grimwald_viking

That is all

After a bit of banter between a colleague of mine at work the other day, she threw down the gauntlet and challenged me to fast for one day, as she is currently observing Ramadan. She came back later and we both said at the same time, "One day wont prove anything."

So as of Monday Morning from 3am, I am observing Ramadan until Friday 9pm(ish).

No drinking (even water), no food, no cigarettes, and no sex until the sun goes down.

Also, no swearing, no backbiting and no speaking evil of others.

The only part I have been let off of doing is praying five times a day to God.

So here I am enjoying my second last evening meal I can eat before sun-down.

On Monday morning I am going to get up at 3am, eat, then go the hell back to bed until 7am.

If I fail, for every day I screw up, I donate £5 (about $10) to a charity of her choice. She will match this amount ( I presume for each day I succeed. )

Another Muslim colleague of mine, a more strict follower of his faith, has said I should not see it as simply not eating and drinking but to see it as a way of challenging myself mentally and to experience the whole thing and not see it as merely fasting.

I agree, so I will actually do this properly.

This might be interesting in a way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan

Note to Self, when I can eat:

8 8 Mon 2:51 5:33 1:07 5:13 8:40 11:21
9 9 Tue 2:55 5:35 1:07 5:12 8:39 11:17
10 10 Wed 2:58 5:37 1:07 5:11 8:37 11:13
11 11 Thu 3:02 5:38 1:07 5:10 8:35 11:09
12 12 Fri 3:06 5:40 1:07 5:09 8:33 11:05

So a Yiddish newspaper servicing the orthodox jewish reader publishes a picture from the raid that killed Bin Landen and edits out the women in the picture, including Hilary Clinton.

They apologise and say that it is in keeping with the orthodox laws on modesty and as such they do not publish pictures of women.

THe newspaper however has a large write up where Mrs Clinton is featured and praised heavily.


So? What really is the big deal?

However, surprise surprise, some people are getting their red,white and blue knickers in a twist and calling the newspaper to be shut down, sexist etc etc etc.

In this new state of moderation and freedom and equality for all in the west, I slowly think some of us our becoming exteremists for our cause. So drowned by moderation and liberty that they cannot see past their own view point into others and are slowly becoming as rabidly militant as the man who was just killed in Pakistan.

The only difference is that in the western anglohphone countries, our view is the majority.

Link

A long time ago in a galaxy all too familiar, a gentleman now lost to us wrote some books. Now while Harry Potter might have outsold him and the bible, the bible and this man's books had a much larger effect than some snot nosed kid with a bad lightning stipe tattoo on his head ever will.

In this instance I am not talking about Jesus, god forbid. I am talking about J R R Tolkein, a man who wrote such intricate and deep books that to be honest very few who bought the Hobbit and the three Lord of the Rings books ever finished them ( including myself ).

In a lot of ways J R R Tokein is alot like Shakespeare, everyone rattles on about how great they were but can be damned if they have read their books/scripts or even understood what on earth was going on ( in Shakespeare's case )

The Lord of the Rings is widely heralded in the geek communities as the set of books that kick-started the RPG movement and on the face of it this can largely be seen as many people in modern MMORPGs are still using the over-used names of Gandalf14, Legolassss1 and Aragorrnn9276.

There were undoubtably people who wished to sink themselves into the immersive world of fantasy but I think it is fair to say that until Tolkein dropped the Lord of the Rings on us, it was never quite so huge.

After this a bunch of forgotten pen and paper games were created but it wasn't until one Gary Gygax sat down and started to play the early version of the world of Dragonlance in his basement with his friends that the big name in Pen and Paper gaming was released; Dungeons and Dragons. Despite now being owned by the twin evil empire that is Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro, it insipire such wonder ( and hatred from conservative Americans ) that it kick fired god knows how many games.

At this time university students everywhere were hacking their educational establishments servers and coded up some now very lost RPGs for the students to waste their valuable study time on.

