Showmatch 1 Apologies, And A Plea For Showmatch 2.

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Jolt Country's first official SC2 SHOWMATCH occurred last night, and it was a complete disaster. Though I have tried to divert it elsewhere, in the end, the blame for this -- all of this -- rests squarely on my shoulders. To that end, I would like to issue APOLOGIES to those who were unfortunate enough to be a part of this debacle:

To TDARCOS: I would like to apologize for pre-emptively calling you out for not arriving on time, when in fact you did arrive on time. Also, though I cannot be blamed for internet problems, I am sorry that you were not able to watch the games as intended. Also I am sorry that I haven't gotten you that five bucks yet.

To ROBB "ICE CREAM JONSEY" SHERWIN: I would like to apologize for a number of things. Firstly, I could have been more understanding about you being late, but I was so focused on making the thing a success that I inadvertently increased the chances of failure. Also, I knew chatting in-game would be the most fun part, but did not do the research required to determine how to make that happen. I assumed it COULDN'T happen, when in fact it could, and that made it a lot less fun for everyone.

To CHAINGANGGUY: While ALL of this was going on, you expressed interest in watching, but by the time we were able to get things started, I was already so flustered and out of patience that I didn't even see if we could wait another few minutes so you could join. You're a great guy, and I would have loved having you spectate, but like so many other balls last night, I dropped it.

Mostly, to RETROROMPER: I offer the bulk of my apologies to you, good sir. In the beginning, you had to suffer the consequences of my lack of planning and organization, so we were not able to get started until nearly an hour after the prearranged time, and then once we DID start, I was so late to another obligation that I simply bugged out at the end of the game, which I now realize was supposed to be the "first" game, but we didn't get to play any of the others. I let the exasperation of the whole event overcome me and left without even thanking you for your participation. It was completely inexcusable, but I hope this apology can at least help dampen some of the ill feelings you are certainly within reason and rights to harbor.

I wish I could just say "let's write it off and move on", but I know that's probably not possible.

All I can do is ask you all if maybe we can try for SHOWMATCH 2, where I can apply all of my hard-learned lessons from this experience, and make it truly a showmatch that everyone can, and WILL, enjoy the heck out of.

I guess...

I guess I'm just asking for another chance.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Sure, let's try it again. How about we shoot for 9:00 MDT PM tonight?

[RetroRomper]

There is no ill will, just confusion, mild frustration and concern. Once Pinback and I finished the "show match," I tried to communicate with both ICJ and Robb and was met with stony silence - I wasn't sure what this meant. Guess everyone was feeling both flustered and rushed.

But on my end, there was an enormous amount of bad luck and what could be called inconvenient timing.

What happened:
1. Almost immediately into our first round of saber rattling, the fire alarm goes off and I rush to the kitchen. Someone started a grease fire on the stove.
1a. They were about to dump a pot of water on aforesaid mentioned grease fire.
1b. I basically grabbed and shoved them OUT OF THE KITCHEN IN A VIOLENT AND HURRIED FASHION then proceeded to smother it out.
1c. This led to screaming, cussing, and even right now, ill will because I wasn't polite while they were about to douse themselves in the rough equivalent of napalm.
1d. This also meant that I needed to turn off the fire alarm, which took another five minutes.
1e. And while I didn't make it a point of conjecture, the whole time I was playing, my house mate (then her boyfriend) were trying to pick a fight with me because they were not now suffering from third degree burns.
1f. Because of the fire department issue (and since I was the one who had to talk to them), I was actually playing SCII on the counter top of the small arsed kitchen that we have.
1g. And because the fire alarm system is only barely above code, it was going off in intermittent bouts of ten second screaming.

2. While we were playing, I was doing a bit of work before the game would start, drawing my attention away from the match at hand.

3. I didn't remember that we are all "Grown Men" and thus all on a schedule: probably should have started the real game before ICJ showed up.

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So, right. But Pinback was enormously polite, accommodating, and made the game a friendly match as opposed to the "loser leaves in shame" debilitating bout of social alienation I had assumed the game was going to be.

I actually had a good time regardless!

[RetroRomper]

Sure, let's try it again. How about we shoot for 9:00 MDT PM tonight?

Late (8 pm on) Friday or early Saturday are preferable, plus we'll (hopefully) be less rushed for time.

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8 PM Friday! WHO'S WITH ME/US??

We can even schedule 2v2s, since there are four accounts rolling around between us!

Me & CGG vs. Retro & ICJ! What a hoot! Or the other way around!

C'mon!

Guys??

[RetroRomper]

Confirming for 8 PM (Pacific) on Friday.

See ya guys there!

[RetroRomper]

Does everyone have a microphone?

If so, I could set up a teamspeak server for us.

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I HAZ MICOFION

[Tdarcos]

To TDARCOS: I would like to apologize for pre-emptively calling you out for not arriving on time, when in fact you did arrive on time. Also, though I cannot be blamed for internet problems, I am sorry that you were not able to watch the games as intended.

Everything worked fine for me, I had no problems. Both sides were basically doing the same thing, grinding to get resources, in order to build up your forces. I figured that you guys would probably be doing this for 1/2 an hour or so, then once you'd built up your forces, you'd attack.

I had no problems, everything looked fine; it apparently was Comcast slowing down your experience.

