Well recently I was afforded the opportunity to take a trip to Tennessee with a science class of mine, which happens to be taught by my homeroom teacher, with whom I have some rapport with. There are around 40 people going on the trip, we leave Wednesday afternoon to stop in Virginia for the night. Next day we finish the trip down and the fun begins. A couple of the days we'll spend hiking in the Smokies and what not and then on one of the days we'll be going white water rafting, sure to be a fun time. :P I'm going to see if I can snatch a few pictures of the area, always nice to have some scenic pictures on file. The trip ends on Sunday when we come back home.

On the gaming front, I purchased Audiosurf yesterday, having a load of fun with that. I just got an email that said I was dethroned from the highscore list for the song "Mr. Jones" by Counting Crows. I've been jumping seats trying to transfer music from my non-gaming PC to my gaming pc, seeing as the gaming PC has little to no music. It really is a fun game, can enjoy my music, and play a game based on it at the same time.

On another note, I've decided to try to become a beta tester in the game Beyond Protocol. It's a Sci-Fi RTSMMO, basically you build up your empire on several different planets and wage war against others in order to expand, a clan I'm semi-founder in is looking into the game, so I thought why not try to get into the beta, it sounds like a pretty fun game, and I hope I get the opportunity to experience first hand sometime soon.

On the subject of the 1984-Half Life 2 comparison, I do intend to write that sometime soon, unfortunately my critical essay on the infulences of 1984 which I have to do for my english cla.ss takes priority. I have not forgot about it and I fully intend to get it up as soon as I possibly can.

Hope you will have a good week, I'll be active tomorrow in the unions I belong to, but after that I won't be active till Monday. So so long!

Enjoy this random picture :)

Inspired by this thread.

I'd like to know why you guys blog.

OH HAPPY DAY THE NEW YORK FOOTBALL GIANTS HAVE WON THE SUPER BOWL!!!!!

Ah ha, this is awesome/unbelievible!

Well I haven't done a real blog in a while, so here we go!

I've been a bit more active on GS lately, mainly posting in OT and a few of the unions. My post count is now up to around 8200 and growing all the time, only a matter of weeks/months till I hit that coveted 10k post mark that those OT goers love to create. If someone had told me a year and a half ago that I would be nearing 10,000 posts on a gaming website and have an extensive amount of friends on the site, I'd probably have looked at them strange and said "What? :?" but alas, here I am, with you fine people, managing to have intelligent conversations on the web, a place known for its tomfoolery. Glad to be along for the ride with you chaps.

Anyway, you may notice a few new things here in my profile, I would like you guys to give me your thoughts on my new banner or any banner suggestions you think I should go with. Seriously, any comments are welcome, I love to change stuff around to make it look the best it possibly can. You may also notice my new warning sign under my WiC sig :P I honestly love it, wish I could get a T-Shirt version of it. More people in this world need to start thinking and stop having the IQ or a small pebble.

Reminds me of a great quote from the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, I know...not a show one would associate with good quotes...:

"'Your son scored a -7.....' 'Is that good?' 'Ahh....We gave the test to a shovel and two candy necklaces....they scored a positive 17'"

Sometimes, I know just how that cartoon character must have felt. Some people these days.....well...you get the point.

In school I've gotten past my mid-term exams with mainly B's and A's. Pretty good overall, could have done better on a few tests, but could have definitely done worse. A few of my cl@sses have changed. I'm now taking Adv. Entrepreneurship, a Cl@ss where we have to create a business plan for a business we could set up a run. I was thinking of basing mine on a made to order computer business. I get a list of things people are looking for in a computer, buy the parts, build it for them, ship them to the customer, for a small fee. I think this is pretty sound, I don't actually have to execute the business plan, but it's pretty feasible at this point. I would love to hear ya'lls thoughts on that subject as well.

I've also begun Advanced Banking, basically the 2nd half of a Bank teller training program at my school. My school is only 1 of 2 schools on the East Coast to have a working bank inside of the school. I'll be working at the bank and counting money etc, as the program moves forward. Also, my Econ/Gov ****has moved onto the government portion of the course. Since it is an election year, it should be a very interesting couple of months. Especially since there is one kid in the ****that loves to argue with me, best part being that, when we argue, our teacher actually nods her head and agrees with me as I present points. Priceless indeed.

