Walter Chamberlain Porter

Died the night of April 15, 1912. He was a passenger aboard H.M.S. Titanic

Monday, Monday

Monday, Monday...blah, Blah, BLAH!!!!

Today TOTALLY feels like a Monday...It sucks and not in the good way. Oh well, I will get through it...I hope :)

So how was your Thanksgiving? Mine was great. I had lunch with the family and then went to friends for dinner. What a great day!

Black Friday didn't go so well. There seemed to be a lot of GREAT deals. Target had a 32inch flat screen for $246.00...DVDs for $3.99...and small appliances for $3.00 each(toaster, sandwich maker, coffee machine). I wanted that flat screen for my bedroom and I also wanted to pick up at least the sandwich maker but did I get them? OH HELL NO! I decided I was not going to get in line super early. They opened at 5am and I got there about 10 minutes later. There was a line out the door for electronics so I rushed back to the appliances and every one of the $3.00 items were gone. I did manage to get two DVDs for $3.99 each..."The Dark Knight" & "Elf"...but that was all I bought on Black Friday. That was worth getting up at 4:30am, right?!?!...WHATEVER!

Saturday night wasn't my night either. I love college football and my team...The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets lost against our arch enemy...The dreaded Georgia Bulldogs! I hate them...Grrrrrrrr. On a brighter note, Tech still managed to end their regular season at 10-2 and will play in the ACC Championship game this Saturday night. GO JACKETS!


That's all I've got for now. I'm tired and want to try and get by with doing as little work as possible today. Have a great day!

Bob Out

Irresistable Rocky Road Fudge

Puuh. I can't put words on how nice it is to come home to a quiet home after spending a couple of hours with wild children that are running around everywhere, and screaming all the time. I am so happy I don't have any small siblings. I would make a terrible big sis to them, haha. But besides all the noise and wild games all the "small people" were occupying themselves with, I had a great time. Especially with that Rocky Road Fudge...I was suppose to take two pieces, but somehow I just happened to double the size, and now I am guilty as charged, hehe. But even though they must be huge calorie bombs, I have to learn how to make those. Trudi said it was really easy, and that I could just google it. So regardless of how much I have to exercise afterwards, I will make those because they are simply too good to resist.

Risgrynsgröt

Vicki was the cutest sister ever this morning. While we all were still sleeping, she sneaked down to the grocery store to surprise us by buying risgrynsgröt. You guys have no idea how much I love risgrynsgröt, but it's a lot of love I can say...I think it is one of the major reason why I love Christmas - because then you can eat a lot of risgrynsgröt without people telling you "why do you want to it risgrynsgröt all the time? It's not even Christmas yet!". Anyhow, today is Första Advent and I have to start getting ready since we are invited to Trudel's yearly Adventsfika at 3.00 p.m. We'll see how long I'll be stuck there...

Oh by the way, have a great Första Advent!

Uppsala Christmas market

Even though it was 5°C and no snow, a tradition is a tradition. So mami, sis and I went down town for the yearly Christmas market, which is always held the weekend of 1st Advent here in Uppsala. I don't think that that many people outside of Sweden (OK, Scandinavia) are that familiar with the term "Advent", but basically it is the four Sundays counting down to Christmas; it is also the time when you are suppose to drink glögg (mulled wine), eat pepparkakor (gingerbread), and of course indulge in big amounts of lussekatter! (Which has the funny translation of Lucia cat!? Haha.) I'm not that found of glögg, but for the sake of Advent and the whole Christmas spirit, I can endure a cup from time to time. After all, it makes the approach of Christmas more like - Christmas.

Another thing that brings me into the Christmas spirit is all of the Christmas songs that they have started to play everywhere. However, I know through experience that this feeling of coziness won't last up until it is Christmas for real. Because then, the same songs playing over and over and over and over again EVERYWHERE have started to get on my nerves, and all I want to do is throw up at it. Nevertheless, that isn't the case yet, so I am just going to enjoy all of it for now. Because regardless, I do like Christmas.

Mami and me

Found this cute and wise statement in a small boutique "It is not important of where you are heading in life...what you do...or how much you own...the important thing is who you have by your side".


Vicki came home with a "Salmon bomb" as a surprise yesterday which made a perfect Saturday snack for today ;) Dangerous, dangerous but delicious, delicious...