Given my slow ping rate I gather you're not interested in doing a game against me, then. You know, it's too bad you weren't able to keep your request to play a game against me, you would have known about my lag problems, and then we would have known that my rate is too slow for it to work for you.

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To TDARCOS: I would like to apologize for pre-emptively calling you out for not arriving on time, when in fact you did arrive on time. Also, though I cannot be blamed for internet problems, I am sorry that you were not able to watch the games as intended.

Everything worked fine for me, I had no problems. Both sides were basically doing the same thing, grinding to get resources, in order to build up your forces. I figured that you guys would probably be doing this for 1/2 an hour or so, then once you'd built up your forces, you'd attack.

That's basically correct, except SC2 games rarely go past the 15 minute mark.

Given my slow ping rate I gather you're not interested in doing a game against me, then.

Your ping rates that you quoted in the other thread were just fine for SC2. I don't know what the problem was. Maybe it WAS your computer. We can do some tests and figure it out, if you'd like.

[Tdarcos]

What happened:
1. Almost immediately into our first round of saber rattling, the fire alarm goes off and I rush to the kitchen. Someone started a grease fire on the stove.
1a. They were about to dump a pot of water on aforesaid mentioned grease fire.
1b. I basically grabbed and shoved them OUT OF THE KITCHEN IN A VIOLENT AND HURRIED FASHION then proceeded to smother it out.

You know, you're supposed to teach kids when they're old enough to reach the stove how to handle a kitchen fire. Presnt in the kitchen should always be in plain sight is either an A-B-C fire extinguisher, which you can buy for about ten dollars, or a box of baking soda. Baking soda can be used to smother any fire, and they are supposed to be trained that you can't throw water on a grease fire.

In fact, I'd recommend buying two extinguishers, and "wasting" one of them by having your kids get live practice, by setting up a frying pan with a grease fire, and teach them to aim the extinguisher at the base of the fire. Or train them on baking soda if there is no extinguisher handy.

Remember this important point: in any emergency, a person will revert to the method they have been trained. If you do this, there is another fire the kids will remember to grab the extinguisher and will know how to use it.

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Got that, Retro? You need to step up your parenting skills!

(I... I have no idea either.)

[Tdarcos]

Your ping rates that you quoted in the other thread were just fine for SC2. I don't know what the problem was. Maybe it WAS your computer. We can do some tests and figure it out, if you'd like.

Yes, I would. I have two possible choices. (1) Buy more memory for Cube and boost it to at least two gig, since it's a dual core 32-bit machine, if that will work for SC2 to improve performance. (I don't think SC2 could run on a machine with "only" 512 meg.) (2) Wait about two-three months until I raise my savings such that I can afford to spend about $350 for a remanufactured dual core 64 bit desktop model in the 2.6 to 3 ghz model.

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Sounds good. Let's pick a night to try it out.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

There is no ill will, just confusion, mild frustration and concern. Once Pinback and I finished the "show match," I tried to communicate with both ICJ and Robb and was met with stony silence - I wasn't sure what this meant. Guess everyone was feeling both flustered and rushed.

I had no idea you were trying to talk to me. This is because I have no idea how to make SC2's web ui work. NOT SAYING IT'S A BUG, I am just saying I have no idea what needs to happen for me to talk in a room with people.

I actually had a good time regardless!

Put your roommates on. I want to have a word with them. That's unacceptable, and I'd like to talk to them about it.

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Put your roommates on. I want to have a word with them. That's unacceptable, and I'd like to talk to them about it.

Robb, Retro's kids need to focus on finishing their homework before they're allowed to come on the internet to talk to you!

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I have a microphone. I'm willing to halluc speaking for this show match. I MAY not be around tomorrow at the designated time. There's a slight chance. I'm hoping the Milker is going to come over and help me move Gauntlet II downstairs, but he's probably gonna show up at midnight tomorrow, after his haunted house closes for the evening.

[RetroRomper]

In fact, I'd recommend buying two extinguishers, and "wasting" one of them by having your kids get live practice, by setting up a frying pan with a grease fire, and teach them to aim the extinguisher at the base of the fire. Or train them on baking soda if there is no extinguisher handy.

A 23 year old in graduate school does not qualify as a child. And while I did talk to one of the fire fighters about classes for this comely lass, considering she screamed and threatened me with a lawsuit for touching her, she can as they say, dire in a fire.

Remember this important point: in any emergency, a person will revert to the method they have been trained. If you do this, there is another fire the kids will remember to grab the extinguisher and will know how to use it.

I'm not going to speak for the upbringing of someone who can run a scanning tunneling microscope, is entrusted with multimillion dollar equipment, and is routinely allocated thousands of hours of computation time to run a biological simulation of the integration of fatty cells into a normal cell cluster, but isn't capable of understanding the very basics of fluid density (IE throwing water onto a flaming pan full of oil will not have the intended result).

[RetroRomper]

Put your roommates on. I want to have a word with them. That's unacceptable, and I'd like to talk to them about it.

Supposedly (and she was trying to make herself very clear to the fire fighters on this point), she wants a copy of the fire department's report so she can take me to court for "unnecessary and abusive physical contact." As I said to Tdarcos, next time she can die in a fire.

[RetroRomper]

Pinback, ICJ, etc.

I'm actually going to be incognito till monday: going on a sort of road trip with a friend. Sadly, I will not be able to make it to tonight's game for this reason (unlikely I will have any sort of link to the internet).

Sorry guys.