So recently, I’ve been playing this game called Torchlight. I haven’t played it that must (just maybe 4 hours yesterday) but I gotta say its an amazing game.
Torchlight is a Hack-n-slash “Diablo clone” (no duh, its made by former employees of Blizzard North, the CREATORS of Diablo). In the vein of Diablo there are three classes, melee smasher, ranged sniper, and magical dude. The game is set in the village of Torchlight, a mining community that operates around a mine near the village where a mystical crystal called “Ember” is found. You arrive at the scene to find monsters have overrun the mines and a two other adventer types (Brink and some girl… forget her name) fighting back the monsters. And there the game begins.
So… it’s a hack-n-slash. This means that the basis of the game revolve around one thing: kill monsters, loot them. You run around, fighting hundreds of different monsters (so far I’ve encountered rat-men, trolls, constructs (harder trolls), zombies, skeletons and various magical types) and then you loot their bodies and open the treasure chests they were guarding.
What I find so amazing about games like this is how stupidly unrealistic, yet amazingly satisfying they are. In a good story, the protagonist as a good reason for going on dangerous quests and often had lots of help along the way. Frodo never would have made it to Mt. Doom if it wasn’t for Gollum, Sam, Gandalf, Aragorn et al. But yet, in this game, besides I think the two levels, I, basically, am alone (you have a “pet” that helps you, but it’s basically a tank/low damage dealer) the entire game. In Lord of the Rings, Aragorn had a special sword, just one, and he used it throughout the book. He didn’t walk through orc corpses saying, “hey! That looks shiny! Who cares about this old sword, I’ll use this one!” Granted, Aragorn already had an amazingly good sword, but I’ve never heard of a single hero who fights through hordes of unnamed creatures and then takes whatever random weapons they were using for himself.
Furthermore, there is the whole question of “Why is this monster guarding a chest of weapons that he doesn’t use himself?” Question that I find myself asking. I mean, think about it: If that sword is a “OMG! UBER RARE TOTALLY AWESOME!” weapon, why isn’t the rat-man guarding it using it? It doesn’t make sense.
So anyways… yes, it’s unrealistic. Yes, its kinda stupid. Yes, its not that original in gameplay (the setting is a fun steam-punk type world. My character has a sword and shield and some PISTOLS! w00t!). But darnit, this game is amazingly fun.
Oh, do you know what the best part is? It'll run on just about any machine out there. It even has a special "netbook" setting if you're running one of those. Awesome, no? (Obviously its not that big a deal for me and my Duo Core CPU, Geforce 8 and 2 gigs of RAM, but hey, not everyone is like me. :p)
Website is www.torchlightgames.com its $20 off of Paypal, and the game designers claim 10-20 hours of gameplay every play through. I dunno about you, but with 3 classes, randomly generated dungeons, and gameplay this addicting I could play this game forever and ever. Assuming of course, I don't find another really fun game (like for instance... Dragon Age Origins or Borderlands, both of which seem like they're really good) *nods*
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Neglect
I've been negelecting this blog. I'm sorry for those of you who are missing my updates.
Anyways... so what have I been doing?
I finished Tyranny of the Night by Glen Cook (if you like Glen Cook, read it. If not, try his first novel: the Black Company, first) and started Dune this week (dune appears decent)
I've been playing Mount and Blade a lot.
I've been doing lots of school. Argh. I feel like I have this mountain of homework that doesn't ever get any smaller, just bigger. Really frustrating sometimes.
And... and nothing special.
Also, everyone should go and listen to Wanderer by Elvenking (its somewhere on Youtube). That song is one of the greatest songs ever.
Random Thought of the Day: The reason that I like Heavy Metal is because Heavy Metal guitarists and keyboardists solo. A lot. Not enough Rock musicians solo, or if they do its not often enough. A good album should have like 10 songs and at least 5 solos, preferably 10. If at all possible the solos should 4 minutes long (yes, I don't mind 8 minute long songs. One of the best songs I've ever heard is 14 minutes. The Poet and the Pendulum is brilliant).
Anyways... so what have I been doing?
