Q&A

I found some answers to some questions on GW2, here
Here are a few important ones (to me anyway).

When is Guild Wars 2 going to be released?

No official date has been announced for the release of Guild Wars 2, only that it will be released "when it is ready". However, according to NCsoft conference call from Q3 2009, the beta is expected to start in 2010 and the final game is expected to be released in 2011.

So what is the level cap?

The level cap is 80.

Am I going to have to endlessly grind to reach the level cap?

No. The time needed to level up should never exceed 90 minutes. Moreover, the leveling curve flattens, so each subsequent level will take about the same time to reach.

Will there be a healing class?

There will be no dedicated healing profession in Guild Wars 2.

How many professions are there going to be?

There will be 8 professions in the initial release of Guild Wars 2.

Will there still be secondary professions?

Secondary professions were originally included, however due to the unique mechanics of each profession and the increased role of race in character customization, they are no longer a feature of the game.

Will professions have racial restrictions?

All professions will be available to all races. All races are equally able to play all professions.

Can I change my profession?

No.

No? But what happens if my race ends up sucking at playing a particular profession?

ArenaNet is designing the racial skills to add flavor, but to be underpowered relative to the professions' skills. The profession will have the most impact on a character's ability.

Is there going to be any player housing?

Yes. Each character receives a home instance in their racial capital that is personalized according to the character's biography choices. The home will continue to change as the character becomes more involved in their personal story.

Will there be a pre-searing like area, like in Guild Wars Prophecies?

No. Because there are different racial starting areas the developers felt it was impractical to implement such areas.

What are the races I can play in Guild Wars 2?

Human, asura, charr, norn and sylvari are confirmed for the initial release.

Will there be any other races?

It has been stated that in the future, other races will be added. There won't be any others at the initial release of the game.

     I think that's all the ones I was interested in at the moment. "When it's done" sounds like Blizzard, though.

Wondering about GW2

I've been thinking about Guild Wars 2 for a while, and have been playing GW:EN to unlock hall of monuments rewards, I'm doing okay on four points. Still, i was wondering about features in GW2, like races, professions, etc.

1. Will Tengu be a playable race? Bird people are cool, and Talon Silverwing was one of my favourite characters in GW. I haven't played through the entire game, though. I found a discussion here. I hope they are included.
2. Will Asura get to have "pet" golems, or be able to ride one, eg. if you wanted a warrior Asura.
3. Logically, if they include Tengu because of Talon being a henchman, then centaurs should also be playable, because of Zhed Shadowhoof being a hero.

I think that's all I'm wondering for now, tell me if anything happens in the comments.

The Spook's Curse

by Joseph Delaney
  It's actually taken me a while to find this book in the library.
   I originally became interested in this series when I borrowed an audio book of The Spook's Apprentice. I really liked it, so I've been looking for a while, but whenever I come across the series in a library, I couldn't remember which one was next on the series. But now I've finally read it.
   It's about the Spook and Tom going to the funeral of one of the Spook's brothers. The Spook also wants to destroy the Bane, a spirit that he'd been defeated by before. Also, the Quistor, a fanatic, is going around accusing everyone of being a witch or warlock and then burning them, and he considers Spooks to be warlocks because of their jobs. And he has captured Alice, who comes from a family of real witches, and is Tom's friend. The Bane can also control people's minds, causing them to give it blood, and is trying to use them to get back at the Spook.
   I found this story to be suspenseful at times, in a very good way that I liked, because Tom doesn't know who he can trust, and is often confused about whether to stop Alice from doing from what she's doing or not. Alice is a very interesting character.

Links are now up!

Ok, just to let you know, the links on the "Stuff to Look out for" page are mostly up.

Dragonforce

   I recently went out and got the album Twilight Dementia by Dragonforce. This album is a live recording of one of their performances. This is also my first Dragonforce album. After I listened to Soldiers of the Wasteland, then to a studio version, the live version sounded better, because of the parts where the audience is yelling ay ay ay during some of the slower bits, and it really sounds better.
   And on a few side notes:
   I am starting on a story. It's set in the future, and is about a girl named Tanya, her (probably) crazy sister Selena, friend bird-girl  Amanda and her part-dragon adoption father Flare, and they have to survive for a week while they wait for a space ship to take them off-planet and away from a gang that killed Lilith, Tanya's other sister. I'll also be doing drawing of the characters, and I might put them on if I can work out how a scanner works.
   Also, in Guild Wars 2, I think that there should be a playable Tengu race.

