Best Birthday EVAR!

So, Saturday was my belated birthday party, and it was phenomonal.

Kev organized the party at Game Rave, a local LAN club. We played Dawn of War and Team Fortress 2 for almost 12 delirious hours, laughter and profanity expounded in equal measure.

At some point during the evening we broke away, and were treated to a fantastic dinner of steak and pizza, courtesy my wonderful girlfriend, complete with a Darth Vader piñata and Transformers place-settings. Desert was cupcakes!

The owner of Game Rave was getting honest-to-God emotional about the whole experience, and was quite vocal about his pleasure. Being an old fan of games such as Counterstrike and Battlefield, he hates the fact that his business is populated primarily by WoW players. I think that the sounds of gunfire brought back memories of the glory days.

The TF2 gameplay was very interesting for me to observe. Most of the guys had never played it before, and at the beginning of the day my macked-out Engineer turrets reigned supreme. However, as the day went on, I watched them progress from confused plebians to men with a sense of direction that feared neither turrets nor snipers. Favored classes were picked, and strategies formed.

Some highlights of the evening:

• Getting my ass kicked in Dawn of War so hard that it's made me restart the Dark Crusade campaign.
  
• The many screams ilicited by TF2. For example:


• "Fucking turrets!"
  
• "What the fuck? Those turrets have missiles?! How is that fair!"
  
• "Two healers? Really? Is that really necessary?"
  
• "How did you know I was a spy? How?!"
  
• The epic 53-minute DoW game that concluded the evening.
  
• Shooting Kev square between the eyes with a Nerf dart that clung to his forehead for over an hour.

I'll have pictures up once I get them from my roomate.

This was probably the best birthday I've ever had. Thanks to everyone who made it possible!