As some of you may know, recently a tech blogger named Alyssa Bereznak blogged about having a date with a guy who happens to be the champion of the CCG Magic: The Gathering, Jon Finkel. If you do not know anything about this, stop reading now, and read this: My Brief OkCupid Affair With a World Champion Magic: The Gathering Player. Then return here when you are done.
Ok so first I want to make some things clear. 1. Online dating has its up and its downs. When you make a profile, you run the risk of having some pretty weird ass people talking to you (weird depending on your own standards of course). That being said, it is also the internet. Dating site or not, you can still shape your own personality to be what you want it to be. I can tell you that I am a Mexican body builder from France who loves to play love songs on a guitar and long walks on the beach. Yes, I understand that it isn't exactly believable, and that it is an extreme, but still it illustrates my point. So, online dating you take that risk. 2. I briefly had a Match.com page. I started out with a very vague profile, only allowing a little bit of my major personal life available because most people that I am attracted to do not exactly like the same things I do. For example, I am a big time gamer. When I have nothing better to do, I am not opposed to sitting down for 7 hours and playing a game because to me, playing a game is like watching a movie, only I control the movie. Many girls do not find that in any way attractive, so to put "I am a gamer" into my profile was basically a way to suicide my profile. And I was right. After I spoke to a few girls on there, and then started to let them know more about me, they just straight up stopped talking to me. At this point I was extremely annoyed, and said fuck it, everything is going up there. Easy way to filter out people who will act that way. "What does this have to do with anything?" you may ask. Well, in her blog, Bereznak mentions that he never mentioned that on his page, and she thinks it is a big deal that she didn't know this to begin with. Tough shit, he didn't mention it because he would like to get at least 1 date out of girls. Hell it isn't that big a deal.
So Bereznak basically gets all up in arms about Finkel being a Magic champion. My question is: Why is it a big deal? Yes, I totally agree that it is nerdy to play Magic. But, with the way that our society is evolving, everyone does some pretty nerdy shit. Hell I would go as far as to say writing a blog is nerdy. And I have no room to talk because as I said, I am a gamer, and I like to paint and play miniature war games. But so what? Just because we do nerdy things doesn't make us shitty people. Every girl I have ever dated, and this is no lie, has actually been asked 'How can you stay with him? He's so nerdy and he's an ass." (I am very aggressive and love to poke fun at everyone, which always makes me look like as ass and people don't like me on first impression.) They always respond that it is different, that I am such a "sweetheart" and a "good boyfriend" and that if they got to know me, I'm not really not a bad guy at all. And its true. I may not be nice to everyone when you first meet me, and I am a hella nerd, but when you get to know me, I'm a good guy. So maybe Finkel's a good guy, too? Hell, she will never know now after the stunt she pulled, but seriously, what gives?
The worst part about this whole thing is the fact that in her post she really rips on him for being a nerd and a dweeb and all this other shit just for playing a CCG. Have whatever opinions you want to have. If you want to harbor a dislike for nerdy people, fine by me. But what gives you the right to go home, shell up on your computer, and start tearing him apart and bashing him for playing a damn card game? There could be much worse things he does in his free time.
All in all, all I have to say is I am a bit annoyed by what she did. It was unnecessary, and completely unwarranted. But hey, that's just my opinion.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
I Have Returned!!
And so after many days of not being here, I have returned to the blog, in order to put down my thoughts, dreams, and experiences, as well as anything else I can think of. Game reviews, screen shots (shitty ones at that, as I do not have a capture card for xbox games), pictures of miniatures, the incredibly random ass dreams that I have, tactics, battle reports, really anything. Of course, I don't have one for today, since I am just now returning, and I don't have anyone watching this either, but lets hope that it changes soon :)
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Minecraft has Taken Over My Soul....
Ok I have been wasting way too much time with Minecraft lately. I need to put a pause on this or I will never get anything else done!
Well today I had planned to do some studying and then work on my minis, but Minecraft pretty much absorbed the entire day. After a few rounds of DoW 2 online as the Tyranids (which, using the color scheme I want to use for my GW 'Nids it made me really want to paint some 'Nids), I dove into Minecraft and was lost for several hours.
I spent quite sometime underground searching for more minerals to collect. I wanted to find more redstone and more diamond to add to my collection. I have been working at making my way around a massive underground lava pit that just seems to have no end as well. Here is just a portion of it.
After finding a dungeon, which had a nice reward of redstone, a bucket, some sulfur, some other random bobs, and a green record, I made for topside. I wanted to play the record ASAP and hear what was on it. Now, as you may know, I built a WOOD house over top of what will eventually be a full pit of lava. Now, I also gave it a wood walkway, which got very close to the lava at one point. When I arrived at my house this time around, this is what I was met with.
