Traveling Back to the Past to Save the Future!

I was using my blog this morning as a leaping off point for a few news links to read up on what has been happening out there in on The Internets. (Just did a quick check to see if www.theinternets.com was registered; because if it wasn't I was gonna be all over that. Nothing at the URL but it is registered.)

I realized that I hadn't posted anything in a while. Problem is I haven't really been doing much. I went bowling last weekend, but... really... bowling! Not very exciting. I had a date the weekend before, but she turned out to be a blithering racist pinhead and that's really all I want to say about that.

I thought to myself that what I really needed something to complain about. I'm not really happy unless I'm complaining about something; at least that's what my mother has been telling me for years.

While I am thinking all this, unbeknown to me, Rowan is on Moby Games looking through some Lands of Lore II screen shots. Which leads him to my profile and in turn to my "additional pictures" page where he finds the lovely and embarrassing picture to the left. I just want to say that Oakley Razorblades were very much in style at the time. I remember the picture, it was cut from a team picture for BattleTech II: The Crescent Hawk's Revenge taken out in front of Westwood's building on Sprint Mountain Road circa 1991.

I actually have two cool stories about that picture. The first one was that I used to hang out on a pre-internet, multi-user dial up BBS called Multi-Comm. It was a very social group on the board and we used to meet every Saturday at Bob Baskin Park in the summer and at Shakey's Pizza in the winter (until they threw us out). At one of these gatherings one of the younger kigs had the Battletech II manual which was a big blue print and stat book of all the mechs. At the end of the night I asked him what he was looking at and he excitedly started telling me about the game. I flipped through the manual to the picture at the back, said something clever which escapes me now (and probably wasn't really all that clever - but who am I to let the facts ruin a good story) and handed it back to him.

Now you are thinking, "What an ass! Did you offer to autograph it for him or something you loser?"

No I didn't. But years later after Westwood was shut down I flew up to Seattle to interview for a job a Ubisoft with Tony Van. It just so happen that somebody had sent him their copy of the BattleTech II manual asking him to autograph his picture and that lucky guy also got my autograph as well.

Back to the point, none of that is what I have to complain about. Not even the fact that Rowan decided to send the picture to the entire Perth Interzone office. Note that he didn't just the link it, but actually attached the picture to the email itself. No, not even that. It was what happened once one of the artist, Darren, got a hold of it. I had walked over to the other building with the vending machines and found the picture below taped to the front door of the office when I walked back in.

Excellent work Darren, just know - both you and Rowan - that vengeance will be mine! Further investigation leads me to also blame Christian Klein aka Lightnight for posting the picture on Moby Games. I think I'll try to email Christian and show him what he has wrought. I just love using the word 'wrought' in a sentence.

(It is pretty cool picture though...)