Song that describes you?
21 March 2011
18 March 2011
Finland and happiness!
I got accepted! I'm going to Finland in August for two semesters of Sociology & Political Science. I'm not sure if I'll be required to learn History there as well but we'll see. I was waiting a almost a month for this email and I was absolutely delighted when I got the good word. Finland will be very good for me!
Finland was my third and final choice so I'm slightly disappointed I didn't get accepted to the Netherlands or to a lesser extent Sweden. I wanted Leiden in the Netherlands simply because it would be infinitely warmer than the Nordic countries! I picked the other two simply because they did Sociology & Politics as their primary subjects. Soc & Pol is my best subject compared to my mediocre History results and performance, so I don't mind - it makes sense! The month of waiting was good for me. They said the end of February, then mid-March, then they delayed by one day... so I had loads of time to think Finland would probably have been my primary choice after all. I love Finland and its concise history, as well as its marvellous shared history with Sweden and then Russia, both countries I find fascinating. Sweden edged out Finland in terms of preference because I assumed it would be better to live in with regards roads and living.
I will miss Ireland dearly. Not only will I be ripped right out of my comfort zone in Galway, but I'll be away for two semesters! Who knows what will happen in that time. I'm going to miss my family obviously but I have to be a bit more selfish when it comes to my friends. A lot of time spent away can erode old bonds and whatnot. There is also the chance of me coming back different, or indeed, everyone and everything will be different when I come back. There are two things I can see here - I should stop talking about coming back when I haven't even left and I should have faith and be optimistic when it comes to my friends. I'll have Formspring, Facebook, Blogger, Twitter and Skype to keep me clued in!
I have read up extensively on Finland in the last few days and I am very impressed. Most of the population live in the south coast where I will be going. I am attending University in the city of Turku on the west coast. It is the place where the Swedish-speaking minority of Finland go to learn their language, so it is really called Abo Akademi or the University of Abo, which is the Swedish for Turku. I have always had a slight affinity for Finnish history; as I mentioned earlier I am a sucker for early modern Swedish and all kinds of Russian history. Finland tends to come up quite a bit, either as East Sweden or the Grand Duchy of Finland. They also fought the Russians to a standstill in the period 1939-1944, which is kind of brilliant. The university itself is a collection of old Russian manors that were bought and converted, so it'll be an interesting campus experience I'd say. The price of food and drink is quite expensive but the Erasmus people make sure I get accommodation no matter what while the welfare system makes sure I get a warm meal a day. Sweet!
I can't wait to actually pick my courses and become genuinely involved in the Erasmus program. I'm going to reply in the affirmative by Sunday at the latest, sooner if I can help it! I know I will definitely be doing Sociology & Politics mainly with a little bit of History thrown in, perhaps? From almost all accounts, the course is actually quite easy. I don't know how to feel about this, exactly. On the one hand I could become the top of the class and make a name for myself - something I want to do very badly anyway - while on the other I could become lazy or not be challenged sufficiently. Regardless, I feel I will do well, enjoy my courses and hopefully get the respite I need before stepping into Final Year. That whole "two-thirds of your degree" thing involved in FY intimidated me so much I knew I wouldn't make it fresh from Second Year. I'll do really well and feel good enough to take on the end of my degree!
Still can't get over the fact that I'll be leaving everyone in five months. I plan on enjoying my remaining time here to the max, as well as using the next 30 plus days to study for my exams. After that, I will make sure my friends and family know that I will miss them so much!
07 March 2011
What was your favorite year?
2010. Too much awesome. Met most of my friends that I have today then and enjoyed College to the max.
04 March 2011
Formspring
http://www.formspring.me/CrazySlyHawk
I rather like this site. It's fun to answer questions and indeed ask my friends some too. I admit I occasionally go anonymous and ask a few questions to whomever but hey, it's all for the LOL.
The only bad thing I've seen so far is on my sister's page and her friend's pages, where a lot of anonymous questions are asked which actually quite mean. Kids these days! Wait what am I saying - I would've done that too back in my day.
03 March 2011
Fleetwood Mac - top 5 songs
I felt the need to clarify which of their songs are my absolute favourites. Rather than pick one and hold it over all of them, I will pick 5 songs which I think go with the 5 main musicians. Unfortunately John McVie and Mick Fleetwood are much more difficult to classify but I'll work something out.
Lindsey Buckingham
A song written after himself and Stevie broke up, it is one of the best examples ever of good, raw, passionate music. As it was written by him, the guitar features heavily but everyone else with the possible exception of Stevie herself are very heavily engaged by this song.
Stevie Nicks
I think Sara is the best song for Stevie Nicks; written by her after losing her lover Mick Fleetwood (the "great dark wings") to her best friend, Sara, she laments this fact but is also happy for her friend - so long as she can still see her from time to time.