Guild Wars

Recently I want and bought the Guild Wars Trilogy off steam, then I want and got the Eye of the North Expansion. I'm having alot of fun with this game, though it takes ages to get to the Eye of theNorth using the characters I've already got. Generally, for secondary professions, I've gone for a ranger, just so I can have an animal companion. I've been wondering, though, how you can look like monsters in towns. I've seen blobs, giants, golems, and pets, though I can't see mine in town. My favourite classes are Dervish and assassin, the assassin because it's satisfying when you can chain together a massive combo, and the dervish because they can fight groups of enemies effectively. It is annoying, though, how in Nightfall, one of the quests involves getting the rank of first spear, and I've run out of quests to do, so I have to go kill fifty-odd monsters of a spesific type.

Oathbreaker: Assassin's Apprentice

by S R Vaught and J B Redmond.
   The version that I read is actually an "uncorrected bound proof", so it's may be slightly different to the published version.
   This book is about a boy named Aron, who is taken away by the Stone, who are a large group of people who are trained as assassins. The other guild, Thorn, train healers. Aron's master, Stormbreaker, looks after him, and has a legacy to call storms. Aron becomes friends with Zed, who also works with Stormbreaker. Almost as soon as Aron leaves his family, they are killed by Brailing guard, and their spirits are sent to kill Aron, Stormbreaker, Windblown, and the girl named Dari who Aron found being carried with them, and they travel to Triune, where the Stone are trained. Meanwhile, the Thorn attempt to murder Nic, a prince.
   I thought this book was interesting because of the characters, especially Stormbreaker. The book is written from multiple perspectives, Aron, Dari, and Nic's, but is in third person instead of first person. The end of the book reminded me a bit of Alanna: The First Adventure, because it has a sense of them going somewhere haunted together. I would probably like to read the next book later.

MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Pyro's Mildly Disturbing mask

Two evil things: one, halloween, and there are new maps, and two, I started a 40k Chaos Daemons army. First, I'll talk about a TF2 map: Mann Manor. This map is a haunted mansion. When you play on it, it is a three point CP map. BUT there are two changes to this map. First, occasionally gifts will appear, and whoever picks one up first gets a halloween mask, one of nine one for each class, but anyone can wear any hat. There masks aren't as interesting as the Mildly Disturbing Halloween Mask, which for the pyro has a picture of a red duck with an ! above it's head. Cute. But the main feature of this map is the "Horseless Headless Horsemann" (yes, with two ns"). If you assist in dealing a near fatal or fatal (actually, temporarily fatal) attack, you will get a hat called "The Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head", which is an evil pumpkin head. If your near fatal blow was a melee attack, you will also receive some haunted metal (which I don't have yet:(), which can be used in crafting "The Horseless Headless Horsemann's Skullcutter", (if I have to write that ONE MORE TIME...) or something like that. It's basically a fancy eyelander. Just to show you've beaten him in melee, which is not easy, seeing he has a one hit kill melee attack, and (I think) 2000 HP + 300 per player in-game. He can't kill ubercharged people or scouts using BONK! punch, and a spy using the dead ringer won't usually be killed (someone could work out how much damage he does, since you'd multiply the lost HP by 10 since the dead ringer absorbs 90% of damage.
  And the Chaos Daemons, well, I've only got 20 bloodletters and Skulltaker, and I'm thinking of expanding with a Daemon Prince. Oh well.

Red

I went to see this movie with one of my friends, for his birthday. I'd seen a review of this on The Movie Show and I thought that it looked interesting. The statement of "overkill" definitely fits, as seen early on when Frank sets off some bullets in a frying pan and several people appear with machine-guns and shred the house with automatic fire. There are also silly parts, like when the stuffed pig containing a folding-stock grenade launcher, which is fired directly into someone, then when another man throws a grenade, he whacks it right back with the stock, then a girl pops up with an RPG-7 and fires it at the three of them. Marvin faces her down, with a revolver. When she fires her second RPG, he fires a shot right through it, exploding it, and the woman spontaneously explodes for some reason as well. Quite a fun movie, with lots of action mixed with comedy. I liked it alot.

