and when I hopped a curb.  These fresh ones from the factory comes with new ball joints and everything so it should fix my car plus will be sort of an upgrade  lol
3) Xtreme Ernie from Sesame Street - kinda like the xtreme Tickle Me Elmo, but Ernie.  Our laughs kinda sound alike, it's pretty funny  lol
4) A USB cup warmer, for my morning coffee to last more than 30 min before it goes cold.  Plugs right into the USB port of my computer and gets the power from there.  Has cool LED lights too.
5) Couple of shirts - hopefully they fit me.
6) A ginormous universal remote - has huuuuuge buttons on there, that I think my neighbor from across the street can see, so that I can still use it when I'm like 90 and can't see  lol
7) A customized Polo (Ralph Lauren) shirt from my parents.  My wife got a matching one, but has her initials instead of mine  lol  Black shirt w/ gold stitching ftw!!
8) A Johnson acoustic/electric guitar!!  Didn't expect this one!  From my mother-in-law too!
9) Eh, screw it, "a lot more other stuff"  lol

I did get myself a set of bad butt wheels, and some bad butt turbo parts for my car.

Bought my wife a Sony digital camera, and helped out on buying her DDR for my PS2, but for her to play (helped because I didn't have the cash, but I picked out the present, so her mom bought it and said it was from her, but I picked it out dang it!).

Anyway, that was a kind of condensed list.  Hopefully you guys have gotten what you wanted plus more!

So it's been almost a month since I've been married, and so far my friends have asked me "does it feel any different?"

My response is always "no, it doesn't feel any different.  Just feels like the same stuff, but I have a ring around my finger."

For me, that's true because I've known Krystal for 6 years now, and we have been dating almost 6 years before we got married (we started going out officially in March.  March 27th to be exact), so it's not really any different.  And we've discussed this amongst ourselves before too, and we agreed that just because a couple is married, doesn't mean they have to modify their behaviors in a major way.  There were some small things that we had to change, yes, but it's stuff like saying "wife" for me, and "husband" for her, instead of girlfriend/boyfriend or fiance.

So yeah, it's not really that big of a deal for us to get married, at least not in a dramatic life changing way.  It was life changing when we started falling in love with each other, which was a long time ago, and getting married was just a way for the both of us to show our commitment to each other.

Oh and Mrs. Understeer says hi to you all.

So, spent the first night here at the new house, and while I didn't get much sleep, it was still a very special occasion.

Woke up this morning to start work in my office for the first time, and it was a welcomed change.

So other than the half broke couch (they're going to send a technician here on Wed morning to try and fix it, which they won't be able to, so they're more than likely going to have to get us a new one.  Hopefully letting us keep the pillows, so we can have 2 more pillows =) ), everything's kosher.

I was, and still am, willing to throw down as much money as we can afford to into making this place the most baller house I can afford to make it, so when friends come over they'd like to come back  lol  Not to mention when people come over, they don't feel like they're just entered the dump of the city.

I am especially proud of the most expensive expenditures I've spent in the last few days:

1) 37" HDTV LCD Samsung wide screen TV
2) 19" Samsung wide screen monitor for my computer (906BW model, same one as Mr. Me II's.  I love it too)
3) A leather high back manager's chair for the office

Honestly, I am having a blast here.  Hopefully we can throw away most of the boxes that's littered everywhere right now, from the TV, the monitor, the chair, the office desks, etc.  I made a comment last night about building a dinning room table out of the boxes that we have  lol  Use the smaller ones as the center pylon, and use the big Samsung TV box as the main surface  hahahahaha

Nah, that is actually our next investment, a decent dinning room set, and a coffee table.  After that, I think we're done spending dough, and instead have to concentrate on paying it all off  hahahaha

God bless credit  =)

Anyway, Understeer, getting back to work.

So, the last couple of weeks, Krystal and I have been busy getting our house ready for move in.

This morning, the couch that we bought was delivered.  Although it has problems, it's not that big a deal, at least we have a couch now!

Last night, we bought a TV stand, and the night before that, I put together the computer desk for Krystal.

Tomorrow we go and pick up the new TV - a Samsung 37" HDTV LCD screen.  Hotness.

I can't wait to fully move into the house, although, I definitely won't miss the actual "moving" part.

I am ready for the joy of being in the new house, but not the pain.

Dang it...

So while over at Krystal's mom's house the other night, her mom stops us to show us videos she's found on Youtube.  And as usual, we kind of sighed and rolled our eyes, then stopped our attempt to leave the house without watching the video.

To my surprise, it wasn't something crazy and completely ridiculous for once.  It was a music video, and as soon as I heard the voice I recognized it.

It was James LaBrie that fronts Dream Theater.

I then looked at the information about the song that was on.

The song was called "Day 11: Love", by a group named Ayreon.  The name sounded familiar.  I think I saw it once on the Wikipedia page on LaBrie.

So then I sat down and listened to the song and watched the video, as Krystal's mom explained a little bit about the song.  She then pointed out a part for me to pay attention to.

Oh snap.

Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth is singing on the song too?!

I was pretty much 300% interested in this Ayreon group immediately.  However, at 1:30am, I was a little more interested in sleep than to run a search on Google about this group, so it had to wait.

Next day, during work, and my slacking off, I found out that Ayreon was actually a project by the man named Arjen Lucassen, whom was a pretty ingenious musician.  His style comprised of progressive rock and heavy metal influences, and mixed them with traditional folk music.

Yeah.

How does it sound?

If this guy didn't write the music, I can see it being a complete train wreck and the album would be completely ridiculous, to the point of even silly.  However, on this album, "The Human Equation", everything fits like a well designed puzzle, and the traditional folk music actually flows well with the heavy guitars and even the vocals.

