Some thoughts on laser tag

I played laser tag last Saturday for my birthday with 13 of my closest friends. I enjoyed the hell out of it, despite some last minute discouragement of “have fun killing 12 year olds.”

…Of course, it turned it that is what we were doing, as we were combined with a birthday party. It takes 42 people to fill up a game. Despite that, I really, really enjoyed it, and would go again as soon as someone else suggested it.

Laser tag seems to engender two discussions:

1. The type of game play and course 

The course where we went was excellent, with all kinds of multileveled parts, places to hide, bases, choke points, etc. Game play was fairly standard, with some power-ups at random times to spice things up even more. It was “free roaming” which means you weren’t constrained to one side, which I prefer. It was also automatic recharge after getting “killed”, which has some issues. It’s fairly standard for laser tag, but I think I prefer the ones where you have to retreat to recharge. I would also enjoy “halo-style” where you have to actively not be taking fire (behind cover) for a while to recharge.

2. Paint Ball

“Adult Laser Tag” is apparently Paint Ball. I’ve never played it. However, I know I enjoy being able to be “killed” and jump back into the game, which isn’t the case with paint ball as I understand it. The pain-factor of being shot isn’t as big a turn-off as it previously was, though this is a dealbreaker for some friends of mine. And there are people who take it waaay too seriously. There are some of those in laser tag too, but they’re easier to ignore.

I would certainly like to try paint ball (provided no one playing took it too seriously), but it’s much harder to get together than laser tag. 

Of course, I’m also an adult now with an income who could just buy his own laser tag set and stage games wherever he wants. Hmmmm…

The final list

Not in order of when I drank them.

• Blueberry Lemonade
• Chocolate Cake Shot (I was so wasted by that point, I didn’t quite do it right to achieve the optimum effect)
• Dewer’s
• Hurricane
• Irish Car Bomb
• Jager shot
• Knob Creek
• Lemon drop
• Mango Margarita
• Nutty Bananas (without cream)
• Orange Cream Soda (my first and probably tastiest drink)
• Pussy Shot (that’s what the bartender called it)
• Whiskey (Bushmill)
• Zombie (provided for free by our awesome waitress at the Red Star who believed in the idea)

Plus… one “Whiskey Wild Card.”

Honestly, I hadn’t inteded to mix in heavy things like Knob Creek and Dewer’s, but I also wasn’t going to turn them down. I’m confidant I could have made it farther, and been less sick, if I had stuck to sugary mixed drink cocktails (of lower proof.)

A to Z of drinking

Missing some… any takers?

Amaretto Sour
Brandy
Chocolate Cake Shot
Daquiri
Egg Nog
Fuzzy Navel
Gin & Tonic
Hot Chocolate & Butterscotch Schnapps
Irish Car Bomb
Jello Shooter
Kamikaze
Long Island Ice Tea
Margarita
Nutty Irishman
O
Pina Colada
Q
Rum Runner
Seven & Seven
Toasted Almond
U
Vodka and Cranberry
White Russian
X
Y
Zombie

Top 3 TMBG Concerts

Thanks to This Might Be a Wiki, which has made it way easier to do this!

1. Western Maryland College (Now McDaniel). What could compare to your first rock concert, away from your parents? The thrill of helping a friend sneak in your tape recorder to get a bootleg, the endless speculation before they came out whether they are actually giants or not, the momentary confusion of getting the two Johns voices backwards, the massive concert hall-wide conga line, and the pride in being the first guy to shout out “Encore!” as they left the stage. Oh, and my very first shitty opening act. Gravel Pit, I will never forget thee.
2. Newport Music Hall. TMBG Unplugged! I came up with a couple people from Miami U. I remember the crowd being fairly rowdy, and TMBG chastised them about not crowd-surfing onto the stage. Then a full blown mosh pit broke out near me, and the song stopped. I remember being freaked out at the possibility that the band had just decided to quit the show (right after “Boss of Me”) because of the crowd. Instead, it turned out that the entire area had lost power. While waiting in the dark, the crowd began to sing the chorus of “Whistling in the Dark” over and over again in unison, which drew some weird looks from a security guy standing near a generator-lit emergency exit. Finally, they came back out on stage, lit by roadies holding flashlights, and explained the power was out. They said they were trying to get a generator and would be back. Then, they came back out and played a few songs without power! Flans tried to tell the crowd to be completely silent so that it would carry across the hall, but that didn’t happen. Still, I was close enough to the front to hear it. Then they said they would adjourn until midnight and pick up the show. My college buddies all left for this unplanned intermission to go to someone’s house nearby, but I stayed in the dark (and was there when the power came back on) and tried to teach a drunk girl hitting on me how to play Aquarius. At midnight, it started back, and I had a prime spot. They finished the show, though with only one encore. The drunk girl asked my help to get on stage to nab a playlist, so I obliged and received a long hug in return (much to the amusement of the people I came up with.) Still, the highlight remains the 3 unplugged songs, illuminated by roadie-light. Also the surreal “whistling in the dark” chorus.
3. 9:30 Club. Previously explained.

