Storm’s Aeon of Strife

Hello everyone!  Storm is here again with some WarCraft III content!

I recently uploaded my map Storm’s Aos ver .99c to the website war3.incgamers.com .  As of this posting, it is still in pending status.  I suspect you will see it up soon so look for newly added maps if you want to check it out.

It is an Aeon of Strife map, which predates DotA maps which are very popular right now.  Too popular if you ask me.  Which is why I made this map.  It consists of two computer controlled towns, one for each team.  Units belonging to the computer are spawned at regular intervals and attack the enemy base.  The player’s job is to defend their own base while trying to destroy the enemy’s.  At the beginning of the map you have only one unit, a Soul.  You place your Soul on the circle of power that is in front of the hero you wish to control.   That hero will be spawned into the play area and you can begin immediately.  It may be a good idea to talk to your team mates ahead of time about hero selection, because only one of each hero can be present on each team.

There are a multitude of items to purchase, mostly non-custom.  The essential item would be the Staff of Teleportation, as it will save your life many times.  There are an infinite number of respawns, but the higher your level the longer it takes before you respawn, so it might be a good idea to grab an Ankh of Reincarnation for you high-level folks.  Also, the bounty awarded for killing a hero increases with each level.

I would upload it here, but I want to have all the downloads tracked in one place.  If you download it, please leave feedback.  I am also looking for feature suggestions for future versions of the map.  Currently I am trying to make sure there is nothing wrong with it, hence version .99c.

Surviving the 24th Century

Here is a little thing my brother put together for a class, don’t know what its about.  What I do know is that its hilarious.  Now that I think about it, this probably has to do with Fahrenheit 451.

How to Survive in the 24th Century: A Simple Guide for the Simple Man

1. Don’t Read.  Ever.

This has become Federal Law for a reason, trust me its a good one.  Nobody needs to read because nobody needs to be offended.

2. Learn to Drive Very Fast.

People nowadays don’t care about your safety.  Going to hit that dog?  Go for it, decause the guy behind you will push that pedal through the floor if you don’t.

3.  Learn to Love Fire.

Fire is the all-cleansing force that purifies all of society’s ills and shortcomings in little to no time.  It’ll burn away the ammunition for those stuck-up book readers.

4.  Don’t Ever Question Things.

You probably won’t understand anything too complicated about the world, so don’t try.  Trying to measure the world and reason it out is just a bad idea.

5.  Thinking Less = Having More Fun.

As stated above, don’t try to measure or reason out the world.  You’ll have more fun that way.  It doesn’t matter what’s going on in front of you, just so long as you get a bit of a tic when it happens.

6.  Knowledge is for Losers.

The more you know about the world, the uglier it seems to be.  Only idiots will try to learn anything more complicated than setting up a television.

7.  Learn to Love Sensory Information.

Just because it doesn’t have real meaning doesn’t mean you shouldn’t love it.  Who needs to be deep when you get a jolt of pleasure from what you are doing?

8.  The Government is Always Right.

Like I said before, don’t question anything, and it goes double for the government.  They always do the right thing in the right way, so what does it matter?

9.  Don’t Offend People.

Even if you have to be dull as a rock, its much better not to offend people.  Its much better to be the one everyone likes than to be interesting or unique.

10.  Always get to the Point.

Who wants to waste twenty minutes of their life listening to you drabble on about details?  No one cares about the who and how, just the what.  Its the end of the journey that counts, not the journey itself!

11.  Never Stand Idle.

Even if it is completely pointless, always be doing something.  Work with your hands, feet, anything but your mind.  Who cares about down time?  What would you need it for anyway?  Certainly not reading!

Obviously satire, and pretty funny if you ask me.

SG:Universe Teaser Trailer

Gateworld has a teaser trailer for the new Stargate Universe series. It appeared alongside the series finale of BSG on the British channel SkyOne.

Here is the link: Teaser Trailer.

From this, it appears to have more than a hint of BSG in it.

New Blood

So I’ve added two new people to the blog. Hopefully this means that posts will be made more often. No guarantees however, these people are almost as lazy and unmotivated as I am, which is quite a feat.

I trust that any of you who have been here more than once will treat these new bloods with the respect they deserve, which is none. Kidding! Anyway, that is all.