I finished Tyranny of the Night by Glen Cook (if you like Glen Cook, read it. If not, try his first novel: the Black Company, first) and started Dune this week (dune appears decent)
I've been playing Mount and Blade a lot.
I've been doing lots of school. Argh. I feel like I have this mountain of homework that doesn't ever get any smaller, just bigger. Really frustrating sometimes.
And... and nothing special.
Also, everyone should go and listen to Wanderer by Elvenking (its somewhere on Youtube). That song is one of the greatest songs ever.
Random Thought of the Day: The reason that I like Heavy Metal is because Heavy Metal guitarists and keyboardists solo. A lot. Not enough Rock musicians solo, or if they do its not often enough. A good album should have like 10 songs and at least 5 solos, preferably 10. If at all possible the solos should 4 minutes long (yes, I don't mind 8 minute long songs. One of the best songs I've ever heard is 14 minutes. The Poet and the Pendulum is brilliant).
Friday, October 9, 2009
Dota and God
So I played dota today; first GOOD games I've played in like a month or so.
First game was five on five, me and my friends against some other guys in the cafe. We lost, very badly. the game lasted seventy minutes because they messed around with us (plus we got two really good ganks on them that were amazing) and let us see if we could win with two of our lanes destoryed; we couldn't.
And now, it wasn't completely our fault... they had broodmother and she was FREAKING VICIOUS. In ten minutes she destroyed the 2 mid lane towers. Her creeps owned us. After about twenty minutes into the game I realized that this wouldn't have been a problem if I had picked Pit Lord or my bro had played and picked Lich or some AoE Intel dude (who was practing for his first "concert" with some friends).
Second game was three-on-three. I played Treant Protector, Saad and Derek played Rhasta and Voidwalker repectively. We one that one, though it took us some time. Essentially we one because their carry, Bone Fletcher, was played by Mukit and we all knew how to counter Mukit's Bone Fletcher; late game he just wasn't that big of a threat. Then, we'd combine ultis in late game and people would just DIE. 2 Overgrowths (I had refresher), Chrono, and Serpent War... three heroes dead easily. We had to build up, but it worked out very well.
On a somewhat more important note: the pastor gave an excellent sermon today. Very good sermon. I think two things he mentioned that need to be repeated over and over again: If the Gospel is so important, why do only foreigners follow it? And if the gospel is so important why do Christians only share it with the poor (not entirely true, but I will say the mission organizations here in Dhaka do very little with the Upper Class - its all about the poor).
First game was five on five, me and my friends against some other guys in the cafe. We lost, very badly. the game lasted seventy minutes because they messed around with us (plus we got two really good ganks on them that were amazing) and let us see if we could win with two of our lanes destoryed; we couldn't.
And now, it wasn't completely our fault... they had broodmother and she was FREAKING VICIOUS. In ten minutes she destroyed the 2 mid lane towers. Her creeps owned us. After about twenty minutes into the game I realized that this wouldn't have been a problem if I had picked Pit Lord or my bro had played and picked Lich or some AoE Intel dude (who was practing for his first "concert" with some friends).
Second game was three-on-three. I played Treant Protector, Saad and Derek played Rhasta and Voidwalker repectively. We one that one, though it took us some time. Essentially we one because their carry, Bone Fletcher, was played by Mukit and we all knew how to counter Mukit's Bone Fletcher; late game he just wasn't that big of a threat. Then, we'd combine ultis in late game and people would just DIE. 2 Overgrowths (I had refresher), Chrono, and Serpent War... three heroes dead easily. We had to build up, but it worked out very well.
On a somewhat more important note: the pastor gave an excellent sermon today. Very good sermon. I think two things he mentioned that need to be repeated over and over again: If the Gospel is so important, why do only foreigners follow it? And if the gospel is so important why do Christians only share it with the poor (not entirely true, but I will say the mission organizations here in Dhaka do very little with the Upper Class - its all about the poor).
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
"Christian" Music and Ramblings
You know what I think is maybe the stupidest question I’ve ever heard? “Are they a Christian band?”
Why is this such a stupid question? Well, let’s pick some “Christian” Bands:
Kutless is a “Christian” band. They sing “Christian” lyrics, are signed to a “Christian” label and tour with “Christian” bands.