Yea, my house burnt down. Completely. Or at least that is what I am assuming because I can not for the life of me figure out what else would have happened. So I had to rebuild the whole thing. Was a large waste of time, but instead of a wooden platform with a wooden walkway, the platform and walkway are now cobblestone, with the house being made of wood still.
At this point, I began to smelt large amounts of cobblestone into regular stone, both in my house and in my underground workshop. I had planned to get a large building project going, and was going to need a lot of smooth stone.
While the stone was smelting, I began to construct a massive cobblestone platform above and off to the side of where my current home is located. I believe currently it is around 20x24 but it will probably expand. This is just the base size I am currently using. I plan to construct a giant keep, or bastion, out of smooth stone and other fun materials. here is a pic of my house and the platform. Its night, but you should still be able to see it.
Once that was completed I continued to shuttle lava form underground to my pit, but I began to realize how troublesome it is to run the distance to my mine, which started in a natural cave system somewhat nearby. Obviously during the night it becomes very dangerous to run back and forth.
That being said, I constructed an underground tunnel that takes me right to a part of my mine very close to the actual mine shaft itself. The side that is above ground is constructed form dirt and glass, so that I can see if any monsters haver wondered into the vicinity. The mine portion is a large portal basically with torches all around it to mark it very clearly.
After that, I did a little bit of exploring, and came across this awesome sight. I plan to build something here eventually, and connect it by a sky road to my main encampment. Maybe I will make a storage shed here, and connect it by mine carts, or another castle, or maybe even a shrine. Hell I need to rebuild my Chaos shrine now anyway : /
After a significant amount of stone had finished smelting, I began to construct the first part of my bastion. I have planned on building some kind of demon or beast statues around the base of this fort that would be spewing forth lava, but then I realized just how big they would have to be to work, and so I decided some skulls with lava coming form their mouths would be pretty awesome. So I constructed two enormous skulls out of stone at the entrance to the platform, and finished them with some lava. Here is what it looks like finished.
It does look much cooler at night.
As a side note, I am using an HD texture pack from Misa for Minecraft, which looks amazing, and I highly recommend it to anyone who's computer can handle it. Here is the link: http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=73861.
That's all for now, and I am actually hoping it will be a little while until Minecraft gets a 7-8 hour straight hold on me again. God I feel lazy. Until next time.
Well today I had planned to do some studying and then work on my minis, but Minecraft pretty much absorbed the entire day. After a few rounds of DoW 2 online as the Tyranids (which, using the color scheme I want to use for my GW 'Nids it made me really want to paint some 'Nids), I dove into Minecraft and was lost for several hours.
I spent quite sometime underground searching for more minerals to collect. I wanted to find more redstone and more diamond to add to my collection. I have been working at making my way around a massive underground lava pit that just seems to have no end as well. Here is just a portion of it.
After finding a dungeon, which had a nice reward of redstone, a bucket, some sulfur, some other random bobs, and a green record, I made for topside. I wanted to play the record ASAP and hear what was on it. Now, as you may know, I built a WOOD house over top of what will eventually be a full pit of lava. Now, I also gave it a wood walkway, which got very close to the lava at one point. When I arrived at my house this time around, this is what I was met with.
Yea, my house burnt down. Completely. Or at least that is what I am assuming because I can not for the life of me figure out what else would have happened. So I had to rebuild the whole thing. Was a large waste of time, but instead of a wooden platform with a wooden walkway, the platform and walkway are now cobblestone, with the house being made of wood still.
At this point, I began to smelt large amounts of cobblestone into regular stone, both in my house and in my underground workshop. I had planned to get a large building project going, and was going to need a lot of smooth stone.
While the stone was smelting, I began to construct a massive cobblestone platform above and off to the side of where my current home is located. I believe currently it is around 20x24 but it will probably expand. This is just the base size I am currently using. I plan to construct a giant keep, or bastion, out of smooth stone and other fun materials. here is a pic of my house and the platform. Its night, but you should still be able to see it.
Once that was completed I continued to shuttle lava form underground to my pit, but I began to realize how troublesome it is to run the distance to my mine, which started in a natural cave system somewhat nearby. Obviously during the night it becomes very dangerous to run back and forth.
That being said, I constructed an underground tunnel that takes me right to a part of my mine very close to the actual mine shaft itself. The side that is above ground is constructed form dirt and glass, so that I can see if any monsters haver wondered into the vicinity. The mine portion is a large portal basically with torches all around it to mark it very clearly.