On the gaming front: I'm counting down the days till Frontlines: Fuel of War comes out, promises to be a good PC game. I have to agree with Raven's observations that the controls on the Xbox360 are clunky at best. PC it is for me. Also of note is Tiberium. This honestly looks like it's on it's way to becoming a great game. I love the concept of not only a C&C FPS, but also commanding squads of units while playing the game. Honestly cannot wait for this game, really hoping to see it come along nicely.

For my last announcement, I shall be creating a small article on the similarities between the book 1984 and Half-Life 2. On that same line of thought, if you like to play RTS games, I would like to suggest you check out Orkhammer's articles on the different elements of RTS games. He does great work.

So go check it out, and I'll catch ya later.

I believe the title says it all with this one. I'm slowly earning some money from refereeing basketball and what not and with graduation looming in the distance....well, it is a bit off, but still, always good to think ahead, I've been contemplating getting a PS3.

Since I'm just one man with his obviously biased opinion on whether I should get one or not, I would like to open this up for dicussion. Do you guys think I should look into this, or should I save my money for things later on?

I'm really not sure what to do.

I remember a time when I craved a non-scifi Cold War game (read: not Red Alert Series) and at another point this past year I craved a modern shooter, something that wasn't Battlefield or just generally terrible. (Desert Storm?) This year has seen a answer to those desires, with CoD4 out and WiC out for some time now. Let me just tell you, I'm a pretty happy gamer now adays.

And now I can add another game to my list: America's Army. I never really looked into the game, never seemed like my cup of tea, but with the clan I am in moving into America's Army again, I figured I give the game a go.

Gee was I in for a surprise. The overall gameplay of AA is much different from say, CoD4 or Battlefield 2. Much more realistic that I expect (especially in the medical training part, Holy crap, I don't want to relearn CPR from a video game, I learned that in 10th grade health, just let me heal my darn teammates already!) Also, the 1 life per round is something new to me, a gamer use to the infinite respawns of CoD and Halo, as is the non-regenerating health. It also takes a lot less shots to kill a person, which can be a good or bad thing depending on what side your own. The weapon catagories are different too, with just a set number of slots for machine gunners and snipers. Even the servers are different, having only 1 map per a server with upwards of 7 wins required by a side to win/end a match.

The first time I played, I was killed almost 30 seconds into each round, leading to a good 5 minutes of waiting each round. Later a clanmate took me and another clan member to an empty server and began to teach us the basics, and after a while I began to get the hang of the game. I can now survive for 45 seconds each round :P ( Thankfully he helped me a bit more than that) I've also begin to actually record kills, though it definitely is much harder than any other FPS I've played. Still a long way to go, but I figure it's a good starting point.

As for other non-game related things:

The novel "Never on These Shores" is a pretty good Alternate WW2 book, though a tad far fetched....does anyone really think the Germans could have ever landed large numbers of troops in Mexico, even if they did manage to beat the Royal Navy? Oh, and then who really believes that the Italians could have landed in Cuba and Florida? I'll give you an answer: NO ONE. But such is the price one pays for an Alternate History book. There hasn't been any really combat sections of the novel, a lot of the main characters are women or gay men or KKK members who can't do much fighting of their own, and in the case of the KKK, openly side with enemy. If you enjoy intrigue and alternate history, go for this book, but be warned, the story isn't over yet, another book in the series is going to be coming out sometime in the next year, so you may want to wait till the next one is out.

Opening Atlantis by Harry Turtledove is simply amazing. Seriously the greatest book that was not focused primarily on combat. The book follows a family/decendents of the Radcliffe family, who found Atlantis after a fellow Fishermen showed it to them for a 3rd a boat of cod, a very poor deal for that poor sod. The family sets up a colony in Atlantis, which is shapped( and is ) the US landmass east of the Mississippi River. The original founder is killed soem 20-40 years after they found their City of New Hastings after a deposed Duke takes over their peaceful town. His decendents later find new areas of Atlantis and rise to prominance. One becomes a famous pirate a century after the original's death, one a wealthy merchant at odds with his Pirate cousin, and 1 who leads the English settlers in Atlantis's version of the French-Indian War, which in Atlantis could be called the First World War, seeing as England, France, Spain, and all their colonies were engaged in fighting. Including French and Spanish Slaves/Indians trying to rebel. A wonderfully told series of 3 short stories. Simply great.