Strange Angels

by Lili St.Crow.
    This book is about a girl named Dru Anderson. She's the daughter of a monster hunter, and helps him when he goes out to "work", by being able to see things he can't. Unfortunately, one night he goes out without her, and comes back an undead zombie. She gets away, and at school, meets Graves, who finds her a place to stay at the mall and becomes friends with her, when he is bitten by a werewulf, but does not become one completely, instead becoming a half-breed type, so he doesn't "change" like others do.
  I really liked this book. It has a good story, lots of great moments, and I like this sort of supernatural theme in writing. Action supernatural, that is. I'm now reading the next book in the series, called "Betrayals", and there appears top be another book coming out this year-or maybe it was already released, and I didn't notice.

Things on TF2

OK, so I've managed to get the new spy and pyro weapons, as well as the danger shield, the Bushwhacka, the Battalion's backup, the Mad Milk, & the Holy Mackerel. But I'd like the fez for the spy, since it's so useful for Dead Ringing. I've found how to craft it: 4 refined metals+ 1 class specific set weapon (in this case, L'etranger or your eternal reward)= class specific set hat. Now I have to get 4 refined metals (4 refined= 12 reclaimed=36 scrap=72 weapons. This could take a while.

Few new things

Okay, I've got that Space Marine tactical squad finished that I mentioned a few posts back. Also, as I mentioned a bunch of posts back, the TF2 update has come out. The pyro's new flamethrower seems a but weak, but you can airblast an enemy pyro, switch to the shotgun, shoot him, and switch back to the degreaser to airblast him. The Powerjack, however, seems more useful, especially in melee sudden death, since it restores heath and does extra damage. Also, I would try and get the sniper's set, to avoid headshots, but 1) the huntsman or sniper rifle would be more useful, since they deal headshots, allowing you to kill heavies. A fully charged shot from the sydney sleeper would only do 150 damage, authough you could no-scope the heavy, to jarate him, then charge up a shot to kill him and 2) I like the Trophy Belt better than "'ol Snaggletooth". What I'm trying to get are the spy's new weapons. The Eternal reward looks to be good for people who don't use disguises much, relying on cloak instead, and you could 1) backstab someone to disguise as them, then 2) backstab an engie without having to worry about his sentry shooting you, since it would instantly disguise you as the engineer.
  Also I'm a bit worried about some numbers. Look at this: 1/3=33.33 (recurring) %= 33.33(recurring)/100=3.33(recurring)/10=0.33(recurring)/1. Multiply by 3 and you have 0.99(recurring)/3. Therefore 1/3 = 0.99 (recurring)/3. Is this right? Or am I doing something wrong?

Links goin' up

OK, I'm making a start on the links on the "Stuff to look out for" page.
  But what I'm actually going to talk about is Heroes of Might & Magic 5. I played with the Tribes of the east expansion, because it's stand alone, and you can play as any race in a skirmish. I've found that it can be really hard to win a game. I've tried out most of the races, and right now I've found a few strategies:
   As Inferno, I usually take the Temptress for my starting hero, and get Succubus Mistresses as fast as I can, because this hero gives all Succubus extra damage and defense per level. Mistresses have a chain shot ability, which means their ranged shot will pass through the target, and then to two other nearby targets, which take less damage.
  As dungeon, I've found that Blood Sisters are a good defense unit. If fighting melee enemies, keep the Blood Sisters near your scouts, or other ranged units, and when the enemy moves forward, you can use them as a (relatively) short ranged shooter unit, because they have the hit and run ability, so they attack, and return to where they started that turn, and the No Retaliation ability, so the enemy can't retaliate against your attack (which is the main difference between Blood Sisters and the standard Blood Maiden). It helps if you have the hero that has the ability to boost damage & defence of Blood Maidens & their upgrades (can't remember the name).

Last week of term! What to do?

Actually, I am only writing this post because I can, & because it's the last week of term.
 Although during the Holidays, I will be celebrating my brother's birthday.
I have gotten back into Warhammer 40k again, see the tactical squad in my last entry.
I'm looking forward to the holidays, but I've no idea what I'll be doing.
 Right! I just remembered! For participating in the premier's reading challenge, I was awarded a book called The Angel Stone, by Livi Michael. In addition, last week at the WorldCon Garth Nix signed my copy of Sabriel. So, two special books on two weeks on two Mondays... 2x2x2=...8. Will Monday the 8th be lucky for me for now on? Actually I'm not usually that superstitious.

