Tails’ Blography

So this weekend is going to be pretty busy for me, but also nice and relaxing. Got Skyrim so going to install and play that this weekend, heard its quite good. Actually, it was likened to crack by two clients of mine because its really addictive. I’m a fan of role-playing games, so I’m keen to see what all the hype is about with this game. I havent played Oblivion which was the game before this one, but apparently they dont need to be played sequentially.

Then, the Kenaf rat bedding I ordered should be here by now, so I’ll be collecting that at the post office tomorrow. Then its off to drop off the photos from my latest wedding for print, and then to Tygervalley to get my sister’s Christmas gift. Cant tell you what it is, as I’m not sure if she follows my blog, but I can tell you its super cute, and I ordered one for myself as well! If it wasnt so expensive, I’d order more, but they’re limited edition so the price is a little steep.

Then, lastly, its off to see my best friend who I havent seen in AGES! Could almost be months, easily. Her work hours and mine dont match up, so we rarely get to see each other. It’ll be nice to see her again, and her rats, and fish, and kitty. We also decided to do Thanksgiving again next year, for the first time since her sister’s death, which is nice. Even though I’m not American, I miss celebrating Thanksgiving. I’ll handle the turkey side, since she’s vegetarian of course. It’ll be nice, myself and her and our respective partners. And by Thanksgiving next year, it’ll be 4 months until my wedding!

On the wedding front, nothing really has been done, but I have booked an appointment to view Zevenwacht, which looks like a pretty stunning venue. They’re on the higher side of our budget, but if they’re worth it, we’ll make a plan.

Going to PE this Christmas, so going to miss my family, but at least M will be able to see his family, which is just as important to me. Going to try and also pop through to EL as well to see some friends of mine who I havent seen in ages, but they’ll also be in CT early this Dec so all is not lost if we dont see them during Christmas. They recently bought a house, so it would have been nice to see it along with them, but we’d have to borrow the in laws’ car to drive the 3 hr drive, and they dont really seem keen to lend it to us, which sucks, but I guess its their call.

So, thats about it from my side. Will check in probably next week.

Oh, one last thing. One of my hard drives crashed. Yes, its horrible to even type it. All my design items were on there. I am one sad puppy and I literally mourned for a day. Didnt get out of bed and I just slept. M is going to try and work some magic, but for now, I’m screwed.

Hmm, I cant end on that bad note, so I’ll mention I’m going to a girls night with some colleagues in a fortnight. We’re doing all you can eat sushi and chinese. I think its going to be fun, and it’ll be the third time we’re trying to organise it, so here’s hoping it actually pans out this time haha.

This weekend past was another OC (Organised Chaos) LAN. For those who dont know what a LAN is, basically you pay R140 entry, bring your PC along on the Friday evening, connect it to the network, and play games like Call of Duty 4/COD4 (among other things) with (approx 700) other people on the network until Sunday afternoon. Of course, you dont have to stay the entire time, but the die-hards do. By Saturday morning their are tents, pillows, mattresses, and sleeping bags all over the place.

This month, we arrived on Saturday morning, since I was recovering from a sore throat (which subsequently turned into a head cold afterwards…sigh). We set up and got settled in. By this, I mean we plugged in our PCs, had a game or three, then went in search of food in the form of cheese burgers and chips from the local cafeteria.

Normally it gets extremely cold (around 3 degrees celcius) and we freeze our asses off despite jerseys, jackets, sheepskin slippers and a hotwater bottle, so this time we added a sleeping bag to the equation. Wow, what a difference! I’m definately bringing one to every LAN!

After hours and hours of gaming (mainly COD4), swearing, chatting, and laughing, we were paid a visit by a friend who’s never been to OC. Needless to say, after showing him the ropes and letting him have a go on the PC’s, he was hooked, and might bring his own PC next time. Score!

Each month lately they’ve been trying to have a theme, and this month’s theme was Tie July. The person(s) with the best tie(s) could win a 1 terabyte (I think) hard drive each – very worth it! I’ll snag a photo of the two winners from the OC Fan page on Facebook to show you (credit to Sheldon, the OC ‘tog).

