In Response To: I Assassinated Claude Errera *IMGs/VIDs* *LONG* (munky-058)
: The Dream
: Water? psh. Food? Whatever. Sleep? Who needs that?
: Trivial luxuries for the masses.
: My eyes turned to the calendar. April 10. I was on my tenth day without Halo.
: Ten long and horrible days without Xbox Live. I was approaching madness.
: My study guides and notes consisted of doodles. Elites, Hunters, CQB-clad
: Spartans.
: I couldn't cope. But I had to.
: I didn't need Halo, I told myself: "I DON'T need Halo.
: I don't need it.
: I don't need it.
:
: I don't need it.
: ... I told myself I was taking the month off. I need to focus on my school
: finals. I don't need to play Xbox Live. I don't need to check social
: networks. I don't need to get on HBO.
: HBO.
: HBO.
: Hey, I wonder what's new on the HBO forum...."
: A quick glance, what could it hurt? I just needed a fix.
: "It's over you fools" said a post. Hm. Miguel Chavez, no less,
: something must be up.
: I clicked the post, and through the cryptic writing, I was able to single out
: one word... Well, acronym. LAN.
: A flashback popped up in my head. An old video that I watched years and years
: ago. A making-of video that featured a LAN party held at a certain guy's
: house. How my young eyes filled with longing when I had watched that
: video. Attending a LAN party. How a child could dream once...
: But life has a funny way of waking you up, quelling dreams. You become so
: busy trying to stay awake for whatever inconvenient hurdle comes your way
: that you never take time to get enough sleep, let alone dream.
: A LAN, I smiled. That'd be something. I clicked out of the link, and shortly
: after, the page. I had to study.
: But then, a thought. A small desire. Goethe once said, "What is not
: started today is never finished tomorrow.” And he was right. Why not? Why
: not try? Why not... dream?
: The Machine
: I went back to the thread, and read it once again. Why not?
: I emailed Mig a quick, brief message: "Slap me down for consideration,
: I'd love to go!"
: And that was it. Or so I thought. The night passed, as did the day. But that
: evening, an email arrived: "Munky, gimme your name and where'd you be
: coming from. -M".
: Wait. Was this for real? I hadn't thought about it. I had flipped a small
: switch, without thinking too much of it. But now, lights were coming on,
: and a huge machine was beginning to power up.
: A couple of emails later, I received THE email: "If you're getting this
: email, it's because you've been officially invited to Claude's LAN party
: the weekend of May 21-22. Pat yourself on the back, loser."
: The giant machine rumbled. The gears had started turning. This was it.
: As I would later tell everyone, I am not a travel person. I hate driving. I
: hate being a passenger in a car. I can't stand planes. I don't travel
: unless I have to. Just that week, I had turned down a second family
: road-trip to Orlando, FL. Everyone knows that Nando doesn't go on
: vacations. Even Sammy hesitates to ask me to drive the thirty minutes up
: to Chattanooga. And here I was now, planning a thousand-mile road trip. I
: hadn't thought this through. Regardless, I was going to make it work.
: A ride with Gian was suggested and agreed upon. But I'd have to go on a
: six-hour drive to get to him. Crap. And what's worse, my only vehicle was
: a v8 4x4 Tahoe. A drive to and from Gian's house would be $170, and that
: was just the gas. I hadn't thought about the driving. I had to find an
: alternative.
: Luckily, my cousin agreed to drive me down to Savannah in her small
: 4-cylinder Rav-4! Yay! And so that was that.
: Weeks later, and the day of the journey was just around the corner. I like to
: keep things simple. I like to check and double-check that things are in
: place, because I have learned how easily a house of cards can fall apart
: if one card isn't firmly in place.
: And so I found it. Five days before the trip, my cousin decided that she
: didn't want to drive 11 hours to and from Savannah in one day. I offered
: to pay for a hotel. She then claimed that she'd end up missing part of a
: day at work, so I'd have to pay her for that day of work, on top of the
: gas, the food, and the hotel...
