These are mostly from events in which I didn’t have the Camera, can’t remember the event or only took a few pics.
Random Markland Pictures
Feb 8
I’m going to make this somewhat short and sweet. The Islanders success last month is now a double edged sword. People were/are unwilling to admit that this was an over achieving team. Short memory also means that most people forget how bad this season started off in September/October. I’m not worried, if the team is going to get cold then its better to get cold in February then in April. Just ask last year’s Penguins how that works.
But people seem to be really down on Scott Gordon. I just wanted to say at the very least he deserves one more year if not two. First off, you can throw last year’s team away. Not only was it his first season, but everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I still wonder why on earth Dubie wasn’t brought back as a backup. This season the Islanders have been impressive for large periods of time, especially for a team that was considered by many to be the worst in the league. The other bright spot for the Islanders this year? The continued development of prized prospects Bailey, Okposo, Tavares along with the breaking out of Schremp and Moulson. Also factor in two players were considered marginal NHL replacements, MacDonald and Kohn, have played well enough to displace Witt. You memory doesn’t have to be that good to remember 10-15 years ago and all our prospects who did horrible on the Island and great elsewhere.
Another reason to keep Gordon is stability. I say the same thing about the Jets, during the time I’ve been a Jets fan it seems like every 3-4 years we get a new coach. Meanwhile the Giants have been to two Super Bowls and a contender while only hiring 3 coaches during the same period. There’s something to be said of having a coach for more then just two seasons. I think recent Islander history shows so much.
From 1972 to 1994 (22 years) the Islanders won 4 Stanley Cups, made it to Five Finals and over 200 Playoff Games (128 Playoff Wins) with 5 Coaches including Al Arbour Twice.
From 1994 to 2010 (16 years) the Islanders have made the playoffs 4 Times, played a total of 22 Playoff games and 6 Playoff wins. They also have not made it out of the first round. During this time they have had 12 coaching changes (not including Arbour’s special game) with Lorne Henning and Mike Milbury each having two separate stints.
Gordon was the coach picked by Snow. So far they seem to be working well together. Snows free agent signings seem to be players who will work the best in Gordon’s system. If you get rid of Gordon now your upsetting the chemistry, possibly upsetting the youth, and worst of all you might be starting from scratch. If you bring in someone and they want players A,B and C, suddenly its a whole new game plan. Quite truthfully as long as the young players continue showing improvement this is going to be a good team and Gordon is a success.
So give Gordon one more year. Let’s see if the youth keeps developing. Let’s see if DiPietro can return to old form. Let’s see if Snow can get another Moulson/Streit/Schremp level pickup in the offseason. When Milbury was in charge during his first few years there was always signs of insanity lurking in the background. I have faith in Snow which I didn’t before this season. I think Gordon’s the right guy for what Snow is planing, and stability when it comes to coaching is a good thing.
I’ve been having awful luck my last few games of Here I Stand. I just realized that I haven’t won a game since late October. Some of those are due to games ending early. But my bad luck in the last three games is starting to reach epic levels. We’ve been testing out lately doing 5 player with Haps/Pope instead of Eng/Prot. I’m just going to run down the last turn of all three games.
Game 1
Prot/Five Player
I spent most of the turn floating around 21/22 VPs while holding Copernicus (A card that if played as an event gives +2 VP). Fortunately for me due to a lot of building, the Pope was closer to winning. He even got up to 25 VPs during the turn. The Pope played Papal Bull removing Calvin, debating in France with Campeggerio. The Pope wins the first debate only by 1. I flipped my German debaters with lower ratings. I then targeted Campeggerio as the Pope hadn’t flipped any other debaters. I win the Debate 3-1 but Campeggerio’s special ability cancels the debate win. I go back and forth a bit with publishing treatises to counter burning books. Campeggerio is still the only committed Debater,so I try again. I win the Debate 5-1. This would have disgraced Campeggerio giving me two vps and flipping four spaces. But once again Campeggerio’s special ability struck and canceled the debate win. This was actually the third time that game in which a debate had been cancelled.
In the end we didn’t finish the game, but I was at 21 or 20 VPs and without enough cards to get me up to the 23 I needed to win. This was just about the first time I had ever seen Campeggiro’s ability have an effect on the game this big.