Auscon 4

Last weekend, I went to Aussiecon 4, where I found out about a few things, like writing, drawing, and generally SF, supernatural, and fantasy. I found out that other people really like Haibane Renmei, which I watched. The masquerade was very short though, with only a few people in it. I also got a copy of Sabriel signed by Garth Nix.
  Also, later in the week, I bought a space marine tactical squad, which I equipped with a meltagun, and a power sword for the sergeant from my assault marines. I swapped the sergeant's left arm to hold a bolter, and also gave another marine a pistol and bolter, one in each hand, which is actually the standard loadout for a tactical marine.
  I'm also going to make a page where I list things I like, and I am hoping to include links later.

Hilarious Toast!

(is that how you spell hilarious?)
Anyway, I was watching TF2 videos on youtube, when I came across this: Yeah! Toast!
Personally, I liked it when the soldier punched him.
And also look for Moments with the Heavy

Tamora Pierce

I've found another adventure/fantasy writer: Tamora Pierce. I'm reading The Song of the Lioness and The Immortals book series right now. The Song of the Lioness is about a girl named Alanna who wants to become a knight, so has to disguise herself as a boy, and The Immortals is about a girl named Daine who has the power to talk with animals and immortals. In fact, she meets Alanna on her journeys. More when I finish reading these series.

TF2 stuff

I found some tf2 stuff coming out next month for soldier, spy, scout, sniper and pyro, found here. The rest of the previews are at the bottom. Personally, I can't wait to see what the tank buster does, and the Sydney Sleeper, or the Bushwacka. I am also curious about the scout's new milkman job, and what the fish does. And with the other weapons, I can't imagine, because just when I think that's all they can do, they invent an entirely new item.

Alien Swarm

First up, Alien Swarm. This game is downloadable for free off Steam. In it, you team up with up to three other people, and you play as a squad of marines, who have to kill aliens, complete objectives and not die. The only way to loose a mission is to have the whole squad die (getting hit by a nuke after it's countdown counts as dying). You play top-down, like in Diablo, except you use the keys to move and the mouse to aim and shoot. Generally it's bad to shoot teammates, but in all the missions, you need to have the whole squad in the exit zone, and you can't do that if someone is AFK. So you have to kill him. Which uses up ammo as well, since close combat attacks don't affect teammates. And for some reason the kick button isn't working properly. This is definitely a great game. For first-timers, I'd recommend playing as Wolfe, and taking an Autogun, and heavy armor. Wolfe and Wildcat are both easy to play as, since they have no use in the game except to have an Autogun or Minigun, and kill swarms of aliens with it. Also, when playing, try not to reload, since you loose your last clip when you do. My favorite characters for each class are:

• Officer: Jaeger, with vindicator and incendiary mines. Once when I used them, we were on one side of the firewall, and the aliens kept charging into the wall and dying.
• Special weapons: Wolfe, with minigun, sentry and heavy armor. This loadout is really good in defense, since spinning the minigun (like TF2) slows you down, and the sentry is stationary.
• Medic: Faith, With Tesla gun, Medi-gun, and freeze grenades. Faith isn't as good at combat a Bastille (the other medic), but is a better healer and infestation curer, the second skill is vital in the missions including and after Syn-Tek residential (on normal difficulty). The tesla gun stuns enemies, so you can run away or melee-kill them, and the medi gun is more efficient then the heal beacon.
• Tech: Crash, with PDWs, shotgun and hand welder. The PDWs are basically dual SMGs, while the shotgun is effective against the enemies if they close on you. The hand welder lets you seal doors, which delays the swarm for ages, while they break it down.

This game seems alot like Space Hulk (space marines, minigun trooper, officers, swarms of aliens)

Music

Since I noticed that most music on the radio these days isn't very good, and I like music, here's a list oof songs that I do like:

• Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) - Greenday
• Enter Sandman - Metallica
• Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
• I Never Loved You Anyway - The Corrs
• Throught the Fire and Flames - Dragonforce
• Blinded in Chains - Avenged Sevenfold
• Hotel California - The Eagles
• Tell Me Baby - Red Hot Chilli Peppers
• Are You Gonna Be My Girl? - Jet
• Holiday - Greenday
• The Saints Are Comming - U2
• Wake Me Up When September Ends - Greenday
• Dreams - The Corrs
• Toss the Feathers - The Corrs
• In the End - Linkin Park
• All the small things - Blink 182

I play Guitar ALOT, and I like playing relaxed tunes, like Good Riddance & Wake me Up When September Ends. Or just bashing the guitar, like with Dani California and Rock You Like a Hurricane.
I also do Violin, and I like either slow tunes, like Greensleeves or Erin Shore, and I like listening to jigs like Toss the Feathers.