: I like to keep things simple.
: I asked Gian about a compromise, knowing it would add hours to his driving
: time.
: But the situation wasn't as flexible as I had hoped. The machine was
: approaching a Wall.
: I asked my cousin to do her math, and to let me know what the total price
: would be for everything.
: She texted me back minutes later.
: $350.
: The machine ground to a halt.
: It couldn't happen like this. She had weeks to derail the plan, why wait
: until now? WHY?
: I counted my money. I could do it, but $350 off a 20+ hour road-trip's budget
: on day one would be a significant loss. This sucked, but with five days to
: go before the trip, there wouldn't be any alternative besides enduring the
: drive to and from Gian's house. I like to keep things simple.
: But Sammy had other plans. She had been looking for workarounds, and her
: cousin Cindy stepped up to the plate. $150 for the drive there.
: Sweet. The machine was moving again.
: The Passenger
: The catch of having Cindy drive Furhman (Christopher Manning) and I down to
: Savannah? We'd have to leave Dalton at 7:30 in the morning. I was awake
: and ready to go at six. I had sent Cindy a text the night before to make
: sure this house of cards was strong. She sent a reassuring confirmation.
: Things were great. Then 7:30 came and went. I sent her a text. She didn't
: reply. Huh.
: Around 8am, Sammy called me, to see what was up. Cindy had a habit of being a
: little late, but that was fine by me. Didn't want to bite the hand that
: fed. Around 9, Sammy called Cindy. No reply. More texts went unanswered.
: 11am. I was worried. Here was a situation that I couldn't adapt to. There was
: no last-minute workaround. I had dodged a bullet already, but just barely.
: Now, there was no dodging. I wasn't in control of the situation. I was
: just a passenger. I could do nothing but sit helplessly on the plane as
: the pilot struggled to keep it airborne. A painful feeling in the pit of
: my stomach began to grow. Why can't things just be simple?
: As the sun approached noon, the stress was taking its toll on me. I didn't
: want to be mad. Things weren't down the drain yet, but that wasn't the
: problem. I feared that Cindy would change her mind, given the fact that
: our schedule hadn't been kept. I did everything on my end; she was nowhere
: to be found. Sammy called me once more. I didn't know whether to
: anticipate her calls with hope or with dread.
: "Cindy finally called back, she overslept, but she said she's still up
: for it."
: YES! As the pilot regained control of the plane, this passenger finally took
: a breath. Okay. Things are good. I sent Furhman a text, informing him that
: all was well.
: Another hour passed. Sammy called once more. There was a problem.
:
: Could anything be more appropriate at this point?
: Apparently the insurance on Cindy's car hadn't been paid, and her brother had
: taken it, while he paid the insurance and other bills. Cindy wasn't sure
: when he'd be back. This couldn't be happening. Once more I was the
: passenger. Once more the house of cards began to teeter back and forth.
: I decided to just head over to Sammy's house with my things. If nothing else,
: I'd be with my Sammy. She could comfort me through anything. We were
: debating fallback plans. There might be another friend we could ask,
: though he got out of work at 7pm. Anything to avoid driving. It could
: still work, maybe.
: Sammy got a text, and much to my surprise, Cindy had gotten the car, and she
: was on her way.
: Seeing the car pull up was one of the best feelings in the world. Finally we
: could head out.
: After a stop for food, we headed down to get Furhman. There were four of us
: in the car: Cindy, her boyfriend, their small hyper dog, and myself.
: Apparently they wanted to stay in Savannah for a bit after dropping me
: off. The ride down was pretty uneventful, but at one point, I fell asleep.
: A confusion between an exit and a road as we approached Marietta caused
: Cindy to turn the car around and head back north for ten minutes, before I
: woke up and corrected her.
: At a quarter past Four, we finally arrived at Furhman's place. Only seven
: hours behind schedule. As Romeo would say, 'better late than never'. We
: then went on an odd search for a Wendy's ultimately deciding to just stop
: at a Chik-fil-a... Which happened to be across the street from a
: Wendy's.....
