Dodging the bullet ... literally
By Mike DalyJune 7th, 2004
Hello all. It has indeed been a long time since I've updated. I'm still lamenting the loss of my two enorm-gantuan updates I wrote about graduation and my insomnia adventure. However, I've finally decided to take back up the keyboard to let everyone know more irrelevant events from my life.
This update is inspired by the very unique and interesting experience I had this past weekend. I was up in VA beach visiting some relatives and it turns out that some of their friends were firearm afficianados. My brothers and I were invited to go out to the shooting range for a day and shoot stuff.
Well, that sounded like an interesting experience to have, so I took them up on it.
The first thing to note is that apparently people don't like to have shooting ranges near their place of residence. I'm sure this had something to do with why we had to drive 45 minutes to get to the place. Virginia is not much to look at from the back of a SUV.
The building was interesting. It was an old run-down looking wooden building complete with chipping paint and lots of dirt on the wood floors inside. There was a rusty wire fence dividing the walkway part from the ... uh store(?) part. Beyond the divider was shelves and shelves of bullets along either wall and various gun parts hanging on the back wall for sale.
It was here that we discovered that it costs 13 dollars per person per day to visit the shooting range. Does this seem expensive to anyone else? No wonder all the rednecks just decide to shoot up road signs instead.
Next, we walk out the back of the building and enter the range proper. The range is a muddy field of mud with heavily cratered cement barriers suspended in the air by rusty steel beams. At the other end, at various distances, are boards with trazillions of holes in them sticking out of the ground in front of walls of dirt and grass. There are about a dozen dirty folding tables and chairs set up at our end.
We lay out our gear on one and get started. We started with some lighter weapons. I would call these 'gateway guns'. I fired a small calibur rifle and pistol a great deal of times with some success. I was able to hit the target ... kind of.
Exhibit A
Then we moved on to the hard stuff. I fired off a few rounds from a .357 magnum, which was a painful experience. Also, I'd like to note that some of the other people at the range reminded me of the documentaries I sometimes see on the discovery channel about America's secret psycho militias. One guy in particular was brandishing about 5 high-powered assault rifles. If we ever get invaded by paper silhouettes, I'm going to Virginia.
Exhibit B
One one final note, you have probably noticed that my exhibits are well-constructed computer-generated replicas of the actual scene in question. I'd like to point out that Wesley, the guy who never updates this site ever, had a camera and took pictures, then failed to get them to me in such a way that I could use them for internetting.
So, there you have it. That was my interesting gun-toting experience. It's not hard to devise that I wasn't really in my element there. In other news, I'm still working on my motorcycle model for UT 2k4. Let's see if I can find that old render ... ah, here it is. Well, that's a really old render. The status of the project is that I have a "working" prototype running in the game. I still have a lot of work to do before it's done, but I'm having a hell of a lot of fun crashing it in interesting ways, doing stunts, and watching the bots try to drive it and immediately fall over. If I get it to a reasonable state of completion, you can expect it to show up here.
You know? What the hell, I'll go ahead and make some screenshots for you:
My beautiful bike in game
Me driving the bike suicidally hundreds of feet above the ground
Also, I've been having trouble coming up with a cool name for it. Check out this thread to give me your feedback. Wayne will probably be annoyed that I didn't use the nifty new 'Add Comments' link he programmed in to each news post, but I had already created the thread. Oops. Note that if you feel like commenting on my gun-toting adventure, you can use the 'Add Your Comments' link. I wonder if that works?
Enough babble. Catch you on the flip-side.
This update is inspired by the very unique and interesting experience I had this past weekend. I was up in VA beach visiting some relatives and it turns out that some of their friends were firearm afficianados. My brothers and I were invited to go out to the shooting range for a day and shoot stuff.
Well, that sounded like an interesting experience to have, so I took them up on it.
The first thing to note is that apparently people don't like to have shooting ranges near their place of residence. I'm sure this had something to do with why we had to drive 45 minutes to get to the place. Virginia is not much to look at from the back of a SUV.
The building was interesting. It was an old run-down looking wooden building complete with chipping paint and lots of dirt on the wood floors inside. There was a rusty wire fence dividing the walkway part from the ... uh store(?) part. Beyond the divider was shelves and shelves of bullets along either wall and various gun parts hanging on the back wall for sale.
It was here that we discovered that it costs 13 dollars per person per day to visit the shooting range. Does this seem expensive to anyone else? No wonder all the rednecks just decide to shoot up road signs instead.
Next, we walk out the back of the building and enter the range proper. The range is a muddy field of mud with heavily cratered cement barriers suspended in the air by rusty steel beams. At the other end, at various distances, are boards with trazillions of holes in them sticking out of the ground in front of walls of dirt and grass. There are about a dozen dirty folding tables and chairs set up at our end.
