Bandwagon time
Seeing how my Bucs are pretty much screwed for the season (Starting QB Chris Simms is likely done for the season. Rookie QB Bruce Gradkowsk is now at the helm of the ship), I've decided on to jump the Chicago Bears bandwagon (yeah yeah this totally contradicts what I said about me and bandwagon jumping).
Go bears.
Fantasy Football up to week 3 Straight up: 30-16
Against the spread: 24-20-2
Sports Gal against the spread: 25-19-2
Sports Guy against the spread: 21-19-2
Getting beat by the sports gal. Geez.
I'm not overly fond of bullet-time because it really disrupts the immersion factor ("wait a sec, i'm playing a game"). The horror sequences and lame final level also don't help the immersion factor either. The in game lighting established a somewhat creepy atmosphere, but the game wasn't that scary (refer to lack of immersion above). Bullet time also messed up the firefights. I played the game on hard difficulty, so any hits would cause serious damage (very hard, hit = near death). Hence I couldn't engage the enemy in real time, which would result in bouts of inactivity to recharge my bullet time. On the bright side, the enemy AI was really good; they'd flank you and run away from frag grenades.
On the up and up, the multiplayer was pretty good. Most of the maps are fairly compact and well designed (Refinery, Campus, High-Tech, Factory, Docks, Construction, Office).
Helpful tidbits:
- turn graphical settings to minimum, which really helps out response times. Because of this change, I went from middle of the pack to dominating most servers
- use melee attacks. they're one hit kills in this game
- run around unarmed as much as possible. You gain a huge speed boost while unarmed. Unarmed has great synergy with your melee attacks.
Screenshots
Freespace 2
After the initial 2-4 hour adjustment period, I got used to the controls. I didn't know all of the controls, but I made sure to remember the ones listed in red. The game incorporated some good manadatory training/tutorial sessions which eased the learning. Still, I wonder if your average gamer would put with this initial learning curve for this game.
That's gotta hurt
So after watching
UFC 63, I came home and start reading the Sherdog forums and I noticed this thread.
lol
Poor guy probably thought he had $4000 in the bag after watching BJ dominate rounds 1 and 2. Only to watch in horror as BJ came out in third round looking like a listless zombie.
Living on the edge, I suppose. Is this fake? Maybe. A good laugh either way.
Savage Love
Every week, I make sure I pick up a copy The Georgia Straight. I usually check out the entertainment articles/reviews/listings and I read the cover story every other week or so. Occasionally, I check out the restaurant or food articles. However, I always read the latest edition of Savage Love. Why?
1) Compared to your typical love advice column, it's infinitely more interesting with its non-vanilla sex and sex related letters (ie, the legality of owning a videotape of your under aged self and your under aged partner).
2) Dan is a bad ass.
Daily Musings
I don't think there will be posts on my main blog in a while. Some of my future posts require a certain time investment and my time management has gone to complete shit as of late.
Currently playing God of War (PS2). The game is no pushover on normal difficulty. The highest difficulty level (the titular "God Mode") sounds brutal, but then again, I can be masochistic when it comes to challenging games.
Becoming somewhat more comfortable with job application follow ups but I still get nervous. Then again, I am so easily distracted that it takes me forever to actually follow up.
I think a Harry/Hermione/Ron sex tape would really rake in the dough. Or at least generate a lot of downloads.
| | sweet |
| | looks like RCMP might want me too =D |
| | RCMP? |
| | wtf |
| | Your file has been referred to the Department for a more in-depth review. Should the Department wish to invite you for an interview, they will contact you directly. |
| | :D |
| | what |
| | doing what? |
| | told u |
| | criminal information processor |
| | you mean data entry |
| | if u want it put it simply |
| | :) |
| | i hate jobs with fancy titles. |
| | it just gives the person a false sense of self worth |
| | i suggest u go be a janitor then |
| | nice and easy |
| | :) |
| | hm what's that word for janitor from gta san andreas |
| | that's right |
| | sanitation technican |
| | :D |
| | while we're at it |
| | we can call cashiers |
| | sales associates |
| | sure |
| | ditch diggers. environment deformation experts |
| | porn stars. human relief specialists |
| | it's like this time our class went to the pulp mill |
| | i asked the employee "isn't the exchange rate really hurting profits?" |
| | of course he comes up with BS like "ohh we have a zillion money saving operations/projects" |
| | when he could've said "well we try our best to save money, but otherwise we're taking it up the ass cuz of the exchange rate" |
| | mind you, the exchange was 0.67 compared to 0.83 now |
| | so pulp companies are really taking it up the ass now |
| | so yeah, you could say that I hate BS |
Interesting read on the world of a sports agent
Bandwagon
Since I'm no bandwagon jumper, I'm gonna let my favorites known.
