mcgrew's Journal: Nobots Chapter Nineteen

Online now.

I saw Art at Felbers, who came up and said "I'm reading your book. That's a cool book!"

The notice of copyright registration came today. Finally, I registered it in August. Of course, it was delivered by the USPS... OK, I kid. When you register they send an email and tell you the printed document will take six months but you can start suing right away.

Not much else is happening so since Rority's here we'll take a trip back in time. Again. Fifteen years back.

Fragfest frags the illiterate reader
        Planet Quake gets all the good letters, like the one they let me repost in the Humor section.

        Yeah, people write "this is a dumb question" and "you're going to laugh but..." but it's then followed by a perfectly intelligent question, usually one that should have been addressed in Quake's manual but wasn't. Planet Quake seems to get all the morons. I want some, too.

        So, I got a Real Audio encoder. Saturday (I hope) I'll have a Real Audio show, "Quake for the Illiterate" posted. This will be, as far as I know, the only Quake-only real audio show on the internet. Since I've been getting some good internet connections lately, I've bribed my daughter to do the first show while I play a little Quake. Besides, if it sucks, I can blame her! This one's more of a "test show", with just a little "nooze" for the illiterate, and some Quake music.

        The bribe was that I'd help her with a Jazz Jackrabbit page for kids. So she's getting the best of the deal.

        It doesn't usually take much to do a daily update of the page (unless I'm covering a murder trial or something), but I get the feeling a Real Audio show may take a little more work, so I can't say how often the RA shows will be. I'm thinking weekly but shooting for monthly.

        Rudolph the parasite doesn't get along with shamblers very well (but you know they're like cats and dogs, anyway), but Tikki asked if he could keep his last shambler in the Fragfest Garage until he gets his cardboard box at Tripod prettied up. If that damned shambler pees on the car I'm feeding him to Rudolph. The car's fifteen years old, a little shambler pee would probably melt it. Tikki's also sending a review of some game that isn't Quake I told him I'd let him post on the garage wall. Hell, if Rock House can stay in the garage, there's no reason Tikki and his shambler can't, at least for a little while. If he sends the post as a .wav file, I'll stick it in the Real Audio show.

        The show's being done for a 28.8 modem, so the quality may be really crappy, but it's guaranteed to work on any PC that will play Quake 2 over the internet, as long as you have a real audio player.

        You can count on next year's Christmas carols to be done in Real Audio forinat, along with the printed lyrics and midis you had a few weeks ago. 1/4/1999

Garage can't escape Shambler's BFG
        What a mess! Not only did we get two feet of snow and the temperature is twenty below zero (that's so cold it's the same temperature in both Celsius and Farenheight), but there's a pregnant shambler camping in the garage. Of course, Rudolph and the shambler look at each other like you look at a piece of Grandma's pie, both making noises like "camper", "100z3r", and "usuk". If Major Futcup shows up he'll write me up for sure. Anyway, Tikki sent a review of Half-Life, presumably in honor of the pregnant shambler. No word on how the renovations in the cardboard box at Tripod are coming. However, it looks like when the beach house exploded, it took the Arsonists with it. Let this be a lesson, kids: Shambler pee and gunpowder don't mix.

        If you haven't been to Flamethrower's Place, He's been on petrol in the Ion Storm warz. Sorry, I can't resist a really bad intercontinental pun. 1/5/1999

Defrag Died
        Also over at the Weakly Web, Defrag is conspicuous by his absence in the "hosted sites" column. Wha' happened, dude? Oh, and it seems Pile wins the ticket to nowhere; he still hasn't updated. Careful, Tikki got a little shambler pee on it before I wrestled it back. 1/6/1999

Friends rail internet
        Tons o' mail today. An online friend who will remain nameless for now is starting a new Quake page. More news when Mr. Nameless lets me post.

        Another online friend, the Omnipotent Tikki God, found a rune in the ashes of the Quake Beach house that allowed the beach house's ashes to reconstruct themselves into the old Beach House, which Tikki says he'll update as soon as he gets his FTP working right.

        Also, believe it or not, a newbie alerted me that I missed a real important server command; I went to look for it in the Server page and it (blush) wasn't there. This will be fixed, like, right NOW!

        As well as more than the usual number of suggestions and compliments. Anybody who says the Quake community is dead needs to put that hash pipe away for a while. 1/7/1999

Webmasters can't escape puke's BFG
        Yello's had the flu for a few daze, pop by there and wish him well (or at least have a chuckle from his page). Poor guy's so sick Kat Media lost all those pretty link butto... HEY! WAIT A MINUTE!!!

        Desatio's on-his-ass drunk, and should be losing his lunch shortly. Drop by and wish the old fart a happy birthday!

        And- I'm sure Flamethrower's pretty sick of ION's asshole by now. Drop by and offer him some support. If you have a good lawyer, go public and badmouth Todd "Smith" for all of us. 1/11/1999

Fragfest can't escape Game Complex's shotgun
        It looks like I'll be joining the web Gypsies. Seems the Game Complex wants a unique Quake page, and have had their eyes on this one, according to Nacho, who wants me to move over there. It would be nice not having a "url from hell", as Flamethrower put it. There are one or two negatives; there are all those folks with links to here ("WHAT? I'm still linked to that damned Fragfest? WTF, I'm fixing that RIGHT NOW"). All in all, it seems like a good deal. I'll keep a "doorway" here for you folks who have bookmarked so I won't just drop off the face of the internet like Captain Immy, Lag City, and the other web Gypsies did when they moved. Here's a thanks to Nacho and the Game Complex for wanting the Fragfest! 1/12/1999