Big Rigs over the road Racing

Big Rigs: Over the road racing is a game released in 2003. This game was made by Stellar Stone LLC. Some other companies involved with this marvelous game are TS Group Entertainment and the publisher GameMill Inc. In a year when games like Deus Ex 2, Halo and Generals were released, this game had a big challenge competing with them, but this absolute gem of a game just simply destroyed them in every way.

The graphics are simply awesome, the buildings are just a piece of art, the scales extremely realistic. You really have the feeling that you're driving around, sometimes it's hard to separate reality from the virtual reality.

This game is simply ground-breaking when it comes to racing realism. In the average racing game you just drive slowly, but in Big Rigs you simply put your truck in reverse and go for it. And why would you risk losing on a different game, when your victory is guaranteed in Big Rigs. And getting penalties for taking shortcuts and cheating is simply ridiculous, it's your game and you should be able to do anything, and Big Rigs agrees. It sucks being secluded to only the race track, in Big Rigs you can drive wherever you want without being hassled with signs of going the wrong way or being put back on the racetrack. And why would you be limited to earthly possibilities when you can make a game which defies all laws of nature. We all know that we want to travel faster than light-speed, Big Rigs allows us to.

The level-design is where the game really shines. The creators were really kind and made the game accessible for even the worst gamers in the world, since you don't have to be afraid to bump into something and have your track-record fall to pieces, in Big Rigs you simply drive through anything, like it's supposed to. And realistic surroundings are just boring, and Big Rigs agrees, with their beautiful purple lampposts and Dwarven houses. In case you're in a hurry, be sure to drive over a mountain, many truckers do this daily, which enhances the realism in this game.

Don't you just hate those blaring songs in your ear all time whilst playing a game? Big Rigs agrees again, giving you absolute silence to listen to, which is great for the tranquility. The peaceful silence is just awesome in this game, really giving you the opportunity to relax, which is the main focus of this game.

This game really brings up your minimalistic nature, why would you need a dozen of tracks and many vehicles? Big Rigs agrees again, giving you four awesome vehicles to choose from, some of which give you instant victory! The game also gives you five tracks to choose from, some of which are too awesome to be handled by any computer.

In most games your controls feel smooth and responsive, but Big Rigs gives you a challenge here. In almost every game the challenge comes from playing the game, in Big Rigs it's controlling the game, making this awesome game unique and original in every way. It will blow your mind.

You have to buy this game! Even if you have to take a second mortgage on your house, or sell one of your kids. Because if you don't, you'll never know what pure joy is. We simply can't understand all these negative reviews about this game, chances are that they're pure noobs who can't tell an magnificent game when they see one.

This is sarcasm, in case you're a moron.

The song's called The Truck Got Stuck.

Maid of the day

What would mami do without me? I have just vacuum cleaned the whole apartment, cleaned mirrors, washed dishes, and wiped away every piece of dust in the in our hallway. So, for all of those people (including mami and sis) that think that I am useless when it comes to housework...Guess what? You are wrong! I'm actually quite good at it, and it gives you a really good workout too, haha...

Roasted high notes

Olim Lacus from Carmina Burana : Carl Orff, Tenor Jeff Prillaman

Had a great performance with the Waynesboro Schola Cantorum few weeks ago. The link below will play a pretty good archival recording from my field recorder that Tracee held in the audience.

Gotta love the roasting swan and those crazy high notes..
Happy Thanksgiving!

jeff

Happy Thanksgiving

Have a great Thanksgiving! Hope you get stuffed :)'

Short List 2009

I am thankful for:
Grace and Love that passes all understanding.
My beautiful and exceptional wife. Tracee
Wonderful children. Alyssa, Emma, Joshua, and Clara
Freedom to live and choose.
A chance to make a difference for others.
My education and skills and the mentorship of so many who have come before me.
Blessing of Music in my life.
So many friends and family members all over the world.

DAYS WITH JFK

Yes, I was with him twice. The first time in October of 1958, when, as a Senator he was hosted at a reception in the Massasoit Hotel in Spencer, Massachusetts, where I took this picture of him and Mrs. Kennedy as they left.
The next time was on Sunday, November 24, 1963, when I spent 18 hours in a crowd that passed throught the Rotunda of the Capital at about 2 Monday morning. We were fortunate to be given extra time in the presence of the body because the crowd had to remain in place while Mrs. Kennedy paid a late night visit to the casket. It's never stopped seeming like yesterday.