The first incarnation of the Computer Roleplaying Game ( cRPG ) looked alot like this:

Confused? Yeah I was too...

That is a screenshot from the now reasonably popular but generally unheard of Nethack.

Anyway to be brutally honest I didnt get into these much because I was like eight at the time and the interface scared me away and it is still something I can't get my head around, it bores me to death. But anyway.

It wasn't up until 1998 that cRPGs got my attention and many many other people with the release of Baldur's Gate. Which still inspires either awe and joy or confusion and tantrums depending on whether the concept of Str,Dex,Con,Wis,Int,Cha sank in or not. Really the game should have been released with a slimmed down paperback of the ADnD 2nd Ed Players Hand Book to make any sense at all.

The good thing about Baldur's Gate (BG) was that it was highly immersive and you didn't need to follow the plot like a donkey with a carrot, because honestly the game let you go anywhere ( and die horribly )

For example the most frustrating aspect was the totally unwinnable encounters for your two character part straight out of Candlekeep when all you heard was

"I kicked him in the head til he was dead, hahaha."

Those words still make me shudder every time they are mentioned and you'd be surprised how often you hear that in Bedford.

BE IMMERSED. TEEEXXXXTTTT!

I honestly had BG on my desk for, ooooh five years before I completed it, because it wasn't until I was 18 that DnD was explained to me. It is a wonderful game, despite the games slight devotion to killing you and really badly trying to bury you at the side of some crossroads, so that your soul cannot escape.

But it was since I completed that game that I fell in love with RPGs and DnD and now have a rather strict list of likes and hates (yes HATES) about RPGs and this is why I am writing this, because I can rarely find an immersive game I want to play.

In the same vein was Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind Dale 1 & 2 and Planescape Torment ( not in any order at all )

I must note that after the first release of Baldur's Gate 2 that Bioware got their own hands deeper in the pie than they should have and released an awful expansion for it called "Throne of Bhall"

Let me just take a moment to address Bioware directly.

"What were you thinking? Really? Bad Bioware, BAD!"

While I was busy saving the Forgotton Words from Sarevok and the Bhall Spawn, I was also being a very lovely person in one of the first mainstream Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games ( MMORPGs) Ultima Online. I wont go into any great detail into the MMORPG area, as I want to focus on RPGs here.

In the end alot of games have come out with "RPG" in their description and while many of them are isometric, top down, spell-fests, that really shouldn't classify them as an "RPG".

My main argument for that is because in general you are not playing any more of a Role than being Gordon Freeman in Half-Life and that is not billed as an FPSRPG, its just an FPS and just because you are playing Lady Miniskirt who can cast fireballs while you perve at her cleavage from a top-down isometric view does not make it an RPG.

Skipping head a few years and the next RPG I actually liked was Dragon Age Origins, mostly because it seemed to follow the Western RPG style and I could make a character and not play Capt. Pointhair-Angsty-Child-With-An-Overgrown-Sword. I'M LOOKING AT YOU CLOUD! ( God I hated Final Fantasy )

I think the main problem with the modern RPG market is quite simple in all honest, it tries too hard.

An RPG cannot be all things to all people, yet it tries. It desparetly tries to put down an immersive story-line, backed up with side quests a-plenty, great graphics and the ever great folly of a "living breathing world." Where you can explore and kill whoever you want, etc etc.

An immersive story-line immediately rubs out any hope of a sandbox atmosphere, because the ability to stop trying to save the princess who is about to be brutally slaughtered in five minutes, to pick daisies for that strange old women who is depicted in game as a young brunette who is also blind and unable to find her walking stick is just.............. DUMB.

And if they attempt to have both a deep story line and a sandboxy atmosphere then the only thing that could save it, the side quests are next on the shit list. They turn into "GATHER ME 10 PIG WHISKERS". Which always leaves me feeling a bit, "Oh, I didn't realise I was playing Warcraft..."