It dissappeared!

Gone!
  (it's actually a book)

I think it's a good book, definitely suspenseful, and also exciting. It's about an area where all of the adults, or 15+ year olds, disappear, and people develop powers all over the FAYZ (fallout allay youth zone), which is what the 20 mile diameter around the power plant, which is sealed off by an impenetrable wall, which is apparently a sphere. There are several characters; Sam, who most of the town want to take charge and has the power to create light; Astrid, who is very smart and is Sam's girlfriend (but denies it); Quinn, who's Sam's surf buddy; Albert, who runs the McDonalds; Lana, who can heal people, but is stuck outside the town, with her dog, Patrick. They both have to survive coyotes and other mutant animals. There's also Edilio, who is another of Sam's friends (and who is not mentioned in the wiki as of date of writing). Also, from Coates academy, are a bunch of people who want to take over Perdido bay: Caine, who has the power of telekenisis, and is also the leader of the group; Diana, who helps by reading the level of people's powers; Drake, Caine's right hand man and a psycho;Computer Jack, a computer geek; Bug, a boy who can use chameleon skin to sneak around. My 3 favourite characters are: Edilio, Drake and Lana. I read this book whenever I could until I finished, because it was so interesting. I would recommend this book to adventure, science-fiction, or suspense readers.

Don't That Beat All

It's finally here! With another new weapon, the Gunslinger, which deploys combat sentries (faster deploying, cheaper, weaker, un-upgradable sentries), and gives the engineer more starting health. I'm not sure what the other new wrench does, I'll look it up. Oh yes, I forgot to mention the three new payload maps: Thunder Mountain, Upward, and Hightower. The gunslinger allows the engineer to be much more useful in attack, because normally, he is useless, because the defenders don't need to go to his sentries. I don't know if the Gunslinger lets you upgrade/repair buildings, since there are no negative effects mentioned, so I assume that the disadvantage is not having the normal wrench.
     Congratulations to the people who found a golden wrench! If you find it, I don't see the point in having the standard wrench, since they are the same in effect, but the golden wrench is cooler. And achievements as well! Wait, I just found out about another map: ColdFront, a CP map. Apparently, the engineer gets to use his guitar, not sure how though, and you can also carry your buildings, don't know how either. I also read about something called the Southern Hospitality, possibly the new wrench, or maybe it lets you pick up buildings. I'm going to play ASAP. I want to try out all the new weapons, especially the wrangler and gunslinger.

The Engineer

Finally, the Engineer update for TF2 is coming tomorrow, on Thursday. So far, there has been mention of three new items: Frontier Justice, which is a revenge shotgun (has less shots and no random crits, but gets crits when your sentries are destroyed), the Wrangler, which lets you take manual control of your sentries, and possibly the golden wrench, which turns enemies into gold instead of corpses, but this might only be limited, and not in the update, and a new item being shown once 75 golden wrenches have been found. Can't wait for tomorow.

Eldest

Finished this now,
 It was good. I liked the story with Roran and the villagers, and what happened to the Varden while Eragon was training. There was a good ending, with a twist, which stopped the story from being mainly about Roran and the villagers, which would have been OK, but this made this book really good.

Vamps and Engies

I have recently read most of Christopher Pike's "The Last Vampire" series. I haven't read the first or sixth books yet, because they're not a the school library. But I liked the series so far. I again feel that I have to read the first book to find out alot of details that are spoken about in the books that I have read.
   I'll get onto that soon.
  Meanwhile, I've begun reading Eldest, which is the sequel to Eragon. More on that when I finish.
 Also, I'm waiting for the TF2 engineer update to come out. I saw a video with something called the amplifier, which gives crits to people nearby, but I've realized thet thet would have to replace another building, such as the sentry or dispenser, which I would like to keep. Also on the TF2 wiki, there is a picture of the engineer holding a type of shotgun/rifle. The engineer needs some way to: find spies, like Jarate or the pyro's flamethrower, fight at long range, or at least out of the sentry's range, and maybe something like the razorback. Also, as pointed out on the wiki, there might be some sort of robot.

