Saturday, December 29, 2007

BIG update

Hey all... BIG update... I'll post it all up:
Hell… I have finally found out what this place is… it is what happens when your flight is delayed 22 Hours three days before Christmas.

I cried. That was the first thing I did. Then, it sank in. I get an extra day. A day on which I can simply relax, watch TV, listen to music and enjoy myself at the expensive of British Airways in a nice hotel.

After a bit of thinking, I believe it really was God. It took us forever to get our connecting flights, but we finally got it… Dhaka, London, Detroit, Houston…. YA! But, that was the end of it… no… we nearly missed our flight in London… idiot security guard. She told us that we had already missed our flight and that there was no way we could make it. Praise God though, we made it, managed to get on board, and well… here I am, typing up this blog entry on my dad’s laptop.

In other news… I’ll miss Bangladesh. I said good-bye to all my friends at Church… it was hard, I realized how many people I have grown to know, trust, and enjoy relationships with. Mark, Sayed, Austin, Jacob, Julius, Max, Saion, Jay, Jackie, Jo, Sam, Deborah, and more I’m sure. What is more is that I know I’ll be missed. Max, Jacob, and Julius really need my support in their day-to-day lives. To be honest, of that group, I may know the most of the Bible… I may understand the more “advanced” principles of what is called Christianity. Its hard living in this world and our religion doesn’t help one bit…

Anyways… I don’t what else to write… I can’t wait to see Muti and Pawpaw, I can’t wait to get my laptop, and I hope that my 40k models get to me ASAP. For those of you who don’t know… I ordered some 40k models (I spent $120ish dollars on ‘em, and my bro spent the rest. Sadly, the models are stuck in the USPS system thanks to Christmas).

Oh, did I mention that I watched 3:10 to Yuma. Very interesting movie. A good western staring Christian Bale and Russell Crowe… well done, good action, nice plot, very good acting. Oh, and right now, I have three movies on my must watch list, they are: Shoot ‘em Up, AVP2!!! And I am Legend. All sound amazing…

Also, I’ve decided to give Heroes another try… I talked to Caleb about it, and he told me that after the first 4 episodes the sex in it pretty much disappears… for which I am very, very, very glad. I actually watched some episodes in the hotel… when were it, yesterday (lol) it looked very good.

Well… I still have another 3hrs left… I’ll do some other writing and get to this movie that I wanna watch called Rescue Dawn… also staring Christian Bale.

NOTE: This may not get onto the ‘net till Christmas… or after, but it was written on the 23rd or something like that… I have no idea what the date is… nor do I care…

* * *

I’m in my grandparent’s house now… very happy. The trip by car was good… I slept 90% of the way. We stopped for dinner at Applebees… I had some of the best beef I have had in years, gotta love Sirloin steak.

Right now I am about to have some breakfast… chocolate milk, bagels, cream cheese… jealous yet?

Oh… a final note on the journey of hell… we lost our baggage. Yes, we lost our luggage… its currently in Heathrow Airport. The ground crew in Houston said that it should all be to us (they will ship directly to Georgetown, w00t!) hopefully by tomorrow… despite it being Christmas. Oh, Uncle Robert, my mom told me to mention that your laptop is in our check baggage, :p rofl.

Merry Christmas!

This was written on the 24th unlike the rest of this post.

* * *

Merry Christmas!

So far, this Christmas has been good… I woke up too early (4:30AM… darn jetlag) but managed to remain mostly asleep until around 5:30. At 6 I got up and opened my stocking and then read a chapter in my newest book, Bitterwood by James Maxey… so far it’s a good fantasy novel. It has some interesting ideas, and I like the way the author presents dragons, he makes them different than contemporary dragon stories, like Eragon, but I ramble… Christmas.

We had breakfast… fruit salad, eggs, bagels, coffee and chocolate milk. Now we await the coming of Aunt Diane and her boyfriend, Mark so we can open presents… I can’t wait till I get to unwrap my Laptop, turn it on and well… enjoy it. ‘Course, I need to buy CoD 4 and CS: Source, but until then I can play Oblivion and Sims 2… I can’t play DOTA as I was a retard and forgot my AI copy, besides, I don’t have the patch… so I’ll need an internet connection… something I don’t have for this PC or any others ‘side my granddad’s OLD PC…

Anyways… merry Christmas to all, may you be blessed.

I’ll update this Christmas post later, after I’ve opened the presents…

Oh, wait… I can blog about my books!
I went to Barnes and Nobles yesterday, very happy, picked up three books and decided to return for two more… Glen Cook novels. Anyways, I got Fulgrim, by Graham McNeil, a Horus Heresy novel on the Emperor’s Children and their primarch, Fuglrim. I also got two Solaris Publishing books, their Anthology of short fantasy stories and Bitterwood, which I have already mentioned.

The anthology is good, I’m sure I’ll enjoy at least most of the stories. I already read the one in there by Steven Erikson (for this Brian, you should buy it, the story is pure Erikson genius) there are also stories by Steven Savile and James Maxey, so I should enjoy the thing. At the least it’ll give me a better understanding of what fantasy is… I need all the exposure I can get if I’m going to make my own fantasy setting.

Anyways… Bitterwood. Its fantasy, but I can tell its set in the future, a future were we are like medieval people and dragons rule the world. Anyways… it’s still in the beginning stage, and people are still introducing themselves, so far the main characters are all dragons, but I hope we get to see lots of the dragon killer, Mr. Bant Bitterwood.

So… my life of novel reading is, so far, going very good, the only thing that is frustrating is the lack of Malazan books… I haven’t asked about Ian Esslemont’s book, but I really should, the only problem is that it is Hardback… maybe I can leave it here.

* * *
Dec 28
Well…. Lets see what have I done the past few days?

Well… I haven’t read that much, but I won the single player of CoD 4 on regular. It was VERY fun, I very much enjoyed running about with M4A1s that are either silenced or have an underslug grenade launcher. Also, I really like the nightvision thing… its fun. Finally… I now know why a person would use their pistol over their assault rifle… if you silence your pistol, in close corners, it can be very useful. Anyways… I can’t wait to play the game in multiplayer, which should be very fun.

Company of Heroes is also good. I’ve already played it a bit, but now it runs properly, nice and fast. So I’m enjoying it a lot more. I think the final games I really want are Bioshock, Mass Effect (if it is for PC) and Medieval Total War II… I may have to pick one over the other… but whatever. Oh… I also want a real copy of CS… but I want to check if I don’t already have it… as I know I already have HL2 Episode One, which may have it already…
Anyways… a while ago I realized that I need to start accounting, lol. So I installed Quicken on my PC and will deal with all that probably on Saturday or Monday.
In other news, I hope to see AVP2 either Saturday or Monday as well…
I also need to make an order off of Amazon. What am I buying? The Tome of Salvation, Night’s Dark Masters (if I have the money) and Storm the Gates of Hell, an audio album by Demon Hunter. My bro will be getting Realms of Sorcery and my mom will also be buying him Skillet’s lastest album, Comotose.
Well… I think I’m gonna go write some random stories and stuff.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Christmas Blues

Well… I leave soon. I’m excited. I’m depressed. I’m… scared (?) I don’t want to go. I don’t want to leave, Brian, Caleb, Matt, Julius, Jacob, Max, Deborah, Jo, Jay, Jackie, Evans, Austin, Sayed, Mo, and the rest of 4him and my friends. I want to go. I want to see Muti and Pawpaw, Aunt Diane, all my cousins, all my family. I want to go. But I don’t, but I do. Get the point?

I played most of Half-life 2: Episode Two, didn’t finish it, but got really close… so I figured I won’t need to buy it in the states. I got Jimmy Eat World’s first album. I love it.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas. May your life be as blessed as mine! I wish you all my greatest of blessings. May Jesus Christ bless you and fill you. This year, I pray you may all get to know him in a deeper a more intimate way that the one before. May my Lord, and hopefully yours, keep you safe.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Updates!

Darn it! I forgot to upload my two most recent blog entries...

well there they are, this one is dated December 5

Hmm… I haven’t blogged in a while… so I guess I’ll go ahead and do so.

My life, day by day, grows more and more crazy. What can I do? A cyclone hit Bangladesh… giving my parents extra work, their company is getting audited, and my mom, being unofficial head accountant for her company in Bangladesh is really busy. My dad is in the process of getting himself ready for leaving for the States. Making sure he has the right presentations and the like… ya know? It’s a lot of work… and a pain.