After that, I did a little bit of exploring, and came across this awesome sight. I plan to build something here eventually, and connect it by a sky road to my main encampment. Maybe I will make a storage shed here, and connect it by mine carts, or another castle, or maybe even a shrine. Hell I need to rebuild my Chaos shrine now anyway : /
After a significant amount of stone had finished smelting, I began to construct the first part of my bastion. I have planned on building some kind of demon or beast statues around the base of this fort that would be spewing forth lava, but then I realized just how big they would have to be to work, and so I decided some skulls with lava coming form their mouths would be pretty awesome. So I constructed two enormous skulls out of stone at the entrance to the platform, and finished them with some lava. Here is what it looks like finished.
It does look much cooler at night.
As a side note, I am using an HD texture pack from Misa for Minecraft, which looks amazing, and I highly recommend it to anyone who's computer can handle it. Here is the link: http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=73861.
That's all for now, and I am actually hoping it will be a little while until Minecraft gets a 7-8 hour straight hold on me again. God I feel lazy. Until next time.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Still No 40K Work, Minecraft Update
Well, I did not do anything with my minis as I had expected, but I did however play some more Minecraft. I found an enormous underground area with lots of lava and various other fun bitz which will really help in constructing the lava pit to go under my cabin. I have also managed to find plenty of resources like diamond and redstone, so I will be busy with that as well. I have decided that I will start recording what I do in Minecraft and posting it up with the blog. I won't be talking much in them, as I am not much of a talker when it comes to that kind of stuff, but I will throw some music in the background and show off anything particularly interesting during my Minecraft adventure. Until next time
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Putting the Pieces Back Together Again
I have not been posting much over the last few days because I have been incredibly busy with other things. Firstly, my old computer crashed on my, causing me to lose several pieces of work I needed for my classes this week, which applied a large amount of pressure on me to step up the amount of school work I needed to do in order to get it all done on time. It has been one crazy week with school work.
I also lost all of my Minecraft files, so I needed to start from scratch on my worlds. I was a bit annoyed that I literally lost everything, including the Chaos shrine I had been working on, but I can always rebuild it, so it isn't the end of the world, obviously. I have indeed started a new world and have already begun to gather materials. i have built a floating log cabin for my self that can be seen from a considerable distance, so I am much, much less likely to get lost that way.
I have also been playing Dawn of War 2 during what little spare time I have. I have to see it is a very entertaining game. The game feels a lot more like what a game of 40k would actually feel like, with the units having more of an effect than they did in DoW 1.
All in all, I am currently still trying to get everything done, and if everything goes as planned, I may actually have some models and get some pics posted up, so keep an eye out for that. Until next time.
I also lost all of my Minecraft files, so I needed to start from scratch on my worlds. I was a bit annoyed that I literally lost everything, including the Chaos shrine I had been working on, but I can always rebuild it, so it isn't the end of the world, obviously. I have indeed started a new world and have already begun to gather materials. i have built a floating log cabin for my self that can be seen from a considerable distance, so I am much, much less likely to get lost that way.
I have also been playing Dawn of War 2 during what little spare time I have. I have to see it is a very entertaining game. The game feels a lot more like what a game of 40k would actually feel like, with the units having more of an effect than they did in DoW 1.
All in all, I am currently still trying to get everything done, and if everything goes as planned, I may actually have some models and get some pics posted up, so keep an eye out for that. Until next time.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
The Epic of the Blue Wool, Chaos Update
Today I didn't have a large amount of time to play Minecraft, but for about the 30 to 45 minutes i managed to pull out of my schedule to relax I went on an adventure to fine some sheep. Yes, sheep. Now that I am currently working on the Tzeentch themed room in my Chaos Shrine, i figured that a blue floor and ceiling would be ideal for it. The problem is blue wool can only be obtained by either crafting wool with the blue dye or applying the blue dye to a sheep before removing its wool. Since I know that there is a chance for more wool to come off a sheep than what i could get from crafting it, I decided hunting sheep would be ideal to crafting what I have, since I did not exactly have a lot of blue dye on my person. That being said, i began an epic quest to find some sheep to dye.
Now, since I am playing with the Mo' Creatures mod, i had to contend with many different baddies that I would have rather now seen. But after one successful night spent burrowed into a mountain, I thought I would have it pretty easy with my quest. However this did not turn out to be the case. While descending a cliff towards some sheep, i was ambushed by several skeleton archers who had taken refuge in a nearby cave, causing me to lose everything I was carrying. This was catastrophic, as I lost all my blue dye, a diamond sword, my compass, my clock, and some blue wool, amoung other things. Since I had simply been wandering around from place to place looking for sheep, i had only a vague idea that I had been somewhere nearly directly south of my spawn point when I was killed.
