Portfolio

I haven’t blogged in over two months. But I haven’t had much to say. I haven’t been doing nothing though. I was building a portfolio. As in: I have created a logo that will actually be published. I made the Walla Walla Balloon Stampede Niteglow Show 2007 (Sponsored by Wildhorse Resort and Casino) Logo.

For the geeks out there: I created it using only Inkscape and Paint.NET.

After the unveil later this month I’ll put it up and write a detailed post on the process I went through to create it.

By the way: buy the shirts!

Idol

I first watched American Idol a couple of years ago. Since that time, I’ve rarely missed an episode when I’ve been able to watch it (a lot of things interefere with my watching the show). So, as you might imagine, I’m excited about tonight’s start of American Idol Season 6. I’m not going to blog about it here. To get my opinion visit my americanidol.com blog (or click the headlines at the bottom of my sidebar).

Pullin’ a Late Nighter

Right now I’m working on my big paper that’s due tomorrow. Boy, it sure is fun putting things off until the last minute.
My advise: don’t wait ’till the last second. It cause nothing but pain and lack of sleep.

Dungeon Runners

I waited all day Monday to get into the beta, but I finally got my invite, and it was worth it. I first found out about this game at one of my favorite web comics, Ctrl+Alt+Del. Once I read Absath’s review, located here, I thought “Hmm. I don’t really like MMORPGs, but this one sounds fun. And it is.
Even though my computer is sufficiently sucky to not run it fast at all (though I’ve heard it might also be lag) the little I’ve played is very fun (It would be funner if I had a computer that could run games, the system requirements don’t seem that high). Basically, you just kill stuff and pick up what they drop. It is mostly single player: the only multi-player things I’ve seen are chat and groups, but that doesn’t bother me. For tough groups of enemies, you can get in a group, or you can just chat with your friends who are playing the game too.
You start out in Dew Valley, the n00b area. In the Dew Valley Forest, you can kill some ugly rats and some less-ugly-but-more-dangerous wolves and wolf cubs. I’m still in n00bville (I’m VillageIdiot, a Level 5 fighter).
There are three classes: Fighter, Ranger, Mage. From what I have read, all items and skills can be used by all classes, but some items are best wielded by a particular class. Also, the game is definately boosted by the price: download and play. No money. $0. Not even a credit card is needed. That’s my kind of price (though you can subscribe and get an expanded inventory and ability to use certain items, and stack all potions).
That leads me to my biggest complaint about the game: the inventory. You have a limited amount of space to store all items you are not using. Sure, you can sell unused items, but I like hording things. But I can’t. I’m already almost out of space.
The strong point of the game: humor. The weapons and armor all have totally ridiculous, but fun, names. For example: one of the rings I’m wearing is called the “Designer Decoder Ring of the Llamma.” The NPCs also have personality with their awesome voice acting. The merchant is disgruntled, some “Dungeon Runners” waiting in a line all have different personalities: one’s a girl, one’s just there, and the middle one is “traditional nerd.” It’s just got a completely fun and light tone. You’re not there to save the world from a deadly something or other, you’re there to beat up creatures and steal their stuff! Also, apparently I was raised by a “semi-domesticated pack of kangaroos” (from the Quickstart guide on the website).
All in all, if the game would simply run at a decent speed for me (I have onboard graphics, so everything’s slow. Don’t ridicule me, it’s a family computer, not my own), I would be playing it right now. My time waster: thy name is Dungeon Runners.

Dungeon Runners is currently in Open, but invite only, Beta. Find out more about the game at dungeonrunners.com.

Heroes

Heroes is a really great show. I’ve been watching since the premier and I just can’t stop! However, last night’s episode kind of ruined itself for me. It was a great episode, but the violence was extremely graphic. Like, really REALLY intense. Yet they didn’t even have a “Viewer Discretion Advised” warning. They really should have had one. Just to put my 2 cents in.

Albatross18

So… you’re thinking “I have nothing to do this weekend because Labor Day weekend was last week. Now there is nothing to do at all!” Wrong. You can go golfing. I know, you’re saying “Golfing? No thank you. I’ll just play some solitare or something. Something indoors,” but you didn’t let me finish. Online golfing. Massive multiplayer online golfing. Trust me, it’s fun.

