The life of ME!

New Blog

2010-10-05T13:49:00.000-07:00

I started this blog... four years ago. Its been a good run, a really good blog. I've posted a lot of stuff and enjoying sharing my life with whatever tiny number of people read this. However, I think I need to move on. I'm gonna be starting a new blog at a new URL. To be honest, its primarily because I want to change the blog name. I'm no longer masterofweirdness. Sure that's still my email, but emails are harder to change, and have another account name as well that I use, plus my School email.

Also: I'm at a different point in my life, and this transition requires... yea... a new blog.

So yea... I'm gonna start a new blog, the link is: lordtoasty.blogspot.com I just posted my first post.

LoL WCG 2010

2010-10-02T20:00:00.000-07:00

So LoL WCG is over. A few things I'd like to say about the games:

First of all, Europe was a one trick pony, and honestly, that's rather disgraceful. Now, I admit its better being a good one-trick pony instead of a bad jack-of-all trades that SEA tried. But nonetheless, in the finals, they showed how bad their playstyle was against a solid, smart team. Sure, Twisted Fate is apparently a hugely powerful hero, but one ban should never shut your team down that badly.

Secondly, South East Asia (SEA) needs, needs, needs, to get better. They certainly redeemed themselves in the 3rd place match, beating China, but I was embarrassed by their play in the Round Robin and the Semi-Finals. They displayed the skills I would expect of a mid-ELO pub team. Something like the DotA teams they compete in Dhaka. My cafe in Dhaka has a darn good DotA team, arguably the best in Bangladesh, and that's awesome. But this WCG. SEA obviously did not have the skill to be playing at this level against the battle-hardened Western teams. That needs to change right away. SEA needs to get its act together and build some seriously skilled and talented teams.

Finally, I'm really proud of North America. Yes, I was rooting for SEA, but North America winning is almost as good. I think it says something that America was able to so quickly identify and shut-down SK Gaming (Europe). What I can't wait for now is ElementZ (of CLG, Team North America at WCG) to update his tier listing, which will no doubt be quite different, I think there will be some serious change ups.

All I can say is that its been a great experience, watching some of these League of Legend matches live. Its been embarrassing and awesome this weekend. I have confidence that South East Asia will get its act together over these next twelve months, and I hope they will bring with them a powerful and expert style of play. I'm happy that North America beat out the rest of the world in this tournament and I hope that CLG and the other high-tier American teams continue to put on a great show.

2010-09-29T10:25:00.000-07:00

So, few things...

I just took a Quiz in American Grammar. First of all, the quiz was easy. Second of all, it stressed me like crazy. I think it doesn't help that I always think I'm average in a class, when I know that's not true in a lot of situations. But then people start talking about how “hard” the class is and I'm sitting kinda confused... yea... I didn't really study that much for this quiz. No, I didn't really read the chapters that the quiz was over (yes, I did read them, but not in depth. I saw one guy had highlighted stuff. I NEVER highlight).

I have a mid-term in this class on Monday, another Mid-term in another class this Friday. I'm freaked out about both, but I also know I'll do... fine. I remember when I took the SAT and the ACT, I was as stressed as hell, nervous, jittery, butterflies, EVERYTHING. Then I started the test, calmed down and did great. Yea, I don't like that, but it's apparently the way I do things.

In other news: I'm learning how to play tanks, proper, top tier tanks, in League of Legends. I like playing tanks. I think of my problems with a lot of heroes is that while a hero like say... Ashe or Trist is fun (everyone likes to play carries), they're rather hard to play really, really well. Ashe needs a massive farm to do anything. I mean, if you assume you get 20 gold from each creep wave, that's 120 gold a wave, you need to kill 20 waves straight before you can think about slowing your farm down. You need to farm either 200+ creeps in a thirty minute game, or get a LOT of hero kills.

On the other hand, if you play a hero like Shen, you don't need as much farm. Get a Omen, Merc treads and yea... you're good. Sure, supporty heroes in LoL are still more farm dependent than your standard DotA support but they aren't as farm dependent as carries. Additionally, farming is easier in LoL, so a tank can get good farm pretty easily.

So yea, I'm gonna save up for Shen, now that I have my Warwick runes all set, then I need to buy Amumu. Oh, and I also want to try Xin Zhao and Taric at some point. And Sona, most likely.

WCG Finals are this weekend. ^_^

2010-09-15T14:32:00.001-07:00

Yea, I haven't blogged in a while, not sure how long, sorry about that. Its not that I've been too busy to blog, but that I can't be bothered to blog.

Anyways, this is my 4th week of “college life” at St. Edwards University. I moved into my dorm, attended Orientation, signed up for classes, and after several fun days of getting to know some people, began school.

As of yet, nothing has been too hard. Its been easier than I imagined, and I keep waiting for the hammer to drop and for me to start begging for mercy or something. Yesterday I actually got to the point where I didn't... have anything to do but play video games by 4PM, which has never been the case. I got one homework assignment... and yea... it wasn't very much work.

So I'm taking 5 classes: The Printed Page and the Silver Screen, which is a literature/Film class that is... passable. It gets away with having irksome subject matter by having a lot of discussion (its an honors class, they like discussion in such classes) and fun people to discuss with. My American Grammar class is interesting, we're doing lot of diagramming and stuff, which I'm finding fun (!) for the first time. Ms. Gaines, you failed, sadly, to teach me diagramming very well. Then I have College Algebra, for which I will take my first major test at 1PM, hopefully that goes well. Its math, I don't like math, whatever. Then I have my “Freshman Studies” classes which are Rhet and Comp 1 (English 101, boring) and Current Events and Political Controversies. Political Controversies basically is 200 people (yea, biggest class I'll ever have) get together in a room and our prof makes us discuss (in small groups and standing up and saying some stuff relevant to the topic at hand) various Controversial topics. I just did an assignment on the current military policy regard Homosexuals.

And that, that brings me to the main reason why I'm blogging right now. See, now, how to do say this...
the discussion question we had in class was: “Is Freedom to marry whom you wish an individual right, or does society have a legitimate interest in regulating marriage?”

So, basically, can I marry whoever I want, or do I have to follow the standards of my society? Immediately, I realized that of course society has a interest in regulating EVERYTHING, and that, furthermore, if a society is trying to make their society better (in their opinions) then I'd call that a legitimate interest. However, this brings me to a problem: what do I do about societies that have different values than me? To the point that these societies may openly practice or allow behavior I consider immoral and unbiblical? For instance, currently, in my States, in most “societies” in the United States, Gay Marriage is illegal. This is changing, in some places, and it may get to the point where Gay Marriage is legal all over America. As someone who believes Homosexuality is immoral, this makes me sad. I don't want homosexuals in my society, as people who can actually make laws and challenge the ideals and principles of my society because I believe that they, as homosexuals will have an unbiblical worldview and that unbiblical worldview will be reflected in their preferred laws and principles. Its the same reason I count a person's lifestyle, including religious beliefs, against them if they differ from my own in regards to political decision-making.

However, the thing is, while I'm against Homosexuality I don't exactly see the problem with Gay Marriage. Okay, I'll be honest and say if I had to vote for or against Gay Marriage I would probably vote against it just because... yea... homosexuality isn't my thing.

But this opens another can of worms. In the times of Jesus, Tax Collectors were corrupt thieves, yet Jesus loved them and counted some of them among his closest friends (Matthew). He didn't condemn the lot of them as men stealing from their brothers and cousins, as most of them did, he loved them. Jesus didn't stone the adulteress, he forgave her sins and told her to stop sinning. Jesus has a legitimate interest in punishing the sins of people, but he outright condemned a very select number of people, basically the Pharisees (he didn't like what some guys did to the Temple Outer Courts, and called them thieves/robbers, so I guess that counts too). However, the Jesus I get the picture of is a man who loved first, and then dealt out judgment later, much later, in fact.

At the same time, Society has a legitimate interest in protecting itself from views that directly conflict with its own. As a person committed to building a Biblical Society, I am have a legitimate interest in preventing the spread of homosexuality and don't think homosexual marriage should be legitimate. However, my problem is, again and again, how do we let people, sinful people, be sinners, make their own choices (as God himself did in the Garden of Eden) without endangering ourselves. When do we cross the line and say “This is wrong! This will damage our society!” When do we stop the people of Bangladesh from mistreating their women? When do we stop the druggies from destroying their bodies? How do we stop them? How a society thinks reflects how a society acts, and a society that allows gay marriage, apparently, has no problem with homosexuality. That's my problem. I'm opposed to homosexuality, but I can't... I can't bring myself to the point where I can honestly say with 100% certainty that we shouldn't give homosexuals the same legal rights (Which is really what this is about. Its not about forcing churches to marry people its about Homosexual couples getting the same healthcare benefits, etc, that heterosexual, married, couples get). I don't want these people to be making the laws of the nation, but in country like the United States, I have the choice to vote for who I want and hope they will do what they promised me (I can vote them out of office if they don't...).

I think things like drugs and homosexuality are harder to deal with than Abortion. Abortion is murder and it physically harms a person who has no say in their death. Homosexuality, directly, effects no one. What is dangerous about homosexuality is that when a society, as a general whole, accepts such behavior they become a sinful society. Sodom and Gomorrah didn't exactly have a happy ending, neither did any society that allow open homosexuality (I don't have the evidence to back it up, but I've been told, and I believe it, that every society that has openly allowed homosexual behavior has eventually crashed and burned horribly). As an American citizen, I'm obviously concerned that my nation might follow Sodom and Gamorrah and other such nations. I'm already convinced America will not be the nation it is today when my kids are my age, but that doesn't mean I can try to prevent that.

Such a declaration also brings up the interesting question that, as a TCK, should I really invest all my energy in America? But that's a question for another time...

So, in conclusion, I'm torn here. I want to be the man that Jesus was, the man that showed love towards everyone, even the worst of sinners (the women at the well? Talk about scandalous!). But I also want to be the man that Jesus was and be firm in my principles and not... not let Satan destroy the world. And so yea... how do I do that? Where do you draw the line between love and judgment? Between condemning sinners to the punishment that they deserve and loving them? Old Testament law called for the death of homosexuals and the death of adulterous persons, but Jesus forgave such people (well, adulterers, there is no mention of homosexuals in the Gospels, to my knowledge). Its... its a really, really interesting question.

Transition Seminar Thoughts, Day 1

2010-08-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

So I’m at my “Transition Seminar” here in Colorado Springs. I have a splitting headache due to dehydration and altitude sickness, as well as a sore throat, but I’m having a good time.

First of all… I wasn’t sure why I came to this place, and I still don’t have everything yet, but its been very successful for now. I think one thing to say is that, obviously, I’m in Transition and I have a feeling that not only this week here in Colorado, but also the next few weeks leading up to my first day of classes in Austin will be very important. Right now what I’d say is that last time I had something this significant happen to me was two years ago in Scotland while my parents did the LDC. That was an amazing time and that was an amazing event, so I’m excited to again be part of such an event.

Thinking about Scotland, I am actually reminded of that experience in a lot of ways, some of the dynamics were different, and I was there for different reasons, but I have to say that I am very happy that I’m here.

So, first of all, this Transition Seminar is for people like me, TCKs, who are now in the process of Transitioning from living in a culture that is not their passport culture into their passport culture. So, we set up the basics of “Who We are.” Fun stuff like how many languages we speak, how many countries we’ve gone too, how many times we’ve moved houses. This morning and this afternoon we discussed so more important stuff, starting with the basic of “What is a TCK?”

Now, I sorta had a definition of a TCK, but I think what happened for me this time was that my definition was expanded. TCKs are not only people who lived outside of their passport country’s culture, but are in fact, a separate culture themselves. TCKs are people who accept and identify with all cultures, but feel at home, truly at home and truly comfortable, in no culture, except of course the culture of other TCKs.

I think that’s probably one of the more awesome things that hit me today. Not only am I a TCK, but I am part of a nation of people like me. Now, not to say that I didn’t enjoy Bangladesh, or that I don’t expect my time in America to be, overall, a good thing, but it hit me that I now know where I can have an identity, where my culture resides. Sure, there may not be a specific country or city or town, but there is a group of people who are, no matter what their passport says, part of my culture.

Now, when I realized that, I gotta say something really did click in my brain. I think a lot of you know that I have and probably always will, struggle with rejection. Now, again, I don’t think I was ever, exactly, or particularly, rejected when I lived in Bangladesh, I don’t expect to be rejected in College exactly or particularly (it could happen, I don’t think it will), but I think when I realized what a TCK was, and how we are our own people group, our own culture, I realized that I have been accepted, and that I will be accepted within my own people group.

And this is the interesting thing, by passport I am American, and, I want that association, for better or for worse. I like the fact that I am, after a fashion, American, and that is a heritage that I want to take with me, but, I feel more comfortable saying I’m a TCK and seeking a peer group of TCKs rather than Americans. I would say the same of my heritage from India and Bangladesh, I like those countries and I want what I have from them, but I’m not Bangladeshi, I’m not Indian.

So… I’m a TCK, and I’m really, really excited about the thought of being a TCK and continuing to use that to my advantage.

Another thought that hit me today, both as I was talking with someone else here and also as I was listening to the teaching/session/hearing the voice of God, was several thoughts that went back to Scotland and some of the things people told me in Scotland.

I am, and I will be, a nation-builder. I think now, for the first time in a while I’m getting a picture of what that means. Also, I remember when Jan told me that I was called to be, after a fashion, a missionary to my own nation. However, I want to link that statement (links within links, ha) to a thought my dad once taught/shared. God, for whatever reason, has this fascination with the Nations going to the Nations. My parents were called from America to South Asia to serve God. They would have had an easier time working America, perhaps, but there is a spiritual dynamic and something magical about Nations leaving their Nation and going to other Nations. Now, think about this, as a TCK, I am not part of the Nation of America from a cultural perspective. So, to link this back to Jan’s words, I will be a missionary to my own country, but I still get that magical, that spiritual dynamic that happens when the Nations go to the Nations. Awesome.

Secondly, I realized something about nation building. One of the problems inherent with Nations going to the Nations is that each nation has their own way of doing things. Now, that doesn’t mean one is perhaps right or better. That is, of course, sometimes the case, but it’s not always. This was just a random thought that popped into my head, but, “Will I be a better nation builder because I am a TCK, a person of many nations?” And another one is, “how does, and who will, my own culture effect the way I build nations?”

So yea, that’s what I’ve been thinking about over these past two sessions. I’ll probably write more stuff later tonight or tomorrow. Expect a lot, because a lot is happening.

Starcraft II

2010-07-28T07:18:00.001-07:00

So, Starcraft II is now in my possession. Yes, I now own what may be the most important RTS release of the decade.

Now, Starcraft II has been in development for a LONG time. The original was released in 1998 and is recognized as one of the premier strategy games of our time, arguably the greatest, and for sure the longest lasting. With people still playing Starcraft VERY seriously it’s no wonder that a lot of people watched everything that Blizzard did with a lot of criticism.

Blizzard removed LAN, they divided the Single-player into 3 separate games, they require online-activation, the want you online the entire time you’re playing the game, the entire RealID fiasco, etc. Blizzard has had a lot of PR systems that have messed them up, but I think most people are being far too severe.

Starcraft II is amazing. Blizzard is still one of the best Video Game Studios in existence, and they’re still making amazing games. Yes, the game costs $60. Yes, it has online activation, yes you aren’t getting a Zerg or Protoss campaign (YET!) and yes, RealID was arguably the stupidest thing any video game company has ever envisioned, but beyond all of that, beyond all the PR mistakes and Nerd Rage Blizzard has encountered, I think that Blizzard has created a great video game that, assuming Multiplayer Balance, will have the staying power of Starcraft, Warcraft III and World of Warcraft. This is Blizzard people, and I think it’s a bit of a shame they’ve received all the criticism they have. Some of it is valid (RealID, and perhaps even no LAN) but some of it (3 games, Online Activation), I don’t think that’s an issue. Blizzard knows their market and their market is gonna be with how they dealt with everything.

And now, I’m gonna play Starcraft II.

More DMore LoL, Music

2010-07-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

So, I think I';ve figured out who I can play in LoL pretty confidently without fear of being bad or anything. Probably my best hero is Warwick, who I can play pretty well on both 5v5 and 3v3. At this point I changing my build up a bit. Normally, I was building Madred's Bloodrazor pretty much every time as my main item, but I'm thinking that unless I play a tank/HP heavy team, its not worth it, so usually I'm just building Madred's Razor and then a Black Cleaver, then if I get the super farm I'll build Infinity Edge, but that rarely happens.

After Warwick, my next Phsyical Carry and my primary mid Solo is Ashe. Ashe is, honestly, the best easiest hero in the game. She is just so freaking good. Put in the mid, farm up your basic build (Regrowth into Philospher's, Swiftness, Vamp. Scepter), then work on Infinity Edge and Phantom Dancer. The super build is stack Bloodthirsters.

My secondary heroes are support: Kayle and Soraka. Soraka is almost always banned so once I start playing ranked (they raised the level requirements to 30... I'm not. Ugh) again I probably won't see much of her. Having said that, I really like Soraka and she is an epic support hero. Finally there is Kayle who I play hybrid DPS/Support Caster, Nashor's Tooth and Guinsoo's Rageblade.

I don't have a real team yet, but I know a few cool guys who have a pretty good idea of the metagame and how to build teams. We're not brilliant, but we're not horrible either. The main thing is they are nice and don't insult you, which is something that I value highly. There are so many idiots on the internet. -_-

On the music side, I've listened to Children 18:3's 2nd album and I've decided that it is really pretty good. At first I thought it was a bit too Mainstream in its sound, but now that I've listened to it quite a bit I think its a pretty solid Punk Rock album. Yes, it is more mainstream than their previous album, but its also a better album. The vocals are amazing, with strong punk sounds. Several of the songs scream, "MOSH TO THIS" and have all sorts of energy. As the previous album, they have witty and entertaining lyrics: its a great album.

And well, that's about all for now. Starcraft II comes out soon, so I'll probably start playing that and take a break from League of Legends. I can't wait for that, it'll be awesome. :D

L4D2, LoL Rambles

2010-07-05T20:04:00.000-07:00

So I’ve been playing gangplank in LoL again, and its been interesting. Gangplank is basically a low tier melee dps, so, in terms of viability at the pro level, he is either just bad, or a very specifically played hero with a very specific role. Gang has 4 spells, of course, but really only his first two are worth anything. His ulti, a big aoe damage/slow isn’t amazing. I mean, it can do some damage, clear creeps, and some different things, but really, its not the best AoE ulti. His first spell, a nuke that deals damage off of his base damage and has a crit chance, is his most important spell, and his second spell, a heal/cleanse, is arguably one of the best spells in the game, it just has a long cooldown. People say that you need a specific rune set for Gangplank, that is, I believe pure critical strike runes, which makes him a harder hero because he doesn’t have the general melee DPS runes. However, I like him. So whatever. Given enough time, I’ll probably go back to Warwick for 3v3.

One thing I have noticed, however is that DPS heroes are really, really strong in TT. Heroes like Mundo and Warwick, which are not near as good in 5v5, its interesting how that is. This is probably because Mundo has a lack of AoE, just lane control with his 1st spell, really.

Oh, and also I’ve been playing a decent bit of Left 4 Dead 2, which is really fun. I find that the campaign mode isn’t as fun as versus, but it’s still pretty good. The best thing is to get a semi-decent group together and play versus, but I enjoy playing randoms some. Mostly though, I just wait to see if friends get on and then run in and try to join a game.

Back to LoL… Season 1 should start anytime soon. Either this Wednesday or next Monday, hopefully the later as I’m gonna travel starting Thursday, and the more time I have sitting still in a house and not traveling in a car the more time I have to play LoL and see how I stack up to other players. I’m really excited about this, even if I’ll probably end up soloqueing most of Season 1 cuz I don’t have a team. I might get some team-queing with my GitP friends, but I find that unlikely.

The thing is… I don’t really know what my ELO, relative to the other LoL players is. I mean, obviously, I’m not an idiot. I know the basics of LoL, I play a few heroes like Warwick really well, I can also do decent as a Ashe (who I admit, is one of the easiest heroes in the game), Heimdeiger (or however you spell it), and Sivir. I haven’t tried some of the more tanky heroes like Alistair and Chogath, which is funny sicne I used to playa OT of tankers in DotA, but I seem to prefer damagers in LoL. I think the thing is, in DotA, I ended up playing to support the team, since we already had really strong mid solos, or damagers, so I played Support. Also, DotA’s support is more prominent, there are not support heroes in the same vein as heroes like Shadow Shaman or Crystal Maiden. First of all, there are not near as many stunners, sure you have lots of disables, but mostly slows, a few stuns, and some blinds, but mostly yes… its slows. Also, the light health heroes, the mages, tend to be damage heavy heroes: Ryze, Annie (who, come to think of it, is a kinda support hero in the vein of warlock in DotA), Karthus, Heim, these are damage heavy mages: Blasters. DotA… you don’t see those kind of heroes because nukers tend to level out in DotA. People play Lion not because of his damage (its nice, but not the main thing) but because he has 2 disables.

Anyways… so I went though the LoL list of “support” heroes, and yes, they are support heroes… but they are a very different kind of support hero. Several of them are tanks, and many others are some sort of strange hybrid damager/support or mage/support (like Zilean, who really should just be classified as LoL’s most annoying harasser/nuker/support/IHATEYOU hero).

So… I should probably stop rambling here. For a short life update I’m reading Shadowline by Glen Cook, and its pretty good, it’s one of his older books, but I really like it. Cook is a great author.

DS Games

2010-06-25T14:42:00.001-07:00

So I’ve been playing Empire Total War and League of Legends on the computer, which is good stuff, but I’ve also been messing around with three DS games. Advance Wars: Day of Ruin, Disgaea DS and the World Ends with You. I haven’t messed around with the World Ends With You much so I’ll focus on the other two.

First of all, Advance Wars, it’s a really great game and I love it. The campaign mode is interesting and the skirmish mode is really fun, but I think my favorite thing is making crazy maps and playing them against AI. Its advance wars, so you capture towns and factories, build armies, and fight each other on Land, on the Sea, and in the Air. Great stuff. Of course the campaign plot is lame and has far too much heavy-handed morality about the good of humanity or whatever, but the battles are fun.

Disgaea is interesting. The plot, again, is crap. I mean its complete and total crap and I really wish that the Japanese were capable of actually making a RPG with a good plot. Golden Sun came close… and I hear the Final Fantasy has a few good ones, but I’ve yet to see one. However, the gameplay is solid. Basically, it’s a turn-based RPG, lead your squad against the enemy in good old Grid-based, turn based, RPG fashion. What makes it different, really, is the use of geo-thingies, I forget the name, which can alter battle by affecting certain squares and can be destroyed for extra damage. Another cool feature is the combo feature, where if your units are aligned correctly they’ll all get to attack for extra damage.

Anyways, that’s what I’ve been doing as far as Video games go these days. Today I finally got around to seeing Iron Man 2 in Theaters, and I loved it, I’d talk about it more, but I think most people have seen the movie by now. My next movies I really want to see are The Last Airbender (*cough*Avatar*cough*), Predators and maybe Salt, my sister really wants to see Salt, because it looks cool, but I’m not so sold.

And tonight we are going to Applebees, yah! :D

Empire Total War II: The AI

2010-06-22T18:43:00.001-07:00

So, more thoughts on Empire Total War.

The Total War series greatest failure has always, always, always been its AI. Frankly the AI in Medieval Total War II and Rome Total War never really impressed me. Shogun Total War struck me as hard, but I was a little kid so I can’t really comment. Empire Total War has the same problem that previous total war games have: Bad AI.

Oh sure, the AI can be annoying. In fact the Mughals really did a good job harassing me on account of my weak navy. But once I got a strong navy they kinda… stopped doing that. The Mughals, in their existence, only attacked me once. In twenty years, something like 40+ turns, while I conquered province after province I a slow and steady advance, they only attacked once. I crushed their attack quickly. The real time battles are equally frustrating. It often seems no matter how badly I play I still win. Honestly I don’t mess around with the real time battles too much, but basically if I have about the same soldiers at the enemy, I win. Sure, I do think I beat the Mughals on account of my superior forces in terms of quality, and a well placed charge or flanking attack, but then I played some skirmishes with some various forces and every time I won easily. It wasn’t even difficult… the enemy advanced and I killed them with musket fire and flanking attacks. I don’t think I even played very good, I just kinda messed around.

Having said all this the game has an awesome campaign map. I think they should probably really focus on hammering out the AI, making it equal to games like Civ 4 (the AI is HARD to beat in the game). I don’t even need good real-time battle AI (it’s fun, but time consuming, especially since it’s so easy now to get huge armies). I just want to know what the Mughals did with all their money… I cannot imagine that in the early game I had more money than them, especially with their blockades. Yet they didn’t seem to build many soldiers and my 3 armies slowly conquered their entire empire without a single defeat. Seriously, I think I lost like… 3 battles, all naval, and only 1 against the Mughals (the others were pirates). It was really… really weird.

In other news, I have new speakers, M-3 Audio. Awesome things.

Empire Total War

2010-06-21T08:14:00.001-07:00

So I got a new laptop, and, as a result, I can actually play Empire Total War, a game I bought last year that never really worked properly on my old computer. I mean, it worked decently well, but it was really, really, really slow, so I didn’t bother playing it.

So first of all, the basics on Empire Total War. Empire Total War is the 5th game in the Total War Series and is by far the most complicated, though I personally think the combat of Medieval Total War II is better.

Empire Total starts in the year 1700 and goes on till about 1800ish, it’s the time of Napoleon and European Colonization, Gunpowder, Cannon and Steel. You get the picture. The game starts out with gunpowder pretty much entrenched as the primary weapon of infantry in Europe, but with Eastern Powers still relying on swords and pikes somewhat. Calvary are pretty much light cavalry for scouting, screening, and harassing, and Cannon, while still somewhat immobile and inaccurate, are very much have their place.

So the game starts out allowing you to pick several European Nations and then a few odder ones. Obviously nations like Spain, France, and England are pickable, but they also have some others that are less known such as the United Provinces (Netherlands), Russia, and Sweden. Non-European nations include the Ottoman Empire and the Marathas of India.

Medieval Total War II, the previous Total War game, while an improvement over Rome Total War in terms of adding more Religion features, a 3d map, and a very good family tree method however, does not boast of many of the feature of Empire Total War. First of all, Empire Total War is at truly a global game. Players can battle in Europe, India, North America, and even the coast of Africa and the East Indies. Furthermore, provinces no longer have every single factory and farm all in the capital, but spread out over the province. This allows for several things, including raiding actually being somewhat useful. Realistically, several small bands of fast moving units (cavalry?) can run over the map, hit a town, factory or plantation, do damage to it, making unusable for a turn or two, and depriving your opponent of valuable resources. Also, for the first time in the history of the Total War series, Naval Battles are actually playable! I have not fought many of these such battles, and have been told they are somewhat clunky and unrealistic, but they do actually have them, so that is saying something.

The biggest difference I think, from previous Total War games, is the government and how you run your empire. Previous games pretty much worked like an absolute monarchy, sometimes with the King given missions or advice or commands from powerful figures within the government (the Pope, the Senate, the Nobility, etc) but essentially the King/Emperor/the Player had absolute power. His family controlled the government and having a large number of various relatives of semi-competent city-management and army-commanding abilities generally was a good thing.

Empire Total War does provide for an absolute Monarchy for many of its nations, however, it also allows for more modern governments such as a constitutional monarchy or even (I think) a democracy or republic of sorts. Also, because many of these kinds of governments do not look kindly upon dynasty politicians, the family tree of the head of state really doesn’t matter. No one cares if you are royalty in a democracy! As a result, generals are no longer carefully raised and nurtured to have that natural killer instinct, but simply hired and promoted from the ranks or picked out from a list of promising candidates. All of this makes the game a rather different animal than previous Total War games, but I think in a good way.

Anyways, so my personal experience has been rather entertaining. Being the TCK I am I of course decided to play the Marathas of Southern India (who actually traditionally ruled the area of India I was born in) and proceed to conquer the horrible Mughals that oppress my Northern brothers! The Marathas are interesting in comparison to European Nations. Obviously Europeans have more use for Muskets and Cannon, and less for sword and spear, yet I am finding Maratha cavalry to be frighteningly powerful against lesser trained musket-men. A general frontal charge can leave them reeling, and a flanking attack will do wonders. My artillery is rather underpowered, as I’m still using 15th and 16th century era cannon, but that is primarily because I don’t really need them! Yet, that is.

My only real problem is my navy. Basically, you star with no good naval base and I’ve pretty much spent my time conquering the land based Mughals, however, this means that every so often the Mughals surprise me with a naval raid or blockade of my ports that does wonders for destroying my economy in the short term. Its nothing more than a setback and a rather annoying inconvenience, but if they Mughals actually were on the offensive on the land, it would be truly frustrating.

Anyways, my current plans are to finish conquering the Mughals, which will probably take some time, and then turn my eyes to the Ottomans and Persians. I think it would be hilarious if I managed to sail a fleet into say… Spain or better yet North America, but I’d like to have a bit of a more realistic approach to this game.

On another note, the US is awesome. I’ve been greatly enjoying some relaxing time with my family. Jet-lag is passable, but because I have nothing to do I force myself to stay up late so I have a better chance of sleeping in. Hopefully by the end of this week I’ll be all over jetlag and I’ll have no problems with sleeping late.

Quickie Edit: I apologize for not posting so much, I have a few more things I can probably post about and I'll try and get several updates up this week, we'll see how things go.

DONE! FINISHED! ENDED! OVER!

2010-06-03T09:29:00.000-07:00

FREEEEDOM FROM HIGHSCHOOL. FOREVER. NEVER AGAIN. NO MORE HIGHSCHOOL.

Yep, I'm excited.

More thoughts later, when I'm not so tired.

American Idol and Current Events

2010-05-19T23:24:00.000-07:00

So a couple random notes:

First of all, lemme explain my random post last night. See, I really do appreciate good music, and I can understand why American Idol is popular, especially at the early stages (where its funny) and at the later stages (where its awesome). I think the show is really silly, after a fashion, and I find it interesting that despite have so many seasons only a few of the winners are actually really, really famous. What’s most interesting is how the show really proves that a good voice is a dime-a-dozen. Every finalist has lots of talent in terms of vocals.

But, see, the thing is, I think I feel really strongly that vocals, while important, really won’t sell your music 100%. Sure, in pop vocals are the most important thing and you really need a good vocalist, but there are other things to consider as well. I watched a Adam Lambert performance today (linked to me by an American Idol fan) and while Mr. Lambert himself may be a bit of a weirdo, he really is one of the best vocalists I’ve ever heard and he wipes the floor of most people, even the good vocalists. But here’s the thing… the music he had to back up was weak at best. The drums were nice, but boring, the bass was just… there… I mean it was the very definition of how to not do bass: play a boring beat and don’t even appear on stage. The coolest bassists in the world did amazing things on their bassists just like guitarists do amazing things on their guitars. Even mediocre bassists can make this up by writing cool lyrics or an awesome stage presence. Drums… I understand why drums tend to be really boring and basic, because really, the drums are just there to keep the beat. If the band is good, and they have lots of other rhythm instruments (guitar, bass, even the piano/keyboard) then the drummer can mix it up, and I’ve seen bands do a good job of combining “keep the beat” with tasteful drumming. I think Nightwish is a good example of this, listen to Planet Hell or Ghost Love Score. The drums in those songs (at least the intros) are awesome. Listen to Eva or While Her Lips are Still Red (technically not a Nightwish song, but whatever) and the drums in those… they just work perfectly. Basic, but perfect.

