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Another year has passed. I didn't say alot on here, and made my usual claims to post more that I didn't stick to. So I will once again claim I will post more and then not do so (in the spirit of new years resolutions)

Spent a couple of weeks back home in England for christmas, I stayed at my Aunts house (which was good because they have broadband and a wireless router), visited various family members, did lots of shopping and eating (roast dinners ftw) and mostly doing not a lot of anything. I did end working for a day while at home because of an incident with one of our servers, and I did my best to work on voidwars some more but in the end I probably watched more bad english TV than anything else.

I enjoyed my time back home, but Oslo feels more like home to me now so I was glad to be back and I am also glad to be back at work. Which brings us back to the present, 2008. Lets hope its as interesting as the last one was (or more so!)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[11:53] <hendry> why don't you guys Kam Xiven blog any more?

Lots of good stuff happening this year. Going to Essen next week to visit the games convention (and buy Starcraft the board game). World of Warcraft sees patch 2.3 appear on the test realms soon and then hopefully very soon onto the live servers (tis a very important long overdue patch). Metroid Prime 3 and Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is out towards the end of October (been looking forward to these games for ages). Portal is released tomorrow (along with half life 2 episode 2, meh).

In very recent news, Fire Emblem was announced for the DS (yay) along with a Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles game for WiiWare next year. Sonic has been revealed to be in Smash Bros Brawl much to the delight (and despair) of many fans. And Mario Kart is to have bikes (WTF?)

There is also a rumor going around that I may in fact be getting a mobile phone. Sadly it is true but I would prefer to call it a PDA that happens to be able to recieve phone calls. ok?

In order to sort of lots of my old stuff left at my grandmothers house I decided to go home for easter. I had quite a good time back home though I missed Oslo and even some of the food I had gotten used to eating over here.

I somehow ended up going to the Davis Cup because one of the people going didn't turn up (My mum and some others were going). I am not sure why I said yes to going because I hate sports but it was free and I had plenty of time to waste.

Turned out it was quite enjoyable, it was a bit long (6 hours!) but watching it live was far more fun than watching it on a TV. I took a load of pictures which kept me occupied if I got a little bored, but once the games got going and the whole crowd started cheering and clapping I kind of got drawn into it. Some english guys (Tim Henman and Andy Murray) were playing against some Dutch guys, not sure what stage of the competition it was but the english guys both won their games 3 sets to none.

I also did the usual shopping in the local town buying random things I don't need (even more DS games) and stuffed myself full of random english chocolate (not really as nice as it used to be). In fact england seems to have gotten a lot more expensive or at least not as cheap as I remember it.

Having got puzzle quest before embarking on my trip I played that quite a bit while at home, I always hated that silly Bejewelled game but Puzzle Quest is suprisingly fun because of all the RPGness wrapped around it. It certainly helps to pass the time. That and crappy english TV! Saw reruns of the crystal maze and catchphrase (classic game shows!) and they have apparantly made new episodes of Jim'll Fix It (don't know how he isn't dead yet).

I sorted all my stuff out on the Sunday, I managed to bring myself to throw most of it away (or give it to my uncle) so I reduced it down to a couple of boxes. I packed what I could into my suit case and left the rest in boxes for my family to store somewhere else.

I also took some more random pictures of broadway and various other things.

Well I finally made another one. It was rather quickly made, but I will put more effort into the next one.In other shocking news I also set up a flickr account and have uploaded some photos. I shall be filling it up with random things as time goes by thanks to the camera I bought over christmas.

I haven't blogged for a while mainly because of me being rather busy with my Wii last year (and Zelda and various other fun games) and because of The Burning Crusade. The official expansion to World of Warcraft was released on January 16th and I have been playing it quite a lot since then.

First came the journey to 70. Pretty fun, then came all the trips into the new dungeons to see much of the new content. I am now in the stage where I need to collect gear from these places so we can push forward into the higher level instances. Still very much enjoying playing (despite the sad priest nerfs) but I don't quite have such a burning desire to play as I did a month ago =)

In other news, Eirik is here visiting for the week. He is here to attend a conference but I guess he figured he would get some free accomodation would visit old Opera friends while he was here. Nice to see him, doesn't feel like a year since he left.

Will see if I can bring myself to post some more random stuff on here soon. I got myself a camera over christmas so I might set up a gallery at some point

I had pre-ordered a Nintendo Wii at Spiderman.no in Oslo several months before the December 8th release date, however there were rumors that Norway (and probably Europe) wasn't going to get as many consoles as they expected.

So lastthursday I called spiderman and as expected they didn't have enough to fill my pre-order. They had only gotten 9 consoles which is an extremely small amount and I expect a great deal under the number of pre-orders.

With the help of a friend at work I discovered the location of the midnight launch in Oslo and eventually decided to head on down. I eventually found the store after much walking and was surprised that there was no queue outside. I then noticed the store was still open (it was 9pm) and as I went inside I noticed a fairly large group of people sat on the floor of the shop.

The people queueing had come up with a numbering system to keep things in order and I went over and took a number. I was number 36, not too high and since I still thought I had a chance I first wandered around the shop and then sat down and started playing Final Fantasy III. I had a long wait ahead.

Sverre eventually turned up about half an hour later and he got number 48. We were still hopeful that we would get one but also had plans to hit some different stores early next morning if we didn't get one here.

At around 10pm the store had to close so we all had to go outside and wait. We got ourselves into a big queue in order of the numbers we had been given and got ready for a long two hour wait. It did rain a bit during that time but it soon passed and gladly it wasn't too cold considering it was currently winter in Norway.

From outside I could see the employees bring out the Wii products and setting them up ready for the eager customers. Seeing it helped somewhat to pass the time and give renewed hope that waiting in the queue would be worth while.

Around an hour later someone from in the store finally came out and announced how many systems they had. Of course it was in Norwegian but I managed to pick out the important part. Seksti Fem. 65 to those who can't figure that out. So being number 36 in line I realised that I would actually be getting a Wii.

This of course gave me much needed energy to continue waiting in line but sadly made the next hour the most agonizingly slow hour ever. Interestingly the person waiting in front of me was in fact the flatmate of Rune, a fellow Opera employee, who had appeared alongside the queue to deliver a chair and warm clothes to the guy in front of me.

We talked for a while and occasionally took a turn sat on the chair, this made the next hour somewhat more bearable but still depressingly slow. Eventually the hour passed and the first customer was let in.

Some journalists had arrived and we had to wait for them to go and film or take pictures of the first Wii bought in Norway. Then we were slowly let inside a few at a time to make our purchases. After what had seemed like a life time, I finally got inside and then came out with my Wii, Zelda and Rayman. Sadly they had completely sold out of Wii Play and any other extra controllers. It was a shame but at least I had scored the console and Zelda.

Not sure what time I had gotten back, but I got changed out of fairly wet clothes and then proceeded to set my new purchase up next to the TV.

And so began the Wiikend of fun and games!

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Tonight there was a wasp in my room so I watched it waiting for a good time to squish it (and debating whether I should squish it or catch it and let it out) but it flew onto my lamp. My lamp has a very thin stand so it was hard to squash the wasp on it so I watched it some more, ocasionally wafting something in its general direction to try to make it move. Shortly afterwards it decided to go farther up the lamp instead of off the lamp.

Eventually it stupidly went into the lamp itself which was swiftly followed by lots of buzzing sounds then an abrupt silence. I wasn't sure if it was still alive so I wobbled the lamp to see if it would come out, but all I heard was rattling sound.

I then tilted the lamp to look inside and lying inside was a dead wasp...




along with about 4 other dead wasps!

It seems I had had more wasp incursions than I had thought but they all had died in my lamp.

Then while writing this blog entry, I decided to check the other lamps in the apartment for corpses, only to find the main lamp in the living room COVERED in dead insects of all shapes and sizes.

Perhaps this is some intentional secret feature of IKEA lamps!

Last night while cutting some bread (which was stale after one day, crazy norwegians) to make some toast with I obviously wasn't paying attention and managed to cut into my thumb.

Now this isn't really that serious but at the time as the blood was gushing out, I was somewhat worried about my thumb! I haven't actually been cut for a very long time, probably not since some time at university (at least 4 years ago) and there was suprisingly quite a lot of blood pouring out.

On a more positive note we killed Onyxia with 20 people last night in WoW. Which may not mean much to post people but it was quite an achievement for us! Luckily my thumb isn't needed too much for playing WoW.

Oh and after hearing about this "easter egg" in WoW, I figured I would take a screenshot:

Those are the names of the NPCs in Stormwind Bank, and if you don't spot the easter egg in that shot then you should be shot =)

Most of my time these days is consumed by work and World of Warcraft (some might call that work too) so blog entries have been less than frequent as of late. Finding the time to right entries longer than a few sentences is hard since you could well be killing a dragon with 40 other people instead.

I have also been playing on my Nintendo DS Lite and occasionally on my Gamecube, aswell as watching various TV shows while trying to fit a bit of programming in and weekly board game sessions. I have more games than I can count for my DS now, just finding the time to play them all fully can be hard, it kind of annoys me I sometimes never finish a game, but I hope to get around to completing them eventually (most recently completed the New Super Mario Bros. and Phoenix Wright, both excellent games).

Last night I attended the weekly game night hosted by the Pines ( Chris & Katie [the adults], C & Ruby [the kids], Wobbly & Anders [the cats] ) which is always fun. First we played a game of Puerto Rico, we are all experts at this game now so it goes pretty smoothly and is still very enjoyable, next we played Fist of Dragonstones, a bidding game with various character cards you need to win in order to obtain 3 points (to win the game). I quite liked this game though since it was my first time playing I wasn't sure what a good strategy was, and it's fun to try and second guess your opponents bidding habits to get the cards you need and deny your opponent the ones they need.