Game 2
Ottoman/Six Player
I took over for the Ottoman player who was new. For some reason despite being at war with the Haps, most of his forces were in the Coron area. He had just finished conquering Malta and Messina. This actually hurt his cause since pirating in Ionian Sea against the Haps faced only 1 port (meaning 2 dice max for Pirating with Barbarossa). The Ottos were also dead last in the game at this time. Through a liberal use of the Otto Home Card and other powers attacking the Haps I was able to turn things around. I rolled back the Haps to Vienna and slowly started pirating. Finally the Haps player, upset at the English for using Eight Wives against him sent Charles to Antwerp and built up there. I took Vienna and Prague, despite being the target of both Foreign War cards that turn. My final last chance at Pirating gave me the 1 VP I needed to get to 25.
Unfortunately the Haps weren’t able to make any headway against the English. With 22 VPs the English had sent out an Explorer and Conquistador. The Amazon River and one of the 2 VP Conquests. Amazingly the English successfully hit both, giving them 26 VPs and they had the tiebreaker from the previous Turn.
Game 3
Prot/Five Player
On my first turn I picked up Printing Press from the Discard and saved another five op card. The next turn I saved them both again, while getting both German and French New Testaments One op from completion. Using Printing Press and the rest of my cards I was able to finish both New Testaments and the German Bible to convert almost all of Germany and a large portion of Northern France.
On the last turn I finished off the French Bible while the Pope kept losing debates. The French had attacked the Haps at Metz and Antwerp. This left Paris and the surrounding area devoid of troops. The Pope wasn’t able to successfully burn books and I even began converting northern England (and the Scots). At this point I was at 26 VPs and even after the English gave a card to the Pope, they weren’t able to push me back down.
Meanwhile though during turn one the Haps had used Diplo Marriage on Hungary. The Ottos captured Belgrade twice but weren’t able to hold it. Even with the lose of Metz and Antwerp the Haps were at 11 Keys. Once the French used his last card, Charles used Holy Roman Emperor to move to Navarre. He then moved the Duke of Alva with 7 Sps and combined him with the 4 Sps in Navarre. Charles crushed the Eng/France army in Bordeaux, then quickly marched on Lyon. Without the French being able to react the Haps took Lyon and marched on Marseilles. The last hope was that the Ottoman fleet could destroy the Hapsburgs and not allow an assualt. The battle ended up being a 5-5 tie, giving the win to the Haps. A desperation assualt on Belgrade only killed 3 of the 4 Sps, while the assualt on Marseilles was successful giving the Haps an auto victory before the end of the turn.
So that’s been my last three games. I’ve been just banging my head into my desk as I’ve watched three victories slip away with nothing I could really do about it. The worst by far is the English win depriving me of an Otto win. As the chances of the English getting both a 2VP Conquest and 2VP Explorer on the same turn are hugely against them. Right about now I’m due for some luck to go my way.
But I did come with some good news. I finally won a game. It was a Three player as France/Ottoman.
On the final turn I SD’ed 20 SPs to Belgrade. Using Andrea Doria I flipped Agram, moved a single SP to Mohacs. Then I moved 16SPs to Szeged, flipped it and attacked Buda. I won 5-4 but I was now down to 12 SPs to Vienna’s 17. Charles (with Ferd) went to move on Presburg but I gouted Charles as Otto. As France I played Cloth Prices to force a discard (Haps lost Surprise Attack) and add Unrest to Graz and Trieste. As Otto I then played Zapolya giving me 4 more SPs in Buda for 16 total. Haps decided not to move on Buda and instead massed fleets in the Barbary Coast. The English player used Haley’s Comet to force a discard from the Pope, causing him to lose City States Rebel. Then as the French I played Unsanitary Camp on Vienna, knocking that stack down to 11 SPs. The Prot player sees that Tetzel is the only committed Papal Debater and uses Tetzel’s special ability to flip him. This puts Vienna and Linz both in Unrest along with Graz and Trieste.
I probably missed a turn in describing that. But right now as the French I’m holding Treachery after using Diplo Overture to give the Ottos Aquabustes. The Ottos have a single 3 Ops card left and two 1 ops left (Aqua and Landschnecks) So I have just enough to flip Pressburg and get to Vienna. The Haps have either 5 or 6 cards left at this point.