Armored Corps Series: Still on the first book, but a wonderful read so far.

1984: A classic, though the end makes me a little upset, for those of you who've read the book before, you may have that same feeling.

On another note: I recently passed my drivers test, and now have a driver's licence. :D Though I don't have a car, so I can't just go randomly driving around. Though I can this week since my dad is in the Middle East on business and left the car here.

Also, I've filled out my college Apps, here's to hoping they'll accept me.

Well as some of you may notice, my banner has changed to yet another Orange Box game, this time, there is no cake to lie about, how ever there is mystery and action!

That's right, I'm talking about Half-Life 2 .

After playing the game for a while after I first got it, I reached the infamous town of Ravenholm, madness and zombies all wrapped up into one, it's not one's picture perfect European vacation spot....unless of cours you enjoy eating the flesh of the living...shortly after finding this wonderful spot, I stopped playing, utterly frustrated with the level, and general tired of the zombie killing (who knew one could get tired of that?)

Anyway, this past Thursday, I had off from school due to an ice storm, which, after making me clear the driveway of that evil precipitation, allowed me to spend some quality time with HL2. I played, and played and had a great time, the levels are awesome, the storyline is one of the best, it's like a mystery novel, just interactive and with a lot of gunplay, and who doesn't love that!? After playing it for a while, I finally found myself being able to get the puzzles of the game quicker and easier than before. The game is great, though that bridge level *shivers* no more of THAT please.

Anyway, Friday was a half day at school (an awesome series of events huh? First a day off, then a half day! ) and I was able to once again play the game. Seriously, fighting the Combine in the streets of City 17 is one of the most fun times I've had playing video games.

The puzzles, the fighting, the awesome gravity gun combine for a wonderful playing experience.

Then I played Episode 1. That is pretty good, though not near as great as HL2. The main focus on just escaping was kinda a drag, but it introduced enough new information to keep my happy, and that was good.

Episode 2 was great! The ending with the striders was AWESOME. One of the greatest sequences I've played. Again, great information for the story, keeping with the mystery and what not, love that tie in with Portal, really want to see how that develops. The Vorts were also awesome to watch, the new graphics are great, give great justice to the scenes and to the characters.

My only beef is that it was so short, but I guess that is to be expected with Episodic releases. Well....I guess they can offically add me to the list of people waiting for Episode three.

Until next time folks!

There you have it!Oh and please tell me what you think of my new banner And I'm also in the process of creating some maps for World In Conflict, so if you're interested, please contact me by PM

Well, I'm blogging again, amazingly enough I have some free time....I know I can't believe it either! Anyway, The past few weeks have been packed with decisions to make, things to do, and just general work. School is still school, I wonder who ever said Senior year was easy, because I still don't believe that for a minute and I've had what..3 months to come to terms with school?

I've recently began to finalize the list of colleges I apply to, chief among them Virginia Tech and James Madison. I've been really nervous about this, to be quite honest, my GPA is not anywhere near where I want it to be. And here's the background why-

*Caution Read At Own Risk*

As some may know, John1918 calls me "genius boy" and many others believe I'm rather intelligent. I'm not going to come out and say I'm not, I feel that I'm above average to some degree but I don't think I'm that great, infact I've come to the conclusion, I'm just a down right moron at times. My freshman year I failed Biology, there are several factors to that story, mainly I knew more going into that class than the Teacher did, and that she just threw packets of paper at us day after day, but I've come to see that I just acted stupidly, not doing the work I needed to do, regardless of the situation and unfortunately that's comeback to haunt me.

I tend to be a procrastinator and also someone who no longer tolerates people who don't work like I would want. This is unacceptable. My failings are my fault, and now I've got to face that, which is causing major problems with my college search.

