I'll be delving into the birth of an Elven Hunter, covering feelings and experiences from the first evening of testing. Continuing what I begun in the previous post.
I thought I'd cover the elvish part of my initial testing in a separate post, instead of making it a part of a bigger whole, in order to keep the length of the posts more reasonable. Certainly wouldn't hurt to learn making more to the point posts from time to time.
So, after the couple of hours of dwarfdom, exploring Thorin's Hall a bit (one of the main cities), which in comparison isn't quite as big as Ironforge in WoW - this is a good thing in my view, and as far as conveying the feeling of "home" it's lightyears ahead in general atmosphere. One thing I have to say is that I was rather surprised at the lack of players in there. I was there late at night, the optimum nerdtime, an yet I only saw a handful of characters. Maybe the location is such that it isn't highly populated or it might be that the realm I joined isn't highly populated.
Anyway, time for some elfin action.
Everyone loves elves right? I mean, how could you not? They're like the prehistoric (if you go by the lore created by Tolkien) versions of the modern idealized man (and woman). Beautiful, lean, tall and very much in touch with their surroundings (and feelings?). Effortlessly and flowingly moving, in harmony with all, which is the overall theme of their society, reaching everything in their culture, art, language and architecture. Needless to say the pointy ears only add to their flowing, almost river-running-free-esque appeal.
For some reason the bulky, clunky elf males (and females to some extent as well) that Blizzard has decided to portray in World of Warcraft don't quite fit into that category in my view. I generally don't like gender bending all that much, but in WoW I just couldn't have bared to look at the really akward and unnatural runstyle of the male elves as my own characters.
Picture if you will, an Arnold Schwarzenegger size fella merged with the body of a 20-year-old European Ladies Figureskating Champion and you have a pretty accurate idea of the grace of which these "creatures" move. Hardly something you'd easily relate to the previous picture of elves or that of Tolkien origin.
LotRO obviously being based on the idea of "the grace of elves", I was looking forward to actually having to play a male character that is clearly male and yet beautiful in an elven kind of a way. I have to say that is very much what I got as well.
After some noodling around with the class selection, I thought the Hunter sounded interesting, as it loyal to the idea of a bow wielding damage dealer instead of the pet juggling counterpart in WoW.
As I mentioned in the previous post, I played the dwarf first and only after deciding to stop for the evening I thought I'd give the elf a spin just to see how it works out. Some of you may know how I relate to spoilers, but I just have to say: boy was I ever surprised at how brilliantly the elven starting story and quests link with that of the dwarves. I don't know yet how the Hobbits and Humans start, but I will definitely have to find out at some point, so cleverly are the stories and reasons why things are woven together between the elves and dwarves. Not only do you instantly get the feel that you really are in the same world, you also get to see and understand more about the details of why things were so with the other character. The phrase "the moment you think you're out, they pull you back in" comes to mind.
And what of the Hunter then? Wow! - not referring to the game in this case.
I thought I was being critical, but right from the start I was totally mezmerized at how the class works even at the very basic level - obviously I can't say anything about the higher levels yet. The sounds are awesome and you really feel like you're controlling a powerful character, for me the closest comparison would be to call the experience magical. Shooting arrows from far away, with awesome sounds I might add, and having very unique feeling hand-to-hand combat moves to finish off anything that gets too close. I know this doesn't sound at all like coming from someone who is heavily against any sort of hype and is cautious of spoiling anything for anyone.
It might even be that this is how hunters feel in WoW as well, but I wouldn't know. Of course hunters inLotRO have traps as well, but I've yet to have a proper chance at seeing how those work into the class mechanics.
I'm starting to see why people with experience in MMO's are saying LotRO is a game based on atmosphere, story and adventuring. Sure others are as well, but I find the way a lot more appealing than that of WoW, so far. Certainly I have to admit that the game is still very new to me and thus I can't really draw any major conclusions, but I can say for sure that the initial experience in WoW was very different.
One thing to take into consideration is that WoW was my first MMO and as such I wasn't at all familiar with the intricacies and inner workings of such games at the time and due to that my opinion in this case is also affected by being more familiar with the basics. Despite that, I'm looking forward to experiencing more of the world and seeing how my adventures will coincide with those of the actual fellowship.
So far it has been a very interesting experience and now, after almost reaching level 7, my elf has started it's "second chapter" in an area called Celondim, a foresty area west of The Shire close to the Gray Havens, I can't wait to have the chance to sit down and see where the road takes me next if I'm not mindful of my feet. Unfortunately tonight my feet take me to the barren wastelands of Post Apocalyptic Earth.
Until next time, may the light of Elendil shine upon you.
10.2.09
9.2.09
LotRO Diary: Part 1 - First impressions
It's about time I explore the world of MMO's from another angle. This time I'm delving into the World of the Rings, or Lord of the Rings Online in other words.
Having being subjected to several praising reviews and opinions of Lord of the Rings Online as a game for people who enjoy the experience of adventuring and the feeling of immersion, I figured I might as well see what it's like. Finding out there is a 14-day trial available for everyone, the choice was even easier to make.
As usual, the trial version features are limited, though not that much at all to my surprise; the ability to trade with others by means of direct trading, using the auction houses or mailing are all disabled. Having no level gap in the trial allows you to play as much or as little as you like with any character you like, which is a nice, small but significant difference from some other MMO's.
I'll be writing about my experiences every now and then (hence the "Diary"), but I don't expect it will be a daily thing. I'm unfortunately unable to not make comparisons to WoW when explaining things, as it is the only MMO I can really say I have experience from, so bear with me.
A word of warning I feel I must give before I go any further though, aimed at anyone considering trying out the trial as well. There's a literal TON (or 15) of client software to download to be able to actually get in game. Add to that, that the way the patches and other files are named aren't exactly the clearest, I strongly suggest that you start downloading the client and patches well before you activate the trial. There's nothing more annoying than knowing you have 14 days and you end up spending the first five downloading.
Using this guide is a decent starting point, the launcher can also do the patching, but downloading and installing at the same time will take quite a while so personally I chose to download as much as I could find as files so I can later use them if need be without needing to download them again.
Most of the client and patch files can be downloaded from a web based downloading client, or if you are familiar and willing to, you can download them via torrents. The client itself is freely distributable, and downloading it as a torrent does not constitute piracy. I do NOT encourage piracy in any form.
A good way of knowing that you are indeed up to date is that you are prompted to enter "Username" and "Password" in the launcher. That is the opportune time to go and activate your LotRO trial account as well.
First impressions
Finally I get to start the game up. Everything looks nice, and music in the background while I play around with character creation - different classes and details -, trying to make some sense of it all is nice and calm but still adventurous.
The choices in character creation for a first timer are confusing at first, which I reckon is a common trend in any game of this magnitude - certainly was that way for me in WoW as well. To help in this, there are some really good explanation videos along with text descriptions with each race and class that ease the way in making a choice in your first character to enter Middle-Earth. The plethora of options for character customization immediately raises the bar in my mind for any other such games, though I must admit I might be a bit of a oddball when it comes to the passion of which I utilize in character creation.
My previous main character in WoW having been a Dwarf Shadow Priest, I decided to go with a Dwarf again, choosing class as Defender. Basicly the class is a tank, which I figured a good starting point-of-view for this new crusade and having some universally transalting experience in the role - here's me hoping at least. I also made an Elf Hunter (no, I didn't name it Legolash), but I'll get to that another time.