I feel like there’s a 4th awesome set I’m missing, but it’s not coming to me at the moment. Thanks to TMBW, I may go back and try to figure out exactly how many concerts I’ve been to.

Not letting it go

I STILL think it’s crazy to automatically add Ham to all calzones unless you specifically say “No Ham.” 

It’s like calling up to order a pizza, and having it automatically include olives, unless you say “no olives.”

And no, saying “that’s just how we do it” is not acceptable to satisfy me as a customer.

Dateline: Black Friday 2008

<TMBG nerd>

The TMBG concert last night was awesome. Just completely awesome. I’m a bit saddened by the fact that it was only Ginohn and I that went to this special event, since it wasn’t just any concert, and that they are probably done going to TMBG concerts. I hate going to concerts alone, but that looks like what’s going to have to happen in the future.

But anyway, here’s why the concert was awesome:

• First and foremost, they were energetic and looked genuinely excited to be putting on a show. I noted that I’ve been to some concerts that were near the end of a tour where it wasn’t as good. But this time… totally into it.
• There was no opening act. Instead, they played Flood in its entirety! I could tell there were some songs in there they hadn’t played in a long time. Gina and I only caught one lyric screw-up, but I thought I picked out a few musical mess-ups in some of the songs you don’t hear on tour. Still, just getting to hear those songs played live was awesome!
• Horn section! Trumpet, trombone, and saxophone. Not only am I a big fan of brass in rock, but it meant Istanbul was played the way it was meant to be played. (And later, Dr. Worm.)
• Linnell rocked the accordion so hard during “Particle Man” the top key came off. He said it was his favorite note.
• There was still a full concert after they played Flood- almost 3 hours of music altogether.
• They played “The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas.” THEN they explained that they wrote a new song to keep up with the times, since scientists no longer believed that. They played a brand new song, “The Sun is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma” as a retraction of the old song!
• In the process of explaining the song, they revealed the next album is called “Here Comes Science” as another kids album coming where that song will be included. They also revealed that they were already receiving angry emails for their “controversial” stance on evolution as fact.
• They played “West Virginia” and “I Hit My Head”. The former is from State Songs, the latter from Mono Puff, their two side projects. They weren’t just songs I had never seen played live before, they weren’t even technically TMBG songs.
• They rocked hard during the songs, including doing some major rock star jumps during songs. (Not bad for guys in their 40’s.) Flansburgh even rocked a TMBG-branded marching band drum during one song.
• Very glad to see some more obscure favorites, like “Hey Mr. DJ I Thought you Said we Had a Deal” have made it into regular concert play.
• They played only two songs from The Else, and they were my two favorites from the album.

That’s all I remember at the moment. There was some minor fun-dampening stuff, like standing near a mass of obnoxiousness, but overall I had a total blast. I still can’t backtrack and count all the concerts I’ve been to, but it’s got to be around the 20 mark by now. And I’m hoping for many more.

(note I do not close the TMBG nerd tag, indicating that it will go on.)

Oh the irony

Seems like a bunch of cars idling while waiting for an emissions test at least somewhat defeats the purpose.

On another note, discovered that m.wordpress.com exists, and I’m posting from there using my phone.

3 Game Holiday Pileup

My close friends and I are still lingering in school to the extent that coming home for the holidays (or even just having time off) is cause for events. And generally by events we mean gaming.

This weekend of Black Friday is no exception, only we’re spread out throughout Maryland. And even though many of us have our own places (not me), getting people together at a place where we can play is still an issue. 

Plus schedules are more open because of the holiday, but not open enough to prevent the inevitable clusterfuck that is scheduling. 

Couple that with competing gaming agendas: some of us want to play board games (but cannot all agree on which ones), some of us have one-shot rpg games to run (which may or may not overlap, and have conflicting player bases.) There are also ongoing games that may or may not overlap.

It’s a mess, and for a group that has trouble even coming to consensus on pizza delivery, it’s even trickier.

(Did I mention that there are no less than 3 mini-campaigns suggested to be run concurrently with holiday breaks?)