I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point. The reason Pop bothers me isn’t because its mostly garbage, I mean, it is, usually, but I’m okay with that. 90% of everything is crap. There is plenty of bad metal out there, I admit it. What bothers me about Pop is that so much of it just relies on the vocalist, but to such an extent that the other musicians don’t get any credit. Amon Amarth is amazing both because Johann Hegg has an awesome voice and because the other four guys in the band help him to create really good music. Dio is a great vocalist, but he needed a good band to support him. I don’t think Dio would have done what he did without the help of the other musicians who supported him.

Other stuff…

Thailand is still a mess, but it looks like it could be getting better. Let’s hope that the two parties can actually sit down and honestly try to work out their differences.

Zia called a Strike on the 27th of June here. I’ll be gone, but I really hope that this doesn’t start the “Hartal Culture” up again. Hartals help no one and are just an excuse for the thugs of Dhaka to go around and smash things up. Oh, and for the police to smash the thugs… ya! -_-

And, its official, North Korea did blow up the South Korean ship that sank a while back. Great… you know, it’d be nice if South Korea would just go ahead and invade, but they can’t do that, there are too many risks. First of all, North Korea has nukes, and even if they only have one rather weak one, its still a freaking nuke. One bomb = one city. That’s a lot of dead civilians. In theory, I suppose a combined task force of UN commandos could disable the nukes before they were launched, but that would take UN backing and the UN won’t do that because China is part of the UN and China doesn’t want a war. That’s another problem, actually, because China… is a factor. I’d like to think that should South Korea go ahead and invade, China won’t actually respond with direct military action, because China isn’t really that stupid. But that doesn’t mean they could still do a lot… and the US really isn’t in a position to fight China right now, Afghanistan and Iraq are already a mess. Oh well, I guess we’re just gonna have to hope that things can settle down.

In other news: I completed Physics today. No more Highschool Science Ever. :D

2010-05-19T10:20:00.000-07:00

This is completely out of character of this blog, but I gotta say it.

American Idol can keep their epic vocalists as long as I get my epic guitarists. Youngblood, Adrian Smith, Emppu, Buckethead, and a whole slew of others that blow my mind. You are amazing and I want more! :D

Within Temptation -- Still Boring

2010-05-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

You know, there are some really intriguing things in this world. Within Temptation has to be one of the premiere female-fronted bands out there. Sharon den Adel has such an amazing voice, one of the best I have ever heard. But see, the thing is, Within Temptation makes… really boring music. Really boring music.

Their first album was really interesting actually, because it was a pure Goth-Metal album and I do see some really good talent. It’s Gothic, and I hate Gothic, but at least one of my friends says it sounds amazing with a proper sound-system. Their second album, Mother Earth, is a really dramatic departure from their first and is basically a Folky sorta album. Folk themes and it kinda sounds folky, but not entirely, without a doubt Mother Earth is Within Temptation’s best album.

The rest of their music… is all meh. There are a few jewels here and there, The Truth Beneath the Rose, Angels, Somewhere and Utopia, and a few others I guess. But really, most of their music is just boring. There is no energy to their music, no life, no passion, just really good sounding music. It doesn’t even strike me as particularly technical in the way that say, Dream Theater or other Progressive Rock and Metal does.

What’s even stranger is my brother found this concert of Within Temptation on Youtube and downloaded it (the pirate that he is… he has all sorts of strange video software). I watched a little of it and I was appalled.

See, when most bands perform on a big stage, that’s awesome. This gives everyone more space and you generally have a bigger budget for special effects like pyrotechnics and smoke machines, etc; if you play at night, you can even throw in awesome lighting. But this thing was horrible. First of all, the bassist and two guitarists look like clones. Okay, we get this is a female-fronted band and that Sharon is your front-woman and the heart of your music, but really… this is a METAL band right? A METAL band, where the lead guitarist is almost just as important, if not more important, than the vocalist? This is a Symphonic Band, right? So why is your keyboardist off in some obscure corner of the stage when you have a freaking huge stage? This is a band, not Sharon’s solo project, so why are the other six members of the band mostly confined to the rear area of the stage while Sharon sings up front. Finally, as a bit of a minor complaint: please, for the Love of all things Metal, GROW YOUR HAIR. I know this might sound absolutely stupid, but it’s really quite hard to call yourself a metal band when none of your guitarists (bassist included) can headbang properly. Demon Hunter, Live at Nashville, despite having a very Hardcore-Punk look, felt more metal than these guys. Jon Dunn HEADBANGS, and no matter what Don Clark did, he looked freaking awesome. Oh, and no jumping on stage. Jumping is cool, but it’s not metal. Don’t jump, headbang. So yes, again Within Temptation gets a thumbs down from me. I’ll give them another chance when they drop all their lame Goth influence.

Oh, and Ronnie James Dio died, so, if you haven’t already, go buy all his music and listen to it. No crying, cuz metal men don’t cry, but you man scream at the top of your lungs like a true Viking/celt/biker/klingon warrior.

Darn, now I want to know what a Viking/Celt/Biker/Klingon warrior would look like. A hairy Klingon with Woad tattoos driving a chopper… that could be scary.

Bullet For My Valentine

2010-05-09T02:00:00.000-07:00

Funny story I have today.

There is this Metalcore band called Bullet For My Valentine (BFMV) from Wales that is kinda, sorta popular… I guess. Anyways I heard of them and I finally got around to watching some of their music videos and live performances.

First thing I noticed: Despite what anyone tells you, they have emo influences. They may not be true emo, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have emo influences. Bullet for My Valentine is a emo name, they have at least one emo sorta love-song and furthermore, the screaming in that song is very emo. I admit, bands like Killswitch Engage have similar emo songs, but the difference is, somehow, Killswitch Engage pulls this off without sounding emo. Don’t ask how, they just do, it probably has someone to do with the vocal styles they employ.

Second of all, BFMV have weak clean vocals. Their lead vocalist messed up his voice a while back, but even before that he wasn’t anything special. The guy is also their rythmn guitarist, and while there is nothing wrong with doing that, I really think it’s a shame that the band didn’t realize they had bad clean vocals (and it seems the majority of their songs employs LOTS of clean vocals) and found someone who can you know… sing?

Finally, interestingly enough, BFMV has someone managed to combined a sorta Emo sound with… Thrash. Without a doubt, they are channeling a thrash sound and appearance in all the videos I watched. Their solos really reminded me of my Master of Puppets CD.

Now, here are my problems with BFMV: First of all, I realize many bands do not have good vocals, this does not bother me. What does bother me is that these guys, basically, have bad clean vocals. Ryan Clark, Demon Hunter’s lead vocalist, while no master without a doubt, puts these guys to shame with his clean vocals. Yes, they have brilliant guitarists, but in the world of heavy metal, I’ve noticed that every band has a brilliant lead guitarist: a good lead guitarist isn’t all you need in a bad. I mean, looking at it, even Alestorm’s vocals, which are really quite bad, are better, not because they are “better” but because they channel the right vibe. This guy was just bad…

Second of all, I’m no fan of thrash. That’s a personal thing, I’ll admit, and I won’t argue if you like thrash then there is still no way you’ll enjoy this band because they are horrible or something, because that’s not true, it’s quite possible you’ll still like them.

Finally, Bullet For My Valentine has to be the worst name I have ever heard for any band that plays any form of metal that is not Gothic. I mean yes, Killswitch Engage sounds kinda emo, but the meaning behind it isn’t emo at all. They said when they formed the band, it was like someone had taken the big master control switch and turned it from on to off, Killswitch Engage. Makes a lot of sense, eh? As I Lay Dying, I admit, is somewhat emo, but at least I don’t feel any emo vibes coming from their music. Seriously, why call yourself Bullet for my Valentine, and then claim you’re hard rock while playing a combination of emo-influenced Hardcore and Thrash Metal (someone said Thrashcore… that kinda works, if you assume the “core” refers to Hardcore).

Oh, and they can talk all they want about being “hard rock” but I’m sorry, anyone who goes to a METAL Festival like Wacken and uses the amount of screaming in the particular fashion they do cannot, in my book, be considered Hard Rock. Maybe not Metal, but surely not Hard Rock. Actually, that itself kinda bothers me. Make up all sorts of stupid names for your style of music (Marco called Nightwish Gothic Symphonic Power Metal, Alestorm refers to itself as True Scottish Pirate Metal), but at least be somewhat accurate. Saying, “We’re hard rock,” and then screaming your face off right before performing a face-melter right out of Metallica’s book is lying, don’t do that.

So yes, if you didn’t notice, I thought they kinda… were not that good. I guess I’ll have to stick to Demon Hunter, As I Lay Dying and Killswitch Engage for my good Metalcore.

And right now I’m listening to Eluveitie, because there is something amazing about the combination of Flutes and Death Metal. *nods*

Too Many Games!

2010-04-27T05:41:00.001-07:00

You know what I’ve often found?

See, I get a lot of video games at once, a lot of times. I find a video game, I like it, and I play it for a week, which isn’t much really since I don’t have a lot of free time. Then I play another game the next week, which I just got, then the same thing happens a third week. Its annoying, because I want to play all these different games, but I often don’t have the time to play all three, so I end up playing well… only one or maybe even none.

For instance, I got Zeus: Master of Olympus the same week my brother got Prince of Persia. I played both, now I’m playing neither. I admit I had already started to get bored of Zeus (it’s a good game, just good in smaller doses), but Prince of Persia… I could have played that for a good while.

What happened? I got Majesty II from Jacob. Its also an amazing game, I really loved Majesty and thought it was one of the most well thought-out and unique games to be released over the past few years. Majesty II, while not perfect, does a lot of new, cool things that I really like and keeps the formula pretty much the same.

I am not playing Majesty much right now. What happened? I found this amazing game called Battle for Wesnoth. What is Battle for Wesnoth? It’s a hex-grid, turn-based, fantasy, strategy game akin to a strange combination of Fire Emblem and Age of Empires or something.

See, like Fire Emblem, a unit that is gone is gone for good and that’s it. Units gain experience and can be carried over from level to level so you’re encouraged to keep units alive, level them up, and keep on powering your army through the game. But unlike Fire Emblem, you’re expected to lose units and its perfectly acceptable if you complete a level having lost a unit or two. So in that way its kinda like your standards strategy game where your units are expendable and the only thing important is a few key, powerful or important (like heroes) units.

Anyways, the game has a few pretty cool little features. I’m playing a campaign that gives me access to a variety of elven, mermen, and human (and probably other things later on) units. Elves move fast through the forest, have high defenses in the forest, and possess the ability to move fast through forests, also, most of their units can wield both a bow as well as a sword, often to almost equal results. Humans… humans don’t seem particularly amazing, probably balanced overall, but with access to high damaging mages. Orcs are really strong and have brute force (duh) and mermen fight good in the ocean… but bad everywhere else, they also have the ability to swim in deep water.

One of the cooler features the game has is a meaningful day-night cycle. Warcraft III had a day-night cycle but it didn’t seem amazingly important, but in this game it really is. See, certain units fight better at night than at day. Orcs, being chaotic, fight really well at night, gaining a +25% bonus to attacks (and defense… I think) at night, but a -25% during the day! Humans, being lawful, have the opposite. Elves, being neutral, receive no benefits but have no penalties (making the elves more versatile, not the usual “sting you with arrows, but bad at everything else” guys. Nope, elves have good swordsmen, good archers, decent healers, and decent cavalry).

Anyways, it’s a good, entertaining, Strategy/RPG game. Best of all? Its free. Legally, free, that is, not “Jacob gave me Majesty II on a USB and I didn’t ask any questions” free, no, legally-you-can-download-it-from-a-website-and-that’- what-you-are-supposed-to-do-free.

I’ll write more about both this and Majesty II at a later point, though I really should play Majesty II some more before I do that… haven’t gotten too far in the game.

Zeus and Prince of Persia

2010-04-18T05:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I installed two games. The first one, Prince of Persia I hadn’t played ever, while the second one, Zeus: Master of Olympus, I hadn’t played in a very long time.

Prince of Persia is the newest game in the Prince of Persia series. This one takes a break from the Sands of Time story and introduces a new prince and a new setting. Personally, I like this game a lot more than any of the others I played. I played Sands of Time and while I was never very good, I really like the setting and the style and tone of the game. It was a light, somewhat happy story about a young guy out to save the world. I got stuck and never returned to the game (I do that a lot, actually) but I really enjoyed what I remember of the game. My brother won it, so that kinda made up for me not doing so, I felt.

However, I did not like Warrior Within, the second game in the Sands of Time series. The game was, in short, too dark. It had the cool factor going for it, I admit. But, in hindsight, it wasn’t nearly as strong as Sands of Time. The third game in this series, Two Thrones, I never even played, but my brother did and he liked it enough. He said it was better than Warrior Within, but it still seemed to operate on the same premise and just didn’t really didn’t make me want to play it.

However, this new Prince of Persia is just up my alley. First of all, it’s a whole lot easier. Now, take that for what you will, but I personally prefer a game that’s a bit easier. One of my frustrations with older Prince of Persia games was the fact that you could die rather easily if you messed up badly enough and it relied on a checkpoint system versus a “save whenever” system. This new game has a “save whenever” system. There are other things that make the game easier, perhaps too easy, I admit, but I’m really happy the designers chose this method for the newest Prince of Persia.

Also, combat has been increased a hundred fold. Combos are now nice and easy to pull off and look properly cool. Instead of fighting multiple enemies at once and having to use a boring combination of mashing a dozen buttons to get a super attack, you fight one enemy at a time. Combos are also a lot simpler and make a lot more sense.

I haven’t played the game much, but it seems like a very solid game, and I hope more Prince of Persia games like it are released.

The other game I installed is called “Zeus: Master of Olympus.” A sequel, of sorts, to the game Caesar III, Zeus puts you in charge of an Ancient Greek city. The game features several large campaigns, mostly loosely based off Greek myths. The game has an awesome sense of humor and a very solid design at its root and makes for hours and hours of amazing gameplay.

Like other City Management games Zeus gives you the tools to construct a powerful city. The base of the game involves creating a powerful core city that can be expanded upon as the city grows. Build a small housing area, and then provide the houses with the essential services: food, water, security, health, etc. As more services are provided the houses will improve and demand more services such as culture, appeal, fleece, and olive oil. Improved houses pay more taxes and house more people, allowing you to further improve the city.

Anyways, while the game may sound really complicated, the designers have simplified it to allow players to quickly and easily manage their city. I think perhaps the most entertaining thing about the game is how carefully everything must balance in order to have a successful city.

One scenario I recently played requires me to create a colony for my primary city and then provide my primary city with tribute in the form of wine and lumber. I set up my basic city: farms for food, fountain, granary, agora (marketplace) and housing. However, I made a mistake and the worker shortage I had early game (not a problem, I thought because I would get more workers once my houses improved) meant my farms collapsed before harvest! This meant I had a food shortage for several game years and it took me some fancy doing to finally work through the food shortage, which lead to a labor shortage, which meant I couldn’t harvest lumber or tend my grapes, to finally win the level.

I think that is ultimately why I love Zeus. The game is a very simple, but solving the problems can really be hard. I move back to my old city and find I need 100 more workers (in a city of 2800 that’s really a small amount) but to do so I need to build more houses, which means a new agora, but this agora is too far away from my old granary and old warehouse that stores all my food, fleece and olive oil. So I build new ones. Then I run out of fleece, so I stop exporting fleece, but then I run out of money, so I stop importing wine, because I get enough in tribute, and slowly, slowly, I fix my cities infrastructure back to where it should be. Meanwhile I slowly build up to my current goal: summon Jason to slay the Talos and rid my city of the foul beast! (Doing so is not easy: Jason wants you to have quite the army! 2 companies of horsemen and 2 triremes, not to mention a LOT of food and some wine).

Anyways, I should get back to school now. Maybe if I work hard I’ll have time to play more Zeus! ^_^

What are you going to do?

2010-04-13T04:38:00.000-07:00

You know, I admit, I don’t really listen to a lot of “Christian” music. I didn’t start this post, however, to talk about that. I’ve spent enough of my time explaining why I listen to the music I listen to and why I don’t think it makes me a horrible sinner or heretic or a whatever.

I do listen to some Christian music, however. Despite my opinion that there is a severe dearth of Christian Artists showing true skill or talent, especially in the genres I prefer, they do exist. Two years ago, I invested in Demon Hunter, a Christian Metalcore band, and bought their (then) latest release, Storm the Gates of Hell. Demon Hunter’s music, at the time, struck me as hard, heavy, and aggressive, but in a good way. Since the day I first listened to Demon Hunter I’ve listened to heavier and harder music and I’ve sampled a good bit of music from nearly ever genre and subgenre metal has to offer. However, I’m still drawn to Demon Hunter for a lot of reasons.

I admit I’ve listened to bands that have more talent than Demon Hunter in terms of musical ability or prowess. However, Demon Hunter has improved as they have released albums. Listen to Demon Hunter’s very first album, or even Summer of Darkness, their big hit. Storm the Gates of Hell is miles above both, and while their third album did not receive a lot of praise from the fans, I believe, I think the album itself shows marked improvement.

But, for me, Demon Hunter’s musical ability never really mattered. Sure, I picked them up because they had a style I wanted to listen to and explore (Metal), but what hooked me wasn’t their musical talent, I could tell, when I compared it to other bands, they didn’t a whole lot. I mean, don’t get me wrong, they have talent, and especially now with Patrick Judge as a lead guitarist they strike me as a very solid band, but I still think other bands have shown more talent. What hooked me wasn’t their musical talent, but their amazing, amazing lyrics.

See while Amon Amarth might have better guitarists, and while Alexi Laiho has shown amazing talent in Children of Bodom, both bands do not have what I can call “good” lyrics. Amon Amarth writes fun lyrics, singing about Vikings and Viking Mythology and the Viking Lifestyle. That kind of stuff, it appeals to a lot of people and I think it works really well for a lot of music. Music does not require some serious or deep message to provide entertainment at all. However, one thing I will say is that good, solid, thought-provoking, lyrics really hit me as something not a lot of bands can pull off. Demon Hunter, however, always amazes me with their lyrics. Ryan Clark (Vocals) and Don Clark (former Guitarist) have written some amazing, amazing lyrics. I think I’ve written about some of them before, and I know that you’ve probably seen some of my status on facebook quoting those lyrics.

Ryan Clark’s tone and his underlying message appeals to me the most in their lyrics. Much of the Christian music scene today, centered around the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) movement, doesn’t share the same tone at all. CCM artists sing about this loving, happy, God who’s gonna heal you and help you and save you. Now, granted, all of that has basis in Biblical Scripture and we need messages of hope, love and encouragement in a hopeless, loveless, and discouraging world. I also know a lot of these artists have a very special and powerful spiritual anointing to make the music they make. When Leeland, a CCM band, came to my Church they shocked me with not only their musical talent (Leeland Mooring can SING) but also their anointing to minister to youth. I mean, I really didn’t like their latest album at the time, but I would go to one of their concerts in a second after hearing them play. That one performance reminded me that the CCM industry still has a lot of talent and a lot of anointed musicians.

But see, while Leeland and bands like them have their place, I feel what Ryan Clark and Demon Hunter choose to discuss in their music simply does not get the same amount of attention into today’s world. While most CCM encourages and uplifts through “happy songs” Demon Hunter hits you with anger and brutality. While those words might strike you as inherently bad, I don’t think so at all. See, Demon Hunter displays anger, but anger at how far we have let ourselves fall. When Jesus saw the state of the Temple of God, filled with thieves, robbers, and men only interested in making a fast buck, he got angry and physical and he drove them out. Demon Hunter says the same thing. They sing in an aggressive fashion because well, we have reasons to be aggressive. We have reasons to display our anger at what Satan has done. There is no reason we should not be angry at the state of the world today, there is no reason that we should not be angry at certain men and woman who have made the world a worse place.

Unlike CCM artists, Ryan Clark doesn’t say, “don’t worry, it’s gonna be alright. Jesus is gonna save you.” Ryan Clark says “The world is messed up. It’s filled with heathens, with hate, with intolerance. What are you going to do about it?” Now, both messages are 100% true. Jesus does make things better, Jesus is a happy, loving guy. But you know what? Sometimes its alright to be angry, to tell the world it’s gonna burn in hell if things don’t change. I’m listening to a Demon Hunter song right now, Tie This Around Your Neck, and the lyrics really strike me as something that needs to preached more. “And in this reign the heathens will say: . . . Tie this around your neck FOOL! . . . I’ve heard every empty line, every curse, ever word that you redefine . . . won’t lie in the grave I will reborn, they say: . . . This around your neck FOOL!” Now, the song is aggressive, the song is hard-hitting, but these lyrics hit me as something that really needs to be said. We’re Christians, and as Christians we will be mocked, with will face trials, they’ll tell us to “tie this around your neck, FOOL,” but end the end, we win. We aren’t dead, like them. The Bridge reminds us the fate of those unbelievers, and how each and every one of them will die “helpless and alone,” when the rest of us are dancing with Jesus.

This is the type of music that I really appreciate. On one hand, Ryan Clark seems like some angry, dark prophet of doom, but that’s not the real side. See through the style, see through the “all metal is angry” and yes, you’ll still see anger, but Biblical Anger. Yes, you will still see proclaimations of doom and judgement, but these are, for the most part, almost direct quotes from scripture. Ryan is clear in his belief and his faith: God will punish the unbeliever. “Broken is the way you came, and broken is the way you will leave when everything is paid for!” As the song Fiction Kingdom recites. These are people who have rejected God and live happily and joyfully in their hateful, sinful, venomous lives.

If you ask me, this kind of music, these kind of lyrics, pick up on an aspect of the Bible not enough Christians talk about. I don’t see a lot of people singing or talking about what happens to the unbeliever. We have all these songs encouraging people to get right with God, but how many of them talk about the people who don’t want to get right with God? The people who enjoy mocking God? The people who will die calling out to pagan Gods or unbiblical theology? These people are dangerous. Sure, they may not threaten us with physical harm, but they threaten our minds and our souls with their poisonous words and ideals.

See Ryan Clark recognizes as a Christian he has volunteered to fight in a very important war.
I know some people might not realize this, but there are powerful, powerful beings out there, physical and spiritual, who will stop at nothing to destroy God and his disciples. Ryan Clark knows this, and his music, since the beginning, serves as a call-to-arms of sorts. His music attacks the philosophies of the pagans and the unrepentant, in the bridge of the World is a Thorn, the title track to their latest album, Ryan screams:

“This is what you try to sell me?
Subjective Nothingness!
Pull Your sickness from my throat
Let me breathe the truth
Let me breathe the truth!”

It's words like that that motivate me to push forward, sometimes. I can look outside my window and see injustice. I can read my email and read about injustice. Everyday my newspaper reports the injustices that happen in Bangladesh.

I live in one of the most corrupt countries in the world. I live in one of the world’s most unlivable cities. More than one third of the nation cannot read or write, and many of them do not possess the means to support themselves. Injustice. Everyday people in Bangladesh, let alone the world, suffer.

Yes, actions have consequences and yes, these people suffer because of the mistakes they and those around them make, but at the same time, these people have been kept in bondage by the Forces of Darkness.

Now, I think most Churches recognize Satan exists, and he plays some sort of role in opposing the Church, but I wonder, do people realize the level of activity of Satan and his servants? Do people realize the true powers of Hindu Priests? Of Buddhist Monks? Muslim Imams? Secular Humanist Philosophers? I can think of specific instances in my life when I have come under direct and very powerful demonic attack.

I think, in my experience, people don’t realize the amount of power the forces of darkness have. I don’t want to make Satan or his servants out to appear more powerful than they are, because God does, in the end, have absolute power, and I do admit many of the problems of our world stem from simple human sinful nature. But make no mistake that demons actively attack Christians on a regular basis.

Christians can do fine in their safe, happy lives, usually. Go to Church, put some money in the offering bag, listen to a nice sermon about being holy, go home, eat dinner with family and take a nap. That kind of life appeals to us: safe, content, simple, devoid of fear, darkness, or despair. But what happens when we go out of our safe, comfortable lives and move into something more dangerous? What happens when we find ourselves face-to-face with the stark, harsh, realities of life? Poverty, war, hate, violence, racism, corruption, what do we do about them? Do we lose our faith? Do we say, “God couldn’t let this happen!” Europe experience two World Wars and the deaths of millions of people to stop power hungry politicians and hate-mongering tyrants. One of the results of this war was Europe abandonment of its Christian Faith. Supposed Christians could not imagine God could unleash such devastation upon mankind.

People don’t know how to answer the Hard questions, they don’t know what to do when confronted with abject poverty, abject hatred, and abject corruption. They sit in their house and they despair, they lose their faith. A friend of mine told me a story about a man once. This man said he was originally a Christian, but a verse in the New Testament confused him. This verse said to “pray without ceasing.” He didn’t understand how he could pray without ceasing. What did the man do? The man became Muslim because Muslims are only required to pray 5 times a day. Now, this man was probably never a strong believer, and he is an extreme, I admit, but I think we can extrapolate something from his fate. If we don’t explain the Bible, if we don’t understand the Bible, if we are not firm in our faith, the enemy will rip that faith away from us.

Ryan Clark recognizes all of this, and that draws me to his music. Ryan takes the state of the world seriously. He recognizes what we need to do, he knows we need to take the fight to the enemy, preach in the streetcorners and tell the world about Jesus. We need to fight against the evils of this world and stop the devil right where he stands.

So now, the question I ask myself, and I ask everyone else is: what are we going to do? Are we going to sit here and do nothing while the forces of Hell, the Forces of Darkness, run rampant in our streets? Are we going to hate those who hate us? Are we going to be selfish and not share with those who have less? In the midst of this war, the most important war in the history of mankind, are we to sit idle as mere bystanders?

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am not. I’m not going to sit quiet while evil men and their demonic allies destroy people, families, cities or nations. Ryan says, “Stand beside us, die to fight us, Storm the gates of hell!” I think I’d like to join him. I think that storming the gates of hell sounds like a great idea and that not enough self-proclaimed Christians have fought long or hard enough to storm those gates.

Small Note: I decided to edit this one a little. It means I spent more work on the actual details instead of just writing something ideas down and throwing it out there. Hopefully you can tell.

Music Thoughts

2010-03-24T23:37:00.001-07:00

I've discovered something about music.

The key to creating music that is good for headbanging is not having down-tuned guitars. Its have music that is meant to be headbanged to… :P

For instance, a lot of nightwish actually, doesn't make use of downtuned guitars, but, should I want to, I can easily headbang to it. But, then thing is, when I listen to lighter bands… say some Pop Punk or something, I don't really feel like headbanging. But I'm listening to my live version of "She is my Sin" and I'm hearing a song that can very easily be headbanged to… despite Emppu's distinct lack of low-end distortion. Awesome guitarwork, but it's more of a light "fuzz" sound versus the lower end sound that a lot of bands use.

Actually… its really intruiging how you can mess with sounds and still have headbang worthy music. For instance, I listened to what little Lamb of God I have yesterday (I'm still trying to decide if they're a band I should actually listen to, for some reason they give me a rather icky feeling), but, despite their lowend guitarwork, they are not a headbanging band. They're a moshing band (how do I know that even though I've never moshed? Go figure. That's the feeling I had though… having listened to music that is supposed to be "mosh music").

And to wrap this up, I have to end with saying that Children of Bodom's album Follow the Reaper is some of the most brilliant guitar and keyboard music I have heard in a long time. But Alexi Laiho really is a horrible vocalist. He's… just bad. This is funny, because I mean… he's a growler, and he uses a style of vocals that very few people like, yet, I know he's a bad vocalist. I mean, listen to In Flames or Amon Amarth and listen to their vocalists… they're better. Maybe Alexi is an amazing performer live, and I bet he is, but his vocals aren't something that would catch you.

Oh darn… that bring me to another point. I find it really funny how different types of music emphasis different parts of the music. A lot of pop music emphasizes the vocals of a particular artist (no matter how good those vocals may be *cough*), while metal-type music will focus on other stuff… like the guitars. I mean, take Children of Bodom, they have, like I said, a bad vocalist, but they make this up by having a very strong group of instrumentalists. Alexi Laiho is considered one of the premiere guitarists in the world, possibly the best alive, depending on your definition of "best". They're keyboardist is awesome, too. People listen to their music for the instrumentation, not the vocals or even the lyrics (which are also rather bad).

Anyways… I'll stop now.

2010-03-22T04:11:00.001-07:00

You know, I get spam messages in my email, just like everyone. But what is so funny about these spam messages is… is the fact that they assume I play World of Warcraft. Which is really hilarious, cuz I don't.

And, since I'm being random… I now realize why I don't listen to Linkin Park anymore: they're not actually such an amazing band… instrumentally. Or, at least, their instrumentation is not my style.

I mean, actually, I have to say they are an alright band. The cream of the crop of Nu-metal, I will admit. They have some good songs, and their vocalists are talented men. I will say I think they had something really good with all their duets, and I think it's a real shame that so many bands only make use of their secondary vocalists as backing vocalists, and not have them do duets, at least in my experience.

However, I'm listening to their guitarwork and… it's really boring. I mean, I think it's alright, but it's boring. I listen to most bands, and I listen to the guitars and if you have boring guitars they you are doing something wrong, in my opinion. Now I will admit, I have only seen truly brilliant and powerful guitarwork amongst guitar oriented-metal (IE most of metal), but that is perhaps a result of just how guitar orientated metal is. I mean, in metal, while your vocalist is still gonna be important, you find the lead guitarist is just as important. Thomas Youngblood is just as important as Roy Khan in Kamelot. Demon Hunter, in my mind, improved a LOT when Ethan Luck left and they got (the more talented) Patrick Judge to replace him. It really made a difference.

Funny thing, though, I can listen to other, Rock, music and hear some good, interesting guitarwork, rarely in the vein of metal guitarwork, but still good and interesting nonetheless.

Maybe that was why Nu-metal never went anywhere… I mean, I don't like a lot of Metalcore, but I've heard some awesome guitar from metalcore bands. Underoath has good guitarists, even if they have one of the most horrible sounds I've ever heard. On the other hand, Linkin Park had some good songs, two talented vocalists, but bad guitarwork (and whiny emo lyrics, but that's never stopped anyone from becoming popular…). They made 2 good albums (by good I mean popular) and 1 bad one. Now they are kinda… stuck. I don't know what they're doing, if they're touring or whatever, but they are not really important musicians anymore.

And, actually, that's kinda funny to think of it. But big rock bands, like Linkin Park and Evanescence, that happens… both released two really popular albums, but they kinda messed up and just disappeared (okay, neither are gone, but they are kinda inactive. Though Amy Lee says Evanescence is, or will be, recording a new album). On the other hand you have more less known bands like Alestorm who are going strong… I guess it really does have to do with Volume… Alestorm NEEDs to keep on touring to make a living, while Amy Lee probably made a LOT of money in royalties alone.

And I am rambling… but its good fun. I like to ramble.

What is new in my life? Well, not a whole lot… I've been spending my days struggling through school. I think I'm pretty sick of math, physics, and latin now, which is a shame because they are good courses, I'm just sick of them and by this point, even if I got like all As it wouldn't change my grades that much. Okay, it'd change them a little, but not a lot. I'm enjoying my English class, but I have a feeling I'm going to not enjoy the books we're reading now so much. We read The Hobbit and it was a brilliant, masterful, piece of work. Now we're reading The Princess and the Goblin and it's less so. George MacDonald has created a really good story and some fun characters, but his worldbuilding is not up to snuff in comparison to Tolkien, at least in this book, our teacher reminded us that MacDonald did write other books.

