Dragon age 2. what a ride.

[WARNING SPOILERS]

So, finished DA2 today. almost 38 hours of play spread over 5 days. I had some vacation I had to get out of the way before the new vacation year started, so I used the oppitunity to grind through the game =)
as Dragon Age Origins left me somewhat fatigued for more than a week as I played late into the night and had to get up for work ^^;
so decided to get it over and done with ^^

Spetacular game. lots of laughs, hard choices, challenging battles and a few sniffles too =3
impressive vistas and interesting story.
But what really carries it is the characters. your group of people, their interaction with you and each other is what really sets the game appart and raise it up.
Take that away and it's just an average adventure game, with plot missions and tagged on side quests of "kill this" or "get that"
and the frequent recycling of area maps for new missions grated on the experience "you have to go to this place in the hills, there be bandits" apperently it's the ONLY place in the hills, cause I've been here three times before killing Qunaries, highway men and darkspawn.
It's a small detail, but it ruins the over all picture.
I'd like more mission that isn't just mob grinding.
One of the coolest missions was the haunted house. walking through a deserted mansion, stuff shaking or subtly moving about, voices jammering and doors opening or slamming. between the eeriy mood and your companions nervous chatter. this isn't even a horror game and I found myself on edge ^_^
Also I really didn't like that they'd changed the design on the dark spawn, seemed kinda pointless and wasn't explained.
And there were a few bugs in the last segment of the game. scripts that didn't activate on a few side quests. nothing serious, but annoying all the same.

But that's just really nit picking. between the story, the massive piles of choices and consequeces and endearing characters and superb voice acting. this is a real contender for game of the year =)

As for my character. Maleus Hawke. I went with a mage, for a change. partly because I wanted that awesome sword staff I'd seen in the trailer and secondly, I always play as a warrior. Time I tried something new ^^

 Here's a screen shot just from the beginning of the game.

 Towards the end, when I'd finally found the kickass armour ^^d

 and a really cool sword staff I also picked up =3

My favorit group. I'd have liked to bring the savy, saucy pirate Isabella. But between my magy skills and Varrics rogue range skills. I needed some stopping power. so Aveline, serious buisness redhead with shield and sword. my group tank and Fenris, dour, haunted mage experiment, escaped slave elf bishi damage dealer.^^

My playthrough went quite well. I played towards a  nice guy, who didn't take shit, but was ready to give people a chance. but just the one.
Few things I might have done differently ^^;
For one, the little Elf bloodmage (whom I incidently ended up with, through courting Isabela for most of the game. but she just wanted sex ^^; ) whom I tried to help with a magic mirror that'd gotten her cast out from her tribe, I tried to advice against it, but that'd just piss her off. so ahead we went. Sure that in the end we'd restore it, pretty sure there'd be a demon lurking somewhere in there. but confidently I could deal with it and in the end she'd be redeemed and welcomed back.
That one bit me in the ass ^^;
Turns out, there was a demon, trouble was, to save her, her old teacher had taken the demon into herself and we had to kill her >_< leaving little Merrill heartbroken, outcast, her teacher's blood on her hands and nothing to show for it. That was sad =(
Tried to reload the encounter a few times, to see if I could wing it. I do this occationally with big choices, just out of curiousity to see what the alternatives would yield and the go back to the original choice and play on. One of the alternat choices here forced me to slaughter the whole elven tribe to save our lives ^^; so I guess we got away easy.

but damn what a awesome ride. gonna miss sitting in on the chitchat between the various characters ^_^

I live, again!

So, returned to life after a rather dull week of downtime with a throat infection. First time I've ever tried penicillamin o_0 that shit knocks you out.
After having had a rather sore throat monday and tuesday, I called in sick wensday having had no sleep as I'd felt like I'd been swallowing glass all night and visited the doctor for a throat swab, turns out it was a good call as I had infection and got a prescription for the drug and strict orders how not to pass it on to other people and to stay home and recover.
So, I suck at this sort of inactivity ^^; wensday and thursdag I was quite smashed and actually stayed in bed. finishing one of the books I got for my birthday party and assasins creed: brotherhood.
Buuuut then I started to get antsy, only som much anime and horror movies you can watch. and sitting too long at my computer left me woozy.
So I've also drawn a lot a sketches for my house project, but still throwing around ideas really with the set up, nothing concret.

