Cruftbox: My Box of Cruft

For to many years, I played online games and found my calling fighting the players that tried to hurt other players. I wrtoe up many stories about these fights. After 4 years, I finally burned out on the nightly routine and decided to take a break. The grief players have not.
After 5 years, grief players have made the front page. I guess when the big money of Sony & Microsoft gets involved it takes on a financial risk. This morning’s LA Times has a front page article about online grief players. (You can use the username/pass of cpunks/cpunks to get in.)
Old habits die hard. The first thing I did after reading the article was get on the computer and try to track down the griefer, Kurt Frerichs, mentioned by name in the article. What I would do when I tracked him down, I’m not sure. But the urge to go after him with vengance was strong. I found a few things, but nothing that clearly tied the Kurt Frerichs mentioned in the article with the Kurt Frerichs I found via searches.

I wrote up a little page on How to make a up of tea.
Enjoy.

A couple days ago I read on Flying W Things Brad’s post on his own weblogging. While I am not agains the occasional navel gaze, I beg to different with his conclusions.
IMHO, a weblog should be what it’s creator wants. Audience be damned. If I want to wax on eloquently about an esoteric topic that everyone else find boring, too bad for the world. It’s my farking weblog.
So my opinion for Brad is simple, write what you want, as long as you want. So much of our lives are spent following the rules and expectations of others. Everyone needs a place where they can do what they want with no regard for what others think appropriate.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been catching the HBO show, Hard Knocks, off of Tivo. It is a show about the training camp of the Dallas Cowboys as the season is about to begin. It shows what really goes on and how the team rosters are made.
This is real reality television. It’s not manufactured out of nothingness like Survivor or Big Brother. It’s what is really going on as the Cowboys get to the opening day roster of 53 men. A lot of people get cut.
Here’s the dilemma. I’ve been watching the show and learning about the players. I have, dare I say it, *sympathy*, for the Cowboys. Since I live in Los Angeles, I am without a football team. As I go through the season, I fear that I might actually root for the Cowboys and their players since I know them now.
Me, root for the Cowboys? Am I out of my fucking mind?

I want this Landspeeder. Please fairy godmother, buy me this car!

What a day.
Work was a blur as we had a half day and I was trying to cram a day’s worth of effort into four hours. I left work around one and headed home.
I convinced the girls to go out geocaching with me. The cache was in nearby Lacy Park, but we were unsuccessful. I even had a travel bug to place.
We looked and looked, but the GPS unit was sketchy on pointing me on a consistent location. I couldn’t make sense of the clue. It was hot, the girls were complaining, so I decided to find it on another day.
We went to the library afterwards to drop off some books, and lo and behold, there was Fallen Dragon waiting for me on the New Releases shelf. I grabbed it and am currently on page 5.
Later in the afternoon, we took Zoe to her first soccer practice. It looks like she’ll have lots of fun. Eight 6 & 7 year old girls do make a lot of noise.
We went out to dinner with the family of one of the girls Zoe is on the team with and will be in first grade with, Ken & June and their kids Emma & Nate. We thought japanese food would be good, but by 8:30 the kids were swinging from the ceiling and we knew it was time to leave. I was amazed that Ken also is a fan of the band X. He even knows more about Tivos than me. I need to invite him out on the next guys night out.
Currently, it’s 11:15. Michele is crashed and I’m about to dive into Battelfield 1942. BTW, the contacts are getting more and more comfortable. Life is good.

After five months of trouble, I finally have some new lenses on my eyes. They don’t feel perfect, new lenses are a little different than old lenses so there is always a bit of time it takes to get used to them.
But I can deal. I can finally see out of both eyes. Woo-hoo!
I’ve got a few things to do tonight, so this update will be brief.
Battlefield 1942 continues to consume my game time. I am in it’s thrall.
There are a couple new weblogs on the scene. Jennifer now has Mrs. Diggs dot blog and Paul has Paulie-Log. Please go check them out and give them a little encouragement.
Chokersandwich is back in operation. In addition, Brad, Mike, and Matt have all been weblogging furiously as well. Pat and Travis have been weblogging even while on vacation.
Phew, that’s a lot of links.
On a humor angle, take a look at the transcript of President Bush discussing world matters with the Saudis.
Lastly, I need a new book. I’m thinking about Fallen Dragon. Any comments?

My IM conversation with my father today;
Session Start (MSN – Michael Pusateri:Dad): Wed Aug 28 13:41:19 2002
Dad: do you have time to do a check on the remoteassistance feature?
Michael Pusateri: I can’t do it from work. Only from home. I think…
Dad: OK
Michael Pusateri: Got a problem?
Dad: Only trying to the office to be able and can’t seem to make it work
Michael Pusateri: Huh?
*** Dad signed off at Wed Aug 28 13:52:15 2002
Session Close (Dad): Wed Aug 28 14:02:34 2002
Can anyone decode this?

It’s funny, because it’s true.
(Flash 6 page for the browser & bandwidth impaired)
Thanks to Brad for the link.

First of all here’s a picture I took on the way back from my parentss house.