Christine McVie
This song was written while Christine was having an affair with her producer while married to John McVie. She is unhappy with the then-alcoholic John and got with another man to make her happy, and it did. It is very funky and enjoyable.
John McVie
The Chain was written by all of the band. It features one of the most recognisable and brilliant bass lines of all time, particularly the solo at the end. The cover art for the single of this song was of John McVie's hand, which has a small penguin tattoo on it. I would like to get the same one done someday! This is a great song which exemplifies their unity as a band and indeed a family.
Mick Fleetwood
While written by Stevie Nicks about her break-up with Lindsey Buckingham, I adore this song as it has such a simple drum beat that does so much. This was the reason I wanted to learn the drums and I have to thank Fleetwood for that!
30 November 2009
Left for Dead 2: Left for Dead Redux
Visited Wired in Galway for the first time ever on Sunday. It was recently done up and all, so it was nice to be there. €2 for a membership account + 1 free hour and €4 for an 1 hour and 4 mins. after that. We saved €2 by going here rather than squareyes, but they price the same from now on. Wired is handy because you can top up your account with hours, thus coming back whenever you want and playing right off. No cards either, so membership is all done by login. Dead-handy. Playing with headsets wasn't too unusual for me, a Live gamer, but not having the option of speakers can't be helped, I guess. Small place - it would ruin it.
Left for Dead 2 has a plethora of new options available, but we jumped right to the basic co-op/shooting your way to the finish line craic. The three of us (myself, majk and Formosus) picked Rochelle, Coach/Ellis and rich white guy respectively - no change in gameplay if only for the different quotes. We played 'the Hotel' first.
First off, LfD2 is almost exactly like LfD1. Same Source engine-looseness that we had to endure before. Walking along the tiny balconies of apartments isn't the best utilisation of such an engine. Shooting enemies is still quite a chore, and we were playing Normal difficulty. If your aim is slightly off, you miss (obviously) but you are punished by having the zombies eat your face off. Not fun. A good solid right-click = aim down the barrel would be much nicer. That, and slower, less-Halo like speed of movement for the characters.
Same story, make it across the zombie-infested map and jump into safe-rooms along the way. The usual protagonists like pipe-bombs and pain pills make an appearance once more. I was happy to see there were more drugs - namely adrenalin - which I perused readily. Always me with the drugs in LfD! Med packs are there to heal yourself and others. There are also a host of weapons to use. You have two primary weapon slots, pistol/melee weapon and main gun (shotguns, rifles). Seeing as this is the zombie apocalypse, there are plenty of these lying around, but the AI Director may see it fit to make them disappear. Bass-turd.
We got about the level sound enough and were intrigued by the one or two new things/effects, namely the fire and smoke you have to escape from and the objective of bringing a few cans of cola to some guy in a hold-out nearby. There were some new villains, namely the Jockey who "rides" the player and forces them to walk towards the Horde. There was also an enemy that dropped ooze all over the ground and downed you rapidly if you stay in it too long. Otherwise, just Hunters, Smokers and Tanks and all the others.
Even paying on for a second hour, I wasn't too impressed by LfD2. Granted, it was very fun but again I didn't feel too immersed. It was just too unreal to be jumping about like Grecian gods on the battlefields dowing hordes of scummy zombies and their mutated brethren. The lack of chronology or progression also somewhat gets to me. It would be nice if there was a suspense to the game, but the first 5 minutes saw us slaughter an entire hotel floor worth of zombies with unlimited pistol ammo to spare. When we got our M1 Carbines, it was game.
Left for Dead 2 has a plethora of new options available, but we jumped right to the basic co-op/shooting your way to the finish line craic. The three of us (myself, majk and Formosus) picked Rochelle, Coach/Ellis and rich white guy respectively - no change in gameplay if only for the different quotes. We played 'the Hotel' first.
First off, LfD2 is almost exactly like LfD1. Same Source engine-looseness that we had to endure before. Walking along the tiny balconies of apartments isn't the best utilisation of such an engine. Shooting enemies is still quite a chore, and we were playing Normal difficulty. If your aim is slightly off, you miss (obviously) but you are punished by having the zombies eat your face off. Not fun. A good solid right-click = aim down the barrel would be much nicer. That, and slower, less-Halo like speed of movement for the characters.
Same story, make it across the zombie-infested map and jump into safe-rooms along the way. The usual protagonists like pipe-bombs and pain pills make an appearance once more. I was happy to see there were more drugs - namely adrenalin - which I perused readily. Always me with the drugs in LfD! Med packs are there to heal yourself and others. There are also a host of weapons to use. You have two primary weapon slots, pistol/melee weapon and main gun (shotguns, rifles). Seeing as this is the zombie apocalypse, there are plenty of these lying around, but the AI Director may see it fit to make them disappear. Bass-turd.