I guess the bottom line is I like the story, and I like the themes, but I hate the style. It's a children's book, and to be honest, that ruins a lot of the wonders of fantasy for me. Maybe it's because of the times I live in, but too me, the best style of Fantasy is a good combination of dark and gritty and high and mighty, Steven Erikson's work is probably the best example: nitty-gritty characters in an epic, living, breathing world. I enjoy Tolkien almost purely because of his prose, Tolkien was, after all, a professor of Language, and he uses his vocabulary brilliantly. His world is also, to this day, one of the few complete fantasy worlds created by just one man. Sure, you have places like Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Azeroth, etc, but these worlds don't hit the depth and breadth (or at least quality) of Tolkien's worlds, plus many of them were built by several authors together.

I guess my primary issue is that the plot of The Princess and the Goblin is just… boring. It's not very exciting, I guess. Like I said, good characters, good ideas, good themes, but BAD style. I mean, the story is intriguing and I want to know what happens, but the prose, especially in the beginning of the book, is not my taste.

And that was a lot of different things… oh well… that's what's on my mind right now.

2010-03-21T03:06:00.001-07:00

So I read most of Red Scarf Girl, a story about a Chinese girl caught up in the Cultural Revolution today.

To be brief, this girl, who was very smart and talented, finds her life very difficult because of the social status of her grandfather, a man who died before she was born, and the choices her father made as a young man. She found out that despite her many accomplishments and talents she could not do everything she could wanted to in school because of the decisions her relatives made before she was ever born or aware.

The obvious result, of course, was she hated her family. She hated her grandfather, because he came from a rich background. She wished she could have been the grandchild of a famer or factory worker instead of a landlord, a horrible, evil, landlord.

I realized, when reading this story, how I'm so blessed to not hate my family and not be held back because of their decisions. Sure, there are some, small things, that I wish I could have done but couldn't because I live overseas. But on the whole, I've been blessed by them.

What struck me the most about Red Scarf Girl, though, was how the main character was ashamed of her family history. She was ashamed to be the granddaughter of a landlord, though she had no control over her upbringing. She could not make herself go against the will of her parents, because she loved them and knew they were being unjustly punished, yet because of this she was harassed and punished.

Now, I have to be honest, and say I don't have the background this girl has. My grandfather worked long hard hours to get to where he is today and my parents have sacrificed to help me as much as possible (maybe not a lot, but we do spend a LOT of money on things like internet for our school, plus my mom spends a lot of time and energy trying to teach us). I come from a respectable middle-class family, essentially, not the Upper Class she came from. Yes, her family was never really rich, due to events, but mine isn't either, at least by the standards of our country.

Anyways, the thing is, my family and my society has taught me not to be ashamed of my family history. My grandfather could very easily pretend he was never a poor boy when he grew up. He could eat different food, for instance, but he chooses not to. I know this sounds hilarious, but I see it so clearly in the food he eats. My grandfather loves Black Eyed Peas, he love's 'em. But Black Eyed Peas are poor man's food, my grandmother (His wife), never ate them as a child (she came from a more privileged background). Is he ashamed of his love of Black Eyed Peas? Every time I think of Black Eyed Peas I think of my grandfather and try to imagine him working hard all day long on the farm and not getting much to eat but a big plate of Black Eye Peas (I don't know how realistic this picture, but that's the picture I get).

My grandfather could stop eating Black Eyed Peas. He's "rich" enough to afford more expensive food (if they are still cheap, I don't know, honestly), but he still eats Black Eyed Peas every so often. He still loves them. My grandfather is not ashamed of his love of Black Eyed Peas and is not ashamed of the lifestyle that made him like them.

And you know what? I'm not ashamed of my upbringing either. I know I've been blessed, because of the blessings others have bestowed on me. I have the privilege of being able to go to a good University. I have the privilege of being a 4^th generation Christian. I have the privilege of being a citizen of one of the most powerful countries in the world. I have the privilege of going to one of the world's greatest Churches everyday and I have the privilege of being instructed by some of the smarted people in the world (not just my teachers, by my parents and my spiritual leaders as well). If Someone tried to bring me down for my upbringing, I'd tell them to go to hell. I've been blessed, and maybe others haven't, but that's not my fault. You take what you're given in life. I have been blessed to be a blessing, and I have no intention of letting all the knowledge and heritage I have gained to go to waste. My grandfather worked hard so that his children and grandchildren could have a better life. I think that's why he's not ashamed of his upbringing, of the poverty he struggled with as a young man. I know what he came from and I know, from his first hand experience, that poverty is no fun. He told me once, that he never knew what love was until he met his wife. His family never loved him.

I don't want to be like his family. I don't want to be poor, bitter and hateful people. I don't want to be an alcoholic or addict of any kind. I don't want to be a person who doesn't love his children or family. I want to be a good person like my grandfather, or my father. I want to serve God and work hard to better this world. Because I know where I came from, I know where I need to go.

Don't be ashamed of your upbringing. Everyone's upbringing, no matter how horrible or privileged, can teach them wonderful things. I have been taught wonderful things, and I want to use those wonderful things for the good of God.

Half-Life 2: Ravenholm and Father Gregori

2010-03-17T22:16:00.001-07:00

I think the most brilliant character in Half-Life 2 is Father Gregori from Ravenholm. He's… hilarious. See the thing is, he talks in these insane innuendos. He's a "preacher" right? So he talks about spiritual stuff. But, he really means… like zombies and survival etc.

For instance, he tells you to get to the church, which is where the best exit from Ravenholm is. Now, the funny thing is, when you take a wrong turn he says, "You're on the wrong side of town, brother, did I not tell you to seek the church? Your salvation is there!" And I'm laughing. He's right, my salvation IS THERE, but what kind of salvation are we talking about? Escape from Ravenholm, or Christianity? :p

And then we get to the Church and he says, "tread carefully, this is hallowed ground." What he means is there are a TON of zombies in the place. A TON, but… its also the church graveyard, so of course it'd be hallowed ground.

Anyways… he's an awesome character, and the only thing that makes Ravenholm much fun for me. Personally, I prefer The levels where you fight more Combine and stuff. I dunno why… its just more entertaining. That, and I hate going through the mines… it's not that fun.

Having said that, Raveholm is the only place where I can think of that you use the Gravity Gun a lot, and really, actually, need to do so. You don't get a lot of ammo, you see. And, to be perfectly honest, there is nothing more fun than cutting a zombie in half with a big ole gear. Its super fun.

So I'm now running through the coast, and that's decent fun. Not my favorite level, really, but I do enjoy it. I remember HATING Nova Prospykt (spelling?) quite a bit, but I'll do my best to run through that level and make it to Anti-Citizen One. That's a fun little segment.

I really should play Episodes 1 and 2 again… I haven't played Episode 1 in ages… and Episode 2 is so much fun.

I'll say it again: Valve really is a quality studio. They know exactly how to create a good video game. They're just… really talented at creating a quality game with cool bits. I will say, looking at the level design of Half-Life 2 it does suffer from being a bit out of date. I can see the triggers in their programming

ng pretty easily, but it doesn't really matter, at the same time…

Half Life 2

2010-03-13T21:57:00.001-08:00

So, for some reason watching The Matrix (awesome movie) inspired me to play Half-Life 2 again. I love Half-Life.

I think, the thing about Half-Life, what makes it such a great game isn't any one special thing. Half-Life, at first glance, appears a very standard FPS game: its linear, it has all the standard FPS weapons (Melee weapon, pistol, SMG, Shotgun RPG, end game super gun, etc) and there is nothing special about how combat works: point and shoot, accuracy being what you would expect from various guns (SMG has a high rate of fire but is inaccurate, Shotgun is close range, pistol is weak bust fast, decently accurate).


But the game is amazing. I swear, it's the best FPS game I've ever played. I think its really the level design. The game is just… so awesome. In Call of Duty you run from checkpoint to checkpoint shooting people. In Half-Life there are all sorts of different puzzles and events you have to work through. You fight Manhacks, zombies, Civil Protection, Helicopters, Walkers, etc. In Call of Duty you fight infantry and maybe tanks. It gets boring, really.

And its not just the enemies, it's the design of the levels. They way you move through locations like the Canals, City 17, etc, its just… really amazing. I'm in love with it.

Another thing that is rather fun is the vehicle sections. Route Canal, the Highway, and Episode 2 are AMAZING for their vehicle sections. It's just sooo much fun using the muscle car from Episode 2 and the hover craft from Route Canal. I love it.

Camp 2010

2010-03-06T21:27:00.001-08:00

Every year my church here in Bangladesh hosts "Kid's Camp" a weekend (Thursday PM to Saturday PM) out in Gazipur. We take however many kids (usually in the realm of 130-170) with us and we wear them out with games and activities as well as have lots of fun worshipping God! This year was the Twelfth annual Kid's Camp, it was also our biggest, with 168 kids.

First of all, I have to say that Camp is always an awesome event. God's Spirit has, to my knowledge, never failed to appear in an awesome and holy way. The kid's always have fun and always enjoy themselves and the counselors always wear themselves out trying to keep everything organized and awesome!

I want to start this by saying that this was my last camp for the foreseeable future. I leave Bangladesh in June and because Camp runs during the Academic Year the chances of me coming back are slim. I might manage to come back for a later one, but I find it unlikely; never say never though.

As far as Camps go, this one seemed to go pretty well. As usual, we had a few moments that were rather bad. Two kids left, for one reason or another, on the 2^nd day (both got really sick, essentially), and we had to stop kids from fighting/being too rough several times.

Spiritually though, this camp, for me, was amazing. I think it's very interesting to look back and try and remember my previous camps, spiritually. I have very few memories of my first camp, I know Saion was my counselor and we did NOT win (I think we lost… actually), but that was about it. I have a few random memories of different things, and I have a lot of memories of the last three camps (the 10^th, 11^th and this one, the 12^th camp). However, I know that as I have grown up and gotten older, my spirituality has increased. Its funny, because all my life people have told me that your age doesn't matter… yet you know what, I'd say I'd disagree. When I "gave my life to Jesus" I had no clue what that meant, essentially. I mean… I did it, and I meant it, but I didn't know what the details entailed. When I got baptized, I really didn't know why I did that… and honestly, I would have rather waited till I was like 13. I know there are some kids (I've met 'em) who were/are more spiritual than I was at a young age, but… it's just taken me several years to really press into God and learn about my faith.

So anyways, I think the one thing that I really need to mention is, I'm not sure where or when it happened, but… something clicked with God some time ago. Probably within the last 12 months. I've learned how to hear His voice properly, I think I can say. Again, maybe this is me, but it took me a while to figure that one out. But now, I've gotten it, and I can hear his voice very clearly when I want or need to. Also, I've really learned to worship God. This has been growing steadily since I started attending 4him four years ago, I'll admit, but something just really clicked both at the 4him Retreat and then at Camp. I've… come into my own I… I know how I worship God and I know what worshipping God means for me. I'm no longer copying what someone else has done (not to say doing so is bad, it's not), I'm doing what I want to do,

Another thing I think I have seen these past few months is a really confirmation of my spiritual Gifts, both directly from God and from my friends and leaders (mentors?). I understand what I'm supposed to do, spiritually, in a lot of ways, now its just down to a matter of practice and continuing to Grow. I'm not groping for something to do in worship or in Church, I know my place and I know how I can help the body of Christ, Spiritually.

I could go into some of the details of Camp, the little things that happened, but really, that was the most important thing right there: the conformation that I am, Spiritually, ready to move onto my next stage in life. Everyone I've talked to has said that University has a lot of cool stuff (obviously it also has a lot of bad stuff, but let's be positive) and I think I know that everything, in the long run, will be awesome. There will be hard things, there will be bad things, but I'm ready for it.

I think emotionally, I'm ready as well. I've talked to some of my friends here in Bangladesh, people I have shared a lot of time with these last four years in Bangladesh, and I know and I think that we all have recognized I will be going soon. We've said goodbye, one way or another. The real goodbye will come when I actually leave, but I'm glad to know my friends realize I'm going and, and I'm not coming back longterm.

I have to say that Bangladesh has been a wonderful place for me. I would not have lived anywhere else (okay, maybe India, but I'm not sure that's fair… I've been to India so much and I've lived there as well). I've made a lot of good friends here, some have left, some are still here. My Church has blessed me so much and, despite having some issues with it and certain people within the church, its been a positive experience. We're gonna have some issues with people, obviously, that's… life, you know?

So yes, Camp was amazing. I was so glad for it. Thank you everyone who made it possible!

What Heaven Will be Like

2010-03-04T00:21:00.001-08:00

You know, a while ago my parent's company had its 50^th anniversary celebration. It was good fun, ut I want to talk about something one of the speakers said:

"What will worship be like in heaven?" He asked. The guy went out discuss how worship in heaven will be totally crazy with everyone worshipping in awesome ways etc… but the thing, I'm not entirely sure if that's how worship in heaven will be like.

First off all I think the thing people tend to forget is that Heaven will be very different than Earth. Sure, it'll be Earth-like, but there are so many things on Earth that are a result of our fallen nature, NONE of this will be present in earth. Second of all, heaven is gonna be multicultural. We will have, literally, every single tribe, nation, people and possibly even language in heaven. All these people are gonna want to worship God in their own way, I suspect. People from the Medieval Ages worshipped with Gregorian Chants. People from the West now like a more Rock n' Roll style, generally. People from Bangladesh like using Bengali Folk Instruments. Each of these styles are rather different. So… how do we combine them? Or do we? Or what.

And I think that is where we mess up. In Heaven we will be constantly in the presence of the Living God. We will not longer be restricted in our access to Him. We're gonna be right next to the Lord ALL THE TIME. We're gonna know Him on a more intimate, more "real" level than most people do on Earth. That will affect the way we Worship, I think. Because our relationship with God will be greater, our worship will be, for lack of a better term, "purer." One of the things I often have a problem with is completely giving myself up in Worship. Just letting God speak to me and worshipping God how HE WANTS ME TOO, worshipping God at His level, not mine. This won't be a problem in Heaven, I suspect. I won't have to worry about feeling out of place or "strange" because of how I worship. I won't have to fight past the spiritual warfare to come into an intimate place with God. I won't have to find a nice, special corner where I can shut away the problems of this world. That changes the way we think of worship.

I suspect, in short, the worship we will experience in Heaven will be completely unlike everything and anything we see now on Earth. It will have similiarties, at some level, but it will be deeper, more sincere, more meaningful. Will there be music? Sure. What will it sound like? I don't know and I don't care. I like singing in English, I admit, and I like singing to Western Rock and Roll Instruments (Drum, Bass, Guitar, Keyboard) I also admit, but I don't NEED these. I can worship God without them, its just… not what I'm used to. (And this is another thing I suspect will not be a factor in heaven. The instruments, the forms of worship will not be as important as the worship itself).

In fact, I supect this is a major issue that Humans have when imagining heaven in general. They think of Heaven in human terms. In terms that fit with this world. They imagine a place with lots of tasty food and lots of messing around doing nothing. That is a mistake. We need to look at Heaven in Divine terms. We need to imagine a world (a city, in fact, since that's what its called in Revelation) filled with Believers, but minus all the sin. A world without sin? Can you imagine that? I can't, I'm afraid. It blows my mind to think of a world where people don't even THINK about sinning. A world where people never argue or fight or struggle against each other. A world TRUE perfect world. Everyone does their job with happiness. Everyone loves each other. Everyone… is perfect.

Keep that in mind: Heaven is perfect. In the truest sense of the word, that is. This isn't perfect in human terms, this is perfect according to God. That's a mindblowing concept if you ask me.

2010-03-03T07:52:00.001-08:00

Okay, its official, I can tell after playing just 2 full games of HoN that I don't like it.

Not to mock HoN itself, but… there is no point in playing the game at this time. DotA does everything HoN does basically at the same level. And HoN's graphics Engine looks ugly.

I'd be more interesting in HoN if it simply updated Warcraft III's Engine and named all the items/heroes the same thing. But they didn't, and that makes the game confusing. Plus, LoL is a lot nicer about explaining all the powers and abilities of all the heroes. It has… a better interface. Not to mention an easier system for buying items.

So for right now, I'm sticking to LoL, thankyouverymuch. Maybe later on I'll try HoN again and see what it's like, but right now? No thanks.

Heroes of Newerth

2010-03-02T08:05:00.001-08:00

So I played Heroes of Newerth today. It was… different than what I expected.

My initial reaction is that LoL is a much better game. But that's just because I'm used to LoL, I want to say.

However, I will say that Heroes of Newerth, while attempting to stay true to DotA has also brought one of DotA's worst problems: the items.

In DotA, if you do not know the build for your hero BEFORE the game begins, you're in big trouble. It's really difficult to play the game without knowing the build for your hero. REALLY difficult.

In LoL this is not the case. The game has a recommended build for every hero (which is nice. I generally find this build is good and gives the player an idea of what kind of item he or she wants for their hero if they find the need to change the build a little) and the items are nicely organized by what they do. Attack items are bunched together, critical strike items are bunched together, life items are bunched together, etc, etc. The system overlaps too, which is awesome.

HoN does NOT do the above, it appears. In short: this is a mistake. It's a huge mistake. Especially for someone who is a skilled DotA player but has no clue what the heck he is doing because its his first time in Heroes of Newerth. Seriously, the interface and the appearance of the entire set-up… confused me. I was… confused by how it appeared. And the colors weren't very vibrant… but that's stuff I expect to change as I continue to mess with the game.

It's a lot like DotA though, I'll give it that. Whether or not this is actually a bad thing I'm not sure. I'll admit that LoL, while in a lot of ways similar to DotA, it's actually a different game. HoN doesn't appear to try to be a different game at all. It appears to be DotA, but with better graphics.

However, I will say I do like LoL's more cartoony, and tongue-in-cheek style.

I'll try to get a game of HoN in tomorrow. I'll probably play the treant guy, since I know how he works…

Awesome

2010-02-28T01:41:00.001-08:00

I just figured out how to directly post from word. This rocks.

DotA Thoughts

2010-02-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

DotA is amazing. It’s absolutely amazing and epic. Anyways… see I had a revalation about DotA a while ago when I was tyring to think of the heroes and define their roles and stuff.

See, my primary mistake I think is trying to use stats to determine role. DoTA has three stats, Intelligence, Agility and Strength. My previous thoughts went something like this: Intel: powerful spells, early game nukers. Agility: late gamers, often called “carries” Strength: Mid game, tanks.

But then I realized that you also had pushers, chasers, killers and support. Then I realized something, my entire premises were wrong. See the problem is that stats do not determine role. Abaddon a strength hero is not a tank, he’s support. The same with Treant. Beastmaster, a strength hero can carry. Bloodseeker (agility) is a weird kind of ganker/carry I would assume. Ogre Magi, a strength hero, is a caster/ganker (though not a good one….) anyways… you get the point: stats do not determine role.

So then, what are the roles? What determines the roles? Ahh that is where things get tricky. I think the best way to explain this is that spells and stat gain determine stuff. For instance, a carry needs good attack speed, high damage, and the ability to farm and escape in order to be effective. Drow gets a lot of damage, but doesn’t have good escape mechanisms or good farming techniques. On the other hand, Naga Siren has 2 disables (one is ulti, but still) and mirror images for escape. Mirror images also do a very good job at farming. Abilities determine role.

But anyways, I’ve also been reevaluating the 3 phases of the game and using various other skills I’ve learned to understand how to build a team. See, before, I assumed you’d want a team makeup something like this: 2 str, 2 agi, 1 intel. One agi should be able to carry.

But… that’s crap, honestly. See in reality you want something like this: 2 support, 2 gankers, 1 carry. Support heroes spend lots of gold building wards, crow, and TPs. They don’t need items to work their spells and abilities, so they can get team stuff (like things listed above). Support heroes “support” the team in team battles as well as protect carries early game. Gankers don’t focus on farming so much as they do waiting for the ideal moment to strike and kill an enemy hero. Again, XP and gold are so important for a good ganker. Finally, carries need to farm, farm farm. They get lots of gold and lots of XP so they can build items and easily defeat 2-3 enemy heroes with little to no help from other players. Carries “carry the team to victory.”

So anyways… as a thought experiment I created a possible team matchup that accounts for the bans inherent in a CM match. The thing about CM matches is your team should be flexible and focus on the players’ skills not the hero pickings. My brother is amazing with most Intel heroes, especially support ones, so you shouldn’t pick a specific hero for him to play so much as you should keep in mind 2-3 possible heroes for him to play with. However, here is a team I think has a pretty good chance of getting played in the café. Now all I need to do is actually get my teammates to let me play as the Captain for one match…

Support: Tormented Soul, Treant Protector
Carry: Beastmaster (really carry/support)
Ganker: Chaos Knight
Initiator: Magnataur

Initiators aren’t something I referenced above, but basically they are another role that is not as important, but still there. Initiators need good AoE spells that give the rest of the team a chance to move in and deal lots of damage. For Magnatur this would require getting Blink, but that shouldn’t be a problem. Boots, Blink, Battefury (or even just perseverance), set.

Possible swaps include Rhasta or CM for Treant, and beastmaster will be swapped for any better carry (Naga Siren, PotM) assuming players/bannings provide.

Crazy Sims 3

2010-02-23T08:03:00.001-08:00

Okay, crazy story:

I’m playing the Sims again and I had this family that was composed of a Brother living with his newly married sister. The sister wanted to have lots of kids and so I decided to move them out.

And then… then I realized I had no money after I moved. I had 3k dollars to build a house. So…. I looked at my options and decided to NOT build a house.

See, my guy is a writer and my girl is a stay at home mom (with two kids now!), but I needed more money, so the guy joined the journalism career. Then, I built a bed. Then I realized that I didn’t need anything else! Madness? No, not really… see my guys can use the bathrooms at the gyms and eat at the Diner. I took bonuses that give me free food at the diner and I never have to use a toilet (shower daily, but no toilet!) so…

So my “house” is a table with a computer (so my guy can continue writing his epic Sci-fi stories), 2 cradles, and a double bed. B)

I think tomorrow I’ll probably get a bathroom, but it will be a good long time before my guys ever get a proper house. Who cares though? I haz a cool lifestyle! :D

A Confession

2010-02-22T03:16:00.000-08:00

Okay, you know what, I have a confession to make: I think I understand why people like Pop.

Know, I still think that metal is better. I think that you can’t get better beats, riffs, solos and vocals than the stuff I’ve seen in metal music. I think the two greatest lyricists currently writing music are metalheads (Ryan Clark and Tuomas Holopainen). However, I understand why people like pop.

Its… catchy. Its stupidly, stupidly catchy. It might not be good, it might be crap, actually, but its catchy. I mean… there is something to be said about music that is just… catchy. Its something a lot of metal DOES NOT DO very well. I mean… Demon Hunter makes amazing music, but very little of it is catchy.

And yes, the reason I know understand pop music is I spent a decent bit of time sampling some of my sister’s pop… I’m repentning now by listening to The World is a Thorn by Demon Hunter, don’t worry.

Won’t Bow to Man
Won’t bow to Government
Won’t bow to Greed
Won’t bow to False Hope
Won’t bow to Self
Won’t bow to Modern Code
Won’t sell my soul to a Dead World
I DENY

Ahh yes, much better. //M\\

Six Things to Stand On

2010-02-21T19:40:00.000-08:00

Okay, so before I start on this, a bit of a preamble:

I was talking to Jay on Thursday and he asked me a question, “You’re a cowboy, and you’ve got your six-shooter. Now, you have six bullets in your gun. What are they? They can be people, ideas, whatever. What are your six bullets?” So I thought, what are the six things, six weapons, God has given me to stand on? It took me a while, but I think I’ve pulled out six Good little weapons. Six truths to combat the lies. Six facts to remind me of God’s love.

I’ll go ahead and list them right now:

1. Knowledge
2. Peace
3. Trust
4. Nationbuilding
5. Friends
6. Family

Now, I’m not going to list out specific friends and specific family right this very second, because that is something I’m saving for my graduation stuff… I dunno what I’m gonna do exactly, but I’ll wait for that one. The other four, well, here they are:

Knowledge:
Some time ago my dad told me that he realized I need something he doesn’t: Intellectual Stimulation. I love to debate, I love to think. One of the reasons I like bands like Demon Hunter and Nightwish is their lyrics affect you on a deeper, intellectual, level. Demon Hunter’s lyrics are just… amazing, the same with Nightwish, in a lot of ways.

The Bible says to love the Lord your God with all your mind. I think for me, that’s a very important thing to be doing. I need to love God with my mind. Its kind funny, because I’m a very emotional person, in a lot of ways my emotions guide my decisions more than facts and figures. I know what I believe, but I believe it because it “feels right…”

And I’m now rambling… so I’ll stop.

Nation Building:
Ahhh this one. To be honest, the meaning of nationbuilding, while seemingly simple, is actually a whole lot more complicated. I mean… okay, a nation builder builds nations. But what does that mean? Does it mean law? Does it mean police? Does it mean a leading intellectual? A scientist? A doctor? All of these people can help “build” their nation. Another thing: what is a nation? For me, I’ve always assumed when God told me this he meant a “nation” in the modern sense of a “country” the US, Bangladesh, these are nations. But then Jay told me that a nation, really, can mean any group of people with a similar cause or like. “Red Sox Nation” for instance, are the Red Sox fans. Someone who promotes video games and works to make video games more popular could be considered a “nationbuilder” under this definition. I do think God is calling me to specific, country nations (particularly my own, the United States of America), but it’s always good to know that brief dips into other nations would, after a fashion, fit with this idea of nationbuilding.

Peace:
This one is fun because in many ways it’s the opposite of my own personality. If I haven’t asked God to grant me peace at least once a week (I probably ask… 2-5 times a week?) then something is wrong. I want Peace, and I do not have in, a lot of ways. Bangladesh’s greatest problem is the nation is not at peace. The people here are always angry, I see this in the Game Café, I saw it just last Friday. I was playing DotA and on my team there were these two… not so good players. Now, I won’t blame them for not being good, and I have NEVER yelled at someone or insulted someone because they didn’t play good. I might tell them how to improve, or say “you are not a good player” but I won’t do it in a bad way (calling people noobs, or cursing at them, for instance). I also never leave games, on or offline. These are commitments I make as a good sportsman. These guys… they broke every single one of my rules. First of all, neither of them really knew how to play very well. They were okay, but not good and they made a lot of mistakes. What really got me though was one of them called me a noob (ME?! A NOOB?! Not only did it hurt but it was… a lie), and then after he got hammered, over and over again because he wasn’t really playing that well, he LEFT. Now, I was angry, but I held myself. It wouldn’t do any good, yelling at this guy. But then… the other guy… the other noob, he stopped playing (didn’t pause the game, just stopped playing) and then proceeded to yell at the guy (no clue what he said, it was bangla) and then Jacob says he actually hit the guy. That… that got me really angry. Again, I held myself together (when we left I screamed about it a bit… I’m not proud of the language I used, actually, but it was exactly how I felt, honestly). These guys were angry, and I see that in people all the time. You don’t just explode like that… there is something in the background, something that has built up over time and infected you. I don’t just blow up, things build up, then I explode. Bangladesh needs peace.

Okay… that was a bit of a detour, but I think I’ve expressed my point pretty well. As far as I can tell, there is a Spirit of Anger that has established itself in this nation. The result is God has given me a spirit of Peace. I am a man of Peace. I struggle with anger, but I know I can overcome. I will overcome. I will be the man God wants me to be, a man of peace.

Trust :
Another fun one, this is. Recently, I realized I need to trust more. I have always been a very closed person, to be honest. There are things I have never shared with even my best friends. Only two people (God and my dad) know a lot of things I have done or said.

It’s not just trusting other people, but its trusting God as well. Life is hard, but God loves us. If we trust God, then life should be easier, because we can know, without a shadow of a doubt, that what is happening is the best possible thing for us, no matter how bad it might seem. I remember I had this huge fight with my parents just last week, a lot of things came out (such as my constant struggle with rejection), and my dad really challenged me when he said, “Trust God” because well, that was what I was not doing. I was letting my emotions, my (limited) knowledge guide me and find make decisions based off that, not off what was best for me from God’s perspective. Now, I will say, last week did not go as I would have wanted it to, but I had a good time, I had a fun time. I was where God wanted me to be. I need to trust God so that when another situation like this comes (where my emotions and my knowledge tell me one thing, but God clearly tells me another) that I can trust in God to do the right thing.

So yes, those are the 4 “truths” or “facts” I want to sand on. The other two really go into a list of people who have influenced me and been a great help in my life. I won’t share the details of them just yet, but I do plan on sharing them eventually.

Abaddon -- Amazing

2010-02-12T22:26:00.001-08:00

Do you know what one of the most amazing experiences ever is? Okay, I’ll tell you:

In DotA, running away from 3 enemies when you have low life. You (Abaddon) and Tidehunter are together, and you are using all your mana to health/protect Tidehunter from dying. Finally, you escape just as your mana runs out and your ulti turns on. Tidehunter has also escaped. You have started to laugh in relief as all the adrenaline in your system finally hits you. Then, then it happens.

Juggernaut gets a Triple kill. He kills the 3 heroes that were chasing you. Like that. By himself. With no help. He kills 3 heroes. You are now laughing in shock, joy and relief.

It’s an amazing feeling, I assure you.

So yes, I played DotA yesterday. First time in like 3 weeks. I was glad to note that despite not playing in a LONG time I did really good when I played with Abaddon. Honestly, I think Abaddon is perhaps the BEST strength support hero in the game. Shield is good for tanking, support, and farming. Death Coil is good for chasing and support. Frostmourne… Frostmourne is awesome in the team battles. Oh, and his ulti, his ulti is freaking awesome.

Another thing that’s fun about Abaddon is he is a rather item light character. I usually build Vlad, Phase, and Perserverence for him. If I have extra gold, depending on my team, I can then grab Battefury, Heart or Scepter. I usually go for scepter, but I really don’t need it.

Oh, and I tried to play with skeli, but I messed up. Skeli… isn’t a tank, that’s the problem. He’s a ganker/DPS hero. You build Assault Cuirass with him. Oh well…

Random Update

2010-02-11T05:55:00.000-08:00

Brian demands I update, so here it goes:

Life is good right now. The 4him Retreat was amazing. Grew a lot, at least spiritually. I have an interview with St. Edwards University regarding my admission to their honors program, that should be interesting. It’s not supposed to be that long, just like 15 minutes, but I’m wondering how accurate that is… because I talk a lot.

*some time later*

Wow… I’m like super nervous… argh.

THE BATTLE IS ALREADY WON my music tells me. I need to remember this *nods*. (Proof that Metal music is positive, not negative. Amon Amarth might sing solely about battle, pillage, conquest and Norse Myths, but it still is uplifting! :p)

Also, I recently discovered the wonders of Celtic Folk Metal. That is to say, the Swiss band Eluveitie. Awesome, awesome stuff. See, they do Folk music right. Besides the typical five piece band (drums, 2 guitars, bass, vocals) they also have a dedicated violinist, someone to play the bagpipes, and then someone who plays an instrument called the hurdy-gurdy. Also, their vocalist plays the Tin Whistle and some sort of Mandolin thingie. So, 8 people, 12 instruments, (one of the females band members provide vocals for some songs) and awesome stuff all around.

And my interview is like in a few minutes, so I guess I’m just gonna stop typing now. This was a really random update…

League of Legends

2010-01-30T23:24:00.000-08:00

So recently I’ve been playing Guinsoo’s (the 3rd guy to patch the DotA Map for Warcraft, also the one who did a lot and made DotA what it is today before handing it over to IceFrog) new project, League of Legends. League of Legends is a game in the vein of DotA, 5v5, 3 lanes, 40 heroes, last hitting, ganking and team pushes. However, the game has a lot of differences as well. Off the top of my head the differences are: only one mode for now, as well as no denying, no blocking creeps and pulling creeps is much, much harder. Also, runes have been messed with. They are much less used now I’d say because you don’t have a bottle-like item.