I baked gingerbread cookies to take with (I even made one in the shape of a tie, but I didnt need it cos I wasnt there on Friday), and they were a hit! I made O’s and C’s, and offered them to the admin, friends, as well as random people I passed along the way. It was great!

Without further ado, photos! Of course all taken with my new Canon 40D! I’m positively loving the new cam, by the way! It handles noise so much better, it seems to capture light better than my Sony, and its very speedy!

Setting up

Just a look around at what it looks like on a Saturday morning

The OC gingerbread cookies I made

Another look around at our neighbours

A view from where I was sitting during prize giving on Saturday night

They dropped a CRT monitor from the Velodrome ceiling…it went BOOOOOOM!

Everyone goes in for the remains

What was left…

Our friend who came to visit

The bf gaming…

The bf and myself gaming!

My hot man!

The bf, Chris & Ferdie

Winner #1

Winner #2 – I really LOVE this one!

This month I finally participated in my first OC. OC stands for Organised Chaos and is a LAN held at the Bellville Velodrome. If you’re unfamiliar with what a LAN is, its pretty much a place set up for people to bring their PCs/laptops and play games against each other and share files etc. It runs from Friday evening (6pm I think) until Sunday afternoon (12pm), and lots of people bring mattresses and bedding to stay the nights. Tournaments are held and prizes can be won, and some months they’ve held spot prizes, where if your seat number is drawn you win a prize. Its great!

Booking is done online or on the day, and is R140 per seat. If you’re just spectating you dont pay, which is normally what I do. This time, however, I brought my PC and stayed the weekend. I participated in some Call of Duty 4 games, and sucked haha. I was sitting at 26 kills where everyone else was at around 80 haha (I wont even mention my kills:deaths ratio!!). Its a hard blow to my ego because I used to kick ass at Unreal Tournament a year or few back hehe. But I’ll get better…oh yea, I’ll get better.

Also at the LAN are food stuffs. There’s a burger place, pancake place and this month there was a chip place that sells those chip twister potatoes-on-a-stick things. Pancakes are R4 each, and burgers range from R14 (single plain burger) – R37 (a double meat and chicken burger with chips). Coffee is R5 and there are various chocolates, sweets and cooldrinks aslo for R5 each. Scooters Pizza* delivers to OC if pizza is more your meal of choice (oddly, whilst searching for the Scooters’ website, I came across the Epic Scooters Pizza Delivery site – really, what next!!). You can bring your own food and booze (if you drink responsibly and are not underage) if you’d like. I brought snacks (pretzels & doughnuts! yum!!) and wine (and was told I look “too classy” for a lan because everyone normally drinks rum/brandy & coke from a 2l coke bottle haha).

Unfortunately, for about 3 hours on Saturday at around noon, the power went out and left us high and dry. A lot of people gave up pretty quickly and went home (losers!), but we stuck it out and once it came back on again, we had a good 10 more gaming hours (we left at 3am on Sunday morning). In fact, a lot of people thought the break from gaming was a nice change. All in all, a great time was had and I cant wait for the next one! Seriously, I’m hooked!

If you’d like to participate and bring your PC, go to the OC website* for booking information (you can book online), prices, and rules. Its definately worth it! The site also has some great photos (April’s pics will be within the week I’m sure) or check out their Facebook group. Do remember to game safely and, especially since someone at this month’s lan had an epileptic fit, remember to get enough sleep and eat a decent meal. I was unaware but apparently too much sugar and sleep deprivation can induce fits if you’re prone. I enquired after the guy and turns out he was ok, the fit was minor, and he was collected and taken home to recover. Poor guy

Some pics of our little corner of OC:

About 1 min after the power had gone off (lights were running on generators)

A better view of the disgruntled lanners

The bf…unimpressed about me taking a photo of him. Thats our friend, Ferdie behind him, and behind him you can see some of the mattresses people have set up for sleeping

A disgruntled Steve hehe

My PC (yes, I like my grey mouse and keyboard, ok! ) next to Michael BIIIIIG 26″ monitor and sleek black keyboard (the silver machine behind my monitor was huge and very expensive! People kept passing by to admire it haha)