The Peng Challenge Thread: Some one get me a drink, and tell me what's going on, eh?

[Michael Emrys]

2 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:

He will be missed.

You're damned right he will. The Four Horsemen will be riding in the Missing Man formation from now on. He was a great presence in the MBT and elsewhere. We carried on a long and amicable conversation via instant messaging quite a few years ago now. And he will be missed.

Michael

[Ales Dvorak]

Berli used one of my CMBO maps for his scenario and we exchanged a few mails then. Really nice guy.

Now this is really sad news...

 

Ales 

[PanzerMike]

I just checked Berli's profile and according to that he was only in his early fifties. Did not know that. Makes it all the more sad. My father also died of cancer around that age. Terrible disease.

My heartfelt condolences to all who knew him well.

[MrSpkr]

Dammit.  I always enjoyed reading his rants.  And he was generally a stout chap; you always knew where you stood with Dan.  I did not know him nearly as well as I should have liked.

[Leeo]

Ah, Damn. 

Berli played many games with this certain noob Leeo. Aside from a healthy and well deserved fear of him in the Wasteland and CM, he was always a great, intelligent, and ass-kicking Man. A toast to Berli.

"May you be an hour in heav'n 'fore the devil knows yer dead." 

The Waste seems much colder now...

[Joe Shaw]

I, and all who inhabit or inhabited the MBT will miss him terribly. He was a good man, a good friend and one of the stalwarts of the original Peng Challenge Thread. 

Fare thee well my friend.

Joe

[Joe Shaw]

14 hours ago, Seanachai said:

Maybe I should have handed this off to Joe Shaw, the Justicar, or Bauhaus (who is sitting), but I'm not tired, yet, or quite drunk, so I will post.  

I am The Seanachai, of the Peng Challenge Thread.  Today, at 4:15, CST, Dan 'Berli' Brown, Gotz von Berlichtingen, died.  He was diagnosed with leukemia (neither capitalized, nor bolded) on the Wednesday before Christmas.  It came on like an unstoppable enemy, and despite the best efforts of the hospital he was at, and despite Berli's indomitable will, it finally put him down.  

My last words to him were:  Peng and I will see you again in the Wasteland.  I know he will be waiting.

Mostly to kick my arse all around and about.  But that's okay.

He stomped upon the Terra.

No my friend, far better from you. Thanks on behalf of the Mutha Beautiful Thread.

Joe

[bauhaus]

I don't frequent here much anymore . But it was Berli who brought me here. It was Berli who I worked with for many years when we were both in newspapers. It was Berli who introduced me to many of you. I won't hold that against him. And it was also Berli who influenced my love of Apple products. We have stayed in contact through social media but I haven't seen him in ages. But rarely does a day go by in which I am not reminded of his influence on me. I am beyond sad. He was a good soul. Those are rare these days. And I will refuse to sit when told to. Instead, I will stand in his honor. 

[Seanachai]

Feck me.  So I reply here?  Where the hell is 'here', I ask you?  What incarnation of the game is this, exactly?  

The game may have grown beyond us.  But we have not grown beyond the game.  

I've been asked 'What tribute can we make to the memory of Berli?

Well, you know what, I think the best tribute to him, is to...hell, I don't know, how about make the goddamn Peng Challenge Thread IT'S OWN, GAME INDEPENDENT PART OF THE FORUM.

That's a lot, I admit.  Probably be only visited by a handful of drunkards and faithful, possibly the odd serial killer, and frankly, a place for Australians, and me, to got to, late at night, drunk as nine bastards, to rail against the dying of the light.  Well, for me to do that.  The drunk Ozzies will just go on about how they just licked Vegemite off their significant others privates.  But that's Australia for you.  A very passionate land.

So, if I had my damn way, which I never do, I'd say:  'Battlefront, Cut the Peng Challenge free of any given incarnation of the game.'  The writ of our existence was:  Thou shalt be a 'challenge thread', wherein your various idiocies and misbehaviors shall be tolerated, within the Forum, because the folk shall come here for hijinks, and for the droll challenges, and so that some folk shall call other folk right ignorant bastards, which they are, and all in the name of good fun, and the healthful enjoyment of the Game!'

But frankly, now, when I come here, I have to do multiple searches just to find out where I should post my appropriate/inappropriate remarks.

