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LAN writeup *unnecessarily long with pictures*
Posted By: pooberry (Max Power) <chrisdewbe@gmail.com>	Date: 12/31/07 6:28 p.m.
Much like when Gozer asks if you are a god, when Louis Wu asks if you’d like to attend a LAN at his house… you say YES. The event happened this Saturday, between Christmas and New Year’s. With less than two week’s notice, I was asked if I could make it. My reply was “pick me up at the airport.” My friends (and wife) were like “hey, didn’t you just fly to Detroit for a LAN last month?” I said “Yeah, but this one’s at Wu’s house.” They replied “huh?” except for my wife who said “oh, then he’s definitely going.” She gets it. So Friday I left work a half hour early and went straight to the airport in my craptacular home town of Birmingham, AL. I called Wu from the airport on my cell phone to get KP’s contact info and make sure all was still well with me getting a ride. I had never vocally spoken with him outside of a couple of random XBL games, but he answered the phone “Hello, Chris.” It turned out to be Caller ID and not dark magix like I assumed at first. A little while later I boarded the plane, watched a drunk guy get kicked off the plane, and cracked the novel I had brought to keep me company. I had been given the book weeks earlier as a Christmas present, and was going to read it a couple of weeks ago but chose to save it so I’d have something to do during my travel time. Our plane started to move away from the gate and literally 10 feet later it stopped. The captain, in his most apathetic yet apologetic (yet apathetic again) voice, told us that Charlotte, where I had a connecting flight, was getting hammered by the stormies. A “ground stop” had been issued and we would have to stay in Birmingham until our destination was clear. This wouldn’t have been so bad if the Charlotte airport wasn’t frikkin huge and I only had maybe 7-10 minutes to get from one plane to the other according to my original plan. This stop was going to make me miss my connection, and my whole trip was only 36 hours long to begin with. The plane I was supposed to sit on from Birmingham to Charlotte for just over one hour was my home for the next three hours. I read half my book on the first of 5 flights I’d be on this weekend. When we got to Charlotte, nobody on the plane had been told anything about everyone’s connecting flights. I quickly grabbed my bag, headed down the stairs of the plane, walked across the minefield of deep ass puddles, and made into the building. The lady at the gate was getting slammed with demands from people asking if their plane was gone. I calmly and politely walked up and asked if my flight number was already gone. She said “No, it’s still here for now, gate C11, you might be able to make it. The verbal punctuation at the end of her sentence had not exited her mouth before I was in a full sprint to gate C11. I had landed at gate E17 which was conveniently located all the way across the damn place from where I wanted to get. I don't know what the deal was with old people in Charlotte that day butholy hell did I have some in my way. I was in a real hurry to not spend the night in Charlotte and old people are slow and generally unaware of their surroundings. All in all, I'm pretty sure I ran at least 3/4 of a mile in 6 minutes with a suitcase. Here's a map of the Charlotte airport to illustrate my journey: I felt like Forrest Gump, but not by choice… so more like Edward Norton near the end of Fight Club. When I crossed the finish line at gate C11 I discovered that the flight to Hartford was delayed for 45 more minutes. That would have been good to know. Gate C11 and the others nearby were packed like refugee camps. All the chairs were filled and just as many more people were sitting on floors and sleeping on piles of luggage. I called Wu again and told him I was going to make it in that night, but really really late. As the time for our delayed flight got near, the crew arrived one by one at our gate. The people sitting around (who had been there much longer than I had) actually applauded them. Holiday cheer, I suppose. We got on the plane, waited for about 20 planes in front of us to take off, and then got on our way. I arrived in Hartford somewhere around 3am and KP drove me the hour down to casa de Wu. The car he was in had XM radio so we got to listen to the kickass Led Zeppelin station all the way there. Everybody was asleep and the place was dark, but as soon as I walked in I was handed a sleeping bag, a pad to go under it, and a pillow (for those of you who haven’t traveled to a LAN before, this is like getting the presidential suite!) That was the good part, the bad part was I slept in the same room as Furhman. Super nice guy, really cool and funny and polite… sounds like a diesel engine when sleeping. I woke up a few hours later with Furhman still rumbling, but a new unoccupied sleeping bag also in the room. Malagate had arrived even later than I had (via Train) and attempted to sleep in that room. I stumbled down the stairs in my flannel pants to find Wu and everybody else hanging out. Hands were extended and greetings were greeted. I climbed back up, showered, and came back down to find Miguel cooking bacon. LOTS of bacon. Plates full of bacon. The smell filled the house and the meat filled our mouths. Yes, I said the meat filled our mouths. All the equipment was set up and that sound of a dozen Halo menus started. There were roughly 8 screens upstairs, while downstairs had a big TV and three projectors. While the classic epic CTF games were played, the whole LAN was dominated by forged gametypes. Foundry was definitely played more than any other map. GrifBall was competitive and exciting. Cubed KOTH is a king of the hill game on Foundry in an airtight cube… the entire cube is the hill… power-ups and equipment are everywhere… and everyone has a shotgun-no shields = AWESOME. Whoever stays alive the most wins. Aside from the Grifball going on, the most popular gametype was DeathRace. Oh, man. It’s infection on an empty Sandtrap with only ground based vehicles as a means of defense for the humans. Zombies can’t use vehicles, so they’ve got 300% speed and Gravity Hammers to overcompensate. There is no more thrilling experience than riding in a fleeing warthog around the perimeter of Sandtrap, landmines exploding behind you, using a turret to fend off Zombies (who run as fast as you can drive) who wants your brains. They will get to you eventually and the hammer sends you flying, but then you’ve got a 1/5 chance of landing on your wheels and not immediately getting smashed again (the second smash almost always means death.) Lunch time was cool. Never having been to Wu’s before, I didn’t know that he buys food for people. The brick of sliced American cheese weighed at least 5lbs, which was nice when there was four times that amount of sandwich meat. It was yummy, and there were snacks and sweets and drinks of every kind. After lunch, Furhman hooked up a copy Guitar Hero 3 to the 360 he was playing on and started playing a song. A few people wandered over to watch. I told him that I had conveniently brought my GH3 savegame on my memory unit so if he plugged it in, he could play the Halo theme Mjolnir Mix. He gave it a shot on medium, but he doesn’t play the game (not in a ling time) and the sing didn’t get finished. Another person gave it a shot on expert (which drew a sizeable crowd that wanted to see it accomplished) and did well for a while, but Steve Vai eventually claimed him as well. I guess I saw it coming, but someone (that was not me) yelled “Let dewbe play!” So I did. I humbly shredded it on expert and walked away. Soon, the Halo started back up and continued for several hours until dinner. Dinner is when people who want pizza give a few dollars to Wu and he orders as much pizza as he can (this time it was 12). Claude, his son, Malagate and myself then loaded into the vehicle and retrieved the pizza. T’was yummy. Then came the group photo, then some more Halo. People came and went all day, but about midnight is when people started to pack it up. They trickled out for the next couple of hours. Plenty of us stayed the night Saturday as well. I woke up Sunday because I had asked Claude to get me up at 8am. I felt kinda sick, and I was hoping I didn’t catch what Mrs. Wu had (she was terribly sick all weekend but was cool about us playing and making noise.) I took it slow, brushed my teefs, and got to feeling a little better. I knew I shouldn’t eat that early if I don’t feel good, so I took a bagel and a cinnamon bun that Mrs. Wu made in a zip-lock bag with me. Claude drove me to the airport and I had a great time chatting with him about all sorts of Halo-y stuff. He dropped me off and headed home, I sat and waited for my plane. I had almost finished my book on the way up, but luckily there were football games on for me to watch on the way down. Charlotte gave me even more delays on the way home, but I made it. Special big huge massive crazy mega ultra THANKS to Claude and his whole family for having us, and specifically me in the house. It was a great great time and I hope to see you next time! And now for some photos: This is gate C11 when I arrived at it: This is the same hallway (other direction but representative of the whole hall) as our plane was boarding 45 minutes later: Also, while at gate C11, I saw a heavier Ricky Williams: This is the first room I saw because I came in the back. This is where the HBO magic happens: This is what the upper part of Wu's beautiful home looks like: Miguel makes breakfast because he is AWESOME: By the end of the day, this wall had at least two more screens crammed onto it: Lunch time is serious bidness: Only dogs and Furhman are allowed to sleep in the middle of a crowded room. Note that for the first time in history, his dogs don't have the evil eyes: It looks like fluffy snow, but it's actually snow-covered-in-rain-slush-that-froze-and-is-now-rock-hard: Dinner table with cool people at it: The group shot! THANKS!

