fulgurant – amazingly impressive brilliance or skill

That would be the word to describe !phil. He seems to be good at whatever he does and that is something I admire. He is a fellow Web Developer and programmer, dare I say a hacker, with a strong personality and vast knowledge.

In my pursuit to build my first web pages he would break them and show me how to fix them. Any question I could throw his way he could answer and educate. His experience with programming, linux, and general curiosity have allowed him to accumulate a wealth of knowledge on all aspects of computers and technology. He was willing to help me despite his own schedule and surely busy life.

!phil has a gift with humor. He can make simple things funny, as evident from the articles on his website, quakephil. One of my daily reads that have made it to my blogroll.

However I did not meet !phil though forums, but rather through games. I played (and occasionally revisit) the ever famous Quakeworld (QW). It is in that arena that the name BogoJoker was born and also where I met !phil. He is a world famous QW player and supporter. He continues to support and represent the QW community in tournaments, websites, and development.

In the words of an old 06′ chat:

me: I should quote that in my blog
      maybe i will ;P.
      i’ll put u under “family” category. hehe

phil: if you want to confuse all 3 of your readers :)

So true… So true… ;)

Tonight was such a night. My brother Mike and sister Megan came together to play The Top 10 Game. It just so happens there is a running joke that I am horrible at this game because my first time playing I had some pretty ridiculous answers. The most memorable being my response to “What can parents not make their teenager children do?” was “Buy Stock.” So after that joke gets passed around enough we will eventually start the game.

The game started off easy enough with “What were the top 10 search engines of 2002.” Needless to say I got the most points that round and eventually 4 of the 7 rounds. Notable questions being “Top 10 US States with toxic releases,” “Top 10 Cool Reasons to Vacation at the North Pole” (a Pen 10 where unique and valid answers get you points), and “Top 10 US metro areas with the longest commuter travel” to which we replied, “What is metro?” Quite a few laughs but a fairly straightforward 7 rounds. I would say the most interesting response to the North Pole topic was Megan’s “to find Tupac,” which somehow earned her a point, or Mike’s worthy “Aurora Borealis.” My imagination failed me on this one but I did gain a point with “to test your cell phone.”

Ending the game was not as easy as it might sound. Being the top scorer for more then half of the rounds didn’t quite give me the edge, as I landed in the Winner’s Circle at the same time as Mike. The rules declared a face-off, but they did so in a remarkable way. The rules state:

The player closest to the age of 10 rolls the die, sets the timer, reads the question, starts the timer and players write their answers.

To many of you this would sound reasonable, but to those who look closer find that it is a little ridiculousness. You see, the game states “Ages: 13+” on the box and in the rules. So why not just say the youngest player? Of course the aim was to continue the trend of “10s” that make the game what it is, but lets be honest here…

Winners Circle… Tie… Showdown… Roll… Top Ten… “Top 10 Most Endangered and Threatened Species.” Keyword in that topic is species. I jokingly said, what like “mammals?” as Mike jotted down “bald eagle” and the like. I even scribbled “farm animals” as my final choice. The end result was embarrassing, answers included “mammals,” “reptiles” and “amphibians.” Just too general for us. However I did squeak by, grabbing 2 points and winning the showdown and possibly my first game of Top 10 ever?

All in all it was a fun night. We had our laughs and actually did not end with a fight, which is rather noteworthy. Until next time, I am the Winner!

Joe P