i lost 6 pounds :O

wish you were here

CoH is very nifty. Task forces are very long series of missions ending with a big super villain showdown. I have only finished the easiest of these, and the next one took 4 guys 3 hours to clear 4/5 hideouts of Clockwork. maybe we were doing it wrong, maybe we needed more people, the point is that it's a huge commitment, since you can't quit without starting all over again.

a brief lesson in slang

"shit" vs. "the shit"
shit: not good to a high degree
the shit: good to a high degree

here's an example using two shows on Teletoon;

Megas XLR is the shit
Bromwell High is shit

my thoughts on City of Heroes

in brief: easy to pick up after WoW, servers don't do stupid shit while i'm getting pummeled, but may be lacking in the "neat stuff" department.

Granted, I only have one character at level 12. I hear most of the neat stuff gets unlocked when you've reached certain levels, but i can't imagine anything particularly interesting. other than the peacebringer/warshade freaks that is... in any case, the most i can see you getting is custom titles, power enhancements and costume changes, and in a city full of heroes it just seems kinda inadequate. though those warshades are pretty cool, and i haven't really plunged into the community.

like i said before, I'm looking forward to CoV.

when City of Heroes came out, i was somewhat intrigued. when I asked my friends if they were also intrigued they replied with a "not so much" or something similar. Now that City of Villains has reared itself from the depths, I am doubly intrigued. also, the "collector's edition" was the same price as the standard edition. and it's a whole 5¢ cheaper per month than World of Warcraft. speaking of which, it's been losing it's grip on me lately for whatever reason; guild falling apart, servers falling apart, computer crying every time i step into Orgrimmar... whatever.

I bought The Minish Cap today. the rental was 2 days late...

I still need to register for some more of that thing, uh, what's it called? edikayshin? something like that... and I'm seeing a diet coach or something this afternoon.

not much happening. rented Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. good game, better than the first game thanks to the little things like an improved scan visor. your new beam weapons use ammo, but it's nothing you can't handle unless you completely suck. bought Katamari Damacy. what a zany game. finished Myst IV: Revelations. the acting sucked - even Atrus' performance was shoddy. The game though is still great. I beat Metroid Fusion countless times now. I keep forgetting to print myself a copy of the maps for Fusion and Zero Mission. can't find Wario Ware... hope i didn't leave it somewhere on a job site.

World of Warcraft: I hear good things are being planned for the potentially near future. Also, my alt became my main. Gajing, level 34 troll rogue of Senjin Rebellion in the Sargeras realm. Snowy has been pretty much abandoned, but i might get back to him after the next patch - warriors will gain rage on parries, dodges and blocks. Rogue has become my favourite class in the meantime, so i started a gnome rogue named Skipper... and the realm name escapes me at the moment. (it's Firetree.)

I must sleep, for i have a doctor appointment for which i must catch a bus.

Evil Genius: things to know before you start

Evil Genius is not an amazing game, but it is very nifty. I like to say it's a cross between Dungeon Keeper and The Sims. You must carve a base out of a mountain on and island of indeterminate location. You recruit and train minions who do all the hard work of running an island base; they man the security pannels, staff your hotels, and defend your base, all at the cost of draining the minion's statistics - health, loyalty, smarts, attention, and endurance. Various facilities can be built to regenerate minion statistics, and the many loot items you acquire will help with this. You can't control minions directly, but you can give your henchmen direct orders to kill or capture agents. Use your evil genius avatar to prioritize tasks and execute weak minions to boost the stats of others nearby. Of course, a wide range of traps will be available to do in any pesky agents snooping around your base.

Anyway, there are several good things to know before you start playing that can make your life as an evil genius drastically easier.

1. Easy money. BEFORE you interrogate the maid, and thus complete your first objective, you can send as many minions as you want into a world region without having agents raid your island due to the heat you gain. With this in mind, you could use more minions to do the stealing. At the beginning, the most reliable way to do this is to build more lockers in the barracks; 50 should be enough, but if you seriously want the 100 minion maximum, then you probably need 90. With the minions taken care of, you should size your strong room at about 5x7, with two squares on one side for a security door and a briefcase rack on each side. Why only 5x7? I'll cover that next. Sending 50 minions to a region with a $9 rating (like the Mid-West or Middle East) will net you $20000 per minute, since that is as much as they can give. Now, let the game run while you do something else, like planning the rest of your base, or playing some Halo, or whatever tickles your fancy. It shouldn't take more than a few hours, especially if you send another 40 minions to another region.

2. Do NOT collect more than $10 million. As I read in the EvilPlanet forum, there is a bug that, when you get to your second island and your minions try to put money into your strongroom, suddenly brings your total money to $0 and screws up the interface bar. At that point, you will be 100% screwed - you would not have had time to dig out a new strongroom or control room, and trying to stop your minions from putting that gold into the small strongroom is like trying to hold on to a fish in the air with your feet.

3. Do not steal everything your minions discover on the world domination screen. Having a lot of loot could cause some of it to go missing when you go to the second island. You're better off just stealing a few pieces of loot with research potential *cough*mercury mirror*cough* in adition to the über-loot and the rebuilt totem pole.

4. Finish all the objectives (main and optional) for the first island. they will not be available on the second island. Actually, I'm not sure if the spare über-loot will be unavailable, but it wouldn't hurt to get them sooner than later. unless you've already stolen a lot of loot, and don't want to risk the wrath of my 3rd piece of advice.

5. Keep your notoriety low on the first island. At certain levels of notoriety past 100, the super agents will start hounding you, and they can't be killed until the second island, where their weaknesses will be made known as optional objectives. If you go out and accomplish every act of notoriety as soon as you can, you're going to be up to your genius brain with agent troubles. You will need a total of 200 notoriety to get to the second island, at which point 2 out of 5 super agents will be on to you.

iii'll be gooone for chriistmaaaaaas

going to toronto to see family. gad, it's really been ages since i've seen most of it. i mean, them. i don't really think of them as peons i happen to be related to... hah, hehe, yeah. i'll be there for about a week, and not likely to see much computer time, but I am bringing the PS2, and the GBA of course. mom's bribing me to sing with my aunt's church choir, so i might decide to enjoy myself, hehe. seriously, they probably Need my voice, unless they actually practice singing well, and not just practice yodelling atonally. if it's just a bunch of people who've decided to sing just because 'tis the season, then we're hosed. or I'm hosed, as i'm usually the only one who cares.

chocolate is good. i'm brining some of that. it stays hidden. I might share the almonds. no 4.5kg toblerone, but i did get 2 750g bars.