Cold and nerdy

(Cheeky the tagged speaking)

After an epic battle with our furnace and the HVAC repair industry on Friday, Ross dragged me to Madison for the MidwestLAN19 party. The drive was easy, though we arrived a bit too late to attend a haunted house bus tour - boo!

The whole event is held in the Madison Marriott West, where we also had a room. Decent rooms, but no fridge or microwave, which resulted in warm beer and cold soup. The beer was expectedly terrible, though the soup – a Mulligatawny by Leah the Alchemist herself – was still amazing, even cold. (Ross has enough servings of soup frozen to enjoy one per week during Leah’s absence… she’s the best J)

Grub in Madison, WI!

What exactly is MWL19? Close your eyes and imagine a full sized banquet hall, with rows of tables wired up to make a massive computer network. OK, maybe not with your eyes closed, since you won’t be able to read this blog. Now, add in 500+ computer gamers from several states descending upon the unsuspecting city, their fancy custom-built computers and peripherals in tow. All of the computers interconnect into a weird quasi-connected, quasi-siloed mesh, allowing gamers inside the room to play their favorite games against others in the room, or with others out there on the WWW.

Ross was there with SGTSOB, StealthyGamer123, and Koz. A solid 60 hour block of gaming and nerdery ensued, only broken by physical necessities such as food and sleep. Teams around the room played games like Rocket League, Overwatch, CS:GO, PUBG, Quake: Champions, and our own throwback: Company of Heroes. You could always tell when someone made a good or bad play – the cheering, or smashing of keyboards, echoed throughout the hall.

BakerCo conquering Solitaire! (Note the amateur level neck beard!)

Some of these guys are SERIOUS about their gaming. We saw several semi-pro teams, donning jerseys, isolating themselves from the rest of the room by giant black curtains so no competitor could sneak a “cheat peek” at their monitors to see what they were up to. There’s some big money in competitive gaming, and we had some big names in there with us.

There was no money to be made at the Baker table! Our group participated in an Overwatch tournament, and while Koz and StealthyGamer123 put up a valiant fight, Ross… a level 5 fighter… was just cannon fodder to the opponents, some of which were level 900+ “grand masters” and in the top 500 fighters world-wide. Ross is honored to have been killed repeatedly by such legends! Overwatch is a great game, tons of strategy and skill involved, but playing it for the first time the day before a competition is not a recipe for success (Ross’ team-mates were still teaching him the basics of gameplay as the grand masters were charging them in combat – d’oh!)

Though they went home without trophies or accolades, everyone agrees that the weekend was a lot of fun! It’s great to see the nerd culture in full effect – a safe space for a bunch of guys (and a couple of gals) to hang out and do what they enjoy, not trying to be cool or impress anyone. Everyone is friendly, fun, and a treat to be around. Want in? Check out the BREW CITYBEATDOWN, coming up in a few weeks!

Uh-oh! Ross is done with dinner, and storming around ranting about flame sensors... I gotta run!!! Cheeky the tagged, signing out!

Fun at MWL19!

Stats:

Male/Female ratio at the LAN party: 24:1

Overall scent profile @ LAN party: Body Odor, Pizza, Mountain Dew

Uprights removed via fulcrum: 6

Furnaces fixed: 1

Moneys saved on furnace repairs: $500
Want to read the full rant? Click here!

Allow me to break the ice! This weekend got off to a rough start. I (Ross) took off work Friday to get a jump start on some fun activities out-of-town but ended up in a chilly situation. The past few days have been cold, so I decided to fire up the furnace to keep the house warm. However, the dang thing wouldn’t fire up… that’s not very nICE! (ICY what you did there!) After some poking and prodding, ruling out the obvious things, everything pointed to the control board. Heavy stuff, so I decided to call a pro. My local HVAC experts were willing to pay me a visit for a $90 diagnostic, which would NOT be applied toward the fix. If the diagnostics did indeed point to the board, they had one in stock, for $330 plus install. Total would start around $600 for this work. Yikes! Well, I didn’t want the pipes to burst, so I had no choice… or did I?? Time to kick some ICE!! This same board is available online for $110 via AMAZON (200% markup for parts alone? Not COOL.) Unfortunately I needed it today, so I called numerous local parts shops (none had it) and HVAC specialists (none would sell me one because I probably had the wrong part number, and it’s too difficult/dangerous for a consumer to install.) FINALLY, I found one sucker (ahem) that agreed to sell me one, for $200. SOLD! Per the manufacturer manual in the box, this baby is a “drop in universal replacement” that mounts via four push rivets, and has a dozen wires that hook up – most of them color coded or keyed so they only go in one way. (A modern PC motherboard makes this look like child’s play.) I tossed on my best flame retardant underwear and got to work. Twenty minutes later, I was basking in the glorious heat of a fully operational furnace. Ahh, so comfy… there’s SNOW place like home!

No more Mr. ICE Guy! Dear HVAC industry: 1) Stop gatekeeping: I understand, there’s plenty of dumb people around that would be better off calling in a pro, but at least hear us out - some people may be DIY worthy (If I can DIY my own brake pads, or trim my trees with a chainsaw, I can damn-tootin plug in some color coded wires.) 2) Stop taking advantage of people: you would’ve charged me $600 for what should have been $200, because I was up against the wall. Dick move. Be fair, charge $200 or even $300, and you would’ve had a customer. Instead, I had to waste a bunch of time finding a hole in your collective barricade. 3) Nice try, but you’re not sending ME to the cooler! Buahahaha! Oh, and also, it wouldn’t fire up because this pesky “gas cutoff valve” kept closing. How annoying! I propped it open with a screwdriver and we’re all good. See? Easy, cheap fixes. Come on guys!