As always we were provided with excellent home made snacks and the company of some very friendly cats. The only problem with these game nights is that they occur quite late (often till after 1am) but despite that it is always an enjoyable evening.

I also saw X-men 3 earlier this week, which I thought was awesome. The perfect continuation of the previous story, more X-men, more cool fight scenes and more use of their special powers than ever before. I very much enjoyed it, despite hearing that it wasn't as good as the 2nd movie. They have managed to set up the cool x-men universe quite well on the big screen, much better than I would have thought it could have been done.

The film also had an interesting cast, the actors were very well chosen for their roles, such as Kelsey Grammer (Frasier) as Beast, which was unexpected but was a perfect choice. I think it would be a shame to waste such a well made universe by not continuing with more stories in movie form but I guess its all depends on how much money it makes rather than if it deserves more sequels.

From now on I shall attempt to at least make some sort of post once a week, I enjoy writing about stuff I have done, perhaps I might even mention more specific achievments in World of Warcraft since that is what I mostly am doing. I might get back into making some more SG-0 comics soon but that takes even more time than simply writing a blog entry!

Nintendo has announced Opera Software is developing a web browser for the DS.

Being an employee of Opera Software I couldn't be happier about Opera developing for the Nintendo DS. I am a big Nintendo fan (in case no one noticed) and Opera developing for the DS is a dream come true.

More specifics about the announcement and various other things can be found at http://ds.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=3341

As of a week ago it seems I am now an uncle.

My brother and his girlfriend have had a baby boy. I am told his name will be Vaughn (not sure of the spelling but clearly named after a famous cricketer since my brother is obssesed with cricket.) Congratulations to the both of them (though they will probably never read this).

I still don't understand the desire to have children, I can't say I ever want to have kids. Maybe that will change with time or perhaps it's just a case of each to their own.

My collection of animals has now grown to four. Below we have my Firefox on the bottom right (doesn't look happy with the chicken does he?), bottom right we have my Last Exile sheep/goat. I still want to call it a sheep though I think it make in fact be a goat. Top left is a chicken from China given to me by Walter though I think he was trying to give me bird flu =), and finally top right is my most recent purchase.

I got him while wandering hoping to buy christmas presents but not really looking for anything particular I ended up in a toy store. I ended up in the plush toy section and saw this and had to have it. It reminded me of my mount (what I use to get around quickly on) in World of Warcraft so I bought it, though it would be cuter if it had a little saddle on the back =).

I clearly do need more plush things, can't ever have enough fake cute things when you can't really have any real ones!

A couple of days ago, Xiven came along to pick me up and take us down to meet Gwief and Phil down in Bath for our now annual christmas time meet up (that is two years in a row so far!).

The drive down was mostly filled with us talking about stuff we did in World of Warcraft and the realisation that talking about World of Warcraft out loud sounds really really odd. All the place names in WoW seem fine when typed, or their abbreviations used (e.g. Zul'Gurub or ZG) but having a conversation involving these seems totally weird.

When we arrived the conversation continued along the same thread, with Phil joining in with his experiences and also Gwief when he eventually arrived (late as usual.) Though we hadn't seen each other for a while we keep in touch over IRC most of the time so the usual questions about how we are getting on didn't occur and we just continued the discussion of goings on in World of Warcraft.

Once the explosion of WoW talk was over (though it still was most of what we discussed) we played some Mario Tennis, Donkey Konga and Mario Kart (both on the GameCube and on the DS). I wish I had brought my 2 sets of GC Bongos with me but alas I did not so we were stuck playing with the controllers. Still fun but more fun with the Bongos.

The next day we played some Smash Brothers (still a fantastic game and great fun after all this time) and some Bohnanza (The Bean Trading Card Game) to keep us away from the TV for a while. Then came the offline I-Sketch, otherwise known as Pictionary!

Since we couldn't get hold of a copy of pictionary, we decided to write our own words. We each wrote a fair few words on some paper and put them into a bowl. We have fairly similar thought patterns so most of the things we wrote down were fairly similar. Anime shows or characters, final fantasy related stuff, some World of Warcraft terms and a few odd ball things.

The game was pretty enjoyable although sometimes it was too easy to guess the words because we all think too much alike or they were simply too easy to draw. However there were some tricky ones in there including ones that the person who wrote them couldn't guess. This may have been down to the person drawing it badly though!

The most memorably bad drawing was Xiven trying to draw a "Druid" and failing so badly to draw a bear that I thought it was a horse. I was surprised to see some words repeated especially the ones that were. We had Shaman, Fruit Fucker and Selfie twice each. Thats a World of Warcraft class, a character from a web comic and a Final Fantasy 8 character. Were we trying so hard to not make duplicates we second guessed each other too much?

I enjoyed some typical english cuisine while there, including Chicken and Mushroom pie and chips, a fried english breakfast and the classic Penguin chocolate biscuit.

I thank Phil very much for his hospitality and hope we can meet up again around christmas next year.

A couple of days ago I left Oslo for my usual christmas trip back home for a few weeks. Last year having only been in Norway for 3 weeks I was very much looking forward to coming home, but this year my enthusiasm was more for having time off than where I spent it.

Having got very used to the way of life in Oslo not to mention playing WoW on my PC it was quite difficult leaving it all behind. I wasn't looking forward to having to use an old PC to try and play WoW on, assuming it even worked at all. That and I don't think any of my friends live in my village so I would only really see my family for 3 weeks.

I am looking forward to coming back to Oslo and to work, however I am starting to get settled in here now. I have my PC up and running, WoW is installed (though runs like Norwegian Porridge) so I can keep up with goings on in the land of Azeroth, I have some DVDs to watch including Murder, She Wrote Season 1 and Thundercats season 1 along with some games including Fire Emblem for the GameCube.

My family hasn't changed much, they still are concerned with silly little things that I find quite amusing but I guess that is what life is like in a village. There are clearly several factions within the village who don't get along and whom seem to spread rumors about the other. They seem to be very concerned about what Joe Bloggs is doing up the road with Percy Jenkins but I never understood why discussing it is of any importance. I guess not a lot happens around here!

The local cuisine is rather nice, had some gammon and chips the other day. Very nice. Norwegians definately don't know how to make chips (fries). Have also had some Galaxy chocolate, Jam Donuts, Bacon and Cheese pastries, cheese on toast ( \o/ ), microwave meals and mini-cheddars. Food is probably what I miss the most from England but I am missing the Opera canteen meals since I now have to conjure up something to eat myself during the week!

Been shopping a few times so far, got myself some new trainers (shoes) and plan to go shopping properly after christmas. While I am sure it is cheaper here than in Oslo it somehow doesn't feel that way, perhaps because I am used to prices online or perhaps because of my slightly dubious exchange rate calculations but whatever the reason I still find myself holding back when buying things. Maybe I am just turning into a scrooge when it comes to spending money after living in Oslo for over a year.

oh and since I never mentioned it. YAY for Mario Kart DS. Best Mario Kart game so far perhaps, and wireless play rocks. Still need to write up about all these games I have been playing. Oh well, perhaps after I finish Fire Emblem.

Yesterday I went to see The Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra perform the Lord of the Rings symphony at Frogner Park (the park with naked statues). While some people such as Hixie would think I would not enjoy going to see classical music played for 2 and half hours I did enjoy the concert immensely. Of course I wouldnt enjoy just any classical music, but being a big fan of music from Films/TV shows/Games an orchestra playing Lord of the Rings music is something I would most definitely enjoy listening to.

For the most part it was a nice day, except towards the end when it began to rain. Despite the down pour the music was excellent and the final Into The West song went well with the passing of the rain.

I also purchased Nintendogs just before arriving at the concert. I did try to play it during the concert but the requirement to speak to your dog meant I couldn't get started due to the unusual ambient noise coming from a nearby stage............. (more on that later)

I am not usually a fan of writing too much so if you would like a way too overly detailed summary of the day, Tim seems to have gone a little overboard on the details!

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Last week Xiven came to visit Hixie and I here in Oslo. Was good to see him again having only spoken to him over irc for the passed 6 months. We played various games including Twilight Imperium, Ricochet Robots and RoboRally. We also showed him around the city centre and to some park full of naked statues. We really aren't the touristy type and I would suspect Xiven wouldn't have wanted to spend too much time wandering around looking at Norwegian things.

Today I shall be heading back home to England to visit my family and purchase some cheap DVDs and Games since they are far too expensive here in Norway. I would visit home more often but I hate travelling and flights are fairly expensive. I am only staying for a few days but will probably be offline but that depends on if I get bored enough to try and set up my pc again back home.

One of the most important aspects of a MMORPG, is the balance and development of each class as additions and changes are made to the game. To this end Blizzard has assigned a person to each class to collate feedback about each respective class and to keep players informed of any planned changes. While most players do tend to complain about their assigned representitive and about their class in general, usually it is because the Developers just haven't got around to that class yet. However Priests had their turn about a month ago.

Here is a post summarising what the result of the Priests turn was.

Thanks for the time you spent examining the priest class.

We really appreciate being given an oversimplified explanation that our skills are viable when we have spent weeks giving detailed information about why they are not viable.

We gave you pages and pages of reasons, information, experience, and math in an effort to communicate the message that Spirit is not a very good stat in comparison to intellect. We got told that spirit is "working as intended". Thanks, being told that we are wrong about spirit really helped Devout suddenly not suck. Now that Fangtooth has spoken, I suddenly feel really good about being OOM all the time. Its sortof like I've reached nirvana. Being OOM really gives you a lot of freedom. I mean I can just jump around during fights and yell OOM while I use my new autoshoot wand. And if we wipe, I can just blame the person who pulled. Its really a load off my shoulders.

