flashblock

If you use Mozilla Firefox you should definitely check out the flashblock extension. It prevents pages from automatically loading flash ads and content which usually make my computer come to a crawl for a few moments.

If you use Mozilla Firefox you should definitely check out the flashblock extension. It prevents pages from automatically loading flash ads and content which usually make my computer come to a crawl for a few moments.

Sarah Allen on New Year’s Day

Open mic favorite and recently transplanted Sarah Allen will be playing at the Tree House Coffee Shop on New Year’s Day at 7:00PM 8:00PM. That’s Saturday, 01/01/05. This will probably be the last time you’ll get to hear her play before the southern accent starts kicking in and she learns every song from Sweet Baby James.

Update: The show starts at 8:00PM, not 7:00PM.

Open mic favorite and recently transplanted Sarah Allen will be playing at the Tree House Coffee Shop on New Year’s Day at 7:00PM 8:00PM. That’s Saturday, 01/01/05. This will probably be the last time you’ll get to hear her play before the southern accent starts kicking in and she learns every song from Sweet Baby James.

Update: The show starts at 8:00PM, not 7:00PM.

Asshole of the Year

Every year a certain number of people go the extra mile in screwing things up for everyone. Kuro5hin has nominated a great list of 2004’s biggest assholes.

Karl Rove
Michael Moore
Scott Peterson
Michael Jackson
Lynndie England
Jesus “The Christ”
Jessica Simpson
The scumbag who shot Dimebag Darrell
Vladimir Putin
“The Donald”
Psycho Dave (and all the other dipshit “bloggers”)

Read on for my vote.

Every year a certain number of people go the extra mile in screwing things up for everyone. Kuro5hin has nominated a great list of 2004’s biggest assholes.

Karl Rove
Michael Moore
Scott Peterson
Michael Jackson
Lynndie England
Jesus “The Christ”
Jessica Simpson
The scumbag who shot Dimebag Darrell
Vladimir Putin
“The Donald”
Psycho Dave (and all the other dipshit “bloggers”)

Read on for my vote.My top choices were Vladimir Putin, Lyndie England, and the scumbad who shot Dimebag Darrell. It’s hard to even get mad at Michael Jackson anymore.

In the end, I think Putin was the biggest asshole of the year. His rolling back of democracy in Russia is one of the worst things I’ve read all year. Lynndie England might have screwed us up for 10 years. Putin could screw us up for 50.

Mr Green’s Recap

Mr Green (Cerulean) finished 2nd in Shoot the Moon and posted a recap of the game from his perspective. It’s a great insight into how this game works.

I had a feeling I should have just not fired in the last round, but meh. The only disappointment I feel seeing the final results is that Rex died in the first round. That probably explains why I was able to make it to the end.

For the newbies, my handle over there is “Cerulean” (Add that one Ben!)

So here’s my game:

Round 1: Began my one true alliance of the game, Mr. Teal. Ignored an invite to Gang Green from Smurf because I found the presentation off-putting. Then once Gucci joined and my buddy Teal was getting sucked in, I agreed.

Round 2: Smurf irks me with his loyalty test of Emerald. Olive autokills after not doing a damn thing for us. I always figured he was how word got out early about the Green Alliance, but I’m not sure.

Round 3: Gang Green’s big clusterfuck. If I recall the plan accurately, Gucci accidently gave Pink a third shot from us. This was the point at which I said to Teal “I can’t work with these people, let’s kill them a couple rounds from now.” I was also wondering why no one was trying to kill us yet.

Round 4: Teal and I start making our non-Green contacts. I pulled out some brilliant bull shit to feed Pink, even though I’d shot him twice. At this point I saw no reason not to hide the obvious Green alliance, so I told Pink all about it, except I conveniently left out that Teal was ever involved. I said I was annoyed with Chartreuse/Lime, so I botched their kill of Pink on purpose. Pink wanted me to help him kill his partner, Maroon. Instead the fuckers shot me, but I blocked. I think this is also the round when I sent Mr. Blue an anonymous tip that Chartreuse was the Green leader, but they killed Emerald instead. Meh, he was expendable.

