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| All's Well That... License & Registration, Please? | |
| Posted By: [AMS] GreyThor | Date: 5/29/11 12:35 a.m. |
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Initially I was going to link a forum post way back in the day in which I had made a personal promise to attend an HBO lanfest, but I can't find it. I blame my impatience on school, work, and a combination of both. However, I have been wanting to attend an HBO lan since.. 2004, easy. This was a personal goal that I made when I was in high school. Fast forward to mid-April (http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=1064162). I literally felt like checking out the forums, seeing what's been going on, and going about back to my day that involved work, work, and getting into summer semester classes. Oh wait... a lan? Do I have money? Can I get off from work? Sure, why not? Email sent! A few days later, I received a notification that I was invited (with Miguel delivering one of the greatest announcements of "If you're getting this email, it's because you've been officially invited to Claude's LAN party the weekend of May 21-22. Pat yourself on the back, loser."). From within an hour of reading the invitation and the following conversations, my excitement quickly turned to brainstorming how I was going to get myself from good ol' Savannah Georgia on up past the Mason-Dixon Line on up to Connecticut. I didn't have that kind of cash for gas, let alone airfare. Even with a fuel efficient Prius, there was no way I could have afforded the trip, so I did the one thing that could get me up to Connecticut: I emailed the AW List and said I was looking for people to road trip with. From the start, I had an idea that it would be Munky, Malagate, Furhman, and myself driving up to Connecticut. If anything All's Well did for us, we were able to get each other's Facebook profiles. From there, the brainstorming for the logistics of such a daunting road trip that would span eight states and almost nine hundred miles of highway went from there. For the trip, I was able to secure time off from work on Thursday through Saturday for the trip. Sunday was free because you can't buy alcohol in Georgia (my day off!), and Monday was dedicated towards the road trip back home - even though I would be missing the first day of class for my summer semester courses. Ah, the calculus of attending class vs skipping class. Guess what big Halo event won out? So, the Thursday prior to All's Well, I had gotten my Prius' oil changed, made sure I had a copy my insurance, and cleaned my car. Munky and Furhman came down from the Atlanta area and met up with me just after I had closed the liquor store that I work in, at about 9:45 PM. I hadn't really packed, but were planning on timing our departure from Savannah early in the morning to allow Malagate to finish a work related exam by 11am. So we left Savannah at 2 AM. About five o' was when I was too tired to keep going through South Carolina and decided it would be a great idea for our safety to allow Furhman, a complete stranger at this point still, to drive my car while I got some rest. When I resumed consciousness, we stopped to eat, I took the helm once more, and we arrived in Alexandria, Virginia to meet up with Malagate. We kept on going, but once again my fatigue got the better of me and I allowed Malagate to take the wheel. Eventually we made it to NYC where we were to meet Miguel and the Swedes he had in tow. Furhman persisted to drive from the back seat so we had to follow the GPS through the maze of Manhattan to get back on track, like lambs being led to the slaughter. It was then that I realized that maybe my acclimation to Savannah's heat was going to be detrimental, because I was cold in NYC and did not pack according to Connecticut's weather. You have to love and appreciate the GPS satellites that provide the eyes in the sky for us mere mortals, because we reached our destination at Miguel's home, where we met BOLL, Kermit, and others. We loaded up both vehicles after some NY styled pizza, and continued on to HBO HQ. All in all, we arrived at HBO HQ without any gnomes or automated turrets laying waste to our cramped and filled vehicles. From Savannah, GA to Bethany, CT my car had logged about 933 miles. We all piled out, met the old man Wu (he looked good for a 200 year old geezer, but we'll save his real age for speculation), and while some of us fired up a couple of 360s after introductions, I erred on the side of reason and retired for the night after I found a suitable bed the furthest from the mayhem. Saturday came, we all groggily came around towards the smell of breakfast and introduced ourselves once again to people who had arrived since. We gamed some, but I was still so fatigued that the only way I could physically game without clawing my bleeding eyes were to don my Costas to help combat the eye strain I knew I was putting myself through. Never mind the few naps I took throughout the weekend back up in my hidden sanctuary, I met some Bungie reps, old friends on Xbox Live, including who I figured must have been my fearless Halo 2 Clan leader, Schooly D. It was great meeting