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