With the wind at my back, I tore off south of my base, looking frantically for anything that would be helpful to me in locating my corpse to collect my items. By shear dumb luck I happened upon my items and managed to snag them before they disappeared. However the bastard skeletons were waiting for me there and they proceeded to assail me with a hail of arrows. I tore away from them, immediately finding a place out of range and tunneling into the ground, where I constructed a tomb as the night approached. I won the day, but with only half a heart remaining. Now I must wair out the night in my make shift dug out and make for home at dawn.
........
On a 40K related note, last evening I managed to battle ready a third rhino, leaving me only to chaosify the bad boy until it is complete. I am hoping to have my army at least completely assembled by this weekend so that I can participate in my first game of 40K. All I have left is a 10 man squad of Chaos Marines and a 5 man squad of Chosen. I can forgo the Chosen for now but the 10 man squad is a necessity. Here's to hoping I manage to get them done before Friday.....
Now, since I am playing with the Mo' Creatures mod, i had to contend with many different baddies that I would have rather now seen. But after one successful night spent burrowed into a mountain, I thought I would have it pretty easy with my quest. However this did not turn out to be the case. While descending a cliff towards some sheep, i was ambushed by several skeleton archers who had taken refuge in a nearby cave, causing me to lose everything I was carrying. This was catastrophic, as I lost all my blue dye, a diamond sword, my compass, my clock, and some blue wool, amoung other things. Since I had simply been wandering around from place to place looking for sheep, i had only a vague idea that I had been somewhere nearly directly south of my spawn point when I was killed.
With the wind at my back, I tore off south of my base, looking frantically for anything that would be helpful to me in locating my corpse to collect my items. By shear dumb luck I happened upon my items and managed to snag them before they disappeared. However the bastard skeletons were waiting for me there and they proceeded to assail me with a hail of arrows. I tore away from them, immediately finding a place out of range and tunneling into the ground, where I constructed a tomb as the night approached. I won the day, but with only half a heart remaining. Now I must wair out the night in my make shift dug out and make for home at dawn.
........
On a 40K related note, last evening I managed to battle ready a third rhino, leaving me only to chaosify the bad boy until it is complete. I am hoping to have my army at least completely assembled by this weekend so that I can participate in my first game of 40K. All I have left is a 10 man squad of Chaos Marines and a 5 man squad of Chosen. I can forgo the Chosen for now but the 10 man squad is a necessity. Here's to hoping I manage to get them done before Friday.....
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Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Construction of the Shrine Continues; 40K Related stuff
I continued construction of the Chaos Shrine in Minecraft today, which is actually a lot more work intensive than I had anticipated. It is taking a lot of time, and I am currently working on the Tzeentch room. Seeing as to how I'm doing this without any cheats, it is taking a lot longer than I had expected to gather resources. I run out of glass so quickly, and I am having a hard time keeping up with the demand, even with 4 furnaces running. I also have the problem of not having near enough Lightstone for the Tzeentch symbol on the floor of this room. Everytime I have been to the Nether recently, I have been ganged by at least 3-4 Ghasts at a time, and I cant not seem to kill them all. hell I'm lucky to drop 1 or 2 of them. We will see how it goes from here. Hopefully it will get a bit easier. Pics to come soon.
In other news, I have begun working on my Chaos army once more, really putting forth an effort to get everything assembled by this weekend. I still have 10 Tac marines and 5 random marines that I think will become Chosen to do by this weekend, and I would like to finish off my 2 rhinos and land raider, all of which need Chaosified and their attachments magnetized. I'm hoping to get a chance to play by first game ever this weekend, but this will only happen if I manage to get everything together by then. I guess we shall see. Well, until next time!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Major Remodeling Done in My Minecraft World
So over the last couple of days I have forgone the mines in favor of working on remodeling my area. Sick of living inside a dirt square, running out of room in my chests, and keeping a horse (Mo' Creatures Mod) inside of my dirt square, I decided to begin working above ground to complete some better living conditions. I manged to build a rather large barn to keep the horses in, however I currently have a problem with Mobs constantly spawning inside of it. Earlier today, for instance, I found a rave party of lions, bears, cows, boars, and chickens. The lions began going on a killing rampage and slaughtered everything in there (which is why I do not have a horse anymore). Until I can solve this problem, my barn is unfortunately unavailable a this time.
I also began to create a wheat field to grow bread for taming horses with. I fenced it in and irrigated it and everything else. Only problem is the damn Mobs still fricken spawn inside there, and when they have their raves inside my wheat field, it destroys the plants. I just can not seem to win.
