RDF:![[Valid RSS]](valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
I’m supposed to divulge some weird facts about His Imperial Vileness, Brendan?
Thankfully, I’m only allowed to pick 6. Otherwise this post would go on until well after the Second Coming, and I expect to be rather too busy to write when that day arrives.
1) I’ll eat most anything (and have proven so too many times to mention) but I will not touch tomato soup if it’s the last food on Earth. Considering that I otherwise love tomatoes and just about any food that you can put it in without violating the Geneva Conventions, I’d say that’s pretty strange.
2) I’ve done a number of things over the years that, if you were to be particularly gracious, you might describe as “mind-numbingly nuts”, but one of my more memorable attempts to see how much G-d really liked me was when I, at a very young and tender age, had a competition with a kid next door to see which one of us dared go closest to the edge of a flat barn roof about 10-12′ above ground level. Ground covered in concrete, to be specific. On trikes. I won, apparently, or at least that’s what I was told when I woke up a day or so later. My mother graciously refrained from beating the snot out of me, which goes to prove that she’s a living saint.
3) In high school, I was most likely the only one my age who knew the full lyrics to every single song the Beatles ever wrote. Much to my surprise, that did not in the least bit interfere with my social life even though the band itself had broken up well over a decade prior to that. Quite to the contrary, as a matter of fact. Whether it would work as well for somebody else today I doubt, since I’m pretty sure nobody that age today even knows who they were.
4) Around the same time, I belonged to the very first group of young nerds in my country who discovered board wargaming and, later on, D&D. THAT, however, did NOTHING to improve my social life. Let that be a warning to you youngsters out there. Not that you’ll give a damn.
5) In my last semester of high school, I chose “the effects of ethanol upon motor and cognitive skills” for my biology paper. Much to nobody’s surprise, I volunteered myself as a subject for said study (I was already known for the selfless lengths to which I would go for the advancement of science). Through that, I discovered that, contrary to what most people believe, small amounts of alcohol actually improve your reflexes and cognitive skills. I also discovered, perfectly in keeping with what most people believe, that large amounts of alcohol completely and utterly fuck up those same skills. At some point, though I can’t for the life of me remember when, and I’m not to keen on remembering it either, I also re-discovered my lunch. I may not have made history, and it most likely won’t ever get me a Nobel Prize, but I think it’s safe to say that there aren’t very many students who’ve ever gotten an “A” for getting totally shitfaced.
6) And while we’re on the subject of CH3CH2OH, I almost missed my graduation ceremony due to the wicked influences thereof, not to mention no small amount of unhealthy peer pressure on the night prior to said ceremony. If it hadn’t been for those awful tempters and temptresses, I’d have been at home memorizing the periodic table of the elements, I swear. Of course, things weren’t much improved when I arrived in a severely hung over state with quite a bit of lingering, residual inebriation hanging over me like a painfully bright cloud, only to discover that I’d been awarded a scholarship for having the highest GPA that year. Some sort of clerical error, I’m sure, because I have no recollection of my finals whatsoever, though my papers insist that I was present. Somehow I managed to hold my breath from the time I was called to the podium to the point where I was done shaking the headmaster’s hand (I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that he was the headmaster) and was allowed to take my seat again, which undoubtedly saved him from passing out.
7) I never cared much for rules, which is why this is item #7 in a list of 6. In med school, I had a skeleton for home study, which wasn’t all that unusual since all of my classmates had one too. I am, however, fairly certain that I was the only student who’d bring the skull with me when my classmates and I went to the local pub, set it on a table, stick a lit cigarette in his mouth, order him a beer and insist that everybody include him in their toasts. He was a lousy tipper, though.
…
So now I get to tag people, mheh.
Have at it…
Entries (RSS)
ROFLMAO! And he ALWAYS smothers EVERYTHING with pepper!! He forgot that one! Pppppffffffttttt!!
February 16th, 2007 at 2:38 PMUsing
*setting his best Sith-Adept stare upon the Emperor, waves hand*
“You don’t want to tag me.”
“What? It didn’t work? OK, but it will have to wait until I get home from work. It will take me that long to fabric..I mean recall six such things.”
February 16th, 2007 at 3:37 PMUsing
I’ve done some pretty nerdy things…but DnD is something I won’t touch with a 10-ft pole - not even for that one girl.
I think I could be persuaded to play that Serenity RPG, though…
February 16th, 2007 at 3:49 PMUsing
I’m telling you: I’m letting it ALL. HANG. OUT. here.
