I got a funny phone call last night.
*ring*
Adam: Hello?
Dude: Um... who's this?
Adam: This is Adam.
Dude: *like he just bit into a lemon* Adam?! Where's my sister, Janie?!
Adam: *laughing* Uh... I think you might have the wrong number.
Dude: *calming down* Oh. Are you in San Diego?
Adam: *still laughing* Yeah.
Dude: Oh... I must have dialed... oh well. Sorry. *click*
Adam: *still laughing*
The way he said "Adam?!" with utter contempt and disdain was so freaking funny.
I heard some radio boys jabbering the other day about Phillip Rivers, and how in college he "literally carried the team on his back" at the end of some close game, leading them to a win.
What a sight that must have been!
2004/04/29
2004/04/27
I heard "The Thong Song" at the wedding I was at this last weekend, and was instantly reminded of how much that song rocked (excuse me, rocks). It only took me a couple seconds to remember the chorus:
She has dumps like a truck (truck, truck)
Guys like what (wha', wha')
Baby move your butt (buh', buh')
I think I'll sing again...
I could only picture Gabe doing his happy little monkey dance, rockin' out to the beat. Good stuff. Just thought I'd share...
She has dumps like a truck (truck, truck)
Guys like what (wha', wha')
Baby move your butt (buh', buh')
I think I'll sing again...
I could only picture Gabe doing his happy little monkey dance, rockin' out to the beat. Good stuff. Just thought I'd share...
To follow up to my last post.
My teammate Diane (NOT Diana, by the way), is going to be ok. X-rays and CAT-scans were negative for fractures or concussion. But she's going to have a pretty good headache and lump for a couple days, they say. So that's really good news. Our team is mobilizing to get some helmy's for the upcoming games.
Also, the crazy news that we got last night was a message from Norm who was "just calling to say what's up" (ha, right!), and asking us to check out this webpage that he made. Norm and Teri are going to have a peanut! They've always said they've wanted children, and I guess the timing was right with Norm finishing school and his parents coming home from their adventures (I'm guessing about these being significant timing reasons, they may not be).
Norm and Teri certainly have had experience with many nieces and nephews, and I have no doubts that they're going to be really great parents. Congratulations to them!
My teammate Diane (NOT Diana, by the way), is going to be ok. X-rays and CAT-scans were negative for fractures or concussion. But she's going to have a pretty good headache and lump for a couple days, they say. So that's really good news. Our team is mobilizing to get some helmy's for the upcoming games.
Also, the crazy news that we got last night was a message from Norm who was "just calling to say what's up" (ha, right!), and asking us to check out this webpage that he made. Norm and Teri are going to have a peanut! They've always said they've wanted children, and I guess the timing was right with Norm finishing school and his parents coming home from their adventures (I'm guessing about these being significant timing reasons, they may not be).
Norm and Teri certainly have had experience with many nieces and nephews, and I have no doubts that they're going to be really great parents. Congratulations to them!
2004/04/26
Man, what a crazy night.
I had my softball game tonight at 9pm. Diana came to watch. In the top of the 3rd inning, though, a woman on our team (Diane... some of you know her from soccer) grounded to the shortstop. I was coaching first base, and saw it coming. The shortstop (a big beefy baseball guy) hucked the ball to first, and it came in at head height and hit Diane right in the side of the head, above the ear, as she was crossing first base. Hard. She was knocked off her feet and was pretty hurt and shaken up. There was no cut on the surface, and she seemed to have her faculties about her. Her head hurt a lot, and her ears were ringing, and she was pretty dizzy when she finally got up (after some long minutes of de-panicking on the ground), but she was able to answer little trivia questions about her car and what time the game started and where she was and stuff. Her brother (my workboy Eric) took her to the hospital to get checked out, and that ended the game on a pretty somber note. Very scary stuff. From the little I know, she seemed to be ok. I really hope so.
The event hit me particularly hard. My concussion in soccer was my worst experience ever, and has changed my outlook on life quite a bit. Seeing this happen was really scary. The discussion of helmets came up, and I'm going to look pretty seriously into either buying or borrowing one. The ump was pretty surprised that they weren't mandatory. There have been a number of stories of people taking a ball to the face while running the bases. *wince*
Then some other crazy thing that I won't mention here.
Then I read comment on Iwan's blog that his dad has malaria?! What the hell is going on around here? The comments seem to indicate that he's got a strain that is more easily treatable (says Doc Mick) I guess, so I suppose that's good news. But still... malaria?!
So it's been a crazy evening.
Earlier in the evening, we got a call from the Nielson TV rating people. They contacted us randomly a little while ago, and we've done a couple little over-the-phone surveys. Today they called and it sounds like there's a good chance that we could become a Nielson house! You know what that means! More Survivor, MXC, Mythbusters, and America's Funniest Home Videos for everyone! Huzzah!
I had my softball game tonight at 9pm. Diana came to watch. In the top of the 3rd inning, though, a woman on our team (Diane... some of you know her from soccer) grounded to the shortstop. I was coaching first base, and saw it coming. The shortstop (a big beefy baseball guy) hucked the ball to first, and it came in at head height and hit Diane right in the side of the head, above the ear, as she was crossing first base. Hard. She was knocked off her feet and was pretty hurt and shaken up. There was no cut on the surface, and she seemed to have her faculties about her. Her head hurt a lot, and her ears were ringing, and she was pretty dizzy when she finally got up (after some long minutes of de-panicking on the ground), but she was able to answer little trivia questions about her car and what time the game started and where she was and stuff. Her brother (my workboy Eric) took her to the hospital to get checked out, and that ended the game on a pretty somber note. Very scary stuff. From the little I know, she seemed to be ok. I really hope so.
The event hit me particularly hard. My concussion in soccer was my worst experience ever, and has changed my outlook on life quite a bit. Seeing this happen was really scary. The discussion of helmets came up, and I'm going to look pretty seriously into either buying or borrowing one. The ump was pretty surprised that they weren't mandatory. There have been a number of stories of people taking a ball to the face while running the bases. *wince*
Then some other crazy thing that I won't mention here.
Then I read comment on Iwan's blog that his dad has malaria?! What the hell is going on around here? The comments seem to indicate that he's got a strain that is more easily treatable (says Doc Mick) I guess, so I suppose that's good news. But still... malaria?!
So it's been a crazy evening.
Earlier in the evening, we got a call from the Nielson TV rating people. They contacted us randomly a little while ago, and we've done a couple little over-the-phone surveys. Today they called and it sounds like there's a good chance that we could become a Nielson house! You know what that means! More Survivor, MXC, Mythbusters, and America's Funniest Home Videos for everyone! Huzzah!
2004/04/25
(The following is a long and incredibly boring post about my beating the incredible game Nethack for the first time. Most of you probably won't care much about this. Sorry.)
I did it.
I can’t believe I did it.
I’m still stunned. I actually ascended.
Way back in the late 80’s, when I was in 6th of 7th grade, my parents had an old IBM 4.77 Mhz computer. I’d heard of this great game called Nethack, and decided to give it a try. I remember I had to beg my gracious father to upgrade to 640K of RAM to play. The graphics weren’t as cool as, say, Kings Quest III, but it was fun to name my little dog after our family dog, and kick sinks for rings and stuff. I played back then, save-scumming shamelessly, and made to the mazes of Gehennom, I think.
In college I gave it the ol’ college try, but never really got very far.
Now, as a professional, I did some massive spoiling, and have been playing on and off for maybe a year or so. And it’s finally paid off.
I didn’t keep notes during the game, unfortunately, and the game took place over about a week or so, so here’s the best I can piece together.
The ascencion of DianaFury the neutral Human Valkerie:
Early on in the game, I found an altar, and my lovely Odin granted me Mjollnir, and soon after, actually, Fire Brand. I’ve always been a big Mjollnir fan, but heard good things about the Brands, so decided to give Fire Brand a try. Color me impressed. I stuck with it through the entire rest of the game.
I recently downloaded and tried out the Hearse bones transport system for the first time, and found a bones file soon after the mines and Sokoban of an experienced looking adventurer. Unfortunate “King” (died via a blast from Excalibur!) left behind a bag that looked suspicious like a bag of holding. I grabbed it and blessed it and tenatively named it as such.
Minetown held a magic lamp for me, which I blessed and got GDSM. I find that an early altar for Mjollnir and an early wish for GDSM make for pretty good games.
Since I’d already found the bag, I was sure that Sokoban would give me another, but luckily an amulet was there waiting for me. At some point I’d stumbled across a cloak of protection, so I had magic resistance and cancellation, reflection, and a big stick.
Finding a bag of holding full of goodies was pretty exciting, but I had to make several trips through the mid levels of the dungeon to get everything to a spot I wanted.
Early identification was a problem. I had a number of unidentified scroll and potions in my bag of holding, waiting to be ID’d, when I inadvertantly stepped into a puddle and got many of them faded and diluted. I found an unID’d scroll in the Plane of Earth, if you can believe it (it was stink cloud). At some point, I even had to use a wish for 2 blessed scrolls of enchant armor, just so I could use that new magic marker I’d found to enchant my stuff all up! I’m not sure I remember the rest of my wishes… I believe another magic marker somewhere along the way, along with a helm of telepathy to round out my armor. Couple scrolls of genocide for L’s and h’s.
The excitement really started when I was collecting the Bell, Book, and Candelabrum (henceforth: “Light”). Bell of Opening (and Orb of Fate) from Lord Sartur, no problem. Vlad was a cakewalk, and gave me the Light. At this point, I delved deep and found the vibrating squre, and then backtracked and pick-axed nice connections between all the stairs all the way to the top. Then back down to the the Wizards tower, and went to work. It was a tough battle, and I fought hard before finally giving in and using a wand of death on him. Grabbed the Book, and headed to the vibrating square.
Cue: heart attack. (I posted a panicky message of this account). I check to see if the big 3 are all uncursed. Book, no problem. Light is good. Bell? Bell?!
My Bell of Opening (and I didn’t realize it at the time, but my Orb of Fate) were missing.
I checked the couple times I’d killed the Wizard, but he hadn’t stolen it. I then retraced my steps, and there, just *sitting there* in the middle of the dungeon (up past Medusa) was my Bell of Opening, Orb of Fate, and a magic whistle. I have *no* idea how they got there, but I grabbed ‘em and headed back down.