Round 5: My partial truth to Pink pays off, as the non-Greens include Teal in a plan to wipe out Chartreuse, Lime, and me all at once. Pink/Maroon were to shoot Chartreuse (and they did), Blue and Yellow were to shoot Lime (but Yellow never checked in and autokilled instead), and Brown and Teal were supposed to shoot me (Ha!). Meanwhile in Gang Green, I had planned to protect Pink and push for Maroon to go instead, but I didn’t have to work for it because Smurf was always good about picking the targets I wanted anyway. Near the end of this round, Brown is asking me what’s going on because he doesn’t want to spoil a kill, so I suggested he shoot himself or no one because everyone had a partner at that point. I think that exchange, and some that followed, are why Brown never went after me in the second to last round. This was the most exciting (and exhausting) round. And I lived on my birthday!

Round 6: Had the plan succeeded, this round would have been Green/Teal/Pink/Brown/Yellow, putting me and Pink on equal footing because Yellow was sort of working with him. Instead it was Green/Teal/Lime/Pink/Brown, which was MUCH better for me because I had a relationship with everyone left in the game. Two things were amazing about this point in the game. First, Teal was still perceived as a free agent even though three out of five rounds he fired with confirmed Gang Green members. Second, even though the plans this round to eliminate Lime and Pink fell through and no one died, it played out such that all of my alliances still thought I was loyal to them. Pink defended himself instead of shooting Lime because he got spooked that I didn’t answer his messages all day and he thought I had turned on him. To be fair, I had, I just wasn’t the one shooting him. Told the spaz he needed to chill and that I can’t get to the game from work, which was true.

Round 7: Exhaustion sets in, and Pink fucks up a billion messages. I think at least three of the public messages were accidents. Up until then, I thought he’d played a great game, but I can’t work with incompetence so I dropped the sack of crap right there. Gucci I perceived as just following orders from me or Smurf the whole game. Brown was my would be Final 3 partner now. He wanted to go after me to break up the now exposed Pink/Green alliance (Teal was awesome at gathering info), so I fed him this wonderful crap (true crap mind you) that I’d never lied to him and I’d rather lose to him in the finals than take Pink or Lime. Pink had told me he was either shooting himself or no one, so Teal gambled and won. Meanwhile I committed my one open act of evil and betrayed Gucci.

Round 8: Brown says he’s shooting Teal, and I get sloppy and buy it. I’d actually thought of changing to shoot no one, but the awful Apprentice finale distracted me and I forgot about the game until this morning. Rounds and rounds of playing everybody and someone finally played me. I deserved it.

Next game, I’m playing lazy. If someone snags me for an alliance, I’ll go along with it, but I’m not going to work like I did this time. More or less, I’m just being an extra body for the next game.

Thanks Ben! I had tons of fun.

Mr Green (Cerulean) finished 2nd in Shoot the Moon and posted a recap of the game from his perspective. It’s a great insight into how this game works.

I had a feeling I should have just not fired in the last round, but meh. The only disappointment I feel seeing the final results is that Rex died in the first round. That probably explains why I was able to make it to the end.

For the newbies, my handle over there is “Cerulean” (Add that one Ben!)

So here’s my game:

Round 1: Began my one true alliance of the game, Mr. Teal. Ignored an invite to Gang Green from Smurf because I found the presentation off-putting. Then once Gucci joined and my buddy Teal was getting sucked in, I agreed.

Round 2: Smurf irks me with his loyalty test of Emerald. Olive autokills after not doing a damn thing for us. I always figured he was how word got out early about the Green Alliance, but I’m not sure.

Round 3: Gang Green’s big clusterfuck. If I recall the plan accurately, Gucci accidently gave Pink a third shot from us. This was the point at which I said to Teal “I can’t work with these people, let’s kill them a couple rounds from now.” I was also wondering why no one was trying to kill us yet.