We gave you pages and pages of reasons, information, experience, and math in an effort to communicate the message that The Holy tree is not as good as either of our other two trees, and is also inferior to other classes (druid and shaman) Restoration trees. We got awesome changes to holy nova. Thanks, that really encourages us to spec something besides shadow. Maybe you should just give druids prayer of healing. Then at least we would be able to go shadowform without having to worry about healing. We aren't supposed to be worrying about healing our groups, are we blizzard? I mean, you gave us a great DPS talent tree... We weren't supposed to be healers, were we? I'm pretty sure we werent, but my groups seem to think otherwise. The often get a little upset when they see me throwing out nukes. "Whats the problem," I respond, wondering why they are upset. "We have a druid and a paladin, don't we?"

We gave you pages and pages of reasons, information, experience, and math in an effort to communicate the message that Fear needs to work against players if we are to have any measure of survivability in PvP combat. First you made an entire race immune to it. Then it got changed to break on damage. Then it got diminishing returns added. Now, every patch, you invent a new way for players to reactively break fear, which is our only effective defense. Thanks, that really makes us feel warm and fuzzy inside.

My experience in warsong gulch have been great. Its really cool, standing in the entrance to your own base, getting chain stunned by various stuns from tauren warriors and undead rogues. I't sure makes me glad that stuns have diminishing returns. I mean, there used to be classes that would AVOID me, because they didn't want to be feared. Thats just not healthy. Now that everyone is immune, I'm getting to socialize with all kinds of new and interesting people. I feel so loved when those four rogues and a shaman make a beeline straight for me. Its really cool that you gave me this great trinket, because every 5 minutes, I can break out of a stun and mash fear. Then the warrior uses Death Wish or Berzerker Rage, and continues to swing at me with his Arcanite Reaper. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to the day when warriors have 75 DPS weapons. And of course the UD rogue (I prefer to call them acupuncturists) is either already immune or breaks fear right away. If I'm lucky, I might be able to shield or renew myself before the two people stabbing me come back... which is really great because it gives the shaman who just walked past a good target to cast purge on. We wouldn't want those shamans to feel unneeded, would we?

To be honest, I don't even have Psychic Scream on my hotbar anymore. I replaced it with a /beg macro. There has been some debate as to which is more effective a survival tool. Some priests still argue that Psychic Scream is your best bet, but there is a growing movement toward the /beg macro. In both cases, the survival rate is about 5%. However, I went with /beg because it doesn't have a cooldown and costs slightly less mana. However, I am a little concerned that this new /beg tactic might be a bit overpowered. Perhaps you should consider making emotes trigger the global cooldown, or putting /beg on the same diminishing returns timer as Fear is. As it stands, Priests can chain together /beg with fear, and keep an enemy player immobilized with either fear or guilt for an almost indefinite period of time. This is of course, overpowered.

On the plus side, I'm really enjoying getting to know the Spirit Guide. He's quite an interesting person. He's an ex-priest, you know. He's holy, in fact. Every 30 seconds, he casts Holy Nova and rezzes all the dead priests who are huddled around him. As it turns out, he feels he helps groups more in his new job than he did in his old job. He's really glad you changed the cooldown on his holy nova, because now he can rez twice as often with it. He told me he's been seeing a lot more priests lately. He's a really great guy, I suggest you take the time to roll a priest so you can get to know him better.

I noticed now that you've nerfed Holy Nova and are satisfied with the severity of the nerf, you've moved on to your next task, buffing shamans. Thanks a lot for that one. No way us priests are gonna take that one as a huge slap in the face. No sir, not us. We'll be happy for them. Just like we were happy and not the LEAST bit jealous when you gave our cousins the mages their new spell, Mage Armor, which allows them to have double the amount of mana regeneration that us priests can do, without having to spend any talent points. I mean, its not like Priests are supposed to use spirit, are we? Thats a MAGE stat, right? Thats why you gave Magisters tons of spirit and Devout tons of INT, right?

Similarly, we are quite happy for our friends, the druids, and the long string of buffs and improvements they have recieved. Now that they can heal just as well as we can, It allows us to take much needed time off to do rest and relaxation activities, like playing golf with my buddy the Spirit Guide.

While you are working on shamans, I have a few suggestions. First of all, I have noticed that both Lightnign Shield and Ghost Wolf can be dispelled. This is clearly a bug. After all, their weapon buffs are undispellable, so it was probably just a mistake that made it possible for GW and LS to be dispelled. I also noticed that when I get earth shocked while casting a holy spell, it only silences the holy and discipline schools of magic. You should probably make it silence shadow as well, just for consistency. Finally, I noticed that shadowform cannot be purged. Since inner fire, fortitude, renew, PW:S, *and* the ever useful Elune's Grace can all be purged, it was clearly an oversight that left Shadowform immune to purging. Please fix this for the sake of the gimpy shamans. They really need it.

I know you've finished with your massive overhaul of the priest class, and I know you have a very busy schedule trying to dream up new spells for the shaman, (like bloodlust!) but I'd like to thank you for your continued activity in the Priest forum. We really enjoy having so much blue posting in there, and we're glad Fangtooth doesn't have to worry about a hostile backlash from angry priests. After all, we have nothing to be angry about.

Thanks for the love, guys! We love the new holy nova!

Assuming you caught the sarcasm there, the Priest class was pretty much ignored, and IMO I believe the reason it was such a terrible response from the Developers regarding our class was our representitive didn't actually read our feedback we were asked to provide. When it comes down to it, it is just a game but if you invest so much time into a game you really would like feedback to be heard. I have even sent a complaint about Fangtooth to the e-mail address provided for complaints about the representative assigned to your class.

I finally got around to creating a new style for my website. As you can see it's based on World of Wacraft, more specifically my Night Elf character from World of Warcraft. Since a great deal of my spare time has been taken up with playing WoW, I haven't really had time to do much else but I have taken many screenshots of my adventures in the world of Azeroth. I shall post as many as I can when my next break from the WoW comes up =)

I believe the following speaks for itself.

[20:49] <Hixie> ...
[20:49] <Hixie> ok
[20:49] <Hixie> i think we should all sing "i've got a theory"
[20:49] <Hixie> i'll be giles
[20:50] <Hixie> and tara
[20:50] <Hixie> kam can be anya and willow
[20:50] <Hixie> and xiven can be buffy and xander.
[20:51] <Hixie> thus i shall begin.
[20:51] <Hixie> "I have a theory! That it's a demon. A dancing demon-- no, something isn't right, there."
[20:51] <Xiven> (your line kam)
[20:52] <Kamakaze> umm
[20:53] <Xiven> (hixie's already said it, just find the one that rhymes)
[20:53] <Kamakaze> "Ive got a theory, some kid is dreaming, and were all stuck inside his 
             wacky broadway nightmare"
[20:54] <Xiven> hmmm
[20:54] <Xiven> "i've got a theory we should work this out"
[20:54] <Hixie> "It's getting eerie, what's this cheery singing all aboouuuut?"
[20:54] <Hixie> "It's getting eerie, what's this cheery singing all aboouuuut?"
[20:54] <Kamakaze> "Its getting eerie whats this cheery singing all about"     
             "Its getting eerie whats this cheery singing all about"
[20:55] <Xiven> "i've got a theory, it could be witches... which is ridiculous 'cause witches 
              they were persecuted <mumble> and i'll be over here"
[20:56] <Kamakaze> glares
[20:56] <Kamakaze> "Ive got a theory it could be bunnies!......."
[20:56] <Hixie> i've got a theory,
[20:57] <Kamakaze> Bunnies arent just cute like everybody supposes, they got them hoppy legs 
              and twitchy little noses...
[20:57] <Kamakaze> and whats with all the carrots?
[20:57] <Kamakaze> what do they need such good eyesight for anyway?!!! 
[20:57] <Kamakaze> bunnies, bunnies, it must be bunnies!!!
[20:57] <Kamakaze> .... or maybe midgets?
[20:57] <Kamakaze> Ive got a theory we should work this fast,
[20:57] <Hixie> "because it clearly could get serious, before it's passed."
[20:58] <Kamakaze>  "because it clearly could get serious, before it's passed."
[20:58] <Xiven> "i've got a theory, it doesn't matter"
[20:59] <Xiven> "what can't we face if we're together?"
[21:00] <Xiven> "what's in this place that we can't weather?"
[21:00] <Xiven> "apocalypse?  we've all been there.  the same old tricks, why should we care?"
[21:00] <Hixie> "what can't we do, if we get in it? we'll work it through, within a minute. 
              we have to try, we've paid the price, it's do or die."
[21:00] <Hixie> "what can't we do, if we get in it? we'll work it through, within a minute. 
              we have to try, we've paid the price, it's do or die."
[21:00] <Xiven> "hey i've died twice!"
[21:00] <Hixie> "what can't we face, if we're together?" 
              "what can't we face, if we're together?"
[21:01] <Hixie> "what can't we face?"
[21:02] <Xiven> carry on
[21:02] <Hixie> "what's in this place, that we can't weather?"
[21:02] <Hixie> we're togother...
[21:02] <Xiven> "there's nothing we can't face"
[21:02] <Hixie> "there's nothing we can't face...."
[21:03] * Xiven slaps Kamakaze around a bit with a large trout
[21:03] <Kamakaze>  "there's nothing we can't face...."
[21:03] <Kamakaze> this doesnt say we are together yet
[21:03] <Xiven> just do the damned last line
[21:03] <Hixie> lol
[21:06] <Xiven> we're all in suspense here
[21:07] <Kamakaze> what?
[21:07] <Hixie> anya's last line
[21:08] <Kamakaze> oh I see
[21:08] <Kamakaze> you leaped far too ahead
[21:08] <Hixie> o_O
[21:08] <Hixie> no we didn't
[21:08] <Kamakaze> except for bunnies
[21:08] <Hixie> yay
[21:08] <Xiven> ok, we have now sealed our fate as the saddest bunch of people ever to live.  well done

                

One thing that often turns up in RPG's are random encounters. You are happily walking around in a completely unoccupied area, but suddenly you are thrust into a battle with enemies that clearly weren't there. While I used to fairly enjoy this, I have since become tired of it. This includes games like Pokemon and Final Fantasy. After playing Tales of Symphonia and Baten Kaitos, I have come to love the fact that I can see the enemies before I encounter them, and if possible walk around them depending on my mood. While they are only really iconic representations of enemies it serves to let me have more choice over when and where I fight.

