"It's Sometimes Shocking To Find Out What People Really Believe In." -- Tracey Ullman

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--for best results, layer on the pepperoni in a strict geometric pattern. This will ensure the flavor is---


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--kuna matada.... what a wonderful phrase... hakun---


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--ithout a doubt, the worst President since William Henry Harrison, who only served for a month before dying of pneum--


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--then who's on first? Yes. I mean the fellow's name. Who. The guy on first! Who. The first basema--


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--él acaba de farted un total de 14 veces, que es un nuevo récord--


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--elcome to tonight's blog post! Yes, we're nearing the end of our journey through the alphabet for the A-to-Z Challenge. It's been a wild ride this month - I've dumped more nonsense on you than any ten other blogs put together! Not bragging, mind you... it's more an admission of guilt, as far as the rather strong suggestion of the A-to-Z Staff to keep the daily posts brief. Yeah, well, sorry, "brief" isn't in my vocabulary. It is in my wardrobe, however...


So today is "U-Day". No, we won't be talking about one of Saddam's sons. I don't do politics. Instead, we have a pair of items for you from my Favorite's List, beginning with you. I mean, beginning with U. Not that you aren't a favorite of mine, you are. I just meant.... oh, you know what I meant!

Favorite Games (U):

Unreal Tournament (1999): It would be a mortal sin if I left this game off of my Favorite's List, since, in all likelihood, as much as I've dumped hundreds of hours into any number of different games over the years, I probably played UT more than the rest of the games combined. UT was a First Person Shooter game, and the first one I ever played online. And play I did! Hours a day, every day (including Sundays), for 2+ years... I mean, every...day... but I had an excuse!


I was a clan captain for an online Capture the Flag team called XTS. I helmed the team for almost three years, until UT2K3 came out, after which time the team sort of dissolved, since many players wanted to shift to the newer game, many wanted to stay with the older one, and many just wanted to move on, happy to have accumulated some great memories, but eager to evolve. I joined XTS when it was still a brand new clan - it was started by 4 friends up in the Oregon area, and they joined the EO league and asked the league president to help them find new members so they could field a big enough team to actually get some 6v6 matches going. I was one of those new members. Shortly after our first match (in which we got destroyed), the former XTS captain realized that running the clan was going to be more involved than he'd hoped, and asked me to take over. We ended up becoming a dominant force in the league... we were never the best, but that was never my goal with the team. I wanted to make sure every member enjoyed himself as much as possible, and got equal play time, regardless of skill level. Sure, I could have only played our best players during matches, but that would have meant some people would need to sit the bench. I did enough bench-sitting during my Little League Baseball years to know what that felt like, so I strictly enforced the "If You Can Show Up, You Get Equal Play Time" rule. No primadonas or stars or first stringers.

I called myself DaveTurd, lol. My thinking was, if I played like crap, at least I was aptly named... but if I beat you, then there's the added humiliation bonus of being beaten by a guy named "turd". It was a win-win. My brother John joined the team as well, and he took the name JohnTurd. John ended up becoming one of the best players in the entire league. Eventually, my "real life" friends Joe and Matt joined up, and they took the Turd name as well. It was great - we were the Turds, and became a well-known entity in the league.

I had a big stash of screen shots, text, art files, and other nonsense that I was looking for in prep for tonight's post, but I can't find it. All I could find were some custom sigs I made for a bunch of the players on our team and others, so when we posted in the league forums, we could have a little piece of art at the bottom of each post, as a "signature". Here are a few I created for myself... (click to enlarge)

Anyway, I had a ton of fun, and played more hours of CTF than I'd care to admit. This may sound lame, but I haven't felt such a sense of community and camaraderie since. Sure, there was also some drama, both on the team and in the league, some of which I was the cause of, but by and large, it was a very enjoyable time of my life, which I'll always look back on fondly.

Favorite Bands/Singers (U):

U2: Probably the biggest band in the world; my fanship (fanhood? fanishness?) is actually relatively limited, but it is intense. I first heard of them in the mid eighties, about the time of Unforgettable Fire, and I was hooked, up to and including Rattle and Hum, at which time my interest kind of petered out, since they were getting "too big". Isn't that weird? How retro-hipster of me, eh? And at such a young age, too! But right in the middle of that period was The Joshua Tree, which is a perfect album, in my opinion. Like most good music, it brings back strong memories of a certain time of my life. Any song on that album will instantly transport me back in time. Of course, the songs are also terrific in and of themselves, but I think what they represent means as much to me as anything else.


I lost interest with the release of Achtung Baby in 1991, and didn't keep up with them until 2000, with the album All That You Can't Leave Behind, which has some great tracks on it as well, including Beautiful Day, Elevation, Kite and In A Little While.


Never went to any of their concerts. Not a fan of concerts to begin with, so no surprises there. Though I hear their concerts are always great. 


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So that's it. I covered everything from UT to U2, all in one post! Aren't you lucky you tuned in today? Not sure what I'll do tomorrow, since I have exactly nothing listed under the letter V, in all of my Favorites Lists... in any case, thanks for joinin---


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-- oming up next, more of our Justin Bieber Retrospectiv--


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--and in International News, a suicide bomber detonated himself in a crowded marke--


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