We got about the level sound enough and were intrigued by the one or two new things/effects, namely the fire and smoke you have to escape from and the objective of bringing a few cans of cola to some guy in a hold-out nearby. There were some new villains, namely the Jockey who "rides" the player and forces them to walk towards the Horde. There was also an enemy that dropped ooze all over the ground and downed you rapidly if you stay in it too long. Otherwise, just Hunters, Smokers and Tanks and all the others.
Even paying on for a second hour, I wasn't too impressed by LfD2. Granted, it was very fun but again I didn't feel too immersed. It was just too unreal to be jumping about like Grecian gods on the battlefields dowing hordes of scummy zombies and their mutated brethren. The lack of chronology or progression also somewhat gets to me. It would be nice if there was a suspense to the game, but the first 5 minutes saw us slaughter an entire hotel floor worth of zombies with unlimited pistol ammo to spare. When we got our M1 Carbines, it was game.
27 November 2009
Age of Wonders - a beautiful, underrated TBS
Click for larger image...Way back in 2001, we got our XP. It was put upstairs in my brother's room, meaning I only had to go across the hallway to play it. He was also gone off to Cork at the time I believe, so I had it all to myself. My other, eldest brother most graciously installed a game on this XP - the same one I'm typing with now - called Age of Wonders. We played one hotseat game of which I can't remember the result. I think I was the Orcs in Love Thy Nighbour. Oh well. He took the game with him but left it installed and one thing that I could access without the disc was the fabulous editor.
The AoWEd tool became part of my life from then on. I relished the ability to construct maps in the fantasy setting with various terrain: from grassland, desert and steppe to wasteland and snow. There were 12 fantasy races and their units for me to place as I wished, as well as many creatures and other humanoids. After the 'Write a Book' Competition, an old friend and I invented the world of Necut. It just so happened that i had the perfect way to customise it at home!
Some stage in First Year I believe, my brother gave me a burned copy of Age of Wonders. I was delighted. Now I could actually play the game that I had fiddled with for over 2 years. I started by playing various scenarios and slogging my way through them. I also did playtesting of my created maps - before I even knew that word existed! I could now make my own entertainment in a game, a wonderful game just for me. I did share it with my friends as well. I remember playing a game of Heartwood Forest with a friend; he was the Halflings, I was the Elves. We were against the Orcs and the Goblins. After 400+ turns of inexperienced play, it was too late and we had to call it quits. So much fun though!
In 2006, which was Junior Certificate (3rd) Year, I joined a wonderful site. Age of Wonders Heaven. My first forum and still my favourite. An old community, as old as the game itself, I now had people I could relate to. I love tragedies, with Age of Wonders' lack of general appeal the biggest of them all. There are only 10ish active members every year on the Age of Wonders 1 boards, with about 30 retired/semi-active members visiting now and again. The sequels are much more popular generally. I was introduced to Play by Email (PBEM) here, my first experience against or with other human players. The site was also an incredible outlet for my created maps, as well as an inspiration for yet more.
I will make another post detailing the gameplay and the like. It is a turn-based strategy, so there is a bit of thinking involved!
The AoWEd tool became part of my life from then on. I relished the ability to construct maps in the fantasy setting with various terrain: from grassland, desert and steppe to wasteland and snow. There were 12 fantasy races and their units for me to place as I wished, as well as many creatures and other humanoids. After the 'Write a Book' Competition, an old friend and I invented the world of Necut. It just so happened that i had the perfect way to customise it at home!
Some stage in First Year I believe, my brother gave me a burned copy of Age of Wonders. I was delighted. Now I could actually play the game that I had fiddled with for over 2 years. I started by playing various scenarios and slogging my way through them. I also did playtesting of my created maps - before I even knew that word existed! I could now make my own entertainment in a game, a wonderful game just for me. I did share it with my friends as well. I remember playing a game of Heartwood Forest with a friend; he was the Halflings, I was the Elves. We were against the Orcs and the Goblins. After 400+ turns of inexperienced play, it was too late and we had to call it quits. So much fun though!
In 2006, which was Junior Certificate (3rd) Year, I joined a wonderful site. Age of Wonders Heaven. My first forum and still my favourite. An old community, as old as the game itself, I now had people I could relate to. I love tragedies, with Age of Wonders' lack of general appeal the biggest of them all. There are only 10ish active members every year on the Age of Wonders 1 boards, with about 30 retired/semi-active members visiting now and again. The sequels are much more popular generally. I was introduced to Play by Email (PBEM) here, my first experience against or with other human players. The site was also an incredible outlet for my created maps, as well as an inspiration for yet more.
I will make another post detailing the gameplay and the like. It is a turn-based strategy, so there is a bit of thinking involved!
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