8/31/2005

the internet cancelled due to lack of intrest

what is up with the net today?
trying to do my advance wars by web turn today and the site is down because it's gone over its alloted bandwidth...
ok.. lets pop over to nintendo.co.uk
down... something about server response ???
finally (after my usual readings) i try ninty again and their site is up but slow as all hell (and awbw is still down... until next month i assume then... oh well one more day).


i found a review of advance wars: dual strike at gamespot.
turns out they like it... 9.2 / 10 rated superb.
editors choice and everything :) i can't wait to get my hands on it.
i'm having so much fun with aw2 at the mo.
barely a month to wait...
uk release is 30/09/05 and we normally get games here shortly after the euro release.
today's picture is one of the commanding officers from advance wars: dual strike.

last night was roleplaying (my kult game). almost everyone arrived late, then complained that we do so little roleplaying, then stated that tonight we're definitely roleplaying, then proceeded to have out of character conversations about food, news, the police, economics, what aspartime is, a funny anecdote they know, anything but roleplaying.
getting them through this tiny little section was meant to be the end half of a session that we played weeks ago, but the constant talking and complaining that so-and-so is distracting, the TALKING OVER ME WHILE I'M DM'ING, the not listening because there's an interesting conversation and then asking me what just happened, the not understanding where they are or what they're doing because only 1 person in the party listened to what i was saying and only heard 1/2 of it because someone is arguing loudly with someone else about the price of cheese and how eggs make great omlettes, has dragged this section out for a looooong time.
i'm thinking of clipping sections out of the game to get it to the end quicker.
basically the rundown is this:
yancke complains that there is no roleplaying happening and will everyone shutup.
moonflake complains there is no roleplaying and she misses playing her character.
schpat agrees to roleplay but grumbles something about jenga or mahjong.
james and synk get ready to roleplay (after finding dice and drinks and whatnot)
i start describing the scene where we left the characters last.
schpat asks some question because he can't remember what happened last.
yancke and/or synk supply the answer to the question and make derogatory remark about intelligence.
this sparks off a conversation and, not wanting to be left out, moonflake and james join in.
20 minutes later i start describing the scene again.
moonflake remembers this from last time and so starts talking to synk about something.
james asks for some clarification on something and while my attention is diverted schpat joins in conversation (shouting across the table to each other now) with moonflake and synk.
eventually, after trying to get attention, i shout for silence.
yancke asks me what happened because he was reading the newspaper in stead of listening when i described the scene.
schpat has zoned out and no longer worries about yancke threatening him with a knife.
and all this after complaining to me that we don't roleplay as much as the players want to roleplay adn tonight is definitely a roleplaying night! i don't tell them this... they tell me this!
i don't mind a games night. i don't mind a roleplaying night. i don't mind conversations about whatever. what i do mind however is being asked to dm, being told that we will definitely roleplay, and then get talked over (multiple times last night), get interupted for nonsensical stories and arguements about yesterdays news (multiple times last night), get ignored because the tatler is so interesting (at least once last night), have to repeat myself 6 times (and i only have 5 players... multiple times last night).
if you want to play then play. if you'd rather play jenga or cards or something then we'll do that. but if you want to roleplay then roleplay!
and none of you can point a finger at anyone else as you all distract other players and you're all guilty of at least one of the things i complained about (probably more but you get away with most of it because i'm busy beating someone else at the time trying to shut them up a bit).

back to real world news:
turns out one of saturn's moons may be supplying one of its rings with debris (the e ring) as it shoots out plumes of water hundreds of kilometers high.

8/30/2005

wars wars wars

answered another question over at askzenstar today.
if you like ice cream and d&d you'd better take a look.

good luck synkronos for interview thingie.

well today has been pretty quiet again. got up a little late and came up to varsity to catch up on my usuall blog reads, to blog, and to do some coding for my comsci project.
as i was leaving the caretaker tells me that 503 (just down the hall) got broken into on saturday. smashed a window and climbed into the bathroom... only the bathroom door was locked so he only got away with a vacuum cleaner.
man, we're gonna have to burglar bar everything now. too many break-ins are happening now.

anyway, played a lot of advance wars 2 yesterday/ last night. its so much fun. in the original you only got to play 1 of 3 different commanders in the campaign mode (since you played orange star forces vs everyone else) but in aw2 you get to choose commanders depending which country you're in (orange star, blue moon, yellow comet, and green earth). each country has 3 commanders and i'm not sure what's going to happen in the final battles. black hole army is invading everyone. last game it culminated in a 3 on 1 battle against the main bad guy (that was tough). this time the black hole army have 4 or 5 commanders to face as opposed to just the 1.


also: i found a nice little site called advance wars by web (awbw) which does a web based game of advance wars. i started a little game and did my turn today :) its cool. see the map: i'm orange star playing sami. opponent is blue moon playing grit.

in other news: kult game tonight... hopefully we'll actually play this week, except schpat says his brother gave him a bunch of common yugioh cards and now schpat wants to know if i can find rules :)

in real life news:
scientists have created something harder than diamonds now... those wacky germans always pushing the boundries of science.
huricane katrina is causing all sorts of problems while pushing up oil prices because she closed down some refineries in the gulf of mexico while she passed.

8/29/2005

wow... its empty in here

vac week has started and campus is empty.
there were 5 other people on the shuttle up today, and there are 7 other people in the comsci lab that i am currently in... a lab that seats ~100 people.
its great :)

before the weekend report, some newsy stuff:
i see synk has finally defected to blogspot. i will change links accordingly :)
like cats? like cute pictures of cats? like cute pictures of cats sitting in the sink? go to www.catsinsinks.com.
like cats? like cute pictures of cats? like cute pictures of cats with things on them? like to build houses of cards on your cat or balance boxes on them while they sleep and take photos? then you'll like www.stuffonmycat.com.
look at the cute picture:


the weekend was really great :)
friday was a little dragged out at varsity, but getting home and relaxing and falling asleep during cocktail (the movie) with moonflake was a nice way to begin a fun weekend.
saturday saw moonflake and i bouncing through to constantia to get her boots refunded (3 month old boots and the soles split... unacceptable) since they had no other stock. nice of them to just refund back to card. pity though 'cos moonflake really liked the boots.
after that little trip, it was out to canal walk to look for a prezzie for my sister since it was her birthday on saturday (not that i've actually seen her since the previous weekend, but its the thought that counts... or something). we found a suitable item (thanks mom for the suggestion) at a suitable price and then were free to roam for another 2 hours before the movie.
see.. we made a slight mistake. we bought tickets to charlie and the chocolate factory when we arrived. we promptly finished our shopping ultra-quick and had nothing to do for ages. so we got a magazine from the kilo-style shop (that no longer sells by the kilo!) and spent some time outside, sitting on the grass, resting our weary limbs.
finally movie time came about and we went, grabbed snacks, and seated ourselves. i got a popcorn and liberally drowned it in salt and viniger flavouring... mmmm :) luckily i had a coke too.
the movie was great. fun fun fun fun. johnny depp steals the show as usual. after the movie we were suitably rested and off on our way to have dinner at schpat's place.
schpat really outdid himself. after a few hours of charging around the kitchen like the proverbial cranially-deficient fowl, he produced a wonderful meal.
deep-fried, crumber brei with black cherry jam for starters (a whole one each!), pork roast with apple sauce, roast potatoes, and veg as a main (very tasty, good crackling... moist... i give it 2 thumbs up), and the "coop da gracey" chocolate mousse with cream and a ferrera rocher for dessert. fantastic!
while all the cooking was going on nick (who was also there) and myself set up schpat's new dvd player with 5.1 surround (and the little stand things for the back speakers. those were the hardest thing to do out of the whole setup... damn infernal chinese gadgets). schpat seemed most pleased when we were done and a battle scene from star trek: nemesis showed off his surround sound.
meanwhile moonflake and elisabeth had gone to go get something from the shops and came back with dvds.
after supper we were so full and comfy that moonflake and schpat fell asleep while watching ladykillers. (well... they didn't sleep through all of it... just some bits.)
it was about 1 in the morning though and moonflake had been running around canal walk all day, and schpat had been equally busy.
back home for a nice sleep-in before waking up for sunday.
sunday normally means seeing moonflake's family, but since we had been housesitting the last few weeks we hadn't seen them in a while. we headed off to visit them, but made a stop at bayside center on the way just to have a look around. what a good thing to do that was :)
i managed to find myself "advance wars 2: black hole rising" for very little monies as cna is phasing out gba games (ie: sale... more than 50% off the last 2 gba games in stock) because the psp is coming. if that isn't a bad business choice i don't know what is.

