I'm not Dead!

Despite appearances this blog is not yet dead... technically. There are actually a number of reasons why I don't post much, and they are as follows:
1. Not much that is actually interesting enough to write about happens to me, which leads to
2. Even when something moderately interesting does happen to me, I really don't think there are that many people that care all that much, and even fewer read my blog, and
3. It just seems like a lot of effort.
Ok, I'll admit the last one is a a bit of a lame excuse for never posting, but hey, it is my blog.

One this that did happen, which I thought was of sufficient interest to inform the world of its happening was the release of Innistrad, the new Magic: The Gathering set. For all those who don't know of Magic, it is a trading card game (I know what you are thinking, and it is more awesome than that). Innistrad is the new set of cards that was released this weekend. Thus far it has been met with less-than-universal approval, as they introduced a new card mechanic that has people divided, I like it and so won't go into detail (as it would probably bore you non-Magic people, and already be know to the others). I think I'll probably collect the entire set of cards, which probably wont be too hard, except for maybe a few of the rares which are actually worth money.

I also won a WoW event. It turns out that the increasingly popular (though not with me) video game World of Warcraft has a card game which is not unlike Magic. I'd never played it before but they needed one more person to make up numbers and I happened to be there. I didn't really know what I was doing, so I just picked cards that seemed good, but didn't take cards that were (apparently) insanely good, or merely very useful with irritating regularity. In the end they may have been good choices, as I won (picking up a $30 card for a game which I had no intention of ever playing again in the process). So that was cool.

But yeah, a very card themed post, not actually intentional but there you go, apparently that is all that has been happening to me (Also doing a bit of study - on my holidays too )': gross.)

Skywalker out!

Justice! Freedom! Reasonably Priced Love! And A Hard-boiled Egg!**

Heya world, haven't chatted to you for a while. How's it going?

Firstly I would like to give a shout-out to D.B. Echo, who is actually my only follower. =) He has a great blog, so go check it out.

Secondly: My laptop Hates me.*

Thirdly: I need a new phone. This may seem to have an easy solution (i.e. go buy one); but in fact, I have already tried that. The phone I want, the SE Xperia x10i (this one \|/),

comes on a plan. And as I dont have a job, they are reluctant to give it to me, despite the fact that I have enough money to pay for the entire plan up-front... ARRGH!

Fourthly: Me and MissE have a new blog up: The Victory Book-Sharing Challenge. We got tired of the other person not reading books forced upon given to them, and decided to do something about it. So we set up the Challenge, and made some rules. Now, on alternate months one of us issues a challenge to the other: to read a certain book. At the end of the month we write a short review of how much we hate the other person for setting us that book ahem, the book. We will also occasionally (i.e. whenever we feel like it) write a bit about what we have been reading recently - outside of the challenge that is. So yeah, go have a look, maybe you will decide to read something different.

Anyway, thats all from me atm, cya round.
Skywalker out!

* Yeah, I might put the full story up later, but basically I tried installing Ubuntu, and now it says I have potentially fatal disk errors that could destroy everything... and Ubuntu won't even boot. FML

** Yeah, that title really has nothing to do with the post, but I was just reading T Pratchett's Night Watch, great book, btw.

Work?

Hmm, work... yes, I am familiar with the concept. What of it?
Oh, you lecturer people actually want me to do some?
How would one go about that then?

It is becoming apparent that I do actually need to do work so survive at uni. This is more than slightly irritating, mainly because I have never had to do so before. I'm sure many people are very good at it, and do it every day, with no effort at all, but I'm not. But it is not just doing work that they expect, they also want me to be awake for ridiculously early lectures every day (Ignoring that fact that I have had to be at school earlier than that for the past 10 years of my life).
I suppose some of this is my fault, I may have been able to juggle my lecture/tutorial/workshop times so that I dont have anything until 10 or 11 each day, but that would have involved the dreaded *whispers* work.

In other news, wheelchair is still going awesome, and I am planning to tempt MissE there, possibly with candy. She has managed to get me into Ultimate, so I will convert her to the ways of the wheel..

Well I suppose I should be going and finishing my Maths assignment...
Nah, Dragon Age 2 sounds much better. ;)

- Skywalker out!

Going down..

Heya all (which I will admit, is probably about, oh... 2 people)

I am now all growed up and living away from home in a shiny (well not-so-shiny now) student apartment block in ADELAIDE (!). This is awesome. My uni is about 10 mins walk away, so I can get to my classes fairly easily. Although looking at my timetable, I don't really want to get to all my classes. I suppose the ridiculous timetable is my fault though, if I hadn't chosen to do a Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Systems) it wouldn't be so bad.
Of course, I did get free food during O-Week at the Elec Eng Preliminary thing, so I suppose it isn't all bad.

