Twilight of the Thunderer

Cloud cover pervades the expanse of arid land.

The sun’s been down for sometime.

I’ve lost track of how long I’ve been riding on this ridge into Oregon, “Oregon Trail Highway,” definitely feels somewhat removed like that.

My nerves are starting to question my current sanity; For miles on each side of me the cloud cover is smattered with lightning. No rain, just the flares of electricity gaining in frequency. 2 small pieces of rubber and no Farraday cage in sight. Lightning has never been a friend to motorcyclists.

As my luck would have it, none of the blasts have taken place over the highway, just everywhere around it. I hope I don’t need to take an exit for gas anytime soon, as the odometer clicks to 30 miles remaining til my next gas stop.

That’s when the music changes, as if it was answering any questions I may have about my current situation. The guitars raise, drums blast. “There is Fenris’ twin, his jaws are open wide, The serpent rises from the wave” Twilight of the Thunder God begins it’s audible assault upon my ear drums. Like a reminder, much like Thor, I am not one to back down. My right wrist begins to roll as my hand grips tight. For Thor.

These were not blasts of warning, each strike was Thor cheering me on, excited for my 5000 mile journey. I may be riding solo, but I never ride alone.

Remember Remember the 9th of November [2014]

Remember Remember the 9th of November
The Didactian Treason and plot
I know of no reason why the Forerunner’s treason
Should ever be forgot

But What of the Fore?
I know his name was Shadow of Sundered Star
and he was(is?) the Ur-Didact
The most feared warrior of all the Forerunners

War and protection were his charge
Peace and creation those of his mate
An unlikely couple were they
Bathed in blood of the Milky Way

The sickness Struck
Their most challengine foe
Causing a war
That we all still “know”

A plague it spread
From Pet to Master
Fear and Dread
A coming disaster

Run and hide
The hominids did try
But encroach upon Ecumene
without chance to redeem

A war was started
The Didact would win
but what would result
Except the death of his kin

The secret to victory
did die with his foe
as they explained
that he’d never know

Sleep he would
for many millenia
Til the sickness returned
A scourge in memoria

The shields were off limits
The swords were prepared
to wipe the slate clean
whilst filled with despair

Sleep once more
Til The covenant fell
and awake would he
To commence a new war

Hunger

My thought stops suddenly
My eyes expand
Pupils dialate
The pit is opened
It must be appeased
Stomach… Calm down. I’m almost done. I know you want food.
Stomach: I DEMAND SACRIFICES.
You’re such a melodramatic
Stomach: APPEASE ME. CEASE THESE SENSELESS REPETITIVE MOTIONS
Listen dude. Do you like cake?
STOMACH: I LOVE CAKE. IT IS FAVORITE SACRIFICE. OF THE CHEESE VARIETY
I know, that’s why I’m doing these repetitive motions. Now shut up and let me finish. Food will be made soon
stomach: NEVER
ugh.

Existential Debris

[Warning lights begin to flash] Captain what is it?!

It’s the proximity alarm! We’re approaching the existential debris field! Be wary of invasive thoughts!

But captain, what does it matter? Are we just a bundle of thoughts? Is that what a human is?

ENGINE ROOM FULL POWER STARBOARD!

The Edupocalypse. A short story

The Edupocalypse Part 1:

And there we sat all in our seats. It was the 5th week of second grade. Mr. McDonough looked a little more stressed than usual, we all had our ipads on our desks and were getting ready for our reading exercise when he decided it was time to see how well we were doing with writing our names.

“Ok Class, please take out your pencils for a quick test on writing your names on paper.”

and then the worst possible thing happened. Little Susie raised her hand, Susie never really paid attention and was always somewhere else during class.

“Mr. McDonough, what’s a pencil?”

I’ll never forget the look in his eye, it was as if someone lit a bonfire in his brain. What was our teacher was no more, he was replaced with something else. His posture straightened his face fell flat, and his eyes … his eyes burned with a fire behind the black holes that were now his pupils. He went to respond and instead walked to the wall turned off the lights and left. The next day is when the Pencils came. They started slowly at first but soon enough everything was impaled by pencils, cars, bicycles, tires, the unfortunate squirrel that crossed the high tension lines. That’s when the war began, 20 years ago with my friend Susie raising her hand. Someday they will run out of wood for their pencils but ’til then the war will rage on.


The initial Rain:

” The sunset was beautiful today, the sky was alight with reds, magentas, and yellows. These dreams come to me once in a while remembered from my youth. As I wandered down the road, cares melting from my body as the sun slipped below the horizon, I remember the confusion as I stepped and a black number two pencil bounded off the pavement and off of the side of my leg.
‘Tis odd’ I thought, as I was a child obsessed with old phrases, ‘there isn’t anyone nearby nor a car in the road. Where did this pencil come from?’ I learned that I didn’t want the answer.”