: We had originally scheduled to arrive in Savannah hours before Gian got out
: of work, but due to our delays, we ended up arriving just after he closed
: up. So in an odd way, the days events couldn't have gone better. I wanted
: to throw up.
: The Precedent
: We arrived at the Maleki Mansion a few minutes later, after thanking Cindy
: for the ride. I'm not sure what we would have done if we had arrived
: earlier, but touching anything was definitely out of the picture. Luckily
: we didn't have to worry, as we had Gian there, and little time to go
: before we set out on the long ride. As Furhman attempted to nap, Gian and
: I headed out for supplies. It was going to be a long drive, and we wanted
: to make sure that hunger didn't force us to make any long stops. We also
: had to pick up paintball equipment from a friend's house.
: Gian told me of a humorous keg incident he and this friend had not that long
: before, which helped me trust Gian's driving skills a bit more, though I
: double-checked to make sure my seatbelt was safely locked in place. He
: also told me of an incident involving his license, which I acknowledged
: could be an issue if we were pulled over, but I dismissed it as an
: interesting fact. Of course there was to be a catch. There always was a
: catch. This wasn't really a big one, so I was grateful of the fact.
: Obvious hitches are generally the least of one's worries, it's the
: foolproof things that you're not worried about that cause things to fall
: apart.
: After a great story about a birthday paintball game and a "Cookie
: Conspiracy", we headed to Kroger to gather our supplies. We stocked
: up a bit more than we needed to, because we know that it's better to be
: over-prepared than left wanting.
: We couldn't get Beef Jerky though, as the outrageous prices put it into the
: "luxury items" list.
: Once our departure time was upon us, we put our foods (and a kitchen trashbag
: full of discarded food) on top of the car as Gian organized the Prius once
: more, taking into account the space we'd need for Dan to put his stuff. We
: had everything in place, and with one last stretch, we sat and prepared
: for a long, long drive. As the car accelerated towards the end of Gian's
: neighborhood, I was happy that everything was actually working out. It had
: been a long day, but everything had somehow managed to work out, and we
: were off...
: CRASH!!!
: The sound of broken glass and crashing objects caused me to close my eyes for
: a moment. What the crap just happened? There was a moment of confusion
: before Furhman pointed out what we had all forgotten. The garbage bag.
: Gian had intended to put it into the trash cart at the end of his
: driveway, but now the trash was littered all over the road. Of course. As
: if this trip had not had enough precedents already.
: A mad dash was made to clean up the trash before any other car drove by, and
: we returned to Gian's house to wash our hands. Of course this had to
: happen, but at least it wasn't a complete derailment.
: Furhman's spirit is a tough one to crack
: .
: The Journey
: I don't like planes. There's a bit of a fear of heights involved, though I've
: vowed that one day I'll go skydiving to get over my fear. Multiple
: skydiving advertisements in my town are a sign for me to go for it one
: day. One day. For now, I hate flying.
: I had originally planned to take the Megabus up to New York. A trip that
: would take almost two days, but cost a whopping $14. As unbelievable as
: that sounds, it's absolutely true. Fourteen dollars. But once I heard of a
: possible road-trip with fellow HBOers, I couldn't pass it up. I'd never
: been on a road-trip before, and this was a perfect opportunity. It's not
: about the destination, as the old saying goes. There isn't much to say
: about the initial drive, so I'll use pictures for much of it, beginning
: with a song that was part of our trip's soundtrack:
: The Prius of Doom
: .
:
: Curious...
: .
:
: Forward unto Dawn...
: .
:
: A rare stop for gas.
: .
:
: The Single-National House Of Waffles
: .
:
: Picking up Dan in D.C.
: .
:
: Room for negotiation...
: .
:
: Stopping to stretch on the Jersey Turnpike.
: .
:
: Now once we got to Jersey City, things got interesting. We had originally
: planned to skip around the madness, but Furhman decided it would be best
: to go through Jersey City and Manhattan, and his directions were....
: less than ideal.
: .