I have also found a place to play Wheelchair bball down here, and played my first game last Tues. I got blisters and we won; I'm hoping those two are related so that there is a good reason for my hands being wrecked. I also played ultimate, which, I found out, exercises many of the same muscle groups, with the added bonus of using all the muscles in your legs. I am now wishing I had done more exercise during the holidays.

Anyway, I am now getting a bit hungry, so I might go across to AUSSIE PIZZA HOUSE, which is literally right next door, and get some dinner.

s'later,
Skywalker out!

PS. Oh, btw MissE, you are getting really bad at this posting thing.

Finaly Done

Well the year is almost over, and school is now finished, forever in my case.

Last post i mentioned that i had exams, then have been obliterated and the results (and my TER - now been changed to ATAR) are out. And now, ladies and gentlemen, I will now reveal the results.....

dun dun DUUN!

My final result, and university entrance score is......

*(This is the bit where you wait with bated breath)*

88.40

I'm in the top 12%!!

You may now bow to my epic awesomeness.

Thats all for now,
Skywalker out!

Gotta love the D20

Recently I bought The Bag of Holding laptop bag ('cause I'm getting a laptop, duh) from ThinkGeek - awesome site - and it arrived very fast (9 days from ordering -> shipping monkeys -> Australia -> me). It was then that I made the amazing discovery; It's bigger on the inside. I decided to test it out a bit, and put pretty much everything except the kitchen sink in there (well, not quite, but all my school stuff + anything I could lay my hands on). I eventually stopped because I ran out of things that would fit through the opening... Oh well, lets just assume that it is infinite in size.

Here is a pic of the pile of things I managed to fit into The Bag of Holding (and a photo of TBoH)



































Anyway, just in case you are interested, this is the list of things that went into The Bag of Holding:

Chemistry Essentials Textbook
Chemistry Essentials Test and Exam pack
Physics Essentials Textbook
Physics Essentials Test and Exam pack
2 x 320 page exercise books
Maths Studies Test and Exam pack
Maths Specialist Test and Exam pack
Diary
Powerade (well its empty in the photo, you didn't expect me not to drink it, did you?)
320GB external hard drive
2x USBs
Keys
Mobile phone
Pencil case
Graphics calculator
Umbrella
2x Magic the Gathering decks (Green/Black and Black/White, in case anyone is interested)
150+ random sheets of paper
And a zombie invasion book.

Wow, that list was slightly longer than expected...
On other news, I am now into my final exams for high school, joy.
Had English on monday, Physics today (which I annihilated), got Maths Studies on Thurs, then Chem and Specialist next week. THEN I'M FREE!!!

Well, that's all for now, I suppose I had better go and pretend to study.

Skywalker out!

The Black Prism

I'm a blue magic drafter!

Take the quiz at Brent Weeks.com

Well I'm going into business!

Heya all,
And yes, I am aware that 'all' probably consists of three people, but, Hey, whatever.

I recently realised that I need to make some money, after all, uni looms just beyond the horizon and I have been informed that it a) isn't free and b) my parents aren't just going to keep giving me money. I then asked myself how this is done......

It took a while but I came to the conclusion that I should start my own business. No, really. I am going into the one field that I both enjoy and have experience in: computing.

Yep, I'm starting a website business.

So if you (or anyone you know) wants/needs a website tell them to email me, I'm gonna start with affordable site for personal and small business use, and see what happens from there. Just to show how generous I am, mentions this post and get a DISCOUNT =) Go on, you know you want one.

-Well that's all for this post, later

Skywalker.

Post Secret

I found out about PostSecret a few days ago, here is a compilation I found on Youtube

This, That and Other

Love this one, just great.

Yay, Awesomely Epic Duo

1. I got broadband, after months of campaigning, etc, etc. I have final got broadband.
Well, almost. Telstra still has to send the modem and stuff.

2. I scored 26 points by myself at wheelchair. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much; I'm here all week.

Yeah, that's all, I'm a bit tired to say more about my awesomeness.

Skywalker out!

It was User Error

Well, for the past couple of days I have been without internet.

No one could figure out why this was, and so we all blamed Bigpond.

A few days later, I was messing with the connection settings, and guess what, I only needed to tick one box and the internet worked!

This one in fact:



















I wont name any names, but I didn't uncheck the box.
It was User Error, but I wasn't the user.

That is all.

Skywalker out!

I am Epic Wheelchair king.

