Howdy Strangers! (LAN Party Directions)

So I haven't posted in a while. Sue me. Ok don't.

This post is mostly for Scott's sake, as he's coming to the LAN party from Salt Lake (or thereabouts), and he's got no clue where Leon's house is, and I'll be including directions in this post at some point. But not yet.

Do you know what I love about our blog? The name. I love the damned name. Yes, no one except about three people on earth can spell PHISCHKNEGHT from memory, and that's a really good thing, because if you type "directions phischkneght" into the address bar of Firefox and press "Enter", do you know what Google gives you? The best match in the entire world for your query, which is a post on this very blog dated 22 December 2004, giving directions to the LAN party that was coming up on New Year's. I dig that.

Now, don't go there unless you'd like a history lesson, because I'm posting an updated version (I promise) below, and you'll get bad info from the old one.

In other news, on Saturday, Leon, Jeff and I will be playing in a 9-ball tournament at the Layton Hills Mall. I'm rather excited to be playing, as it's my first billiards tournament. I intend to have a good time, and if that means getting my sorry butt whipped, then that's fine.

But I'd really like to win, too. I'm thinking of dragging along my MP3 player and making a special playlist to keep me pumped. This approach seems to work nearly as well at Leon's house as getting someone to irk me a little bit so that I can play annoyed and clean them up. And I really do. But lately I've just been mostly tired. So the music may help with that.

Oh, did I promise directions? Yeah, I'll get to that...

I guess you could call this a brain dump post. I'm going to try to catch the blog up on my life in 3,000 words or less. Ready?

In August I got a new job at a company in Salt Lake called Unisys. I'm outsourced tech support without the funny accent or odor of curry. I've been there eight weeks now, and I'm doing well, but they like me at my desk by 6:00 AM, and the drive to Salt Lake takes a while in the morning and afternoon when I get off work, so I wake up early these days, and go to bed early, and I'm still tired all the time because:

• I still have to be Daddy to my kids.
• I still have to be SuperHubbyJake (TM) to Crystal.
• I still have to be V.P. of Communications to Weber Entrepreneurs Association.
• I still have to serve my Ziff Computers customers.
• I still have to go to activities with and teach lessons for my ward's Teachers Quorum.
• I still have to participate in regular hygenic activities, such as showering and brushing teeth, which takes a little time every day, but really adds up.

I feel like Prince Humperdinck in a classic moment when he said to his number one crony: "Tyrone, you know how much I love watching you work, but I've got my country's 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder, and Gilder to frame for it. I'm swamped!"

And I truly am. I just wear a Leatherman instead of a fancy dagger. But given the right dagger, I may be convinced to make a transition.

I've decided to begin studying for the Certified Ethical Hacker certification. Wahoo. Now we're talkin' malformed packets, baby! Oh, when you talk like that, it really makes my buffer overflow.

Oh, and I have a new phone. It's an Audiovox PocketPC 6700 with service from Sprint, which means that from now on when you call me on my cellular, you no longer have to cope with crappy Nextel service, which has never been a paragon of quality in my case. I love this phone, and maybe I'll write more about it later.

Ok, down to business. Following is a lightly edited version of the directions given for the previous party noted above. Most of what's new is the Google Maps directions link and my newer email address. Cheers!

Here is Leon's address in Kaysville:
350 N. Seemore Drive

Directions: From I-15, take the Kaysville exit. Coming off of the exit, turn West onto 200 North. If you're coming from the South, that's a left turn. If you're coming from the North, it's a right turn.

You should pass a car dealership right by the freeway as you head West.

Further down on the right, you'll see a nice park. This means you're going the right way. There's another park right next to the first one. Yes, two city parks right next to one another. Welcome to Kaysville. Keep heading West.

You'll see an LDS church on the left. Then you'll see a Baptist church across the street from the LDS church, also on your left. Keep heading West.

Take the next right. It's called Seemore Drive. This is Leon's street. He lives at the very end of the street, on the right-hand side. There is parking in front and at the side of the house.

Here's an aerial photo of Leon's neighborhood, and here's a zoomable Google Map that assumes you know how to get on I-15. Seemore Drive is the road that ends in a "T", not the one that has a cul-de-sac. His house is the one on the right-hand corner next to the cul-de-sac. Yeah, the one with the huge back yard.

If you have any problems, questions or other concerns about the party, you can email me at slybevel (at) gmail (dot) com, or you can call my cellular phone at nine four oh, fifteen oh six. Got that? If you don't know the area code, go away.

Better yet, you could call Jeff. He's in charge of this one.

Things I forgot to talk about in my last post

This post is for things players ought to know about the LAN party I didn't mention.

One, those of you with microphones or headsets, BRING THEM! Jake and I were playing around and have discovered that voice messaging in Half-Life is fun and easy. Plus, it'll be easy to talk to teammates with it.

I also forgot to mention that in addition to the games I mentioned, we plan on having Halloween-type movies to watch, as players may get fragged out. Nightmare Before Christmas and Beetlejuice top the list, but there may be more than that.

I will probably update this post as I think of other things.

Yet Another Pre-LAN Party Post

Ok, the LAN party is this coming Friday so first off, w00t! Here's a refresher for everone coming.

What everyone should know about the party: it will take place this Friday, starting at 2:00 and ending PROMPTLY at 11:00 at the Walker residence. Music will be turned off at 9:00 pm, and headphones are mandatory for games such as Half-Life. There is a $15 cover, as we are having Garcias cater.

Guests are expected to bring their own computers, monitors and other peripherals (keyboard and mouse). Tables will be set up in the basement where you can jack in to the network.

We will be playing the following games: Half-Life Death Match, Counter Strike, Half-Life 2 Death Match (if there are enough players), Motocross Madness, You Don't Know Jack, Mortal Kombat and pool. Also, with the computer games, we appreciate people having the computer games already loaded on their boxes, and if you don't now, I urge you to grab a copy (the HL Platinum pack was $15.00 at Walmart last I checked). If you don't have these games come Friday, we can take care of it, the exceptions bein YDKJ (one computer can handle lots of people) and HL2 (you must have your own copy)

Finally, these are the people we are expecting. If I have forgotten anyone or if anyone here isn't coming, I need to know by Tuesday when we order food.
Krys
Jake
Leon
Gary
Andy
Mikey (Andy's buddy)
Myself
Brad (Krys' brother)
Stan

And I guess Eric isn't going to be showing up. Too bad. Here's looking forward to Friday.

It's not a free lunch

It doesn't look like I'll be making it to the LAN party this week, although if I need a break from all the other exciting things that will be going on, then maybe I'll come join you for a while. It's that or go to some 1840's period dance.

I do have a bit of news. We spent the weekend painting, and with carpet coming tomorrow, everything is in place for us to move next week. We'll be spending all day Friday packing and what not, and we plan to have a large truck here to move everything on Saturday, starting shortly after 8:00, until we're done. If any of you are interested in helping, let me know and I'll give you details. We plan to feed you, and if enough people are here, it will be easy enough work.

Of course, if you're busy or just not interested in heavy lifting, that's fine too.

Have a fun LAN party.