I use my 3 Ops to move on Pressburg, only for the Haps to play foul weather on me. I have 2 ops left, and now I know I can’t get to Vienna. Looking at what I can do I decide to move my one SP from Mohacs to Graz just to be a nuisance and flip it. The Haps decide to intercept and are successful using their whole stack (9 regulars, 2 Mercs, Charles & Ferd). I play Landschnecks, leaving them with just 9 regulars. So Haps are rolling 12 dice against my 1 dice. Haps miss on every single dice and I roll a 6 on my one dice for a 1-0 victory.
The Haps have no retreat path due to unrest, so their 8 remaining sps are destroyed and Charles & Ferd are captured by the 1 SP. When I let everyone know that I also have Treachery as France we decide to end the game. No one could believe what had happened, and a few more people had shown up so we could start a six player game.
So I finally got some luck my way and ended my streak of insanely bad luck. Apologies for the mis-spellings, I tend to always spell the names of a few cards/places in the game wrong.
Total War League: Week 3
Feb 1
Week 3 Results
Division 1
The Germans defeated the Romans. The Germans deployed 754 men to the Romans 479. The Romans killed 452 men to 427 men , but there were just too many Germans.
The Greeks defeated the Romans. The Greeks deployed 429 men to Carthage’s 320. The Greeks killed 247 men to Carthage’s 175.
Faction Wins Loss Deployed Kills
Germans 3 0 1951 1136
Greek 2 1 2014 984
Rome 1 2 2229 838
Carthage 0 3 965 675
Division 2
Brittania defeated the Gauls. The Gauls deployed 446 men to the Brit’s 634. The Brit’s killed 441 men to the Gauls 119 men.
Seleucid defeated Egypt. The Seleucids deployed 745 men to Egypts 697. The Seleucids killed 663 men to Egpyts 457.
Faction Win Loss Deployed Kills
Britannia 3 0 1732 1287
Seleucid 1 0 745 663
Parthia 1 1 1367 653
Egypt 1 2 2006 1336
Gaul 0 3 1553 784
Next up for Division One is Rome Vs Greek, Carthage Vs Germans.
Next up for Division Two is Gaul Vs Seleucid, Egypt Vs Parthia.
Three Years in a Row?
Feb 1
(Just a note, I wrote this for another blog before the Jets loss to the Colts. I still think without the injuries we would have won.)
For the last two years, an underdog team not expected to get out of the wildcard round has gotten to the Super Bowl. Two years ago it was the Giants. Last year it was the Cardinals. Can the Jets be the third straight wildcard team to beat all the odds and make it to the Super Bowl?
Most of us remember two years ago. Who can forget the Patriots 16-0 season? They steamrolled just about everyone in their way to one of the greatest regular seasons of all time. The Giants were an up and down team, Eli Manning was getting booed. Their retired star running back, Tiki Barber, claimed that the team lacked leadership. Tom Coughlin was under fire to get anything done, and just to make sure he knew he was on the chopping block the team replaced his OC and DC with their picks. Going into the playoffs after a close loss (two late Eli interceptions sealed the game) to the Patriots, the Giants were underdogs against the NFC South Winning Buccaneers. Yet they came out and after a week first half stomped them into the ground. Then against the heavily favored Cowboys, the defense stepped up and intercepted Romo on the last drive of the game in the endzone to seal a victory. Finally playing in Lambeau in what was the third coldest game in NFL history, another interception in OT lead to the longest visitors field goal in Lambeau History at 47 yards. Finally, a rematch with the Patriots. Extreme underdogs, Patriots QB Brady laughed when Burress predicted they would only score 17 points. In the end its considered one of the biggest Super Bowl upsets of all time as the Giants won.
Last year, the Cardinals found themselves ridiculed. Losing three straight after clinching their division, they were considerable underdogs to the Atlanta Falcons in the opening round. Yet the Arizona offense came alive, and the defense played on a level they hadn’t reached all season. In upset after upset long suffering Arizona took out the heavily favored Falcons, Panthers and Eagles to make their way to the Super Bowl. The victory over the Eagles in Philadelphia was even more stunning since the Eagles had stomped the Cardinals and put 52 points on the board earlier in the season. The defense though managed to force twelve turnovers in three playoff games and were a bit of the unsung heroes in the run. Although underdogs once again to the Steelers, some questionable officiating in the Super Bowl ended up doing the Cardinals in, but the game was far closer then anyone had predicted.