: "Please turn left onto Murder Alley."
: .
:
: Not quite patching us in, are you Furhman? T_T
: .
:
: Why these street signs aren't vague at all!
: .
:
: The safe-haven isn't so safe anymore...
: .
:
: Our stop in the city reminded me of a scenario I had been warned about as a
: child:
: .
:
: False advertisement.
: .
:
: .
: We finally managed to escape thanks to some crafty driving on Dan's part,
: including breaking a few laws that would get you Rodney King-ed in GA. I
: praise the man though, he knows how to drive like mad when the need
: arises.
: .
: Escape From New Jersey
: .
:
: Mig: "In this day of mishaps, Furhman decides to ignore my directions
: and take the Southern riders THRU Manhattan to get to Queens. During Rush
: Hour. On a Friday.
: Shit.
: {facepalm}"
: The LAN
: We finally arrived at Mig's house in Queens. Weary, but safe and sound. It
: was great to meet Miguel, the guy who answered my message and helped make
: my dream come true. I don't know how to express my gratitude to him, or
: how to let him know how much his invite meant to me, but with a shake of
: his hand, I felt like I had awoken from a dream, except the dream was
: real, and here I was.
: I took some pictures at Mig's place, and while most can be found at the link
: at the bottom of this post, a whole mess of them were taken with my phone,
: and can be found in their own album on my imgur:
: http://munky.imgur.com/migs_house
: As for the rest of the LAN, Wu was nice enough to host them here on HBO,
: they're generally huge, but can be found at the bottom of this post. I'll
: highlight a few, but remember that many many more were taken.
: Club Errera.
: .
:
: Eager Dan
: .
:
: Eager Mig
: .
:
: Every Ginger from Bungie showed up!
: .
:
: Nomi and Sundance
: .
:
: Schooly takes aim
: .
:
: Ice Cream with Kermit, courtesy of the TSD Ice Cream Runners.
: .
:
: The lesser of two Evils
: .
:
: So humble...
: .
:
: I didn't say anything!
: .
:
: The man. The myth...
: .
:
: Urk makes sure to monitor information...
: .
:
: Always label your stuff!
: .
:
: TSD super-secret handshake
: .
:
: We ate real food!
: .
:
: Courtesy of the Mäster Kock, Oskar!
: .
:
: They call him nof, cuz he does nof*** around.
: .
:
: BOLL likes to take pics, hates competition.
: .
:
: You know you're in trouble when...
: .
:
: Pelgrift's a laid-back one...
: .
:
: ♫ I'm never gonna dance again, Guilty feet have got no rhythm...
: ♪
: .
:
: Elessar ponders the day's events.
: .
:
: If only I were a butterfly...
: .
:
: A captivated Wu.
: .
:
: Storytime is always fun.
: .
:
: Ichabod
: .
:
: Not so evil after all...
: .
:
: Co-Op, Twin Beard Edition
: .
:
: The dream come true...
: .
:
: Yes! Wait... what?
: .
:
: Start speculating!
: .
:
: Wu's list of demands.
: .
:
: Checking up on the bros.
: .
:
: Group photo.
: .
:
: Truf or Tijuana Mama. 400% hotter.
: .
:
: Truf was one of our favorite events.
: .
:
: Schooly D. The "D" stands for "Delighted"!
: .
:
: Infinite...
: .
:
: Tex's visit. Short but sweet.
: .
:
: DHalo's chlorine...
: .
:
: Oliver and Sundance
: .
:
: Wakey wakey...
: .
:
: Facial hair
: .
:
: Gotta chug'em all!
: .
:
: Unless Kermit gets to them first!
: .
:
: Sleep is for the dead...
: .
:
: Conrad's exit.
: .
:
: "Claude, there's an alpaca in the front yard..."
: .
:
: Official Candy of the Weekend.
: .
:
: Finn enjoying a good read...
: .
:
: Hoverhands.org
: .
:
: Father and son bonding. Err... yeah...
: .
:
: That's more like it.
: .
