Delegation, Part 3

(Start with Part 1, most recent is Part 2)

A large mass of people oozed from the entrance to the coliseum, filling out to the edge of the street. Makeshift signs with four-digit numbers hovered above the crowd, held aloft by tired arms. A select few of these displays looked professionally made, as if the owners had known what to expect. The rest were scrawled on notebook paper, cardboard, spiral notebook backing, or whatever else would hold marker ink.

"So, where is our precinct?" I asked as I scanned the pages above the heads.

"Well, there's 2107, we're probably pretty close to them." Our coordinator, P, pointed out a waving sheet of yellow notebook paper on which the digits 2107 were scribbled. We navigated around a T-shirt booth and began to wedge ourselves into the crowd.

Thus began the standing and waiting. It turns out that we were actually being "organized" by precinct groups, listed on large signs taped to the columns of the entry. It was difficult to see these signs, however, since they were attached at eye-level. It also didn't help that they were trying to stick to plaster using packing and masking tape and the signs were continually falling.

A mosquito landed on my arm an instant before its life ended. "Now I know why they wanted to start so early," I quipped. "In a couple of hours the mosquitoes will be feasting on us."

The blob slowly progressed towards the doors. The movement wasn't really noticeable, but every so often I'd look up and the trees would be in a different place. Over an hour passed, and aside from some parallax against the distant scenery, nothing changed.

"Hey guys, move on up here," I heard P shout as she finally motioned us forward. The remaining 6 of us wove ourselves through the mosh pit and up to the pillars where the registration tables were established.

"Name and precinct?" a burly man in a navy windbreaker asked as I approached. I handed over my identification and waited while he sorted through a file of blue papers.

"You're not in here," he finally resolved as he finished looking through the papers a second time. "Are you an alternate?"

"No, I am a delegate, I should be in there."

"Well in that case, you're going to need to go to credentials."

"Credentials?"

(continued ...)

Delegation, Part 2

(Read Part 1 frst...)

"Exit here."

"Here?"

"Yes!" I declared, with the added emphasis of the change lanes hand motion. I'm sure it's not standard ASL, but anyone who's ever featured me as a back seat driver has seen it.

"Ok, exit 4, I see it now."

Aside from a little heavier than expected traffic, and the select bunch of Formula1 enthusiasts who like to practice their skillz on 75, the trip was quiet and insignificant. After taking exit 4 we proceeded down a few more blocks before turning right onto the university campus. Rounding the corner, we immediately realized that today was going to be a very long day.

Two exceedingly long lines of automobiles snaked from the mouth of the tiny garage we'd been instructed to park in. Slowly and steadily the cars filed in, one from the east followed by one from the west, ad infinitum. Fifteen minutes later Grandma Dee's SUV crossed the boulevard and into the building.

"Oh, we have to pre-pay?" asked Dee when confronted immediately by a parking attendant.

"Yes ma'am, it's five bucks."

"Oh, ok!" She rummaged through her enormous pearl handbag. "Do you have change for a fifty?"

For such a diminutive looking building, the garage had quite a few floors. After spiraling up a few levels looking for a handicapped spot, Dee decided to go her own way, quite literally, down a one-way passage. Ignoring shouts from a couple of pedestrians we found a cute spot near the elevators.

"I hope we remember where we parked," I said, knowing that I'd most likely not be catching this ride on the return trip.

"Hold on, honey. I can't walk as fast as you guys." In our eagerness to reach the elevator, we had significantly outdistanced Grandma Dee. We took a few steps back, and then resumed at a more relaxed pace. "I just had hip replacement surgery, so I can't move like I used to..."

Shortly before reaching the elevator doors other members of our Pea caravan merged into our clique, and we got into the elevator. As the doors closed behind us we heard running footsteps. I quickly pulled the door back to allow Harry in. The doors closed fully and the compartment descended. We exited the room on the ground floor, and rounded a corner to exit the building.

Waiting for us was a huge mass of penguins, huddled together waiting for the storm.

(continued ...)

Delegation, Part 1

6:30 on a Saturday mor[snooze]...

6:37 on a Saturday mor[snooze]...

6:44 on a Saturday morning. "I really shouldn't have stayed up to watch last night's Woot!," I thought as my throbbing brain pushed my limp body out of bed. What is wrong with these people that they start at 8:00am? I stumbled over to the shower and started the water running.