I've set my sights on Va Tech since I was 12, always been my school, but now that's in jeopardy. My GPA is currently near the 3.2 mark, which may seem fine and dandy till you realize that a LOT of people who get into the schools I'm applying to tend to do several points higher than that.

Maybe I'm just nervous, but I feel that my faults and screw ups are now costing me dearly, and it's causing a load of stress.

Alright, enough of that ramble, let's move to something positive.

Chirstmas is comming up! A time of joy, a time of being with family and celebration, and a time for game getting!

I've narrowed down some of the games I want to get this year, and here they are:

Assassin's Creed
Ace Combat 6
Guitar Hero 3
Call of Duty 4
Mass Effect

I've also decided to pick up a few books, though nothing on the scale of what I got last year (Nearly 30 books overall.) I'm looking at getting the rest of the Armored Corps series, and.....the Halo Series. I know...that sounds a tad....strange, but the story of Halo interests me, or maybe I'm just a sucker for a well developed storyline. Probably the latter.

Well I can't think of what else to say....I'm finally able to find time to play WiC again, I'm thinking about changing my banner, this one has been up a whopping 3 months, and my Virginia Tech Hokies are going to the Orange Bowl to play the Kansas Jayhawks!

And in conclusion, something totally random but related to fruit:

Click for full size.

Edit: For some reason Gamespot is not letting me use Spoiler tabs....kinda annyoing.

*UPDATED*

The new banner is up, please give me your thoughts on it.

Yes yes, hello there, I am still alive, though that may seem hard to believe.

My trip has caused some problems, most notibly the fact that I missed a ton of work. I know what you're thinking "You only missed 4 days of school and you're a senior, how much work could you have missed?"

Let me assure you, my schedual is by no means easy, and the amount of work is definitely not small.

I missed atleast 5 tests due to the trip and countless other assignments and homework that I've been tasked with making up over the past 2 weeks, some of note would be my Adam Smith vs Karl Marx essay for econ, my 2 tests and programs for Computer Concepts/ Visual Basic, 2 Algebra tests, and a project on the Canterbury Tales in Brit Lit. Now pile onto that all the other work I need to do in order to keep up, and throw in a missed day due to a debate. I think you are all inteligent people, yes Electron, even you :roll:, You do the math.

Anyway, since the Quarter is near a close, I've caught myself up on all the work and am now doing pretty well, my schedual is now clearing a bit, and all that is in my way is the English presentation and a debate this Thursday. Today itself has been busy, with a debate meeting after school...and get this, a dodgeball tourney this evening. Yup, dodgeball. My teacher put together a last minute team comprised of about 8 players, we need 6 minimum, but 2 called off last minute, and by last minute, I literally mean in the minutes before we were about to play. There were only 2 guys on the team, and you could only call 2 of the 4 girls "Athletic" and I hate to be sexist here, but jeez, the other two really fulfilled the non-athletic girl sterotype...Anyway we played in a best of 5 match, and lost in 3 straight games. Yours truely had more hits on the opposing player than the rest of the players combined....We played another match, got another good guy loaned to our team for a best of 3 series, won the first match and promptly lost the next 2. It was tough, but fun.

In other news I've just installed Supreme Commander Forged Alliance, have not yet played it, but looking forward to it. I've really cut back on my gaming besides some Halo 3 after school, and hopefully I can start gaming again at a good level. This weekend is looking like a good weekend for gaming, but at this early stage, who knows.

I'm also planning another trip 2 weeks from now, going down to see the Virginia Tech Hokies take on the Miami Hurricanes, should be a great game and even better since it will be played in Blacksburg Virginia, hometown of the Hokies, and where my grandparents currently live. Should be nice, but certain family issues will also need to be resolved, though I will not disclose what due to privacy. Let's just say it's going to be rough over the next couple months.

Well, that's about all....oh I recently watched all 5 seasons of Red Vs Blue....and I have to say even at this totally late stage of the game, I wish they had continued it. It's amazing to say the least.

Alright well you all keep on keeping on. And remember kids.....the cake is NOT a lie :D

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Click picture for large/correct size.