Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Sleepover!

Just came back from Caleb’s (Schmidt) house after a sleepover… lol… more like stay for twenty-four hours… cuz its now nearly six, and I went over at like… 4:30 :P

Anyways… it was amazing. We played on Michael’s Wii console, mostly Wii Sports (Golf and Tennis were the favorites!), but we just talked a lot and we also watched National Treasure some.

Tennis was good, we had a Round-Robin tournament, me, Caleb, Nathan, Michael, and Uncle Silo. I believe Uncle Silo and Caleb went into the finals, and then Caleb won, but it was a good game. I didn’t expect Uncle Silo to get so good so fast… he did very well.


Then, golf… golf was amazing. I didn’t expect it to be so fun, but I loved it! The first game we played was only me, Nathan, and Michael, a nine hole game, and I lost… we all did horrid, actually, cuz I believe the final scores were around 20-25 points…

We also watched National Treasure, which was good… I love that show. We watched it in Nathan’s room, were we all slept (Uncle Silo and Auntie Corina slept in Caleb’s room because they had painters doing there room). But it was nice, because we had AC… so the room was actually almost cold.

Then came the next day, I got up at around 9:30AM (after going to sleep at like… 3:30AM… so 6 hours of sleep… not bad) and had breakfast and a nice, long, conversation with Uncle Silo. After that, Caleb and Nathan got up and we played Wii again… some tennis, some bowling, but our big thing was a 4 person game of golf, all 9 holes.

This game was much better, Caleb lost, because he took some risky shots in two games that ended up messing him up. Michael came next, because despite his strong start, he messed up the last two games and lost his holding of 1st place. Actually, he almost got last place, but at the last moment, he managed to get better than Caleb, he had 9 points to Caleb’s 10. Nathan and I did much better. Both of us were pretty close for most of the game, and at the final game we were tied, 5 points each, since we both made Par, it ended with us sharing 1st place.

Also, we had Samoan Cocoa! It was great stuff… real hot chocolate. Basically, Caleb took pure cocoa butter, graded it, put it in water and boiled it, then poured it into a cup, added a bit of milk and sugar, and there you go! It tasted great… I’ll have to get some more… eh?

And then, realizing that it really was time for us to go (and Caleb mentioning that he needed a haircut…) me and Michael walked back to our house… and now here we are… waiting for the power to come back on… how I hate the lack of power we have…

Anyways… Brian comes back on the 1st of July, and Caleb Meyers should be back with him or sooner… I can’t wait… we’ll have a good month together before both of them leave for College.

And that seems to be all I have to report… write more later.

PS Nightwish rocks! Everyone should listen to them… in terms of musical creativity, I think Nightwish has every other band I’ve heard beat… the combination of heavy metal guitar riffs, opera style female vocals, and classical instruments on the keyboard makes for one extremely unique sound. A good example, IMO, would be their songs Bye, Bye, Beautiful and Amaranth.

PSS: I’ve restarted my Roplaying Blog… read it at: rpdhaka.blogspot.com

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Today in 4him (youth) we said goodbye to Mark. Mark will be leaving for the UK on Monday for a 9-month college course and, hopefully, work experience. While I’m sad to see Mark go, I’m also glad that he is finally getting to go to Europe to do school. He’s been trying to do so for a long time, so it’s a good thing that he’s managed to get all the papers in order for this trip.

Also, I spent the weekend with Julius and Jacob, it was great, we worked on our Fireborn characters… Jacob is Lord Jacob Kenshin, a minor noble and super rich dude. While in London, he lives in a Penthouse in a fancy apartment complex, while in the country, he stays in a big castle that his family owns. He drives around an expensive Ferrari sports car, and well… he’s super rich. Julius is Damien “Rage” Nova, a biker (with an attitude!) he lives with his father and works as an bartender… both of them are really cool.

Oh, I also now have DragonForce, Nightwish and Killswitch Engage on my Windows Media Player. I’m very happy. DragonForce is amazing… fast, happy (happy metal!) and well… amazing… the vocals aren’t amazing… but that’s the only “bad” thing about the bad.

This was written on June 21

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Life in Dhakal... back to normal

Well now, I’ve been in Dhaka over a week now and I figure I should tell you guys what’s going on.