At 7:03 I was up and rockin' towards the door. A quick drop by the bank to get money for parking, then a quick soda at the Golden Arches, and I'd be meeting up behind the Pea with the rest of the crazies. I pulled into the perpetually near-empty parking lot and glimpsed a few citizens mingling amongst some cars behind the deprecated restaurant. My car slid easily into an open spot, and I stepped outside into the hazy morning air for the first time.

"You with us?" asked a middle-aged black woman in an Acura SUV.

"I think so."

"Well get on in this car, honey. Where's your coat?"

Grandma Dee had rightly pointed out that I was a bit under-dressed for the current weather conditions. I knew it was a bit nippy outside, but I figured that later when I was to be huddled around like a bunch of penguins fighting off an Antarctic icestorm, a coat might be a bit uncomfortable and cumbersome. I reached for the doorhandle and pulled myself inside.

"I'm Grandma Dee -- here, read this" she insisted as she pulled from a stack of month-old school newsletters and plopped a copy down in my lap. "Turn to page 10. That'll tell you all about me."

Sure enough, that one-page article told me all I'd ever need to know about Grandma Dee. She was the featured employee of the month for one of the local community colleges. An Eagle Scout, operator of several non-profit charity groups, with a Master's Degree in social services, she was quite accomplished. I maintained my stoic pose as she socialized with some recent arrivals.

"Wow, Grandma Dee, is there anything you haven't done?" inquired one who'd obviously just finished reading the tabloid.

Shortly our coordinator arrived, and we started arranging transport. "Do you want a ride down there?" Dee asked.

"Sure, that'd be cool." I cringed when the words came out of my mouth -- "cool"? You'd think my vocabulary could be a bit more sophisticated amongst such company.

"Alright, but I may need you to help with directions."

"Sure," I said, struggling intently not to repeat the immature phrase. "I know how to get down there."

I remained silent as the newcomer amongst a group who obviously knew each other decently well. A few more vehicles arrived, and eventually we concluded that our entire membership was accounted for and ready to caravan. Another passenger jumped into our van, and we began driving towards the highway.

(continued ...)

Starting a Civilization 4 PitBoss Game

I am looking to set up a multi-player game of Sid Meier's Civilization IV.

The game will be run through the PitBoss application, allowing for players to log in and take their turn at their leisure, instead of requiring all players to be logged on for a marathon session of gaming.  A game of this nature will require very little time per day (up to 10-15 minutes), but will require players to keep up with their turns and may last a very long time.

I am looking for between 4 to 10 dedicated players to participate, and I'd like to be up and running by this weekend.  What you will need:

1. A copy of Civilization 4
2. Patch 1.74
3. A computer capable of running Civ 4 (on Windows or possibly Wine/Cedega)
   

I will provide a link to the 1.74 patch for any interested parties. I cannot assist with requirement number 3.

If you are interested, or would like more details on the first two requirements, please do not hesitate to email.  Game details (world size, computer civs, etc) will be hashed out amongst interested participants later in the process.

Also, I do not mind if players invite close friends who may also be interested, as long as they aren't jackasses.

I apologize if you've received this message in both blog and email form, I'm just trying to get the message out to as many interested parties as possible.

Nearing Conclusion

The following Saturday night we held a party for work and llama friends to express our appreciation for gifting me extra vacation time for my surgery and to celebrate the baby coming "any day now". People seemed to have a good time, and it did not degenerate into a Wii party like The Captain (absent) feared. I must admit though that when only a few people remained we did break out the Mario Kart on the DS. Most of the remainder of that weekend was spent cleaning house for party preparation and finalizing the baby room.

On Thursday we all went to Gloria's to celebrate the birthing of Smurf. We actually had a decent turn-out of eight llamas for this gathering. Does that count as a pack?  As usual I stuffed myself on their wonderful black bean dip. The evening was concluded with cake ( no lie!).

This weekend was a calm before the brewing storm. Wife slept a bit and did some baby preparation stuff (pre-washing diapers, etc), while I played games for many hours and watched football on Sunday. Even though we were relatively lazy, we did finalize some baby stuff such as installing the car seat base, and I think we are ready whenever the day arrives.