However, I think the differences are good. One of DotA’s problems is the game has such a crazy learning curve. I’ve played games with newbies in both DotA and League of Legends and its not fun. People, seriously, just move up the lane, never falling back, and let the towers hit them. League of Legend’s TUTORIAL says not to get hit by the tower. *sigh*

Anyways, comparing the game directly to DotA, League of Legends is awesome. It’s a microtransation based game, so its free to download and free to play, but certain special items require you to pay money. The game has 40 heroes, but you need to buy them in order to play them. Every week about 10-12 heroes are made available for free, and the game rotates these heroes so new players can try all the different heroes.

The game has heroes in the vein of DotA: Support, Tank, Mage, Assassin, etc. Each hero has 4 spells and a passive. Some of the spells have a passive element. The game also has some other elements unique to it. Every game you play your account gain’s experience and Influence Points (IPs). As your account level’s up, you can unlock “Masteries” which give your heroes small bonuses, as well as “summoner spells” (semi-powerful spells with large cooldowns, that, when used correctly, will change the game quite a bit) and “runes”. Runes are small upgrades you purchase with IPs that effect your hero. Stuff like 5 extra HP or .30 chance for critical strike. It’s not a lot, but get 7-8 runes and you can improve your character a decent bit.

The heroes themselves are well thought out. I haven’t found a very imba hero in this week’s batch of heroes, and I’ve played against/with all of them. I think the coolest heroes are probably Twisted Fate (Ganker/Carry) and Master Yi (Melee DPS/Carry). The fun thing about the heroes is, like DotA, the developers have a sense of humor in hero names. Heroes like Master Yi have jokes built into them. For instance, Master Yi is a Martial-Artist skilled in “wuju,” wuju being a combination of two of the game developers’ names.

I think the game has promise. It only has 40 heroes right now, but if they can make all the heroes interesting and useful (let’s be honest, who actually plays Sylabear? And troll doesn’t get much action nowadays either, sadly) then they should only need 60ish heroes, not the 90+ that DotA boasts.

Of course, there is a learning curve, even for DotA players like me. I still haven’t figured out how to Jungle properly in this game (I was just figuring it out… kinda… in DotA) and of course there are about 100ish items and I don’t know them all.

Then again, I appear to know more about the game than some people I’ve played with. I’ve gotten some mixed groups. I think one of the problems is the matchmaking system isn’t perfect. It has limited information so it will make mistakes. For instance, if the game looked at my account, right now, it would see I’m a newbie who knows a little bit of what I’m doing. However, actually I have played DotA for a long time and while the heroes and items of League of Legends are new, I myself am very familiar with the tactics involved: ganking, farming, last hitting, lane control. I know it all. So the result is I’ve played with noobs who don’t know the first thing about the tactics, and people who, like me, understand how to properly gank and push.

I’m just hoping as I level up and my wins increase and my kills increase I’ll get placed with better players and avoid the “hero gets killed by creeps” syndrome. Actually, funny story, I started a game and I’m bot with another player as Master Yi. Master Yi attacks the enemy hero before the creeps come, but chases the enemy PAST THE TOWER and dies. *headdesk* one of my allies types, “oh, its another one of those games.”

We did win that game, however. But wow, Master Yi did not understand the game. After we had cleared all the towers and gotten super creeps in one lane he responds with “are we winning?” I wanted to say, “No duH?! Please… learn to play properly!” But I was nice to him. Actually, being mean to noobs isn’t something that I’d ever do, because it’s not very… nice… still, it’s frustrating when you charge the enemy and realize no one followed you and you’re now dead.

2010-01-24T00:22:00.000-08:00

DotA is an interesting game. What I think is most interesting about it is how much of a team game it is, and, furthermore, how it is so possible to play it on a lot of different levels.

I mean, I’m basically at a level where I will stop noobs pretty easily. I understand the different roles of heroes beyond Intel = nukers, Agi = carry, and Str = tank. That is, at the basic level, how the game works, but it’s a lot deeper than that. Some Intel heroes are nuker/gankers, but others are support heroes. Some Str heroes have powerful disables or chasing abilities. At least one plays like an intel hero (Pitlord). A lot of agi heroes shouldn’t be built into carries (some shouldn’t really even be played… :P).

Anyways, that was a ramble, but I’ve realized now how invaluable certain types of heroes are. Support heroes with multiple stuns/disables really can help kill people. Lich, Crystal Maiden, Rhasta, they’re just GOOD. And they hardly need any gold to build themselves. All Crystal Maiden need, seriously, is 3520 gold, the rest she can spend on wards and chicken. In comparison, a carry like moon rider wants 13750 gold to get a “super imba” build (Treads, Satanic, Butterfly). You need both in the team… but its interesting how some heroes are item dependent, and others aren’t.

What I think is the real genius of DotA is how Icefrog and Guinsoo managed to make such a complicated and strategically deep game (you think we’re a bunch of geeks messing around wasting our live? Think again. There is a LOT of strategy that goes into building a team of DotA Heroes and then properly working tougher to beat the enemy. Ganking, Farming, Pushing and Lanning take a LOT of teamwork and strategy to do properly) with what is a very simple system. Its actually one of the reasons I’m very happy to see games like League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth come up now because they can create their version of DotA from starch, without having to worry about what limitations Blizzard has put on them.

And wow, I’m rambling. But anyways, DotA is a great game. Its funny, because I’ve slowly, slowly become more and more interested in the game. When I first started playing, it was a fun way to enjoy myself. I played with friends and learned how to play with a few different heroes. I learned the “noob” heroes, ranged agi carries like Drow and Sniper. Now I can probably play just about any hero to one degree of success or another. I’m probably not the best ganker and I do best with heroes with higher levels of health or ranged attacks (or… both ^_^) but I can manage probably. My only complaint is that I’m not in the position to play in a clan and properly play in tourements. It’s still basically “for fun” with my friends. Now, while that’s well and good, in a lot of ways I wish we could rack up the competitiveness a bit.

On another completely separate note, I wonder that if the UN and the US could do a quick surgical war against North Korea if it would be viable for South Korea, Japan and China to pick up the pieces. Of course we have to first assume China isn’t actually going to go berserk on the US and screw the economy (which is, I admit, a plausible reaction), but let’s say they let the US attack… I think that might solve a lot of problems in that nation. Shame it’s not gonna happen given the current global economic crisis.

Thoughts on Life

2010-01-23T04:58:00.000-08:00

You know, it’s funny. 4 years ago I had the most awesome group of friends. There were, I think, like 7 of us (2 of which weren’t around much that last year) and we had all sorts of fun. Now all of those guys have left. Depending on different things, 3 of them probably will never come to Bangladesh again. Ever.

And now, I’m leaving too. It’s a weird thought. Really weird. I mean, I’m ready, but… I’m not? When I was a little kid, maybe 8 years ago, I had this cool idea that me and my family (mainly grandparents) and all my friends from India and Bangladesh could all live on this one street in the US and we could visit each other all the time and we’d never have to worry about not seeing each other because we were half-way around the world. Well, once again, I kinda wish life was like that.

Right now, my best friend is in Chicago, he’s been there for 1.5 years now. Another one of my friends is doing a Short-Term missions thing in Hong-Kong. Another is in school in Minnesota. 4 are here in Dhaka (though one will leave in about a week, for New Zealand). For a long time, even if we didn’t live in Dhaka, we still had family here and we would still see each other 2-3 times a year during the holidays. But, that’s not going to be the case anymore with some of these guys. I have friends who live in Australia and New Zealand, and they won’t be coming to the States most likely. I have friends who may never leave Bangladesh, and while I will come back, it won’t be like I’m coming back all the time, 2-3 times, at the most.

Anyways… it’s any interesting thing, Growing up. 10 years ago I had no idea what my life would entail. I was a little kid. Now I’m adult who has been given a wonderful picture of what I’m supposed to do with my life, at least for the next 4-6 years.

I have, if I’m counting correctly about 18 weeks in Banglaesh. Then I won’t be coming back for possibly 12 months. This will be my longest time away from some of my best friends. It’s… wow. Its both awesome and thrilling, and amazingly depressing. It really depends on my mood. I’m a good mood now so its exiciting, but in the back of my head there is this thought that life will suck and I’ll fail everything in College because I’ll get all depressed and miss my family.

I mean… I know that won’t happen… but what if it does? Argh. Stupid brain thinking stupid things. I don’t need these thoughts!

Oh, and Rhasta is a pwnage-bbq-awesome hero in DotA. B)

2010-01-06T08:11:00.001-08:00

One of weird things I always think about when I see the new year coming is how I don't view the world in yearly blocks like some people. I look at events in my life and in my world that happen on a different time scale. So... in a lot of ways, this year started about the same time my school started. In Late August my family went to Thailand for a vacation. And, while my parents had a good time, I did not. All my life I've been a introvert and I've never needed much social interaction, but this year I've found, more and more, how I really do enjoy the social interaction that I get and how much I cherish social interaction. I think if I hadn't been homeschooled I would probably enjoy social activities with my friends a lot more than I do.

Anyways... so I didn't enjoy myself because, at nearly 18 we were on holiday at a place in the beginning of the school year for most people my age. Ergo, there was no one but my family and a bunch of little kids or adults (neither of which wanted to spend time with me, really). The vacation wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t amazing either. Plus, the hotel we stayed in while in Bangkok was… horrible. Bangkok has the worst spiritual atmosphere I’ve been in ever I think. Stupid prostitutes ruining my vacation. -_-

Okay… I need to remember to not ramble here… so anyways, from there I went to Texas where I had a WONDERFUL two weeks with my grandparents, dad and aunt. I visited Baylor University and St. Edwards University and made my decision about college (St. Eds here I come. (: ).

Then the school year hit like a bomb. Now, I’m not an idiot or anything, and I do work hard (not hard enough, perhaps, but there is always room for improvement) I’ve always been satisfied with my grades and yes, there have been many moments when I wanted to scream in frustration, but that’s part of life. Well this year school hit me hard. Math is hard. And, for the first time, I realized why I am NOT going to pursue math. I knew I wasn’t good in it, but wow… this year has been really hard for me in math. Physics is actually fun, but I’m bad at it. Again, no science for me. Latin and Logic have challenged me, but with hard work I know I can make it up and do good in these classes. I won’t be taking latin in College though, I think I’ll try an easy language and one that might actually prove useful (well, more useful that Latin), like Spanish. English has been fun, but I wish I could focus more energy into it. With more editing, and more time, I might have been able to swing an A this semester, as it is I’ll have to deal with just an 85 average.

Wow… this is long… *sigh* I can’t seem to sum things up.

Okay, so, big picture: This year has, in many ways, been a hard year. I’m in a time of transition and that’s hard one anybody. I remember four years ago when “college” was some magical land in the distant future. But now it’s a stark reality and I have no idea what exactly its going to be like. I’m sure a lot of you know what I mean, being juniors and seniors. I have this sense of dread and excitement. I’m looking forward to America a lot, but at the same time I know I’m going to hate a lot of it. Not one of my friends who have made this transition in the past few years has had a lot of good things to say about America. I know at least one of my friends has really struggled and hates America. I’ve always tried to have a positive outlook on this transition, but at the same time I’m… afraid (?) that I’ll end up hating America and alienating a lot of people because “I’m different”. I’m afraid of rejection and I’m afraid that I won’t have a place in the world.

Random stuff, right? I mean… come on, I know in the back of my head that I will have a place in the world. God has done so many wonderful things in my life these past few years, preparing me for the future he has planned for me. He’s not gonna abandon me all of the sudden. I’m gonna be fine.

But, then, you know this Christmas, for all I know, could have been my last Christmas in Bangladesh. Forever. That scares me. A lot. I came to Bangladesh in 1998 when I was almost 7 years old. Eleven years later I’m 18 and I have had an awesome life in this wonderful (if corrupt, overpopulated, stinky and annoying) country.

I guess I just need to trust God and try and focus on small things, one day, one week, one month at a time. I’m now almost half way done my senior year of High School. In six months I’ll be done Highschool. Forever. In 12 months I’ll have made a HUGE transition from on continent, one culture, to another. It’s a big deal and if I think about it too much (like I am now) I get all nervous.

Annd that was a bad big picture. I’d go back and edit but honestly, I think my thoughts work best just as they are, maybe badly written and a bit confusing, but this is, literally a thought dump, so I think I’ll keep it as it is.

That’s all for now. I probably won’t get another update in until school starts again.

Wow... lots of stuff

2009-12-27T08:11:00.001-08:00

2009-12-20T17:55:00.000-08:00

So on Friday night I watched most of The School of Rock. Awesome show, and anyone remotely interested in Rock n’ Roll (Read: Modern Music) should watch the show, because its so dang funny.

Anyways, the one thing I have to say I thought was slightly annoying was the use of the term “facemelter” for a the solos that were NOT facemelters. Maybe its all the metal I listen to but its not a Facemelter unless its:

2 Minutes long
OR
REALLY FAST
OR
Twin Lead
OR
All of the above

And yes, I know at least one solo I’ve heard (Iron Maiden, I think it was Rock in Rio, they were doing the Trooper), anyways, I believe it was Gers and Smith, playing two separate guitar solos at the same time for about at least a minute and a half straight. Those guys are epic.

Another good facemelter is Twilight of the Thunder God’s Guitar solo. Roope is an amazing, amazing guitarist.

What is not a good facemelter is the stuff most rock bands call solos. They’re not fast, brutal, long, or well… good. No, that’s not true, there are some good rock solos, but considering the face that metal is like… built around solos in a lot of subgenres (let’s be honest, the entire reason bands like DragonForce exist is because of their solos) its kinda funny to see someone term a solo a “facemelter” and I’m going… “meh… I have a friend who’s better.”

Now… onto the more important stuff:

So yesterday our youth group had a “night of testimonies” which was, as I expected, incredible. A lot of it I had heard before, but certain details I had missed out on. The best part, however, came after the testimonies, we had an ending time of prayer and out of nowhere the Holy Spirit hit us right at the moment. After thirty minutes (at least it seemed like thirty minutes) of praying and worshipping we left, but honestly, it had to be one of the most amazing youth meetings we’ve had all year. A lot of times when we get to praying for a really long time I get sorta bored. I mean, prayer is important, but I don’t enjoy listening to other people pray that much. This time it didn’t matter, and I loved every moment of it.

As a minor tangent, I’ve come to realize over these past two months how blessed I’ve been in my spiritual journey. To be completely honest, I’m probably quite spoiled, because I’ve had access to men and women of God who could blow your mind. Thinking about, at least on my paternal grandmother’s side I’ve probably had about 100 years of Christianity in the family. 4 generations (myself included) of God-fearing men and women who followed Christ to the best of their ability. All four of my grandparents are amazingly godly people (thank god) and seeing as my parents work as missionaries I have been constantly surrounded by people who have done tremendous things for God. The stories I’ve heard from their National Director, the guy who founded our organization here (25 years ago, he came a young man with little English and no Bangla; he is now married to a Bengali women and has two wonderful sons, my friends, both of which have grown up in Bangladesh). My former Youth pastor was… amazing. That’s about all I can say, and it’s hard to describe him in any other way. He was serious, stupid, smart and wise all at once. Without him I know for a fact our Youth Group would not be at the situation it is today (which is, FYI, a very good situation; we have problems, but I do think each and every one of the people who attend 4him regularly have seen marked improvement in their faith over the past 3 years). And of course, I could talk about my parents, who have done an amazing job of parenting (and teaching!) me.

So yes… that is all I have to say right now.

2009-12-04T22:26:00.001-08:00

You know, its funny, one of the chief complaints that I’ve heard about CCM and most Christian music is that much of isn’t Christian enough. I’d agree that much of the lyrics are rather generic and not that good, but its something that most bands have. Actually, I’ve heard worse when it comes to lyrics. If you want cheesy, lame, formulatic lyrics listen to power metal. The words steel, heart, fire, and other such often appear. HEARTS ON FIRE! HEARTS ON FIRE! BURNING! BURNING! WITH DESIRE! Burning for the steel! Hearts on Fire. THAT is bad lyrics.

But anyways, Christian bands tend to have bad lyrics (but like I said, this is normal even in the secular realm. There are few bands that I know of that have good lyrics. Nightwish and Kamelot being two bands out of the like 50 bands I listen to regularly, there are others, but they stand out a good bit), but then… then we have Demon Hunter.

Demon Hunter is, for those of you woefully uneducated, a Metalcore/Hardcore band from Seattle, Washington. Ryan Clark, founding member and chief composer is someone who, besides being a really cool frontman, also happens to be well… an amazing artist. His lyrics may not be “poetic” (but seeing as I don’t like poetry to much that’s fine) but darnit, they are some of the most thoughtful lyrics I’ve ever heard of.

Storm the Gates of Hell, the title track from their latest release is a song that I could spend HOURS mediating over. The bridge, a single line, Hell Hath No Fury at all has to be the most powerful phrase I’ve ever heard in a song ever (except perhaps so worship songs). Songs like Fiction Kingdom, Storm the Gates of Hell, Thread of Light, Not I, and Undying are powerful, powerful reminders of just how powerful our God is and what we are called to do as his servants.

I think one really interesting comment that Ryan Clark once made regarding his music is that if Christians are at war against Satan and the Force of Darkness, we need war music. And, though he does respect many CCM artists (as do I!) CCM is hardly what he would call “war music”. “God I love you” or whatever is a really good thing to say, it’s a really important thing to say; I can never say “God I love you” enough. But there are a whole lot of psalms that don’t say “God I love”, there are a whole lot of psalms about war and violence.

Of course, the funniest thing about this band is that I can bet that so many people would be put off by Demon Hunter’s appearance and musical style. Tattoos adorn all the band members (last I checked at least; Ryan Clark has tattoos all down his arms), I have their live DVD and their bassist is a crazy headbanger. Plus there is the whole “loud music” thing that Metal has.

Yet, despite all this, Demon Hunter is amazing. Their musical ability has never impressed me overtly (they are good, but not amazing) but they are one of those ands that you just have to go “wow” to.

Aaand… in other, unrelated news, yesterday I played a 5v5 Single Draft DotA match that lasted 72 (!) minutes. Most games usually last 55 minutes.

In essence, we were losing, they we MESSED UP and got stalled and then the game tettered back and forth for about 15 minutes until my team finally regained the advantage and we destroyed their base. It was a fun, fun, game.

Google, Internet, and Privacy

2009-12-02T03:27:00.000-08:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8389458.stm

This is an interesting article if you ask me. I just read on Facebook how Facebook now has 350 million people registered, and, even if that includes inactive accounts and spam accounts, that’s a lot of people, more than perhaps most countries, independent of each other at least.

So anyways, basically, everyone is on facebook. I have just 184 friends, many of whom I don’t really know that well, but many who I do talk to a lot. I see maybe 20+ of my friends on facebook regularly and the rest are people I want to keep in contact with that I’ve known from before or are TPS friends. But the thing is, while 184 sounds like a lot, it’s not. I have friends with nearly 500 friends on facebook, some with perhaps close to 1000. It’s not that hard to get that many friends, especially if you go to a big school and add anyone from your school.

But, that being said, I think it will be interesting to see how social networking sites like Facebook continue to expand and continue to grow and how we, as people, treat them. Right now, when people think of making money via facebook they think of creating an application that will allow for monetary gain. Games like Mafia Wars and Farmville. However, I do not think it impossible that in the near future many business transactions will be done over facebook. Business will create pages with their sales and specials advertised on facebook. I can easily see facebook and other such social networking sites soon replacing things like Email and possibly even text-based chatting. I do think Facebook’s chat system needs serious improvement before the former can happen, but seriously, with 350 MILLION people onboard, Facebook has the ability to knockout Google Talk, MSN, Yahoo Messenger and AOL if they devote the time and energy into doing it.

And while we’re on the topic, the BBC did an interesting article on Google previewing their new OS, Google Chrome. This OS is, for now, just going to be for Netbooks, but what google is trying to do really is amazing. Microsoft has always been about expensive software you buy in a store and install onto your machine. Windows was invented when the internet was hardly even available to the public. My parents, in 1989, used Fax and Long Distance Phone Calls to deal with people in the US while they were in India. Google is doing their best to show how “old” and “obsolete” MS’ design of “you don’t need internet” is. Google basically is assuming that the users of this OS (which is designed to run on netboooks, so it makes sense) will always have access to the Internet. Everything on this machine is designed to be done on the internet, Word Processing, Spread Sheets, everything.

On one hand, its exciting, on the other, I do find this somewhat scary. See, I love the internet, and I love it when in Star Trek the Captain will say, “Computer, play some 20th Century Jazz,” or whatever and some Random Jazz plays. That’s amazing. I want to be able to listen to ANY music from ANY era like that. I remember in one episode Riker and Deanna research something and instead of working their way through dusty tomes they use the computer to cross-reference topics. Their computer database as all sorts of information readily available for people and while searches can take a long time, they can be done without much need for manual labor.

This type of stuff does exist to a point now. Assuming I have a large database of Jazz music, I can pull out my computer and listen to Jazz, and with the likes of Google I’m sure there are programs that could, somewhat accurately, cross-reference searches done on google and stuff. But, its not the level where everything is on the net, freely available via the Socialist/Communist society of the Federation. But it’d be nice to such a society, methinks (it’s a Utopia. What’s NOT nice about it?).

So, one side, I’m all for this kind of awesome technology, but, I’m also apprehensive. I think one thing that I always want to know is how secure things are. If I am hosting all my Spreadsheets, which contain all my Financial data on the Web, who has access to them? Nothing is unhackable, yes, but it’s a whole lot harder/worth less to grab my personal data from my personal harddrive on my personal computer than it is to break into the Google mainfraim and steal data. I wonder how easy it will be to do this, and while I do realize that it’s unlikely that such hacks will happen, having lived in the third world where all the hackers and pirates operate. Every supposedly “unpiratable” game has been pirated within a week or two of release and distributed.

So, I kinda get this feeling that as more and more stuff gets on the internet, I wonder how privacy will develop. I realize there are some things that people will just have to deal with, stuff like me having my profile pic on Facebook open for all to see (though I can change that I think…) but at the same time I wonder what privacy issues will be enforced, and how they will be enforced.

Anyways, I think the development of the Internet is very interesting. 10 years ago no one could have known what the Internet today would have looked like. 20 years ago the internet hardly existed. And 30 years ago it basically didn’t exist. That means, for anyone 40+ years old (read: my parents) we have gone from an internetless society to one that will soon be (if google’s schemes work out, which I think they will, eventually) completely dependent on access to the Internet. It will be interesting watch both how this happens, and the response on MS as they try to fight to keep their dominance in the market of OSes.

Rants and Stuff

2009-11-23T23:41:00.000-08:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8373794.stm

Someday, maybe the world will understand. Someday, people might just, maybe, get what video gaming is all about. Someday, people will realize that video games are NOT “murder simulators” or whatever you want to call them. Yes, in games like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor I can kill hundreds of humans, and in Modern Warfare II there is a level where you cut down dozens of civilians while masquerading as a Russian Terrorist. As a “normal” “average” gamer, I was disgusted by this little sequence. Yes, I played through it, yes, I shot at civilians (and made a point to kill a few who were crawling away) but… that’s disgusting.

I think this is the key thing that far too many non-gamers don’t get: Fantasy and reality are two independent things. In the real world, soldiers don’t regenerate health, they aren’t skilled in dozens of different guns, they don’t reload after every third shot. In the real world war is brutal, hellish and well… not fun. In fantasy war is awesome. War is made of win and nothing is greater than a good battle with EXTRA violence. (Okay, maybe not extra, but you get the point: violence sells). But the thing is… we all know that its fake. Honestly, how is it realistic for there to be something like 500 “militia” armed with SMGs, Shotguns and Rifles in the slums of Rio, Brazil? How is it possible for Russia to invade the EAST COAST just as British and America forces attack the Russian West Coast with commandos? It. Doesn’t. Happen. But its darn cool. I mean, let’s face it, fighting through the White House and flying a helicopter around the DC is darn cool. Seeing the Washington Monument in flames and the White House reduced to Ashes is neat, in a sort of depressing way.

Another thing that I find funny, is how much people criticize games like Modern Warfare II, GTA: San Andreas (Hot Coffee, people?), but then games like Dragon Age: Origins and Fallout 3 haven’t really received much (well known) criticism. Dragon Age: Origins is violent, grim, gritty and well… very Mature. Fallout 3 is the same, if not worse: Sex, Language, Drug Use, and humans exploding into gore. So… why exactly do these games not receive critism? Because they’re not “real”? Come on, Russia invading the East Coast is hardly “real”. SAS forces running amok in Rio being chased by “200 militia” and killing DOZENS of said militia hardly strikes me as an everyday, run-of-the-mill SAS operation. Modern Warfare II is a fantasy game. Now, if this was Iraq or Afghanistan, and they did their best to really remain realistic, then I wouldn’t mind the criticism, but this game IS NOT realistic. So why the criticism?

And while I’m talking about video games, what is up with singleplayer FPS games these days? CoD 4 has a 10 hour campaign, and it appears Modern Warfare II has a shorter one! I won Crysis in like a week (during school!). It appears that the traditional linear FPS game is just… dead in singleplayer. Actually, this appears to be a cause of a very deadly disease that Video Gaming has recently received: graphics.

See, ten years ago, good graphics were… Half-Life. And I’ll be honest say that game had BAD graphics compared to modern times. But the truth is, I played that game, and once you start playing, it doesn’t matter! The game is still AMAZING. It has GOOD gameplay and FUN levels, once you start playing, you won’t care that the game really shows its age, graphically.

But then you have games like Prototype, which, despite me having a good computer that meets the minium requirements, doesn’t run very well on my computer. The same can be said with Assassin’s Creed. Now, the really funny thing about this is that both of these games, as far as I can tell, are games that do not appeal to me at all. I’ve never been a fan of the “run around the city” “freeform” games like that. I prefer the more RPG freeform games. But, the point is, these games were huge. People love graphics. They’re obessesed with graphics to what I consider an unhealthy level. I didn’t realize this until someone else told me, but this overreliance on graphical power has detracted from video games on the whole, in my opinion. Actually, I just remembered something I heard a long time ago when the PS3’s graphical power was unveiled. This Japanese guy said, “the PS3 is great. Those graphics are great, but to develop that level of graphical realism will cost lots of money and take lots of time.” He didn’t sound very exicited when he said this and I kinda agree with him. I’d rather have Half-Life Gameplay and Half-Life Graphics instead of Call of Duty 4 Gameplay (fun, but SHORT) and Call of Duty Graphics.

It would seem, sadly, that I am the exception to the rule. I prefer long singleplayer games. RTS, RPG, Long, Linear FPS games (Far Cry 2 was okay, but I prefer CoD4, honestly. CoD4 was cooler). *sigh* such is life.

Torchlight

2009-11-03T19:50:00.000-08:00

So recently, I’ve been playing this game called Torchlight. I haven’t played it that must (just maybe 4 hours yesterday) but I gotta say its an amazing game.

Torchlight is a Hack-n-slash “Diablo clone” (no duh, its made by former employees of Blizzard North, the CREATORS of Diablo). In the vein of Diablo there are three classes, melee smasher, ranged sniper, and magical dude. The game is set in the village of Torchlight, a mining community that operates around a mine near the village where a mystical crystal called “Ember” is found. You arrive at the scene to find monsters have overrun the mines and a two other adventer types (Brink and some girl… forget her name) fighting back the monsters. And there the game begins.

So… it’s a hack-n-slash. This means that the basis of the game revolve around one thing: kill monsters, loot them. You run around, fighting hundreds of different monsters (so far I’ve encountered rat-men, trolls, constructs (harder trolls), zombies, skeletons and various magical types) and then you loot their bodies and open the treasure chests they were guarding.

What I find so amazing about games like this is how stupidly unrealistic, yet amazingly satisfying they are. In a good story, the protagonist as a good reason for going on dangerous quests and often had lots of help along the way. Frodo never would have made it to Mt. Doom if it wasn’t for Gollum, Sam, Gandalf, Aragorn et al. But yet, in this game, besides I think the two levels, I, basically, am alone (you have a “pet” that helps you, but it’s basically a tank/low damage dealer) the entire game. In Lord of the Rings, Aragorn had a special sword, just one, and he used it throughout the book. He didn’t walk through orc corpses saying, “hey! That looks shiny! Who cares about this old sword, I’ll use this one!” Granted, Aragorn already had an amazingly good sword, but I’ve never heard of a single hero who fights through hordes of unnamed creatures and then takes whatever random weapons they were using for himself.

Furthermore, there is the whole question of “Why is this monster guarding a chest of weapons that he doesn’t use himself?” Question that I find myself asking. I mean, think about it: If that sword is a “OMG! UBER RARE TOTALLY AWESOME!” weapon, why isn’t the rat-man guarding it using it? It doesn’t make sense.

So anyways… yes, it’s unrealistic. Yes, its kinda stupid. Yes, its not that original in gameplay (the setting is a fun steam-punk type world. My character has a sword and shield and some PISTOLS! w00t!). But darnit, this game is amazingly fun.

Oh, do you know what the best part is? It'll run on just about any machine out there. It even has a special "netbook" setting if you're running one of those. Awesome, no? (Obviously its not that big a deal for me and my Duo Core CPU, Geforce 8 and 2 gigs of RAM, but hey, not everyone is like me. :p)

Website is www.torchlightgames.com its $20 off of Paypal, and the game designers claim 10-20 hours of gameplay every play through. I dunno about you, but with 3 classes, randomly generated dungeons, and gameplay this addicting I could play this game forever and ever. Assuming of course, I don't find another really fun game (like for instance... Dragon Age Origins or Borderlands, both of which seem like they're really good) *nods*

Neglect

2009-10-28T07:08:00.000-07:00

I've been negelecting this blog. I'm sorry for those of you who are missing my updates.

Anyways... so what have I been doing?

I finished Tyranny of the Night by Glen Cook (if you like Glen Cook, read it. If not, try his first novel: the Black Company, first) and started Dune this week (dune appears decent)

I've been playing Mount and Blade a lot.

I've been doing lots of school. Argh. I feel like I have this mountain of homework that doesn't ever get any smaller, just bigger. Really frustrating sometimes.

And... and nothing special.

Also, everyone should go and listen to Wanderer by Elvenking (its somewhere on Youtube). That song is one of the greatest songs ever.

Random Thought of the Day: The reason that I like Heavy Metal is because Heavy Metal guitarists and keyboardists solo. A lot. Not enough Rock musicians solo, or if they do its not often enough. A good album should have like 10 songs and at least 5 solos, preferably 10. If at all possible the solos should 4 minutes long (yes, I don't mind 8 minute long songs. One of the best songs I've ever heard is 14 minutes. The Poet and the Pendulum is brilliant).

Dota and God

2009-10-09T22:19:00.000-07:00

So I played dota today; first GOOD games I've played in like a month or so.

First game was five on five, me and my friends against some other guys in the cafe. We lost, very badly. the game lasted seventy minutes because they messed around with us (plus we got two really good ganks on them that were amazing) and let us see if we could win with two of our lanes destoryed; we couldn't.

And now, it wasn't completely our fault... they had broodmother and she was FREAKING VICIOUS. In ten minutes she destroyed the 2 mid lane towers. Her creeps owned us. After about twenty minutes into the game I realized that this wouldn't have been a problem if I had picked Pit Lord or my bro had played and picked Lich or some AoE Intel dude (who was practing for his first "concert" with some friends).

