Showing posts with label fun. Show all posts

Lessons Learned - Pregremlin's BBQ Ultimate Classic


Face removed to protect identity

A few weeks ago, we hosted several people for Pregremlin's BBQ Ultimate Classic. This all-encompassing event involved ultimate frisbee, a cookout, and ultimate Flip Cup. For those of you who have never played Flip Cup, look up some rules online and get started. It is by far one of the best party drinking games ever.

As with most events, there are always a few incidents that happen to make them totally memorable. I won't bore you with those details, but instead I'm going to offer some party tips based on lessons I learned from this event.
  1. Candles and Drunks Don't Mix - In an effort to curtail the amount of bugs present for the Flip Cup Tournament, I placed several large citronella candles across the entrance created by the garage door being open. This worked wonders on the bugs, but I made the fatal mistake of mixing drunks and candles. We now have several large pools of wax created by stumbling. Luckily, we're not picky about those kinds of things, but learn from us and avoid using candles when people are drinking as much as possible. It could save you a flame engorged home.
  2. The Host Must Oversee Sleeping Arrangements - Even if your party is only being attended by adults, you should still make sure everyone has a place to sleep and the materials necessary to do so. I made the mistake of placing blankets and pillows in a central location figuring folks would grab what they need and share the rest. The next day, I was enlightened by tales of blankets thieves, squatters, nests, and people sleeping it off in cars. Apparently material distribution and space claims were the biggest problem, along with lights being turned off before everyone was settled in. If you are the host, take a few minutes at the begining of the night to makes ure that everyone has an assigned spot to crash and the materials needed to do so.
  3. Close Your Bedroom Door - People do strange things when they pass out. We could have had a very awkward momnet had we been awake at a certain time. The "Consular", as I will call him, somehow ventured into our bedroom during the night and passed out on the floor at the foot of our bed. He woke in this position and sheepishly removed himself while we were still safely asleep. Had he decided to climb in our bed, or if we had to amke a late night restroom visit, this could have been very awkward indeed.
  4. Don't Make a Beer Run - If you have a keg, do not make a beer run when it's cashed. We cashed ours around midnight and because folks were still lively and playing games, we decided we could use beverage reinforcements. Being in no state to make those kinds of decisions, I erroneously purchased too many replacement libations and they are still residing in our fridge. Our goal is to now consume them before the next gathering.
  5. Hide Your Cell Phone Charger - I placed my cell phone charger in a very safe place while cleaning for this event. In fact, it was so safe that I have not been able to locate it since and was forced to order a new one. I'm assuming that I am at fault in this instance, but it got me thinking. Everyone has cell phones now, so it could be easy for anyone to grab a charger thinking it belongs to them without checking to be sure. (If this happened in this case, please mail it to me). The best plan is to put it somewhere where no one else will be.
  6. Things Happen When You Aren't Looking - As you can see in the picture above, anything that could possibly happen might at your event. Keep some emergency phone numbers handy in several locations in case your guests aren't as flexible as that guy. (Who rules for being able to perform this contortionist feat.)

Use these tips for your next event, and maybe you can be the host/hostess with the most/mostess. (Although the day after tales may not be as interesting).

*This is post 99. Check out post 100 and the mini-blog-athon starting at midnight.*
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Wood-n't it be nice?

So you’ve broken some wood during your latest gaming adventure… well, not like this. LucasArts is introducing two new gaming technologies with the release of The Force Unleashed. These technologies are Digital Molecular Matter (DMM) by Pixelux Entertainment and euphoria by NaturalMotion Ltd. When these two technologies are combined with the Havok physics engine, gaming gets real. How real do you ask? Well, let me ask you to sit back and imagine this…

If you can remember playing Paper Boy on NES, you might recall this scenario. Even though your throws could be perfectly timed, the game would only have the windows break or that crazy lady with the hoop stop if you released the paper at the exact instant in the game that was tagged to register a successful shot. Thankfully gaming has come a long way since then and it seems that now the room for human error is built-in. No longer do you have to be as precise as you used to be when attacking something to register a hit.

But, did you ever notice that no matter where you shoot from or how hard you punch something, the object always reacts the same way? For example, I could shoot at a door and after enough shots, the door would break away. I could do this from across the street, from the porch, or from the neighbor’s yard. No matter where I shoot from, the door breaks the same way every time. The angle and velocity have no impact on how the door breaks, unless it’s a pivotal moment or object in the game. Programmers only spend extra time on these things when it really counts or the games would cost $200 a piece. Additionally, it’s almost impossible to animate every object and every scenario by hand because by the time the design was finished, a new platform or three would be released.

Now, starting with The Force Unleashed, the laws of the real world will really start to apply. When I shoot from the neighbor’s porch, the shots react with the door differently than when I shoot from the porch or across the street. Maybe I hit the knob and it explodes. Maybe I only scratch the door because it’s a bad angle. Maybe I take out a support beam by mistake and the porch collapses. Now I have to think about where and how I’m shooting because it does make a difference.

I know at this point many reading this will probably say, “So what? So the stupid game looks better. What’s the big deal?” The big deal is that this improvement requires no further coding on the designers part. Not one single additional frame of animation to make these effects happen. Textures, life forms, and other materials will now have “real” substance. They will look, behave, and act as they should in the environment, according to how similar objects act in reality. All the objects are defined, and then “presto” they behave as they should. This means that designers can spend less time worrying about how material reacts and more time on developing cool versatile scenarios.

So what does this mean for you, the gamer? Well, you’ll have a more realistic experience in games using this new technology. In fact, the games may be so realistic that every time you play the game, it’s completely different because this time you accidentally collapsed the porch instead of just shooting down the door. This means an extended life for your games. Now they may actually start to be worth the $60-70 they cost.

LucasArts has a demo up to show off this amazing new feat in gaming design. And what better way to showcase it than to have the demo show R2-D2 being thrown at a piece of wood repeatedly? You can check out the demo here and learn more about these gaming advances and other gaming trends through the links in this post or in another great article here.

Not being much of a consumer of video games (I like to rent), I have to say thankfully this won’t affect my budget any. But I do have to say this new move toward a better gaming “reality” is really cool. I also have to wonder why new, great, “feel-good” news like this is only available on the internet. Anyone?
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Read No Disintegrations Safely

In my quest to continually improve this blog and make it better for readers, I've decided to create an escape route in case anyone is reading the blog at work. You now have a fast way to turn No Disintegrations into an acceptable site. In fact, I liked this feature so much that I updated the entire catalog of No Disintegrations Blogs (dre222's Short Stories, Black Beard of the Salt Sea's Travel Logue and Tales, and the GRRM DB) to include this feature. Just look for the following at the upper right hand corner of each blog:

Reading blogs at work? Click to escape to a suitable site!

Clicking this link will redirect you to the home page of your browser if you're using IE. I'm not sure if it works for other browsers, so feel free to test it for me if you're using something different.

I also decided to share this code snippet with other bloggers and folks who maintain other sites (yes, the code should work on your MySpace). Just copy and paste the following code:

Now when the boss or co-worker snoops up on you, you're a click away from stealth mode.
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