Musings of a Small Mind

Of Moving Elsewhere

2010-04-11T00:40:00.000-07:00

Musings of a Small Mind has moved!

Right about here.

Woohoo!

Regards, Boombaye

Of Why Runescape is Amazing

2010-02-02T06:46:00.001-08:00

People often whine about how ugly Runescape's graphics are and the limited gameplay and poor controls.

I say nay.

Special thanks to the Orb of Oculus for providing my counter argument.

The Observatory

The Griffin

Elf Ponds

Castle Wars

Some Hot Elf Chick

Butterfly Field

Tyras Catapult

White Knight Castle Entrance

The Sphinx and the Pyramid

Ape Atoll City Centre

Al Kharid Palace Entrance

The Baxtorian Falls

Me Crib

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Ye Olde Orbbe offe Occulus' User Manualle

2010-02-01T07:55:00.000-08:00

Ye Olde Orbbe offe Occulus hast been releasedde uponne and I shalt bestow upon thee thine user operatinge manualle, quilled in the sterling, originale formatte of Ye Olde Butchered Englishe.

The Orbbe offe Occulus be a usefulle toole in capturing thine firstte imagges and vid-e-oes.

A small orbbe, as thine name wouldde suggestte, it measures approximateley one foot across with a trio of viewing circles. These circles are positioned according to the primary compasse positionnes. All but Southe.

A greatte degree of controlle is allowedde by thine orbbe, giving thine controlles to heightenne or lowerre the viewe, move in all compasse directionnes and rotatte.

Images are aligned using mirrors held aloft by balloones and propelled by dwarvishe rockettes. Hence the clunky and sudden movement. The image is capturedde by the orbbe fairy who makes its living in the orbbe.

There be two optionnes when deciding on viewe.

The Aimme Modus allows you free movementte in a straight linne, likke the flighte of a avianne.

The Focusse Modus works in a greatte curvve and a circular motionne, like that of a theorized 'planettary orbitte' created by crackpottes who are ignorantte enough to believe the world is circular.

The world is clearly a flatte plane, constantly expanded by Jag- OW!

Fyne.

Now that we have, as the new agey 'teenes' would say, nailed the basics, we may carrye forthe to thine photographying.

For this manualle, we shalt use the humble towne of Lumbridge.

First offe, the Lumbridge Castellen.

The Castellen is a fyne buildingge. A fyne buildingge is best capturedde fromme the frontte.

Attempt to centre thine Orbbe's viewe on the invitingge doores.

Make an efforte to capturre the road leading up to itte and any relevantte objecttes of interestte above.

Centre your buildingge unless there is something suitably impressive to the one sidde that woulde warrante the bias, like an unclaimed Dragonfire Shield or and unclaimed Scantily Clad Meganne Foxxe.

Ensure symmetrysy. Buildingges are straightfowardde creationnes and demande perfect alignmentte.

On to the subjectte of peoples in thine imagge.

Picturedde here, is Ye Very Olde Lumbridge Guidde.

Notice how we the main body is centrered arounde him and his little stande.

It is importante to capturre any pointtes of intereste or eliminatte them entirely.

For instance, some trees were behind the shotte, that could notte fitte into the shotte and had to be cutte from the shotte. Do not have incomplette objecttes in thine shotte.

The backgroundde here is also of notte. We could not get rid of the gloome and doome in the back so we incorporate it into the shotte, using the stark barren landscappe as a contraste to the brightnesse in of the Guidde.

Seen here, is a Lute Hero and...some maddemanne on a soappeboxxe.

Forsooth!

This imagge capturres motionne better than any other seen thus far.

With the maddemanne raising his arms and sticke to preache moare about some or other jabberwockey and the Lute Hero heroing his lute, it capturres the essence of motionne.

This imagge also showwes two figurres in the same imagge, both going about their wayyes.

Another issue here, is our previous lessone: Incorporationne.

If we moved the Orbbe around and tried to eliminate the backgroundde, the Leet Lutist wouldde have been obscurrede by native foliagge.

That cabbage and sette of goblinne bones in the backgroundde really screweth the shotte over in a multitudde of wayyes.

Finally, cramming all of the above into a single, tight space!

Observve: The Lumbridge Schoole for Aspiringge Adventurerres and Loste Drunkes.

Or, the LSAALD.

1. Our shotte is centrered.

2. Our subjects are in mottionne.

3. Our backgroundde fitteth the scene.

4. Nothingge importantte is obscuredde.

5. We give a fine glancingge shotte of sheeppe's posterior, for those with such tastes.

Thank you for reading this manualle. This manualle is only a starter on the queste for the perfectte shotte.

You know oweth me 52gp. The council doth no payeth me for myne work. Jerkasses.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Plagiarism Disclaimers

2010-01-02T14:08:00.000-08:00

I certify that the following blog entry is an original Timothy Gold work, and has in no way been lifted or borrowed from Merch Gwyar's posts on the 8th and 9th of December 2009 or Timothy Gold's posts on the 2nd of January 2009. Any resemblance is purely coincidental.

Anyone who says otherwise will be slapped on the wrist.

Anyone who survives will be glared at.

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!
OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!
OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!
OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!
OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!
OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!
OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!
OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

Something something about time taken to do this yadda yadda.

Of High Explosives and Electricity

2009-11-17T06:13:00.000-08:00

Much of my time previously was spent fishing. Sharks and all, bought a Blessed Spirit Shield to replace the old Dragon Square. Stats on the Spirit Shield are only marginally better but I'm using it as a stepping stone to the faraway Dragonfire Shield.

On a side note, while typing out this post, this happened:

Right afterwards, the patch after the Magic update occured. Odd.

Either way, I bought a Dragon Platebody to help with my goals.

The Champion's Challenge Goals.

3 down, a dozen champions and 10 scrolls to go.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Villomis

2009-10-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

Those goals of pushing certain skills a few levels up into the next tiers?

Dropped 'em.

'stead, I put 3 days into Fishing and drawing. It's a new hobby and fishing + drawing fit together incredibly well. Picked up 83 Fishing today, so there's a consolation for dropping the others.

I also nabbed 70 Magic after a day of Soul Wars. I hate Magic.

I rather liked the rewards from the Ardougne Diary. JaGex is coming to their senses and giving useful rewards in their quests and diaries. I understand the need for balance between usefulness and access to an item but some rewards are just outrageously stupid.

Thankfully, those 3 days of Fishing nabbed me about 3.5 million. I love that green '10M'.

Poked around and found my total wealth to be 49.5 million. A few more sharks and a week of inflation will bump it up to 50. I'll take a save a screenie of it and wait for JaGex to kill 76king and give my money some value once more.

I'm also changing my name back. Red Vektor is kinda dumb.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Increasingly Random Post Titles

2009-10-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

My 99 Attack was a long term goal. For the first 3 months, I'd take maybe 200k worth of time off to train per week. Things stirred up when some friend maxed out her melee and another got 99 Ranged and Fletching at the same time so I began pulling weight out of jealousy.

I have the attention span of a small rodent. I'll detail one of the best training areas for higher level melee in RuneScape, the disadvantages and advantages that come with it and how to do it successfully.

Soul Wars

I damn well nearly got my level 99 here. Before this, there were Pest Control products, but those are all but dead. Nowadays, we have Soul Wars products. Soul Wars is a minigame in which you trade your Zeal, the reward for experience, charms and pets.

The main advantage of Soul Wars is how little attention it takes. Perhaps half of your time will be spent in the waiting room. I was able to bring most of 95-99 Attack at Soul Wars. Soul Wars experience ranges from 60k and an hour to 75k an hour excluding experience gained from mass murder perpetrated in the minigame. For me, that may add up to 90k per hour at level 98 Attack with all the killings.

The experience reward changes as you level up, higher levels yield greater experience. From 90 onwards, Soul Wars is a prime method of training. 60k+ per hour with minimum attention is quite good. Anywhere below and there will usually be better places in which to train.

Soul Wars is best utilized at higher levels, unless you're looking for something new.

The main issue with Soul Wars is winning. I can safely say any permanently used world in which Soul Wars is played has all game fixed to win for a specific team. This team is usually a team of level 120+ players who reside in their clan chat. During lategame, a caller, usually the current leader calls out the next team to join. Join the team with the high levels.

They have developed tactics to counter this. Unless the game has just started, you must pay full attention to the waiting room. I'll take the W2lostsouls clan as an example for now. They reside in World 2, almost all games fought against them are lost. The requirements for joining are 125+ combat and 70+ Slayer. Fairly steep.

The main counters used are the rushes. If you're not paying attention, the entire clan may rush at the last minute and charge at the other team, leaving anyone not focused on the losing team. Fake rushes are oft launched, too. All clan members traditionally stand at the far back of the waiting room. When a fake rush is launched, the clan charges toward the door, this drives some people to think it's a real rush and leave the team and run toward the other.

The clan does not exit, sometimes, one or two members will be sent to run at the other waiting room too give the impression that high levels are making a rush. If someone leaves the room, their priority for the game is destroyed and they stand little to know chance of entering a game. If they wind up at the other team, they will be driven to the losing team.

In other cases, the clan may simply form a death dot at the bank and wait at the bank for the game to start, this happens rarely and is easy to spot. Right click in front of the bank chest to search for high levels. Another factor is chaos. Most people who play Soul Wars are savvy enough to join the team with the most as this is where the clan and, presumably, the winning team lies.

If many people are running back and forth and you don't see too many 120+ in the rooms, check the bank. Should something like this occur, wait for the game to start. The clan usually picks the losing team at the start of the game and turns it over.

If the clan pulls off a convincing rush, it's best to watch who's leaving. Sometimes, clan members may send up to 8 members to run to the other team at the time, if executed well, it gives the impression that only one player has left. The pile in front of the door is usually too large in which to find anybody but poke there, too.

Whatever you do, park yourself with the clan. Clan chats are usually open and if you poke around for a few seconds, just follow the purple dots. Be sure to get in and out, you will be kicked if someone sees. Also, when entering a clan chat, do it in front of the door on the side of the waiting room, the large pile makes it harder to locate you.

Once the game starts, you can relax. Players who leave the game are not allowed to rejoin the current game. Stay in the waiting room at all costs. You can expect to join within the first 13 minutes of the game and once you're in, proceed to do as you please and let the big guys do the heavy work.

Rewards from Soul Wars are plentiful and at levels 90+, great for any of the skills available. Hitpoints, Prayer and Magic in particularly good here, you can train Hitpoints at a similar rate to Attack or Strength at high levels with 60k+ per hour. Soul Wars makes Prayer cheap and Magic less tedious.

The main advantage is how little work you need to do. Bring all of your best gear, Barrows is recommended as you may only lose 25% of the status per day at most. You can freeload, though it is discouraged. The activity bar in Soul Wars must stay full and the best way is to heal teammates, each bandage refills half of the bar and this is what most freeloader do. Dying also refills half or more and combat in general provides a steady rise to the bar.

Your main goal in the game is to keep the activity bar filled, once it runs out, you risk getting booted from the game.

Building up zeal is a good idea for the more patient as cashing in 100 zeal gives you 110 zeal worth in experience.

Most importantly, have something else to do while waiting. Reading or listening to music is going to keep the boredom off.

On the other end, I've set a goal to bring all skills at 67+, 77+ and 87+ at least 3 levels. I've already bumped Ranged to 80. Fletching, Firemaking, Magic and Woodcutting are on the way. I have the wallet needed to pull this off quickly enough.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of the Titanic Roulette

2009-10-03T13:15:00.000-07:00

Tiz said he liked the song.

After getting 99 Attack, I wound up in the same predicament I was in before I took up the Attack goal seriously: I had no goals. In 2 days, I've spent 3 hours logged onto the game but not doing anything. 3 hours is worth a Hitpoints and Ranged level or over 500k in sharks.

I'm testing out 99 Fletching. I never took the skill seriously before, but now it calls out. It's an apparently easy level 99 with no real work. I did a bit of number crunching. According to the guides, the recommended method was to cut and string yew longbows followed by selling them. I poked around and noted that I'd lose close to 700k from 77-99. That scrapped the whole cut and string method.

I looked into stringing them alone. This bought in a profit and was slightly better than cutting alone or cutting and stringing. This is my method. I may move on to Magic Longbows later on.

I want trim for my cape. The main problem with stringing bows is that it's quick. 12 seconds per bow. I need to constantly pay attention for maximum efficiency. The other solution is to cut unstrung bows with a Sacred Clay knife and use them as junk to loan out my Godsword to people. It worked but people will only take so much at a time.

I did look into other skills for a 99. Something non combat and not expensive. The list was narrowed down to Thieving, Fletching, Fishing and Firemaking.

I could afford Firemaking. But it was too boring and clicky for my tastes. Experience is good, even at Maple logs. The cape had a nice emote to go with it, to boot.

Fletching didn't strike me as likeable. I only used it in passing as a tool to relax. Experience is fast and it turned a profit. It was just too annoying to bank constantly.

Fishing is a rather slow option and is boring but gives me a change to read or study. It was also pure profit and processes were simple with little banking.

Thieving wasn't all that profitable with Pyramid plunder in mind. Experience was easy and things were too clicky.

This cut it down to Fishing and Fletching. Fishing is my source of money and I'd prefer not to hate the skill too much. Fletching was an easy one, judging by how common it was.

I just also finished my test run. It wasn't too bad. If I set a quota of 1.5k - 2k bows per day, I might have it in a couple of months. Somehow, I was able to buy the unstrung bows and bow strings at minimum price. I can understand the bows but not the strings. Oh well.

The bows sell fairly quickly on the Exchange, most often within 10 minutes. This may actually work out for me.

What better way to get rid of the stress from one level 99 than with another level 99?

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Red Vektor

2009-10-02T09:28:00.000-07:00

I changed mah name to Red Vektor. I like the word Vektor and red is the colour of my pet, my outfit, my cape and now, my name.

The colour of my cape.

Red.

Not white.

Not black.

Red.

99 Attack came in today. The original plan was to get it via lamp from the Fremennik Diary. I picked up the lamp last night, knowing it couldn't be banked. I'd rather keep it in the inventory until the level came, 250k experience later. Turns out, you can't bring non-combat items into Soul Wars. Burned the lamp and added the experience to Attack.

The cape completes my skilling outfit. I think that's enough level 99 for now. Strength is next on the list, possibly Cooking or Fletching. I did forget to turn on Runescape HD's fullscreen for my level, too.

Ah, well.

I maxed out a skill. A combat skill, fourth most common skill. It's not bad. It's a good day. Got 120 Combat, 1675 total and 99 Attack in one go.

Later, at Tears of Guthix, the 129 tears bought in 55 Herblore.

I should be happier. Just that school starts on Monday. My internet died and I should have gotten the level yesterday. I'm actually one day behind schedule. It was fun getting it but taxing.

Got some tips for someone working on a 99 skill.

1. One level at a time, don't set your objectives from 70-99. It doesn't look good.

2. If you want to, reset your objective halfway through a longer level, once reset, it takes less experience for the bar to move forward. The point is to give the illusion that it's going quickly.

3. Remind yourself of what you want. The cape, the emote, the achievement. There's a light at the end of that tunnel.

4. Have people cheering you on. Friends and such. Notify then of any level ups. Their congratulations may spur you on.

5. Take regular breaks. Try to avoid stopping entirely, but if you feel like quitting, spend some time off and do something fun.

6. Set a quota for experience per day and strive to meet it. Go over your quota if you feel like it, but it's good to tell yourself you're done for the day and can relax.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Moonraking

2009-09-26T14:27:00.000-07:00

I got level 96 Attack.

And 97.

Yay.

I want more. 422k till 98 As of this typing.

I train at Giant Spiders in the Stronghold with a bunyip. I train at the Armoured Zombies with a bunyip, super set and Piety. I train at Soul Wars when possible for the opportunity to get 63k experience per hour and some nice mass murder.

Good stuff. These methods are very similar. I hate them all.

Soul Wars forces me to wait in a waiting room, lest my priority to enter a game gets destroyed. Zombies make 220k+ cash per hour, on average but takes loads of attention and spiders are annoying. They hit me on occasion.

Stupid 99 Attack.

Of Timing the Run

2009-09-10T09:56:00.000-07:00

The new Development Diary. Now in condensed form.

Let's get some facts in.

1. No level 90+ Slayer Monsters this year.
2. There's gonna be a rebalancing of the Triangle. Large amounts of time invested. Possibly stretching through next year.
3. JaGex is looking to expand on dragon colour variants.
4. There's a greater probability of Magic Armour reducing damage than offering bulky defence.
5. The level 80+ Armour and Weapon sets are released after the rebalancing.
6. Sailing skill is just a rumor. Get over it.
7. No Farming in Stealing Creation.
8. Pets are gonna remain as they are, providing very few benefits.
9. High level dungeon, vibrant bosses and possibly great rewards planned.
10. No plans of allowing runes to be retrieved after minigame combat.
11. Level 80+ Requirements for next Grandmaster quest.
12. Achievement diary set with set bonus.
13. Too early to tell when combat triangle will be rebalanced.
14. Slayer update with a small but nice item.
15. New entries for major quest storylines in foreseeable future, therefore; within 6 months.
16. Duel Tournaments, Gnomeball and Barbarian Assault updates have not been forgotten.
17. Sliske in quest possibly in near future.
18. Skill updates through next year.
19. More focus on higher levels.
20. Plans for future landmasses exist. Only in concepts. Probably available by 2010.
21. Balance between Pking and skilling is being achieved.
22. More high level items that require actual skill rather than money.
23. Skills with little to no uses at higher levels to be upgraded first.
24. No more Grand Exchanges.
25. No skillcapes for free players. Ever. Get over it.
26. Idea of replaying quests without reward is in mind.
26. That tab will be revealed by September.
27. Plans for truffles were canceled.
28. Bug fixes in construction 'fore new content.
29. Large, high level dungeons with a team mechanic planned.
30. Indicating banned friends and friends with chats open to you is planned.
31. Major rewrite of the hiscores.
32. No mounts in the foreseeable future.
33. New woods are planned. Not redwood and cherry.
34. No current focus on a Bandos Helmet.
35. Dragon Warhammer will be released at some point later on.
36. Updating more useless skills like Mining and Smithing.
36. No plans to add a full refund for minigame rewards.
37. Prifddinas is massively huge. Expect with a Grandmaster quest.
38. No re-releasing holiday items.
39. There will be an option to have member's items seperate from Free-play items. Possibly a seperate storage box.
40. Maximum experience and level cap unlikely to rise. Too many gaps already.

So, I'mma try and set up a timeline.

1. Within the next three weeks: a small Slayer update, useful, apparently. 14-31 September. The new tab is to be revealed by September.

2. That kudos island isn't gonna be around for a while, probably next year.

3. Elemental Workshop quest, sometime next year.

4. A new quest, available to free players and members alike, by 2010. The word 'hopefully' was used, so I'd peg the time of release at around this time next year.

5. Possible plans to improve drops for older bosses.

6. Bloom and particle effects for magic spells in prototybe phase. I figure about November before they're released.

7. Updates are planned for Mining and Smithing with possibility of dragon armour smithing. Methinks we'll have it in late 2010.

8. The end-game, team based dungeons with really big hitpoint counts and rewards, alongside level 80+ armour and weapons could be released at the same time. A Dragon Crossbow is in the works. All of this may appear in a God Wars Dungeon scale update after the triangle rebalance.

9. New newbie tutorial quest launching very soon. I'd shoot for an October-November release date.

10. Perhaps new holiday event, small ones for the regions of the planet. Expect around the holidays. Duh.

There. The really big Diary in 40 simple facts and 10 speculated release dates.

I got 95 Attack and 89 Hitpoints. Within 48 hours. I'm a Soul Wars product now. So shameful.

I love the new Hand Cannon, it appears perfectly balanced and all. Slow, hard hitting and accurate with a chance of epic failure. I don't care about historical accuracy. Runescape happens in its own time period, the first real life hand cannons appeared around 1200 AD. That is, at the same time the knights were around. Swordsmen, pikemen and hand gunners fought alongside.

The balancing and all makes sense. A valuable player killing weapon.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Armoured Superiority

2009-08-21T04:20:00.000-07:00

Soul Wars is spearheading my way to 70 Summoning. I want those birds. Also, viva la Bork. 41 Gold Charms per 4 zeal at my level is pretty damned good.

Visited a friend's 99 Ranged and Fletching party.

Ran into a level 24 at Soul Wars who just got 95 Hitpoints.

Also dropped off the fully grown squirrel in the menagerie. I wish you could build 2 menageries.

Got 69 Summoning.

Of Bad Blue Lightning

2009-08-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

That set if Lord Marshal came in last Monday. Today's Mobilising Armies update allowed me to sell all of my previous rewards, get my Warrior's Ring enchanted and buy the best Quest Kit out there.

The Menagerie update also gave me an incentive to close off the 3 levels of Summoning I had left and get all the God birds. Once you add a pet to your house, it automatically begins wandering around your house. I'd love to see that happen, I'm raising another squirrel. Pity I set the first one free.

Also, while cutting Teak logs for the menagerie, I somehow got two bird's nests in one inventory. Nice.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Feeding Thineself

2009-08-09T06:02:00.000-07:00

I still don't see why people don't use a crystal bow. Is it because of the recharge?

The damned weapon has greater damage than Rune Arrows no matter the charge, it has range longer than anything else. It's also 4 times faster than the Dark Bow. Fully charged, it beats out the Dark Bow and Rune Crossbow. Only at 2/10 does the Magic Shortbow with Rune Arrows match up to it.

I like to think most people are simply afraid of the initial recharging costs to get it. So was I until I tested it out. The experience from it isn't cheap. Only slightly cheaper than rune arrows. Fortuitously, the bow came along just as I was planning a trip to the Fight Caves.

The last time I attempted it, I had 68 Ranged and hoped I could get it. 70 Ranged passed and went. Now a friend of mine with significantly lower stats got it right so I'll see if I can pull it off via the Power of Jealousy.

I figured if I went all Ranged with a Crystal Bow and Rune Crossbow, I might make it to beat up that pile of rock at the end.

I've also taken to lending my Godsword to people. 30k per hour. It's probably the cheapest out there. I need more junk.

Thought for the day:

The good excel. The great excel even in death.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Mizzling the Drizzling

2009-08-04T13:15:00.001-07:00

It's boring what with school back.

I procrastinated my way through a science project so this frees up time for RuneScape once more. I'm starting to de-stress.

My 99% on a recent Economics test, 92% on Math and 5% on an Afrikaans have improved my spirits.

The last really is bad.

I'm playing Mobilising Armies. Join "Fast Ma"'s clan chat for...fast Mobilising Armies games. You can get 5 ranks in 20 mintues if things go well. I figure I can get my War Chief's outfit by Saturday.'

Regards, Boombaye1

Of xTreme Improv

2009-07-17T03:35:00.000-07:00

I've run some tests with Irene. The Godsword cost me 20.1 million, it might as well be versatile.

Test 1: Cutting small things.

I started off with a watermelon, diamond, pineapple, orange and cabbage. My theory is that the Bandos Godsword's special attack should be able to effortlessly tear through these ingredients for my stew. The diamond ? Oh, sliced diamond adds texture to any meal.

I dug up some interesting uses for the Godsword.

So I made the cut. I needed a target before using my special attack so a nearby spider kindly err...volunteered.

Quite fun, once done, I brushed the spider's smoking carcass away and examined the results of my experiment and whether I would be required to order takeout tonight.

Results?

Orange - Sliced and diced, devoid of dangerous contaminants. Success!
Watermelon - Neatly carved into 3 equal parts. Success!
Pineapple - Diced, not what I was hoping for. Failure.
Diamond - Turned to flour. At least it looks like flour. Don't breathe this. Failure.
Cabbage - What cabbage?