WE WERE TROJANS

That day in November of 1963 reminds me of the loss of Troy as related in the Aeneid.

---

There was Panthus,who'd come unscathed through the Greek barrage. He was a son of Othrys, priest of Apollo's temple on the citadel. He was holding his holy emblems of office, and was hanging on to the images of his defeated gods and dragging his young grandson along as he rushed in panic for the gates.

"Where is the action? Which strongpoint are we making our stand on?"

I'd hardly got the words out when he came back at me:

"It's here - the final hour - Troy's time is up. As Trojans we no longer exist : Troy is history; so too is all the might and glory of the Trojan race. Jupiter, in cold blood, has gone over to the Greeks. Our city is in flames, and the Danaans are triumphant. The towering Horse bestrides the walls disgorging warriors, and Sinon fans the flames revelling in his victory. Others are massing where the gates stand open - all the countless thousands who came from mighty Mycene; others - weapons at the ready - have blocked the narrow alleys. A ring of steel waits poised for the kill, swords glinting. The front line of sentries is just holding out - but they are fighting blind."

---

Something about Tuesdays

I have started to love Tuesdays. I know it's Wednesday today, but I didn't have any time to blog yesterday, and my joy just have to come out. So prepare yourself, because I wasn't prepared at all for...getting a freaking 7 (the highest grade on the IB scale) on a Swedish essay I wrote a while back!!! Last Tuesday I was told that I got a 6 on my Environmental Systems and Societies exam, and now this?! There is seriously something special about Tuesdays...And I kind of like it. :)

Break Dancing - Va tenor style.

Hump Day Hunk

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I would like to start early and give "thanks" to this "giving" hunk. You can see him strutting his stuff each week on "Dancing with the Stars". He is a total bad ass and hot as hell...LOVE HIM!!!

Maksim Chmerkovskiy

Swoon

I could gobble him up

http://maksimchmerkovskiy.com/

Muah! See...he wants me


I am soooo Thankful for each one of you! I checked my Google analytics this morning and I am up to 97 unique visitors to my blog.
Thanks for stopping by :)

Y'all have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving
Bob Out

Command & Conquer: Generals

Generals was released in 2003 on Windows and in 2004 a Mac OS version was released. The expansion pack Zero Hour was released in 2003 for Windows and 2 years later it found its way onto the Mac OS platform as well. This game's made by EA Games, known for many titles such as Need For Speed, the Battlefield series and many more. If you play games on a regular basis you've probably already heard of them. Generals is a RTS just like most games in the C&C series, except Renegade, which is a shooter.

In this game you're able to play as three factions: The U.S.A, China and the Global Liberation Army. Each faction has its own unique characteristics and abilities and superweapon. Various units can be constructed and trained, such as infantry, armored units and aircraft (except the GLA, which don't has aircraft units). More advanced units can be constructed by building a high tech facility. When you killed enough enemy units, your level will increase, granting you some powers, like advanced tanks, repairing your units or throwing a bomb at your enemies. Individual units can grow stronger too, by killing enemy units. That process is quickened by killing a stronger unit than your unit, for example an infantry unit destroying a tank. Another way to get stronger is capturing enemy buildings, like oil derricks. Oil derricks will provide you with an additional amount of money every once in a while.

The U.S.A has the strongest ground and air units of the game, but they're very expensive, and the U.S.A has the slowest resource gatherers. They're able to use a particle cannon every once in a while (when built, of course). China has strong tanks, and relie on firepower, but their airforce isn't that strong. They only have one plane, the MiG. Chinese troops are stronger when fighting in groups, and with extensive use of propaganda. Their superweapon is a nuclear missile. The GLA has no airforce, and their verhicles are weak, but they're cheap and very fast. The GLA focuses on infantry units and has more types of infantry than the other factions, like Terrorists and Angry Mobs. The GLA has scud storms at their disposal.

This game has nice graphics, explosions, and sound for its time, as you can see and hear in the video below. That's also why I like this game so much, plus it has multiplayer too. You're also able to make your own maps, and play them online against other people. Some players are very good at making maps and they've created compstomp maps (Team up with other players and defend a waypoint or something else against incoming enemies. The enemy comes in waves with a massive amount of troops) and some cheating maps, in which you always lose (except when you're the host, of course, and you know the map).