Game loads, and the adventure begins. Oh, familiar faces...but why is the world so silent?
Damn, me sounds are lost! After a bit of poking and tweaking I finally figure out the game is has, for some reason, defaulted itself to the wrong sound output method. Changing it fixed the issue, nevermind it actually made the computer crash in the process...
So where was I....ah yes. I enter the world, familiar faces, discussion over a certain dragon is being displayed in the chat screen and as texts hovering over the heads of the characters. Everything looks really beautiful and with the sounds, the voice acting and rest of the sound world make a good impression. After a very short explanation of what is happening and learning a bit about the user interface, I'm sent of to check out some other dwarf in an instance of some sort. Of course I immediately thought "what, instance, at level one?" since I was still hooked on what WoW is. Note to self, this clearly isn't WoW. Impressive!
I'm joined up with an NPC as I enter the instance and almost immediately after entering the cave of an instance the game grips you as you're thrown into the middle of a "situation" where some key characters appear...a troll is solidified and other such. I'm sold, what a brilliant way of introducing the basic game mechanics, taking you into the world and giving you some light common reference that you're actually in the same world as the Fellowship is...where Sauron is gathering his strenght and the dark shadows are stretching over all of the land. That you're a part of a world where great adventures happen. Looks rather promising.
After the initial couple of levels I started to get familiar with the UI, how the map displays different things and such. I have to say even before entering one of the main Cities I was already impressed by the look and atmosphere of the game. The UI itself is a bit...cluttered compared to that of WoW and the icons aren't quite as clear as I've gotten used to, but in general the default settings are easy to the eye and reasonably easy to understand.
The class I chose, Guardian is a stout - I suppose this goes with dwarves without saying - warrior type of a class that utilizes a shield and a weapon for threat building and damage. Because of this, my lil dwarfy seems to be able to take a lot of punishment compared to the Elf Hunter. I played the dwarf to level 7 before deciding it was time to quit and during that time I didn't manage to die once.
Speaking of not dying. There's a really nifty award/achievement system in LotRO that way outdoes the comparison in WoW. This achievement system actually has concrete awards and it doesn't feel like it's bolted into the game afterwards at all - mainly because it isn't *duh*. You get special titles and abilities for a lot of things that are relevant to your character developement and what you do in the world. These abilities aren't just static or nonsense, but actual useful abilities such as: Using an ability a set amount of times makes you more effective in the use of that ability or others similar to it - if I use my Shield Blow enough, my blocking becomes better (Shield Expertise), or if I use my Shield-Swipe ability enough, an ability that is only usable after you block an attack, I gain a bonus called reactive shield that does damage to anyone who attacks me based on my Defense. All of these are of course set high enough so you will not gain them before reaching a reasonable character level.
As a closing thought for the first part, I have to say so far I'm really positively surprised, even with being subjected to the hype, about LotRO and find it very likely this will affect my plans of possibly exploring WotLK for what it's worth. The graphics are great and the sounds equally so. Playability seems decent though the icons are a bit small and too similar to eachother for my taste. The implementation of the story and the world is interesting in a different way due to knowing quite a bit about the world already - I love the book(s) and the movies like Elvira loves pets.
Next part I'll share some thoughts on the Hunter, which I also played up to level 7 the first evening. Quests and crafting are also going to be on the table in the future.
Until then, play nice.
Having being subjected to several praising reviews and opinions of Lord of the Rings Online as a game for people who enjoy the experience of adventuring and the feeling of immersion, I figured I might as well see what it's like. Finding out there is a 14-day trial available for everyone, the choice was even easier to make.
As usual, the trial version features are limited, though not that much at all to my surprise; the ability to trade with others by means of direct trading, using the auction houses or mailing are all disabled. Having no level gap in the trial allows you to play as much or as little as you like with any character you like, which is a nice, small but significant difference from some other MMO's.
I'll be writing about my experiences every now and then (hence the "Diary"), but I don't expect it will be a daily thing. I'm unfortunately unable to not make comparisons to WoW when explaining things, as it is the only MMO I can really say I have experience from, so bear with me.
A word of warning I feel I must give before I go any further though, aimed at anyone considering trying out the trial as well. There's a literal TON (or 15) of client software to download to be able to actually get in game. Add to that, that the way the patches and other files are named aren't exactly the clearest, I strongly suggest that you start downloading the client and patches well before you activate the trial. There's nothing more annoying than knowing you have 14 days and you end up spending the first five downloading.
Using this guide is a decent starting point, the launcher can also do the patching, but downloading and installing at the same time will take quite a while so personally I chose to download as much as I could find as files so I can later use them if need be without needing to download them again.
Most of the client and patch files can be downloaded from a web based downloading client, or if you are familiar and willing to, you can download them via torrents. The client itself is freely distributable, and downloading it as a torrent does not constitute piracy. I do NOT encourage piracy in any form.
A good way of knowing that you are indeed up to date is that you are prompted to enter "Username" and "Password" in the launcher. That is the opportune time to go and activate your LotRO trial account as well.
First impressions
Finally I get to start the game up. Everything looks nice, and music in the background while I play around with character creation - different classes and details -, trying to make some sense of it all is nice and calm but still adventurous.
The choices in character creation for a first timer are confusing at first, which I reckon is a common trend in any game of this magnitude - certainly was that way for me in WoW as well. To help in this, there are some really good explanation videos along with text descriptions with each race and class that ease the way in making a choice in your first character to enter Middle-Earth. The plethora of options for character customization immediately raises the bar in my mind for any other such games, though I must admit I might be a bit of a oddball when it comes to the passion of which I utilize in character creation.
My previous main character in WoW having been a Dwarf Shadow Priest, I decided to go with a Dwarf again, choosing class as Defender. Basicly the class is a tank, which I figured a good starting point-of-view for this new crusade and having some universally transalting experience in the role - here's me hoping at least. I also made an Elf Hunter (no, I didn't name it Legolash), but I'll get to that another time.
Game loads, and the adventure begins. Oh, familiar faces...but why is the world so silent?
Damn, me sounds are lost! After a bit of poking and tweaking I finally figure out the game is has, for some reason, defaulted itself to the wrong sound output method. Changing it fixed the issue, nevermind it actually made the computer crash in the process...
So where was I....ah yes. I enter the world, familiar faces, discussion over a certain dragon is being displayed in the chat screen and as texts hovering over the heads of the characters. Everything looks really beautiful and with the sounds, the voice acting and rest of the sound world make a good impression. After a very short explanation of what is happening and learning a bit about the user interface, I'm sent of to check out some other dwarf in an instance of some sort. Of course I immediately thought "what, instance, at level one?" since I was still hooked on what WoW is. Note to self, this clearly isn't WoW. Impressive!
I'm joined up with an NPC as I enter the instance and almost immediately after entering the cave of an instance the game grips you as you're thrown into the middle of a "situation" where some key characters appear...a troll is solidified and other such. I'm sold, what a brilliant way of introducing the basic game mechanics, taking you into the world and giving you some light common reference that you're actually in the same world as the Fellowship is...where Sauron is gathering his strenght and the dark shadows are stretching over all of the land. That you're a part of a world where great adventures happen. Looks rather promising.