Switchfoot is a “Christian” band. They sing “Spiritual” lyrics. They are signed to a “secular” label and tour with both “Christian” and “secular” bands.
As I Lay Dying is a “Christian” band they sing “secular” (but not sinful) lyrics, are signed to a “secular” label and regularly tour with “Secular” bands, but also with “Christian” bands.
Now, the thing is, all of these bands have been identified as “Christian” some, like Switchfoot has attempted to deny this altogether. Yes, they admit their Christian Faith, but they don’t claim to write explicitly Christian lyrics (“thinking man’s band”; IE Christian, or Biblical Lyrics, but they’ve never mentioned Jesus or God or something directly Christian) and they do try to tour and work with more secular bands. Others, like As I Lay Dying simply claim that they aren’t a Christian band, but Christians in a band. No Christian Lyrics or Christian Music Festivals (well… okay if there is ever a Christian Hardcore/Metalcore festival then they’d go to it, but there aren’t enough Christian bands for one of those. That being said the Christian Hardcore Scene is big enough they could tour with only Christian hardcore bands. But they don’t. They do “secular” festivals/tours like Wacken and stuff as well).
What is my point? The entire “Christian” label is meaningless. The First problem is that we one can never truly know how Christian a band is until they talk to them in person. The only “Christian” band I know for sure that has a relationship with God is Leeland, and that’s because I heard Jack Mooring preach to me, and then have him pray for me. I do honestly believe that most of the Bands out there that end up labeled “Christian” do in fact have some sort of relationship with Jesus, but I can’t be sure.
Another thing that bugs me is that we have this label of “Christian” but it only really deals with lyrics. Bands like Third Day are more Country-Rock, Skillet is Hard Rock, As I Lay Dying is Hard/Metalcore. These are all rather different genres yet all the bands get labeled “Christian”. I will admit that there is a CCM industry and a CCM sound along the lines of soft-rock/pop but there are also a LOT of bands that don’t fit that genre that get labeled “Christian” (POD, Switchfoot, Kutless to a degree, Demon Hunter, UnderOath to name a few).
Another thing I think that saddens me about the entire “Christian music” thing is how by labeling bands as “Christian” you alienate a section of the music listening population. Bands like Switchfoot and As I Lay Dying have avoided being labeled for just this reason. They want EVERYONE to listen to their music, and, especially in the case of Switchfoot I suspect (As I Lay Dying seems more to be just “Christians in a band”; they’re not really trying to reach people, just entertain) this is for evangelism purposes (though, it is hard to do evangelism from the stage, it can be done in a lot of ways. Demon Hunter is my favorite example because while in the Live in Nashville concert they don’t ever really mention God, they lyrics in all their songs are so Biblical etc it’s hard not to know what they’re talking about.
… I’m starting ramble here, so let me try to get to my point:
While I understand the Labeling of bands “Christian” (and honestly, it’s the best label for people like Chris Tomlin, who basically does Worship music) at the same time I wish people would stop it. I believe, that Believers should be at the forefront of every single thing in our world: Creative, Political, Economic, etc. The Top Songs on the Charts should be by “Christian” artists, not people like Kayne West or Britney Spears (okay, she is old news now, but it’s the best name I can get right now; I don’t listen to pop). One of these problems is a dearth of musical talents in the CCM Industry, but bands like AILD, Switchfoot, Relient K and Skillet have proved that one can be both “Christian” and “good” so I think that’s more of a general “90% of stuff is Crap” (Moore’s Law?) than anything.
I think in a lot of ways that my passion. I want to see Christians at the forefront of huge, multi-million international businesses, proving that you don’t have to be immoral and greedy to be successful. I want to see Bands like Switchfoot grow to become the next Iron Maiden or Nirvana. I want to see Christian authors to write good, not sappy, moral novels. I’m constantly disappointed by the amount of language and sex in novels these days, but I’ve yet to read a Christian Fiction that I’m truly, truly pleased with disregarding CS Lewis and Tolkien. Two authors out of the dozens I’ve read. How depressing is that?
*steps off soapbox*
Why is this such a stupid question? Well, let’s pick some “Christian” Bands:
Kutless is a “Christian” band. They sing “Christian” lyrics, are signed to a “Christian” label and tour with “Christian” bands.