Fruit salad at best.

Test 2: Slightly larger and smellier things.

The remains of my previous experiment were only enough for a fruit salad so I needed some actual food.

Sushi time.

I took the liberty of preparing a shark, tuna and swordfish for diner. Gutted them and all that. My theory is that the shockwaves from Godsword Special Attack + Piety would neatly slice up these fish.

The spider's wife kindly volunteered for the next test.

I examined ground zero and found nothing.

Results?

Shark - Vanished
Swordfish - Vanished
Tuna - Vanished

Utter failure. I also cracked some tiles. At least the spider family doesn't have to cremate the family member this time.

Test 3: Hot beverages.

I dig mah tea, yo! As a player originating from a country which has had some British influence over the past 100 years, I am required by law to enjoy tea.

I got some water, and planned to boil it with my Godsword. The tea leaves are just there for a size reference.

Some nearby goon assaulted and murdered my test subject, a nephew. So I got the uncle over here. *shwing*

Inconcievable! The massive heat and pressure has warped the carbon structure of the bucket into a bowl! Oh, and the water was boiled.

Results?

TEA!

In conclusion, the abilities of the Godsword are endless. Warping things, making things vanish, cool effects and making tea. It's a warrior's dream!

I'm gonna have to order pizza. Fruit salad and tea are not enough to satisfy my hunger.

Mebbe I should try slicing pizza with my Godsword!

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Godswords and Their Strengths

2009-07-16T12:53:00.000-07:00

I've finally been drawn into this Godsword craze. I can see why it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

Allow me to elaborate.

>
It's great for cutting zombies.

It's great for cutting moles.

It's great for trimming weeds and spiders AT THE SAME TIME!

It has all the attack styles so you can cut in different ways !

This sword is really good at cutting things ! And life in general. If the cows complain about their status, begin cutting ! If General Graardor gives you a funny look, make his knees regret the day they were born ! If you need to perform a tonsillectomy, use the Armadyl Godsword special !

AWESOME !

Regards, Boombaye1

Of a Triumph

2009-07-15T12:17:00.000-07:00

I'd like to dedicate this poem to Irene, my sweet, my love, my Godsword.

You changed my world with a blink of an eye
That is something that I cannot deny
You put my soul from worst to best
That is why I treasure you my dearest Irene.

You just don't know what you have done for me
You even pushed me to the best that I can be
You really are an angel sent from above
To take care of me and shower with love.

The market crashed and all that and I gave in and bought the sword weeks before it hit it's all time low. I coulda gotten it for a few million less but I caved. Her luscious curves, her gleaming spirit and her awesome destructive power called to me.

So yeah. I need mebbe 4 million 'til I can get my Whip, Amulet of Fury and Dragon Sq shield back. But the drop in prices will do well to aid this.

Check the chatbox.

Fun fact: If I had 99 Strength, all possible Strength boosts barring a Salve Amulet or Black Mask, I have just enough of a maximum hit with an Armadyl Godsword special attack to kill myself in one hit.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Samus' Reserves

2009-07-11T04:23:00.000-07:00

They hype from Mobilsing Armies has died down enough for me to enjoy a game on a Mobilising Armies world, I got my Serjeant rank and now I need the Commander's clothes 'fore I stop and get back to the usual.

Also, Mod Nexus stopped by at Mobilising Armies after the update and said something about a solution to the 26k trick.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of the Piranha Gambit

2009-07-09T06:50:00.001-07:00

I had an argument with myself today and we had to end our friendship.

Check the picture for details*.

Regards, Boombaye1

*Details may not be pretty

Of the Things that Don't Grow on Trees

2009-07-09T03:35:00.000-07:00

I love this minigame ! It's awesome ! I'm awesome !

The Notes function is real nice, I loves it.

Also, I got a buncha levels and got rich, too ! 13 million coins. If I don't get a Visage drop, I'm buying the damned shield.

And that song Waiting for Battle in Mobilising Armies is epic.

Too bad when I put that song on a loop, it stops playing for 5 minutes and then randomly starts again.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of the Sounds of RuneScape

2009-07-04T13:38:00.000-07:00

I always play with sound on in the game though I frequent areas of the game with generic music. As I type this, I'm looking through the list of tracks and playing the ones that sound interesting.

I found that the vast majority of tracks suit a certain mindset. These hundreds of tracks are rarely listened to by us, most are supremely well composed. We players are a fickle bunch, we don't truly care about the hours of work the audio teams at JaGex put into their songs and move on with our own choices, I acknowledge that we should listen to what we want to but there exist 599 tracks for a reason.

Many of these tracks are only ever used once, during some obscure quest or in the far north-east corner of the Wilderness. If only JaGex would update their tracks and add some sort of playlist options, a list of favourites and such. There is an empty space for button on the bottom left in smallscreen mode, might as well fill it up.

I'm also posting my favourite tracks.

Fruits de Mer
Labyrinth
Breeze
Soundscape
Scape Summon
Dogs of War
The Mentor
Corporal Punishment

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Literary Abandonment

2009-07-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

Sweet mama Peru ! According to this Developer Log, posted on 26th of June, Mobilising Armies will be with us in a few weeks.

Only 7 months overdue.

I've been anticipating this moment for months. My computer's cooling went wonky and had to replace a fan.

I also love Fishing, made over 2 million off sharks so far. It's far more soothing than Woodcutting.

In other news, I can hit 10 million coins within an hour. Fishing and all that.

Also, the Dragon Longsword kicks the Dragon Scimitar's ass. When on Aggressive mode, I hit just as hard as a whip, it's special kicks in 4 times per bar, hits often and harder. All of it's stats are superior to a Scimitar of the same and includes an option to stab.

Also, the Longsword is cheaper. 50% so.

It's just a little slow.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Canis Latinicus

2009-06-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

Win. I envy Tim's place for that reason.

I've had a sudden impulse to work on non-combat skills after the hours spent picking up 92 Attack. Out came the knife. I'm not far from 1 million experience in Fletching so I've taken up the knife and 5000 maple logs to get 75 Fletching.

After this, I'll have 75 Fletching and a stack of 5000 untrung maple longbows in my bank. They're worth about 730k all but nobody buys them. I'll ship them into the general store, should make a profit anyway.

Looked up the price on Wikia. I'll make a loss selling them to the store. Should I opt to sell these things to a general store, I'll lose an incomprehensibly large sum of 38k. 0_o

I also got 76 Fishing today and begun harassing sharks. Turns out, they're better money than Woodcutting Magic trees, even at level 76 against 88. The sharks don't make annoying choppy noises, I don't have to fight over their respawns and I don't need to world hop to find an empty world.

Caught 500 sharks. Sold them. I should get 80 Cooking and a set of Cooking Gauntlets to supply myself with big fish.

Also, I appear to be too lazy to close a 4.5k gap to 67 Magic.

No, I don't use Magic, why did you ask ?

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Kuudere

2009-06-26T15:04:00.000-07:00

So, I was visiting a Bounty World out of desire to unlock a music track when I went passed the ditch to build some potential and renew my memberships.

15 minutes later, this guy jumps me outta nowhere and starts attacking and harassing me so I head back to the bank, take out a dagger and some food.

Walk out, DDS the poor sod to hell and pick up the loot.

Turns out the guy I mauled with my gigantic 6% Earning Potential was my bounty target.

Yeah.

I was also assaulted by a unicorn in Stealing Creation and got 92 Attack.

Rather unfortunate business with Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. Hard to realize so many familiar songs were by this one man. All these songs I grew up alongside. Worse still, how Farrah's death was hardly noticed. My thoughts go out to these people's families for this ordeal.

Of Sactioned Resplendence

2009-06-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

No, I have no idea what the title means.

Whether such a title exists at all is debatable.

I've settled into my new computer, a beast of a machine. 9800GT, 2 Gigs of RAM and all that jazz. I was hoping for 4 gigs but that would mean the loss of Windows XP.

Unfortunately, I use this hulking monstrosity to play Runescape. The damned rig puts Fallout 3 at maximum detail with no noticeable slowdown and I use it to play RuneScape. This is the epitome of wasteful and awesome.

Internet is still capped.

I've stepped up training at Armoured Zombies with a Sacred Clay helm. Too bad the helmet seems to run out of charges within 50k experience. What's the damned thing made of ? Clay ?

Also, Barrows. It's awesome, I picked up 1.5 million at the cost of approximately 42k. Mostly paying for the first run's supplies. That's in one day*.

While typing that last sentence, I picked up a Champion Scroll from the zombies.

Lucky.

My first scroll was a demon. I went in with fire blasts and died. End of story.

In more interesting news, my membership is being canceled in 3 days.

In other interesting news, someone told my mother she could cancel my membership.

Regards, Boombaye1

*Dates, names, places and amounts subject to chan-wait, I lost the citation, where is it ?!

Of Percussive Maintenance

2009-04-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

I would like to formally declare Piscatoris the centre of not child safe weirdness.

In Piscatoris, pantless guys mocks you.

I'm pulling RuneScape back to the top of my priorities. Galaxy Online is a boring, waiting game. Like Travian or Ikariam in space.

Pirate Galaxy has a grind arguably worse than RuneScape. Level 10 can take a good 4 hours, if you're lucky. Exteel is just way too laggy for a third person shooter.

A close friend who dropped out for a good year came back, some guy broke into his account and got rid of his Tassets and Saradomin Sword. He's back around now.

That is all.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of The Lost Monarch

2009-03-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

I haven't been playing Runescape much since 2 weeks after my last post. Other games got in the way, Fallout 3. Battlefield 2. Galaxy Online. Exteel. Last Chaos.

Each vying for a place in my limited schedule.

I still log onto Runescape once or twice a day.

In the two weeks that I did actually play, I gained 72 Fletching and...something else.

Stuff I achieved since the last post which I may soon regret: So much.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of mah lazur

2009-02-02T09:30:00.000-08:00

I'd also like to take this opportunity to showcase my 1337 pr1ntscr33n 5k1llz.

No, I don't care if someone else simply took your name and did this for fun, it's hilarious and if my readers are as dumb as I hope they are, they'll believe it's you.

Soooo...nothin'.

Meh, my new school is made of pure win, it's no school. It's a park, 70 well-behaved students coupled with friendly students and 3 kids who play Runescape, it's a dream come true.

Little made it's way to Boombaye, though.

I relish the coming update, some good fun is innit for me. This Soul thing is interesting. More so than Jiant Slayar Monstars. Yay for combat. Now, yay even more for Mobilising Armies.

Stuff I achieved since the last post which I may soon regret: 64 Prayer and something else...

PS: I didn't post that just to make him look bad, that'd be silly willy.

Regards, Boombaye.

Of Planetary Collisions

2009-01-30T12:40:00.000-08:00

I'm hanging out at the Black Dragons with my mind resting on the thought of hunting down Iron and Steel dragons for the Visage. I've got the Saradomin Sword, let's kick it up a notch.

My 99 Attack goal stagnated when I decided to bring down those dragons once more but rest assured, it will come along after 85 Strength shows up.

The fact is, I stopped Visage Hunting at the Iron Dragons due to poor luck, I'm heading back there soon with better stats and more patience this time around. It appears that with a deeper understanding of game mechanics, I can get anything here done. I know much but understand very little. As such, I'm going to put more into this. I have a fine stockpile of cash with which to pull this off. The only problem is choosing a weapon. No whip. Dragon Battleaxe or Dragon Mace.

In other news, I'm unfortunately being transferred to another school. Big shot private school. Do not want.

Stuff I achieved since the last post which I may soon regret: 90 Attack, Lunar Diplomacy, 49 Herblore, 49 Farming after Tears if Guthix.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Helios

2009-01-25T13:14:00.000-08:00

I just read through my first posts and noticed my first hiscores picture. Here's another one that's more current.

I've looked at the changes over the past year, and I'm suitably impressed. No less than 300 levels in the year, even with a 8 month long hiatus of minimum playtime. Many skill have had their levels doubled over time. You can see Woodcutting taking it's place as a source of income.

Disappointingly, Strength has only ever seen 3 levels in a year. Elegant proof of how much I hate that skill. The most progress stands in non-combat skills. I don't know where or when Runecrafting ever leveled up. Smithing, the skill that started as my favourite which has lost that mantle to Attack, never really made progress. I should take time off to Smith. Prayer would see far more progress if it was cheaper. With approximately 4.3 million coins till 70 Prayer, it's not looking good. Most of my Woodcutting experience over these years has come from Magic Trees and Yew trees, so the money compensates for the few levels.

Even now, I still bow down to the task of money, I had my first Black Mask drop after about hlaf an inventory of monkfish but that could just be the luck.

My only real goals in mind for now are first 90 Attack, then 85 Strength, followed by a one-way trip to 99 Attack. I'm nearing the halfway point. Bandits have unfortunately made themselves a viable choice for experience though the cost of food is phenomenal.

I'm moving towards a Herblore level. And with only 5 songs until the Air Guitar, it's going to be a priority over these next few days. I'll pull off Spirit of Summer tomorrow and then if I could force my Hunter over the 51 mark, I could do Defender of Varrock and finally get the Air Guitar.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Seeteufel

2009-01-24T14:24:00.000-08:00

Well, after a good 30 days of work, toil and a little crying, I've cobbled together enough for the Saradomin Sword. At the cost of my Whip and a certain Dragon Square.

I've found it to be a good all round weapon in general and it matches well with the skilling outfit.

I signed up with a new 100+ clan by the name of Glory of Saradomin. Great bunch of high rollers. Hell, their entire clan has an activity system, be active in the clan, events are held daily, less activity, greater chance of getting the gem-toed boot.

In a word, I had some great fun with them.

I named my Saradomin Sword Kardiac. A KO with that thing is called Kardiac Arrest. Geddit ?

Special thanks to the penguin spies and the level 60 Summoning they gave me. I named my new pet squirrel Nightbringer.

Stuff I achieved since the last post which I may soon regret: Saradomin Sword, 89 Attack, 60 Construction, 60 Summoning, 60 Crafting, 58 Slayer, 74 Range along with 1 million Cooking and Fishing Experience.

Regards, Boombaye1.

Of a Minor Setback

2009-01-19T10:59:00.000-08:00

I was woodcutting earlier, on a PvP world.

Wearing most of the best stuff I owned, including and not limited to Guthan's Body and Skirt, Abyssal Whip, Dragon Square Shield and a pair of Dragon Boots.

Hilarity ensued.

Long story short, I'll never look at PvP world the same way ever again.

So, my mildly impressive 5.7 million was abruptly cut back to 4 million.

Yet in all this, I learned something. That my last 20 or say days with membership went rather well. I amassed the largest amount of money I had ever seen in my own bank. And most of all, I realize that having a good 2 million or so would be a good thing. With only mild cursing and a few less than savoury gestures, I merely bought back all I had lost.

Either way, I also tapped into a near untapped source of great money.

Aviansies.

The ranged experience is phenomenal and the money even more so, with only 2 hours camped out there, I raked in a spectacular 500k in cash. So, I've brought it into consideration as a primary source of money. It's for more dangerous but just as profitable.

And now I'm brought back to wondering: Dragon Platebody and Platelegs or a Saradomin Sword.

I can afford the repairs for my Guthan's but the idea of armour that doesn't need constant management is very tempting. I'll hold out for the Sword right now, the rest comes later.

Of Bucklers

2009-01-14T08:29:00.000-08:00

I buckled and lost.

I did capture this poignant scene before going down.

It took every nerve I had not to report the clown and once I realized I didn't report him, I also realized that I had willingly not done the right thing out of fear of retribution once more. Hence, I resigned and will now move on on my own. I will not hunker down to peer pressure once more and will carry on as I please. At many points, in real life and otherwise have I been pulled between what is right and what is socially acceptable. In real life, Right always prevailed and I should care to let Boombaye1 follow this example.

Oh, and to Sam: Use private chat, you got lucky.

Blargh, on the bright side, I hit my first 3.7 million. Somehow, I may have picked up some twisted responsibility and have learned to save my money. So, I may now be able to soldier towards that Saradomin Sword. In a word, I'm also pulled between Saradomin Sword and Dragonfire Shield. The Sword will give me a capacity to finally pull some Strength out but the Dragon Longsword is just as useful for said puporse. A Dragon hatchet is just as tempting.

The censor update isn't something I'm incredibly happy about. Being a teenager myself, I've tossed a few profanities at the twelvth graders on my first day of high school. It's all about context. Yelling out "Suck my ass, noob!" in a conference room is not a very charitable thing to do. There are times and places for cussin'. Runescape is not high on my list of good places to do so.

I find that exposure to swearing may prompt someone to do the same, it's not so much the fact that 9 year-olds don't know the word than they fear punishment for use of the word. Once others catch on, thery realize they may get off clean free with this and carry on to worse things.

After a run-in with Sandwich Lady at the trees, I realized that probably a year ago, I did an experiment which consisted of leaving a baguette in my bank for a month and then examining it afterwards. It's examine info still included the word 'fresh' even after one month made so little sense.

Though leaving my cat in there for 9 months without any attention may be just as baffling.

There is something wrong with this picture. The only hint I'll give you is that I'm the one wearing Guthan's, Whip and Dragon Square.

Stuff I achieved since the last post which I may soon regret: 83 Strength, 80 Defence, 57 Slayer, 73 Ranged, largest amount of money ever seen in my bank account.

Of Fluidization

2009-01-04T11:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm gonna list a few goals for this year and post a screenshot. It seems to have been such a long one, with me spending much of it as a non-member.

Goals for 2009:

99 Attack/Woodcutting
Dragonfire Shield/Saradomin Sword
Completion of Falador Achievement Diary

Simple enough, I need a level 99 in something. The Dragonfire Shield or the Sword will give me an edge in the fights and that Falador Tower Shield looks awesome.

As I type this out, I'm whittling away the remainder for my Strength level. I personally believe it's been a year since I trained that skill. With 13k till 84 Hitpoints, I feel somewhat relieved that I was able to pull off a Hitpoints level on such short notice. Either way. My new choice method of training Strength which is just an Obsidian Splitsword with a Berzerker Necklace allows me to hit just as high as I would with the whip and a Steel Minotaur at my side provides some Defence experience which I so devastatingly lack. An inventory of noted Minotaur Pouches and Lobsters ensure a long stay should the need arise.

Now, as to my goals for the year.

99 Attack/99 Woodcutting I simply feel due for some kind of level 99. I've been playing Runescape for a good 2 years now and I still haven't picked up any maxed out skills for which I happily blame my lack of focus and laziness. Attack has held the mantle of my favourite skill throughout these years as I personally think that there's no point in hitting hard if you can never hit. Woodcutting has been a faithful source of money for a while, sinc that day I discovered the joy of Yew trees, I could never abandon the idea of so much money. Even now, as Farming acts as a source of good, raw cash, I still look to Woodcutting for that quick pile of coins.

The Dragonfire Shield has been a long standing personal achievment set for myself as it is arguably one of th best shields up there. Not incredibly expensive, either. A Saradomin Sword will fill the void left by Skybreak's ultra expensive Bandos Godsword and as a valuable source of Strength experience.

The Falador Shield 3 A.K.A Falador Tower Shield is big, provides decent defences and looks cool. A must have for this and the next 28 seasons.

As for JaGex's year, I find that several parts of the game do need some improvement. A Slayer task I had earlier showed that Catablepons in the Stronghold of Security seem to have no attack sound effects or had their graphics updated.

I can see the Phoenix as a future pal. Rise from the ashes, set stuff on fire. It's a win-win.

I relish in the 5 minute till logout time, it'll allow me enough time to make a sanwich without having to run back to the PeeCee and click on the screen. I don't care much for the whole spellbook rearranging.

Stuff I achieved since the last post which I may soon regret: 88 Attack, 110 Combat, 55 Slayer

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Motivation and Debate

2009-01-03T13:48:00.000-08:00

My goal for now which should be reached within 24 hours is 55 Slayer. Not for access to a great method of completing the Barrows minigame but for a Leaf-Bladed Sword to match my skilling outfit.

This alone was enough to force me into pondering over what motivates us to pursue our goals.

Many half, new, quarter and full moons ago, I tried for 55 Slayer so I could handle Barrows, but now, I merely want a sword that looks good.

When I swell on it, I find that I would much rather pursue casual over more functional ones.

I spent the last months of my original Pay-to-Play career using a Dragon Scimitar as my primary weapon due to the simple fact that I wouldn't spend a couple days at the Magic Trees and get a whip, yet I gladly forfeited time to cut some trees for a set of Red Elegant. Mere hours ago, I considered a Saradomin Sword as a good alternative for training Strength but then noticed how well that sword went with that armour...

Hell, even motivation for updating my blog comes not from pride of my latest level ups but for a need to drive you lazy bums into thinking about something.

Earlier, I had a debate with a friend of mine who hated Summoning. her argument was based on the idea that Summoning gives 'fake' level A.K.A a lack of pride from self achievement and that it wastes too much time.

I retorted by saying that the only reason Summoning levels seem fake is because it's a new combat skill and therefore, easy to train. She fought back by saying that fake or not, you could merely be stuck on a skill and ask a familiar for help near instantaneously for help. My rebuttal came in the form of using the Exchange an example. If you're in need of an item, you can merely walk on over, place an order and immediately receive it.

Well, this isn't about how the debate went. This is about how useful Summoning really is. Sure, for higher level players, the easy levels may come too...well, easily, but when you think about it, had Defence been released after Summoning, you'd also have thought about how easy the new Defence levels are coming in.

Bleh. I'm bored and I want to get another level soon.

Stuff I achieved since the last post which I may soon regret: 57 Summoning, 47 Farming, 53 Slayer and I might as well add 88 Attack to the list as I'm only 64k away from the level.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Sunray

2009-01-02T06:36:00.000-08:00

In the last 7 days since I regained my so sought after membership, I've already picked up many levels.

Too many to list.

So, I'll just ahem, borrow the "Stuff achieved since last post" bit from every second blog and put it to use here.

But today's topic is the Godsword. I loaned one from a friend of mine by the name of Skybreak for 19 hours just to see what it was all about. Well, suffice it to say, it passed some expectations and simply didn't even get near others.

The Godsword is widely regarded as the top melee weapon in the game, rightly so as it has some of the highest strength and slash bonuses in the game and coupled with it's impressive speed, you have a very deadly weapon.

Each has a useful and powerful special attack and each is massively powerful on it's own, with or without the special attacks.

The amount of damage this weapon can deal per hit is normally enough of an incentive to buy it. I managed a 47 with Prayer and a little help from a potion on the normal attack.

Such things come at a price.

A high one, at the time of writing, the cheapest version of this sword goes at a staggering 15 million coins. That will turn off many potential buyers. It's ability to train all of the melee skills puts it a stupid ahead of the other contender, the Whip.

As I type this out, I realize such a weapon may not be worth the money as my staying power is drastically reduced by the lack of a shield. Against players, this is made worse as they seamlessly rip through my defences and carve me up like spring chicken.

My verdict is that I won't go after it, simply too low, cumbersome and it lacks the defence I require so much.

I'll fous on obtaining the Saradomin Sword for now, faster, looks more sleek and that much cheaper.

Summoning

13 days from now a year ago, Summoning struck Runescape like so many tornadoes. Players ran up to that guy's house to pull off the quest and get a head start. It was a new skill, anyone with a dual digit I.Q and a pile of coins could put themselves at the forefront of the Hiscores and reach the top for once.

At first, I didn't notice the cost of the shards, I merely wanted to be able to Summon my first Minotaur and feel complete.

Fat forward a year and I'm still in love with the skill, it's vibrant, colourful and those familiars have some of the best dialogue ever written.

I'm now at a good level 55 and still going strong.