After the initial couple of levels I started to get familiar with the UI, how the map displays different things and such. I have to say even before entering one of the main Cities I was already impressed by the look and atmosphere of the game. The UI itself is a bit...cluttered compared to that of WoW and the icons aren't quite as clear as I've gotten used to, but in general the default settings are easy to the eye and reasonably easy to understand.
The class I chose, Guardian is a stout - I suppose this goes with dwarves without saying - warrior type of a class that utilizes a shield and a weapon for threat building and damage. Because of this, my lil dwarfy seems to be able to take a lot of punishment compared to the Elf Hunter. I played the dwarf to level 7 before deciding it was time to quit and during that time I didn't manage to die once.
Speaking of not dying. There's a really nifty award/achievement system in LotRO that way outdoes the comparison in WoW. This achievement system actually has concrete awards and it doesn't feel like it's bolted into the game afterwards at all - mainly because it isn't *duh*. You get special titles and abilities for a lot of things that are relevant to your character developement and what you do in the world. These abilities aren't just static or nonsense, but actual useful abilities such as: Using an ability a set amount of times makes you more effective in the use of that ability or others similar to it - if I use my Shield Blow enough, my blocking becomes better (Shield Expertise), or if I use my Shield-Swipe ability enough, an ability that is only usable after you block an attack, I gain a bonus called reactive shield that does damage to anyone who attacks me based on my Defense. All of these are of course set high enough so you will not gain them before reaching a reasonable character level.
As a closing thought for the first part, I have to say so far I'm really positively surprised, even with being subjected to the hype, about LotRO and find it very likely this will affect my plans of possibly exploring WotLK for what it's worth. The graphics are great and the sounds equally so. Playability seems decent though the icons are a bit small and too similar to eachother for my taste. The implementation of the story and the world is interesting in a different way due to knowing quite a bit about the world already - I love the book(s) and the movies like Elvira loves pets.
Next part I'll share some thoughts on the Hunter, which I also played up to level 7 the first evening. Quests and crafting are also going to be on the table in the future.
Until then, play nice.
3.2.09
impressions: religulous
What does Borat and the 9/11 documentary have in common?
You would say, not much. Actually they do; they're both entertaining, well known and reasonably welcomed by critics - and something else. Though this post isn't about them, no really.
What this post is, is a response to another made by greven on his blog at Paintbits.
I thought it best to write my opinion here, rather than flood his comments.
In brief, Religulous is a documentary film about religion and its current state in the world (or: how 'out there' it can get, depending on how you read). Check out the trailer link on greven's post while you read it, or check it out on Youtube. You might like to have a look at Bill Maher's interview on Larry King.
Before diving into it, I should add that I have NOT seen the actual film yet, so these comments are very likely to not reflect it accurately at all.
Watching the trailer, first shivers (in a bad way) I get are at "from the studio that brought --". In my mind, if a program such as this wants to call itself a documentary, it'd be better off being unbiased and able to stand on its own. Maybe it does, but this sort of referencing to already known "pop documentaries" for a lack of a better term seems to me like it's trying to kiss ass and appeal to those who expect the style of the more recently surfaced documentaries...made by americans, for americans.
I'm certainly not of the opinion that documentaries can't be informative and entertaining at the same time, in fact I strongly support making documentaries that are 'beefed up' with the tools that drama utilizes to get to the viewer.
Next shivers are from "from the director of Borat". Need I say more? Sure it's an interesting piece of entertainment - Borat, that is - once again, but what does it really have to do with this? Why is it important to know this? Could it be because the name Borat is easily linked to being funny, hawt and interesting. This only further enforces the feeling I was trying to convey in the beginning. Starting off like this feels to me like the style and agenda have been set and instead of looking at the subject of religion in a reasonable and nonjudgemental spirit.
The rest of the trailer is pretty much what you'd expect from it after the first impressions have been made. Bits and pieces from different types of people that are trying to give us an overall picture of what the film is like and about. It's interesting since it deals with a very delicate subject to say the least, so will definitely be something to look at once it's possible here, at the arctic circle. I just can't shake the feeling that it's trying to balance between being a 'real-drama' and being a documentary film. That's just my impression.
Again, it's very likely this view is misguided when applied to the actual film, as it is based solely on a couple of minutes of trailer material, so I hope that's how you've been reading it. As a genre of video itself Trailers have the tendency of being edited in a very particular and gripping way that sometimes ends up producing a very different picture than what the source material itself is like. Often it's clearly calculated and well planned, sometimes not so much.
Actually, it would be interesting to find out who the people behind trailers are, are they specialized in that only and what sort of tools do they use. Are there many people with backgrounds in advertising? that would link them to psychology very tightly...hmm. I'm sure most would agree that on general trailers seem like copies of eachother, but still manage to have achieve some level of gripping magic that makes almost any degree of filmy delicasy - or filth - seem more or less interesting.
Anyway, I'll be sure to write about the actual documentary once I've had a chance to see it.
You would say, not much. Actually they do; they're both entertaining, well known and reasonably welcomed by critics - and something else. Though this post isn't about them, no really.
What this post is, is a response to another made by greven on his blog at Paintbits.
I thought it best to write my opinion here, rather than flood his comments.
In brief, Religulous is a documentary film about religion and its current state in the world (or: how 'out there' it can get, depending on how you read). Check out the trailer link on greven's post while you read it, or check it out on Youtube. You might like to have a look at Bill Maher's interview on Larry King.
Before diving into it, I should add that I have NOT seen the actual film yet, so these comments are very likely to not reflect it accurately at all.
Watching the trailer, first shivers (in a bad way) I get are at "from the studio that brought --". In my mind, if a program such as this wants to call itself a documentary, it'd be better off being unbiased and able to stand on its own. Maybe it does, but this sort of referencing to already known "pop documentaries" for a lack of a better term seems to me like it's trying to kiss ass and appeal to those who expect the style of the more recently surfaced documentaries...made by americans, for americans.
I'm certainly not of the opinion that documentaries can't be informative and entertaining at the same time, in fact I strongly support making documentaries that are 'beefed up' with the tools that drama utilizes to get to the viewer.
Next shivers are from "from the director of Borat". Need I say more? Sure it's an interesting piece of entertainment - Borat, that is - once again, but what does it really have to do with this? Why is it important to know this? Could it be because the name Borat is easily linked to being funny, hawt and interesting. This only further enforces the feeling I was trying to convey in the beginning. Starting off like this feels to me like the style and agenda have been set and instead of looking at the subject of religion in a reasonable and nonjudgemental spirit.
The rest of the trailer is pretty much what you'd expect from it after the first impressions have been made. Bits and pieces from different types of people that are trying to give us an overall picture of what the film is like and about. It's interesting since it deals with a very delicate subject to say the least, so will definitely be something to look at once it's possible here, at the arctic circle. I just can't shake the feeling that it's trying to balance between being a 'real-drama' and being a documentary film. That's just my impression.
Again, it's very likely this view is misguided when applied to the actual film, as it is based solely on a couple of minutes of trailer material, so I hope that's how you've been reading it. As a genre of video itself Trailers have the tendency of being edited in a very particular and gripping way that sometimes ends up producing a very different picture than what the source material itself is like. Often it's clearly calculated and well planned, sometimes not so much.
