As we grow, we bid a fond farewell to the Rizon IRC network, with our most sincere gratitude... However, we've outgrown Rizon's 5-machine-per-IP-per-server limit, and every time we have events at ICHQ we get k-line bans... Therefore, our good friend Mondi has set us up with our own IRC server. Please update your clients to connect to irc.icrontic.com.

If you haven't ever visited us on #icrontic, you are missing out. So many fun things happen there, and if you feel like you're missing out on some inside jokes or some kind of hidden camaraderie, you probably are. It all happens in #icrontic.

Thanks Rizon! It was a fun run :)

The art of wet shaving is alive and well at Icrontic with the charge going out yesterday on our forums to ditch your electric and experience the feeling of a steel blade. I just joined the fight. Get in on the action here.

Our good friend Snarkasm(Matt), the ex-Texan now cheesehead decided he wanted to see what all this Ludo fuss was about. He learned that they were playing in Madison, WI. at a place called the Loft. He bought ticket. He went to the show. He lived the Icrontic Life!

I'm gonna try to get to one of these...I'll let ya know.

E.J Gallo Winery has decided to take a new spin on gin. They claim their new New Amsterdam gin is smooth enough to drink straight.

The Gin & Tonic is a classic standby, and gin is hardly consumed any other way. New Amsterdam seeks to change all that and is adopting a younger, more elite image to try to convince bargoers that gin is cool again.

I picked up a bottle for $13.99, which is less than half the price of a bottle of Bombay Sapphire. It is indeed extremely smooth. I tried it straight, on the rocks, and in a classic gin & tonic. It is fantastic all three ways. Truly, the juniper bitterness is not as pronounced here, while retaining the unique gin "bite".

If you find yourself craving a gin, next time give New Amsterdam a shot, you might be surprised.

So TiberiusLazarus, Gnome_Queen and myself went to PointFest in St. Louis to see Ludo and a bunch of other bands; including Shinedown, Theory of a Deadman, Hurt, Finger 11, Filter, Killswitch Engage, 10 Years, and many more. Tiberius and I got there when the gates opened at 10am, and Gnome_Queen arrived around 12:30 with a couple of her friends.

The crowd was huge for Ludo. It was crazy. Gnome_Queen and her friend both 'crowd-surfed' up to the security guards while Ludo was playing! After the show we headed over to the tent where the band was signing CD's.

Well, the line to meet Ludo was fail. Ludo was only signing CD's due to the time restraints of each band getting time in the tent. There was a security lady that kept telling people they had to have a Ludo CD to be in line to meet them. So I bought Gnome_Queen a Ludo CD and we got in line. As we got closer to the band, the lady kept telling me I had to have a CD. "I'm friends with Ludo.", I tell her. She doesn't listen. Finally we get pretty close to Ludo and she again tells me I need a CD. I shout over to Matt(drummer)..

"Hey Matt!"

Matt looks up and instantly recognizes me. "Hey, whats going on?"

"You guys mind if I come say hello, I don't have a cd, but I have my friend here with one."

"Hell Yeah!" Matt says.

I look back the security lady. "Sorry." is all she says and looks away.

I give Andrew a high 5 and he asks me if Detroit or today was a better show. I told him Detroit was epic because I got to hang out with you guys, but the way you got the crowd going today was awesome. I shake hands with Tim and Marshall. When I get to Tim Convy, he looks up and goes, "Hey man how's it going, great to see ya again!" Yus, they remembered the fatcat ;) I finished with shaking hands with my buddy Matt and thanking the band for a hell of the show and Gnome_Queen got her CD signed.

Some of the other bands put on a great show, some were so-so. All in all, it was a great day with some great music.

We all know that beer is important. There are some things in life, however, that are actually more important than beer. Your children, for instance.

Apparently this guy was trying so hard to uphold the "beer" aspect of the Icrontic Life that he forgot his priorities. A keen-eyed police officer, noticing the man's lack of updated registration, pulled him over to find a case of beer buckled into the passenger seat and his five-year old kid sitting on the floor of the car.

Sorry, pal, you are NOT Livin' the Icrontic Life. The fine of $750 AUD pales in comparison to jeopardizing the safety of a child... not to mention your honorary Anti-Icrontian status for life.

(Thanks to IC reader Colgere for the story)

A quick summary: teh Fatcat saved Ludo from bad beer by intercepting a Miller Genuine Draft and buying them Bell's Oberon instead.

We got a lot of swag and hung out with the guys for a while.

That's all for tonight. More tomorrow.

Not an hour ago, I got the weirdest wrong number I have EVER gotten. I get this call from "Bill Thomas"

He starts off with "Hey brian, it's Bill" - very casual, like between two business associates.

My mind is racing. Who is Bill?

So I take the safe path: "Hello..."

He launches right into it: "Okay, I think I've got it handled. What happened is that Scott had the wrong license keys, and he entered them on the server which unlocked some incorrect modules. Currently we have EFT, lifecycle, and meta modules installed. We're gonna have to pull the keys and I already got in touch with the company but they're in India so it might take a few hours for them to get back to me"

I'm FREAKING OUT at this point. I thought I had forgotten something of VITAL IMPORTANCE. I'm thinking "Who the fuck is this, why have I forgotten who this is and why have I forgotten what he is talking about. It sounds critical."

Bill keeps going. "I'll need you to contact the users and tell them about potential downtime"

This is like one of my worst nightmares come to life. At this point I'm dying on the inside, with the grim realization that it finally happened - I finally forgot something so important that I will end up in prison. A bank or a hospital is going to go down, it'll be all my fault, and I just plain forgot everything.

Finally it dawns on me. I'm NOT crazy. I TRULY don't know who this guy is or what he is talking about. I take a deep breath and say "Ok... ok stop. I think you may have the wrong Brian and the wrong server admin."

A confused pause.

Bill says, "Oh. Isn't this Brian Mack?"

I say, "No, this is Brian Ambrozy. You have the wrong number AND the wrong server admin."

Things like this happen in my life and at least on a weekly basis I find myself saying "WHAT are the chances that ________ could happen?" to which my friend Keebler usually replies "Apparently 100%".

Bill says, "Oh. That explains why you were being so cold to me."

I think I lost about 4 pounds just by using massive amounts of brain energy running through my mental database at 100% CPU.

Come on, weekend. I need you now more than ever.

Apparently [UPS]Lynx has some personal issues. With scouts. You know - the scout in TF2.. The one who runs double fast, jumps double high, and has lots of infuriating taunts, and always says "BONK" when he bashes your skull in with an aluminum bat.

Poor Lynx. He wrote a little comic to tell me how much they bug him. Poor kid.