Sunday, I felt resonably well and went to a get together at Karina's place, which was awesome =) Through I pretty much got it hammered home that I was noway fresh enough for that sort of strenous activity. feeling excesivly woozy at one point and sweating buckets.
Luckily I feel worst when I'm sick late noon, so when we went home in the evening I was okay again and good to drive.

anways. returned to work today. Busy catching up and had an interesting lecture about installation measurements and short circuts calculations.
And our instructor asked if I'd considered studying to master degree or enginer. must admit I've never given it thought, but then again. the pays better and it's less hard on the body. But on the other hand, it's freaking two years on the school bench on SU *stroke chin* But it doesn't hurt to plan ahead.
worth giving some thought.

finally. WH40K NERD ALERT. another project I've thought up while ill, Titan size comparion (Titans are giant mechs in the warhammer univers) and there's alot of internal debate in the comunity about the sizes of these contructs. So while home sick, I've been compiling info on this stuff and as soon as I get hold of photoshop again, I'll start shopping them into the copenhagen city scape for size reference.
might even have to go on photo safari to get the proper size referenes =3

oh yeah. I'm getting back into writting again ^^

Dream house construction, continued. sticking it to the man.

Feeling better, but still sick and really bored. So here's some more random chatter about my house project.

I like the idea of clean energy, but since Mister Fusion isn't availeble yet (Back to the future reference) we'll have to settle for something a little more earthbound.
First off, what consumes energy in a house. Heating, both of the house itself and water, running of the house. such as light and ventilation (I want a house with ventilation) and your basic utilities.
All of this consumes power, on average. a family of four in a house use 5000 kwh a year on light, computers, the stove and so forth. add to that heat, depending on the house ranging from 100-200 kwh a year depending on the house insulation and finally roughly 750 kwh worth of hot water per person.
put that together and you get around 8000 kwh a year in energy consumption by four people. That's a pretty stiff energy bill ^^;
And if you calculate with there being about 10kwh in a liter of oil, that's a shitload of empty oil barrels in a year ^^;
SO. how do I intend to not destroy the enviorment with my fantasy house?


First off, limit the loss of energy.
In your typical house, that is the loss of heat due to bad insulation. and Danish houses, especially older ones, you barely have to bother closing the windows in the winter, doesn't make much difference. Take a thermal picture of a house from the eighties or older and it will glow red.
So first off, proper insulation. I've been reading up on some new insulation that I like the sound of. Paperwool, I know, sounds like I should invite the mice in and set my house on fire after the dinner. But supposedly, via impregnating the paper material with minerals, chiefly salt. insects and vermin can't eat, let alone live in it. futhermore, the stuff doesn't catch fire, at worst it smolders under flame. last but not least, it's made from old paper trash. so, recycled materials right here =3 And it being "organic" the wool absorbes and expels moisture, helping the house breath.
Last detail that really took me in, but doesn't really have any practical applications. the stuff doesn't itch and harrass your throat and eyes like most other isulations like glass and rockwool.
Secondly, proper triple glass, termo windows. These bad boys due to a special surface treatment and the gas Argon being sandwitched between the panes of glass, have a high insulation faktor. infact, the main temparture bridge is the frame. The window is constructed in such a way it lets heat in, but keeps it in. so during the winter, the sun will help heat up the house. nifty, right =3

So, there. That's the first round. limiting the loss of energy, but that still means we consuming it. heating the house and powering it.
There I turn to a combination of solutions, that individually arn't that much of a deal. but combined and under optimal conditions could make you energy independant.
First of, floorheat. mentioned it in an earlier post. I love a nice toasty floor =) but a warm floor automatically makes the room feel warmer and since you're not relying on a radiator in one side of the room, to warm up the whole room. You don't have to turn the heat up quite as much. which means you average have the heat setting 5 degrees lower with floor heat, than common radiators. 
There you already have cut back on your energy bill =)

Next, Earthheat.
The system is based on termo dynamics. using the ground as a large energy storage device. during the summer, large amounts of heat is stored in the ground, putting a network of pipes in the ground lets you draw on that energy, using it to heat your house and bathing water.
problem is it's a rather large procedure to install, you gotta plow a meter deep furrow network on an area roughly the size a tenniscoart. But the possibilities for self renewable energy is interesting.
Especially combined with an energy trap. An energy trap, is basicly a solar panal that works after the same principles as the earthheat. absorbing energy from the sunlight and air temperature. This in turn means that during winter, while you are drawing on the heat reserves in the ground, the energy trap will absorbe warmth from the sunlight, even during winter time and store it in the ground. effectively turning the ground heat system into a battery, that stores the heat of the day and lets you use it during the night.