Actually, it would be interesting to find out who the people behind trailers are, are they specialized in that only and what sort of tools do they use. Are there many people with backgrounds in advertising? that would link them to psychology very tightly...hmm. I'm sure most would agree that on general trailers seem like copies of eachother, but still manage to have achieve some level of gripping magic that makes almost any degree of filmy delicasy - or filth - seem more or less interesting.
Anyway, I'll be sure to write about the actual documentary once I've had a chance to see it.
16.1.09
Beyond Good & Evil (mostly evil)
Hi there, unknown reader, one of the two.
First let me start by saying, that I'm way past making any sort of promises in conjecture with writing here, so there won't be any of those. To continue in the the same theme, I should also add, that there are vast amounts of subjects that I would consider blog worthy in their own right and it is therefore likely and even mostly probable that I just might. But I promised no promises, which I tend to keep true to.
So.
Beyond Good & Evil. A game, first published for consoles and soon followed by a PC version. I have owned the Ps2 version of it for god knows how long, but I did only purchase it after its price dropped to a more...poor-student-homie sort of a level. So lets just say for the sake of argument that I've had it for four years minimum. Should also add as a side note, that this is indeed the method I implore on most of my purchases of the consumable media (excluding music for the most part).
I even played the game and really liked it a lot, according to my guesstimates, I played it up to 2006. Known for some as The year the darkness took over. In other words when I delved deep into the world of world of warcraft. And that's a bloody correct sentence. Slipping off topic here. So I played it then, check. Liked it, check. Didn't play it all the way due to other 'activities', check.
As mentioned before, there is also a PC version of the game, which I had of course managed to ignore in the past. Over the christmas holidays Valve and their mostly ingenious (we'll get to the mostly part later) Steam service were offering Beyond G&E - looks curious like that, doesn't it? - at a very reasonable price (5 euros) among other titles and I figured I'd like to play the game all the way through. So why not play the console game? I'm having a hard time enjoying games on Standard Definition due to the detail limitations and also the limitations of my current TV. LCD scaling = not the most crisp result one could wish for. I admit it's also because I'm too used to having high details due to having been playing on the PC for most of my mind-bogglingly-vast gaming history.
Money goes in, game comes out along with the other bits of information that st(r)eam from the internets. Downloaded, installed, tested and works fine. Nothing major to moan about there. Steam is a great service, though I could think of a couple of dozen things to make it even better.
The Mostly Evil part is, that in my ever clever wittiness, I figured I'd prefer to play Beyond G&E with a pad, as it is "supposed to be played" (shameless Nvidia plug). Add to this that I had a plan of also playing Resident Evil 4 the same way, as it was purchasable dirty cheap and with some extra patching should be a decent experience. No waffle for those who start making a point of how is it possible that I haven't already. Get off my back. Seriously.
So I got a pad (not a Pad_lle, but a gamepad, in case you're some type of a ...anti-gaming-nerd, which, if you are, you should be a lot more shamed about than I am about not having played Res4 yet - and of which you will most likely have no idea what I'm talking about anyway), again a part of a grander scheme of things involving a box-of-gaming by a multinational software corporation of lies and music players that don't have 366 days that cause them to crash - and a product of which can be described with: ><> or a fish if you like. Go figure.
Pad is great, pad is good. The only elfing problem is, and now pay attention as I'm finally getting to the point of it all, Beyond G&E doesn't support gamepads at all on the PC version. *Eyes open, Jaw on the floor* Who the hell came up with this brilliant idea.
The thought process is something like this:
So now I got a game, that is designed to be played on a gamepad with analog controllers, that only works with mouse+keyboard combination - which feels akward - that I want to play with an analog pad. The solution? To use an emulator for the gamepad, that pretends to be a keyboard and mouse. Sigh. The wonders of technology. As for Res4, it supports game controllers.
Luckily there are solutions like that, since otherwise I would've been slightly annoyed at myself for not checking such things in advance to bying a controller. Another lucky part of it is that I'll be able to take advantage of the gamepad later on anyway, so ...yeah.
Oh right, then there's the Steam point I made earlier. The gripe I have with it, in this case, is that I find it odd that Valve have developed such a decent method of distributing, but they still seem to have forgotten that with the ability to distribute they could also take a stand towards making a more unified controlling scheme, since they have the ability to do so.
What I mean by that is that I would have presumed, that in their wisdom of designing Steam, they would've made some sort of an unified method of using other peripherals than the conventional mouse and keyboard combination. To be fair, they have, it's just that the way it is being done is that they don't require the publishers to support it. Which kind of leaves us, the consumers, in a place where we need to put quite a lot of effort into getting that support working on our own.
What this tells to me, is that Steam is still primarily a distributing method and nothing more. I hope in the future they do utilize the ability to make gamers lives easier when it comes to using different gadgets-of-play.
That about sums it up. Lesson learned, tech learned. Now I know how to get over the hurdles of setting up gamepads and other controlling periphelia whether or not it is supported by the software I'm looking to use it with. Hurray.
Good deeds don't go unrewarded and bad deeds are a reward in their own right.
The both of you have a nice weekend! =]
First let me start by saying, that I'm way past making any sort of promises in conjecture with writing here, so there won't be any of those. To continue in the the same theme, I should also add, that there are vast amounts of subjects that I would consider blog worthy in their own right and it is therefore likely and even mostly probable that I just might. But I promised no promises, which I tend to keep true to.
So.
Beyond Good & Evil. A game, first published for consoles and soon followed by a PC version. I have owned the Ps2 version of it for god knows how long, but I did only purchase it after its price dropped to a more...poor-student-homie sort of a level. So lets just say for the sake of argument that I've had it for four years minimum. Should also add as a side note, that this is indeed the method I implore on most of my purchases of the consumable media (excluding music for the most part).
I even played the game and really liked it a lot, according to my guesstimates, I played it up to 2006. Known for some as The year the darkness took over. In other words when I delved deep into the world of world of warcraft. And that's a bloody correct sentence. Slipping off topic here. So I played it then, check. Liked it, check. Didn't play it all the way due to other 'activities', check.
As mentioned before, there is also a PC version of the game, which I had of course managed to ignore in the past. Over the christmas holidays Valve and their mostly ingenious (we'll get to the mostly part later) Steam service were offering Beyond G&E - looks curious like that, doesn't it? - at a very reasonable price (5 euros) among other titles and I figured I'd like to play the game all the way through. So why not play the console game? I'm having a hard time enjoying games on Standard Definition due to the detail limitations and also the limitations of my current TV. LCD scaling = not the most crisp result one could wish for. I admit it's also because I'm too used to having high details due to having been playing on the PC for most of my mind-bogglingly-vast gaming history.
Money goes in, game comes out along with the other bits of information that st(r)eam from the internets. Downloaded, installed, tested and works fine. Nothing major to moan about there. Steam is a great service, though I could think of a couple of dozen things to make it even better.
The Mostly Evil part is, that in my ever clever wittiness, I figured I'd prefer to play Beyond G&E with a pad, as it is "supposed to be played" (shameless Nvidia plug). Add to this that I had a plan of also playing Resident Evil 4 the same way, as it was purchasable dirty cheap and with some extra patching should be a decent experience. No waffle for those who start making a point of how is it possible that I haven't already. Get off my back. Seriously.