who is pooberry?

Message Index

LAN writeup *unnecessarily long with pictures*	pooberry (Max Power)	12/31/07 6:28 p.m.
Re: LAN writeup *unnecessarily long with pictures*	LoneRanger 2.5	12/31/07 6:43 p.m.
Re: LAN writeup *unnecessarily long with pictures*	Ma1agate	1/1/08 10:36 a.m.
Re: LAN writeup *unnecessarily long with pictures*	Konrad	1/1/08 1:17 a.m.
Hey, wait a minute...	Major Silva	1/1/08 9:11 a.m.
Re: Hey, wait a minute...	Miguel Chavez	1/1/08 10:16 a.m.
Re: Hey, wait a minute...	Louis Wu	1/1/08 11:07 a.m.
Re: Hey, wait a minute...	Spartan Jag	1/1/08 12:24 p.m.
Re: Hey, wait a minute...	BolognaFire	1/1/08 12:46 p.m.
I DON'T GET PAID	Jillybean	1/2/08 2:00 p.m.
Re: I DON'T GET PAID	Blackstar	1/2/08 3:16 p.m.
Re: I DON'T GET PAID	Mintz	1/2/08 8:10 p.m.
Re: I DON'T GET PAID	Narcogen	1/2/08 10:04 p.m.
Re: I DON'T GET PAID	Blackstar	1/3/08 1:31 p.m.
I told you. :P	Regicid3	1/1/08 12:56 p.m.
Re: I told you. :P	Louis Wu	1/1/08 1:00 p.m.
Oh.	Regicid3	1/1/08 1:12 p.m.
That shirt is definately black and red.	Vandle Valsher	1/2/08 1:14 a.m.
pink. *NM*	pooberry (Max Power)	1/2/08 6:39 p.m.
Red.	Vandle Valsher	1/2/08 11:02 p.m.
Re: Red.	Louis Wu	1/3/08 6:41 a.m.
Re: Red.	Ma1agate	1/3/08 2:45 p.m.
Re: Red.	pooberry (Max Power)	1/3/08 6:47 p.m.
Re: Red.	Ma1agate	1/4/08 9:12 a.m.
Re: Red.	pooberry (Max Power)	1/4/08 4:23 p.m.
Damn you and your hoilday proximity scheduling...	CYBRFRK	1/3/08 8:08 a.m.
Re: Damn you and your hoilday proximity scheduling	Louis Wu	1/3/08 8:15 a.m.
Re: Damn you and your hoilday proximity scheduling	Simpsons Rule	1/3/08 8:37 a.m.
I concur! *NM*	Shishka	1/3/08 10:17 a.m.
*cries*	Sir Topham Hat	1/3/08 5:49 p.m.