???
Can someone tell me what on earth this means?
Have I already asked this before?
And it keeps rolling on…
A group of us had gone out west of the city to a place called the Alamo Draft House on Sunday. It’s the dinner AND movie sort of place. It’s a good concept when it works and since we weren’t really interested in the movie anyway we figured it would be a good combo. We’ve been there several times and never had any sort of problem. Until Sunday that is.
After buying tickets for Lauren and I we went into the lobby and waited for our other friends to follow. After a minute we realized Sherzan wasn’t with us. So we went back outside. Apparently they had carded him and he didn’t have his drivers license on him. He did have a student ID but it didn’t have his birthday on it. So, after not getting a strait answer from the ticket counter as to WHY they weren’t selling him a ticket we asked for the manager. When he come out he seems annoyed and very non-helpful. He said, as bluntly as possible, “We’re a bar, if he doesn’t have an ID we can’t let him in.” At this point I got really pissed. This wasn’t a bar, its a movie theater that happens to have beer on it’s menu. I spoke up and asked that since he wasn’t drinking could I buy his ticket. That didn’t go over well either. After going back and forth with the manager for a few minutes I finally said “fine, then we’re all returning our tickets, you just lost $60.” I couldn’t really believe it. First, we were going to see AvP, which is PG13, which shouldn’t require an ID anyway. Second, plenty of places that are considered “bars” don’t card unless you order something with alcohol in it. Applebee’s for example. The full name of that restaurant is “Applebee’s BAR and Grill”. Do they card you at the door? No. So, then I thought that maybe the state is making them uphold rules for a 21+ club or something. But wait, there’s no on at the door checking IDs. Also, they let children in by the score, and children don’t have IDs. So, they’re not a “club” and don’t have an age limit and their not a bar and apparently their not much of a movie theater either. I guess they’re making up their own rules or something. What if I wanted to take my imaginary 12 year old brother to see a kids movie? Would they card my brother? No of course not. They can’t have it both ways. They can’t be a “bar” and not let people in but yet let people in and be a “theater”. They have to pick one. Or, I guess they don’t. They can be ass-holes all they want and they just won’t get my money. Ever again. And you know what, I’ve never been carded there before. Never.
So, instead, we went 10 minutes down the road, had some tasty Mexican food instead and then went to the other nearby theater and used our student IDs to get in for $5. So there, suck that Alamo Draft House.
Monday was less eventful. Lauren and I watched the original Manchurian Candidate and The Apartment. I was supposed to play in a match last night as well but I was put on Stand-By/Reserve so I didn’t end up having to.
Oh, and a big thank you to Jason for mentioning the Streetlight Manifesto album a little while back. It’s fantastic.
phpBB and you…
Before I get to my trip I wanted to run an idea by you guys… what would you think about me adding a stripped down version of phpBB instead of using MTs comment system. I think the customization options would be very usable, I could have admin control and maintain a user-base without upgrading to MT3.0 and you guys could have more control over your posts (in terms of avatars, text options, that sort of thing). It’s a super simple installation and I could probably be up and running over a weekend. I would still use MT for posting but have a link to a forum thread below the post for comments. So… whatcha think?
Now, on to the meat and potatoes. Lauren and I will be coming in at about 10pm on Thursday the 30th. Obviously I’ll be a bit tired and will probably just go right to bed. The next 4 days are up for grabs. I’d obviously like to visit both Chip and Chris, my grandparents, Newbury Comics, the New Balance outlet, the North End and Polly Pancake Parlor. Anyone up for any of those excursions is obviously welcome. Since my folks have moved a bit north it’ll probably be easier to mill-around in Manchester or Concord. I also probably won’t have a car. I haven’t decided about renting one yet but more than likely I won’t. Also, any requests for Texas-ish things should be mentioned in the near future and I’ll do my best to bring’em to you guys. I don’t think a WhataBurger will make it though. Sorry. Also, if you guys can think up anything else that might be cool to do, please, by all means, let me know. We’ll be flying out Tuesday afternoon. I wish it wasn’t such a short visit but it’s the best I could manage. I can’t wait to be back home and visit you guys. It’ll be good to see hills and mountains 😉
Ok. At work, gotta run.
You Fuckers!
You traded Nomar?!?! You fucking asshats. What in the hell were you thinking? He went to the Cubs and we didn’t get Sammy F’in Sosa in return? No, we got a shortstop from the Expos and a first-base from the Twins!!! Yeah. Way to upgrade guys. No offense to Expos or Twins fans (if there is such a thing) but what the hell? Sure, trade Nomar for Arod, for Sammy, for Barry GD Bonds, I’d be fine. Damnit. You’d think Jimmy Williams was still there.
Morons.
And, the cherry on this little crap sundae… I got a traffic ticket today. Apparently I was going 45 in a 35 and I had an “obscured license plate”. I don’t even know what the fuck that means. Son of a bitch, now I’ve got to go to court and waste my time fighting a BS ticket. I won’t make the obvious “I wasn’t speeding” statement, I probably was, but I doubt that it was 45. I was in traffic! And don’t even get me started with the license plate thing. The court house web page says it’s a $200 fine. I sure as hell don’t plan on paying that. Heads will roll people. Heads will roll.