So I got a pad (not a Pad_lle, but a gamepad, in case you're some type of a ...anti-gaming-nerd, which, if you are, you should be a lot more shamed about than I am about not having played Res4 yet - and of which you will most likely have no idea what I'm talking about anyway), again a part of a grander scheme of things involving a box-of-gaming by a multinational software corporation of lies and music players that don't have 366 days that cause them to crash - and a product of which can be described with: ><> or a fish if you like. Go figure.
Pad is great, pad is good. The only elfing problem is, and now pay attention as I'm finally getting to the point of it all, Beyond G&E doesn't support gamepads at all on the PC version. *Eyes open, Jaw on the floor* Who the hell came up with this brilliant idea.
The thought process is something like this:
- Lets develop this game for consoles, basing the controlling scheme to expect the use of gamepads.
- Lets make that same game into a PC version, but lets NOT have gamepad or joystick support for it, but keep the same control scheme to keep the playing as unintuitive and silly as possible.
So now I got a game, that is designed to be played on a gamepad with analog controllers, that only works with mouse+keyboard combination - which feels akward - that I want to play with an analog pad. The solution? To use an emulator for the gamepad, that pretends to be a keyboard and mouse. Sigh. The wonders of technology. As for Res4, it supports game controllers.
Luckily there are solutions like that, since otherwise I would've been slightly annoyed at myself for not checking such things in advance to bying a controller. Another lucky part of it is that I'll be able to take advantage of the gamepad later on anyway, so ...yeah.
Oh right, then there's the Steam point I made earlier. The gripe I have with it, in this case, is that I find it odd that Valve have developed such a decent method of distributing, but they still seem to have forgotten that with the ability to distribute they could also take a stand towards making a more unified controlling scheme, since they have the ability to do so.
What I mean by that is that I would have presumed, that in their wisdom of designing Steam, they would've made some sort of an unified method of using other peripherals than the conventional mouse and keyboard combination. To be fair, they have, it's just that the way it is being done is that they don't require the publishers to support it. Which kind of leaves us, the consumers, in a place where we need to put quite a lot of effort into getting that support working on our own.
What this tells to me, is that Steam is still primarily a distributing method and nothing more. I hope in the future they do utilize the ability to make gamers lives easier when it comes to using different gadgets-of-play.
That about sums it up. Lesson learned, tech learned. Now I know how to get over the hurdles of setting up gamepads and other controlling periphelia whether or not it is supported by the software I'm looking to use it with. Hurray.
Good deeds don't go unrewarded and bad deeds are a reward in their own right.
The both of you have a nice weekend! =]
10.5.06
.return .entertainment 2/3
Obviously many days have passed since I last wrote anything about books or movies or games I've played, so this post is dedicated to that area.
Those who have really paid close attention might have noticed a few changes in the navigation. IGN have done some major changes in their users.ign.com service, firstly they changed the name to club.ign.com and more importantly added an option to add DVDs, books and UMDs (PSP movies) to your collection.
So a while back I went and added DVDs I have on my shelf to my collection there, although there are still a few movies missing from their lists. The listed DVDs are Region 1 (as the service is in the US), but most of mine are Region 2 or 4, so there are alot of wrongish versions, but clicking on "show public notes" you can see my comments on what's different with which.
Also I try to keep my games list up to date with changing game statuses when ever I play them and rating them after I've finished etc. The links can be found there >>>
The Book Worm
The last few months I haven't read quite as much when compared to the average book / month rate back in '05. I guess school takes it's toll in a way, eventhough I haven't spent that much on homework or such. This is what I've read in the last five months (quite hard to comprehend how it has been such a long time already):
Isaac Asimov:
Arthur C.Clarke is an author I've heard alot about, but hadn't really read anything from him so I thought I'd read a few atleast. Can't say I didn't like the books, but I wouldn't say I was too excited either...will read more of his books at some point.
Who doesn't know Philip K.Dick and his Bladerunner because of the movie?
The book was surprisingly different from what I can remember of the movie, not that it's really that big of a surprise when thinking about it. So far I've read around 10 of his books and I do like all of them in some weird way. He has a very peculiar way of writing and the ideas are just...mind twisting at times. It's almost like Science Fiction on acid or something at times =]
Ok then there's Ursula Le Guin...I'm a bit embarrased to admit that I hadn't heard of her before as I concern myself to be atleast moderately aware of imporant names of the Scifi scene. Wrong was I obviously. In the beginning, The Disposessed wasn't that interesting or catching, but as I read on I was really surprised about the impact it had on me, as I started to dream about it and sometimes I felt the book was somehow...writing itself while I was reading it according to my wishes or...such. It's very hard to explain in any language, so I'll just say that it felt good to read that book. I have to recommend this book to everyone who's interested in reading good Scifi! I'll most certainly want to read more of her books!
Then there's my all time favourite author, Harry Harrison.
Deathworld wasn't really a surprise, as always, a very capturing book that I just had to read "a bit more" each time I started. I never pass on a chance to read his books, his style has something in it that I'm very fond of, I don't even much care trying to explain it really =]
Staring Eyes
Lately I've been watching alot more movies than for a long time. It's been pretty nice actually to get back into the ol' groove. Some of them good and some not that good, I'm not much of a critic so I'll just comment briefly.
Rented:
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Fantastic Four, Million Dollar Baby, The Island,
Cinderella Man, Serenity, Chronicles of Riddick and Harry Potter: The Goblet of Fire
Haven't got much bad to say from these, except Fantastic Four wasn't that fantastic at all. I have previously seen Chronicles of Riddick, but felt like watching it again after watching Pitch Black from the TV.
Theater:
Jarhead, Constant Gardener, Lord of War, M:I:III and V for Vendetta
Jarhead was interesting in some ways, Constant Gardener ... was worth watching.
Lord of War was definetly worth the money, enjoyed it alot. M:I:III was surprisingly good on many levels, eventhough I didn't expect too much of it. Still I think V for Vendetta is the most enjoyable of all of these, the acting, the music, the way it's filmed and the story most of all. Highly recommended if you ask me!
TV:
Spider Man 2, Blood Work, Pitch Black, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Untouchables
Lil' spidey I watched one night when I was in Oulu. I hadn't seen Blood Work before, it wasn't exactly a winner but..ok still. Pitch Black has got many thing going for it, but somehow it just doesn't quite come together. The Thomas Crown Affair I had seen previously but didn't remember it before I started watching. Not much to say about it, not bad, not too good. Hadn't seen The Untouchables before either and I'm glad I watched it this time, liked alot in it.
DVD:
Leathal Weapon 1, 2, 3 and 4, Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innosence, A Beautiful Mind and Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury
Got all the Leathal Weapons so I had to watch them too =] Fun movies.
I think I've now seen Gits for atleast four times and it's still a great movie!
Having seen Gits 2: Innosence in a theater last..autumn I think, I had to get it as soon as possible. Watched it twice on concecutive days...a beautiful movie!
From one beautiful movie to another; I've seen A Beautiful Mind several times, but it still is very touching on several ways...*tear*. CoR: Dark Fury was just because I wanted to know the story between Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick. It was worth watching but not too spectacular.