Finally, wind power. A windtrap (loved the idea ever since I build my first in Dune II. nerd alert) anyways, found this one.

Helix wind corp. not only does their wind turbines look awesome, but as fare as I can gather, are very effective and quite useful for urban and sub-urban projects, as they arn't quite as space consuming, need to be as high as your regular windmills and don't make near the noise and more importantly, don't care from where the wind comes.
The one on the picture is their newest and biggest model. almost 5 meters tall. and has an estimated 3.3 kwh a year output.
That's more than half of the above mentioned 4 person family electricity use.
Now the real beauty of this baby (aside from the obvious, I think it's awesomely designed) it produce electricity as long as the wind blows, which certain places is pretty much constantly. 24/7, meaning that it produce electricity, when you're at work/school or sleeping. and the only energy consumers are the fridge, standby electronics and heat pumps. This thing comes with an inverter, so when it produce more than your home consumes, your electrical gauge starts running backwards. optimal conditions, your electrical company starts sending you checks instead of bills =3
Alternatly, you could just store the energy, if you had a heater element connected to the earth heat system, you could store the electrical energy as heat in the ground and use it later to heat your house or water.

Ofcause, most of this is new technology and rather considerat investments of time and materials, not to mention money. The helix turbine alone, would set you back 16.000 US dollars. All the solutions I've stated above, would take half a life time or more of saved electricity and heat bills, to pay for themselves. most are very maintanence light how ever, but possibly you'd go to your grave just breaking even.
But still it's an intesting thought, having a house nearly energy dependant.
Just sitting a lazy summer afternoon, listening to the birds and your wind turbines soft "chop chop chop" ticking the electrical gauge backwards in the hallway =3

I'd like that ^^

Games and more games =)

Finished Assasins creed: brotherhood last night.

Quite good game, picks up right after previous. litteraly right after =3

They made the combat more dynamic this time around, I rather liked that, if you timed your excutions right. you could finish of groups of enemies in no time. Even if I only did get the slay five men in 10 seconds guildchallenge one time ^^;

But the problem the game has had and still has, is the stealth element.

the whole detail with you being able to hide in plain sight, even though you got the most colourful and unique outfit the whole of rome I'll just skip. or you can crawl on a chalk white wall, while wearing a red cape and the guards acroos the forth won't notice you anyway ^^;

No, what bugs me is this, several missions needs you to be covert and sneak about. But unlike, say, Arkham asylum. you don't really have any tools for sneaking around. no wall hugging or quiet moves.

It could give the game a new dimention, ala the old thief game. particularly on the levels where to get the 100% completion you can't be detected, it's really fustrating.

not to mention, they've made the guards AI a little too stupid. In the beginning of the game it's okay that they stand around asking questions when they find the corpses you leave behind. But into the game, when they gotta be painfully aware you're loose in Rome, they should start seaching for you, when they find the corpses you leave behind. instead of just standing around, ready to be picked off.

But all in all, great game =) little tedious at times and some of the story missions were teeth gnashingly difficult. But I completed it ^^

Next on the menu is Dead space 2. plan to play that through with my buddy Kenneth. We squeeled our way through the first game and the second is rumored to be better =3

Even if EA went utterly 8 year old douchbag with the commercials *facepalm*

Seriously guys. not impressed =(

if we're gonna get people to take gaming seriously as a medium and an art form. Immature shit like this gotta stop.

oh and I came across an old classic by accident, I never got to play it through back in the day. so I'm thinking about getting ahold if it, just for the nostalgic trip =3

incidently, I really liked the mechas in this game, moved and acted like actual machines ^_^

Ring of Red

by todays standards the grafics suck ass. But the whole mecha in ww2 always appealed to me ^_^

Fighting the touch of the plague father.