However, there are a couple of things people complain about, for example the lack of ingame videos. The other games in the C&C series have ingame videos, but Generals hasn't. Instead, there is a loading screen and a voice that explains you what to do. Another thing is that the campaigns are very short, they all have five missions and that's it. At least the creators have put in some custom maps that you can play against one or more enemies. When it's too easy for you, you can crank up the difficulty. it's obvious that this game is made for the multiplayer.

You're still able to purchase this game for a cheap price, or you can buy it together with the previous games in the series, such as Red Alert 1 and 2 and Tiberium Sun (expansion packs included). If you love RTS's you should definitely get this title. If you don't like RTS's you should buy it too, since it's very cheap, and you won't be dissapointed about it.

Purgatorio

Throughout the drawn-out process of moving house, it seems that almost everyone I know has sympathetically opined that "it's the second most stressful thing you'll go through in your life", with the first being divorce. I'm not sure where everyone has apparently sourced this piece of information, but it's become a modern axiom - at least in well-fed Western countries where the fear of war, starvation, extreme poverty or genocide has receded into a comfortable background. In any event, I disagree. Moving house was far more stressful than my divorce.

"It's like the fifth circle of Hell", Clever Colleague suggested helpfully.

"What gets punished in the fifth circle?" I asked, warily.

CC furrowed her brows. "Actually, I don't know. It just seemed like a good, mid-level sort of Hell. Would you prefer the seventh circle?"

Unknowingly, CC was right on the money. The fifth circle of Dante's Inferno is where the wrathful and slothful are sent for punishment. (I'm a prime candidate in both departments, alternating my spare afternoon hours between road rage and siestas.) Of course, that's not the only place that us lazy bums can end up. The other is Purgatorio.

Dante envisioned purgatory as an island of concentric terraces rising upwards out of the Southern Oceans. Each sin gets its own terrace, where the wicked endure various degrees of tortuous suffering in the name of spiritual growth. The punishments, ironically, fit the crimes, and therefore we find the Proud struggling to hold their shoulders up under the weight of huge boulders, the Gluttonous abstaining from food and drink... and the slothful, running in perpetuity to atone for their laziness on Earth.

I was struck by the comparison. Rather than being Hell, moving house is basically a form of Purgatory on Earth, where we are forced to confront our months or years of slothful housekeeping and haphazard storage. Thus, for over a month, Clever Partner and I were constantly running to atone for our sins. We marvelled with the hindsight of a soul in Purgatory - didn't we know that the oven should have been cleaned every six months? Could we not have forseen the problems inherent in simply shoving unwanted items out of the way to the top of bookshelves or underneath tables? Should we not have realised that our failure to properly clean out five years' worth of accumulated junk from various expat flatmates would result in a mountain of detritus that would take the council three collections to dispose of?

Well, apparently not. We didn't, and, considering the degree to which comparisons between moving house and Hell are readily accepted, nobody else does, either. And now that we have worked out way through Purgatory to the Paradise of the New House, let us bow our heads and pray:

"May we always remember to scrub the grout,
Have the wisdom to unblock the downspout.
Free us from rising damp and insect hordes,
From leaking taps and rotten old floorboards.
May we never seek to store things overhead
Atop shelves and cupboards, or below our bed.
Deliver us from black-spot mould
And, please, before this house is sold
Shall we ever strive to clean, and then
Roll up our sleeves and clean again."

Amen.

Learning languages from each other.

One of the many reasons I am proud to teach Y3C is that they have been really up for sharing each other's cultures and languages. Everyday, we practice greeting each other in many different ways. We've practiced bits and pieces of Chinese, French, Arabic, Turkish, Indian, German, Irish and more. However, no one has taught us more (so far) that Mr. Sekula. Yes, that's right, Y3C had a visit from a very special teacher last week, our very own Maksymillian. Here he is taking us through the basics of Polish phonics. Apologies for the video quality but I think you can see that we are very lucky to have so many different cultures in our class willing to share!


Mr. Cusack.

Nitro Family

Nitro Family is a game created by the studios of ValuSoft and Delphieye(a company based in Korea). It was released on 1 May 2004. Nitro Family can be classified as a first person shooter, with some minor RPG elements. The game is built on the Serious Sam-engine.