More sore eyes - or some series I've recently wached or am currently following:
Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Battlestar Galactica Miniseries, Farscape, CSI, CSI:NY, Alias, The 4400 and The Next Generation
Lost is sort of an odd child with it's slow pace and a setting that's more than confusing most of the time. It's a pretty interesting quest on a style to make a series that hasn't been much seen around here before - as Asian series haven't quite made it here yet. Nice series for sure, the Finnish channel four (Nelonen) deserves a big thanks for airing it! And to continue on the same theme, airing the new version of Battlestar Galactica is a great gift for the fans of SF, so far it's been very much worth the watch and surprisingly it's a show that I find I'm anxiously waiting to see the next episode of.
How about Farscape then? This is THE series for me. Back in the days I too used to download alot of series, those days I watched up to Season 4 Episode 13. At that time, I had started to consider my habits of consuming series and after a while I decided it was time to stop warezing it and thus I deleted the rest of the episodes. It took quite a long time to get back to it, but finally in January I ordered the fourth season box and a few weeks after that got the first two Starburst Editions of the first season. At the moment I've got the full first season and 2/3 of the second season as Starburst Editions. Started watching the series from the beginning and I'm at 1x15 at the moment. The funny thing is that I haven't watched the rest of the season 4 episodes yet eventhough I have the box. Why? Because it's been such a long time, I thought it's better to watch the whole thing again to be safe =]
The original CSI has been a series I've liked since the beginning, and now that Finnish channel 3 (MTV3) started airing CSI: New York I've tried to watch it. So far it hasn't quite had the same effect than the original series, not that it's bad though, but time will tell if it's worth watching or not.
Alias is sort of a leap off the regular series I watch, it's sort of a snack in between, so that I have something to watch for each day =] At the moment I'm one episode short of finishing the second season. Have to sell the box as I have no intention of holding on to it.
So far I've just seen one episode of The 4400, so it's very hard to say much about it yet. Thanks to Nelonen again for bringing such a great series to Finland!
Star Trek...it's the basic rations of all SF fans, isn't it? =] It's a universe I'm interested in knowing better, eventhough the episodes aren't all that good. At the moment it's Season 3 on The Next Generation...two discs left and then the box will be sold for a reasonable price.
As this post turned out to be quite lenghty, and I'm sort of out of fingers, I'll post the last 1/3 separately - about games.
A wish a good rest of the week to all who find this =]
Those who have really paid close attention might have noticed a few changes in the navigation. IGN have done some major changes in their users.ign.com service, firstly they changed the name to club.ign.com and more importantly added an option to add DVDs, books and UMDs (PSP movies) to your collection.
So a while back I went and added DVDs I have on my shelf to my collection there, although there are still a few movies missing from their lists. The listed DVDs are Region 1 (as the service is in the US), but most of mine are Region 2 or 4, so there are alot of wrongish versions, but clicking on "show public notes" you can see my comments on what's different with which.
Also I try to keep my games list up to date with changing game statuses when ever I play them and rating them after I've finished etc. The links can be found there >>>
The Book Worm
The last few months I haven't read quite as much when compared to the average book / month rate back in '05. I guess school takes it's toll in a way, eventhough I haven't spent that much on homework or such. This is what I've read in the last five months (quite hard to comprehend how it has been such a long time already):
Isaac Asimov:
- The Caves of Steel (Robot series I) 01/06 - I've read the second part before
- Foundation & Empire 12/05
- Second Foundation 02/06
- A Fall of Moondust 12/05
- Earthlight 12/05
- Bladerunner 12/05-01/06
- The Disposessed 03/06
- Deathworld 1 04/06
Arthur C.Clarke is an author I've heard alot about, but hadn't really read anything from him so I thought I'd read a few atleast. Can't say I didn't like the books, but I wouldn't say I was too excited either...will read more of his books at some point.
Who doesn't know Philip K.Dick and his Bladerunner because of the movie?
The book was surprisingly different from what I can remember of the movie, not that it's really that big of a surprise when thinking about it. So far I've read around 10 of his books and I do like all of them in some weird way. He has a very peculiar way of writing and the ideas are just...mind twisting at times. It's almost like Science Fiction on acid or something at times =]
Ok then there's Ursula Le Guin...I'm a bit embarrased to admit that I hadn't heard of her before as I concern myself to be atleast moderately aware of imporant names of the Scifi scene. Wrong was I obviously. In the beginning, The Disposessed wasn't that interesting or catching, but as I read on I was really surprised about the impact it had on me, as I started to dream about it and sometimes I felt the book was somehow...writing itself while I was reading it according to my wishes or...such. It's very hard to explain in any language, so I'll just say that it felt good to read that book. I have to recommend this book to everyone who's interested in reading good Scifi! I'll most certainly want to read more of her books!
Then there's my all time favourite author, Harry Harrison.
Deathworld wasn't really a surprise, as always, a very capturing book that I just had to read "a bit more" each time I started. I never pass on a chance to read his books, his style has something in it that I'm very fond of, I don't even much care trying to explain it really =]
Staring Eyes
Lately I've been watching alot more movies than for a long time. It's been pretty nice actually to get back into the ol' groove. Some of them good and some not that good, I'm not much of a critic so I'll just comment briefly.
Rented:
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Fantastic Four, Million Dollar Baby, The Island,
Cinderella Man, Serenity, Chronicles of Riddick and Harry Potter: The Goblet of Fire
Haven't got much bad to say from these, except Fantastic Four wasn't that fantastic at all. I have previously seen Chronicles of Riddick, but felt like watching it again after watching Pitch Black from the TV.
Theater:
Jarhead, Constant Gardener, Lord of War, M:I:III and V for Vendetta
Jarhead was interesting in some ways, Constant Gardener ... was worth watching.
Lord of War was definetly worth the money, enjoyed it alot. M:I:III was surprisingly good on many levels, eventhough I didn't expect too much of it. Still I think V for Vendetta is the most enjoyable of all of these, the acting, the music, the way it's filmed and the story most of all. Highly recommended if you ask me!
TV:
Spider Man 2, Blood Work, Pitch Black, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Untouchables
Lil' spidey I watched one night when I was in Oulu. I hadn't seen Blood Work before, it wasn't exactly a winner but..ok still. Pitch Black has got many thing going for it, but somehow it just doesn't quite come together. The Thomas Crown Affair I had seen previously but didn't remember it before I started watching. Not much to say about it, not bad, not too good. Hadn't seen The Untouchables before either and I'm glad I watched it this time, liked alot in it.
DVD:
Leathal Weapon 1, 2, 3 and 4, Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innosence, A Beautiful Mind and Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury
Got all the Leathal Weapons so I had to watch them too =] Fun movies.
I think I've now seen Gits for atleast four times and it's still a great movie!
Having seen Gits 2: Innosence in a theater last..autumn I think, I had to get it as soon as possible. Watched it twice on concecutive days...a beautiful movie!
From one beautiful movie to another; I've seen A Beautiful Mind several times, but it still is very touching on several ways...*tear*. CoR: Dark Fury was just because I wanted to know the story between Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick. It was worth watching but not too spectacular.