And me… I have school… lots of school. Science has been easier, one experiment shouldn’t be too hard, on the other (if we do it) will not be too bad. Next module we don’t have any experiments, YA! It’s on Evolution… I already read through it a while back, and it’s very good… Dr. Wile does a great job of pointing out all the flaws, misconceptions and bad ideas that the Theory of Evolution has… it’s really sad that scientists continue to believe it. You would think they’d give up and come up with a new, equally flawed idea… but no, they just edit and change the Theory of Evolution… sad.

Anyways… I am, for the hundredth time playing Neverwinter Nights… doing what I call speed leveling. I am using a combination of cheats and knowledge of stuff to grab all the crap I need from chapters 1 and 2 to get to chapter 3 ASAP. I should finish Chapter 2 by the end of this weekend. And hopefully get to chapter 4 by the time we get to the States… if I work really hard, I might be able to go to chapter 5… but I doubt it.

Also… the more I play Neverwinter Nights, the more I realize how stupid DnD is… I am a level 6 Dwarven Barbarian… I can easily take on 4-5 orcs (with the help of my level 6 Halfing Rogue) or ten-twelve goblins with real ease. Now… while that may not sound bad… the thing is… they don’t even hurt me… it would probably take 15 orcs… attacking me AT once to do any reasonable damage… even then, I wouldn’t die as I would have three or four potions… which I should be able to use. Plus, I usually don’t bother with using my Barbarian rage, which would help. Oh… did I mention I have magical armor and a magical sword… at only being level 6?

Now… while WFRP may be more of on the opposite edge… to me it’s more realistic. By the time a player gets to say… their 2nd career, they can easily take on 1-2 1st career monsters. So, a party of 4 could take on 4 1st career people with a very good chance of winning. If they were really unlucky, or most of the characters were non-combat characters (IE a scribe, servant, valet, and student, instead of a Soldier, Wizard, Bounty Hunter, and Mercenary… or even a mix of them, a Bounty Hunter, Servant, Student and Merc), they may end up losing.

But in DnD… only fighting 1 person per PC? What crap is this! No, no, you must take on 10 people per PC to make sure of a kill. I swear, by level 10, I could probably break into a poorer noble’s mansion and kill everyone… wait… I did that at level 5!!!! With what? One rogue and one barbarian/fighter… once I even did it with a pair of fighters… it gets a bit silly, IMHO. Especially when I start killing giants… that was just plain dumb.

So… for all of those here who are going to be making RPGs… please, remember, NO STUPID POWER LEVELS! NORMAL POWER LEVELS PLEASE! I DON’T WANT TO BE ABLE TO KILL GIANTS REGULARLY AT LEVEL 12! (Out of twenty mind you… so that would be a character who has gained 60% of his exp… plus my henchman… so two characters…).

If you must include Giants, Dragons, and the like, make them only killable by HIGH END characters… in DnD terms that would probably be characters with SUPER UBER GEAR!!!!11!!! IE longswords +10 that does 3D6 extra fire/ice/sonic/whatever damage and armor of equal power that are around levels 19-20…

In WFRP terms, that’s a lucky party of warrior characters (Champions, Witch Hunters, and Daemon Slayers…) with a few magic weapons (Greatsword that does extra damage) and is smart (IE they trip the dragon instead of attacking it outright… that or bring an army and dragon-slaying objects with them).

End of Rant.

See you next time.

Isaac

PS you may be wondering why I am playing Neverwinter Nights, eh? Well… it’s because I don’t have anything better to do. DOTA is boring unless I can play multi-player as my favorite hero is not in AI mode (he is now the Sacred Warrior… I LOVE this guy). Sims 2 is okay for temporary distractions… but only such. There is only so many times I can power level my way through a family… getting everyone to the top of their careers in 27 days… so here I am… playing Neverwinter Nights… a game I never bothered to beat because I kept messing up my saves and stuff.

Don’t worry, once I go to the states I will get a Real copy of Company of Heroes, Call of Duty 4, Medieval Total War II, and play Dow: DC and DOTA online… plus all the other games I talked about… not to mention start assembling new 40k models and stripping (paint wise) old ones…


And the next one, dated December 10th

This Saturday I went to the 4him “formal” christmas party that we had.

Actually, it was really formal, more like semi-formal. Generally, the men were supposed to wear pants and nice shirts, and if they could, a tie as well. The girls were encouraged to wear skirts of some sort or a nice saree/sawar.

Anyways… it was nice and fun. We hung out, talked, ate lots of good food (mostly chicken… no rice, surprisingly, and a beef pie which was very nice), drank lots of good drinks (Chocolate Milk! Soda! Water!) and good desert (Lemon Cake and Chocolate Cake… plus some local sweet thingie and donut bits… all very good). We had the traditionally 4him White Elephant Gift Exchange… the one where everyone gets a number, and, in that number order, you take turns picking out a gift. However, once you have picked your gift, it can be “stolen” from you. One gift can be “stolen” twice. If your gift was “stolen” you can “steal” another gift (but you can’t steal yours right back!) or take another gift from the tree.

The fun thing about this is that the good gifts are often stolen a lot and the bad gifts (gag gifts… like toothpaste and soap) curse their owners with the fact that they must pray that someone is strange and takes their gift… fun, no?

The party was fun… it is always great hanging out with my friends, and the food was really good. So, I enjoyed myself.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Oh… only 12 more days till we go to the States… I’m not sure if that’s totally a good thing… I still have a lot of school and my parents are beginning to panic with the amount of work they have…

Monday, November 26, 2007

CS stuff

You know, Counter-Strike is a really good game.

Why do I say this? Well… it is.

Now… of course, CS wouldn’t be so fun if we didn’t have the amount of players that we have at the game cafes. Seriously, if everyone at the Game Café (the biggest one, mind you… we have other, smaller ones that we play DOTA, Generals, C&C 3, and possibly Call of Duty 4) we can have easily 12 on 12 matches. THAT is a lot players… especially for some of the smaller maps (Stone World IV is tiny! Yet we do it). Of course, this also works for bigger maps like Aztec and De_Dust2.

Of course, it wouldn’t be fun without the “good” players. By that I mean there are two groups of people that play CS… the bad players who just come for fun but don’t really know how to play, and the much better players who game their like EVERY day for HOURS.

How about me? Well… I only game weekly (though I may increase that this summer… money allowing, lol). But I would say that if I work in a team (IE, I don’t run off by myself and get killed) then I can do fine. I won’t hit the top kills, but 3rd or 4th place… which isn’t bad. Of course, depending on the map, I can easily hit higher… but with maps like Aztec or De_dustII… I tend to get killed a lot more than I would like (last time I played Aztec I had a 1:1 death/kill ratio… IE I would kill one person, and then die). Honestly, the only way I can see myself improving would be gaming more often. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get the money for a real copy of CS Source in the States and game online there… if not, I’ll have to pray that I don’t lose my amazing skill.

What weapons do I use? Well… of all the weapons, pistols, SMGs, Shotguns, Rifles, Machine Guns… I use a little of each, depending on the map. For instance, De_Dust, Italy, and De_Dust II, I can use most SMGs… though De_Dust II isn’t really doesn’t do good with SMGs (the map is to big for the short-ranged nature of an SMG… to many spots were rifles and such will pwn you). So… I’ll start with pistols and work way down:

The only pistols (besides the default, free one) that are worth anything are the Nighthawk (similar to the Desert Eagle) and the Duel Elites (2 9mm, if I am correct) The Nighthawk is a 7 clip gun that will kill someone in 2 shots to the chest. However… if you miss, you’ll probably run out of ammo and die. Still… it’s the best pistol in the game. The Duel Elites have more ammo and fire faster, but don’t do as much damage. Still, they are about equal to a cheap SMG, so that’s not bad. I tend to lean towards the Night Hawk because its actually a bit cheaper.

Shotguns… well, these weapons are very focused and only good for certain maps. Why? Shotguns have a small ammo amount (max of 7 shots… not good) and are short ranged. The one/two shot kill thing is great, and in small, crowded maps, someone who knows how to use the shotgun is a very good addition to any team. I personally only use the expensive shotgun because it fires much faster (semi-auto… the cheaper one is even slower). However, it’s not cheap, so I don’t use it to much.

Rifles. Rifles are the bread and butter weapons of CS… as such, if an SMG is not good for the map, I will them. I prefer SMGs because of the cheapness of the weapons… I can save up and then splurge on a big gun like a shotgun or multi (more on these later). Anyways… there are two kinds of rifles, snipers and not snipers. The most common not sniper is for the Terrorists the Ak-47 (known as the CV-47) and for the Counter-Terrorists the M16 (Maverick something). If I play CT, I’ll use the Maverick quite a bit, I like it. There are other guns… various snipers, some semi-snipers (zoom, but not near as nice as the snipers of the game), the Krieg and Bullpup (one for CT, one for Terrorist), I’ll use those if I have the money, and it’s the right map, but I don’t have to. Finally, the snipers… I don’t use the bolt action snipers (Magnum and Schmidt) but I will use the Multis (semi/full-auto sniper) from time-to-time… I’m not that good with it, but I can use it… sorta… not really.

