Mental Arithmetic

1st April 2007 - April Fools!

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 18:57:39 -0800

OK, you guys are probably going to completely KILL me for that. Oh well. I was bored, and couldn't think of anything better. Sorry. :D

The last day of holidays. Wow. Long time. Easter soon. Should be fun.

I've been playing Deus Ex recently. I've got to France. Now to hunt down Nicolette duClare. Everyone who's played this gem will know what I'm doing. Right now, I've just left the Silhouette bunker, and am in the sewers, about to come up for air/headshots. I have EMP grenades, LAMs and tonnes of gas grenades. I have a few 30.06 rounds left, and ten rounds of 20mm HE. My Rifle and Pistol skills are Advanced. Time for fun.

In Planescape, I was told to man a rooftop. I elfed it instead. Heh. I was told to watch the entrance to the Mortuary, which is where our undead gent comes from. Then, in the square behind me, a portal opened in a statue. And an enormous tentacle emerged, grabbed someone, then slowly started retreating.

Needless to say, we all attacked it. We managed to make it let go. The portal was then closed. Everyone then went to bed, except Drakol, who went patrolling, and myself, who decided to make some... PURCHASES...

Later, when everyone was awake, I left, on my own errands. Meanwhile, the rest went out again. The met an NPC called Mother Xero, who took them to see a person in the Mortuary called Lord Madrigore. They went in, and met Lord Madrigore, the vampire we'd been hunting.

He apologised, gave them compensation for Glory, the jinkskirt he'd assaulted... then asked Ophy why his face was blue. Turns out that paint I'd put in the bowl of water he splashed his face in was rather slow-acting. Needless to say, I'd gone to a different rooftop.

The following afternoon, myself, Drakol and Demus went to visit Deadwick, a lich, while Ophy tried to get the blue paint off. He asked us to pay for a scrying spell, since he didn't care about ordinary people and thus refused to do it for the good of others. The spell should be complete by the next session. And then we bumped into some Xaosmen dressed in Dustman robes. Some cutters to wigwag with.

In CoC, we were leaving the city for Maine, in an effort to escape the cult we'd irritated. Several miles from anywhere, the leading car (mine) ran a man down. The car careened off the road, and crashed into a tree. I took some damage, and Demus took less (he was in the back). The car BEHIND, however, also hit him, also careened off the road, and hit the back of our car. Luckily, us in the front weren't any worse off.

The only place to go with the dying man was a glow about ten minutes away, which turned out to be coming from a small hunting lodge. It appeared to be where the man was from. Before arriving there, however, I made a valiant attempt to break the plot, by wanting to go to either of the towns, which were 12 hours away by foot. I failed. Oh well.

On arriving, we found a car like the two we'd crashed, and myself and Munch made another fruitless attempt to hijack the plot. Oh well. After going in, I noticed an attic in the hall. We continued on into the living room, where some of us started having halucinations. Mine was blood leaking from the chimney. Since I lost no san from witnessing it, I started yelling at the ghost, ghoul or poultergeist to clean up. On looking away, then looking back, I expressed gratitude that it had. And then picked up an occult book on legends and myths, reading about a thing called the Spirit of Past Summer, or something of that ilk.

We soon found out that the man we had run over had come from here (told you), and had gone quite quietly mad. He wrote of his wife killing his son, and him pushing his wife down the stairs into the cellar. After reading this, there were a few seconds pause, and then, as one, we decided to barricade the living room. Then, while kauthon's NPCed character maintained a vigil over the man, we ventured into the next room: the kitchen.

We found the entrance into the cellar, being held closed, rather ominously, by the rather heavy kitchen table. The larder contained some supplies, but not much else. We continued on, to a corridor, and some bedrooms. At some point, the NPC called out that the man had died. So, Demus went back and created a ward around the body. Once he returned, we continued into the rest of the bedrooms.

In the middle one, we found the body of the boy lying as if asleep in bed, but with his throat slit. After Munch's character performed the Last Rites on him, we went into the last room, and found a skull in a scarf, which I grabbed. We then went into the attic, and found a bone flute and book in a chest. The book described how a prejudiced idiot built his house on what local Indians called the home of a bad spirit. Oh great. An Indian burial ground. At which point, Demus left.

A few moments later, before we could finish, we heard a scream from the living room. We all ran back, and found, to our horror, that the boy had been possessed and had attacked Demus and the NPC, who was unconscious, and that the other body hadn't been properly contained. It had also attacked. However, Demus had... let's see now, five pistols, one Winchester, one shotgun and a hunting rifle. In short, he was our tank. And he had taken them all out. And was covered in blood.

At this point, Munch and myself went outside to get the spirit to talk to us. Nothing. Then Drakol ran out, saying that the Major (Demus) was possessed. We ran back in, and tried to go in through the door in the hall. It had been barricaded. We had to go the long way through the house. And the kitchen door was also barricaded. We rammed the door open, just in time to see Demus leaping down into the cellar with the NPC. We gave chase, with me in the middle.

At the bottom, Demus slit the NPCs throat, killing him and awakening eldritch powers that man shouldn't what ought to have. Munch was tripped by the wife hiding under the stairs, and crashed into Demus. Drakol came in brandishing a syringe filled with twice the normal dose of morphine ("It's the Major! Of COURSE I'll use twice the dose!"), tripped, and nearly broke the syringe several times. Eventually, Demus got anaesthetised, and we had the other zombie to deal with.

I had tried throw a silver bowl at Demus, to no effect. I then tried to throw some other stuff at the second zombie, to no effect. And then failed to shoot it (highs when I didn't need them. Woo.). Finally, we dug up the skeleton that had been buried here. We recapitated it, and the spirit appeared, and mimed playing the flute. Drakol did, and his teeth were all blown out. Munch completed the melody, and banished the evil spirit. We were given tonnes of SAN back, and told to buy the property and restore it, ie tear down the cabin and put the stones originally used to contain the evil back in their proper places. And we would regain more SAN over time whenever we visit it. As a result, I'm back on 91 SAN!

We also played a brief Planar Chaos draft tournament. I won once, against Ophy. In fact, Ophy lost every round, and Demus won every round. My deck was found wanting in some cases. Now to mod my Dimir deck and my Selesnya deck.

I've also heavily modified my Rogues deck. It's now 95 cards (10 more than before), and is focussed entirely on one thing: control. I've got four Scrags, three Face in the Crowds, no Ferrous Ferrets (they were deflecting my Scrags and Snake Eyes), no Tremor Engines (I'm saving them for a Rogue/Banker deck, where I can steal what Tremor engine puts in my opponent's graveyard, and raise what it put in mine). It should operate better now.

Now, to Psychonauts.