Second game was three-on-three. I played Treant Protector, Saad and Derek played Rhasta and Voidwalker repectively. We one that one, though it took us some time. Essentially we one because their carry, Bone Fletcher, was played by Mukit and we all knew how to counter Mukit's Bone Fletcher; late game he just wasn't that big of a threat. Then, we'd combine ultis in late game and people would just DIE. 2 Overgrowths (I had refresher), Chrono, and Serpent War... three heroes dead easily. We had to build up, but it worked out very well.

On a somewhat more important note: the pastor gave an excellent sermon today. Very good sermon. I think two things he mentioned that need to be repeated over and over again: If the Gospel is so important, why do only foreigners follow it? And if the gospel is so important why do Christians only share it with the poor (not entirely true, but I will say the mission organizations here in Dhaka do very little with the Upper Class - its all about the poor).

"Christian" Music and Ramblings

2009-09-30T07:22:00.001-07:00

You know what I think is maybe the stupidest question I’ve ever heard? “Are they a Christian band?”

Why is this such a stupid question? Well, let’s pick some “Christian” Bands:

Kutless is a “Christian” band. They sing “Christian” lyrics, are signed to a “Christian” label and tour with “Christian” bands.

Switchfoot is a “Christian” band. They sing “Spiritual” lyrics. They are signed to a “secular” label and tour with both “Christian” and “secular” bands.

As I Lay Dying is a “Christian” band they sing “secular” (but not sinful) lyrics, are signed to a “secular” label and regularly tour with “Secular” bands, but also with “Christian” bands.

Now, the thing is, all of these bands have been identified as “Christian” some, like Switchfoot has attempted to deny this altogether. Yes, they admit their Christian Faith, but they don’t claim to write explicitly Christian lyrics (“thinking man’s band”; IE Christian, or Biblical Lyrics, but they’ve never mentioned Jesus or God or something directly Christian) and they do try to tour and work with more secular bands. Others, like As I Lay Dying simply claim that they aren’t a Christian band, but Christians in a band. No Christian Lyrics or Christian Music Festivals (well… okay if there is ever a Christian Hardcore/Metalcore festival then they’d go to it, but there aren’t enough Christian bands for one of those. That being said the Christian Hardcore Scene is big enough they could tour with only Christian hardcore bands. But they don’t. They do “secular” festivals/tours like Wacken and stuff as well).

What is my point? The entire “Christian” label is meaningless. The First problem is that we one can never truly know how Christian a band is until they talk to them in person. The only “Christian” band I know for sure that has a relationship with God is Leeland, and that’s because I heard Jack Mooring preach to me, and then have him pray for me. I do honestly believe that most of the Bands out there that end up labeled “Christian” do in fact have some sort of relationship with Jesus, but I can’t be sure.

Another thing that bugs me is that we have this label of “Christian” but it only really deals with lyrics. Bands like Third Day are more Country-Rock, Skillet is Hard Rock, As I Lay Dying is Hard/Metalcore. These are all rather different genres yet all the bands get labeled “Christian”. I will admit that there is a CCM industry and a CCM sound along the lines of soft-rock/pop but there are also a LOT of bands that don’t fit that genre that get labeled “Christian” (POD, Switchfoot, Kutless to a degree, Demon Hunter, UnderOath to name a few).

Another thing I think that saddens me about the entire “Christian music” thing is how by labeling bands as “Christian” you alienate a section of the music listening population. Bands like Switchfoot and As I Lay Dying have avoided being labeled for just this reason. They want EVERYONE to listen to their music, and, especially in the case of Switchfoot I suspect (As I Lay Dying seems more to be just “Christians in a band”; they’re not really trying to reach people, just entertain) this is for evangelism purposes (though, it is hard to do evangelism from the stage, it can be done in a lot of ways. Demon Hunter is my favorite example because while in the Live in Nashville concert they don’t ever really mention God, they lyrics in all their songs are so Biblical etc it’s hard not to know what they’re talking about.

… I’m starting ramble here, so let me try to get to my point:

While I understand the Labeling of bands “Christian” (and honestly, it’s the best label for people like Chris Tomlin, who basically does Worship music) at the same time I wish people would stop it. I believe, that Believers should be at the forefront of every single thing in our world: Creative, Political, Economic, etc. The Top Songs on the Charts should be by “Christian” artists, not people like Kayne West or Britney Spears (okay, she is old news now, but it’s the best name I can get right now; I don’t listen to pop). One of these problems is a dearth of musical talents in the CCM Industry, but bands like AILD, Switchfoot, Relient K and Skillet have proved that one can be both “Christian” and “good” so I think that’s more of a general “90% of stuff is Crap” (Moore’s Law?) than anything.

I think in a lot of ways that my passion. I want to see Christians at the forefront of huge, multi-million international businesses, proving that you don’t have to be immoral and greedy to be successful. I want to see Bands like Switchfoot grow to become the next Iron Maiden or Nirvana. I want to see Christian authors to write good, not sappy, moral novels. I’m constantly disappointed by the amount of language and sex in novels these days, but I’ve yet to read a Christian Fiction that I’m truly, truly pleased with disregarding CS Lewis and Tolkien. Two authors out of the dozens I’ve read. How depressing is that?

*steps off soapbox*

Thailand/USA Trip Part 1

2009-09-22T06:17:00.000-07:00

*sigh* I think this is like the third time I’ve tried, and failed, to write an update this blog. Its been a while and I’m sorry, but that’s what happens when I go on holiday and get a bunch of new video games.

So… I suppose I should like… start a series on the States/Thailand and ignore the more boring, mundane life here in Dhaka. That sounds like a plan if you ask me. :P

So, first off, a very brief mention of Thailand:

It was okay I guess. Not our best holiday in Thailand. I had fun and managed to relax a fair bit. I watched GI Joe in theaters (reaction: it was good, but suffered from mediocre acting and rewriting characters in a fashion I did not enjoy. But as far as Action Movies go it was good), watched Black Hawk Down for the first time (depressing, confusing, but very good war movie. Not as violent as I thought it would be, surprisingly) and Saving Private Ryan for the second time (I say again: EXCELLENT movie).

Now, the US:

*sigh* the US. There was a lot of stuff that happened in the US. I mean, I’m making some very important decisions over the next few months regarding College and what I’ll be studying etc. I spent two weeks in the US with the primary purpose of looking for a college where I can continue my studies. I’ve pretty much made up my mind I want to be an English Writing Major, probably with a focus in Professional writing (though minoring in creative writing, for fun really, could does appeal to me). Before visiting the states I had three colleges in mind for my future studies: Uni of Mary-Hardin Baylor (UMHB), Baylor University, and St. Edwards University. Both UMHB and Baylor are Baptist schools and pretty much have a strong Christian Worldview. St. Edwards is “Catholic Heritage” meaning it was founded by the same guy as Notre Dame, but felt (to me) a whole lot secular than the schools. No one assumed my parents were missionaries as St. Edwards…

Anyways so I went to the US to specifically look at these schools and try and determine, assuming I could get into all of them (I had already been accept to UMHB with a decent academic scholarship) and see which one seemed like “the best fit” for me.

I visited St. Edwards first and I was very, very impressed with the school. When I visited it a year ago I didn’t seem as impressed. I mean, I guess it was a decent school, but I didn’t really know if liked it that much. This time I had a very different feeling. I went to a Freshman Worldview Class that was very interesting (read: Logic + Modern Politics = Isaac goes debate crazy) and all the students I talked to (a grand total of… 4; which is a lot for me seeing as I’m nearly anti-social sometimes) were very friendly and helpful.

I also talked to two different Admissions Counselors (the homeschool one and the International Admissions one) both of whom were very helpful and had a lot of information that they were able to give me.

To make a long story short: St. Edwards seemed like a very impressive school. Academically I’m sure I can find enough challenging course for me (if not regular, then honors; but I do want to be challenged. Not so much that I overwhelm myself, but I don’t want to feel like I’m wasting time in class or not learning anything), and as far as social stuff: the school is decently big AND its in the middle of Austin. Austin may be small by my standard (1 million people? Pft that’s less than 10% of the population of Dhaka) it is also “the live music capital of the world” and should have enough stuff for me to find myself plenty happy. All I need is a RPG/Wargaming group and I’ll probably be set. I’d like a good DotA group but I’ll be happy without that. I think.

We also visited Baylor a few days later. I personally think that Baylor has a better campus and nicer looking buildings, but that’s kinda to be expected considering Baylor’s bigger budget and general prestige; those get you a better campus.

However, other than that, I was, surprisingly, unimpressed. I mean, the people were knowledgeable and helpful (plus I got a lot of freebies; I got a Dr. Pepper in a glass bottle!) but to put it in simple terms: it appeared God was telling me to go to St. Edwards.

Like I said, I was surprised, I really though Baylor would be my ideal school, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The more I think about it the more I want to go to St. Edwards. I don’t want to start saying “I when I go to St. Eds” instead of “when I got to college” but… I guess I could say that unless there is a serious act of God I plan on going to St. Edwards.

That’s all for now, I’ll post another update later.

DotA

2009-08-22T22:23:00.000-07:00

So on Friday as normal, I played Dota with my friends. This time I had a really good time. Both games were well balanced and it easily could have gone either way; that’s something that doesn’t happen every game.

First game I played Avernus and let me just say how much I love this hero. He really is a good unit. His passive rocks for chasing, his heal/nuke is good for support and his shield is by far one of the best spells in the game. That and borrowed time is just… epic. 7 seconds with scepter at lvl 16. AMAZING.

Anyways… I won that game. It was interesting. 4v4 and my team had Bone Fletcher, Bounty Hunter and Viper, plus me. Our problem was that in the mid game me being a strength hero, I wanted to push and fight in team battles. But my allies, being the frail agi heroes that they were didn’t. Bounty and Fletcher were all over the map with windwalk and viper (played my Manik) was played in Manik’s usual carry style: slowly, surely creep in the lanes and never stay anywhere too long so that he can’t get ganked.

The second game I played Spirit Breaker, another hero I really like. Its really fun running around the map at 417 MS and bashing people o death. Once again the game was really balanced. My team didn’t have any support hero or real carry, but the opposing team had an axe who played badly (instead of him, viper ended up the tank. Go figure). That being said, in the end my team lost (after 70 minutes of fighting!) because Viper and Omniknight were just too good of a combo. Viper had Khadgar’s Pipe, Omniknight had repel and his ulti and that meant that Viper was pretty much unkillable for much of the team battles. Still I had some pretty amazing moments in that game. I charged axe from my base and killed him before anyone could come for help, that was fun. Then Twice I had amazing battles with Specter. First time we both started at the same amount of health, but he was doing more damage. It was after a team battle so neither of us had much mana. However, I risked that my regen was good enough for me to be able to charge at the last minute. It was close, but when I had about 200hp I killed specter with my charge of darkness.

Second time similar situation. Little mana and low health, except this time Specter was attacking me. I knew I was gonna die, but I hoped that if I turned and attacked I’d manage to get a bash. I didn’t, but I swear if I had gotten 1 bash Specter would have been killed.

Anyways… really awesome time I had. I can tell that I’m improving in DotA, and learning my play style. I play strength heroes, it would appear. I mean, I can play agility heroes and probably should branch out into some Intelligence heroes, but basically I like Strength heroes. Avernus, Nightstalker, Spirit Breaker, Pit Lord, Earthshaker (need to practice with him a bit), Admiral, those are my favorite heroes, all of them are strength heroes.

Anyways… nothing much else going on. I go to Thailand on Wendesday, that should be a fun holiday. I’ll write more later.

Politics and College

2009-08-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8202275.stm

*sigh*

You know what is sad about democracy? Everyone gets to have a say. Now, I realize this is a much needed right, but, sometimes, I wish people would shut up or get thrown in jail for not doing so. Not for long, but just a few days.

I mean, it’s great that people are talking about the health care system in the US, because, frankly, it NEEDS reform. When people can’t afford to take care of their health, we have a problem. I’m not saying what the democrats may or may not be proposing (I’m not sure what they’re proposing, but it’s the dems, and they’re Pro-big government, something I’m not) is the answer, but I don’t at all like how people are reacting, AT ALL.

I told one of my friends that the politics that are happening remind me of politics here. Politics here in Bangladesh involve two parties fighting, often violently, all the time. Neither side is interested in what the other has to say; it’s a miracle that they get as much done as they do. That’s what I’m beginning to see in the US. It hasn’t gotten to that level there just yet, but it bears a scary resemblance.

On a brighter note: I think I’ve gotten a bigger scholarship from Mary-Hardin Baylor (UMHB). 8k, which is double the old one (IF I’m remembering correctly). Now, I don’t particularly want to go to UMHB but… that’s a big chuck of my tuition. I’ll just have to see what kind of money I can get out of Baylor and St. Edwards.

Also, I’ll be able to participate in an Overnight stay at St. Edwards! I’m very happy about this because I think I should be able to ask people a lot of questions.

College… is going to be a big step for me. I’ve begun to realize this for the past few weeks as I’ve began to fill out college applications for St. Edwards and Baylor. These are big, life changing, decisions I’m going to have to make and I don’t want to make the wrong choice. Not only that but I’m going to enter into a completely different stage of life. I’ve had different changes and stuff but none of them as radical or as sudden as moving to the States (for what will be the foreseeable future. I’ll visit Bangladesh but I don’t intend to live here after College). I suppose the only thing I can do for now is fill out the applications and pray. I have an idea of what I want to do in College… but making those decisions and then succeeding are going to be challenging for me.

Anyways… I should get ready for bed. I’ll write more later.

Played a Pro

2009-08-01T00:12:00.001-07:00

So… yesterday I played DotA as usual, but with one exception: two of the games were played with a DotA pro (whom Jacob called Werewolf… his screen name was ).

Anyways, two games, first one was All Random. I repacked Ogre Magi and proceeded to work with Manik (who played Razor… not amazingly well but he did okay). The two of us faced off against Specter and Phantom Assassin in what was actually a very heavy killfest.

Now, the pro player, werewolf, played Tinker and faced off against Derick (forget who he was playing…). In the words of Derick, werewolf had “constant Double Damage”. I never watched them but I assumed he had a bottle and put wards around the runes and was grabbing them like crazy. The first thing Tinker did was farm travel, and he then proceeded to move around the map killing and pushing like the amazing player he was. Twice he just walked (or TPed) into my lane and killed people. He was amazing.

The thing was, Tinker is an early game nuker/ganker dude. As the game continues he gets worse because, like most Intel heroes his spells just don’t do enough damage late game. So, we were able to push long and hard and pwn them in the long run. Still, it was a good match.

So… the second game was AP. I think I knew from the beginning my team was gonna lose because it was AP. Anyways, we picked Lich, Sandking and Drow and then Werewolf pulled out Invoker. We then picked Naga Siren (cuz Manik is epic with her) and I took Tidehunter because we needed an AoE stunner. We faced off against Treant (Mumu), Jakiro (my bro), Earthshaker (Saad), Invoker (werewolf) and Skeleton King (Marcus… someone I’ve never played with before but appeared to be Derick’s friend).

From the beginning, we were going to lose. There wasn’t a whole lot we could do about it really. Werewolf played Invoker FRIGGIN GOOD. I mean seriously… he knew all 11 (I think 11… not sure) of Invokers spells and on top of that made the most imba build for him. I think his first item was like… heart of tarrsque. He also made Guinsoo and Shiva IIRC.

Oh… and Saad… Saad was a ever evil Earthshaker who built and played his hero perfectly. At least twice he used his blink dagger and ulti combo to get like a double kill.

Anyways… we managed to make the game last seventy-five minutes, but in the end we knew we would win. It was really inevitable.

So… what can I say? Well first off… I felt like I did really horrible in both games. Maybe if I had played a hero I’m more comfortable with, like Nightstalker, Razor, Dark Terror (actually he has a new name but I forget what it is) or Dragon Knight then I would have done better. However, I don’t think it would have mattered that much really because I just died a lot. I couldn’t farm because Invoker would nuke me if I did and I couldn’t kill because I was often the first death in the battles, as a result I had a crap build. It took me the entire game to build one battlefury and one heart. If I had played well I would have managed to get Power Treads, Heart, Battlefury, Satanic and maybe even Buzi or Hyperstone.

So… what does this teach me? It means I need to learn to play Tidehunter better. Play him with a Blink Dagger, actually. I think that might have helped some. Not a lot, but some.

Anyways… it was a good game. If given the chance I’d love to play with the guy again.

Earth 2160

2009-07-21T23:58:00.000-07:00

So the past few days I’ve been playing this game called Earth 2160.

First off, I got the game from a website called gog.com (GOG = good old games). The website is designed to sell high quality, but older, PC titles (games you can’t find in the stores very often now) for low prices (6 or 10 dollars). Furthermore, they do so completely 100% DRM free. I think the main reason they have been sticking to Older games is that I know a lot of companies probably would never release their games DRM free on the internet if they were new. Even so they have yet to score a big contract with Activision-Blizzard or EA, so they catalogue is still pretty limited. That being said they have some great games.

Earth 2160 is a RTS game and the 3rd addition to the Earth series. The original two were set on Earth while the United Civilized States (USC) and Eurasian Dynasty (ED) fought a bloody war that ended with lots of nukes and an asteroid setting Earth off its normal orbit with its new orbit setting on a collision course with the Sun.

So… anyways the USC and the ED (along with the Lunar Corporation (LC), a faction based on the Moon) fought for resources, grabbed what they needed and flew off into space. Now they fight each other in Space on planets like Mars and Titan (which, is technically a moon, but whatever). All in all, it’s an awesome game.

The coolest thing about the game is the variety and various tactics you can try. Each race has its own weaknesses and strengths. ED seems to be the most balanced race, with a slight reliance on Lasers, while the LC has high technology and lots of lasers. The USC uses mechs and lots of standard weapons, while the secretive Aliens (did I mention them? No? Well anyways this game has aliens) I believe use lots of chemical weapons. When you research a new technology you can use that technology to upgrade existing units. So if you research RPGs then you can upgrade all your jeeps and buggies to have RPG launchers. Or if you research Chemical Weapons you will now have access to Chemical Cannons and various Missiles.

One of the coolest moments I think I’ve had with the game was in a skirimish against the ED (while I played… USC?) I was doing fine until they research Chemical Weapons. Now my reflective Armor (anti-laser armor) was useless and my units were eaten up. By the time I researched and applied Chemical Armor to my units I had already lost.

As a side note: the campaign is boring. I’m playing it, but the voice acting is TERRIBLE and the plot is horridly predictable. I didn’t realize how good some of the more average story-lines I’ve dealt with are until I’m faced with a truly horrible story.

So, if you’re interested in the game (and paying for it *cough*) then check out gog.com. They accept paypal. ;)

4him Last Night

2009-07-18T20:46:00.001-07:00

Hmmm. So I have a lot on my mind right now, I think I should start with what we discussed in 4him last night/evening/afternoon.

Basically, Steve spoke on a simple idea: “what is God to you?”. We all got into small groups and we wrote down our ideas. Then we put all the ideas on the whiteboard. Things like Head of Household, Bodyguard, GPS, Entertainer, Provider, Mr. Fix-it, and the like were examples we had.

Now, Steve said one very important thing: “many people think of God like a Vending Machine,” and while I don’t, I don’t and I don’t think I’ve treated like a Vending Machine that much (I probably have, but I can’t remember specific instances). One thing that he said is we’ll pray things like, “God, help me pass this test.” And I realized that I don’t think I’ve ever prayed that. My prayers involving tests and exams have never been, “give me knowledge I don’t have,” its always been, “give me the ability to use that knowledge. No freak outs or panic attacks.” (Which I have all the time. In times of emergency I have a tendency to panic and freak out. It’s a bad habit I need to break).

Anyways… that lead onto the idea of pray in general. Why do we pray? Well because we are supposed to ask God for things we want. He told us to. But why? God is sovereign and he already knows what we do or don’t need. So why pray? And it’s a good question. I don’t think I have an answer for it but I think it does have to do with the nature of God.

Why do we exist? The Westminster Shorter Catechism says to “Worship God and Enjoy Him Forever.” I disagree. And I think most of the leaders in 4him disagree as well. We exist to have a relationship with God. In a relationship you communicate. You talk to each other. God talks to me and tells me His plans for my life and I talk to him and ask questions about those plans. He tells me He’ll give me stuff to help me achieve His plans, etc. Even though he doesn’t need to be told that we need stuff or that we want stuff or whatever, God still wants us to tell him because well… in a relationship you communicate.

I think the best thing Steve said during his talk was he asked a very common question, “why do good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people?” Or at least a variation thereof. Its another question that I don’t think anyone is able to answer. Why is it that some people are born blind and others have better than perfect vision? Why is it that I have friends who are super smart, and others who are average or even below average? Again I can say that God is Sovereign and there are things that we cannot understand because we are mere mortals and don’t have the worldview that God has. But also I think I need to remind people that we live in a Fallen world and until Jesus comes again it will remain that way. God did save us from Hell, but this planet and this existence (weird to say but accurate I suppose) still remains in its depraved state. As such we’ll have trials and tribulations and problems. God made it very clear that, if anything, following God in this life will only make it more difficult (shouldering a cross? Those things are big and heavy!). It might not be “fair” that your brother or whatever had something horrible happen to him or her but God never said he’d make life fair.

So yes… that’s kinda what we discussed at 4him yesterday.

Stuff...

2009-07-13T22:33:00.000-07:00

SO I’m almost done my Chemistry Course. Finally. Just about 5 more days of work, and then I’m done. Three days of reading, one of review, and then the final chapter test and I’m free.

So I suppose I should finally say this, but I think, though it has taken me nearly 12 months to do so, that I finally understand Chemistry. It only took me the entire year, but now I get it. I’m not sure what happened, but these last few weeks everything has just well… clicked and I’ve been able to absorb the information at a good rate and understand it all. I don’t like Chemistry, and I still want to avoid all forms of Science while I’m in college (Sorry Brian) but I understand how it works and I have been able to enjoy a few different bits.

Also… I’ve been playing Moo Moo Town the last few days and yesterday I beat the game. Yes, I beat it by mself. Sure it was on the easiest mode and in the end I got an item that granted me unlimited reincarnations (it only took me like 20 minutes of hitting this guy with something like 99% DR) but I did win the game.

On the other hand, I don’t think I’m going to be able to play Moo Moo again for a few days. I spend over 2 hours beating that map and it got REALLY boring by the end.

What is Moo Moo? Well, in short it’s a Warcraft III Custom Map (that is, a mini-game that uses Warcraft III’s powerful map editor to make a different game inside of Warcraft) where up to 6 players face several waves of monsters that attack “Moo Moo” a big giant Minotaur in the center of the map. Each player controls one “hero” and uses gold gained by killing the enemy units to build items that buff your hero. It’s a fun game, even if it takes FOREVER to beat.

Oh, and with the end of my Chemistry will come the beginning of my College Applications. I’ll tell you how those go later, that is, once I’ve actually started them.

Sims 3

2009-07-07T08:36:00.001-07:00

So… Sims 3. Been playing it for quite some time now… maybe like 15-20 hours.

In short, it’s a good game. EA may be the Nazis of video games, but they have managed to, once again, make a solid Sims release. One that is sure to have dozens of “extras” like all the others.

Anyways… so, how to begin?

I’d say that the first thing about the Sims is that each one had a specific outlook, goal or whatever you want to call it. The first Sims was just the basics. You have a family, they get jobs, go to work, meet people, fall in love, etc. The 2nd Sims had all sorts of family tree stuff plus extra relationships, new graphics, and the community lot feature added on from the beginning. The Sims 3 improves upon all these features and adds more. Jobs have been tweaked, as have relationships and the various services (fyi maids are now overpriced. In the others they were far too cheap).

But the biggest change is how the neighborhood works now. In all the old Sims when your sim(s) went to a community lot time on your house lot froze until you came back. This had some advantages, of course. You could go out and play video games at the arcade and get home three hours later all prepped for work, for instance. However, it also had the annoying effect of spending two hours shopping only to come home tired and come to work. In general, it was annoying and I didn’t really like the system.

Not so in the new Sims game. Now, the entire community can streamlessly be visited. Sims can drive (yes, you get your own cars without any expacks) to the park while their children stay home and do homework with the babysitter. Or they can visit friends at their houses, or they can see a movie, or they can search for bugs, or go fishing. You get the point.

On the downside, you can no longer play multiple families in the same neighborhood. At least, after 20ish hours of playing the game I haven’t figured out how to… IMO this is a (sole) step backwards. Part of the fun of the Sims was creating your own neighborhood (you can’t do this either; you’re stuck with one neighborhood, two if you download the extra one) and then filling it with your own sims and giving the neighborhood its own story. Now, you can do that to a degree, and the seamless neighborhood makes visiting and meeting people easier, but its not the same in my opinion.

There are a lot of other little features that I could mention about the sims, but honestly, those are the two things that struck me the most. All I can say is that I think the Sims 3 is better than the previous two releases. That being said, unless you’re a die-hard fan of the game I would encourage you to wait until EA releases some tasty expacks and the original game’s price goes down form $50 to like…. Well $30 or something.

Oh, and on another note, if you buy a pirated version the game will tell you that its pirated. It won’t stop you from playing, but it will ask you to buy a real version.

CoD 5: World At War

2009-07-02T01:21:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I played CoD 5. I played and won CoD 5. Let’s have a moment of silence to realize that this means that it took me like 8 hours to win a game that, should I have bought it retail, would have cost me perhaps $40 dollars (I don’t know what the price is, I borrowed it from a friend).

$40 for that?! No. Just no. I realize that it has multiplayer, but I would never have bought it for multiplayer considering I have CoD 4, which is better. It makes no sense. The game isn’t worth that price.

Anyways… the game itself. First thing I noticed is that Treyarch did attempt to make it a “different” WWII shooter. Instead of the typical Stalingrad/North Africa/Normandy campaign game it had a Battle of Berlin/Pacific Theater Campaign. Both were fun and I enjoyed them. As usual, my favorite campaign was the Soviet Battle of Berlin Campaign. Why? I think it has something to do with me really enjoying running through ruined buildings and killing people. Its fun. Though I didn’t like the Story line that much. It was really… brutal and sad, because the soldiers in question fought for a horribly abusive regime and the sole motivation of your CO was revenge. A boring, horrible motive if there ever was one. I much preferred CoD 2’s story of defending Stalingrad (your homeland!) from the evil Nazis. I felt sorry for the Nazis because at that point they were fighting for a lost cause and they were going to die and have to rebuild their nation, which was in ruins. Russia one the other hand, came out of the war as a Super Power.

CoD 5 added a lot of new “features” to the game. Rifle Grenades, Bayonets, Flamethrowers, Molotovs and possibly another thing I’m forgetting. All of these features were nice, but they weren’t needed. The flamethrower was fun, but… meh. It got boring after the first time I used it. I much preferred using a submachine gun or repeating rifle.

Everything else, the bayonets for instance, were really gimmicky. They didn’t, as far as I could tell, add ANYTHING since you already had a melee attack. If it was better I missed it. I only used Rifle Grenades once.

By far the coolest level was this level where I was the gunner in an airplane shooting Japanese fighters and ships. It was really, really fun. I mean amazingly fun. Good enough to make an entire game about you being the gunner for a airplane. Shame it was so short and easy.

One more thing: none of the characters were memorable. I remember in CoD 2 how memorable the characters were. How I loved McGreggor and Price. Both of them were amazing. I want more of those two guys. CoD 5 didn’t have anyone like them.

I’m installing Sims 3 now, btw. I’ll tell you how it goes later.

SHOUT 2009: Return of the Light

2009-06-27T23:04:00.000-07:00

So last night was SHOUT 2009: Return of the Light.

Shout is a worship concert our Church organized, well I really should say our Church Youth (4him) and the Worship team organized. In simple terms the concert was well… AMAZING.

So we had three “bands” performing. Two of which were our Church Worship team, and one was a special team from Thailand called the Leviticans. The Leviticans is a worship team that my friend Caleb plays Bass for, he managed to get his band to come and play for us, which rocked.

So… basically, there were a TON of people. I thought there would be more but I think that we had just about the right number of people. A lot of (boring, or too old to be jumping, or they couldn’t take the noise) people did sit in the back but the (standing/jumping/dancing) crowd in the front did a very good job of jumping about and having lots of fun.

The first band didn’t sound that good and they probably had a good number of reasons why. First off, the power went off and we went to generator, which probably messed up the speakers a good bit. Second off I heard that the monitors went off and that probably messed everyone up. Still, the bass and the drums sounded great for most of the performance.

The second band was the Leviticans, and they were AMAZING. Everyone else had vocal issues (because the mics weren’t loud enough) but Chris (their vocalist) has a very loud voice and he managed to sound pretty good throughout his performance. The band was also very good. I heard them play one song on Friday and I wasn’t too impressed with their drummer (who didn’t seem to build up properly) but he was amazing during the concert. Their lead guitarist did an amazing job IMO and had a pretty cool solo (as always, I love guitar soloing, shame he only had one). The crowd was really wild during their entire performance. We had a train going through, some people (like me :D) were headbanging and EVERYONE was jumping up and do during the choruses, if not the entire performance. I think the best song was their ending song (because the “encore”) “Solution” which was AMAZING.

Last performance was also not that bad. Max did vocals and he has a nice voice. His only problem is he needs to learn to control it more and not sing off his throat. He’s getting better, but by the last song (Paint this Town Red???? Chorus was “we’re gonna paint this town red with the Blood of Jesus) his voice sounded pretty… well screechy and bad. The crowd didn’t have that much energy by that last performance because well… we were all really tired! Still, we had a train and during the last song, “One Way” any energy the crowd had left was used up.

I had an amazing time there. I think the entire thing was a testament to how good God is. It took us three years to organize the event and a lot of things went wrong, both during and before the concert, still, the entire thing went off well. All the bands played as good as they could and besides the first band, which sounded pretty band, everyone did great.

All I can really say is I can’t wait for SHOUT 2010! And that hopefully it will happen before I leave! :D

Also personally, I think with this concert each year should be bigger. First time it was kinda just thrown together by a few key people. We had like 4 bands and it lasted FOREVER. To me I remember it feeling more like a somewhat louder worship session than a proper concert.

However, it took us three years to organize a second one. I think our major problem this time was money, because we had to pay for our speakers and our budge was actually really small. However, we did get everything together and managed to get all the money we needed, which was awesome.

I think our next goal for SHOUT should be to rent a Hall or proper place where the concert can take place so that we can have better acoustics, because, no matter how you work it, our church has just plain bad acoustics. Eventually I do think it would be great if a big band from the US like Switchfoot, Kutless or Leeland (actually it would be EPIC if Leeland could come and give us a proper full on concert!) could come and give us a performance. Matt mentioned it would be weird our church band performing with them but I think, if our Church band could open for them that would work perfectly. That and actually I think our church has some very talented performers. They might not be as technically proficient or as good song-writers, but they have the anointing of God to worship and that’s all they need!

And… I’m rambling. Chemistry beckons… I’ll write more later.

GBA games

2009-06-25T05:41:00.000-07:00

Recently I’ve been replaying some GBA games that I never won on a GBA emulator I got from Jacob. The two games in question are Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, both of which are very highly recommended Japanese RPGs.

Final Fantasy is fun, though its gotten somewhat boring now. The battles are all very similar and after a time training your characters gets a bit boring. Still, I’ve played the game so many times… and its quite fun so I did enjoy it for the week or so I played it.

Now I’m playing Fire Emblem, which just so happens to be one of my favorite Japanese RPGs of all time. I’ve played three games in the series and all of them are amazing. These games all work as turn-based RPGs where you lead a small band of warriors through various maps fighting lots of other games. The amazing thing about these games is a very simple, very logical game feature: if a unit dies he is DEAD. As in, no resueraction, no KOs; dead is dead. If that sounds harsh, then you’re right: it is a harsh rule that makes you actually care for your units.