I also began to construct an underwater shrine to the Gods of Chaos (Warhammer 40K). I plan on making it a 5 story construction with water surrounding the entire complex. Each floor will have a different chaos symbol in it, with the final floor having a portal to the Nether. I began to build it underneath the foundation of my future house, and it has water on 3 of the 4 sides and all glass walls. The only way to enter it is by swimming underwater to the entrance. I have nearly completed construction of the first floor, which is dedicated to Khorne. I giant Mark of Khorne can be found in the center of the room, marked by burning areas of the floor. The rest of the floor was created in obsidian, but I decided to go for a more bloody feel by attempting to gather enough roses to make enough red wool to cover the floor. However, I decided that Netherrack, which is found only in the Nether, would be the best option.
Hence I made my maiden voyage into the Nether. After pulling enough Obsidian from the floor of my Shrine to build a Portal, I mined out a nice, secluded area in a nearby hill to house my temporary portal. I jumped in and immediately began to harvest Netherrack. Of course I got curious and began to explore, finding some Soul Sand, which I have no idea what I am going to do with yet, as well as some Glowstone. I managed to harvest enough Glowstone Dust to create 9 Glowstone Blocks before I was chased out by about 3 Ghasts. Those bastards really had it out for me. Right now I am in the process of Replacing the Obsidian on the floor of my shrine with Netherrack, which is a very long, and very, very tedious process.
I did not include any pictures with this update because it happens to be a very early hour in the morning, and I am just feeling too tired and lazy to actually go through the process of taking pictures of everything and cropping them and uploading them right now. Hopefully the next up and coming update will contain some pictures of the work I have completed so far. Until next time!
I also began to create a wheat field to grow bread for taming horses with. I fenced it in and irrigated it and everything else. Only problem is the damn Mobs still fricken spawn inside there, and when they have their raves inside my wheat field, it destroys the plants. I just can not seem to win.
I also began to construct an underwater shrine to the Gods of Chaos (Warhammer 40K). I plan on making it a 5 story construction with water surrounding the entire complex. Each floor will have a different chaos symbol in it, with the final floor having a portal to the Nether. I began to build it underneath the foundation of my future house, and it has water on 3 of the 4 sides and all glass walls. The only way to enter it is by swimming underwater to the entrance. I have nearly completed construction of the first floor, which is dedicated to Khorne. I giant Mark of Khorne can be found in the center of the room, marked by burning areas of the floor. The rest of the floor was created in obsidian, but I decided to go for a more bloody feel by attempting to gather enough roses to make enough red wool to cover the floor. However, I decided that Netherrack, which is found only in the Nether, would be the best option.
Hence I made my maiden voyage into the Nether. After pulling enough Obsidian from the floor of my Shrine to build a Portal, I mined out a nice, secluded area in a nearby hill to house my temporary portal. I jumped in and immediately began to harvest Netherrack. Of course I got curious and began to explore, finding some Soul Sand, which I have no idea what I am going to do with yet, as well as some Glowstone. I managed to harvest enough Glowstone Dust to create 9 Glowstone Blocks before I was chased out by about 3 Ghasts. Those bastards really had it out for me. Right now I am in the process of Replacing the Obsidian on the floor of my shrine with Netherrack, which is a very long, and very, very tedious process.
I did not include any pictures with this update because it happens to be a very early hour in the morning, and I am just feeling too tired and lazy to actually go through the process of taking pictures of everything and cropping them and uploading them right now. Hopefully the next up and coming update will contain some pictures of the work I have completed so far. Until next time!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Blog will be back up soon
If you have or have not noticed, the blog has been sort of quiet. This is because it has been a pretty rough weekend for me and I have not really been motivated to do much of anything. That being said, I will be getting the blog going again this week, as soon as I am able to get clear of all the school work I have this week.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
40K Themed Art Photography Project
For one of my college courses I am taking an online art class. At the end of the semester, the class requires that I take a picture of something that exemplifies one of the themes we studied during the course. At a later date, I will be posting these themes for some help as to ideas for what I could do. I plan to create a diorama using 40K minis to exemplify a theme, and then take a picture of it for the project.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Minecraft Episode 1: Zombie War
Starting a new Minecraft adventure today, I managed to get several things done. I won't go into too much detail, as it is very late, and I should be sleeping right now, but I managed to set up my dwelling, which right now is just a dirt box with the necessary supplies I need to conduct my operations.
I also created an orchard of trees that i keep after, so when I need wood for charcoal or building materials I usually have a very good supply right next to my dwelling.
From there I cleared out half of a mountain, creating a flat area directly behind my dwelling for future use, as I plan to build my house there and create several other fun things in this area. After clearing it out, I bore into the mountain, and then dug down, creating myself a mine shaft.
I dug down pretty deep, but eventually I stumbled upon a pretty huge cave system. It has several branches that lead into many, many different areas. Heck there were so many I ended up crafting signs so that I knew what was contained in each area and how to find my way back to the mine shaft. I ended up finding a huge amount of obsidian, which I did not mine yet, and I also managed to come across several diamond and gold deposits. I still have plenty of digging to do to further investigate what I have found, but I look forward to amassing the supplies necessary to create a really awesome realm!