Hockey
Teams: Anti-canucks. Anti-leafs
Players: Joe Sakic. Jarome Iginla. Alexander Ovechkin.
Football
Teams: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Players: Ray Lewis. LaDainian Tomlinson. Chad Johnson. Dwight Freeney. Anti-Michael Vick
Baseball Teams: Toronto Blue Jays. Anti-NY Yankees
Players: Ichiro Suzuki. David Ortiz.
Basketball
Teams: Toronto Raptors
Players: Lebron James. Dwayne Wade. Allen Iverson. Chauncey Billups. Anti-Vince Carter. Anti-Antoine Walker
NCAA Football: Miami
NCAA Basketball: UNC at Chapel Hill. Gonzaga
Soccer: England
Boxing: Roy Jones Jr. Winky Wright
Tennis: Maria Sharapova
MMA: Tito Ortiz. Quinton Rampage Jackson. Josh Barnett. Kazushi Sakuraba. Anti-Tim Sylvia
Golf: Eldrick Woods
Screenshots
From F.E.A.R.
The wonders of the
Havok physics engine.
Why F.E.A.R. wasn't that immersive.
Clash at Richards on Richards
Today, I went to this DJ, MC, beatbox and b-boy battle event at Richards on Richards.
Frankly I don't know much about the other 4 pillars of hip hop (DJing, Beat boxing, B-boy stuff and Graffiti), so I tried to enjoy things the best I could.
All the B-boys seemed to be really good although many of them didn’t really seem to know how to battle. The B-boy champ was the only one who understood the concept of battling. It’s hard to explain, but he usually involved some maneuver to diss his opponent (ie, kicking while handstand walking over towards his opponent).
The beat box champ was really good at emulating turn table sounds.
Only four people showed up for the DJ battle. The winner, out of the four contestants, then faced and lost to some national DJ champ. Frankly, I was getting kind of bored (probably cuz I hadn’t eaten in 4.5 hours at this point).
It takes a lot of guts to enter a MC battle. With that said, some the MCs were really wack and the crowd really let them hear it since the crowd was the sole determinant of who stayed (“STAY!”) and who left (“GO HOME!”). For whatever reason, myself and the crowd became really amped at this point, so we weren’t shy about letting our feelings be known. The crowd actually had good taste as I only disagreed with one of the selections/rejections. Pre memorized lines usually got a good response, but the lines made up on the spot (ie, about the MC’s appearance/attire, people in the crowd) got the greatest responses. Overall, there was some funny ass shit that was dropped. The winner kind of sounded like Eminem.
Jin, who was hosting the MC battle, then performed a song or two. Then some skinny ass white kid in the front row decided to challenge Jin to a battle. Unfortunately for the kid, he was really wack and promptly got served.
Daily Musings
Finished
F.E.A.R. the other day. What a mediorce game. More later when I'm not so tired.
Inconsistent EDIT
- in Family Guy episode 3x02 "Brian does Hollywood", Jasper asks Brian whether he likes "Sex and the city" and he says it's an alright show. In episode 4x28, "You May Now Kiss The...Uh...Guy Who Receives", Brian claims he did some things in West Quahog that he wasn't proud of [Non sequitur: Brian and two gay guys (or was it girls?) are watching sex and the city and Brian says "ok, this is about three hookers and their mother?"]
- I was reading the
Chuck Liddell wikipedia entry which lead me to the
Willa Ford wikipedia entry and it features this blantant lie:
"In September 2006, a sex tape recorded from a cell phone found it's way on the internet that depicted Willa giving oral sex to an unknown man in explicit detail. The film is short(only 46 seconds), and concludes with Willa spitting out the ejaculate. The film was pulled from most websites within a few hours for various reasons.
[4]"
It even adds a reference in the hopes of reinforcing the lie. Of course, when you actually check the reference out, there's no truth in the above statement. Lets see how many days will pass before the proper change is made. (9/16/06 I noticed someone made a change. yay team)
Don't trust Wikipedia
I have a lot of leisure time. Thank you unresponsive companies.
With all this extra stressin
The question I wonder is after death, after my last breath
When will I finaly get to rest? Through this supression
they punish the people that's askin questions
And those that possess, steal from the ones without possesions
The message I stress: to make it stop study your lessons
Don't settle for less - even the genius asks-es questions
Be grateful for blessings
Don't ever change, keep your essence
The power is in the people and politics we address
RIP Makaveli
Week 1
Wanderlei just got pwned
LHK!!
DoTa for dummies
Before I get started, I really hope Crocop bitch slaps the crap out of Wanderlai Silva in the open weight GP semi finals tomorrow.