All you have to do is sign up, download the program, and join in the fun! So what makes it so great? First there are the graphics. They aren’t super great, but they are in cartoon (anime) style and aren’t super great so the game runs on even lame computers. Second, the play. The gameplay is about as fast paced as golf can get and makes it fairly fun. Third, the money. You can buy stuff in game with the money you earn from making good shots (though the best stuff requires their “equates to real life $$” currency).

I’m not going to tell you how to play, because there is an in game tutorial to do that. Big note here: you really should do the tutorial, because  you’ll get a free golf caddie in game if you complete it entirely.

Personally, I really like doing a quick game now and then. It’s kind of relaxing. So go ahead and click below to sign up. They haven’t spammed me yet, so don’t worry about it. (They do send a newsletter, but that’s less than one email a month.)

Create an Albatross18 account

Note/Disclaimer: This is an affiliate link. I don’t get paid to put anything in this blog. I just link to stuff I like. What I do get from this link is a little in-game currency. However, if you use this link, I will be able to add you to my in-game friend list.

Weekend Fun Coming Tomorrow!

Sorry about the lack of promised posts. School kink of snuck up on me and then proceeded to hit me over the head. Hard. So tomorrow I’ll be writing one of the posts I wanted to write last week. It’s going to suck away your weekend, so be prepared to clear your schedule. Also, hope you have enjoyed KoL! (If you followed my advice last post.)

Kingdom of Loathing

Like RPGs? Like games that are easy to play but really hard to master? Like not having to download anything, or use any browser plug-ins? Then Kingdom of Loathing is the game for you.

First off, Kingdom of Loathing, or KoL as it’s players commonly call it, is easy to start playing. All you have to do is type www.kingdomofloathing.com into your browser and away you go (or you could just click that link). Then just click the “Create an Account” link and fill out the form. Nothing personal, just a user name, password, and email. Oh, and you have to choose a character class to start off with. Before you learn of the character classes though, you need to learn of the stat system, which will be discussed after the break.

It Beginneth

Audible sigh. School begins on Wednesday. Today I (started) cleaning my room. I just don’t have anything cool to write about today (mainly because I don’t have the time). However, tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday I’ve got things lined up. I just have to sit down and type. Friday is the Fair, so I’ll be having way too much fun to blog anything.

Back to School: My Sountrack

At (ir)regular times, namely, when I have gotten enough new music, I burn myself a new CD. I haven’t done one since January, so I figured “Ahh! I need a new, great CD to listen to on the first day of school!” So I put together one without much trouble. There’s been some good music added to my collection this year. So here’s my Back to School Soundtrack. [Format: Song - Artist (Album, if any)]

UCD5: You Crazy Seniors!

1. Don’t Download This Song – Weird Al Yankovic (Straight Outta Lynwood)
2. How To Save A Life – The Fray (How To Save A Life)
3. Hung Up On Soul (Minus Maddy Edit) – Death Cab for Maddy*
4. Star Wars Gangsta Rap – Bentframe
5. Cosmopolitan – Nine Black Alps (Everything Is)
6. Million Tears – Groove Coverage (Greatest Hits)
7. Everytime We Touch – Cascada (Everytime We Touch)
8. Computer Talk – Kraftwerk vs. Coldplay*
9. Fix You – Coldplay (X&Y)
10. Vienna – The Fray (How To Save A Life)
11. Lonely Train – Black Stone Cherry (Black Stone Cherry)
12. Dimension – Wolfmother (Dimensions – EP)
13. Are You With Me? – Vaux (Beyond Virtue, Beyond Vice)
14. Contagious (alt) – Granian (Alternate Mixes)
15. You’re Beautiful – James Blunt (Back to Bedlam)
16. Miracle – Cascada (Everytime We Touch)
17. Super Smash Bros. Brawl Main Theme – Nintendo
18. Till Kingdom Come – Coldplay (X&Y)
19. Code Monkey – Jonathan Coulton
20. Dynomite (Going Postal) – Rhymefest (Dynomite (Going Postal) – Single)
21. Mama’s Room – Under the Influence of Giants (Heaven Is Full EP)

* Both these artists are names used by Party Ben for the purpose of these songs only.

To find out more about these songs and how I got ahold of them, as well as the CD and how I named it, check out the page on Life, the Universe, and Nothing. I’ll also post the same details on my Last.fm journal this weekend.

Cross posted to my Last.fm Journal. Post is located here.