Books 11-9-6

I've been reading an amalgum of books lately, mostly ones I've already mentioned. I'm gearing up to get ready to submit some dissertation outlines for application to Ph.D. programs.
     Philip of France was inland with his army. When word of the disasterous defeat reached the court, his officers and ministers did not relish the task of telling the king. His temper was like tinder, and no one wanted to be the first to bear the brunt of it. Then someone had the happy thought of sending the court jester in with the news.
The wearer of the the cap and bells undertook the task and entered the royal presence in a state of apparent indignation.
     "Majesty!" he cried. "These cowards of English! These dastards! These fainhearted sons of sheep!"
     "What has come over the fool?" asked the king, looking about him in surprise.
     "Majesty!" exclaimed the jester. "They would not jump off their ships into the water as our brave Frenchmen did!"
The Three Edwards by Thomas B. Costain, 321-322

Armagetron

A friend and coworker launched me into Armagetron. Well, into a computer game version of lightcycles, from the fabulous 1982 film Tron. The game is freeware, available for download from Sourceforge. It's an adrenalin rush to play. Teamplay with friends is completely awesome!

Goldeneye: Source

With CounterStrike: Source, comes the ability to create some amazing modifications to the game. Modding first person shooters has been happening for a long time (e.g. mapeditor for Wolfenstein 3D), and some of the best games of the past are being ported to the playability of the future. To wit, there is a modding community dedicated to bringing Goldeneye to the Halflife 2 game engine. Which hopefully will makes its way onto the new server.

CounterStrike: Source

I've been playing a bit of CS:Source of late. It's the standard first person shooter. The graphics are decent, and the gameplay interaction is good. There are alot of options to make the game fun and exciting. Several of my Boise friends play, and so we are in the process of setting up our own server.

Secesh Hot Springs

Third time's the charm with the Search for the Secesh Hot Springs. Nestled deep in the mountains of Idaho, high on a secluded mountainside, these springs are rarely visited. In fact, they are snowed in for almost half the year. The hike is a four mile trip downstream from a backwoods trailhead, over rocky, meandering hiking paths. Then you get to ford the Secesh river, which is painfully cold. Next you have to scale the mountainside up to the springs. Though the reward is a pool with a very nice view!

Secesh Excursion 2

The GPS coordinates were bogus! That's the conclusion we arrived at after marching up and down the hillside for a few hours. Yesterday was consumed with another attempt at finding the missing hot springs. This time we had a GPS and mountain bikes to facilitate easier access. Though the trail was a little rough for the mountain bikes, especially coming back in light of a full moon. We have alot more information now, inculding alias names of the missing hot springs, so perhaps our next encounter will be more relaxing.

Secesh Excursion

Went trekking for a Hot Springs yesterday. This one is in the hard to get to classification. It's called Secesh Hot Springs. It was a long hike into the area where the springs are supposed to be. My directions were a bit scarce, as a result I ended up scaling the wrong hill. Perhaps I should have checked the coordinates in a topographical map. I've checked there before, but didn't this time. It was a nice march, though now my feet are a bit sore.