modernwarfare 2

Gameplay

. I liked the campaign a lot. its not entirely concentrated on the 1 character but instead you play as 3 different characters on different missions.
hours and hours of gameplay which is great if you like to stick to a game for as long as possible but dont want to be repeating it all the time.
I found multiplayer alot of fun funny killcams.

this is just a small clip of me sniping on multiplayer

Graphics.

graphics were awsome very detailed.
Ive recently made a few videos on hiding spots for multiple maps on multiplayer I think there will be some links inside the video that I have placed above.
scenery is one of the most important things in multiplayer often people will prone in the bushes and be almost invisible in certain maps.

Just Cause 2

Gameplay. A few of the things I liked to do is drag people from planes cars and helicopters.
Another fun thing is climbing buildings with a parachute and a grappling hook yeah I know: sounds ridiculous.
Another thing is driving my car over a cliff and watching the car spin around and around and around and then somehow survive the fall W.T.H.



There is plenty of play time: it took me over 14 hours to just get 27% of the game done though painfully I cant finish the game because when I finish the second last mission the game quits on me and I can't make a new profile!!!
Plenty of achievements to work on.

Graphics. Good detailed (realistic) graphics which is awesome: the scenic detail in the rocks, plants (shapes of trees), grass, roots, moving tree leaves.
Just Cause 2 has the best underwater graphics (again, the scenery: waving seaweed, starfish, shifting light patterns) I have seen though I haven't been underwater in many games. The character even appears wet when he comes out of the water.

War Rock vs Combat Arms

While I was loading War Rock I realised that it had the same HackShield as Combat Arms (mum these are both first person shooter games) and both have the problem with hackers. I found, last time I played Combat Arms, there were a lot less hackers than War Rock.

The graphics for Combat Arms are better War Rock's, possibly because War Rock is older. By better I mean: I think the scenery in Combat Arms was maybe a little more detailed; but also the guns look better.

CombatArms has a larger variety of game modes than War Rock. For example I loved quarantine mode. In this mode there is a maximum of 16 players on the server all on 1 team; there is a 20 second timer and once that timer gets to 0 a proportion of players will become zombies - and for up to the next 3 minutes the zombies try to convert everyone else that is trying to stay alive. How to stay alive? RUN... RUN...RUN. Or: have everyone team up in a room and just defend with mines, flamethrowers, machine guns, shotguns and sniper rifles. I say those weapons because they are the most effective. Or I've seen some people just blow themselves up with bombs - chickens.

CombatArms has a larger variety of weapons that you can get without actually spending real life money. I liked the SCAR because it did good damage at short and medium range with good accuracy and the G36E which performs even better damage than the SCAR but can also scope and was a bit more accurate.

Another good thing about CombatArms is that you dont have to pay for maps.

Interesting, cool, freaky, disgusting...

Fish's reaction to Ben Hillman's How Weird Is It?

How Weird Is It? by Ben Hillman via kwout

Playful studyful Sunday

As I lean back from studying Australian Sign Language: an introduction to sign language linguistics courtesy of UB's ebook service from Ebook Library, I noticed that the scene at our computers is not as "same everyday" as I had recently begun to imagine.

When I shared my thoughts with the boys they pointed out that it isn't unusual really, we each have a huge variety of occupations at the computers and away from them. Tonight it just happens to be that Fish is playing Combat Arms and Cricket: Star Trek Legacy, although since I began posting Fish has moved on to Star Trek Legacy and Cricket to watching Star Trek Voyager on DVD.

Earlier today I practiced at the violin, entered dockets into our budget, posted notes about my last placement shift to the unit's Blackboard discussion forum; Cricket bought new bowling shoes and practiced at TenPin thanks to his aunt playing chauffeur; Fish played with his cousin, the kitten and a double handful of internet games.

Clip to ponder

"Living from principles, rather than fears,.. " [borrowing the start of Maya's next sentence in the source of the following clip]...is the way I would like my boys to learn how to live.

clipped from sandradodd.com Maya wrote something wonderful on the Family Radical Unschoolers Network forum: If I'm really going to be a kind, joyful, generous person who values freedom and choice, then I'm really not going to control tv or sugar or sleep or whatever because that wouldn't be kind, or freedom-creating, or joyful, or generous. Full stop.

Learn Nothing Day!

To play it safe, Cricket spent the first 12 hours of Learn Nothing Day in bed.

Both boys swore that they would endeavour to do only the same old quests, using the same strategies and not try anything new.

Dulse = purple seaweed

Dulse ona string
Originally uploaded by Dulsechick

Following another word I didn't know in Scramble... I've learned about this very interesting seaweed.


Firstly a definition search told me dulse is "a reddish-purple seaweed. Used in soups, salads, and vegetable dishes. Very high in iron."

Quite aside from some a lovely variety of photos of dulse fresh-picked, dried and packaged, google image search also led to Laurie Murison's informative page (kwouted below) where I was interested to learn how dulse is picked:

every two weeks--corresponding to the new and full moons. The pickers clamber over slippery rocks, tearing off only a portion of the dulse leaving the holdfasts and part of the fronds. ... Dulse pickers often travel along the shores in dories, wooden, flat-bottomed boats that can be safely landed on the rocky shores. Traditionally rowed, most dories now have small out-board motors. They may use headlamps (similar to the ones miners use) when the low tide occurs at night.