Round 4: Teal and I start making our non-Green contacts. I pulled out some brilliant bull shit to feed Pink, even though I’d shot him twice. At this point I saw no reason not to hide the obvious Green alliance, so I told Pink all about it, except I conveniently left out that Teal was ever involved. I said I was annoyed with Chartreuse/Lime, so I botched their kill of Pink on purpose. Pink wanted me to help him kill his partner, Maroon. Instead the fuckers shot me, but I blocked. I think this is also the round when I sent Mr. Blue an anonymous tip that Chartreuse was the Green leader, but they killed Emerald instead. Meh, he was expendable.

Round 5: My partial truth to Pink pays off, as the non-Greens include Teal in a plan to wipe out Chartreuse, Lime, and me all at once. Pink/Maroon were to shoot Chartreuse (and they did), Blue and Yellow were to shoot Lime (but Yellow never checked in and autokilled instead), and Brown and Teal were supposed to shoot me (Ha!). Meanwhile in Gang Green, I had planned to protect Pink and push for Maroon to go instead, but I didn’t have to work for it because Smurf was always good about picking the targets I wanted anyway. Near the end of this round, Brown is asking me what’s going on because he doesn’t want to spoil a kill, so I suggested he shoot himself or no one because everyone had a partner at that point. I think that exchange, and some that followed, are why Brown never went after me in the second to last round. This was the most exciting (and exhausting) round. And I lived on my birthday!

Round 6: Had the plan succeeded, this round would have been Green/Teal/Pink/Brown/Yellow, putting me and Pink on equal footing because Yellow was sort of working with him. Instead it was Green/Teal/Lime/Pink/Brown, which was MUCH better for me because I had a relationship with everyone left in the game. Two things were amazing about this point in the game. First, Teal was still perceived as a free agent even though three out of five rounds he fired with confirmed Gang Green members. Second, even though the plans this round to eliminate Lime and Pink fell through and no one died, it played out such that all of my alliances still thought I was loyal to them. Pink defended himself instead of shooting Lime because he got spooked that I didn’t answer his messages all day and he thought I had turned on him. To be fair, I had, I just wasn’t the one shooting him. Told the spaz he needed to chill and that I can’t get to the game from work, which was true.

Round 7: Exhaustion sets in, and Pink fucks up a billion messages. I think at least three of the public messages were accidents. Up until then, I thought he’d played a great game, but I can’t work with incompetence so I dropped the sack of crap right there. Gucci I perceived as just following orders from me or Smurf the whole game. Brown was my would be Final 3 partner now. He wanted to go after me to break up the now exposed Pink/Green alliance (Teal was awesome at gathering info), so I fed him this wonderful crap (true crap mind you) that I’d never lied to him and I’d rather lose to him in the finals than take Pink or Lime. Pink had told me he was either shooting himself or no one, so Teal gambled and won. Meanwhile I committed my one open act of evil and betrayed Gucci.

Round 8: Brown says he’s shooting Teal, and I get sloppy and buy it. I’d actually thought of changing to shoot no one, but the awful Apprentice finale distracted me and I forgot about the game until this morning. Rounds and rounds of playing everybody and someone finally played me. I deserved it.

Next game, I’m playing lazy. If someone snags me for an alliance, I’ll go along with it, but I’m not going to work like I did this time. More or less, I’m just being an extra body for the next game.

Thanks Ben! I had tons of fun.

Mr Brown Shoots the Moon!

Mr Brown, aka zahno, survived 8 grueling rounds to beat a field of 25 Odd Man In players in Shoot the Moon. The final three was made up of Mr Teal (Michael), Mr Green (Cerulean), and Mr Brown. Zahno is the infamous Jason Zahn of the GameShow. Here are the official results:

Mr Teal was killed. Mr Teal posted his diary on the Internet and then shot himself in the taint.
Mr Brown was shot at by Mr Brown and Mr Green, but he survived.

Score Update:
Mr Teal now has 2 points
GAME OVER!
Mr Brown and Mr Green were both left standing, but Mr Brown won by decision.

Mr Pink gets the Swiss Cheese award. He was shot the most times! (10)
Mr Chartreuse gets the Killer award. He had the most kills! (2)

How embarassing for Mr Teal.

Did Green and Teal make the right moves to better their chances? Based on their previous moves they were definitely working as a team. They could have blocked Mr Brown’s victory using the following moves.