Call it 'The Wasteland'.  I'll be there, at least until it's time for me to move on, and join Berli.  The Justicar will be there to keep order, and Boo Radley will be there to take over when Joe...well, they will be there.

I can't play the goddamn games on my computer, but that doesn't mean I don't want to post on the Peng Challenge Thread.  I just get tired of trying to find where the feck I'm supposed to be posting, down some dark and unconsidered alley that smells of piss and stale beer.  

I actually LIKE posting down some alley that smells of piss and stale beer, but what I DON'T like is trying to find the goddamn place to do it!

 

[Seanachai]

On 1/6/2017 at 4:25 AM, Michael Emrys said:

You're damned right he will. The Four Horsemen will be riding in the Missing Man formation from now on. He was a great presence in the MBT and elsewhere. We carried on a long and amicable conversation via instant messaging quite a few years ago now. And he will be missed.

Michael

Goddamn right.

[Seanachai]

Forms are loosely fitting
Jury still are sitting
Sense of duty keeps us all in motion
Prison sirens wailing
That security is failing
Do not inspire a lifetime of devotion
No one will sympathize
No one really tries
They need a faith that leads them like a drum
And I can hear it pounding down among the ruins
Sad to say, I don't think I'm the only one.

I awoke and someone spoke
They asked me in a whisper
If all my dreams and visions had been answered
And I don't know what to say
I never even pray
I just feel the pulse of universal dancers
They'll waltz me till I die
They'll never tell me why
I never stop to ask them where we're going
Yes, but the holy, the profane
Are all helplessly insane
Wishful, hopeful, never even knowing.

And they asked if I believe
And do the angels really grieve
Or is it all a comforting invention?
It's just like gravity, I said
It's not a product of my head
It doesn't speak, but nonetheless commands attention
And I don't care what it means
Or who decorates the scenes
The problem is more with my sense of pride
Because it keeps me thinking "me"
Instead of what it is to be
I'm not a passenger, I am the ride
I'm not a passenger
I am the ride

"I Am the Ride"

-Chris Smither

[dalem]

I was in Massachusetts with my family for Xmas, so I wasn't around when Berli's bone marrow rose up in its betraying dark might against him. I did get to see him once more in the hospital before those last few days but he wasn't conscious at the time.  Before then, the last I'd seen him was at my dining room table playtesting a new Star Trek RPG he'd gotten with Seanachai and I, just a month ago.

A frikkin' month.

Welp, he didn't tolerate a whiner, so I can only state that he's going to be well-missed for all the months there are.

[rleete]

I have been gone from this site for many a year now.  Some would say that's a good thing.  They (Shaw) would be wrong, as usual.

I have come back for one simple reason.  To pay tribute to a person I never met, yet who made my life better.

 

A toast to you, Berlichingen.

[dalem]

We were "social media" long before the phrase had ever been coined.  Even rleete couldn't mess that up.  Olde Ones know he tried though.

I don't have much to offer right now except this:

Dunno if Berli would've hated or liked it.  I think he would've liked it.

[v42below]

Another lurker paying tribute to a fallen knight. The man once declared me an outlaw and conferred me with extra Mondays for my insolence. Come to think of it, that was about all the interaction we had. May he be as stern to the SSNs that seek the MBT in the afterlife.

[Gyrene]

Rest in Peace Berli, even though you always gave me crap for being an Air Winger and despite the fact that the closest you ever came to any real action was maybe getting kicked out of bars in Oceanside you had that grunt attitude that cannot be denied.

Report to Heaven, Marine.  You have watch tonight.

Semper Fi.

 

[dalem]

20 hours ago, Gyrene said:

Rest in Peace Berli, even though you always gave me crap for being an Air Winger and despite the fact that the closest you ever came to any real action was maybe getting kicked out of bars in Oceanside you had that grunt attitude that cannot be denied.

Report to Heaven, Marine.  You have watch tonight.

Semper Fi.

 

<serious>

If we (his local crew of miscreants) wanted to make a donation to some sort of Marine fund or program in his (and his brother's) name, what's a good one?

</serious>

Effin' feck all you lot, and stuff.

[Gyrene]

3 hours ago, dalem said:

<serious>

If we (his local crew of miscreants) wanted to make a donation to some sort of Marine fund or program in his (and his brother's) name, what's a good one?

