Is it because it was a “fad” and that it’s no longer popular?

Did blogging get to a stage where everyone was just posting garbage and it was too much trouble to read them all?

Do people not have the time to write (at least) short paragraphs, and are resorting to updating their status on Facebook or Twitter?

Hats off to the few who have persevered, you deserve to be on my blogroll

Of course the biggest thing for me (and probably a lot of my high school friends) is the release of the long-long-long-long awaited TeamFortress 2.

I’ve already clocked up 10 hours of gameplay and have reinstalled mIRC to rejoin #oztf . Quite surprising that some of the regulars remember my nickname. I wonder if I’ll have the time to join a clan and play some matches.

Read on for a few observations about TF2 and how it’s different from TF:

• Biggest change is the removal of gren1 and gren2s from the game. This balances the classes somewhat (to the better I guess) but this really gimps some of the weaker classes (sniper/scout/engineer) because all they have is their gun to defend themselves. While scouts have the new scattergun and the engineer has a shotgun that’s quite reasonable in short range, the sniper is stuck with a pussy nailgun. What this means is, when you miss a shot as a sniper and your enemy sees you, you don’t have much of a chance surviving.
• Medic class has been totally revamped, and so he comes as a true support class (like a priest in WoW) – unlike a priest however, the medic’s DPS is quite weak (the supernailgun from Quake1 is now some pussy syringe launcher). However, medics when paired with soldiers and HWGuys are a force to be reckoned with – and are able to break just about any defence.
• CP maps are now the norm – rather than the exception. I like the 5-point CP maps a lot – especially cp_well. I especially like the attack/defence map setup where one team is dedicated to attack 3 CPs while one team is dedicated to defend them. TC_Hydro I don’t like that much – most of the time it just seems like a DM match in the caves.
• Sentries are now much harder to kill because of the lack of grens. The only viable ways to kill a sentry now is:
  • Snipe it (rare as a sniper would hardly get anywhere near the enemy base without getting fried).
  • Rocket it (also quite difficult because it takes quite a bit of time via strafing in and out of the sentry’s line of sight. During this time more likely than not an enemy demoman/soldier comes your way and disrupts your sentry-killing by killing you instead)
  • Sap it with a spy (most common).
• Because of teleporters, there’s a tendency for clever engineers to build sentries inside the enemy base (I’ve also played a game where sentries from my team were being set up in the enemy flag room). Having teleporters enable the engineers to resupply very quickly, and allows the sentry to play both the role of attack (by supporting scouts who run into the flag room) and also defence (by stopping enemies from capping their flag) at the same time. While I made at least 3 scout runs as a result of this defensive/offensive setup – I didn’t find it fun at all. The concept of base defence gets thrown out the window when we have engineers setting up shop in enemy’s bases and all the non-engineers spend their time beating down those enemy sentries in their base rather than helping out their own engineer.

Enough for now. Now because of this stupid game I’m thinking of upgrading my computer again.

Some guy sees an unknown person in your basement at night. Instead of confirming their identity, he (a trained cop) decides to shoot first and ask questions later. Nice move!

Considering that they also invented the FPS genre of gaming, it’s hardly surprising.

Here’s a list of games that I’ve tried out:

• Warioware: Smooth Moves
• Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2
• Naruto
• Super Monkey Ball
• Super Paper Mario
• Trauma Center: Second Opinion

I’ve found Trauma Center to be lots of fun, but I’m stuck on the same level as on the DS version.
Warioware was lots of fun but I finished it a bit too quickly, but this will be great as a party game.
Dragon Ball Z was just too hard to play. It’s actually more like Virtua On or Gundam than a normal fighting game. Maybe I just need to spend more time on it.
Naruto is fun only because I’m a fanboy, but it’s not technically very advanced. The controls are generic – all the characters are essentially identical in usage, except that the jutsus that they perform. The game is graphically amazing. The Naruto animators manage to use cell shading to its maximum potential (much like the anime).
I only had a brief session with Super Monkey Ball, and I only played a few of the mini games. Some of the games are really fun, but then some are totally “wtf?”.
Super Paper Mario is kinda fun too, but it’s too slow paced for me, because it plays kinda like an RPG. And the story element is just plain silly (which is to be expected I guess).

Here’s a list of games that I have but haven’t tried out yet:

• Bleach
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight princess
• Metal Slug Anthology
• Need for Speed: Carbon
• Pokemon Battle Revolution

Here are the games that I’m still downloading:

• Red Steel
• Super Bombermanland

It’s a good read if you’re interested in probability, maths, strategy and Monopoly.

Taken from http://www.fact-index.com/y/yo/you_have_two_cows.html

Bureaucracy: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. After that it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

Communism: You have two cows. Your neighbours help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

Communism — North Korean: You have two cows. The government takes you and the cows hostage, guzzles both of them and nearly starves you, and then offers the world not to nuke it if the international community provides aid.

Democracy: You have two cows. Your neighbours decide who gets the milk.

Fascism: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk.

Fundamentalism: You have two cows. The government kills you for owning cows, confiscates your cows, and then kills everyone who suggests that the government should be killed for owning cows.

Marxism/Leninism: The proletarian cows unite and overthrow the bourgeoisie cow-herds. The egalitarian democratic cow revolutionary state with the cow party as vanguard disintegrates over time. Marx choked on a veggie-burger before he could explain what happens to the use-value, exchange-value and sign-value of bovine leather.

Socialism: You have two cows. The government takes one of them and gives it to your neighbour.