Does anyone want a free copy of Half-Life 2? Preferably someone with a computer that at least meets the minimum requirements.

The next three weeks are going to be crazy for me. For school, I need to complete one homework, and then put together some project / report before next Monday. I have a final on Wednesday, pushed back from Friday due to baby uncertainty. I then have  another exam on the following Thursday, the time and date firmly fixed. I also have to prepare for and deliver a presentation next Thursday for work. Combine all of that with the baby uncertainty, and it could be pretty freaking crazy.

If you have read this far, you win a prize! You can subscribe to my twitter feed to receive a near-instant notification on the birth of our baby! Before any phone calls are made, I will be updating Twitter via SMS.  Isn't technology great? No, this isn't a ridiculous attempt to get more followers, although I won't complain if that is the end result.

Speaking of twitter, I had to drop the CNN feed because the people running it are idiots. They post news story headlines, but not a corresponding link to the full article; totally useless.

One other rant: if you are signing up for a gift registry (wedding, baby, etc) be advised that Target no longer accepts returns from the registry. You pretty much have to present a receipt to return any item now. Wife said, "I would not have registered at Target if I'd known that."

On Returning

The month of November has blown passed like a swift blue northern wind. It seems like only yesterday that people were dressed up in costume, screaming like mad that they were "the devil" and cutting themselves on a San Antonio city bus. Ah, public transit ... but I digress.

I obviously made it home safely, even though I never detailed my return trip. We were held way late by a useless meeting on the final day, and did not get on the road until nearly 7:00pm. The drive is about 5 hours, plus we stopped at Applebee's for dinner and were delayed 11 minutes by construction traffic, so we arrived at the office at 1:20am on Friday. I slept in the following morning, returned the rental van around noon, and lazily strode into work around 1:30pm. At around 3:30 I concluded the work day and headed home to prepare for my evening.

We drove to Grand Prairie that evening to take part in the first of two high school reunion activities: a good ol' trouncing of the football team. On the way we met my mom at Don Juan's and had an enjoyable conversation. The football game was awful, but there was enough socialization with former classmates to make it worth while. After the game wife and myself talked with one person for nearly 30 minutes in the parking lot before it grew too chilly to continue the chatter.

We returned to GP the following day for the second activity: a dinner social at the horse race track. The event was held in a large suite on the northern end of the grandstands. The food was excellent, and there was a lot of baby talk as we sat amongst other pregnant couples. My previous experience with horse racing was limited to spectacle events on television, mainly the Kentucky Derby.  Did you know that they usually don't run in a circle? Apparently it's more of a drag race style for most events, even though they have a huge oval track. As a matter of fact, the horse racing aspect of the event was extremely boring. Who spends their Saturday night watching 15 second races separated by 20 minute breaks? Wife took some pictures of one race, and of the "track zamboni" tractors, and then we called it a night.

SA Road Trip: Day 2

This morning was the beginning of the conference, and I am bored to tears.  After about an hour I have found out how to route around the Hotel firewall and get Internet for free. How come nice hotels charge $10 per day for Internet access while cheap hotels give it away for free?  Oh, that's right: because they can.  Well they're not getting my money, the bastards.  Speaking of rip-off, the hotel provides bottled water (Aquafina) for $5 a bottle . Five fucking dollars for bottled tap water. Not only that, but they charge you instantly when you remove the bottle from its special holder. The refrigerator is rigged the same way.  I skipped the bottle and just got water out of the tap last night.

Back to the conference ... oh god am I bored.  After a few more of these talks the Linguist goes on stage, and afterwards we will be setting up the hardware for our demos this afternoon. Three hours of pain and glory, and our work here will be done.

(10 hours later ...)

Pain? Yes.  Glory? Not so much.  The demo went well for the most part, but of course there were some snags. We brought only personal laptops, so when it came time to set up I was asked to lend my computer to the cause. I could not explain, but I was strongly hesitant.  I soon realized why ...

We spent from about noon until 2pm tweaking settings on my laptop (which I'll have to revert tonight), and got things working.  We actually had two demos running (overkill), one to a remote server and one locally.  The most significant snag involved difficulties with my hackish subversion of the hotel wireless Internet and a certain Smurf cleaning my baby room carpet at home.  Very confusing and complicated, but the full story is too embarrassing to not tell in person.