As you can imagine, this extra time allowed the Wizard to get in lots of shots and double trouble on me, which was really annoying. I used my wands of death on him, knowing full well that I wanted to save them for later, but figuring I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.
Got to the vibrating square, killed the high priest pretty easily, grabbed the amulet, and booked it out of there.
I made it out of Gehennom without too much problem, thanks to my tunnels. When I made it up past Medusa’s level, I had to leave for the weekend for a family wedding. I had lots of time to think about my next moves and prepare myself for what lay ahead.
Then, this evening… I head back up to the top, and to the Plane of Earth.
The Plane of Earth wasn’t much problem. I had a lot of wands of digging, and plowed my way around until finding the teleporter.
The Plane of Air wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. I got sucked into a few air elementals, but I don’t think my hitpoints ever dropped below about 270/307. I basically cleaned out the place, and then systematically walked on every square in the right side of the screen before finding the portal.
The Plane of Fire was a little tricky when a couple Archons showed up. Those guys are nasty. At one point I read a cursed scroll of gold detection, which I thought would find me the portal, but didn’t. So I had to keep stumbling until I found it.
The Plane of Water was pretty easy. I carefully avoided drowning, and tooled around until I fell into the portal. I made sure to take off my ring of conflict beforehand, which was nice.
The Astral Plane… I was bristling with excitement.
I blindfolded myself, and decided to take on Famine. At the first door he stunned me and took a good chunk of HPs away. I shot with my wand of death, but it went diagonally instead of up, missing him. I unicorn horn’d myself until I was ok, and took him down with another blast. Only a turn or two later he reappeared, and I took him town again.
I fought through the ants and made my way to the center altar, and things started fleeing, which I think is good. I’m still not sure how to tell if the altar is the correct one, so I chatted with the priest and it was the priest of Odin, so I gave a small donation of 5 Zorkmids.
And all of a sudden, I was there. Standing on the altar. I saved my game (and made a backup for posterity (NOT savescumming!)). I called in my (very patient!) wife. I offered the amulet.
I ascended. Woo hoo!
Here are the gory details. Thanks for listening.
You offer the Amulet of Yendor to Odin...--More--
An invisible choir sings, and you are bathed in radiance...--More—
The voice of Odin booms out: "Congratulations, mortal!"--More—
"In return for thy service, I grant thee the gift of Immortality!"--More—
You ascend to the status of Demigoddess...--More—
┌───────┐
│•••••••│A
│•••••••│ A
A│a•@@•••│
A│••A••••│
│ │•••••••│ │
│• └───•───┘ •│
│••••a•@a••@••│
└─┐•Aaaa••@A┌─┘
└┬───a───┬┘
a @aa
% 15a51
% 0
└┐ % % %
└┐ $
┐ └───%───
─────────
DianaFury the Swashbuckler St:25 Dx:15 Co:18 In:10 Wi:14 Ch:11 Neutral
Astral Plane $:0 HP:270(307) Pw:67(67) AC:-35 Exp:21 T:74457
Amulets
p - an uncursed amulet of life saving (being worn)
Weapons
x - the rustproof +6 Fire Brand (weapon in hand)
Armor
e - an uncursed thoroughly burnt +5 cloak of protection (being worn)
g - an uncursed +4 gray dragon scale mail (being worn)
o - a blessed +5 helm of telepathy (being worn)
A - an uncursed fireproof +4 pair of speed boots (being worn)
D - an uncursed +4 shield of reflection (being worn)
F - an uncursed fireproof +5 T-shirt (being worn)
T - an uncursed rustproof +4 pair of gauntlets of power (being worn)
Potions
Y - an uncursed diluted potion of full healing
Rings
f - an uncursed ring of slow digestion
M - an uncursed very rusty ring of conflict
V - an uncursed ring of levitation
Wands
c - a wand of teleportation (0:4)
d - a wand of teleportation (0:1)
q - a very rusty wand of wishing (1:0)
N - a rusty wand of death (1:0)
X - a wand of death (0:1)
Tools
a - a +0 unicorn horn
h - a blessed bag of holding
i - an uncursed sack
m - an uncursed blindfold
r - the blessed Orb of Fate (0:4)
G - a blessed magic lamp (lit)
L - the Bell of Opening (1:0)
P - a magic marker (1:43)
Gems
j - an uncursed black opal
k - an uncursed chrysoberyl stone
t - 2 uncursed diamonds
v - an uncursed luckstone
w - an uncursed aquamarine stone
y - 4 uncursed rubies
z - 3 uncursed amethyst stones
B - 4 uncursed rubies
E - 3 uncursed emeralds
H - an uncursed jacinth stone
I - a blessed touchstone
J - 2 uncursed aquamarine stones
K - an uncursed luckstone
O - 2 uncursed garnet stones
Contents of the bag of holding:
10 uncursed K-rations
a cursed ring of invisibility
4 uncursed scrolls of blank paper
3 potions of holy water
the +4 Grayswandir
a blessed scroll of remove curse
3 blessed scrolls of blank paper
a thoroughly rusty +0 pick-axe
an uncursed magic whistle
a magic marker (1:1)
a cursed rusty wand of death (0:0)
a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor
a cursed amulet of magical breathing
a cursed amulet of life saving
a cursed ring of invisibility named Naz 4
2 uncursed diluted potions of extra healing
a wand of undead turning (0:2)
a wand of locking (0:1)
a wand of probing (0:4)
a wand of speed monster (0:7)
an uncursed ring of polymorph control
an uncursed +1 ring of increase accuracy
an uncursed amulet of unchanging
a cursed ring of invisibility
an uncursed ring of regeneration
a blessed +1 ring of increase accuracy
an uncursed blindfold
an uncursed lizard corpse
1268 gold pieces
an uncursed ring of poison resistance
an uncursed ring of polymorph
an uncursed thoroughly rusty stethoscope
a wand of teleportation (0:2)
an uncursed thoroughly rusty ring of free action
an uncursed ring of teleportation
an uncursed ring of invisibility named Naz 1
an uncursed ring of see invisible
an uncursed +2 ring of gain strength
an uncursed ring of free action
an uncursed +2 ring of gain constitution
an uncursed ring of invisibility
an uncursed ring of regeneration
a wand of fire (0:0)
a cursed ring of invisibility named Naz 2
an uncursed +2 ring of gain strength
an uncursed ring of slow digestion
an uncursed ring of invisibility
an uncursed towel
a wand of striking (0:2)
a very rusty wand of lightning (0:5)
a blessed scroll of earth
an uncursed ring of slow digestion
27 uncursed C-rations
an uncursed magic whistle
a wand of digging (0:3)
a wand of teleportation (0:6)
an uncursed thoroughly rusty ring of conflict
an uncursed +0 pair of levitation boots
4 uncursed lizard corpses
14 uncursed scrolls of blank paper
an uncursed amulet of ESP
a +0 silver saber
an uncursed mirror
an uncursed tallow candle
an uncursed amulet of reflection
Contents of the sack:
a potion of holy water
an uncursed potion of full healing
a blessed scroll of blank paper
a blessed scroll of remove curse
Final Attributes:
You were piously aligned.
You were fire resistant.
You were cold resistant.
You were sleep resistant.
You were disintegration-resistant.
You were shock resistant.
You were poison resistant.
You were magic-protected.
You saw invisible.
You were telepathic.
You were warned.
You were stealthy.
You were protected.
You were very fast.
You had reflection.
Your life would have been saved.
You were lucky.
You had extra luck.
Good luck did not time out for you.
You survived.
Vanquished creatures:
Asmodeus
Orcus
Juiblex
The Wizard of Yendor (20 times)
Famine (twice)
a high priest
a mastodon
Medusa
13 krakens
7 Archons
8 iron golems
a master lich
a ki-rin
a storm giant
3 titans
2 balrogs
10 purple worms
4 gray dragons
3 silver dragons
20 red dragons
7 white dragons
an orange dragon
13 black dragons
7 blue dragons
10 green dragons
11 yellow dragons
20 minotaurs
6 jabberwocks
Lord Surtur
7 baluchitheria
Vlad the Impaler
17 stone golems
32 Olog-hai
7 Nazguls
14 pit fiends
2 sandestins
10 hell hounds
8 titanotheres
6 trappers
a baby blue dragon
2 guardian nagas
11 disenchanters
37 vampire lords
5 skeletons
9 shopkeepers
15 aligned priests
11 captains
6 shades
5 liches
4 clay golems
3 nurses
8 ice devils
2 nalfeshnees
5 lurkers above
3 Aleaxes
3 frost giants
9 ettins
3 golden nagas
18 black puddings
28 vampires
10 lieutenants
a watch captain
42 ghosts
a queen bee
15 winged gargoyles
a mind flayer
13 giant mimics
11 zruties
33 fire giants
11 ogre kings
7 ice trolls
31 rock trolls
13 umber hulks
8 flesh golems
10 Elvenkings
9 doppelgangers
8 hezrous
21 bone devils
7 large mimics
6 wumpuses
12 fire vortices
a baby purple worm
12 long worms
4 couatls
19 stalkers
13 air elementals
28 fire elementals
30 earth elementals
32 water elementals
18 hill giants
8 giant mummies
6 black nagas
13 xorns
15 giant zombies
22 elf-lords
25 sergeants
2 water demons
18 barbed devils
13 vrocks
9 salamanders
24 wargs
2 winter wolves
4 hell hound pups
24 small mimics
3 glass piercers
5 warhorses
13 steam vortices
20 xans
8 ettin mummies
7 ogre lords
7 quantum mechanics
19 trolls
3 sasquatches
6 wood golems
3 erinyes
6 mariliths
a djinni
7 sharks
13 electric eels
8 gelatinous cubes
5 pyrolisks
a large dog
4 freezing spheres
5 flaming spheres
7 shocking spheres
14 tigers
6 gargoyles
2 dwarf kings
6 tengu
9 ochre jellies
17 leocrottas
7 energy vortices
a mountain centaur
10 stone giants
6 elf mummies
4 human mummies
2 red nagas
5 green slimes
24 pit vipers
a python
17 cobras
62 wraiths
10 carnivorous apes
18 ettin zombies
2 leather golems
11 Grey-elves
103 soldiers
4 watchmen
12 horned devils
8 succubi
7 incubi
15 chameleons
2 crocodiles
18 giant beetles
9 quivering blobs
35 cockatrices
21 wolves
10 winter wolf cubs
4 lynxes
5 panthers
15 gremlins
2 spotted jellies
7 leprechauns
6 orc-captains
17 iron piercers
7 mumakil
16 giant spiders
8 scorpions
7 horses
7 black lights
9 vampire bats
2 forest centaurs
9 gnome kings
9 orc mummies
7 dwarf mummies
5 ogres
4 brown puddings
15 rust monsters
17 owlbears
14 yetis
6 gold golems
4 werewolves
14 Green-elves
5 piranhas
18 giant eels
26 lizards
2 warriors
13 chickatrices
4 dogs
3 dingos
a housecat
9 jaguars
4 dwarf lords
9 blue jellies
3 white unicorns
4 black unicorns
17 dust vortices
3 ravens
6 plains centaurs
2 gnome mummies
6 snakes
9 water moccasins
11 apes
32 human zombies
5 rope golems
15 Woodland-elves
26 soldier ants
93 fire ants
11 bugbears
2 imps
16 lemures
13 quasits
6 wood nymphs
9 water nymphs
6 mountain nymphs
10 Mordor orcs
12 Uruk-hai
4 orc shamans
10 rock piercers
4 rock moles
6 ponies
15 fog clouds
12 yellow lights
3 shriekers
8 violet fungi
31 gnome lords
12 gnomish wizards
9 kobold mummies
2 black naga hatchlings
a golden naga hatchling
a guardian naga hatchling
10 gray oozes
5 barrow wights
28 elf zombies
20 ghouls
2 straw golems
4 paper golems
8 jellyfish
a baby crocodile
28 giant ants
2 little dogs
14 floating eyes
4 kittens
27 dwarves
8 homunculi
3 kobold lords
3 kobold shamans
43 hill orcs
36 rothes
4 rabid rats
a centipede
5 giant bats
4 monkeys
24 orc zombies
20 dwarf zombies
2 wererats
3 werejackals
15 iguanas
65 killer bees
7 acid blobs
8 coyotes
a gas spore
9 hobbits
6 manes
3 large kobolds
13 hobgoblins
19 giant rats
13 cave spiders
2 brown molds
6 yellow molds
4 green molds
4 red molds
66 gnomes
9 garter snakes
11 gnome zombies
12 geckos
6 jackals
3 foxes
4 kobolds
5 goblins
14 sewer rats
8 grid bugs
2 bats
16 lichens
14 kobold zombies
10 newts
3119 creatures vanquished.
