Jared
Jared

Jared

Reflections at FITES

FITES is my first substantial LAN Party and these are some tips for anyone who might be thinking about going.

  • The staff was very friendly and helpful
  • Bring a 25′ network cable
  • Know your intranet.fites.net login in advance
  • If you are alone stick around for the tournaments because a team may form or need someone at the last minute. Knowing your intranet.fites.net in advance will help (see above)
  • Get TeamSpeak in advance
  • If you are a normal human being, don’t bother gaming in the morning because no one will be playing. All the die hard gamers will be sleeping on the floor between 6AM and 9AM.
  • Don’t be shy, some rigs are really cool, others are just held together with duct tape!
  • Don’t be shocked at the number of 24″+ screens
  • Your computer will probably be OK over night but if you’re paranoid you can pack it back to the hotel room
That said, my only real complaint is the lack of continuity in game play. There were so many different games being played that it was hard to get more than a couple people in anyone server. The LAN Party didn’t meet my expectations of having a large number of people all playing the same game.

Gmail, Thanks for the Encouragement

The AOL “You’ve Got Mail!” jingle became famous for adding excitement to the anticipation of reading new messages.

If Google emphasizes the fact you don’t have any messages what does that mean? Here are a couple possible ideas:

  • “You found the bottom of your inbox, maybe you aren’t as popular as you thought. Here is a little encouragement!”
  • “Good for you, it’s only the elite few who actually read all their messages.”
  • “No no, really, there are no more messages, go back to your life, more messages are bound to come in.”
  • “… now that you’ve read all the messages in your inbox you can start on your spam folder!”

 

 

Wave Jumping – Thoughts of Summer

The ocean has been on my mind a lot this past … season. I don’t know what to call the current season because there isn’t enough snow to be winter and the lack of flourishing green vegetation indicates spring has yet to arrive.

These are from Lavallette, NJ during my last beach trip for the season,  October 3, 2011.

Did anyone else cringe and say “ouch” when his board hit the water?