STAT RETREAT '07

Ahhhhh...... <------ That is a sigh of satisfaction.

Nads, Mattie and I returned to the old ways this week and had us a stat retreat. For those of you not in the know, that means pretty much doing horrendously geeky things like playing D&D, Settlers, DS games, and reading fantasy novels uninterrupted, etc, while camping and enjoying nature. It's an odd combo, we'd be the first to admit, but the results have been proven to be excellent.

Once again we made our pilgrimage to Miracle Beach, listening to the traditional STATMIX. Once at the site, we basically spent the next few days doing the above, as well as hanging out at the beach, playing with fire, being totally crude, and of course, stuffing our faces.

I took some photos and put them on Flickr.

Can't wait for the stat retreat '08! WOOO!

The return of "The Sleeper".

Had a visit from an old buddy on Friday.

Mike Klemak. Climax. Clitsmack. Whatever you call him. Actor, model, blowjob.

Anyway, Mattie took the three of us out to dinner at the Cactus Club to ogle waitresses, and Mike told us about life in Hollywood North. The guy's been pretty successful so far, and I fear the OLD BET may turn against me soon.

Anyway, later we drank a bunch, and I took some pics.

He couldn't leave Facebook alone...Mr 300+ friends. La-di-da.

Ummyeah.

Because Devon is seriously gay, this picture actually makes me kind of shudder...

...but not as much as this one.

Oh yeah, we played Settlers. Yours truly DOMINATED again...drunk! Seriously, are there any who can challenge me at that game anymore?

The Winter of Mattie's Discontent

Just HAD to post this.

Nads, Mattie and I had gathered, as we are wont to do, for some Settlers. We were playing one of the Seafarers scenarios where you are encouraged to take to the sea and in doing so, randomly generate the horizon and colonize it.

Poor luck for Mattie. His little sailors apparently all died of scurvy, as you can "sea".

I went on to win...naturally. :P

Chris Bard B.A., Acct.

Yep, so it was my graduation convocation today. Neat.

Mom, Dad, and Burton were on hand so photos were taken:


Thanks to everyone who congratulated me, and thanks to everyone who supported me over the years!

Sun = good.

Took Nads and a visiting Cam up to Parksville for some good times minigolfing. (Yeah that's right Michelle, minigolfing! :P) The weather was awesome, the resort chicks were flirty, and we ate ice cream...AWESOME. I took pics.

It should be noted that I dominated, coming it at -1 after 36 holes. Heh.

Naturally, we cooled down at Mattie's place after.

That's my happy face.

The Curse of Guitar Hero

So, I did some loose end-tying in GH2 today, and it went far better than I'd ever imagined. I now have ONE song left incomplete on expert difficulty...JORDAN. *shudder* Here's an idea of what I'm trying to get done here...

Just because you asked.

Yeah yeah yeah.

Anyways, here's the quick and dirty list of neat things going on in my life right now:

1. Randy had a surprise birthday party. Fun was had. Pics are somewhere in my facebook stuff. We all ganged up and got him a DS and stuff for his upcoming time in surgery recovery.

2. Um... D20 Modern is actually pretty neat.

3. Uhhh...I saw "The Secret", and while I thought most of it was ludicrous and retarded, it HAS inspired me to have a better attitude about life in general, and to appreciate everything around me. So far the payoff has been terrific.

4. Hmmm...Britt got engaged. She's happy. I'm happy she's happy. I'm NOT engaged. I'm happy about that too.

5. I've started saving for the kayak fund. I WILL NOT REST until Nads and I go kayaking in the Yukon, as planned.

6. I bought a new car. Saturn LS2. It's luxurious and fast.

7. Uncle Ted (Fraser)'s recovery has been swift, and he and Lynne even got to come home for the weekend. It was nice seeing them again (especially seeing Ted walking around without tubes and oxygen canisters) and it was also great to eat home-cooked food -- which I've seriously been lacking.

Yeah that's about it. Stop badgering me to update this thing for a little while, eh?

A glad heart, full belly, and swollen embouchure.

Went to my mom's for Easter dinner tonight. Visited, blah blah blah.

At one point I was randomly inspired to dig out my old trombone and see if I could still "do" it eight years later. Fortunately, Mom still had the Yamaha Band Student starter guide (for reminding about what positions do what, etc.). So after a quick cleaning of the mouthpiece, I was off tooting.

Unbelievably, it WAS sort of like riding a bike. I remembered a metric %$&@tonne from the bandgeek days, and blazed through the whole course in an hour or two. I rocked the place with newbie arrangements of "Camptown Races", "All Through the Night", and others.

But that said, my mouth feels like ground hamburger.

All you ladies are going to have to hold off on kissing me for at least a day or two until I have feeling again. :P

:|

Devon sent this over to me today.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

...but the Soul still burns...

Well the geekend was fun. Here's what went down in too much detail:

On Friday, Devon and Nads and I decided to start things off with some Romance IV (old school) and just like in the good old days, after spending literally hours meticulously creating our rulers and their multiple generations of offspring (all with mind-shatteringly disgusting names), the game froze. Ha. Ha. Ha. Blame it on Tasty Anus -- his snide little portrait sneered at us on screen while me moaned in agony.

After those two buggered off, Kelly and Simps arrived from Vancouver, and without wasting any time, we immediately started our season in NHL 2K7. 4am rolls along, and we hit the hay, only to rise sluggishly the next afternoon.

After rendezvousing with Devon and Nads, we grabbed some lunch, and since the weather Saturday was INCREDIBLY NICE, we decided to grab all the sports stuff and go run around...for most of the day. (Geekend indeed... :p) It was awesome. I wish I had more friends on this side of the Straight who would want to get out and play some Ultimate on a sunny Saturday. *Sniffle* I love you guys...

After that we came back to BBQ. It was then that SoulCalibur was unleashed. It was the ultimate blast from the past. I'm proud to say my dominance , especially at the edge of the ring, was completely unchallenged. (OOH HOO HOO HOO HOO! <--- Astaroth laughter.)

More hockey was played and by Sunday afternoon, the boys and I had completed an ENTIRE SEASON and won the cup... phew.


So there it is. Other games were played (DOA, DDR, and lots of DS too), and yeah, I ownzor. :p

As cool as it was though, I really must say, next time we all get together like that, we need to get a full on football game or something together -- that afternoon in the sun just beat the Hell out of anything we were doing indoors. (Except maybe delivering an endless barrage of "Out of the ring"s.) HA!

Watch for news of the next geekend!