The main reason I dislike random battles is because of puzzle solving. When I am in a dungeon and I am trying to push switches, move blocks or find my way through a maze, I get extremely annoyed when I keep having to fight enemies, when all I want to do is complete the puzzle THEN fight enemies. This can still happen in games which have visible enemies but at least then you are aware of when you are likely to enter combat, if you dont manage to avoid it.

Of course you need to fight some enemies, otherwise you wouldn't level up and be able to fight the mandatory boss enemies, but fighting the enemies you feel like fighting usually ends up more than enough, and you can go back and kill the ones you missed later should you so desire. With random battles you don't even have a guarantee of fighting enemies, you just wiggle the control stick about until you enter a random battle.

One solution to this problem is to do as Golden Sun and Pokemon both do. Introduce very early the ability to AVOID random battles (ie. using an item or a spell). Final Fantasy does this too, but in FF7 I believe it was pretty far in before you could get the ability required. IMO random encounters these days are simply an easy way out of not having to develop a decent eneny encounter system. Random encounters are frustrating and should have left the gaming industry long ago. One can but hope that more companies take a more original approach to enemy encounters in future games.

I always have weird dreams. Usually they are pretty crazy and nonsensical. Last night was probably not one of the weirdest dreams I have had, but to me it was quite disturbing.

I entered what appeared to be Woolworths (a shop that sells random things including computer games), and as I entered I passed an old familiy friend (no longer a family friend for various reasons) and she was standing their complaining about something, in some way related to my mother. Anyway on passing her, I got to the computer games section and saw that there were a couple of games out on Wednesday, one of them was World of Warcraft and I dont recall what the other one was. That is all I recall.

Doesn't sound very weird to you? Well what makes it totally weird is that, I not only dreamt it last night, I originally dreamt in on monday night! It being monday night meant it was 2 days till wednesday, so the games were not out yet. The dream was based on it being monday, so when I had the dream a second time, as part of the dream I realised I was dreaming. But instead of realising I was dreaming it again I merely thought I was dreaming it for the first time. It was very weird. When I walked into the store I knew exactly what the woman was going to say, and knew exactly what was going to be on the shelf.

To me I'm sure this is related to the fact that I have been playing in the american beta test of WoW, and the fact that WoW won't be released in Europe till next year. Going into a store to find that World of Warcraft is always two days away, shows how annoyed I must be at its delayed release in Europe.

I wont event mention the other dream that involved a Jeep, a snake and some QA.

I was alone, alone in some ruins, deep within the plains of Teroth. This place was home to many tribes of warriors who refused to join the major factions of our nation. This place was off limits to all citizens of Atez and most certainly was off limits to a member of the guild of archaeologists, I should not be here, but yet I was. It all began several years ago.

I was a very prominent member of the guild and well known for my find at the ruins of Jiktar. The ruins there were some of the most beautiful I had ever seen. Our team uncovered many ancient artefacts but the most important find was a metallic ring of solid silver about the size of my hand.

While it would have appeared to be just a plain silver ring to most of the team, I saw it very differently indeed. I still can't explain why but I could see patterns emanating from it, I can't describe what I saw but it seemed to contain vast amounts of information.

After studying the device myself and with several Sorcerers from the Guild of Athos who were better trained in the arts than I, we discovered that it in fact contained a very detailed map of an ancient empire that once ruled over most of this world. We managed to extract most of the information and it revealed that many of our archaeological digs were taking place over many of the ancient cities, no surprise there. However there was one piece of information that caught my attention, what appeared to be the capital of this ancient empire and also some other significance that I couldn't quite work out at the time. The other archaeologists simply catalogued the data and moved on, I on the other hand did not.

That feeling at the back of my mind that at the capital city there was something IMPORTANT that HAD to be found kept eating at me, I felt drawn towards it. Many years passed, and many excavations and finds came after but no one was ever allowed to search for the lost capital city I so longed to find. There were several reasons this; the data surrounding the city from the ring was incomplete and the estimated location for it was far off in the plains of Teroth, where many isolated groups of tribesmen ran wild. It was not safe out there; a barrier was erected decades ago to protect us from what lay beyond; it simply cut us off from that part of our world and it was deemed not worth the risk for mere archaeological curiosity.

Over the years I researched the plains and although it was forbidden I created various plans to go on an expedition out into Teroth but something inside me stopped myself from doing it. I don't know if it was my fear of the unknown or my fear of breaking the laws of my culture. In any case the reason didn't matter since I never did attempt it ... until now.

I was at an excavation site fairly close to the barrier between us and the plains of Teroth. We had found there to be a Mizuhoan settlement here and a magical analysis of the earth suggested that it could be a burial site of some sort. While we weren't particularly keen on digging up old graves, it was known that MIzhuoans were commonly buried with their possessions and thus this could turn out to be an extremely important site.

Things were progressing normally for several days until I somehow sensed the presence of something.. An object, a powerful object beneath the soil. The feeling I experienced was somehow familiar. It was the same sensation when we discovered the location of the ancient capital, that feeling of being drawn towards it. Driven by an overwhelming desire to get to this object quickly, I placed my hands to the ground and began to utter some words.

"Hear me, Luna, hear me calling I summon thee, hear my call Channel your energy through me..."

At this point the entire camp was in uproar. They knew what I was doing, some ran away, some ran towards me trying to stop me. I continued chanting.

"Bring your light into this world Let me be the bearer of your message"

I realised too late what I was about to do. This spell was far too powerful for what I needed but I could feel something inside me pushing me to this. I tried to fight it but the desire to continue was too strong. Seeing some of my colleagues running towards me I hoped that they could stop me in time. As they approached me some indescribable force ripped them to shreds. It was the worst sight I had ever seen in my life. I closed my eyes to avoid seeing their remains scattered over the ground but I could see them in my mind, their souls being ripped from their bodies, in agony. I tried to make it stop but I couldn't.

"Earth to earth. Ashes to ashes. Life to death, darkness to light. clear the path to what I seek!"

The ground began to shake all around me, most of my team had now left, and I hoped they had gotten far enough away to avoid what was about to occur. I then collapsed and lost consciousness.

I was surprised to find that I actually woke up. I felt sure that I shouldn't have survived given what I just had done. I got up slowly, and looked around me. Somehow I had destroyed the ground around me for several miles, it was charred black. I had never seen such devastation, there were stories of people who had caused large craters but never this large and those who did never survived. How I had survived still remained a mystery. I then noticed that there was something left untouched by what I had done, a small silver ring very similar to the one uncovered at Jiktar. I reached forward and grasped it with my hand. Touching it brought a tear to my eye. I was overwhelmed with sadness. I fell to my knees, weeping with uncontrollable despair. I must have emptied my body of fluids for I do not know how long I wept. Day passed into darkness. I was alone in a wasteland of my own creation. The utter sadness eventually left me but I could still feel it emanating from the ring, I placed the ring in my pocket and the feeling dimmed even further. I then began walking, I didn't care where I was going, I didn't care that I was alive, I just felt like walking. I finally reached the edge of the devastation. Climbing up the ridge to untouched land I sat down under the nearest tree and fell asleep. I do not recall dreaming that night.

When I awoke it seemed around midday since the sun was at its height in the sky. I was glad I slept under the shade of a tree, without protection the temperature can get particularly high during the summer months. I felt unusually clear; it felt as if the recent events were just a dream, a distant memory, unfortunately a glance at the devastation I had caused pushed the memory back to the forefront.

I had hopes that my arch team had gotten far enough away from me but after having seen just how far my spell had reached I knew they couldn't have possibly gotten away, yet still I held onto that hope, it was all I had.

I soon realised my pack was still on my back and had been untouched as well. Taking it off my back I opened it and took out some food. I prepared my lunch personally every day, I don't always eat it, but I always prepare it. Today I had made yuna-fish sandwiches, not my favourite but Yuna was selling at a discount at the local market, and I could never resist a bargain.

As I began to consume the sandwiches, I recalled that I still had the details of my potential voyage out into the plains to locate the capital of the ancients. I always carried it with me wherever I went, partially because I felt safe knowing it was in my possession and also because I believed the opportunity to embark on the journey could come at any time.

I then thought about what I should do now. If I headed back to my guild, how would I explain what I had done? I had taken many innocent lives and destroyed a huge area of land, which I believe had contained a small settlement nearby. I shuddered at the thought of just how many lives I had taken. Was it truly my fault that it happened? I had felt some unimaginable force push me to my actions, would anyone believe that if I told them? I knew the penalty for what I had done and I decided that it wasn't worth the risk. I had very little to return to, so considered my options and decided that this was as good time as any to finally search for what I had longed to find for so very long.