We lay out our gear on one and get started. We started with some lighter weapons. I would call these 'gateway guns'. I fired a small calibur rifle and pistol a great deal of times with some success. I was able to hit the target ... kind of.
Exhibit A
Then we moved on to the hard stuff. I fired off a few rounds from a .357 magnum, which was a painful experience. Also, I'd like to note that some of the other people at the range reminded me of the documentaries I sometimes see on the discovery channel about America's secret psycho militias. One guy in particular was brandishing about 5 high-powered assault rifles. If we ever get invaded by paper silhouettes, I'm going to Virginia.
Exhibit B
One one final note, you have probably noticed that my exhibits are well-constructed computer-generated replicas of the actual scene in question. I'd like to point out that Wesley, the guy who never updates this site ever, had a camera and took pictures, then failed to get them to me in such a way that I could use them for internetting.
So, there you have it. That was my interesting gun-toting experience. It's not hard to devise that I wasn't really in my element there. In other news, I'm still working on my motorcycle model for UT 2k4. Let's see if I can find that old render ... ah, here it is. Well, that's a really old render. The status of the project is that I have a "working" prototype running in the game. I still have a lot of work to do before it's done, but I'm having a hell of a lot of fun crashing it in interesting ways, doing stunts, and watching the bots try to drive it and immediately fall over. If I get it to a reasonable state of completion, you can expect it to show up here.
You know? What the hell, I'll go ahead and make some screenshots for you:
My beautiful bike in game
Me driving the bike suicidally hundreds of feet above the ground
Also, I've been having trouble coming up with a cool name for it. Check out this thread to give me your feedback. Wayne will probably be annoyed that I didn't use the nifty new 'Add Comments' link he programmed in to each news post, but I had already created the thread. Oops. Note that if you feel like commenting on my gun-toting adventure, you can use the 'Add Your Comments' link. I wonder if that works?
Enough babble. Catch you on the flip-side.
Comments
Tag team, back again...
By Mike DalyJune 10th, 2004
check it top, wreck it - let's begin!
Wow that's old school. Today the two most popular and beloved monkeys are going to bring you some REAL content! Can you believe it?
First of all, we've been working on some burritos of our own design, although I doubt you can do too much to make a burrito "original" before it's not a burrito anymore, so take it as it comes. We think we've done a good job with these beasts, but if you care to improve on our methods, feel free to post your comments in the um, comments section.
Speaking of comments... I see that it's not so obvious of when there are new comments or any posted at all for that matter. I was thinking of having two forums in the Your Two Cents section, one for the existing messageboard, and another for the comments. The links on the front page would be more or less for your convienence and will probably be the only way a new topic relating to the news can be started. Meaning you will only be able to add posts to existing comment topics. You'll figure it out.
Willow speaks:
I will elaborate on the details of the burritos recipe just a bit. We sliced three fresh jalepeno peppers and threw them in a skillet. After a few minutes of slaving over the range, I started coughing and hacking. Wayne just looked at me, apparently amused at my agitated state. I muttered something to the effect of 'can you not smell that?' before collapsing on the floor and dying from toxic fumes. He just laughed and went on cooking. A few minutes later he also realized all at once that he could not breathe either and suffered a similar fate. The rest of the night the two survivors ate the deadly meal out of respect. They too, unfortunately, did not survive.
So, in other news, I've been working furiously at getting my motorcycle done. I've got the coding almost complete; now it leans as a motorcycle should. At least it leans as realistically as I'll ever want it to be. I made some nice looking team textures for it. The remaining work to be done is to pose a character so that they fit properly, as well as some other polish things like headlights and such. Finally, I need to program in the 'weapon'. I'm thinking that you hit fire to activate a bomb, then the next time it runs into something at a moderate speed, it blows up fantastically.
Ok, I'll stop boring you all now. I'll post screenshots and maybe movies of the bike later.
Oh yeah...
Whoomp there it is.
Wow that's old school. Today the two most popular and beloved monkeys are going to bring you some REAL content! Can you believe it?
First of all, we've been working on some burritos of our own design, although I doubt you can do too much to make a burrito "original" before it's not a burrito anymore, so take it as it comes. We think we've done a good job with these beasts, but if you care to improve on our methods, feel free to post your comments in the um, comments section.
Speaking of comments... I see that it's not so obvious of when there are new comments or any posted at all for that matter. I was thinking of having two forums in the Your Two Cents section, one for the existing messageboard, and another for the comments. The links on the front page would be more or less for your convienence and will probably be the only way a new topic relating to the news can be started. Meaning you will only be able to add posts to existing comment topics. You'll figure it out.