Genocided species:
hobbits
dwarves
bugbears
dwarf lords
dwarf kings
mind flayers
master mind flayers
liches
demiliches
master liches
arch-liches
11 species genocided.
Voluntary challenges:
You genocided 11 types of monsters.
You never changed form.
You used 10 wishes.
You did not wish for any artifacts.
Farvel DianaFury the Demigoddess...
You went to your reward with 5135492 points,
Grayswandir (worth 8000 zorkmids and 20000 points)
The Orb of Fate (worth 3500 zorkmids and 8750 points)
Fire Brand (worth 3000 zorkmids and 7500 points)
The Bell of Opening (worth 5000 zorkmids and 12500 points)
8 rubies (worth 28000 zorkmids),
6 diamonds (worth 24000 zorkmids),
3 emeralds (worth 7500 zorkmids),
3 aquamarine stones (worth 4500 zorkmids),
3 amethyst stones (worth 1800 zorkmids),
2 garnet stones (worth 1400 zorkmids),
2 jasper stones (worth 1000 zorkmids),
1 jacinth stone (worth 3250 zorkmids),
1 black opal (worth 2500 zorkmids),
1 chrysoberyl stone (worth 700 zorkmids),
2 amulets of life saving (worth 300 zorkmids),
1 amulet of ESP (worth 150 zorkmids),
1 amulet of unchanging (worth 150 zorkmids),
1 amulet of reflection (worth 150 zorkmids),
1 amulet of magical breathing (worth 150 zorkmids),
1 cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor (worth 0 zorkmids),
and 1268 pieces of gold, after 74457 moves.
You were level 21 with a maximum of 307 hit points when you ascended.
I did it.
I can’t believe I did it.
I’m still stunned. I actually ascended.
Way back in the late 80’s, when I was in 6th of 7th grade, my parents had an old IBM 4.77 Mhz computer. I’d heard of this great game called Nethack, and decided to give it a try. I remember I had to beg my gracious father to upgrade to 640K of RAM to play. The graphics weren’t as cool as, say, Kings Quest III, but it was fun to name my little dog after our family dog, and kick sinks for rings and stuff. I played back then, save-scumming shamelessly, and made to the mazes of Gehennom, I think.
In college I gave it the ol’ college try, but never really got very far.
Now, as a professional, I did some massive spoiling, and have been playing on and off for maybe a year or so. And it’s finally paid off.
I didn’t keep notes during the game, unfortunately, and the game took place over about a week or so, so here’s the best I can piece together.
The ascencion of DianaFury the neutral Human Valkerie:
Early on in the game, I found an altar, and my lovely Odin granted me Mjollnir, and soon after, actually, Fire Brand. I’ve always been a big Mjollnir fan, but heard good things about the Brands, so decided to give Fire Brand a try. Color me impressed. I stuck with it through the entire rest of the game.
I recently downloaded and tried out the Hearse bones transport system for the first time, and found a bones file soon after the mines and Sokoban of an experienced looking adventurer. Unfortunate “King” (died via a blast from Excalibur!) left behind a bag that looked suspicious like a bag of holding. I grabbed it and blessed it and tenatively named it as such.
Minetown held a magic lamp for me, which I blessed and got GDSM. I find that an early altar for Mjollnir and an early wish for GDSM make for pretty good games.
Since I’d already found the bag, I was sure that Sokoban would give me another, but luckily an amulet was there waiting for me. At some point I’d stumbled across a cloak of protection, so I had magic resistance and cancellation, reflection, and a big stick.
Finding a bag of holding full of goodies was pretty exciting, but I had to make several trips through the mid levels of the dungeon to get everything to a spot I wanted.
Early identification was a problem. I had a number of unidentified scroll and potions in my bag of holding, waiting to be ID’d, when I inadvertantly stepped into a puddle and got many of them faded and diluted. I found an unID’d scroll in the Plane of Earth, if you can believe it (it was stink cloud). At some point, I even had to use a wish for 2 blessed scrolls of enchant armor, just so I could use that new magic marker I’d found to enchant my stuff all up! I’m not sure I remember the rest of my wishes… I believe another magic marker somewhere along the way, along with a helm of telepathy to round out my armor. Couple scrolls of genocide for L’s and h’s.
The excitement really started when I was collecting the Bell, Book, and Candelabrum (henceforth: “Light”). Bell of Opening (and Orb of Fate) from Lord Sartur, no problem. Vlad was a cakewalk, and gave me the Light. At this point, I delved deep and found the vibrating squre, and then backtracked and pick-axed nice connections between all the stairs all the way to the top. Then back down to the the Wizards tower, and went to work. It was a tough battle, and I fought hard before finally giving in and using a wand of death on him. Grabbed the Book, and headed to the vibrating square.
Cue: heart attack. (I posted a panicky message of this account). I check to see if the big 3 are all uncursed. Book, no problem. Light is good. Bell? Bell?!
My Bell of Opening (and I didn’t realize it at the time, but my Orb of Fate) were missing.
I checked the couple times I’d killed the Wizard, but he hadn’t stolen it. I then retraced my steps, and there, just *sitting there* in the middle of the dungeon (up past Medusa) was my Bell of Opening, Orb of Fate, and a magic whistle. I have *no* idea how they got there, but I grabbed ‘em and headed back down.
As you can imagine, this extra time allowed the Wizard to get in lots of shots and double trouble on me, which was really annoying. I used my wands of death on him, knowing full well that I wanted to save them for later, but figuring I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.
Got to the vibrating square, killed the high priest pretty easily, grabbed the amulet, and booked it out of there.
I made it out of Gehennom without too much problem, thanks to my tunnels. When I made it up past Medusa’s level, I had to leave for the weekend for a family wedding. I had lots of time to think about my next moves and prepare myself for what lay ahead.
Then, this evening… I head back up to the top, and to the Plane of Earth.
The Plane of Earth wasn’t much problem. I had a lot of wands of digging, and plowed my way around until finding the teleporter.
The Plane of Air wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. I got sucked into a few air elementals, but I don’t think my hitpoints ever dropped below about 270/307. I basically cleaned out the place, and then systematically walked on every square in the right side of the screen before finding the portal.
The Plane of Fire was a little tricky when a couple Archons showed up. Those guys are nasty. At one point I read a cursed scroll of gold detection, which I thought would find me the portal, but didn’t. So I had to keep stumbling until I found it.
The Plane of Water was pretty easy. I carefully avoided drowning, and tooled around until I fell into the portal. I made sure to take off my ring of conflict beforehand, which was nice.
The Astral Plane… I was bristling with excitement.
I blindfolded myself, and decided to take on Famine. At the first door he stunned me and took a good chunk of HPs away. I shot with my wand of death, but it went diagonally instead of up, missing him. I unicorn horn’d myself until I was ok, and took him down with another blast. Only a turn or two later he reappeared, and I took him town again.
I fought through the ants and made my way to the center altar, and things started fleeing, which I think is good. I’m still not sure how to tell if the altar is the correct one, so I chatted with the priest and it was the priest of Odin, so I gave a small donation of 5 Zorkmids.
And all of a sudden, I was there. Standing on the altar. I saved my game (and made a backup for posterity (NOT savescumming!)). I called in my (very patient!) wife. I offered the amulet.
I ascended. Woo hoo!
Here are the gory details. Thanks for listening.