*start side rant here*
no wonder cna is going down the tubes. i wonder if they realise that they can sell both nintendo and sony products from the same store? they don't even stock the nintendo ds... a cheaper option (compared to the psp) that has already been out for months and has more game support than the psp. i do not see the psp doing well in this country. as moonflake says: at that price "i'd rather buy a pda."
R2,600 for a psp from cna... lets not point out that most other places are R50 to R200 cheaper than cna, or that since there have been relatively few games made for the psp, most people with either go for a ds instead (as there are games a plenty coming out for it - see previous posts) or are rich enough to afford 2 handhelds and will probably get both the psp and the nintendo ds.
either way you should still stock the nintendo ds otherwise toy 'r us and reggies will just take all your customers away from your laughable computer section.
lets not mention the fact that gba games (not ds... gba!) are still in production and gbas (the actual handheld) are still being sold worldwide.
i can see it now: cna big nob: "team, we have a problem! the products in our store are actually in demand. how can we solve this maddening situation?"
some other cna dick: "sir, how about phasing out all the affordable goods that people want and replacing them with overpriced items with very little demand. people will soon realise that if we stock something, they can get it somewhere else cheaper."
big nob: "excellent thinking. have a biscuit." throws doggie treat. "initiate that idea. we'll call it 'plan stupid.' the cash will be rolling in. right! onto the second problem of the day: i feel there are too many pens and pencils in our stationary section. there's too much variety and choice for our customers and the quality is altogether too good..."
cna ass monkey 3: "but sir, the quality is so bad that just last week some kid lost his spleen by writing with one of our pencils."
big nob: "that's not bad... but we can do better!"
and thats the reason why cna is slowly banckrupting itself! but i got my game cheaply so i'm happy :) thanks cna.
*end side rant here*

so after cna we pop into a clothing store (edgars... i think) and 'lo and behold a sale :) moonflake spent the money that got refunded on her boots on clothing :)
so everyone was happy and we had macdonalds double cheeseburgers.
the visit with moonflake's folks was pleasant as always (barring minor drama over some drunken moron driving into moonflake's gran's car). since we hadn't been there in a while the 21 questions (trivia thing from one of the newspapers) that we usually do after supper had turned into 84 questions :)
back home to sleep.
and that brings us to today :)

8/26/2005

a quite yet busy day

well as usual my fridays are full of lectures and tuts, leaving little time to do real blog postings (but i try anyway).
amazingly enough someone has asked a question over at askzenstar which i will attempt to answer as soon as i finish this blog post.

not much in the news today (what little time i've had reading it) but i'm sure if i've missed anything good schpat or moonflake will post on it.

roleplaying last night was fun... much mecha-d&d action, plus we found schpat's character again (schpat had taken a short break due to work) and got tonnes of rewards for being so brilliant and stuff :) always good.
turns out synk will be joining our group soon... i think he should play an anti-paladin and discharge all over the enemy, but the rest of the party keeps whining about needing someone who can heal or something. *shrugs* whatever.

i did find a rather interesting site through blogexplosion today. dog eat doug. a cute site with a regular comic. find the link below.
its a really cute little comic about a baby and a puppy seen mostly from the puppy's perspective. they're generally short and easy to read plus the guy links to a whole bunch of related stuff.

blogexplosion seems to be working decently for me. i got a whole load (about 13) more hits than usual the other day. i'm unsure if they all came through because of blog explosion or if anyone actually stayed to read or click on things... but my counter is happily climbing so i'm content.

that's basically all for today... an amazingly short post.
live long and prosper.

8/25/2005

scalpels, worms, and zombies

visited my parents last night (both are back from ther respective trips now) and my mom had gotten me a copy of the latest nag magazine.
thanks mom :)
in it i see the release date for "trauma center: under the knife" is set for december... yet another game i need to get my mitts on.
now that is a cool concept for a game.
you're a junior surgeon and you preform operations on people using your stylus as a scalpel. i just read an interview at nintendo.com and here's a little snippet from that:
"But through Nintendo Japan, they met with a doctor supervisor from a university, who supervised the development of the game. He actually played it to make sure things were accurate. It's a game, it's not super-realistic, but there are concessions to reality."
its gonna be cool... they're already planning a sequel.

other gaming news: worms is coming to the ds :)
yep... those lovable, cartoon, bazooka-carrying maniacs will be blasting onto our (small yet touch sensitive) screens in the near future.
see some pics here.

even more gaming news:
the original biohazard game is being mad for the ds. name not familiar? that's because it was known as resident evil in the west.
looks like it's going to be real funky. using the touch-screen to wield your knife, wipe blood off the screen and solve puzzles. cannot wait :)
go find some pics here.
they've worked ds into the title by calling it "biohazard: deadly silence."
note that all the backgrounds are true 3d and not pre-rendered like the original.

in non-gaming news:
i have been added to blogexplosion now :)
maybe this'll up my traffic... i guess we'll see.
also: ork-khrist has succumb to the blogging madness.
now we need to get holey crusader to move his blog over (and update the damn thing) and synk to abandon the wiki (and also update...).

been looking through the net for rules on playing texas hold 'em poker since seeing celebrity poker on the e! channel and seeing a poker tournament on espn the other week. looks like a fun way to play.
schpat... when is the next poker game (and can you convince vultar to join?)
rules (all text good explanation)
rules (a little difficult to read around the ads)
rules (nice layout with pictures)

in the news news:
funny thing... was talking with moonflake yesterday about the concord... now japan is about to test a new supersonic airliner that'll approach mach 2 using a solid fuel booster.
turns out the japanese and french have been developing this jointly since the concord crashed, killing 113 people, and was decommisioned because it was too costly to maintain, too short ranged, and ,oh yeah, crashed killing 113 people.
read more here...

slashdot reports that the us pentagon is designing a laser cannon small enough to paste onto a fighter jet yet powerfull enough to knock missiles out of the sky. unfortunately they're calling it: The High Energy Laser Area Defense System or hellads. (don't ask me why there are 2 l's... typo?)
i think they should call it: Generally Overpowering New Area Defence System.
hung under the fighter jet...

final news bite aol has been fined $1.25 million because they're difficult. basically people have been complaining that its just too damn difficult to unsubscribe from aol and that their requests are often ignored or made unduly difficult by the customer service representatives.
all this stems from the fact that aol had a bonus scheme set up that meant that a certain quota of customer retention was required to receive said bonus. so the customer service representatives were making it as difficult as they could to unsubscribe in order that they get their bonuses.
moral of the story: aol is sucky.
they have promised to go through customer service reforms.

well that's about it for the day. since no-one asked any questions for askzenstar today, i guess i won't answer any (especially since i still need to think up a backup question to ask myself... maybe i'll harvest my rpg group tonight... heh heh heh)
ooh... roleplaying today... it's been a while (what with the housesitting and whatnot) and i've kinda missed it... can't wait.
(maybe some pre-game jenga too).
ciao.

8/24/2005

wow... that dog is a shocker

let me open up today's post with a link to the world's ugliest dog (in the world *snigger @ moonflake*)...
it really is a scary sight.
what's even more scary is that you can buy t-shirts and fridge magnets of the thing... that's one way to keep on diet: every time you go near the fridge you feel sick. stop you from eating.
oh well... every animal needs a loving home, and sam's owners obviously are proud of him.
*shudder*

look at this picture of some penguins to calm yourself:
phew! now that that's past lets get on to some minor news...
we were meant to roleplay last night (my kult game) but food was taking a while to cook and since 50% of the group (including me) were waiting for the food because we hadn't eaten yet, and because schpat brought jenga, we ended up playing games instead.
we had a jenga tower that had no possible moves left (unless you do that magician thing where you whip the tablecloth off leaving the table set... only with a wooden block, leaving the tower standing)
followed by a few rounds of lunch money... (schpat: click the link... downloadable rules stuff there... make a reference chart).
a fun night was had by all (especially with all the grabbing going on *honk honk*: lunch money funny).
and a question was raised about touch attacks and stuff in dungeons and dragons (3rd ed or 3.5) which i will answer later today on ask zenstar.

america got advance wars: dual strike for the nintendo ds. yep... that and nintendogs were released yesterday (or today... or something).
lucky lucky basts!
sounds like the game is rocking. i seriously need to get my hands on advance wars 2: black hole rising for the gba.
i've only ever played the original advance wars and would really like to get my mitts on a copy of aw2. if anyone spots it out there let me know.
(if anyone is willing to sell me their copy let me know and we can negotiate price.... even better: if anyone out there loves this blog so much that they need to send me a gift, let me know *cheesy grin*).
i neeeeed the games.
how am i meant to procrastinate without them?

i caved in to peer pressure today and joined blog explosion today... wonder if i'll get accepted?
i may be bounced but i think i'll just be tagged "profane" and get added.

got some varsity holidays coming up. end of term on friday, one week off.
i'll probably be coming up to varsity to work on my comsci project in peace (and to blog of course).

