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!