Why I’m not concerned about Swine Flu

For those of you who no me personally, you will know that i have an aversion to rust, and have dealt with pathophobia in the past. Quite conveniantly, it happened at the same time as the SARS epidemic in China; although they were entirely unrelated. However, I am not worried about Swinw Flu, and here’s why:

1. Real flu kills many thousands of people a year.

2. Their are only recorded deaths in Mexico.

3. !st world countries have adequate health facilities, so they can cope.

4. It’s only really dangerous because it causes Pneumonia, which can be dealt with here.

5. Its not in Australia yet.

6. Australia is an island.

7. Most countries have governments that will react accordingly-one of 2 time when governments will actually react. (The other time being threat of destabilisation).

8. So far, their is nothing astoundedly dangerous about it, unlike avian influenza.

This is why, me, a person who has dealt with bad pathophobia in the past (to the point where my hands were red raw from washing), is not overly concerned (at the moment) about swine influenza.

Dear Bethesda… 10 things i want fixed in TES 5

As you should know last december i got my hands on Fallout 3. In retrospect, it is a decent game, but like all decent games it still has flaws. Fisrtly, the botched ending. The lack of freeplay afterwards makes you unable to gloat. At least at the end of oblivion, you get to be a complete wanker, running around in your dragon armour and killing people. In the fallout 3 ending, their is no reward, arpart from the knowledge you’re either a) dead, b) alive, but not the hero, or c) a complete arsehole ‘cos you killed everyone. The skills system is over-simplified, and the level cap provides serious hindrance. Thank the h4×0rz for unofficial mods. However, overall it is a relatively good game. It keeps you playing. Its enjoyable, even after you see the same slow-mo kill-shot every time you kill a super-mutant.

Now Bethesda need to take a leaf out of oblivion, and out of fallout, and fix these problems if the make ‘The Elder Scrolls 5‘

1. Vary the fucking scenery. In the words of Yahtzee, the scenery of Oblivion was like they got the smae 1km of English countryside and used it for the whole of England. The scenery in Oblivion was boring. It never varied once. Sure it was beautifully rendered, but its not just the rendering that counts. The reason the Shivering Isles expansion pack was so good is that it was varied. The characters, the cities, and the surrounding countryside were beautiful, and varied. And colourful. The towns were interesting because each one brought something new. Hell, Big Head the argonian was worth it alone.
2. Have a reasonable lock picking system. The Oblivion one was crap. It was unusable. I ended up just clicking auto-try until i cracked it. The Fallout 3 locking picking system was way better. Like a hamburger compared to brussel sprouts.
3. DO NOT  USE THE   SAME  FUCKING  VOICE  ACTOR  FOR  EVERY  FREAKING  CHARCATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4. Leveled monsters is good. However, It is very satisfying being able to crush the tiny monsters that you struggled with in your first level. Keep some of them.
5. The system that makes the NPCs stay dead is good. However, in Oblivion this was restrictive, because you couldn’t go on a rampage without fucking over half the quests. Fallout 3 fixed this by having generic NPCs aswell, but there broing to kill because they have few items, and are uninteresting.
6. Please populate the cities more. I’m pretty sure the imperial city would have more than 30 people. Try like, 100,000. Obviously, thats a bit to taxing on the system, but atleast more then 30. Like, 100 per area. Assasin’s Creed could have 128 NPCs ON SCREEN. Im sure it is feasible to have 30> in one area of a city.
7. Psychology, plz! Have intelligent NPCs, so they don’t get into fights with guards. I had and NPC get into a fight with a guard, and die. Then i found it it was needed for a quest. >:(
8. Stop with the useless junk! Oblivion had an abundance of items that were completely useless. This is annoying. If you have sheets of paper, atleast give the character the ability to write on it!
9. Please continue the weapon variation. This is where Oblivion succeded, and Fallout 3 failed. Fallout had no weapon variation. This is BORING! it gives you little incentive to keep weapons.
10. Enforced laws are good. However, last time i checked, their wasn’t a telephone between cities. You should have a certain time period until it reaches other cities. And i don’t think guards can recognize me with my visor down either, so please fix that.

If you got to the bottom, Congrats

My Maps

Here are some of my COD 4 maps, none of which are finished, or published.

They are big pics, so i could only post a few.

Over 60 times worse then Ash Wednesday

For those of you who are in elsewhere, and don’t keep an eye on local or international news, for the past day and a bit, Victoria has been on fire. Bushfires are quite regurlar in Australia, and their have been bushfires every summer since I was born; I remember several years ago when the lodge at falls creek was burnt to the ground; but the bushfires yesterday were by far the worst we have ever seen.

Yesterday was the hottest day on record for Melbourne, reaching a top temperature of 46 degrees IN THE SHADE, meaning it was atleast 2 degrees hotter in the sun. I can testify to the heat, it was about 48 degrees out in the open in Forest Hill; and the water main in the street next to us had burst, taking out water for 3 streets. the wind was also horrendous, which only made the bushfires worse. They are still continueing today, most of Gippsland is on fire, and so far the Death Toll (when I last heard) was 66 people- over 60 times higher then the infamous Ash Wednesday fires.

I have heard stories of entire towns burning to the ground, and people being burnt and killed as they tried to escape in cars. One poor bugga moved all of his prized possesions from his house to his metal shed, thinking the house would burn and the shed wouldn’t-but instaed the shed was burnt to the ground, along with all his possesions. Unfortunately, he is one of the lucky ones.

I would like to give my condolences to anyone who has lost anything in the fire.