On top of this you’ll often find yourself with rather weak units, but units that you NEED to use to make them strong so you can have strong units later on. This means you’ll have to put them on the front line, but in such a way that they don’t die.

Add to the fact that you have weapon triangles, magic triangles, special weapons that destroy other weapons, and most of the games don’t allow you to save in the middle of battles (well… they do, but once you access the save it deletes itself), it all makes for a very challenging tactical experience.

Anyways… so I’m gonna probably play a level now… see if I can finish it this time without losing my thief.

NOTAE BENE: I say Japanese RPG several times. What I mean by this is that I find most Japanese RPGs are rather different from their western counterparts, such as that they should be in a different subgenre of RPGs. If you want more information on RPGs you should wiki it or something.

I wish I was good at titles...

2009-06-22T23:20:00.003-07:00

Before you read any further, read the following article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8113778.stm

Now that you’ve read that, I’m going to comment.

What’s my initial reaction? They’re still missing the point. Quote from the article:

“[Nicholas Sarkozy] expressed his strong distaste for the head-to-toe Islamic veil, calling it not a sign of religion but a sign of subservience.”

Sadly, this “head-to-toe Islamic veil”, goes hand-in-hand with much of Islamic doctrine and teaching. Yes, it is a sign of subservience. Yes, it is in fact a sign of subservience that the Koran and many Muslims want. I don’t see the Burka as anything other than one of the many methods Satan has invented to oppress the crowning jewel of God’s creation.

That being said, the fact of the matter is that the Burka goes hand-in-hand with much of Islam, and you cannot force someone to without the Burka without infringing on their freedom of religion. It’s like asking some of my friends to wear a Bikini while swimming or that Amish can’t wear their Colonial Era clothing, doing so would go against their beliefs and I don’t think anyone would dare to force them to do so.

This article, to me, shows how people have failed to realize that religions are not just beliefs and religious acts; they are living, breathing things that infect people at every level. When someone adheres to a brand of Islam (I say brand because there are various sects and groups, like there are in Christianity) they agree with beliefs of that sect, and should act upon those beliefs. The belief that one should pray five times a day means that if you truly believe that you WILL pray five times a day. The belief that women should wear a Burka means that you will do your best to make your female relatives and the women around you wear Burkas. Both of these things stem from Islam and to forbid either is a breach of Freedom of Religion.

Despite all this: that much of Islam and many other religions have creeds and laws that go directly against what God teaches in the Bible, as far as I can tell, Freedom of Religion remains a powerful and important right. The United States’ Constitution has Freedom of Religion in it and I belief that this right remains one of mankind’s most important rights. However, I struggle with the fact that I see much injustice in the religions around me. What some people have done in the name of their religion (and atheism counts as a religion, by the way) disturbs me in ways beyond belief. So the question I pose, constantly is this: Where do we draw the line? When do we say, “live and let live?” and “No! You can’t do that!”? How to we respect one’s religion when we know that doing so means accepting, to quote Monty Python, the violence (or injustice) inherent in the system?

Summer Update

2009-06-13T22:56:00.000-07:00

So its summer... I've been on holiday for a couple weeks now. I have some school in the morning but its only a little bit of work. I took the SAT and I'll get my grades for that and the rest of my grades for all my classes should have come in by now. I'm generally pretty pleased. An A in English and Math (my two best subjects... don't ask how, but I do good in Algebra. I'm also very good in English. :))

Major updates in the past few days:

I played most of HL2. I might finish it again, I might not. It's an awesome game with a lot of fun parts. I loved, loved, loved escaping from City 17 in my little airspeeder boat thing. VERY fun. Valve really did an amazing job with this game.

I played enough of Half Life (the original) to understand why it was such a good game. Its not your typical FPS in the sense that you shoot everything that moves with really cool guns (read: Halo, Gears of War, Call of Duty) but it instead focuses on figuring out puzzles. You do fight monsters and bad-guys but they are not at all the focus of the game. This of course makes it rather different from Half Life 2. Still it seems to be an amazing game in its own right.

Also, IceFrog released the latest version of DotA (6.60) a few days back. I played with it for a few hours on Friday and wow... its a big upgrade. First off, a bunch of changes to heroes in some minor things like stat changes which I never pay attention to (I'm not good enough or concerned enough to notice an extra 1 str to my favorite hero or whatever). Then there were the bug fixes and the new heroes. There are now two new heroes: Tauren Chieftain and Troll Batrider. Both look cool, Tauren, as a Str. Hero sounds fun.

Most important though were three things: they rebuilt razor, and changed the organization of both the Heroes and the items. Razor is now very different with some weird spells that seem pretty cool. I personally loved razor as his old self: boring, simple and very deadly. Still, he seems to be slightly better and perhaps less boring and more balanced. That's always a good thing.

The tavern and item redesign? At first, everyone hated it, but I instantly saw the reasoning to the new organization and realized exactly why IceFrog did it. After reading the changelog my reasoning was confirmed. He reorganized everything to make it newb-friendly. Now the defensive items are together. The orbs are together. The early game items are together. It makes sense instead of having a bunch of random items in the new item shop and then everythign else sorta placed willie nillie. Also he added the talisman of evasion. I need to check if this thing stacks (I assume it won't) but 25% evasion sounds... amazing. Really, really amazing. Expensive, yes, but still amazing.

hmm... Oh, I got an new album: Twilight of the Thunder God by Amon Amarth. The band is a swedish Melodic Death Metal (read: Death Metal but with more melody and generally less crazy/heavy stuff). Its the first time I've listened to an album with nothing but "extreme" vocals (in this case the semi-understanable growls of whoever their vocalist is) without pause. This of course means I LOVE the album.

The band itself is a Swedish band (IIRC) that gets lyrical inspiration from Vikings and Norse mythology. So stuff like Thor, Ragnorok, etc are common themes in their music. Their name is a mountain in Mordor from LOTR. The music is all very good. Just enough melody to keep me interested and very good stuff in general.

Played a good bit of Far Cry 2. I'm now pretty good at it, though the repetative quests got pretty boring. I might finish it, but I'm not too interested in it anymore. I will say this is the first game where I've used a sniper rifle a lot though. That is no mean feat since I generally prefer shotguns and SMGs (close range action FTW). Still, this is a game that seems to reward stealth range and avoiding enemies (or engaging them from a distance) so the sniper seemed to fit.

Far Cry 2

2009-06-04T00:37:00.000-07:00

So I started playing Far Cry 2 yesterday.

It’s a fun game, low on plot (which is good… few FPS games are able to give their players a really good story to follow) and high on action and stealth. So far only a few things bother me:

1. How hard it is to figure out WHO is shooting me and how many of them there are. I sneak into a village and get shot at, but can’t tell from where, and if there are two, three, or ten of these bad guys. ARGH!

2. Not enough stealthly stuff. This is obviously a game that rewards stealth and the like, yet I find it hard to tell if I’m about to be seen, or my enemy is going to ignore me. Crysis had a “stealth meter” of sorts, I’d like one of those in this game.

3. THE GUN! IT DOES NOTHING! Well, not really… but the fact that it took FOUR shots to the chest/head (all of which hit, btw) to down a guy a medium range is STUPID. This is on easy too (I died 5 times on medium… argh!).

These are all somewhat annoying, but I can live with them. I just need to remember to be very careful and shoot lots. Anyways… other than those things the game is rather fun. I’m trekking around a war-torn African nation killing soldiers and doing jobs for both sides in an attempt to find the location of “the Jackal” a notorious arms dealer who is arming both sides. Of course, I need to KILL the jackal, because I’m a good guy. ;)

The game seems to do a decent job of pretending to be realistic. The currency is rough diamonds… you need to use stealth… car get wrecked and brushfires start easily. Its open ended so you have lots of different options for completing missions. From sniping everyone to sneaking in and stealth-killing (read: use machete) the guards. Or a mixture of both. OR like me you could attempt to use stealth, fail, get angry run around crazy hiding and shooting and hiding and shooting and using a health pack to stay alive. This method seems to be working great though.

Metal and Summer

2009-06-02T21:35:00.000-07:00

Hmm… I feel obligated to explain something.

The coolest thing, in my mind, about metal, is the amazing amount of variety you can find. From the technically masterful works of Dream Theater (even if the band looks like a bunch of hippies :D) to the amazing melodies of Nightwish to the piercing screams of Black Metal to the guttural roars of Death Metal.

On top of sounds, we have lyrical themes… from serious stuff like the meaning of life (or other such philosophy) to well… crap. By crap I mean anything from Alexander the Great to Fatal Tragedies like murder to well… pirates and LotR. :D

Now, I’ve talked to various people who say they like metal (and in the case of at least one, I know he IS a metal fan… the other, I’m not so sure) and they don’t always seem to like the fact that some bands (Alestorm, a pirate metal band, or DragonForce, a “cheese” metal band as I call ‘em) give metal a bad name. Now, while I realize these bands aren’t exactly serious or anything, I respect them as musicians. Neither DragonForce nor Alestorm are musical geniuses and I’ll be the first to admit this, but they can play their instruments (to a degree; I have conflicting reports on DragonForce from THEY SUCK AND ARE CHEATERS! To they’re okay, to they’ve gotten better, and they did use to suck).

My question to people who say these bands give metal a band name is why? Or how do they do so? Yes, they sing about “souls shining onward” and “Captain Morgan's Revenge” but to any arguments about that being geeky or cheesy I have a few words for you: Iron Maiden.

Iron Maiden song titles: “the number of the beast”, “two minutes to midnight”, “the loneliness of the long distance runner”, “Out of the Silent Planet,”, “The thin line between love and hate”… need I say more? If Iron Maiden, one of the most respected and well known Metal bands in existence (before I was a metal band I knew of about 2 metal bands: Iron Maiden and Metallica, so I’d say they’re pretty well known and pretty well respected) can sing about fantasy, science fiction and history, then Alestorm can sing all the drinking songs they want!

Now, I’m not saying that metal should not be serious. Serious lyrics are good. But, every so often you need some humor in your life. That’s why I listen to bands like Alestorm, Sabaton and DragonForce. They don’t take their lyrics completely serious but they’re good fun. There is a place for humor in all genres of music, I just wish I could hear more pop bands taking their lyrics a bit less seriously.

Now… a personal update. Its summer… and this summer I have a very simple, very important, goal: do not get bored.

How will I accomplish this goal? Video games, books, movies and friends. I bought the “half-life 2 collection” (thank you pirated games. :D) yesterday and I made my way through City 17, to the canals then to Black Mesa East and now I’ve just exited Ravenholm (darnit… that level is both creepy and awesome). I forgot how amazing HL2 is… in my mind it’s the greatest FPS game for single player value at least, that has been released in a while. Of course, I haven’t played Far Cry 2 yet (I will though) and I don’t really count Fallout 3 as a FPS… it’s a hybrid RPG FPS type game.

Update

2009-05-21T02:14:00.001-07:00

You know what’s kinda annoying? Most of you should know that I listen to Nightwish and that after Nightwish finished their tour for their Once (2005) Album, they fired their lead vocalist Tajra Tuuren due to a wide variety of reasons.

Well, anyways, Tarja released a solo album that I have and most of it isn’t really that good actually. I mean, she has a wonderful voice and she does a good job with the vocalization, musically the thing is a far cry from Nightwish’s release with their new female vocalist.

Anyways, the best song, imo, on Tarja’s album (My Winter Storm) is a Alice Cooper cover called Poison. Good song, makes me want to get the Alice Cooper original… but anyways, at the end of the song they have some male vocalization and what’s really annoying is the guy SOUND EXACTLY LIKE NIGHTWISH’S male vocalist… you know, the guy Tarja DOENSN’T work with anymore? So… yes, that’s rather annoying. I mean, seriously, have all the male vocals you want, but don’t go and find a copycat for the guy you used to sing with. Marco doesn’t work with you, don’t pretend he does. When Nightwish fired Tarja they didn’t find a Tarja copycat to replace her, they found a new vocalist who sounds nothing like Tarja, specifically so that no one would compare the two.

Also… I finished my programming class today. Took me forever, but thanks to my classmates and my teacher I finally got all the bugs out of my Chutes and Ladders assignment and I now have a working Chutes and Ladders game in Visual Basic. Very nice. But seriously, I had one major problem and a few bugs that, in total, took me and one of my classmates an entire HOUR to figure out. Crazy, no?

*sigh* I’m so glad to be done with programming. I mean I enjoyed the class, but it was very frustrating for me because I felt like I wasn’t able to learn at the pace the class expected me. At the same time, while I did enjoy parts of the class and the many moments where things just “clicked” were amazing, most of the time I got really frustrated in the class and felt rather… stupid. Though, I do have to say it was a very informative class because I now know what programming is all about. Can’t say I exactly like it… but I do still really enjoy technology and I do want to be involved with computers and software stuff in the future. I think the key is figure out how I can be involved with software development (especially in the form of video games. :D) while at the same time not do a large amount of programming itself. Of course, the problem is how do I work with programmers without knowing what, exactly, they do? It’s a question I’ll have to answer at another point in life.

And I am so tired… I think I might actually take a nap today… wow. Anyways, next week is my last official week of Eleventh Grade. I have just 4 more latin Lessons, a final test and then my Math and English final and I’m on summer holiday. Yippee!

Final English Class

2009-05-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

Well I had my last English Class for 11th grade this year. Lots of fun [i]was[/i] had. ;) Anyways… I’ve decided to show you guys how much my writing has improved. I’ll post two of my papers; my first Comp and my 2nd semester midterm. I got a 68 on my 1st comp, and a 93 on my semester midterm.

Read and enjoy!

First Comp:

Goat Fell: The Conquest

My summers usually end up rather normal, even boring, sometimes. Not this summer. Not once during my summer vacation did I fear that I would run out of activities. One of the first memorable events this summer involved climbing Goat Fell, the highest mountain on the Scottish Isle of Arran. While my parents participated in the Leadership Development Course (LDC) our family resided in Scotland. One weekend several of the male “LDCers” decided to take a day trip and climb Goat Fell Mountain. Of course, I assumed nothing unusual would happen during our trip. I expected an ordinary hike, I found an extraordinary adventure.

So, early one Sunday morning, ten set off for an adventure that none of us would soon forget. Our journey to the foot of the mountain did not take long. A short car ride, a quick wait for the ferry, a relaxing ferry ride, and another short ride, this time on a bus, and the footpath that lead up the mountain; the adventure had begun. When I began this climb, I assumed that I could handle the physical stress it would place on me; I assumed wrong. Reaching the top of the mountain all but exhausted me. By the time I arrived at the peak, my body ached, protesting at every unnecessary movement I ordered it to complete. With my body in such a condition, I greatly enjoyed the rest I had on the mountain peak.

It felt good to be on the top of Goat Fell, it gave me a sense of accomplishment to be able to say, “I climbed Goat Fell!” I have not climbed to many mountains and it felt good to sit on the top of that mountain, eating some lunch and rest, knowing that I had just completed what a great feat of physical strength. Little did I know that a true test of my endurance still lay ahead. Eventually, we decided to finish our journey and start our trek down the mountain. Still tired from the climb up, I headed down at a rather slow pace, ending up at the rear of our group. We had no problems going down until someone realized we should probably pick up the pace. His exact words being, “If we are going to make the five O’clock ferry we are going to have to significantly increase our speed.” We needed to run the remaining two miles, in other words.

Of course, my body told me that I should not start running, but I needed to catch that ferry. Ignoring common sense told my body to shut up and began to run. I ran, and I ran, and I ran, and with the ferry still not in sight, I kept running. Forest, field, and beautiful Scottish landscapes, failed to make an impression upon me as I struggled to simply put on foot in front of another in a timely fashion. The running eventually got to me, I had to stop, I could not go on. Never before had I pushed myself so hard, and no matter how much I wanted to catch that ferry, I knew in my current state completing this feat of endurance would not happen, I simply did not have the energy. With all my hope of returning home in time gone, I neared collapse, but at that moment, my savior appeared, this savior came in the form of a bus driver. Overjoyed as the bus stopped and allowed me to board, I lay on the seat, sweaty, tired, and a dull throbbing pain effulging my entire being.

Our ferry back provided me and the rest of my group some much needed rest. No one, not even the fittest amongst us had any energy left. We allowed silence to overtake us. Washing the salt and sweat (mostly salt) off my face, I enjoyed a soda and a much needed period of not using my feet. I had survived. As we sat on the ferry talking and drinking our beverages, I realized what I had just experienced would be a memory that I would cherish for years to come.

Midterm:

The Miner’s Journey

“Morning again. Morning means… breakfast,” Griwn the dwarf thought. After getting out of his bed, he made his way to the tavern’s common room for some breakfast. “Today I’ll finally reach the Steelcap Mountains,” he thought as he sat down at his table in the common room.

Sitting down Griwn ordered his usual fair: bacon, eggs, sausage and bread, all washed down with cold, refreshing apple cider. He put the sausage, bacon and eggs on the bread and made himself a sandwich. Griwn savored the meal since he would not get another meal cooked by Ian, the tavern’s chef, for several weeks. His meat had the exact right flavorings, grilled sausage never tasted so amazing. Ian claimed his great-grandfather had stolen the family bacon recipe from the gods themselves. Griwn believed him; never before had he tasted such amazing, such succulent bacon.

When he had eaten all the food on his plate, Griwn returned to his room instead of ordering a second round, as he had done so the past three days. He checked his gear, which he had carefully cared for all his days as a miner. Pickaxe, shovel, camping equipment, he had everything he would need once he reached the mountains and their iron-filled mines. Griwn also made sure his weapons still remained in good working order. Gertrude his custom made, custom scoped, dwarven longrifle, needed some cleaning. Picking the weapon up Griwn admiringly felt the smooth, well crafted weapon and looked at its sharp features and wonderful lines. Ever since the gnomes invented gunpowder rifles and muskets became the dominant weapon on the field of battle, but unlike other races the dwarves had a special relationship with their weapons

Griwn paid his bill and left the inn, again ready to walk the winding paths of the Empire. He had traveled these roads for decades now, moving from one mine to another, never staying more than a year or too. This nomadic lifestyle suited him, as it did many of his people. Griwn found the idea of travelling from one location to another, never staying in one place, but always on the move, irresistible. In love with travelling, Griwn did so constantly, always taking time to observe the sites, hear the sounds, and smell the wonderful fragrances of a long and rarely traveled highway, the smell of blooming flowers his ultimate favorite amongst.

He now looked about and took in the sights and sounds. Despite the hilliness of this part of the Empire, Griwn found himself surrounded by trees, beautiful, green leaves on every branch with the wind rustling through them. From time to time he would spot a rabbit, squirrel, or perhaps even a deer on this rarely-travelled path he now took. “Ah, the wonders of nature,” Griwn mused. Griwn happily took a minute to rest on the path. He took a seat on the ground, near a rock and ate a piece of jerky. Some sparrows landed near him and he watched them as they pecked at the ground and chirped. Simple pleasure like these sparrows always made Griwn’s journey’s all the more memorable.

As the day came to its close Griwn finally cleared the forest and came to the beginning of the mines. When a few lone prospectors had discovered iron in these mines, they discovered it here, at the foot of these grand and majestic mountains. Griwn originally avoided the Steelcaps because soon after the discovery of iron in the mountains dozens of mining companies had moved in, using cutthroat business tactics to make as much money as possible. These companies left little room for a small time operation like Griwn’s. But six months ago, after three years of hard work and labor, Griwn finally procured entrance into the Dwarven Miners Guild, and told his first assignment required him to report to the Guild leader at the Steelcaps.

With the forest finally clearing, Griwn glanced up at the mountains and became caught up in the breath-taking view of the mountains. “Beautiful,” he said, a smile on his bearded face. He then glanced at the sun, realizing that if he wanted to find his foreman before nightfall he would have to pick up the pace.

Hell Hath No Fury Et All

2009-05-12T22:08:00.000-07:00

Hell Hath No Fury Et All – Demon Hunter

I know this might sound ridiculous, but I can’t get over that line. It’s just… so amazing to think about.

Demon Hunter is a “Christian” “metalcore” (those are in quotes because I’ve never understood why we have to label all bands made up of Believers “Christian”, the second one because I disapprove of the genre label of Metalcore. It doesn’t make a lot of sense) band that I really like. Primarily they’re a band I appreciate because of their lyrical content versus their music. Ryan Clark, their vocalist and chief songwriter, primarily writes heavily Christian lyrics, but does so in a different fashion than many famous Christian bands/artists like Kutless or Third Day. As a metalcore band they tend to have rather aggressive lyrics, much of which are often growled or shouted. These lyrics often focus on war or struggles, and are always written from a Biblical perspective.

Anyways… so the line I have above, Hell Hath No Fury Et All, is the bridge of Storm the Gates of Hell. The song itself is really good, great lyrics and awesome style, but its that line in the song that resonates the most with me.

We live in a fallen world, and one that is in constant turmoil. In America people are losing their jobs because of a recession. In Africa people are dying in senseless wars that serve no purpose. In South Asia people are starving and dying because they don’t have access to proper medicine or health education… I could probably spend the majority of my time writing on this blog writing about the troubles of the world and still have plenty left over.

The reasons for this fallen world is, of course, mankind’s inherit sinfulness. Even if every man and women on earth served God we would still have many of these problems, though one would belief that they’d be significantly less.

However, much of the world does not serve God. Some of it in fact, is in direct opposition to God’s will and his commandments. From Atheistic professors who mock all religions to Islamic Clerics who preach their intolerant and unjust views. NOTE: I’m not saying all Atheists or Muslims are evil or anything. There are extremes to all beliefs and religions, even Christianity; these are just some examples that came to my mind. These people have set themselves up in direct opposition of our God and aligned themselves with the Devil and his minions. They serve no purpose other than to weaken the cause of Christ.

Now, while we are all called to love our neighbor and our neighbor are the Samaritans of this world (that is to say, people whom we hate and despise), people need to realize that ideas of those who preach against God and the Bible must be refutted. I don’t necessarily mean debates or open discussions, actions (such doing things that certain religions/creeds/beliefs do not allow or accept) can often speak louder than words. However, people need to realize that Satan rules this world and he doesn’t want mankind to have a happy life with God. Furthermore, mankind is a fallen race and that as such many humans will refuse to see the light and in fact oppose it at all possible turns.

Demon Hunter sees this and through their music encourages their listeners to fight against the enemy. Now, like I said, they don’t mean literal physical attacks and armies or something, they mean fighting their ideas, their lies and their false thinking. Where unbelievers kill, steal, lie and hate, Believers must remember to heal, give, tell the truth, and love.

Now, I’m sure many (if not most) Believers do in fact heal, give, tell the truth and love quite often. And I know its discouraging to see all our hard work go to waste. What is the point of teaching a man how to farm when he can’t buy seeds to plant? What is the point of giving health care to a family when they refuse to change their health-damaging ways? What is the point of loving a man when he refuses to love back? Etc. In moments like that, we need to remember: Hell Hath No Fury At All.

Despite the fact that at times our actions seem pointless, hopeless, and fruitless, Hell Hath No Fury Et All. No matter what Satan or the Forces of Darkness do, no matter how many times a person rejects the Gospel and in fact fights against it and the principles it stands for, Hell Hath no Fury Et All. In the end, Jesus WILL come, Jesus WILL reign and peace WILL be restored. Our world WILL become perfect and happy and if you believe in Christ then you have no reason to fear or despair, because Satan already lost 2000 years ago. Hell Hath No Fury Et All.

Just thought I’d share that with you.

Werewolf

2009-05-12T08:30:00.001-07:00

Well recently, I’ve been playing some Werewolf games on the internet.

What is werewolf? Well this game was first introduced to me as Mafia a long time ago by some people in Thailand while we were on vacation. In mafia the game is divided into two rounds: day and night. During the day all the players get one vote and can vote to kill a player. During the night certain players with special roles get to do various actions.

Now, in mafia, there are two teams: the mafia and the villagers. The mafia (usually 2ish of them) must kill all the villagers, (and can kill one player of their choice every night. As well as voting during the day) while the villagers must find out who mafia are. On the side of the villagers is the sheriff and the doctor. The sheriff can investigate one person every night to discover if they are the mafia or not. The doctor can choice to protect one person every night and if that person is targeted by the mafia they will not die, but live because the doctor arrived at the scene of the crime just before the person who was attacked was killed.

So anyways… this game was always played in real time face to face with other people. Roles were dealt with via playing cards and the game generally moved fast and the mafia rarely won. However, I also learned of a different version of mafia called werewolf:

Werewolf is basically mafia but with a fantasy village setting rather than a small town setting. The roles are the same but there are extra ones: the lovers (one dies, both die) the village idiot (if he dies, he can kill someone as well), etc.

Anyways, so I discovered that one website I visit regurlarly, http://www.giantitp.com (primarily for the webcomics) has lots of werewolf games going via PBP. (these games can be seen under the “structured games” subforum of the “Silly message board games” forum. I’m registered as toasty on this website if anyone cares) I started playing in these and after two somewhat boring, but still decently fun games and one game where I got to play the devil (similar to the sheriff except I am a wolf (mafia) and my “investigations” reveal a players role, not if he is a werewolf/mafia or not) and managed to have some good fun because one of the werewolves managed to convice everybody he was a villager (we killed the villager’s seer (sheriff) and baner (doctor) in the first few rounds of the game very easily, primarily because they trusted the wrong person in the early game) and thus we won.

Now I’m in another two games and loving them both. I’m a villager, so while I don’t have any special role to play I’m beginning to see the intricacies of how the game works and learning to trust no one except myself and the like. One of these games is really crazy right now… I’ve changed my vote like 3 times and everyone agrees that the game has become really confusing. Best part is we’re only on day two! :D

What I think makes these werewolf games so fun is the fact that because they are doing via PBP instead of real time there is a lot more elements of deception and logic and stuff. People have time to plan their actions, look at how other people have voted and work out who is lying and who isn’t. This kind of stuff can be done in a face to face werewolf game, but it often generates into random “I think its Isaac!” with no logic to back the statement up.

And… I need to get to bed.

Slumdog

2009-05-04T22:45:00.000-07:00

Hmm… a while back I finally got my hands on Slum Dog Millionare a watched it. This was actually a love time ago, but I was too lazy to blog about it:

So… my response was, besides the epic soundtrack (it really did deserve an award for the score) the movie wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. It was a feel good story written by Americans about India, with perhaps a focus on Mumbai. That being said, there was some truth to the movie. The poverty, the gangs, the violence, the crime and all that exist. My mom didn’t want to watch it because she has seen these things up front and it’s too real for her. Since I haven’t directly seen any of this (not to say I’m unaware of these things and I realize that they go on in Dhaka about as much as they do in Mumbai and other Indian cities, I just don’t see them because I keep to myself and don’t travel about in the slums or at night or interact with more “shaddy” people), I was able to watch the show without it effecting me too much.

But, like I said, Slumdog was a feel good movie. Jamal gets on the TV show, he wins the money, he gets the girl, he lives happily ever after. Even his brother, who ends up dying (killing himself, you could say, though he doesn’t actually pull the trigger) has a somewhat happy ending. He had dug himself into a hole and got out of it the only way he knew how: killing his boss and letting his former companions get their revenge. The dying in a bathtub of money was good imagery, since I like to imagine it was the amount of money that Jamal won, something about how money doesn’t buy happiness or the like.

And yet, despite the fact that this show has such a clichéd ending it somehow captured the heart of Oscar guys as well as lots of Americans. People going on about how Slumdog is amazing and we all should watch it. I watched it. It wasn’t amazing. If anything, I thought the Dark Knight was a better done movie. The Joker was EPIC. It was just amazing. Heck, I enjoyed Iron Man more than Slumdog. Yes, Slumdog was a better show, but it wasn’t as fun. I’ll probably never want to watch Slumdog again, but I’d watch Iron Man again.

People say that Slumdog was amazing, but I’ve seen better movies. Gladiator? Master and Commander? 3/10 to Yuma? Russell Crowe has made some amazing movies. I don’t even have to mention LotR or Star Wars (original trilogy only please) everyone knows how amazing those movies were. If Slumdog is the best thing to come out of Hollywood (and given the amount of awards and praise it received, much more than any other movie released this year or last) then I weep at the lack of talent Hollywood now has. Where have movie makers like Peter Jackson and actors like Will Smith gone? When will our next Pirates of the Carribean (not as epic as LotR, but very well done nonetheless) or Spiderman come? Will they ever come? Recently the Oscars have been doing badly in terms of making money, this is because since the last LotR there haven’t been any movies that have captured the heart of America, or the world for that matter. The best thing we can show the world is the Dark Knight, a tale of how far humanity has fallen, or Slumdog, a feel good movie that says “miracles happen”, just in a rather dramatic and well done way.

Despite all my criticisms, I did honestly enjoy Slumdog, but looking back on other movies I’ve seen, I don’t think I’d choose to watch Slumdog again over lots of other movies. I’ve seen better.

Random fact of the day: Iron Maiden truly are the Gods of Metal. :D

Summer Plans

2009-04-26T02:45:00.001-07:00

I have five more weeks of proper school.

Five more weeks… and I’m done my 3rd year of Highschool, 3rd year of Potter’s School, 11th year of full time studies and 11th year as a student of the Johnson Academy of Learning. No mean feat, considering I’m farther ahead in my education than lots of people I know, some of them my age, some of them older. I really am blessed to be able to do school work, even if I complain about it and procrastinate all the time.

Anyways… so plans for summer:

1. Sleepovers. I haven’t had a sleepover with Julius and Jacob since… Christmas. That’s a long time ago. I’ve wanted to have a few sleepovers but really didn’t feel that it would be a good idea given that I have so much school. I could have done it, but decided not to. With summer coming I’ll be having sleepovers a lot more often.

2. Video games. :D At home, some Wii games, and hopefully some new GBA games via emulator. Possibly games like Demigod or some other games… I dunno. At the café: DOTA!!!! Other stuff too… but I wanna go gaming for like 5-6 hours a week (twice a week probably… so two stints of 2-3 hours. Quite reasonable, IMO).

3. Time with Caleb. This might sound kinda funny, since I’m specifically calling out one of my friends, but its true. Caleb will graduate from High School in a weeks and then he’s off to do a six-month training course with my parents’ (and his parents’) company. After that he’s going to do some stuff in Samoa I think (he’s half-Samoan so it makes sense). Eventually he’ll make his way to University somewhere, hopefully the US. Anyways, he’ll be in Dhaka for the month of June and I’d like to spend as much time with him as I possibly can.

4. Fun 4him stuff. 4him is usually a bit more relaxed during the summer because lots of people come and go, this year I think we’ll have a few people coming back (Mark, IIRC) but I think Steve and his family will be leaving. I do know that the Stouts will leave this summer so that’s 2 of our members gone. But we should have some fun games (volleyball, soccer… other stuff) and the like. If Mark comes back we’ll have awesome worship… sorry to say it, but while Max is an amazing worship leader, Mark always did a better job.

5. Erm… more fun stuff? Staying up till 11PM regularly, watching lots of movies and TV shows (BLEACH!!! NARUTO!!! HEROES!!!!). I’ll probably watch some LotR extended with commentary. Darn… I did that last summer and learned so much about the Fellowship and Two Towers. Now I need to finish the Two Towers and watch Return of the King. I know it sounds totally and completely geeky of me… watching a 4 hour movie with commentary… but if I don’t, I’ll get bored since I’ve seen LotR like ½ a dozen times.

