Christmas Update: Ratings, Breakings, Noticings

Merry Christmas Eve KofCers!

Sitting here at my parents' computer, I was placed into a dilemma. On one hand I have a small, yet important, update to share with the KofC; on the other I have to use a dial-up connection to do all my internet browsing. My current connection speed? 40.0 Kbps, to put it in KofC terms I am browsing slightly slower than Daymonster plays Halo 3. What does this mean for you? A post devoid of links, pictures, or anything similar to entertainment. What you do get is an update on the ratings calculator...isn't that good enough?

I have good and bad news to report. I'll start with the bad. The previous plan was to use an Applet to put the ratings mechanism on the website. Unfortunately after I had the basic layout and design created and coded, I discovered that Applets cannot "talk" to other servers besides the one they are hosted on unless they are signed. What does that mean? Well it means I would have to go through a long arduous process to get it signed so that I can make connections to Bungie.net. Do I wanna do that? Hell no. The other piece of bad news is that after a series of frustrating events led me to punch the power cord on the back of my laptop multiple times in a fit of Dammer rage (see the ice scraper incident), the connection to my laptop has been compromised. Unfortunately both of my batteries are shot as well. What does this mean? This means that I placed an order for a new power supply today and it won't be here until next week perhaps. In other words production has come to a standstill on my end.

The good news: I have made a standalone version of how far I am in the ratings calculator. I plan to package it up and make it downloadable from the website as soon as I can get back onto my laptop. All you need is the latest version of Java to run it. It doesn't do anything yet, but at the least you will see what it graphically looks like. I will talk with Tilla some more, but until we figure some things out the plan is to make this a standalone app that will be available for download off of the website so that you can at least see what's happening. 

Random notes: I came home to find the Luther College yearbook placed in my room. How well was the KofC represented? Here's a breakdown:

DammerWillEatU: 77, 132, 139
Josey Wales: 77
Squatting Bear: 77
Locopollo: 77
Unky Warthog: 118, 120
Unky Eternal: no pages
UnkyPlayboy: don't know his real name

Based on this you would think that page 77 had a great picture of the KofC in action doing something, but you'd be wrong. Page 77 is the page for "Seniors Not Pictured".

That's it, enjoy your Christmas!

RROD - Update (Dammer is Back in the Game)

I don't intend to obscure the influx of new posts, but I've been meaning to post this since last week.



As you are all aware I was boxless for approximately 4 weeks time, with frustration mounting every time I couldn't play vids, watch DVD's or stream music from my computer. Tilla graciously supplied a haven for this XBox refugee to take out his frustrations, but it was still not enough. When you have a deep emotional connection with something, it is hard to function in your daily life. I struggled at work, I was undesirably grumpy most days (reminiscent of an Unky who can't get his daily donut ration). However this is where the story takes a turn for the good.

This last Wednesday I was getting myself ready to spread KofC goodwill and help a coworker lay down sod at his newly acquired house. I figured this would be a good publicity stunt for the masses to look at, and I would also acquire free pizza and beer out of the deal. All told it was a win-win situation. However as I was about to leave, I heard the familiar buzz of someone wanting me to let them into my apartment building. I of course didn't ask who it was through the intercom and just assumed I wasn't going to let in a random thief/murderer/kidnapper, and so I let them in. I politely waited to see if the person would come up to my door, with the hopes of the UPS man in the back of my mind the whole time. When I heard the knock on my door I peered through the peephole and lo and behold the UPS man had arrived bearing with him a box containing a new XBox 360 for me to kill nubs with. Now to the non-KofC member this may seem like a regular ordinary occurence, but when I think back this is what it felt like when I opened the door.



And so after struggling through hours of laying sod, followed by a third place finish at bar trivia, I was finally able to rush home for some Halloween evening Halo play with esteemed KofC harbinger of death Josey Wales. Once again the RROD is vanquished, and peace is restored to what was a very sad and frustrating 360-less existence.

Notes from Wednesday

WTF! Where was everyone last night? After getting kicked off my first game last night, I had almost no lag for the rest of the time! I got my first "perfection award," apparently you cannot die and you must have at least 15 kills. I got it on team doubles on Guardian. It was pretty exciting.

Matchmaking Updates

As some of you might know Bungie released some information about Halo 3's Matchmaking Playlists. I would say I am happy about most of them except the shotty/sniper update. Here are the changes and they are live now.

• Big Team Battle matches are now 16-player affairs.
• In the Team Slayer playlist, the appearance of Shotty Snipers has been greatly reduced.
• When players veto Shotty Snipers, the game that results from the veto will not be Shotty Snipers.
• In one-sided VIP matches, the attacking team will now see a way point for the VIP they are hunting.
• In Lone Wolves, Slayer game types will appear more frequently.

There you have it, the even though Bungie is breaking off of Microsoft, looks like they are still updating the matchmaking. Hopefully some new maps will appear in the near future.

Costume Conundrum

Seeing that it is Halloween season, I have gone back to my desire to make a Master Chief costume. A few years back I dropped about 150 bucks on making a Ghostbuster costume with some pretty solid results (yes, I realize MC is about eleventy billion times more complicated, but I have been reading up on the subject.

Here is the look I am going for.

It looks pretty accurate, although in mine I would like to maybe make the dual SMG's a little more realistic, and maybe paint it a different color.

This one I thought was alright (don't get me wrong, I would definitely be happy if this was the end result) but I was a little frustrated by the fact that everyone on the forum was calling this Master Chief "Gay." I couldn't figure it out, is it the rainbow tinted visor?

Anyway, I have all of the armor templates on my computer, I just printed off the helmet template (it's 20 pages of legal paper jigsaw pieces). I am going to try to go with the cardboard approach, as I don't have access to a lot of fiberglass or resin injectors like many of the die hard MC makers seem to have.

This is basically the model I am working off of. This so called "Trader Todd's Worker" built an entire MC outfit in a week or so for less than 30 bucks. Here is his helmet.

So what do you guys think, what is the possibility I could do this by Halloween? Or at least the next Halloween, my guess is I'll start it, get sick of it, and never touch it again (i.e. both fat blogs).

Early Edition Link-O-Rama

As some of you have read (Pablito Neal) ESPN had a pretty cool article about the MLGers.

Instead of trying to build a MC outfit, if I shrunk down about 100 lbs and a foot or two, moved to Australia and went to Kmart, I could just wear this.

Here is another article about the last few days leading up to Halo 3's release. It's a pretty interesting piece,\ except that they hint that the reason Halo 1 was popular was due to the 9/11 attacks.

SB purchase this VW Warthog.

I found this video to be incredibly hilarious, but I also find this site to be entertaining, but no one else seems too.