While exploring this cave system, i happened upon a monster spawner that was spitting out zombies like crazy. I mean like 3 zombies at a time. It was nuts! I must have died about 9 or 10 times trying to clear it out, as everytime I thought it was safe, another one would ambush me and in the tight quarters, there was no where to run.
What is this blog about?
After a few days of posting to this blog I found myself wondering exactly what I was gonna do with this blog. I initially decided it was going to be my own Warhammer 40k blog, hence the title. However I haven't made a single 40k related post yet. But I have decided that this blog will be mostly about games and miniature related stuff. Occasionally I will be posting about other random stuff, such as the ice article I wrote up earlier today, but the main focus will be games and miniatures. I might start up another blog eventually for the more random stuff later. I will also most likely be starting up a blog for movie and tv reviews soon, so keep an eye out for that if interested.
University Park Proves Money is More Important
The northeastern side of the US has been stricken by a pretty significant ice and snow storm over the last few days. The biggest portion of this storm is the ice. Sidewalks and roads everywhere are frozen over completely, creating a dangerous sheet of ice for everyone to walk and drive on. Clearly not what favorable conditions.
Enter Penn State University. Known for nearly never cancelling classes at their main campus, in the last 8 years it has only happened twice, Penn State refused to close down today, despite the still very icy cobditions that can be found on the campus. Sheets of ice still cover many of the roads and sidewalks, creating a huge hazard for anyone who is going to class. One must ask why? Nearly all of the branch campuses had either a delay or were closed today. Many other Big 10 schools were also closed today. Yet Penn State remains open.
The reason, as can be expected, is money. The university will lose too much money, so they claim, to close down for a day. I have often pondered this, as I always found it difficult to understand exactly how they are losing money. Unless there are some other factors and costs that i do not see, what do they pay for on a "snow day" that they dont pay for normally? Whether or not classes take place that day, professors still get paid, the buildings are still heated, and snow/ice removal will still take place. If anything, they would save money because classes would not be consuming energy. Lights would be off in the classrooms, computers remaining in sleepmode, and projectors powered off.
What does the university stand to lose by closing? Not much in my own opinion, in fact they could possibly save some money. What do they stand to lose by remaining open? A lot of money in lawsuits. I personally have fallen twice now, one of those times while wearing slip resistant footwear. While i was lucky to not be injured, many students have been reporting falls, and threatening with lawsuits if they are seriously injured. Worse still, if the roads off campus are as bad as they are on campus, accidents can be expected to occur. Even driving slowly, you will slide if you hit ice, and what happens if a car slides into someone walking to class and causes serious injury, or even kills them? How about if a serious collision occurs, and one of those involved is killed? is this a good trade off?
I say no. The risks outweight any benefit that can be thought of. The university is showing gross negligence toward student and faculty safety by their decisions today. I can only hope nothing serious happens today, as it would be a shame for someone else to have to suffer from the decisions of those in charge of Penn State University.
Enter Penn State University. Known for nearly never cancelling classes at their main campus, in the last 8 years it has only happened twice, Penn State refused to close down today, despite the still very icy cobditions that can be found on the campus. Sheets of ice still cover many of the roads and sidewalks, creating a huge hazard for anyone who is going to class. One must ask why? Nearly all of the branch campuses had either a delay or were closed today. Many other Big 10 schools were also closed today. Yet Penn State remains open.
The reason, as can be expected, is money. The university will lose too much money, so they claim, to close down for a day. I have often pondered this, as I always found it difficult to understand exactly how they are losing money. Unless there are some other factors and costs that i do not see, what do they pay for on a "snow day" that they dont pay for normally? Whether or not classes take place that day, professors still get paid, the buildings are still heated, and snow/ice removal will still take place. If anything, they would save money because classes would not be consuming energy. Lights would be off in the classrooms, computers remaining in sleepmode, and projectors powered off.
What does the university stand to lose by closing? Not much in my own opinion, in fact they could possibly save some money. What do they stand to lose by remaining open? A lot of money in lawsuits. I personally have fallen twice now, one of those times while wearing slip resistant footwear. While i was lucky to not be injured, many students have been reporting falls, and threatening with lawsuits if they are seriously injured. Worse still, if the roads off campus are as bad as they are on campus, accidents can be expected to occur. Even driving slowly, you will slide if you hit ice, and what happens if a car slides into someone walking to class and causes serious injury, or even kills them? How about if a serious collision occurs, and one of those involved is killed? is this a good trade off?