More sore eyes - or some series I've recently wached or am currently following:
Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Battlestar Galactica Miniseries, Farscape, CSI, CSI:NY, Alias, The 4400 and The Next Generation
Lost is sort of an odd child with it's slow pace and a setting that's more than confusing most of the time. It's a pretty interesting quest on a style to make a series that hasn't been much seen around here before - as Asian series haven't quite made it here yet. Nice series for sure, the Finnish channel four (Nelonen) deserves a big thanks for airing it! And to continue on the same theme, airing the new version of Battlestar Galactica is a great gift for the fans of SF, so far it's been very much worth the watch and surprisingly it's a show that I find I'm anxiously waiting to see the next episode of.
How about Farscape then? This is THE series for me. Back in the days I too used to download alot of series, those days I watched up to Season 4 Episode 13. At that time, I had started to consider my habits of consuming series and after a while I decided it was time to stop warezing it and thus I deleted the rest of the episodes. It took quite a long time to get back to it, but finally in January I ordered the fourth season box and a few weeks after that got the first two Starburst Editions of the first season. At the moment I've got the full first season and 2/3 of the second season as Starburst Editions. Started watching the series from the beginning and I'm at 1x15 at the moment. The funny thing is that I haven't watched the rest of the season 4 episodes yet eventhough I have the box. Why? Because it's been such a long time, I thought it's better to watch the whole thing again to be safe =]
The original CSI has been a series I've liked since the beginning, and now that Finnish channel 3 (MTV3) started airing CSI: New York I've tried to watch it. So far it hasn't quite had the same effect than the original series, not that it's bad though, but time will tell if it's worth watching or not.
Alias is sort of a leap off the regular series I watch, it's sort of a snack in between, so that I have something to watch for each day =] At the moment I'm one episode short of finishing the second season. Have to sell the box as I have no intention of holding on to it.
So far I've just seen one episode of The 4400, so it's very hard to say much about it yet. Thanks to Nelonen again for bringing such a great series to Finland!
Star Trek...it's the basic rations of all SF fans, isn't it? =] It's a universe I'm interested in knowing better, eventhough the episodes aren't all that good. At the moment it's Season 3 on The Next Generation...two discs left and then the box will be sold for a reasonable price.
As this post turned out to be quite lenghty, and I'm sort of out of fingers, I'll post the last 1/3 separately - about games.
A wish a good rest of the week to all who find this =]
19.4.06
.return .iSkol
It's quite difficult to describe the feeling of being betrayed by myself...on what you ask?
Well, looking at the date of my last post... I can't quite understand how I haven't been posting anything. Anyways, quite alot of things have changed since last time which is maybe one reason why I haven't been writing anything.
Definetly starting school is one major factor in not having so much time to do things like writing here.. The first period was pretty...weird because of the christmas and newyear holidays being right smack in the middle. Subjects I had were Chemistry 1, Philosophy 1, Geographics 1 and Finnish 1. Being "new" to the system and not being very aware of the...quality of examns I didn't exactly put much effort into the studying, but still got pretty decent grades - eventhough I did miss the Chemistry examn =] So on a gradescale of 4 to 10 I got 9 from Philosophy and 7 from Finnish 1 and Geographics 1 which in my opinion were satisfying compared to the amount of time spent studying outside of sitting in the class and listening / writing.
The 2nd period (actually the fourth, since I started on third) just reached it's end, and again I'm quite happy with the grades. A full 10 from English Course 1, 9 from English Course 3, 8 from Math 1 and 8 from the chemistry I missed last time - went to all the classes eventhough I didn't have to because I thought it would help...most likely did.
One thing worth mentioning is that on the first class of the English Course 1, in the middle of a talking excersize, the teacher came to me and asked bluntly that "what are you doing on this course?" which ofcourse confused me for a second before se went on saying that "from what I can hear, you shouldn't waste your time on this or the following courses if you don't want to, because you obviously have a solid feel to talking english already". Of course I replied that eventhough I know how the language works by just...feeling it, I'm not too good with the structure of the language if I would need to explain it to others or so. After the lesson we had a good talk about what I should do and decided that I'd go the the third course instead and only attend the examn of the first course. The third course teacher and I got along pretty well too, when we recieved our examns after the period, I went to ask him about my essay, basicly just looking for negative and constructive advice on what to do better, but instead of telling me about what to do better, he basicly just praised how good it (the essay) was and so on...well sure, it's nice to get positive feedback, but it's hard to accept that much of it at once, especially since I know I could be alot better.
So, 3rd period going on now, with courses: Math 2, Biology 1, Finnish 2 and English 2.
Eng teacher I didn't like too much, but as I don't have to attend the classes, it doesn't matter.
Math 2 teacher is good, the woman whos classes I was on for Chemistry 1 and Math 1.
Finnish teacher is amazingly inspiring and enthusiastic, not exactly the typical Finnish teacher from what I know. Biology teacher is also pretty nice, an elderly woman with obviously interest in the subject and a good sense of humor =]
The first period was all day classes, but on the second I decided to try evening classes and it proved to be a good choice, since the majority of students on evening classes are less childish, adults or retired, so there is less fuzz and more time spent on the actual subjects. Talked about it with one of the teachers and she quite clearly expressed that teaching day classes isn't exactly the most...fulfilling thing to do. So for now it would seem I'll be attending evening classes.
That pretty much covers school I think, just have to add that so far it's been really nice and stimulating, might just want to go through the whole thing. Three years would be quite easy, but 2½ wouldn't be too hard either so most likely that will be my aim, if nothing else comes up.
Summer holidays coming after this period, I'm seriously considering of perhaps taking a few classes on the summer, depending on if I find / feel like finding some work...
I decided, that rather than posting everything at once, I'll do myself and possible readers a favor by posting several independent and thus more clearly on-one-subject sort of posts.
Soon again
(edit: the date was all wrong)
Well, looking at the date of my last post... I can't quite understand how I haven't been posting anything. Anyways, quite alot of things have changed since last time which is maybe one reason why I haven't been writing anything.
Definetly starting school is one major factor in not having so much time to do things like writing here.. The first period was pretty...weird because of the christmas and newyear holidays being right smack in the middle. Subjects I had were Chemistry 1, Philosophy 1, Geographics 1 and Finnish 1. Being "new" to the system and not being very aware of the...quality of examns I didn't exactly put much effort into the studying, but still got pretty decent grades - eventhough I did miss the Chemistry examn =] So on a gradescale of 4 to 10 I got 9 from Philosophy and 7 from Finnish 1 and Geographics 1 which in my opinion were satisfying compared to the amount of time spent studying outside of sitting in the class and listening / writing.
The 2nd period (actually the fourth, since I started on third) just reached it's end, and again I'm quite happy with the grades. A full 10 from English Course 1, 9 from English Course 3, 8 from Math 1 and 8 from the chemistry I missed last time - went to all the classes eventhough I didn't have to because I thought it would help...most likely did.
One thing worth mentioning is that on the first class of the English Course 1, in the middle of a talking excersize, the teacher came to me and asked bluntly that "what are you doing on this course?" which ofcourse confused me for a second before se went on saying that "from what I can hear, you shouldn't waste your time on this or the following courses if you don't want to, because you obviously have a solid feel to talking english already". Of course I replied that eventhough I know how the language works by just...feeling it, I'm not too good with the structure of the language if I would need to explain it to others or so. After the lesson we had a good talk about what I should do and decided that I'd go the the third course instead and only attend the examn of the first course. The third course teacher and I got along pretty well too, when we recieved our examns after the period, I went to ask him about my essay, basicly just looking for negative and constructive advice on what to do better, but instead of telling me about what to do better, he basicly just praised how good it (the essay) was and so on...well sure, it's nice to get positive feedback, but it's hard to accept that much of it at once, especially since I know I could be alot better.