Fang

Okay, time to do a review on this book, and to do a good one.
    Out of all of the books so far, this one seems to have the most final ending, eve more than Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports. I noticed that Dylan, who has been created to make Max love him, doesn't seem to really act like he is trying. This book seems to be the end of the series (is it?). Dylan seems to try to 'replace' Fang, and Angel tries to be the leader of the flock, more successfully this time, and causes Max and Fang to be kicked out of the flock, however, they return fairly quickly. Anyway, I am now wondering if there is going to be another book, but it doesn't seem likely, after the ending to this book.

The Reading Challenge

I entered the premier's reading challenge a few days ago (once I found out about it), and when I read the reading list, I noticed that there were omnibuses, separate to the single books, meaning that you would get more than one point for reading one. I also noticed that there are parts of series, but not all of them, and a bunch of shorter books, like The Greek Who Stole Christmas, so we can read these shorter ones for extra points. I also found that alot of the books that I have read this year are not on the list.

The Blood Angels

Okay,
    Today I finally got the new Blood Angels codex, and I think that it is awesome. There are a whole pile of new units, characters, as well as a range of miniatures.
    When I read it, I thought of taking a Death Company army, using a big squad of 30 death company, and 5 death company dreadnoughts (with Blood Talons) for my troops choices (including Lemartes, Guardian of the Lost), with Death Company Tycho and Astorath the Grim for HQ choices, or an army containing Commander Dante and lots of Sanguinary Guard, because the Guard look really cool, have 2+ armour saves, and Dante lets me use them a a troops choice, as well as being a great fighter on his own.
   My favorite unit in this codex is the Stormraven Gunship. It has AV 12 all round, and is not affected by melta bonuses, as well as being equipped with 4 bloodstrike missiles (S8), and has a twin-linked Assault cannon, which can be replaced with twin lascannons or plasma cannons, and a twin heavy bolter, which can be replaced with a twin multi melta or typhoon missiles, and can also be upgraded to use 2 hurricane bolters. It gets even better; it can transport 12 people and a dreadnought, and can drop it's units like the grav-chute insertion rule, and, it's also a fast skimmer.
   My favorite model is the Sanguinary Guard, because I like their wings.

Eragon

I have read Eragon recently (I can't think of any other way to start my posts). I saw the movie a few years ago, but I could only remember that it had a dragon in it, and I really like dragons. I found this to be a quite addictive book, and I really liked it (I really need to think of different words to use in these posts).
Erm...
  Like alot of books, this one just seemed good, but I can't work out why.

Maximum Ride comic #2

Apparently, there is another tf2 video: Meet the sentry.
I also found that the videos are also by Machinima

Anyway, the second Maximum Ride comic is now at my local library, so I read it.
I thought that they all looked good after their haircuts, and I got to see most of the characters in color.

Team Fortress 2

HA! HA!
    It works!
Now, after waiting for ages for it to download, and then for the updates, I can finally play it! (Note: You should  be able to install these games from the disk, but noooo. We have to download them over several hours)
    Still, this game is really fun. I like the pyro, scout, and sniper best. The spy is really difficult to play as, especially since it is so easy to find out if someone's a spy or not, and it takes a moment to uncloak, and the spy is the worst class at combat. He only seems to be able to get kills from assassinations, or head shots from the Ambassador (an unlockable gun). The scout's sandman baseball bat (and ball) are fun to use, and can be effective when you stun someone with the ball, and then switch to the scattergun/Force of Nature, and just jump, run, and shoot at your enemy. The pyro is good for clearing out crowded rooms, but he can't talk very well, which is a problem for when you are giving orders, and there is no text on the screen to show that you were talking. The sniper is actually pretty good, and he has a SMG for when the enemies get closer, and a blade for close combat. I didn't usually use the engineer, because it was too hared to maintain all of your buildings, and the sentry is quite weak, but does alot of damage, so you have to build all of your buildings near each other, which makes them vulnrable to explosives, and the sentry dosen't have a massive range, so you have to use it in ambushes, and still spies can sap them.

Some great short videos

Hey,
If you go to youtube, look up Meet the Spy. It's pretty funny.

