PHUCKITMAN

No I don't think you need a special gadget to cook meat. It is just most people don't think of cooking something for close to 24 hours in a oven at those low temps. With the new app controlled pellet smokers and some of the smokers out there I just thought since you live in BBQ central you had sumpin difnt. But it looked darn good

I am sure you have said before what rig you are using to cook things like this. For those of us late to class "Sorry" do you mind catching us up please on your equipment? Right now my longest cooking time is when I use my crock pot to make Pot Roast of Pasta Sauce.

Thanks @loaderXI for setting this event up again just like you do every year. Several people came in on Sunday and played like the old days to remember our Family/Friends we have spent so many hours with that we have lost. It is always a tough event on many levels because of the emotions we experience thinking about our friends and all the great times and the bonds that were built over sometimes multiple decades. I just wanted to express my gratitude to you and the entire clan for taking the time and spending the money to always make sure we have the chance to pay tribute to our Fallen Loved One's. Thanks @Ruggerxi and @WldPenguin and anyone else who also was involved in making sure this event continues. A big thanks to everyone who stopped in and to those who couldn't make it but were there in spirit. I know all of the Guys in Heaven were looking down and smiling because they know how much we love them and they will always be >XI<. Merry Christmas everybody

This one needs to be cranked up louder then you normally crank it up. mine is at 11

Gotta love the fact that honey can last for decades even centuries if it is stored correctly. plus the changes in color over time are a result of its high quality. One of the true bounties of nature. What sorts of flowers do your Bee's tend to enjoy the most? Around here in the Seattle area with our climate most beekeepers have lots of lavender growing on their property because it grows so well and flowers for a long time here and folks love the flavor profile. Honey can be different based on what the bees have available to them. Some of the best honey I have ever tasted came from the Fruit Tree orchards where they have Cheery, Apple, Pear, Plum, Peach, and Apricot trees in the area. Do you even worry about where your bees feed? Do you use a Flow Hive or the combs that slide to allow the honey to flow very quickly? I live in a Townhouse with only a small deck for chairs and BBQ so no room for bees plus the HOA would have a shit fit, city living problems. Nice work BTW

I am sitting here in tears just thinking about old friends made long long ago. When I was asked to become the Head COD2 Admin when COD4 took off and many admins moved over to the new game and Rugger knew I wouldn't leave the game I loved I told him that I would do it in spite of my insecurities and hot head. After thinking about it overnight I told @Ruggerxi the only way this would work was if I could add @Blackbart, and @loaderXI as my next in command and @TedsofBeverlyHills, @window @Artimus Prime @PimpedOutPete as Game Admins. Bart and Loader were added to offset my hotheadedness since they were much calmer people and Ted, Window, and Artimus were well respected players who played well but always put the Clan and Gaming fun first. I saw the talent in them all as well as the fun they all brought to every game. I was a very lucky man to make friends with them long before we became the best Admin team and most solid one >XI< ever had. These men were more to me then just gaming friends they became like brothers to me. We are coming up on 20 years of playing COD2 together and keeping it alive as a team of wonderful human beings. I have spent many hours on the phone with Ted, Bart and Loader over the years and they made me a better person and the COD2 servers the best option in the game. I can not express my Gratitude to them all and the other Admins we added later but the thought of first Losing Bart and now the possibility losing Ted "The funniest player ever" in spite of his high ping and connection issues is a hard blow to handle. We are all getting older and many of you know I have had 2 massive heart attacks in the past 18 months so I want to take this time to pray for Ted and hope he kicks out of this or if not is in fact painlessly able to join Johnny Dos, Killa, Macdaddy, Too Cute Sue, Bud , Starfire, Sherm, Boiler don and Black Bart is got a great server set up in some beautiful place in Heaven waiting for the rest of us when it is out time to go be with God. If I haven't told you all just how much I love and respect your all and consider each of you a huge part of my Family and and so many my friends for coming up on 20 years. Please if you read this and don't know these men take the time to say hello and thank you for the work they have put in for over 15 years to keep the first >XI< servers alive so we can remember where we started they are great guys dedicated to the >XI< Family. Also take this situation to remember that life is precious and can be gone in a second so tell those you like and love how you feel. It takes such little time and can mean so much to the person hearing your kind words. Expressing LOVE to another person can do wonders for people dealing with struggles big or small and takes such little effort on our part. I might not be here today without the love that @Ruggerxi and the rest of my team and friends have shown a man who suffers from Anxiety and depression and I am not afraid to admit that they lifted me up many times and keep me from quitting especially when I was under attack by people who quit here like HXTR and Laz felt it was cool to trash me every chance they got. They always said calm down they will go away and you staying here doing what you do will show them who was the weak sack. I challenge you all to tell 10 people you play with and might not be close to you how much you enjoy them and how important they are in our FAMILY. LOVE has amazing healing powers. Thanks for reading this and accepting my challenge, Ron aka Phuckitman/COD Admin

