I've fallen off!

The edge of the world! Oh no, turn back, turn back!

*whoosh*

Well, I did disappear for awhile. The reason? GUILD WARS. No, not some cheesy B-movie combo of Star Wars and The Lord of The Rings, but a new massively-multiplayer online role-playing game, simple a MMORPG.

I've tried other MMORPGs and liked some. I mildly enjoyed Diablo, couldn't get the grip of Medivia (which is actually a MUD [multi-user dungeon]). I loved Knights of The Old Republic, even though that doesn't quite fit here since it's not online, but it is one of the few RPGs that I could sit through. As you may or may not know, I'm a big First Person Shooter fan, namely of the Serious Sam series.

However, something about GW has intrigued me. Maybe it's the fact it runs beautifully on my lousy dialup, or the fact that all online play is free. But there is something else. Storyline isn't it so much, since the plot is rather huge and filled with side-quests to keep you busy. No, I think it has to be the system of play, and especially how it's set up for friend co-op quests.

First off, Guild Wars can be played alone, or with your friends, or accompanied by computer controlled henchmen. But the fun happens when you and a friend join up to complete a common mission, or to help them through one of their quests. Communication with you and a friend can be done through the standard chat methods, but Guild Wars goes one step above by allowing access to a map that all party members can see and use. You can draw out possible paths, mark areas of interest, and strategize how to attack a mob of enemies.

The simple fact that the classes, called professions, are so well balanced is amazing. Usually somewhere in a RPG a certain combination with one strategy will almost guarantee victory. Not so with Guild Wars. Every profession has their vital strengths and weaknesses, and combined with a second profession, gives you some very interesting game play. Essentially, if you don't know what you're doing or how to use your character, you'll die quickly. However, each and every character combination is as powerful as the next used right.

Honestly, I could rant on about GW until my fingers bleed, but I'll leave it at that. Right now I have to go build me some new armor, oh yes, it's gonna be fun!

UPTT

Today we (i.e. about ten PSU:DuBois students) went on a University Park Transition Tour.
Very interesting it was. The Main Campus is big, really big, mind-boggling hugely impressively vast, to say the least. It's quite intimidating to see just the scale of it, especially considering I spent the first two years of my college career at perhaps the smallest PSU branch campus (yeah, we have FIVE buildings, total, and three houses).

But even with all the intimidation of being next to the largest buildings I have had the pleasure being next to, I'm excited going down there. Sure, it'll be overwhelming for the first two weeks. Hell, I'll probably be so nervous I'll barely eat for the first two weeks. But after that transition I know I'm going to have fun.
For someone who has been locked up in a two-bit town for 20 years, I'm excited as hell to get to a town where I can actually walk to a huge business district and actually visit decent shops. Saint Marys isn't bad, mind you, but NOTHING compared to State College.

Now, if the GPA I built in DuBois can keep me afloat for these last two years, then I'll be set.

Good Will Hunting

It’s funny when I hear someone talk about “saving the deer.” Environmentalists that absolutely hate hunting. Not all the “tree-huggers” are bad, and most of their points of discussion are well deserved. But some people seem so far out of touch of the facts it’s almost sickening.

Where I live hunting is a city-wide affair. Every single friend that I have owns a gun, and just as many hunt. Archery, muzzleloader, shotguns and bolt-action rifles. Deer hunting is such a sport in St. Marys that the schools shut down on the first day of buck season. If you were to take a look at the deer herd population statistics, there would be a huge depression in the number of deer for all of Elk County. I myself have never hunted, and our family has never owned a gun. But I respect the sport and its purpose, something the environmentalists seem to miss.

Firstly, there is a major reason why deer hunting takes place: deer population control. No one wants to have cougars in their back lawn. No one wants a pack of wolves living in the forest across the street, most certainly not with children playing outside. So, the wolf, cougar, bears, and mountain lion populations were hunted to near extermination. This left the deer with no natural predators. What does this mean? Uncontrolled population explosion. The deer would literally eat themselves into starvation, where the population would exhaust all natural resources.

This is where hunting comes into play. By replacing the natural predators with unnatural ones, namely the hunters themselves, the herd can be reduced in size so that the environment can handle the herd. Hunting prevents the mass starvation that would otherwise happen, keeping the overall health of the deer good.

Of course, to reduce the “senseless killing of innocent animals,” we would need to reintroduce the deer’s natural predators. Then, we would also need to be willing to deal with the animal attacks. These natural predators do attack humans, for various reasons (such as a territory violation, or simple hunger). The environmentalists would need to make a conscience decision to allow attacks on people so that the deer population could be maintained, something that could be done without the attacks with hunting.

So, what is it? Bears attacking children, or hunters mounting a deer above their fireplace?

Thank you, come again!

I've long wanted a blog of my own. Something where I could spew my thoughts and keep a record of my projects.

Finally.

Now the problem is keeping me interested. I want this blog to stay with me for a long while, and in order for that to happen, I'll have to keep it updated. I don't plan on posting every day (my life simply isn't quite that interesting) but maybe a few times a week would be grand. I'll pledge to myself to post AT LEAST twice a week, with a goal of three times a week. Lets see if I can keep it like that.

With that in order, I'll leave this as my first blog post. I'll keep it simple as a pledge to myself, and later on down the line I'll talk a little about both my thoughts on matters and a little about who I am.