In my main blog, I’m going to talk about this popular custom game for Warcraft 3: The Fronze Throne. However, you’ll need to get a handle on the basic mechanics of the game so I present “Dota for dummies” by Tichondrius (which can be found on the DoTa forums)
/ Plagarism
What is DotA? [D1]
Defense of the Ancients, abbreviated to DotA, is a custom map for Warcraft 3 that has developed over time. The original concept was derived from an old custom map known as Aeon of Strife (AOS). Over time it has been developed and many variations have spawned from it. The most popular variation of DotA today is known as DotA Allstars.
The main objective of DotA Allstars is to destroy the enemy’s ancient. At the beginning of the game, the team you are on decides your allegiance, either the Sentinel (bottom left) or Scourge (top right). In DotA there are 3 lanes, in order to assist your plight in destroying the enemy ancient, there are creeps which spawn on a regular basis. The creeps consist of a small pack of treants (Sentinel) or ghouls (Scourge), and a necromancer (Scourge) or druid (Sentinel). On the defensive side there are also 3 lines of towers protecting the main base (shown by the Ancient Protector and Ziggurat icons) and two surrounding the Ancient.
At the beginning of the game you are given the opportunity to either choose a hero or have one selected for you. Your job is to use this hero to assist the creep that spawns, to penetrate the enemy defenses and destroy their ancient. Over time your hero will level up and gain abilities which you will use defensively, offensively or passively.
Basic Mechanics
Experience – During the game your heroes will gain experience by experiencing battle. By staying within the range of dying enemy units, your hero gains experience, one he has enough experience he will level up.
Levels – Levels are grades which your hero passes as he gains experience. Each level will give you bonuses to stats and the chance to choose an ability. The starting level is 1 and the maximum level is 25. It becomes tougher to gain experience as you level.
Stats – Every hero will start off with a certain stat value for their three attributes. The three stats are:
- Strength – Governs the gain of health points and health point regeneration
- Agility – Governs the increase of armor and attack speed
- Intelligence – Governs the gain of mana points and mana point regeneration
Every hero has a primary attribute, respective of their primary attribute they will be given extra damage points and other bonuses according the increase of it
Abilities – Every hero has their own set of four abilities. Three of these abilities are categorized as normal abilities. These normal abilities have 4 levels governing the damage or the extent to which its function is useful, these levels are accessible at levels 1,3,5 and 7, except for some exceptions (Nevermore the Shadow Fiend). Apart from normal abilities, heroes also have an Ultimate ability (commonly called ‘ulti’). Ultimate abilities usually provide that extra kick that a hero needs in order to kill other heroes. These Ultimate abilities are accessible at levels 6, 11 and 16. Heroes are also giving the chance to boost their attributes by investing their abilities in “attribute bonus”, which gives a +2 bonus to each stat.
Gold – Upon killing creeps or enemy heroes, your will be given gold. Heroes give a higher premium of gold but since they are controlled by human players and have abilities, they will be significantly harder to kill.
Advanced Mechanics
Hero Killing – In order to assist your assent to the enemy ancient, killing enemy heroes is advisable. However to do so, careful planning and making use of the current circumstance is required. Usually using a heroes abilities to your advantage will help in hero killing. Certain abilities have certain affects on the enemy as listed below.
Ability effects – Many abilities, both active and passive have added effects which can assist in both killing and harassing enemy heroes. The majority are listed below:
Stuns – Stuns are the ultimate form of disabling in DotA. A stunned player cannot cast spells or move, they are completely disabled.
Slows – A slowed player will have reduced effectiveness. This can be in terms of both attack speed and move speed
Maim – A maimed player will be much slower; this is signified by blood pouring out of them. The only maim present in DotA is attainable from the items ‘Sange‘ and ‘Sange and Yasha’
Freeze – Similar to stun only used by Rylai the Crystal Maiden. Frozen units cannot move or attack but can cast spells.
Cooldown – To prevent the spamming of one singular spell, the majority of spells are given a degree of cooldown time. Cooldown can only be eliminated by some abilities (Rearm, used by Boush the Goblin Tinker and also by the Recipe Item, Refresher Orb)
Farming – Farming is the act of killing creeps for extended amounts of time. Some heroes are more exceptional than others in terms of farming; some are barely capable of it. Farming is useful for gathering large amounts of gold to buy items in order to make the hero more potent and able to kill heroes easier. While killing creeps it’s recommended that you don’t place yourself in the spotlight. Taking damage directly often results in heroes targeting you in the early stages of the game. Try not to lose any hp unnecessarily.
