Yeah, first martial arts-related post since I said I'd be posting about martial arts. *shrug*
Went back to the dojo yesterday for the first time in... almost twelve months, maybe? Not sure. Anyway, I get to keep my 3rd kyu belt (that's brown, 3rd kyu means 3 gradings from black - two are black stripes, the third is the belt itself), but I've been put in the 6th & 5th kyu class for a couple of weeks or so so I can find my feet, so to speak. That's somewhat advantageous because it means I can do the Brazilian Jiujitsu class that runs at the same time as the 4th to 1st kyu class that I'd normally be in. I tried out the BJJ class yesterday, after the 6th & 5th kyu class, and it was a lot of fun. Basically BJJ is about fighting on the ground; it's all grappling, locks, chokes, holds, throws and sweeps instead of strikes and the like. I might have to give it up when I go back to my normal class, but hopefully I can work something out so I don't.
But yeah. One and three-quarter hours of training yesterday, and now my lower back is a little sore and my shoulders kinda stiff. I have training every day except Tuesday and Thursday now, so I'm aiming to go hard and have my entire body aching by this time next week.
Thursday, 28 August 2008
Sunday, 24 August 2008
Recurring villains
Scene: Newnaxx-25.
"Minions, servants, soldiers of the cold dark, obey the call of Kel'Thuzad!" cries the archlich in a suitably dramatic fashion.
The raid turns and looks at the gates around them expectantly, waiting for hordes of undead to come at them.
A moment passes.
A voice comes from behind them all, laughing maniacally before breaking into a fit of coughing. "You didn't think you'd seen the last of me, did you? Fools! You may have destroyed Kil'Jaedan, but I serve a new master now - and I am stronger than ever before!" He begins laughing again.
Kel'thuzad facepalms. "God," he says, "shut up, Kael!" He hurls a frostbolt at the offending elf.
"Ack!" cries Kael, flying off into the distance. "I would have succeeded if it hadn't been for you meddling kids! And I didn't get to finish my monologue..."
Ping! he vanishes.
"..." the raid says in unison.
"Minions, servants, soldiers of the cold dark, obey the call of Kel'Thuzad!" cries the archlich in a suitably dramatic fashion.
The raid turns and looks at the gates around them expectantly, waiting for hordes of undead to come at them.
A moment passes.
A voice comes from behind them all, laughing maniacally before breaking into a fit of coughing. "You didn't think you'd seen the last of me, did you? Fools! You may have destroyed Kil'Jaedan, but I serve a new master now - and I am stronger than ever before!" He begins laughing again.
Kel'thuzad facepalms. "God," he says, "shut up, Kael!" He hurls a frostbolt at the offending elf.
"Ack!" cries Kael, flying off into the distance. "I would have succeeded if it hadn't been for you meddling kids! And I didn't get to finish my monologue..."
Ping! he vanishes.
"..." the raid says in unison.
Thursday, 21 August 2008
Sands of Ulduran
I think Sands of Ulduran sounds cooler than Strand of the Ancients.
http://www.wegame.com/watch/Jayde_PvP_Video/ - a shortish pvp video featuring a fbe DK in the new battleground. Looks really good, actually - the first WLK thing that I've seen that looks fun, as opposed to cool (Frostfire Bolt), bad (lots of stuff), or handy (Flourish). Plus it's a beautiful zone - reminds me of Azshara with its muted colours.
From what I can tell the battleground is very similar to the Assault style of maps from UT, with an attacking team trying to achieve a number of objectives (capture points, it looks like) and a defending team trying to stop them, and after either they capture the last point or the time runs out the teams swap. I assume that once both teams have finished the team that finished first, or had more points remaining, or something like that is the winner.
There were a couple of siege weapons (demolishers and turrets) and gates for them to knock down, but I didn't really see how much they impacted on the game. I assume that the gates can't be damaged without a tank, though. More importantly, though, the battleground was wide and open, the teams seemed to be moving mostly in tandem, and the battles seemed more balanced rather than one team running one-by-one into the other team's death squad and getting systematically slaughtered. It might be a fluke - the terrain and style of play might not actually promote teamwork more than the existing BGs - but I really hope not. It looks like fun. Of course, considering that as far as I could see the whole lot of them were wearing either TBC raid gear or WLK levelling blues and greens, the video's unsullied by resilience - so it's probably safe to assume that the fun will be sucked out of it in short order.
On a different note, the DK gameplay looks cooler than I'd expected. Being, of course, a longtime Inquisitor fan, the anti-magic side of the DK is what interested me in them originally, but I was put off a bit by how confusing the rune system combined with all their different kinds of melee attacks and diseases was. I could sorta see how they work from this video, though. Frost DKs look especially appealing - heavy meleeists with tons of roots, snares, silences, most of which are 30yard ranged, plus Death's Grasp for yanking, Anti-magic Shell for screwing over casters even more, and what seem to be the remnants of Shatter combos (which are awesome).
