(Late, and overly long, but for those that like it...)
Hail Slugadonia!
The meeting of August 29th was a lot of fun. Once again we met at
Sterling Research, thanks to our patron J.J. Rohrer.
Aaron showed videos from Defcon, both the Capture the Flag stuff
(which is mostly boring, except for
the dude that got mad at Aaron for filming what was on a computer screen)
and the robot wars competition.
Aaron and his pal won that, though his robot was radio controlled and not AI.
Spoony brought a mini wireless router, and thus we were able to extend
the wired network
out to those that are afraid of ethernet cables. She got distracted while
installing Debian, so Alex configured it such that it would work.
Next, it would seem, I had to talk about Subversion. This was a partly
coherent rant,
and I successfully managed to confuse most everyone (and myself) in the process.
About 20 minutes before the meeting was to end, Chotchki called me and
said he'd be there
for the after meeting meal.
Right. As the meeting was breaking up, several of our number thought
of going somewhere for food
and geeky cameradery. Peter the Alchemist suggested we try the Globe,
which is a coffee shop that has
real food. This is walking distance from the meeting place, so we set
off on foot.
Our number consisted of: Peter the Alchemist, Possum Dan, Rich
Collins, Alex, Jonathon
(aka Sick Twist), Spoony, and myself. Imagine it, folks. A bunch of
linux geeks prowling around
downtown St. Pete at 9:30 at night.
Spoony, Jonathon, and I stayed longer in front of the meeting place,
giving some advice
to a (very motivated) newbie. When we at last said goodnight to the
fellow, Paul was his name I think,
I ran ahead to catch up with the others. As I am running, laptop case
in hand, one of the others
turns and begins running towards me.
Lo and behold, it was Peter the Alchemist!
The next thing I know, Peter slams into my right arm, and bounces off
with great speed.
He shouts "Oh sh*t".
Startled, I turn to deck him. Dodging, he runs off in the direction I
had come from.
I pursue him. Zip, he passes Spoony and Sick Twist.
As I pass Spoony, I hear her say "This is a DragonBall Z moment".
Just as I consider shouting "Kamehameha!", Peter vanishes around the corner.
The others catch up with me, and I yell: "Pete, you can come back. I
won't attack you."
But, he's no where to be seen. I wonder aloud, "Where did he go?"
Alex suggests maybe Peter decided life wasn't worth it, and commited suicide.
It was at about this point that we noticed Peter laying on the ground,
behind some bushes.
As luck would have it, Peter wasn't dead.
Anyway, nobody has any ideas where to eat since the Globe is closed.
At this point, both Rich
and Possum decide to go to their respective homes. This left five
remaing sluggers:
Myself, Spoony, Sick Twist, Peter the Alchemist, and Alex.
Thus we all piled into Spoony's car. Pete, Sick, and Alex in the back seats,
with myself in shotgun.
Spoony raced down the lonely St. Pete streets, following Peter's mad
directions to another random
cafe/restuarant. Peter says "Ah, cut through this parking lot."
This parking lot had a fence around it, or had had a fence. The fence
was lying down, and had been
driven over many times. As soon as Spoony's car stops, Peter hops out
and disappears like a ninja.
And as luck would have it, the cafe was closed.
But, we had to wait several minutes, because it turns out Peter ran
into the restuarant
to use its bathroom.
It was at this point that Chotchki called again, asking where we were.
He was right
outside the meeting place, so we told 'im to stay put and we drove back there.
At the point, Sick Twist decided to go home, figuring our chances of
actually eating to be slim to fast.
Peter also decided to head home, after trying to strangle me with a bandana.
Spoony and I gave him a lift home, since he is unable to drive because
of age and a criminal record.
So, now only Alex Harris (who was following spoony's car) and Chotchki
(who was lost in St. Pete)
and I (who was riding with spoony) were going for dinner. We decided
on Denny's, which is on 4th
Street somewhere. In fact, at first Spoony did not know Alex was following her.
She thought it was just some random weirdo. Instead, it's a known
weirdo. Big difference, yes?
As we traveled down 4th street, we didn't see a Denny's. But we did
see a Benigan's, so we went there.
Chotchki wasn't following us, so we called him to tell him to meet us
at the Benigan's on 4th
Street and about 80th Ave North.
The poor fellow got very lost, first thinking that avenues were
streets, and south was north.
With the help of a map provided by Alex, and Spoony's careful guidance
on the phone, he finally
found the Benigans. It took an hour or two, and he said more than 70
miles had he driven...
So, in short. the after-meeting was fun because Chotchki has no sense
of direction. :)
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