8/23/2005

fight!

so we have a new lecturer for architecture in comsci.
turns out he's another irish guy.
he's pretty damn funny and his lectures are informative and interesting.
this makes a change from the other irish guy (software engineering) who was crapper than a crapload of crap!
humourous thing is this:
this guy loves code and tells us he thinks software engineering is a load of crap and he thinks he failled the section when he did it.
the other guy tells us how software engineering is the best thing since sliced bread and how coders equate to janitorial staff in his eyes (basically).
i'm expecting a bomb-blast to rock the comsci building any day now.
i wonder if one of them is protestant and the other catholic?
heh...
seriously though... what are the religious viewpoints on code vs software engineering?
religion might be more interesting if they started making statements about this sort of thing...
"here at the vatican we believe in windows as we can understand microsoft's marketing strategies and they comfort us."
"here at the 7 day adventists we believe in command line based linux becuase we're just as difficult to understand and no-one really cares."
etc...

in other news:
square-enix, the company that is responsible for many great rpgs for a variety of consoles/ platforms, is set to buy out taito, the guys who gave us bubble bobble and a whole host of good games, both arcade and home based.
turns out taito is in a bit of a slump while square-enix is on the rise, so both companies have agreed that a buyout would be the best way forward.
read the article here.
this can only mean good games a plenty :)
i loved square. i love square-enix. i'm sure i'll love whatever they call it next... square-enix-taito ?
someone tell waynne to check out this blog and to follow the link.
(moonflake... i'm looking at you here ;)

not much else to report today...
remember all my players: kult game is back on today.
after a long hard trek through abandoned alternate-city blocks, meetings with strange denziens, a short-lived shopping spree at a 1980's miami 7-eleven, and a night spent in an old cyberchurch... you have finally made it into a giant machine and are ready to continue your journey.
schpat: you are not allowed to play a wino!

also: i'll be updating askzenstar again later today, answering vito's question.
also also: i'm over the $5 mark with google :) keep on clicking my beauties...
*rubs hands together*
yes... yessss... ssoon... soon...
*evil laughter*

8/22/2005

back home

wootle.
just got my comsci test back and i got 80%.
that's pretty damn good concidering a glanced at the software engineering section and didn't even look at the hci section before the test.
luckily, all the stuff i looked at was asked and the rest of it i remembered from lectures.

my mom got back from zimbabwe last night so moonflake and i are back home (no more housesitting).
this means no more dstv :(
but its still good to be home.
i spent most of yesterday replaying another code: 2 memories, trying to find the bits i missed the first time round (and because there are some minor changes that get made when you play a second time).
after finishing it a second time i still didn't have everything so i did it all again.
the second time round i discovered i wasn't doing something, but by the time i figured it out i had already passed that section, so on the third go i made sure i did that bit (it was a silly little thing that i really should have done first time).
upon finishing the third time i managed to get everything and get the entire story out :)
in total i got 14 solid hours of gameplay out of the game. the first run took about 6 hours, the second about 5, and the last about 3.
of course i remembered the puzzles and whatnot and by the third time didn't need to read any dialogue as i had read it twice before.
it was fun while it lasted but i probably won't play it again for a loooooong time (as is always the problem with adventure/ quest things) but i will get the sequel if they ever get round to doing one (which will hopefully be a little longer).

the problem i now have is what game do i get next?
i was planning on star wars (which is out now) but i looked at the line up of games coming out for the nintendo ds over the next few months:
september:
nintendogs
(the puppy simulator. good reviews but is it worth getting over all the other games?)
castlevania ds (the next in the castlevania series. i love castlevania and got loads and loads of gameplay out of castlevania: circle of the moon for gba. 50+ hours and still playing)
october:
metroid prime: hunters (a fps. i got the demo with my ds and was surprised at how playable and fun a fps can be on the ds. a definite must... sometime)
advance wars: dual strike (advance wars!!! i love this series too. although i never got aw 2, i really really want this. advance wars was my first gba game and i racked up hours and hours and hours of gameplay on it... eventually unlocking everything and winning every map available. and i'd still be playing it if synk wasn't borrowing it :)
bubble bobble revolution (bubble bobble. need i say more?)
november:
kirby: power paintbrush (good reviews and you get a pink stylus with it apparently... a fun little title to while away the hours)
prince of persia: warrior within (a card based, strategy/ battle thing... looks interesting but i need to find out more details)

now i have enough cash for one game. which one do i choose? do i get starwars (which i'd like and got good reviews) or do i wait a few weeks until castlevania is released, or wait until advanced wars ds? or do i get one of the sundry games already out ('cos i know the stuff will end up on a backlog that i'll never really get round to clearing up) or should i try one of the other games on the list above?
basically i want them all... but can only afford to get 1 now before i need to start putting cash aside for christmass. of course i can probably get another game for christmass but that still leaves 8+ games out there that i neeeeeeed...
this is why people should click my google ads :) the sooned i hit $50 the sooner i get a gaming fix. i'm on $3 already.
i think i'm probably going to get castlevania with my cash and see if i can sort something out to get advance wars when it comes out. then i'll grab star wars and the rest in whatever order they come to me.
none of this takes into account that there are even more games coming out, but if i start thinking about that my mind explodes and my wallet cries.
i mean who wouldn't want to buy the surgery game when it's released? or what about phil wright, ace attorney... you get to conduct investigations and create cases which you argue in court... cool!
*sigh* i love my nintendo ds.

since i'm back home now, the usual timetable comes back into view. no more superearly mornings. i can wake up at 8 again and still get in to varsity. and my game is back on on tuesdays (all players take note please) and i guess al's game on thursdays is back on too.
it'll be good to get back into the games... it seems like a real long time since i played them.
btw: new blog is up: archangel has succumb. go to originalarchangel.blogspot.com to read.

nothing else to report really so i'll finish with a short story i read on the nintendo ds forums:
some guy went to his buddy's house with his ds. they went to go get some lunch or something and when they got back the dog had pee'ed all over the friend's bed, and the ds... to cut a long story short it still works but now smells of dogpee.. *snigger* i found it humourous.

8/19/2005

someone shoot that alarm!

for some goddamn reason the comsci department has decided to shorten the duration of time between the doors in or out being opened and the alarm going off. (you need to swipe your student card to gain access or leave (?) the labs)
i have no fucking idea why there is an alarm for when the door is left open too long but since they shortened the duration and since some cards don't seem to be registering / don't swipe as well as other, the fsking alarm has been going off every fsking 15 seconds.
there's always someone going in or out, and when a door is opened someone else is always wanting to pass through at the same time, so the door is kept open too long and bam! alarm.
people have started to enter/leave commando style.
*group gathers near door*
*sarge pulls out card with one hand while holding up fist with other, signaling the squad*
*squad tense their muscles ready to spring into action*
*sarge swipes card and shouts "GO! GO! GO!"*
*mad sudden rush out of the room*
*alarm goes off and the gooks get pvt henry*
*someone shouts "close the fucking door!"*

well i didn't post yesterday because i took the day off varsity.
after all the tests and things i woke up early, fed the dog and thought: "face an hour of traffic all for one lousy lecture??? nah..."
and promptly went back to bed.
after all i did get completely soaked walking down from varsity on wednesday afternoon.
i had a rainjacket thing with hood so i was completely dry down to my waist. but my jeans were completely wet.
by the time i got to the car and out of the rain it was so cold that my legs began to steam. that and it felt like someone was wiping my ass with wetwipes everytime i took a step.
it took an hour of tumbledrying to dry the jeans out when i got home.
on the plus side my ass never felt so clean. 30 minutes of walking in jeans that are 90% water will do that to you i suppose.

saw schpat and synk last night.
much discussion was had about the male clitoris and which part was the front/ the top of the penis, all over pizza and abduction.
(the discussion was had over pizza and abduction, not the penis over... abduction the card game, not an actual... oh never mind!)