I intend to slow down once I hit level 57 or 58.

My short term goal for now is 56 Summoning so I can access another tier of Minotaurs and the Ibis. I train melee vigorously nowadays to keep my stockpiles of charms high and mighty, my primary targets are still Crimson and Gold charms for the skill and I'm gradually working closer to that squirrel.

That is all.

Stuff I achieved since the last post which I may soon regret: 55 Summoning, 47 Hunter, 87 Attack, 83 Hitpoints, 46 Herblore, 58 Agility, 46 Farming, 86 Woodcutting, 53 Prayer, 51 Runecrafting, 63 Magic, 70 Fishing, 61 Firemaking, 57 Prayer and a personal record for the largest amount of money made in a week (1.1 million).

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Boombaye1 saying "I gots members bak on christmas pwn lol"

2008-12-25T13:45:00.000-08:00

The universe welcomed her back with it's mix of borderline mature players and a cocktail of fine items.

No sooner had she used her earnings to buy the Abyssal Whip she had so longed for, did she realise the truth.

Boombaye1 was broke.

Stupid economy, thanks for making my day and then ruining it !

Oh, we still have 12 minutes of Christmas left so: Merry Christmas and a Happeh nu yargh !

Regards, Boombaye1

Of MechScape Speculation

2008-12-17T14:37:00.000-08:00

Copied and pasted from a thread I made 'ere.

Hand written. Thanks to the miracle of caffeine !

Introduction
I'm not an overly experienced member here, my only posts were utter trash but being a registered sci-fi nut and Co-Founder of the League of Runescape Players Who Spellcheck and Don't Abuse Syntax and Grammar, I'd like to post my ideas for the possibilities of combat in MechScape.

Combat is an important part of an MMO, it allows us to gain skill, shoot stuff and vent our frustrations on lesser NPC type beings.

MechScape, judging from the name would have one assume it's Humongous Mecha on gargantuan flying surfboards dodging so many missiles that it shouldn't even be possible to house them all.

I have soemthing to say about that.

Much of the concept art depicted treaded vehicles and humans in armour.

This is where I make my move.

Armour.
I want to stress the fact that I expect you to start as an average human and maybe be able to pilot MEGAS XLR types later or as part of a minigame.

Therefore, in the future, suits made of strong, flexible and light carbon plastics would hold up well as a ranger's choice. Melee combatants (I don't care if melee sounds odd in a world where lasers exist) will carry bulkier, more cumbersome suits of ceramic powered armour that sacrifices speed and manuevorability for protection and sheer awesomeness. Melee takes strength. Micro hydraulics implanted in say, gauntlets of a suit will use said hydraulics to increase the user's strength ten-fold. Higher level powered armour may even offer speed and protection. Riot Shields could offer additional protection through the sacrifice of speed.

More agile hover vehicles should use the plastics. A hovertank could simply strafe their target to death. Heavier treaded tanks or APCs might include the ceramic armour. Humongous Flying Mecha could also use the light armour, might as well dodge them missiles.

Melee Combat
Melee is still feasible in this world through the use of think-headed guys in thicker armour stepping on tanks. Take a page from the Space Marines of Warhammer 40000 to get some good melee weapons.

I like dual wield. Use of twin longswords, however, should limited as in real life, you ever try to use 2 swords each as long as you are tall ?! A longsword and a dagger in the off-hand is more feasible, use the dagger t defend and or for a quick jab at the guy while he's occupied with the longsword or vice versa. Now, this may affect balancing since the guy might have access to to much firepower in a short time. That's why, we have Duelists. Duelists would be players who use a single 1-handed weapon to great effect, honing their abilities on 1 weapon may prove efficient against less well trained dual wielders.

As someone suggested in another topic, energy shields will work to close quarters defence. There are personal shields which wrap the user in a field and traditional shields used in the off-hand for defence. Personal shields should degrade after too much damage or have limited numbers of uses. Traditional shields may require recharging or repairs.

As you can see, even in this futuristic world, melee may have advantages.

Besides. Humongous Mecha on giant surfboards with dual wielding. How cool is that ?!

Ranged Combat
Naturally, MechScape needs a way for you to sever individual arteries in a target.

Ranged weaponry could be divided into categories; Light, Medium, Heavy, Specialist.

Light is composed of Pistols, Micro-Submachineguns and Carbines. Possibly used for dual wielding.
Dual wielding, short ranged combat and playing cowboy are where these weapons shine.

Medium hangs onto Assault Rifles, Rifles, Sniper Rifles and Light Machineguns.
Shooting stuff for the Average Joe. Good from medium to long range, these are your most practical choice for domestic ordnance.

Heavy pulls up on the idea of Energy Rifles, Heavy Machineguns Chainguns (not miniguns) and Grenade Launchers.
Short to medium range falls in love with this. And then turns it to swiss cheese with your neighbourhood laser guns and shooty dakka machineguns of infinite pwnage.

Specialist might have Rocket Launchers, Thrown Weapons (grenades), Flamethrowers and Emplaced Turrets and Weaponry. Orbital Strike beacons are optional.
No explanation needed. (only because I don't have one)

Combat could work in a way similar to the Ranged skill. Accuracy and damage are gauged through distance of the target, a moving target and user skill. All these dactors may complicate the game enough to discourage 10 year olds.

Dual wielding could only be used with Light Weapons. Dual wielding should double potential damage but cut accuracy by at least 30%. Dual wielding will not allow one to hit 2 targets at the same time. That's stupid and borderline impossible. Most specialist weapons may only be used in minigames.

Ranger armour would consist of light armour that allows for getting the hell outta there when things turn pear shaped.

Other Stuff.
As you can see, there is no triangle here. That's why I picture melee players as slower and bulkier, therefore easier to shoot. Rangers could have armour piercing weapons or cannons that fire tiny goblins through hell and into a guy's skull to combat armour and Warriors could put shields that dissipate weapons fire to use and even limited teleportation into play.

I commend you for reading this far. You deserve a cookie. A futuristic holo-cookie !

Groundbreaking Conclusion
This is gonna be awesome.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Morning Glory

2008-11-08T09:16:00.000-08:00

It's been a year.

I'll say it again, it didn't get through the first time. It's been a year.

This blog has, from slightly humbler than average beginnings, turned into something worthy of the ages ! Yep, I'm gonna see if I can write a single massive post. As many reviews as I could possibly cram into it within 5 hours along with some updates on RuneScape. I'm also gonna reminisce on what's been happening through this year.

Oh, and this blog has 120 posts. That's 1 post per 4 days. That's without updating for a good 2 months.

Portal: A Review

I praise Portal. Just like any other review for it's innovative gameplay, dark humor and well designed levels.

Pros:
Dark humor
Stimulating

Cons:
Short
Like, really short
Just so short
Easy, too

Story
There is no story. This game doesn't need one to perfect. A few tidbits left behind by another subject and the junk GLaDOS spews at you is plenty. Eventually, you should be smart enough to realize something is very wrong when nothing alive is watching you.

Graphics
A notch above average, the art direction is at least somewhat fun throughout. A bit bland when you consider most test chambers look the same. Graphics are shiny here, there and everywhere. Just like Half-Life 2, Portal has lenient system requirements and will run on most PCs. Real pretty for a game in which most rooms are blue and white.

Sound
This is where the game starts to shine. Wonderous voice acting from Ellen McClain gives life to those adorable turrets and GLaDOS, injecting most of the grim humor into this game through her snarky remarks and marvelous charm. Music is a dark, mysterious type of ambient stuff. Sounds are well done.

Gameplay
The Portal Gun. It's all that one needs to make this game perfect. The whole concept of walking into a wall then falling out of the ceiling followed by shooting upwards towards the ceiling and follwed by using momentum gathered to fire out of a wall through an energy barrier. Most of the game is just one monstrous tutorial that readies you for the last few chambers. With plenty of fun with physics and being flung out of walls through walls makes this something new and fun.

Pros
GLaDOS may be one of the greatest female antognists ever. Her dry sense of humor and habit of helping and very well trying to kill you make her that much more charming than anything ever released. Every turret is adorable. They cry when brought down, they coax you out into the open. They make you feel sorry for killing them.

Cons
It's short. I was at level 18 out of 19 within an hour. Test chamber are real short.

Really, really, really, short. Really.

The fact that I made it to level 18 out of 19 within an hour means it's easy too. The myriad of challenge and advanced maps grant you several extra hours even after you're done with the story.

Overall
Forget about this. Just go and buy it ! If you already have it, play it !

Half-Life 2: A Review

Half-Life is well known as a straighforward, action orientated first person shooter. Go here. Shoot this. Die. Run from this.

Pros
Pretty water
Pretty
Level design that's near legendary
Gentle on any rig

Cons
Zombies are just so realistic
Dumbest allies ever

Story
You're Gordon Freeman. You're awakened into a post apocalyptic future/present and sent on your merry way. You meet old friends. Kill one or two ugly things and end up starting a war against the local evil overlords unintentionally.

Graphics
Pretty water and light effects with wonderful ar direction throughout. From the graffiti on walls right down to the hideous enemies you deal with, art direction is quite original with an Earstern European style running from border to border.

Sound
Voice direction and acting is intriguing , everywhere you go, someone has something to say. Every weapon has a kick to it, no matter how often used. You don't talk. At all. Alyx's man of few words comment in the beginning is an indication of this.

Gameplay
This is where it shines. Half-Life 2's level design is spectacular at best and impresive at least. From the zombie infested mining town of Ravenholm through Highway 17 and into prison complexes, old and new, this game surprises you at it's every turn with object palcement and sheer creativity. Squad AI is smart enough to make a beeline for cover and dumb enough to run headlong grenades. Ammunition must be preserved and the Gravity Gun will accompany you through the areas where you can't use average gunfire. The physics in Half-Life 2 are great. The Gravity Gun is a nod to this as you can very well soar through much of the game througj it alone.

Pros
Whereas the ID engine deals in shadow, the Source engine renders massive areas in flawless perfection. Water is wonderfully detailed. The light system requirements mean your computer is under less stress and performs well on most rigs, even at higher details.

Cons
The zombie's groaning is unnverving at any rate. Oh, and in later stages when you're forced to baby sit a squad who run into grenades. Into machine gun nests. And don't do anything other than apologize when they're in your way means you'll rip out your hair in sheer frustration at them.

Overall
I highly recommend it. Wonderfully designed and built, it has many things a proper first-person shooter should

Evolution of the Blog.
As of now, I'm running out of words in m vocabulary to stay with the reviews. So we'll leave them for now.

I originally started The Bored Runescaper as a way to display my achievements and adventures in RuneScape. This blog has evolved onwards to Musings of a Small Mind. With reviews, rants and the occasional useful thing, this blog is something I've wanted for some time now: a journal.

If one reads from the first posts, one may even see the evolution of this blog and watch it mature.

Refer to post 2 for an immature rant. Back when I was just another noob. I see myself looking on in a more mature way, offering proper opinions instead of just 'lol'.

I also see myself as a snappy dresser.

RuneScape: A Review

Where there are games, there are places where player do stupid stuff, kill stuff and avoid the real world.

Pros
Broswer based
1.3 mb download
Impressive Java graphics
Great variety

Cons
Weak graphics in when compared to others
Addictive
Immature playerbase

Story
You're an adventurer. Is that enough or shall I list the birthdays of everyone who plays this game ?

Graphics
The graphics of RuneScape push the envelope on what is possible in Java. They are incredible for anything browser based. Fully 3d, dynamic shadows and more. Runescape is what the Browser based MMORPG should be. The only complaint I have is with Runescape, I set the bar too high for future MMORPG reviews.

Sound
The sound is rudimentary at best, with few effects for most actions. Music is a different story. With no less than 570 songs, RuneScapes music is vibrant, well crafted and that much larger than anything I've ever seen.

Gameplay
Gameplay is where this game shines beautifully. With addictive gameplay at every turn, a slew of skills, quests and other things to build your character on. Setting personal goals for yourself merely adds to the fun. The world isn't small considering what it can offer. The game is updated no less than once every 2 weeks.

Pros
The fact that it offers full 3D graphics for no large download on your broswer should arouse most into registration

Cons
Graphics seem dated when compared to other superior games and do seem pixelated at times. Addiction poses a problem and RuneScape has her fair share of mishaps and scandals. The fanbase is made up of mostly teenagers and pre-teens. The game offers simply chat. The game is big. Hilarity ensues.

Overall
Highly recommended for gamers on a budget. Well presented and almost child friendly.

The stupid spellchecker doesn't work. There will be many errors in this post. I apologize.

Evolution of the Character.
I was introduced to RuneScape via Miniclip. Ironically, I consider myself a slightly more mature player who was introduced via Miniclip. Boombaye was the first account I ever made. He is lost to the winds now. I resent the 1 after Boombaye. It's not what I wanted. I registered in late December of 2006, missing out on the Christmas event. I headed out back of Lumbridge Castle and trained. I just killed goblins by the truckload. Eventually, I met my first random event and became hooked to these events.

Boombaye1 evolved from a mere reason to test the waters of RuneScape into a full-blown main account. I am proud of her.

Naturally.

So.

What you see is a very long post, dedicated to my first year, reviews and a little update.

I'm far from gone in RuneScape. I've picked up 85 Woodcutting, which may very we;; be one of my greatest level yet. Because for the first time in ever, Boombaye1's highest skill level is on par with her highest combat level. Impressive for me.

I expect 59, possibly 60 Firemaking by the end of the day. Rapidly (by free world standards) closing a 45k experience gap towards 86 Attack. The first combat level I'll gain since leaving members. Elegant proof of how long I've been gone. An additional 71 Cooking and 50 Runecrafting have been achieved with 37k left on the way to 70 Fishing. All this in 3 days.

Need I remind you: This is a free world.

With Christmas en route, I'd like to take a moment to remember something incredibly stupid. The fact that I want to give my friends gifts. The last gift I gave was a Dragon Spear to Megs60 1 day after Christmas. She's long gone now. I wish JaGex would let us give gifts. Just for 1 day.

The polar ice caps are melting.

By this time in a few years, Santa will die from that.

THE BLOOD OF SANTA CLAUSE IS ON YOUR HANDS !

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Bernard Pivot

2008-10-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

The Bernard Pivot Quiz, take it at yer own risk, lads and laddies.

1. What is your favorite word? - Love

2. What is your least favorite word? - Oops

3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? - Colours

4. What turns you off? - Discrimination

5. What is your favorite curse word? - Arse, only if spoken in a British accent.

6. What sound or noise do you love? - Birds chirping

7. What sound or noise do you hate? - A baby crying

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? - Photographer

9. What profession would you not like to attempt? - Truck driver

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? - Uh-oh, wrong guy.

Post yer own answers nao.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Ye Olde Smackdowne

2008-10-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

I wander between my games, my latest be Titan Quest, I wanna make it through the entire game without dying.

That don't mean I I didn't play RuneScape for a week.

Stupid Runecrafting.

It was my original reason for getting back.

It's my original reason for getting off.

I did get my 1000th post on the Titan Quest.net forums.

That's mah first 1000th post !

I like my print screen key. It serves me well.

Racecar is just racecaR spelt backwards.
Tacocat is just tacocaT spelt backwards.
Dog spelled backwards doesn't prove the existence of anything

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Returnance

2008-10-06T09:27:00.000-07:00

I'm back on Runescape. Somewhat.

I've had my fun. Got a few levels. Got bored. Started blankly at the pretty Runecrafting Staff and the high level needed to actually get into the stupid Guild.

Of Mount and Blade

2008-09-20T15:29:00.000-07:00

I've managed to get myself hooked to yet another game.

Mount and Blade, a little known singleplayer RPG developed by Turkish developer Taleworlds has me on the edge of my seat.

This thing is entirely medieval, somewhat realistic and you don't see guys in glorified bathrobes tossing fireballs.

You don't even get health potions.

Nope, M&B is all about the moment, this is the first game I've played which has an excellent combat system. If you're into third person action of shooters and RPG, you'll be into this thing.

As the name suggests, you'll be relying on your horse for travel and combat.

Pros:
Great combat system
Takes mounted combat to new extremes
Freeform

Con:
Graphics feel 2004ish
Music can feel 1965ish

Gameplay.
The Gameplay itself is immersing, you'll be too busy madly hacking away tiny, lesser, shorter enemies to care about the graphics. Picture this: Your horse just got killed, 3 heavily armoured raiders are closing in one at a time and your shield is broken. Are you gonna worry about the slightly weak backgrounds or that big guy with the sharp bit of metal coming at your face ?

Battle Tactics.
Just like chess, easy to learn, hard to master. If you're not gonna use a shield, you'll have to learn how to parry. When I say parry, I mean run away because if they manage to get close enough for you to need parrying, you're in it deep. Nudging your mouse to the left will make your next strike one that swings from the left.

Graphics.
Not bad by MMORPG standards. This isn't an MMORPG. They ain't good but give the developers a break, if I game and developer I've never even heard of can waste 7 hours of life without a break, then these guys deserve it.

Sound.
One particular piece seems so familiar yet so old. I heard it in an old Tom and Jerry cartoon. Sounds seem so familiar, nothing new here besides screaming.

Short review, eh ?

I just wanted to get started on writing sort of a basic guide of this.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Stuff I Am Not Making Up

2008-09-18T06:22:00.000-07:00

Copied and pasted from Tvtropes.org.