I say no. The risks outweight any benefit that can be thought of. The university is showing gross negligence toward student and faculty safety by their decisions today. I can only hope nothing serious happens today, as it would be a shame for someone else to have to suffer from the decisions of those in charge of Penn State University.
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Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Minecraft Frustration, Still an Awesome Game Though
If you haven't played Minecraft yet, please stop reading and do so. It has got to be one of the most entertaining games I think I may have ever played. There is no goal. You simply find resources and build stuff. So so much fun. That being said the game is still in Beta, so it has some bugs to be worked out, but hey, the don't take too much fun out of the game.
So, on to the frustration. I spent the better part of over an hour working on a huge fortress. Walls so high I need to build more than 7 blocks up in stair to get to them. Yet somehow I found one of the green exploding penis monsters running freely throughout my complex. This lead me to wonder...WTF. So not only can the spiders just climb over my wall, which is at least understandable, but the exploding jerk just shows up as well and wrecks havoc on what I spent so much time perfecting?
Then there is the frustration with losing everything over an incredible stupid death...I had probably around 42 of the red ore dust and around 12 diamond, both fairly difficult to find. I was about to mine some more gold ore when, wouldn't you know it, a gravelanche happened and I died slowly with no way to dig myself out. I was quite angered by this, as I had been exploring this cave system I had unearthed for a significant time now, and had many, many valuables I wished to see returned to the surface. Ugh!!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming the game for the gravelanche. I should have been paying more attention. I guess the excitement of finding some worthwhile stuff made me lose my judgement. I am still a little frustrated with the exploding penis monster showing up where he is forbidden, but hey, the game is a beta. Hell I found random farm animals in my house, which happens to be an underground bunker within this giant walled complex.
Anyone else have some crazy stupid things happen to them while playing?? If so, post them in the comments below!
So, on to the frustration. I spent the better part of over an hour working on a huge fortress. Walls so high I need to build more than 7 blocks up in stair to get to them. Yet somehow I found one of the green exploding penis monsters running freely throughout my complex. This lead me to wonder...WTF. So not only can the spiders just climb over my wall, which is at least understandable, but the exploding jerk just shows up as well and wrecks havoc on what I spent so much time perfecting?
Then there is the frustration with losing everything over an incredible stupid death...I had probably around 42 of the red ore dust and around 12 diamond, both fairly difficult to find. I was about to mine some more gold ore when, wouldn't you know it, a gravelanche happened and I died slowly with no way to dig myself out. I was quite angered by this, as I had been exploring this cave system I had unearthed for a significant time now, and had many, many valuables I wished to see returned to the surface. Ugh!!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming the game for the gravelanche. I should have been paying more attention. I guess the excitement of finding some worthwhile stuff made me lose my judgement. I am still a little frustrated with the exploding penis monster showing up where he is forbidden, but hey, the game is a beta. Hell I found random farm animals in my house, which happens to be an underground bunker within this giant walled complex.
Anyone else have some crazy stupid things happen to them while playing?? If so, post them in the comments below!
Oh the Agony of Winter
Yes, another snow storm has hit the State College area, this one creating the worst conditions I have seen yet. Icy roads and snow everywhere, hard to drive, hard to walk, very dangerous. And yet, despite all this, Penn State University decided to remain open while closing most of its branch campuses. I guess it takes a severe accident or a death for them to realize that ice is a danger. A wonderful day of classes awaits!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Review of Dead Space 2
Dead Space 2, by Visceral Games, is the sequel to the 2008 hit sci-fi horror game Dead Space. In Dead Space, you played as Isaac Clarke, an engineer who was part of a team called to the USG Ishimura, a planet cracker, to investigate what had caused it to go dark. Isaac had more than one motivation for going to the Ishimura, as it turns out his girlfriend, Nicole, was also aboard the massive ship. It doesn't take long to find out that some major crap went down when you and the rest of the crew are attacked by Necromorphs, a hideous space infestation that turns the dead into monsters out of your worst nightmares. Isaac, having no military background that we know of, must battle his way through the hoard of creatures to find out what happened to his girlfriend and find his way off the ship.
In Dead Space 2, Isaac awakes to find himself on a space station orbiting Saturn's moon, Titan. He is being held as a psyche patient and isn't exactly sure why or how he got there to begin with. Within a matter of a few moments Isaac finds himself under attack by Necromorphs once again, this time no where near where the ship had been. Once again Isaac needs to fight of hordes of the creatures to discover the secrets of the Titan station and uncover exactly what has been going on there.
