Three-Letter Acronyms & Four-Letter Words

Let me start off with the 87 years thing.

I managed to drag myself out of bed on Sunday morning to go bowling, I also managed to get Jeremy to meet me there. I originally wanted to get there at 10 am. However, I don't think I managed to get out the door until almost 10:20 or so.

Highland Lanes has a $7 all you can bowl from 9:30 to noon deal on Sundays. (They have some sort of other deal on Saturday mornings, but I forget.)

I did absolutely horrible my first game. To speak of it, I did absolutely HORRIBLE my first frame of my first game, I guttered both of balls of that frame. I mean if I had thrown the ball out too far and dumped it in the right gutter I don't think I would have felt as bad, but nope I managed to misread my first gutter-ball (which just barely missed the 7 pin) and manage to dump my second ball in the left gutter.

It took me until the second game to really get warmed up, I think I closed out the first one with something like an 84. My second game was a 143 if memory serves. However, my last score was like a 120 or so.

Jeremy managed to beat me 2 out of three games.

But the more amazing part of the morning was, Ray. I didn't take the change to get Ray's last name, but Ray started bowling next to us, and Ray is 87 years old.

I first noticed Ray when he was walking up to his table. At first I thought he was just there to watch someone bowl. However, then there was a loud thud as Ray dropped his rolling bowling bag at the table next to us. He proceeded to pull out two bowling balls and a large tablet of scores.

I wasn't paying attention to his first couple of frames. However, then I caught him strike one. I noticed that while his release was very unorthodox (not to say mine is textbook), he managed to get some hook on it (in case you are wondering he is a righty, so it hooks to the left).

I watched the next few frames here and there that Ray threw and noticed that he had a considerable amount of control over the ball, again give his unorthodox release I guess I was just surprised. There were a couple of moderately difficult spares that Ray picked up during the next game and a half. He also guttered a few, but at least he did it in the right gutter, which in my opinion is less of a sin when bowling hook than guttering in the left.

Oh yeah, did I mention the lanes were DRY. I mean normally Highland's lanes are basically dripping wet with 'lane conditioner', but not that morning. I think they did not bother to 'oil' the lanes that morning.

While Ray was not playing against Jeremy or I, he did manage to beat us. His score was a 133 and Jeremy's was a 130 and mine, well as I said mine was around a 120 or so.

I was intrigued enough with Ray that I just had to ask him how long he has been bowling.

I mean, my Pops has been bowling since he was a teenager (if memory serves like 14 or 15). And with that my Pops can come down here and use the house balls and beat me in my own alley. I know with a significant amount of experience you can continue to be good at anything, pretty much anytime or anyplace.

I was expecting that Ray had been bowling since the 1940s or something.

Nope, if I heard Ray correctly, he started bowling in 1988. I asked him how long he had been bowling 'hook'. He held up his hand which was pretty gnarly (I can't figure out a better way to describe it), he explained that he had BAD arthritis and had been bowling hook since shortly after he had started bowling.

Ray stated that when he was in league back in the '90s he had about a 200 average and that in his later years here his average was in the 150s.

I informed him that I wish I could have had an average that good and that I really hope that I am still bowling (and as good as he was) when I am his age. He sort of chuckled and said 'Thank You'.

I will have to keep an eye out for Ray and if I see him again at the lanes again I will see if I can buy him a Coke or a tea or something.

Right about now you must be asking "So what is with the 'fistful of quarters'?"

It all started back when Gina and I had Easter Dinner @ Jeremy & Nicole's.

I believe it was while we were waiting for dinner, I was flipping through the available movies to watch on the VoD (Video on Demand) as we were in the market for something to watch. While flipping through the available titles, I came across one called 'King of Kong', before I could read the rest of the title I had already pressed the 'Watch Preview' button. (Full Movie Name: 'The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters')

The preview started up and I was quite amazed at what came on the screen over about the next two minutes.

I mean, there was one sound-bite in there that was pure comic genius (from a purely, 'Are you fscking kidding me?' stand point).

"No matter what I say, it draws controversy. It's sort of like the abortion issue. "
-- Billy Mitchell, The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters

Ummm, so yeah. On the sheer audacity of that comment alone Jeremy and I vowed that we had to watch the movie. The wives pretty much instantly stated that they wanted nothing to do with the movie, given that it was a movie about Donkey Kong and two gamer (geeks) journey to the top.