This year the Jets went into the playoffs questionably. Their rookie coach Rex Ryan had already proclaimed them out of the playoffs. If not for the Colts surrendering a perfect season, and the Bengals possibly not giving everything they had in the final mostly meaningless game for them, the Jets would have been on the outside looking in when it came to the playoffs. Yet some crazy math and some extreme luck found the Jets at 9-7 and inside the nice warm comfy playoff bubble. All the overpaid talking heads gathered around and proclaimed that the Jets didn’t deserve it. That they didn’t earn the playoff spot, and that the Bengals playing their full game would take care of the upstarts. Yet it was the Jets who came out firing on all cylinders and made the Bengals look like pretenders. Again underdogs against the “Too Many Weapons” Chargers, everyone predicted a beat down for the Jets and their Rookie QB and Coach. It seemed almost destined to happen as every home team won their game leading up to the Jets at Chargers. Yet the Jets came out and played a masterpiece of a game defensively, and the ground and pound of the Jets finally put it away. So now, once again for a third year in a row you have an underdog facing a huge favorite at home. Someone that shouldn’t be there against someone that’s always there.
So what does the future hold? To see the future, one must only look into the past. A Colts team with an in his prime Marvin Harrison, Edgerrin James, a younger Reggie Wayne and Peyton Manning facing off against the Chad Pennington (His first Playoff appearance) led Jets. It was supposed to be a walk in the park for Manning and the Colts. Manning finished the season with 4,200 yards passing, 27 passing TDs. Harrison was coming off a career best year in Catches and Yards. Although not one of his better years, James was still one of the best and brightest young RBs and a threat all over the field. In his second season, Wayne was making his way up the Depth chart and had doubled his rookie output. With all this on the field the Jets couldn’t stand a chance against the Colts. At the end of the day the score was 41-0, as Chad Pennington in his first playoff appearance led the Jets to one of their finest victories since the 99 Playoffs.
And now, with the best running game in the league, the best defense in the league, one of the hottest up and coming rookie RBs in Shohn Greene, we face the Colts. Peyton Manning and Reggie Wayne are older and wiser. But Revis has already shut down everyone that’s come his way. Addai is no Edge in his prime. History seems primed to repeat itself one more time. There’s just one more hurdle that needs to be jumped, one more upset that everyone in Jet Nation is just licking their lips over. Forty One years is a long time. That’s thirteen more years then I’ve been alive. Since I’ve been born this is only the third AFC Championship game the Jets have gotten to. One a decade it seems. Unlike the Eagles, Cowboys, Colts or Steelers this isn’t something that’s automatic next season or even the year after. Now’s the time, just one more upset to go.
Is anyone really surprised the divorce rate is as high as it is? Just look on TV or any movie you might watch and take a second look at it. All you ever see 99% of the time are relationships which overcome everyone and the partners are soul mates. Just being with them is bliss, and nothing could go wrong in life as long as they are together.
Not saying its total horseshit and maybe you do find that soul mate. But the chances of it really happening are about next to nothing. Instead of looking at a relationship as a plus in life, people look for a relationship to solve all their ills in life. Your going to be the knight in shining armor that saves me from my miserable life. Yet we are all human, we are all flawed. There are going to be ups and downs, highs and lows. Sometimes people will grow up and change. There is nothing in this world that will cure all your ills. Not money, not fame, nothing. With all the money you could ever imagine, if you were unhappy you will once again find yourself unhappy just with money.
People date, get married, then find that nothing in life has changed. Suddenly a fight or a few fights and your even lower then you were in the past. Its no longer about the ups and downs of life, a roller coaster, but that instant gratification. Once you get that instant gratification the cycle starts over. Not saying that people should stay together no matter what, but take your time. Your not going to be the same person when your 20 when your 30.
Everything in life, has its ups and downs. Some days are going to be good, some days bad. That’s life, take it or leave it. Your not going to see that in some movie or some tv show. The ones who come closest without being anywhere near usually end up with rewards. No relationship is going to take your life from bad to good. Your going to be expecting too much from a single human being. Putting that stress on someone is just asking for trouble.
I’ve been in that situation. I was working a full time (and then some) job at a junkyard. My gf at the time was off. I’d come home and take 2 hours to take off my boots because I was so exhausted. She’d want me to entertain her and then she’d usually end up spending all my money. In the back of my mind I thought that no one else would ever love me or care about me. It ended up being a mistake of huge proportions in my life. I lost basically three years of my life on what was a lost cause. Not only was I unhappy, but everyday became more and more of a struggle to do my work and try to somehow keep her happy. I checked in on her once, six years later. She still doesn’t have a job, still lives at home and I could only imagine how she’s torturing her current boyfriend who apparently lives not far from me. Someone who knew her told me “I’m sorry” when they found out I dated her for a bit.