And lastly whenever an RPG says "AMAZING GRAPHICS THAT MAKES YOU FEEL YOU CAN MAKE LOVE WITH THE FEMALE CHARACTER WHO SHOWS NO INTEREST IN YOU UNTIL THE LAST CHAPTER" I immediately go, "Uh Oh" because the team has spent too long rendering boobies that they forget other minor details, like pathing, collision, defusing spell effects and graphical glitches.

In short a single-player RPG is simple, the developers tell a story or create a world of their imagination, it should never be a corporate decision, where the characters are seemingly auto-insertions of the developers. (Richard Garriott).

Oh and as for helpful Exclamation Marks over peoples heads, CUT IT OUT, I AM NOT PLAYING AN MMO! Seriouslly nothing puts me off more than being guided from quest to quest by people with exclamation marks attacked to their head by an ever bobbing spring.

Time to play Fable.... I hope it too does not incur my wrath.

List of things I have so far replaced/tuned/fixed on the bike.

Throttle Cable
Replaced Battery ( added Battery Acid by hand...... )
Fuel Filter
Air Filter
Spark Plugs
Oil Filter
Complete Oil Change
Adjusted Clutch Handle

She runs nicely now!

Google your answers, take the picture from the first page only!

I will try to make these somewhat entertaining.

( Super Hot Cut Action )

I have played MMORPGs pretty much every year, with perhaps the occasional 4-6 month break since 2000. Since I was 15. It all started way back when the MMORPG scene was player by a small amount of European players, a good amount of Americans and a lot of Koreans and Japanese players, playing games that never really crossed over to the west. I played Ultima Online, arguably the first big graphical MMORPG, it came out a year or so before EverQuest. I picked it up for £1.99 from Electronics Beautique before they were eaten up by Game. This is the game I have had the longest concurrent subscription to, hell, its still running today, despite the fact I rarely ever play it, my account if active to keep my house standing.

Since then I have worked out I have played or trialed and left some 40 or so MMOs, including World of Warcraft, Anarchy Online, Dark Age of Camelot, EQ ( both of them ), Saga of Ryzom, EvE Online, City of Heroes/Villians, Star Wars Galaxies, Age of Conan, Fallen Earth annnnnnnnnnnnd Star Trek Online. It is fair to say I have seen, or atleast I think I have seen, pretty much what the industry can make and do and I'll admit, this is rather depressing.

( HUUUUUGE POST )

In many respects I do not wish to write this post. Mostly because it is admitting my own weaknesses and what have you, but I really aught to as it atleast counter-acts one of the problems I have with myself and that I guess is how harsh a judge I am, even towards myself.

This all started a couple of days ago when I considered regrets, now usually I am the type who quite happily blurt out "I have no regrets." Then move to another subject and forget about it, but actually I do, I have one regret, that really was not in and never could have been in my control. I was leaving someone, well not exactly leaving as escaping. Running the holy fuck away because she was a mentally unstable and on the boundaries of becoming rather deranged. When I left I packed everything into my car, and hammered it down to Leicester a nice and safe 35 miles away. My regret is that I couldn't of taken her dog with me. I would of, if I wasn't moving into a house with kids, as he would maul them as he was... nuts.... Lovely dog... Just mad as a hatter.

As is it happens I visited her once a couple of months later and he had put on fuck-tonnes of weight as she wasn't taking him out for walks, a quick walk down to the nearest tree and back again, as she was a lazy bitch and as she was now scared of controlling him and he was a rather powerful German Shepherd. That is my regret, my one regret, that I couldn't of given that dog a better life that that, in a flat on the 7th floor, that was never washed, cleaned or anything. I mean worthly of being on Grime-busters bad. Eugh.

Which brought me onto thinking about weakness, I have these police forms I need to complete, however I have not done them, because I can always find something better to do. Which results in me sitting on my fattening ass playing MMOs because "I did x, so I can do y" mentality. Which really doesn't work, in as much as the "I worked hard at work this weekend, so I deserve to do bugger all" Which is an equally as fucking idiotic mentallity to be in.