Well, last night Jeremy and I watched the movie and were amazed at the what I can only call the 'geek sub-culture' that was caught on film.

The movie outlines the journey of Steve Wiebe (pronounced: /ˈwiːbi/), who decided that he wanted to become the best Donkey Kong game player ever. I will admit that I don't remember the specific day that he 'broke' the score, I should have been taking notes while watching the movie. But here is the deal, Steve had a purchased a Donkey Kong game at placed it in his garage.

Pretty sure he had started playing back in 2003, at some point he had determined that he was good enough to break the world record, held by Billy Mitchell. However, apparently due to a casual friendship with one 'Mr. Awesome' Steve's video taped score submission was dismissed. The reason being is that at one point one of the boards in the game had gone bad, and Ray ' Mr. Awesome' Shlidt was kind enough to purchase Steve a new one.

Unbeknown to Steve, there is bad blood between Ray and Billy. And therefore it was instantly assumed that the board had been tampered with and that was how Steve was able to beat Billy's score. Did I mention that Billy had the high-score for about 20 years.

20 YEARS!!!

In 20 years time, no one managed to beat Billy's high-score, not even Billy. (Not that I am sure Billy was even attempting to beat his own score.)

Well, the rest of the movie outlines Steve's struggle to achieve the winning score in a live venue. And possibly due to the editing of the movie (and bear in mind movies are supposed to be interesting, so unfortunately sometimes facts get left on the cutting room floor) it appeared that Billy was a complete and douche-bag to Steve. Not once meeting him 'on the field of battle' for a live head-to-head match of Donkey Kong.

And to add to the douche-bag effect, when Steve managed to beat Billy's high-score, in person, LIVE at the FunSpot, Billy seemingly, magically produces a video tape that puts Billy up over the million point mark, and thus beating Steve's recently set new high-score.

But to me what makes the tape submitted a douche-bag move is that the tape is shitty, there are 'copy-defects' which make it look like the score jumps at certain spots. Throughout the movie the integrity of the films that the Twin Galaxies referees painstakingly review is brought to light (I mean fscking painstakingly, for no money, I mean NO money for watching hours upon hours of mind numbing game play). However, when the this crappy copy shows up at the FunSpot, there is no question that it is a valid copy, because it came from Billy.

Oh yeah, I completely forgot to mention that Billy has some disciples that appear to do his bidding, maybe disciples isn't the right word, possibly minions would better describe these creepy guys that secretly phone Billy throughout the movie to report on Steve's movements or scores or whatever the fsck else.

I mean in regards to the copy, ummmm you are caught on tape talking about how important LIVE record setting is, and then when you have a score that is over a million you submit a SHITTY copy. Fsck that, burn a fscking DVD, fscking send in the fscking master or something.

On that same note, in my opinion because of the way that Twin Galaxies treated Steve (as per how things were recorded in the movie) they should have rejected Billy's score submission until they could review the master copy. I am not saying Billy cheated, I am just saying that it really chaps my ass when the rules are bent for one person but not for another (particularly when the rules don't appear to be written down away).

Well in the end, all of Steve's attempts to beat the new million plus Donkey Kong score set by Billy were for naught. But the movie did have a bit of a happy ending, Steve managed to beat Billy's score on video tape.

Go Steve.

Now, I will give the Twin Galaxies folks one point of credit. They gave Steve the credit for having the highest LIVE Donkey Kong score, eventually Steve held the highest LIVE donkey Kong Score and the recorded one as well. However, from looking over the Twin Galaxies site, it would appear that Billy has beaten Steve's score.

I mean, if you have some time to kill and you are at all interested in geek culture or video games, please find a copy of The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters.

Various Reference Sites
---------------------------------
http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=22&pi=2&gi=3852&vi=22
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_Kong:_A_Fistful_of_Quarters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mitchell_(gamer)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/quotes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Kong_(video_game)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wiebe
http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/the_king_of_kong_continued/1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/synopsis

Well, all for now....

Laterz

So when Jeremy was here about a month ago, geez it has already been about a month since that visit, he brought with him Halo 2. We played Halo 2 quite a bit, I was better than him for quite a bit, but he got better.

John bought me Halo 3 for my birthday, Thanks John!!!

John came over for dinner, Gina reheated some sauce and meatballs, she also made some tasty chicken.

We watched some of Firefly (the series) it was good, I caught a little bit of the series while it was still on the air, but didn't really get into it. I enjoyed the episodes we watched today.