In this game, you have to wander through various people's consciousnesses, removing Mental Cobwebs, clearing up Emotional Baggage by finding the luggage tags and bringing them to the associated bags, i.e. duffel bag tag to duffel bag, finding repressed emotions, collecting figments of the person's imagination, and fighting mental enemies, including Censors, who censor thoughts that are unacceptable to society and all foreign object, e.g. you, and inner demons, that explode when close/killed.

The game is both incredibly funny and darkly disturbing. In one level, you have to deal with Censors in the well-ordered mind of a supreme Psychonauts. Unfortunately, you mess up. The Modernist black-and-white cube of his mind starts to fragment, and become objects related to his childhood. It's fun to kill infinite amounts of Censors on a giant bed... till you come to the first memory, that of the agent's mother dying when he was in nappies. And the landscape suddenly takes on a macabre element, suggesting that this man repressed all of this, and it's now breaking through.

What REALLY makes Psychonauts, though, is the powers.

First, you have a Psy-punch, which occurs when you attack. Then, you get Pyrokinesis. The Pyrokinesis lesson ends with "And what have you learned?" "Burning stuff is FUN." "That it is, m'boy!" Then comes Telekinesis. And with it, a whole new way to kill enemies. Instead of hitting them till the explode, now you can throw them into trees, buildings, each other, or the sea! Then is Invisibility. I don't think I need to tell you how much fun THAT is.

Those ones you get by increasing ranks. After them, your powers start upgrading.

Somewhere in there, you also learn others from other people. You gain Psi-Blast, which is one of two powers that uses ammo. It's like a small gun, which uses ammo called Little Balls Of Hate. You also learn Levitation, which allows you to create a small ball out of your thought bubble (yes), Aang-style, which allows you to go faster and jump higher. And, even if the power isn't active, it allows you to grab your thought bubble (I'm serious) and float with it. Like an umbrella. Or a ribbon chute from MDK. You also gain Shield, which protects you from damage (duh), and Clairvoyance, which allows you to see the world through the target's eyes. Later, you also get Confusion, which also uses ammo, and causes enemies to go the wrong way and miss. When used on you, your keys are switched and flipped, and your powers are shuffled.

Overall, a great game. Niggles? Collisions detection is hit-and-miss. And the menu is weird to navigate. And the map is useless on the mental battlefield. However, it's still a brilliant game, made by Tim Schafer, writer of Monkey Island games and designer of Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango and Full Throttle, and his team at Double Fine. Get it. You won't regret it. I promise.

Well, I think that's all. Sorry to all who were genuinely worried about the continued existance of this place.
-KB.

27th/28th June 2007 - Blows it Out of the Water

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 17:04:57 -0800

The original update was going to be this:

"25th/26th June 2007 - Errr... Whoops?

"Great. I forget/don't want to work on this, and now have MORE work to do.

"Figures.

"Well, how're y'all doin'?

"Time to summarise the last... two months? More?

"Hoo-boy...

"April:

"Several birthdays, including Ophy, Wing and an aunt of mine.

"Then a wonderful thing happened: Moosey came.

"For those who don't know, Moosey is a lovely person from America who I talk to online quite frequently.

"We met her on the 17th in her hotel, then went out around Dublin, ending up sitting on a bench in TCD, looking over the playing field.

"On the..."

But then, I didn't have time to update till today.

Which meant that, last night,...

... I saw Aerosmith in concert.

Oh holy CRAP.

Now, to continue...

April:

Several birthdays, including Ophy, Wing and an aunt of mine.

Then a wonderful thing happened: Moosey came.

For those who don't know, Moosey is a lovely person from America who I talk to online quite frequently.

We met her on the 17th in her hotel, then went out around Dublin, ending up sitting on a bench in TCD, looking over the playing field.

Sometime that week, we also went to the Mongolian Barbeque on Anglesea Road. All-you-can-eat buffet for �25. Best of all, you choose the meat, the veg, the sauce, the spices and the seasonings, take them to the chef, watch him cook it, then take it back to your table and CONSUME. I had four servings.

On the 24th, Moosey left us, returning to her mythical home of America. We miss her.

May:

Three birthdays on the same day, and my grandparents anniversary.

During the first week, Inky, Kauthon, Chris and myself finished our group project. I didn't do much code-wise, I know, but I did a fair amount of writing stuff. The code was finished, and is operational. It's in ~kbkarma/files. It works. Trust me.

And then, on the 21st, the exams began.

22st: 2ba1 Maths

I passed. I'm pretty damn sure I passed.

24rd: 2ba5 Telecommunications and Information Management

I HOPE I passed...

June:

You are here. Several wonderful things happened, but first the last three exams.

1st: 2ba2 Programming Techniques

This one LOOKS like a pass...

5th: 2ba4 Computer Architecture I

Fail. Most definate fail I've ever had.

7th 2ba3 Systems Programming

Might be a pass.

So, overall, exams did NOT go well for me.

On the 9th, I went back to Botswana. Many of you know that I lived there for seven years, and that most of my family live there, including all of my cousins and my grandparents.

It's been four years since I was last there. And seven years for C. Air France had some crappy games, including a cheating chess game (it disappeared my rook! My rook just vanished from my own back rank!). It also had a Japanese music channel (some new music to look for...) and films. I watched the Incredibles again. :D

We arrived in Joburg National Airport (JO Tambo, formerly Jan Smuts) at about 9am. We grabbed our rental (a Ford Avenza. Captian Charisma will be banging his head in frustration right about... now), and drove north. For five hours. In the African sun.

Eventually, we arrived in Gaberone, and went to my grandparents' house. We met our younger cousin Taryn, who took an immediate liking to me and my arm. With her fingernails.

C and myself were left with different cousins, since Taryn was the only kid still there, her brother and sister being away for shady reasons. These cousins were Meli and Arturo. I was deposited in Arturo's room, on the spare bed, while C had a king-sized bed downstairs all to himself. I didn't mind that much. But I bemoaned the lack of games on Arturo's machine, then was astonished at the presence of GTA 3 on the PC of a kid younger than C.

The sun set, and the sun rose. It was the second day.

We went back to my grandparents' house, where Taryn was waiting for us. C and I decided that it was time to teach Meli and Arturo Mao.

If you've never played Mao, these are two rules:

The Joker is the Nine of Diamonds.
I can't tell you any of the other rules.

Needless to say, this surprised them. They were used to knowing all the rules at the start, rather than learning them through breaking them. They soon got the hang of it, though.

The sun set, and the sun rose. It was the third day.

... Y'know, my memory's so appaling, I can't remember what EXACTLY I did in detail on each day. So I'll drop this whole "The sun set etc." thing, and just generalise.

After meeting all of our family in Gabs (who all commented that my brother had changed the most, which was obviously true since he who once was the smallest was now the biggest), we moved on to Francistown, far up in the north.

After a five-or-so hour journey, we arrived, and stayed at our aunt Fran's house.

Some of you may have heard that my cousin died several years ago. Some of you may also have heard that my uncle died last year.

Fran was the mother of the first, and the wife of the second.