6. Other fun stuff. I’m sure more will come up. I dunno.

Of course, summer is not here YET and I still have 5 more weeks of school. And yes, I’ll have to fill out college applications and probably write a dozen essays about why I wanna go to this or that university or who most influenced my life. Yes, I’ll have chemistry, but I don’t expect any of this to interfere with the fun stuff… two much at least. :D I know Jacob will be rather free cuz he’ll be done his exams and he gets a huge break. Derek and his friends… I dunno, but hopefully they get a decent break. Julius won’t get a break till mid June, but still we’ll have plenty of time. I know Max will start his A Level Exams soon (IIRC at least) so once again, once those are done he’ll be rather free. This should be a fun summer. ^_^

Current Events

2009-04-22T22:13:00.000-07:00

So I just read an pair of interesting articles on the BBC today. The first was on “Islamic” Hip Hop. Now, I gotta say, the article made me want to laugh. Some Saudi businessman decided to start an Islamic MTV channel. One that showed Hip Hop preformed by “good Muslims”.

What struck me about this is that, last I checked, pictures of humans are forbidden by Islamic Law, as is, I think, dancing. Singing I guess is okay but since we are talking about Hip Hop on TV, I’m not sure how they can follow the laws I mentioned. That being said, I’m glad that someone in the Middle East is trying to make a more modest version of the stupidly immodest Hip Hop music video culture. That being said, it will never cease to amaze me how hypocritical Islam can be sometimes.

Also… the Miss America beauty pagent made into the BBC. For what, you ask? Well Apparently Miss California, the runner up lost because of her answer to a gay marriage question. She said that she does not personally believe in Gay Marriage and for this question, at least one of the judges admitted that she lost.

Now, I’m not sure about what other people may think of this but I can’t understand how that makes any sense. I’m allowed to believe what I believe, yes? And there is nothing wrong with having a viewpoint on a controversial question like Gay marriage. If the question had been gun control I doubt it would have matter what her response was, but how she responded (I WANNA A M16! Versus pulling out a few facts against Gun Control). Because a woman who is supposed to be smart and beautiful gave a smart answer, but one that at least one of the judges didn’t want to hear, she got 2nd place instead of 1st? Explain to me how that makes any sense.

If I had been one of the judges and Miss California had told me she supported Gay Marriage, and then went on to give me some logical reasons for her opinion, I would have given her a good amount of points. I would have made it very clear that I disagree with her, but that I can’t force a person to believe what I believe, and for better or for worse, that’s the beauty of free will.

Instead they jam down her throat that she is WRONG and how she should change her viewpoints and how she should support something that she doesn’t believe in because its “racist” or “sexist” or whatever they wanna call it. Not sure how that works.

Your current events for the day.

UPS

2009-04-22T04:20:00.001-07:00

I now have a UPS attached to my laptop. I find this somewhat ironic.

But the truth is, even on “power saver” my batter only lasts about 45-55 minutes. And seeing as power cuts last about 58-65 minutes… I’m outa luck. So I now have an IPS attached to my computer and I no longer have to fear power cuts.

Still, this is kinda weird…. And sorta defeats the purpose of having a laptop, ya know?

The ACT

2009-04-21T08:25:00.001-07:00

So… a few more things to talk about:

First off, I got my ACT results back a few days back. 33/36 in Reading! w00t! *does a mini-party*

22/36 in Science… not so w00t. Though they can hardly call it science, its more like: read this confusing graph, and read it fast! And then answer questions on the graph! FAST! I tried my best on that section, and I mean I REALLY tried… but I didn’t do that good. Still, I managed to get a composite score of 26/36 which mean is in the middle of the median ACT score of most Baylor freshman. This is a good thing, my friends, *nods* because my SAT scores were lower in this regard. This means of course, if I can write some good essays and the like I might still get accepted into Baylor! Of course whether or not I can actually afford to remains to be seen.

So yes, I’m doing good in that regard. I still wish I could have done higher in the math section of the ACT but I do think that the ACT, as a whole, was much less stressful and much easier and relaxing to take than the SAT. Oh well… I guess that’s just life.

Bleach, not the cleaner

2009-04-20T05:08:00.000-07:00

So, I’ve been watching Bleach these past few weeks. Got the 1st season (IIRC) from my friend Jacob and I’m working my way through it.

Bleach is an Anime, a Japanese Cartoon. However, Animes are completely unlike American Cartoons. Artistically they are very different, most people know what I’m talking about if they’ve watched 5 minutes of Pokemon or any other popular Anime. (Dragonball, Dragonball Z, umm… I dunno other stuff). Furthermore, the Japanese do not have the (stupid) idea that Cartoons are at worst only for Kid’s, at best can only be comedies. Bleach, like many Animes has blood, occasional sexual references (annoying, but true) and lots of Language (most usually the expression “What the hell” sometimes other stuff… but it’s rarer). It’s a PG-13 show, for sure.

Anyways… Bleach is a show about a 15 year old teenager going to High School in Japan… his first name is Ichigo (IIRC… its Japanese so forgive me if I’ve spelled it wrong). One day he sees a Shigami (English dubs say Soul Reaper, literally Death God, which is what my subtitled version calls ‘em). These Shigami’s are warriors who fight “hollows” (demons) and defend “pluses” (ghosts) and humans from them. During a battle defending Ichigo the Shigami is wounded and gives Ichigo some of her power to allow him to defeat the Hollow. However, she accidently gives him ALL instead of just some of her power. The result is that this Death God (first name: Rukia… second name unknown) must spend the next few months recovering on Earth while Ichigo does her job as a Death God.

Anyways… that’s the basic premise. Of course the story gets much more complicated by adding other humans, death gods, former death gods, “mod souls” (lol… it’s an aggressive, hyper, lion plush toy. :D) and hollows. The show is good if you can stand the Japanese Mythology (my dad can’t… and I admit it was weird the first few episodes since it’s not a Christian worldview at all, but they pretty much ignore it a few episodes in and focus on the monster bashing) and aforementioned language, violence and mild sex.

So yes… I’m now going to watch bleach instead of do Latin since class was canceled. *parties*

Large, rather random, update

2009-04-16T06:24:00.000-07:00

Michael got Tarja’s (of Nightwish Fame) solo album, My Winter Storm, yesterday. So I listened to it last night, and I wasn’t really that impressed. Tarja has a good voice, no doubt, but the music itself was really quite mediocre. In my mind this cements everything I thought about with Tarja: contrary to her own opinion, she is nothing without Tuomas’ (Nightwish’s keyboardist and composer) music. There were a few good songs on the Album, but I was not all that impressed… I guess I’ll just go back to my normal music.

EDIT: After listening to her album again, I’ve decided it actually isn’t really too bad. It’s just not my style. Plus, Tuomas WAS a better composer than the people Tarja’s working with now. Sorry, it’s just true. I still think Tarja should never have given Tuomas and Nightwish a reason to fire her, because it was a huge mistake on her part. Though, I must admit, I like Nightwish’s current vocalist (she may not have the range of Tarja, but she is good) and I really like Dark Passion Play. Plus, Tarja’s departure seems to have allowed Marco do more singing, and everyone knows I dig Marco’s voice.

And… we are probably going to change our ISP (Internet Service Provider for all you non-tech savvy people). We’ve been using Cynet (or Cybernet or something like that) which is a division of the same company that we all use for our Cellphone service: Grameen. However, we’ve been having some real problems with our Potter’s School Classes. Basically, the VoIP parts of our classes are disabled: we can’t hear the teacher, or anyone else, talk, nor can we talk to them should we need to become miced (erm… however you spell it mic+ed). Believe me, it’s really frustrating. This is the third time we’ve had the problem and our current ISP just can’t seem to provide us with a permanent solution. We phoned/emailed another ISP (BOL, Bangladesh Online) and when my mom explained our Error the guy on the phone said that lots of their customers have that problem and that they provide them with a form to fill out and their problem is solved. In any instance, pray for wisdom in our decision-making and that we would have peace in whatever decision that we make.

A few more things… I finally bought Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Edition (MnM), a RPG that allows you to create Super Heroes. I have to say, it’s amazing. First off, while it is focused on the general superheroes and supervillians ala comic books like Batman and Superman, you don’t have to do stuff like that. I can easily see a group of DnD players converting Forgotten Realms to MnM. I mentioned this system to Brian for running a wizard cadre in his own fantasy setting, and I wasn’t wrong: it’d do it perfectly. Though I do have to say that its quite likely that in that specific instance, all the PCs would have very similar characters stat wise.

Anyways… I’m using the system to play in a as of yet unnamed game with the same people whom I played the Legend of the Moab Mechanism, a True20 game set in the world of Space 1889, which combined Victorian Era Britain with space travelling. :D That game was quite fun and now that it’s over I’m quite happy to be creating my mage/thief/demon PC. A sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type character: normal human who transforms into a powerful demon.

Other things to talk about: Drow is imba. Seriously, she is just too good for her own good. Cold arrows + aura + level 6 = pwnage on a very bad scale. She is by far better than sniper, and easier to play than Time Stop guy (erm… Faceless Void), even if he is better. Plus, I like her attack animation. :D
… I seem to have nothing else to write about.

2009-04-07T21:44:00.000-07:00

I just got a Family Force 5 Album. It. Is. Amazing. I didn’t think Disco-esque music could be this amazing. I’m not sure what to say… its just amazing.

Hmm… what else. Caleb is in town, that’s awesome. I went to his house yesterday. His dad made comment about how despite the fact that I don’t want to follow my parent’s profession, he thinks I will. I told him I won’t do it the same way they do, but I’ll do want to do stuff like that, and I plan to give generously to people in their profession.

I also got a scholarship. *parties* 4,000 bucks a year from one of my safer college choices. Quite encouraging. Its not a big scholarship, but there’s more money where that came from, I’m sure. The question is will I even go to the school… I still think St. Edwards or Baylor would be a better school for me, but well… scholarship. I’ll just have to wait and see if what other opportunities and the like come up.

Oh, and got a letter from UT. Right… like I’m going to your boring stupid school. I hated everything about that I saw. Then there was the presentation on writing… that was awesome, the presenter was such an idiot. Besides, seeing as its one of the biggest party schools in Texas… well partying is good, but I really don’t feel the need to go out and get stinking drunk every single weekend. Or be involved with people who do that… Oh, and the lack of personal involvement with the professors doesn’t help much either. We talked to some people while we were in the States and they were like, “yes, its possible to complete your degree without even having a professor teach you...” Good reason not to go there.

Oh, I watched a Children of Bodom music video while at Caleb’s house. (my web blocker hates Youtube…). Very interesting. Exactly what I expected… totally amazing guitar work and awesome melody (coolio keyboard) but the vocals… lol they might as well not have been there. I couldn’t understand a thing that Alexi (their vocalist/guitarist) said plus I could hardly tell when he stopped and when he started singing. Ahh the joys of metal… anyways… I probably should get some of their stuff.

That’s all for now…

Darnit, this FF5 Album is amazing.

PBH II

2009-03-26T00:09:00.001-07:00

Okay, since I haven’t done this yet I think it’s probably a good idea to go ahead and do a review of the Player’s Hand book II for Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition.

First though, I think I need to explain something. A long time ago I expressed my hate of DnD, and since then my opinion has… changed somewhat.

When I first started roleplaying, it was with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) 2nd Edition. It’s a great system. Anyways, lots of the people who play WFRP and are on the internet tend to give DnD a bad name. Explaining how they are tired of the powergaming, optimizing, super-build “roll players” (read: more interested in the dice than the story) that play DnD.

So, I kinda took this to heart, and, when I played Neverwinter Nights (an computer game based on DnD 3rd edition) I had to agree with them. Here I was, a mere mortal ranger guy killing Fire Giants and fighting dragons… hmm something here is just not right.

But, then 4th Edition of DnD came out. Someone on PbPhouse decided to run a game of it and I said, “What the heck, I’ll try the system.” I was suspicious of it and even played a character that seems completely random and bad (Halfing Warlord). Since then, however, I’d really enjoyed the game and even ran a small game myself.

My conclusion is this: DnD is a combat focused game where the players can perhaps do some really crazy stupid things at the higher levels. Stuff like kill Gods and travel across the “astral sea” fighting beasts from really weird places. There is a place for that, but I think it needs to be done well. That is to say, in stories I’ve read with super powered characters they are leading armies, opposing gods and all that, but they do it with style… and I don’t see myself as being able to fit that style correctly, as a DM at least.

I will admit, some of the things that DnD has still bothers me. The commonality of Magic weapons and the like, but the game, at low levels at least, seems to interest me. So, when the player’s handbook II came out I just had to buy it and at least see what it had in it.

Basically, what Wizards of the Coast (WotC, the company that publishes DnD) did when they released DnD perhaps about 8 months ago (I forget actually) was they released the standard fair: The Player’s Handbook I, which had all the rules for the game, a Dungeon Masters Guide, which had extra DMing (GMing, or game mastering, or how to play as the game master) rules and tips and the like, a monster’s manual, which has a bunch of different monsters and creatures players can fight in DnD. However, while these books contain tons of DnD info and the like, there is lots of information that has yet to be expanded upon. Stuff like dragons of Good, certain races prominent in Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 but no longer existent in DnD 4th Edition, as well as extra classes and the like.

So, that’s where the Player’s Handbook II comes in. These book introduces a bunch of new races and classes, as well as some extra racial rules, not to mention more feats and magic items. Its smaller than the first Handbook, but this is expected since it doesn’t contain all the combat rules and stuff.

So what does it have? Well, Goliaths, Half-Orcs, Devas, Shifters and Gnomes are the five new races contained in this book. For the most part, I don’t really like their fluff for some of these races. The gnomes and the Half-orcs have gotten a redo with half-orcs becoming less savage warrior-beast guys and more ranger/dexterous fighters. Gnomes are anime-monster wannabes. However, the Goliaths (giant dwarf-esque mountain nomads) Devas (angelic dudes), and shifters (half-werewolves/cats) all impress me a lot. I love them.

Then of course, we have the classes. We have the long awaited arrival of the bard, druid, sorcerer, and barbarian along with the introduction of the avenger, the invoker, shaman, and the warden. The bard and sorcerer are arcane spell caster type guys. Bards inspire their allies, sorcerers destroy their enemies. Both are awesome. The Invoker and Avenger are divine warriors. Avengers seem to be “holy assassins” who are amazing at killing single targets. These guys are perhaps my favorite class right now because of their fluff and image. They don’t wear armor, and get bonuses for doing so. The result is a guy with a huge sword (or mace, or axe) and these billowing robes all around him, charging at his target. Very cool. The invoker is a wizard reimaged as a Divine caster instead of an arcane one. They get their powers from the gods, but have much more of an older feeling and more divine wrath feel than the cleric or paladin, who seem to be more in line with a holy, but good, warrior. Invokers seem more evil/dark to me.

Then we have the new power source: primal, or nature power. The warden is a defender, so he’s similar to the fighter or paladin, but instead of using high armor and defense to defend he just has so many hit points no one can kill him.

The Druid is a controller… basically a primal wizard who can turn into an animal and attack like that. In this regard he’s also a bit of a striker.

Finally, the Shaman and the barbarian: the barbarian comes back from DnD 3.5 with its orginal role: LOTS OF DAMAGE. Barbarbians are known for being big, stupid, strong guys with huge axes. This idea remains. The shaman is a reflavored druid who has a spirit companion and buffs his/her allies with nature’s blessings, so he’s a leader/defender I think.

Overall, all the classes are awesome, I love the sorcerer and the avenger. The invoker sounds like the kind of Controller I’d wanna play. Personally I like the Rogue and Fighter from PBH a lot, and not all the new classes really seem too amazing. I’ve never been a fan of the druid, so the fact that I dislike both him and the shaman isn’t surprising. The bard, isn’t my kind of class. I love the bard as a concept but I’d never play one. The Avenger, Sorcerer, and Barbarian, however, all rock in so many ways.

The rest of the book is good too. They added racial “paragon paths” which are what act as prestige classes in DnD 4E. I haven’t looked at them too much but some of them, like one of the DragonBorn ones looks really cool (you get WINGS! You can FLY!) .

And that’s about all I have to say about the book. If you play DnD 4E then I highly recommend you get this book.

DotA stuff mostly

2009-03-22T08:25:00.001-07:00

Sigh… like is normal.

I have 9 more weeks of school and 1 week of holiday before that. This is good. TPS is a good school, if even it does cause me to panic at least 1 every two weeks, if not 1 a week. Still… I’m working on that. More planning, more diligence, less internet (DARN YOU WIRELESS!), I’m working on it… the key is a true desire to change, which I know I don’t have, yet, but I’m really thinking trying to make the right decision. I think I’ve done better so far… only time will tell.

I played what was perhaps one of the most balanced games of DotA on Saturday. The team was… I forget, I think me Manik, Saad, and Michael against Derek, Jinkin, and Pranjal… oh and Jacob. I played Broodmother for the first time. Actually it was very interesting because at first glance my team should have lost quite easily, but we managed to pull off a very even game. Seriously, right up until the final push it was a toss up between the two teams. Finally, though, Derek’s team managed to destroy our ancient, in one push… and that clearly was our fault because at the time of that final push me and Manik were pushing top. We managed to get the entire lane cleared and I was going to go for mega creeps (which, if we were lucky, we might have gotten. We would have at least destroyed the tower). IF our gambit had worked then I’m sure we would have won that game. As it was, we should have retreated and hit Derek’s push from the rear… but we didn’t and we lost.

Still, it was a very good game and actually, it made me feel good about my DotA skills. I really liked broodmother and I managed to get a good build-up for her without much trouble. My one major issue was I should have gotten Phase Boots and not Boots of Travel, as I needed the phase more than teleport. I’ll keep that in mind next time I play her.

Also, I really liked the Webs, they were VERY useful for ganking/mind games/escape methods. Working with invisibility takes some practice however, and I haven’t gotten that down just yet.

Finally, I think I might go Caleb and Andrew’s graduation. It’s not for sure yet as we need to figure out things like my SAT (which is around that time) as well as my Math and English Final. I think I can get everything organized but I’m not entirely sure. I’d love to be able to attend the graduation, since it’ll be the only one of my friends I’ll be able to see. But if I’m unable to do it, well, I’ll live, I suppose…

I was going to write more but I didn’t so I’ll stop now and get ready for bed.

The Color of Worship

2009-03-19T04:01:00.000-07:00

So… most of you know I love modern music, specifically stuff like Hard Rock and Metal. For this, its been implied that I’m going to Hell or something along those lines by various people. Never to my face, but on my school forums. Interestingly enough, when I directly ask them if that’s what they’re saying they’ve never actually said yes… but still that’s what people have kinda implied.

Now, while I of course disagree with the idea that rock = sin I see their point, to a degree. Drugs, Sex, and Rock and Roll… doesn’t sound very good does it? I remember I heard on the radio that some Pink Floyd guy died recently and then the radio mentioned how he was high on drugs much of his life or something and my cousin’s mom (who was driving the car) said something along the lines of “wow… wonderful guy,” when my cousin was like… “he died? NO!”

Or perhaps Jimi Hendrix, a alcoholic druggie who had a tendency to get very violent when drunk. He was a social wreck, but a musical genius. The guy made the electric guitar what it is today: rock music’s most important and most ionic instrument.

And then we have metal… which has always had a history of flirting with Satanism and the like. It’s angry, often curse-filled, loud music. And yet I love the stuff. I do not think all of it is inherently sinful.

My family is reading a book about honor for our Bible study and this section we’re reading now has to do with individual cultures’ unique styles of worship. It’s interesting because the author has mentioned several groups (specifically Native Americans) that I know had some very dark and demonic parts of their culture, parts of their culture that were very deep into their culture. Now, I’m not saying that the Native Americans were all demon worshipers and their culture should be wiped off the face of the earth, but let’s be truthful here… the Native Americans had some strange and demonic rituals and practices.

However, God made them and he made them unique. Sadly, when the white man came to America they didn’t see this wonderful unique culture as that, but as a dirty uncivilized people that needed to “become American” or whatever. Yes, some of their culture was bad and needed to be removed, but not the whole thing. By doing what we did to the Native American people we’ve only created a rift that to this day has not healed, one that may never heal fully.

What’s my point? When my mom was reading this book I thought of something. My culture worships God uniquely, and while you could call my culture White or American or whatever it is, its also other things. I’m a geek: I play RPGs, quote Monty Python, love video games and other things. I listen to hard rock and metal music and my idea of worship includes modern instruments like the electric guitar, drum kit and bass.

Now, like I said in the beginning of this post, I know rock music has some pretty bad guys involved in it. I know some of the founders of Rock, Rock and Roll and Metal were messed up people who really needed to get saved (and in most cases, didn’t, but instead died and went to hell). But that doesn’t mean that all of rock music is evil. It doesn’t mean that if I play metal music then I am an evil demon worshipper or hate God. Unless my actions, both on stage and off, explicitly are forbidden in the Bible then I’m not (and I challenge anyone to try and explain to me WHY Rock and Metal are evil. I’ve debated it so many times I’m sure I can explain to you my point of view quite accurately).

But here’s the problem with Rock music, or any culture that has demonic roots: where do we draw the line? Now sometimes it can seem quite simple, but at other times… it’s not. When I think of Native Americans in their traditional dress dancing around a camp fire, honestly, I automatically think their doing something that is not Biblical. Its not the dance, or the clothes, or the fire, but the words they’re saying which often invoke the names of the demons their people worship(ped).

Now, some Native Americans I’m sure can use this style of music and performance to Honor God but we have to be careful. We can’t just take part in some sort of “cultural performance” without knowing exactly what’s going on, and if we’re okay with that.

My point is: God has created thousands, if not Millions, of unique cultures with their own styles of worship and praise. To some people the idea of jumping up and down to Rock music is scary, strange, or weird. But to me slowly chanting some flowy poem thing is weird. Not to mention boring. :P God created us all in his image and no matter how messed up our cultures are we can still find something within our culture that can be redeemed and we can use that part of our culture to worship our Creator.

Signing off for now,

Isaac, the masterofweirdness

Player's Handbook II... other stuff

2009-03-18T03:12:00.000-07:00

A few quick notes:

In math, I started a Chapter on Trig… so I’m being reintroduced (I used them briefly in Geo) to Sine, Cosine and Tangent

I bought the Players Handbook II and Adventurers Vault for DnD 4th Edition. They’re very niiice. I like Half-orcs… but I hate their background… its… to mild.

For those of you who don’t understand, half orcs are half human, half orc. Orcs are savage beast-like people who kill other things and ally with goblins and bugbears, other nasty savage monster things. Now… why would one of these ever have children with humans? Well… the only answer I can think of is unwillingly… so rape.

But of course, DnD does want to include the little twelve year olds and the idea of an entire playable race being created by well… rape isn’t very kid friendly I must admit. So… what do they do? They mess up Half-orcs and give them some strange background like humans… for some strange reason actually willingly sleeping with orcs and making half orcs. That or a God deciding he wants to make half-orcs. Both of which make no sense.

Anyways… other than that, Half-orcs are fun. Also, some of the new classes look quite nice, though I’m not entirely sure I’d enjoy playing them. The Invoker (divine controller… what the wizard would be if he got his powers from Gods). The Shaman looks… strange… and the bard looks like something that I’d hate to play but would love to RP with.

Oh, and gnomes look… stupid. Like anime wanna-be thingies. Not cute fuzzy gnomes. That being said, they make for cool wizards. If I ever play a gnome, it’ll be a gnome wizard. Or maybe a evil gnome warlock. That would be fun… like a little gremlin guy. :P

So… nothing else to blog about. I’m off to make some character sheets.

Dawn of War II

2009-03-14T21:00:00.001-07:00

Dawn of War II is amazing.

Why do I say that? Because it’s true. I haven’t finished the game, nor have I played all the armies in skirmish but I have to say it really is quite fun.

I got Dawn of War II this Thursday from Derek, lol… first off, this game is so pirated. :P there is no install, no crack, just copy the game into your harddrive (or is it ONTO? Bah… my grammar is horrid) and then play! Anyways… it works fine, and I love it.

The single player is like Dawn of War I’s single player. It’s a Blood Raven Space Marine Chapter campaign. However, instead of the evil Chaos Marines of Alpha Legion you face off against the Tyranid (which I learned I had been pronouncing wrong this entire time! Lol… I pronounce half my vocabulary wrong. I suppose that’s to be expected since most of the people I hang with don’t speak English as their first language and I don’t use half my vocabulary regularly. :p) So anyways… you fight against the ‘nids the orks and the eldar. The game starts pretty much the same, the orks are attacking and we need to stop them, then it turns out that the eldar were manipulating the orks into attacking this area because the nids were coming and now we’re all doomed because the nids will destroy us all!

So that’s the plot… yes, it’s quite shallow but it’s all the game really needs. Warhammer 40k isn’t known for its amazing plots now, is it? So long as those plots allow for lots of violence and battle, then we’re all happy.

What makes Dawn of War II so different from Dawn of War I is that the campaign is… like an RPG. You get a force commander, a scout squad, a devastator squad, an assault squad, a tactical squad, a later a Dreadnought and you can take your force commander and 3 other squads out on a bunch of missions. As they complete missions they get EXP and sometimes the enemy will drop “Wargear” (read: loot!). At the end of the mission you can level up squads by increasing one of their four skills: health, ranged attack, melee attack, and their special power stuff (what I would call magic power if this game was fantasy…), as well as giving them better equipment.

Now, all your units have their own specializations, but you can mess some stuff around. For instance, the tactical squad is meant to be a ranged “tank” unit and has some powers that make people attack them. However, you can give them chainswords and attack, or a flamer or a plasma gun, or even a missile launcher. Your commander is meant to use melee weapons, but he can also wield a heavy bolter with some leveling. Right now I’m playing everyone to their strengths, tactical squad with bolters, assault squad with chainswords, commander with a power weapon. But next time I play through the campaign I wanna try it all messed up. Give my assault squad bolters and my tactical squad chainswords… that’ll be… fun. :P

My only complaint towards the game would have to be the squad sizes. Your commander has no retinue, and while I can live with that, its somewhat unfluffy… and stupid. Then again, he’s only in charge of like 5 squads and only takes like 3 of them with him on missions, so they’re rather small scale battles. But your squads… are hardly that. Your scout, devastator, and assault squad are 3 man squads, your tactical squad has 4 guys. Sorry, but a sergeant and two bodies does not make a squad, I don’t care what you say. I think they did it for balance reasons, since the orks and the nids have 8 man squads that get eaten alive by a marine tactical squad. So in bigger battles if you wanted 5 man squads (which would mean something like 20 men in a marine army. :P) you’d be fighting… 53ish nids, and I can see how that would be a problem. Still, I don’t like the squad sizes.

Anyways… it’s a good game.

More DotA

2009-03-08T03:55:00.001-07:00

So… I think I learned a valuable lesson in DotA yesterday: I do not do well in mid game.

Early game, I can do really well. Because no one else really focuses on Last hitting so much I manage to farm quite well… but once I go back to base 1 or 2 times I start o do much worse.

Also, I don’t think I’ve yet learned exactly how to play lighter (read: agility and int heroes) very well. I can play them decently, but I tend to do better as str heroes. Though I remember when I played Vengeful Spirit I did really good… and that was fun.

Or maybe these games I just didn’t have as good a team or wasn’t as necessary to the team so I didn’t do that good. I dunno…

Also, I’ve recently read that Heart’s 1% health heal bonus does not stack. This is annoying, but I can understand why. Centaur Warchieft, with 2 hearts can easily have 3000+ health and some 60 health regen. Add a satanic to that (or even just a basic mask of death) and you have an ungodly amount of health… a beast of pure tanking power that just cannot die.

So… I’ve fooled around with morphling and I don’t like my str build for him. So I’m going to try and get 2 butterflies for him next time I play the guy and see how that goes. The way I figure it its probably a better idea to focus on agility (since last time I played I actually ended up with what I felt was too much health). Also, I need to up the difficult of the AIs again… I’ll have to start throwing in a few insanes to my usual Normals. I used to play against insanes with normal exp (they don’t gain bonus exp) but that got so easy it wasn’t funny. So then I switch to Normals with bonus exp… and now I’m going to try and work my way up to 5 insanes against me… something that will probably not happen for a LONG time (I can play against 3 easys with some heroes… but I still usually lose).

Oh, and Derek has Dawn of War II… so I’ll try and get that on Thursday. I tried to get it yesterday but he was out of his house the entire day because of exams… Dawn of War II souns amazing.

DotA stuff

2009-03-04T23:09:00.000-08:00

Morphling… is really weird.

Morphling, in case you didn’t know is one of the many heroes on Defense of the Ancients, a Custom Map (read: Mod) for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne that I play. I play it a lot, actually, both with my friends on the weekend, and at home during the week.

Anyways… morphling… okay, morphling is a ranged agility hero, this means he focuses on doing lots of damage really fast, and as a ranged hero does this from a distance. HOWEVER, while he is a ranged hero he has the power to switch his strength and agility stats around. What does this mean? It means he can suddenly get a lot of health (which strength gives you) and lower his attack speed. Or he can have a tiny amount of health, but lots of damage and attack speed… or he can switch between the two.

Now, as you can imagine, the power to suddenly have an additional 500 health is quite useful. I played around with him a bit, not much, but just enough to familiarize myself with him… and I think I like him, but realize playing him really well is probably above me. (Where with someone like Dwarven Sniper, Razor or Skeleton King I can play very easily… they’re easy heroes). However, I have a somewhat useful build for him.

First off, since he’s an agility hero, I decided to focus on Agility, not strength, which is something that I think most people will do. Then I started off with various items… Phase Boots, a brace and a wraith band, and the headdress of rejuvenation (because I think its worth the etra 311 gold to get +2 to all stats in one slot… and the AoE regen, even if it is pitiful is still AoE regen). Then I decided to get Sange and Yasha. I did this because my brother told me to (and he knows a lot more about build ups for heroes than I do...) but also because it made sense. I can have a lot of strength or a lot of Agility, so get a balanced item that has good powers. So I got Yasha and Sange, then I decided, since I’m an agility hero to get Butterfly, the default Agility hero item of choice. (What’s not to like? 30 Agility, 30 Evasion… 30 other stuff). But as I used this, I realized actually I should consider another build:

2 Heart of Tarrasque. XD

Why? Well… lots of health regen is always good. Plus, with 50 strength from those I can basically have 1 strength base and still have enough health and regen to not die really fast.

This might sound like a completely stupid, idiotic build… but I’m going to try it. If it works… I’ll laugh. :P

Also… this chapter in Chemistry has actually been somewhat fun. Working with atoms is much better than that nasty Stoichiometry stuff… gack!

Kid's Camp 2009

2009-03-01T19:23:00.001-08:00

Camp was last week.

What is camp? Well, “Camp” is really “Kid’s Camp”. It’s a weekend event that happens every year around the end of February/Early March. Kid’s Camp is run by AG Church in Maghbazar (my church) and every year usually about 100+ kids (this year we had only 80ish though… more on that later) come.

This year however, things were a bit different. First off, as some of you might know, the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutinied and killed a lot of their officers and caused a lot of chaos and stuff, as a result, the people in charge of Organizing camp were unsure if we should run camp because they did not if the BDR were going to continue to munity or if the situation would mellow out. As a result, about ½ of the people who signed up were actually told that Camp was cancelled. It wasn’t, but the damage was done: on the first day we only had like… 48 kids. However, thanks to the heroics of one of the camp organizers, Auntie Diane (btw… I call all older women Auntie and all older men Uncle... I’m not related to her) we managed to get another 32 kids to come to camp on the 2nd day after breakfast.