You offer the Amulet of Yendor to Odin...--More--
An invisible choir sings, and you are bathed in radiance...--More—
The voice of Odin booms out: "Congratulations, mortal!"--More—
"In return for thy service, I grant thee the gift of Immortality!"--More—
You ascend to the status of Demigoddess...--More—
┌───────┐
│•••••••│A
│•••••••│ A
A│a•@@•••│
A│••A••••│
│ │•••••••│ │
│• └───•───┘ •│
│••••a•@a••@••│
└─┐•Aaaa••@A┌─┘
└┬───a───┬┘
a @aa
% 15a51
% 0
└┐ % % %
└┐ $
┐ └───%───
─────────
DianaFury the Swashbuckler St:25 Dx:15 Co:18 In:10 Wi:14 Ch:11 Neutral
Astral Plane $:0 HP:270(307) Pw:67(67) AC:-35 Exp:21 T:74457
Amulets
p - an uncursed amulet of life saving (being worn)
Weapons
x - the rustproof +6 Fire Brand (weapon in hand)
Armor
e - an uncursed thoroughly burnt +5 cloak of protection (being worn)
g - an uncursed +4 gray dragon scale mail (being worn)
o - a blessed +5 helm of telepathy (being worn)
A - an uncursed fireproof +4 pair of speed boots (being worn)
D - an uncursed +4 shield of reflection (being worn)
F - an uncursed fireproof +5 T-shirt (being worn)
T - an uncursed rustproof +4 pair of gauntlets of power (being worn)
Potions
Y - an uncursed diluted potion of full healing
Rings
f - an uncursed ring of slow digestion
M - an uncursed very rusty ring of conflict
V - an uncursed ring of levitation
Wands
c - a wand of teleportation (0:4)
d - a wand of teleportation (0:1)
q - a very rusty wand of wishing (1:0)
N - a rusty wand of death (1:0)
X - a wand of death (0:1)
Tools
a - a +0 unicorn horn
h - a blessed bag of holding
i - an uncursed sack
m - an uncursed blindfold
r - the blessed Orb of Fate (0:4)
G - a blessed magic lamp (lit)
L - the Bell of Opening (1:0)
P - a magic marker (1:43)
Gems
j - an uncursed black opal
k - an uncursed chrysoberyl stone
t - 2 uncursed diamonds
v - an uncursed luckstone
w - an uncursed aquamarine stone
y - 4 uncursed rubies
z - 3 uncursed amethyst stones
B - 4 uncursed rubies
E - 3 uncursed emeralds
H - an uncursed jacinth stone
I - a blessed touchstone
J - 2 uncursed aquamarine stones
K - an uncursed luckstone
O - 2 uncursed garnet stones
Contents of the bag of holding:
10 uncursed K-rations
a cursed ring of invisibility
4 uncursed scrolls of blank paper
3 potions of holy water
the +4 Grayswandir
a blessed scroll of remove curse
3 blessed scrolls of blank paper
a thoroughly rusty +0 pick-axe
an uncursed magic whistle
a magic marker (1:1)
a cursed rusty wand of death (0:0)
a cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor
a cursed amulet of magical breathing
a cursed amulet of life saving
a cursed ring of invisibility named Naz 4
2 uncursed diluted potions of extra healing
a wand of undead turning (0:2)
a wand of locking (0:1)
a wand of probing (0:4)
a wand of speed monster (0:7)
an uncursed ring of polymorph control
an uncursed +1 ring of increase accuracy
an uncursed amulet of unchanging
a cursed ring of invisibility
an uncursed ring of regeneration
a blessed +1 ring of increase accuracy
an uncursed blindfold
an uncursed lizard corpse
1268 gold pieces
an uncursed ring of poison resistance
an uncursed ring of polymorph
an uncursed thoroughly rusty stethoscope
a wand of teleportation (0:2)
an uncursed thoroughly rusty ring of free action
an uncursed ring of teleportation
an uncursed ring of invisibility named Naz 1
an uncursed ring of see invisible
an uncursed +2 ring of gain strength
an uncursed ring of free action
an uncursed +2 ring of gain constitution
an uncursed ring of invisibility
an uncursed ring of regeneration
a wand of fire (0:0)
a cursed ring of invisibility named Naz 2
an uncursed +2 ring of gain strength
an uncursed ring of slow digestion
an uncursed ring of invisibility
an uncursed towel
a wand of striking (0:2)
a very rusty wand of lightning (0:5)
a blessed scroll of earth
an uncursed ring of slow digestion
27 uncursed C-rations
an uncursed magic whistle
a wand of digging (0:3)
a wand of teleportation (0:6)
an uncursed thoroughly rusty ring of conflict
an uncursed +0 pair of levitation boots
4 uncursed lizard corpses
14 uncursed scrolls of blank paper
an uncursed amulet of ESP
a +0 silver saber
an uncursed mirror
an uncursed tallow candle
an uncursed amulet of reflection
Contents of the sack:
a potion of holy water
an uncursed potion of full healing
a blessed scroll of blank paper
a blessed scroll of remove curse
Final Attributes:
You were piously aligned.
You were fire resistant.
You were cold resistant.
You were sleep resistant.
You were disintegration-resistant.
You were shock resistant.
You were poison resistant.
You were magic-protected.
You saw invisible.
You were telepathic.
You were warned.
You were stealthy.
You were protected.
You were very fast.
You had reflection.
Your life would have been saved.
You were lucky.
You had extra luck.
Good luck did not time out for you.
You survived.
Vanquished creatures:
Asmodeus
Orcus
Juiblex
The Wizard of Yendor (20 times)
Famine (twice)
a high priest
a mastodon
Medusa
13 krakens
7 Archons
8 iron golems
a master lich
a ki-rin
a storm giant
3 titans
2 balrogs
10 purple worms
4 gray dragons
3 silver dragons
20 red dragons
7 white dragons
an orange dragon
13 black dragons
7 blue dragons
10 green dragons
11 yellow dragons
20 minotaurs
6 jabberwocks
Lord Surtur
7 baluchitheria
Vlad the Impaler
17 stone golems
32 Olog-hai
7 Nazguls
14 pit fiends
2 sandestins
10 hell hounds
8 titanotheres
6 trappers
a baby blue dragon
2 guardian nagas
11 disenchanters
37 vampire lords
5 skeletons
9 shopkeepers
15 aligned priests
11 captains
6 shades
5 liches
4 clay golems
3 nurses
8 ice devils
2 nalfeshnees
5 lurkers above
3 Aleaxes
3 frost giants
9 ettins
3 golden nagas
18 black puddings
28 vampires
10 lieutenants
a watch captain
42 ghosts
a queen bee
15 winged gargoyles
a mind flayer
13 giant mimics
11 zruties
33 fire giants
11 ogre kings
7 ice trolls
31 rock trolls
13 umber hulks
8 flesh golems
10 Elvenkings
9 doppelgangers
8 hezrous
21 bone devils
7 large mimics
6 wumpuses
12 fire vortices
a baby purple worm
12 long worms
4 couatls
19 stalkers
13 air elementals
28 fire elementals
30 earth elementals
32 water elementals
18 hill giants
8 giant mummies
6 black nagas
13 xorns
15 giant zombies
22 elf-lords
25 sergeants
2 water demons
18 barbed devils
13 vrocks
9 salamanders
24 wargs
2 winter wolves
4 hell hound pups
24 small mimics
3 glass piercers
5 warhorses
13 steam vortices
20 xans
8 ettin mummies
7 ogre lords
7 quantum mechanics
19 trolls
3 sasquatches
6 wood golems
3 erinyes
6 mariliths
a djinni
7 sharks
13 electric eels
8 gelatinous cubes
5 pyrolisks
a large dog
4 freezing spheres
5 flaming spheres
7 shocking spheres
14 tigers
6 gargoyles
2 dwarf kings
6 tengu
9 ochre jellies
17 leocrottas
7 energy vortices
a mountain centaur
10 stone giants
6 elf mummies
4 human mummies
2 red nagas
5 green slimes
24 pit vipers
a python
17 cobras
62 wraiths
10 carnivorous apes
18 ettin zombies
2 leather golems
11 Grey-elves
103 soldiers
4 watchmen
12 horned devils
8 succubi
7 incubi
15 chameleons
2 crocodiles
18 giant beetles
9 quivering blobs
35 cockatrices
21 wolves
10 winter wolf cubs
4 lynxes
5 panthers
15 gremlins
2 spotted jellies
7 leprechauns
6 orc-captains
17 iron piercers
7 mumakil
16 giant spiders
8 scorpions
7 horses
7 black lights
9 vampire bats
2 forest centaurs
9 gnome kings
9 orc mummies
7 dwarf mummies
5 ogres
4 brown puddings
15 rust monsters
17 owlbears
14 yetis
6 gold golems
4 werewolves
14 Green-elves
5 piranhas
18 giant eels
26 lizards
2 warriors
13 chickatrices
4 dogs
3 dingos
a housecat
9 jaguars
4 dwarf lords
9 blue jellies
3 white unicorns
4 black unicorns
17 dust vortices
3 ravens
6 plains centaurs
2 gnome mummies
6 snakes
9 water moccasins
11 apes
32 human zombies
5 rope golems
15 Woodland-elves
26 soldier ants
93 fire ants
11 bugbears
2 imps
16 lemures
13 quasits
6 wood nymphs
9 water nymphs
6 mountain nymphs
10 Mordor orcs
12 Uruk-hai
4 orc shamans
10 rock piercers
4 rock moles
6 ponies
15 fog clouds
12 yellow lights
3 shriekers
8 violet fungi
31 gnome lords
12 gnomish wizards
9 kobold mummies
2 black naga hatchlings
a golden naga hatchling
a guardian naga hatchling
10 gray oozes
5 barrow wights
28 elf zombies
20 ghouls
2 straw golems
4 paper golems
8 jellyfish
a baby crocodile
28 giant ants
2 little dogs
14 floating eyes
4 kittens
27 dwarves
8 homunculi
3 kobold lords
3 kobold shamans
43 hill orcs
36 rothes
4 rabid rats
a centipede
5 giant bats
4 monkeys
24 orc zombies
20 dwarf zombies
2 wererats
3 werejackals
15 iguanas
65 killer bees
7 acid blobs
8 coyotes
a gas spore
9 hobbits
6 manes
3 large kobolds
13 hobgoblins
19 giant rats
13 cave spiders
2 brown molds
6 yellow molds
4 green molds
4 red molds
66 gnomes
9 garter snakes
11 gnome zombies
12 geckos
6 jackals
3 foxes
4 kobolds
5 goblins
14 sewer rats
8 grid bugs
2 bats
16 lichens
14 kobold zombies
10 newts
3119 creatures vanquished.
Genocided species:
hobbits
dwarves
bugbears
dwarf lords
dwarf kings
mind flayers
master mind flayers
liches
demiliches
master liches
arch-liches
11 species genocided.
Voluntary challenges:
You genocided 11 types of monsters.
You never changed form.
You used 10 wishes.