First off, today I’m going gaming in the afternoon and I’ll probably get my butt handed to me by a guy who goes to church with me, one Derek, in a game of DOTA. I’ll be playing sniper, whom I think I’ve gotten pretty good with… wraith bands, regen ring, power treads, and mask of madness make for a decent built… if I have more time I’ll grab butterfly, it’s unlikely that I’ll get that though…

Anyways… I’ve seen all my friends now, I went to Church and 4him on Friday and Saturday respectively, so I’ve seen Siaon, Mark, Max, Jacob, Julius, Austin, Evans, Sayed, yep… seen them all…

Also, I won the campaign for Company of Heroes, it was fun… I love that game so much. And, finally, I’m playing Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, on my Wii… it’s a good game. It was funny, I read some reviews on the game that commented on its supposed “difficulty level”, and yet, I haven’t encountered anything that is beyond the normal, expected difficulty level… its Fire Emblem, one mistake and you’re in trouble anyways… lol. In fact, it’s been made easier because I can, for the first time ever, save whenever I feel like it! Also, I’ve gotten some REALLY good units REALLY EARLY… I’m talking a level 14 General, three GOOD laguz units, a Level 5 Sage (expert mage), a Level 6 Rogue (super thief who’s pretty useful), a level 5ish Swordmaster… etc... they all friggin rock.

Hmm… if you don’t know what fire emblem is, it’s a series of Grid-based (IE the entire map is made of squares, with each unit taking up one square) turn-based (I go, you go, etc) RPG game where you command a small unit of soldiers and fight your way through other soldiers… each unit has a unique playstyle and will use different weapons. For instance, a swordmaster has a good chance of landing a critical strike (anywhere from 11-35% chance depending on the weapon) and a good dodge, but has low health and armor, the armored knight on the other hand, moves slow, but tends to have a good chance to hit and has good defense… lots of attacks will just bounce off the guy. The biggest thing that sets this game apart from other RPGs similar to it is that once you lose a unit, it’s gone, forever, so sorry. As in, if my Level 1 Sniper gets killed, then I’ve just lost my sniper, FOREVER. Yes, eventually, I might have another sniper or archer (the weaker version of the sniper) join my ranks… but it’s unlikely. Because of this, healing units and keeping weaker units (archers, mages, healers, low-level units) out of direct combat is important, and yet, if they don’t fight, they don’t gain XP… which is rather important for them to have.

In fact, it’s all about balancing out your units, using your powerful units to defeat large amounts of enemy units, but at the same time making sure that your lower level units get the XP that they need to level up at a decent pace. As far a strategy goes, the game is 100% stats. You just put the stats in and figure out how much damage the enemy will do to you, which units will take that damage, and if they can survive. You can move a powerful unit into range of the enemy, get them to move forward, weaken themselves, and then move in weaker units to finish them off and gain XP. You can put a unit with high amounts of health at a chokepoint and let them sit there and take damage and then give them full health with your healer the next turn, rinse and repeat. That’s about all there is to the game… learning to account for all variables, and just going with the flow of the game and opponent you’re facing.

Anyways… I’m enjoying it… so I think I’ll go ahead and play so more now… I’ll upload this blog entry later today… if not, it was written on June 18.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Two posts for the price of one!

Since I haven't had internet, here are two posts I've written up, on June 6 and June 9 respectively:

Well, its now the final few hours of my European Adventure™. It was good, we went to Brussels, Bruges, visited a few places were the Somme Campaign happened (World War I series of engagement). I enjoyed staying my dad’s cousin (my 2nd cousin), Robert, and his kids (my 3rd cousins), Seth, Jeremiah, and Thaddeus (Thad).

Hmm… what else can I add? Well, Brussels was cool… we have Belgian Waffles, which were amazing. We saw some famous places, the town square was really nice. Somme was… depressing… LOTS of graves everywhere, most of the unmarked (well, not most of them, most of the ones I saw, but about 40% of the graves are unmarked, which means they buried body parts, unidentified bodies, or nothing at all). Bruges was cool too, we went into a cathederal, which would have been the 2nd Catholic Church I’ve ever been into. It was amazing, they had a statue by Michelangelo in it (personally, I like my 40k art better, but still… Michelangelo) and the Adoration of the Magi painting. It was pretty neat. We also went to the Chocolate Factory, which was very nice… mhmm free chocolate. It was also interesting to see how chocolate came to Europe and how it slowly went from a drink to the stuff we eat today (Chocolate bars!).

