It really hacks me off when we were playing Team Fortress 2 in AREA51 that you have to use your Steam Community name in the game.

Like our gaming cafe of choice AREA51, many places run the Steam Cafe License Program (paying through the nose for the annual subscription it mind you - it aint cheap!!) which doesnt allow the locking of accounts to a Steam Community Profile.

I tried going to Console and typing name A51-Topper but that didnt work. Hat tip to Sam Kidd  for figuring it out.

All you need to do is :

• Open the console
• Type : setinfo name A51-Topper

Cant wait for Tuesday now that we'll know who we're killing! We'll keep seeing "A51-Topper headshot A51-Sarge (aka A51-Chuck).

BTW, if you dont already know, Tuesday is the weekly gaming LAN night at AREA51, kicking off at 7pm and lasting till late. FREE cinema passes to be given away and everybody is welcome.

We play Day Of Defeat : Source, Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike. We've also been known to scrap it out in Age of Empires 2 (The Daddy RTS) and Battlefield 2!

 Hat Tip: Chuck.

Our Course (roughly)

Some pictures

Things I Learned in American (this time)

1. Massachusetts drivers are absolutely shockingly dismally painfully useless aggressive drivers. You have to be bloody careful.
2. CVS, one of the major pharmacys has trucks all over the States that drive around looking for broken down motorists to help for free! Apparantly my mothers car broke down at a dangerous junction last year and one of these trucks appeared. No way would the guy take money. Philanthropy is alive and well in America and I am very impressed.
3. On-demand TV is both a godsend and a demon. I half-watched endless movies on all night programming stints. Not to mention I watched every Law and Order, CSI Someplace and NSIC they would feed me. I rarely watch TV - It is the domain of the mindless, but when it's on-demand with no ads and any program or movie you want is only 12 quick taps of a remote away, it can't be helped.
4. Dunkin donuts are yummy - I love those jam-bon things. I wasn't in the states an hour before I was stuffing my fat face with chocolate covered, custard filled donuts.
   
5. No wonders Americans are fat. The REALLY tasty fattening food is the cheapest. MASSIVE bags pf crisps (or chips as they call 'em) are only 99c. I love those cheetos. I think I put on a stone.
6. No no, it was the hot pockets. They are * watering at mouth just now * sooo tasty.
7. Americans have lottery card vending machines in bars! Hmmm
   
8. In a nightclub, the way a guy approachs a girl seems to be to dance/grind behind her. If she grind back, your in. It's kinda strange. And Americans don't seem to play tonsil-hockey in public, even in a nightclub.
9. Karaoke is hugely popular. You get a lot of singers up due to the high confidence level.
10. Even average players own their own pool queues which they bring to the pub on a night out!
11. Everybody drinks bud light. Everybody!
12. While I was there, I was watching the news one morning (after another all-nighter) and was amused to see a spot 5 minutes away on tv swarmed in reporters and helicopters. A maintenance guy at a beautiful and prominent cemetary in Fitchburg was arrested for stealing a skull from a grave. He was usng the skull as an ashtray and an arm bone as a tobacco (or something) pipe. I shit you not!
13. American street signs are bizzarre. One of my sisters friends went into hysterics when I asked what SchoolXING on a sign was all about? And there was BikeXING. "What the fuck is that"? It's obvious in hindsight. SchoolXING is "School Crossing" and BikeXING is "Bike Crossing". Would those extra 5 letters kill ye?
14. Great name for those tattoos girls like to put on their lower back - "Tramp Stamps". Haha.
15. Pool parties and burgers go togther like paedophiles and candy. Americans know how to make burgers! Yum.
    
16. Everything (and I mean everything) has buckets of sugar in it. I got a Mr freeze (you know what I mean Irish people) when it was sweltering to chomp on. It had so much sugar i it that it was sickening. I couldn't get that satisfying chomp sensation and I almost didn't eat it.
17. In Ireland I shop for "Large (L)" clothes. In the states I shop for "Medium (M)" clothes. Hmmm.
    
18. I didn't know this beforehand and you may not know. Since November last, all ATM cards now work perfectly worldwide without the need for Cirrus or whatever on the card. Handy.
19. We went to the blue man group - actually I did blog about that - and they are awesome. If your in Boston - go go go go go! What entertainment. Laugh till you cry. Unless your a miserable old battleaxe like the lady behind me who wouldn't pass forward the toilet roll...

• Initial Drinking
  Chilling out having a few drinks within signt of Edinbyrgh castle
• Dressing The Ogre Up
  Keith and Billy did a great job picking out a costume for The Ogre, aka Borris ,aka Adrian.
• The Munster Vs Edinburgh rugby match
  We were the only 12 supporters there for Munster. The Edinburgh mascot got me in a headlock. We went horse from singing. Beer was flowing. And one of the lads won £450 at half time! Oh, and the cheerleaders were hot.
• More Drinking, Bars & Nightclubs
  Oh yes, we did drink. Colin, who won the $450 spoilt the lot of us - cheers!
• Edinburgh Castle
  After a drink-inspired mutiny, only 3 of us got the tour and thereby, the history; we explored all the museums and thoroughly enjoyed the 3 hours escape from alcohol.
• More Drinking - hell, we're Irish, that's what we do.

toper \TOH-puhr\, noun:

One who drinks frequently or to excess.

Although he was no toper, God forbid, he took a glass of aquavit . . . .
-- Isaac Bashevis Singer, Reaches of Heaven

But there remains a core of bottom-line voters to whom the promise of tax cuts is as seductive as gin to a toper.
-- David Nyhan, "Tax cuts for all - wheee!", Boston Globe, January 21, 2000

You may walk around a bar with a big mug of beer . . . , but if you sloshed it all over a fellow toper, you'd pay the cleaning bill.
-- Randy Cohen, "At Random: Everyday Ethics", Chicago Tribune, June 10, 2003

Toper is formed from the verb tope, "to drink," originally an interjection used in proposing a toast, from French tope!, "agreed!" from toper, "to cover a stake in playing at dice, to accept an offer, to agree."

What are you trying to say sis?

• Lightning Pool

Excerpts from a Cat's Daily Diary....