And that little headline will separate all the Normal people from all the Warhmmer 40.000 fanboys (as in me)

Just got back from the doctor and turns out I feel like a drowned kitten cause, not as I initially thought, have the flu. But I got a throat infection, inflamation... something. feels like I'm chugging down ground glass as I swallow -_-
And to this a nice fever and I'll leave the estimat of just how many hours of sleep I got last night up to you.

Anyways, this leaves me feeling somewhat groogy and not just from sleep deprevation. But atleast I got a chance to catch up on my movies.
Gonna watch the Watchmen DVD Dorthea got me =3

You have to be this tall to try the ride.

Bloody hell what a week, what a rollercoaster ride.

First of we've been shorthanded at work this week. With two collegues on vacation. and one of the remaining collegues have just been GETTING on my nerves >_<
He is well meaning, but a freaking busy body that sticks his nose into anything and everything that pass him by, throwing his lot in no matter if he knows what the hell is going or he can actually help. Sigh, I found myself stopping short of snarling at him to go and mind his own damn buisness more than a few times.
Trouble is, he means well and he just wanna help. Even if he doesn't ^^;
On top of this, me and the apprentice was commandered to help pull mains for the new boards around the hospital, by friday my hands were utterly smashed T_T
and to just top it off. They're rearrenging management (again) which has everyone up in arms, guessing on what changes will follow and how the will affect us.
*sigh* I just wanna do my damn job, okay??

But. come friday. It was time for RPG with Frost and Cado, we had a blast, even if I was bone tired -_- had to do overtime at work.
But Frost had hammered together a rather interesting campaign and a system that relied heavily on actual roleplaying and less on a mechanics system. challenging, but fun ^_^

Saturday, I was throwing a party. took most of the day to get things squared away. But I had a massive blast, tons of fun and got utterly shitfaced.
For some reasons I've begun being able to drink a whole lot more than I use to, without becoming nauseas. rather odd really ^^;
Ofcause I paid the price today. rather crass hangover and my throat feels like I tried to swallow a hedgehog and changed my mind halfway an pulled it out of my gullet again DX
hopefully I'll be back in action tomorrow, because boy am I feeling those 3½ and a half hours of sleep I got tonight.
But still, had so much fun I'd do it again and most likely will too =3 even if I think I'll hold back a bit on the hootch.

Sadly I managed to finish the week on a sour note =/
Mostly I blame myself. To clarify; My and Dorthea's friendship more or less went up in smoke today.
The short version is a clusterfuck of confused messages and hurt feelings that ended with a phonecall where I said some things in anger that wern't true. But now that they are said, I can't make them go away. =(
I highly doubt we will patch things up, but who knows...

Hopefully. next week will be less eventful. here's to hoping. I really tired.

The DO-WANT list.

It occured to me, as I perused the various blogs I keep tabs on, that quiet a few sport. cloths and assesories in less or greater amounts.
So, felt like I'd do the same. Though unlike the aforementioned people, I don't have much of a fashion sense ^^; Tenna semi seriously being my personal stylist XD
But all the same. I have a Do Want list, where I write down stuff I wanna get/buy when I get the fund or oppotunity or find the right, as some of the things are a little vague ^^
But here's few things from the clothing and assesories section.

I have shit load of coats ^^; it's a semi fetish. Anyways, really like this jacket ^^ 

hmmm. black trenchcoat with high neck. do want 8D~~

 My trusty old skin jacket is starting to come appart at the seams, and the stuffing is rather worn. So I'm giving thoughts to a replacement, this one is my current. "hmmm maybe"

 Shoulder bags. my current shoulder bag is rather rather bulky, consittering I usually don't carry more than a book and bottle of water. So I'm on the look out for a messenger back. this one also works as a backpack, very utilitarian =D

 I rather like this one.

 I really like this one too, already well used, rugged and rumpled when you buy it. but it costs the ass end of a rocket >_<

hmmm Always wanted one of them long blazer jackets ^_^

 I havn't worn a wrist watch since I started carrying around a cell phone. But since I've picked up wearing leather armbands occationally. I've given some thought to invest in one with a watch. don't like the watch here, but the band is nice ^^d

 Steam punk cuff links, most def =p cost a pretty penny though ^^;

and while we're steampunky. came across this ring here. Don't wear finger jewlery, but I could give it a try with something original like this one ^^