Even so, though, I don't think I'll be playing a DK in WLK.
...Heh. Funny, that. I assumed I wouldn't really be keeping up with what was happening with WoW when I quit, at least until Wrath's actual release, yet here I am getting all excited over a 10-minute low-quality movie.
I guess that while you can take the raider out of the raid, you can't take the raid out of the raider.
http://www.wegame.com/watch/Jayde_PvP_Video/ - a shortish pvp video featuring a fbe DK in the new battleground. Looks really good, actually - the first WLK thing that I've seen that looks fun, as opposed to cool (Frostfire Bolt), bad (lots of stuff), or handy (Flourish). Plus it's a beautiful zone - reminds me of Azshara with its muted colours.
From what I can tell the battleground is very similar to the Assault style of maps from UT, with an attacking team trying to achieve a number of objectives (capture points, it looks like) and a defending team trying to stop them, and after either they capture the last point or the time runs out the teams swap. I assume that once both teams have finished the team that finished first, or had more points remaining, or something like that is the winner.
There were a couple of siege weapons (demolishers and turrets) and gates for them to knock down, but I didn't really see how much they impacted on the game. I assume that the gates can't be damaged without a tank, though. More importantly, though, the battleground was wide and open, the teams seemed to be moving mostly in tandem, and the battles seemed more balanced rather than one team running one-by-one into the other team's death squad and getting systematically slaughtered. It might be a fluke - the terrain and style of play might not actually promote teamwork more than the existing BGs - but I really hope not. It looks like fun. Of course, considering that as far as I could see the whole lot of them were wearing either TBC raid gear or WLK levelling blues and greens, the video's unsullied by resilience - so it's probably safe to assume that the fun will be sucked out of it in short order.
On a different note, the DK gameplay looks cooler than I'd expected. Being, of course, a longtime Inquisitor fan, the anti-magic side of the DK is what interested me in them originally, but I was put off a bit by how confusing the rune system combined with all their different kinds of melee attacks and diseases was. I could sorta see how they work from this video, though. Frost DKs look especially appealing - heavy meleeists with tons of roots, snares, silences, most of which are 30yard ranged, plus Death's Grasp for yanking, Anti-magic Shell for screwing over casters even more, and what seem to be the remnants of Shatter combos (which are awesome).
Even so, though, I don't think I'll be playing a DK in WLK.
...Heh. Funny, that. I assumed I wouldn't really be keeping up with what was happening with WoW when I quit, at least until Wrath's actual release, yet here I am getting all excited over a 10-minute low-quality movie.
I guess that while you can take the raider out of the raid, you can't take the raid out of the raider.
Sunday, 17 August 2008
Surround sound
So my dad was moving house this week, and as part of helping him I found a large box. Inside the box I found a surround sound system.
"Hey," I said to him. "There's a surround sound system in this box."
"Yes," he replied.
"Can I have it?"
"Yes."
It took a bit to set up (basically I had to work out if my little external extension to my soundcard was compatible with it, and it was, but I didn't have the right cables so now it's connected directly to my soundcard until I can get some coax or optical).
Anyway, I now have rather a lot of volume controls.
1. Normal Windows volume. This is adjustable by using a knob on my external soundcard thing.
2. WinAmp/VLC/game/other application volume, depending on what I'm running.
3. Headphones volume.
4. Surround volume. I can adjust this using a remote, but I likely won't.
Sometime when nobody else is home I'm going to turn them all up and play something loud.
When I wrote that I immediately thought of the giant amp from Back to the Future.
In other news, my dad's new house is really small, but it has two storeys and three toilets.
"Hey," I said to him. "There's a surround sound system in this box."
"Yes," he replied.
"Can I have it?"
"Yes."
It took a bit to set up (basically I had to work out if my little external extension to my soundcard was compatible with it, and it was, but I didn't have the right cables so now it's connected directly to my soundcard until I can get some coax or optical).
Anyway, I now have rather a lot of volume controls.
1. Normal Windows volume. This is adjustable by using a knob on my external soundcard thing.
2. WinAmp/VLC/game/other application volume, depending on what I'm running.
3. Headphones volume.
4. Surround volume. I can adjust this using a remote, but I likely won't.
Sometime when nobody else is home I'm going to turn them all up and play something loud.
When I wrote that I immediately thought of the giant amp from Back to the Future.
In other news, my dad's new house is really small, but it has two storeys and three toilets.