Items and Recipes – There is a large selection of items in DotA Allstars, these are all available for viewing at www.dota-allstars.com. Items can do a variety of useful things. From consumables to power-ups to items that drop on death, items make the game of DotA just as interesting as they made Warcraft 3. In terms of power-ups, items can add damage, add movement and attack speed, add stats (which can add damage anyway), and even add active and passive spells. Recipe items are interesting triggered items in DotA, when a group of items is purchased; they will be merged in order to produce a more powerful and potent item, usually giving a more significant bonus than just the normal items by themselves. Recipe items are often the ones most sought after since by the end of the game most normal items will serve no purpose but to fill your inventory.
/ end plagiarism
10.000 days
Who: Tool
Where: GM Place
When: Aug 22, 2006 (Tuesday)
How much: ~$80
My seat: Sec 103, Row 14, Seat 3 (Behind stage left)
After a concert, my hearing usually returns to normal in 20 minutes or so. However, for Tool, my hearing wasn’t normal until the next day. Maybe it was due to my proximity to the stage, but this concert was LOUD.
I couldn’t see the stage from my vantage point, but I think there was 4 foot high LCD screen behind the band. During the entire show, there were non stop trippy light effects on the stage floor; I thought the lighting effects were pretty cool, but I wonder if the people on the floor were able to see them.
Some of the reviews on tool fan page are over dramatic and heavy on the dick riding. It’s almost as if they were expecting dramatic music and a collective “awwww” from the studio audience. These fanboys would’ve given a great review even if the band just jerked off on stage for a couple of hours.
1) Stinkfist
Extended guitar solo. not as great as I hoped. Maybe I wasn’t into it at this point.
2) The Pot
The garage now reeked of weed.
3) Fourty six and 2
This came off real well.
4) Jambi
5) Schism
This got a big pop from the audience. I don’t quite understand the popularity of this song compared to other songs on the same album (Lateralus)
6) Rosetta Stoned
Long and intense. This really came off well. You couldn’t understand a word Maynard was saying when he was using that voice modifier device because of the slightly muddle sound.
7) Sober
The lone track selection from Undertow. Personally I’d prefer Prison Sex over Sober.
8) Right in Two
9) Lateralus
Very intense. The best song of the night. Around this time, I really started to get into the concert.
After the song, the band just sat in the middle of the stage for a few minutes while to soak up the atmosphere as the fans went berserk.
10) Vicarious
This song would be better if the meaning wasn’t so literal but instead more metaphorical ala stinkfist. Good performance though.
11) Ænema
Solid concert closer.
Maynardisms:
“Fan-fucking-tastic”
"It is an honour, and a pleasure to be in our favorite English speaking country in North America"
"Congradulations on your high dollar. You'd better buy our country before we invade yours."
“I apologize for our president”
Gripes:
- No general admission. Instead seats on the floor. Head banging in place. Yippee.
- Somewhat short set list given their discography (4 albums, various covers, 1 EP).
- Slightly muddled sound.
- The band mostly stood in place during the show.
- No Eulogy, Parbol/Parbola, Hooker with a Penis and Pushit. Especially Pushit.
- Two words about the general Tool audience: uglier and meaner.
Overall:
The slight brevity was balanced out by the intense nature of the show. The muddled sound was only a slight annoyance in the end.
I can understand Justin and Adam standing around, but Maynard could do more than his exaggerated stomping act since he does go for long stretches without singing. Ultimately, it’s forgiven because they played so damn well. The intensity is what I’ll always remember about this show and hence, this is now my third favorite concert of all time.
Daily Musings: spending
So I went Zulu records hoping to pick up tickets for both the hip hop expo and DJ Shadow.
Spending along the way
1 year supply of night and day contacts: $272
Sushi in kits + tip = $9
Chapters Stuff: $22
The Communist manifesto and other revolutionary writings
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Maclean's magazine
Safeway stuff: $28
Total $331
And I never actually bought the damn tickets because they were either sold out or not available. According to ticketmaster, the DJ shadow tickets are $50 after taxes and what not. I figure the hip hop expo tickets are $20-30 ish.
Potential total $411
I really need a job.
Currently Playing: pwning noobs on F.E.A.R. combat
Basketball is a team sport
Simple, but often forgotten concept.
Team USA - 12 all-star caliber NBA players. Little experience as a team
Team Greece - 0 NBA players. More experience as a team.
Guess which team won.Prior to the game, Team USA warmed up by performing crowd pleasing slams. Team Greece warmed up by shooting free throws.
Guess what was a
big factor in the USA losing the game. (Hint: 20-34)
Cover Theory
Here's
a link that explains the cover theory. This is all speculation because Nas has never acknowledged this theory, but it's still a good read.