onto something new:
i have created an agony uncle style blog for people to ask for advice about wargaming and roleplaying.
go find it at askzenstar.blogspot.com
send questions to: askzenstar@gmail.com
why not check it out.

finally the weekend is almost upon us.
after a fun filled week of tests and stuff i wouldn't mind sleeping in a little late (again.)
spend some time watching the invader zims i taped, or maybe hi hi puffy ami yumi. ah, the joys of cartoon network :)
anyway, hope your weekend is pleasant.
don't forget to ask zenstar your roleplaying questions.
(i'm almost up to $3. google ads rock)
zenstar out

8/17/2005

2 down and 1 to go

well last night was a complete ball-ache!
i arrive at varsity and park down in sports center parking. this was followed by a brisk (+/- 10 minute) trek across varsity to the menzies building where the test is being held for people with the surnames starting a-m.
upon arrival i join a group of 20 or so people who are standing around being told that there's no space here, in spite of the 3 or 4 completely student free rows of seats. obviously they had fucked up the numbers and hadn't sent enough papers to this venue so, instead of sending one of the tutors to go get us some papers, we get sent to the zoology building where the other half (n-z) are writing. this entails crossing back across varsity to arrive at the venue after everyone else has started writing.
by this time i've completely lost my "writing test" frame of mind and proceeded to do the first question twice. after a few minutes i've calmed down and gotten my breath back and begin writing properly, only to discover some nasty facts.
1: the stuff i learned (start at point a and derive b to get to c) from the previous 2 tests has been altered (start at point c and derive a to get v) and is unfathomable to me in my current state of mind.
2: when our lecturer told us the test was an extension of our notes he lied. he should have said "i want sex with all of you at the same time so i'm going to fuck you in the ass with the test."
3: the fucker next to me had a cough, and he coughed throughout the test with varying intervals from 5 - 25 seconds between coughs.
then we get told that for the people arriving late they'd give us 5 extra minutes... which they gave everyone! so much for fair testing. next time why not just poke me in the eye with a sharp pencil when i arrive, sit me on a chair that's missing a leg, and give me a quill and pot of ink to write with. oh, and why not switch the test for some quantum mechanics and tell me i have to answer it all on half an a4 page too. i'd probably be in a better frame of mind then.

this morning i left early to get to my comsci test (write at 9 in the fsking morning... bastards) and managed to breeze through traffic to get to the jammie shuttle mega-hyper-early (tm).
while sitting on the shuttle waiting for it to fill a song came wafting over the radio... familiar yet not...
it was a lounge act of wonderwall (originally oasis... if you remember shately singing it you are old. strange thing is a saw shately on the way to my test last night...)
the song was odd. you imagine a guy in a baby-blue suit with a pink (sorry: salmon) shirt not buttoned all the way up to display gold chains and chest hair crooning along vaguely to the lyrics while leaning over someone at their table. i was waiting for a break in the lyrics where i was sure he'd ask: "hey, how's your steak?" *does the finger-gun thing and wink at the audience while showing off his white caps in a dazzling smile meant for the ladies*
"...nobody feels the way i do about you now... hey, i hear the lobster's great. and after all, you're my wonderwaaaaaall... enjoying yourself tonight darlin'?"

after that fun-fueled trip i got in to varsity with plenty of time to waste while waiting for the comsci test to start. a bit of browsing through the net in the comsci labs and then off to write.
i stepped up to the building with apprehension, smoking furiously. after last night i wasn't going to trust a simple class test again... my ass still hurt from question 4.
the doors opened, people began filing in...
i found a cold uncomfortable seat (the best in the hall) and filled in all relevent attendance slips...
the time came: "turn over your papers and begin!"
30 minutes later i walked out laughing.
first half of the test: write a lot about common sense (human computer interation... great)
second half: write the stuff you spot learnt last night... you remember those 2 pages you read right? (software engineering... short 'n sweet for once)
fantastic.
now if tonight's test (more maths) is like this morning's i'll be happy.

spent some time last night putting together an ork army list for james. turns out the previous list was about 600 points too high (2100 instead of 1500).
i came up with something i think would work and a couple of alternates.
when i get a chance i think i may do some conversions to be added to jame's army. he did drop off a big box of orks and bits on the weekend for a reason.

hopefully it'll stop raining soon as i have to go off to maths (fourier methods followed by introductory algebra... not as easy as it sounds. introductory is misleading. kinda like "likes kids" is misleading until you find out that it refers to a kiddie fiddler.)
oh well.
i'm sure there was something else humourous i was going to mention... but i can't remember...
you get off light today then.

8/16/2005

test day *blegh*

test madness begins today.
in case i haven't complained to you yet (or you missed previous complaints):
i have a maths test tonight, a comsci test tomorrow morning, and another maths test tomorrow night.
now i can understand maths tests neing close together as they are 2 modules of the same course (mam200w), but do they have to be on consecutive days? give us a day or two to catch our breath please.
and, of course, comsci has to throw it's spanner into the works too. its not like maths and comsci are subjects that shouldn't mix. you need to do some sort of maths to do comsci. mam200w or the half version is required to get the degree.
but every time maths has it's little double test things comsci manages to get their test schedule on the same day or within a couple of days of the maths tests.
you think they'd organise a little better concidering almost every student doing comsci is going to get fucked by this in some way or another.
*sigh*
at least tonight's test is only 45 minutes long, which means either supa-easy (like seapoint hookers) or ultra-hard but over quickly (like a 14 year-old watching a porno).

i was humoured to see that google has tailored its ads for my page with, when i last checked, "grand theft auto charges: get the info you need about criminal defence attorneys." and "give theft the boot: protect your vehicle..."
seems my adventures to hidden ganglands and my ranting about gta has had an effect. maybe they'll start advertising nescafe or some other coffee next (preferably if its hot).

and now todays scientific updates:
how would you like to run your cellphone on vodka?
ok... this news is a little old but stick with it and you'll see why i reference it.
so scientists have managed to produce a battery that creates current from vodka. basically you'll be down the pub (as the brits say) needing to phone your bird to tell her you're working late and not to stay up, or needing to phone your mate to brag about some slapper you picked up, when suddenly (dun dun daaaah) you notice your phone battery is almost dead.
no problem. simply give the barman a wave and get a couple of vodkas. one for you and one for your phone and bam! you have a buzz and a charge.
well... the technology isn't quite that far developed yet but something new has come about as can be read in this article here (which is far more recent).
a pee powered battery. that's right, urine to battery charge.
the scientist making is trying to integrate it into some sort of medical testing thingie, but whatever. the real use is obvious!
take the previous night at the pub example: you need to make a call but the battery is dead. simply wave down the barman, order two pints. drink both and head to the back of the pub into the bathrooms. pee on your phone and bam! you have double the buzz and a charge.
the only downsides are:
accidently peeing on your sleeve.
smelling of pee because you regularly pee on your phone (and miss because you're drunk).
getting thrown out of the pub by a bouncer 'cos you're obviously way to drunk or a complete loon (he saw you peeing on your phone).

anyway.
that's all for today.

8/15/2005

two dollar girlies

woo...
i broke the 2 dollar mark with google. in only 10 days :)
keep supporting the sponsors (and, indirectly, me) heh.

today's traffic update:
traffic-lite. now with less vehicles.
in spite of leaving 10 mins later than i should have, i managed to get to varsity 10 minutes earlier.
(traffic dm: *sounds of giant dice rolling* "hmmm... a 12. light traffic on the hill on the m3."
*sound of a d1,000,000 rolling* "times 1.5 for leaving late and still only a few hundred??? its your lucky traffic day today. but the lady in front of you will still drive like an arse all the way into claremont... i gotta get my kicks somehow")

so i'm standing in line at the jammie shuttle and there's this person in front of me. they were either a very girly man or a girl trying to be manly.
(on a scale of 1 to 100 with 1 being harcore hof manly and 100 being more girly than a big girl's blouse, this person scored around a 65... girly, but not entirely unmanly.)
its a bit of a pity 'cos he/she could have been quite pretty if they grew their hair long (rather than keeping the pudding bowl cut), wore a less padded, less butch jacket, and tucked it back between their legs. (maybe used a little duct tape there).
but hey... its a free world for men, women, and menwomen.