You did not wish for any artifacts.
Farvel DianaFury the Demigoddess...
You went to your reward with 5135492 points,
Grayswandir (worth 8000 zorkmids and 20000 points)
The Orb of Fate (worth 3500 zorkmids and 8750 points)
Fire Brand (worth 3000 zorkmids and 7500 points)
The Bell of Opening (worth 5000 zorkmids and 12500 points)
8 rubies (worth 28000 zorkmids),
6 diamonds (worth 24000 zorkmids),
3 emeralds (worth 7500 zorkmids),
3 aquamarine stones (worth 4500 zorkmids),
3 amethyst stones (worth 1800 zorkmids),
2 garnet stones (worth 1400 zorkmids),
2 jasper stones (worth 1000 zorkmids),
1 jacinth stone (worth 3250 zorkmids),
1 black opal (worth 2500 zorkmids),
1 chrysoberyl stone (worth 700 zorkmids),
2 amulets of life saving (worth 300 zorkmids),
1 amulet of ESP (worth 150 zorkmids),
1 amulet of unchanging (worth 150 zorkmids),
1 amulet of reflection (worth 150 zorkmids),
1 amulet of magical breathing (worth 150 zorkmids),
1 cheap plastic imitation of the Amulet of Yendor (worth 0 zorkmids),
and 1268 pieces of gold, after 74457 moves.
You were level 21 with a maximum of 307 hit points when you ascended.
Well, what have we here? A blog!
Diana and I got up and at-them on Friday morn, destination: Disneyland. Seems like a long time ago. We got up there in good time, and checked into our crappy hotel right across the street from the park. We got all our gear ready, and hit the park!
Disneyland is still a lot of fun. It's not quite as much running-around-wildly-from-ride-to-ride fun as it used to be, but what youthful enthusiasm is taken away by experience is equally replaced by nostalgia. We got our tickets and headed in. We wandered over towards the Indiana Jones ride, but the line said there was a 45 minute wait, so we decided to check it out later. We hit up Pirates and the Haunted House, which we could basically walk on.
I noticed a subtle change in Pirates which is worth mentioning. Maybe it's been like this for a while, but I just noticed it. In the part where the pirates are in town and buying brides, there are some places where the pirates are running lustily after the ladies of the town. However, in one spot the fat ugly is running after the pirate! (See, 'cause she's fat and ugly and all). But they've changed it so that the pirate has food in his hand, and the lady is chasing after him with a rolling pin, as if he'd stolen food (and wasn't just repulsed by her). So, there you have it.
Through the day, we hit up all your standard rides (minus Space Mountain, which was closed). The PeopleMover has long since been replaced by the Rocket Rods or something, but those are gone now as well. Basically, Tomorrowland was a big fat wasteland, with the exception of Star Tours (commander Rex still isn't any better at flying that goddamn thing). I always feel a little queasy after Star Tours (not to mention the Teacups, which were forgone completely this trip).
For lunch, we headed out of the park and checked out a little Downtown Disney, a shopping mall right next door. We ate at some "Nawlins" jazz-themed place. I had your standard $10 cheeseburger, which was pretty good. Hit the park for the rest of the afternoon, and found we'd done all the stuff we'd wanted to do by the time the sun was going down. We headed back to the hotel for a brief respite, and then over to the mall again for dinner. This time, we just got some pizza slices and sat outside and peoplewatched. The mall was busy, and it was a beautiful night, and it was nice to be outside.
The next day, we headed up north to T.O. for the wedding of Diana's cousin. Diana's sister and parents were already there, and were getting together with some others of Diana's extended family. We found some lunch at a Soupplantation next door, and got all settled in the hotel, visited a little with Diana's sister, and headed to the wedding.
The wedding was really nice. Diana's cousin Elise was marrying a nice-looking guy named E.J. (who looked eerily like the Rizatch with a shaved head). I'd met Elise at another of Diana's cousins wedding, and I liked her a lot. She definitely struck me as a tom-boy, with a deep husky voice and broad shoulders and somewhat lacking in what one might call lady-like grace. I don't mean that in an insulting way, at all, but it seemed clear to me that as a kid she'd rather be wearing jeans and playing in the mud than in dress playing dolls with the girls. I dug it. And in spite of all of the above, she really made a stunning bride, and it was really neat to see how happy she and her groom were through the night. I really, really enjoy weddings when they go well.
The night was fun. The reception was held at a nice golf club, which I have a sneaking suspicion was where Nick and Jessica (from the Newlyweds show) played golf in their infamous "golf" episode (confirmed. I rock). Diana and I and Alicia sat at the "kids table" with the other cousins who were fun to hang out with. We spent the evening chatting and doing some dancing and watching. Good times.
This morning, we got up and met some of the relatives for breaky, and sat by the pool and read our books for a while. Then to the bride's parents house for a nice lunch, and then the long drive home.
Good, long, busy, tiring weekend. I'm glad to be home.
Diana and I got up and at-them on Friday morn, destination: Disneyland. Seems like a long time ago. We got up there in good time, and checked into our crappy hotel right across the street from the park. We got all our gear ready, and hit the park!
Disneyland is still a lot of fun. It's not quite as much running-around-wildly-from-ride-to-ride fun as it used to be, but what youthful enthusiasm is taken away by experience is equally replaced by nostalgia. We got our tickets and headed in. We wandered over towards the Indiana Jones ride, but the line said there was a 45 minute wait, so we decided to check it out later. We hit up Pirates and the Haunted House, which we could basically walk on.
I noticed a subtle change in Pirates which is worth mentioning. Maybe it's been like this for a while, but I just noticed it. In the part where the pirates are in town and buying brides, there are some places where the pirates are running lustily after the ladies of the town. However, in one spot the fat ugly is running after the pirate! (See, 'cause she's fat and ugly and all). But they've changed it so that the pirate has food in his hand, and the lady is chasing after him with a rolling pin, as if he'd stolen food (and wasn't just repulsed by her). So, there you have it.
Through the day, we hit up all your standard rides (minus Space Mountain, which was closed). The PeopleMover has long since been replaced by the Rocket Rods or something, but those are gone now as well. Basically, Tomorrowland was a big fat wasteland, with the exception of Star Tours (commander Rex still isn't any better at flying that goddamn thing). I always feel a little queasy after Star Tours (not to mention the Teacups, which were forgone completely this trip).
For lunch, we headed out of the park and checked out a little Downtown Disney, a shopping mall right next door. We ate at some "Nawlins" jazz-themed place. I had your standard $10 cheeseburger, which was pretty good. Hit the park for the rest of the afternoon, and found we'd done all the stuff we'd wanted to do by the time the sun was going down. We headed back to the hotel for a brief respite, and then over to the mall again for dinner. This time, we just got some pizza slices and sat outside and peoplewatched. The mall was busy, and it was a beautiful night, and it was nice to be outside.
The next day, we headed up north to T.O. for the wedding of Diana's cousin. Diana's sister and parents were already there, and were getting together with some others of Diana's extended family. We found some lunch at a Soupplantation next door, and got all settled in the hotel, visited a little with Diana's sister, and headed to the wedding.
The wedding was really nice. Diana's cousin Elise was marrying a nice-looking guy named E.J. (who looked eerily like the Rizatch with a shaved head). I'd met Elise at another of Diana's cousins wedding, and I liked her a lot. She definitely struck me as a tom-boy, with a deep husky voice and broad shoulders and somewhat lacking in what one might call lady-like grace. I don't mean that in an insulting way, at all, but it seemed clear to me that as a kid she'd rather be wearing jeans and playing in the mud than in dress playing dolls with the girls. I dug it. And in spite of all of the above, she really made a stunning bride, and it was really neat to see how happy she and her groom were through the night. I really, really enjoy weddings when they go well.
The night was fun. The reception was held at a nice golf club, which I have a sneaking suspicion was where Nick and Jessica (from the Newlyweds show) played golf in their infamous "golf" episode (confirmed. I rock). Diana and I and Alicia sat at the "kids table" with the other cousins who were fun to hang out with. We spent the evening chatting and doing some dancing and watching. Good times.
This morning, we got up and met some of the relatives for breaky, and sat by the pool and read our books for a while. Then to the bride's parents house for a nice lunch, and then the long drive home.
Good, long, busy, tiring weekend. I'm glad to be home.
2004/04/21
I saw a license plate holder on the way to work this morning that said "Got Breastmilk?"
Um... Yes? No? What's the correct answer, here? Or if it's a rhetorical question, what's the message? I didn't quite get it. I'm really sick of the whole "Got X" thing. My idea is a bumper sticker that says "Got Originality?" as a little ironic jab.
So I've been thinking a bit about this lately. A long time ago I came up with a classification system for the way people look. Maybe this isn't too original, but I've found that lots of people fit (to me, at least) into just a few basic categories.
I guess that this started way back in the day when Shaq first came on the scene, and Friends was still fresh, and I noticed how sleepy Shaq and David Schwimmer were. Hence, the "Sleepy people" category was born. You can tell sleepy people by their drooping eyelids, slightly slurring speech, and general "I just woke up" appearance. Once you know the look, you'll find they're all over the place.
Elfy people are sort of pixie-like. Small and thin, with bright eyes and straight hair. Bonus points for hair so flat that their ears poke through (a la Gelflings from the Dark Crystal).
Horsey folks have, obviously, long faces ("Why the long face?") and big teeth.
There's others, as well. Piggy. Froggy. Cavemannish. I saw a perfect caveman on the way to the Padres game the other night. Big strong forehead, deepset eyes, big snout. There was also a noteable one as a PE teacher at my high school (you should know immediately who I'm talking about).
It should be noted, though, that not everyone fits into a category named above (in fact, most people don't), so if you don't know which category you fit into, this probably doesn't apply to you.
Maybe this is all so obvious that it's not worth pointing out. But I have fun with it, and maybe you can too.
Um... Yes? No? What's the correct answer, here? Or if it's a rhetorical question, what's the message? I didn't quite get it. I'm really sick of the whole "Got X" thing. My idea is a bumper sticker that says "Got Originality?" as a little ironic jab.
So I've been thinking a bit about this lately. A long time ago I came up with a classification system for the way people look. Maybe this isn't too original, but I've found that lots of people fit (to me, at least) into just a few basic categories.
