What could be awesomer than a group of nerds with fake weapons gently beating the crap out of each other?

Nothing, that’s what.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is why I do it.

What constitutes my weapons? PVC, pipe insulation, caulk, and duct tape. Lots of duct tape. Altogether, a sword costs about 15-20$ to make (but i still have tons of leftover materials, just ran out of PVC). It is also suitably soft to not damage the soft and delicate skin, bones, and organs of engineers. At least, not too badly.

It is pretty fun to play. Nothing on airsoft, but still…swords! There is also emphasis on not hurting people, but didn’t Skinner demonstrate that pain is a great teaching tool? I expect people to beat the crap out of me, so I try to preemptively reciprocate. This leads to a lot of bitching and such, but hey…you’re out here TO GET HIT WITH THINGS, what do you expect? When I get bb’s lodged in my skin, do I ask people to shoot softer? lololololololol. Suck it up.

I am a noob and fairly unskilled in fighting, so I tend to utilize reach and reflexes. And naturally, when someone charges or presses hard, there is not much I can do besides hope they run into my sword. Really makes me think I should keep my gladius on my belt…

Anyways, lots of fun! Let out anger with squishy weapons!

Cost:    o_o    you mean…i just spent…2400$ on this? Seriously, this chunk of plastic and circuitry in front of me cost that much. And I could have gotten an equivalently-powerful system from Best Buy for, you know, like 700$. So that’s a damned expensive touch screen. Wacom input tablet + actual cost-effective laptop = better option. Ugh.

Functionality: Oh lol drivers…wait…what drivers? Oh, it appears to update itself. ‘Drivers up to date.’ That’s cool, but why can’t I run Oblivion (besides obvious price-performance issues…)? Lets see….HOLY CRAP THESE DRIVERS ARE 2 YEARS OLD. So now let’s trawl through and see what else is not updated…oh…everything? And summarily spend the rest of the afternoon downloading and installing drivers that may or may not work. Also, there are slight problems with things like…the touchscreen…and if it wants to work…or not….oh god.

Actual use: …ummm….what? Oh, cool! A large and hot piece of paper! That is a bitch to find anything in after writing on it! And….oh wait, already out of batteries? Goddammit. But it is apparently required for classes that are taken…in freshman year. And in no classes after that. So basically, it stays on my desk as a desktop because it can’t survive through a single class period. And sometimes it works. But usually not.

So yeah. Virginia Tech has a great engineering department! Provided that you…aren’t actually a part of it. Because they screw you in every way possible. Hooray.

Said reader happens to be my sister…kind of sad, when you think about it.

Anyways, she was wondering, and I quote, ‘i’m not sure i understand why you listen to it when you don’t like so much of it?’

Well, dearest sister…

As I mentioned, they have a unique sound that requires some acclimation. And as the story has evolved, so has their musical style. Thus, with each new album, there are subtle differences in sound that require getting-used to.

A simple response would be to suggest I just listen to the ones I like.

But then the story would remain incomplete, thus defeating the purpose of the albums.

Hope that clears the question up sufficiently!

The first song I heard by these guys was Welcome Home. I have no idea when or where I heard it, but thought it was pretty kickass.  The first album of their’s that I bought was Good Sweet Jesus Fucking Christ Star Im Burning 4, or whatever it is called. Really, thats pretty much as good of a guess as I am going to get at it.

I actually purchased that album a few weeks after No World for Tomorrow came out, picking that one because it had Welcome Home.

As is generally the case with Coheed and Cambria, I popped in the CD and was immediately just like     >_>  what the fuck am I listening to

That was just the first track (which, as tends to be the case, is not exactly conventional). Then came Always and Never and at that point I wondered just what kind of strange and twisted child-obsessed band this was.

It wasn’t until a few months later that I listened to the whole thing.

I was tired of all of my musical mainstays, and craved something new and exciting. So I picked up 4 again and popped it in. Gritted my teeth and bore the first 2 tracks. Then  came Welcome Home. (here we go, this is good shit). 10 speed (…that was even better). Onwards until The Final Cut, at which point my skull split open and my brain ripped itself free from my spine and proceeded to scuttle off, never to be seen again for a while.

So I listened to that CD for a very long time, trying to wrap my mind around the structure of the music.

Eventually, I realized that I was craving MOAR.

So I bought Second Stage Turbine Blade. Claudio’s voice in Time Consumer caused me to put that CD down and not listen to it for over a year.

Eventually, I listened to that one, too. The progression of Delerium Trigger, Hearshot Kid Disaster, 33, and Junesong Provision blew me away.

Then, while listening to both albums together, I suddenly thought to myself, ‘who the hell are those people they keep mentioning?’

So then I did some research and realized just how much I was missing. 4 albums is one thing. 4 concept albums is completely different.

Of course, I had to buy the remaining 2nd and 4th cds.

Then I built a playlist of all 4 and have listened to nothing else since. I am completely wrapped up in the story.