talking about women, some guy brought a pair of italian exchange students (girls) with them to comsci (presumably trying to bore them into bed?).
being exchange students in a new environment they of course wanted their pictures taken and so our intrepid hero takes their camera and moves back a good few step to snap a shot.
he lines it up, they smile, he pushes the button... and gets flashed in the face.
i guess that's what he gets for holding the camera facing the wrong way :)

post lecture i wander down to the open source labs and log into a machine when the tutor assigned to my project comes up to me (he was seated a few seats down) and asks me if we submitted everything in our last handin (which we did electronically) as all he can get is the object interaction diagram out of the uml documentation.
now we didn't do everything for the handin as we were a little pressed for time to complete the demo (well... my partner was... my section was up and running with breathing space to spare. we got 4 out of 5 for the demo btw) but i know we handed in more than just that diagram so i wander over...
now i'm thinking there's some fault with the submition system, or the zip file is corrupt or he's looking for that 1 of the diagrams that we didn't (mainly because the shitty software they provided won't allow us to do sequence diagrams as the option is permanently greyed out).
so i get to his machine and he has a little trouble finding our folder (rather he has a little trouble navigating to our folder... which is on his desktop... and is clearly labled. i started to get an inkling of what the problem was...) but eventually opens up our handin in argouml (curse you, you shitty software package... of shit!).
sitting there is a sidebar of the project (you know: where it keeps all the things we've used and done all nicely filed in collapsible folders) and the main frame with our object interaction diagram.
"i can't find anything other than this." he informs me.
so i spend a minute or 2 teaching him basics of navigation for any gui based computer program.
open the project folder... a whole list of diagrams and objects drop down the list... select a usecase diagram ("oh." he exclaims) see all our usecases??? open the usecase... a whole list of subcases drops down with associated objects ("ah." he breathes in amazement)... resist urge to beat tutor over the head with his own keyboard.
and this is meant to be a 3rd year computer science student...
i do not have high hopes for marks in this section :/
i just hope he either finds everything and marks appropriately or (the better option) can't find something, feels too stupid to ask me where it is again, and just gives us some good marks for the stuff he can't find.
of course all the documentation is going to need updating and transfering over into a better uml package (that actually lets us do the diagrams we're required to do).
of course the better software was only installed after we had started all the uml documentation (and we were told to use argouml but the shitty lecturer we had for software engineering) so we couldn't switch software and still make the handin by the time we discovered the problems.
once again proving that waiting 'till the last minute to do anything is better than trying to do a decent job.

for all the stylish geeks out there: for only $14.99 (probably need to pay p+p too) you too can have the stylish and cool duct tape wallet.
what next?
how about an albert einstein action figure?
or maybe a marshmellow gun?
or even a ninja launching gun?
yeah... i think some people hav a little too much time on their hands.

well i have to go off and download maths notes and study for my maths test tomorrow evening, and the comsci test on wednesday morning, and the other maths test on wednesday evening. *blegh*

8/12/2005

demon-stration day

wierd thing i noticed about trafffic today...
ok i understand that by leaving 15 minutes earlier than usual traffic is going to be different. you know, less traffic here and there and generally quicker travel through to where i want to be (or need to be). normally i hit traffic on the hill on the m3. this morning it only started after the hill, on the descent into cleremont.
the wierd thing though is this:
normally the traffic is sucky until you turn off the m3 and head towards the circle. from there there's still a little traffic but it's light (until you hit main road).
but today (getting there earlier) the traffic was hardcore around the circle (with ass monkeys jumping the yield and almost getting wiped out) and then cleared up a little afterwards.
it's like there's some giant traffic dm who rolls dice (really big dice).
"hmmm... a 36. your random encounter today will be at the traffic circle..."
*rolls a d1,000,000*
"oooh... lots of cars this morning... times 0.75 for leaving early... not enough to add an accident scene up ahead though..."

anyway...
had to demonstrate a prototype for my comsci project this morning.
funny thing is that while waiting for my supervisor to arrive and see what we'd (my project partner and i) cobbled together, i was screwing around with the gui designer and came up with a very simple gui... 3 buttons, with pictures on them, that when clicked make 1 of 3 small pictures dissapear. i was just screwing around wondering if i'll even bother adding a gui to the final product...
so she comes in finally and looks at what we have (a text based little cardgame that is only really core functionality and not much else) and asks a bunch of questions to check that we don't need help and are on the right track... so i open up the gui and say: "oh, and we have this test gui to check the feasibility of adding a gui to the end product."
(look who's been learning to talk project managment from moonflake ;)
she looks at the gui and is all impressed about it. in fact she seemed the most impressed about a 5 minute hash-job that isn't even integrated into the demo.
*pats self on back*
excellent.

well thankfully it's the weekend (after my damn maths tuts. *blegh*).
i really could do with a late morning in. getting up early is begining to fray my nerves now. it was so cold as i was driving this morning that my fingers had that "coldfire" pain in them. like being burned to the bone with cold. i'm sure its 'cos the tips are freezing solid and the jagged ice molecules are shredding the cells. (that's why they can't currently cryofreeze people and bring them back yet... except for some frog or something that somehow uses glucose to round the edges of the ice crystals so that it doesn't get all it's cells popped, which must be unpleasent when you think about it. this frog lives somewhere pretty cold and freezes over every now and then... like hibernation).
i wonder what i'm up to tonight...
i wonder what's on tv tonight...
i wonder what i'm having for supper tonight...
i wonder if i have enough time to get chinese before my maths tuts start...
(probably not... but i'm going to try anyway. if i'm late: screw 'em).

my cries of "click the ads" must be working as i'm slowly creeping up on the $2 mark... averaging 0.20c (american) a day at the moment. this doesn't mean you're allowed to stop clicking. keep up the good work and be satisfied in the knowledge that you are helping another while possibly finding some interesting sites and things. (the fact that you're helping another feed his gaming addiction shouldn't make a difference to you... you're all kind and shit right... right?).
and if you'd like to search for something interesting like maybe the "hot coffee" patch for gta, or for more information about the games i mention, or even for a way to track me down and beat me for having such a lame blog, then you can use the handy search bar located on the right (in the links section). in fact why not make this page your homepage and do all your searching with that bar? it'll be good for you ;)

8/11/2005

flexing the traffic muscles

wow traffic sucks!
getting up (far too) early to get in to varsity on time means i hit major traffic.
and if there's a light drizzle *bam* morons everywhere... worse than usual.
(as moonflake always says: instant bad drivers, just add water)
and i discovered that there are muscles in the human body that are only ever used while driving in traffic, like the muscle that runs up the side of your shin on your left leg... i shall call it the clutch muscle.
this muscle is soley responsible for holding in the clutch while you sit there waiting for the car in front to move, and for letting the clutch just that little bit out, but not too far out and holding it there.
if you haven't driven in major, slow-moving, 1m a minute traffic for a while you discover that your traffic muscles have attrified.
the odd thing is you can't exercise the muscles by driving around a lot. they only seem to kick in while you sit in traffic.

so i manage to get through to cleremont and drop the dog off (eventually), get out of cleremont and park the car (eventually), walk up to the jammie shuttle and get in line.
now the shuttle has this really bad habit... in stead of having shuttles moving past constantly, shuttling people up to campus in a smooth, continuous action, they prefer to arrive 2 or 3 at a time, take a load of people, then not come back for several days (well... exageration maybe... maybe). so i arrive there and the line is so long that if people queued towards varsity the end of the line would already be on campus. we wait and wait and wait, suddenly 3 buses arrive together and the line begins to slowly trudge forward. of course everyone waiting manages to get on (well... most people... well i got on at least) but because the line is so long (and the organisation is so crap) they keep sending people to that bus, then this bus, then back to the first, then this again, and it takes forever just to get on (good luck finding a seat).
at least they are just overloading the buses nowdays and not hyper-overloading like before.

well... i managed to finish off the classes that were my responsibility to code last night / yesterday, and my partner is just compiling and testing his section as i type, so it looks like we'll be able to stick things together in time for the demo tomorrow :)
we still got documentation to do though :(
hopefully it'll all be ready.

now i wonder how schpat manages to get all those hits on his page? i mean he's a likeable guy and all, and is very interesting and funny, but damn! that shit is whacked. his counter is staying on his page using centrefugal forces. if people stop visiting it'll simply fall off.
maybe it's because he mentions star trek, kenyans, and teen sex?
(notice how i subtly work these topics into my page hoping people will search for them and come here... heh heh heh).
i sometimes thing i should promote this blog more...
well.. 50+ people for like a week of blogging isn't too bad i suppose.

today's homework for you: get a friend interested in reading my blog

erm... yeah...
so i managed to get to the end of another code yesterday (six and a half hours of gameplay, excluding the times i looked around and then turned off without saving.) but i didn't manage to complete everything... and apparently there are a few small changes second time around, so i'm going to play it again and take things slower, looking for all the clues and things.
damn it was fun :)

on the star wars front though:
i originally ordered "star wars ep III: revenge of the sith" for my nintendo ds but take2.co.za ran out of stock before completing my order, so i got another code instead (it was a toss-up as to which to get in the first place anyway).
i waited patiently for them to get more stock and finally they have... from another supplier who is charging R80 more than the old supplier who ain't supplying no more :(
pants! pantspantspantspants!
but i want it *tantrum*
and since i haven't seen it in stores i guess i'll just be shelling out the clams.
oh well...
maybe if you all click on my google ads you could support my gaming habit *nudge nudge* *wink wink* :)

well that's me signing off.