Finally… the machine gun… I don’t use the machine gun, its expensive, and not that good, I don’t use it. In fact, I don’t know how to use it… it would appear that the huge ammo clip would allow for suppressive fire… but this isn’t a game where you want to try that… we have respawns and mass charges… plus flashbangs.

One thing I forgot to mention was equipment. Here you can get nightvision, bomb defusal kits, Kevlar, smoke, flashbang, and HE grenades, and extra ammo. Obviously I always buy extra ammo, sometimes I get either an HE or flashbang grenade, it depends on the map and how I’m feeling.

So… that’s me and CS

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Stuff....

What is magic? This is a question that I have asked myself almost daily for a long time now. Why, you ask, right? I mean, obviously, magic is a supernatural force. But, I am sorry, that is simply not a good enough answer for me.

For instance, take the Novels Eragon and Eldest. In these books (I know, they aren’t the best books in the world, but the magic system is a good one, IHMO), magic is a combination of mental and psychical strength and the knowledge of an ancient language. For instance, if I say “fire” in this language, with the right intention and stuff (saying “fire” is not enough, you actually have to summon the magic to you), then that will happen… fire will come, either it will magically appear on the ground, on your sword, or perhaps your arrow.

In Dungeons and Dragons, the RPG magic comes in four forms. The magic of a wizard, the magic of a sorcerer, the magic of most divine spellcasters (IE paladins, blackguards and clerics) and finally the magic of druids.

Wizards cast spells through a combination of strange words, gestures, and magical components. When all combined, these three things can bring about extremely deadly consequences. However, the amount of work, through memorizations of ancient tomes of dark knowledge (sorry… I can’t help but picture evilness in magic… its how I think) to the consorting of demons (who in my mind, are always evil and untrustworthy).

Sorcerers, however, simply cast their spells through sheer willpower and innate strength. No magically theory, no spell books, gestures or goblin teeth. Just sheer mental willpower. They simply CAN cause fire to come from their hands. Obviously, the power of a sorcerer is must more unrefined and dangerous than that of a wizard. Think of it as the difference between a man who is a genius because he worked really, really, really hard and one is just IS smart. The first man may actually know more than the second, but the second man will still give him a lot of competition.

Divine magic is an entirely different thing, however. Divine magic is, simply put, blessings from the gods. A cleric can heal you because his god wants him to heal him. Same with paladins (and there counterparts, blackguards), usually though, paladins magical powers are much less so than clerics. Druids are extremely similar to divine spellcasters expect in the fact that they draw their powers from nature, which is sorta divine (at least in Dungeons and Dragons).

You see? Two different settings… four different ways to cast spells. All four can bring about the same effects (the healing of wounds, the creation of fire, ice and water) but each are at least somewhat different!

So, my question for a good while now will be the following: What is magic? Now, when I say this, I do not want a generallistic answer. I want your personal preference. How do YOU define magic? Is it a set of rules that can cause devastation? Is it simply runesmithing? Or perhaps alchemy? It is a great deal of different kinds of magic? Is it similar to Warhammer? Or perhaps Eragon? Maybe wizards are more like Gandalf, more like advisors with great power, perhaps? Or are they like Quick Ben of Malazan, a man who tricks gods into doing his will, and at the same time can bring some serious power to bear (hey, he helped kick the butt of the White Crow! (Forget his full name… sorry))?

There are so many possibilities… I want to include all… but if I do so… magic won’t be that cool, just “meh”, ya know?

So… seriously… anyone who reads this, reply, either by commenting in the blog (you know you want to, :P) or by emailing me (if you know my email), heck, you can even write on my wall on Facebook! (yes… for those of you who may not know… I do have facebook (Roy Isaac Johnson)).

Perhaps later I will give an update on my life… another weekend article, perhaps?

Ttyl…

Isaac, the masterofweirdness

Sunday, November 11, 2007

My Weekend II

My weekend was, once again, really fun. First off, we had a good church service, then I went to club and ate lunch. Afterwards, me and Julius (who came with for a sleepover) lost a game of football (soccer for you Americans) to three other guys. It wasn’t that they were better… they just had a goalie… and more players.

So, then we come home, hang out, and Jacob comes by, we hang out some more, we get dinner, have dinner, watch Top Chef, and then Roleplay, which I will tell you about on my WFRP Campaign blog. All I will say is that it was amazing.

Anyways… after we roleplay, we just hang out a bit… we talked about random stuff... and about 1:30AM I went to sleep.

The next morning we have chocolate chip pancakes, I tell Julius about DOTA, Jacob left early to go to a concert (NOT that kind of concert… just him and some other kid’s doing this thing called God’s Candidates). So, we hang out, Julius prepares to lead worship at 4him, and then we go to 4him.

At 4him, Dustin spoke… which was great, he gave his testimony about how God brought him to Bangladesh and how God saved him from Leukemia and all that. It’s a really great story.

Then we come home… go to sleep and well… it’s now Sunday.

Oh, one more thing. We now have a tentative night for 4him Formal Christmas Party. What does this mean? It means I have to wear a tie and collared shirt to a party… evil… stupid… silly…

Anyways… onto life.

Oh, DOTA 4.49b is now out… www.getdota.com just remember, you have to have a patched version of Wacraft III: The Frozen Throne, before you can play!

Sunday, November 4, 2007

My Weekend

Well… I had an interesting weekend.

Church was good… it was Children’s Church this week, which means that I had to help out… it, was great though, I ran two of the games, and they were really fun. Naomi and Nate did the play, which rocked. The sad thing is that Dustin, the guy was running Children’s Church is leaving to go back to the America for a year.

Then… Saturday… I went gaming, I got Season I of Heroes, and got some more WFRP Character Sheets… so I’m ready for all those 2nd Careers that will be coming up soon.

Gaming rocked. We played a bit of CS_Italy, which went terribly… the Terrorists didn’t know how to play a hostage map… you wait for the enemy to come to you, not run around like a bunch of ninnies, which is exactly what they did. We also played a bit of DE_Dust2, which wasn’t bad… but my team, the Counter-Terrorists didn’t do so well.

Finally, we play DE_Aztec… a map set in an Aztec ruin. It was HUGE and well… in this map, I finally truly understood the beauty of the Krieg Commando and Bullpup… decent scoop, high rate of fire, and well… that’s just want you need.

I also learned a great new tactic… hit and run. It’s quite simple, you enter a room, there are two CT or T in it, you shoot a bit, run out, run in, shoot a bit, run out, rinse and repeat until they are dead… it works pretty well.

I also learned that pistols are, in fact, quite good. Jacob told explained it to me. The best pistol, the Nighthawk, is basically a 1 Shot kill weapon, it kills you really easily, and so, you grab one, kill someone, grab their gun, and boom! You have a free gun.

Anyways… finally… 4him… this was… depressing. Jackie and Jay will be leaving this Summer for the States… which is really sad, because well… we’re not ready for them to leave… to put it plainly, it is there job to mentor us to become men and women of faith that know our faith, and while some of us, like Evans, Sam, Jo, and Mark, possibly are ready to have them leave, Me, my sister, Jacob, Julius, Max, and lots of others are not at ready for them to leave. Now, it wouldn’t be to bad if I wasn’t leaving for the States for 6 months in 7 weeks… I won’t be seeing them much…

Anyways… my goal I guess with them would be to have a meeting with Jay some week before we leave, talk to him, and stuff… an overall goal with 4him would be to find a new Youth Leader for the guys… I mean, to an extent Debra’s bro is there (I don’t know how to spell his name… so I won’t misspell it, lol) but, he’s still… in a way… one of us… sure, he’s 26 or something, but still… he is in a way still a member of 4him.

Anyways… guess the only thing I can really do is trust God… he’s provided for me before, he’ll do it again, I know. Still… no one can really ever replace Jay.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Counterstrike

I am getting better at Counterstrike.

At least, I think I am. Well… maybe I just had a team that actually knew what they were doing… that probably helped. Anyways… by the end of the game, I, the harvest/masterofweirdness had 11 kills… Jacob, AKA Deathwalker, only had 2. It should be the other way around.

But, I think that, generally speaking, we played better. We knew how to trap the Terrorists, we played defensively on a map where that works really well, and, we had a good team. The terrorists were good, but, they just didn’t have the skill or perhaps luck.