:
: BOLL gets into character.
: .
:
: As does Kermit.
: .
:
: Armor effects IRL
: .
:
: A great day.
: .
:
: Munky Bro-58
: .
:
: Andreas and GreyThor
: .
:
: As the final day neared its end, and as I played around with Wu's AR, I
: noticed something. I was wearing my beloved red, and Wu was wearing blue.
: There was only one thing that could be done: I Assassinated Claude
: Errera :)
: .
:
: I got to meet Lindsey Lohan...s...!
: .
:
: A final shot.
: .
:
: Sam Pelgrift captured me doing what I did best that weekend.
: .
:
: I even took some screenshots of a game we played, and Hedgemony helped
: immortalize our leader with his own image.
: Kermit and Wu make a stand.
: .
:
: Furhman is hungry for action.
: .
:
: Wu sends Mig for a dive.
: .
:
: Click to enlarge Wu's ego.
: Thanks Hedge!
:
: I made a video of the weekend too, using footage that nobody knew I was
: recording the entire time :). That's how Korny rolls guys! I hope you
: enjoy it:
: Chekhov's Gun
: As the night settled in and we prepared to leave, I found it in myself to try
: to put my appreciation of everything Wu and Mig had done into words. I
: told them how much this had meant to me, and that it had been a truly
: unforgettable experience. And so, shortly after one final thanks, we
: departed. The amazing weekend was almost over. Now for the ride home... if
: only gas wasn't so expensive!
: How much gas can I get for an arm?
: .
:
: As we drove south, I looked over to the pretty lights of the city at night.
: If you had asked me a day before Mig's post if I ever had any hope of
: attending a LAN, my answer would have been a resigned "No". Guys
: like me never have such good luck. We just dream and dream. But that
: weekend, I learned that if you actually take the first step towards your
: dreams, the next step is much easier. No matter what hitches life throws
: at you, or what precedents attempt to discourage you, you are almost
: always in control. Very rarely are you ever truly the helpless passenger
: on the plane. But even then, passengers have taken a chance and helped
: land a plane before.
: After a long weekend with almost no rest at all, I finally drifted off
: towards real sleep. A journey is never flawless from beginning to end, but
: as the old saying goes, no matter how many problems you run into on your
: way to fulfilling a dream, all's well that ends well.
: ...
: "Guys, guys wake up!"
: Gian's concerned voice cut through my sleep.
: What was wrong? As I opened my eyes, a curious sight greeted me. The interior
: of the car was flashing. A blue light flashed over and over. That wasn't
: normal, what could possibly be... Oh crap.
: I looked over at a very nervous Gian. 'What did you do?' I thought.
: I could hear Furhman in the backseat sitting up as the situation slowly
: dawned on him. We had been pulled over.
: I couldn't think of any reason why we'd been stopped. The sun wasn't out yet.
: How long had I been asleep? Where were we? Surely we were in Pennsylvania
: by now, away from the strict New Jersey police right? But what time was
: it?
: Wait... Why were we stopped?
: An eternity passed before the officer approached, and wouldn't you know it,
: he approached on my side of the car. Great. In my groggy state, I figured
: I'd have to do the talking, which was alright, I wasn't nervous. But why
: couldn't I stop shaking? My window rolled down as a flashlight shone into
: the car, and my sleep-deprived eyes. I stayed quiet as he filled us in on
: why we had been stopped. Apparently Gian had been speeding. Apparently we
: were still in NEW JERSEY! Dang it. We were nowhere near home. Heck, we
: weren't even far from Wu's house. And here was a cop staring into a car
: full of electronics and ethnic minorities. This wasn't a pretty picture.
: He asked for Gian's license and registration. Oh yeah. Gian's story about a
: "temporary license" slowly came back to me. Checkhov's gun had
: fired. Of course.
: Of course.
: Gian fumbled nervously as he looked for the court documents explaining his
: license's state, stuttering the explanation for it. I really should be the
: one to explain things, but from what I figure was my body trying to force
: me to sleep as the situation demanded that I stay awake, I couldn't stop
: shaking. I'm amazed the officer didn't suspect me to be on drugs. He left
: with Gian's document and an old copy of his registration. I sighed. How
: could I not have seen this coming?
