The Red Card Group gathered at Binkle’s house for a scheduled recording of our up and coming podcast. Unfortunately, the night turned into an extremely lengthy train wreck that would have been more enjoyable had Brian simply brought Metroid Prime Hunters.

Let me explain.

It was somewhere between 1:30 and 3:30 that Binkle was asking me over MSN about any recording to occur Friday night in regards to the podcast. The group had not formed any plans, and Binkle said he would be recording something with or without us. So, I asked him what he had in mind. We agreed that we’d meet at his house for 7:00.

I got in touch with Brendon and Josh over Google Talk, and told them of the plans. They confirmed that they would be able to attend. Brian was inaccessible.

So, shortly before 7:00, I was picking out news stories for commentary and leaving them open on the iBook. I was preparing to leave when my grandfather came over to talk to us about something, and delayed my progress. I hastily drove to Binkle’s house, where Josh and Brendon were already waiting.

Unfortunately, due to a scheduling conflict, Binkle had made plans to be at David H’s house for 8:00, which would have left us about 45 minutes to record the podcast had we begun at 7:00 (assuming Binkle has not invented teleportation and is just holding out on us). This travel difficulty was compounded by the fact that Binkle’s mother was supposed to pick up his sister at 8:00 (bumped to 8:30 after a phone call), which posed considerable difficulty to the one vehicle family.

We delayed recording on the assumption that Binkle would return in approximately half an hour after fixing David’s computer. David phoned at 8:45ish asking where Binkle was, and Binkle explained that there had been transportation difficulties. Binkle was finally able to leave at about 9:00, and he left Brendon, Josh and myself at his house to work on the website.

In Binkle’s absence, Josh, Brendon and I began work on the website. Or, rather, Josh worked on the website with Brendon pointing out necessary tasks to be completed. I was just surfing on the iBook. Binkle phoned once to confirm the location of David’s house. While working, Josh managed to inhale some compressed air, which turned out to harbour a chemical that causes “drunk-like symptoms”. For the rest of the night, he was slightly tipsy…or perhaps just being a dick.

After a while, Brian left work and came to Binkle’s house, and was confused when he heard that we were there, Binkle was not, and we were in Binkle’s room. Between 9:45 and 11:30, we were pondering the fate of Binkle. Brendon phoned his parents to persuade them to let him stay out past 10:00. He gained permission to stay out until 11:00. Josh, Brian and I went downstairs and played Perfect Dark and Star Fox 64 (woot!).

At 11:30ish, after Brendon had gone home, Binkle phoned to tell us that he would be a bit later than his originally estimated half an hour (which was quite obvious, at this point). Apparently, David was having some difficulty with video files on his computer and burning them to a DVD for a university interview the following day.

So, Binkle asked us to bring him a spindle of CDs and some software. We departed, stopping over at McDonalds because Brian had not yet eaten, and continued onward to David’s house. When we arrived, the house looked as if everyone was asleep, so we went towards the back door, and upon seeing Binkle in the window, we began to try and tap on it. Unfortunately, there was a surprisingly sturdy screen in the way, and we could not make any noise without damaging it.

Fortunately, David’s mother entered the room and turned out to be far more in tune with her peripheral vision than Binkle, and pointed us out to him.

Long story short, the night was a bit of a waste. We saw a good chunk of Befogging Exposure 2: Obscene Exhibition and our efforts to help David were in vain, since Binkle apparently figured it all out while we were en route.

With any luck, we’ll have a podcast recorded next week. Maybe we can make it extra long as an apology.