Thursday, 14 August 2008
Purge servers
Interesting idea I've been mulling over for a while. Basically, it's a server that purges itself every 3-6 months - all characters are deleted, world events are reset, etc etc. Reason being, well, rerolling's fun, and the game kinda stagnates after a time at the level cap - when you're done with heroics and in no urgent need of gold, you've got nothing left to do outside of raiding unless you're into PvP.
So the server resets to a) keep the game fresh, and b) add an element of urgency to progression. Everybody loves time trials.
Plus, 3-4 of these servers would fix the 'reroll locusts' problem that I hear about and contribute to.
So the server resets to a) keep the game fresh, and b) add an element of urgency to progression. Everybody loves time trials.
Plus, 3-4 of these servers would fix the 'reroll locusts' problem that I hear about and contribute to.
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
Monday, 4 August 2008
Anime: Similarity
Somewhere deep in the lair of KyoAni, a few years past...
A man stands nervously in front of a large desk, wringing his hands slightly as his boss smokes a cigar while looking out the window. This man is in charge of art - you could call him an art manager, or a character design coordinator, or any number of things, but right now what he is is terrified.
"So," says his boss, watching the night city through the rain. A bolt of lightning strikes in the distance. "You wanted to see me?" He turns around and taps ash off the end of his cigar, eyes narrowing.
No, thinks the man, but "Yes," he says, making himself as small as he can. "It's... about the... character designs we were given. For our new project." What a terrible mistake this was, he thinks. I wish I were at home and in bed.
His boss raises an eyebrow and sits down in his big leather swivel chair. "What about them? I trust they are not... inadequate?"
"No, no, no, of course not!" stutters the man, doing his best to deflect the intense eyes of his boss. "It's just... I... Some of the team members, we..."
"Yes?"
"Well..." He puts a folder down on the desk. 'Ryou Fujibayashi,' it reads, and then another, 'Kyou Fujibayashi.' "Twins. Lavender hair. Kyou is older, more assertive, a bit coarse to her close friends, but a little emotionally insecure. She has waist-length hair and pointy eyes. Ryou is younger, timid, not particularly good at anything, but hardworking and faithful. She has short hair and droopy eyes."
The boss nods, leaning back in his chair. "Where are you going with this?"
"It's just..." The man hesitates for a moment. "Didn't our last project have characters... exactly the same?"
The boss's eyes narrow.
He stands, slowly walks around his desk to the man, and backhands him solidly across the face. The man falls to the floor, face screwed up in pain.
"Back to work," the boss says coldly.
"...Yeth thur," the man slurs sadly, and crawls out of the office.
A man stands nervously in front of a large desk, wringing his hands slightly as his boss smokes a cigar while looking out the window. This man is in charge of art - you could call him an art manager, or a character design coordinator, or any number of things, but right now what he is is terrified.
"So," says his boss, watching the night city through the rain. A bolt of lightning strikes in the distance. "You wanted to see me?" He turns around and taps ash off the end of his cigar, eyes narrowing.
No, thinks the man, but "Yes," he says, making himself as small as he can. "It's... about the... character designs we were given. For our new project." What a terrible mistake this was, he thinks. I wish I were at home and in bed.
His boss raises an eyebrow and sits down in his big leather swivel chair. "What about them? I trust they are not... inadequate?"
"No, no, no, of course not!" stutters the man, doing his best to deflect the intense eyes of his boss. "It's just... I... Some of the team members, we..."
"Yes?"
"Well..." He puts a folder down on the desk. 'Ryou Fujibayashi,' it reads, and then another, 'Kyou Fujibayashi.' "Twins. Lavender hair. Kyou is older, more assertive, a bit coarse to her close friends, but a little emotionally insecure. She has waist-length hair and pointy eyes. Ryou is younger, timid, not particularly good at anything, but hardworking and faithful. She has short hair and droopy eyes."
The boss nods, leaning back in his chair. "Where are you going with this?"
"It's just..." The man hesitates for a moment. "Didn't our last project have characters... exactly the same?"
The boss's eyes narrow.
He stands, slowly walks around his desk to the man, and backhands him solidly across the face. The man falls to the floor, face screwed up in pain.
"Back to work," the boss says coldly.
"...Yeth thur," the man slurs sadly, and crawls out of the office.
Huh?
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53993
Achievements? Unified 'Blizzard Account?'
I mean, I already knew about WoW's achievements, and I knew about them eventually moving to account-based rather than character-based, but an account shared across all Blizzard games?
I liked it better when my games existed in a vacuum, I spose.
Achievements? Unified 'Blizzard Account?'
I mean, I already knew about WoW's achievements, and I knew about them eventually moving to account-based rather than character-based, but an account shared across all Blizzard games?
I liked it better when my games existed in a vacuum, I spose.
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