: The officer returned after a couple of minutes, and asked where we were
: coming from.
: Rule number one when talking to a police officer: Don't Lie.
: "Visiting family", Gian lied.
: I sighed. Right. Of course. I really should be the one talking, but here we
: are sinking into a hole.
: "Some family, and friends," Gian added. A decent recovery, I
: suppose. At least it's not further down the hole.
: "You always carry a TV when you go up to visit family?" The officer
: asked, referring to the large television in the backseat that Wu had given
: Furhman.
: Rule number two when talking to a police officer: Never answer with an
: attitude.
: "You do when you get if for free from someone," Gian replied
: sarcastically.
: I sighed again. Right. Of course. I REALLY should be the one talking.
: "A friend was getting rid of old hardware, and he let us have it."
: "Where are you coming from?" He asked again...
: "Connecticut. We visited family & friends," Gian repeated.
: "At a Halo LAN," added Furhman. Finally, some assistance.
: There was a pause.
: ""Halo? The game?" the officer asked.
: His tone of voice let me know something. The situation had changed.
: "Yes." Replied Furhman. Now was my turn, show him you're not on
: meth.
: "It was a weekend gathering, I took a lot of pictures," I pointed
: to my camera, which he had shone his light on a few times already.
: "Was it like a tournament?" His tone had gone from serious to
: curious.
: "Yeah. No, well, sort of." I replied, fiddling with my camera,
: ready to show him pictures if he asked. I didn't want to say it was a
: tournament, none of my pictures were of that scale.
: "Was it competitive or social?" He asked.
: "Social." Furhman once more stepped up, "Representatives from
: Bungie, the game's developer, also attended."
: "I took pictures," I reminded him, as our story seemed a bit far
: fetched.
: He paused, shining his light around the car once more.
: "Okay, one moment." He left again.
: We weren't out of the woods, but the end was near, and looking bright. I was
: only worried about the ticket Gian was fixing to get. That is, unless
: something else went wrong.
: "This says the temporary expired already", the officer said once he
: returned. There was the hitch I was expecting.
: "It's still valid until the 26th" Gian pointed out.
: He looked at the document once more.
: "Okay," he said, handing the papers back, "don't speed, have a
: safe trip back home."
: That was it. We were out of the hole and free. Huh. Except now I couldn't go
: back to sleep.
: Of course.
: The rest of the trip was uneventful, though a lot of memorable talks and
: funny jokes were made. You had to be there.
: Also this truck on the side of the road.
: As we finally got to my house, I felt a sad longing for Wu's house, and the
: friends that I had made there. I had attended my first LAN. I had hung out
: with fellow Bungie fans, and met a lot of great people. I got to spend
: time with Kermit, one of the HBO people that I admire greatly. I got to
: hang out with Wu, and he didn't think I was annoying (picture-taking
: aside). Mig was a down-to-earth guy who knew where to get good pizza, and
: Schooly Dee was an outstanding and memorable guy in person. No wonder the
: TSD group is so loyal to one another. They're all great guys in their own
: way, but as a group, they're an entity. If only Tex had been able to come
: and complete this Voltron of personalities.
: As a wise young girl once said, "I don't want this weekend to end."
: It was a great weekend. One I'll cherish for the rest of my life. PAX prime
: is coming up. How will I get there? I'm not sure, but I've bought tickets
: anyway. It's the first step towards my next dream. My weekend at the All's
: Well LAN was great, and I hope it won't be the last LAN I attend. So I
: leave you with this, a heartfelt farewell from the group in the Prius of
: Doom: "What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.”
: .
:
Meeting and hanging out with you was one the of the highlights in a weekend full of highlights, and you've done a great job writing it up. I was a little wistful I didn't get to ride up with you guys, but everything happens for a reason. Looking forward to PAX!
Kermit
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