Hey Swiss, long time no see. Hope all is well and the past is where we learned to be who we are today. I bet only @Ruggerxi and and few others are still around to even remember who you were round here back in the beginning. You are one of the reasons I tried the XI server and I never left so maybe you should be apologizing for that fuck up right there. Our COD2 TDM server is still running a cool mod, not quite "the Extreme Mod" you used to play but it is a lot of fun. We are there every weekend from about 9am east coast time until about 1pm Sat and Sun and Holidays. You might see a Player or 2 that you remember and it would be a hoot. Good luck and see ya round

Friday morning 5/24/24 at 7:30 am while at work I started feeling lots of chest pain and thought it might be heartburn so I tried to get my day going. Within a few minutes I started feeling sweaty and the pain got worse. I have been thru this before so I went in to my Bosses office and sat down and told him I couldn't do my job the way I was feeling because it wasn't safe. about 2 minutes later I asked him to please call 911 and I took a nitro tab and removed my dress shirt. "Didn't want it cut off me". Lucky for me the Fire Department is only about 10 blocks straight down the street and before he was off the phone we could hear the sirens. The Paramedics ran a tape on me and told me I was having a Massive Heart Attack and transported me the 1/2 mile to the hospital ER where I stayed for about 10 minutes. Time is crucial in this sort of shit. I was in the Operating room is less than 20 minutes from the 911 call and the Dr.'s spent the next 2.5 hours working on bring me back. From what I have learned so far I had a "Plaque Rupture" in my Aorta meaning the plaque rupture the blood vessel wall and caused a major blockage to the main flow of blood to my heart and also sent clots into the lower chamber. They were able to put in a Stent and break up most of the clots while in the Cath Lab without having to cut open my chest. I sent the next 24 hrs. in ICU because they had to give me a Heparin IV to quickly thin my blood so the clots would break up rather then travel to my brain and cause a Stroke. The next 2 days were in CICU to monitor my recovery. Needless to say my Wife was frantic about seeing me like this and in much worse shape then before during my previous attacks. Good news is both my other Stents are just fine but this new one is in a major area. I had quit smoking cigs 14 months ago because of the last one but my body just makes plaque regardless of what I eat or do. I am now home where I am much more comfortable and with the love of my life and if I keep getting better I can return to work within 14 days or so? However it is hard to keep my stress level down when all I can think about is the medical bills that will start arriving soon and the money I am not making while at home resting. The thought of us losing our home among other things is driving me crazy right now. I would rather leave this earth with her having our home and some savings than to be here and her become homeless. If you smoke please stop, if you eat poorly please try to eat better and if you don't exercise at least try to walk 30 minutes a day. Do this not for yourself "it will help you" but do it for those who love you and cherish you. Tell those you love those words as often as possible because you never know what your final words to them might be or when you might not come home from work. Peace and LOVE to you all.

3rd one in on the right side with the soul patch and sun hat?

@Hoth we played the Navarone several times and even beat them on their home field in 87 in a best of 5 match of CTF 25vs25. But in all fairness they we still so cocky they were using stock Sheridan pumps that heal 10 balls and a 10gr cartridge was only good for about 20 shots before it started not shooting very far. We also played against the Bushmasters as well and they all wore Ghillie Suits but once we started attacking those suits made it hard to move fast enough to avoid getting shot. just hard to find the paint on those suits. Some of your old mags probably have pictures of guys I played with in Manufacturers ads since some of the guys who were single and played way too much became some of the first STARS of the Game. One guy always was featured wearing a dress suit because that was how he played. No Camo for him he just was fast, the left gunner/wing man while i played Right Gunner/wing and he knew he was going to be seen since we were both running top speed as far up the field we could get in an attempt the start the fight on the other teams half of the map. Plus it made the not reach the cover they hoped to reach. So if we could gain that much ground in the first 30 seconds of a 30 minute game it was hard for them to win. Good Times and you are right I was killed so many times with a paintball sometimes at point blank range I knew Real War was not for me because I am not the kind to hide in a cave. I got up and encouraged a firefight because I always had them off guard and made many run away out of fear which allowed me to take more of the side flank to keep them from getting around our main attack forces. Great Memories and I still have my camo field jacket/shirt with my team patches and sponsor patches from 35+ years ago. My first Silencer was a metal tube slightly larger then the barrel and it slipped on and the sight bead held it in place and was drilled with many holes and covered in wading to catch the air/sound and then covered in a think black rubber like material that could be shrunk to fit with a heat gun so it looked sharp and fit in your slide cargo between games so the other team couldn't bitch about them. Plus we had a set screw put in the back of our modified guns in the piece you removed to access to spring and allen wrenches in our pockets. This way we could dial in the speed to pass the crono test as you entered the field and then before they blow the starting horn we could tighten to set screw and gat another 25 feet per second out of our guns and not blow balls in the barrel be gave us a bit more range and didn't need to lob the paint in. I could go on and on. Loved playing that game sofakingmuch

