My garage this past Halloween

Last year I did something similar, but simpler.  This year was a bit more complex.

It seemed simple enough a task for the trick-or-treater: walk in, enjoy the spooky ambiance (and random lasers stabbing thorough the upper level of fog), grab a reward from the yellow glowing pumpkin, and move on to the next house.

Right?

Looking up as you walk in

Not with me around.  (Haha – trick or treak? Trick!)  With the help of my sister, we ushered all the, um, victims into the cage (a repurposed dog “kennel”).  Once the kids were sure the smiling Goth-dressed-female wasn’t going to bite them, and that everyone was clear of the door, the lights would suddenly drop out.  An enormous thunder and lightning strike from directly in front of them would illuminate a monster, arms outstretched and ready to grab them!  Before anyone could but turn around, the door to the chain-link cage would swing shut, chains clanking loudly against the metal.  You were trapped!

Though you could get away without a trick? Didja?

And then . . . we let them go.  We didn’t scare the really litl’ ones.

Here’s an AVI movie, I’ll have to get me a flash player setup sometime.  The microphone normalises stuff too much so you can’t really hear things.

By the end we had fog, black light, strobes, lasers, subs, amps, a laptop . . . so pretty much an instant rave party afterwards.

Behind the scenes

Thanks to the fam for helping get things setup!

My music toys

Mmmm.  Audiodelicious.

MY new keyboard, the one on the bottom, is full-size, complete with weighted (scaled hammer) keys.  Very nice to play.

Pictured: Foreground: my new (used) car.  Background: my old (beaten) car.

I just haven’t been writing about it.

Got some good stories, including the biggest hole in Zen Cart I’ve ever seen, a house I almost bought that was falling to pieces, and also, I bought a guitar.

But right now, I’m fed up enough with Windows Crapista.  So I’m gonna nuke it and hope it can, after this, go back to performing simple tasks such as showing me the contents of a folder in less than 40 seconds.

Mind you, my day-to-day tasks are more complex. But I get tiered of fighting.

Like how I managed to get EasyBCD to bork my Windows Crapsta bootloader two times over before Ikindagot the options well enough where they ought to be so I could live with it.

Or how newer versions of Ubuntu have more obvious graphical glitches on multiple monitors (four cursors, WTF?!) than older versions.

Or how Ubuntu suck just because it’s so minimalistic. (Tongue-in-cheek – it’s just too far for my preferences.)

Or how in this day and age it still takes ***** more than 25 seconds to show me the **** contents of a directory! On modern hardware!!!

My frustration is great an compounded.

Date completed: 4/16/2009

Date completed: 4/2009

Date completed: 4/2009

What to do?

Build one.

Using our friendly less-than-seven-dollar waferboard, I cut, beveled, and sanded it to fit custom into the space my old one used to fill.

Add some selective sanding to smooth it and add an abstract design…

Here it it:

The hard floor is sooo nice to roll on.

Also, unlike what you would expect, the floor isn’t too bad on the bare feet, but YMMV.

Most of this is common sense, but I though I’d type it up so we can better quell some of those nasty contentions that come up at times when we are playing games amongst ourselves.

As always, recreational games are played for fun.  Avoid fighting and arguing.  (Fighting and arguing aren’t fun, this defeats the purpose of the game.)  If you can’t peacefully resolve an issue by looking at the official rules and these rules, perhaps you should do something else.  Like mow my lawn.

All games

House Rules – All house rules must be declared before a game begins or normal rules apply until the end of the game.

• If you play a game in any way shape or form different from the official rules, all players must be notified of these different rules before the game starts.
• A common example is the Monopoly “Free Parking” space.  Though the common rules regulate this as a “do nothing” space, many people pool money into a reserve and hand it out when someone lands on the space.  If you play like this, you need to inform players about it before the game starts.
• If no official rules are handy (such as those many games we play with no board or instruction sheet), everyone should review his/her “version” of the game together and agree on a common set of rules before starting.

Agreeance – Notwithstanding any of these rules or the rules of any game, if players agree to modify rules or status during a game, they may.

• This includes all “young person” handicaps, live addition of house rules, etc.
• In most cases, this requires a unanimous vote.  If the host (usually the person that owns the building the game is played at) decides, however, a majority vote may be used instead.

Cheating – Intentionally breaking of the rules gets you kicked out the the game, or worse.

• Accidental/uninformed breaking the rules is not considered cheating.  Use these opportunities to reiterate the correct rules.  Fix the mistake if it is discovered in time, live with the mistake it if it isn’t.  (See You Snooze You Lose.)
• Anyone caught cheating automatically “loses” the current game and may not be allowed to play further, depending on the decision of the host.
• Other forms of cheating besides intentionally breaking game rules include: using any sleight of hand or preparation to “stack decks” or prefix rolls, intentionally looking at someone else’s properly concealed cards/information, using non-players to gather information, or anything along such lines that compromise the integrity of game play or gives a player and unfair advantage outside of the regular rules.

Interruptions – Handle with care.

• Remember, it’s just a game.  If one of the players has to deal with something more important than the game (house burning down, kid on fire, funny XKCD comic, etc.) and delays you for 10 minutes, start something else on the side.
• Barring important things, remember that it is polite to suspend gameplay while someone is on the phone in exactly the same way that it is impolite to answer the phone and talk with company over.  You got 120 seconds, buster, then we’re moving on.

Hand games (board, card, etc.)

You Snooze You Lose – If no players notice a breach in the rules quickly (defined below) the invalid move/action is considered valid and play continues without interruption.  There are no retroactive fixes for the mistake.

• If players can agree  on a common retroactive resolution, in some cases this is more appropriate.  (See Agreeance.)
• Example: You are playing Uno and a player, incorrectly and mistakenly, places a red 4 on a green 5.  Nobody notices and the next player takes a regular turn.  Half a turn later someone notices.  At this point, you cannot go back and make the person re-take or recall his turn.  The card was played.  Since nobody noticed at the time, move on with the game.
• If you put/tilt your cards where someone else can see them, tough luck.  Any information gathered is free for the opposing player to use without moral injunction.  Anyone that moves behind you to see your hand or forces you to show it against the rules is cheating.
• Along the same lines, if you accidentally tell a secret, anyone is free to use the information.  If the rules specifically prohibit telling said secret, you are cheating.
• If it is your turn, you must notice the inconsistency before you end your turn or forever hold your peace.
• If it is not your turn, you must notice within the first few seconds of the next players turn or, likewise, live with the mistake.
• If there are no turns,  it must be noticed before anyone takes another action that involves the mistake (“involve” includes anytime a player makes a decision based on the information).
• If any player notices a breach in the rules and doesn’t say anything, he/she is being dishonest.  See cheating.

Electronic Games

There is No Cheating – If the game lets you do it, it’s not cheating.

• If the game lets you do it, it meant to let you do it.  This includes things like spawn camping and cornering opponents with fire so they cannot move.  You are free to do it whenever you want.  (Don’t forget, however, that such actions can be banned and considered cheating in a given venue, see House Rules.)
• If there are updates to the game, they must be applied for this rule to apply.
• Actions that are obviously exploits/bugs my be exempt from this rule, at the discretion of the host.  Components of poor game design are not.  If they bug you, set up a house rule.
• If you are using the game in any sort of not “out-of-the-box” way, thsi rule may not apply.  Use of tools that let you player better/faster/etc. can be considered cheating.  The host has discretion to decide if a given tool is considered cheating or not.

There you go.  Now stop arguing.

The next day I saw three twentysomeodd kids playing Magic: The Gathering on their table at Arby’s.

If I am childish and stuck with immature interests, the least I can say is that I’m not alone.