Switchfoot is a “Christian” band. They sing “Spiritual” lyrics. They are signed to a “secular” label and tour with both “Christian” and “secular” bands.
As I Lay Dying is a “Christian” band they sing “secular” (but not sinful) lyrics, are signed to a “secular” label and regularly tour with “Secular” bands, but also with “Christian” bands.
Now, the thing is, all of these bands have been identified as “Christian” some, like Switchfoot has attempted to deny this altogether. Yes, they admit their Christian Faith, but they don’t claim to write explicitly Christian lyrics (“thinking man’s band”; IE Christian, or Biblical Lyrics, but they’ve never mentioned Jesus or God or something directly Christian) and they do try to tour and work with more secular bands. Others, like As I Lay Dying simply claim that they aren’t a Christian band, but Christians in a band. No Christian Lyrics or Christian Music Festivals (well… okay if there is ever a Christian Hardcore/Metalcore festival then they’d go to it, but there aren’t enough Christian bands for one of those. That being said the Christian Hardcore Scene is big enough they could tour with only Christian hardcore bands. But they don’t. They do “secular” festivals/tours like Wacken and stuff as well).
What is my point? The entire “Christian” label is meaningless. The First problem is that we one can never truly know how Christian a band is until they talk to them in person. The only “Christian” band I know for sure that has a relationship with God is Leeland, and that’s because I heard Jack Mooring preach to me, and then have him pray for me. I do honestly believe that most of the Bands out there that end up labeled “Christian” do in fact have some sort of relationship with Jesus, but I can’t be sure.
Another thing that bugs me is that we have this label of “Christian” but it only really deals with lyrics. Bands like Third Day are more Country-Rock, Skillet is Hard Rock, As I Lay Dying is Hard/Metalcore. These are all rather different genres yet all the bands get labeled “Christian”. I will admit that there is a CCM industry and a CCM sound along the lines of soft-rock/pop but there are also a LOT of bands that don’t fit that genre that get labeled “Christian” (POD, Switchfoot, Kutless to a degree, Demon Hunter, UnderOath to name a few).
Another thing I think that saddens me about the entire “Christian music” thing is how by labeling bands as “Christian” you alienate a section of the music listening population. Bands like Switchfoot and As I Lay Dying have avoided being labeled for just this reason. They want EVERYONE to listen to their music, and, especially in the case of Switchfoot I suspect (As I Lay Dying seems more to be just “Christians in a band”; they’re not really trying to reach people, just entertain) this is for evangelism purposes (though, it is hard to do evangelism from the stage, it can be done in a lot of ways. Demon Hunter is my favorite example because while in the Live in Nashville concert they don’t ever really mention God, they lyrics in all their songs are so Biblical etc it’s hard not to know what they’re talking about.
… I’m starting ramble here, so let me try to get to my point:
While I understand the Labeling of bands “Christian” (and honestly, it’s the best label for people like Chris Tomlin, who basically does Worship music) at the same time I wish people would stop it. I believe, that Believers should be at the forefront of every single thing in our world: Creative, Political, Economic, etc. The Top Songs on the Charts should be by “Christian” artists, not people like Kayne West or Britney Spears (okay, she is old news now, but it’s the best name I can get right now; I don’t listen to pop). One of these problems is a dearth of musical talents in the CCM Industry, but bands like AILD, Switchfoot, Relient K and Skillet have proved that one can be both “Christian” and “good” so I think that’s more of a general “90% of stuff is Crap” (Moore’s Law?) than anything.
I think in a lot of ways that my passion. I want to see Christians at the forefront of huge, multi-million international businesses, proving that you don’t have to be immoral and greedy to be successful. I want to see Bands like Switchfoot grow to become the next Iron Maiden or Nirvana. I want to see Christian authors to write good, not sappy, moral novels. I’m constantly disappointed by the amount of language and sex in novels these days, but I’ve yet to read a Christian Fiction that I’m truly, truly pleased with disregarding CS Lewis and Tolkien. Two authors out of the dozens I’ve read. How depressing is that?