The Council:

“She didn’t know what a pencil was?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE CHILDREN?!”
the word children echoed around the domed conclave. Off of the glistening obsidian-esque ceilings to the blood red mahogany that formed the barriers to the outside world. The penultimate meeting had begun. Educators from around the world have gathered for this day, rumors had been spreading. ‘Had students really lost their way so badly? Did we need to reboot society to fix these problems?’ were some of the murmurs spreading around.
A Schwarzenegger-esque Austrian man approached the podium at the head of the ant colony like masses swarming the room.
“My students have begun skipping the physical fitness preparations. They claim that there is no need todue to the drugs coming out soon to keep them healthy! They lack the understanding of discipline and training for the uniting of body and mind! They refuse to reject their sloth laden attitudes.”
“YEAH!” chimed a serious of fitness gurus among the swarm.
Charging the podium came a short woman with an overwhelming presence. “A student in my class continues to refuse to fix her pencil posture, she balances it among her fingers like a drum stick of an off duty marching band member. She refuses to learn to write properly! She shows no respect to the tool! The pencil must be respected!”
More wails of agreement swept the room. As the small woman finished her speech it was as if a small pen light was turned on in the shadows far behind the podium. With each mention of the ‘pencil’ McDonough’s eyes brightened with a fervor not seen in decades. The man in the shadows straightened up as he approached the podium to bring the vote to the council. Before he arrived it was as if Athena herself had taken the podium.
“There must be a better way, we can teach them earlier, we can modify the preschools and kindergartens under cover of night. Not this, please not this”
He was only a few feet away when he withdrew the pencalibur. Sharpened to a point with pure graphene no wider than a few molecules. No one came to her defense, nor would anyone else have stood up to the beast that had been awoken with him had they objected…

Continue reading

Kernel Mods at Dawn

A drinking game for Sysadmins

We each run
“lsmod | cut -d ‘ ‘ -f 1 | shuf | head -n1 | xargs rmmod  ”

until one of our systems crash. For each mod successfully removed you take a drink.
I call it Sysadmin roulette.
Are you game?

A new Beginning and MORE LIVES (Well an ExtraLife)

Hey Spartans,
I know it has been a while But I have returned and boy do I have stories for you all of my travels
but business first: EXTRA LIFE 2011 Raise money for the children
Donate here if you like: goo.gl/wPCVs

I will be playing SWAT and Attempting SLASO (no blind)

so if the children’s hospitals aren’t worth it use it to dull the pain SLASO will inflict on my life

Streams will be posted tomorrow

USTREAM of the game
public google hangout for viewing me and chatting
GAME ON BROTHERS

~SPOSpartan104

again DONATE! 🙂

STREAMS : http://goo.gl/TSoHd ( game-ustream)
PEOPLE: http://t.co/HltHkXOW (Google Hangout)
Team info:The Sanctum
FurySamurai is Forza4’ing all day
and Britton will be experiencing the Trials of Drake’s Uncharted adventures.

Extra Life Update

8:23am

Laura: There’s someone behind me cleaning up my mess

8:08am

Laura: Those are chips… You’re a cat

7:20am

Halo 3 coop COMPLETE

Steve:RockBand

Pat,Fred,Laura: Reach Multiplayer

3:50am

4 Player halo 3 coop

3:20am

Fred “finsihes” ODST

Fred Starts RANKED GRIFBALL WEEKEND!:)

Red Team still on halo 2 ( the library)

11:55

Fred(Blue Team) Starts ODST
LCrim continues Reach
Red Team Starts Halo 2

11:40

Blue/Red Finish Halo 2: (Lcrim left, britton sub)
Farragher/LCrim:Reach matchmaking

10:30-ish
RedTeam: “finishes” ODST

8:05

Laura: You’re rascist!
Steve&Pat: Who?
Laura:You
Steve: Who you me?

6:54

Red Team starts ODST

Blue team continues Halo 2

5:50-ish

Halo 2 for blue team

Halo 1 still for red team

5:30

Blue Team Finishes Halo 1
Red Team 2nd to last level (Keyes)
Blue Team Sandwich break Then Halo 2

(Does this vaccuum have a home?)

Pat: It kinda fits, but you have to squeeze it

3:00PM Blue Team is on level 7 Red team still on Level 5

Fred: What would you put on an elevator this size?(library)

Laura: Donuts.

1:00pm

Pat: “Are we supposed to be sneaking in this level?’
Steve: “Haha no, have you noticed I’m in the turret?”

2 levels down for blue team 1.75 levels down for red team

BLUE TEAM REQUIRES ENERGY!

12:00PM

GIVE ME MONEYZ 😛

Halo Reach Complete in ~3hours

Now Halo 1.

🙂 ~SPOSpartan104

<24 hours until Halo marathon

and this is where we stop pulling punches. I am just under halfway to my goal. Our Team is doing awesomely, but why only do awesome when we can DO BETTER!
Therefore I am willing to offer a few incentives.
I will randomly pick 2 donors to the charity to receive 1 of 2 codes for xbox live each
The 2 codes I have are:

Castle Crashers
AND
A NOBLE 6 AVATAR HELMET CODE

But wait There’s more!

If I can hit or come close to my goal I will do something drastic.
The Beard will go away:

Oh The HUMANITY

Do you have it in you to donate money to help children’s hospitals?

Do you think you can win a prize?

Do you think I’ll shave the beard?

Find out during the webcast tomorrow on ustream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/spospartan104

~SPOSpartan104