M osquito M eeting 2003 T aivalkoski 3-6. July 2003

NOTE: Additional photos (and larger size versions of the article pics) available at the photo galleries

The Journey to madness

Wednesday evening, and the fever is on the rise. Question: how long before the start of the trip can I take my computer apart (meaning losing email, IRC, and gaming)? Answer: Not long. Luckily I had an extra extention cord, so I could at least stay in IRC on my firewall box until the phone rang and Camo arrived.

Camo, My and me pack our gear into Camo's car, pack his car into a train, and pack ourselves and BK, Kossu and Matson into a bar to wait for the train to leave. A beer later, we pack the whole gang, reinforced with Cahi, into the train, and the long journey to Oulu begins. "Long", in this case, refers to the Finnish word "Pitkä" means "half a liter of beer, waiter, if you please"...

The Reservoir Pilots	Kossu talks with his hands

The evening passed fast in the restaurant car of the train, and Kossu was the first to reach the famous virtual pilots' "talking with hands" stage as Matson and Cahi watched on with well-hidden interest. At around two-ish, it was time to hit the sack. And it was a sack too well lit, noisy, and damn hot. It wasn't just the beer of previous that made people look razzled in the morning, when the train pulled up at Oulu railway station. Personally, I got about an hour of sleep during the night.

Day 1

We headed for the Gathering at Tuoppi's/Pint's place. A large consignment of MM03-goers arrived during the morning, and some who had camped on Tuoppi's back yard finally woke up. It was time to head for Taivalkoski, about 150KM east of Oulu.

(Left to right) Camo, GNiko, Kossu, Cahi, Matson, BK. Some shocked and awed passerbyes in the background.	(Right to left) Cosmo, Camo, Grendel moshing, Mrs. Tuoppi/Pint, and Tuoppi's daughter almost hidden behind GNiko's sizeable head.
Birra has some MM03 hidden in his pants for you...	These animals are stupid, ugly, and tasty. How do they survive???

The site of Mosquito Meeting 2003 is an army maneuver area, and there are some nice buildings used by officers and reservists during field exercises. We got two large, identical buildings with two large rooms and several smaller ones: People split themselves off into different rooms by games, plane preferences (bomber jockeys had their own corner in the largest room, for example), and some other mysterious methods not entirely clear to me (smell?). RJ-45 wires were laid and re-laid all over the place, the mating call of geeks, "it's not working" was heard from several sources for several hours, and finally, after some alcohol had been consumed and various head-to-head setups tested (beer goes REALLY well with Ju87G duels in WB, for example), the 2Mb ADSL came to life, and the games were ready to commence. Boom, said a fuze as everybody rushed to an Aces High special event. Half the computers lost power, and the owners of the rest awaited their fate with fear. Luckily, a new fuze seemed to hold, and it was time to do what we came to MM03 to do: Drinking and flying!

Eni takes his flying seriously.	Ok takes his flying TOO seriously.
A Finnish version of local air defence.	We're currently still debating whether we should tell Oiva why it's never a good idea to paint a big target on one's chest.
Charge demonstrates the advantages of cybersex "Anytime, anywhere."	Grendel pretending to be a reporter.

Day 2

After trying to sleep in an unbearably hot room for some hours, it was time to return to the main compound. There Dictonius had just woken up after sleeping for 7 hours with his face pressed against his laptop. Post-incident investigation concluded that he hadn't checked his oxygen mask before take-off, and had passed out at some point of his ascent: When his condition was discovered, helpful assistants jettisoned his drop tank, and his 109 soared to new heights. He apparently created a new record for altitude for a 109 in Aces High, going past 34 000 feet before the audience got bored and wandered off.

Dictonius making his record flight, aided by his trusty comrades (with friends like these...), Panzzer (left), Kossu and Pegbrown.	30 000 feet about to go, and the flight continued long after this. 34 000 feet was the highest anyone bothered to check.

People started waking up around 10am (no small feat, considering the amount of alcohol that went MIA the night before), and a bit later most people headed for Raate road. Raate road was where Finns destroyed two Red Army divisions (the 44th and the 163rd) in a "motti", a word that got permanently attached to military jargon worldwide during the Winter War.

The Raate memorial: There are approximately 20 000 stones on this field to commemorate the approximately 20 000 Soviet soldiers who died on the Raate road. Nobody knows the exact number of the dead, nor of the stones: It's not always about how many frags you can get.	One of the T-26 tanks left on Raate road as memorials of the battle. Matson measuring the thickness of the turret armor for further reference...

Back to the gaming, and thunder caused some flickering and white faces (nobody's scared of thunder, but the thought of a lightning visiting our computers causes nausea).

Eni refilling his pint, while	Itmo looks on with growing concern...
*SNORT* A computer addict. Sad.	This picture is an elaborate hoax in an attempt to convince viewers that we did, in fact, play some games, too.

Additional photos (and larger size versions of the article pics) available at the photo galleries:
Travel
Day 1
Day 2
Day 2 - part two / lart
Day 3
Day 3 - part two / murmur
Day 4
And some more / grendel

Photos by --my--, murmur, lart and grendel commentary by gniko

Viimeksi muokattu: 2009-01-25 22:12