8/10/2005

zenstar vs rockstar, or gta and back again (really fast)

firstly, go read this penny-arcade... its funny :)
secondly, go read this vgcats... its also funny :)

ok... so monday afternoon i leave uct and wander off down to my car thinking i'd go off to pick up my game from www.take2.co.za
as i arrive at my car it began to rain (it was clear when i left varsity) but not taking the hint i decided to continue anyway, so i hop in the car and head on out.
of course, because it's raining people are driving like complete ass-bandits and it takes me a loooong while to get to koeberg road (where i need to be). while slowly dragging down keoberg road i see some dude on a bmx that's way too small for him slowly trawling along, jus' chillin'...
"looks kinda like a scene from gta:san andreas" i think to myself.
still not taking the hint (at least it'd kind stop raining now.. just drizzling) i continued on...
now, to get to the business park where take2 is situated i needed to be going the other way down koeberg road as you can't cross the island to get to the entrance of the business park from the side i was on (you can for the park before and after, just not the one i needed)...
this leaves 2 options. take the turning before take2 (at the formula1) and go around the block, or take the turning after (at trade center) and turn around there and come back.
i opt for option 1 and turn right after the formula1 hotel. driving down a little i see a road to the left and think "hmmm... that road looks very skinny... probably a back entrance to an industrial park or something... i'll take the next left." and continue on to the next road which looked appropriate.
i turned left and 50 meters down that road i discover i'm not in cape town anymore (toto).
suddenly i'm cruising down the back roads of the slum areas in grand theft auto: san andreas. the roads are too thin for more than one car to fit down, they wind around with no apparent reasoning behind their layout, the houses beside the road are all tiny and blockish and cracking, and badly painted, and general signs of slum abound. somehow there was less daylight in this place, as if the day night cycle goes: nighttime, morning, dusk, nighttime.
my brain finally kicked into gear as i passed an abandoned looking dog sitting on the side of the road and i began to look for an escape route. i passed two dogy looking dudes standing on a corner who broke their conversation long enough to menicingly watch me pass. then i round a corner (thinking that it's heading towards a way out) and discover a dead end. quickly spying out a spot to turn around i approached what could be called a garden (actually it was more like a low, wide, untarred pavement that had some grass trying to survive around a sad looking tree). there was a dirt driveway (well... the grass didn't grow on a section of "garden") which i pulled into and as i slipped the car into reverse i'm waiting for some big, black dude with a white string vest on and a purple bandana on his head to come running out of the front door brandishing a 9mm. i've played gta. i know what happens in places like this.
dude'll come rushing out, drag me out the car, beat the hell out of me and steal my money. then i get to lie there waiting for an ambulance to come while hoping the dude doesn't hang around and kill the medics because he wants the ambulance to do ambulance missions in it. and if i end up waiting too long i'll dissolve into a chalk outline.
luckily there was no dude and i managed to backtrack out of there using important landmarks such as: two dudes menacingly watching me pass them (check), abandoned looking dog (check), empty playground full of trash (check), and a house that looks more like a temporary outhouse than a building (check).
i drive outta there and back onto koeberg, deciding that maybe it'll be better to turn at trade center and find somewhere to turn around there.
eventually i got the game and got home.

tuesday was spent (mostly) playing the game.
another code : two memories
wow... this game is cool :)
you play ashley, a girl who's been brought up by her aunt since she was 3 believing her parents to be dead. but on the day before her 13th birthday she gets a package and a note. the package is a DAS (looks like a nintendo ds :) and the note is from her dad saying he really wants to meet her and spend her 14th birthday with her. you go off to meet him on blood edward island (as the locals call it).
it's basically a point and click (well... point and tap) adventure. all controls and puzzles are done through the touch-screen (you can use the buttons if you want... but why you'd want to when you can just tap the screen...) and the story is quite engaging. the characters are nicely represented and animated, and the game has that "can't put down" factor.
my only fear is that i may be close to finishing it already (i hope not) but as i've already put 6+ hours of play into it i suppose that's not too bad.
the puzzles are ingenious and the ds is put through some interesting uses to solve some of them (i can't say what as it'd give some of the puzzles away).
another thing i like is that your character doesn't do the usual "pick up everything and try the entire inventory on a problem."
in fact quite often you only pick up stuff if you have a use for it, and ever now and then you need to got back and fetch an item that you've found a use for. luckily the level designs are nicely laid out and you don't spend hours wasting time walking from point a to point b and back.
i really want to get back to playing it and i hope that they do a sequel or another similar style adventure.

that was pretty much my public holiday (poor moonflake had to work).
i saw james on monday night and we watched some aussie film called garage days. what a weird film... it was pretty good though.
after the film we stayed up well into the early hours talking warhammer 40k tactics and army design and by the end of it we'd hashed up what i believe to be a pretty good ork army and the tactics it'd use for dealing with most opponents. james needs to go check on the points and set out exact numbers, but it looked about right.

anyway, need to be doing a little varsity stuff now so i'll sign off...
hopefully schpat is feeling more solid today... it was the campai i tell you!

8/08/2005

post dragonfire unwind

well dragonfire is over.
it was a fun weekend in all.
(a little busy what with having to deal with dogsitting and what-not)
now i'm quite tired.
was up super-early (for me at least) to drop the dog off at the gunshop and then hop over to varsity (find parking, walk up).
fortunately everyone seems to have taken monday off work so there was no traffic. i got to varsity with loads of time to spare.
got to start prototyping my projects today (need to demo the proto on friday).
as for the modules at dragonfire:
module 1: poor schpat. he got to play the dad while 4 other members of thurteem got to play little kids (ages 9 - 10). a decent module, lacking a little in direction, and i get a little annoyed with "all kid" modules. i identify better with characters that have the ability to do the things i'd like to do / think would be cool in a comic or movie, but the problem with playing a kid is that you just wouldn't do certain things / can't do certain things / have to ignore things that you can see but a kid wouldn't connect.
example: we got into a fight on a rollercoaster with some twisted clown-things. schpat had to do all the fighting himself because kids would (and we did) start crying and whining and being useless in such a situation. i had my character disengage the safety rail to loosen the clown-things (after yelling appropriate warnings) to help schpat out as he was slowly getting slaughtered. but that was so completely out of character! i hate when you have to do stuff like that.
module 2: some more carnival craziness. pretty good module this one. i was a little bored when we ended up wandering around the carnival (splitting the party like crazy. good thing it wasn't cthuhlu) and my character was like: hmm... nothing seems out of the ordinary, no-one is spilling any beans when i talk to them, i'm not particularly interested in playing any carnie games. what seemed like a long while (maybe 1/2 an hour) later, we left the carnival and things started rolling. i think we had a decent ending. we didn't really uncover the plot completely, but we connected the main points and got away safely (after running down many, many, many things with an suv). highlight of the closing scenes for my character: making an awsome, precision shot from the passenger side of an suv which was reversing away from a marching army of mecha-clowns. (+10 for aiming = skill of 50. precision shot = roll over 30. net result = roll d100 and get between 30 & 50. a 39 did just fine).
module 3: (day 2 now) this was the module i most enjoyed. set in sin city, i got to play a playboy gangster with ambitions above his station (jacob). impulsive and reckless (and a little too happy with fish-hook abuse) i had fun fleshing out the character a little (with fish-hooks that he used to de-flesh the npcs). an interesting opening sequence, an intruiging plot of revenge, and a well laid out plan coming together in true a-team style (except for the being nice, and our van was white with a catering logo on the side) led to what i thought was the highlight of the weekend. as usual with thurteem many jokes were bandied about (meaning cardboard box to hide in: "you need a big box to fit him in" *points at 6'2" black gangster boyfriend*.... riotous laughter ensues).
module 4: i didn't play in this one since i was testplay dm, but everyone who played in it seemed to enjoy themselves and there were many compliments handed to moonflake (who wrote it with al). well what's not to enjoy? nazi zombies and scottich hijinx abound!