You start the game with an intro cutscene, showing how a baby is taken away by a car. As a father you have to free your child from his abductors, but I wouldn't pay much attention to the storyline since the developers tried to tap in on the success of games like Postal 1/2 and Serious Sam. And those games don't really have a storyline and are pretty much based around absolute bullshit, same as Nitro Family. But at least the aforementioned games are fun, Nitro Family isn't.

The gameplay of this game is a simple shooter, you just kill the hordes of enemies thrown at you, which all have an AI dumber than the God Warrior. They pretty much run straight towards you, attacking you in the process even if they can't hit you, for example they'll shoot a wall between you and them. There are a few differences between a standard shooter and this game, one of them is that the game tracks the times you manage to keep an enemy floating in the air by continually shooting him/her. The game also has a highscore system which doesn't really have any purpose, since it's not like anyone cares enough about this game in order to write them down/compare them with friends. As you progress in this game, you'll amass money which you can use to upgrade your weapons, making this game even easier than it already is. In case I haven't made myself clear enough, the challenge in this game is pretty much non-existent. It's also possible for the player to collect enough cards in order to gain a "special" prize from a lady, but nobody cares enough or has the patience to ever get that far.

The levels in this game are unoriginal and boring, even though the game sometimes puts in a few platforming areas. You spend most of the time running through long grey corridors or in big open flat terrains, most of the time between huge walls or buildings. The game throws increasingly more enemies at you, but the game never gets challenging. The levels are empty for the most part, aside from the enemies and a couple of cars every once in a while, these cars can be destroyed for powerups, healthpacks(food) and armor. The enemies are ridiculous in this game, but not in a good way. Nitro Family is just filled with racially insensitive stereotypes, I wouldn't really care about it if they were funny, but they aren't. You have Mexican farmers throwing chickens at you, fat waitress looking girls shooting with rocketlaunchers at you, pigriders and so on.

The graphics are horrible and outdated. From the aforementioned levels and enemies to the animations everything looks bad, uninspired and pretty much slapped together in order to produce a cheap game. In a year where Halo 2, Unreal Tournament 2004, GTA: San Andreas, Half-Life 2 and WoW ruled the charts, you'd think that ValuSoft would've made sure that the game itself was somewhat decent in order to still get a piece of the cake.

Last and least, the sound and music, this is where the game reveals its true face, that of a cheap half-assed game. The game has one song and one song only, and it keeps on looping and looping, in the menu, in the game, pretty much everywhere. It's some rock song with dumb lyrics, some guy blaring out "Where did I go wrong?!?!?" and some muttering about how he is wondering about what watch he'll get and that it doesn't matter because he can't tell the time. You might be asking yourself, what's the relevance of this information? Well, you'll be hearing this song so many times that it'll damage your sanity. Besides the headache provoking song, the rest of the game is pretty standard.

My conclusion is that you shouldn't even think about buying this game, since it'll surely lead to a disappointment, after an hour you'll be so sick of this game that you'll throw it in the bin or your cabinet and never look back. There are way better titles out there that you could buy instead of this one, and I highly encourage you that you do. Nitro Family can best be described as an unoriginal lazy knock-off attempt at tapping into Serious Sam's popularity and success.

mm, cm, metres and kilometres

Year 3C have been working extremely hard over the last few weeks at learning how to measure accurately. We have carried out many studies including this one, to find out the most common length of shoe in our class. We found out that we have mostly big feet (over 20cm long!).









Y3C are doing fantastic work in Numeracy.

Mr. Cusack

Over the top?

or hits the mark? Being a huge American Idol fan I love seeing what these singers do with the careers they are handed. Just being in the top 10 virtually assures them a record deal but they still have to prove they can sell records. I was super excited when I heard Kris Allen's single "Live like we're dying" but radio has yet to really pick it up. I wonder why?! It's a good song!


I was watching the American Music Awards last night and saw Adam Lambert perform the first single from his upcoming album "For Your Entertainment". I wasn't too impressed and thought it was a little over the top. However, I kinda liked that he was pushing buttons and being provactive. It was even censored for west coast viewers. "You know honestly, if I offended some people... it's apples and oranges. I'm not an artist that does things for every single person," Adam told Access' Shaun backstage following his racy performance of "For Your Entertainment," where he kissed male keyboardist Tommy Ratliff, who is straight. "I'm not going to be surprised that they edit it," he continued. "People are scared and it's really sad, I just wish people could open their minds up and enjoy things, it's all for a laugh, it's really not that big of a deal."