Watching this made me think: you can use Team Fortress 2 to make a Red vs Blue style video.


Also see:
Meet the sniper
" " engineer
" " soldier
" " demoman
" " heavy
" " scout
" " sandvich

Make sure the video is by GamerSpawn, or it might be a fake.

Here is Sniper:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTnq_fpeVfc&feature=channel

Max

Now, this book was really good, one of the best ones in the series. It was funny when the flock did navy training, and humiliated all of the recruits. The story was gripping; I always wanted to read more of it to find out what would happen next. It was quite different from the rest of the series, because they were underwater, and with people that wanted to help them, all the time, instead of being threatened by everyone.

It was a nice change for the flock.

The Final Warning

I read this book, and, while it was good, it somehow didn't seem to relate to the rest of the series.
Maybe it seemed like a bit of intermission. The bad guys didn't survive to go into the next book, and wern't carried over from the last one. It was sort of an introduction to the CSM, and Brigid, and started Max's relationship with Fang.

Videos

Ok, I found out how to do video

I made the first one when I read the comment about an ad for a tv show where someone's dark
secret is pink. No sound though.

Time

Ok, I've fixed the clock problem. It should run at EST now.

Blog Vids

 How do I upload a video to my blog?
  There should be a button when I make my post, but there isn't.

Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

Time:5.45pm
    I read "Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports", and I think that it is the best one in the series so far.
I really liked the part where they are captured and interrogated by ter Borcht ("I vill now destroy de snickers bars!"). Alot of stuff happens in this book, so you have to read it before the next ones, or you might wander about it forever (What happened to Ari? Why does Max live with Jeb? What happened to the erasers and Itex?)
   Anyway, It's a great book, and should be read.

The Violin

Thursday
Time:5.36pm
   Today I started violin lessons. Annoyingly, though, no-one told me until today.
   It was sort of a 'get to know you' lesson, and my teacher tuned up the violin, and gave me a workbook to practice.

A little fact

"Retard" is a verb. As in "to retard" or "the brakes retard the wheels".
It is NOT a noun or adjective, as in "that person is a retard" or "that person is retarded".
You COULD say "that person is being retarded (by another person)" though. Or even "He is retarded by [something]"

    I just thought that fact should be clear, and not 'retarded' by people who don't know.

Other stuff at school today

Wednesday
  Time: 5.31 pm
    Book Club

   Today, I went to a book club, at the school library during recess. There weren't many people there though, because there wasn't much advertising (there is a use for it, actually). Recess only goes for 15-20 mins, so we didn't do much.

    Homework

   I keep finding a problem with overnight homework. If you don't take it home on the day, you can't do it by tomorrow. Unless you have time during recess or lunch.

Ensemble

Wednesday
Time:5.26pm
   Today, I had guitar ensemble, before school, at 7.30 am. It's really annoying, getting out of bed that early, but the main problem is that it finishes at the same time that school starts, so we have to walk to the other site in 10 mins, or be late for assembly, where you have to sit in a corner if you are late. There are stamps to excuse you though, but it would be more convenient to just finish earlier.

A funny thought that I had

Time:5.21pm
  If secrets wern't dark (as in dark secrets), they would be pink.

   Think about it.

Back to School

Monday's entry
Time:5.19pm
   Well, school back (again), and so far, it's been OK. Nothing bad has happened yet, and it hasn't been too boring. But nothing much interesting has happened either, except that we do already have upcomming tests.

   P.S, since I can't update my blog everyday, I am using a notebook (a paper one), so things actually happened a few days ago.

Release dates

Time: 3.34pm
   Does anyone know for sure when the following things are comming out:

• Starcraft 2
• Half Life 2: Episode 3
• The Maximum Ride movie
• Combine Destiny 2 (mod)
• Black Mesa (mod)
• Operation: Black Mesa (mod)

I think that SC2 was supposed to be released last March, and the Max Ride movie in either 2010 or 2013.

Dragon Training

Time: 3.28pm
   I just went and saw How to Train your dragon, and I thought that it was quite a good film. I think that it was made for ten year olds, but I still enjoyed it.

I thought that the explosions looked really good; there were lots of them.

   The story wasn't bad either, and neither was the dialogue, as in, the characters didn't say something that real people wouldn't say, and be embarrased about.

   The film wasn't totally odd like this. I really liked it.

