The past past 72 hours have gone by in a flash. Since Humblik and Yanthor left the Boulder Compound a little while ago. (Over 3 hours after they originally planned. Late, but not as late an hour as Jaeger and I left a similar gathering in Lincoln a couple years ago.)

Starting where I left off.

Saturday morning, everyone present slept until very late morning, with the notable exception of Kiesa, who went to church.

Jaeger made waffles for "breakfast". Since the meal included orange juice, it was defined as breakfast even though we didn't start eating until approximately 13:00.

While making the batter, Jaeger discovered that he didn't have enough buttermilk. So he, Humblik, Yanthor, and I made another run for Safeway, where he found the appropriate substance, along with some additional syrup. (Apparently, some people hold strong preferencs for certain forms of "real" or "fake" syrup. Personally, if it's runny and sweet, I eat it and blissfully enjoy.) Some of us also took the opportunity to restock our fortifications.

Before we started eating, Kiesa returned from church and joined us for "breakfast".

Afternoon: We watched the pilot episode of Alias, a show strongly recommended by Yanthor and Humblik, some episodes of which Humblik happened to have in digital form. It was most entertaining. I might become a fan if I watch more of it.

Also, more Kohan. Much more.

Zan Lynx joined the gathering late Saturday afternoon, having successfully dug his car out of the snow.

In the evening, Zan Lynx, Yanthor, Humblik, and I played some Quake 3, Yanthor's skill having significantly improved since the last time I played him (he's been practicing), and Zan Lynx slightly less unbeatable than before (probably due to the fact that he hasn't practiced lately either).

He decided to purchase the downloadable game and join in the fun, but had some trouble due to the pesky WinXP-esque copy protection "authentication" scheme, which apparently was too stupid to work properly with his 2.5 kernel. (Meanwhile, others of us amused ourselves with various single-player practice games between looking over his shoulder. I myself played a most exciting one, and got coaching and tips from Yanthor and Humblik toward the end.)

When Zan Lynx rebooted to 2.4, his Kohan magically started working, so the 5 of us began an epic free for all game with 5 humans and 3 computer players. I lucked out with an excellent starting position, and built my empire up to over half the map. Yanthor's insane army managed to overcome my forces (due partly to the fact my human-driven interface couldn't do enough stuff fast enough in all my cities, troops, and recruiting to keep up with the game, and lost some forces due to late retreating.)

[Bitscape goes to eat yummy pesto with Zan Lynx, Jaeger, and Kiesa.]

Yanthor, Humblik, Jaeger, and I stayed up until after it became light outside working on various projects. (By this point, my brain was too fried to do anything useful though.) Zan Lynx returned to home to sleep, but left his computer here.

At around 0700, everyone went to bed. Once again, I slept on the couch in my sleeping bag.

Woke up at 0930, with lingering effects of sleepiness, but no desired to sleep. Jump-started my brain with some mountain dew, loud headphone music, a small amount of mindless content collective trailing, and Quake 3.

Yanthor joined me in quake3, and we played several intense games.

I took a shower.

When I returned, everyone was in the kitchen thinking about breakfast. Yanthor and I had been thinking about watching Waking Life at some point this weekend (I've been lobbying him to see it because I strongly suspect he is the type of person who would Really Enjoy it), but we realized that there was no way everything everyone wanted to do was going to happen within the timespan allotted, so I decided to give him my dvd copy to watch at his leisure, and I can pick up a replacement for myself at some future point, should I desire to do so. (After all, he had bought me a copy of Kohan. That's not to say that I felt like I owed him anything in return, but... generosity begets generosity.)

For breakfast, we had eggs and potatos. Yanthor again attempted to perfect his egg specialty (and succeeded), and I did the hash browns. We reminisced and talked for a while long after everyone was full.

Yanthor and I did some more Quake3, while Jaeger and Humblik played Magic. Then Yanthor and I played a couple Magic games, in which one of Yanthor's specially improved decks totally creamed my ancient green and white deck.

Yanthor and Humblik were scheduled to leave around 1500, but shortly before that time, at my suggestion, we decided to play one final game of Kohan.

It turned out to be an epic matchup. Humblik and I on a team, vs Yanthor and Jaeger, vs a team of 3 computer players. The game lasted over 3 hours. It was awesome, even though I was constantly getting sandwiched in the middle and losing all my cities. (After which Humblik would give me a few of his.) I'd go into detail, but maybe I'll just post the film for those interested in downloading. (I can think of one reader who's been commenting a lot on content solutions lately who might potentially have some interest.)

Our Epic Kohan AG game.

After the game, and a brief discussion and analysis, Humblik and Yanthor packed their belongings, and departed at around 1800.

I deleted a bunch of stuff and copied Jaeger's season 4 B5 episodes to Argo's hard drive, but still had to put some of them in /usr/local after /home filled up. I think I need to buy a bigger hard drive.

Zan Lynx, who had returned during our game, hung out with Jaeger, Kiesa, and I for a while, and Jaeger and Kiesa another free meal consisting of pesto.

Now, I think I shall shut argo down, and make a trip back to the Laser Fortress and, for a time, resume the currently established status quo. The last several days have been an awesome time. Everyone agrees we'll have to do it again soon.

Over and out.