We just named our animals we planned to eat "Dinner", it bothered our Mom the first time but she figured out she wanted to call it something at feeding time and by calling the Steer each year Dinner kept her from getting to attached and more grounded in the reality of the money the family spent to but it, feed it and keep it healthy and well as the grain we gave it at the end to marble it up. It all worked out and in the mid 70's with 3 teenage boys it was the most bang for our food budget plus we knew the quality of the meat and that it was grass fed and well taken care of and treated in the most humane way possible. Advantage of having 45 acres of grassy ranch land in the foothills of Northern California in the mid 70's. Plus we had horses and even raised a Pig and the property next to my parents Ranch was 5000 acres of BLM land so the deer were also plentiful and in our freezer. Calif had a nuisance law that allowed farmers and ranchers with fenced property to kill deer that got in to their vegetable garden so ours was growing 10 months a year. This gave my Dad the right to remove them and harvest them. Any way to save money and keep us from going hungry. I can relate to your comment about CHANGE. It is the only constant thing in life and something that is hard to fight. When we stop learning is when our brains start to die and then our body follows. Nice read and you are always welcome to play on the COD2 TDM servers. We play every weekend from about 9am your time until 1pm Saturday and Sunday and it is the same group with many long time >XI< members. We always love meeting newer members to the Original >XI< servers where it all started and killing them lol. Look forward to seeing you sometime soon. If you dont have the game I have a few copies of the game you can load using a disk drive including a good key code I could send you from free since I now use Steam, but the game is fairly cheap there as well. just using the version 1.3 so you have to update it after you download. DM me if you are interested

Looks like a load of fun was had by all. I started playing Paintball in So. Cal. in the mid 80's on some old TV Show locations like M.A.S.H., "A" Team and Baa Baa Black Sheep/Tour of Duty. Those fields were cool and each was different. MASH was in the hills near Simi Valley on the same Canyon Property that was used to film the Lone Ranger, Cisco Kid and other westerns and was know for lots of house size or larger granite boulders and lots of trails and scrub brush. The A Team property had lots of sandbag bunkers and downed aircraft and wooden towers and huts and exploded cars and was in a canyon outside of Burbank in the foothills that probably have homes on them now. The Tour of Duty/BBBS field was my Favorite because it was alike the A Team one but with more Structures, no cars, and palm trees and was in a canyon in the Malibu area so the ocean air kept you cool even in the heat of summer. We started out using Nelspot Markers and wearing whatever and only old shop goggles for eye protection. Single shot pump action with 10 rounds and a 12gr cartridge. CTF games and lots of missed kills or shots at point black in the back. It was fun but it was a lot of hiding and then someone grabbing the flag and sprinting since hunting players was tough with that equipment. Then we figured out that we could get camo cheap at surplus stores, better eye, face and body protection in motocross magazines and found the Sheridan Markers and that frame changed it all for us. A guy who was on our team that formed at the MASH field "my first" and made props for the movies learned how to replace the barrel with a 24 inch barrel that was just a C hair smaller than the balls and added a shoulder stock that held a 10oz Co2 canister and for a few of us he even made noise suppressors that made the pop a little puff. These guns changed the game since you could hit almost anything you aimed at up to about 100 feet and with the added hopper feeder you didn't run out of paint in a fire fight. I still always carried a stock Sheridan in a shoulder holster because it stayed out of the way, protected my forward chest area and if I had a ball bust in the barrel I could still fight since my pockets were filled with 8-10 10 balls tubes of paint to reload the hopper or pistol on the run. The Team at MASH field was called "Havok" and I was the right flank gunner so my job was at the start of each game to run as fast as possible up the right boundary and get to at least mid field before engaging the other team and hold that edge and push. We were featured in a magazine that came out in 88 all about paintball and products since we were the second best team in Calif and 4th in the nation even without going to Nationals. We were even sponsored by Oakley and O'Neil and they provided us with eye wear, gear bags, clothes, and footwear as well as paying our fees for games and paint. Several of my teammates went on to become stars in the game and did endorsements and were in the mags. When I moved to No. Carolina in 90 I found a team that had a great field and a good group of guys who couldn't play worth a damn. I asked about joining the team after a few weeks and they said go out on the field and wait for 3 guys to find you. Once the first shot is fired you have to live for 5 minutes to make the team. I found a old Deer stand about 15ft up and hid there and soon the 3 guys walked down the trail toward me only 1 after the other with very little spread in a straight line. I rose up slowly and shot the one in the back of their line and the middle guy and finally the lead guy all before they even knew where I was. I went up to the staging area and someone told me I was supposed to run after that first shot and avoid the other guys. I went to my truck and pulled out my old Havoc Field Jacket with my patches and put it on and explained to them if you kill the other team you win and walk the flag back. That started the run that Allied Special Forces enjoyed for years after we won our first State title that year after they finished last the year before I showed them how the game was played. The game had changed many times since then and will continue to change but the RUSH is still the same and the lesson is still the same. If you are in a situation where you can get shot you will and if you get shot you will die. So I avoid real guns but still love playing bang bang and knowing when I have hit something instead of hearing my little brother claim I missed lol. Thanks @Streetcleaner for sharing your current set-up and how the game has changed since the humble days when I remember it getting started on a bigtime scale aka the olden days