Anyways… I have now mastered the art of walking sideways and shooting accurately with an SMG… next goal is to master the same with the M16 and AK… as well as master using a Bullpup and Krieg Commando. Then, get those headshots down.

Gotta go, ttyl

Oh, the miseries of this life!

Yes, life is terrible. Dustin is leaving (/cry) but this means we are in charge of Kid’s Church (by we, I mean Jo) (/clap). We had a guys night *is happy* but we also have much school *is sad* I wrote an essay *is proud* but I don’t know how good it is *is annoyed that despite hard work, will possibly receive unacceptable grade*.

I think you get the point.

Well… I’m figuring out my laptop. I’ll be ordering it within the next week or so, maybe later. It’ll be Alienware, 15.4” Plasma screen, good graphics card, 2Gig ram, 160gig hard drive, Window Vista, etc.

Anyways… I’m going to go to Jacob’s now.

Ttyl.

Isaac

Thursday, October 18, 2007

India Trip pt. 2

Okay, well, now on to the next part of this trip: the Trip to Kovalum.

So, after spending a day at Hebron, the Hebronites, those kids (erm… wrong word, not all are kids) students, who live at Hebron, only had a half-day of school. So I hung out with my friends, I went out to eat at HBH, Hyderabadi Biryani House, and then packed up for the bus and train trip to Trivandrum.

The bus trip was… a pain. We got a flat tire, and they only had to put on a tire about… 3 times (okay… we have a flat… we fix… wait… we have a flat spare… wait… we fix… we must put on old flat… go up street… remove old flat… put on new tire from tire shop… see! We fix!). After that… we hung out at the train station waiting for our train. It was sleeper class, which means no-AC and less secure, but since it was just a couple of hours, I didn’t care.

However… I was feeling sick. I had a feeling it was some bad chocolate I bought (since that was the only thing that I had eaten that Brian hadn’t). Anyways… I was an idiot, and I didn’t go into the bathroom when I knew I was about to throw-up… instead I threw-up in the hall… woke everyone up, and then crawled into my bed and tried to get some sleep.

Anyways… I we arrived in Trivandrum, and then took a taxi to Kovalum, and arrived at our hotel. We booked two rooms, one for me and Brian, and another for Julie, Uncle Jim and Auntie Elaine.

So… we were in Kovalum! It was awesome… we had a beach (one that had lost about a foot of itself since the Hebronites had been there last time… we all joked about Global Warming) several restaurants, one of which showed movies another of which stayed open till midnight, and all the ice-cream, and soda we could afford. It was on this trip I decided to start drinking coffee in the morning regularly… I have not yet regretted it.

Well… there’s not a lot to say unless I wanna go into a ton of detail… so I’ll give a list of what I did at Kovalum.

  1. Stayed up till 1AM every night.
  2. Watched several movies, including Jeepers Creepers 2 (waste of time), the Bourne Ultimatum, Transformers the movie, Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer (second time I’ve seen it), Nightwatch, and possibly others I can’t remember.
  3. Went swimming and got smashed by waves… very fun.
  4. Went to the top of a lighthouse (I have a photo of this).
  5. Played Lord of the Rings Risk three times, and lost each time.
  6. Played the Starfarers of Cataan (Boardgame), and lost at this.
  7. Played Command and Conquer 3 (PC game), and decided that it, sadly, does not live up to the likes of Red Alert, Red Alert 2, and Command and Conquer 2: Tiberium Wars.
  8. Discovered two new, great Warcraft III Custom Maps, Footman Wars, and Moo Moo Town.
  9. Watched a replay of how two people beat 5 Insane AI on DOTA (version 3.8 something, using the old guy’s AI, not RGB’s one). Lol… I sound like freak when I say that…
  10. Ran Through the Drakwald (the WFRP intro adventure) for Caleb, Abe, and Brian… that was soooo fun. More details of this in my WFRP Blog (http://rpdhaka.blogspot.com/) coming soon.
  11. Generally had a great time.

Soon, ya, that was Kovalum. It was awesome, that’s really all I can say. I mean, I had a great time, I really enjoyed myself… and in all honesty, it was a great experience.

The trip back was okay… I took two trains (one 18 hour train, another 48 hour one), and one airplane (1hr trip, but the plane was delayed by 4 hours… so I sat in the airport for six hours, instead of the customary 2).

Oh, I also brought back three books, the Bonehunters and Reapers Gale, books six and seven respectively of the Malazan Tale of the Fallen Series by Steven Erikson (I have already nearly completed Bonehunters) and Children of Hurin, a book of JRR Tolkien’s that was published Posthumously by his son, Christopher Tolkien.

Also, I got both of Evanescence’s(Alternative Rock) Albums… very nice music.

Now… its back to school, with only a few days off on Thanksgiving until my Christmas holiday in the States… *sighs*.

See you later.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Part one of India Trip 2

Well… now for that more in-depth India trip update.

First… the journey to Ooty: Well, I had to spend the night at the Dressner’s house, because the bus trip was early in the morning.

The bus trip itself wasn’t bad, a bit boring, but not to bad or anything. The bus was AC, so I wasn’t hot or anything.

Then, we crossed the border, which was by far the worse immigration I have ever completed… I thought the Dhaka Airport was slow… this was… pathetic. For some strange reason I had to wait ten minutes before they figured out how to process an American passport…

Anyways… afterwards, I had a decent lunch, and we took a taxi to Calcutta… were we stayed in a cheap hotel (my room must have been like 10’-6’)… dinner was okay… and I had a decent sleep. I woke up at 3:30AM to catch my flight… which wasn’t that nice, but it was a cheap flight, so I can’t argue.

After this flight, I spent the day in Chennai at the house of a mother of a friend of the Dressner’s… in the afternoon I went to the mall… which was nice. Then that night we took the train to a town near Ooty, and a taxi from said town to our hotel in Ooty. Finally, after two days of traveling, I reached Hebron School.

At Hebron:

Hebron was nice. I only got to see one of the two parts of the school (Lushington) the other part (Selbourne), the girl’s dorm, was smaller and not the main part of the school. Anyways… the school was nice, the worst part is that it is on top HUGE hill… and I had to climb this hill… it was a real pain.

Anyways… it was cool seeing where Brian lived, Caleb, and Bala lived, it’s a nice campus. The best thing about this part of my trip was the nightly dramas (that week is drama week, where the parent’s come and see a drama that classes 7, 9, 11, and 13 have prepared for them). I missed class 7, which preformed The Emperor’s New Clothes and The Last Dress Rehearsal… but I got to see Class 9’s Hamlet and Stone Soup, class 11’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and Bertie and Wooster, and Class 13’s Les Miserables (not sure about the spelling there…).

A quick review of all the plays:

Hamlet: In all honesty, this play wasn’t that nice… it was a really hard play for class 9 (equal to 9th grade for all you non-British people)… and much of the play had to be cut and pasted. Its only redeeming elements were the added bits… such as a hilarious take on the player’s performance for the King. Still, it was well done 6/10.

Stone Soup: A funny take on a well known children’s tale. This play was great… it was funny, it had memorable quotes (“What king of idiot do you take me for?!” Says the general, “I don’t know, there are many kinds,” says the old woman…) and was quite funny. 8/10.

To Kill a Mockingbird: Hmm… this one I didn’t think did that well… once again, a very hard play to do, and I’m not sure they hit the mark. I read To Kill a Mockingbird, and to get it right is really difficult. All in all… I don’t think they failed, but I know they could have done a better play considering Stone Soup, a play preformed by a younger class, that IHMO, was better. 6/10

Bertie and Wooster: Better than To Kill a Mockingbird, but not amazing. It had its moment’s and for a Class 11 (equal to 11th Grade) performance, I thought it was great. There was room for improvement, so it only gets a 8/10.

Les Miserables: Okay, this blew me away. It was amazing. Everything was done perfectly, and, the best thing was the fact that, IIRC, everything was done by students! Granted this was Class 13 (officially, High School Senior class… but honestly the work they are doing is equal to College Freshman or possibly Sophomore for some classes), but still… none of these guys (well… maybe one or two) are drama majors or anything. They are amateurs… how did an amazing job. Now, I have neither read, nor any of the Les Miserables stuff, but the whole play was amazing. We had two, student preformed songs… one of which made the audience cry (the only reason I didn’t cry was because by the end of the song the only thing I was trying to do was NOT CRY), and another which had everyone laughing. Brian’s part in the play was perfectly cast for him. He played the simpleton that was mistaken for the main character and put on trial for crimes he did not commit. He was very confused and funny, he did his performance amazingly. All in all, this play easily gets the 10/10 mark.