*steps off soapbox*
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Thailand/USA Trip Part 1
*sigh* I think this is like the third time I’ve tried, and failed, to write an update this blog. Its been a while and I’m sorry, but that’s what happens when I go on holiday and get a bunch of new video games.
So… I suppose I should like… start a series on the States/Thailand and ignore the more boring, mundane life here in Dhaka. That sounds like a plan if you ask me. :P
So, first off, a very brief mention of Thailand:
It was okay I guess. Not our best holiday in Thailand. I had fun and managed to relax a fair bit. I watched GI Joe in theaters (reaction: it was good, but suffered from mediocre acting and rewriting characters in a fashion I did not enjoy. But as far as Action Movies go it was good), watched Black Hawk Down for the first time (depressing, confusing, but very good war movie. Not as violent as I thought it would be, surprisingly) and Saving Private Ryan for the second time (I say again: EXCELLENT movie).
Now, the US:
*sigh* the US. There was a lot of stuff that happened in the US. I mean, I’m making some very important decisions over the next few months regarding College and what I’ll be studying etc. I spent two weeks in the US with the primary purpose of looking for a college where I can continue my studies. I’ve pretty much made up my mind I want to be an English Writing Major, probably with a focus in Professional writing (though minoring in creative writing, for fun really, could does appeal to me). Before visiting the states I had three colleges in mind for my future studies: Uni of Mary-Hardin Baylor (UMHB), Baylor University, and St. Edwards University. Both UMHB and Baylor are Baptist schools and pretty much have a strong Christian Worldview. St. Edwards is “Catholic Heritage” meaning it was founded by the same guy as Notre Dame, but felt (to me) a whole lot secular than the schools. No one assumed my parents were missionaries as St. Edwards…
Anyways so I went to the US to specifically look at these schools and try and determine, assuming I could get into all of them (I had already been accept to UMHB with a decent academic scholarship) and see which one seemed like “the best fit” for me.
I visited St. Edwards first and I was very, very impressed with the school. When I visited it a year ago I didn’t seem as impressed. I mean, I guess it was a decent school, but I didn’t really know if liked it that much. This time I had a very different feeling. I went to a Freshman Worldview Class that was very interesting (read: Logic + Modern Politics = Isaac goes debate crazy) and all the students I talked to (a grand total of… 4; which is a lot for me seeing as I’m nearly anti-social sometimes) were very friendly and helpful.
I also talked to two different Admissions Counselors (the homeschool one and the International Admissions one) both of whom were very helpful and had a lot of information that they were able to give me.
To make a long story short: St. Edwards seemed like a very impressive school. Academically I’m sure I can find enough challenging course for me (if not regular, then honors; but I do want to be challenged. Not so much that I overwhelm myself, but I don’t want to feel like I’m wasting time in class or not learning anything), and as far as social stuff: the school is decently big AND its in the middle of Austin. Austin may be small by my standard (1 million people? Pft that’s less than 10% of the population of Dhaka) it is also “the live music capital of the world” and should have enough stuff for me to find myself plenty happy. All I need is a RPG/Wargaming group and I’ll probably be set. I’d like a good DotA group but I’ll be happy without that. I think.
We also visited Baylor a few days later. I personally think that Baylor has a better campus and nicer looking buildings, but that’s kinda to be expected considering Baylor’s bigger budget and general prestige; those get you a better campus.
However, other than that, I was, surprisingly, unimpressed. I mean, the people were knowledgeable and helpful (plus I got a lot of freebies; I got a Dr. Pepper in a glass bottle!) but to put it in simple terms: it appeared God was telling me to go to St. Edwards.
Like I said, I was surprised, I really though Baylor would be my ideal school, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The more I think about it the more I want to go to St. Edwards. I don’t want to start saying “I when I go to St. Eds” instead of “when I got to college” but… I guess I could say that unless there is a serious act of God I plan on going to St. Edwards.
That’s all for now, I’ll post another update later.