…
…
(Not YOU, Nigel! Get back in there, dammit…)
February 16th, 2007 at 4:18 PMUsing
“I belonged to the very first group of young nerds in my country who discovered board wargaming ”
Hell, I still play a bunch of the old board games when I can find opponents. No minatures…just little pieces of cardboard and hexes. I probably have about 50 AH, TSS, S&T, and SPI games in the den closet.
Semper Fi
February 16th, 2007 at 4:19 PMUsing
BROTHER!!!
I used to have, among too many other titles to mention, lest this comment goes on for six pages, all of AH’s SL as WELL as the ASL series. All of it. Every. Single. Module. What makes it truly nerdy was that none of it was available in stores over there, so we had to import them.
Let’s not even get into how long it took to cut out, sort, catalogue and store those thousands of little pieces of cardboard…
February 16th, 2007 at 4:22 PMUsing
I never got into the D&D or RPG stuff. I think my favorite is still 3rd Reich by AH or Next War by SPI.
February 16th, 2007 at 4:30 PMUsing
I chose that route also as a senior just before a test of my basketball skills in first period gym. The reults, alas, were all too predictable as I proved that to scientifically arrive at the sequence of:
*dribble*
*giggle*
*stumble*
*shoot*
all that is needed is a fifth of Seagrams and three idiots.
And thus it was evermore assured that my presense would never grace the ranks of the NBA.
February 16th, 2007 at 4:33 PMUsing
Ouch! I’m hit!
February 16th, 2007 at 4:41 PMUsing
How about Axis and Allies? With alcohol? Simple rules. 5 players. American beverage: Bourbon. British beverage: Gin. Russian beverage: (what else?) Vodka. German beverage: Schnapps. Japanese beverage: Sake (at proper temperature of 100 degrees.)
Every time you conquer another player’s territory, you get a drink of his beverage. Every time you re-take your own territory, you drink some of your own. Allies can share alcohol freely (in compliance with the Lend-Lease Act).
I’ve done this a few times. I don’t remember how it ended.
February 16th, 2007 at 5:07 PMUsing
Trooper THX1138 sez:
Ever played Bong Risk? I won’t get into the “special rules.” It puts new meaning into the phrase “The Fog of War”
thank God I survived those days….and like Trooper, I don’t remember how a lot of those games ended.
February 16th, 2007 at 5:16 PMUsing
My Empress:
There is something unusual about that? Remind me to tell you of the joys of Tabasco.
—————–
Digiman certainly picked a good crew to tag.
—————–
Why, yes. Yes I have. I can even remember one game.
——————
I have so got to read Spats’ entry….
February 16th, 2007 at 5:37 PMUsing
Ya know, if it was anybody else…
February 16th, 2007 at 7:57 PMOh, you want the typical bullshit, or the good shit?
Using
Misha sez:
Does this look familiar??
February 16th, 2007 at 8:57 PMUsing
Ok. Answered.
February 16th, 2007 at 10:13 PMUsing
MoMinuteMan sez:
Yeah, that DOES look familiar….do you remember any all night game sessions like this?
February 16th, 2007 at 10:45 PMUsing
Jaybear,
Is that what the weird guys were doing when me and my friends were out in the woods at night with paintballs and wrist rockets?
February 16th, 2007 at 11:28 PMUsing
You got it BlackisWhite, it’s also what a some of my friends started looking like after too much “Bong Risk”.
February 16th, 2007 at 11:56 PMUsing
Thank G-d I missed DnD and wasn’t into board games after “Chutes and Ladders”..OK I did play “Mousetrap” twice…well maybe three times, but Risk and Monopoly took time away from building forts and digging goldmines in the hills above my house.
Maybe growing up in SoCal I missed something, but I preferred to be outside in the sun (year round) rather than sitting indoors.
The only bong game we played was late at night. If called on and you didn’t know the next song on the LP, you had to take a(nother) hit and choose the next album.
February 17th, 2007 at 2:40 AMUsing
To exercise my inner and outer geek, skip the Serenity RPG and get yourself a copy of Prime Time Adventures.
We’ve been playing it recently and it is one of the best systems around.
http://www.dog-eared-designs.com/games.html
February 17th, 2007 at 4:06 AMUsing
Just testing, thought I’d keep it off the active topic.
February 17th, 2007 at 8:15 AMUsing
Awright, awready, I’ll get on it!
(grumble grumble grouse)
February 17th, 2007 at 10:51 AMUsing
Up to you, though I have to say I personally prefer the latter :wink_ee:
February 17th, 2007 at 12:21 PMUsing
Holy crap! I KNEW there was a reason I liked this blog so much!