I opened up the map I had created and using a little locating magic I ascertained my location and which direction I would need to head off in. I had made as detailed plans as I could from what little information was available on the forbidden land. Not a great deal was known about the plains since no one had been there in centuries, however over the years I managed to collate most of the data that had been collected on the region. Most of it was stored in secure archives, but being a high-ranking member of the guild of arch I had no problems gaining access to them.

I was going to be taking a rather direct route to where I believe the city used to be, since very little was known about the actual terrain it was the only course I could take. While it was believed to be reasonably flat terrain, I was hoping this remained true along my course and that there would be no significant obstacles in my path.

I packed up my stuff, and determined that first I needed to gather a few supplies. I could use my magic to assist in gathering food and water while out in the plains but it was not possible to create food where none existed in some form or another.

Given my route towards the barrier passed a small village, which would be ideal to pick up supplies. I set off towards my destination, away from the disaster I had so recently caused.

It took me the rest of the day to reach the village, and I stayed in the local inn, I kept a low profile so as not to attract attention in case word of what I had done had been spread already. I can't say I slept well that night, the decision to leave what I had called my home for so very long was not one made lightly. The following morning I picked up some supplies and continued onward toward the great barrier.

This was one part of the plan I had not worked out. How to pass the barrier. It was even harder to find information concerning the magical barrier cutting us off from the forbidden land. It was clear that it was something that was being suppressed by the controlling factions and guilds. I figured I could find some way to pass through the barrier when I eventually got there which I didn't believe I would.

I travelled for half a day and the great barrier was now in sight. It was vaguely purple in appearance, the closest thing I could compare it too would be a pool of Gresnak oil somehow levitated and spread across a huge area. The shield was somehow powered by a random series of crystals embedded in the earth. Obviously the barrier was magical in nature and the crystals must have been creating some sort of sustaining field to maintain itself for so very long. Barriers of this kind were not uncommon but none had ever been this powerful or have lasted this long. Not only that but the caster needed maintain the field themselves. Given the length of time the magical barrier had been active it could not have possibly been maintained by human magic alone.

I had concluded the most obvious way to disrupt the barrier was to disrupt some of the crystals. I did not want to destroy or damage the barrier but simply open a gap long enough for me to cross through. As I approached it I could feel it pushing me away and the closer I got the harder it got to move forward. Just as I thought I couldn't manage to push any harder, the barrier suddenly vanished and I fell forward across where it had been and landed flat on my face.

Scrambling up I darted forward, trying to get as far from the barrier as possible in case it decided to reactivate. It did, I was glad it did, I'm sure it was there for a good reason, whether to keep us out or to keep something else in. I didn't want to cause any more damage to my homeland since it was my decision to leave the safety of the barrier and venture out into the wilderness.

My journey from then on was surprisingly uneventful, the worst I ran into on the way were some sort of lizard like creatures about the size of my leg but they were easily scared off by the presence of fire. Fire was easily created by any sorcerer and was always without fail the first spell anyone learnt regardless of what they intended to specialise in. There was something about controlling an element so simple and yet so fierce that helped beginners grasp the basics of spell casting in the shortest time possible.

Several days of almost constant travelling passed, only stopping to rest for a few hours in the safety of a carefully constructed cavern beneath the earth. One of the benefits of specialising in earth magic was the ease of exploration of the ground we walk on. It was but a simple task for me to hollow out a small section of the earth and conceal it with a simple magical illusion. It allowed me to sleep in relative safety although I doubt the strange lizard creatures would post much threat I still wasn't certain what else could exist out here.

I had arrived at some ruins that were located approximately where the lost capital was said to have been. I was pretty excited and began to search the ruins both physically and magically immediately. I got very little sleep over the next few days; I was running off the exhilaration off having potentially found the greatest archaeological find of my life.

To ensure my safety I had opted to erect a barrier around the surrounding area whenever I stopped to work, it was a fairly easy task to do if slightly time consuming, but it meant I could concentrate on my task at hand without the worry of being in danger. It required a small portion of permanent concentration but it was a simple task to maintain with a mind that was as disciplined as mine had always been.

I continued for many more days but I never found anything significant. I was beginning to feel bitter disappointment but I vowed to continue searching for whatever it was that I KNEW was here. That I KNEW I had to find. Unfortunately I had discovered that this area happened to be home to various dangerous creatures, and I found evidence that other humans had been here. There were burnt out camp fires dotted here and there, I assumed that whom ever had been here had left and I had hoped that what I was looking for had not already been looted by others.

And thus here I am now. Alone. Searching for something I do not know exists, something that I do not even know. I was somehow empty yet somehow full. I was doing what I had dreamed of for many years but I felt both happiness and sadness.

I had abandoned my life in Imar, I had no family, my work meant everything to me, and I never had time to develop any close friendships. I tended to work alone, only ask for help when it was truly needed and spend most of my free time in fact working. Some might say I missed out on life but to me my work WAS my life. The only person I truly could consider my friend was a man named Takra. He often accompanied me to excavation sites and knew when I needed to be alone so we got on well together. We eventually went our separate ways but we always used to keep in contact with each other as best we could. In our line of work we were never in the same place for too long. My only true regret on leaving is not saying goodbye to him.

I could feel the silver ring I had placed in my pocket tugging at that thought. As though it was trying to keep the thought of regret at the forefront of my mind. I resisted and quickly pushed it out of my mind. I had to find what had drawn me hear all those years ago.

Then to my dismay I realised the protective barrier I had erected was no longer active. I thought perhaps that my momentary lapse in concentration must have interrupted the barrier. I hastily attempted to bring it back, but to no avail.

It would take a very high level sorcerer to stand a chance of taking down such a powerful defensive force. While I could erect a reasonably powerful barrier, it was one of the few non-element spells I knew. Being a self-taught sorcerer meant I only ever learnt what I needed, and that meant earth related spells and luckily Earth based spells had some of the more powerful barriers. I had practiced white magic back in my youth days but it wasn't much use to me as I followed my Fathers footsteps into Archaeology.

Despite what a lot of people said I didn't get into archaeology purely because of my Father, he was an archaeologist named Jack Daniels who while he was alive was part of the leadership of the guild of archaeology and possibly the best archaeologist of his time, I actually enjoyed learning about our history and the ancient civilisations that once lived where we live now. I actually feel that I could have taken up any career path I chose and my Father wouldn't have objected, unfortunately that may have been due to lack of caring as opposed to being open minded.

I'm sure my father did care for me a great deal, but I always had that overwhelming sense that he somehow blamed me for mother's death. She died not long after I was born, I was told she was a kind and caring woman and that I inherited her passion for life. I doubt they would say that now.

I regret not fully patching things up between me and my father before he died. I was told he asked for me with his dying breath but at the time I was off on one of my many digs and by the time word reached me it was too late.

I felt the ring tugging at my thoughts again. This time I pushed back harder and vanquished the thought from my mind and sat down to prepare to get a barrier operational again in case I got attacked again.

Fifteen minutes passed, I figured I almost had the barrier up and running unfortunately I wasn't quick enough. I heard a wolf howl behind me. I glanced behind me to see what was going on and in the distance I could make out the silhouette of a fairly large wolf howling at the moon.

I had never seen such a huge beast not even in my travels out here in the plains. I hoped it would not be hostile towards me and slid down behind a rock in the hope it would also not notice me. I prepared to continue with the barrier spell when I heard several more wolves howl all around me. Looking around I noticed a great many more wolves upon the hills and ruins around me. Something told me they were going to be anything but friendly.

Trying to keep my calm, I continued with the barrier spell attempting to speed up the process as much as I could. I was almost there. The wolves around me had begun to charge down from their positions; all of them were clearly headed straight for me. I almost panicked and lost concentration but managed to continue the barrier spell to completion.

"Grant me power hidden beneath the deepest surface Let nothing pass where life now flows I command thee, grant me sanctuary Where only I may remain!"

Nothing happened. I now began to panic. Why wasn't it working? I had cast it correctly I was sure. Is it possible my lack of concentration wasn't responsible for the barrier coming down in the first place? Could these wolves be responsible?

I wasn't sure what to do now. The wolves were fast approaching and I was defenceless aside from my magic. I was not trained in close range combat, in fact I wasn't trained in magical combat either, but I did know a fair few offensive spells not the least I demonstrated previously although then for some reason it was far more powerful than even I could imagine. Is it possible if I did it again it would cause as much damage as before? My magic didn't seem to be amplified since I had used it on many occasion since then mostly for defensive and archaeological purposes but all had gone well.

I had to do something, so I opted for a simple wind based spell I had learnt a while back, it was about the only non-earth spell I knew these days but it was so simple almost every sorcerer alive could pull it off.

I looked around trying to decide which wolf was closest. The spell had a pretty small angle of fire, at least at the basic level at which I knew it, so I had to pick my targets one at a time. The closest to me seemed like a good choice.

Having chosen my choice I began the spell.

"Gnehm hear my call What flows through life Flows through the dawn Grant me your rays of light Grant me your heart and soul Show me natures scorn!"

I held my hand out towards the nearest wolf.

Nothing.

What was going on? Is it possible I had lost my art, or was it somehow being blocked? I thought perhaps it could be the rings doing, but if so why now? Could it be responsible for the wolves as well?

I reached into my pocket to take the ring and throw it away from me but it was not there. It had vanished. I searched the ground around me and my other pockets but it was nowhere to be found. I was sure I had it with me but moments ago and I could feel its presence. I now realised I felt nothing; I could not sense it at all. It had simply vanished.

Turning back to the task in hand I considered my options. I was not a fighter, I could have perhaps taken on one wolf but not this many of them. They were closing fast. I could see them more clearly now, they were silky grey with eyes that seemed to glow in the night. While they certainly were vicious I noticed they had a certain elegance about them as well.