So… I suppose I should like… start a series on the States/Thailand and ignore the more boring, mundane life here in Dhaka. That sounds like a plan if you ask me. :P
So, first off, a very brief mention of Thailand:
It was okay I guess. Not our best holiday in Thailand. I had fun and managed to relax a fair bit. I watched GI Joe in theaters (reaction: it was good, but suffered from mediocre acting and rewriting characters in a fashion I did not enjoy. But as far as Action Movies go it was good), watched Black Hawk Down for the first time (depressing, confusing, but very good war movie. Not as violent as I thought it would be, surprisingly) and Saving Private Ryan for the second time (I say again: EXCELLENT movie).
Now, the US:
*sigh* the US. There was a lot of stuff that happened in the US. I mean, I’m making some very important decisions over the next few months regarding College and what I’ll be studying etc. I spent two weeks in the US with the primary purpose of looking for a college where I can continue my studies. I’ve pretty much made up my mind I want to be an English Writing Major, probably with a focus in Professional writing (though minoring in creative writing, for fun really, could does appeal to me). Before visiting the states I had three colleges in mind for my future studies: Uni of Mary-Hardin Baylor (UMHB), Baylor University, and St. Edwards University. Both UMHB and Baylor are Baptist schools and pretty much have a strong Christian Worldview. St. Edwards is “Catholic Heritage” meaning it was founded by the same guy as Notre Dame, but felt (to me) a whole lot secular than the schools. No one assumed my parents were missionaries as St. Edwards…
Anyways so I went to the US to specifically look at these schools and try and determine, assuming I could get into all of them (I had already been accept to UMHB with a decent academic scholarship) and see which one seemed like “the best fit” for me.
I visited St. Edwards first and I was very, very impressed with the school. When I visited it a year ago I didn’t seem as impressed. I mean, I guess it was a decent school, but I didn’t really know if liked it that much. This time I had a very different feeling. I went to a Freshman Worldview Class that was very interesting (read: Logic + Modern Politics = Isaac goes debate crazy) and all the students I talked to (a grand total of… 4; which is a lot for me seeing as I’m nearly anti-social sometimes) were very friendly and helpful.
I also talked to two different Admissions Counselors (the homeschool one and the International Admissions one) both of whom were very helpful and had a lot of information that they were able to give me.
To make a long story short: St. Edwards seemed like a very impressive school. Academically I’m sure I can find enough challenging course for me (if not regular, then honors; but I do want to be challenged. Not so much that I overwhelm myself, but I don’t want to feel like I’m wasting time in class or not learning anything), and as far as social stuff: the school is decently big AND its in the middle of Austin. Austin may be small by my standard (1 million people? Pft that’s less than 10% of the population of Dhaka) it is also “the live music capital of the world” and should have enough stuff for me to find myself plenty happy. All I need is a RPG/Wargaming group and I’ll probably be set. I’d like a good DotA group but I’ll be happy without that. I think.
We also visited Baylor a few days later. I personally think that Baylor has a better campus and nicer looking buildings, but that’s kinda to be expected considering Baylor’s bigger budget and general prestige; those get you a better campus.
However, other than that, I was, surprisingly, unimpressed. I mean, the people were knowledgeable and helpful (plus I got a lot of freebies; I got a Dr. Pepper in a glass bottle!) but to put it in simple terms: it appeared God was telling me to go to St. Edwards.
Like I said, I was surprised, I really though Baylor would be my ideal school, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The more I think about it the more I want to go to St. Edwards. I don’t want to start saying “I when I go to St. Eds” instead of “when I got to college” but… I guess I could say that unless there is a serious act of God I plan on going to St. Edwards.
That’s all for now, I’ll post another update later.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
DotA
So on Friday as normal, I played Dota with my friends. This time I had a really good time. Both games were well balanced and it easily could have gone either way; that’s something that doesn’t happen every game.
First game I played Avernus and let me just say how much I love this hero. He really is a good unit. His passive rocks for chasing, his heal/nuke is good for support and his shield is by far one of the best spells in the game. That and borrowed time is just… epic. 7 seconds with scepter at lvl 16. AMAZING.
Anyways… I won that game. It was interesting. 4v4 and my team had Bone Fletcher, Bounty Hunter and Viper, plus me. Our problem was that in the mid game me being a strength hero, I wanted to push and fight in team battles. But my allies, being the frail agi heroes that they were didn’t. Bounty and Fletcher were all over the map with windwalk and viper (played my Manik) was played in Manik’s usual carry style: slowly, surely creep in the lanes and never stay anywhere too long so that he can’t get ganked.