But what have I done? I’ve made the same mistakes time and time again in my life. Maybe I could have be in a relationship that’s a few years old now. Instead I always go for instant gratification and never learn. Time and time again I’ve gone for someone that has somehow managed to make my life worse then it already was. I just always shut off the logical part of my mind and any warnings I hear that say this is bad. You should always at the very least trust your own warnings, and definitely listen to friends. I guess in the end when it comes to that type of stuff I just haven’t evolved. I’m still the 16-17 year old kid without a boyfriend and something like 15-20 rejections. But then again I also say I’m just a grown up kid in a lot of ways. Maybe thats another.
I promise, tomorrow I get back to something a little more interesting.
The Lazy Link Post
Jan 30
Everyone has them anyway, so whats the difference. I’m tired and exhausted from a long day so here’s random entertainment.
A few weeks ago I openly mocked Jimmy Wales appeal for donations. Now Wikileaks needs some donations for support. Since they actually do good and its one of the last bastions of investigative reporting, I recommend you help them out if possible.
Today I was in Suburban station in Philly for a bit and caught this Sax player.
I love companies that say one thing but do another until they are busted for it. AT&T which has a 100% rating with the Human Rights Campaign refused FMLA leave for a gay man to take care of his partner. Then changed their mind the next day but haven’t informed him yet.
My friend Diaphoni has started working on Cosmetics (it’s a good thing Google can’t tell me how many females actually visit here, my guess is almost null) and has a facebook group to keep people in the loop. She’s gotten lots of positive feedback so swing by and get in on Metamorphosis Cosmetics.
There’s another facebook group to save Glen Sather from being fired by the Rangers. I’m all for this.
I also updated the wargameroom.com walkthrough with the mac and vista fixes.
Currently due to the downtime all images were lost. I am working on replacing them. Also removed the Markland posts that were all pictures.
Finally I wanted to promote one of my favorite sites, Radical Jack. I just got a great Trotsky Poster, a Fidel style cap and an IWW 2010 Calendar. All were incredible quality that couldn’t be beat.
I Taunted Rudy
Jan 29
If there’s one guy I can’t stand, its Rudolph Guiliani. The guy was a mini-dictator whose popularity was near nothing. The ACLU took him to court over First Amendment violations thirteen times. He cleaned up Times Square by giving everyone that moved in huge tax breaks which hurt the city more in the long run. Under Rudy the police acted as though they had a free reign to do whatever they wanted and they did just that. Worst of all, when people asked him about the possible effects of moving NYC’s emergency response center to the 11th Floor of one of the Twin Towers he laughed off the idea that anything could bring them down.
Unfortunately Rudy Guiliani is remembered as a Hero for his “actions” on 9/11. The reality of the situation is two fold. First off by rushing towards the Towers everyone lost contact with him when they collapsed (especially since they believed he was in the ERC) and secondly Rudy Washington did most of the real work. But since Bush was being shuttled from place to place and pretending that Air Force One (The Most Expensive plane on the Planet) was a possible target the Conservative media picked up on Rudy’s Heroics. Not only was everything Rudy Washington did totally ignored, but Washington ended up having to sue the city and litigate for a few years to get his medical expenses (caused by his activity in the area of the towers) paid off by the city.
To say I have a certain disdain for Guiliani would be saying it lightly. Another interesting move was when he began enforcing the fireworks ban for “safety reasons”. He invited the city to come down and view the fireworks show that the city put on for the Fourth of July. Then he signed a contract so only a single vendor could sell food/drinks at the fireworks show and used the cops to clear out the normal vendors from anywhere near the display.
In 1999 I was helping John Solazzo try to beat the brain dead Jim Oddo. I’m still shocked we lost that election, if anyone had actually bothered to read any of Oddo’s flyers he never would have won. During that time I walked across a ton of Staten Island and plastered flyers everywhere possible. My favorite was the day we handed out flyers for the Columbus Parade in New Dorp.