So.. As you may or may not know, I play wheelchair basketball (despite the lack of missing limbs) and am one of the better shooters. So wheelchair started 2 weeks ago and I went back feeling awesome, knowing that I was just ultimate.... and didn't even score (though, in my defense we were using new chairs). Anyway, the week after that I was on a school retreat (so I didn't play).

And then we have last week's game....

I went out, praying that my l33t skillz had returned...

And scored 16 points.... until, with 5 seconds to go, I'm sitting just outside the 3-point line.

And someone passes me the ball...

And I'm like: "Why not"

And I shoot.

And end up with 19 points.

Yes, I know, I am just so awesome. Thank you, Thank you, I'm here all week.

Well at lest I'm not as bad as MissE

Hey,
I'm back, after a (I will admit) ridiculously long wait between posts. I have seemed to have a lot to do, Just started year 12 (final year of high school (secondary school) for all those strange foreigners who may be reading =P), just started basketball (both able-bodies and disabled), created and website and am now administrating it and I went on a school retreat to Lake Bennett last week (And yes, I do realise that that will mean almost nothing to most people.).

So anyway.. yeah, that's about my life at the moment, school, bball and blogging. Nice lol.

Oh, and CoD: Modern Warfare 2. I won't start on this, because if I do, there is a good chance I will rave for hours, not only on my own awesomeness but also on how much I am addicted to that game.

So that's me,
Skywalker out!

NEW PC!!

Well the title says it all really.. I GOT A NEW COMPUTER, which, as you may have noticed, is cause for great excitement.

It was custom made and is the reason why I haven't been posting for the last however-long-it-has-been. Now I'm pretty sure that you dont really care, but im gonna tell you what is inside.

OS: Windows 7 (64bit) Home (or whatever they call the base level one)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 3.16GHZ
RAM: 4 GB DDR3
Graphics: nVidia 8600GT 512MB


And here are some pics so you can see how awesome it is.




I know, awesome right?

Well I'm off to play CoD: Modern Warfare

Skywalker out!

Game Review: Red Alert 2

Well its time for another review: This time in the red corner the Soviets, aannnd in the blue corner we have the Allies!

Yes, that's right, we are back to the Cold War days with Red Alert 2! Although, admittedly, I don't think they had attack dolphins or Tesla troops the first time 'round. Red aleart 2 is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) set in a world on the brink or war, it follows on from the first Red Alert, though is vastly superior in the graphics, game-play and, well... pretty much every other department as well.

RA2 was released October 2000 and because of its age require only the most basic of system requirements. A 266 MHz Processor, 64 Mb of RAM and a tiny 2 Mb graphics card. This means that even I can run it.. and run it well. While the graphics and interfaces may not be as smooth or as shiny as modern games RA2 still gives a decent account of itself.

The game focuses on the two campaign branches; Allies and Soviets. They each have the same basic units and structures, though with differing power, build time and cost. The units begin to differ then more advanced units and structures begin to be built. After a Battle Lab is built the Allies can obtain such units as the Prism Tank or Aircraft Carrier, while the Soviets get the Apocalypse Tank and Kirov Airship.

Each side has its own pros and cons; the allies seem have have more technologically advanced, though not necessarily more powerful than the soviets, while the soviets seem to go for the brute force method. While each are powerful in their own way it is up to the user to decide what they like best. (Personally I just cant resist the temptation of trying to get capture the enemy buildings and get Apocalypse tanks AND Prism tanks.)

There are a number of ways of earning money to purchase units and buildings; the most common method is simply using Miner trucks to collect the resources so wantonly scattered around the map. You can also capture Oil Rigs, which produce a constant supply of money, at least until the enemy get tired of you throwing tanks at him and bombs it into oblivion. You can also find power-up crates which will give various bonuses, sometimes a unit promotion, sometimes a speed upgrade, and of course, sometimes money.

This is a well built game, which still holds its appeal for those who cant run top of the line games (or the new Command & Conquer). Its graphics are well designed and the intermittent live-acting film clips give great breaks in the combat.

I'm giving it 91/100.

Correction.. I know your father.

Hey, you may have seen my last article about Evony. I just read another blog in which some doubts have been raised about it. It seems that some people have had bugs messing with their PC after they played it...

This may just be a glitch in the game or coincidence.. but it could also be because Evony contains malware (not saying it is, just one possible reason). Because of this my legal adviser has told me to issue the following statement:

I do not take any responsibility for the users actions after leaving this site, furthermore I do not take responsibility for anyone's PC blowing up (etc.), them hurting themselves (etc.) when participating in activities I feature on this site.

Hehe.. that was fun...

Later all...
Remember.. I warned you.