Green shoots Brown
Teal shoots no one

or

Teal shoots Brown
Green shoots no one

Because the final three round is an odd kill game (it takes an odd number of shots to kill you), Brown would not be able to counter this move and instead would either make Teal or Green the winner.

I hope you all had fun in this game. Make sure you join up the next game, Holiday Shootout!

Mr Brown, aka zahno, survived 8 grueling rounds to beat a field of 25 Odd Man In players in Shoot the Moon. The final three was made up of Mr Teal (Michael), Mr Green (Cerulean), and Mr Brown. Zahno is the infamous Jason Zahn of the GameShow. Here are the official results:

Mr Teal was killed. Mr Teal posted his diary on the Internet and then shot himself in the taint.
Mr Brown was shot at by Mr Brown and Mr Green, but he survived.

Score Update:
Mr Teal now has 2 points
GAME OVER!
Mr Brown and Mr Green were both left standing, but Mr Brown won by decision.

Mr Pink gets the Swiss Cheese award. He was shot the most times! (10)
Mr Chartreuse gets the Killer award. He had the most kills! (2)

How embarassing for Mr Teal.

Did Green and Teal make the right moves to better their chances? Based on their previous moves they were definitely working as a team. They could have blocked Mr Brown’s victory using the following moves.

Green shoots Brown
Teal shoots no one

or

Teal shoots Brown
Green shoots no one

Because the final three round is an odd kill game (it takes an odd number of shots to kill you), Brown would not be able to counter this move and instead would either make Teal or Green the winner.

I hope you all had fun in this game. Make sure you join up the next game, Holiday Shootout!

Odd Spam Subject Lines

I got a spam today with the oddest subject.

FW: Brilliant A leading provider of cost effective marshmallow

What’s your weirdest spam?

I got a spam today with the oddest subject.

FW: Brilliant A leading provider of cost effective marshmallow

What’s your weirdest spam?

Mr Pink saves his own skin

Some people won’t be happy about this!

Mr Pink was shot at by Mr Lime and Mr Teal and Mr Pink, but he survived.
Mr Lime was shot at by Mr Brown, but he survived.
Mr Brown was shot at by Mr Green, but he survived.
Amazingly, no one was killed today

The game continues…

Great work by Mr Pink. He totally outed Mr Lime and Mr Teal as a duo and now they’ll be in trouble. The next round ends on Wedneday night, which I previously thought would be the last round. Not anymore!

Some people won’t be happy about this!

Mr Pink was shot at by Mr Lime and Mr Teal and Mr Pink, but he survived.
Mr Lime was shot at by Mr Brown, but he survived.
Mr Brown was shot at by Mr Green, but he survived.
Amazingly, no one was killed today

The game continues…

Great work by Mr Pink. He totally outed Mr Lime and Mr Teal as a duo and now they’ll be in trouble. The next round ends on Wedneday night, which I previously thought would be the last round. Not anymore!

Survivor: Vanuatu

Disclaimer: Yes, I understand I’m somewhat of a loser for like Survivor so much.

Chris’s comeback to win Survivor: Vanuatu was unreal. The men were outnumbered 4 to 6 and the female alliances voted out Rory, Sarge, and Chad. Everyone thought Chris would be next but he hung in there and played a flawless game right into the finals. His performance in the final tribal council will probably go down as the best ever, especially since he tricked Twila into pissing off a few of the jury members. He seemed to know what to say to swing Eliza and Julie to vote for him and that was all he needed. Great job Chris.

Disclaimer: Yes, I understand I’m somewhat of a loser for like Survivor so much.

Chris’s comeback to win Survivor: Vanuatu was unreal. The men were outnumbered 4 to 6 and the female alliances voted out Rory, Sarge, and Chad. Everyone thought Chris would be next but he hung in there and played a flawless game right into the finals. His performance in the final tribal council will probably go down as the best ever, especially since he tricked Twila into pissing off a few of the jury members. He seemed to know what to say to swing Eliza and Julie to vote for him and that was all he needed. Great job Chris.