After the demos, we packed up and shoved all the hardware into our hotel room before going down for the "awards ceremony", a.k.a. "The Wake".  This was an exclusive event, requiring a $35 prepay to simply attend.  Naive as I am, I assumed this sum would include some sort of celebratory drinks. Alas, I was sorely mistaken. It was $35 just to get into the door, and another $7 for shitty beer. I once again gave a hearty "F You" to the hotel (existentially), and vowed to take my drinking money elsewhere. Each one of the teams were awarded cute little "homemade" trophies, and then we GTFO.

When I first heard of a restaurant named Mexican Manhattan, I laughed.  I've eaten at enough out-of-town Mexican food restaurants to know that I wouldn't want anything of that genre in some place like New York.  Unfortunately the conference directors obviously haven't the same experience, and that is where we were to go for dinner.  The peeps and myself did a bit of scouting to confirm the suspicions. "It's like a Mexican Waffle House," I stated as we peered into the dirty windows of a truck-stop style diner. We cringed, and we laughed. Soon over 50 academics and government officials would be cramming into this tiny shithole of a Mexican food restaurant.

We needed drinks, and we had to keep moving to avoid being mugged. Around the corner and back towards the hotel we found a fantastic restaurant along the Riverwalk, called Ácenar. We told our waiter that our final destination was Mexican Manhattan; he rolled his eyes in an "Oh god that place is nasty" kind of way, and seemed motivated to ease us through the pain with servings of alcohol. The Linguist bought us a couple of rounds, I personally partook of a Three Citrus Magarita and an Amaretto Sour.  I was sufficiently intoxicated at this point to encounter the rest of the group and take my chances on the sketchy MM.

It turns out that the place had a lot more seating than originally advertised, including a balcony overlooking the Riverwalk where we all sat.  The locals gave us serious "WTF" looks as we all clamored towards the back. The six of us sat with the Big Boss and had good conversation along with our awful food.  The Linguist ordered nachos but instead got a big vat of cheese with a few chips thrown in.  J-Dub and myself both got cheap dinner plates that looked and tasted straight like Pancho's. I had another margarita (hey, why not?) but it was extremely salty (oh, that's why not ...)

After dinner we embarked on a quest to find The Alamo.  It didn't take too long for us to find ourselves lost walking around downtown San Antonio looking at the confusing street signs. At one point The Skeptic pointed out that we were headed towards the Alamo Dome, which we had to explain was actually a sports arena and not a historical site.  We backtracked a bit, and almost as soon as we were back at our hotel, we found the Alamo. Apparently the Hyatt is only a block from it, and none of us knew.  The Skeptic took some pictures, and The Captain was scolded by a Texas Ranger for touching the outer wall.

Filled with new inspiration, we crossed the roads like chickens and wandered into the little tourist shops along Alamo Plaza. The Captain bought a shirt to send home to his parents, and the Big Boss bought something as well.  I made the most of the opportunity by purchasing some Ozarka bottled water for $1 a piece, practically a steal considering the hotel prices.  We then triumphantly stumbled a block west into our hotel, up the elevators, and back to the room in which I now sit.

Tomorrow morning will be filled with more boring presentations, but at least we have no demo to set up.  We will be leaving here around 5pm tomorrow, hopefully arriving in Richardson by 10. I may need a ride from the airport since I haven't exactly made arrangements for dropping off the rental van yet.

SA Road Trip: Day 1

Last night a group of coworkers and myself embarked on a business trip to San Antonio.  We decided to rent and drive a minivan down rather than fly, due to costs / difficulties associated with flying, especially since we had to bring a bit of hardware for this trip.  I took it upon myself to drive, since I have motion sickness as a passenger.

Since yesterday was "Steal a base, steal a taco" day, we hit several Taco Bell restaurants on the way down.  We hit one in Hillsboro, two in Temple, and one in Belton.  We arrived to the last one at 4:55, 5 minutes before the free taco deadline.  It was surprisingly adventurous, and hopefully the Linguist will get the video edited and posted to YouTube sometime tonight.