The second game I played Spirit Breaker, another hero I really like. Its really fun running around the map at 417 MS and bashing people o death. Once again the game was really balanced. My team didn’t have any support hero or real carry, but the opposing team had an axe who played badly (instead of him, viper ended up the tank. Go figure). That being said, in the end my team lost (after 70 minutes of fighting!) because Viper and Omniknight were just too good of a combo. Viper had Khadgar’s Pipe, Omniknight had repel and his ulti and that meant that Viper was pretty much unkillable for much of the team battles. Still I had some pretty amazing moments in that game. I charged axe from my base and killed him before anyone could come for help, that was fun. Then Twice I had amazing battles with Specter. First time we both started at the same amount of health, but he was doing more damage. It was after a team battle so neither of us had much mana. However, I risked that my regen was good enough for me to be able to charge at the last minute. It was close, but when I had about 200hp I killed specter with my charge of darkness.
Second time similar situation. Little mana and low health, except this time Specter was attacking me. I knew I was gonna die, but I hoped that if I turned and attacked I’d manage to get a bash. I didn’t, but I swear if I had gotten 1 bash Specter would have been killed.
Anyways… really awesome time I had. I can tell that I’m improving in DotA, and learning my play style. I play strength heroes, it would appear. I mean, I can play agility heroes and probably should branch out into some Intelligence heroes, but basically I like Strength heroes. Avernus, Nightstalker, Spirit Breaker, Pit Lord, Earthshaker (need to practice with him a bit), Admiral, those are my favorite heroes, all of them are strength heroes.
Anyways… nothing much else going on. I go to Thailand on Wendesday, that should be a fun holiday. I’ll write more later.
First game I played Avernus and let me just say how much I love this hero. He really is a good unit. His passive rocks for chasing, his heal/nuke is good for support and his shield is by far one of the best spells in the game. That and borrowed time is just… epic. 7 seconds with scepter at lvl 16. AMAZING.
Anyways… I won that game. It was interesting. 4v4 and my team had Bone Fletcher, Bounty Hunter and Viper, plus me. Our problem was that in the mid game me being a strength hero, I wanted to push and fight in team battles. But my allies, being the frail agi heroes that they were didn’t. Bounty and Fletcher were all over the map with windwalk and viper (played my Manik) was played in Manik’s usual carry style: slowly, surely creep in the lanes and never stay anywhere too long so that he can’t get ganked.
The second game I played Spirit Breaker, another hero I really like. Its really fun running around the map at 417 MS and bashing people o death. Once again the game was really balanced. My team didn’t have any support hero or real carry, but the opposing team had an axe who played badly (instead of him, viper ended up the tank. Go figure). That being said, in the end my team lost (after 70 minutes of fighting!) because Viper and Omniknight were just too good of a combo. Viper had Khadgar’s Pipe, Omniknight had repel and his ulti and that meant that Viper was pretty much unkillable for much of the team battles. Still I had some pretty amazing moments in that game. I charged axe from my base and killed him before anyone could come for help, that was fun. Then Twice I had amazing battles with Specter. First time we both started at the same amount of health, but he was doing more damage. It was after a team battle so neither of us had much mana. However, I risked that my regen was good enough for me to be able to charge at the last minute. It was close, but when I had about 200hp I killed specter with my charge of darkness.
Second time similar situation. Little mana and low health, except this time Specter was attacking me. I knew I was gonna die, but I hoped that if I turned and attacked I’d manage to get a bash. I didn’t, but I swear if I had gotten 1 bash Specter would have been killed.
Anyways… really awesome time I had. I can tell that I’m improving in DotA, and learning my play style. I play strength heroes, it would appear. I mean, I can play agility heroes and probably should branch out into some Intelligence heroes, but basically I like Strength heroes. Avernus, Nightstalker, Spirit Breaker, Pit Lord, Earthshaker (need to practice with him a bit), Admiral, those are my favorite heroes, all of them are strength heroes.