Watch it and let me know what you guys think. It's also been out for a few weeks and I've yet to hear it on the radio.


Plus check out his album cover...

It's a little "Ziggy Stardust" meets "Xanadu" don't ya think? All skate, everyone skate. I wonder if glam rock will catch on in 2009!

Bob Out

Ainda sobre oa azulejos

Olá meninas, antes de mais nada quero agradecer a todas as sugestões que vocês me deram! Valeu mesmo! Com elas comecei a "clarear" minhas idéias...
Eu quero fazer com esses azulejos alguma coisa diferente, fora do convencional. Confesso que minhas primeiras idéias foram as tradicionais: bandeja, suporte para panela e quadros. Eu acho lindo tudo isso, mas o que eu quero é algo diferente. Sabe aquela coisa que você olha e fala: que legal, não é que eu jamais imaginei que isso desse certo? Pois é mais ou menos isso o que eu quero, algo inusitado, afinal são azulejos exclusivos e, com certeza, quem fez esse não conseguirá fazer outros, hehe...
Pesquisando na net achei essas idéias:

Trabalho de Chris Lindner

Trabalho de Arnaldo Lopes

A Débora me sugeriu esta matéria que eu adorei! Olha só:
Campeão nos votos (Talma, Keka, Maris e Juliana), um quadro ou painel. Acho que também ficaria legal quadrinhos sobre o fundo de madeira, fato é que o fundo realça os azulejos.

Adorei essa mesa! Dá pra pensar como ficaria a idéia da Cláudia Vargas, com os pés de máquina...
Não consegui fotos de bandeja, como me sugeriu a Hazel, a Cinthya e a Fernanda,nem de um móvel como sugeriu a Rose, mas ainda vou procurar mais um pouco.
Enquanto isso, se alguém tiver mais alguma sugestão... please!
Beijos!

Ainda sobre oa azulejos

Olá meninas, antes de mais nada quero agradecer a todas as sugestões que vocês me deram! Valeu mesmo! Com elas comecei a "clarear" minhas idéias...
Eu quero fazer com esses azulejos alguma coisa diferente, fora do convencional. Confesso que minhas primeiras idéias foram as tradicionais: bandeja, suporte para panela e quadros. Eu acho lindo tudo isso, mas o que eu quero é algo diferente. Sabe aquela coisa que você olha e fala: que legal, não é que eu jamais imaginei que isso desse certo? Pois é mais ou menos isso o que eu quero, algo inusitado, afinal são azulejos exclusivos e, com certeza, quem fez esse não conseguirá fazer outros, hehe...
Pesquisando na net achei essas idéias:

Trabalho de Chris Lindner

Trabalho de Arnaldo Lopes

A Débora me sugeriu esta matéria que eu adorei! Olha só:
Campeão nos votos (Talma, Keka, Maris e Juliana), um quadro ou painel. Acho que também ficaria legal quadrinhos sobre o fundo de madeira, fato é que o fundo realça os azulejos.

Adorei essa mesa! Dá pra pensar como ficaria a idéia da Cláudia Vargas, com os pés de máquina...
Não consegui fotos de bandeja, como me sugeriu a Hazel, a Cinthya e a Fernanda,nem de um móvel como sugeriu a Rose, mas ainda vou procurar mais um pouco.
Enquanto isso, se alguém tiver mais alguma sugestão... please!
Beijos!

Speaking of time

God my head is tired. I've been doing maths the whole day, and by that I really mean the WHOLE day. However, when I then checked my calender I saw something crazy. Like it for instance that today is exactly the 14th week I've been in Sweden; that it's four weeks to Christmas; that it's only five weeks until this year is over!

A while ago sis and I were talking about time. How fast hours, days, weeks, and even years pass us by, and then she told me something that I never really thought about, but still made so much sense. She told me that time is flying quickly because every week is full of routine, and then when summer arrives, and we are off to Malaysia, time stops for two months. It's like the future doesn't exist. I never worry about the future, about the upcoming days. I often don't even know what day it is! But then when we come back home to Sweden, it's suddenly fall. We get occupied in the routines of school and work, and suddenly it's winter, Christmas, New Year...All equally quick in arriving, and disappearing.