Speaking of vocals, this is another forte of the album:  there are 11 vocalists on the album.

Each vocalist represents a part of the story:

Me (main character represented by James LaBrie)
Fear (represented by Mikael Akerfeldt)
Best Friend (Arjen Lucassen)
Reason (Eric Clayton)
Love (Heather Findlay)
Pride (Magnus Ekwall)
Wife (Marcela Bovie)
Father (Mike Baker)
Passion (Irene Jansen)
Agony (Devon Graves)
Rage (Devin Townsend)

If you are into metal at all, you might recognize some of those names.

This album is amazing, not only from the musical point of view, but lyrically as well.

The album is a concept album, meaning that the entire album revolves around a concept.  The concept usually is portrayed through a story, and thus, each song is a part of the story.  One of the best examples, and to be frank, I consider it THE BEST concept albums of all time in the history of rock/metal music, would be the album named "Scenes from a Memory: Metropolis Pt. II" (we'll call it SFAM for short) by Dream Theater.

"The Human Equation" has a similar feel to SFAM, obviously with a different musical style and storyline.

The story within "The Human Equation" is about a man that has fallen into a coma, and the personal struggles, memories, and emotions he goes through within his mind, and also his best friend and wife's minds.  Each song represents a day, and in each day, something different happens, and the songs take you on a journey through the story, the emotions, the struggles, and most importantly, through the story.  Each song is a roller coaster ride through the different genres of music that intertwine with each other to form this unique sound that is Ayreon.

The album is an hour and forty-two minutes long, printed on two CDs.

I bought the limited edition version, which has a special cover, the two CDs, and a bonus DVD that has videos on the making of the album, interviews, and a music video for the song "Day 11: Love".

The ending of the story.....

Bah, I'm not telling :)  You're going to find out on your own.  However, I will say this much: the ending is interesting, and will make you go "hmm...?" :)

Honestly, I have no idea why people act like such e-thugs on their own servers when looking for scrims.

Sunday, the PHXX clan had 3 to 5 members on most of the afternoon, so we decided that we were going to look for scrims to practice for the upcoming CAL match, which is on de_contra.

Ghost found us a few teams to scrim, but honestly, they were all jerks.  I'm only using the term "jerk" here because I have to keep this post rated G, well, at least PG-13, so replace the word "jerk" in your minds as you wish.

All of these teams were disrespectful, hateful, and racist.  Not exactly sure why, because they were probably a bunch of kids or even older guys that still lived at home, and never have actually met a real woman before.  They cussed us out, they called us racist names and all these other things, and their answer were always "this is MY server and I can do what I want", and then continued, and actually worsened, their racist comments and cursing at us.

If these were kids at around 12, yeah, I can understand why they would try to act all hard like that.  But like I said, these were probably a bunch of 20 some odd year olds, or even older, kids that live at home, probably overweight cause they don't move further than like 2 feet from their seats, and eats pizza every meal.  And these people were being e-thugs.  Ignorant e-thugs at that.

Here's the punchline - they weren't even that good.

We lost, yes, but not because of how good they were, but because of how poor we did as a team, and individually.  When we get to 1 on 1 situations, we wiped the floor with them most of the time, which shows that we're not all that bad as individual players.

Another thought I had running through my mind was that, with all that cursing and racist comments, I was thinking they actually might be trying to drive away teams so they don't have to scrim?  So why were they idling in the IRC channel looking for other teams to scrim?  I don't get it?  Mental illness?  Mild retardation?  What's going on?

There was one instance where we did a 3v3, and just as we started to adapt to how the other team was playing and was whooping them 2 rounds in a roll, they went "had to go, you baddies"  and signed off.  Talk about sore losers.

I don't know why most teams are like that, but it seems, so far, that in all the scrims that I've been in, teams are 99% of the time jerks.

The only time that a scrim isn't with jerks, is with fellow SP clans like EC, or KI, or even back in the day PWND.  These are good guys, and I enjoyed scrimming with them.

Hope we find some decent clans to scrim with again soon, because scrimming is fun, but not with a bunch of jerks that try to act like they're Vin Diesel over the interweb.  That is about as lame as Stephen Hawkin's legs.

Man....

Every morning, I drink a cup of tea.  Not just any kind.  But the kind where you put sugar and cream in.  Indian style, or actually, I got it from when living in Hong Kong, as the British drank it like that there too.

Anyway.

So I'm working, and I take a sip.  Uh oh, it went down my throat wrong.  No no no no no, not that tickle at the back of my throat....

By the time I moved my right hand up in front of my mouth, I had already coughed and sprayed tea out of my nose and my mouth.

All over the place.
Right in front of me.

From where I sit, there was a spread pattern of about a foot and a half.

My keyboard was covered, the table space in front of the keyboard was covered, my laptop was completely covered.  To the left about a foot, was Krystal's iPod and a couple of my CDs, and the left side speaker.  They had traces of spray on them.

So needless to say, I spend like a half an hour cleaning up, soaking up the tea first with moist paper towels to minimize the stickiness of it.  Then running everything back over with clean, moist paper towels to clean up the residue, and then drying everything off.

Luckily for me, laptops and keyboards are spill proof anymore, due to idiots like me, spraying all over the place, not just in CS:S, but in real life, with liquid that was supposed to go down my throat and into my stomach.  But instead, I perform a spray and pray.  Oh it got everything alright.  Boom headshot on the laptop.

I hope my stuff isn't completely stuck by tomorrow morning.  That would suck.