That was Hebron.

Later, I’ll give you the rest of my 2nd India trip this year.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Back in Dhaka

Quick note: I am back in Dhaka.

A much more detailed update will come soon.

All I will say was my Holiday was awesome. I met all of Brian's friends (well, basically, I didn't actually meet one or two, but I saw them all), and enjoyed the beach.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Life Update... again

Okay, quick update.

Well, life is good; I leave for India for two weeks and will be without internet (most likely) for that time. So, this may be the last time you hear from me for a while.

Right now life is good. I’m greatly enjoying Company of Heroes and looking forward to the next three months (or so) until I leave for the States. School is going well… my schedule is a bit messed up, but that will be all over once I return back from India, in fact, I think I’m going to be a little behind!

Anyways… English is decent… no real writing yet, just some silly paragraph thingie… real short and really easy. Math is going okay, my schedule is all screwed up and I’m trying to figure out how I can get as much school work done in a very small amount of time…

So… on with life!

Oh, yes, I am, for the millionth time, also playing KOTOR II: the Sith Lords… this is without a doubt the best RPG (aside from Golden Sun II: the Lost Age, of course) I have ever played… Oblivion comes pretty close, but Oblivion is quite different… its more free-form and the action is real time (which actually makes the game more intense I guess) but Star Wars is turn based and the story is quite linear. To me, the game is so amazing because of the background and thought that goes into the conversations… what are the Sith? What does it mean to be a Jedi? Where do the Sith come from? What is the Force? How does one use it? These are really amazing questions… and well… they are awesome.

Oh, and in other news… there will be a new Dawn of War expack… not sure what will be in it, or if Relic is even creating it, but the supposedly, Dark Eldar are rumored to coming with it… of course, I want Dawn of War II, and unless this game has some coolio stuff… I’ll probably just stick to Company of Heroes, and its Expack, Opposing Fronts, which is coming out this Christmas. Oh, and Halo 3 when (and if) I get an Xbox 360.

Okay, I didn’t upload this stuff… which was written on the 26th of Sept 2007… however, I will upload today, I think.

Anyways… I was going to blog about something… I forget now… maybe it was, oh, I dunno…anyways…

Oh, here’s something to blog about: my 40k army.

Well… you see, I’m a space marine fan. I like all sorts of space marines… Space Wolves, Black Templars (at least, I like their fluff… I don’t think I’d play them with the rules they have now… not competitive enough), I’d even give Dark Angels and Blood Angels a go… though in all honestly I don’t like the whole “combat squads” rule (which IMO, gives your tactical squads a lot less flexibility). However, I do also like them Chaos Space Marines… I’m not sure why… but they have that “evil is cooler” thing with them. Plus, I know that if I’d play them, then I’d play them as a Renegade Chapter (that is, a space marine chapter that went rogue)… to me, it just is such a cool idea.

So, at first I resisted it… after all… it would mean buying a new codex, and then converting my measly 1000 pts of space marines into CSM… not to mention trying to work out how my Command Squad, Apothecary, Termie Chaplain and Space Marine only units would fit into the picture…

But… then I said… WHY NOT!!!! CSM FTW!!!! CSM RULE!!!! NO COMBAT SQUADS!!!! Sorry... that was IsaacII, the evil side of me… Oh… and as Hairy Yahoo (40kterra guy) said, I ate the cookies.

Anyways… so, I’m gonna do it… I’m going to convert my marines… stock up on Plague Marines… and the best part is I know several people who are willing to sell me Primed (in Flat Black do less!) and assembled 3rd ed. CSM CHEAP!! (I love 40kterra… so wonderful).

So… yes… I will be doing my best to get as many CSM as possible (after my laptop… and if I have more money, an Ipod and 360… and books… ahh… so much to buy!).

Oh, and speaking of my laptop… I’ll be getting an alienware… so all you gamers out there… but jealous… be very jealous!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Company of Heroes - my new PC Game

Well, I’ve been playing Company of Heroes for about a week now (it’s actually been more like 5 days), so I guess I’ve played it enough to give a general idea of what the game is like. Now, mind you, I haven’t gotten every single unit in the tech tree, or even tried my hand at the German army, but, I do feel like I’ve had enough experience to give a general idea of what the game is like.

First of all, if you didn’t know, Company of Heroes is Relic Entertainment’s (the makers of hits like Homeworld and Dawn of War) 4th RTS game. It is set in WWII, and does the usual campaign, D-day to Berlin. In it, you command Able Company of some regiment and fight the German Army.

Anyways, the game is really good. It’s much more focused on Squad-based combat, and thus is much smaller in scale than games like Command and Conquer or Age of Empires. Your basic squads come in units of 6 for combat squads (1 sgt, 4 soldiers, and 1 special weapon, like a Bazooka, a 55mm Recoilless Rifle, or a BAR gun), and things like artillery teams, machine gun and mortar crews come in groups of 3 (one spotter, one gunner, on ammo guy).

The game really does focus on squads, but tanks and other vehicles play a good part. Your infantry are helpess against tanks, and not that effective against Half-tracks and such, so if you go up against a tank, even with a bazooka or Recoilless Rifle, you are in serious trouble.

However, tanks do have weaknesses. Artillery can outrange them and pound them to the ground. Mines, which can be set by engineers (and in some instances, riflemen for the Allies) will make quick work of them, and if you can stay away from them, your bazookas will eventually finish them off.

One of the really cool things about the game is the realism. Your men operate like real soldiers. When you order them to walk through a street, they don’t jog up the center as fast and as loud as they can, making themselves perfect targets for the enemy. No, instead they do their best to take cover, hide behind fallen rubble or derelict cars. That way, when the machine gun post up ahead starts firing, you don’t lose the entire squad, if any.

Then, there is the resource system. Much like its predessor, Dawn of War, you gain resources by capturing Strategic points on the map. However, unlike Dawn of War, you gain ALL (not just 1) of your 3 (not two) resources, manpower, munitions, and supplies, by taking points on the map. Also, unlike Dawn of War, your points must be linked in order for you to get supplies from it to your HQ. So, if you have points A and C, but don’t have point B in between them, then you can’t get supplies from C to A. This really opens up strategic opportunities in the game. It’s not necessarily about owning the field, but about denying your enemy resources in their front. Taking 1 key position and heavily defending it can ruin your opponent’s entire “economy” as it is.

Second of all, upgrades and stuff work differently. In most games, you upgrade your squads at the base, and they all feel the effects. They gain a special gun, more armor, more attack, or possibly a new ability, which they can use free of charge from there on. In Company of Heroes however, you must pay for EACH use (and I think pay for the initial research charge as well), making your abilities much more expensive. Still, the ability to throw a satchel charge at an enemy building, and destroy it, or stick bomb a tank and hope to blow its tracks, is much better than getting killed. And, generally speaking, I haven’t felt the sting of this quite yet, though I’m sure it later missions it’ll be much more annoying.

Anyways… those are what I think are the best points of company of heroes… you can read a real review at places like Gamespy, Gamespot, and IGN. Go ahead and check the game out, it is defiantly worth a buy.

Signing off for now,

Isaac

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Felt I should post this up

I felt that I should post this up, these questions were ones I had to answer in History class this morning

  1. Historically, has Christianity impacted law and politics? - Umm... YES! What do you think Constantine did? He changed the face of Europe by making Christianity the official religion of Rome. Oh, and then of course we have the fact that in most of the Middle Ages the educated people (and thus, the scholars) were almost exclusively Christians. To this day, most Western (Europe, the US, and Canada) laws are assumedly based off of Biblical principles.

  1. Assuming you believe that Christianity has impacted law and politics in history, do you think any of its influence has been legitimate? Why or why not? - World book defines legitimate,as: "allowed or admitted by law; rightful; lawful." And well, since it has only been in the past 100ish years that scholars have tried to ENTIRELY wipe Christianity (and in fact, religions in general) from the face of the scholarly world (in the sense that they enjoy telling us who idiotic religions are), and in fact, before we had proper written Government laws, we only had laws and decrees from religious documents (the primary one in the Europe was the Bible=Christianity), I would say that in fact Christianity CREATED the first laws in Europe. IE they made law, so how can we call Christianity illegitimate?!