I don't handle grief well. I try to avoid it. I don't know why, but I do. It's built into me. Hence, I was rather wary about spending the night there.

That night (the only night we were there), my cousin Anthony, Taryn's older brother, arrived with his girlfriend. He seemed to have become, at least to my eyes, which aren't the best in cases like this, more dependable, more... calm.

The next day, we headed back south, stopping along the way at Matsieng, the site of an old Botswana creation myth, where the ancestors of the Bakgatla, including their leader Matsieng, came forth from a three-metre-deep hole in the ground, followed by their livestock and families. Around that hole are a number of etchings of footprints. It's still a sacred site.

That Sunday, the last Sunday I'd be there, we went to a small chapel in Notwani run by the Stigmatines. The mass was very strange. The priest was Italian, and spoke in Setswana for most of the mass.

Have you ever been in a mass where everyone had a different part, i.e. bass, tenor, etc., and sang it perfectly, WITHOUT BEING TOLD? That happened here. The congregation stood up, and then sang. It was one of the only times I've heard a hymn sung in a mass in perfect harmony.

On the last day before I left, we all went to Spurs in the Riverview centre. I had a Hunga Busta Double Cheddamelt burger. I mention this merely as a recommendation to all who go to Spurs, either in Africa or in Liffy Valley. I got a burger bun, open. Each half had a burger covered with cheese. On top of the cheese was... Y'know the sauce inside mushroom kievs? That's what was on top of each burger. It was heaven.

The next day, after saying our goodbyes, Dad and I got in the shitty car (seriously, it started swerving alarmingly on the road up to Francistown, and was even worse on a dirt road) and headed back to OR Tambo Airport (formerly Jan Smuts). I, unfortunately, was navigator, meaning I could donate little to no time to sleeping in the sun (which would have been wonderful) or playing Pok�mon Red (which would have been fun). Even more unfortunately, I had had no sleep the previous night, which is why the former would have been so wonderful.

Eventually, we arrived in the airport, got our bags shrinkwrapped, and were about to go through the metal detector deelie when I remembered that I still had my penknife. Which resulted in me returning to the check-in desk and reporting it. The lady there couldn't stop laughing.

Of course, this was probably because I decided to "make the most of my limited time with it." Thus, I hugged it, kissed it, picked my teeth, examined my fingernail with the magnifying glass, recoiled in horror, swore to never do that again, and left, after being told that I could pick it up when I returned in two years (and no, I couldn't have mailed it to myself).

Eventually, I was back home, where I started eating chocolate cake. I then had a nap.

The next day, I went up to Belfast for Q-Con. After very little sleep. Woo.

I've always liked Q-Con, ever since I went last year. Maybe it's the atmosphere, which is incredibly friendly and hospitible. Maybe it's because of how many people are there, sort of forcing people to get along.

Perhaps it's because the Queens University Dragonslayers are the QUB Gaming and Anime Society, which makes Q-Con a gaming AND anime con. And that's ALL gaming. RPGS were on the floor below the Wiis.

The first event took place several minutes after we arrived. Myself, Ophy, Demus and Drakol made up the second Q-Knightmare team. And were one of the many teams to fall at the fifth hurdle.

That night was the culmination of Munch's DnD scenario. More on that later.

The next day, myself and Del, after messing around doing nothing, decided to go for the Wii Tennis Doubles Tournament. After winning our first match, we lost all the rest. But they were all close. Happily, we won an extra two we never knew about by default.

After that, I wasted more time on the consoles, and managed to get ten kills with the Shield Gun. Which was entertaining, and annoyed nearly everyone else playing UT2k4 no end.

That night, I tried to do a Paranoia scenario I'd bought the previous day, along with three manga (more on THOSE later as well!). Unfortunately, Ophy forced me out of the room to read the thing. Eventually, he came to get me, informing me that my replacement for Siskey, Oisin, had dropped out, so they'd got someone called Aidan. He, however, had also dropped out. Thus, I was left with Munch, Duggy, Demus and Ophy. And then Munch dropped. Not long after, so did Duggy. Leaving me with two party members, I was mildly distraught, convinced that my GMing had been the cause. After being slightly mollified by the remaining party members, I finally agreed to give up on the scenario for the night, and turned the game into a Zap game. Ophy predicted that they'd destroy Alpha Complex in half an hour.

They succeeded.

On the last day, I played my first ever Living Greyhawk game. More on that later. I then bought a lever-arch file for my Magic cards. It is currently holding around 1400. Which is about half my collection. I need more pages. And I also bought the DnD Player's Handbook (PHB). Hooray!

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm trying to seperate the gaming and non-gaming parts of my blog.

After the closing ceremony, we buggered off to the bus stop, catching the bus at 8pm, which resulted in me ending up at home around 12:30am. After crappy home-made kievs, I went to bed.

The next day, C and my mom got home. I'd had barely any sleep, and my sister had done no cleaning. Thus, it was MY task to make the house look good. I looked around, and gave up. I did my best, then wasted time on the net.

The next day was Aerosmith. Chris Cornell was better than I'd expected (which wasn't much), and was really good. Aerosmith were, of course, amazing. The Feeling, however... meh. Of course, anyone who can do justice to Video Killed The Radio Star gets at least some props. I got an Aerosmith T and keychain, and a Blues Brothers T (there was a place selling Ts for a reasonable price).

Which segues rather neatly into today. I can smell the braai outside, and saw the duck and steak and stuff. Woo.

Now, onto the gaming stuffs.

In Ophy's game, Demus got his soul stolen by a man in a self-induced trance. We got it back, and watched the man become a priest of Nyarlathotep (why can I SPELL the gorram name, but not PRONOUNCE it?). We were freed with the sigil Emet tattooed on our foreheads. Anyone who knows their myths (which included me, Munch and Ophy) knows that that is the Yiddish for Truth, which is inscribed on the heads of golems. And, when you wipe away the first letter, you get Met. Which means Death. We all then went to sleep, and woke up in the Dreamlands. We discovered we were without any of our equipment (including Demus's large quantity of weaponry and my magical aids), and sitting ducks. We managed to get to Dylath-Leen with the aid of some cats, and thence to Ulthar, the city where no man may kill a cat. There, we picked up a new companion, a cat played by Wing, and, during the last moments of the latest session, were travelling with a trader's caravan when we woke up.