I just did 2 different reaction tests and very happy to say that at my advanced age I posted a 241ms and 232ms. So when I am playing COD2 tomorrow morning I will will be comforted in the knowledge that I suck not because of my PC or Monitor or Reaction Time. I just suck because I can't hit anything I am aiming at. Enjoy your new Monitor. I am having a blast with the 35 inch curved wide screen monitor my Wife bought me for Christmas 4 months ago.

So sorry for your families loss. My Wife lost her parents about 3 months apart and it was like a double gut punch for us all. It was 11 years ago and we still are not completely over it but we know they are happy and young again and our Angels. Your Dad was waiting for her looking just the way she had remembered him all her life and is showing her the way things work in Heaven and how to get her favorite treats. Your Family now has two very powerful Guardian Angels watching over them all. Just FYI when you think about them or need them they are right there with you, that's why they pop in our minds so often. They know they are loved and will be forever and they want us to know they got us covered. My Prayers to everyone who knew and Loved your Parents.

About 11 years ago when our Son was 30 and he had helped his Mom my Wife take care of his grandfather during his final days because he wanted to stay in his house. Our Son realized just how much he disliked his job as a Sr. Service Advisor at the local Rolls Royce, Bentley, Lambo dealer and how much he felt good about himself while helping someone who really needed him was. He went to a school here in the States that had a fast track program to become a CMA (Certified Medical Assistant) and was working in less then 9 months. He loves it and the Dr.'s and Nurses who he works with have all encouraged him to become a Nurse. Empathy is unfortunately not a trait everyone is born with and Nurses are special people. I say if that is something you can make a living doing and it makes you feel good about you and your best life then do it. People change careers all the time now. Plus the Medical field is always going to be hiring as we age but seem to live longer with all sorts of shit going on with our bodies. Good Luck to you, YOU GOT THIS. PS don't enjoy giving the sponge bathes too much or you may get in trouble lmao

Thanks for sharing some info about yourself and what makes you special. It is really wonderful for a old timer here to see the younger members think about XI like a part of their Family. It is something that many of us hoped would be a strong and lasting part of what we joined to have fun and fuck around. Having members who are young enough to be many of the members children who say what you did and have fun here makes it all worth while. @Ruggerxi had a dream about making a place where adults could just be themselves and that could have gone very badly when this all started but every member who has joined us has been someone we enjoyed playing with and talking to and sharing laughs. We are all here for each other and always will be so please @MHsDaughter remember if you ever need anything somebody here is there for you as best as they possibly can be. Don't drink anymore but the food looks great so if the Wife and I ever get down your way we will make sure to pay you a visit and leave a big XI Tip and get some pictures for all the single guys here lol... Have fun

@SGTSmeg Our Prayers go out to your family including your firefighting brothers and sisters. Seems like these types of things are making the news more often as infrastructure is falling apart all over the country. I hope those guys all make a full recovery and can return to their loved ones. I am so grateful knowing our local fire dept has a station just 10 blocks from our house. They were here in under 5 mins when I had my heart attack almost 1 year ago and got me to the ER within the GOLDEN HOUR. True hero's all of you that put on a helmet and coat and grab a ax