I’ve STILL got a closet full of old AH and SPI games — SL, Midway, DDay, Flattop, Luftwaffe, etc., etc. — and, as my geeky nerdmeister high school plan to marry a chick who could not only offer me sex with an actual, live, woman, but also serve as a handy opponent with whom to vie for mastery of the Eastern Front didn’t work out, I haven’t been able to play them for years.
The failure of my Nerdmeister Post-High School Plan is also, by the way, directly related to how alcohol became so important to me.
But that is a story for another day.
February 17th, 2007 at 9:35 PMUsing
Well MrSpkr, I didn’t marry a geekette either, so my gamin’ and lovin’ are seperated like church and state.
However, I do love my gaming enough to trade it for sleep. When forced to choose between more than two hours sleep today (I work nights) and Adventures in Absurdistan Part II, I chose to push 20mm (1/72) Rangers around the table. Only a 2-1 casualty ratio this time, so I definitely didn’t do well… But in my defence they had an armoured car, high ground, cover and hostages.
If I ever make it to a Rottmeet, I really should bring some wargaming stuff…… If anyone gets to the NC gaming cons (Trinoc-Con, MACE and Stellarcon) holler, I demo at pretty much all of them now.
February 17th, 2007 at 10:16 PMUsing
Well, I thought I had the hook-up. My wife was a DnD geekette in college. Major coolness, right?
Well, no, she doesn’t do it any more. (But she does understand when I and the group do experiments in Shadowrun sleep deprivation, so that’s kinda cool!) On the other hand, I’ve gotten her into shooting.
She loves big sub-guns now.
I can deal with that!
February 18th, 2007 at 8:37 AMUsing
As can I, my friend, as can I….
February 18th, 2007 at 11:21 AMI look back and laugh, thinking of my paranoia over her possible fear. But she fired the twelve just fine. Sorta’ padding things a bit, hoping to reassure her, I told her it is the most powerful gun we own. When I bought the Marlin ‘94, .44 lever action, after I polished my drool off the stock, thanking her most profusely….I told her to shoot it. Put your hand through the lever, it has fairly hot .44 magnums, fired from this gun 240 grain, closing in on two thousand feet per second according to specs. A big, heavy, fat slug at the slower end of rifle velocities.
I held my breath as she shouldered it…….she tucked it in, sighted in at a hundred feet, squeezed the trigger. Looking downrange, she had it in the black, four inches from dead center. Extolling her good shooting, to do it again. And she did, again and again till all ten rounds were gone. Such as your sweetie with the submachine gun, I saw possibilities here. Telling her the rifle was twice as powerful as the .45 Rugers, (yes, I had bought her a .45 as a gift, sly dog I am.) Her gun. Cool, very cool. And when she fired it, it bucked, she held firm, not as good as the rifle, to be expected.
Turning to me at the end of the clip, watching some other fool with his finger on the trigger and the slide back, thinking I’ve got to let the rangemaster know about that turkey. She turned to me, I held my breath, asked…
“What did you think?”
“What a rush? It’s cool! Can you load another clip?”
And as you did, Guido…I smiled, turning to a box of ammo………
So be it submachine guns,truly an amusing tale of your dark, bleak despair. That cracks me up. Neighbors might wonder, though, that gals loves submachine guns. Or be it pistols, or a historic rifle, it worked. She is now a member of the NRA and reads Women’s Outlook every month as I read First Freedom.
So that’s two I’ve recruited so far, my Other Half and my boss…..booowhooowaahhhaaaahaaaa!
I still think about those guys in the choppers, Guido, from what you posted yesterday…and that is scary. Maybe I’d have time to hide some of the guns before they found them all. The bullets would be easy…….
Using
I dunno, bud. I’m starting to wonder if the guy that said, “If it’s time to hide ‘em, it’s time to use ‘em!” might not have a point.
February 18th, 2007 at 8:37 PMUsing
Now that I know what that means, :lol_wp: :jittery_tb: :lol_wp: :lol1_wp:
February 18th, 2007 at 8:41 PMUsing
Okay, mine’s up.
February 19th, 2007 at 6:07 PMUsing
Your evilness… You are EVIL!!!
OK, but I’m sure it won’t be as interesting as Your oddities. And, You realize You’re keeping me from my packing for the Quilt Fest? [crossing arms, tapping foot, sending stern look Your way]
*snicker*
All right, look for it in about an hour (less, if possible)!
– Kat
February 22nd, 2007 at 5:36 PMUsing
All right, it’s up… And now I give particular attention to the Empress’ comment at the top about the pepper:
The more pepper, the better… ***IF*** it’s freshly ground!
– Kat
February 22nd, 2007 at 6:05 PMUsing