Wow, I just realized how pessimistic I sounded. Haha, that wasn't really my main point, but maybe it will give everyone reading this another view of looking at time. That no matter if you want it or not, time will pass you by and it's up to each person to make the best out of each day. Of course we need routines in our lives, it's good for us, but we should never forget to just live in the moment from time to time. Because that is also good for us, trust me.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm

This game is made by Red Storm Entertainment and is a squad-based FPS, just like Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising (one shot, one kill/death) The game has been released in the year 2004 for the PS2. The version I have also includes Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, so I bought two games in one for a decent price (I think it was €20). The most remarkable thing about the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon games is that they all take place in the future (at release date!). Island Thunder and Jungle Storm both take place in the year 2010 and the game location is Cuba.

Island Thunder: ‘In 2010, Cuba is free, or at least it is supposed to be. Since Fidel Castro’s death in 2006 (Oh, I can still remember that) , the island of Cuba is wary of the communist rule it had been under for nearly 50 years. It is time for the first free and open elections since Carlos Prio Socarras, who was overthrown by Fulgencio Batista in the early 1950s. The FDP (El Frente Democratico del Pueblo or People's Democratic Front) has fronted a man named Priego as their candidate. The FDP are an outspoken anti-American political faction that wishes to return the Cuban working class to power and end capitalist inequalities, or so they claim. Although the FDP publicly denies utilizing violence as a means of coercion, the reality is quite the contrary, as the Ghosts quickly discover the FDP violently attacking election stations. In reality the FDP are a puppet organization run by Colombian drug cartels who wish to take over Cuba to use as a vast drug depot. Its up to the Ghosts to make sure the elections occur and protect the Cuban civilians from the cartel's puppets.’

Jungle Storm: ‘Taking place just after Island Thunder in Bogotá, Colombia, the drug cartel that had aided and financed the FDP in their efforts in Cuba has initiated a number of terrorist attacks against the Colombian government who have allied themselves with the U.S.A. After Colombia's call for help following an attack on a U.S. Embassy, America responds by deploying the Ghosts to restore order and put the cartel out of business.’

In these two games you command five men divided in two or three squads. Squad A always follows you and you’re able to command the other squad to, for example, flank a group of enemies while you suppress those enemies. You can also order them to be offensive, neutral or defensive. On offensive they’ll shoot an enemy on sight and take him out as fast as possible, giving away their location. On neutral they’ll be less aggressive. On defensive they’ll only shoot an enemy when they’re attacked by one.When you die, you’ll take control of one of your remaining men.

You’re also able to play on split-screen. You can play different modes, like mission mode (campaign mode, single-mission), Firefight (kill all the bad guys on the map, density relies of the difficulty you’ve chosen), Defend (the same as Firefight, but you also have to defend a spot marked by smoke), Recon (you have to get from point A to point B) and some competitive modes, Last Man Standing and Sharpshooter (just kill your friend as much as possible, the stupid thing is that you’ll lose no points when you kill yourself, so that means that you’ll choose the rocket launcher as weapon and fire some shots at your friend before you kill yourself).You can play Online too, but when I did that I experienced that a lot of players were cheating (I don’t know how, it was playing on a PS2). But that was a couple of years ago and it’s possible that nobody plays the game any more.

The graphics of this game aren’t that good, especially when you compare the game with other titles released in the same year, like Star Wars: Battlefront, you’ll notice that the PS2 can take better graphics than those of Jungle Storm.

The AI is quite stupid, sometimes they run like roadrunner towards your location before getting shot. But luckily your enemies are aggressive, so that makes up for it.

Despite the complaints I had some fun with this game for a couple of years, playing on my own or with friends. The graphics are very outdated, but the gameplay is ok. You could try this game out when you see it, but you don’t have to, it isn’t that good. Just remember that you’ll get two games for almost nothing!

Video footage is from Island Thunder.

Illusion of expertise is dangerous.

Image is by Tim Heitz. Check his blog out for more excellent art work.

Read a great blog post from Seth's Blog that resonates on many levels. The old saying is "I know just enough to be dangerous".. perhaps that is true and the danger is ever increasing in an age of information.  We must learn to filter and understand who we are and what we know. We need a support community around us made up of experts, service providers, colleagues, and friends. We must use common sense, and not be afraid to ask for help from others. 