Also, I’ve been playing Heroes of Might and Magic V and Elder Scrolls IV again. I’ve given up on my Heroes Campaign, I swear, it is IMPOSSIBLE to beat the enemy in my campaign. I’ve tried, A LOT, but I can’t manage to do it. When we get back to Dhaka, I’ll deal get some cheat codes and kill the dude, then I’ll continue the campaign (without cheats). Elder Scrolls is fun too, I love the game so much, even if I’ve probably played it to death. I’m back to my roots now, no more attempts at pwning the baddies with magic bolts and arrows, I’m a smash and bash with hammer and axe character again. I’m level 4 right now, and have my grubby hands in a bunch of quests from the Dark Brotherhood, Fighter’s Guild, Mage’s Guild (okay, so I only actually have 1 magic skill that I actually use, I still have one!). I’ve been putting off joining the Thieves Guild, but I really should, I’m in the Imperial City.

We’ll be flying back to Scotland tomorrow, from there we take a bus to London, and then a plane to Dhaka. We arrive Monday morning. The plane trip will be painful, but they always are, so I’ll deal with it. I think the worst part will be unpacking and cleaning up. That will take 3-4 days of work, which will be a big pain. Still, I’ll be able to see Jacob, Julius and Max after five and a half months of not seeing them. It’ll be awesome. I do plan on at least saying hello to Jacob on Monday, if not face to face, it’ll be via cellphone. Speaking of which, I do intend to get a cellphone once we get back to Dhaka. It’s time I think, I’m finally outside the house often enough for me to need one, what with me going to church early for set up and gaming on Saturdays.

That’s all the time I have, write more later.


The 2nd One:

Its official, I’m back in Dhaka. The journey was strange, interesting, a bit nerve wreaking, and not at all as painful as some of the flights I’ve had.

You know, I love Dhaka, for a while, I felt like this was all a dream, with everyone I’m meeting again (Messrs. Schmidt and Puyu) and the sites and sounds, the beggars (yes, I am actually slightly happy to see them), the crazy car drivers, the honking horns, the construction sounds, and the like.

I called Jacob a while back, it was great hearing his voice, I’ll see him tomorrow at 2:30ish. Julius, Max, and the rest of 4him I should see on Saturday and/or Friday. Also, I need to get into contact with Jo and Auntie Corina about getting back to my Church duties: set up, sound technician, and Children’s Church, my favorite job. Though, if I have it right I shouldn’t have any Children’s Church duties until September, as they have a “Summer Schedule”.

There are a few things that are different now, Dustin isn’t in town, which is a pain, and the Johnsons have gone for good, which is way too depressing to think about. Still, it’s good to be back, Caleb should be back in town soon, if not already, I saw Andrew at the Airport (it was rather random, he just sorta appeared… he was coming back from Thailand) Brian comes in July.

Summer should be great. Now, wait, it will be great. I’m going to make it one of the greatest summers I’ve ever had if possible. You know, the group of friends I used to have, Hunter, Andrew Jennings, Caleb Schmidt and Meyers, Brian, Matt and Jesse were all great guys, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to replace them. It was really hard when we all went our separate ways, whether to Thailand, India, or back to the US (all of us besides Andrew are 100% American). But I have new friends, Jacob and Julius and Max and all of 4him have become great friends. I can’t wait to see Julius and Max, I really look forward to see Jacob. You know, all four of us are pretty different… Max is a musician first and foremost, he’s always asking really interesting questions, and he’s REALLY big, Julius is like… I dunno… Julius, he’s really funny and really cool. He tends to ask a lot of questions too, but I think that’s because, as far as important questions go and deep issues go, 4him (and thus, me) is the best place for him to go. Jacob and me and the closest but still, we have our differences. First, he’s Bengali, and it shows in his life. He’s always around family, and he acts a bit different because of it. Secondly, well, he’s Jacob… his personality is very different from mine. Still the four of us are united by our common interest in God, Games, and well, the fact that we love each other like brothers.

Enough rambling… I need to sweep my room and then play some video games.