  1. If there is a difference, what is the difference between Christianity and being Christian? - Yes, there is a big difference. Christianity is what I would call a set of ideas and morals, based on the teachings of Christ. However, a Christian is a person who has decided to follow these teachings, as well as (this is the most important part, for without it one can never enter Heaven) have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

  1. Considering the history of Christianity and politics, how or why do you think Christians themselves (let alone scholars) would say that true Christianity only has to do with a person’s inner life? - Because Christians have accepted the LIE OF SATAN that Christians should not, and in fact are not supposed to, have anything to do with politics (other than perhaps praying for those in power). This is a LIE. It has no basis in Biblical Truth. From the earliest times, Christians have been involved in politics. Paul appealed to Caesar not because he was afraid he would lose his case (he cared not whether he won or lost) but because he wanted the most powerful man in Europe, Northern Africa, and Turkey and parts of the Middle East (possibly the most powerful man in the world at the time) to hear the Gospel, and hopefully accept Christ SO THAT HE COULD USE HIS POWER FOR THE GOOD OF THE KINGDOM OF JESUS. The only way to BE SURE that those in power will do God's will is by electing people who we can be assured are Servants of the Most High God.

  1. Is it possible to focus on one’s inner life while also being engaged in the world? Why or why not? - Yes. By simply living the lifestyle outlined in the New Testament by Jesus, Paul, and the other early Church Leaders WE WILL TRANSFORM THE WORLD. Mankind cannot ignore the truth. When someone lives that truth, people take notice. That is the nature of the truth. People HUNGER for the truth, and when we show them the truth, they will take it. Simply by walking in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we will transform this world.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

My weekend

I had a good weekend, many good things happened to me.

  1. I beat Michael in DOTA
  2. I discovered a new Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne mod, Herocraft!
  3. I BOUGHT COMPANY OF HEROES!!
  4. JACKIE AND JAY CAME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you can see… many good things happened to me this weekend, first the DOTA game:

I was Dwarven Sniper, Michael was Faerie Dragon. I owned him. Why? Because well, I would use my ultimate (Assassinate, a super long ranged attack that does massive damage), TWICE, and then shoot him a bit, killing him pretty badly. I did this a lot. Finally he gave up.

Also, I had more gold than him. I gained more gold because I had a better attack rate, and better attack. The combination meant that I had more gold, and had better items, which meant I kill him better.

Anyways… now Herocraft; Herocraft is a coolio Warcraft Mod were you MAKE your own hero (using all the abilities from the original Warcraft, cool, no?). Now, when I mean make, I mean you actually say what your stats are, and your body is just for looks, it does nothing! (except if your ranged you can use passive ranged powers…)

Okay, I also got Company of Heroes, Relic’s latest RTS game (even then, its pretty old… I just never got around to buying it), I saw it in a store when I was looking at speakers and headphone/mic combos… I’ll talk more about that when I’ve actually played some. Right now I’ve only just beaten the 2nd level.

And my youth pastors came back!!! YES! Jackie and Jay are back after THREE MONTHS in the US and UK. Me and 4him is happy, and yes, I know that was bad grammar, lol.

Anyways… my weekend was great.

Friday, September 14, 2007

I dunno... no title, lol

Well, I just finished my Bible Class (I’m taking a few minutes break before moving on to PE) and umm… wow.

Okay, first of all, what I hope is my main textbook for this year (I have two), Tools of Dominion is really good. At first I was worried, because the author (Dr. Gary North) starts talking about views that I don’t agree with (the coming of Christ). However, after that, its all great. He examples, with clear, obvious Biblical backing, and good examples of how it would work in the modern society, why, and how we should implement the Case Laws of Exodus (Exodus chapters 21-23) in modern society.

While that may sound really boring, it’s quite amazing. I just finished a section on interest and usury. He just explained clear, concise English why humans demand interest for loans, and why to not demand interest is against human nature. What does this have to do with the Case Laws of Exodus? Well, a lot (okay, a vocal minority most likely) of Christians think that the idea of interest (for anything!) is unbiblical and asking for interest is a sin. So, Dr. North confronts these ideas, and first disproves them using the Bible, then goes on to explain that asking for interest is a natural part of human nature.

In other news, I started English this year. My first class was umm… not much. We spent some time introducing ourselves, and then went over various things in GP4 (the program we use to do class) works and how we will use it. This was a bit of a disappointment, as I wanted to get onto some of the actual work. But, hey, I started English! My first math class will be later today. I started math two weeks ago… and am ahead by that much… but I’m not sure how long that will remain, as I’m trying to get ahead in Bible, and haven’t done math the last two days. (I think I’ll try to get some done tommorrow).

Oh, and I’m trying to finalize the details for my CS clan. Right now the name is Unholy Retribution, but I’m working on changing the name, not sure what yet, I’ll work on a list, and see what everyone else thinks.

Anyways… ya… that’s my life right now.

Oh, btw, due to internet problems, I may not post this till tomorrow. The date right now is September 12.

DUDE! I just realized that I forgot to post this… it is now 2 days later….

See you guys!

Sunday, September 9, 2007

India 1st time this year

Greetings to those of you (I can use plural, right?) that read this blog of mine. I am writing this on my father’s laptop in a villagey area of India, just outside of Pune, which is near Mumbai/Bombay. Anyways… this will be one huge blog entry, as its going to be a combination of various days and facts and crap. Enjoy!

* * *

Well, I am now in the hotel room in Lonovala, India, after several days in Pune.

Pune was good, I met up with a few old friends, I saw the Soares, the Ingolls, the Claasens (not sure about that last one…) as well as Sushom (no idea how to spell her name) and EJ.

And now, it’s not that bad either, the Cochranes (minus the father… who is not here for umm… things that I know I shouldn’t ask about), the Radfords were supposed to come, but they couldn’t make it… that would have been neat, since I haven’t seen Caleb in forever.

Anyways… I’m in the process of writing the Fourth War, which is going just fine. It’s interesting, writing it, since it’s more of a collection of stories and adventures, rather than a proper story. I defiantly think the best thing about this story is that it isn’t Warcraft Canon, and is totally unrealistic (honestly, I just castrated the humans, not to mention the dwarves) oh, and I killed Malfurion… and am trying to figure out how to kill Illidian, while at the same time figuring out who has the power to kill Arthas (no one, really, so I’m going to cheat).

Anyways… I’m to do something else now; I think maybe play some video games.

Oh, totally random, Thousand Foot Krutch (Christian Rock/Metal) is a totally awesome band.

EDIT: Okay, I forgot to mention, I’m at a meeting here… I won’t say which, but since I’m going to assume that most of you know me in Real life, you can ask me in person, if not… I dunno…. Email?

* * *

Well, I had an adventure… chased after my room key (thought my sister had it, when she didn’t…) and in the process got soaking wet… I’m drying now… but my clothes are still wet.

Anyways… I had some of the famous chikki (an Indian sweet I crave) and it’s not bad… I liked the Fudge we bought better, but, well, you can’t please everybody.

At child care, we have now played quite a few games… Shuffle Your Bums (or whatever you call it… lol), Do you love your neighbor, Signs, this hand squeezing, message passing, game, Mafia (my favorite, lol), as well as a few others, I think.

Anyways… I’m going to try and do some Latin.

* * *

Tomorrow is the last day of the conference. I’m not really sad, though I would like to stay and hang out with some of the kids in Pune for a while, still, I need to get back to school…

Today was good, actually, I mostly stayed in my room, I went down to Child Care and played Mafia (that game is fun…)

In other news I’m playing Pirates! (the 2004 version, not the 1984 one, lol)… which is good… actually, I think I might have to retire my pirate soon… I hope not, because I want to try and rescue my family…

Okay, well, that was pretty disjointed… anyways… I’m going to play Pirates!

* * *

Hmm… well, the conference was good. Yes, I am now speaking in past tense, meaning that the conference is basically… umm… over.

The last session I attended was AWESOME, and well, most of the conference was pretty good, I enjoyed it a lot, and well, ya.

Anyways, I’m not sure what else to say… I met a lot of cool people, (including India’s most traveled musician, Benny Prasad), and some other people. Oh, and I also met this guy who’s home church is one that my Uncle Steve pastors… which totally rocks.

Anyways… I liked this conference, I didn’t think it’d be this fun, but it was, I only wish I could now spend maybe a couple more days in Pune meeting with some of my old friends there, but well, school beckons, and I have Potter’s School starting next week.

Well, I need to stop blogging here… I have History to do, I’m trying to get ahead for yet another venture into the grand nation that is India, this one with my friend Brian and his family and his friends.

I will see you people (again, I can use plural, right?) later… the political background to the writing of the American Constitution awaits me!

* * *

Well, I am now in the NEW Bangkok Airport, and after 4 visits (including this one) I have finally decided that it might actually be a half decent airport.

First of all, the design is terrible… it’s bland, boring and repetitive. Second of all, its frikkin’ HUGE!!! The first time I was here I went from the International Terminal to the Domestic Terminal and I kid you not, I bet I walked about 2KM in 20min (impressive, no?)