John stepped out for a smoke, so I fired up the 360. I had figured that John and I would play a couple of games head-to-head, but as luck would have it Eric was online. I invited him to a game and he accepted.

In the end he won. But I got in a few good shots and kept the game close. I think the final score was 25 to 23. There were a few great moments in the game and a few lame ones.

I must say that I need to work on my strategy, I got a little predictable during the game.

I have been playing the campaign game (on easy) and I think I might be about 1/2 through.

Anyway, I need to get to bed.

Laterz

I don't remember exactly what it was that I was looking for when I found myself over at the Civilization site (official).

Civilization has been one of the franchises that has always been one of my favorites.

I have played them all, except for the latest expansion packs.

So the expansion pack for Civilization IV that has caught my eye is the "Beyond the sword" one. IT incorporates a much longer game that apparently takes you further into the space age.

There was a similar type expansion for Civilization III, which was pretty fun.

The changes from Civilization II to Civ III was pretty dramatic. They changed up combat, introduced strategic resources, modified some of the rules with government. Also introduced the "Army" concept. They disposed of trade caravans.

Well the changes from Civ III to Civ IV were also significant. They completely overhauled the government system and replaced it with "Civics" they also introduced the concept of religion into the game. (Pretty sure that came in Civ IV and not in Civ III).

So one of the things that bugged me about the Civ games and particularly in Civ 4 where the trade was completely controlled by the state (for the most part), was that the modern concept of Corporations was lacking. I mean while Corporations are bound to the rules of the nations they operate in, they are can become a global force to be reckoned with, not necessarily in terms of military might but that of the economic kind. This concept has bugged me more and more since I have been reading economic related books.

So I was pleased to see that they have added Corporations into the Beyond the Sword expansion pack.

Now, from the corporations explanation it appears that they are state funded corporations much akin to the East Indian Trading Company which was a corporation that was basically created by the British empire. From what I have read it was "independent" but it was basically awarded a monopoly by the British crown, so basically protected by the government from competition from within the nation and outside the nation (ie foreign competitors by Britain's powerful navy).

Anyway, I am still trying to stick to my vow to not have video games on my desktop. I lapsed and installed MOOII, but I have since removed it again.

However, there is hope. It appears that there is a new game on the horizon, Civilization Revolution, which will be released for the XBOX 360. I am not sure how I will enjoy playing the whole game using the game pad.

It's John's birthday today and we are going to be watching Transformers at the Alamo at noon. So I better go and get ready. Before that though I need to load the DB schema for the weasel site.

Laterz

First of all, I have no idea how to pronounce Carcassonne . I am sure that I will learn.


I read about it briefly on Penny Arcade the yesterday.

Tycho mentioned that it was like Catan, which I have been playing on my Xbox-360 and really do enjoy. There are a few notable draw backs to Catan, like the fact that you cannot play a local multi-player game. Only a multi-player game with others folks over the Live network. Serious downside there Catan guys. Maybe they will patch Catan with a local multi-player option.

I bring up the local multi-player because it is fun to play games together with folks that are over. Like when Jeremy is visiting or just anytime your hanging out with the wife.

Gina and I played a few games last night. She likes the game, I don't think she likes playing with me. I tend to take to strategy games like a fish to water. Of course, we did have to stop the first game and go back and go through the tutorial as the rules are a little complex.

Now, Carcassonne in the X-box Live Arcade is a port, if you can call it a port, of a table top game to the X-box Live Arcade. I can see how the game can be fun, as it is a bit of a city/empire building type game. However, one thing is that without the game be computerized the manual scoring of everything on a table top version must be a pain. Not to mention that I'm sure you don't get the fun city building animations.

I am going to go and play some more Carcassonne now. Hopefully, Jeremy has bought it too so that we can play a couple of games today.

Laterz

I was deleting some spam email real quick and found one from CodeMasters for their Overlord game.

Ctrl+Alt+Del, one of the web comics I read did a bit on it recently, I can say that I haven't been paying attention much lately to the video game world.

However, from looking over the game's screenshots it seems like it is a FPS version of Dungeon Keeper.

In Dungeon Keeper you got the chance to play the evil force who built up the dungeon and had all the treasure. You had recruit and train monsters to protect the dungeon you designed from would be adventurers and enemy dungeon keepers.

I will admit that aside from the screenshots I don't know much about Overlord, but it looks like you play the Overlord and you have minions travel with you as your ransack the neighboring lands.

Back to the grind.

Laterz