In Munch's game, we managed to deal with the vampire (he was permitted to stay in the Mortuary by the Dusties... I mean, the Funary Guild), met some Barmies who I disco-danced with and who thus left all my stuff nearby after they beaned me and glued me to the now-16-year-old paladin, and, after getting seperated, found their hideout, where I was viciously attacked by a dire weasel I'd tried to hug. While I and Demus were recuperating (he got attacked as well), Ophy patrolled the streets. On his own. Needless to say, he got owned by a head-humping octopus dropped by our friends in Xaos. After getting fully healed, we set out after him. We rescued him, then gave him a potion we'd found that was labelled "Healing Potion." Turns out it was a Charm Potion. And Ophy's character was suddenly attracted to mine. After some madness in the house perpetrated by yours truly, we opened a room with signs all over the door saying "DANGER! NO TREASURE IN HERE!!!" The signs were right. It contained a baby chicken. Since I already had one, I tried to tickle it. It pecked me. I made a Fort save, and passed. My character tickled it again. I made the save again, and failed. Turned out it was a cockatrice. The party continued on, got bashed, and retired, leaving me there. They returned, and got me dropped on them, causing me to lose an arm. They entered, killed one of the Xaosmen, killed the wights they found there, and brought back the ghoul, the Joculators and me. So, all looked dandy and fine, when the party decided to fix my character. I had to make a fort save to survive the destoning. I rolled 12, 19, 15 and 17 before the roll, which would all save me. Then, for the actual roll...

I rolled a one.

RIP Celerian, my first dead character. Gone and replaced with a Gith monk, but not forgotten.

After the death, Ophy tried do mouth-to-mouth. At the same time, Drakol decided to loot the still-warmish corpse. Ophy beat seven kinds of shit out of Drakol, and left. Demus tied up Drakol, covered him in oil (why?), looted the body, and took my body and possessions and my chick Prudence, and went off into the sunset, with the promise from Munch that he would return as a recurring villain.

So, onto Greyhawk.

Living Greyhawk is a world-wide campaign. Every region in the world has a name. Ours is Onwal. All scenarios run in the UK and Ireland are set in Onwal. Your character grows thoughout all of these scenarios. And all of the loot, abilities and other stuff that he gets in one is carried over into all others. Essentially, your character becomes what DnD characters should become: a world-renowned hero.

I created a Dwarven monk, who, along with his fists, used a quarterstaff, a nunchaku (because monks have an attack called Flurry of Blows, which allows them to attack really quickly, and thus I thought that a Flurry of Blows with a nunchuku would look cool) and a siangham (I don't know what it is either, but it pierces and I can't pronounce its name). The mission was to get into a city that had been ruined in a past campaign (yes, what happens in one scenario happened in ALL of them. Essentially, your character is involved in history, changing it as he goes) in order to find the body of a soldier for a barmaid. After lots of undead (including someone metagaming by killing dead adventurers that were lying on the ground) and an Air Elemental (uh-HUH...), we found the guy at the end of a long procession of dead guys. We re-killed him, snagged the amulet, and then faced off against a zombie ogre. The first character to rush towards him was our tank, aka the fighter. He got taken down with critical. By the ogre's foot. Then the paladin rushed in, only to get the same treatment from another critical. At which point, everyone else decided to up sticks and run for it. Unfortunately, dwarves don't move too fast. I got taken down. Someone yelled at it to go away. Which, surprisingly, it did. Just as the downed characters were healed back up, the ogre came back. With friends. Needless to say, we all buggered off.

Long long before this, Demus decided to run a DnD game. I played a Warforged fighter, with asperations to reach Juggernaut-hood. Ophy played a warlock. Munch played a bard. Drakol... played a half-nymph sorceror. We started at level 4, except for Drakol, who, due to LA, started at 1. The place we went through was a glorious trap-filled dungeon-thing. Eventually, we managed to get out, dragging Drakol behind us, having spent nearly the entire run stopping various things from killing him. I'm rather proud of managing to use a tower shield as a surfboard along the ground in order to destroy a load of pressure-triggered spikes. It was cool.

Well, that's all the RPG news I have. Except... The new Leprecon director, Nuge, decided that, since I did such a good job last year, I should run RPGs and LARPs this year. Woo.

Linkage!!!

First off, the gaming section now has the d20 SRD. Up until recently, I wasn't sure about its legality. Then, after some consultation, I discovered that it was legal. Thus, it's there. It's the PHB, MM and DMG on the Internet. Useful. I've also linked to The Spoils, since it's unfair to link to Wizards but not to them. And I also added ComputerAndVideoGames.com, which hosts the new site for PCGamer UK, including their shiny new blog, Replacement Docs, in case you lose your manual, and System Requirements Lab, which tests your PC to see if it can run certain games.

In friends, I've added Apathy Sketchpad, home of AT, a mod on the T17 forum. I also removed several inactive sites.

Webcomics now. Oh boy, LOTS to add here.

Too many to summarise. The new additions are:

All are good.

I've also added Nethack, Angband and zAngband to the Freeware section. All are classic RPGs. All should be played.

I've updated the About section with my new Flickr page and my Facebook page.

AAAAAAAaaannnd I think that's it. Hopefully, I'll update sooner next time.
-KB.

25th December 2007 - Hehe... Sorry. Also: Merry Christmas.

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 17:04:56 -0800

Yes, I've updated at the last possible moment. Go me.

No doubt you're wondering why. The reason I didn't update that often BEFORE was because my method of archiving things got to be rather... complicated. Thanks to Inky, it's become rather less complicated. The reason I STILL didn't update was a combination of laziness, assignments and TF2 (more on the last anon). However, I determined to do one update before the New Year, so here it is.

First off, a summary of what's happened with my life:

I failed the exams after all, and had to sit repeats.
I failed two of the repeats as well, and had to redo second year.
Due to this, I had to resign from my position in the Leprecon Committee.
I have the possibility of a part-time job in an internet caf�/LAN centre. More on THAT anon.

OK, one more thing. My dad bought a server and domain for no reason other than to host pictures and drawings. Since I'm the most net-savvy in the house, I'm pretty much the admin. I have decided that the best thing to do would be to set up my own private page there. I had no idea what to put on it up until a few seconds after.

I am going to stick up reviews, fiction and code. Essentially, it'll become MY portfolio, listing my short stories, reviews, and the code snippets I think are good enough to show to other people without getting embarrassed. This will SEVERELY cut-down on the amount of space in these blogs. I've not yet WRITTEN anything for there yet, but eh. It's here. I'll add some stuff later.

On this site now, you may have noticed a few changes. For one, the headers are a nice, brighter red colour, there are links at the end of each post to the top of the page or the top of the entry, there's a nice divider between the most recent posts and the latest one, and there's a link at the top for RSSpect. The bright links are permalinks to each entry, and RSSpect is a custom RSS feed for this place. That way, when you subscribe, you'll get informed that the latest entry has been posted. I've set it to give you the ENTIRE entry, since I always got annoyed with BlogLines when they didn't give me an entire entry (to be fair, it was the fault of the feed, not the reader, but meh).

Speaking of technology now, Opera 9.50 beta is out. It has a few bugs (it's a beta still), however it has some nice features. Also, Opera 9.25 has been released as well, with lots of nice security features. I'd recommend getting both, and using 9.25 for most of your browsing, with 9.50 for occasional testing. Be careful, though, it has some bugs.