But this trip wasn’t so bad. I had French Fries, Coke, a few Hash Browns and a Dairy Queen small Blizzard for breakfast, plus a few sips of coffee from my mom.

Also, I have decided that not enough people read the kind of books I read, that is to say, pulp fiction and Steven Erikson. I was in a book store (in the airport, btw) and it had a decent selection of Fantasy (I recognized several of the series and authors, even if I have never read them), but NO Steven Erikson, Tad Williams, George RR Martin or any of the other authors who have a tendency to write 1000 page books in series of 10+!!! I understand why Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, and Black Library books wouldn’t make it into a book store like that… but the fact that Steven Erikson, a man who was awarded one of the biggest writing contracts EVER (500,000 Pounds Sterling right up front!) isn’t in this book store just bugs me… its almost unjust, IMO.

Anyways… in other news, I had a terrible flight, the movie system broke and I was miserable the entire flight… and then there was the Turk who was hitting on the flight attendant…

Okay, I’m now going to write some more of the Fourth War… Onwards with Fnedar and Raganov!

Monday, August 27, 2007

Rain. It’s an interesting thing, rain. And well, it does so in a lot of places, especially Bangladesh during the Monsoon season.

If you hadn’t figured it out, it rained yesterday, it rained quite a bit. Well, at least it rained in the part of the city I was in (Uttara). It didn’t rain all over the city.

Also, well, I dunno… I’m finding it hard to blog about stuff… because right now, life is so… normal… I do school, then I fool around, read a book, surf the web, and listen to music… and ya, that’s about it.

Oh, if anyone who is reading this hasn’t already, they really should give Steven Erikson’s Malazan Tale of the Fallen series a try, the books aren’t for everyone, however, they are excellent works of literature. I’ve been rereading the 1st Book, and I’ve learned quite a few things that I missed (or couldn’t have known because I didn’t know other things).

Anyways… on with life.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Sleepover

Last night I had a sleepover.

Well, not me exactly, actually, my sister and my brother had a sleepover.

Mike’s friends, Nathan and Charles came over, while Rachael and (not for the entire night, but for dinner and then a bit) Audrey came over.

It was fun… we played Gamecube, DS, and generally just messed around. Oh, and that was also why I was awake at 11:30PM, lol.

Anyways… now, I’m not sure what else to talk about… this is the sad thing about my life… it doesn’t seem that fun.

Oh, I’m going gaming today… not sure if Jacob will come, but Mike and Nathan will.

Anyways… ya…

I’m tired.

Of course that might be because its 11:30PM on Friday… I’m not sure…

Anyways…. umm… my week was good… school is umm… not bad (lol!)

Oh, there’s a curfew. Ya, we can’t leave our house, due to some college students rioting, protesting, and burning up cars. The military was in the streets yesterday, and tommorrow they will most likely continue the curfew (it was not enforced today, ‘cuz its Friday).

Anyways… ya….

Oh, when this is posted up, it will no longer be Friday, but Saturday (or possibly Sunday).

Now, I’m going to watch a movie…

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Life... its normal

Well, last I checked it was 100% humidity outside and raining… but, that’s normal for this time of year in Dhaka.

Still, I’m enjoying myself… Malazan #5 is great… the usual Malazan stuff that’s so addictive.

As for school… well, I’m struggling through The Institutes of Biblical Law, enjoying Basic American Government, resenting the fact that no matter how I push it, I have to do biology with Exploring Creation with Biology. Its not that the book is bad (no, in fact, I would go so far as to say that Dr. Wile (the author) is the best Science Book author that I have ever read!), its just that I don’t like science. I’m also struggling through In the Shadow of the Almighty a biography of Jim Eliot.

Oh, and my Latin book is umm… the Author’s name (Henle) and Latin… something like Henle Latin I or something… its good, pretty basic, and I’ve already done this a while ago, still, I am very much enjoying it.

Oh, and I’m writing a bunch of different stuff now… got a Sci-fi story going, but right now I need to sit back and outline a bit. Then I think I’m going to continue the stories of all my WOW characters… Laen (well, technically, he’s not mine… he’s my friends, but I’ve written about him), Qzar, Griwn, Fnedar, and Tarnoc, plus others, a Death Knight/Lich, and Bladzun the orc. Plus canonical characters like Thrall, King Bronzebeard, Sylvannas, Arthas, the Lich King, Illidian the Betrayer, Maiev (MAYBE), Malfurion Stormrage (twin of Illidian), and Furion’s wife… durn, forgot her name.

And, ya… that’s what I’m doing now.

Man, just reading that list of characters make me shiver with excitement, so much potential, and so many good characters.

Oh, one final things… by now everyone is back in school, which means everyone is back (but not necessarily in Dhaka) from summer vacation... which means all my friends (at least, my boarding school ones) have departed and Nathan Schmidt is now back in town.

Ya, until then.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Well, school is here... and it isn’t that amazing.

Now, don’t get me wrong… I enjoy school, of all the subjects I’m taking this year, the only one I don’t want to take is Biology, and the only one I’d rather not take is Bible (I know I’ll learn something, and I want to learn it… but well… its just something that I’d rather not do).

However, the AMOUNT of school I have is umm… depressing. I have tons of school, and the worst part is, two of my subjects (Math and English), which I am taking via Pottersschool (a online-Christian school) won’t start till September!

So, I am now going to have to work extra hard… I have lots of school, and I want to take a 2 week vacation with my friend Brian in India… not to mention I’ll be going to the States for six months around Christmas time, which isn’t helping my school schedule.

Anyways… ya… that’s what’s up with me.

Oh, and my friends are going to sorta make a band (I can’t play an instrument, and dislike performing in front of crowds, so I won’t be joining), and I think they are going to take my name suggestion seriously, I suggested they name it Thirsty.

Monday, August 6, 2007

YA!! BOOKS!

Well, FedEx dropped by... ya!

So, I now have my Geometry Book, all of my English Books for the year, and best of all Midnight Tides, Book Five of the Malazan Tale of the Fallen by Steven Erikson. It rocks.

Right now I am in the process of writing out my next RP session (updated Dhakite Rpers... read it if you haven't link is: http://rpdhaka.blogspot.com/) and listening to Thousand Foot Krutch (given to me by Brian).

See you guys.

Saturday, August 4, 2007

My summer... what did I do?

Well, for the first time in quite a while, I woke up before 8AM today. (My mom was nice and let us sleep in until 7:40AM). So, I suppose I should begin the beginning of school with a list of things I completed this summer:

Book Read:

  1. Empire of Blood by Richard A. Knaak
  2. Read parts of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Series by Douglas Adams (reread some books and read others, not sure which).
  3. Read parts of a Robin Hood Book (still reading it)
  4. Dragons of Spring Dawning by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
  5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows by J. K. Rowling.

Of all of these books, I think I enjoyed HP 7 the most, and read it in the least amount of time (I finished it in under 24 hours… 10 of which I was sleeping!). I defiantly enjoyed all of them, but HP will defiantly have a special place in my heart.

I did other things this summer to. I watched a bunch of movies (Hot Fuzz, Batman Begins, Luther, and others I can’t remember) watched all of the 1st 2nd and about half of the 3rd Season of Lost. I also had weekly sleepovers with Brian. Another thing I did was learn how fun regular visits to the Gaming Cafes can be. Right now, I’m in the process of trying to form a Counter Strike Clan. It won’t be easy, but I’m going to try.

What else have I accomplished this summer? Well, I played, and won Max Payne 2 on Normal and Hard. Started, but didn’t finish, Overlord (will do so), got a bunch of music (Linkin Park, Thousand Foot Krutch, Disturbed) from my friends (Jacob and Brian) and finally decided on what I hope will be my 1500pt Space Marine Army.

Anyways… time to get back to the salt mines. I have History awaiting me.

Friday, August 3, 2007

School - needs more love, but deserves some hate

School. The Bane (big B on purpose, lol) of all (some) who make use of a School’s educational facilities, anyways… I must brave a trip to mine (well, sorta) on Sunday, for I, must continue my High School Education.

Yes, I know, terrible isn’t it? Well, not really, I actually am looking forward to this year. I’ll be taking English, Civics/American Government (it looks better than I thought it would) Biology (last time I ever will take this course), Geometry (not sure what to expect, but it’ll be fun, same teacher as last year), and Latin (better than actually LEARNING a foreign language, believe me!).

So, 5 courses, and a ton of work, it’s not heaven, but it’ll be fun. Yes, I’m one of those “freaks” who enjoys school… no, I’m not to cool for school; I’m just to smart for it (lol).