World War Two

November 30, 1939: the Soviet Union invaded Finland and promptly got their asses handed to them. Let me run that by you again: the Soviet Union, the largest military power in the world, invaded Finland, who had gone through a civil war just 20 years earlier, and suffered what this editor consider to be the most spectacular military defeat in modern history. The fact that the USSR had just executed a large amount of high-ranking officers didn't help. You can check That Other Wiki for details.
- Probably one of the most unbelievable details of this war was that when Finnish soldiers saw tanks coming over their defenses, one of them would run out with an anti-tank mine and set it where the tank would land on top of it.
- What's even more unbelievable is that Finland lost. They ended up ceding say 10% of their population and much of their industrial capacity in the peace treaty that followed. They could inflict 6-1 losses on the USSR but that just shows that even the greatest victory can be a pyrrhic victory. The USSR could have kept it up and Finland knew it.
- Finland managed two stunning victories in World War II. Having made a separate peace with the Soviets having mostly given up, Germany declared war. The Finns, outnumbered 200,000 to 60,000, against what was still considered man-for-man the best army in the world, having just beaten off the Soviets in the Continuation War and while demobilising their armies, threw the Nazis out. Let's just repeat the demobilising bit again: by the end, the Finnish armies had been dismantled until there were something like 600 soldiers active left, mostly inexperienced recruits, and they still won.
- This is the same war the featured Simo Häyhä, who is generally considered the greatest sniper in the history of warfare, with a grand total of 542 confirmed sniper kills (!) (in some cases racking up more than twenty-five kills in a single day) and another two hundred kills with a Suomi 9mm submachinegun.
- Even though they were on the side of the Germans for most of the war, hundreds of Finnish and Russian Jews served in the Finnish Army alongside German units. Several were awarded Iron Crosses; they invariably declined.
  - Come to think of it, the Winter War and Lapland War probably come under Crowning Moment Of Awesome...
- In all fairness, the Finns had Christopher Lee, before he went off to spy on the Nazis.
  - Christopher Lee, who admitted in his autobiography to having never shot a bullet during his time in Finland.
  - You say that like it's a bad thing. Put another way, Christopher Lee defeated the Soviets with his bare hands!
  - Christopher Lee, who when filming his death scene in Lord Of The Rings told Peter Jackson "I know the sound a man makes when he's stabbed in the back."
  - Gulp! Somehow I doubt PJ asked for the details.....
The MacLeod clan has a flag known as the An Bratach Sith or Fairy Flag at a castle. When waved, it's supposed to magically summon an army of wish-granting elves to save the world. This was actually considered as a countermeasure if the Nazis invaded the UK.
- "MacLeod" also means "son of ugly people".
As part of the Wizard Wars — the back-and-forth competition of radar, radio and other largely top-secret gadgets, the German air force developed a nighttime navigation system based on crisscrossing radio beams. A pilot would fly along one beam (using sound in his earphones to know he was on course). When he crossed another beam, over his target, the sound would change and he would drop his bombs. The British warped the beams and caused the Germans to heavily bomb empty patches of British countryside.
- Later, the British tried the same method themselves, but started by deliberately leaking it to the Germans. The Germans jammed the beams (which were not being used) for six months, concluded it wasn't working, and gave up. Then the British started using the beams, successfully.
Early in the war there was an "air gap" in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean where u-boats could operate without having to worry about land-based aircraft. One scheme to deal with this was to build half-mile long aircraft carriers... made of ice. Codenamed Project Habbakuk.
- Its worth noting that these Carriers were to be made out of Pykrete, a substance which consists of 90% water, 10% woodpulp, and is STRONGER THAN CONCRETE, and due to the thickness of the carrier's walls it would essentially have been immune to everything except nuclear strikes and melting (though it could survive months at the equator with little structural loss.)
  - Reportably, the Admiral pushing this idea brought a sample of Pykrete to a meeting of the Allies naval chiefs, and to show it's strength, pulled out a pistol and shot the block. The bullet rebounded and punched a hole in Admiral King's pant leg, barely missing the leg.
    An aid outside the conference room: And now they are shooting at each other!
Another strange British World War II weapon project: The Panjandrum, a project by the Admiralty to create a device powerful enough to penetrate the Atlantic Wall. How? By placing around two tons of explosives in a drum with two huge wheels on either side that have rockets strapped to them, producing a contraption that wouldn't look out of place in a Wile E. Coyote short. Suitably, when it was finally demonstrated in front of Royal Navy officials, it failed in a spectacularly cartoonish fashion, inspiring a Dad's Army episode decades later.
- Though it's generally believed to have been part of the part of the Allied effort to convince the Nazis that the D-day landings would take place around Calais since it would have been spectacularly and obviously unsuited to the beaches of Normandy.
The Blitzkrieg tactics employed by Germany in 1939/1940. The idea of a single nation (one which little over a decade previously had been in complete economic ruin) conquering and actually holding most nations in Europe in a matter of months is stunning by today's standards. Just imagine how it must have seemed for those for whom the trench warfare of World War One was still fresh in their memories.
- This was probably the main reason the blitzkrieg worked as well as it did. Outside of Germany, military tactics hadn't really moved on from 1918.
  - Oh they had. The polish, facing a larger and more powerful german army, developed a number of highly successful tactics to stop the Germans. General Stanisław Maczek, a general who had never lost a battle against the Nazis despite the country losing the war, submitted a report to the french on how to counteract the blitzkreig. They took it, and filed it away. The nazis found it unopened. Plus the counter strategy was pretty simple. Hit the undefended supplies from the side.
  - Or not. In fact the first successful use of what was later termed "blitzkrieg", consisting of heavy all-armoured attacking forces followed up by infantry and watched by close air support took place in 1938 and 1939...in Mongolia. The Red Army utterly trashed the Japanese, putting such a fear of the USSR in Japan that they never tried to attack even when it looked like the Germans had them on the ropes a few years later. The two campaigns have been called the most important battles of the Second World War that no one has ever heard of.
- Not to mention the fact that France had built the Maginot Line, which had been designed to repulse large, slow troop movements. The fact that the Germans could move their soldiers and equipment around the areas where the artillery cannons would land their shells is the "intelligent" part of the reason for their success. The "dumbass" part is that the French simply assumed that no one would dare attack the line and left most of the fortresses on it unmanned or manned by troops who couldn't take their duties seriously... and ran for Paris as soon as the Germans actually showed up. Napoleon must have been spinning in his grave.
  - And the even stupider part of this is that France didn't bother to extend the Maginot Line past the French-German border... even though Germany went through Belgium in World War One and didn't hesitate to go through Belgium again in World War Two.
  - "Annals of a Fortress" a history of siege warfare by Viollet-Le-Duc discusses fortifying France's entire border with Germany, dismisses it as impractical and stresses the importance of mobility instead. It was written in 1874.
On a more optimistic note: the Dunkirk evacuation. The rather shocking success of evacuating over three hundred thousand soldiers in nine days-and the fact that any and all boats that could possibly make the trip were called into action to help with the evacuation, among them fishing boats and all kinds of civilian crafts-served as a much needed morale boost after losing the Battle of France.
- The "miraculous" part is emphasized by the fact that the experts who planned the operation didn't expect to rescue a tenth of that number of troops.
- An additional bizarre irony is that 1940 the majority of Americans were bitterly isolationist, feeling that Europeans has betrayed the sacrifices made by American soldiers in World War I by starting another bloody squabble only twenty years later. The melodrama of the heroic defeat at Dunkirk convinced many in the United States that there was something in Europe worth defending. This allowed the American government to offer aid to Britain and start a serious rearmament program, actions that might not have been possible if the invasion of Belgium and France had ended in an allied victory or a stalemate.
- This troper remembers being taught that by all rights, the Dunkirk evacuees should have been massacred- except that Hitler decided to halt his troops, for no discernible reason.
  - The 'discernible reason' was that Hermann Göring, Hitler's Air Force commander, wanted to show off by bombing the city into submission, since a land attack would have resulted in weeks of heavy street fighting, and high casualties on both sides. Göring steadfastly refused to allow the Panzers surrounding the city to move in and steal his glory, despite his planes' complete ineffectiveness in stopping the evacuation. Finally, after almost everyone had been evacuated, Hitler allowed the tanks to roll into a nearly empty Dunkirk.
  - Another factor was Hitler's desire to make a separate peace with Britain so he could concentrate all his energy on conquering Europe and the Soviet Union. It didn't work, obviously.
In that vein, 1991's Operation Solomon, El Al's Crowning Moment Of Awesome. Talk about standing room only...
The Spanish government during the WWII, lead by Generalissimo Francisco Franco that accused a Jewish-Freemason conspirancy against him led efugees from occupied nations to use them as a transit country to flee. The unbelievable?they where refugees from Axis Countries!, mostly Jewish
Among the weapons considered to be used against Japan were bat-bombs: cages filled with live bats to which small incendiary bombs were to be strapped. The idea was that the 'bombs' would be deployed during nighttime bombing missions, with the cages set to break apart in midair and release the bats. When morning came, the bats would come to roost inside the wooden buildings around the major cities of Japan, after which the timed incendiaries would go off and set the buildings ablaze. They were tested once, extremely successfully, but never deployed.
- This was the inspiration for a large portion of the plot of Sunwing, the sequel to Silverwing.
- The plan was cancelled after a series of comical disasters — during the first test, several hundred bats were released in midair, but they had been kept cold to stop them moving and failed to thaw out before they hit the ground. In the last straw for the army, two bats were accidentally released with live bombs at an airfield, which burned down.
Another animal-powered weapon developed against Japan in WWII was a bird-powered smart bomb developed by behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner. It consisted of a window on the front of a bomb that had three pigeons behind it. The pigeons were trained to work buttons or other simple, peckable controls connected to the bomb's guide fins so that their target stayed in the window.
- Actually the device worked by training the pigeons to peck at an aerial photograph of the target (say a battleship or carrier) in order to receive grain and the window itself was then wired up to the weapons fins; If the weapon drifted to the right, the pigeons would see the target was off centre, peck to the right of the glass and so steer it in that direction and so on. They had no clue they were trained to operate anything, they were just pigeons who knew they got food for pecking at a certain image. The most tragically funny bit was that the pigeons were conditioned to expect more grain the closer the picture got, so if the weapon had ever been used the last thing to go thought the poor birds minds before they slammed into a boat and exploded would have been "Whoa, I'm eating really well tonigh-"
Similarly, the Soviets used dogs in WWII to attack tanks. They were trained to expect food to be found underneath the bellies of tanks (where they have less armour) and then released onto the battlefield with mines strapped to their backs which were triggered when they went under a low space. The problem: they were trained using Soviet tanks. When released onto the battlefield, they would ignore the German tanks they had been aimed to destroy, and run straight for the Russian ones... Despite this, they were successful in destroying around 300 German tanks.
The Japanese Navy actually managed to stage a single air raid against the continental United States in 1942. A lone seaplane launched from a submarine flew over western Oregon and dropped a stick of bombs, setting off a forest fire. The results were so negligible that the US was unaware of the attack until after the war.
Marginally more effective were the 'Fuji' fire balloon bombs, large paper balloons carrying incendiary bombs released into the jetstream in the hope that the would land in the US and go off. Over 9000 such bombs were released. Several large forest fires were started this way, and a handful of American civilians were killed by one bomb which they found and accidentally triggered. While the material impact was negligible, the US government was so concerned about the morale impact that they took strong measures to prevent the public from learning about them.
- More disturbing were the plans to change out the payload from an incendiary one...to a biological one.
The "baseball grenade", designed to be easier to throw for American soldiers (who would presumably be used to throwing baseballs). Once the pin was pulled and the device thrown, it would explode on impact. The reason it was never used: when its inventor demonstrated it, he did so by pulling the pin, throwing it straight up in the air... and catching it.
- In one incident, a former professional baseball player in the Marines caught and threw back five live grenades in a row — until the Japanese caught on and waited several seconds before pitching to him.
- The British "Sticky Bomb" was almost as daft, with the added bonus that it got used. An anti-tank device the charge was nitroglycerine and as such unstable. The "grenade" was not meant for throwing, you broke the fuse's seal, removed the casing and slapped the glue covered head of the bomb on the target whilst holding the glue free handle. You then ran. Problems included: leaking nitro, the fact that the fuse's seal was glass, the fact that the handles often came loose, the fact that some soldiers thought you were meant to throw them, the fact that the bomb often got glued to their clothes, and the fact that if you placed it the way you would place it naturally and ran away in a straight line, there was about a 40% chance that the handle would get blown out of the bomb and fly straight at the back of your head.
Three words: Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If the Western Front made people both soldiers and commanders painfully aware of the magnified horrors of modern warfare, this is what drove the point home, with two instances of a single bomb flattening an entire city, killing tens of thousands of people and leaving fallout radiation that still kills people to this very day. It also had a powerful effect on works of fiction, but that's for another trope.
- More chilling than that: we'll never know the complete death toll from the bombs, but the worst-case estimate is still less than the calculated death toll from Operation Downfall, the planned land invasion of Japan. Yes - removing two cities from existence with nuclear weapons was the less destructive option.
  - The calculated death toll was as convincing and accurate as Iraq having nuclear weapons. The nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were Not Compensating For Anything. (Do I win bonus points for a pun?)
- Oh, and Nagasaki? Had everything go wrong that went right at Hiroshima. Nagasaki wasn't even the originally intended target. It was the secondary target to Kokura, the primary target and the original secondary target to Hiroshima.
- At least nine people are known to have survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. One of these was a man from Nagasaki who was in Hiroshima on business when the bomb fell. Escaping the devastation, he made his way home over the next three days. He had just arrived and was in the middle of describing the bombing to his skeptical wife, when - you guessed it!
- On a related note, initial evaluations of the bomb severely underestimated the duration and spread of the radiation it would release. As such, early reports of radiation burns and radiation-related illness among survivors of the bombings were dismissed as Japanese propaganda... and it took three years for the US government to get around to checking and confirming that the stories actually were true after all.
  - Yet despite all the destruction and after-effects of the two bombs, both Hiroshima and Nagasaki are currently thriving cities with almost no trace of radiation. Apparently, after the US confirmed those stories, they took steps to undo the damage.
- And it has had one positive result. How many times since have nuclear weapons been used in a warfare capacity?
It is perfectly possible for (for example) a Japanese girl to have grown up in feudal structures with samurai as a high rank, living through the Meiji restoration and die by the Nagasaki or Hiroshima atomic bomb. All these things happening within one single lifespan.
- Just to emphasize this, this would be the equivalent of growing up in Europe with knights, castles, and feudal lords, and dying alongside television and Coca-Cola.
Two Words: Pavlov's House. A Soviet force made up of twenty-five men managed to defend an apartment building for two months against vastly superior Nazi forces.
- According to The Other Wiki, Pavlov's initial defense was four men. It took a while for the reinforcements to come with supplies.
The Holocaust. The very idea of extermination camps where millions of Jews were sent to their deaths seems so ridiculous.
- Holocaust denial. The soldiers who liberated the camps testify to it. The survivors testify to it. The guards testify to it. There are piles of photographic, video, and documented evidence that General Dwight Eisenhower personally ordered collected to its existence. The camps are still there. And yet there are still people who claim it never happened, or not to the extent commonly believed. There is no better testimony to the human capacity for disbelief and hatred.
- The only thing weirder than the Holocaust is that people knew about it and didn't care. Yes, the anti-Semitism of the time was strong enough that Hitler had several admirers in the US before - and probably during - the war.
- One might say the the lack of action is evidence of just how unbelievable it was. This troper have heard of groups trying to help the Jews who thought it was too far fetched!
  - During World War I, the Allies distributed propaganda in their homelands describing a similar persecution of Jews which didn't happen at that time. When news of the Holocaust got out, many reasonable people did think they were Making It Up. It wasn't until the Allied armies liberated the camps that the evidence became overwhelming.
- Four words: Voyage of the Damned.
D-Day and the coverup. The Allies conducted Operation Fortitude to deceive the Germans - and succeeded so well that the Germans didn't believe in the real invasion until it was too late!
- Even more impressive was a British agent code named Garbo, who was awarded an Iron Cross by Germany for his efforts in Operation Fortitude. He also convinced the Germans to pay a pension to the widow of one of his dead agents, both of whom were fictional.
- In another win for British intelligence, they managed to identify and turn every single German spy in Britain during the course of the war. The Germans never figured out their agents had been compromised and turned against them.
Related to D-Day, the Germans had some massive, powerful Panzer tanks at their disposal on D-Day that never got used, because Hitler had decreed that they could only be deployed on his personal command. Unfortunately, since the Fuhrer hated being woken up from sleep, his cronies were too scared to disturb him so he could give the order when the attack came, and the tanks never got used.
Jasper Maskelyne, the 'War Illusionist', was a stage magician who worked for British Intelligence during WWII and who together with his team, the 'Magic Gang', applied the techniques of his trade to massive-scale deceptions and camouflage including disguising tanks as trucks and trucks as tanks and building fake bases, battleships and railways, even whole fake armies and navies.
When this troper first heard about the Japanese war crimes in Korean and Manchuria, disbelief first popped up. But yes, there were camps to test chemical weapons on Korean POW's, mass rape of Chinese women and head-chopping competitions.
- One particular death camp was called Unit 731, one of several secret installations of the Japanese guandong Army in Manschuria that Japanese officials still do not like to talk about today. It employed physicians whose medical experiments on Chinese civilians (either captured or living in cities in the surrounding area) and prisoners of war from several countries have earned them the name of Japanese Mengeles. Chemical and bacterial warfare (typhus, anthrax, pestilence pathogens, delivered either through grenades or infected animals), the effects of hypothermia and pressure variations on live subjects, vivisections, weapon tests, you name it.
- You know what the worse part is? The Japanese government has yet to apologize for any of this. Unlike Germany who apologized for everything!
Navajo Code Talkers. The world was saved by a secret code based on an obscure Native American language that to this day has yet to be broken.
- Three details; one, the Navajo language is almost untranslatable on its own anyway, and is one of the hardest-to-learn modern languages on the planet. Two, almost no one anywhere had translators for Navajo; in fact, the missionary schools active in the interwar period on the reservation actually tried to wipe out the language. Three, the code was based on a key letter replacement of the Navajo language that required the speaker to be fluent in both English and Navajo, so even if someone knew the Navajo language (and a few American citizens who were in the Philippines when the Japanese invaded did), the code remained gibberish. The Navajo-speakers in the Philippines were subsequently tortured for information, which they couldn't provide.
- The Red Army (you know, the little guys who actually were saving the world, while Yanks were doing nothing, being so safe behind the ocean) sometimes also used obscure languages as codes. This troper remembers an old WWII story about a Russian soldier and his Kazakh friend. The Russian learned the Kazakh language from his friend and used it as a code.
Jimmy Stewart rose, by merit, from private to colonel in 4 years (and afterwards, to brigadier general). Yes, that Jimmy Stewart. And he was humble enough that he refused to allow his military record to be used in advertising for the movies he starred in afterwards.
The wreck of the RMS Lancastria. Two weeks after Dunkirk, the ship was evacuating British troops from France when it was destroyed by a German airstrike. More than 4000 people died (more deaths than on the Lusitania and the Titanic combined, and one third of all British losses during the evacuation of France), but the Ministry of Defence hushed it all up for the sake of morale. It was the single worst loss of life in British maritime history, and the bloodiest single engagement for UK forces in the whole of World War II. Nearly 70 years later, the Ministry of Defence still refuses to make the site a war grave and has shot down pretty much any proposal that would allow the disaster to be commemorated. It remains a more or less forgotten tragedy.
Some planes (Such as the American B-17 and P-47) were so heavily overbuilt that large numbers of them came home with so much damage as to stray far into I Am Not Making This Up territory: Some B-17s had huge gaping holes blown into them that one could drive a car through; Some P-47s flew so low above the ground that they came home with branches and sections of telephone poles embedded in the fuselage or wings; one P-47 even accidentally collided with a grove of trees...and made it back home with only a damaged engine cowling!
- One B-17 was rammed (from behind) by a German fighter. It staggered home, and only after it landed and had to bear its own weight did it break in two. A similar incident happened to a P-38 that collided with an opposing plane. The pilot radioed that he was bailing out, but arrived home several hours late.
- Regarding the P-47, the story of Robert S. Johnson is one of particular note- a German aircraft (flown by a guy who only died after 102 kills) attacking him basically riddled Johnson's plane with bullets, but the P-47 kept flying. The Allied pilot only survived because the German ran out of ammo and gave up.
- Additionally when Johnson did come to land the P-47, he attempted to count the bullet holes in the plane. He gave up when he reached 200 which included twenty-one 20mm cannon shell impacts without even moving around the plane.
In February 1942, a man in Oregon claimed to have seen a Japanese plane in the sky. It's still unknown just what, if anything, he actually did see, but the result was that people all over the west coast, already paranoid from the attack on Pearl Harbor, got all their guns together and kept shooting into the air at nothing. By the time the truth became known a few hours later, they had expended thousands of rounds of ammunition.
Although the numbers are by far not as mind-boggling as those in some of the other examples above, this troper thinks that the rescue of the Danish Jews still falls into this. Basically, a tiny country says NO U to one of the biggest, cruellest war machines in their day.
While many people know about the battleship Bismarck, fewer know about its bigger sister Tirpitz, a ship whose mere existence paralyzed Allied shipping in the North Sea out of fear of what would happen if it ever left the fjords of Norway. You see, after the Bismarck sank, the Nazis realized a huge, expensive battleship on the open seas might as well have a bull’s-eye and “Drop bombs here” painted on it and sent it to what was considered permanent shore leave. Tirpitz made only three sorties and never managed to attack anything, but that didn’t stop the British from spending three years and executing numerous operations to sink the damn ship. Midget submarines attaching explosive charges to the underside of the hull? Check. Numerous airstrikes? Check. The Nazis eventually gave up on the ship after it was hit by a five ton bomb and moved it to a location where it could defend Norway if the Allies ever invaded. Two more air strikes and the ship finally sank.
- Part of reducing the Tirpitz threat? The St. Nazaire Raid. Sailing an explosive-packed ship up a channel into a port in Western France, with the intention of ramming, then blowing up the gate of a dry-dock that could take it. Through a massive bunch of German artillery. With a commando assault for distraction purpose. It actually worked, resulted in the awarding of five Victoria Crosses and was dubbed "The Greatest Raid Of All" by Winston Churchill.
- To top it off, the bomb (the fuses were dodgy) went off late, just as a German officer was wondering why anyone would ram a dock gate with a destroyer. Bits of people were found 400 yards away.
Speaking of big ships, Japan had three really big ones. The Yamato and Musashi battleships had 18 inch guns and weighed over 72 thousand tons, larger than everything existing today bar US super-carriers. The third ship, Shinano, was going to be another battleship, but was converted into a super-carrier during construction. It was moving to another shipyard for finishing when a lone US submarine, the USS Archer-fish, sank it. A submarine with no previous kills. The Shinano might have survived, except: 1. it had a crew with no knowledge of damage control, 2. the captain recalled his escorts from attacking the Archer-fish, thinking the sub was a decoy with more subs out there and 3. at one point, he took a zig-zag route to shake the imagined fleet, only to turn right back into the path of the Archerfish.
- Also, Shinano was kept so secret, US naval command had no idea it even existed until after the war, believing Archerfish took down a carrier 40% the weight of the Shinano.
- 4. That finshing work the previous troper mentioned? It was the ship's water-tight doors that needed to be added.
  - Heh. That's nothing : the Japanese Navy also had 3 ''Submarine Aircraft Carriers''. That could go anywhere in the world and back without ever making port to take on fuel - since of course they were diesel subs, too.
American mutilation of Japanese war dead. Several American officers who wore Japanese body parts on their uniforms were shot by their own disgusted troops, many of whom had participated in earlier and lesser atrocities.
The Home Guard. Britain's anti-paratrooper force, founded after Dunkirk, made up entirely of men too young, too old or otherwise disqualified from military service. What this ended up amounting to was a force of mostly pensioners armed with army hand-me-downs and some of the most terrifying makeshift weapons you will ever see.
During the invasion of the Netherlands, the German army aimed to take over its major military airfields by landing troops directly on their respective runways. Most were well-enough defended that the piled-up wreckage of German aircraft made it impossible for the rest to land. In the three days it took to conquer the Netherlands, 125 transport aircraft were destroyed and 47 damaged, representing 50% of the German transport fleet.
Come to think of it, all of World War II can be considered an I Am Not Making This Up. Just look at the numbers.
I read somewhere about a submarine sinking a transport carrying trucks. When it then went up to the surface to check, it was hit by a flying truck and was destroyed.
Probably one of the fastest ever genocides was the Ukraine Genocide. Ukraine wanted to be an independent nation, so what did Stalin do? He just closed all the borders and shipped out all of the food, creating a forced famine, and killed 1 million people in 9 months! (If not more; check T'Other Wiki.) Soon after that ended, Nazi Germany came in, and killed some more of them, just for good measure.
- Because of the former, the Ukrainians initially welcomed the Nazis.
Nimitz and Mac Arthur: During the war, the Pacific Theater was divided between Admiral Nimitz and General Mac Arthur, with each having complete command of all forces in their area (no matter the service).
- Marines and Sailors hate each other? Well, during the mid years of the war, William Randolf Hearst penned (under a pseudonym) an editorial saying that Nimitz should be sacked and his command put under Mac Arthur, because ‘Mac Arthur gets things done.’ The result? At least one California newpaper office flooded by marines protesting the treatement of their commander.
- When Nimitz was promoted to five star rank (officially one day after Mac Arthur), the members of a machine shop in Pearl presented him with the never made before five-star rank insignia. A while later, they met face to face, only to have the meeting delayed as Mac Arthur scrambled to have his own insignia manufactured.
- Things got bad enough that late in the war, basic communications between commands became strained. At one point, an order to not transmit routine arrivals of naval vessels was interpreted as to also not permit the communication of the non-arrival of naval vessels. The result, neither command even realized that the USS Indianapolis was missing for nearly five days.
- These inter-service rivalries outlasted the war by decades. A story is told of Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay hearing a subordinate's reference to "the Soviet enemy" and correcting him: "The Soviet Union is our adversary. Our enemy is the Navy."
To further note how bizarre some things were in pre-WWII America, and continue a point from earlier about Hitler's fanboys in America, there were actual Nazi camps in America before the nation entered the second world war. That's right, camps where people could go and live as the Nazis did, complete with celebrating under the swastika and even American branches of the Hitler Youth groups. Of course, once America entered the war and things started becoming public, these camps and organizations vanished nearly overnight.

The Cold War

The Davy Crockett nuclear recoilless rifle, a man-portable nuclear weapon with a dialable yield between 20 and 400 tons. The launching mechanism was designed to be either pack-carried or mounted on a light vehicle such as a Jeep. Intended as a last-ditch weapon for delaying a Soviet armored attack, it was essentially a suicide weapon: at the highest yield, the blast radius exceeded the firing range. Over two thousand were actually put into service from 1961 to 1971.
- No, no it wasn't a suicide weapon. T'Other Wiki has its range as 1.25 to 2.5 miles, depending on the launcher used, and its lethal radius as roughly .25 miles. Yes, you'd have a significantly increased risk of cancer down the road, but you'd get that from eating a banana. Its power was roughly equivalent to 10-20 tons of TNT.
- Regardless, the fact that the US Army built a man-portable nuke, that only weighed 70lbs, qualifies for I Am Not Making This Up.
  - This Troper simply assumed that they made that weapon up for Metal Gear Solid 3.
During the development of the Blue Peacock nuclear land mine, the developers considered placing a live chicken inside the mine casing; the chicken's body heat was supposed to keep the warhead from freezing and becoming unusable.
The 20 incidents that nearly started World War Three by accident. Includes nine separate incidents over a period of five days during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Clearly, we are very, very lucky to be alive today.
- And one of them happened in 1995.
The 1983 incident involving Stanislov Petrov. Petrov was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Soviet early warning system watching for a nuclear attack from the US. In September of 83, a new computer system showed a single missile incoming from the US. Petrov identified it as a computer failure, because an attack from the US would include hundreds of missiles, in order to cause as much damage and cripple the Soviet ability to respond. The system then showed four additional missiles incoming. Still, Petrov identified it as a glitch and did not verify it. Fortunately for us all, he was correct.
Acoustic Kitty was a project by the CIA to utilize cats as bugging devices against the Soviets, by surgically implanting a battery and a microphone inside a cat, with an antenna in its tail. After spending five years and over twenty million dollars in researching and building the technology, they sent it out on its first test run... whereupon it was quickly hit and killed by a taxi. The project was promptly abandoned.
Charlie Wilson. Not only single-handedly responsible for Afghanistan getting the weapons to turn back the Soviets, but convinces the Egyptian Defense Minister to sell him weapons with a belly dance by a Texan girl. And The Movie left out many of the juicy bits!
In the 1970s, concerned that the Soviets might be ahead of the US in "psychic science", the government convened Project Stargate. Two decades and millions of dollars were wasted reaching the conclusion that psychic powers don't work, which, frankly, they could have discovered much more cheaply. And people in the current government want to start it up again.
The Great Politics Mess Up. Seriously, two nations with their hands on the Doomsday Device button for nearly half a century and then one of them collapses without any nasty accidents/disgruntled generals/etc taking us down with them? This editor still has a hard time believing it.
- The fall of the Berlin Wall is a case in point. The final cause of its collapse- an East German Politburo member casually announces the border opening at a press conference and in his confusion (he'd only an hour and half earlier been handed the order) states it occurs immediately.
- It gets better. No-one saw it coming. Everyone had assumed the Soviet bloc would collapse far more violently than it did.
The Cambridge Five. The KGB ends up with a mole (Kim Philby) heading SIS's counter-Soviet-espionage division- and he could have headed the entire service.
- And the CIA's own Aldrich Ames, who was also responsible for ferreting out Soviet agents...other than himself, of course.
The Vietnam War, which is considered a Cold War Conflict due to the Truman Policy of Containment, took so long to come to a cease fire after it was announced because it took months to choose the SIZE OF THE TABLE!
An Israeli F-15 fighter landed safely after losing most of an entire wing during a midair collision. The American manufacturers denied it was possible until the Israelis provided photographs.
Joseph Stalin. He is a straight shot for the craziest person ever to walk the face of this earth. When Lenin died, he actually named Trotsky his sucessor and ruler of Russia, but Stalin got the info first, and basically lied his way into office. He proceeded to kill, maim, torture, and exile millions of people deemed "traitors".(i.e. anyone who talked ill of Stalin.) He was also paranoid, and tended to kill his own officers if they told him any "preposterous plans", claiming they were spies for the enemy (the sheer rate of this left the Soviet armed forces in poor shape in 1941). He had enough spies to populate about a third of the entire population of the USSR, and had them everywhere, meaning everyone soon became just as paranoid as Stalin.
- The fact that when Khrushchev came into office he immediately repudated everything Stalin did should tell you enough about him.
The Avro Vulcan and Handley Page Victor. Ever see a bomber do an Immelmann turn? They could.
During one of Soviet Russia's frequent attempts to copy U.S. technology, they reverse-engineered the Tu-4 "Bull" bomber from a B-29 that landed in Soviet airspace near the end of WW 2. In fact, they reverse-engineered it so perfectly, that there is only one perceivable difference between the U.S. version and the Soviet version; a small round hole bored through the right wing. None of the soviet designers had any idea what it was for, but they were told to copy the plane and copy it they did. On further investigation, it was found that the bomber had been shot at over Japanese airspace, and what they had replicated was, in fact, a single bullethole from a Japanese AA gun, to a degree of accuracy that they could identify the calibre of the round.