I guess that this started way back in the day when Shaq first came on the scene, and Friends was still fresh, and I noticed how sleepy Shaq and David Schwimmer were. Hence, the "Sleepy people" category was born. You can tell sleepy people by their drooping eyelids, slightly slurring speech, and general "I just woke up" appearance. Once you know the look, you'll find they're all over the place.
Elfy people are sort of pixie-like. Small and thin, with bright eyes and straight hair. Bonus points for hair so flat that their ears poke through (a la Gelflings from the Dark Crystal).
Horsey folks have, obviously, long faces ("Why the long face?") and big teeth.
There's others, as well. Piggy. Froggy. Cavemannish. I saw a perfect caveman on the way to the Padres game the other night. Big strong forehead, deepset eyes, big snout. There was also a noteable one as a PE teacher at my high school (you should know immediately who I'm talking about).
It should be noted, though, that not everyone fits into a category named above (in fact, most people don't), so if you don't know which category you fit into, this probably doesn't apply to you.
Maybe this is all so obvious that it's not worth pointing out. But I have fun with it, and maybe you can too.
2004/04/18
Ahh... another busy weekend.
Friday night, Diana and I were lucky enough to be offered some tickets to the Padres game down at their new Petco Park, so we headed down to check that out. We were a little lost and overwhelmed, but had a good time. The new ballpark is pretty cool. I look forward to checking it out again soon.
Saturday, we did lots of work around the house, and went out to see the Cirque du Soleil: Varekai show down at the Q. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was really neat. They come out and do something totally mindblowing, and then top it with something even cooler after that. Pretty neat.
Today, we did some more work around the house, and then I went golfing with Iwan for the afternoon. We played a skins game, match play and stroke play all at the same time, which made for some craziness at the end.
Best quote of the day, on the 18th tee:
Iwan: "How should I play this? I could lay up, but the man in me wants to drive for the green..."
Adam, thinking: "What would Jesus do"?
Iwan, answering both my question and his: "Jesus doesn't lay up."
Adam: "That's going in my blog!"
Maybe you had to be there.
Busy weekends are fun, but man, Sunday ends pretty quick.
Friday night, Diana and I were lucky enough to be offered some tickets to the Padres game down at their new Petco Park, so we headed down to check that out. We were a little lost and overwhelmed, but had a good time. The new ballpark is pretty cool. I look forward to checking it out again soon.
Saturday, we did lots of work around the house, and went out to see the Cirque du Soleil: Varekai show down at the Q. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was really neat. They come out and do something totally mindblowing, and then top it with something even cooler after that. Pretty neat.
Today, we did some more work around the house, and then I went golfing with Iwan for the afternoon. We played a skins game, match play and stroke play all at the same time, which made for some craziness at the end.
Best quote of the day, on the 18th tee:
Iwan: "How should I play this? I could lay up, but the man in me wants to drive for the green..."
Adam, thinking: "What would Jesus do"?
Iwan, answering both my question and his: "Jesus doesn't lay up."
Adam: "That's going in my blog!"
Maybe you had to be there.
Busy weekends are fun, but man, Sunday ends pretty quick.
2004/04/15
Well, lessee here.
I'm mostly over my cold, which is good. There's nothing like feeling like crap to make you enjoy feeling good again.
Last night I played in my first official basketball game. I completely suck balls at basketball, but it's good to get out and run around. I didn't feel nearly as bad as when I filled in a couple times last season. So I'm looking forward to that helping get me back in shape.
I played some BFVN last night with Baditude and Discostup. Good stuff. I also played a little tonight with Baditude in what I thought was going to be an official type match, but it never really materialized as such (maybe I was wrong in my assumption). But still fun.
Diana is going to come home momentarily, and we're going to make one of my favorite dinners and watch Survivor. Tomorrow is Friday, and Saturday, we have fun plans all day and into the evening! Everything's coming up Adman!
I'm mostly over my cold, which is good. There's nothing like feeling like crap to make you enjoy feeling good again.
Last night I played in my first official basketball game. I completely suck balls at basketball, but it's good to get out and run around. I didn't feel nearly as bad as when I filled in a couple times last season. So I'm looking forward to that helping get me back in shape.
I played some BFVN last night with Baditude and Discostup. Good stuff. I also played a little tonight with Baditude in what I thought was going to be an official type match, but it never really materialized as such (maybe I was wrong in my assumption). But still fun.
Diana is going to come home momentarily, and we're going to make one of my favorite dinners and watch Survivor. Tomorrow is Friday, and Saturday, we have fun plans all day and into the evening! Everything's coming up Adman!
2004/04/14
Just a slight rant.
I heard a radio caller the other day call in and say "I agree with you... 200 percent!" Class, can we please NOT use percents higher than 100 in situations like this? It just starts getting rediculous. It reminds me of an old magic store catalog I used to get. The guy would rate products in stars: eight stars, nine stars. Soon it was ten stars, then ELEVEN and TWELVE stars? What?! What scale are we using here?
Quoted from a meatheed on the Real World last night: "I'm a big believer in Fate. What's supposed to happen is going to happen." Is there a bigger copout than this? It obliterates the idea of any sort of personal responsibility. I guess there's a lot of room for a quite deep metaphysical discussion of free will vs. fate here, so if you're going to make a claim, you better be able to back it up, and not just be a meatheed who had a one-night stand and is trying to rationalize it.
"Everything happens for a reason". Essentially the same as the above, but in reverse. Frequently, someone just fucked something up, and then says, "Hey, everything happens for a reason". Yeah, the reason that the thing happened was because you did it. The sentence implies that the reason is some quasi-religous, metaphysical force (Fate, I guess), which I think too many people say they believe in just because it's easy to get away with more stuff and blame it on Fate.
I guess my main problem isn't with the idea of Fate itself, but when a meathead claims that something happens for a reason to exonerate himself from the responsibility.
Cue: Baditude.
I heard a radio caller the other day call in and say "I agree with you... 200 percent!" Class, can we please NOT use percents higher than 100 in situations like this? It just starts getting rediculous. It reminds me of an old magic store catalog I used to get. The guy would rate products in stars: eight stars, nine stars. Soon it was ten stars, then ELEVEN and TWELVE stars? What?! What scale are we using here?
Quoted from a meatheed on the Real World last night: "I'm a big believer in Fate. What's supposed to happen is going to happen." Is there a bigger copout than this? It obliterates the idea of any sort of personal responsibility. I guess there's a lot of room for a quite deep metaphysical discussion of free will vs. fate here, so if you're going to make a claim, you better be able to back it up, and not just be a meatheed who had a one-night stand and is trying to rationalize it.
"Everything happens for a reason". Essentially the same as the above, but in reverse. Frequently, someone just fucked something up, and then says, "Hey, everything happens for a reason". Yeah, the reason that the thing happened was because you did it. The sentence implies that the reason is some quasi-religous, metaphysical force (Fate, I guess), which I think too many people say they believe in just because it's easy to get away with more stuff and blame it on Fate.
I guess my main problem isn't with the idea of Fate itself, but when a meathead claims that something happens for a reason to exonerate himself from the responsibility.
Cue: Baditude.
2004/04/11
Ugh. What a waste of a weekend. I spent basically the whole time on the couch watching TV, blowing my nose and coughing and feeling like crap. Bleah.
Diana was showing symptoms of an ear infection this weekend as well, which was a bummer. She went to the doctor who saw some fluid in there and got some antibio's, and is feeling a lot better. I think it was Friday, though, that we spent most of the day crashed out, both of us just blobs on the couch.
We were able to get out to see Eryn and Iwan on Friday night, which was fun. Eryn just had knee surgery (I saw the video!) and was chillin' with his pops for a day or two to recover. We watched an episode of Freaks and Geeks, and I was reminded of how great that show was. Too bad it didn't make it. I also had a great time just sitting aroung gabbing with those two. I sometimes get sentimental thinking about what great friends I have, and it makes me happy.
I logged a little Battlefield Vietnam time, which was pretty fun. I'm still learning hard lessons in Nethack, but each lesson gets me closer to the goal.
I'm not looking foward to work tomorrow. Oh well.
Diana was showing symptoms of an ear infection this weekend as well, which was a bummer. She went to the doctor who saw some fluid in there and got some antibio's, and is feeling a lot better. I think it was Friday, though, that we spent most of the day crashed out, both of us just blobs on the couch.
We were able to get out to see Eryn and Iwan on Friday night, which was fun. Eryn just had knee surgery (I saw the video!) and was chillin' with his pops for a day or two to recover. We watched an episode of Freaks and Geeks, and I was reminded of how great that show was. Too bad it didn't make it. I also had a great time just sitting aroung gabbing with those two. I sometimes get sentimental thinking about what great friends I have, and it makes me happy.
I logged a little Battlefield Vietnam time, which was pretty fun. I'm still learning hard lessons in Nethack, but each lesson gets me closer to the goal.
I'm not looking foward to work tomorrow. Oh well.
2004/04/08
Well, we're back.
I've come down with some sort of cold, and left work early. I have the day off tomorrow, as well, so that will be nice.
I just discovered ad-ware on my computer. I hate those fuckers, even worse than spammers. I don't know how it got there, but I *did* just download and install some Kodak picture printing software. I suspect something there. For those not in the know, there is a handy program called Ad-Aware which will scan your computer, much like a virus checker, and remove all unwanted junk.
That's all for now. I'm just going to sniffle and sneeze my way through some computer games, I think. If I don't feel much better, I'll head over to the E.R. (ha!)
I've come down with some sort of cold, and left work early. I have the day off tomorrow, as well, so that will be nice.
I just discovered ad-ware on my computer. I hate those fuckers, even worse than spammers. I don't know how it got there, but I *did* just download and install some Kodak picture printing software. I suspect something there. For those not in the know, there is a handy program called Ad-Aware which will scan your computer, much like a virus checker, and remove all unwanted junk.
That's all for now. I'm just going to sniffle and sneeze my way through some computer games, I think. If I don't feel much better, I'll head over to the E.R. (ha!)
2004/04/06
Ugh... This 28.8 kbps modem is killing me. Better than nothing, I guess.
More Montana.
Yesterday, D and I woke up late (ahh, it's nice sleep in), and headed up to Big Mountain, the local ski mountain. It's the very end of the season, and the place was almost a ghost town. In spite of that, the lifts were running, and there were a few skiers and boarders braving the slushy snow. We wandered around for a little, stopping into a few shops and looking around, but eventually headed back down to Whitefish lake where we had lunch and skipped more rocks. Really nice views and relaxing little park on the lake.