Idle hands makes the devil's playground. I thought it was just some vauge and crappy christian thought plan, but it is true. Sloth is a deadly sin, because fuck all gets done and you end up sitting on your ass playing world of warcraft until fuck knows at night and you go to work the next day feeling like your pulling two jobs. You moron.

my lazyness and procrastination is causing me to get fat, so yeah, im turning into one of those fat failures who judge people like they are a fucking god with a button that kills people who displease them. Guh...

I mean I have a sort of mentality where someone should always be what they aim to be and I'm failing, I've always been a self-styled, for the lack of a better term, viking. Outgoing (oh shi- I dont do that much these days ), well-learned ( I don't read much anymore, but my knowledge on what I know is great, its the things I don't know that I am not addressing ) and physically capable. (I'm strong, can certainly handle myself in a fight, know how to use weapons etc etc. I however am getting fat and unfit. )

I've got a cheque I need to send in to pay my Viking auxilliary fees, or I will get kicked out. Why I have done this I don't know but hey.

Hell I havn't even been to training in over a year for that, money is my excuse, but motivation and lethargy are the real reason I fear.

Don't get me wrong, I know this is harsh, probably too harsh, but I need this out here because its part one of me sorting this shit out and getting back on track.

Please feel free to comment with opinions suggestions and what not.

Cheers

Grim

I am sure some of you have seen this:
http://community.livejournal.com/tothehometree/

Essentially this is a community of people who believe that while their bodies are human, their spirit really is Na'vi.

Which is a character from the movie Avatar, y'know that film that was released rather recently.

Granted, I should not mock people for their um... beliefs...

But hell. I just can't get my head around this. If they all spelt like 12 year old drop outs from a state school. I'd get it. But these people actually seem to have a grain of intelligence. Granted very little Wisdom and restraint. But they seem to have put some serious thought into this.

Granted, I felt that furry totemists were a bit odd, and those who believe they are really dragons were just completely barmy, but these people think they have the spirits of movie characters.

So far, I am so very confused. But hey, they aint harming anyone, they arn't going around trying to purge the world of non-Nav'ists.

Then this fuck-wank strolls onto the scene and like some strange horrendous, yet comical human mistake he regrettably puts finger to keyboard to pen these gems.

http://nadl-org.livejournal.com/

"Dragoneer, the apparent godfather of the furry porn industry, has also created trouble for my Sisters. The furries even come on our home turf to disrespect us. People who have furaffinity accounts and roleplay animals have no moral basis to criticize us. Their animism tradition extends only as far as their computers."

"So there's this one poster who's all over me like a Nazi on a Slav already"

"Using sexuality as a tool to degrade minorities has a historical pattern. It's another way to dehumanize a race and erode our healthy pride through toxic shame."


There are other quotes by him, under a different user name, quickly equating the mocking of what is frankly a rather groundless belief, more so than any other, to Nazi's, German's and the holocaust. I mean, he flat out broke Godwin's law, turned it inside out and shagged it like it was hot.

He has now declared all Furries as his "race's" enemy, which is amusing and partly the furries fault in a big way. The fandom as such should know better as we can not be seen as white knights, more a rag-tag-band of brigands and outlaws. We have our zoos and beastophiles, pedophiles and cub-lovers. We are as white as soiled underwear, heavily soiled. Yet in we charge, roflstomping them, for god knows what reason really.

That said this prune has outright stated he would "die for his cause".

I am kind of torn in three regarding this, one to just leave it the hell alone, two try and form an intellectual discussion to debunk this, but risk looking a right fool if he is just a troll to which my troll sense do tingle or just flat out troll is ass for great justice.

Frankly as an individual, fur fandom aside, I find this whole thing very rediculous and slightly demeaning to those with more grounded beliefs, this sort of events allows scepitical thinkers to draw rather unfortunate parallels with other faiths and thought.

Ehh I dunno.

I linked it, troll it if you want, but I didn't send you :P