Read 'em and weep.

I'll get some more.

Of Gringo

2008-09-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

Ignore the title.

You'll want to watch this.

Aaaanyway, it's been a long month. A long, boring month. Life's passsing by, I dug up a couple of old games I haven't played, found one under the couch. Eh, well.

Short update, yes.

Life is so uneventful !

I might be orderin' the Orange Box.

It's hawt.

Not that I'll even bother looking at Portal.

On the bright side for you peoples, I could be reviewing those games.

Short update. Bored. Going to point and laugh at the Heavy Weapons Guy.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of The Movies

2008-08-14T09:09:00.000-07:00

It's been something of a either tough or incredibly annoying week for me.

Last Monday: Got sick with flu.

Last Wednesday: Got a cold.

Skipped all but Monday's school.

Last Week Sunday: Ordered The Movies online.

This Week Monday: Order Confirmed, just need to pay for it.

This Week Monday Slightly Later: Mother says I need to finish all the work I lost before I get The Movies.

Yesterday: Finished the last of that hell.

Today: Paid.

Tomorrow: The Movies !

The Movies is your average Tycoon game where you start small and build up like in Rollercoaster Tycoon and Zoo Tycoon.

You start in the year 1920 with only enough to get started with your own movie studio.

You have to build up your studio lot, sets and turn those wannabes into big time stars.

Fortunately for me, this was built around ATI graphics cards like mine so I'm able to turn all settings to high.

From what I have seen, there are some nice visuals and plenty of humor strewn throughout.

Of course, this brings what the sound is like to mind. The music is period music, in 1920, you start with some Jazz type stuff. All of this music comes from a radio with the occasional presenter chipping in to say something he thinks is funny with a few pieces of news based on real life events.

That's what I gleaned from the demo.

This is the second game I've bought after playing the demo.

I'm getting weak.

Regards, Boombaye

Of Tough Choices

2008-08-02T13:47:00.000-07:00

This is like the Red Pill or the Blue Pill.

No, wait, this is far worse.

You have to eat Arby's every single meal for the rest of your life.

The Beach Boys' Song "Good Vibrations" is stuck in your head every single second from now until the day you die.

You develop an incurable condition where your hands are constantly covered with itchy, painful sores prone to bursting and leaking large amounts of pus.

You develop a singular fixation on talking about the history of ventriloquism when in the presence of the opposite sex.

You have in insatiable craving for fresh clams every waking moment of your life.

Your arms and legs are switched but you are in otherwise good health.

You mistake every non-white person you meet for Lou Bega and feel compelled to ask for an autograph.

Giant swarms of angry insects follow you wherever you go, biting, stinging, and vexing you to no end.

Something about the sound of your voice causes people to instantly lose control of their bowels.

Something about the sound of other human voices causes you to instantly lose control of your bowels.

You permanently lose all sensation in your genitals.

You gain heightened sensation in your genitals, but it is a sensation of unrelenting grief and despair.

Whenever you talk, live shrimp begin crawling out of your mouth.

Whenever you talk, you speak as an unparalleled expert on Japanese animation, but you have absolutely no idea what you are saying and can never truly enjoy or take pride in your wisdom.

You get $50,000, but you have to spend two years eating only cottage cheese and ketchup packets.

You get $50,000, but you have to spend one year wearing sweatpants and you have a boner the entire time.

You are convinced that you are in a musical and sing everything, even though you have the voice of a young boy going through puberty arguing about Transformers on Ventrillo.

The entire world thinks that you are a rapist, though you suffer no legal repercussions.

You have to work the word "herculean" into every single sentence you ever speak or write or your loved ones will all die horrific deaths.

Your senses of taste and touch are reversed and you spend the rest of your days getting punched and force fed sauerkraut.

Your entire music library has to consist of nothing but TV show theme song compilations.

Your entire music library has to come exclusively from Starbucks.

You constantly excrete a foul-smelling paste out of two discreet ducts on your forehead.

You have to constantly chew tobacco at all times or you will die.

You become convinced Leprechauns are trying to steal your wealth and dignity and lose sight of the important things in life.

You spend the rest of your days as an asexual libertarian string theorist with a blog.

You get $250,000, but you have to spend a year living inside an iron lung.

You get $250,000, but you have to save and store every ounce of your urine for one whole year.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Company of Heroes

2008-07-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

Great game, I'll tell you what's good and not about it.

Pros:

Incredible Graphics
Immersive Gameplay
Deep Strategy
Great Sound
Physics
Individual AI

Cons:

Takes a Big Rig
Repetitive Gameplay
Plenty of Micromanagement

Let's start with the pros, we've all seen WWII games, how many times have we charged ourselves or our troops up to The Shingle ? How many times have we gotten behind that Panther to hit it's rear armour ?

To many to count.

The graphics on it's on is more than enough to drive you into purchasing this game.

Dynamic lighting, shadows and gritty gameplay add to this. You'll see explosions of varying sizes lead varying amounts of flying dirt and debris. The infantry units alone have no less than 500 animation...each.

Immersive Gameplay

Don't ask. You'll be so focused on one point that you may even forget that there is actually a another world called RL behind you. The great sound makes things that much better.

Deep Strategy

You blew up a tank, you for you, there's a tank carcass sitting there, who cares ?

Your enemy infantry charge up, stand behind the tank husk and use it as cover.

Your squad, out in the open with no cover gets shot to pieces.

The environment is fully destructible. Blow a certain window off a building and the enemy infantry garrisoned in that window suddenly become more vulnerable since they just lost much of their cover. Enemies hiding behind that tank carcass got you down ?

Toss a grenade over, either run out of their cover or die.

Great Sound

You will learn to fear the noise a 105mm Howitzer Barrage makes.

The sound of everything nearby is drowned out by that Howitzer fire and you can' stop it, the only thing you can hear is those infantry trapped in the middle of it yelling over the noise.

Don't let me get started on the realistic gunfire sounds.

The voice acting is slightly beyond incredible. You'll hear frantic radio calls, listen closely and your Volksgrenadiers will say something along the lines of "Stop pushing me" Speech changes according to the situation. If they come under fire, they'll go from calmly saying "Ya, ya, one way, then the other" right into "We are under attack by the Yankees !"

Your sniper goes from speaking in a hushed whisper "Sniper displacing" to yelling at the top of the lungs "They've got fucking MGs here !"

There's no holds on language, these guys swear as much as they like.

Physics

Any game worth it's name will have physics, in this case, it's the famed Havok engine.

Driving a tank into a small building will damage them, tank accuracy is based on the terrain it's on.

Run over a tree, you can use that tree as cover for your infantry.

Did your aircraft crash ? Well, it can still benefit you, how ?

Cover, the metal remaining can be used as cover, in this game, you'll either learn to use cover, or dig your own grave.

Individual AI

This is the first game of I've ever played in which your soldiers are smart enough to dive for cover on their own when they come under fire. Tank about to run them over ? Don't worry, they're smart enough to get out of the way...most of the time.

They'll hide behind sandbags whenever possible and retreat on their own accord.

Cons.

Takes a Big Rig

My computer is 4 years old, 512 mb of RAM and an ATI Radeon 9200 series graphics card.

The notorious 9200, one of 2 graphics cards that has a non-game crashing bug running with Company of Heroes. This bug is simple: Most models are invisible, the only ones that aren't are the building in the maps, trees and most terrain.

I need a 9500 or higher. Personally, an Nvidia would be the best.

My graphics card is also incapable of running Battlefield 2142.

Repetitive Gameplay

Unless you download plenty of new maps, the existing ones and campaigns get real boring, real fast.

Plenty of Micromanagement

A similar amount to Dawn of War, in Dawn of War, you decide on a specific number of weapons and soldiers a squad can have. This makes for some big choices.

In Company of Heroes, you click one button and you'll run into a semi-realistic number of weapons being equipped.

In Dawn of War, finding cover was a lot easier, just point and click.

In Company of Heroes with the destructible environment, you end up, positioning every squad in a formation as perfect as possible. More time wasted on getting your men into position.

Overall, great game, beautiful graphics and excellent sound with some fine strategy.

I'd buy it.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Rome: Total War and Other Stuff

2008-07-20T07:59:00.000-07:00

Don't comment about the post titles.

I've received a startling amount of spam that is not dissimilar to the Nigerian 419 Scam.
That's just the spam inbox. Most of it ended up in the normal inbox.

Aye. Ignore the stuff from Lisa, she's a writer, a good one.

I'm gonna copy and paste all of them in order, if it's a duplicate they shove down my throat tice, you'll only find one copy.

Contract Cash Payment

FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GHANA,

BANK OF GHANA
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR,
12/18,ASHANTI AVENUE
ACCRA CENTRAL
GHANA.

Attention:Beneficiary,

This is to notify you that your funds has been programmed for immediate release of your contract sum totalling the sum of US$40.5M(Fourty million five hundred thousand five hundred thousand dollars) into your nominated account but we can not transfer this funds direct to your nominated bank account, because we are having a problem with International Monetary Fund (IMF) so our method of payment is by Diplomatic Courier Service Note; that every arrangement regarding your cash payment through diplomatic services has been made, note that your funds have been package like a consignment.Be inform that the Diplomatic Agency has to move down to your Country in order to deliver the Consignment to your doorstep.

I want you to forward the below infromation immediately, so that as soon as the diplomatic arrive in your country they will call you immediately to notify you.

1) Your full name and address
2) Phone, fax and mobile #.
3) Company's name, position and address.
4) Profession.
5) Working Id/Int'l passport.

You are advised to send the above requested information through my direct
email:frankampong1@yahoo.cn

Yours sincerely,

Dr.Frank Ampong

DIRECTOR FOREIGN PAYMENT DEPARTMENT
BANK OF GHANA (BOA)

Why in Hell would you beg me for my business details ?!

ATTENTION: WINNER

UK NATIONAL LOTTERY HEADQUARTERS:
P O Box 1010 Liverpool, L70 1NL UNITED KINGDOM

ATTENTION: WINNER

This is to inform you that you have been selected for a cash prize of £500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand (British
Pounds) held on the 13th of July, 2008 in London UK. The selection process was carried out through random
selection in Our computerized email selection system (ess) from a database of over 21,000 e-mail addresses drawn from which you were
selected.

Contact our fiduciary agent for claims with:

Agents Name: Mr.Brown Smith
Email:claimsunit_smith@live.com
Tell: +44 702 403 2734
+44 702 40 32679

REF No: UKNL-L/200-26937
BATCH No: 2005MJL-01
TICKET No: 20511465463-7644

Fill the below:
1. Name: 2. Address 3. Marital Status: 4. Occupation: 5. Age:
6. Sex: 7. Nationality: 8. Country of Residence: 9. Telephone Number:

Congratulation!!
Sincerely,
Mrs.Rose Wood.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Is there a particular reason I, a guy living in South Africa won UK lottery without even entering ?

CONFIRM RECEIPT

Contact Dr.Peter Brown for the claim of £450,000:00 GBP pounds which youhave won in MICROSOFT PROMOTION.Provide your Names,Address,Age,Occupation, Tel,Country Send Email:dr.peterbrowndeskfiles@live.com

If I'm gonna get scammed, I need more details than "yay, you won, give us all your personal details"

CONTRACT CASH PAYMENT

FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GHANA,
BANK OF GHANA
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR,
12/18,ASHANTI AVENUE
ACCRA CENTRAL
GHANA.

Attention:Beneficiary,

I want you to forward the below infromation immediately, so that as soon as the diplomatic arrive in your country they will call you immediately to notify you.

1) Your full name and address
2) Phone, fax and mobile #.
3) Company's name, position and address.
4) Profession.
5) Working Id/Int'l passport.

You are advised to send the above requested information through my direct
email:frankampong1@yahoo.cn

Yours sincerely,

Barr.Frank Ampong

DIRECTOR FOREIGN PAYMENT DEPARTMENT
BANK OF GHANA (BOA)

Dude. Shouldn't you have a slightly more official E-Mail ? Why not your business E-Mail ?

YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS HAS WON

The Camelot Group, Operators of The National Lottery.
3b Olympic Way, Sefton Business Park,
Aintree, Liverpool , L30 1RD
REF Nº:UKL/74-A0802742007
BATCH Nº: 2007UKL-01
WINNING Nº:3- 6- 9-12- 40- 43 and 44

WINNING NOTIFICATION
The United Kingdom National Lottery wishes to inform you
that the results of the E-mail address ballot lottery
international program by Great Britain held on the of 10th
of July 2008.Your mail account have been picked as a winner
of a lump sum pay out of Eight hundred and ninty-one
thousand,nine hundred and thirty-four Great Britain pounds
£891,934.00 pounds sterlings)in cash credited to file
REFNO.REF:UKL/74-A0802742007.This is from total prize money
of GBP 4,459,670.00shared among the FIVE(5)international
winners in this category.
You are to contact our claims agent for validation:

Mr Derek Max.
Email:lottsclaims@googlemail.com
Tel: +447031967985

VERIFICATION AND FUNDS RELEASE FORM
1.FULL NAMES:________
2.ADDRESS:_______
3.City________
4.State________
5.Postcode_______
6.Country______
7.SEX:_______
8.AGE:________
9.OCCUPATION:_______
10.TELEPHONE NUMBER:__________
11.WINNING NUMBERS:________________
12.REF No:___________
13.BATCH No:___________

Sincerely,
Mrs. Dianne Thompson
Online Coordinator.

I didn't buy any tickets, I'm too young to buy any tickets, I'm not in the UK and I'm not stupid.

CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY.

FROM MR BARAJI AROMA.
BANK OF AFRICA (BOA)
BILL AND EXCHANGE DEPARTMENT,
OFFSHORE OFFICE,OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA-FASO.

Dear,

I know that this letter may come to you as a surprise, I got your contact address from the computerized search. My name is Mr Baraji Aroma. I am the Bill and Exchange (assistant) Manager of Bank of Africa Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

In my department I discovered an abandoned sum of eighteen million three hundred thousand United State of American dollars ($18.3MILLION U.S.A DOLLARS) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer Mr Kurt Kuhle from Alexandra Egypt who died along with his family in Siber airline that crashed into sea at Isreal on 4th October 2001.

Since I got information about his death I have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we can not release it unless somebody applies for it as the next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines, but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him in the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it because I don't want the money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed Bill. The banking laws and guidelines here stipulates that if such money remains unclaimed after seven years the money will be transferred into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund.

The request of foreigner in this transaction is necessary because our late customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe can not stand as next of kin to a foreigner. I have agreed that 33% of this money will be for you as foreign partner in respect to the provision of a foreign account, 2% will be set aside for expenses that might occurred during the business and 65% would be for me, after which I shall visit your country for disbursement according to the percentages indicated.

Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as we arranged you will furnished me with a good receiving account details where the money will be transferred, your private telephone and fax number for easy communication.

Upon receipt of your reply I will send to you by fax or e-mail a text of the application which you shall retype and fax to our foreign remittance manager for easy execution of the transaction.

I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is 100% hitch-free on both side as all required arrangement has been made for the transfer. Please I would like you to keep this transaction confidential and as a top secret as you may wish to know that I am a Bank official.

Trusting to hear from you immediately.

Yours Sincerely,
Mr Baraji Aroma.

Alright, this one is more almost more complicated. Let's move onto the next. Notice how all of the titles are in capital ? I guess his Caps Lock broke.

DR AZIZAN AHMMED(Good Day My good Friend)

Dr Azizan Ahmmed,
01 Avanue BP Pardou,
Ouagadougou BurkinaFaso.

GREETINGS, PLEASE I WILL LIKE YOU TO CONTACT ME THROUGH MYPRIVATE EMAIL ADDRESS: a_ahmmed1958@ahmmed.net or a_ahmmed1958@yahoo.com

Complement of the dayto you and your beloved family. Do not be astonished for receiving thismail. Please, I seek your permission and would want to get myselfintroduce to you. I am Dr Azizan Ahmmed. I work with BANK OF AFRICA (BOA).

I need your co-operation in receiving USD25.8M that hasbeen in a dormant account with my bank for over 6years which belongs toone of our foreign customer who died along with his entire family in aplane crash that happened in Kenya, East Africa.

Since his death, we have been expecting his next of Kin to come over and claim his money because we can not release it unless somebody applies for it as next of Kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking and financial policies but unfortunately all the efforts proved abortive.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I decided as the head of my department to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go into the Bank treasury as unclaimed bills.

Do not view this as been illegal but an opportunity for us to help enrich our hope in life instead of the bank converting this much money to the security funds.
You should not nurse any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the smooth transfer of this funds and your acceptance is what will crown this effort.

Iagree that 35% of this money will be for you as a foreign partner, inrespect to the provision of a foreign account, and 65% would be for me,thereafter I will visit your country for disbursement according to thepercentage indicated.

Please, I want you to visit the website below formore informations about the plane crash and the Deceased DR.GEORGEBRUMLEY AND HISFAMILY.

www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/07/20/kenya.crash/index.html
www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1390626,00.html

Meanwhile, If you are willing, capable and honest for this transaction, Kindly indicate your interest by sending a response to my e-mail address with information below,

Your International passport or ID card.......
Your private telephone number................
Your profession..............................
Your age.....................................
Your country..................................

Yours Truely,
Dr Azizan Ahmmed,

Another from the same bank in like 10 E-Mails. Don't you people have more than 1 bank ?! Private Email pfft. His space bar AND his Caps Lock broke.

FROM: Mr. Ken Kube

FROM: Mr. Ken Kube.
Good Day,
Please Read.
My name is Mr Ken Kube, I'm the credit officer in International Credit Bank Ouagadougou Burkina Faso.
I have a business proposal in the tune of $5.5m, (Five Million Five hundred Thousand only) after the successful transfer; we shall share in ratio of 40% for you and 60% for me.
Should you be interested, please contact me through my private email (mr_ken@mail.ru) so we can commence on all arrangements and I Will give you more information on how we would handle this project.
Please treat this business with utmost confidentiality and send me the
Following information:
(1) Full names:
(2) Private phone number:
(3) Current residential address:
(4) Occupation:
(5) Age and Sex:
Kind Regards,
Mr. Ken Kube.
Note: Strictly reply through my private email account if interest is shown.

Another one from that Bank Ouagadougou thing.

Ref- I am not typing the name in !

Ref:UK/9420X2/68
Batch:074/05/ZY369

You have won won £1,000,000.

To claim your prize,Contact Mr Cole Williams with the following informations.

Name,Address,Age,Occupation,Country

Email: mr.cole_williams44@yahoo.co.uk

Mr Cole Williams

How sweet, I won again. I don't care.

Accredited for claims blablabla...

The Camelot Group,
Operators of The National Lottery.
3b Olympic Way, Sefton Business Park,
Aintree, Liverpool , L30 1RD

WINNING NOTIFICATION

The United Kingdom National Lottery wishes to inform you
that the results of the E-mail address ballot lottery
international program by Great Britain held on the of 11th
July. 2008. Your mail account have been picked as a winner
of a lump sum pay out of Eight hundred and ninty-one
thousand, nine hundred and thirty-four Great Britain pounds
(£891,934.00 pounds sterlings) in cash credited to file
REF NO.REF:UKL/74-A0802742008.

This is from total prize money of GBP £4,459,670.00shared
among the FIVE (5) international winners in this
category.All participants for the online version were
selected randomly from World Wide Web through computer
balloting system drawn from over 100,000 names database,
union associations and corporate bodies that are listed
online.This promotion is this year's United Kingdom National
Lottery Weekly bonus.

The Camelot Group, operators of the United Kingdom National
Lottery is approved by the British Gaming Board and also
Licensed by the The International Association of Gaming
Regulators (IAGR).All winning must be claimed not later than
7 working days from this notification. After this time all
unclaimed funds will be returned to European Union Treasury
as unclaimed. Please note in order to avoid unnecessary
delays and complications please remember to quote your
reference number in all correspondence.Be advice to keep
your winning information confidential until your claims has
been
processed and your money remitted to you.

This is part of our security protocol to avoid double
claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program.To begin your
claim, please contact your Claims Agent:

Prof. Derek Max.
PROCESSING DEPARTMENT
26 Stanhope Road
Kent CT14 6AD London
United Kingdom
Email:cgnl_claimsdept1@live.com
Tel: +447045718420
Tel: +447045747857

He will brief you on steps to be taken for due processing
and remittance of your prize money.Note below your winning
details:Ticket No: 22-1356-4096-988, Serial no:
A069-07,Lucky No:
12-13-21-26-32-39 Bonus-17,File REF No.:
UKL/74-A0802742008,BATCH No.: 2008UKL-01

***IMPORTANT*** FILL OUT THIS WINNERS

KINDLY FILL THE VERIFICATION FORM
FULLNAMES:__________
Sex:________________
ADDRESS:____________
City________________
State_______________
Postcode____________
Country_____________
Tel_________________
Nationality_________
occupation__________

Congratulations again from all our staff.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Dianne Thompson
Online Coordinator,CAMELOT GROUP,
Operator of The National Lottery.

Note, they sent me another E-Mail for winning another lotto.

File your Claim

Attn: We are please to inform You that you just won the sum of $2,000,000.00 DOLLARS, form our FREELOTTO NATIONAL LOTTERY 2008. Fill the details:Full Name,Country,Tel,Occupation:

So, how many imes do I win a lotto before authorities show up to make sure I'm not cheating ?

URGENT REPLY

Dear friend,

I can't imagine how you will feel receiving a sudden business letter from a remote country in far away Burkina Faso west africa and probably from some one you have not closely related with. But all the same, i believe we do not need to be of blood relatives before we can establish cordial/business relationship. Having said this, i think it is very important at this juncture to introduce myself to you.

I am.Mr Mustapha.Dibia, the director in charge of auditing and accounting section of International bank of africa(IBA) Ouagadougou Burkina-Faso west africa.
It is my pleasure to solicit your assistance in this business proposal. I am contacting you because, i do not want to transact the business with anybody who is known to any staff of this bank or anybody around here to avoid any possible blackmail or leakage at the end of the transaction.