On the subject of technology, I've never realised up until now just how much I love jEdit. With the correct pulgins, it's a coder's dream. It has been auto-completing all of the html tags I've been using, allowing me to try and become completely W3C compatible. I have been printing all of my assignments from jEdit to the new colour printer downstairs.

... Didn't I mention the new printer? It's about half a metre tall, and has four toner cartridges, one for the three primary colours, and a black one. And it weighs a metric fuck-tonne. Ow.

Speaking, as I was, of technology, the LAN. It went... abominably well. Lots of TF2 (which everyone but Drakol enjoyed), Battlefield 2 (which I found entertaining once I reaquainted myself with the helicopter controls), Call of Duty 4 (which I wasn't so pleased with, despite unlocking several weapons and perks), Dawn of War: Dark Crusade (which saw my "valiant" Orks go against two different Necrons, which, needless to say, didn't go well AT all), UT2k4 (Invasion, which ended with myself, Demus, Munch and a staff member surviving till the last wave, then being crushed under the hooves of rocket-armed demons of death). Overall, fun. Munch commented that it was the first LAN that he's really enjoyed.

I know I said no reviews here, but this has to be said: Portal ROCKS HARD. Ditto Team Fortress 2. If you've never played them, PLAY THEM.

Now, about that potential job. The story starts on the first Monday of December, when myself, Ophy and Demus went into Burger King. We left, and were accosted by someone from a new LAN centre called GameTheWorld. We commented that we were committee from the Gamer's Society in Trinity, which surprised and enjoyened (IT'S A WORD NOW!) the guy.

After a few minutes of conversation (and ten minutes spent schooling me in UT2k4), I mentioned that we were planning on having a LAN party on the 14th, and could we do it there? We got an affirmative. And then I was told that they were looking for staff, and I should submit my CV. I did so the very next day.

I thought no more of it, checking in every now and then to see if the positions had been filled, and even less on the 14th, during the LAN party (more, once again, anon).

Last Tuesday, I went over to Ophy's house in the middle of Wicklow, where phone coverage is unheard-of. At around 12ish in the morning (midnight), I got a text from my voicemail. I listened. Turned out the person in charge of the internet caf�/LAN centre place was doing interviews, and was I interested? Needless to say, I couldn't really call her, so I decided to do so the following day.

The next day, we got the first train we could from Bray at around 2:30pm (with my right leg nearly being taken off due to lack of blood. SERIOUSLY), and got into town around 4ish. I didn't get much of a chance to call till around 5:45. Surprisingly, the manager was still in. She told me that she'd had the interviews THAT DAY, while I'd been on the train, and wasn't sure that she still had a place for me. However, she agreed to meet me the following day at around noon.

I turned up at the place at around 11:45, but, at around 12:03, was told that she was running late and wouldn't make it till 12:30. I got up, walked up O'Connell Street (the place I was interviewing FOR was on Grafton Street. The place I was interviewing IN was on O'Connell Street. It's behind that place that sells doughnuts. You know the place.), then arrived back at 12:22. She walked out of the backroom, took me back to her office, and started talking, asking about my experience (which was kind of lacking), and saying that my course produced excellent graduates that she had worked with on several occasions. She then said that she would get back to me in the New Year for a practical session.

A few words on comics now. I bought newuniversal, which is a wonderful thing by the ever-talented Warren Ellis, a few weeks back. It was really good, and I was glad to hear that the next issues would be rolling out in the New Year. Yay!

The other day, I bought Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. Volume 1, "This Is What They Want", also authored by Mr. Ellis, which is some of the funniest stuff I've ever read. I will be buying volume 2, "I Kick Your Face", as soon as the New Year rolls round. At the same time, I bought Runaways tank�bon 1, a Marvel comic which has been selling out all around Dublin. I say "tank�bon 1" because Marvel published it in hardback and, for some reason, tank�bon (manga-style book) forms. The hardcover is comics #1 to #18, whereas the version I got (the only thing with Runaways #1 in it) is comics #1 to #6. Hopefully, I can order the next two or three from Forbidden Planet, then buy the hardback Volume 2 from Third Place.

Books-wise, I've read the Soprano Sorceress (which wasn't that bad, but burns Munch up due to the incorrect way it describes harmony and dissonance), Dawnthief (which was pretty damn good), The End of Mr. Y (which was very metaphysical, but was pretty damn good if you could keep up), New Spring (a Wheel of Time prequel, which was also very good), Hell To Pay (which was decent, but I felt was too slow for most of it, and lacked a sense of energy that the other Nightside novels had in spades), Making Money (which was Pratchett back on form, but required you to have Going Postal, the previous book of a sort, on hand), and Eye of The World (which, as before, was pretty good).

Having read all of that, I've just realised something: I'm turning into a literary critic. God help me.

With regards manga, I am quite firmly hooked by Saiyuki, which makes it all the more annoying that I can't find tank�bon 3 anywhere I look for neither love nor money nor violence. Something ELSE I'll have to order from Forbidden Planet, unless Chapters can get both in for me, which will leave me forever in their debt. Unless I pay them. I'm also still into ID_eNTITY. I need the next tank�bon.

With regards gaming, well... I've been firmly hooked by the Orange Box. I've played Portal five times over, and have four Team Fortress 2 achievments left to get. Unless they've brought in the 32 or so new ones while I was writing this. God, I hope not. I've also resumed playing Deus Ex from where I left off, and am playing the final level. Not as I TYPE, obviously, but... yeah. Also, my bro got a Gamecube, a controller, and five games for free from a friend who got a Wii. None of these games included Super Smash Brothers, but they DID include Metroid Prime 2, Super Mario Sunshine and Harvest Moon. However, we didn't get a memory card either. So, we haven't touched it.

With regards tabletop gaming...

