December 2007

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

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 café/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 café/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 tankôbon 1, a Marvel comic which has been selling out all around Dublin. I say "tankôbon 1" because Marvel published it in hardback and, for some reason, tankôbon (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 tankôbon 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 tankôbon.

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.