*breath*
While I have a minute
A little summer update for all you cats and kittens out there. I’m currently awaiting a call from my Boss to let me know if he needs me to come in today. We’re setup at the convention center downtown this weekend as part of the “Bridal Extravaganza”. Notable the largest bridal show on the planet, or so they claim. So, that’s what we’ve been focused on at work for the past week or so. That and getting Texans stuff ready to go to print. I’m not allowed to tell you what the new poster looks like but I can say that it’s pretty kick-ass. The “magazine” will be equally impressive if not more so in my opinion. It’s really the frosting on the cake. So that’s whats been keeping us busy at work.
Elsewhere in the Marvel universe…
I got in on my first BattleField Vietnam battle of any significance. We won, by a lot. Actually we stomped their asses. Forum post here. We had a scrimmage against the [RN] clan last week. Actually, if I get out of the convention at a decent time, we have another schedule tonight and, what I’m more excited for, an actual league match this week. We’re trying to move up the ladder into 3rd. On the Desert Combat side of things we’re locked in an overtime, sudden-death rematch with another clan ( -VOD- ) for the number 1 spot. They played tough for the required 6 rounds (each round being 40 minutes) without a flag capture and so we go to sudden death. Should be fun. If you’re bored, there’s a forum thread here.
I have to admit that I’m enjoying BF:V more and more. The system is very different and your total score isn’t based on kills alone. For example, look at that BF:V forum link above. I had 17 points, 6 kills and 2 deaths. I have playing defense most of the game. I had 17 posts because I held a control point and captured the next closest one as well. The game also rewards for good team work, which in the end, is really why you play a game like that anyway.
Let’s see, what else. Oh, I picked up Far-Cry. Interesting game. Can’t play it at home because of my graphics card (more about this in a minute) so I’ve been trying it out at work. Very sweet engine and a very “pretty” game.
The main problem I have is the lack of graphics card power. Which is expected since that card is what, 3 years old? Time for a replacement I’d say. Since the bonus check I was waiting for came in, as well as another check, I have enough to buy a reasonably priced card. I’m not going to be buying an X800 Ultra or a 6800 Ultra but I can foresee something like a 9800 Pro in my future.
Here’s my dilemma. I hate ATI. I’ve never liked the company, their drivers or their lack of support for their products. I do admit however, that the Radeon series was a very good products and perhaps they’re turning the company around. So, a 9800 isn’t a “bad” card by any stretch. The other side of this coin is that the comparable Nvidia cards sucked. A lot. They’re plagued with problems, driver issues, heat issues and general lack of speed. The 5900 line really stunk. Also, in an ironic twist, ATI has partnered with Valve for Half-Life 2’s release and Nvidia has joined forces with Doom 3. So, the cards I want (the Nvidia 6800) runs better on the game I don’t have as much anticipation for. ATI and Valve have both said that the benchmark with ATI cards on HL2 are incredible. So, do I get a card from a company that I dislike in order to play a game I love OR get a card I like and live with mediocre performance on my favorite games?
That’s like giving me the choice between a Honda Civic that I can drive to NH or a Porche that I can only drive to work.
Let’s brake down some of this, I need to work it out in my head and this is as good a place as any…
Both the X800 and 6800 series cards are incredibly expensive (read: $500+). I won’t be getting them. That said, I’m left with last summers cards for a bargain at around $200. I should also state that in order to make up for lack of “new spiffy-ness” I’d like to try and find a card with 256mb of memory.
Your average ATI Radeon 9800 Pro runs for about $190 on NewEgg. Something like this Sapphire card for example. THIS card here is a 256mb version for $260.
Compare those to something like this Gainward GeForce FX5900 XT for $190. There isn’t a comparable 256mb card though. The next step up is to a 5950 Ultra, and those are $300.
So, what should I do? Doom 3 comes out in 2 weeks and HL2 will go gold inside of a month. I need to upgrade both the mobo/chip combo and my graphics card. I figure I’ll get more use out of the graphics card immediately so it should be the first buy. If I upgraded my chip I would still have the graphics bottleneck for my games. Sure Photoshop would open faster, but who wants to do work anyways. 🙂
Oh, and lastly, before I go, we saw the Borne Supremacy this weekend. Pretty good flick. Not a 100% Tomato or anything, but a solid 80. A good popcorn flick with classic spy movie elements. Car chases and kung-fu, that sort of thing.
Matt out.
Blacklistin’ your ass!
The past two days have seen a huge jump in the attempts to comment spam my page. Yesterday someone was even successful. That is, until MT-BlackList kicked in. I ran the De-Spam feature and it nabbed all of the offending comments. After that I updated by blacklist itself. It appears that the 500 or so entries I started with wasn’t enough. I manually added about 1000 more “positive match” domains/email addresses/IPs from the Spam Clearinghouse list and then added about 200 more of my own. So, if anyone wants a super-duper 1700+ entry blacklist for anything, just ask.
Oops, it’s nearly 9am. Gotta get to work. Later.
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