Now they must have pulled a few strings to get Rudy there, but he was only there for ten minutes tops. All he did was say hello from the platform hob knob with the important locals and head back to his limo. I could tell where his limo was, it was surrounded by bodyguards, and I headed off in that direction. When Rudy came down from the platform and far enough from the crowd that he could hear me, I started yelling at him. First it was “Leave the Museums alone, Protect Free Speech” a few times with some “Adolf Guiliani” and “Your a facist” mixed in so he knew I meant him. Then I stroke gold. As he went to enter his limo the guy dressed up as Christopher Columbus for the parade stopped him for a picture. As I continued yelling at him as loud as possible, the look on his face as he tried to fake a smile was incredible. Even more so was the look he shot me right after the picture was taken and before he ducked into the limo.
Meanwhile my friend who was helping me was waiting for me to get maimed by a mob of angry people. At the time despite all the craziness that Rudy was pulling, the people of Staten Island loved him. They always loved him and never stopped for some reason. When I look back, Rudy at that time was hated across the City. A quick stop in Staten Island must have been a little bit of heaven for him. The people cheered him and smiled when they saw him. To have me yelling at him hopefully ruined at least one day of his.
RIP Howard Zinn
Jan 27
Just wanted to pay my respects to the passing of a great man. Howard Zinn, after fighting in WW2, went on to be an activist for peace and civil rights. He is most known for writing “A People’s History of the United States” which he wrote to given an alternate view to the average history textbook. I only heard of him within the last two years, but I greatly enjoyed reading his book and watching his speeches.
This only begs the question, who one day will replace the Zinns and Chomskys in the future for the left. Who else will hold up the torch for logic and forward movement. Although his passing leaves a hole, let us hope that others will step up and continue his work and dreams.
The Jersey Shore
Jan 26
I love telling stories when I get the chance. These are a few from a friend of mine that used to rent a place for two weeks with some friends down the shore. I think he might have rented in Bellmawr or something that sounded like Belmar, but it wasn’t Belmar.
Anyway, this town would have a whole bunch of laws they only enforced during the summer. The Towns budget actually included money made from fining the summer renters. The place he rented was actually half an address, as there was another house in front, his place was in the backyard. The place in front of him had 18 people renting it and they were insane. They were always fighting with the town, so they were always doing crazy stuff. Everyday at 6AM (town noise ordinance wasn’t in effect after 6AM) they would play Led Zeppelin as loud as possible and ride a motorcycle up and down their steps for a half hour.
One day my friend was walking back to his place and a TV crashed about a foot in front of him. It was thrown out a second story window. He found out that two guys were arguing about what to watch. The guy with the remote wouldn’t change the channel so the other guy after trying for five minutes to get him to change it gave up. He got up, grabbed the TV, hurled it out the window and said “Now watch the TV!”. Another time he was heading back to his place and a guy grabbed him. They needed him to take pictures. Their girlfriend had just broken up with them and she stayed across the street from them. When they were all out they broke into the place. They grabbed her camera and began taking pictures of the guys asses with the toothbrushes in horrible places. He didn’t hear anything about it till next week when there was a scream and the guys ex girlfriend had a bunch of pictures in her hand slamming on the door of the front house.
The cops were always giving them trouble. It was illegal to drink off of your property. So if you stepped onto the sidewalk or the street in front of your place with a drink in hand they would ticket you. One of the guys decided to dance back and forth between his front lawn and his lawn on the other side of the sidewalk while a cop was around. He did it for a good five minutes before the cop gave him a ticket for harassing a police officer. They also made it illegal to play any sports on the streets during the summer. They would throw a football back and forth between two streets over the houses. When the cops would show up they would shove the ball into a mailbox.
One day, they had a giant slingshot setup in the backyard with a bucket of water balloons. After testing it out with a few shots, they took aim at where they knew where the cops usually had lunch. Since it was summer, everyone ate outside. They took the whole bucket, loaded it up and let it go. Water balloons and bucket took off in the air towards the target. About three minutes later they heard the sirens going off and everyone scattered.
A few years later he was standing around at an outside bar when he heard a familiar sound. He tells his friend to duck and the both do. Seconds later they start hearing a bunch of thuds. Someone was launching water balloons from the same type of slingshot. One guy at the bar got nailed right in the back of the head while taking a drink and lost two teeth.
The worst was that they rented the same place for years, and never got their deposit back. They had some cranky old lady as a landlord and she would always find the smallest excuse not to return the deposit. Since she was local, and they weren’t the courts would have decided against them so they never fought it.