Game Review: Evony

I have decided to do a couple of reviews for games I play.

This week we go to one I only started recently: Evony

www.evony.com

Evony is a MMO, a massive multiplayer online game. The aim is to build your empire and bring more land under your control. There are, at the moment 82 servers, most of them pretty full, however new servers are being brought out, literally, every day.

The game can run on PCs with quite low specifications, as I can attest. I have a Pentium 3.0GHz processor, 440Mb RAM, 58Mb Graphics and a 56k Internet connection. Evony plays quite well, though with a little lag when I give multiple commands at once.

It is reasonably easy to get started, you just sign up with an email address and you are playing. You begin the game under ‘beginner protection’, a wonderful construct designed to stop you getting raided the moment you appear. It gives you 7 days protection from enemy attacks, meaning you have time to get some basic defences set up. Even for those who are completely new to the game it is fairly easy to pick up, with a few easy quest chains helping you to set up your town straight away.

The actual game play is fairly simple, though can get quite challenging as you build up your town. It gives you the opportunity to attack NPC (non-player character) controlled valleys which will earn you certain bonuses depending on their type; deserts will raise stone production while forests will raise lumber production. This brings a new element into the game: strategy. Should you attack a low level grassland, or a slightly higher level desert, you may get a better reward with the desert, but you may also lose the battle. Another NPC controlled area are the plains: capture these and, if you have enough resources and workers, you can build yourself another city. This is a great opportunity, but can result in difficult decisions: eg. which town to upgrade?

Like most MMOs you can join guilds or ‘alliances’. Personally, I highly recommend getting into an alliance quickly. These alliances are generally helpful and will give plenty of advice to newcomers. Alliances can also become allies, or even declare ‘war’ on each other.

There are only a few points against this game, mostly the long waiting times once you have established your basic town. Level three walls, for instance, take two or three hours to build, and some of the technologies will take just as long. This waiting time is offset by ‘speedup’ scrolls, which cut build time off a structure. These scrolls can be purchased with real world money, or by winning them in the daily lottery.

This game is great for those who can't be playing constantly: you can start building something, shut down your computer and come back in a few hours when it's finished. Those who like more action in their games should perhaps avoid Evony, but this game is perfect for the casual gamer or those fond of strategy.

Rating: 87/100

If anyone else is on Evony visit me at: server 82 (465,416) ROMAGNA, DarthLuke

Holidays!

At last.. the holidays have come! It's time for sleep, food, games, sleep, more food, late nights, games... and yeah, more sleep! But, alas, it was not to be...

On mon and tues I worked, today I did assignments (and wrote my book, thanks to my awesome editor, the one with the English Lit Degree, yeah, you... dont get a swelled head.) I still have assignments to do for English, Physics, Specialist and Chem.. yeah, my hols aren't gonna be a huge amount of fun ='(.

On the upside.. my foot is pretty much better (see the post below) and I can play bball again! Woo! Got wheelchair tomorrow, should win.. but you never can tell =).

Anyway.. gtg now, try to post again soon!

Well, Last night I had League Reserve bball, but no.. this is not a post about basketball. I got there just as we were about to forfeit (With not enough players) so they are like "Awesome!", and so we start the game....

A few minutes in I jumped to get the ball and came down wrong and hurt my foot... and something popped... Which, in case you hadn't guessed, isn't supposed to happen.

So I went off the court and realised that my toe was not where it was supposed to be...

Yep, that's right folks, I managed to dislocate my toe with no help from anything except gravity and the floor. You have to admit, I am pretty spectacular.

So we tried to put it back in, and that didn't work (though did manage to cause a rather large amount of pain.) So I was taken to the hospital and they took an x-ray and told me to wait and they would be with me shortly.

...
....
.....
Still waiting
......
.......
........
.........

And then.. finally three hours later some doctor calls out my name, so I go in. And the we discover that he has lost my x-rays and obs. *typical* So a couple on mins later he finds the x-ray and say "wow, that a fair bit out of the socket."

I was given a bit of local.. waited a min^ then he tugged my toe... and it didn't move. What it did however do was hurt, through the anaesthetic. Well he gave it a few more tugs.. still not moving.. then he took his glove off and tried again. Then he grabbed a peice of cloth and held my toe with that... and finally, with a suprisingly loud pop my toe went back to where it should have been.

He got another x-ray to make sure it was in teh right spot then told me to go home.

Well for 4 hours in the hospital all that happened was my toe was moved about 1cm in the right direction and I was subjected to aprox 0.15r of radiation.

Ah well.. there are worse ways to waste time.. just because I can't think of them right now...

^There seems to have been a lot of waiting going on.