Drakol's game has been suspended due to lack of balance. We are now playing a Big Eyes, Small Mouth game based in the One Piece universe a month after the anime/manga kicks off. Munch has praised BESM by saying that it is the most open system he's ever seen. I just like it for the fact that it makes multiple humourous and knowing references to other anime and manga. Hell, it has an entire chapter dedicated to describing anime and manga stereotypes, including the fact that school-girls that are ALWAYS late are the ones that are most worried about being punctual, that naughty tentacles are like bug-eyed aliens ("They want our women"), among others.
Ophy has become OBSESSED with Unknown Armies, and, after a one-off session, I can kind of see why. Every character is a mage. Every character has a specific obsession (entropomancers live on the roll of a dice, epitomancers live to cut themselves, etc). Every character gains charges of varying strengths from performing their obsession (entropomancers from risking their lives needlessly, epitomancers by cutting themselves deeper, etc.). And every obsession has a central paradox and a taboo. The former is a peculiarity of the discipline (cliomancy allows you to use the lie everyone believes is real in order to alter the real into a lie), the latter results in you losing all your magical charges (entropomancer asks someone to take a risk he's not willing to himself, an epitomancer has his body modified by anyone who isn't him, which includes first aid). And every character is obsessed and more than a little mad. I stood in front of a man with a gun and told him to shoot me for a Significant Charge.
Munch's campaign hasn't got off the ground yet, but he has an online campaign I've just got involved in. I WAS Co-DM, but I'm now one of the more planar-aware characters. And I have abyssmal charisma (useless in my case), inntelligence (might be useful) and wisdom (pretty damn useful). I'm the archetypal big, strong, tough barbarian with surprising dexterity. And I'm a near seven-foot tall lizard-man-like being called a Khaasta.
Ophy's game has picked up two new players, Wing and another whose name I shan't say here, due to a) not having their permission, and b) not being sure how to spell it. We travelled into the Dreamlands, met Wing's character, who is a cat (not a cat-PERSON, an actual house-cat), then met the last person's character, and are currently investigating the plantation she grew up on, with me subject to a maid's love potion and Lowery remaining behind because he's ill.
I ran a Paranoia one-shot, which went incredibly well. It even resulted in me ad-libbing some stuff, which accidentally tied the mission into an ongoing scenario. And the characters didn't completely die! They all survived to the end! Now, I just need to write the second mission. That tends to be the hard part for me.

Just discovered that jEdit will in fact, provided I don't let tag complete kick in by typing fast enough, autocomplete will auto-close ANYTHING I type inside tag brackets. If I made a pants tag, it would insert /pants in new tags after I finished putting pants between normal tags. jEdit rocks. At least, the XML/Tag plugins do.

OK, since this thing now has an RSS feed, I can't come back and edit it later. So, no more P.S.es. I now have to actually CHECK if this thing is all correct BEFORE I upload it. Boourns.

All seems to be in order so far...

I've not mentioned my 20th. It was pretty good. I got some books, a nice 22" LCD monitor (which only worked on the analogue setting for a month, then randomly switched to digital only.), and a Logitech G9 gaming mouse (which rocks very very hard). I also got repeat exams, which were not so good.

I've linked to some webcomics.
Schlock Mercenary - Been meaning to link to this one for a while. It's really rather good. I recommend it a lot.
Jump Leads - If you've ever watched Dr. Who or Red Dwarf, then this comic is right up your street. Written by someone I met on the Team17 Forums.
Goblins - One for the DnD players. Provided you can understand the various references, it's wonderful. Otherwise, I wouldn't try it.
Good Ship Chronicles - Another sci-fi space comic, with some occasionally dark or obscure humour. It's pretty good.
Dork Tower - Yet another gaming one. A very good comic, written and drawn by Warpcon's perpetual guest (five years and running!).
Nodwick - And another. Less reliant on gaming for the punchlines, but has occasional references to DnD. Also, I don't know why those two are still hosted by Gamespy. They barely mention them anymore.
Isotown - Recommended by Inky, it's a quaint little isometric town, built slowly, day by day. Really, you just go to see how it grows. Not much plot, obviously.
Something Positive - In it's early years, filled with the sort of hate and vitriol that would drive a car for a year. It's mellowed slightly, but the jokes are still good. Requires a small amount of gaming knowledge every two or so months.
Head Trip - No real plot to speak of, but some wonderful lines, great jokes and good art.
Starslip Crisis - I'd like to thank Ben, author of Jump Leads, for pointing this out as some of his inspiration for the comic. It's pretty good.

I am also REMOVING a few webcomics:
PHW - I've no real idea why I linked it. It's not even listed in my massive web-comics bookmark list.
Too Similar - It died an unceremonious death and, unlike Rooms or Concerned, I have no reason, personal or in honour of it's greatness, to keep it up. So, away it goes.

One last comment by my dearest brother: "I figured out how to pick up Koreans in Crysis." Quite.

OK, that's about it. I wish you and yours a merry Christmas, and hope you'll have a good New Year.
-KB.

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Old Entries

1st April 2007 - April Fools!

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:51:57 -0700

OK, you guys are probably going to completely KILL me for that. Oh well. I was bored, and couldn't think of anything better. Sorry. :D

The last day of holidays. Wow. Long time. Easter soon. Should be fun.

Now, to Psychonauts.

What REALLY makes Psychonauts, though, is the powers.

Those ones you get by increasing ranks. After them, your powers start upgrading.

Well, I think that's all. Sorry to all who were genuinely worried about the continued existance of this place.
-KB.

9th March 2007 - blows off dust

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:49:39 -0700

Wait... I have a site? On the TCD Netsoc? Since when?

Well, I'm back. The first day of a three-week holiday. Technically. Five assignments does not a holiday make. Oh well.

And yes, I noticed the Elder Gods mucking up my chat-box. There's a reason. It shall be spoken of later.

I'm going to tell you what I've been doing since I last updated, back in the dark, olden days of January.

First off, Warpcon. I played two games. The first was a LARP I went into because they were short of people. The game descended into accusations of camel-f***ing.

And yes, I censored f***ing. I've no idea if I've already used it un-censored, and someone who won't be pleased with my swearing might raise hell. And I've got a lot of family who could, and would, raise hell, no matter how far from me they are.

I also took part in another Cyberpunk game. Unlike the last one, however, all of the characters played... aspiring Jedi. I am serious. The two characters with the highest parry could DEFLECT BULLETS WITH THEIR SWORDS.

I managed to get the highest kill-count, killing two guys by critically succeeding in a grenade throw, tossing it under their jeep several feet away. I also strung up some steel wire, and watched a motorbiker decapitate himself. And then I shot someone, as I recall.

So, I played two games. And yet I had fun. Why? Because of what I did when I wasn't gaming.

Munch, FuzzyGundam, Ophy, Drakol, Scanno and myself shared a room. This resulted in some... interesting conversations. We played Khronos on the floor for nearly two hours, still being there when Scanno came back from the pub.

Khronos is a board game, in which each player is a time-travelling property developer. It was recently bought for Gamers, where it has been played twice so far. It's very good, if a bit complex.

I also went to Other Realms, who have, sadly, decreased both their stock and their PCs, and split the floor space... with a health-food shop. It was horrifying. However, I spent lots of time there, browsing (read: reading) the comics. Eventually, I bought two: The Pulse, collection 1, and Exiles 1: Down The Rabbit Hole.

Back at the con, I finally bought a Dork Tower book, Dork Covenant (the first), and then had it signed by John Kovalik, further increasing the price of unsigned Kovalik products. I also bought Munchkin 3: Unnatural Axe. And played Munchkin: Possible. It's fun.

Now, the cons of the con (ahaha, hah). It was very badly organised. They had three erratas for the programme, and had to stick up sheets of paper to tell people games were on. In fact, they had a WoW CCG tournament that wasn't mentioned in the programme and that the cash-slaves (love that phrase!) were almost completely unaware of. And then, of course, the lack of anything interesting (at least, to me). And let's not forget the HORRIBLE mix-up with the hostel, which resulted in the place being booked for Warpcon, not the individual societies, resulting in some people from different societies being stuck together, instead of with friends. Otherwise, a good con.