I was also fascinated to read how many different ways it is eaten. Read for yourself:

The Best Dulse! via kwout

Syce = groom

Via google, Reverse Dictionary gave me:

syce , sice, saice n
1 (formerly, in India) a servant employed to look after horses, drive carriages, etc.
2 (in Malaysia) a driver or chauffeur
(C17: from Urdu sa'is, from Arabic, from sasa to administer)

Again I thought an image might help, though only one appeared relevant this time:

The Tibet Album. "Syce with horse and mule on the Kambala Pass" 05 Dec. 2006. The Pitt Rivers Museum. Accessed 15 May. 2008 .

Syce with horse and mule on the Kambala Pass via kwout

Notes from The Tibet Album "A syce leading a mule and a pony across the Kamba La Pass. He is dressed in a knee-length, striped robe, a hat and a scarf wound around his head. The animals have leather saddles which suggests the syce is in the service of the Mission."

The Froe - antique splitter

Scramble has been presenting me with bundles of words that I've not come across before, or at least not enough for them to have sunk in. One tonight was froe. Now a definition search told me what it was but I thought I might remember this more easily if I had an image in mind - google image & its sources, like: Antique Tools helped out wonderfully.

Antique Tools via kwout

Play for water

Fantastic Idea:

You've got to play WOW

I really like this song I found last night:



It is SO TRUE... you've got to play WOW... :D

Philanthropy

Reading Empathy today (which I discovered via Have Fun Do Good via EducateDeviate), I was particularly struck by Matt's story about Combatants for Peace and determined to share it with the boys when they get home from their weekend away.

The boys and I have had a few discussions about social activism, social justice, community action and individual actions in essential social concerns and I guess they'll also be interested in two other links Tiara mentioned recently:

Act Now


and

How I changed the world today via kwout

Victoria Fossil Cave

Rock formations inside the caves
Originally uploaded by riana_dzasta

Touring Victoria Fossil Cave at Naracoorte (on the way back from Woodchester near Adelaide). We were told a lot about how the different rocks are formed, how the fossils came to be there and the history of the caves. I wish I could recall it all more precisely, perhaps a virtual tour would strengthen the memory cells.

Halfway into the cave I realised I'd left the camera in the car - lucky me other Flickrers are better prepared.

If only the holiday at coincided with OzAct's appearance at the cave for a performance of MacBeth - I envy everyone who goes there for it, we're not up for another long drive so soon.


View Larger Map

YouTube - Sort Of Dunno Nothin' - not so unusual

Ah ha. Thanks Cool Cat Teacher.

YouTube - Sort Of Dunno Nothin' - Peter Denahy



Funnily though my boys are not typically like this, at least not unless:

• they don't know you or


• they know you but


• they don't trust you or


• you're being nosy or


• it's none of your business or


• they suspect you won't like the answer and it's none of your business anyway or


• they're thinking about something else (or nothing in particular) right now.

High speed photography

This looks like a lot of fun, I wonder if one of us might give it a go one day?

Drumming

No, none of us are drumming. Tonight after Monarchy and My Architect, I channel surfed into Session 3 : Slave to the Rhythm (about the rhythm that holds music together - be it the beats in today's urban music or percussion in orchestras) of Pop[b]session ("a series of documentaries about rock and pop's greatest instruments and instrumentalists - about passion and virtuosity, about the seduction of musician and audience alike.").

It has been fascinating, and I've noticed Cricket tuning in every now and then. I'm enjoying the journey through percussion history, culture and styles. I think I was probably able to follow along because of the frequent glimpses of the people - the percussionists and their individual stories.

I'm not sure how much I will retain - we're all suffering colds at the moment - stuffy and sneezy and coughy - I'm afraid I'll drown when I go to sleep tonight.

Mythbusters

Today I watched Mythbusters and they were putting 1500 pound (3000 horse power) rockets on a car to answer "Can a '67 Chevy turn into a 350-mile per hour road warrior "

They were also testing to see if pop rocks + cola can cause your stomach explode (it didn't explode the dead pigs stomach until they added bicarbonate of soda).

L'Alouette

Big sister rang this evening to ask for translation of the song we know as Alouette. I couldn't bring it immediately to mind, so quickly found my (now catalogued, classified and shelved) Form 1 French text book - A new french course - Part 1.

The lyrics were there, but aside from remembering that it was about plucking a bird, precise translation still eluded me. Babel Fish identified the bird as a lark but le bec as a nozzle instead of a beak. But not all the body parts were in my textbook so google helped me find the answer at Answers.com : Alouette

Slightly different lyrics on YouTube.


Naturally in the process I've been singing the song to my boys.

..you live, you learn...

Looking for uplifting or happy songs - songs that express celebration without being about romantic love (I'm finding such quite difficult to find)... this one happened along - the boys and I think it seems celebratory of our kind of learning.