The trip took about 5.5 hours, which is still pretty good time considering our TB excursions. We got checked into the Hotel, then went to dinner down on the Riverwalk.  Mexican food was absolutely out of the question, but in San Antonio that severely limits your dining options.  We were finally lured into a tiny Italian place by gaudy holiday lights.  There were about 8 tables inside, of which we occupied 2. It just so happened that our arrival corresponded with the beginning of a belly dancer's performance, of which we were highly encouraged to watch and be entertained.  The result was that I was annoyed more than anything else, and really just wanted to eat and leave.

Eventually we did eat, and we did leave.  We stopped by a pub along the way back, and enjoyed beers and healthy conversation in the open air along the river.  When I sat down to have a beer, my initial thought was, "I'm out of town, so they probably won't have Shiner Bach."  Of course my you're a dumbass reflex reminded me that we are still in Texas, and in fact much closer to Shiner, TX than in Dallas, and I got one on draft. TJ ordered some frys in curry sauce, which was damn good snackin'.

Fail

The first half of October has been rather disappointing.  Things started to go downhill with the cancellation of a test, and ended with me drowning my sorrows in a pint of Shiner last night. So, from the beginning ...

The first two days of the month I spent preparing for a test on the third.  Having studied and worked problems for several hours, I felt adequately prepared for the exam. Unfortunately, the exam was suddenly and inexplicably canceled at the last minute. A short game of telephone revealed one of the most bizarre works of non-fiction that I've ever heard.  Confounded and disappointed, I skipped my workout for that day.  Incidentally, I haven't been to the gym since.

On the way home, my wife informed me that she had punched a hole in the wall and flooded the kitchen (all by accident, of course), and that we needed to take the cats to the vet.  I attempted to solve those problems to the best of my ability, although we still have a hole in our bedroom wall. Wednesday was also most likely the day I acquired a contagious flu-like virus, which punished me from Thursday through Sunday, including a missed work day on Friday.

The following Wednesday I "aced" the test for which I had prepared a week earlier.  From this point the over-indulgence in useless crap (i.e. playing Civilization IV) impeded my progress on more important tasks. I completely screwed up my sleep schedule by playing past midnight most nights, and until 2:00am at least twice.

I had planed on playing in the PokerStars WBCOOP tournament on Sunday, but failed to even get in the door because tried to sign up about 4 hours too late. I take comfort in knowing that I would not have won anything even if I had managed to register.

My favorite sports teams have aided in my disappointment, since both the Stars and the Cowboys have played pretty awful. It could be worse, I suppose ... I could be a Buffalo fan.

Last night I got the results back for the test, and my results were less than satisfactory.  I demonstrated that I completely understood the problems, but was significantly discounted because I didn't show my work in the 'proper format'. Angry and disappointed, I strongly suggested to a friend that he join me for a beer.  I vented while he offered advice on how to adjust the test situation.

I continued my venting / contemplation with my wife after I got home.  She had been on vacation for the past few days, so it was good to see her again, but I'm sure I offloaded quite a lot.  At that point I came to the conclusion is that my main problem is with myself, and I need to make a concentrated effort to succeed in life, and not continue to procrastinate or otherwise waste time with useless endeavors. 

The Stars won last night with an overtime shootout, having never lead during the entire game.  I suppose if they can rise up, so can I.

Declaring My Eligibility

This post is to declare that I am, indeed, going to participate in this year's PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker ... damn that's a long event title. Last year I did pretty darn well in this event, making it all the way up to 36 out of a field of over a thousand, winning the iPod Nano to which I now listen every day.

My poker skills are a bit rusty these days, since the U.S. Congress knows what's better for me and my gambling "problem", although I still play the government-sponsored lottery a few times a month (go figure). I am hoping that I can at least make a show of it, and not do something incredibly stupid. I don't mind losing straight up, and I don't mind a bad beat, but I don't want to defeat myself.

Luckily I don't have to go through any hoops to deposit money for this event, since it is 100% free for anyone that has a blog. Yes, even you! As a matter of fact, you should sign up, because the worst that can happen is that you spend a couple of hours with good friends such as me and Wil, and win nothing. The best that can happen? Well I'm shooting for 3rd place, where the big screen TV, SLR camera, and nice camcorder come as a prize package. I wouldn't mind a new iPod either, though ...

Sign-ups end tomorrow at 6p.m. Eastern (that's 5:00 pm for us in Central)

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 8795382