thurteem managed to win a grand total of nothing this year (i was sure we had the sin city one in the bag) but we all had fun and will be come back as the underdog next year. some blame the lack of a certain member of thurteem as a moral impact resulting in less that gold performance.
said missing member (who claimed he would visit dragonfire even though he wasn't playing) didn't show. unfortunate. *sigh, shrug* oh well.

a quick link of interest: http://www.vgmuseum.com/ for some old school gaming stuffs.
also: i have made almost a dollar from google now :) thank you capitalism!
tomorrow is a public holiday :) yay... no varsity for me!
well... i'm off to do a little coding (my project partner hasn't arrived so i guess i'll just kick off with a little something and he can do documentation later *shrugs*)
cya
ps: click an ad
pps: thank you schpatdope for answering tricky questions, comprimising your "deep cover" as a little girly on the teen sex chatrooms (btw: you know you can drop the mitsy persona now that you've answered the question right... right?)

late addition:
a little more evil every post >;)
This site is certified 30% EVIL by the Gematriculator

8/05/2005

long empty day

*squee*
my nintendo ds game has arrived for collection
another code : two memories
its a graphical point and click adventure (from what i've read)
i don't know too much about it other than it's good
i didn't want to spoil it for myself so i haven't read up much
i'll probably get it on monday
now if only take2 would get starwars ep III: revenge of the sith back in stock for the nintendo DS...
i know, i know... simple things amuse simple minds, but in retrospect: fuck you!

anyway:
what a tedious day today is.
this is my longest varsity day of the week.
2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th
which means i finish at about 4
luckily dragonfire starts tomorrow which is something to look forward to (at least it better be *waves fist*)
before i start today's mini-rant let me just say i hope i see you at dragonfire.
there's really not much else happening.

on to today's rant:
must agree wich the schpat about a mutual (possibly ex?) friend.
he sent a rather snubby sms to another friend of ours in response to a "hi. i'm here for dragonfire. maybe i'll see you there." sms.
now i see this as being 1 of 3 options:
1) he has saved the wrong name with the number and thought the sms was from someone else (highly unlikely)
2) he's become a real prick and is getting rid of all his old friends (highly unlike him)
3) his girlfriend got the message, responded, and deleted without his knowledge
now, based on all the evidence we have (and by we i don't neccesarily mean you, the reader, and i. i mean myself and my friends, which may include you...) only option 3 is really believable. he's received smses from this person before and responded appropriately so its unlikely the name is saved wrong.
he may be bitchy but he's not a prick (well... not the guy we know) and it's ulikely he'd be so terse... however it is possible. if this is the case then i hope he has a whole new group of friends because his actions are making enemies out of his old friends.
finally option 3. well... in company she's a quite, polite girl... however (based on lots of observation and direct word-of-mouth from our friend before he started cutting us off) she seems to have a massive control streak and it seems highly likely that she does not like his old group of friends (with the possible exception of synk) or his old activities (roleplaying and having fun with his friends).
now i believe she has him by the short and curlies (and not in a good way) and has told him to "grow up" thus causing him to cut his hair, drop out of his regular roleplaying game, and not communicate with any of us at all... doesn't answer the phone when we call, doesn't respond to any emails, doesn't sms back when we sms (except for the last message which has caused quite a stir).
schpat managed to get through to him not long ago (phoned him during work hours from his work phone that comes up as *private number*) and after a kinda stilted conversation, our friend told him that he'd be at dragonfire (but wouldn't be playing in any of the games)...
i guess we can only wait and see...
a message to our friend in case he actually reads this (he knows who he is i'm sure... half-orc called "tunk"): dude! respond to us. what's going on? take 5 minutes off work and just send us an email or sms or something. and if you really don't want to hear from us again then take 5 minutes off work to tell us to fuck off. common courtesy dude. some of us have know you for a while. we deserve to be told to "fuck off" at least. i guess you just gotta do what makes you happy.

8/04/2005

not so bad after all

This site is certified 25% EVIL by the Gematriculator

well.. just a quarter devilish then :)

addled elderly person corrupts kid

ok...
i get a call this morning (while trying to decide whether or not i should get out of bed) and its my dad.
"what did you do to the jammie?" he asks
"whu?" i reply
turns out that one of the jamie shuttle buses hit a rock on dewaal (sp?) drive and overturned (there was a picture in the newspaper)... rolled onto its back apparently.
i finish the call, get out of bed, and head off to varsity via the jammie shuttle (with trepidation).
funny thing is they used to load people onto the bus until all seat were full, then load people on until the aisle was full, then tell them to move to one side and fill the aisle again.
now today they had a few people standing but nowhere near the sardined-tin proportions that they normally have, and the bus i was on had some new device attached to the window that turned it into and emergency exit.
hmmm... i wonder how much negligence was involved in the bus rolling over?
(shcpatdope that if you wanna ;)

on older news (with recent addition that you're about to discover):
grand theft auto is taking more flak.
some 85 year old granny bought grand theft auto: san andreas for her grandson "without knowing it contained hidden, sexually explicit scenes..."
now she's turned around and is sueing rockstar games / take two interactive for false advertising and the like (probably for billions of cash)
the stupid things are these:
1) she based her purchase on the mature lable the game had.
obviously she didn't read what the mature lable meant or read the back of the box as will become apparent.
2) she finds that the hidden sexual content is unacceptable for her grandchild and never would have bought him an adults only game.
in spite of the fact that mature means 17+ and adults only means 18+... a whole years difference. and sex is unnacceptable but all the violence, gansterism, crime, and prostitution is fine right granny?
3) her grandson is FOURTEEN !!!!
what the fuck were you thinking granny? he shouldn't have been playing the game whether it has or doesn't have sexual content. he's a little kid who shouldn't be allowed games that involve the sorts of themes gta does. mature does not mean "can tie own shoe-laces" nor does it mean "whined until i bought it for him" nor "he's my sweetheart and its just a video game... they're for kids right?"

what the hell? and this is being taken seriously by the courts. take two interactive and rockstar are scrambling to apologise and the federal trade commision are going to investigate them.
all because some senile old bint doesn't read lables and has exactly zero responsibile genes in her body.
she should be charged with corruption of a minor!
i mean seriously. granny doesn't care about the reality that games are not just for kids (just like videos) and she just bought him whatever he told her to without paying attention to what she was giving him and is now upset because she probably caught him whacking off over a dirty magazine and he said: "grand theft auto made me do it *sob*!"
i mean what the fuck is next?
buy the kid a hardcore, gay, bondage, snuff, beastiality porno and when you find him frothing at the mouth, naked, holding a whip, eyeing out the chicken you were about to roast for sunday lunch, complain about how you thought "kernel shafters unlucky fried chicken" was a kids film and completely ignore the fact that there's a giant dick on the cover!
some old people do not deserve to leave the old age home!

*sigh*
on the bright side of life: i made 60 american cents through my google ads yesterday. at this rate i'll get a cheque from google for fifty dollarez in about 100 days (including delivery).
plus i decided to rank the evilness of my site ala moonflake
i will post the results sometime later.

well.. back to the grindstone... more project stuff to do for comsci.
hasta la vista

8/03/2005

there's a spider on my hand !

weird...
so i'm sitting here surfing around the net a little (as you do) with my mouse hand stretched off a little to my right, controlling the mouse (as is normal).
suddenly i feel a tickling sensation running up my hand, from the wrist, heading towards the fingers. thinking its probably an ant or something i lift up my hand to flick it off. lo and behold its a fricking spider running up the back of my hand (definitely not normal). it wasn't too large, maybe 2 centimeters across: tip to tip.
so it runs up one of my fingers which i touch to the table and it hops off, jogs a little way away and comes to a rest. then i notice its of the 7 leg variety (ie: an old war vetran). a few minutes later and it's still just sitting there.
then, as i begin to type this all down, it decides its had enough and runs over some notes that belong to the guy sitting at the next pc. obviously dazed and confused by too many years in the trenches of the comsci labs it had mad a grevious error in strategy as the guy reding his notes flips a page over and presses down maliciously.
scratch one war vet.

and now i have phantom spiders running around in my sleeves *sigh*

back to a previous topic now: video game violence!
i turned up another interesting source of ideas and facts entitled hillary vs. the xbox: game over its a letter posted in the los angeles times.
worth a read as its not too long and brings up some interesting points.
for example:
1) kids have always been kids and parents have always had to pull them away from games to get them to do work... the games just used to be "kick the can" or "chase your friend through a field" (a popular one in its time) before the computer was invented / popularized.
2) kids are learning the skills needed in a computerized workplace while they play games. kids that don't play games are probably not going to get jobs that require computer use, and the way the world is going that means they're going to end up in manual labour or crime.
3) the last 10 years have seen the release of the most violent yet popular and wide spread video games and yet its also been the time where violence amongst kids has reached all-time lows in the states.
4) (lifted straight from the article... go read it)
"Crime statistics are not the only sign that today's gaming generation is doing much better than the generation raised during the last cultural panic — over rock 'n' roll. Math SAT scores have never been higher; verbal scores have been climbing steadily for the last five years; nearly every indicator in the Department of Education study known as the Nation's Report Card is higher now than when the study was implemented in 1971."