In other news, I got my copy of Harry Potter 7, and also received 2 of Disturbed’s Albums from Jacob today, its Heavy Metal (and Rock) in its true form… loud, headbanging, and freaking awesome… I turned it on a while, and right now my ears are ringing, but well, its still great stuff.

So… ya… that’s me. And remember, any new people who haven’t seen my blog, please leave a comment.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Update on summer life

Dude… it’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog… so, what is my life like?

Well, first of all, I’m enjoying playing lots of video games… DOTA… CS… Supreme Commander… Oblivion, those are the ones I’m playing.

In, fact, I’ve decided to form a CS Clan… yes, I, Isaac, the masterofweirdness, will be a member of a CS Clan, possibly the first of its kind in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Which rocks.

So, who are the members of this clan? Well… so far we have 5 definite members, 1 temporary member, and will hopefully get a 6th soon. They are: Masterofweirdness (me!) Deathwalker (Jacob, one of my best friends), Cyborg Lancer (Jacob’s friend) Bloodsucker (Jacob’s other friend) Paradon (my bro, Michael), Scintus (my friend, Brian, who goes to a boarding school in India).

So, I need to talk to Jacob, and have a “clan meeting” with all of our members… figure out some basic plans, tactics and the like, then we can try and find 6 on 6 matches in some of the bigger game cafes… who knows, maybe we will become famous (at least, in the Bangladeshi Gaming Scene)… I can just imagine it now… my paper in the weekly youth section of the Daily Star (man… that would so rock!).

Ya, so that’s CS.

Oh, clan name (at least, the only suggestion we have) so far is Unholy Retribution.

And also, I’ve been playing DOTA… which is cool, not really amazing, but its fun. Then of course there is Supreme Commander… which totally rocks.

Supreme Commander, is basically, this huge mega game where maps are like from 4KM^2 to 81KM^2… freaky huh?

So ya, its all about HUGE armies… with unit caps at like 1000. Armies are usually sized at 20-100… and that’d just be one attack force.

Obviously, the main part of the game is land battles… but, it does a good job of giving naval and aerial combat a lot of space. The only thing about this is Naval units are limited (because they are well… ships!) and airplanes (no helicopters… unless gunships count) are very vulnerable to anti-air defenses. Of course, if you can destroy them in the first wave of bombers… then you can do pretty good I suppose… but that’s a big if.

One of the things that makes Supreme Commander so different than most RTS games is that defenses are VERY powerful. Generally speaking, the best way to destroy a defensive building is to outrange it, no joke. Okay, so ya, you could try and attack them with 100+ tanks or something… and while that would be SO fun, it’s not practical.

Anyways… that’s my life.

Oh, and I just recently got Zoegirl’s final Album from my sister’s friend… it’s not Heavy Metal… but well… it’s pretty good.

Monday, July 2, 2007

Wow... another quick update

Yep, I've been lazy in updating this blog, so well, lemme try again.

Brian came back, and that's cool. I slept over at his place this weekend.

Matt Kain's back, and we've been playing Football/Soccer at church before 4him, that's real fun.

I'm playing Oblivion again, which rocks.

I finally got the Wacraft III mod, DOTA (Defense of the Ancients), which rocks.

I've decided to try and go for a Play By Post Roleplay, so that I can actually see what its like (sorta) to play a character in Roleplaying.

So ya, that's what I'm doing now.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Wow... quickie update

Well, I looked at this blog... and realized that I hadn't posted in like 2 weeks...

So, how is my summer? Its fun! I'm playing Evil Genius... (PC game) preparing for RP sessions, and enjoying my involvement with the 4him youth group at church... I go to church 3 times a week now (regular Friday English service... youth music stuff on Thursday and youth group on Friday). Oh, we also play soccer on Saturday.

Also, I'm now gaming more often... you know, going and playing CS: Source at the gaming cafe for really cheap prices. Its all fun.

Also, I am invovled in 2 group stories on the Black Library fan forum... its forum.blacklibrary.com... check it out some time... the fan fiction board has a lot of junk, but also has some good stuff (Rise of the Tau, is a big epic, worth reading if you have the time. Also, a good story I am reading on there is Chaos Orphan, by Monochrome, its pretty gruesome, but very well written). The link to that is: http://forum.blacklibrary.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12560&whichpage=1

Anyways... hope all you people (I can use plural... right? right!) are enjoying your summers... I'm enjoying mine!

Signing off for now... Isaac, the (in)famous masterofweirdness

Friday, June 15, 2007

Summer

SUMMER!!!

Yes, summer is here, summer is here.

So, now I must figure out what I am going to do for the next few weeks (erm, 2 months or something like that). Besides sleepovers, Rping, Gaming, writing, and the usual stuff, that is.

And yes… Brian comes back next week, Julie (his sister) is already back… so that rocks.

Oh, also, not sure if I’ll actually commit, but I’m starting to learn how to work the sound system at my Church… I’ll talk to Austin (the guy who’s in charge of it now) about helping him set up a few times… which is probably the best way I’ll learn.

Anyways, back to life…

Isaac the masterofweirdness signing out for now.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Wet

It’s wet. I mean, it’s very wet.

Of course, since it’s rained yesterday for like… umm 6+hours I not surprised… still, its weird to touch the furniture or the table and realize that you’ve just touched water.

So yes, yesterday Dhaka flooded, my road was bad, but others were worse (knee and waist deep!), but, now the storm has passed over us and its just amazingly humid (like 90% humidity).

And some other stuff… I was really sick of not knowing how to update my Golden Sun files (in this game called Golden Sun: The Lost Age, if you put this password from Golden Sun into the game you get special bonuses and stuff), so I found a website that somehow managed to give me a password… so I updated one of my Golden Sun: The Lost Age files (YA!).

Also, tommorrow, I, Jacob, Michael, Caleb, and Jacob’s friend (whom I never asked what is name is… lol) will go Gaming for like maybe 2 hours… I just need to SMS Caleb and tell him the time (around 11AM). If you don’t know what gaming is… well, since Dhaka does not have Hi-speed internet people go to little “Game Cafés” where you pay to LAN with other people in the Café… people here mainly play Counterstrike Source and Call of Duty 2, though the warcraft mod Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) is also popular in some Cafés.

And ya, that’s about all… time to get on to school, this should be my last day of non-summer school… w00t!

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Rain and other

“Raining, so much raining.”

These (according to my father) are words I uttered when I was a wee little boy (if you can imagine me, a 6ft tall 15yr old to be little) said during the monsoon. And, joy of joys, the monsoon is now here in full force… it’s been raining since maybe about 4AM… its now just past 10AM…. So yea, it’s raining.

Yesterday was Saturday, which meant that I went to Youth at church… me and the guys went early and played soccer (erm, football) for a few hours, which was really fun. Oh, and in case you didn’t know, I’m not that good at soccer, still, I had an assist, so I guess that means something.

Finally, I’m getting sick of Hasina and her whining… who’s Hasina? Well, Hasina full name is (IRRC) Sheikh Hasina Wajid, she is the head of the Awami League political party.

You see, if you had been paying attention to Bangladeshi Politics, then you should know that right now the current government is not actually a democratically elected government, but an “interim” government created to prepare the polls for the upcoming election.

Well, to make a long story short the first interim government that was created was unfair and tried to rig the polls for the BNP (Bangladesh National Party, the other main political party), which the AL (Awami League) didn’t like, so they protested by shutting the capital down for a few weeks. It worked, and a new interim government was formed, this one backed by the military (which some have interpreted to say that the military is now running the government, which isn’t true).

This government looked at the polls and said that they are totally screwed up, so they are in the process of fixing it. Meaning the elections that were supposed to happen in January 07 probably won’t happen till January 08.

Now, recently, the Fiscal Year ended, which meant that the Government needed to create a new budget. Now I didn’t read that carefully, but apparently Hasina didn’t like the budget… in the paper to day she made some dumb comment about the budget not being “acceptable” because the government that created it was not “democratically elected” (however, one should ask which government is more corrupt, the democratically elected BNP government of the last 5 years, or the current one… the answer is the BNP, which is strange). And well, to put it mildly, Hasina needs to shut up, everyone’s sick of her whining. I mean, a few months ago she was jumping for joy because she had stopped a rigged election, and now she’s jumping in anger because there is going to be a “free and fair” election that is actually going to be “free and fare”.

And so yes, that is life here in Bangladesh.

Oh, on another note, one of the older Youth dudes (as in, guys from my 4him Youth Group), Elvis is in Dhaka on Summer Holiday, which rocks.