I reject your reality, and substitute my own.

Birthday! - Part 2

Thomas generally doesn't wake up until 12 noon on LAN weekends; most of his evenings involve a lot of fragging anyways. So when given the opportunity, he'll sleep until lunch time. The rest of us, seeking to maximize gaming time, were up and running Crysis by 9 am. Which is really kind of ridiculous when you think about it, but hey, it's a birthday party, and I'll do whatever I want.

Gaming time was drawing to a close by around 11 am, though. A hearty brunch was sitting on the dinner table upstairs, and once the meal was done, it would be time to pack up our computing hardware. I think it's important to note at this time that my mom did an incredible job cooking, even with the amount of limitations placed on her. In the group of 8 guests I had over, three of them can't eat any pork, one is lactose intolerant, and one of them is allergic to a list of foods bigger than a stack of punch-cards for a 70's computer science grad student. But her food still received many praises, and leftovers were still popular during brunch. Not that the breakfast pizza, french pancakes, and quiche weren't all tasty as well. With 10 boys to feed, the more food the merrier.



Because climbing all day at Mount Rainier simply wasn't enough, I brought the party to go climbing all afternoon at the Warehouse Rock Gym as well. A bunch of geeks going out to go rock climbing was a pretty funny image, as we continuously made references to doing it "Sam Fisher/Logan Keller style" (Tom Clancey characters, from Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six respectively). It was a complete and total blast, climbing on all the routes in the gym. I never realized how big the Warehouse Rock Gym really was, until we fit so many of us in there comfortably, along with a few other people that trickled in on their own. Belaying each other, we never really had to worry about waiting our turn, as we could each just pair up with another and switch off on different routes. When our arms would get too fatigued to hold onto the wall, our belayer would start hoisting us up the face, giving the illusion of amazing skills.



Our given time slot was up at 3. If anyone ever needs a venue for any sort of party, I'd definitely recommend the Warehouse. It was an amazing time, and I think quite a few of us will be headed back there quite soon. However, that didn't turn out to be the end of our party. On the drive home, we were drawn to the side of the road by a myriad of tents and kayaks on the shores of Capital Lake. The Spring Outdoor Festival was in town, and letting people test out their kayaks for free! Within minutes, our little saunter around the lake turned into a fierce race, one that ended in many of us getting the seat of our pants wet. Fortunately, nothing capsized, even though some of us tried.



So the party consisted of so many things, that it was difficult to count. I guess if every day of my future years are as fun as the single day I had to celebrate my 18th, I'd be a pretty happy camper. Kudos to all who made it a great time for me, too. Thanks for coming!

thinkandrew

posted by Andrew @ 11:25 PM 2 comments

Birthday! - Part 1

A pocket-knife and a comic book. What more could a guy ask for?

There's a myriad of things that I'm now able to do, since turning 18. I can go to a Federal Prison. I could buy cigarettes. I could gamble. I can sign my own liability-release waivers. I can get a credit card. Possibly most exciting, I can call the *must-be-18-years-or-older-to-call* phone numbers from late-night infomercials. I always wanted to own my own Bedazzler (tm)! A wonderful birthday, indeed.

All in all, it turned out to be a pretty crazy weekend, involving a 22 hour day, 12 computers, a rock wall, 8 kayaks, and one very tired dog. Having planned the weekend's events for almost a month, I was wildly anticipating it's coming. The entire event was split apart into two days. On Day 1, I woke up at 5 am, and spent the entire morning and afternoon at Mount Rainier National Park. With the Olympia Mountaineers, I was practicing Z-Pulley rescues. To put it simply, I would jump over a cliff, and three guys would pull me up by using a 3-to-1 mechanical advantage pulley system. In the mean time, I would just hang by my harness in the air. It took a few minutes before I realized that I could reach into my pack, after which I began eating my sandwich. Climbers not doing anything threw pieces of chocolate down to me, and I picked up some giant icicles. It's a heck lot of fun, and I came back tanned, even though clouds were sitting on the mountain all day.

Just as I got home, the guys showed up in our driveway. My friend Jessica and her fruit salad were already there, when a bad-smelling Acura and an old station-wagon pulled in. Over about half an hour, we hauled in 10 computers, an extra table, and network hardwear for all. Adding in my own computer, we were sitting at 11 Crysis-compatible PC's and 12 people to share it among. Throw in a brand new video game (Rainbow Six: Vegas 2) that I got for my birthday, along with 6 pounds of gummy-bears, and we had a recipe for an amazing night. After an incredible dinner and cake, we were ready to dig in. Bear in mind that by that time, it was my 16th hour of being awake.

It's a funny thing. Every time I go to a LAN party, we end up playing slow-moving Real Time Strategy games that have as much excitement as peanut butter on stale bread. Creamy peanut butter, not chunky. But being my birthday party, I had the honor of choosing the games that we were playing, a responsibility that I did not take lightly. Vegas 2 was followed by Unreal Tournament 3, which lead to Battlefield 2 and Savage. In the morning, we were rolling out Crysis before we packed up all of the hardwear. I think we converted my mom into a LAN-believer: she actually stayed up until midnight, watching us game. Jessica left around that time, the two women ready to go to bed.

I believe the official time that Andrew went to bed was around 3:30, too gamed-out to continue the mindless clicking. The other 7 people trawled on until 6:30 in the morning, playing Savage non-stop. But just like then, the story won't continue until the next day. I'm going to sleep now, too.

thinkandrew

posted by Andrew @ 11:07 PM 0 comments