The proposal: During our investigation and auditing in this bank, my department came across a very huge sum of money belonging to a deceased person who died on 25 july 2000,in a plane crash and the fund has been dormant in his account with this bank without any claim of the fund in our custody either from his family or relation before our discovery to this development.the said amount was u.s $12.000.000m (Twelve Million United States Dollars) as it may interest you to know, meanwhile all the whole arrangement to put claim over this fund as the bonafide next of kin to the deceased, get the required approval and transfer this money to a foreign account has been put in place and directives and needed information will be relayed to you as soon as you indicate your interest and willingness to assist us and also benefit your self to this great business opportunity. In fact i could have done this deal alone but because of my position in this country as a civil servant(a banker),we are not allowed to opperate a foreign account and would eventually raise an eye brow on my side during the time of transfer because i work in this bank.

This is the actual reason why it will require a second party or fellow who will forward claims as the next of kin with affidavit of trust of oath to the bank and also present a foreign account where he will need the money to be re-transferred into on his request as it may be after due verification and clarification by the correspondent branch of the bank where the whole money will be remitted from to your own designation bank account.

I will not fail to inform you that this transaction is 100% risk free. On smooth conclusion of this transaction, you will be entitled to 40% of the total sum as gratification, while 5% will be set aside to take care of expenses that may arise during the time of transfer and also telephone bills, while 55% will be for me and my partner. Please, you have been adviced to keep "top secret" as i am still in service and intend to retire from service after we conclude this deal with you.

I will be monitoring the whole situation here in this bank until you confirm the money in your account and ask me to come down to your country for subsequent sharing of the fund according to percentages previously indicated and further investment, either in your country or any country you advice us to invest in.
All other necessary vital information will be sent to you when i hear from you.
I look forward to receive your immediate response . (contact me at mustapha_dibia2000@hotmail.fr

Yours Faithfully,
Mr Mustapha Dibia.

URGENT REPLY

Another broken Caps Lock and another plane crash.

ATTENTION...WINNER

UK NATIONAL LOTTERY HEADQUARTERS:
P O Box 1010 Liverpool, L70 1NL UNITED KINGDOM

ATTENTION: WINNER

This is to inform you that you have been selected for a cash prize of £500,000 (Five Hundred

Thousand (British
Pounds) held on the 7th of july, 2008 in London UK. The selection process was carried out

through random
selection in Our computerized email selection system (ess) from a database of over 21,000

e-mail addresses drawn from which you were
selected.

Contact our fiduciary agent for claims with:

Agents Name: Mr.David Williams
Email: uk_lottery.paymentoffice1@yahoo.co.uk

REF No: UKNL-L/200-26937
BATCH No: 2005MJL-01
TICKET No: 20511465463-7644

Fill the below:
1. Name:
2. Address
3. Marital Status:
4. Occupation:
5. Age:
6. Sex:
7. Nationality:
8. Country of Residence:
9. Telephone Number:

Congratulation!!
Sincerely,
Mrs.Helen Anderson.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Sign up for email alerts now http://www.eircom.net/propertyalerts

Need I stress the importance of NO FREAKING CAPS LOCK again ?

URGENT (BANK OF AFRICA) BOA.

FROM THE DESK OF MR .AZIZ MOUSTAFA.
BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER
BANK OF AFRICA.
OUAGADOUGOU,BURKINA FASO.
TOP SECRET
Dear Friend

I am MR. AZIZ MOUSTAFA. the bill and exchange manager at the foreign remittance department of BANK OF AFRICA. I got your contact from the internet ,while seaching for an honest and trust worthy person, who will assist me to implement this transfer.l discovered the sum of Twenty Two Million and five hundred Thousand United States Dollars (USD22.5M) belonging to a deceased customer of this bank.

The fund has been lying in a suspence account without anybody coming to
put claim over the money since the account owner late Mr JOHN KOROVO from JORDAN , who was involved in the December 25th 2003 Benin plane crash.
Here is the air crash website on cn
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/12/26/benin.crash/index.html
The said fund is now ready for transfer to a foriegn account whose owner will be portrayed as the beneficiary and next of kin to the deceased customer of the bank. Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidlines and laws but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and I don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill.

The banking law and guidline here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after five years, the money will be transfered into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this business is occassioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner. I therefore soliciting for your assistance to come forward as the next of kin.
I have agreed that 40% of this money will be for you as the beneficiary
in respect of the provision of your Account and services rendered, 55% would be for me while 5% will be for expencses incured during the cause of this transaction If the money is transferred to your Account from BANK OF AFRICA,
I and my family in this transaction will proceed immediately to your
country for our own share of the money. I expect you to keep this
business strictly confidential and secret as you may wish to know that I am Bank official.

Be rest assured that this business is 100% risk free on both side and every arrangement to transfer this money to the Account you are going to provide have been concluded provided we maintain the confidentiality and secreceirity involved.
Contact me on my private phone number( +226-78335853. or email address at() I am looking forward for your prompt response.

Yours faithfully,
Mr. Aziz Moustafa.

Another plane crash, another mail from the bank, another moron trying to get himself arrested.

Final Notification

Contact Mr. Pinkett for the claim of £1,000,000 pounds which youhave won in UK NATIONAL LOTTERY. Provide your Names, Address,Age,Occupation,Tel,Country Send: claimsoffice01@btinternet.com

This isn't the final one. I still get them in my spam box.

VERY URGENT ATTENTION.

FROM THE OFFICE OF MR ALI ZONGO
DIRECTOR AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING UNIT,
BANK OF AFRICA.(BOA)
OUAGADOUGOU -BURKINA FASO

SORRY IF THIS MESSAGE DO NOT MEET YOUR PERSONAL ADVANTAGE,
WE APOLOGIES

Compliment,
Pleasure writing to you at this moment of the day, I am Mr.ALI ZONGO.
the director incharge of auditing and accounting Dept. of Bank of Africa OUAGADOUGOU -BURKINA FASO.I deem it fit to contact you regarding an inactive/dormant account fund that will benefit both of us at the end, if parties involved will take restrait and maintain absolute secrecy, honesty and integrity. I got your contact in my search for a reputable and reliable person to particularly assist me to claim the fund in question. During auditing, in our bank at the end of last fiscal year, We discovered the sum of Twenty five millions United States dollars (US$25M) in a dormant account belonging to an international businessman who was involved in the December 25th Benin plane crash. while travelling for his bussiness. I kept this information(secret) confidential within my jurisdiction to enable us submit claims and transfer this fund through trustworthy person whom we shall present to our bank as the bonafide next of kin to the ceased. Visit our investigations so far clearly reveals that there is no immediate survivor or even a relation to the deceased and as such, there is no immediate next of kin for further claims of the deceased fund as we have long been expecting someone to come forward with an applications. Further information's /verifications from reliable sources too have confirmed that the deceased customer supposed next of kin were all in the plane with him died with him.this is where the bank come in to do bussiness with who ever is interested.

Plane Crash Web site!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/12/26/benin.crash/index.html

This fund is now ready for transfer into a foreign account, whose owner will be portrayed to our bank as the beneficiary and a next of kin to the deceased customer. The foreign account owner will impost himself appropriately as the next of kin to the deceased and respond positively like a true next of kin who wishes to speed up the release and transfer process of his inherited fund. Kindly be aware too that if the over-due fund if not claimed by the end of next quarter, the National Treasury and Bills of britain will take over the ownership of the fund in line with the National Edict Act of 2000. We do not want this to happen as it will not augur to our best interest, having worked all our lives in the banking sector, that is why I contacted you for us to do the deal together with absolute confidence, so that you will be portrayed as the bonafide beneficiary and an immediate next of kin to the deceased. I will give you further directives, advice and all needed information's required for this transaction as soon as I receive your positive response. Similarly, if you accept to carry out this transaction with us, we have resolved offering to you 30% of the total sum as commission, extra 10% of all proceeds to be generated from subsequent profit-viable. 5% of the total fund will be set aside to re-imburse all expenses incurred in this course of this transaction. This transfer will automatically be affected within 7 working days. Be rest assured that with the underground work i have laid so far, that this transaction carries no risk and no extra burdens on your part, except the above mentioned nominal roles you are required to fulfil and similarly will be required to maintain absolute information secrecy throughout the duration of this transaction, because discussing and exhibiting it with a third party might jeopardise the entire transaction.

I will give you directives and all needed information as soon as I receive your positive response. Kindly understand that we could not carry out this fund-transfer on our own, based on the simple facts that we are civil servants and presently bank staffs and this office excludes us from operating foreign accounts, moreover conducting such magnanimous transaction from the same place where we belong to/coming from will raise eyebrows on our side and the truth is that this fund belongs to a foreigner, and as such demands same as next of kin.I am looking forward to receiving your interesting response on this project as this will greatly enrich the both of us at the end. please you are required to reply this message as a matter of necessity.
(ali_zongo1@yahoo.fr)

Best regards,
MR ALI ZONGO.

(Account Audithor B.O.A)

This Director has worse spelling and grammar than a dead oyster !

If you want something to laugh at, check this news article.

100 Billion Dollar Note

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Gerenic Stuff Involving Video Games

2008-07-19T04:41:00.000-07:00

Doom. People who don't play have heard of it.

I play the Doom Boardgame and Doom 3.

Doom 3 has many advantages, half of all first person shooters through 2007 used it's engine.

Disadvantages include closet jumping. Things jump out of the closet at you even when you just checked it. These are all scripted, you pick up Ammo Crate A in Room B and Zombie jumps out of closet in Room A that you just checked.

It's like they want you to waste ammunition just after you receive it.

Doom: The Boardgame, not for the faint of heart. It runs on simple concept: Get the hell out of the Mars Base. It's challenging but a good team of Marine players working together can beat the snot out of any Invader (Bad guy) player. This boardgame is tactical and team based.

The box is pretty heavy with a snarling Hell Knight. Pretty.
Components include a ton of miniatures, unpainted and very detailed for something that's only 30mm tall.
A fully illustrated rulebook with plenty of examples and a very nice scenario book that contains 5 missions that form a campaign.

Why did I say it's not for the faint hearted ?

Bloodstains strewn across the board make a start, everything is directly modeled after what you see in Doom 3 and the 'flavour text' is very dark. The word dim is used far to often.

Anyway, onto something else.

A while ago, I bought Total War: Collectors Edition that included all 3 Total War games except Medieval 2: Total War, an artwork book, a manual the size of a phone directory and some bonus postcards.

I ran into an error with Rome: Total War and uninstalled it. When I tried to reinstall, it kept giving me a file transfer error and I Googled.

Followed some instructions, cleaned out my DVD with lukewarm water, and now, it's installed and I want to play !

More stuff, coming soon, the Roman Empire needs a stalwart and dedicated leader and I'm their guy.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Stuff

2008-07-12T12:44:00.000-07:00

I'm ranked in all the skills !

Of 'The Stuff'.

2008-07-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry, ran outta ideas for the post title.

Catchy.

Runescape HD was a great update, even F2P got a li'l touch-up. (I should know)

I find that I may be playing it a lot more just to explore the new place. Greatest thing part of the free version of the updates is the bowstring. You now see bowstring and your character drawing it back for that shot. Expect to see me training range, no matter how boring, a lot more.

I just found little bug and ran into one on Marlaine's blog.

I should compress these images. It's been 2 minutes since I hit that 'Upload' button !

Sooo, first up, when typing a comment on Marlaine's latest post, I misspelled 'Americans' and after some error thing, this remained:

And a bug from the HD update was found by me. Looks like a suit of armour from the Warrior's Guild broke out and decided to go on a 'Roach Rampage'.

Teehee.

Listen to the words of that song up there. It's Beethoven propoganda.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Gaming, RuneScape HD and Spammers

2008-07-02T09:50:00.000-07:00

I'm off RuneScape, as we all know, so what games do I play in the 6 hours each day I have ?

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

Unpatched, this game is boderline unplayable with the sheer number of bugs, patched like my version and I'll be able to use all the details and shadows on high on my 4 year-old rig.

During the course of this game, you'll have/have been/be.

Shot - Unavoidable.
Cut - Not all swords in the Star Wars universe are 'laser'.
Cut by a lightsabre - May be avoided. If you have plenty of stun and ways to hold the guy in place. These guys can actually throw lightsabres so that might get in your way.
Seen a plot twist - Unavoidable. Big plot twist too.
Bought a droid - Unavoidable.
Been captured - Unavoidable.
Leveled up - Unavoidable.
Used an Escape Pod - Unavoidable.
Manned a pair of gun turrets - Unavoidable.
Spoken to someone - Don't ask.
Joined a guild of assassins so secret that I, a Star Wars fan didn't even know existed - Avoidable. If you try to join, you'll get some really nice gear.
Driven a Swoop Bike - Unavoidable. It's safer than Pod Racing. Or at least that's what the sinister looking Hutt said. That one guy did mention scraping corpses off the track...must be trying to get me to back out.

That's not half of it. There's also joining the Sith, killing stuff, diving, almost being eaten by sharks, going to court at least twice, become a Jedi killed, the galaxy's toughest bounty hunter, killed the galaxy's toughest Sith's apprentice, killed the galaxy's toughest Sith, raiding some ancient, really powerful Sith lord's tomb, been on a spacewalk, lost money, gained money, gotten involved with the Star Wars equivalent of a biker gang, watched a planet get wiped out, used an elevator and tried to ward off a giant shark.

Star Wars Empire at War

We all know what this one's about.

During the course of this game, you'll have/have been/be.

Killed something - Duh.
Conquered a planet - Double Duh.
Run over a target with your vehicle - Avoidable. Still fun.
Killed something in space - Saw that one coming, didn't ya ?

Meh, short list.

Star Wars Republic Commando

First Person Shooter version of Star Wars that doesn't involve any Jedi. Lots of action, too much work for your integrated windshield wiper on your visor cleaning off the blood and assorted detritus after a close kill.

During the course of this game, you'll have/have been/be.

Shot - It's a First Person SHOOTER !
Cut - This is where your integrated mini laser windshield wiper on your helmet visor comes in.
Shot something - Allow me to reiterate: It's a First Person SHOOTER !
Cut something with that little knife thing in your glove - Avoidable Less work for your integrated mini laser windshield wiper on your helmet visor.
Seen a guy get killed - Let's just hope that guy wasn't an important part of your team.
Gotten vile green bug juice all over your visor - Geonosians = Bugs + the melee weapons they use = plenty of giggles over the yellow/green splat on your visor.
Killed a short, stumpy, biped lizard with a shotgun - Don't ask.
Killed a short, stumpy, biped lizard with twin knives - Repeat what I said above.
Killed a slightly taller, stumpy, biped lizard with a submachinegun - Refer to what is said above.
Killed a really big, armoured, biped lizard with a chaingun - It's starting to sound like Doom 3 here.

Teehee.

The Beta verson of Runescape HD is out ! It's for members only ! It's a blatant advertising gimmick ! I feel a strong urge to start paying again even with the increasing prices !

Love them but it looks like I'll have to subside on the screenshots on other blogs. Ya hear that Tim and Marlaine ?! More screenshots !

Spam Wars Episode 5: kaneenlynch Strike Back !

That runt changed his IP. Talk of spammers is circulating like wildfire across the internet. Spammers cost people millions, on average, it appears that 10 BILLION+ that's right, with a 'B' E-Mails sent are spam each day.

I don't get what drives them ? A sadistic nature ? Stupidity ?

The majority are adverts. For some reason, most of the spam mail I get comes from one address.

6965 El Camino Real
Suite 105-698
La Costa, CA 92009

Does this address mean anything to anyone here ?

As much as I miss Runescape, I don't want to go back. Wait a sec, new spam mail just arrived:

Cable and satellite companies across the world are very mad at us, and many of them wish that we were dead! Why? Because right now you can watch over 2,000 uncensored TV channels from around the world on your PC or laptop with our new program...and the people who use our program do not get charged a monthly fee!

Yes, the cable and satellite companies are very frustrated with us because we're taking business away from them..why pay a monthly cable or satellite bill ever again when you can use our software program to watch over 2,000 TV channels from around the world without having to pay a monthly fee!

Press Here to watch over 2,000 uncensored TV channels right now on your PC:
http://theinterex.com/tr.php?50960+hellgate174@yahoo.com

Never pay another cable or satellite bill ever again!

Here is some more information about this new way to watch television:

1) All of the programming is uncensored!

2) There are hundreds of channels from around the world to watch! And new channels are added every day!

3) Hundreds of Radio stations to listen to anytime, all of the time! And new stations are added daily!

4) All of these channels are available 24 hours per day right from your PC and laptop!

5) No additional hardware is needed!

6) You won't have to pay a cable or satellite bill any longer!

Press Here For More Information and To Download Now:
http://theinterex.com/tr.php?50960+hellgate174@yahoo.com

Once you download the software get ready to watch sports, news, sitcoms, music videos, dramas, and other programming from around the world!

Testimonial:

"It's great to be able to watch TV programs from around the world, and the best part is that I don't have a bill each month that I have to pay. I also love the fact that new channels are added all of the time."! - Sean M.

Press Here For More Information and To Download Now:
http://theinterex.com/tr.php?50960+hellgate174@yahoo.com

-----

If you wish to no longer receive marketing promotions for PCTV4ME just visit the page below and you can easily remove yourself from future electronic mail messages:
http://theinterex.com/tr.php?50961+hellgate174@yahoo.com

Or send a letter to us at the address below:

6965 El Camino Real
Suite 105-698
La Costa, CA 92009

You will not get anymore of our emails if you go here
http://theinterex.com/unsub.php?client=dd2&msgid=27060800070 and enter your email address (hellgate174@yahoo.com)

or write to:

PP Data
6965 El Camino Real
Suite 105-698
La Costa, CA 92009

They want you dead ? Everyone will eventually die, 'they' are just speeding up the process for you. Anything to be rid of you troublesome people.

What ever you do, don't click those links !

And Kitt, how do I do a regional ban like the one you did on Kansas ?

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Violence in Media, TV Tropes, Fanfiction and Firefox

2008-06-15T05:25:00.000-07:00

With the development of technology in the entertainment sector, quite a few different types of violence occur, not all have to involve blood though...

There was a point in time where pasting a face over another actor's face with a ton of gore and then ripping it off to simulate a face being shredded in between was revolutionary, now we can have it done with simple CGI, and make it look a lot worse.

I'm gonna categorize a few different types of violence...

Bullet hole - Blam ! Guy falls down, perfect, round hole in torso, gasping for air, bleeds. Dies.

Typical action movie thing. Not much here, just maybe a bit of spatter on the walls or something of those lines. Lets categorize even further !

Bullet Hole - Zombie Gunshot - Blam ! Shotgun to torso, 20% is blasted to kingdom come.

Why is it that zombies always seem to have more blood gore and assorted detritus on them and seem to often burst in creative ways ?

Bullet Hole - Shotgun to Average Guy - Close range, guys flies back into wall, guy looks up, a few spots are bleeding and maybe a small chunk of flesh is missing. Often survives.

These are a couple of your more basic types of gunshot violence.

But, lets look at violence in general !

Psychological: Darkness, creepy sound effects and shadows. Only a master can wreak psychological terror in broad daylight.

Gung Ho - I sweep minigun across stage. Minigun slices people in half. Ouch.

Let's compare these two in my life.

I merrily chuckle as enemy Orks with their big Power Klaws (That's spelled correctly) are cut down in a storm of Bolter Rounds from my Space Marines. Every shot sends a spray of blood out of the enemy. I keep the chuckles up.

Conlcusion: I eat my sandwich with a smile whilst reminiscing on the carnage.

Serenity, Feature Film, Scene where Crew Lands and Discover Miranda. Rotting corpses in a place that is unnaturally bright and all have wide open mouths and blank eyes. Summer Glau's excellent acting enhances this aura of fear by saying they all just sit there in their homes, they say nothing and... cue the tears !

I'm afraid of the dark for the past 3 days, leave all lights on and realize I'm only replicating this scene. I've looked behind me for more than 17 times, not because I want to see the TV behind me, but to look for these dead corpses. Stupid ? Yes. But talk to this kid who watched this scene he himself explicitly skipped in an attempt to 'confront his fears'.

Conclusion: I constantly fear their existence.

I was going to post a picture of all these things but realized how bad this would be for my own sanity.

These are just a few of the more basic types. Let's move on to a lighter subject !

Excerpt from TV Tropes.

"Everywhere you go, there's the genetically-engineered survivor warrior species that's infesting every corner of the galaxy and cheerfully trying to kill everything else in the galaxy because it's literally hard-wired into their genetic code. The closest thing to the good guys you can find in this setting is a tiny alien empire sandwiched between all the other factions, and they have a thing for forcing new subjects into their empire through orbital bombardment, sterilization, and concentration camps."

That's part of their summary of Warhammer 40000. All of it is true.

Any writer would love this site, as it is the nexus of good ideas and strong foundations to writing a good piece of fiction. Casual surfers get a laugh and are stuck to this as they realize the things they see on TV that are very similar all have the same base.

This is a wiki. Be warned. The first time I went there, I spent FIVE hours surfing it, no breaks. Every article has a link you're interested, it's a vicious cycle.

I'll start you off on this journey. The next 2 sections provide a number of links to the rest of the site, I believe you'll click at least one of them...or laugh yourself really, really hard. These are all part of the description of Warhammer 40000 AND articles related to Warhammer 40000

"Abnormal Ammo (Guns which fire razor-edged molecule-thick ninja stars, guns which fire nets of Razor Floss, guns which fire wooden stakes, flamethrowers which squirt holy napalm; biological guns which use, um, muscle spasms to fire flesh-eating beetles/maggots or exploding tumours, guns which open holes into hell, guns which fire tiny goblins into, through, and back out of hell.)"

"BFG (Way, way too many to list here. The short version is: Anything carried by a Space Marine.)

- Or anything carried by the Tau, who are defined as the "shooty" faction.
- You know, the Eldar have guns that send you straight to hell - and their standard issue assault rifles shoot tens of thousands of molecule-thick ninja stars at hypersonic speeds. Then there's the support weapon which vibrates the target to death. And the "Harlequin's Kiss," a device that shoots a mono-filament wire into the target, then spins, turning them into bloody soup. Oh, and a stupidly large handheld gun that shoots a cloud of these wires. And an artillery variant of the above, mounted on a house-sized flying tank.
  - The majority of Dark Eldar firearms are enormous spiky bladed things which fire pure pain.
- Or anything carried by an Ork, whose guns mainly run on Clap Your Hands If You Believe and "moar dakka". The Ork Shokk Attak Gun, one of the most beautiful examples of the setting's "screw you, physics" attitude, sucks up tiny gremlins and fires them through the warp into armour. Having an insane daemon-tortured Snotling appearing inside your skull? Hurts.
- Even the standard issue Imperial Guardsman's lasgun, one of the weakest weapons in the setting, is capable of blowing off heads and limbs with a single shot. Considered weak because the average footsoldier in the setting is either wearing an absurdly huge suit of armour made of future ceramics/living metal/enormous rusted steel plates held together by bolts and belief, or won't even notice a mere lost head or limb."

Any Warhammer 40000 player will tell you it's all true. I'm a Warhammer 40000 player.

It's all true.

The actual site is here.

"It's a gun, Frank. A gun that shoots swords."

On to Fanfiction!

A large site where fans of stuff write fiction about stuff.

Firefly and Serenity ALONE has 3918 different pieces of fiction and stories. From short 'ficlets' to massive epics. Any avid reader who wants to see what other fans will write about what he likes will visit this little piece of Heaven.

21 Genres.

Countless millions of words.

8 Major categories.

A lot of individual categories.

Just like when an artist dies, his paintings have 3 zeros added to their price, canceled TV shows here are no less similar.

Teen Titans and Firefly have seen a large boom of writings with their cancellation, Firefly now has 3918 and Teen Titans is running on high with 22,055. And remember, these numbers are different stories and not just chapters of these stories.