</serious>

Effin' feck all you lot, and stuff.

The Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund is an excellent charity with a near perfect Charity Navigator score.  (And a great alternative to the somewhat shady Wounded Warrior org)

https://semperfifund.org/

 

[Elmar Bijlsma]

I just popped in here to pay my respects.

Berlichtingen was one of those people that made this community so extra-ordindary. We are all lessened by his passing.

 

...

 

And he would not forgive me if I wasted this opportunity to tell you Pengers that you were all pretty ****ing lessened to begin with.

[Michael Emrys]

3 hours ago, Elmar Bijlsma said:

And he would not forgive me if I wasted this opportunity to tell you Pengers that you were all pretty ****ing lessened to begin with.

Says one who forever failed to come up to the rather meager standards of The Thread.

Michael

[dalem]

On 1/10/2017 at 11:38 PM, Gyrene said:

The Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund is an excellent charity with a near perfect Charity Navigator score.  (And a great alternative to the somewhat shady Wounded Warrior org)

https://semperfifund.org/

 

Just so everyone knows, current status is this:

Berli's bro & sis-in-law have all the family stuff covered.

Seanachai & I and others have local stuff covered.

We're going to go through his gaming stuff like a flock of seagulls on a pile of stale cheeseburgers and ebay the leftovers, and make a donation from that.

That's all I have right now.

Oh, and persiflage and hate, and Olde Foul Joe wears lace panties, & stuff.

 

Edited January 13, 2017 by dalem

[sburke]

On 1/8/2017 at 1:42 AM, Seanachai said:

Feck me.  So I reply here?  Where the hell is 'here', I ask you?  What incarnation of the game is this, exactly?  

The game may have grown beyond us.  But we have not grown beyond the game.  

I've been asked 'What tribute can we make to the memory of Berli?

Well, you know what, I think the best tribute to him, is to...hell, I don't know, how about make the goddamn Peng Challenge Thread IT'S OWN, GAME INDEPENDENT PART OF THE FORUM.

*snip* because the Olde Ones have a tendency to just drone on endlessly.

The Wasteland'.  I'll be there, at least until it's time for me to move on, and join Berli.  The Justicar will be there to keep order, and Boo Radley will be there to take over when Joe...well, they will be there.
 

I vote yea to this as one of a long line of pissbucket bearers... or well maybe just a couple.

As to my Avatar there are plenty of other stupidly annoying ones- why most of them on this page, but alas none LESS annoying than mine.  What is there not to like about a Putin/Alfred E Neuman pic with a turd on it's head?  What me worry?

Anyway to top off a sh***y week, I just found out one of my closest friends and the officiant for my wedding has terminal cancer.  Any more crappy news we can start this year off with?

Edited January 14, 2017 by sburke

[dalem]

4 hours ago, sburke said:

I vote yea to this as one of a long line of pissbucket bearers... or well maybe just a couple.

As to my Avatar there are plenty of other stupidly annoying ones- why most of them on this page, but alas none LESS annoying than mine.  What is there not to like about a Putin/Alfred E Neuman pic with a turd on it's head?  What me worry?

Anyway to top off a sh***y week, I just found out one of my closest friends and the officiant for my wedding has terminal cancer.  Any more crappy news we can start this year off with?

Jebus we're all getting olde.

I remember the days when I could go toe to toe with OGSF or rleete.  Now I just look at my toes and think "they supposed to look like that?"

[PanzerMike]

yeah, I feel your pain. Getting older is a drag. You start losing people around you, and your body starts reminding you that you are not a young demi-god anymore. 

Can be really depressing sometimes. But thankfully there is the Cesspool. A visit there really helps. Bah, Just kidding. 

Stay strong people.

[Michael Emrys]

9 hours ago, PanzerMike said:

yeah, I feel your pain. Getting older is a drag. You start losing people around you, and your body starts reminding you that you are not a young demi-god anymore. 

I had an uncle who back about 60 years ago was heard to exclaim, "It's hell getting old!" About 40 years later I began to get what he meant. Now I find myself quoting him all the time. Ah well, there are still lots of newbies I can pick on and that makes me feel a little better.

Michael

Edited January 14, 2017 by Michael Emrys