I had to think of something. What could I do if I had no magic? I had to figure out what was causing my magic to not work. Very little was known about how what we called "magic" actually worked. Many a scholar has attempted to ascertain how it is possible some of us can channel energy, seemingly from nowhere, into a form of our choosing.

Many of the techniques and spells have been passed down generation from generation and so a lot of what we learn is merely how to use such powers and not to understand them. The only real discovery that anyone has ever made is that the actual words are not entirely necessary for a spell to succeed but help concentrate the mind on the task at hand. Often spells can be cast without words if you have previously cast it recently or are already in the correct frame of mind. It does require some considerable practice on the casters part though and so far it has only been achieved with very simple spells.

So how, if at all was my magic being blocked? I have never experienced anything or anyone who could do such a thing. It was unheard of, it was why criminals with knowledge of the arts had to have their tongue removed and in severe cases where they could cast just with their minds, they had to be put to death.

I closed my eyes and tried to think. I was somehow aware even with my eyes closed on the wolves approaching. I could sense them coming ever closer; I could sense their hunger, their thirst for blood. I opened my eyes out of shock. Just what I needed, more unexplained phenomenon.

I closed my eyes once again and tried to shut out the wolves, and to concentrate on the process of casting a spell. I slowly began to silence the wolves in my mind and began the process of the wind spell once again, until I somehow detected what appeared to be a chasm, farther away than the wolves, and yet somehow related. It was a shimmering pool of black, like a tranquil lake on a clear summer night. Quite how I could see it I couldn't figure out, but I felt sure it was what was causing my problems.

If this was the problem, what could I do about it? Wolves rapidly closing surrounded me and my magic wasn't working. I couldn't get to where the black pool was located so I had to do something with magic. There had to be a way to remove or close that chasm. Perhaps some other form of magic could work. I had tried wind and earth magic earlier and neither had worked so clearly elemental magic was unlikely to work. Black and white magic were also most likely to fail since they all drew from the same energy source, at least as I understood it.

What if the energy source I need to draw from is somehow being blocked? Could that be it, could that be what is happening. He wasn't sure why, but from what he could see that seemed to be the right conclusion.

Given that I cant draw on the energy to generate a spell, is there another energy source I can draw upon? I thought back to a paper I once read on alternate energy sources, if I recall many attempts at drawing from other sources always resulted in death for the caster, mostly in rather horrific ways. The last case I heard of destroyed an entire building in an attempt to light a candle.

I then realised that it was possible that was what occurred during the incident when my spell lost control; did something happen than caused me to draw upon these other forces? It could explain the unprecedented power of the spell. If that was the case, somehow I had survived, where others had failed. Was it worth the risk?

Considering that I was about to be eaten alive by ravenous wolves and that I was nowhere near what I considered to be a "populated" area, I decided upon trying.

Concentrating on the wind spell once again I attempted to consider where I would draw the energy? I wasn't even entirely sure where I was drawing the power from when I cast spells usually, so how was I to draw it from somewhere else?

I could sense the wolves extremely close now, there was no time left. I had to try something. I put all the effort I could into channelling energy from somewhere, but where? Desperate for some sort of energy source I began to realise that the very earth around me seemed to emanate great power. Surely given my mostly earth based magic this was where I drew the power from usually. I was about to continue searching when I realised something was different about the energy. It seemed somehow raw and powerful.

I guess this was worth a shot. I did think to myself why I had never noticed this sort of energy before.

The time for thinking had passed. The wolves were virtually on top of me; I had to try. Drawing from that energy source, I cast the spell as best I could and directed it at the black pool chasm thing I saw in my mind.

At first nothing happened, then I heard a distant scream, of what sounded like a woman. Was she responsible for blocking my magic? It seemed that was the case, the chasm had gone and all I could see in my mind was darkness where once there was light. Was this darkness where we drew our magic?

Concentrating my mind, I attempted to cast the typical version of the wind spell at the wolf about to get within in striking distance of me. To my relief it worked and the wolf was sent hurtling backwards. My magic was back.

Since I wasn't sure how long it would last, and given that I was about to be over run by wolves I had to be quick. Placing my hand to the earth, I decided on a smaller spell than what I cast before, I still didn't trust my offensive magic and since I had my own power back now I didn't need to risk trying anything too powerful.

Three wolves were approaching fast from the rear, I could no longer feel or see them in my mind so had to keep my wits about me to combat them. Swivelling on the spot with my hand still firmly planted on the earth, I cast the quickest spell I could think of.

"Terra noxius Ixiom Yui!"

An earthen spike shot out from beneath the earth directly in front of the group of wolves, two of them were knocked flying into the air and seemingly vanished. I was sure that wasn't my doing so concluded they must be illusions or some sort of spirit wolves. I had read tales of such beasts, but they were always considered Fairy Tales or myths. But out here from what I had seen anything was possible.

The third wolf avoided the spike completely and leapt toward me claws out and jaws wide open. I somehow managed to dive sideways to barely avoid getting torn to shreds, although I was scratched on the shoulder by just a small brush against the creature's claws.

Watching the wolf land I realised it was going to turn and come at me, so I put my hand to the earth, and cast the spell again just managing to catch the wolf clean across the stomach seemingly disintegrating it in thin air.

I was relieved and amazed at myself for managing to survive but I knew there were yet more wolves almost upon me. Given that I had just cleared an opening in their encirclement I decided to take this opportunity to run. I was sure I couldn't take them all on and come out alive, so this was probably going to be the best option.

I ran faster than I had ever ran before, I wasn't particularly fit but I did eat healthily and get regular exercise so I wasn't completely unprepared for the sprint of my life.

Running blindly through the ruins, which were far larger than even I had imagined, I was reasonably familiar with the layout but in my current state of mind I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going. I passed a large stone pillar and then somehow managed to trip over a fairly large stone tablet, which I had not noticed in my haste. I wasn't sure how I missed seeing it, given its location and I was also certain I had examined this area in great detail. I sat up onto my knees staring at the strange symbols engraved in an ancient language upon the surface of the stone. I felt drawn towards them, I felt like I was home.

Had I found what I was looking for?

Was it worth all that I gave up and the destruction I had caused?

Perhaps.

A couple of weeks before I came to Oslo, Tales of Symphonia was released in the US for the Gamecube. Unable to wait until it came out in the UK, I had already pre-ordered it and recieved it within a few days of its US release. I was glad I did.

It is definitely one of the best games I've played this year, and in fact still playing (despite having completed it, not 100% of course). One of the most appealing reasons to play this game is the actually enjoyable combat system, which unlike Final Fantasy games is real-time, which means fighting the same enemies over and over again (which you can avoid doing if you want without needing to find the sacred moo moo grass of tati-lala) is actually fun. With 8 different characters to control you can switch at any time and get a whole new fighting experience sinceeach character has their own strengths and weaknesses.

The Plot

The Characters

The Combat

The Rest

I was planning at some point to make an entry about what I have been up to lately, however I never got around to it. However luckily for me Hixie has pretty much done it for me =)

I didn't do the first concert bit since I wasn't here yet, and I don't recall ever playing badmington thankfully. That monopoly game he mentions was pretty funny, I tried my best to prevent Hixie from winning but when he has a deal like that with one player AND his girlfriend is playing, I never stood much of a chance =)

Outside of what Hixie listed, I also have been working (obviously), playing on my Gamecube (Bought 4 games since I have been here, far too expensive in Oslo though so I should stop), watching movies or SG-1, working on Voidwars and shopping in general (We tried to go visit some famous Oslo places today but it was raining and we had no idea where to go).

Aside from the prices of things here, I am liking it a lot, it's nice to get paid for doing stuff I enjoy, and foreign countries aren't as scary as I thought =). Also working at Opera means I have met people from a lot of different countries, and it was quite amusing when we decided that the person who was going to call and order pizza was the only Norwegian in the room (The others were English, American, Swedish and Czech)

I want to comment on the games I have been playing lately but I think I will leave that to a later entry, since I can give it a more interesting title.

The day started off so well, with reasonably on time trains, very little walking distance with a heavy suitcase, and a very smooth journey, that was until I reached Heathrow Airport.

Waiting at the airport was fine, I had just bought Fire Emblem (I tried to buy it from Evesham at a GAME store, but not even they could escape from the utter crapness of Evesham. They didn't have the game and they hadn't even heard of it!) from Virgin at the airport which also made it cheaper being tax free and all. However as per usual something had to go wrong.

My flight was delayed for at least 30 minutes according to the display, however that must have been the boarding time since it seems when I arrived I was over an hour and a half late. Luckily I had the mobile number of the person I was supposed to meet and we met by the tiger statue as arranged if a little late.

And the due to unusual circumstances, we didn't get the key to where I was staying, so I ended up sleeping at someone elses house instead, and they kindly slept on the couch.

