A few days ago, I performed a rather serious upgrade to my machine, and it has now once again earned the moniker of “Jesus Christ That’s Fast”. My apartment is still in shambles from the extensive overhaul, and tales of it’s extreme filth have been told in such places as Der Arcade. The upgrades consisted of a new AMD Athlon XP 1900, a Thermaltake SK-6 heatsink w/ 38mm fan (more on that), ASUS A7V266-E, 512mb of PC2100 Crucial RAM, 2 18gb Seagate Cheetahs in RAID0, a Pioneer 10x SCSI DVD-ROM, and a 12/10/32x Plextor SCSI CD-RW. So, in short, it’s Pretty Goddamn Fast™. However, I may have made a slight miscalculation when I bought the heatsink. I bought this giant copper thing and a HUGE fan to go on top of it because, well… because I was told it was the best of the best of the best, with honors, sir. And, it does a pretty good job; my CPU appears to be relatively chilly. However, this fan is so loud, I actually yelped aloud in fright when I first turned the machine on. I was so startled that at first, I didn’t actually think it was the fan, because how the hell can a fan made by mortals make a noise like that? This was like the screaming of banshees, and I began to wonder if my Athlon XP was not, in fact, harnessing the power of the dead; an infernal contraption fueled by tormented souls that just happens to be very good with floating point calculations. I guess I’m still not sure what to do about the whole thing; I’ve gotten to the point where I can typically let it blend in as background/white noise, but it’s certainly not subtle… if anybody can recommend an air-based cooling system for my smoldering new processor that is quieter and/or more efficient, I’d be interested in hearing about it.

In terms of games these days, only two games have survived the transition to my new system and achieved Re-Installation, and those games are Wolfenstein and the Magic: The Gathering Online beta. MTGO is a refreshing power-walk down memory lane for me; it is the best computerized recreation of the table-top MTG experience that I’ve yet to encounter, and it has certainly evoked memories of the days of yore, when my Boise Crew and I would gather at one of our houses or even the local all-night establishment and wage terrible, magical war upon each other. They are apparently letting people into the semi-closed beta in waves, but all the people I pointed towards the page kept an eye on it and were able to gain entry within a few days, so keep that chin up, soldier! The only thing that concerns me about this game is talk that Wizards is thinking about charging real money for imaginary cards when this game releases, and that is something that is clearly Not Okay. I’d bite on a retail package or possibly even a low monthly subscription, but the idea of spending cash on a virtual booster pack leaves a rotten taste in my mouth, so I sincerely hope they’re not collectively that stupid.

As you may (or may not) have heard, I have apparently stumbled my way into some kind of relationship with a real, live female. You know, the ones with boobs? Anyway, things are in too early a stage for be to be interested in classifying or explaining it, but I would like to relate my efforts at bringing her to the Dork Side, an endeavor which I’m quite proud of. She already has a history ripe with dorkery of the table-top and freaky variety, so my attempts to help her transition to video games have been all too easy. On Saturday, I brought her and my machine to Casa Del Gabriel, and we proceeded to train her in the ways of Wolfenstein. She reacted well enough, and is going to go out tomorrow and pick up her own copy for an upcoming LAN party. She has yet to play with the full PA Krew, but I’m confident that once she experiences the way enemies melt before our collective and coordinated might, she will be irreparably hooked. Additionally, I’ve also got her playing Final Fantasy X with me, which was like taking candy from a baby; once she was exposed to the rich storyline, there was little she could to to escape its grasp. Last, but not least, she’s mentioned repeatedly a few old games she used to like, and I have deduced that she is exactly the sort of person who is prone to Just One More Week Syndrome (if you’ve played Heroes of Might & Magic, you know the illness of which I speak), and thusly I plan on sneaking a copy of Heroes III or Masters of Orion II onto her machine this week; which I expect will be the final step needed to break her humanity and plunge her full-time into a life of dorktitude. I don’t know if any of you have ever corrupted another human being, but it’s immensely rewarding… I suggest you all try it.

Mark your calendars: The date has been set for Online Drinking Game v2.0! The plan as it stands is to get down with our bad selves on Friday night, February 8th. Last time we started the festivities about 9pm, and that seemed to work out pretty well for everyone involved, so we’ll try to shoot for that again. I’ve decided to do things a little differently this time; instead of playing a full game of Kings, I’ve decided to try just playing straight I Nevers, as that was far and away the most amusing of the things we did last time. This round will be open to the general public, so anybody in the chatroom can participate if they so desire. The cams WILL be making a return for this game, but they won’t be the focus; I’ll start accepting cam URLs for people planning to participate a little closer to the date in question. Hope to see you all there!