After lunch, we walked through the touristy gift shops of Whitefish, which are nice, but all kind of look the same to me. Then back to the house for some relaxing and reading. We made some dinner, had a nice fire, and watched the second half of the NCAA championships, not really caring who won, but hoping for an exciting game, which it wasn't really. Oh well.
This morning, we got up and ready and headed over to Big Fork, not really sure what we'd find, but figuring it would be a fun adventure. What we found was sort of a Whitefish clone -- a small town with a touristy main drag of gift shops and restaurants. We bopped around a little, and headed over to Flathead lake, where we found an abandoned State Park campsite. We picked a nice little spot next to the lake and had lunch (a running theme this trip). The drive to and from was about an hour each way, and really beautiful, but we're ready to be back and have a nap or some book reading.
I'm partway through the second "Game of Thrones" book (Clash of Kings, I think?... I don't even know). I'm really enjoying it.
This trip has been really nice. It hasn't been busy by any scope, but it has been a bit more active than I anticipated, which is nice. While we were out, we picked up a bunch of little brochures of fun stuff to do for when we come back in the summer: fishing, hiking, kayaking, white water rafting, mountain biking, etc. That should be a lot of fun.
Tonight, we're going to conduct a little recon mission on a local sushi house (that's for you, Mick), and maybe check out the local poker scene on a Tuesday night. Who knows.
The trips gone by faster than I expected. It's nice to be here, but I'm also looking forward to getting back home. I work on Thursday, but have Friday off for Easter. I'll have to get my fill of Cadbury Cream Eggs before then.
My boy Eron is having knee surgery this Wednesday. I remember what a bummer it was when I was down and out with a concussion, and hope I can help him get better by joining him for lots of games and movie watching. I got your back, dog.
Ok, my book is calling me. Lata.
More Montana.
Yesterday, D and I woke up late (ahh, it's nice sleep in), and headed up to Big Mountain, the local ski mountain. It's the very end of the season, and the place was almost a ghost town. In spite of that, the lifts were running, and there were a few skiers and boarders braving the slushy snow. We wandered around for a little, stopping into a few shops and looking around, but eventually headed back down to Whitefish lake where we had lunch and skipped more rocks. Really nice views and relaxing little park on the lake.
After lunch, we walked through the touristy gift shops of Whitefish, which are nice, but all kind of look the same to me. Then back to the house for some relaxing and reading. We made some dinner, had a nice fire, and watched the second half of the NCAA championships, not really caring who won, but hoping for an exciting game, which it wasn't really. Oh well.
This morning, we got up and ready and headed over to Big Fork, not really sure what we'd find, but figuring it would be a fun adventure. What we found was sort of a Whitefish clone -- a small town with a touristy main drag of gift shops and restaurants. We bopped around a little, and headed over to Flathead lake, where we found an abandoned State Park campsite. We picked a nice little spot next to the lake and had lunch (a running theme this trip). The drive to and from was about an hour each way, and really beautiful, but we're ready to be back and have a nap or some book reading.
I'm partway through the second "Game of Thrones" book (Clash of Kings, I think?... I don't even know). I'm really enjoying it.
This trip has been really nice. It hasn't been busy by any scope, but it has been a bit more active than I anticipated, which is nice. While we were out, we picked up a bunch of little brochures of fun stuff to do for when we come back in the summer: fishing, hiking, kayaking, white water rafting, mountain biking, etc. That should be a lot of fun.
Tonight, we're going to conduct a little recon mission on a local sushi house (that's for you, Mick), and maybe check out the local poker scene on a Tuesday night. Who knows.
The trips gone by faster than I expected. It's nice to be here, but I'm also looking forward to getting back home. I work on Thursday, but have Friday off for Easter. I'll have to get my fill of Cadbury Cream Eggs before then.
My boy Eron is having knee surgery this Wednesday. I remember what a bummer it was when I was down and out with a concussion, and hope I can help him get better by joining him for lots of games and movie watching. I got your back, dog.
Ok, my book is calling me. Lata.
2004/04/05
Montana Day 2 (guest appearance: Diana)
Yesterday we had a slow start, seeing as we were on a time change, tired from travelling, and subject to Daylight Savings. We woke up at about 11am local time to a gorgeous view from the master bedroom. It feels like we were sleeping in the treetops all night long. It feels so different to wake up to complete silence - no alarms, no phone calls, no traffic, no neighbors in their yard. It is so incredibly quiet up here.
After a late breakfast, we left the house on our way to the west entrance of Glacier National Park. We weren't really sure how much of the park would be open becuase of the remaining snow, but we went for it anyway. After an hour drive or so, we got to the park, and were able to drive about 15 miles in - better than nothing. Although lodges/stores/visitors centers were closed inside the park, we were able to get out of the car and walk down to Lake McDonald. I love lakes. The water is just so perfectly flat.
The temperature was crisp (for us - 55 or so), but the sky was clear. I'm sure we'll link some pictures here later, but they won't do the view justice. We ate some snacks, skipped some rocks, then headed back out of the park.
On our way home, we stopped for some groceries and then back home. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading books and napping by the fire. By 7 we were awake again and took a long walk around the "neighborhood" (just a few houses around here). Came home for dinner and watched some old episodes of the Muppets with Steve Martin and Carol Burnett. Adam loves that show, but I think that it is pretty weird and that Henson must have been on drugs. Not to say that it wasn't a great show to watch with the family, but it is strange. Cookies for dessert and then off to bed.
Highlights for me: feeling like my eyes had the chance to stretch all day long, watching Adam skip rocks and try to throw skinny rocks so that they would make the smallest splash possible, and watching the full moon rise from the dinner table.
Yesterday we had a slow start, seeing as we were on a time change, tired from travelling, and subject to Daylight Savings. We woke up at about 11am local time to a gorgeous view from the master bedroom. It feels like we were sleeping in the treetops all night long. It feels so different to wake up to complete silence - no alarms, no phone calls, no traffic, no neighbors in their yard. It is so incredibly quiet up here.
After a late breakfast, we left the house on our way to the west entrance of Glacier National Park. We weren't really sure how much of the park would be open becuase of the remaining snow, but we went for it anyway. After an hour drive or so, we got to the park, and were able to drive about 15 miles in - better than nothing. Although lodges/stores/visitors centers were closed inside the park, we were able to get out of the car and walk down to Lake McDonald. I love lakes. The water is just so perfectly flat.
The temperature was crisp (for us - 55 or so), but the sky was clear. I'm sure we'll link some pictures here later, but they won't do the view justice. We ate some snacks, skipped some rocks, then headed back out of the park.
On our way home, we stopped for some groceries and then back home. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading books and napping by the fire. By 7 we were awake again and took a long walk around the "neighborhood" (just a few houses around here). Came home for dinner and watched some old episodes of the Muppets with Steve Martin and Carol Burnett. Adam loves that show, but I think that it is pretty weird and that Henson must have been on drugs. Not to say that it wasn't a great show to watch with the family, but it is strange. Cookies for dessert and then off to bed.
Highlights for me: feeling like my eyes had the chance to stretch all day long, watching Adam skip rocks and try to throw skinny rocks so that they would make the smallest splash possible, and watching the full moon rise from the dinner table.
2004/04/04
Montana, Day 1
Yesterday, Diana and I woke up at around 4:30am to get up and ready for our 6:15am flight. Ugh. But everything was pretty uneventful during the travel. We flew through Salt Lake City, which is fun. It's neat to see the subtle and not so subtle Mormon influence, even in the airport. We found a local paper and I was interested to see how pervasive the religion was in lots of aspects (letters to the editor, particularly). I've obviously never spent much time in Utah.
We eventually made it to Kalispell, where we were picked up by a nice guy running a shuttle service. He dropped us off at the door of the house my parents built (named "Emily" by me, and some point, in a complete fit of randomness).
The house is in great shape. We wandered around, checking all the bits and so forth. We called my parents and checked in, and they were able to help make sure some important things were set up (ie, hot water heater was turned on, which it wasn't).
We hung around for the afternoon, just reading and relaxing and getting over the weariness of travel. It was a nice day, and I set up the hammock on the back porch and tested it out for a while. I'm not sure if the weather is going to hold up to keep it up, but it was nice to sit there.
After a brief discussion of what we wanted to accomplish during our stay, we headed out for dinner, and the plan was to hit the grocery store on the way back. We went out for pizza, which was nice, and then walked around the little town of Whitefish for a bit.
We passed by two different bars, both advertising Poker. We actually walked through and checked out the games. Each bar had a single poker table set up in the back, both playing the same games, either Hold'em or Tahoe (more later). Both were $1-$5 spread limit, which means that on any round you can bet/raise anywhere from $1 to $5. Each had a single $1 blind, as well.
We watched for a while, and then headed towards the car. Diana asked if I wanted to play, and I was sort of once the fence. It was pretty intimidating, to wander into the back of a bar and play cards. She sounded on the fence as well, and we decided spur of the moment to just go for it.
The table in the first bar we stopped in was really smoky, so we headed next door. There were some folks sitting around the table, not playing, but we said we were interested, and that gave enough players to start. We cashed in for $50 each, and were given a $10 bonus that would be forfeit unless we went broke or played for longer than two hours.
In spite of the intimidation, it was really a lot of fun. There was me and Diana, and the dealer Joanne, who was an ex-Vegas dealer who'd dealt at the WSOP at one point. Jim, who we found out shortly later was a house player, and somehow connected with the bar (hell, maybe owned the place), and two other locals. Everyone was REALLY nice, and asked us where we were from, how long we were in town, and so forth. We openly joked about how they were the locals and we were the touristy fish. It was all pretty light hearted and had a fun small-town feel to it.
Diana and I both started off by quickly dropping about $25 each, and then tightened up a bit and hung on for the ride.
I want to go over a couple hands for my own memory, just 'cause I've found they're fun to read about later.
There was a local at the table, Nick, who was a really funny guy, but he'd beat me pretty good a couple times. He'd caught me chasing a flush draw once or twice (stupid, stupid!). At one point, though, I had pocket 8's, and the flop came with some pretty big overcards, two of them suited. I checked, he bet, I called. The third of the suit came out, and I was pretty sure I was beat with an overpair, but I bet out $5 and he thought for a sec and folded. Total stone bluff, and the beginning of my luck change.