So, 3rd period going on now, with courses: Math 2, Biology 1, Finnish 2 and English 2.
Eng teacher I didn't like too much, but as I don't have to attend the classes, it doesn't matter.
Math 2 teacher is good, the woman whos classes I was on for Chemistry 1 and Math 1.
Finnish teacher is amazingly inspiring and enthusiastic, not exactly the typical Finnish teacher from what I know. Biology teacher is also pretty nice, an elderly woman with obviously interest in the subject and a good sense of humor =]
The first period was all day classes, but on the second I decided to try evening classes and it proved to be a good choice, since the majority of students on evening classes are less childish, adults or retired, so there is less fuzz and more time spent on the actual subjects. Talked about it with one of the teachers and she quite clearly expressed that teaching day classes isn't exactly the most...fulfilling thing to do. So for now it would seem I'll be attending evening classes.
That pretty much covers school I think, just have to add that so far it's been really nice and stimulating, might just want to go through the whole thing. Three years would be quite easy, but 2½ wouldn't be too hard either so most likely that will be my aim, if nothing else comes up.
Summer holidays coming after this period, I'm seriously considering of perhaps taking a few classes on the summer, depending on if I find / feel like finding some work...
I decided, that rather than posting everything at once, I'll do myself and possible readers a favor by posting several independent and thus more clearly on-one-subject sort of posts.
Soon again
(edit: the date was all wrong)
20.12.05
Inside the physics of eternity
Eventhough I said I would revise the previous post, I decided not to.
The BBA thing didn't happen that I applied to, but maybe better luck in the spring.
So as I didn't have anything better to do, I decided to go back to school, upper secondary school that is. The week before last I went to talk with the studies coordinator and as it turned out, a new perioid was just about to start the next week (incase I'm confusing you, that's week 50) so it was a bit sudden but all for the best. Pretty easy start too because only 6 days of school before x-mas holidays (it's part of a adult education system and classes are only on Mon-Thu) I wouldn't have minded going to sit an listen about things in between but I guess a holiday after months of holidaying doesn't make much of a difference. After tomorrow, the next "school day" will be on 9th of January, which makes me realise that this year my happy-who-cares-'cause-I-don't birthday is on friday...not that it would make any difference though =]
Books books, have read these in the last few months:
- Douglas Adams - Dirk Genty's Holistic Detective Agency (11/005)
- Kurt Vonnegut's - Sirens of Titan (started several months ago, finished in beginning of 12/005)
- Isaac Asimov - Foundation (9/2005)
- Philip K. Dick - Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (10/005) and Ubik (also 10/005)
- Operation Eichmann - pursuit and capture (9-10/005)
So I finally got started with Asimov's Foundation trilogy (or actually it does have 5 parts but the two newer have been written several years after the first three), the first book was pretty good actually and I'm looking forward to starting on the second. Operation Eichmann was also increasingly interesting towards the end of it, seemed realistic enough to be true. At the least, I got some more interest towards history related books now thatn before.
At the moment I'm reading Arthur C.Clarke's Earthlight, almost finished it though. Others I have from library are: Clarke's A Fall of Moondust, Philip K.Dicks Bladerunner and Asimovs second book of the foundation trilogy, Foundation & Empire. Also my grandfather (from my mothers side) loaned me a book about the history of the universe called "The five ages of the universe - Inside the physics of eternity" written by some fellows named Fred Adams and Greg Laughlin. Don't know who either of them are but I'm most likely going to find out before I read it. Anyways, should be interesting read, eventhough the basic things are pretty familiar to me already since I've always been facinated about astrology and related.
The book listing is going pretty well too, 75 books so far, including almost all I own currently.
Should be uploadable some time soon.
Some computer related things also happened, and still have alot of things I haven't written to .pwer...but it's not a very high priority. In short, installed OS again and last weekend installed Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow to maybe finish it some time soon. Every evening I'm looking forward to playing it but so far not an appropriate moment for it, always too late or too busy writing something...it's been rather nice to have alot of things to do lately =]
I'd like to wish everyone who might read this a Merry Christmas and as the tradition requires, a Happy New Year! =] Sincerely, hope everyone has a good time where ever you are...untill the next post.
Good night
The BBA thing didn't happen that I applied to, but maybe better luck in the spring.
So as I didn't have anything better to do, I decided to go back to school, upper secondary school that is. The week before last I went to talk with the studies coordinator and as it turned out, a new perioid was just about to start the next week (incase I'm confusing you, that's week 50) so it was a bit sudden but all for the best. Pretty easy start too because only 6 days of school before x-mas holidays (it's part of a adult education system and classes are only on Mon-Thu) I wouldn't have minded going to sit an listen about things in between but I guess a holiday after months of holidaying doesn't make much of a difference. After tomorrow, the next "school day" will be on 9th of January, which makes me realise that this year my happy-who-cares-'cause-I-don't birthday is on friday...not that it would make any difference though =]
Books books, have read these in the last few months:
- Douglas Adams - Dirk Genty's Holistic Detective Agency (11/005)
- Kurt Vonnegut's - Sirens of Titan (started several months ago, finished in beginning of 12/005)
- Isaac Asimov - Foundation (9/2005)
- Philip K. Dick - Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (10/005) and Ubik (also 10/005)
- Operation Eichmann - pursuit and capture (9-10/005)
So I finally got started with Asimov's Foundation trilogy (or actually it does have 5 parts but the two newer have been written several years after the first three), the first book was pretty good actually and I'm looking forward to starting on the second. Operation Eichmann was also increasingly interesting towards the end of it, seemed realistic enough to be true. At the least, I got some more interest towards history related books now thatn before.
At the moment I'm reading Arthur C.Clarke's Earthlight, almost finished it though. Others I have from library are: Clarke's A Fall of Moondust, Philip K.Dicks Bladerunner and Asimovs second book of the foundation trilogy, Foundation & Empire. Also my grandfather (from my mothers side) loaned me a book about the history of the universe called "The five ages of the universe - Inside the physics of eternity" written by some fellows named Fred Adams and Greg Laughlin. Don't know who either of them are but I'm most likely going to find out before I read it. Anyways, should be interesting read, eventhough the basic things are pretty familiar to me already since I've always been facinated about astrology and related.
The book listing is going pretty well too, 75 books so far, including almost all I own currently.
Should be uploadable some time soon.
Some computer related things also happened, and still have alot of things I haven't written to .pwer...but it's not a very high priority. In short, installed OS again and last weekend installed Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow to maybe finish it some time soon. Every evening I'm looking forward to playing it but so far not an appropriate moment for it, always too late or too busy writing something...it's been rather nice to have alot of things to do lately =]
I'd like to wish everyone who might read this a Merry Christmas and as the tradition requires, a Happy New Year! =] Sincerely, hope everyone has a good time where ever you are...untill the next post.
Good night
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