Anyone with Firefox probably knows that there is a Download Day coming up. Firefox is attempting to set the record of 'Most Software Downloads in 24 Hours' All we have to do is download Firefox 3 on Download day and pray it works.

Longest. Blog. Post. Ever.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Destroying RWT Blogs

2008-06-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

Vaskor

That links to a post he made on how to report blogs to Blogger that break Runescape rules, with a nice place to start if you want to bring down these guys.

He suggested flagging it and sending a report to Blogger and so I did.

The letter I sent is below. I'll turn this message into a template for further reporting of this type.

"Firstly, Runescape an MMORPG has a number of rules, one of them is

No Real World Trading (http://www.runescape.com/kbase/viewarticle.ws?article_id=2082)

And of course, No Account
Buying/Sharing.
(http://www.runescape.com/kbase/viewarticle.ws?article_id=2076)

This blog advertises both real world trading AND the purchase of accounts with real money.

This is a clear violation of JaGex rules and should be investigated immediately.

This brings us to the issue of plagiarism.

The Tuesday, June 10 2008 post has a guide on Ghostly Robes which has been copied from Sal's Realm of Runescape. (http://runescape.salmoneus.net/ghost_robes.html)

Obviously, this blog tries to increase it's appeal by posting guides, supposedly it's on to make it seem more helpful.

I urge you to help rectify this problem as soon as possible, as these two rules are probably the most commonly broken in the game and cost the most to it's developers and players.

Regards, Boombaye1"

Here's the template:

Dear Sir/Madam (begin with a salutation)*

Firstly, Runescape an MMORPG has a number of rules, one of them is

(Insert rule which is broken) (Insert link to where this rule is located)**

(Insert any other rules broken and list them as above with their links)

(Explain what part of the rule is broken and where on the blog)

This is a clear violation of JaGex rules and should be investigated immediately.

(Next topic)

(Which post was breaking the rules, in this case, plagiarism, state where this was stolen from, provide a link to the original)
The Tuesday, June 10 2008 post has a guide on Ghostly Robes which has been copied from Sal's Realm of Runescape. (http://runescape.salmoneus.net/ghost_robes.html)

(Why do you think this was stolen, use your opinion)
Obviously, this blog tries to increase it's appeal by posting guides, supposedly it's on to make it seem more helpful.

(Explain why this should be dealt with)
I urge you to help rectify this problem as soon as possible, as these two rules are probably the most commonly broken in the game and cost the most to it's developers and players.

(Add some kind of ending like this)
Regards, (your name)

*To whom it may concern; Dear Sir/Madam and Dear Blogger Moderating Team. I didn't include one in my original letter. Use one of the above or come up with your own.

** JaGex rules are located here, be sure to pick the right one for your situation.

That'd be your basic letter so toss in the general direction of Blogger HQ if you're reporting a blog like this.

New links to blogs have been added.

Happy hunting.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Spam

2008-06-08T08:30:00.000-07:00

Anyone who was here at the time of this post may notice a long string of stuff in the chatbox detailing the spam I received over a period of about 2-3 weeks.

It's gonna get ugly, references to adult material ahead, if you're mature enough to not chuckle at these people, read on.

Still here ? Good.

I'll be posting screenshots of every page. The ones highlighted are those which are to be deleted.

I messed up here, that Titan Quest thing is not spam musta been a mistake, anyway. That be the first part.

Number two.

Finally, Number three.

From Mrs Rebecca Williams

N�[38 Rue Des Martyrs Cocody

Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire

ATTN:
DEAREST ONE OF GOD

I am the above named person from Kuwait . I am married to Mr Benson Williams, who worked with Kuwait embassy in Ivory Coast for nine years before he died in the year 2004. We were married for eleven years without a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days.

Before his death we were both born again Christian. Since his death I decided not to remarry or get a child outside my matrimonial home which the Bible is against. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of $2. 5 Million (Two Million Five Hundred U.S. Dollars) in the bank here in Abidjan in suspense account.

Presently, the fund is still with the bank. Recently, my Doctor told me that i have serious sickness which is cancer problem. The one that disturbs me most is my stroke sickness. Having known my condition I decided to donate this fund to a church or individual that will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct herein. I want a church that will use this fund for orphanages, widows, propagating the word of God and to endeavour that the house of God is maintained.

The Bible made us to understand that blessed is the hand that giveth. I took this decision because I don’t have any child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are not Christians and I don’t want my husband’s efforts to be used by unbelievers. I don’t want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly way. This is why I am taking this decision. I am not afraid of death hence i know where I am going. I know that I am going to be in the bosom of the Lord. Exodus 14 VS 14 says that the Lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace.

I don’t need any telephone communication in this regard because of my health hence the presence of my husband’s relatives is around me always I don't want them to know about this development. With God all things are possible. As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the bank here in Abidjan . I want you and the church to always pray for me because the Lord is my shepherd. My happiness is that I lived a life of a worthy Christian. Whoever that wants to serve the Lord must serve him in spirit and Truth. Please always be prayerful all through your life.

Contact me on the above e-mail address for more information’s, any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing another church or individual for this same purpose. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I Stated herein. Hoping to receive your
reply.

Remain blessed in the Lord.
Yours in Christ,
Mrs Rebecca Williams.

Quite a few errors in this thing. In any case, sending your E-Mail in could mean they could ship a virus back, they may also ask you for your bank account details, don't do this !

My groundbreaking conclusion:

Utter spam. Sending in your details like this is as pointless as it gets. Don't fall for something like this !

I'll be adding a couple more links to my blogroll, stay tuned.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of The One Without a Real Title

2008-05-28T09:11:00.001-07:00

How nice.

Any Friends fans will know there's a reference somewhere, buried in that title.

I've been watching all the episodes of a series which I still cannot believe I missed. I got the entire collection on 5 DVDs and after more or less 24 hours I'm not even done with the first.

Then again, Kitt has succumbed to Kayla...again. A blog has gone down...again, I didn't pick up any exact details but according to Tim, Kayla didn't know Kitt's latest blog existed until in the last two or 3 posts whereas Kitt mentioned before leaving after her 99 Magic Cape. My best hope ? Pray she finds some form of solace now...

Many psychologists would say that you shouldn't blame yourself, but somewhere down there, I feel a bit guilty for asking Kitt to let people comment and maybe that was what Kayla was looking for, an opportunity...

If Kitt stops blogging, what will this spell for the rest of us ? Would she come after the rest of us or just stop there ? Tim lets no one comment, Marlaine keeps tight check on all her blogs. If there is any, I'm the most open target out here, no comment moderation, a belief that 'everyone can speak freely' which can be easily abused...

I do have a request to Kitt, however: I would like to have Kayla's IP, a while ago, I banned someone from my clan chat under the alias 'person', this is one of those Kayla uses and I want to see whether she's already hanging around here or was that just coincidence and diving it a cast sea of conclusions.

I did get 70 range and I can now do anything remotely involving range, this is all I wanted and I am impressed with the Black Dragonhide's defensive capabilities in Castle Wars. I was able to tank as per usual with more versatility than usual do to my newly acquired magic defence.

Unfortunately, I was barely able to hold of a Saradomin Sword unlike before, where I cut down 2 Godsword wielders, all higher level than me with an Anchor, Guthan's and an Iron Minotaur.

It also turns out that the Giant Chinchompa is a very playful character.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Fun

2008-05-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

I spent the week having some fun...

Ice Titan at Clan Wars...

Group Shot ! From left to right: 0 Ice Dragon, KND321 and Me...

Blood donations are accepted...please ?...

Abyss Creatures: Short words, long meanings.

I ran into the army...this is one of their 'softer' drill sergeants...

Not one of our better games, I was the one who took the 5 damage...

Not better than before...

At least the Titan's on my side now...

Epic Blockage. The Pyrelord is mine...

I love this guy.

Leeches...why was I so excited about that ?

*ahem* w0000000000000000000000000000000000t !
No Ravens in sight. I'm leaving members soon and it's too late.

Big level, lots of stuff.

Aye. Big one.

My stats as of...yesterday. May already be out of date.

I joined Blessings. Smaller clan than the hype makes you think =P

Regards, Boombaye1

Of The New Level Up Messages

2008-05-21T07:17:00.000-07:00

When you level up from now on...

A normal message shows up in the chatbox.

The skill icon starts to flash until you log out.

And then, a detailed description of what you got shows up after you click the icon.

Cool, eh ?

Regards, Boombaye1

Of The Fever

2008-05-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

When I talk of a 'fever' I talk of suddenly loving a skill that was normally at the back of my mind.

These last few days, I went from adding a few small things to my house through making the most expensive modifications I've ever done to it.

I've reached 57 Construction and the minimal level required for building a Marble Fireplace. I plan on using stew to do the rest, the rest is a nightmare.

3 Hours bringing down rats with a Wily Hellcat.

An undisclosed amount of stew.

Selling a number of things I really valued.

I'm now heading back to the Warriors guild with stew in mind for another attempt at getting that 6 level boost I crave so much. All this time, I'm hoping of completing my dining room. I have everything but the Marble Fireplace.

The song 'Bet on it' sung by Zack Efron is playing in the backround. The following lines keep reverberating in my mind:

"Don't you ever lose yourself to get what you want."
"I'm not gonna stop that's who I am"
"I'll give it all I got that got that is my plan"

I've been at this since 10 AM today without a single break.

I won't stop until its done or I have to leave.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Opulence

2008-05-18T09:38:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day.

I bought 2 things made of marble which is actually a milestone for me.

A Marble Cape Rack for 350k and...

Yep. An opulent table at 200k.

2 Marble Blocks = 600k
4 Gold Leaves = 500k
4 Cloth = 3k
6 Mahogany planks = 10k

And I bought the flatpack for a mere 200k.

I wasn't happy when JaGex released the Grand Exchange with inaccurate prices. Right now, I'm nuts with happiness as the first pieces of marble have been installed in my house. What once only existed in my twisted dreams is now reality as I stare blankly at that table sitting in my dining room.

Originally, I first installed the Cape Rack and then decided to cut trees to buy a Gilded Magic Wardrobe. I checked the Grand Exchange price on the Opulent table just for fun. I thought it was 2 mil at first, an outrageous price. When I looked closer, I noticed a 0 was missing in action.

Another look at my inventory and my jaw went slack as I realized I could afford one of the most expensive pieces of furniture for the dining room.

I'm now at the Seer's Village Magic Trees, this time, after the Gilded Magic Wardrobe again. My dining room currently contains the Opulent Table, Gilded wall decor, a bell pull, mahogany benches, a limestone fireplace and opulent curtains.

I'm first gonna get that magic wardrobe, then Gilded Benches. Too bad that you can't flatpack fireplaces. My dream is a house with marble fireplaces. They're just too beautiful to pass up.

An over-furnished study is my target after the benches and the wardrobe. I doubt I'll make it past a Lunar Globe but that should be enough. It seems that I'm one of the few people willing spend money on things as expensive as Marble Cape racks and Opulent Tables.

Even houses with the most awesome dungeons, lined with enough spikes to turn you into Swiss Cheese, don't have opulent tables and Marble cape racks and most don't even have Lunar Globes.

Too bad tomorrow, school kicks off again.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Friends and the Not-Too-Distant-Future

2008-05-17T05:47:00.000-07:00

I'm going to detail a list of my greatest friends. Those who are regular players, have aided me in great times of need and those who just seem to make each day a better experience.

6. Air Dragon15. Intelligence, need I say more ? One of the more recent people I ran into to have perfect (to a certain extent) grammar. Also the guy who drove me to read Digital Fortress, which I must add, was awesome.

5. Megs 60. I haven't seen her in ages. She seems to lead something of a harder than average life than most. Ran into her at Castle Wars in the waiting room. Great person.

4. Denalikenls. A Runescape mother who still has enough time to still enjoy her life =P A person who can talk about quite a few topics and someone I can learn from.

3. Wan Sweeney. Smart and great person, she has great grammar and spelling and doesn't talk about her theory of astrophysics...actually makes fewer grammar and spelling mistakes than me, go figure. Spends her time in Varrock with her 92 Magic and heals people with Lunar for experience till 99. Inactive for a while. I miss her.

2. Cheesey563. Can be annoying at times when he constantly brags about party hats and full Bandos he owns* Even so, he was the one who supported many of my efforts when I got hit by that keylogger. He gave me 900k when I first lost my whip. When I died and lost my whip again, he gave me another. I sold that one to finish Legend's and buy my Dragon Sq.

1. Zezimna1. Who doesn't have a person on their friend's list not named after Zezima ? Fun person with a great sense of humor. She seems to be on less often nowadays though.

There are also people who I have deleted do to extreme inactivity.

Stanmarsh222. The first person to ever land on my Friend's list. I asked him to bring along 20 essence when I was crafting Air Runes at level 20, he agreed and then a friendship spurred. He's been gone for ages now.

Zaklea. He was a member of my first clan back in Easter '07. That clan has died and he is now greatly inactive.

Jagex's latest post says that huge graphical revamp may be closer than we think.

In last week's Image of the Future newspost, we revealed our secret plan for RuneScape: a complete graphical rework. We were sneaky and held back a little information, however: namely, when you can expect these updates.

Drum-roll, please... You will have access to all of these updates within a couple of months! There really isn't much time to wait. If you can't wait for more details on the update, a new Development Diary is coming later this month.

We plan to keep improving RuneScape's graphics in the future, so we would encourage you to 'Send us your Specs', if you have not already.

Finally, we can reveal another image of the future...

A few months ? This could be our Christmas present ! Or if we're really lucky, our *gasp* 4th of July present ! Probably not but this brings me hope that I will be back when this thing comes out..... Unfortunately, my internet is capped at 3 Gigabytes and this may use up quite a bit.

I did get on of those earlier goals of my back.

And also a goal of opportunity, I only had 9k to go on this and made 59k in the end =P

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Effort and Freeplay

2008-05-16T07:26:00.000-07:00

I'm preparing to become a free player. Bringing my members skills up a bit and looking at my current achievements.

I'm in my house right now with my pet Zamatrice and will be uploading pictures as I type this...
Looking around, I can see I've really made progress as you can see, I've got a full portal room with another one across the hall. This is the first time I've ever appreciated my work. A full house with most room AND 2 parlours supporting the place.

I never really looked at any of my achievements hard enough to see that I am actually a high-leveled player. The Grindscape piece of my life has taken so much up that I disregard these achievements as mere stepping stones to a larger goal. I'd see a player with a higher level than me and instantly, the green-eyed monster kicks in.

I'm ranked 64,165 in the Summoning high scores which is quite fantastic for a skill with so few uses and that takes so much money. As I now realize I have 2 weeks till membership dies and I need those to work my stats up.

My goals are as follows:

60 Agility. Agility's abilities kick in even on free worlds. My energy regeneration will always be above average.

55 Construction. Perfectionism, 55 Seems like a good number and I can reach it today.

50 Summoning. Hope seems lost for a Raven but perfectionism is in this goal too and I just like the fact that I'm halfway in terms of skill and not experience.

70 Range. Member's ranging methods are far superior and I want to wear Black Dragonhide for the first time before I leave.

54 Thieving. I'm 2k away from it.

A good looking outfit for the free worlds. I can't wear my Elegant forever.

These are my goals. I have 14 days. Wish me luck.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of 'The Days'

2008-05-15T09:39:00.000-07:00

My first days after Boombaye1 was created were based on a simple schedule of Kill, Chop Wood, Kill, Cook, Smith and Kill.

My earliest levels were spent with a training sword and bronze square shield with my treasured leather armour. I'd hack apart goblins like an absolute madman and if i ran too low on health, I just headed to the chicken coop with my bronze axe and tinderbox, cook a few chickens, eat and move on.

I discovered the joys of smithing on tutorial island. My original directive was to only wear what I could smith so that there would be no loss should I die. It worked but the levels suddenly became harder to obtain and I was stuck at the steel full helm when I realized this wouldn't work.

I packed a few chickens, 100 gold coins, a bronze axe, hammer, steel pickaxe and my full iron and journeyed to the island of Karamja in search of glory. I climbed down the rope and into a pit of skeletons. Panicking, I couldn't find my way out and charged in deeper and encountered something truly massive: a Lesser Demon.

I died that day, desperately fighting on to some form of solace, but to no avail.

I decided on a smaller goal: access to the Cooking Guild. I spent 2 afternoons on the River Lum, fishing, cooking and dropping what I cooked. I gained level 35 fishing and 40 cooking during those days.

I pushed forward into the guild and reveled in its majesty. With the 37k gained from smithing months ago, I bought a Rune Longsword. That day, my love for the longsword picked up. I barely, if ever used a scimitar.

The Grindscape portion of my journey began when I encountered Air Running: excellent cash, quick and most of all, easy. I made 100k in a single afternoon, never had I seen so much money in my entire existence !

I walked into Varrock West Bank and saw someone selling full mithril at a mere 15k. I made a grab for it. Soon enough, I was training at the Lesser Demons I had come to fear and respect. I received my membership at 12:34 in the morning and my first task: Hunt.

I used the 2k I had left to travel to Feldip, my World Map open at my side once again. This incredible world opened up in front of me. I gained 2 levels when I went to bed that night and never let go for 6 months...

To be continued.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Runescape

2008-05-09T11:26:00.001-07:00

Anyone who keeps up with my blog will know that I recently went on hiatus from Runescape. With their new and perhaps upcoming graphics update, I just feel tempted to come back. My level 100 character is currently parked out in Lumbridge in her Elegant outfit, Dragon Scimitar and Dragon Sq shield.

Once I remove these items, I won't be able to put them back on until I get my membership back. I know JaGex did this to members from using their more powerful equipment on less well equipped free players but I still want to be able to re-equip them but NOT use them in any way. I want to train my Combat stats but I can't do it wearing full member's gear.

I can be more than a bit of a show-off. I like walking around in a 1 million+ casual outfit.

Really, the elegant: 200k for the full set.
Dragon Square Shield: 700k when I bought it.
Dragon Scimitar: 100k
Amulet of Glory and Ring of Wealth: 60k for both. prices dropped badly.
Headband: 6k

Total: +-1066k

It is also my main indicator of the fact that I was members once. I mean really, who is gonna go through the effort of going through the hiscores for my name to look up my members skills ? Mining, smithing, fishing and woodcutting are good non-combat skills I could consider training but really, no combat: no fun.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Cortex Command

2008-05-06T05:35:00.000-07:00

Marlaine: Boom - This game calls to you when you think you are nuthin’ but sick and tired of it! Even I have been “called back” when I wanted to quit about 3 years ago and it wasn’t even that complicated yet! I have seen soooooooooo many people leave and then a month later, return, sorry that they got rid of all their member stuff. Shrugs - you might want to come back……. I’ve heard stronger irritation towards the game from people who quit and came back!

Huh ? I was talking about Cortex Command.

On first sight, its 2D pixel graphics seem unwelcoming but don't let it fool you.

It has an incredibly realistic physics engine that is impossible to replicate in 3D , even with the strongest of machines.

A simple strategy game with addicting gameplay.
Story Summary:

Cortex Command is set a few hundred years into the future, where the now cybernetic human race is able to travel between stars and has already met several alien civilizations.

Interstellar trade and prosperity reigns, but there is always an ever-expanding frontier to explore and exploit for precious resources. In this gold rush of galactic proportions, fantastic adventure and brutal competition awaits.

You play as the boss of a small gold mining company that has just arrived at a newly discovered Earth-like planet. The large space ship that brought you here along with many other adventurers is called a TradeStar. It acts as a massive orbital safe haven and marketplace for the fortune seekers who venture down onto the planet's surface. Your purchases of bodies, guns, and equipment are sent from the TradeStar orbiting above and delivered to you by your choice of landing craft.

However, it soon becomes clear that the planet isn't as pristine as initially thought, and you will have to quickly adapt from your humble beginnings in order to survive and ultimately discover the dangerous secrets of this alien world...

Key Features:

Fully destructible environments - The gold you need to excavate is sprinkled throughout the terrain of each scene. Use special digging tools to blast your way into the dirt and debris. All the pieces of bodies and ships from your struggles will fall to the ground and permanently add to the battlefield. Get more powerful (and expensive) diggers and you can even tunnel into your enemies' bunkers from below!

In-game buying menu - At any time and place during the game, bring up a powerful menu to order new bodies and equipment, all delivered at the location and by the transport ship of your choosing. Rockets are cheaper but unreliable and harder to land. Drop ships are far more expensive but can quickly deploy entire groups of puppets onto difficult terrain. Ships and equipment returned to the TradeStar are refunded to your account.

Build your own bunker - At the start of most missions, you are able to take your time and build your own command bunker from scratch. Easily design twisting tunnels and place doors, traps, and turrets to thwart your enemies' intrusions! Pre-deploy and equip bodies in and around your installation to prepare yourself for your objectives. Don't spend too much though, or you won't have enough funds left when the mission starts!

Four-player cooperative and/or versus multiplayer - Gather your friends and plug in those game controllers! Play skirmish or campaign missions with or against up to three of your buddies. 2 vs 2, 1 vs. 3, 4 vs. the CPU - it's up to you! (rhyme intended). Flexible control settings allow you to use the keyboard, keyboard + mouse, or any generic game controller you can find and plug in.

Built-in editors and modding - Several in-game editors allow you to easily create your own stuff. The game's engine is built to make it very simple to modify and add your own content. Design your own missions, guys, ships, weapons, tools, bombs, and shields - and easily share them with your friends. Join and download some fantastic mods from the community at the Data Realms Fan Forums.

Fun, eh ?

At this point on, all new versions are downloaded as demos, then you can buy to unlock all features BUT version 18 is free.

This isn't an MMORPG but still really fun.

Personally, I just don't like that this far into the future, you still use mundane weapons such as AK-47s and SMGs. I may have copied and posted much of this thing...

Cortex Command is copyright DataRealms and I own no rights to nothing yadda yadda yadda...

Regards, Boombaye1

Of the Somewhat Irregular Webcomic

2008-05-03T08:59:00.000-07:00

I started reading IWC a few years ago and then stopped more than a year ago...when Kitt set up her new blog, I noticed her linking to the place. A spark lit a candle, dormant in my soul for years. Last night, I stayed up till 2 AM reading up on what I missed...I missed quite a bit. A total or around 400 episodes.

What makes this thing special or 'Irregular' you ask ?

It updates once a day.

It combines physics, elements of RPG, lego and TV tropes.

Great humor, only missed 1 or 2 updates in its into history of 5 years.
Hiroshima/Nagasaki reference. I love this guy...theoretically .

Of Writer's Block and Music

2008-05-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

I can't think of anything to blog about. My blog grew up in a world of Runescapers and unfortunately, there is lack of interest in Titan Quest...or dumb humor. I need ideas, people ! lolcats and Chuck Norris jokes can't last forever.

Just like Tim, I also want to embed some music into this bucket. The ones I'm looking for are:

Once in Every Lifetime - Jem The Eragon soundtrack don't come cheap

Beethoven Virus (a version that doesn't kill my eardrums)

Its the End of the World as We Know it.

Free versions of these songs and knowledge of how to embed them would come in handy. I have also considered Everyday by Carly Commando...

S O freaking S !

Of Muse and Calling it Quits.

2008-04-28T02:54:00.000-07:00

I have quit Runescape. I doesn't appeal to me anymore, not enough combat, too many quests, noobs and spammers. Look on the Rants forum if you want to see what I mean. My membership runs out in May and its gonna stay that way for a very long time.

As for these 'Of' titles, Musings of a Small Mind is my new title but that lil bit of info beneath the title is now gonna say: Oh Muse ! Grant me voice and memory to tell...after tell, the word 'Of' comes in. I want that lil line to connect with my titles in some small way.