A bit later, I had pocket jacks, and I raised pretty good pre-flop and got some callers. Flop came nothing higher than a 9, so I bet out big and was called by Nick and maybe one other. Turn wasn't a help, so I bet out $5 and got called by Nick again. River comes 10. I re-check the board, and see a 7-8-9-10, and I've got two jacks. I bet big, and Nick calls, going all in. I flip over a jack for a straight, and he shows pocket Kings. He had be beat from the start, and I just got completely lucky on the river to get the straight. I felt pretty bad, and told him so. He took off pretty quick, and I said something again about what a bad beat that was. Someone at the table said "Hey, if he had done that to you, he wouldn't feel too bad about it." That made me not feel so bad.
At some point a drunk retiree joined us, who proceeded to get drunker and drunker as the game went on. He won big, and then gave it all back. I don't think anyone was sorry to see him go.
Also, at some point, it was stated that if you won with a 2-7, you'd win a free drink. Soon after, I was on the button with a 2-7 suited, and called for $1 to see it. Flop came 27x, and I bet and was folded to. I showed my 2-7, not knowing if the drink thing was real or not, and was offered a drink, but declined. But it was another fun moment.
At this point, the Canadians arrived. Yeah, you heard me. There was a huge group of Canadian 20-somethings, part of a 400 group tour or something. After a group got more and more intoxicated, they decided to give this poker thing a try. This is when my "luck" really changed.
I had a couple good hands that made a ton of money, making up for the money thrown to the locals earlier and then some. At one point, I had 6-9 diamonds and snuck in for $1 to see the flop, which came two diamonds. Some small betting, and I stayed in. Turn was another diamond, giving me a small flush, and also, I discovered, an inside straight flush draw. More betting, and I'm still in it. River comes an eight of diamonds. I've made my straight flush. I knee Diana under the table, and mutter "watch this". Two drunk Canadians bet, I raise, and I think one calls, and I flip over my straight flush. I don't really remember much after that. The dealer gave me a high-five, and told me I'd won a free t-shirt or cap, which I retrieved after the game. It was an awesome, heart-pounding moment.
We played a couple more hands, including a game called Tahoe, which is exactly like Hold'em, except you get three hole cards instead of two (you can only play up to two of those cards, though, just like HE). I was dealt 665, and asked Diana quietly what she'd do with a small pocket pair. She laughed and said to fold 'em, but I could see a cheap flop, and had just won a ton, so I called. Flop comes 652. I bet big and get one or two callers. Turn comes something like 8. I bet $5 and get at least one caller. River comes another two, making me a full house but not the nuts. Some bets $4 into me. I raise to $8, and someone behind me REraises to $12. Other guy folds, I call, and beat his straight (I think he had a 3-4, so was winning from the start) with my full boat. Another bad beat with me on the good side of it. Oh well.
At this point, the place is getting pretty rowdy. Diana, throughout the night, was staying even at about $15 or $20, and having a good time playing and watching and chatting.
We picked up my free shirt and bailed out of there. Combined total cashout for $132 and a lot of fun. The +$32 paid for our dinner beforehand, so there it is.
It was a very fun atmosphere. A lot different to player poker in a bar than a casino. LOTS of drunkards buying in for the minimum to see how this poker thing works. If I lived around here, I think I'd probably make it a regular habit to win money from the tourists. Drinking and poker do NOT mix well, in spite of the surroundings.
The game was run very professionally and friendly, though, by Jim and Joanne, and I'd highly recommend stopping by the Bulldog saloon if you're ever in Whitefish, and playing a hand or two. Your have your choice of friendly locals early in the evening who will take your money, or later, touristy yahoos who will give it away for free. Both have their pros and cons. :)
Yesterday, Diana and I woke up at around 4:30am to get up and ready for our 6:15am flight. Ugh. But everything was pretty uneventful during the travel. We flew through Salt Lake City, which is fun. It's neat to see the subtle and not so subtle Mormon influence, even in the airport. We found a local paper and I was interested to see how pervasive the religion was in lots of aspects (letters to the editor, particularly). I've obviously never spent much time in Utah.
We eventually made it to Kalispell, where we were picked up by a nice guy running a shuttle service. He dropped us off at the door of the house my parents built (named "Emily" by me, and some point, in a complete fit of randomness).
The house is in great shape. We wandered around, checking all the bits and so forth. We called my parents and checked in, and they were able to help make sure some important things were set up (ie, hot water heater was turned on, which it wasn't).
We hung around for the afternoon, just reading and relaxing and getting over the weariness of travel. It was a nice day, and I set up the hammock on the back porch and tested it out for a while. I'm not sure if the weather is going to hold up to keep it up, but it was nice to sit there.
After a brief discussion of what we wanted to accomplish during our stay, we headed out for dinner, and the plan was to hit the grocery store on the way back. We went out for pizza, which was nice, and then walked around the little town of Whitefish for a bit.
We passed by two different bars, both advertising Poker. We actually walked through and checked out the games. Each bar had a single poker table set up in the back, both playing the same games, either Hold'em or Tahoe (more later). Both were $1-$5 spread limit, which means that on any round you can bet/raise anywhere from $1 to $5. Each had a single $1 blind, as well.
We watched for a while, and then headed towards the car. Diana asked if I wanted to play, and I was sort of once the fence. It was pretty intimidating, to wander into the back of a bar and play cards. She sounded on the fence as well, and we decided spur of the moment to just go for it.
The table in the first bar we stopped in was really smoky, so we headed next door. There were some folks sitting around the table, not playing, but we said we were interested, and that gave enough players to start. We cashed in for $50 each, and were given a $10 bonus that would be forfeit unless we went broke or played for longer than two hours.
In spite of the intimidation, it was really a lot of fun. There was me and Diana, and the dealer Joanne, who was an ex-Vegas dealer who'd dealt at the WSOP at one point. Jim, who we found out shortly later was a house player, and somehow connected with the bar (hell, maybe owned the place), and two other locals. Everyone was REALLY nice, and asked us where we were from, how long we were in town, and so forth. We openly joked about how they were the locals and we were the touristy fish. It was all pretty light hearted and had a fun small-town feel to it.
Diana and I both started off by quickly dropping about $25 each, and then tightened up a bit and hung on for the ride.
I want to go over a couple hands for my own memory, just 'cause I've found they're fun to read about later.
There was a local at the table, Nick, who was a really funny guy, but he'd beat me pretty good a couple times. He'd caught me chasing a flush draw once or twice (stupid, stupid!). At one point, though, I had pocket 8's, and the flop came with some pretty big overcards, two of them suited. I checked, he bet, I called. The third of the suit came out, and I was pretty sure I was beat with an overpair, but I bet out $5 and he thought for a sec and folded. Total stone bluff, and the beginning of my luck change.
A bit later, I had pocket jacks, and I raised pretty good pre-flop and got some callers. Flop came nothing higher than a 9, so I bet out big and was called by Nick and maybe one other. Turn wasn't a help, so I bet out $5 and got called by Nick again. River comes 10. I re-check the board, and see a 7-8-9-10, and I've got two jacks. I bet big, and Nick calls, going all in. I flip over a jack for a straight, and he shows pocket Kings. He had be beat from the start, and I just got completely lucky on the river to get the straight. I felt pretty bad, and told him so. He took off pretty quick, and I said something again about what a bad beat that was. Someone at the table said "Hey, if he had done that to you, he wouldn't feel too bad about it." That made me not feel so bad.
At some point a drunk retiree joined us, who proceeded to get drunker and drunker as the game went on. He won big, and then gave it all back. I don't think anyone was sorry to see him go.
Also, at some point, it was stated that if you won with a 2-7, you'd win a free drink. Soon after, I was on the button with a 2-7 suited, and called for $1 to see it. Flop came 27x, and I bet and was folded to. I showed my 2-7, not knowing if the drink thing was real or not, and was offered a drink, but declined. But it was another fun moment.
At this point, the Canadians arrived. Yeah, you heard me. There was a huge group of Canadian 20-somethings, part of a 400 group tour or something. After a group got more and more intoxicated, they decided to give this poker thing a try. This is when my "luck" really changed.
I had a couple good hands that made a ton of money, making up for the money thrown to the locals earlier and then some. At one point, I had 6-9 diamonds and snuck in for $1 to see the flop, which came two diamonds. Some small betting, and I stayed in. Turn was another diamond, giving me a small flush, and also, I discovered, an inside straight flush draw. More betting, and I'm still in it. River comes an eight of diamonds. I've made my straight flush. I knee Diana under the table, and mutter "watch this". Two drunk Canadians bet, I raise, and I think one calls, and I flip over my straight flush. I don't really remember much after that. The dealer gave me a high-five, and told me I'd won a free t-shirt or cap, which I retrieved after the game. It was an awesome, heart-pounding moment.
We played a couple more hands, including a game called Tahoe, which is exactly like Hold'em, except you get three hole cards instead of two (you can only play up to two of those cards, though, just like HE). I was dealt 665, and asked Diana quietly what she'd do with a small pocket pair. She laughed and said to fold 'em, but I could see a cheap flop, and had just won a ton, so I called. Flop comes 652. I bet big and get one or two callers. Turn comes something like 8. I bet $5 and get at least one caller. River comes another two, making me a full house but not the nuts. Some bets $4 into me. I raise to $8, and someone behind me REraises to $12. Other guy folds, I call, and beat his straight (I think he had a 3-4, so was winning from the start) with my full boat. Another bad beat with me on the good side of it. Oh well.
At this point, the place is getting pretty rowdy. Diana, throughout the night, was staying even at about $15 or $20, and having a good time playing and watching and chatting.
We picked up my free shirt and bailed out of there. Combined total cashout for $132 and a lot of fun. The +$32 paid for our dinner beforehand, so there it is.
It was a very fun atmosphere. A lot different to player poker in a bar than a casino. LOTS of drunkards buying in for the minimum to see how this poker thing works. If I lived around here, I think I'd probably make it a regular habit to win money from the tourists. Drinking and poker do NOT mix well, in spite of the surroundings.
The game was run very professionally and friendly, though, by Jim and Joanne, and I'd highly recommend stopping by the Bulldog saloon if you're ever in Whitefish, and playing a hand or two. Your have your choice of friendly locals early in the evening who will take your money, or later, touristy yahoos who will give it away for free. Both have their pros and cons. :)
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