Dead Space 2 is no less incredible than the first game. The story this time around is much, much more involved, with new characters for the player to meet and follow. Isaac is constantly battling his inner demons as he combats a strange form of dimensia he had picked up while on the Ishimura that sees visages of his dead girlfriend constantly attacking his mind. Gameplay remains very much the same as in the original. Kinesis and stasis return, however they received a bit of an upgrade. Kinesis thrown objects can receive damage upgrades, and there are a multitude of objects you can use to kill the crazed necromorphs, including their own arm blades and harpoons that are conveniently found in many of the rooms. There are also plenty of new toys for the play to play with, including my personal favorite, the Javelin Gun. Nothing is more satisfying than upgrading the alternate fire to where it shocks and then explodes. Very effective and even more entertaining.
Dead Space 2 comes with a multiplayer mode which pits players playing as humans against players as Necromorphs. While it is nothing to write home about, it is indeed an entertaining experience. A match consists of two rounds. After a round is complete, the players switch sides, so humans become Necromorphs and vice versa. The human's main goal is to complete various objectives before the time runs out while trying to fend of the ravenous Necromorphs. The Necromorphs main goal is to simply stop the humans from completing their goals, simply by wiping them out. There is a leveling system involved, in which you progress though each level by acquiring points during each match. Leveling up grants you various perks, such as different colored armor, new weapons to start with, more kinesis, weapon upgrades, and upgrades to the Necromorphs. A player playing as Necromorphs has a choice of four different types, each one taking a certain amount of time before they can spawn. A player can play as a Pack, a Lurker, a Puker, or a Spitter, ad each have their own various abilities.
While there are minor problems with the multiplayer, such as some strange situations and some glitchy commands, the overall experience is without a doubt fun. And the single player is simply incredible. Without a doubt I would give this game a 9 out of 10, with the loss only being because I felt the story was just a little too short, and some situations did get pretty repetitive after a while, although they did do a lot better at breaking up the repetitive situations than they did in the first Dead Space. Looking forward to the next one Visceral. Don't let us down.
In Dead Space 2, Isaac awakes to find himself on a space station orbiting Saturn's moon, Titan. He is being held as a psyche patient and isn't exactly sure why or how he got there to begin with. Within a matter of a few moments Isaac finds himself under attack by Necromorphs once again, this time no where near where the ship had been. Once again Isaac needs to fight of hordes of the creatures to discover the secrets of the Titan station and uncover exactly what has been going on there.
Dead Space 2 is no less incredible than the first game. The story this time around is much, much more involved, with new characters for the player to meet and follow. Isaac is constantly battling his inner demons as he combats a strange form of dimensia he had picked up while on the Ishimura that sees visages of his dead girlfriend constantly attacking his mind. Gameplay remains very much the same as in the original. Kinesis and stasis return, however they received a bit of an upgrade. Kinesis thrown objects can receive damage upgrades, and there are a multitude of objects you can use to kill the crazed necromorphs, including their own arm blades and harpoons that are conveniently found in many of the rooms. There are also plenty of new toys for the play to play with, including my personal favorite, the Javelin Gun. Nothing is more satisfying than upgrading the alternate fire to where it shocks and then explodes. Very effective and even more entertaining.
Dead Space 2 comes with a multiplayer mode which pits players playing as humans against players as Necromorphs. While it is nothing to write home about, it is indeed an entertaining experience. A match consists of two rounds. After a round is complete, the players switch sides, so humans become Necromorphs and vice versa. The human's main goal is to complete various objectives before the time runs out while trying to fend of the ravenous Necromorphs. The Necromorphs main goal is to simply stop the humans from completing their goals, simply by wiping them out. There is a leveling system involved, in which you progress though each level by acquiring points during each match. Leveling up grants you various perks, such as different colored armor, new weapons to start with, more kinesis, weapon upgrades, and upgrades to the Necromorphs. A player playing as Necromorphs has a choice of four different types, each one taking a certain amount of time before they can spawn. A player can play as a Pack, a Lurker, a Puker, or a Spitter, ad each have their own various abilities.
While there are minor problems with the multiplayer, such as some strange situations and some glitchy commands, the overall experience is without a doubt fun. And the single player is simply incredible. Without a doubt I would give this game a 9 out of 10, with the loss only being because I felt the story was just a little too short, and some situations did get pretty repetitive after a while, although they did do a lot better at breaking up the repetitive situations than they did in the first Dead Space. Looking forward to the next one Visceral. Don't let us down.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Friday: A Day of Dismemberment
What a day to begin my posting in the blog. Started out pretty crappy, as it was snowy, cold, and crappy out, and had to go to class in it. Thankfully I only had one professor decide to be that guy and have class today anyway, so it wasn't too bad. As soon as class was over, however, the fun began. I took over the lounge with the giant TV to play Dead Space 2. Great game. Excellent game. I have finished the majority of it, but still have a few chapters left to complete. I will have a review for that up sometime later this week. I also finished the campaign for Crackdown 2 today, so a review for it will be up later this week as well.
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