On the plus side I am getting to use their internet connection while I am here, so am able to write what you are reading. Apparantly I am going sailing this afternoon which I'm sure will result in me drowning =)

While riding home from town on a bus I noticed it has an emergency exit on one side and on the roof. For some reason I then thought that if the bus happend to fall upside down into a bus shaped hole we couldn't get out because there is no emergency exit in the floor.

kromm3128> just trying to see if anyone can help me hack the name
kromm3128> can anyone?
sleeper> hmmm
sleeper> it would probably take an insane amount of time =)
sleeper> hmm... you know thats illegeal ?
kromm3128> yes
Kamakaze> hack what?
sleeper> just wanted to mkae sure ;)
kromm3128> but he dont use it anymore and wont answer my im
kromm3128> the peep i am trying to hack
kromm3128> a peep that dont come here anymore
Kamakaze> and what exactly are you trying to do
kromm3128> get the cards of there if there are any cuz it is inactive
kromm3128> and whoever helps me will get a lot of stuff
Kamakaze> lol
Kamakaze> well i dont know what you do
kromm3128> if there are any cards on that name
Kamakaze> but i dont think you stand a very good chance
kromm3128> if not then a rare+ and a couple of rarea
kromm3128> rares
kromm3128> y not?
sleeper> first i thought youre joking...
Kamakaze> well what do you intend to do
kromm3128> get the pass cuz the peep wont answer my im
kromm3128> and dont come on here anymore
Kamakaze> and do that by guessing?
kromm3128> at the pass?
Kamakaze> yes
kromm3128> no
kromm3128> there could be any pass
kromm3128> i would prob never figure it out
kromm3128> u have to get a program to help
sleeper> and only because hes not responding to your im you think he stopped playing this 
game for the rest of his life ?
kromm3128> now i promise i wont hack anyones name on here if i get a program
Kamakaze> well if you could you would already have all our accounts by now
kromm3128> yes
Kamakaze> do you actually know anything about hacking?
kromm3128> no i wouldnt
kromm3128> i wouldnt hack anyone elses account
kromm3128> unless i know they stopped playign for shure
kromm3128> not really
sleeper> like not responding to a mail ?
kromm3128> that is y i am askin
kromm3128> no an aol im
Kamakaze> lol
Kamakaze> no offence
Kamakaze> but you have no idea what you are talking about
sleeper> I better never tell you my im adresses... 
kromm3128> y?
kromm3128> i wont come do anything
kromm3128> lol
kromm3128> promise
kromm3128> i only want his account cuz i se him on aol all the time and he never gets on here
Kamakaze> what I should do
kromm3128> no im not a hacker that will give out info or anything
Kamakaze> is send you a program called "hack stccg.exe"
kromm3128> like that
Kamakaze> wait for you to run it and i take over your computer
sleeper> hrhr
kromm3128> now y would u do that?
Kamakaze> because you are an idiot
kromm3128> not really
Kamakaze> if you could get a program that would hack things just 
like that everyone would be doing it
kromm3128> if u had the chance to get all the 2e rares there are 
more than once wouldnt u try to get them kama
Kamakaze> 2ndly if you intend to actually hack something you dont tell 
people on the thing you are going to hack
Kamakaze> that is my point
kromm3128> i am not telling the name
Kamakaze> you dont stand a chance
Kamakaze> you couldnt hack your own computer let alone this
kromm3128> lol
kromm3128> true
Kamakaze> you just like the term hack and throw it about alot
kromm3128> no this is the first time i have used it on here
kromm3128> ever
kromm3128> and not much irl

                  

---

His reaction to this post was "yay im on a web site".

Just over a week ago I went off to Norway, which involved me flying on a plane for the first time. In fact since I left from Birmingham I had to go via Copenhagen since there wasn't a direct flight to Oslo.

I was a little nervous when the plane first took off, I decided to sit next to the window and seeing the ground leave you and get very small is very nerve wracking the first time. Once we were up in the air and above the clouds where we couldn't see the ground I was alright and aside from the noise it was just like being in small room.

I was glad on my first flight the plane was relatively empty, this gave me plenty of room which helped with the nerves. Once I got used to being up in the air, it was a pretty nice view out the window especially with the early morning sun.

We were given a "continental" breakfast on the plane, which was just a warm roll and butter really. The first flight was 2 hours long so I mostly read "The Tower on the Rift" which I brought with me since I knew I would be doing alot of waiting. I did think that there was nothing on the plane to indicate how much farther it was till our destination which I thought would be too complicated or something. I was proved wrong later on though on my second flight =)

By far the worst part was the landing. The first time was the worst since I'm sure my head was going to explode. The times after that I had gotten used to it so it wasn\'t as bad and I really enjoyed the flights after my first.

I was very impressed with my second flight, it was a bigger plane than my first flight. Obviously Copenhagen to Oslo was a more popular flight since it was a much better plane. It had pop out monitors which were used to not only show us the safety video, but also showed a real time view from the front of the plane, details about the planes speed and altitude and a simple map showing where the plane was on the journey.

This was pretty cool and much more than I was expecting. Overall I really enjoyed the flights and I'm glad any fears I might have had were completely unfounded. Of course Oslo is another story entirely =)

I am off to Norway today. Am leaving around 4am to get a 6.25am flight. Having never flown before this will be an interesting experience. Hopefully I will come back alive =)

An article on DGMA.com, has some comments from me, along with various other STCCG players.

I got a nice new chair today. It swivels, leans and rolls (I used to be sat on a dining table chair).

There is a pig. A doorstop in the shape of a pig. A doorstop in the shape of a pig on the floor. You would think it could do no harm? You think wrong.

As shown in the picture above this so called pig doorstop is in fact in the middle of floor in the living room. It's so called reason for being there is to keep the rug corner from turning up. However it is often tripped over, especially in the dark.

Despite all that it is still there and will most likely stay there for some time to come.

The english language is such a wonderous thing.

If I have an apple and it has a special ability that means it "cannot be eaten" and someone tells me "Choose an apple to be eaten. If you cannot, randomly select a pear to be eaten"

Can I choose the uneatable apple to avoid having to eat a pear?

My interpretation of it (and several other peoples) is that you can indeed choose that apple to avoid having to choose a pear, since "if you cannot" is simply referring to the choosing of an apple to be eaten and not the actual eating of the apple.

This question came up because of a couple of new cards released for the STCCG, and a very important aspect of a card's gametext in a CCG, is the clarity of the text. If a cards game text can be interpreted several different ways it can lead to all sorts of rule issues making the game more complicated than it needs.

The cards in question are Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and Lore. While I firmly believe that you can bypass the latter effect of the dilemma card, the ruling is that you have to stop a personnel in order to avoid the killing of a personnel.

I do hope they will change the wording on future cards that are similarly worded although by the sound of it they don't seem to realise they have done anything wrong.

After watching Red Dwarf on BBC 2, I left the tv on while I carried on with my programming, only to end up being completely engrossed with the film that followed and eager to find out the next piece of the story.

The film was called 'Six Degrees of Seperation' and is not the sort of film I would normally set out to watch given a description of it. However it was suprisingly interesting, and although I was indeed extremely hungry at the time, I decided not to travel downstairs to get something to eat in case I missed a second of it and lost the plot.

I believe the film was based on a play, and starred Will Smith, Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland as the three main characters. While I wouldn't say it was the best film I've ever seen it certiainly is the most absorbing film I've seen on TV for a while.

Return of the King is a very good film indeed, and I'm sure I could go on and on about it, but instead I won't just in case someone who hasn't seen the film reads my blog and doesn't realise what they are reading until it's too late. So instead here are some random lists of what I am doing.

The games I am currently playing:

• Star Wars Galaxies : An Empire Divided
• Star Wars Rogue Squadron III : Rebel Strike
• Pokemon Sapphire
• Lord of the Rings Online TCG

The music I am currently listening to:

• Vandread Vocal and Original Soundtrack
• Vandread Second Stage Vocal and Original Soundtrack
• Vandread : Girls Serenade
• Vandread Plus
• Lord of the Rings : Return of the King Soundtrack

Things I am currently programming:

• The PEXIS web system (ie. what this site uses)
• The SAMUS system
• Voidwars

Miscellaneous other things I am doing:

• Looking for work (Yes believe it or not I am)
• Making pointless blog entries
• Watching Last Exile
• Waiting for Necessary Evil to arrive

On a similar note to my previous post, finding out about Rock and Rule made me even more nostalgic than usual, so started looking for an old puppeted sci-fi show called Star Fleet.

This was alot easier to track down although I was searching for Starfleet as one word so ended up wtih many Star Trek links. However I managed to end up once again at The Big Cartoon Database and a post that mentioned that Star Fleet was often confused with Starfleet =)

I found a nice site called SFXB and to my surprise it was in fact a japanese series dubbed in english ( I was pretty young when I saw it so how was I to know it was dubbed back then!). The Japense version of the series has apparantly been released on DVD however it doesn't have an English dub and is edited slightly different from the show I would have watched way back when.

I'm going to stop this trip down memory lane for now since it's making me feel old =)

For some strange reason last night I decided to embark on a quest to find out the name of an old animated film I watched a reasonably long time ago on Sky TV.

My first port of call was of course Google, unfortunately though my memories of the film were very limited and all I could recall was it involved music, a guitar and a female in danger from an evil monster. So after trying various variations of those terms i came up with nothing of any use.

Not wanting to give up I then starting searching for old cartoon films in general and found various sites about old cartoons, but then somehow ended up at The Big Cartoon Database. After taking a quick browse through the cartoon titles and not recognising anything I was about to move on but noticed that there was a forum for asking about old cartoons you couldn't remember.

I then made a post there with the following descroption of what I could recall.

Anyone remember an old cartoon film involving music and somehow winning the day by playing a guitar? That is just about all I rememeber, but the I'm sure the end involved a stage and some guitar playing to some how save the world from a monster or something. Perhaps a woman was going to be sacraficed to the monster, which was the woman the bloke playing the guitar was in love with. I saw it quite a long time ago on sky tv I think.

With such a vague description I really didn't expect anything to come of it.

Less than 24 hours later I got an email saying my post had been replied to. I went along to the forum expecting someone to be asking me some more questions or something to get a better idea of what to look for, but instead I found the title, which was Rock and Rule, images and links to more information about the very film I was looking for!

I was astounded by this, and the images alone brought back memories of the film that I hadn't recalled before. I was pretty happy to find out that it was actually a film and not a weird dream I had somehow recalled!