So, that's Warpcon out of the way. Now for everything else.

Apart from the afore-mentioned comics, I've read Cable and Deadpool up to Issue 36. Oh, wow. Deadpool is my new favourite Marvel character. I mean, any character that always calls Spider-Man Tobey Maguire has to be at least SOME good. One of the funniest comics I've read.

... And then there's Next Wave. It stars five of Marvel's most under-used characters, and involves the Next Wave team fighting against Unusual Weapons of Mass Destruction, such as Fin Fang Foom, a giant Godzilla knock-off... who's wearing blue boxers. Or demonic sludge-men who, on entering our world, dress in clothes and act like normal people. Including, in some cases, skateboarding.

I've also been reading Hellboy and its various spin-offs. Wow. A must-read. I recommend it highly. Mike Mignola is a genius.

In terms of card-gaming, I've been mostly buying Spoils cards. I now have some very good Rogues, Bankers and Gearsmith cards. A Rogue-Gearsmith would entail making cards like Pluck, Grand Theft All and Jackmove cheaper, while a Rogue-Banker would allow me to put more Tremor Engines in the deck, since the Rogue cards can bring characters in from my opponent's discard and use what's left for things like Scrag, and the Bankers cards would allow me to bring back the characters from my discard pile that the Tremor Engine(s) would put in there. Decisions, desicions...

Oh, and a Part 2 card for the 8-Bit Theatre readers out there:

SWORD-CHUCKS!!! :D

In PC gaming, I've been flittering around. I'm on a tough part of Sam and Max, where I have to unravel the Largest Ball of Twine in the World to get a hippy moleman's mood ring so he can psychically find the bigfoot that I'm looking for. Yes, I'm serious.

Someone mentioned Deus Ex, so I reinstalled it. :D I've just got to Hell's Kitchen, and I'm going in over the rooftops. I'm specialising in pistol, rifle, computers and lockpicking, with a bit of electronics and swimming when needed. And I've got lots of LAMS. Heheheh...

I've managed to pass another mission in Freelancer. I am now in possession of the Crusader, the most powerful fighter in the Bretonia system. It's got six guns, no turrets, and twenty shield batteries and nanobot packs. I sold all my missiles, and can now take out nearly everything. Though I've run out of countermeasures and mines. I'm still surprised I haven't been blown out of the sky by a Slingshot missile. Maybe it's because, due to prolonged lack of countermeasures, I've learned how to dodge missiles.

Supreme Commander demo works. Provided I turn the settings down. But still... means I'll need to upgrade.

I've managed to beat Episode 85! Only 4 more to go before I finish it! :D Problem, though: The hardest level in the game, as chosen by the players, is coming up fairly soon... Oh well.

Speaking of games (which I tend to do all the time...), I've dragged my old Win95 PC into my room. It has a bigger hard-drive than I'd thought (about 12GBs. Bigger than the old study PC), but has a weaker processor (~266MHz, as dxdiag put it), and 64MB RAM. No DDR. The problem? I need drivers for my USB keyboard. I put them on a USB stick. Those drivers were suqsequently required for the USB stick. Irony in action. Lovely.

Music time! I'm going to be sticking up a last.fm thingy here sometime in the near future (ie when I can be arsed). So you can all see what wonderful taste I have in music. Munch is listed there, btw. I'll explain why later.

I've also been listening to a lot of Johnny Cash, Thin Lizzy, and Led Zeppelin. And, to many people's astonishment, I'm sure, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, and Primordial. Oh, and Mono. All of the aforementioned are excellent. I approve.

RP games time (yes, I'm going to continue introducing paragraphs like that. Including exclamation marks)!

In Ophy's game, we've managed to meet an uber-powerful warrior guy with an enormous sword who wasn't stolen from Dresden Files and doesn't want to kill us yet. He taught my professor dude how to control his magic. Everyone but myself and Demus then expunged a curs�d necklace of its trapped spirit. He didn't, cause he was outside the ritual circle, hiding behind barrels of salt with his rifles. I didn't, cause I managed, somehow, to fail a SAN check. Thus, I fell into a verbally self-abusing state, unable to anything but mutter about my uselessness. Now, we're hiding from the cultists who aren't too pleased we purged their magic and removed the spirit.

In Planescape, we went to the Temple of Chronepsis on a mission for an hourglass. Due to boredom, I went hunting for fishing holes, Ophy wrote a philosophical pamphlet, and Drakol set out to find Chronepsis, the Draconian God of Fate and Time, and, by extension, Death. And Demus? He set to destroying the hourglasses in the temple. For four days.

Y'know Death of the Discworld? You know what those timers he has represent? And you know how he looks human? And you know how Chronepsis, due to his nature, is a dragon? Can you see where I'm going with this?

Drakol came back at a run, saying we had to leave. NOW. After we'd run for a bit, he explained. He'd got the hourglass from Chronepsis, who had told him to get his friends, leave, and never to return. Ever. Oh, and to tell the dwarf that he would get what he deserved soon.

After that, we split up. I managed to join the Xaositects, a faction in Sigil also known as the Barmy or the Barkers. They're chaotic (which is fine by me, since up until recently I had a bag containing five pinapples tied to ten feet of hemp rope for no reason other than it would make a decent weapon and/or shield), and NOT insane. They have occasional insights into events by observing things that have nothing to do with the events in any way at all, and an ability to cause everyone within thirty feet to babble. Like the Tower of Babel all over again.

We're now going through an official Planeswalker scenario, to test it for the Planescape 3.5 Campaign Setting. Apparently, we're becoming a bit infamous on the Planeswalker forum, partially due to our escapades in Chronepsis's Temple, but also due to, to use Munch's line, our "max ranks in Jump (to Conclusions)." Which is true. Though, in our last session, me and the Bladeling (Demus's new character) did some excellent playing, while Ophy and Drakol spent half the session having an incredible in-game philosophy discussion.

One thing about that game, though. Demus and I were in the bar. We and Munch were bored due to the philosophising. So, we look to each other, yell "PICK UP CHICKS ROLL!", and roll at the same time (yes, we really ARE such big nerds).

We both got 20s.

"You both pick up a small, fluffy chick. However, the owner asks for them back." I buy one for 5 silver. I named it Prudence, for reasons that shall become apparent later. It lives under the green top hat I got when I joined the Xaosmen which I wear all the time. Well, most of the time.

We'sa gonna go stake us a vampire now!

In Drakol's game... no game has occured since last time.

And my Paranoia game has been a no-go due to work. The first session went pretty well, I'd say. kauthon and Ophy couldn't come, due to Schols studying. So I played them. Badly. ;D

Every time I had a secret conversation with a player, they would discuss who was a traitor in-character.

