Just a reminder to all in the Santa Cruz area…..

Our annual hash and Stupor Bowl party once again starting at Crepe Place, Santa Cruz.

Hare: Banana Basher
Hash Start: 11:33 am
Location: Meet at Crepe Place
Trail: A to A-

After trail, we will watch the game at The Crepe Place. Food and beer included. Anything else like shots come our of your wallet.

The Crepe Place has plenty of HD screens. We had a GREAT time there last year so please join us. NON HASHERS WELCOMED!

Cost $25
Location: The Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz
——————-
Yo Football Wankers;

The annual HMO Bowl flag football game will be held this coming Sunday February 7. The game will be held at Gault School located at 1320 Seabright Avenue, Santa Cruz 95062. Gault School is very close to the Crepe Place, which is where the Surf City hash will be throwing their Stupor Bowl hash run and piss up.

Meet at Gault School at 9:30 Sunday morning. We’ll pick teams and start the game at 9:45. We’ll play for about an hour, or until Stupid P*ssy pulls a groin muscle and Spouse cracks a rib. I’ll have a cooler with some beers and waters in it. We also supply the flag belts for the game. After that you can head down to the Crepe Place and join in on the hash festivities which kick off around 11:30 am.

Questions? Shoot me an email.

Meet the crew from the infamous USS BananaVerse as of Feb 4, 2010.  Three more crew members will be joining soon.

click for larger version

Crew

• Bana May Cayuga – Ships Captain
• Katy May Kiss – Science Officer
• Shock the Monkey – Engineer
• Lus TY Sheets – Tactician
• Kim Car Dashion – Tactician
• Kathy Crazy Legs – Tactician
• Con Knee Trouble – Science

Their roles (swiped from the STO website)

Bridge Officers play a key role in how any ship performs. The player can assign his Officers to specific stations on a given ship. These stations can be Science, Tactical or Engineering stations, and ships of different type favor stations of a specific type, as well. Science ships focus their stations on Science, Escort ships on Tactical and Cruisers on Engineering. The more advanced the ship, the larger number of Bridge Officer stations there are (generally).

The stations, like Bridge Officers, are ranked: Ensign, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander and Commander. A Bridge Officer can only access his skills that correspond to the rank of the station at which he’s positioned. For instance, if an Engineering Officer is a Commander but stationed at a Lieutenant Commander’s station on a ship, he’d only have access to his Ensign, Lieutenant and Lieutenant Commander skills. With this in mind, the way a player configures his bridge can dramatically affect gameplay, even on the same ship.

Lieutenant Commander Ceremony Star Trek Online

In the Captains Chair

Warp 5 - Engage

Bananaverse Crew Raiding Party

Click for larger version

Bananaverse Crew Raiding Party

Click for larger version

Time for another Star Trek Online update from day 4….  Day 5 (Tue, Feb 2) will be the official launch of the game.

Still lots of technical issues going on in STO universe including quests being broken and not able to complete, incredible lag, and way to many disconnects.  At the same time, this is a new game so unfortunately it is somewhat expected.  Basically I so far believe the experience is better than the launch of Conan, but Cryptic Studios has a long way to go to even approach the quality of play that is experienced in World of Warcraft.

I discovered that if I am using any other bandwidth on any other computer, I get very poor performance.  That is NOT good as I usually like to be working on something else while I am playing.  I am doing additional testing of using my secondary wireless router to see if the problem is at the router or at the modem level.

That being said, time for two major recap points of my play and a few minor points / obervations:

Major

• BanaMay is now a Lieutenant Commander having completed 10 levels of Lieutenant.  Level was obtained late last night.
• As part of the Lieutenant Commander promotion, a new ship is awarded.  I picked a “Crusier” class ship and named it BananaDeath.  A few more weapons and an extra bridge crew member.

Minor

• Some of the quest lines do feel like real interactive pieces where there is investigation and chases.  One of these quest lines took over 90 minutes to complete.
• There is still lots of grinding in terms of game play.  I can see “killing 5 groups of X” will start getting real old.
• The in-game “Captains Log” is a great way to record your thoughts.  It would be cool if it could be linked to wordpress so this blog would automatically get it.
• The “gold-spammers” which had be present during the beta trail have not been seen in the first four days.

Yes I love Sriracha.  I LOVE my bottle of the Huy Fong brand “Sriracha” hot sauce.  It is the best with Bee Dim Bop!

For 20 straight Sundays I had the NFL.  This being the 21st Sunday, I had to have some Cinna Time which turned into a small hike.  We took Mr. Muggins to La Selva Beach, which is about 17 miles south of Santa Cruz.  It was a gorgeous morning for a hike.  Enjoy the pictures, 20 in total.  – click pictures for larger versions -

La Selva Beach, CA

La Selva Beach, CA

La Selva Beach, CA - looking towards Manresa State Beach

[Read more →]

Cinna and Mr. Muggins jumping creek water at La Selva Beach this morning.  (more picture coming)

Cinna and I just got back from taking Mr. Muggins down to La Selva and Manresa State Beaches for a quick hike.  When we got back three hours later, there was K2, still on the bed.