My brain plays it at all hours of the day.

And then, while poking through Coheed’s Twitter, I learned that there is going to be a new album coming out next month.

I swear, if they don’t stop, my brain (which at some point returned to my head) will explode with the awesome. Would that be a bad thing? Haven’t decided yet…

ROCK ON!!! \,,/

As it moves to spring here in Blacksburg, the temperatures start to stabilize between 40 and 60 degrees, making for great temperatures.

It also starts raining.

A lot.

Soooooo I was out of my room and off at breakfast when the sun decided to pop up in the east. As it turns out, the darker western sky remained…darker. Because it is completely covered with very large, very dark clouds. And since I am only wearing a long-sleeved shirt, I am rather dreading the whole ‘wander half a mile in the pouring rain’ thing.

But that’s life!

And in the pursuit of my warm and soft bed, I am more than willing to make the walk.

So how am I enjoying the experience?

Well…

Watched Chuck, American Dad, and Bones

Spent 3 hours on 4chan.

Drank coffee and orange juice.

Ate yogurt.

Had a shower.

…that’s about it.

And that is a damned perfect evening/night/morning/whatever.

Gotta be up at 7, so I’m off to get some shuteye.

This is my new blog that I can write stuff in that has nothing at all to do with airsoft or…Metallica? Or whatever the hell I have been putting in the other blog…  >.>

Anyways, background on me!

Hullo, this is Casey, a.k.a. elrondelf. I would not normally tell you all my name, but I feel that it is a moot point seeing that, at some point, I associated ‘elrondelf’ with my actual name on the Acme Airsoft forum. And I am far too lazy to go back and edit that post.

So, as some of you may have guessed (someone other than me?), I am an avid airsofter, loving everything about the sport (from the weapons to the people I meet to the tactics to the little holes I have all over my body at the moment). But what does that truly mean?

Most people, when they hear about me liking airsoft, give me sideways looks that seem to say things like ‘oh, you must be one of those brainwashed military children’ or ‘so, how diverse is the gene pool up there in Hickville?’

My general image is not exactly helped when the aforementioned impressions are added to the fact that I am a student at Virginia Polytechnic and Sta…fuck that. Virginia Tech.

Now, for who I really am…

White, upper-middle class male majoring in Industrial and Systems Engineering (basically, I manage all of the people who actually studied engineering engineering…got those TPS reports done?). Airsoft actually started as a purely mechanical interest. And frankly, I’m a nerd.

HEY IM CALLING FOUL ON THAT PREVIOUS STATEM…..oh wait, I have MULTIPLE blogs? Heh…heh…heh…

Yeah, I spend the majority of my time doing computery things.

Basically, when you break it down, this is what my week is like…there are what, 168 hours in a week (had to whip out the Windows calculator there…)…

56 hours: Homework (colloquial way of saying physics and chemistry)

30 hours: Gaming

28 hours: Sleep

15 hours: Class

7 hours: Food

3 hours: Partying

2 hours: Larping

The remaining X amount of time is spent deciding how to waste time next. And almost all of those activities are permeated with at least some form of computer usage.

My other staple is music. At all hours of the day, I hear music in my head, whether it be music I have listened to, played, or written. It really can be quite infuriating (FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, BRAIN, SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO SLEEP). I suppose the writing of said music is a coping method for getting it out, at least temporarily. My wife-to-be (I avoid fiance/fiancee because I can never tell which is which) says that it’s just a little scary sometimes. In fact, as I type this, I am listening to my favorite band, Coheed and Cambria.

As I mentioned, I am indeed engaged to be married. I am looking forwards to this probably more than I realize; I hate change in it’s many forms, and see this as a way of rooting my life in place and spending it with the person I love.

I don’t have too many close friends…the internet is always at my fingertips, while they aren’t (my male friends seem to generally oppose my ill-fated attempts to grope them, while my female frie…wait, this just in…I don’t have any female friends. Tons left over from high school, but none here at college.). In fact, a great amount of time every week is spent avoiding them as much as possible. And when I say ‘partying,’ I tend to mean me, my computer, and a bottle of vodka having a pow-wow. Because I am exciting and sociable and such.

Coffee! Oh, sweet nectar of Satan. Containing the only drug I am fully addicted to (I’m starting to wonder about my alcohol consumption) and ensuring that I can spend up to 10 hours on a physics and/or chemistry marathon. This, of course, makes me justifiably grumpy over the lack of marijuana in my life. Coffee, that which is terrible for everything except for your colon, and pot, that which…well, you can get pretty fucking high…but thats about it…

Oh, and I love playing soccer.

Anyways, my battery is flatlining from my computer trying to handle me typing (yeah right), so I shall throw this up and come back later.

So that’s a damned basic overview of me and what I do and what I think.

What crazy and stupid thing will I think of later? I will be sure to let the whoooooole world know.  :p

Regards,

elrondelf