Anyways… nothing much else going on. I go to Thailand on Wendesday, that should be a fun holiday. I’ll write more later.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Politics and College
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8202275.stm
*sigh*
You know what is sad about democracy? Everyone gets to have a say. Now, I realize this is a much needed right, but, sometimes, I wish people would shut up or get thrown in jail for not doing so. Not for long, but just a few days.
I mean, it’s great that people are talking about the health care system in the US, because, frankly, it NEEDS reform. When people can’t afford to take care of their health, we have a problem. I’m not saying what the democrats may or may not be proposing (I’m not sure what they’re proposing, but it’s the dems, and they’re Pro-big government, something I’m not) is the answer, but I don’t at all like how people are reacting, AT ALL.
I told one of my friends that the politics that are happening remind me of politics here. Politics here in Bangladesh involve two parties fighting, often violently, all the time. Neither side is interested in what the other has to say; it’s a miracle that they get as much done as they do. That’s what I’m beginning to see in the US. It hasn’t gotten to that level there just yet, but it bears a scary resemblance.
On a brighter note: I think I’ve gotten a bigger scholarship from Mary-Hardin Baylor (UMHB). 8k, which is double the old one (IF I’m remembering correctly). Now, I don’t particularly want to go to UMHB but… that’s a big chuck of my tuition. I’ll just have to see what kind of money I can get out of Baylor and St. Edwards.
Also, I’ll be able to participate in an Overnight stay at St. Edwards! I’m very happy about this because I think I should be able to ask people a lot of questions.
College… is going to be a big step for me. I’ve begun to realize this for the past few weeks as I’ve began to fill out college applications for St. Edwards and Baylor. These are big, life changing, decisions I’m going to have to make and I don’t want to make the wrong choice. Not only that but I’m going to enter into a completely different stage of life. I’ve had different changes and stuff but none of them as radical or as sudden as moving to the States (for what will be the foreseeable future. I’ll visit Bangladesh but I don’t intend to live here after College). I suppose the only thing I can do for now is fill out the applications and pray. I have an idea of what I want to do in College… but making those decisions and then succeeding are going to be challenging for me.
Anyways… I should get ready for bed. I’ll write more later.
*sigh*
You know what is sad about democracy? Everyone gets to have a say. Now, I realize this is a much needed right, but, sometimes, I wish people would shut up or get thrown in jail for not doing so. Not for long, but just a few days.
I mean, it’s great that people are talking about the health care system in the US, because, frankly, it NEEDS reform. When people can’t afford to take care of their health, we have a problem. I’m not saying what the democrats may or may not be proposing (I’m not sure what they’re proposing, but it’s the dems, and they’re Pro-big government, something I’m not) is the answer, but I don’t at all like how people are reacting, AT ALL.
I told one of my friends that the politics that are happening remind me of politics here. Politics here in Bangladesh involve two parties fighting, often violently, all the time. Neither side is interested in what the other has to say; it’s a miracle that they get as much done as they do. That’s what I’m beginning to see in the US. It hasn’t gotten to that level there just yet, but it bears a scary resemblance.
On a brighter note: I think I’ve gotten a bigger scholarship from Mary-Hardin Baylor (UMHB). 8k, which is double the old one (IF I’m remembering correctly). Now, I don’t particularly want to go to UMHB but… that’s a big chuck of my tuition. I’ll just have to see what kind of money I can get out of Baylor and St. Edwards.
Also, I’ll be able to participate in an Overnight stay at St. Edwards! I’m very happy about this because I think I should be able to ask people a lot of questions.
College… is going to be a big step for me. I’ve begun to realize this for the past few weeks as I’ve began to fill out college applications for St. Edwards and Baylor. These are big, life changing, decisions I’m going to have to make and I don’t want to make the wrong choice. Not only that but I’m going to enter into a completely different stage of life. I’ve had different changes and stuff but none of them as radical or as sudden as moving to the States (for what will be the foreseeable future. I’ll visit Bangladesh but I don’t intend to live here after College). I suppose the only thing I can do for now is fill out the applications and pray. I have an idea of what I want to do in College… but making those decisions and then succeeding are going to be challenging for me.
Anyways… I should get ready for bed. I’ll write more later.
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