I managed to come up with a Rastafarian Friend Computer, Friend Computer complaining cause the Troubleshooters called while he was in the shower, and Friend Computer saying something, then choking due to the GM laughing so hard, resulting in Demus preforming the Heimlich on the GM/Friend Computer, earning him some Perversity Points.

Oh, and I blew up kauthon's character's head. Using a highly-concentrated happiness pill.

Book time (told you so)! I read Lady Friday by Nix recently. Wasn't bad. Seemed a bit rushed somehow, as opposed to Nix's excellent Old Kingdom books. Which I need to buy someday...

I've also read Magician (Very nice), The Big Over-Easy (Pretty good), The Complete Asimov (<3), and I'm reading Round Ireland With A Fridge (Hah!).

Onto the course. *sigh*

People in it are getting discouraged by the amount of work we've been getting. Me included. I've not handed in as many assignments as I should have. I'm going to have to pick up the pace soon. And fast.

Oh, and I'm getting three weeks of holidays from tomorrow. I found out today. About five or six hours ago. Cool.

Now, onto Leprecon. Remember that? :D

I was a member of the Admin team, that brave group who do tonnes in the run-up, then just get a cup of tea or an espresso each day for the rest of the con. Which was what I WOULD have been doing, and some gaming...

... But I was in the musical, Shoggoth On The Roof. Now, to tell you all from beginning to end of this sanity-blasting experience.

Ophy and Munch approached me and asked if I wanted to get involved. Thinking it would be fun, I said yeah. I went in, and decided on the roles of Herbert West, Reanimator, and/or Obed "Old Man" Marsh, a man with the Innsmouth Look (wiki it, or JFGI). To demonstrate singing, I sung Tribute. Then, due to overwhelming demand (Demus screamed it out), I played air guitar.

I rocked SO hard that I fell off the stage and collapsed in a heap, having avoided some semi-serious head damage (or I was precariously-balanced due to moving around all the time while singing).

The next rehersal, I was told I would be playing Professor Armitage. "Is he important?"
"He has the most lines and sings the most."
"... SHIT."

What followed was a gruelling few months of learning musical cues, learning lines, learning to arrive on time (Demus failed at this part, and never learned. :D), and learning to withstand brutal criticism from all and sundry. Like fellow cast and crew.

On the first night, we were all worried. So we sang some songs. Songs I won't repeat. Then, the first act. I messed up in my second song, then missed a load of lines near the end. However, during the Act II, Scene 2, something astonishing happened.

What SHOULD have happened was that Aongus and Demus were supposed to come round me on either side, slow-mo punch a ghoul that was harrassing me, then spin round, still in slow-mo, and high-five behind my head. Unfortunately, I'd moved back slightly or something. So what ACTUALLY happened was: Demus hit the staff I was using as a prop. It whacked me in the groin. Square-on. Yes, I was close to tears, and could barely stand. I removed it ASAP... hitting Demus on the head. He responded with an "Ow.", then they continued. Chris, the director, commented that, after that scene (he didn't see the specifics), we all acted better. In fact, he came up to me, grabbed me by the shoulders, shook me and yelled "What's wrong with you? You were acting!"

The second performance, however...

The first one had been to family and friends mostly. The second was to gamers. Many of whom we knew, and had rolled with on numerous occasions. The second performance went down devestatingly well. We even wowed Keith Baker, creator of Eberron, who asked for our signatures and got them on a cardboard mask prop, then gave us his on his business card. He then came down to Burger King with the cast and crew, where we had a discussion about gaming, and then played Do You Worship Cthulhu?, which is like Werewolves of Miller's Hollow. It was fun, and he's a wonderful person. We group-hugged with him in the middle after we left.

Oh, and three of the characters, Prudence/Grandma Prudence/Lavinia Whately, were played by Suzie, who has blonde hair. Chicks have yellow feathers. Thus, Prudence. QED. See, it DOES make sense.

And Munch is listed on last.fm as an artist since I took home the score for the musical, stored it on a server somewhere, then listened to it with Winamp. Which has a last.fm audioscrobbler plugin. That's why.

Finally, the Elder Gods are the gods of the Call of Cthulhu mythos. Cthulhu is their priest. And the musical must have got them stirred up. That explains THAT.

I have no idea about the Hungarian, though. Maybe if we told him that there were Hungary Turkeys nearby, he'd bugger off or something...

Apart from that, I watched (and listened to! It wasn't very hard) the Orktoberfest game, where Fatz's homemade Gargant was happily blowing things up. Gratz to Demus, who won the first round, and was the only one to win during either round, due to him grabbing da booze, jumping out of da Gargant, and playing the "Destroy the Gargant" card. Only got one point for it, though. I also saw the Bloodbowl Live game, which was fun, and played in the Spoils draft game, which is where I picked up some of my good cards. Demus won that as well. Damn his eyes.

Overall, a great con, with nothing going horribly wrong that I heard of, even if I never got a chance to roll a die in anger, or play the Planescape game. I think we even made a (slight) profit!

TV time (yes, I'm back to that...)! I've been watching Bleach, as usual, as well as The Tick, Sam and Max (yes, it was also a TV show. No, I didn't know either), and Avatar. I blame kauthon for the latter. He recommended it, and I must say, for a Nickelodeon show, it's remarkeably good. And it was partially inspired by Cowboy Bebop, which I finished a few weeks ago. One word:

Excellent.

... I think that's it. Wow. Lots written in such a short time.

Wait! Webcomic updating! I've added Paradigm Shift and Antihero For Hire. The first is a brillant fantasy/horror comic which you need to read. The second is a parody of superhero comics and TV shows. The art gets a bit patchy here and there, but the writing remains superb throughout.

OK, NOW I'm done. Time to sleep, and hand in some VHDL. I sort of like VHDL.

Oh, and one more thing:

Vista. LOL.
-KB.
P.S.: I made a dice-roller in C++! Ask and I'll give you the program.
P.P.S.: First P.S. and P.P.S of the month, and only P.P.S. on this, the front page.

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All content on this page is the intellectual property of Alex Altman, and as such is � Alex Altman, with the exception of the owners of the websites that I've linked to. The websites I've linked to are � their respective owners. Using anything from any of those sites, or from this site, is forbidden without permission. In other words, ask before taking!

Mental Arithmetic

1st April 2007 - April Fools!

27th/28th June 2007 - Blows it Out of the Water

"25th/26th June 2007 - Errr... Whoops?

"April:

April:

May:

22st: 2ba1 Maths

24rd: 2ba5 Telecommunications and Information Management

June:

1st: 2ba2 Programming Techniques

5th: 2ba4 Computer Architecture I

7th 2ba3 Systems Programming

25th December 2007 - Hehe... Sorry. Also: Merry Christmas.

Old Entries

1st April 2007 - April Fools!

9th March 2007 - *blows off dust*

9th March 2007 - blows off dust