Good ol' Doom

Went over the parents place Saturday to chop up that massive white pine to plopped in their yard, and remove the two birch that took the brunt of the fall.

But first a run to the mega-home mart to pick up paint, paint supplies (for painting on Sunday) and a chainsaw for my parents yard. Chainsaws are in short supply in the Minneapolis area after that storm, so it was most welcome to see that the mega-home mart had about 100 that just arrived. So I grabbed one, ( but it is the gayest looking chainsaw on the planet. )

The 40cc 18 inch Poulan "Wild Thing". It looks like MTV threw up on the poor thing. I think the graphics might have been a marketing disaster, and they were very happy to move those ugly things off the floor. I mean, who looks for a skateboard graphics package on a chainsaw?

But it did the job, and did it well. Turned three trees into brush and firewood. Despite the designer gayness of the saw appearance, chainsaw operation is such a monu-macho thing to do, all hell is on that 18 inches of bar and the roar of the gas engine, what you touch, you destroy.

My mother supplied me with Oktoberfest beer, I supplied her with an experienced chainsaw operator. The neighbors made a small protest over my simultaneous operation of power tool from hell and heavy fall brew consumption (at some points one in each hand), but as my mother pointed out "we don't know any different". It's true, we have always consumed beer while we cut wood, never to the point of any sort of drunkenness, but if you want a beer, you grab a beer.

I also had a thought about the chainsaw in the game Doom. The chainsaw in Doom is good fun, and beats using your fists when you run out of ammo. But what exactly is a chainsaw doing on a Mars base? Exactly why do you need a chainsaw on Mars? Except for slaying demons, there ain't much use for a chainsaw on Mars is there?

But still, I've been meaning to say this for a long time. Good ol' Doom, I've dusted of my Doom CD and it is still king of the first person shooter to me. Yes the graphics are low resolution, the playing area is actually two dimensional (ever notice there are no over or underpasses in Doom?). But the sound of the shotgun and the simple low-res carnage. But I think the simplicity of the game is the advantage, the first is still the best.

Winter

But also with the dusting off of the old Doom CD, I've been reviewing some of my other old games. Winter is on the way, and winter makes me think of getting the cars ready for cold weather, fishing through the ice, big hot dinners, warm clothes and computer games.

On the ice fishing, I know notbatwoman wants to head out this season and conandammit has a fishing license this year (might as well use it, eh?). So lets hit it when the ice is thick enough? After Christmas, day after Christmas? I've got everthing we need, no need to get anything. Maybe wander over to Medicine lake? I hear the walleye stock is up and it has a nice supply of sunfish to keep the bordom in check. Set the shelter up on a shallow sunken island for the sunfish, set tip-ups a little further out for walleye?

On video games, maybe some online multiplayer stuff during the long dark cold? I have Starcraft w/ Brood War, Warcraft 2 (might need a patch to work correctly) and Diablo 1 & 2, Neverwinter Nights (crashes from time to time). Nothing extremly competitive, just sitting at home sipping beer and playing games ala internet. I'd be up for other games, but keep in mind I have a Macintosh G4 @ 350mhz, I plan to upgrade to a faster CPU in the future though. I'd be down for picking up a copy of Quake though, look like my system is up for it.

Mostly Starcraft though, I've made a couple of nice custom maps for multi-player. But I seem to remember notbatman was hip to Neverwinter Nights, but I have some crashing issues with it. I think the main culprit in the crashes is the lack of CPU speed, too much being crammed through too little. A CPU upgrade should fix it, but I gotta get the funds to make the upgrade first.

A CPU upgrade would also allow the Sims 2, and that would mean online Sims playin'. Hmmmmm.....

Just thinkin' of the long dark winter.