Of Chuck Norris

2008-04-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

I came up with a list of Chuck Norris facts only read these if you need a laugh, they ain't funny if you're happy while reading them...if you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can't see Chuck Norris, you're dead.

1. Someone once videotaped Chuck Norris getting pissed off. It was called Walker: Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

2. If you spell Chuck Norris in Scrabble, you win. Forever.

3. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool Chuck Norris once and he will roundhouse you in the face.

4. The opening scene of the movie "Saving Private Ryan" is loosely based on games of dodgeball Chuck Norris played in second grade.

5. Chuck Norris once shot down a German fighter plane with his finger, by yelling, "Bang!"

6. Chuck Norris once bet NASA he could survive re-entry without a spacesuit. On July 19th, 1999, a naked Chuck Norris re-entered the earth's atmosphere, streaking over 14 states and reaching a temperature of 3000 degrees. An embarrassed NASA publically claimed it was a meteor, and still owes him a beer.

7. Chuck Norris has two speeds: Walk and Kill.

8. Someone once tried to tell Chuck Norris that roundhouse kicks aren't the best way to kick someone. This has been recorded by historians as the worst mistake anyone has ever made.

9. Contrary to popular belief, America is not a democracy, it is a Chucktatorship.

10. Chuck Norris can hit you so hard that he can actually alter your DNA. Decades from now your descendants will occasionally clutch their heads and yell "What The Hell was That?"

11. Time waits for no man. Unless that man is Chuck Norris.

12. In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Chuck Norris could use to kill you, including the room itself.

13. According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, the Native American "Trail of Tears" has been redefined as anywhere that Chuck Norris walks.

14. Pluto is actually an orbiting group of British soldiers from the American Revolution who entered space after the Chuck gave them a roundhouse kick to the face.

15. When Chuck Norris goes to donate blood, he declines the syringe, and instead requests a hand gun and a bucket.

16. There are no steroids in baseball. Just players Chuck Norris has breathed on.

17. When Chuck Norris calls 1-900 numbers, he doesnt get charged. He holds up the phone and money falls out.

18. Some people like to eat frogs' legs. Chuck Norris likes to eat lizard legs. Hence, snakes.

19. When Chuck Norris falls in water, Chuck Norris doesn't get wet. Water gets Chuck Norris.

20. Scientists have estimated that the energy given off during the Big Bang is roughly equal to 1CNRhK (Chuck Norris Roundhouse Kick)

21. Chuck Norris can divide by zero.

22. The grass is always greener on the other side, unless Chuck Norris has been there. In that case the grass is most likely soaked in blood and tears.

23. A picture is worth a thousand words. A Chuck Norris is worth 1 billion words.

24. Newton's Third Law is wrong: Although it states that for each action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, there is no force equal in reaction to a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick.

25. While urinating, Chuck Norris is easily capable of welding titanium.

26. When taking the SAT, write "Chuck Norris" for every answer. You will score over 8000.

27. Chuck Norris invented black. In fact, he invented the entire spectrum of visible light. Except pink. Tom Cruise invented pink.

28. Archeologists unearthed an old english dictionary dating back to the year 1236. It defined "victim" as "one who has encountered Chuck Norris"

29. Chuck Norris ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one.

30. Little known medical fact: Chuck Norris invented the Caesarean section when he roundhouse-kicked his way out of his monther's womb.

31. Chuck Norris doesn't bowl strikes, he just knocks down one pin and the other nine faint.

32. The show Survivor had the original premise of putting people on an island with Chuck Norris. There were no survivors, and nobody is brave enough to go to the island to retrieve the footage.

33. It takes Chuck Norris 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.

34. The Bermuda Triangle used to be the Bermuda Square, until Chuck Norris Roundhouse kicked one of the corners off.

35. When Chuck Norris is in a crowded area, he doesn't walk around people. He walks through them.

36. Chuck Norris once ate an entire bottle of sleeping pills. They made him blink.

37. Chuck Norris can touch MC Hammer.

38. Thousands of years ago Chuck Norris came across a bear. It was so terrified that it fled north into the arctic. It was also so terrified that all of its decendents now have white hair.

39. It takes 14 puppeteers to make Chuck Norris smile, but only 2 to make him destroy an orphanage.

40. Some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas.

41. Simply by pulling on both ends, Chuck Norris can stretch diamonds back into coal.

42. There is in fact an “I” in Norris, but there is no “team”… not even close.

43. Chuck Norris does not own a stove, oven, or microwave , because revenge is a dish best served cold.

44. Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.

45. Science Fact: Roundhouse kicks are comprised primarily of an element called Chucktanium.

46. Superman once watched an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger. He then cried himself to sleep.

47. Chuck Norris did in fact, build Rome in a day.

48. Ninjas want to grow up to be just like Chuck Norris. But usually they grow up just to be killed by Chuck Norris.

49. Chuck Norris can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.

50. Chuck Norris just says "no" to drugs. If he said "yes", it would collapse Colombia's infrastructure.

Of Spam and the End of the World

2008-04-21T11:54:00.000-07:00

Quote: lol so u dont like people with bad grammer? go fuck ur self then noob lvl 70s arent high lvls, and stop whining about bad grammer ur one of those noobs that jagex is worring about End Quote.

I found at least 7 errors in there that aren't slang, netlingo or shortened versions of regular words. That, my friends, is how Boombaye1's theory of reverse evolution works.

A while ago, I got this comment. Since I don't ever check back on the comments on old posts, I only ran into this one when I was deleting E-Mails. I'm lucky though, Marlaine has to deal with something along the lines of 200 spam comments per post and I expect at least 20 of them should be from haters.

Listen, Sparky, I don't care what you say about me, I have my opinions and you have yours ! I don't meddle with you so you don't meddle with me ! Capiche ? You have one chance to pull yourself back together before the Ban Hammer comes down. Gah ! I just read on Kitt's New Blog that Blogger doesn't let you ban anymore ! Great. My last line of defence is gone. Now I see why Tim doesn't allow comments, Kitt stopped blogging and Marlaine doesn't use Blogger.

Kitt has changed genders to slow down people making passes at her and something about outfits. I changed mine just for fun at first but then, watching how many people would ask me out (the red outfit helped) I now hang around on free worlds a lot and report anyone who asks for a BF/GF.

Kitt says hell is other people. I say this isn't life, this is Hell with fluorescent lighting.

Here are a couple links I ran into at Yahoo!

End of the Earth Day
Take a look at the solutions to these problems, they're the best part.

Films that make Your High-School History Teacher Cry
Gotta love Speedos (You didn't hear it from me)

I am getting closer to changing my blog title to Musings of a Small Mind. It seems more fitting.

Boombaye1 over and out !

icanhascheezburger ?

2008-04-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

see more crazy cat pics

see more crazy cat pics

see more crazy cat pics

see more crazy cat pics

see more crazy cat pics

see more crazy cat pics

see more crazy cat pics

Of Post Titles, Money and Sandpaper

2008-04-18T14:18:00.000-07:00

Most blog post titles tell you something about the topic. 'A Bright Prospect for Merchants', 'The Good, the Bad and the Stupid' and 'Tips on Magic.....Summoning.....' are prime examples. Mine are no less the same. I've lost that creative jest when creating post titles and most will now start with 'Of' Kitt seems to have the most humorous and creative and I can't mine humorous and creative without crossing the copywrite line.

While I was casually strolling about in Lumbridge on a free world and reporting noobs (Wow, me, reporting noobs. Shocker) 2 people said I was showing off my high level and equipment in the space of 1 hour. Why shouldn't I be allowed to show my Dragon Sq Shield or my level 100 Combat ? I earned it through hard work and you should stop flapping your git and get yourself to work earning something. This isn't a case where Daddy's Little Princess phones Daddy and within 1 hour, shes strolling down Main Street, flaunting that diamond studded purse of hers. She didn't earn it, she shouldn't make it look like shes better than anyone else here.

My lips and mouth feel like sandpaper. I got myself dehydrated when school started and I can't yawn without feeling nerve ending swear at me. That glass of water in front of my monitor is also obstructing my vision ! That and I'll allow 3 Days to answer the questions I post before I post my ideas and/or answers.

Boombaye's Questions of the Post:

How many things are in the WOM's house that don't exist anywhere else ?

Shellshock: What does it do ?

Why do people use fake flavourants in concentrated lemon juice but real lemon juice in dishwashing liquid ?

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Names, Luck, Disappointment and Musings of a Small Mind

2008-04-17T11:13:00.000-07:00

Disappointment. We've all faced it. That new Andre Sanda Rodriguez dress you can't afford. A computer that handles Crysis you can't afford. A friend who has stopped blogging (Kitt Fox reference).

Today, luck struck for me as I emptied out my kingdom, no eggs. I was Disappointed. Dug through the nests, I was lucky and hit a Spirit Seed. I said:" Aren't these the seeds that go for like 2 mil on the GE ?!" I charged at the Exchange (maniac style) 'This item cannot be sold on the Grand Exchange' Disappointment. That seed is now a placekeeper in my bank. I also like to buy a few things or just go through the exchange if I'm upset or something. I accidentally sold my whip for 1.3 mil but that resulted in me doing Legends Quest and obtaining a Dragon Sq shield.

Today, I made the idiot mistake of buying a Rune Berserker Shield "just because I can". Its sitting there at minimum price waiting for a buyer. However, in selling everything I got from my kingdom, I did manage to rack up another 100k boosting my budget to 300k. That 171k from the shield is gonna make it even better.

That brings me back to the days where I would quit on a goal and have a stack of coins sitting there and then spending it on something stupid. I have considered more Mole Hunting as the nest prices have raised and I can actually get buyers now.

Onto the names !

A name is something you really shouldn't change but I hope to change mine to Boombaye instead of Boombaye1. Then I can join the Pantheon of Cool People with no Numbers Behind Their Usernames. I kinda feel that Boombaye1 seems like your average 'secondary player' and not a main account. Boombaye's password was lost to time though. I have been thinking of changing my blog title to 'Musings of a Small Mind' (inspired by Marlaine's Musings) its gone about 2000 miles off course from the Runescape topic. Remember, thinking about it, not implementing yet.

I'm also adding a few things for you to think about at the end of each post. Just to get that grey matter working.

Boombaye's Questions of the Post:

Which melee Barrow's armour is stylish and provides good defense bonuses ? (Torag's is out !)
Combos of different parts are also accepted.

Why are coffins always nailed shut ?

The Learnean Hydra: How many heads does it have ?

Post your answers in a comment, please I really don't want these things in the chatbox.

Regards, Boombaye1

Of Kitt, gaming and vacation.

2008-04-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

Kitt stopped blogging and has left her blog in the dust...This is my 80th post and I'm typing this out as Dawn of War: Soulstorm is installing. I'm an avid gamer, no surprise. Runescape has lost its position as top game I waste my life on. Now its between the Maxing out my character on Titan Quest and beating the snot out of anything in Soulstorm. I have not quit Runescape and may never will but I will miss Kitt. It appears that her blog was shot down by flak from someone by the name of Kayla.

During my vacation, my Father bought a new laptop with Windows Vista and enough Ram and a good enough graphics card to run Company of Heroes and I spent more time on that than sightseeing.

I'll see about posting pictures of my vacation later on but right now...Soulstorm finished installing.

Kitt = Tau Empire. Strong in her beliefs and willing to take charge...even if it means gross consquence.
Kayla = Dark Eldar. Malevolent, cruel and takes pleasure in cruelty.
Boombaye1 = Can I pick more than one ?
Tim = Inquisition. Leaders and warriors dedicated to punching evil where it hurts most...genitals or the wallet, we may never know.
Marlaine = Sisters of Battle. Maintain calm and never explode unless with a good reason =p

Buy Kitt and happy slaughter of Dark Eldar to me.

Blackout

2008-04-05T14:22:00.000-07:00

We had a blackout earlier and I got bored enough to right a journal...watch my descent into madness. Our group was hit by the Llamas again and it took an hour to restore power and evacuate...

19:55. Power goes out. Was playing Titan Quest. Lost all progress. 6000 exp away from maxing out defense.

20:03. Parents arrive home from work.

20:05. Realizes cellphone batteries will die within an hour.

20:17. Finished Dinner.

20:19. Decide to listen to music.

20:20. Got bored of music. Decide to listen to music upside-down on couch.

20:21. Got bored of above idea.

20:22. Decide its easier to listen to music upside-down on couch in living room than study.

20:26. Got bored.

20:27. Decided to jot this down and post on blog.

20:29. Attempt to pour Coke in the dark.

20:30. Cleans up mess left from 20:29.

20:37 Plays the same song over for the third time in a row. Got another 'battery low' message.

20:39. Battery dies. Preparing to give it a funeral.

20:42 Opening up the cellphone to obtain battery requires screwdriver.

20:43 Launches world's smallest search party. Objective: Screwdriver.

20:45 Aborts funeral. Can't obtain screwdriver without murdering a crow.

20:51. Brain starts shutting down. Lack of radiation from Computer screens and TV is primary cause.

20:54. I hts hed on tabel.

20:56. After 4 glasses of Coke and some kind of solidified, frozen water, my brain appears to function as normal.

20:58. Our scouting party gas been trapped in this desolate wasteland for over an our. Morale is low and we've eaten our last swimsuit calendar. I got June through August. Voting to see who will give up an arm for breakfast.

21:05 A clan of mutant Llamas armed with harpoon guns steal our breakfast.

21:11. Delta 62 went bananas.

21:12. Tossed 62 off a cliff. He landed on another cliff.

21:17. I am writing this by the light of mortar fire as the Llamas are hitting us again. We have 07 on the conduit but it could be a while before power is restored. They're comi-

I'll let you guess what happened next.

Regards, Boombaye1

Draw. Write. Play.

2008-04-05T07:22:00.000-07:00

I discovered a great new comic by the name of Draw Write Play. If you like Ctrl Alt Delete then you'll love this. Its Ctrl Alt Delete with boobs ! Really. Refreshing humor, randomness and a barrage of innuendo. Too bad it only started in 2007 and there isn't much of an archive...yet. The author seems to also miss quite a few updates or is late rather often...meh. Sounds like me.

That comic is right about...here.

I beat Titan Quest !

2008-04-01T16:14:00.000-07:00

I finished the game in 31 hours and 22 Minutes. Probably less because I took the time to celebrate...by killing some guys. However, don't be fooled by the shortness.

I only explored: 1 out of 28 possible classes.
2 out of a possible 8 skills.
1 difficulty level.
3 rare weapons.
2 rare pieces of armour.
Killed only about half of all creatures that existed.
Only brought down 12-18 out of a helluva lot of bosses.
Got level 31 out of 65

I want to create a new character and use 2 different skills but I also want to max this other one out. I'm gonna max this one out first.

Regards, Boombaye1

Forum Spam

2008-04-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

Title says more than enough. I opened a page on the forums and there were NINE locked threads in a row. I see that the mods never seem to be idle. JaGex really should start banning IPs more often. Every time someone like 76ers Master posts, a possibly worthwhile thread is pushed off the dark cliff onto page 51.

Pure Noob992: His name says it all. Terrible spelling and punctuation. Wheres a guillotine when you need it ?
1099 Carson: Wastes a space saying something utterly pointless and has been said a thousand times before.
76ers Master: Idiot. 'Nuff said.

Does that tell you why I want idiot repellent ? Bear Mace isn't strong enough for these guys.

Regards, Boombaye1

Runescape free worlds falling apart...

2008-04-01T15:49:00.000-07:00

Aye. Nutjobs are actually soliciting cybersex on Runescape free worlds. There is less trouble like that on Members worlds. I often visit free worlds if I'm bored to check out the chaos. JaGex has also tightened security on those worlds. Every time I go there, there is a 75% chance of running into a mod. This never happened when I first started playing. In fact, in early 2007, it wasn't too common to see someone begging. Whenever I walk into Lumbridge, all hell breaks loose as a get at lease 5 trades within 3 minutes. Most will just say 'plz' after I say no. Its a harsh cycle.

There are a few players who go about their business and I just say to myself "they have potential". I still wonder what those few non-noobs can handle this torrent of stupidity. Whats worse is the report abuse system. You can't send more than 1 report every 60 seconds. Why can't JaGex have a system that filters reports, if there is more than 1 report for 1 person every 60 seconds, can't they just keep if for later ? That way I kind pummel as many different players as I can pummel different keys every minute.

Regards, Boombaye1

Titan Quest...Game

2008-03-29T16:18:00.000-07:00

The game came in and in a space of 22 hours, I have beaten everything except the last boss. This last boss however can: Fire 3 Lightning bolts at you, Fire a Poison Bolt, Drain your life, toss meteors at you and has the ability to drain the life from you AND then use it to replenish his own. I on the other hand, am a level 22-27(I forgot the level itself) Conqueror (Warrior + Defense) with minimum gear, a bow, an arrow a good helmet and a decent strength level...do the math.

However, 22 hours has to be a record and I've only explored less than half the levels. The highest you can get in the Core version is 65. This last boss is impossibly powerful. I've tried ranging him-fail, I've tried melee-epic fail and I've tried calling spirits of dead soldiers to aid me. They were cut down within 17 seconds and I was stuck meleeing him again...pelting him with arrows seems better and I'm supposed to be a warrior !

I am currently on the lookout for a special set of armour and should have it within a week. I'm also gonna work on my defense skills as Typhon (the last boss) keeps getting me down within 4 hits. I will still be off Runescape for a while and may even miss out on Summoning Batch 2

Regards, Boombaye1

Titan Quest

2008-03-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

I have ordered the game Titan Quest and I've been playing the demo to familiarize myself with it's mechanics. The game should come in by Tuesday or Wednesday, if I'm lucky, Monday. I've been looking forward to a decent role playing game for a while now....Diablo, too old. Knights of the Old Republic, too easy and too many bugs.

After playing the demo twice without getting bored, I've decided to buy the real one and really screw around with the ancient world.

Titan Quest is an epic RPG based on Greek mythology and the ancient world. Its a system hog, beautiful graphics, visuals and sounds and ridiculously simple.

There are 8 'sets' of skills for you to go through but you can only use 2 per character. A good combination of these sets is useful. Eg: Warrior: Brute force and damage + Defense mastery: Just a fancy way of saying "Hey look ! Your arrows don't hurt meh ! A bad combo would probably be like Hunter: Agility and ranged warfare + Earth: Raining rocks and tossing fireballs at people...since when do Mages and Rangers ever get along ?

Here is a list of the skill sets:

Earth: Think of tossing a flaming boulder at some wild boar and you'll know what Earth is.

Storm: No Poseidon references here. Just lightning and a ton of water...oookay...maybe a few Poseidon references. Picture barbecuing and drowning a wild boar at the same time.

Hunter: Planting arrows and spears in people's skulls since '95. A plethora of Ranged weapons and spears lie here. Shoving pointy stuff in a wild boar's eyes comes to mind.

Warrior or something like that: Brute force and dishing out damage before you collapse from boredom. Squishing a wild boar's skull with your pinkie sounds right.

Defense: Not like a laser that shoots down arrows but more like raising a shield in time to spot it. Not many ways to kill wild boar unless you're gonna make it die of exhaustion from constantly hitting nothing but your shield.

Spiritual: Ripping the soul outta that guy and converting it into an undead freak you can summon to help you...summoning an undead wild boar to suck the soul out of a live one...

Rogue: Ninja 'nuff said. Sneaking up on a wild boar and stabbing it to death with an invisible dagger.

Nature: Summoning...Titan style. Nature is like Lunar Magicks, you use them to aid a group. Summoning a pack of wolves outta nowhere to kill that wild boar just because you're to lazy to do it yourself...yep.

According to what I've read, people spend upwards of 40 hours on the campaign on ONE character. I've created a melee one and a range one on the demo though I favour melee...shocker. The game seems incredibly replayable and I might really enjoy the full version. Though there was only 1 real boss monster, it put up a pretty good fight. I also love that travel around the world element, I can hit the Great Wall of China without leaving my living room or my TV.

Unfortunately, there are a number of nasty bugs mainly associated with graphics. My demo crashed twice though it seems to work fine now...all in all...fun, mythological, epic, beautiful and lots of wild boars to kill. It's gonna be one game I'll enjoy playing.

Ps: No wild boars were harmed during the making of this thing...maybe one or two...or 30.

Regards, Boombaye1

Break

2008-03-23T08:30:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna be taking a break from Runescape and once I'm back, I'm gonna hit those trees like a hurricane for my whip. Expect nothing coherent from me for now, that and my energy levels have been shot from the flu...cold...and a bit from the stress of high school. So, yeah...I'll be a lot less active for a couple weeks. It feels good to take a break though, I'll feel renewed and ready to take more punishment afterwards.

Regards, Boombaye1

Ps: My concentration is also shot I almost typed 'Boombaye1, Regards', spelt 'Regards' wrong...4 times in a row and spelt 'typed' wrong twice...in a row.

J Mod and Casual

2008-03-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

I ran into one Mod Hohbein today in Lumbridge, World 32. It wasn't a long visit but was rare opportunity to run into one. I asked him if it was possible to have the items you keep at the same value as they are in the GE so if I had a Dragon Battleaxe and a Whip, I'd keep the whip if I died. This kind of thing is the basis of many scams an lure tactics.

He also surprisingly humorous and was accompanied by a P Mod. Apparently, he works at JaGex but isn't an actual J Mod. He's the one in the Wig, tenderizer and Judge outfit.

Now for the casual bit, in the one where I show you how he looks, I'm the one in the elegant with Zamorak book and a D scimitar. Many people have a casual skilling outfit and a combat outfit. Casual outfits tend to match and are sometimes more expensive than combat outfits.

So, the points is, do you have one ? I'm not one to run around in battle armour for the whole day so I have something extra to wear...I'm 1.9k away from 69 Range...yes, I had to go Dragon Hunting today and I'm 2.9k away from 85 Attack. One of my short term goals is off the list ^.^

Regards, Boombaye1

Ravens and more Summoning.

2008-03-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

In all my travels, I've seen 4 Zamorak Hawks, 2 Saradomin Owls and 2 Guthix Raptors..but not one Raven. I've always loved the mysterious nature of the bird, shrouded in darkness, it seems great as a pet. Kitt got incredibly lucky and managed to obtain 2 Raven eggs. I only had 1 Red egg in my entire life...Marlaine has about 40 something Red eggs.

I'm planning on holding a Summoning house party sometime. This will only happen when I get 50 Summoning AND a Raven Chick. The Zamorak Hawk is also very tempting, vicious, menacing and red, seems like a nice pet. My Kingdom should provide me with a nest sometime that contains a Raven Egg.

My main goal for now is simply Dragon boots which I'll have by tomorrow but Summoning is never far from my mind, the Giant Mole drops charms, Bork has a 100% Drop rate of charms and I'm in the lookout for a good Crimson charm dropper.

Regards, Boombaye1

Get the plates 'cuz I just got served !

2008-03-19T08:13:00.000-07:00

I died while at Bork today, I thought I could take him on without prayer when mine ran out. Those JaGex guys are really idiots, why did I lose my 300k Dragon Boots but keep my 200k Guthan's armour ? A great way to kick off the school holidays is by hanging around the Seers Village Magics...how fun.

My losses are:

Dragon Boots: 300k Main loss, will have it back with time
Amulet of Glory: 40k Got back
Ring of Wealth: 40k Got back
Legends Cape: 500gp On the way to Guild right now
Royal Helm: 50k Will replace with headband for now
Barrows Gloves: 100k Soon
Dragon Scimitar:100k Got Back
DDS: 40k Just teled to Edgeville and heading to Exchange
Dignity: It's around my ankles...just gotta bend down and pick it up

Regards, Boombaye1