However I did feel the desire to see the thing again now that I knew what it was, and believe it or not there are plans to release it on DVD in 2004! The DVD is going to be released by a company called Unearthed Films and apparantly they have been overwhelmed with emails about the DVD and have had to create a seperate mailing list just for it.

It's nice to see this film has a small following on the net, and that many people want to see it released on DVD, me being one of them.

Yet another filler post till I can be bothered to post something with content.

This isn't an entry complaining about christmas as the title suggests but a post about a sheep.

The current anime series I am watching is Last Exile, which is a series based around odd looking flying vehicles known as Vanships, and two pilots of such vehicles called Claus and Lavi. I haven't finished watching the series yet but i've enjoyed it so far.

One of the features of the show which I like, is the presence of a stuffed toy sheep (unfortunately it doesn't appear to have a name), which when tilted makes a 'Baa' sound (Hence the title). However due to me wanting to do something silly in Flash, the lack of broadband for a few days and the obsession with this cartoon stuffed toy I decided to make a simple animation of it falling over.

So if you dare to look, my Last Exile Sheep is available for all to view at their own peril.

I was happily chatting on irc late Saturday night at around 2am, when suddenly I was disconnected from the server. Thinking it was just a temporary glitch in my ADSL connection, I accessed my router's admin via its web interface and checked the status of my ADSL connection.

According to the router I was getting CRC errors, so I just rebooted the modem in the hope that it would all go back to normal. However on rebooting the modem simply couldnt sync with the ADSL connection, and so the ADSL light just flashed ominously at me. Trying various things and rebooting many times, I eventually gave up and assumed it would come back on by tomorrow morning so went to bed.

The following morning however the light was still flashing away so I figured it was time to call my ISP (OneTel). On calling them they had to wait for BT to do a line check for me and since it was a Sunday I had to wait till monday for BT to get that done. So I reinstalled my 56k modem and spent the day on dial-up =(

I then phoned the next morning and was told BT would be dealing with it soon. I called back later that day and according to BT my line was perfectly fine, and after discussing the possiblities with my ISP (This process took several phone calls and much of my time) we decided it must be my router.

Since my router was made by Binatone Broadband, I went to the Binatone Broadband website and looked for any known issues or updated drivers and such, and none were to be found (In fact there was very little there at all).

I then tried to contact Binatone support via phone, and the first thing I was told that was I needed to register my product ONLINE for me to be able to contact support! Now in my case since I had a dial-up connection aswell I was able to but if the broadband connection was someones only net connection I fail to see how anyone could do this.

However I registered my product and after being in telephone queues for far too long I finally got through to them, and as soon as I told them what my problem was they immediately knew the solution. Apparantly the ADSL 2000 router with the firmware version 21.19.6 will no longer work since BT have changed their BT IPStream platform in some way that makes this particular version stop working. I assume the reason my router seemed to work for a month or so was due to the fact that BT aren't changing the exchanges all at once and my local exchange must have been tampered with that night.

The nice man at Binatone Broadband gave me the ftp url to download the latest firmware (version 21.19.9a) although I had to do so on dial-up it was only around 6mb so didn't take too long, then I unzipped it, ran updatefw.bat and a few minutes later my ADSL connection was restored. However I should hope that at least a link to this ftp site be put up on their site to direct people like me to the solutions without having to bother technical support with such simple issues. Had this information been on their site in the first place I wouldn't have had to go through such an ordeal to get it resolved and from what I was told this has happend to a lot of people recently.

Also you would have though that my ADSL ISP would have been notified of any major changes to the BT ADSL system, I assume since I wasn't using a modem supplied by them they were un-able to deal with the problem. I do have to say though that while some of the people I spoke to at OneTel weren't exactly very helpful there were a couple of people who were extremely helpful or at least willing to discuss possible problems instead of just telling me to reinput my password.

UPDATE: 2004-10-06

The something else that came along was another MMORPG, based in the Star Wars universe, and called Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided.

Based on Gwief's experience of the game I decided to give it a try. My first impressions of the game was that is was pretty well polished and after switching the controls to a more FPS style I was soon wandering around with ease.

I decided to start off as a scout, and headed off out into the wilderness to try and kill things. After failing to do so many times I then discovered scouts could use camps which allowed you to sit down and rest in to heal faster. Rather than mindless killing I think the main way to get along in this game is to do missions. Since I wanted to shoot things I took some destroy missions which find a target at your level and creates a waypoint to the location so you can find you way easily.

Unlike most MMORPG's, in SWG you gain different types of experience depending on what you do. If you shoot someone with your pistol you gain pistol xp, if you shoot someone with a rifle you gain rifle xp etc... It also applies to various other things such as healing and crafting items. So to get better at something you essentially need to do that something.

I am currently a Combat Medic, although I did try to be various other things but somehow I keep healing other players and I don't think I could play without the ability to heal reasonably well.

Here are some screen shots of my adventures so far.

Overall I am enjoying the game for the most part, especially since they added vehicles and am just exploring the rebel/imperial part of the game to see how that fleshes out. I'm not sure how good the long term appeal of the game will be but if they can continue to add new content I should hope I could be playing this game until at least WoW is released =)

Since I got broadband aside from downloading various things, I have taken up trying MMORPG's again. The first and most laughable one I tried was a SNES RPG looking game which was peculiar and free. It was clearly written in visual basic, so very quickly stopped playing it.

Next since I now had broadband I decided to download the free 7 day trial for Anarchy Online, it was about 1.2 gig to download but just leaving my pc on overnight and a little during the day was enough to download it in no time.

Anarchy Online was pretty much what I expected from it, a typical MMORPG, with the usual amount of killing stuff and spending your skill points each time you levelled up. I'm sure it is a pretty game however due to my machine being over 2 years old I played it on the lowest settings possible.

I started as a Shade, which is a stealthy backstabbing type character. The Shade is best suited to using daggers or knifes, however not long into the game I decided I wanted to use a Bow, so I eventually got myself one and went around killing things reasonably well.

However, on seeing me using a bow most people took it upon themselves to give me free daggers, and tell me that a Shade shouldn't be using them. It was quite funny really, but gave me all the more reason to use the bow! I did try playing a different character more suited to a Bow but even though they were better with the bow they never felt the same.

Overall its probably one of the better MMORPG's out there, and the skill system is quite flexible although most players don't like breaking the mold. I probably would have continued to play it after my free 7 days but something else came along...

The world has ended a day earlier than expected. Today my ADSL started working a day earlier than expected! At last I am back with broadband after so very long.

My Gran recently got yet another teddy bear to add to the many she already has, but this one she insists on sitting downstairs on the couch. However this bear may look a nice little bear at first but...

The bear is EVIL. It has an evil grin and should be burnt!

For some reason last week I decided to play Metroid Prime through again, since I hadn't completed it on anything other than < 80% complete, which means I hadn't even seen the second ending, let alone the third (for getting 100%.) I happily played that for hours on end, and really quite enjoyed playing throught it again, but after purchasing Lost Kingdoms II, for £15 on ebay, I started playing that instead, I enjoyed the first Lost Kingdoms and although it's not the greatest game ever made its not too bad.

Anyway after playing that for a few hours, my head and eyes hurt quite a bit, and I feel generally "out of it". I don't know what it is about the game, but there arent any particularly flashy light bits or anything like that, Metroid Prime is far worse for flashy lights. Perhaps it's because I haven't played it before and my brain isn't used to working... While playing the game I don't notice anything but as soon as I stop playing it I feel totally weird. I also feel the urge to play it, so perhaps there are subliminal messages in the game telling me to play it =)

Why do people do what they do?
What makes us behave the way we do?
If there are rules that are easily broken do we have a desire to break them just because we can?
Do people make multiple accounts in the same game just because they can?
Or do they wish to play it many times at once to enjoy it many times over?
What drives us to do what we do? (and please don't say Driver, Car or some other vehicle, yes YOU, you know who you are)

After having 4 hours sleep, and getting up at 9am, I then proceeded to somehow stay awake till 5am. =/ I blame Xiven.

As Hixie pointed out I came down to Bath to attend another BUNCS LAN and staying at the Hixie Hotel =)

Was the usual LAN affair, not as many people as we had hoped, but enough for a few good games, and of course getting the usual dose of new Anime. We played some Black Hawk Down, which was ok at first in multiplayer, but played a little too much like Counter Strike for my liking, with the usual deaths by a random enemy you can't even see.

Urban Terror, a similarly themed game mod using the Quake III Engine, was much better than Black Hawk Down, although alot of the maps were too small since you spawned around the corner from each others spawn points.

We did plan on going to see X-Men 2, but managed to eat far too slowly at Burger King, so was too late to catch the film, so we travelled back to Hixie's, and spent several hours installing Diablo II on Hixie's laptop. We did plan on playing it before the LAN but since it took so long to install didn't get a chance.

As usual a great weekend, and makes me wish I was still down at Bath.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I can't figure out what to do with the Ghost Ship in Wind Waker! I've tried using every item I have on it, but nothing works. Is there no justice in this world!

Since I now know I need to find something else to help me with the ghost ship I am now off to search all of the islands (The person who told me this should be shot for going to gamefaqs.com really, but at least it means I can stop aimlessly following the Ghost Ship around).

After an extremely long period of time without internet access, BT have finally fixed the phone line. It's been two weeks since it broke, and of course it had to break the day before christmas eve thus everyone who could fix it was on holiday for two weeks.

It was an interesting experience being without the internet for two weeks, when it first went down I was lost for things to do. I couldn't work on Voidwars, play any online games or talk on irc. Eventually I started playing Morrowind, and basically played that for two weeks, since there was little else to do, with christmas tv being what it is.

I might carry on playing morrowind but my desire to do so how has diminished drastically since I got our phone line back, and I expect my sleeping pattern to become completely messed up once again.