Are too many becoming "Amateur Scientists" these days, maybe even a bit of mad scientists? 

MY 2 cents:  You don't have to be an expert. You just have to be "good enough" and maintain the ability to rely on and communicate with real experts. Don't spend so much energy trying to justify(talking to myself here) just state what you think and move on. On the other side, we should spend time thinking about what we think and why.... That perspective is important to our decision processes. It is healthy.

REMEMBER:

Watching Law and Order doesn't make you an expert on justice.
Watching House doesn't make you a medical professional.
Watching Discovery channel doesn't make you a scientist, and watching the History channel doesn't make you a historian.

Best line from Seth's Blog for me

"people have added a veneer of scientific rationality to their irrational decisions. Armed with Zagats or internet data or some rumor off Snopes, we act as though now we're supremely rational choicemakers."

New Moon premiere

Me, Lewar, and Dilan got the best seats out of our little crew of 19 chicks that joined. Thanks girls! :D

Popcorn and cute guys. The evening was great.

Biking home after the movies was probably the most refreshing thing I've done in quite some time. I seriously needed some fresh air from those half hyperventilating moments. Especially that one when Jacob is out in the rain shirtless (like he was almost during the whole movie, but it's not like I complain)...I mean good gracious those abs! We often talk about girls having good bodies but jeez, his "werewolf diet" really worked wonders, and with that short hair added - he was pure eye candy. And Edward wasn't that bad either...The only funny thing though, was that since we all had started to become used to the fact that all the werewolves were running around shirtless with their super trimmed bodies (no one could beat Jacob's though), there of course came the scene when Edward was going shirtless towards the end. Hmm, how should I say this. It was rather interesting compared to Jacob's golden brown six pack (or was it eight!?), haha. But he's cute anyway so it doesn't really matter.

Anyhow, overall New Moon was good. They added some scenes, and of course deleted a lot, but it was still really good no matter what the reviews say. I didn't cry though, but I laughed quite a lot. A part of it was due to the extra jokes they added in. So, I know it was premiere tonight but get you butt up and go and see it soon!

Nordstrom takes a stand

and I LOVE it! How many times have you gone into a store even before Halloween and saw Christmas decortions? I hate that! Yay for Nordstrom!



Bob Out

I've got a golden ticket ;D

I can't believe that it is already November 20 and that I am going to the New Moon premiere tonight! I never became as much of a Twilight freak (like several of my friends), but I can't deny that I am really excited about having one of the golden tickets for tonight. Last week I finally finished the book, and before that, I promised myself not to watch any movie trailer of New Moon. However, now I have and I can just say that I am soooooo looking forward to see Taylor Lautner shirtless longer than 0.5 seconds...and of course i'll join all the other girls when drooling over our favourite vampire...

I'll be back later. Xoxo Sandra girl ;)

Not that he's ugly with clothes on though...;)

The Oprah Winfrey Show is coming to an end

Say it isn't so!!!!!!!!

Tim Bennett, the President of Harpo, accounced the show will end it's run on September 9, 2001. However, there are rumors the show will make the leap from network TV to Oprah's cable channel(OWN).

Oprah will speak to viewers during her show tomorrow. I'm hoping she will continue. What about you?

Bob Out

Plans of getting The Injection

I don't know when, but I've decided to get vaccinated against swine flu even though the risk for me getting it is quite small, considering all the danger I've been put through when the hype was at its peak this summer...The reason for me waiting so long before getting an injection though, is because I've had so much going on in school. I was afraid that I might get affected in some strange way from the vaccine, which would keep me away from my studies...

Anyhow, I am taking it now (or when mami has recovered from her horrible cold since they recommend the whole family to take it at the same time), because even though I think that I won't get the flu, it's good to be absolute sure about it. Also, it's free to get the vaccination here in Sweden since the Government think that we all ought to have it done. So why not?

Hump Day Hunk

Christopher Meloni...

YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I first noticed him on HBO's Oz as Chris Keller. He rocked my planet on that show when he hooked up with a fellow inmate. Their sex scenes were so hot. He just exudes that hot, raw & manly sex appeal. He can be seen each week on the NBC drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit(hehe, I said UNIT).






Enjoy!
You're Welcome
Bob Out