hellmitre, Infinite Seven, Nomi, Dhalo, Retsamolah, & Konrad. Besides meeting Retsamolah four years prior the weekend after Halo 3 was released because of a university lanfest I held in Savannah, everyone in person there were strangers to me. Never mind we all gamed together through mics and chatted on IRC channels, I had a vague idea who was who by voice, but it was a surreal experience being comfortable amongst all these people that were essentially strangers. The only bonds we had amongst ourselves is Halo and this community, and that was okay. Sunday was more of the same, although I was keen on milking my stay at HBO HQ as long as possible since I was not looking forward to the drive back South. Even with the car packed, Louis Wu was kind enough to allow a few more hours of gaming in the basement and also to check out his work office where he manages this awesome community website. By about 8:30 PM Sunday night, we were off again for the trip home. We were minus Malagate, who had to fly back earlier that day, although we ended up passing by his place again to return his phone charger. And now, to the unthinkable.... When I drive, I like to go with the flow of traffic. I like to go faster than the slowest flow of traffic. I just can't stand being behind a vehicle that's slowing down the normal flow of traffic. Well, I had to explain that to a New Jersey State Trooper that I had been driving next to for a couple of minutes, who had told me he witnessed me going 88 miles per the hour. And it also didn't help my case that I was driving on a temporary license due to my not-so-perfect driving record. And that I couldn't find my registration amongst the CDs and packed gear we had in the car. Let me paint a clearer picture: I'm Middle Eastern. Munky is Latino. Furhman is African American/Black. Wu gave Furhman a TV and we had in the back passenger seat along with him because it wouldn't fit anywhere else. My Prius is packed from a 360, Halo games, a laptop, paintball equipment for three, a TV, and ourselves. Food is strewn everywhere. My car is a mess. And here I have a State Trooper on Munky's side of the car. F[KEEP IT CLEAN!]k. I still can't get through this in my head. All I know is that after we told him we were coming from Connecticut back to Georgia, and specifically that we were coming from a Halo event, this Trooper stopped asking questions about the situation and more about Halo. Furhman said that there was a glimmer in his eyes when we mentioned the word "Halo." The conversation was just too rich. And I cannot repay Furhman enough. "Where are you coming from?" -- Trooper
I knew that this Trooper could have rocked my world in the most un-fun way possible, although I have a valid driver's license, my insurance checks out, yet I couldn't find my damn registration (which I found, after I dropped Furhman off in Marietta, BTW!). So the Trooper comes back, and says:
I'm speechless. Bungie, because of the hoodie, I owe you for getting me out of a very uncomfortable situation. Hats off to you, I may name my dog Bungie. Fortunately, the rest of the trip was uneventful (if you don't count all three of us justifying if we should ram a Red Bull truck for more Red Bull), I got Munky back home to Dalton & Furhman back to Marietta, and finally myself to good ol' Wilmington Island, Savannah, Georgia! The trip home took something like 23 hours of dedicated driving and 1282 miles, and I pulled into my driveway at something like 8 PM Monday evening. So all in all, in four day's time, after 2215 miles on the road for 42 some odd hours, I achieved what I may very well consider a life goal: Attend an HBO Halo Lan. A few highlights of this Lan that makes this one of the most memorable weekends of 2011:
And now for the memorable quote of this trip:
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| Replies: |
| All's Well That... License & Registration, Please? | [AMS] GreyThor | 5/29/11 12:35 a.m. |
| ^ Read this ^ | INSANEdrive | 5/29/11 9:26 a.m. |
| Re: ^ Read this ^ | [AMS] GreyThor | 5/29/11 12:14 p.m. |
| Bloop Achievement Unlocked | Cody Miller | 5/29/11 1:21 p.m. |
| Yellow banshees totally exist! *NM* | INSANEdrive | 5/29/11 1:29 p.m. |
| Step 7 is right on track | padraig08 | 5/29/11 2:37 p.m. |
| Lord Red? O_o Wat? *NM* | INSANEdrive | 5/29/11 2:42 p.m. |
| Re: Lord Red? O_o Wat? | padraig08 | 5/30/11 12:29 a.m. |
| Now THAT'S quite a long writeup.... | munky-058 | 5/29/11 6:04 p.m. |
| Awesome cop story is awesome *NM* | Louis Wu | 5/29/11 7:24 p.m. |
| Reply to "Awesome cop story is awesome" is a reply *NM* | BOLL | 5/30/11 10:13 a.m. |
| Pavlov would be proud... | Louis Wu | 5/30/11 10:27 a.m. |
| Re: Pavlov would be proud... | Stephen L. (SoundEffect) | 5/30/11 11:17 a.m. |
| Re: Pavlov would be proud... | BOLL | 5/30/11 5:00 p.m. |
| Re: All's Well That... License & Registration, Ple | Rockslider | 5/30/11 2:39 p.m. |
| Re: All's Well That... License & Registration, Ple | Kermit | 5/31/11 1:42 a.m. |
| Re: All's Well That... License & Registration, Ple | Mazz | 5/31/11 10:35 a.m. |
| Re: All's Well That... License & Registration, Ple | [AMS] GreyThor | 5/31/11 8:30 p.m. |
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