Easter Eggs

Time:12.01pm

    You know what? Last easter we got so many easter eggs that we had to use three seperate bags for them.
We brought alot, our cousins brought alot, our other cousins brought alot, so we ended up with alot of easter eggs. Yum!

S8 Knives

Time:10.28am

    Hey, I just noticed that the knife in section 8 is actually pretty good, usually giving a 2-hit kill.
   The shotgun isn't very good, as it dosen't penetrate shields as much as the knife does, but it is okay at medium range, but an assault rifle or machine gun would be better.
    Also, detpacks are very good against heavy armour and maybe tanks, if you use them as mines. I think if you put them in front of a tank, the tank does damage to them, and they explode. Against Heavy armour, you have to activate them, but if it leaps at you, the detpacks will explode, doing alot of damage to it.

End Holidays, Start School

Time: 9.13am

    Well, it's already the last day of the holidays, before school starts again.

    Oh well.

  Today I am going to see How to train your dragon, and I hope that it will be a good movie, more on that later.

Gaunt's Ghosts

Time: 6.47pm
I have been reading the Gaunt's ghosts series of books, and there is now an omnibus for "The Lost" (great cover art BTW), so I might get around to reading that part of the series now.

Waiting list games

Time: 6.08pm

    These days, I can't wait for some games to come out, like:
  Starcraft 2
  Half Life 2: Episode 3
  Portal 2
  [The Next Call of Duty Game Here]

  I also heard about something called "world of starcraft", which seems to be a sci-fi starcraft MMO (maybe RPG?). I probably won't get it, but it sounds good.

  Surpreme Commander 2 might be interesting, but I thought the first was quite boring, because everything took so long, and I didn't think that speeding the game up helped much (AI=insta-think/do). I also had this problem with Sins of a solar empire, but not as much, because there was always something to do.

 I think that I am most interested in Starcraft 2 (I won't write SC2, even though Surpreme commander is usually SupCom, people could get mixed up) and HL2 Episode 3
 

Section 8

Time: 1.45pm

   I also thought that this game was quite fun, though I think the knife is really useless, you can take a shotgun instead, which is more effective, and you can get more shots from supply depots, which makes the knife inferior to the shotgun. The story mode is rather short, with only 6 or 7 missions. Multiplayer, which uses Live, is really good, if you can find servers with people in them, but there haven't been many recently (with people on them).

Mirror's Edge

Time: 1.35pm

   Another game I liked, Mirror's Edge. It involves running, jumping, sliding and rolling to get from point A to point B, without getting shot too much, or falling a long way down. You usually have to think very fast in this game, especially where you are chasing someone, or playing in time trial mode. It feels really great when you manage to pull off a sequence of moves without stopping, and if you steal a soldier's gun, and shoot the others with it, I think that it would look like a movie if it was watched from a third-person perspective.

Half Life 2

Time: 1.19pm
HL2 is a game that I enjoyed playing, along with episodes 1 & 2. The levels are well thought out & designed, my main gameplay problems being:
  During episode 1, on the first level when you are going down a lift, and using your gravity gun to knock away the debris falling towards you. It is inasnely annoying trying to knock them away. It is good that there is a checkpoint every few pieces though

  Also in episode 1, there is a part where you can't trigger the trip mines, otherwise a chain reaction of exploding barrels and other tripmines will kill you.

  I would like to make a special mention to the combine destiny mod, I enjoyed getting to use turrets (even though there wern't many), and escaping by walking through forcefields, as well as being able to fight rebels.
I thought there should be less zombies and more rebels though. Still, a pretty good mod, and I can't wait for CD2 to be finished.

  

Time

Since I live in Australia, the time is different, so the last three posts were actually posted at around 1.00 EST instead of 8.00

Maximum Ride

I think that maximum ride is a really great series of books, haven't read them all yet, but so far they seem good.
My favorite characters are Fang, Max and Ari.
I also read the 1st manga, which is a good adaptation, the characters all look pretty good

   Am now waiting for the movie to come out, I think, in either 2010 or 2013.

Warhammer 40,000

I really like playing warhammer 40k, especially with the new blood angel SM, which I have liked for ages, but haven't really gotten around to starting an army. I think that the sanguinary guard models look really great with their wings and shiny gold armour

First Entry

Okay, today I started my blog

I think I had an older one, but I can't find it, so I started a new one