Dragon and I have been talking the past few nights about getting people together for Halo on Live regularly. At first we were just talking about getting people from high school on Live. Unfortunately, only Dragon, Raymond and I have an Xbox or Xbox 360 with a Live account.

We started musing about how cool it would be to get together on Live on a daily, semi-daily, whatever, basis and relive the old days of our laid-back, but still intense, sessions of Halo in my guestroom. Matchmaking and online play will never be able to recreate the experience of playing alongside real people..I have so many amazing memories of our high school LAN games and the dorm LAN games that brought everyone into Baret and I's room. It didn't matter if you were good or if you sucked, it was just, to put it bluntly, FUCKING FUN. I've also had a ton of fun playing with Jas and Jess in the past year..Honkey Tonk says it all I think.

I've only got a year to a year and a half left here, and I really want to have fun. Beer, parties, etc..while I've dabbled only mildly in both, it just doesn't do it for me. What did do it for me was playing Super Smash Bros. with Randally and Rusty..or Super Mario Kart with Rusty, Angel, and Baret..or Halo 1 and 2 with everyone on the fucking floor.

I want to game with friends more often..friends from high school and friends from 12E. I'm aware this sounds incredibly fucking lame to most, but playing video games with people in a social setting has given me some of my fondest and funniest memories. This next semester I'd like to LAN it up more often. Quinn, Baret and I hosted a few LAN parties this past semester, but I think we could've made it more regular if we'd wanted to.

Now that Randall, Rusty, and possibly Angel, are back, three people who I've enjoyed playing games with the most in college, we should definitely make it a habit of playing games together a lot more. The only reason Halo features so prominently in my utopian vision is that nearly everyone knows how to play it, it's easy to use, and a lot of people have access to an Xbox or Xbox360.

Argh..didn't mean this to turn into a really lame rant. Simply put, I'd like to bring together my dear high school friends and my dear college friends and game online all together, or game offline in a LAN party type fashion AT LEAST once a week. We don't even have to game for the latter..it just seems like the activity we most often did as a floor, on the guys' side anyway. Something, ANYTHING, to allow us to still remain a group somewhat.

Enter sentimality: living on the 12E made me clash with a lot of people over time, directly or indirectly. I can recall times when I acted like a pretentious snob over really lame stuff like music, and other times when I was an angst-filled little prick lamenting over Baby-Sitters Club type bullshit. I quietly got pissed at people over their idiosyncrasies and I'm sure they did with me as well. But, what the fuck..if you live with people for a year or two, even people you like, you're bound to get pissed at the seemingly stupid shit they do over time as they're bound to do in return for you. I was more immature than I thought I was when I first came to OU, and I still am, but I think I've grown in some of the areas of my personality where I really was a fucking piece of shit.

To any of the Twelve-Easters who still read this, I'm sorry for any of the stupid, judgemental, inconsiderate, vile things I've done that have pissed them off since I've known them. The same goes to my friends in high school who I've treated equally as horribly. I guess a few particular examples would be good.

Randall - Remember that one time during freshman year after we ate at Thai Raja and I got left with a bill and I made a big fucking deal out of it and somehow talked shit about you? Man, I'm sorry.

Cat - Remember that time I threw the Meatwad stressball at you in the social lounge and it hit your face? I am so sorry..although it was an accident it was pretty shitty of me.

Rusty - Man, I'm just sorry for being such an ass to you a lot of the time during our second (your third I think) year in the dorms. I can't say I can remember super specific examples but I can say I was pretty insecure for a while there and a lot of my shittiness stemmed from that.

Jen - I'm really, really sorry for making you feel so shitty when we broke up that summer. I was a real shithead the way I went about it..although I'm glad we parted ways and still managed to remains close friends for a while after that, I did it for all the wrong reasons.

Dragon - I really, really regret being a music snob towards you that one break. Puh-ritty lame of me.

I can't say I reget anything I've done because I'm really glad I am where I am now. I've got a girl that I love, really amazing BFFs, and a new, IMO better perspective on life..but I truly regret hurting or pissing off people along the way.

Hahahahahaha, wow..a late night and a a few too many drinks will really make the words flow forth. To summarize..for those of you who read this who I game with, or have gamed with in the past..I LOVE YOU WILL YOU FUCKING GAME WITH ME?