Storm Has Been Turned

That’s right, I have been converted.  I just installed FireFox 3 last night and I’m not turning back.  What made me turn after so many years of using IE?  Java source files.  IE can’t open a java file into the browser, FireFox can.

FireFox also has a more intuitive address bar-browsing history relationship.  It also runs alittle faster.  But it was the Java thing that broke the camel’s back.  I’ve also fallen in love with that download manager.  No more having my task bar cluttered with individual dl managers, a la IE.

Thats all, have fun everyone.

Rock the Pebble

So I read a really good book last week called “Pebble in the Sky” by Isaac Asimov.  I am a big fan of old Isaac’s work, and this is one of his best.  It takes place during the early years of the Galactic Empire of Trantor.  To be precise its in the late 9th century of the Galactic Era.  A retired tailor living in Chicago in 1949 finds himself transported, midstep, over 50,000 years into the future.  That part was a huge suprise to me, because I thought the Empire formed 8,000 years in the future.

I’ve always found Isaac to tend toward the logical more than the fanciful, so I was curious how he would move a man into the future.  I was not dissapointed.  Its one of the best books by Isaac i’ve ever read.  However, its characters do tend to make big leaps in logic that stretch belief, but that is what people tend to do in extraordinary circumstances and with limited or false information.  The instances of this are far more tolerable than in “Second Foundation” and “Foundation’s Edge” where the characters are pulling plots and schemes out of there asses.

I came away thinking it would make an excellant movie, and inwardly prayed that Shia Labeuf and Will Smith would never come near it if it came true.  I’m just plain sick of Shia and Will Smith has ruined enough sci-fi classics (I, Robot: another work of Isaac’s, and I am Legend).

Casting Call for SG: Universe

There are rumors going around for the casting information for the series regulars of Stargate Universe.  Some of the seem okay, but I fear the kind of character development that would revolve around such characters.

In interviews TPTB said they were looking to fill the void left behind by BSG.  I didn’t like BSG that much, so hopefully Universe is more like stargate than bsg.

Go to Gateworld for the full story.

The BunnyGate

So I watched “The House Bunny” a couple hours ago.  I liked it.  Some of the characters are painfully dorky/irritating (the President of the Zeta House, for instance).  But overall it was a good, funny movie.  I recommend it.  Fun fact: Real Playboy Bunnies were used in the movie.  Some that I noticed were Hiromi Oshima and Sarah Jean Underwood.  Both uber-hotties.  I actually have the issue with Hiromi in it, I got it because Denise Richards was in it… or was it Charisma Carpenter?  Hmm…  Anyway, Mrs. Oshima was a bonus.

You may have noticed I recommend damn near every movie I see, thats because I don’t watch shitty movies.  Just so you don’t think I lack discerning tastes.

You may have noticed the “Gate” in the title.  Yes, I have some Stargate news.  First, if you don’t know already, Atlantis will be canceled.  Thats right, Season Five will be the last.  However, TV movies/DVDs are planned and the first has already been greenlit.  Also, Stargate Universe will begin filming in February of 09 for a planned premiere that summer.  Thirdly, there is some photography on the new villains being introduced in the episode “First Contact” that airs Sept 29th.

You can find more information on all three of these at GateWorld.net.

Holy Moly

Jumpin’ fuzzy lizards, its been a long time since I’ve posted.  Don’t have much to report.  Don’t think i’ve been to any movies I haven’t told you about…  Except TDK, but you all know about that already I’m sure, lol.  In case you don’t, it was awesome and you should have seen it.

I’m going to try to see “The House Bunny” on Friday, but no guarantees.  It looks pretty funny, and I’m up for anything Playboy.  Except the “Playboy Video” stuff.  Thats no good.  Bad music, funny angles, bad camera-work.  The photographers and models are top-rate, but the video is terrible.

Anyway.  Oh wait… I saw Mummy 3 aswell.  It was little different from the first two.  Typically “bad” 90’s movie stuff.  But if you liked the first two (I did) you’ll probably like this one.  Although it still pisses me off that Rachel Weisz didn’t play Eve again.  Its worth the matinee, thats for sure.