It also suggests that prehaps some of the crimes kids were traditionally blamed for (including car theft, assault, general misdemeanours) may be "thrill-seeking" crimes and now there is no need to perpertrate them in the real world. just boot up a copy of GTA and bam! anger managment.
maybe gaming violence is good for you?
of course you shouldn't eschew a decent rating system. small kids should be playing mario and similar. teenagers should have acces to slightly more mature content with 17/18+ being able to decide for themselves.
the reasoning for this is less about turning kids into violent killers and more about not forcing kids to grow up too fast. let them be little kids and have a decent childhood. when they're older they can worry about more mature themes (and with those: more mature pressures and responsibilities).

on yet another note:
it really does seem to be strike season here in sa. not only have we had pick n pay staff go wild (with over 200 strikers/rioters being arrested), saa staff go limp (grounding flights for days ans well as stranding people overseas. lucas is still trying to get back after being abandoned by his airline whom he paid to get him there and back) but we also have had municipal workers going sociopathic.
that's right, iol reports that during the current municipal workers strike a bunch of strikers drove around and rounded up 11 workers who weren't striking and were actually *gasp* doing their job.
These poor hard working people (who probably couldn't afford the possible loss of pay and had to support their famalies) were taken out behind some station (municipal grounds behind Belle Ombre Station in Marabastad) and beaten by the gang of striking fuckheads (who were striking in 2 different ways now). they were savagely attacked with "pangas, knobkerries and other “traditional” weapons."
one of the unfortunate 11 ( Lucas Monahane, 48) collapsed while trying to escape and died, leaving behind a bewildered wife (the article makes no mention of whether he had children or not). the 10 survivors were told to leave their houses or they would be killed along with their famalies. some have run with their famalies in an attempt to keep safe.
now all this makes me think:
1) why the hell are strikes allowed to turn into riots?
2) what are the police doing about all this?
3) maybe unions aren't the best way of doing things....
4) how many municipal workers play grand theft auto?

even more subjects for today's post:
the more observant of you may have noticed some changes to this blog:
there are now some google ads (text to the right and a banner right down on the bottom) lying around just waiting to be clicked on. i'm thinking of trying to convince google to send me a cheque for 4 american cents (maybe i'll use it to buy a hotel in eastern europe).
you can also search from the hand google search bar on the right (*shameless plug*)
but since we're on the google thing: did you know that google have their own official (i think) blog right here on blogspot? head over to http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ and have a look.

8/02/2005

want some hot coffee bruce?

update on the hot coffee front:
i forgot to mention that the hot coffee content exists in all formats of the game and that the patch merely "unlocks" it. The patch is unofficial, of course, and rockstar games is pulling the product and replacing it with the same game just with that content completely removed (as opposed to having it on the disc, just never accessed as it is now).
in the states this controversy caused it's rating to go from a Mature rating to an Adults Only rating which means 17+ to 18+... big deal.
however iol.co.za reports that australia has banned the game completely:
"The video game can no longer be legally sold, rented, advertised or exhibited in Australia, developer Take-Two Interactive Software Inc said on Friday."
basically australia's X and R ratings (the adult only ones) don't apply to games, only movies etc... so they can't rate it X and it used to have the rating 15+ before the whole hot coffee deal.
now how inanely stoopid is this whole deal?
firstly: get a real rating system fools!
secondly: it's a downloadable hack made by some twit with too much time on his hands (probably the same guy that made the nude lara croft patch that took the lucious (read blocky. this was tomb raider 1) tomb raider and replaced her skin (no pun intended) with a flesh coloured skin with 2 pink dots and a small brown triangle. hellishly pixilated and not at all interesting: there're more erotic images advertising cooldrinks to kids in comicbooks). using the same logic internet explorer should have an adults only age restriction because you can view porn with it... or beds should be adult only because some people have sex on them. get a reality check.
finally: who cares? the game is about being a gangster, carjacking, killing, beating people into bloody masses and swiping their cash, breaking and entering, general theft and violence, specific theft and violence, and basically acting like a gang-banging punk-assed mo'fo. but throw in a little badly done slap and tickle and all of a sudden the game's going to send you to hell in a handbasket while simultaniously degrading your moral fibre. by the time you're old enough to be allowed to play this game your moral fibre should be keeping your ethical digestive tract regular and clutter free. if not then some pixilated titties are not what your real problem is.
and if you are under the required age and still playing the game: what the hell are your parents doing? slap them for me if you can wake them out of their drunken haze / crack-feulled inebriation / if you can find them because they sure as hell ain't doing their job.
just as an aside: violence and video games - there is yet to be a convincing arguement that shows a real link between the two. in fact the most convincing argument i've seen seems to show that violent video games may be a cause of less violent kids.
go read this article if you haven't already!

Counter Climber

wow... 5 hits.
since about 3 of those were me checking that the blog went up and that the settings took i'm guessing schpat and moonflake read the blog.

anyone played metal gear solid 2 ? the vgcats comic today is rather funny :)
there's also a funny link about the "hot coffee" patch for GTA: San Andreas
for those not in the know: the hot coffee patch unlocks some "sex scenes" in the game. you take your girl home and she says: "you wanna come in for some coffee?"
normal game: you go inside and some voice over "sex talk" plays while you stare at the outside of the house
hot coffee patch: you go inside and start the sex mini-game where your girl has her texture replaced with something approximating skin and you get to wiggle the joystick back and forth "in rythm" as it were.
and there is no coffee involved anywhere! what if you were craving a hot cup of java after a hard day of carjacking and gangsterism!

on another note:
i saw a funny clip in my lecture today (new lecturer - yay! the old one sucked in my opinion) it went something like this:
setting: some guy (SG) at a computer, next to hime is a giant paperclip (GP) with eyes.
GP: "You look like you're writing a letter."
SG: "F*(! off." (calmly)
GP: "You look like you're writing a letter."
SG: "F*(! off." (annoyed)
GP: "You look like you're writing a letter."
SG: "F*(! OFF!" (angry)
GP: "You look like you're URK!"
SG jumps up, grabs the paperclip and starts strangling/wrestling/bending it to all hell.
:)
it's so true.

well... that's about it for now
catch the next episode where we'll have flying weasles (or not)

8/01/2005

A new blog is born

ah... its been a while since i've done the whole blog thing.
some complete bast has nicked zenstar.blogspot and has made exactly 1 (one) lame three-line post in february. since he's obviously a fake i've taken therealzenstar.blogspot.com (but you already know that otherwise you wouldn't be reading this)

well not too much has been happening on the "interesting" front. Schpat had a humourous link to a story about "vinegar boy" - a 9 page story about a store clerk that sold a kid 1 litre of malt vinegar. the kid went home and drank half of it before promptly redecorating the livingroom walls (weak constitution obviously...) needless to say his mother was less than pleased and proceeded to take it out on the store clerk. there is much in the way of hijinks and hilarity invoved... go over to schpat's page and find the link. it's a hoser.

in other news: dragonfire is just around the corner. we should be seeing shelagh for the occasion which will be fun. hopefully schpat got the shirts done in time.

i'm still awaiting the arrival of "Another code: two memories" from take2.co.za for the nintendo ds... and as soon as they get stock of "star wars ep III: revenge of the sith" i'll probably grab that too.

well... i have GUIs to create and UML diagrams to define and produce and kult games to think about for tomorrow night so i'll end this blog right here -> X