Say hi to a new friend

Koci (pronounced ko-chee), my amigo and suitemate in Austin, has had a Xanga running for quite a while that I hadn't linked out of pure ignorance. Time to correct that.

While I'm at it, I spotted a new entry of his that looked pretty interesting. It's a rant on the obliviousness of American voters and he toys with the idea of restricting voting to only the informed. Since I don't have a Xanga account with which to post comments, I'll throw one up here:

At the start of the rule of the Constitution, Koci's system was actually in place. There wasn't necessarily a multiple-choice test to show competency, but there was a system nonetheless. The idea? Only landed white males could vote. And, leaving the modern value of equality out of the equation for a minute, it worked. It was the closest thing America had at the time to an aristocracy, and they were by and large very informed people. Political arguments, nowadays reserved for the intelligentsia at coffee shops, were abundant in bars. They were even the meeting points for "town hall" meetings and local debates. It's another one of those "what would the Founders think of today's society" kind of moments when we look at modern elections. So right on, Koci - you're up there with the greatest thinkers this country ever had.

Quakecon is on the horizon

And it's time to start planning. I'll try to get in touch with as many people as I can this weekend, but for now, have the following things in mind:

-Forget the giant table plan. By the response I've gotten so far, next to nobody is able to come Wednesday night, and we just can't save 20 seats overnight like that. Sorry, kids.

-Computer troubleshooting sucks. Wouldn't it be awesome if we all got there, got set up *before* Thursday night settles in and were in the middle of some crazy games? Between now and next Wednesday morning, make sure you've got as many games as you'll be playing loaded up. This includes Counter-Strike 1.6 (if you don't have Steam working already, go get a legit copy of HL/CS and get on it), Unreal 2004, and Doom 3. Get your games installed, get your options set right, and load up a level or two to make sure everything's in working order. Wodarski, just break your stuff now and that should make everything OK by next week. :o

-If you have a BYOC spot, block off Wednesday on your calendar as part of Quakecon. Last year we got ridiculously lucky and got to jump the line for Wednesday night's computer check-in instead of spending five hours in line. We can't expect that again, so we're going to go early, send a couple people on a food run, and camp it out in line. We need as many people as we can to do this or we'll have people jack all the spots next to us and be jerks about it like last year. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has a hotel room for Wednesday night, so we'll all end up coming home and maybe doing something cool for a little while before we try to catch up on sleep for Thursday.

-If you're on the BYOC waiting list, consider being up early Thursday. We should know Wednesday night when the BYOC wait list will open - and if you're there a couple hours early, you'll have a shorter line to deal with and you'll be guaranteed a spot. And it's more game time for you, and it's a better chance of you sitting with us.

-Get your hotel rooms straightened out. Most people have this set already, but for the few who don't, get on it. Makes life easier later on.

-If you are staying in the SSB hotel room, the changes have been made. For more info, call me.

That's it, boys and girls. If anyone has any questions at all, feel free to call me or IM me. I'll have a detailed schedule up at the end of the weekend.

Tentative list (taken from Qcon registration database):

confirmed:
ssb: blakerson / alex / thomas / aroon / max / graham / clint / wompa (guest of ssb)
non ssb: ian / billy / pablo / wodarski / emma / amit [+ friends] / aj / chris
unconfirmed: turk / cameron

I have Doom3

and man, is it freakin' sweet.

Now I know what they meant when they recommended a 5.1 setup. This is the only game, ever, that's made my sound system feel way underpowered.

Quick workaround solution: crank the subwoofer way the hell up.

But yes, this game is already getting awesome after two levels. If you haven't already, go grab it.

I'll report on multiplayer once I get the chance to try it.