This month’s issue of Maxim, which should be on stands for another week, had an interesting article on Rhino Poaching.  It seems that India has a resident bad-ass who has no qualms over killing poachers in a most brutal fashion.  Anna Kournikova (she’s on the cover) looks better than ever in this one.  And as usual, it featured a couple of women that Maxim decided to call up-and-comers, even though I’ve never heard of the actresses or the movies/shows they are supposedly in.  Which is par for the course I guess

There is also a big feature on the upcoming football season.  Its like 30 pages.  Football fans should check it out.

That’s all folks.

Hellboy, Atlantis, Superman, and Batman

Some more reviews for you guys (and gals).

Hellboy II: The Golden Army:

I liked this one.  Lots of action, alittle bit of drama (the good kind), and plenty of humor to break it up.  Some of the events in the plot are predictable, but it isn’t to bad.  I don’t know who played the elf princess, whose name I cannot spell, but I get the sneaking suspicion that there is a hottie underneath the make-up and prosthetics.  Selma Blair wasn’t to bad herself.  Somehow Pyrokinetic chicks with a temper seem sexy to me…  It definetly makes up for that terrible haircut.  Anywho, if you liked the first one go see it, because this one is better.

Stargate Atlantis: Episode 5:01: “Search and Rescue”

The Season 5 premier of Stargate Atlantis was last Friday, and was entitled “Search and Rescue.”  Not the most creative of titles, but it fits the bill.  It was a good start for the season, and its Nielson rating (number of people who tuned in) was higher than Season 4’s premier, according to GateWorld.  Hopefully Atlantis continues to get higher ratings, if they start dropping again it may be the beginning of the end for the Stargate Franchise.  It was a good episode, one event was slightly predictable, but over all it was quite exciting.

I’ve come to believe that giving the Tau’ri such a technological superiority over the Wraith will prove to bothersome as the seasons roll on.  In this episode they had to make some excuses to make the battle with a measely Cruiser seem epic and dangerous.  It reminds me of Star Trek: TNG, where their communicators and transporters were constantly befuddled by atmospheric anomalies on almost barren planets.  Hopefully Brad [Wright] and friends can come up with more than one excuse for our technology not being good enough (in SG’s case, ship damage).

Superman Doomsday:

I found two major flaws in this movie: 1) The animations were different from those seen in “The Animated Series” (the same artistic style was used in Batman TAS, and in Justice League).  2) The voice actors were different from TAS/Justice League.  I mean, they gave Superman a freaking butt-chin!  He looked like the damn Crimson Chin.  Oh yeah, and Lex Luthor has some very homosexual tendencies.  Not the stereotypical kind, but the subtle creepy kind.  He said some weird things, he called Superman “beautifull”… thats weird.  Basically, if you can get past the unfamiliar animations/voice acting, and the break from continuity regarding Doomsday himself (he is a crazy mutant clone of Superman with a bad attitude in Justice League, and he is a mindless genetically engineered alien super soldier in this movie), you’ll like this movie.

Batman: Subzero

I picked this up in a two-pack with the next movie, Mask of the Phantasm.  This one was alittle weird, in that Mr. Fries is the villain, but he isn’t really doing anything villainous.  I mean, he isn’t a truly bad guy, he is just desperate to save his wife after a bunch of dumb-ass submariners nearly kill her (and Fries, and his two polar bear buddies, and an Inuit child he takes care of).  Its good, but it pales in comparison to the epic awesomeness that is…

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

Words fail to describe this work of art.  The Phantom is easily one of the most badass villains in the DC arsenal.  Who else has the balls to walk up to someone as bat-shit crazy as the Joker (who killed a troup of boy-scouts with poisoned cotton-candy in one issue, THATS CRAZY!) and say “Joker, Your Angel of Death Awaits.”  The costume, the voice, the badassery, its poetry in action my friends.  Seriously, I almost wet myself watching this.  The movie includes crap-loads of back-story on the “birth” of Batman himself, and even alittle bit of backstory for the Joker.  Its filled with action, an incredible sound track, especially the opening scene with the title of the movie and everything, its definetely worth watching.  It came out on television like, 8 years ago and I bought it at Wal*Mart in a two pack with Sub-Zero for like $12, totally worth it.