Willow speaks:
I will elaborate on the details of the burritos recipe just a bit. We sliced three fresh jalepeno peppers and threw them in a skillet. After a few minutes of slaving over the range, I started coughing and hacking. Wayne just looked at me, apparently amused at my agitated state. I muttered something to the effect of 'can you not smell that?' before collapsing on the floor and dying from toxic fumes. He just laughed and went on cooking. A few minutes later he also realized all at once that he could not breathe either and suffered a similar fate. The rest of the night the two survivors ate the deadly meal out of respect. They too, unfortunately, did not survive.
So, in other news, I've been working furiously at getting my motorcycle done. I've got the coding almost complete; now it leans as a motorcycle should. At least it leans as realistically as I'll ever want it to be. I made some nice looking team textures for it. The remaining work to be done is to pose a character so that they fit properly, as well as some other polish things like headlights and such. Finally, I need to program in the 'weapon'. I'm thinking that you hit fire to activate a bomb, then the next time it runs into something at a moderate speed, it blows up fantastically.
Ok, I'll stop boring you all now. I'll post screenshots and maybe movies of the bike later.
Oh yeah...
Whoomp there it is.
Comments
Content Galore
By WastrelJune 15th, 2004
Ok so maybe not just yet, but we promise guaruntee will try? to have more content on this page!!
In the meantime I did put up some pictures from my graduation, seeing as Willow and I did not graduate at the same place, and I added more pictures from us leaving and the little lobby celebration afterwards. Unfortunately I do not have a digital, and I'm lazy to scan in All the pictures I have. So by the grace of Wheedle (Our new honorary monkey correspondent who happens to be in the little known state called Hawaii at the moment) I have digital pictures of my graduation. You can check them, and the previous ones posted, out here. My personal favorite is the monkeys in style.
In the meantime I did put up some pictures from my graduation, seeing as Willow and I did not graduate at the same place, and I added more pictures from us leaving and the little lobby celebration afterwards. Unfortunately I do not have a digital, and I'm lazy to scan in All the pictures I have. So by the grace of Wheedle (Our new honorary monkey correspondent who happens to be in the little known state called Hawaii at the moment) I have digital pictures of my graduation. You can check them, and the previous ones posted, out here. My personal favorite is the monkeys in style.
And more content should be sure to come. Of course you have noticed that our schedule in the monkey house has changed. Regular updates are no longer to be had, we will just try to put at least one up a week and whenever we have anything interesting to say!
Meanwhile Wayne works dillegently to revamp the site. And Willow is creating new icons, therefore I shall use 'mini-hobbes' in the meantime.
Until then keep listening to pearl jam (it helps sooth the soul) and check out some more pictures from our redneck style drinking in the road found in the miscellaneous gallery. (My personal favorite).
-Peace
Comments
New Icons!
By Mike DalyJune 17th, 2004
Hey everyone. I have toiled the past few days making up new icons for our beloved duelingmonkeys characters. However, I am in the mountains right now, forbidding me from doing the final touches to make them viewable as news and messageboard icons. Wayne will apparently have to do a little extra work to get the png format to show up correctly as well.
In the meantime, I've placed them all in the art gallery. For your convenience, I'll go ahead and post direct links too:
Wastrel
Wayne
Wesley
Yours Truly
In the meantime, I've placed them all in the art gallery. For your convenience, I'll go ahead and post direct links too:
Wastrel
){kind=link}
Wayne
){kind=link}
Wesley
){kind=link}
Yours Truly
){kind=link}
Comments
Keeping Promises
By WastrelJune 25th, 2004
So although maybe in a time frame aspect they are broken, promises made by some monkeys will always be fulfilled. And as it was duelly pointed out to me, I had mentioned you would have a content filled summer. So.... without further adeu.... no more stalling... I know you've been waiting for it.... by the way so how was your day?... I'm awfully tired and am thinking of taking a nap (fulfilling my name's definition).
Ok ok I'm just kidding here you go, some content. I finally finished the comic, that which I started and drew by hand in my software engineering class throughout the semester, to the reflection on a modern classic 'A Knight'sSuckTale.' Rereading the article I feel it was not really a good review and doesn't convince those readers that may have unfortunately enjoyed the movie as to why it lacks any value. But I'm too lazy to really rewrite it, so just consider it a crappy rant, that does not really express my sentiments exactly nor clearly. But does my writing ever??
I thought not!... so enjoy the 'rant' and where's my cookie?!
Ok ok I'm just kidding here you go, some content. I finally finished the comic, that which I started and drew by hand in my software engineering class throughout the semester, to the reflection on a modern classic 'A Knight's
I thought not!... so enjoy the 'rant' and where's my cookie?!
Comments