So, other than that, Camp went quite normally. However, it was quite sad that out of the 136 children that signed up only 80 came…

The theme this year was Super Heroes, and how Jesus is our Inner Hero. All the team’s had super hero names like Powerful Patriots (My team), Super Soldiers, Amazing Avengers (winning team), Truthful Troopers, Incredible Invincible (I swear… they ran out of names and threw together this team name). My team wasn’t amazing… but we had some good kids. We had to really cute little girls… I’d say my team was about average. The councilors for my team were: me (Jr. Councilor) Raimey and Derek. I had the best councilors. :D. No honestly, they were great, and I think we all had a good time, even if we ended up in like 6th place (out of 8).

What else… the Worship was good. I found out how good of a voice Maxim has. The speakers, a guest team from Calcutta, did a good job, they had some fun songs we sang (such as… Grin Again Gang Get Gung-ho about Jesus… which you sing REALLY fast).

Every year the teams all have to do a skit/play thingie, usually focusing on a specific verse or idea that the camp was about. So this year we all were superheroes who found out without Jesus we couldn’t do much. My team had the evil Dr. Disco face off against Super Strong Girl, Y Girl, and (for Copyright reasons) the Guy Who Tells Jokes. :D Dr. Disco danced them all into zombies until Pastor Gus (who was the guest speaker… :P) came in and told Dr. Disco that he couldn’t have the “secret power” because the secret was in our hearts! We didn’t win, but I liked our Skit a lot this year, it was a whole lot better than last year’s skit.

Also, I felt quite bit that this camp was a milestone for the younger generation at Kid’s Camp. For various reasons Nathan and Jacob ended up leading their teams, even though they weren’t prepare for it nor were supposed to. Also the people who started camp 12 years ago Mark and Daleene (sp?), are leaving Bangladesh for good. They may never come back. But, looking at Camp, I don’t think that’s to big of a deal. 12 years ago, the camp leader, Josephine, was a kid, a camper, now she is in charge of camp! Next year, Max and Jacob will probably be ready to be Sr. Councilors. Me and Julius and Naomi can all be Jr. Councilors. People are leaving, but they have left a new generation with the tools to continue their works.

And… that’s all I have to say.

Update...

2009-02-22T06:25:00.000-08:00

You know what’s kinda sad? Read the following:

Amaranth
Bye Bye Beautiful
The Islander
Cadence of Her Last Breath
Eva

You know what that is? That’s my top 5 songs (all preformed by Finnish Symphonic metal band Nightwish). :P Which is really weird, because, if you talked to me about music you’d expect me to be a complete Nightwish Freak who only listens to Nightwish, especially their newest album.

What funny though is that I’m actually not. I actually prefer music like Killswitch Engage, Demon Hunter, As I Lay Dying, Iron Maiden, Dio, and various Powermetal type bands. I LOVE Nightwish, don’t get me wrong, and they ARE a good band, but I don’t obsess about them to an unnatural level (like some people I know…)

Still, I do have to admit, at least three of those songs (the top 3) really do deserve those places. If I had to pick another two though I’d replace Eva (which I really don’t actually like… lol) with probably Alexander the Great by Iron Maiden (EPIC GUITAR SOLO!!!!!!) and Cadence of Her Last Breath with End of Heartache by Killswitch Engage (AMAZING MELODIES!!!!!).

So… in case you’re not on Facebook (which I think most people reading this blog are…) I thought I should tell you: I have purple hair.

Actually, it’s more pinkish, but it was purple hair dye. It looks cool. I did it for the upcoming AG Kid’s Camp where a bunch of us (read: my family, Julius, Max, Sarah, Derek and maybe Jo) are all dying are hair purple… THE PURPLE PEOPLE ARE HERE! :D

Also… we played DotA on Friday, my team won 3 out of 4 games. This is really cool because I’m used to being the loser. I mean… my team has won MOST games. Then again… I think this might have something to do with me always being with Derek. That or I’ve just gotten really good… and I don’t think this is the case.

And I can’t think of anything else to post… and I need to do something else, so I’ll stop writing.

Weekend and Winter Break

2009-02-15T01:15:00.000-08:00

Weekends are really fun… this weekend was no exception.

I didn’t have to do anything at DIA (the service I’ve normally been going to) so I slept in a few minutes and went with my family to AG Maghbazar.

Good service, mostly. Pastor Freek (pronounced frek, NOT Freek like I thought when I was a little kid. I laughed so hard when I first read his name…) spoke and it was a good sermon. His sermons used to be really bad, but he’s gotten much better and presenting himself. The message was really good too.

Afterwards we went to the Club and had lunch. We had pizza. Then, as we did last week we went to the game café to play some DotA!

Friday night, I got my SAT scores back… *sigh* the entire “getting into college” thing really stresses me out. My scores were good, I mean, obviously they could have been better but I’m not an idiot and I didn’t bomb or anything. I’ll take the SAT again in May and the ACT I’ll take in April. Hopefully between the three exams I’ll get a good score that’ll get me into Baylor. If not, if not I’m applying elsewhere.

And no, Brian, there is no chance I’ll be going to Chicago. Sorry. The scores weren’t near high enough.

So, we managed to play 2 full games and two half-games… the two half games were interrupted because of power issues. Stupid country and no generators. Anyways, it was amazing. I played as Dwarven Sniper the last game and… I OWNED! By the end of the game, I was beyond godlike IIRC. I think I made a triple kill too.

On Saturday instead of 4him we played Volleyball and Soccer (football). Volleyball was good, soccer less so but I did enjoy it. I enjoyed myself all around.

And I have winter break this week so I’ll be very lazy and do as little productive work as possible. :P

February Update

2009-02-09T17:53:00.000-08:00

So… what have I done recently?

Well, first off its my sister’s B-day today, which is cool, she’s 16 (SO OLD! :p). I think she doesn’t want to get any older, but remain eternally a 16 year old struggling over chemistry, geometry and English II. :P I want to get older (well… till I turn about 23… then I want to stop).

I played DotA at the café with my friends on Friday. It was amazing. We played two games, first game was all random (computer randomly picks 1 hero for you to play). That was kinda annoying (I got treant… I hate treant. I can play him, but I hate him. :P). The 2nd game was Single Draft (SD) where you can pick from three different random heroes. I played Viper.. who I really didn’t like that, but hiser/it was a good hero. I think what made that game slightly annoying was the fact that everyone always killed me. We still won (possibly BECAUSE they killed me instead of other heroes), so that was good I guess.

The best thing about these games was that we had, for the first time ever, a full five on five match. That made the game really good, because I mean, DotA is MEANT to be played with ten people. It makes the game SO much better.

What else… Camp is in a week. What’s camp? Well, its basically where my Church (AG Maghbazar) takes a bunch of kids (between 150-200… depends on how many register) to a place outside of Dhaka where we divide into teams compete against each other for some random prizes and learn about God (emphasis on the God part). It’s awesome. More or less the goal for us (the councilors… I’m a junior counselor for my 3rd year running) is to keep the kids in check and very tired. We don’t get much sleep (on purpose. :P).

Camp is always awesome because: A) we have fun B) we learn about God in some AWESOME ways. Every year I’ve been to camp I’ve experienced God in a new way. I’m hoping this will be the best one yet.

Oh, I’m dying my hair purple for Camp. :P I’ll post pictures after I do it.

What else… I’ve started playing Oblivion, which is good. I now have a high level character who’s done good in a lot of quests. I have Orcish armor, a glass sword and a dwarven shield (steel helmet still… but I’m working on that! Helmets are hard to find).

And… oh, I’m reading Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Weis and Hickman for a book report I need to do later in the school year. I may not be able to finish it before the report, but I’ve read the book before so that shouldn’t be a problem.

Musings of the Future

2009-01-25T03:19:00.000-08:00

The SAT was interesting. It’s a weird test because unlike most of the tests I do where you have a few hard questions and usually a decent time limit (if any time limit… I actually only have time limits very little of my tests/exams), instead you have lots of questions and a small time limit. Yes, many of the questions are easy but still… its kinda scary to see a section has 25 questions and you only have 20 minutes to do the work!

Also… its LONG. The SAT is like… 5 and ½ hours long. I got there at 7:45AM and didn’t leave till 1PM… not all of that was testing but still… took a while. They do give breaks (3 breaks) but I could have used one more break… just one more and it would have been really nice.

So, did I do good? Well, I’ll find out soon. I got a 164 on the PSAT, so assuming I haven’t improved at all since the middle of last semester (erm… actually about the beginning of the school year) then I can expect around 1600-1650, but I’m betting I HAVE improved. I think I did pretty good on the math, and know I did good on the critical reading (even if those passage reading questions are purposely confusing, I did good on the PSAT critical reading) the writing… I think I did pretty good. I hope my essay scores at 12, and I have a feeling it’ll get between a 9 and a 12, which is higher than average all around. The rest of the writing stuff… was interesting, why they had a 35 minute and 10 minute section is beyond me… I would have rather 2 25 minute sections.

Also, I realized that I’ve probably taken one of the, if not the most, important exams of my life. I’m taking the SAT again in May, but still, its kinda scary thinking of that… my entire future can almost be summed up in one simple 4 digit number… its also funny thinking about it as this time two years from now I’ll be IN college, doing college stuff and living in the US for an extended time. It’ll be the first time I’ve done that since I was 3. Big difference in my situation there.

In fact, you know, more and more often I think about leaving. I’ve had lots of friends leave Bangladesh. Most of them have gone for school, a very good number of my youth group have gone overseas for education, and I always had to say goodbye to them. But summer 2010 I’ll people will have to say goodbye to me. It’s a weird feeling… think what I’m going to say to all my friends. I think the thing that really hits me is that unlike Matt, Derek, Saion, Mark and the rest of the guys at 4him I don’t have any real reason to come back and stay in Bangladesh after college. Yes, I’ll come back, I’d be a fool not to. But I’m not going to live in Bangladesh. I’m not planning on working in BD OR India in the near future. I know my destiny (if you will) lies in the 1st world. The US, America, developed parts of Asia, but not Bangladesh. The thought of having to leave BD “for good” is both exiticing and sad. Bittersweet is probably the best word to use I suppose.
\
And to completely change the topic… I’m planning on dying my hair purple for AG Kid’s Camp (annual weekend retreat thingie for kids aged 7-15… all the youth go as councilors… but only the full time councilors really have a lot of work… the junior councilors just get to tell the little kids what to do. :p). Derek, I think Jacob, Julius, Naomi and Michael also have promised to do so. It’ll be fun. We can be the Purple People or something. :P

Situation: Normal

2009-01-21T00:37:00.000-08:00

So… I now have a new president. For some reason… I want to make some deep philosophical statement. However, since I don’t have anything deeply philospical to say, I won’t say anything of the sort. At all.

Life is going… good. I think. I mean… its normal. And I suppose normal is good. I take the SAT this Saturday, and that is making me nervous, kinda, it’s weird… I don’t know.

What else am I doing? Well… not much really, I mean, like I said, life is normal. I started Oblivion up again, new character, Heavy Armor, Blade, Restoration, the summoning magic, Alchemy, Armorer, and Myscistism. It’s a good concept, and I’m doing a good job with the character. I think I’ve leveling to fast (as in… I got to level six WAY to fast) but I’m enjoying the game.

I think Oblivion is better than Fallout 3. I say this because, while Fallout 3 is a good game, it really is a linear game. There are lots of little side quests, but they are just that, side quests. They aren’t meant to add to the story a lot, but are just extra things that are tacked on if you feel like doing them. In Oblivion, you have extra quests, but between the Main Quest, the 4 Guild Quests (which I love) and just exploring, plus the Shivering Isles, there is so much you can do in Oblivion. I start up the game and go into the Wilderness, just explore, fight some monsters, gather herbs, run through part of a dungeon… its awesome. The game was created so brilliantly. I love it.

Also, I’ve been listening to so, well, different music. Its metal… but OLD metal. As in, 80s stuff. I bought this album from Amazon Holy Diver – Dio and it is amazing. I don’t think anyone else in my family would apprieceate it (and I admit, the vocalist has a weird way of singing, but its cool) but I really love it. Once I get some more money in my paypal account I’m going to get some more stuff… a Metallica Album is on the top of my list.

Oh… I should probably tell you guys about my conquest of the Middle East in Medieval Total War II. I was playing the expansion pack to the game, which allows you to play a bunch of different (and cool) campaigns, one of which is the Crusading era in the Middle East. So I played as the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was awesome… and really easy. I had some amazing Generals (King Baldwin the Leper and Richard the Lion Hearted) and the two of them ate Egypt really, really fast. I mean, it wasn’t really even funny. Then I invaded Turkey, took over Saudi Arabia and won the game… I conquered the Middle east in the life span of one general… it was crazy. Though, it was fun… I had some good battles.

Personally, after playing all these mini campaign games (the Baltic area, the British isles, middle east, the Americas) I think I like the original the best. The Pope can get on my nerves but I enjoy that verision the best. I had a blast conquering Europe with England and Norway. My Spanish campaign was also quite fun. All my other campaigns were failures… but I think the game is unfair to the other nations (Russia, Turkey and Venice don’t seem to have a fair starting position). Maybe I should try the game as Sicily next time…

Aftermath of Holidays

2009-01-06T01:39:00.001-08:00

Well… holidays are over now. I’m back to school. Had a great time with my friends, got to see Brian and Caleb again. It’ll be the last time I see both of them for a decent bit I’m afraid. Hopefully Brian’ll be here for my graduation (which is about 18 months from now), but I have no clue when I’ll see Caleb again. He’s not coming back for this summer, and he’ll be in Samoa and doing a DTS for the rest of next year. If I’m lucky, he’ll apply to Baylor and maybe, just maybe, he can be my roommate. But he doesn’t seem to want to do that… I’m not sure why, but whatever. As long as he ends up in the States I’m sure I’ll get to see him. As long as he doesn’t go to the West Coast that is… unless he offers to put me up…

The holidays were fun, yes. I played a lot of DotA and Fallout 3. I discovered something while playing DotA with my brother… my brother does something that very few players in the cafes enjoy doing: he’s balanced intelligence heroes. He played Shadow Shaman and Tormented Soul, constructed his own builds for these heroes and managed to play with them very well. He nuked everyone to death properly with Tormented Soul and buffed like a proper buffer with Shadow Shaman. It was very nice. It’s a shame we’re not good enough to compete in tournaments, because it’d be cool if we could. Actually, we’d have a decent team. Michael: Intelligence support. Me: Killer (okay… I’m not amazing, but I can play several killers decently) if not killer, a carry hero like Sniper or Razor. Derek: Tank OR Killer Jacob: Something else… and now all we need is another player so *insert one of Derek’s or Jacob’s DotA playing friends*.

Fallout 3… is pretty good. I must admit, I like Oblivion’s leveling system a lot more, I think it’s the best leveling system for computer RPGs ever invented (it could work with Pen n’ Paper games, but it would be much harder to implement). However, the game is good. Combat is fun, and the setting is well done. Someone on PbP house expressed interest in playing a fallout game there and if I had the time, I would have signed up, but as it is, I do NOT have the time… but that would have been amazing.

What else… well, nothing really. I’ve been roleplaying a lot. All my games on PbPhouse are going along fine, and I really am enjoying all of them, some more than others, but I’m glad I’m in all of them. I think if I had to pick a favorite game, I’d say the Fireborn game. I. Love. Fireborn. My DnD game is really fun as well, but its moving a slower pace than I would like. It’s find funny how when I’m a GM I prefer a relaxed pace, but as a player, a faster pace is my preference. However, I do have to say that the Star Wars game I’m in is almost too fast. We’ve moved at, literally, a lighting fast pace. It’s good, since we have a lot of ground to cover, but it’s also bad because I find that the pace is a bit too fast for my taste. That being said, I love the game and like some of the PCs. Shame we seem to have more a group more inclined towards “roll playing” and a campaign that encourages this too boot. However, I do know that we have at least two players who are interested in “role playing” a decent bit, plus I know the other players CAN roleplay if they feel like it, they just don’t seem to.

Oh well... maybe the game will fall apart and then I can go off and join another game… there is a Master’s of the Universe game shaping up, that game seems to be very entertaining.

And that seems to be all I have to blog about right now. I’ll write more later.

New Years Eve

2009-01-01T04:53:00.000-08:00

Just about 18 hours ago, I was at my church wishing people a Happy New Year. Once all this was done, food (well... snacks) were consumed and most people had left the church was mine! MINE MINE ALL MINE!

Actually... wait... we had some other people there... lots of other people. Mostly (actually, wait... ALL) were part of 4him, and we had a blast.

First, we just kinda hung out a bit... Nathan and the rest of the drummers present (plus some others) played on the drum set and stuff... that was really cool. Then, we went outside and played some soccer (which we of course call football). Football was very fun. :) Because we had such a high number of players we divided ourselves into three teams and had one team rest while the others played. My team lost both of our games... but we all really enjoyed ourselves anyways. We had a decent team, but I think what caused us to lose was a weak defense.

Then, then we played Wii. That was great. Actually, it was beyond great, it was just plain old crazy. We played the stupidest game... it was the 100m dash on this olypics game... we were really loud... it was great though.

Then, after wii, we watched Madagascar II. That was a decent movie, had some good laughs and all that, so I enjoyed it. After that, I forget what we did... I think more wii... a lot of people took a nap. After a while I went out for breakfast (which was quite decent) and then we came home. I went to sleep at this point. I think it was like 7:45 when I got home, I got out of bed at around 1PM... lol. And now its 7:24 and we are about to have dinner.

I had a great time. :)

The Year in Review

2008-12-20T09:02:00.000-08:00

Well, another year is just about over. It’s really amazing how fast they go. This time 12 months ago a lot of things were really quite different.

1st off… I had just turned 16 6 weeks before. Kinda scary… because 17 seems much more mature (heck, I can now officially play MATURE games. ). Then of course, Brian was still in School, I think… yes, he was. He had almost finished school and had told me in he would be going to the Uni of Chicago, after he finished at Hebron.

This time last year I had not yet been to Europe, seen Scotland, or played World of Warcraft. This time last year I didn’t own my own laptop. I didn’t have a next gen console, Jacob had not taken his O’ Levels, I only owned one RPG game… so many things had not happened.

I think the most important experience I had this year was without a doubt: Europe and America. I learned a lot about myself, my future, and my family during those trips. I saw London for the first time and, to put it very simply, London is the most awesome city I have ever been to; better than Bruges, better than Singapore, Bangkok, Calcutta, Mumbai, and Dhaka. If I could live anywhere in the world, right now I’d probably pick London.

I was still in 10th grade and graduation seemed like a vaguely far off thing. I was still in High School and I didn’t really think about College that much. Now, I’m about half way through 11th grade and I’m ready, eager even, for college. I’m sick of High School in a lot of ways; I’m also ready to be off into the might, mystical, strange, and perhaps even frightening land of the USA.

I really got into RPGs this year. I mean, really really. Before I thought just WFRP, but not I have DnD, WFRP, Fireborn, Star Wars, Dark Heresy, and I’ve played in others, Blood! True20, and various other games. RPGs are amazing.

I learned to play DotA. Okay, I could play DotA, but I really perfected my DotA skills. I realized when playing today that I know every hero (basically) in the game. I can play some tanks and lots of pushers/killers/stunners well. Heck, if I could play regurarly with my friends (we can't stupid crazy school schedules) I would be in a proper clan that wasn't half bad.

I learned that only the Asians are true gamers. Sorry all you halo players, you fail in comparsion to pro starcraft players.

I dunno… I become more mature. I grew a lot. I mean, I really grew. Looking back at life there are those important years, you know? The years that are important and that despite the fact that crazy stuff happens, you do okay, you in fact prosper. That’s what I did this year. Crazy stuff happened. A lot. But I lived. In fact, I prospered, I became a better person, a person who, despite all my horrid, horrid, faults that next year when I do my year in review (darn it… I’ll be EIGHTEEN next year… *semi panics*) I’ll be ready for adulthood.

That my friends, is my year in review.

Freedom

2008-12-17T01:37:00.000-08:00

I
Am
Free
For
The
Rest
Of
The
Year!

And that spells... Iafftroty... nothing... oh well...

Fireborn

2008-12-12T05:26:00.001-08:00

Well, after what was a very slow middle my Fireborn game on pbphouse.com is finally starting to pick up.

The game is the Fire Within introductory adventure. In this game my PCs play as Dragons Reborn in Modern London (well... London 2004). Magic has come back to London and strange things are about.

The PCs I have are Oliver Kneeler, a painter/artist and Felix Drake: A stubborn PI who doesn't want to have anything to do with this "magic" stuff that's been going on. He's in denial about it. I'm running a NPC companion called Robert something who's invovled in a Gang and lives in a run-down part of the city.

So the PCs, after much pushing, pulling, and dragging arrive at a rooftop Cafe where they all talk a bit, and then, suddenly, are attacked. A bullet shatters a pot and a bunch of crazies charge them all and attack with clubs, 2 by 4s and a few random knives. The PCs manage to fight them off (with Robert actually doing the most damage... lol... Felix and Oliver aren't the best fighters). During the fight the thugs overwhelm Felix, meaning that he is unable to dodge a bullet which hits his right shoulder. The party, after defeating the crazies runs off the roof (over the body of teh dead waitress) into an alley to talk a bit.

To put it in nice terms: Felix is mad. Very mad. He didn't want to go to the Cafe (and was kinda dragged by random bouts of pain and naseaa) and now has a bullet in his shoulder. Robert and Oliver manage to help him patch himself up and then Felix (after much yelling, cursing, and name calling by Robert and Felix) walks off in a angry huff. Oliver is more calm, and manages to get Robert's phone number. The two men then depart.

Now, I have a very angry, stubborn PC who proceeds to get drunk and smoke a pack of ciggs. I thought this was really funny but I loved the way it all happened. Plus I really like Felix's character. A very cliche hard boiled PI who doesn't give a darn about anything.

And so now, since he's getting drunk, I have a bit of a solo with the other PC, Oliver. Oliver goes home and does some stuff... and then I have him get a phone call. These people talk to him and tell him to meet these guys at a local bar/restaurant. They talk a bit but basically the guy gives Oliver a package and leaves.

Oliver then, after much moaning, groaning, and thinking, goes to Robert's house. Robert, and his friend Prokash, look over the package and suggest that Oliver should open it. Oliver does so. The package contains a bunch of random newsclippings and photos. Photos of Oliver, Robert, and Felix, plus some guy called Mark Garren. There are also "intelligence reports" on all three people. Robert, using the info given on Mr. Felix, calls the guy, and talks to him.

Several posts later: Felix will be meeting Robert because he is afraid some psycho has info on his family and might use it against him. Felix isn't cruel; just stubborn. So they'll be meeting in a few days.

Imperium Nova

2008-12-09T02:55:00.001-08:00

Recently I’ve been playing a browser based strategy/RP game called Imperium Nova.

http://www.imperiumnova.com:8080/Imperium/

The game is basically a big make a ton of money thing. I’m house Reiand in the galaxy of Erinadius and I’m in the mercantile sphere of influence. That is to say, I run a bunch of different routes about the galaxy buying and selling stuff.

The game is good fun. It would be horribly boring if not for the RP interaction between houses. For instance, due to a complicated system of events two of the major power bases in my galaxy have left the game and their accounts will be deleted due to inactivity in a few days. The result will cause a vacuum of power and will… interesting things will probably happen… Also, the current Emperor of our galaxy is a self-proclaimed Tyrant who enjoys bossing everyone around. It’s not a matter of if he will survive (because if the other houses wanted to destroy him, they could) but more of a when… good fun.

Of course, being the pathetic house that I am I can’t actually DO anything except ask for handouts (which btw are really useful. I just say “hello” to someone and they throw me 20,000 credits, I started with 10K… those credits literally kept me alive in the game. I’m still running off of them 5 months later) and beg for mercy (which I did when I got caught smuggling… no one told me the fine was 50k!). Anyways I’m enjoying it.

That’s all for now!

A rant

2008-12-06T23:56:00.000-08:00

For all I love Star Trek, it bugs me sometimes.

Take warfare in Star Trek, the ground warfare they do… in all honesty, is horrid.

First off, NO ONE WEARS ARMOR! Hello? The American Army/Marines/Navy/Airforce uses armor. Kevlar is useful, as is ceramic plates. All other Sci-fi settings (starwars, 40k, etc) I know of use armor. No armor makes no sense. Seriously, get some sort of suit that absorbs the engery of a phaser/disruptor blast!

Every single army has exactly two weapons: a pistol and a rifle. Okay, that’s great for most small scale boarding parties and the like, but in a few episodes (the Siege of AR-558 from the 7th Season of DS9) we have large scale engagements… proper battles not small engagements. Where are the grenades? The Heavy Machine Gun type weapons? The hi-tech targeting gear? The tanks?!!! Sense making = no.

Then… we have more of a minor quibble: close combat weapons. Two armies equip their soldiers with close combat weapons: the klingon empire and the Dominion. The dominon have knives and polearm/axe things and the Klingons have tones of close combat swords, axes, knives, and the like. Starfleet… has fists -_-. Give the fact that Klingons and the Jem’Hadar pretty much rock and pwn humans in terms of strength… I don’t see how or why this has happened. Bayonets are issued to the USMC today, and the Marines have used them in Iraq, not often, but it does happen. In Star Trek, interestingly, close combat happens a lot, and we are often left with Captain Sisko punching a Jem’Hadar while said Jem’hadar pwns him with his strength… hello?

Another thing… the borg… have shields. But, in Star Trek First Combat Capt. Picard killed two with a Thompson SMG, proving that you don’t need a phaser to kill one. My question is this: if a weapon invented in the 1910’s and used in WWII killed two borg, why did Starfleet not invent a solid slug based weapon specifically meant to combat the Borg? Instead Star Fleet is often panicking when facing Borg Boarding parties because they only get 3-5 shots with their phasers… and then it delovles into a melee where only Vulcans, Klingons and Mr. Data stand a chance. Once again this goes back to the close combat weapons…borg pwns humans, so why don’t the humans get a friggin knife?

Oh well… besides all that, Star Trek is an amazing show. :D

Stuff...

2008-12-02T01:51:00.001-08:00

Well I now have a laptop cooler. I think its helping with my overheating issues... I'm glad I have it in any case.

And what else have I done in the meantime? I've started ANOTHER medieval total war II game this time on the hard setting... its harder for sure. I'm France, and I've only just gone to war with England... and its going very slow. I have no money (NO MONIES!!!!!) and thats very bad. Knights and spear men are expensive (armored sergeants are like... 500 florins+ and Knights are about the same price), a decent army needs like 2 units of knights and at least three sergeant spearmen squads, plus some archers. Also... I went on a crusade. I did it for the money and stuff (its kinda funny, but for an army that has access to south france or spain, or any coastal area in south europe/north africa its really easy to conquer Jerusalem... plus crusader military units are CHEAP like 200 for a squad of knights) that hasn't turned out TO well. I have a ton of priests doing their job to convert the masses... but I lost Jerusalem to riots. :( I'm at war with Egypt and that... isn't fun. I can hold my own (damacus and Arce) but thats really about it.

Oh, and I went ahead and conquered Scotland. Its kinda funny how you can do stupid things like that... in two battles I destoryed the Scottish people. Next stop... ireland! Oh, and I need to kick the English out of Mainland Europe... :D

I haven't done much else this week or last... besides thanksgiving of course. So that's about all I have to say.

edit: Its now December... dang... everything goes so fast in this world!

Thanskgiving Holiday

2008-11-24T03:38:00.000-08:00

Hmmm…. I’m… kinda bored right now. My break has been… somewhat interesting. Its more relaxed than a normal school week, but tomorrow is going to be very busy (we are moving upstairs… which means lots of lifting of stuff). I played some Medieval total War II today and yesterday, and I think I might start another Civ4 game… that could be interesting.

What else… hmm… nothing really, hopefully we can start RPing next week, but Julius now has exams so I’m not so sure about it. Also, with the timing we have… it may not be possible BEFORE 4him, maybe we should do it after 4him… though that would mean staying later than my Mom might want me to… perhaps we should do it after Church… we’ll have to talk about it.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Link of the Day

2008-11-19T21:06:00.000-08:00

www.koboldsatemybaby.com

Kobolds ate my Baby, an RPG where you play Kobolds who must gather food (Babies) for King Torg (All Hail King Torg!).

It sounds... epic.

Update... games, RPGs, Church... random

2008-11-17T07:12:00.001-08:00

Well... I watched a music video on YouTube today. It was… cheesy. But it was a power metal band so I expected that much. Lyrics about some WWI battle... lol. Vocals were strong, and the guitar solo before the bridge was very well done. I asked Jacob if he could get me some of the band (Sabaton or something, European Power Metal)

And what else… I’ve played some Diablo 2 and DotA I swear someday I’ll beat 3 easy AIs with Pit Lord… but it wasn’t this time. Actually, it was kinda my fault as I let the mid lane go to long without my support, trying madly to push the other lanes to the enemy base didn’t work… -_-. Plus, Slayer is really hard to face… three friggin nukes… THREE THREE I TELL YOU one of which STUNS.

Add Panda and some random hero I can’t remember made my job difficult. I managed to get Battlefury and Buzi before I lost though. : )

Dead Space… its good. Going slowly, but I might play it tomorrow.

Thanksgiving Break is next week… but I’m not sure how much time I will actually get off… I have Papers to write and math stuff to catch up on. I should get at least a few half-days and Thursday off.

Church is good, crazy but good… I feel like I run around all Friday get up at 7, go to church, go to church AGAIN, go to the club, come home… I’ve mostly ignored the 2nd service… I just go to see my friends. I miss worship and I’ve heard the sermon at the previous service. I’m thankful for my cellphone, which has cool games and music. :D

Roleplaying… we’re set to go. I have my intro and adventure set up for my party and my party is complete.

Julius – Dante, the Tiefling Warlord
Jacob – Human Fighter
Michael – Eladrin Rogue… forget his name, awesome character though. ;)
Naomi – Human Wizard no name (yet). She’s gonna start in Debt… which means I get to harass her with Lone Sharks. *evil smile*

They will be in a big city (no name… I’ll throw something together) as members of the militia. They will hunting down rat men in the sewers in proper fashion. I like rats. They cause disease *evil smile*

What else… well not much really. I’m enjoying life. Latin is hard, Programming is hard, Adv. Comp is hard. Chemistry is hard. But what is new?

So…

Dead Space and other things

2008-11-12T01:26:00.000-08:00

Dead Space is… amazing. It’s not really epic, but its darn cool. B)

The scary part has lost itself on me. I’ve gotten used to the monsters jumping out and trying to eat my face. The battles are instense though, because well… I’m up against zombie-beings and I don’t have a shotgun… just a plasma cutter and some sort of auto-gun thing.

Oh well… it’s still really fun. I have a feeling I’m about to fight some sort of boss, as the same seems to be building towards something. I’m not sure what though.

Also, my new cellphone is amazing. I like it. :D

What else… I’m working on starting a Face-to-face group again. Well… it’s the same group, but we haven’t done much since summer. So now, I have 4 definant PCs.

Julius will play a “thin only wears black” Tiefling Warlord (who will probably end up being greedy and self-centered, and very cool)

Jacob will play a human fighter who is a wise emo (the emowiser they call him. :D)

Naomi is going to play a human wizard who will start on the run from debtors.

Michael is going to play this really cool character: an Eladrin rogue. He duel wields a katar and a longsword. He uses shuriken (ninja stars) for ranged combat and is amazing. I like him in general.

They will start in a city, and quickly get thrown in jail. It’s a cheap GM trick, but it gives them a reason to get together and start working together. Otherwise, well, it might be hard to get them to work together. :P

And that is all I think of… Latin is hard, Programming is fun, English is normal somehow… I’m not sure, Chemistry is -_- and Math is meh… nothing else to report.