K2 wins the bed for the day

USS Bananaverse

Just a quick recap of my experience with day 2 of Star Trek Online.

Tried to get in before 2 pm with no luck as the server was down.  I guess that is expected to happen with a new game that still has not officially launched.  When I did get in, I started working through some of the quest lines that I had not attempted during the open beta. I also did my first ships log entry which cracked me up.

Started the day with a kick ass ground battle.  My crew was outstanding.  I guess knowing how to equip them makes it a little easier to play.

Beam Me Up Scotty

I am still having fun with the story lines, some of them relate back to the various series.  Some of the grind of the space battles gets old but for fun I was trying different tactics / style of play mixing in DSP/Attack and Tank/Defense mixtures.  Hard to explain but basically space battles are all about power management and never letting your shields fail.

Just as I was getting tired of the grind, I found a “leave planet” called Rissa.  Basically it is a beach planet where one can relax.  It would be cool if they could put in some games like golf or some other activities like fishing or gambling.  I have seen that work in other games.  Once I was rested, I headed back out to finish two more quests that took BanaMay up to a Level 9 Lieutenant.  One more level and she becomes a Lt Commander.

This was about 10:37 pm when the server crashed so I called it a day.

One of my favorite Santa Cruz author is going to be publishing a book about Sarah Palin.  Geoffrey Dunn’s new book which promises to reveal much about the former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is now listed on Amazon.  It is “based on more than 100 in-depth interviews and thousands of pages of revelatory documents The Lies of Sarah Palin tells the story that she doesn’t want the American people to know.”

I have to confess that I am a huge fan of Mr. Dunn.  His books about Santa Cruz, his writing in the local rags and his work on the local cable channel has always been outstanding.  I have signed copy of two of his books; Santa Cruz Is in the Heart and Chinatown Dreams.

While the last presidential election was in full heat, I started seeing Dunn’s writings about Sarah Palin.  While many people tend to write opinion, Mr. Dunn has been very good with his sources and facts.  I am positive that this book will be well researched and factual.

The book is called The Lies of Sarah Palin: The Untold Story Behind Her Relentless Quest for Power
and promises:

The Lies of Sarah Palin is the first full-scale critical biography of the former vice-presidential candidate, up through her resignation as Alaska governor, and as a potential presidential candidate in 2012. In The Lies of Sarah Palin, award-winning investigative reporter Geoffrey Dunn will expose: • Personal secrets about Sarah Palin’s coming-of-age in Wasilla and her marriage to Todd Palin • Her extremist religious views and “End of Days” beliefs • The truth behind “Troopergate” and the firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan • The secrets surrounding her selection as John McCain’s running mate • Her failures as governor upon her return to Alaska after the campaign, and the real reasons she resigned • The strange inner-circle of Washington D.C. powerbrokers, neoconservatives, and rightwing Christians who have taken control of Palin’s career • Her obsession with Barack Obama and her lies about his “death panels” • Her Presidential ambitions and aspirations for 2012. Based on more than 100 in-depth interviews and thousands of pages of revelatory documents The Lies of Sarah Palin tells the story that she doesn’t want the American people to know.

The hardcover version has 320 pages and will be published on April 13, 2010.  I will be ordering mine!

I jumped into the early start of Star Trek Online yesterday at 10:03 am PST.   I found that my avatar from the beta was no longer alive (aaaaaahhhhhhh), so I recreated BanaMay Cayuga (human tactical officer) and jumped back into the world and began leveling.  Now since I had just done these story lines, I was able to rip through the initial ones very quickly and in a more linear fashion then during the beta trail.

The game play felt the same as the beta with the occasional glitches one can expect.    There was plenty of lag in a couple of heavily played areas.  Over the twelve hours that I played – yes 12 hours – I was disconnected  from the server three times which is acceptable though one time it did screw up a group battle that I was in.

For me, the game strengths are the story lines and the space battles.  As an experienced World of Warcraft resident, I find some of the ground battles to be a little sloppy but since I have equipped BanaMay with a kick-ass rifle with grenades, I am enjoying blasting bad guys and gals.

I have also set up my crew better this time.  In the photo you can see that my standard uniform is purple and yellow.  My one crew member that is not officially in my crew yet is the Star Trek standard “Red Security” uniform.

My ship is the U.S.S. Bananaverse and still is a low level one.  Still learning how to equip it correctly and how to balance attack mode versus protection.

I will be back in world later tonight so obviously I am enjoying it.

For lunch on Friday, I had two peanut butter sandwiches.  I only use Jiff Creamy Peanut Butter.

Ongoing battle between Cinna and K2 for control of the couch.

I love Tapatio.  I put it on everything and I do mean EVERYTHING.  I have even put it in my beer on a few occasions.