Bahamut

I meant my real name...

I know mine isn't original, and I don't care. I find it kinda crappy that my name isn't even the first name to show up in google, but it does dominate the list (it is the first when you put quotation marks though).

One of the several embarrassing pics of the meetup

Holy shit...so many pics! And those Dave gifs are amazing.

I've heard from various CS majors that firewalls are essentially useless for preventing viruses from infiltrating a system. And also, assuming you're a careful user, the only occasion where you may need a virus scanner seems to be if you have your computers in a network such as a college one - I have gotten a virus before from it jumping through my alma mater's network while I was still attending the school, so it definitely can happen. Otherwise, I have not had an instance ever where I have gotten a virus infecting my computer.

Jeez, almost everyone got home before I did...and I have to say that the meetup was awesome. Oh and thank you bitch.

Not today for me, I just got back from VGL...

Damn, this'll be super sweet! I'm leaving in one hour, but I won't be seeing you guys until dinnertime.

Also, someone bring a good camera - our normal picture taker is going to be MIA

Damn, I forgot about this...I'm going to be out for the whole weekend for VGL though, so no chess till Monday night for me.

Even better, virt is doing the soundtrack of Contra 4, so I'm definitely picking the game up.

As far as I know, yes. Also, I have an extra ticket if anyone else wants to come, first come, first serve of course.

Put it in someone else's car temporarily?

Here's the hotel info: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/iadmc-fairfax-marriott-at-fair-oaks/ And let's all pray that zircon & pixietricks can make it! zircon got hit with appendicitis earlier today and had to be rushed to the ER.

Did you try http://www.vgmusic.com ?

I actually enjoyed Quest 64 somewhat too - I did have some complaints about it, namely that it's expensive for how long it was, but it wasn't nearly the worst RPG I've played.

It has been a while since I played FF1, but I remember the grind in that game was pretty bad...and the grind in FF12 ranks as one of the worst in RPGs I've played - it ranks up there with Lunar 2: Eternal Blue, and 7th Saga.

Hmm, this sounds very familiar *cough*FF12*cough*

GX had a fine soundtrack, shut your mouth!

So, is the new trend that consoles that do well have shitty failure rates?

Alright hotelers! I booked the hotel, and the grand total will come out to be....$26 for Friday night! I couldn't book the original hotel I was considering, but I ended up booking the Marriot At Fair Oaks in Fairfax, VA, which is right across the street from djp's place or so, so it's maximum convenience and cheaper to boot. For those staying Saturday night as well though, it'll cost either $43 or $32, we'll see about it when we get a definite count on who's staying for then. I was a cheapass and only put it down for 2 people...and I'll take the floor on Friday night so all of you guys can get good sleep. And don't forget to bring clothes for athletic activity - I demand we play an OCR game of Ultimate (frisbee) on Saturday afternoon!

Well, situation has changed...there was just a ladder reset.

That's not really true - there are some pointers. There are a few chain tricks to keep a note of, although the tutorial, if it's anything like the Tetris Attack tutorial, should be amazing. For an example, when you're clearing a line of vertical blocks, you can drop a block from the side of the stack into that hole before the blocks drop down, and if there is a clear that happens that is not a clear directly from the block you dropped, then it counts as part of the chain. Also, there is a midair clear trick, where if you clear a horizontal line of blocks, and you move a block from the bottom of the stack into that hole just before the first block to fall hits and just before the stack that the block was from falls, then you can create a chain that way, although that is an incredibly hard trick that's more suited for Hard Mode. Another Hard Mode trick is to switch a block that is falling with a block from a side stack to create a clear, which is also considered a part of the chain. Tetris Attack and its variants though are games of depth. They're designed more for the hardcore players, although I know many who enjoyed it on a more superficial level too.

Darkesword & q-pa both have cars, no worries there. Also, is it possible for you to give me a ride somehow Shariq? Like maybe I can travel to around where you are somehow and leave from there? How long would it take from the city to an amenable place and how early are you planning to head out to DC? Edit: Alright so I'm heading down there with Shariq - we'll be there for the dinner, and stopping by the hotel beforehand. And if anyone needs phone numbers, feel free to ask people via PM for them.

Oh, also it should be noted that you only play in Hard Mode in Birthday Battle if your win-loss ratio and your opponent's win-loss ratio is high, although I'm not sure how high it has to be. Hard Mode definitely is a lot more fun than Normal Mode, where I just get sleepy and chat in #ocremix while playing it.