Plenty to write about…

Firstly, since its been weeks since the inaugeration, I would like to express how happy I am that Obama won.

For those of you in the US, Melbourne (which should be the capitol of Australia; our pairlament has gold plating) has experienced an epic heatwave over the past week.From Wednesday to Friday, I was at school camp. We got lucky, since we were down at the beach, meaning that Melbourne’s hottest days we got with a healthy sea breeze. (Although that didn’t stop epic sunburn for most people) I was lucky enough to not get burnt, even with my pasty white skin. However, when we got back to Melbourne, it was in the high 40’s. Thankfully the school hall had aircon. When i got home, I actually couldn’t use the Mac because it was so hot-for those who dont have an airbook, they heat up immensly while in use. My siblings were on the verge of tears due to the heat.

Also, I was amazed to notice that the ‘bacon explosion’ actually made the newspaper today. That’s right, it actually got an article in The Age.

Creativity Block

You know how writers get writer’s block? While right now i’m having creativity block.

I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. I’m getting pretty good (although i’m still nowhere near most concept artists, which is where i’d like to be), but right now I’m having creativity block. Usually I draw fantasy art, which usualy involves creating some kind of fantasy world. However, right now i just can’t think of anything, which is fucking annoying.

What I really need is something to boost my enthusiam. My drawing has always suffered from a lack of real-life reference, and the internet has nothing on what I actually need. Hopefully I will get to go to Europe sometimes soon so I can get some good reference pictures. The one thing medievil christians did right was their churches.

Fallout 3

**** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!!! ****

Very recently I aquired Fallout 3. To put it simply, it’s the best game i’ve ever played.

Being a fan of TES: Oblivion, Fallout was the next step. It has excellent gameplay, and is challenging. It is also very fun. You can reverse-pickpocket landmines into peoples pants, get perfect headshots that make heads explode in gore and limbs fly off, and a very good storyline that makes you want to do missions.

One problem though: I want to be an evil SOB, but its so fucking hard!

The NPC’s have reached the point were the actually arouse empathy, (atleast in me). I had the exact same problem in oblivion. For instance, I always try and choose the nicest dialogue, because its a pain to be mean. Not to mention it doesn’t lead anywhere. Being nice also unlocks missions.

Their are some downpoints. Sometimes, enemies can be a pain (like when your fighting super mutants, and your ammo runs out) and the costlyness of everything. Meds are quick to use up (I’ve gone through about 200 stimpaks, and had atleast 6 addictions) and once you complete the final mission,  it ends. Their is no free roam afterwards, it just ends. Which is kind of annoying.

Overall though, it is a well made game. the graphics are impressive even on low, the perks are funny and useful, the gameplay is execllent, and the storyline is engaging. I highly advise it for anyone who liked TES: Oblivion, or otehr rpg’s.

Heres some helpful hints:

-Get your intelligence as high as possible, it will give you more points to spend when you level up.

-Get the scrounger perk. Its fucking annoying when you have no ammo for your best weapon.

-Get the Bloody Mess perk. It makes life more fun to see your enemies heads explode.

-Stimpaks! Get as many as possible, especially when fighting super mutants.

Bluemonkey’s Party

I am doing this post at the expectations of Bluemonkey, one of my friends. Recently, he had his birthday (Happy Birthday!) and he said he was expecting blog posts from me and Tamasys.

Overall, It was a good party. We watched the Dark Knight and Death at a Funeral (Physically painful to watch). They’re was plenty of food (Which is good) and we talked alot. We made sure to sing out of tune when he brought in the cake, revenge for when he did it at our parties.

Overall, it was a good party. But I am gettong irritated about people having parties on Saturday nights. I have to do a paperound sunday morning at 6:00!

Exams and Reports

I got my school report today and i’m happy. Becuase i did well. I’m also happy because I didn’t like my exam results. Considering how hard I studied, I was rather dissapointed with my results. Even though I got an A, 2 B+’s, a B and a C+, I was dissapointed, because although they are generally good marks, I am, to be frank, a high acheiver, considering that my only ‘A’ was in VCE psychology. In my report, I didn’t get under a ‘B’, even though I hadn’t done the science test on light and I got a C+ in English.

Overall I am happy. I need to teach myself Visual Basic over the holidays for Software Development, ( A VCE units 3 & 4 subject) but apart from that, I have nothing to learn over the holidays, unlike those doing Chinese and Psychology 3 & 4. (EAT IT TAMASYS)

Vampires

I’ll be frank. I think vampires are pretty neat. I don’t know why, so don’t ask me. Maybe its because I’m completely obbsessive about lore. Hell, the amunt of random junk I know could make comic book guy quail. Well, maybe not. But I have been banned from quoting random facts in my English class.

Having just finished painting the vampire warhammer model bluemonkey gave me for my b-day, whom I dubbed ‘Mikhail Von Carstein’. Unfortunately, I haven’t got a copy of the latest army book. Which is annoying.

Maybe it’s the whole ’social pariah’ thing that I like about vampires. because in just about every storyline, the are hunted. In Warhammer, being created by drinking an elixer distilled from human blood, they are pretty evil. That said, the whole art of necromancy is inherently evil in Warhammer. In ‘The Elder Scrolls’, Vampirism is a proper disease, porphyric haemophilia (?). This is a bit more realistic. However, Vampires are still social outcasts and can be found in a myriad number of caves. (i’ve killed a lot of these; I can get 250 gold per sample of vampire ash from vampire hunters).

Maybe its the whole ‘ultimately unknowable and inhuman aspect that I like vampires for. I know this though: It is not the blood sucking.