Journals

So, didn't get any games or consoles, ect, but I did get some useful stuff, and some cash. My parents said they'd contribute about $250 or so to the computer when I start buying stuff, and my bro has been helping find parts for me.

On a more mapping-related note, I've been doing mostly source, and aside from having to redo some sections of cliff walls 2-5 times, it's been pretty good.
I will probably still finish Colony 42, or at least release the source if I can't go back to Goldsource after this, but it's on hold until Urby sends me the scientist lines I gave him. I realize he's a busy man, though, so I'll just stick to source for a while.

There is nothing Valve can do right now (with the exceptions of canceling episode 3 and/or deleting my steam account) that would piss me off.
First they have a free TF2 weekend.
This causes one of my friends to invite me to his place to play TF2 with and against him.
We hook up my computer to his home network, and I can update steam and download TF2. In the process, I also download HL2, Lost coast, The SDK, and Steam HL.

Aside from a few problems with the more advanced shaders in HL2, and TF2 sometimes going black except for the HUD, the source games work perfectly.
Fast forward to now- I'm home, and I'm almost out of the mines in my HL2 save. Ravenholm is less scary than I thought it would be.
TL:DR;
Free TF2 weekend causes JeffMOD to go to a friends' place, Now he has HL2 on his computer and in a playable state.
Expect a basic source map within the next month or two.

So, in a mod, what would be more important to you?
A)Being able to replay the original HL maps with the new weapons/models, or
B)Having the new chapter names show up in the savefile loading screen?

(This isn't for Colony 42, just data collecting for future mods. Also, I posted it here for easy reference and because it's not thread worthy, imo)
Thanks for your opinions in advance.

Played the L4D2 demo today at a friend's house. Seems like a good game, new weapons, infected, refreshing daytime maps.
Should be DLC though, or at least have people who own L4D1 get a big discount.
Also, most of the regulars on the TWHL group got friend invites, so check your comunity tab. If I missed anyone who wants to be on my friends list, just send an invite my way. I still check it on web steam every so often.

Now to get highspeed at my place...

It's my Birthday today.
I had the party Friday-Saturday (yay long weekends!) So I get today all to myself. I got The Sims 3 from my parents and some cash from my buddies on Friday, and I just got Scribblenauts this morning.
Unfortunatley, It seems I need (at least) a new graphics card for the Sims 3 to work. Any suggestions?

JeffMOD does not understand why so many Americans seem to be against Socialized healthcare.

IMO, most of the protesters are just too ignorant to take a look at what "Socialized Healthcare" means, and instead are going "Obama's new policy has 'socialized' in it! he must be a Communist Nazi!"
Let me put it this way. I live in Canada, a Democratic country that has socialized healthcare. Say I go see my doctor, and she tells me I need a liver transplant. I go on the waiting list, they find someone compatible and willing to give me a snippet of their liver, I get the operation done. None of this costs me a single cent! It's all paid for by the government, and it doesn't matter how much money I can spare for a surgery, as long as I am a Canadian citizen getting it done in Canada.

Now, I don't care if you have enough insurance to cover it, I don't care that it will add a few bucks to your annual taxes. What if your insurance company goes bankrupt, or the policy doesn't cover what you need? Socialized healthcare makes sure you will get the surgery/treatment, regardless of whether or not you can afford it, or your age. All American citizens will get the healthcare they need, regardless of whether or not they can afford it. People are suffering because they can't afford surgeries without taking out a loan or going bankrupt, and no developed country should allow that to happen to their citizens.
It's a good policy, and "Socialized" does not mean America is going to turn into a communist state. Get over yourselves.

TL/DR: Socialized healthcare means free healthcare, Obama not a Commie.

(if you have a blog and agree with me on this issue, feel free to post it on your blog, as long as you credit me)

So, today we went up to the cottage to close it up.
This involved the yearly dock migration- Unlike all the other docks in the bay-ish area our cottage is on, our dock is a floating dock, as we have no foundation. This means that every fall, we have to untie the dock from the chains holding it in place in the event the back falls, pry the back off the concrete that's there, and get on to row it to the side of the bay, where the owners of the neighbouring cottage let us tie it up in the shallows so it doesn't break apart when the water goes down.

Every spring we have to row it back up when the water comes up, provided the boyant barrels (think HL2) holding up the front are still there.

To get an idea of how this works, picture yourself on a raft. Now picture it three times the size, large enough to hold a small fishing boat with lots of room. Now picture it being a bit broken and decayed from all the years it's been there, only boyant on one side, and the water is cold. Plus you have to row the damn thing 10 feet or so, and get it rotated while you're doing that. That's pretty much our dock when the back isn't on the shore. It's a good dock, it's just getting...old. And it's heavy enough to be a burden when you're trying to move it.
Luckily, nobody got their feet wet this year. Not much more to say, pretty much routine stuff other than that, forgot my lunch, moved a picinic table inside through two narrow-ish doorways, ect.

TL/DR; JeffMOD moved a rotting dock with a paddle at his cottage, water was cold, picinic table inside.

Thanksgiving!

Yes, that's right, Canadians get it early.
Had a nice supper, And my brother let me have the play CD for KoTOR II before he left, as his laptop can't run it.

Still on Talos, but hey.

Lucky Break:
So, today I got up, visted TWHL while I ate breakfast, and went to the bus stop, as usual. I noticed that nobody was there, but I assumed that at least one of the guys just slept in. The public school student that uses our bus got dropped off, but not her sister who is of high school age. 'Appointment', I assumed. Then, the bus finally arived, the usual 10 minutes or so after I get to the stop, and the driver turned me back, saying there was no high school today. Just slightly confused, I walked back home, and looked for the school website. Seems there was a power outage at the school, and we missed the radio broadcast about it.
I get the day off. Lucky me.

Contrary to popular belief, I'm not just a mapper. I've also made some custom skies with terragen, many textures (Okay, mostly printscreens with minor edits, but still) and some simple model hacks. You've seen two of my models, but I wanted to show off some I've done since then, as well as my skies;Lab scientist, for use in the same (non-started) mod as the civie sci. Note the vertical badges. I used a pic of magnusson's as a base.close up on slick's face and badge during a sunset on the same model.
Note how he's gotten glasses and shaved his goatee since the photo.Hgrunt barney model. While it does not act as a replacement, it could be used as a barney type. Uses gearboxes' Torch and medic anims.

If you want any of these, let me know and I'll write up a readme and a package. And yes, I know that the sunset is ugly. If I still have the source for that area, I may redo it. Maybe.

Game Tech journal!
I was playing Gmod at my friend's place, and while he was showing me some of the SENTs (Scripted Entities) he had downloaded, I noticed that one package had similated liquids.
Using HL2 models, the SENT pack had small and large versions of soda and beer bottles, plus a water jug and milk carton. You use the containers, and if they're at a certain angle, a particle effect 'pours' out of the end of the container, in colours to match the liquid it simulates. You can also use it again to close the container, stopping any remaining liquid from coming out. I think it also works on an angle basis, so if the level goes down enough, certain angles will stop having liquid pour. I think this is great. A little refinement, like a denser particle effect, a pool on the surface below, and a pool fade effect that changes how long it takes depending on the material it comes onto, and the light level from the maps light_enviroment that hits the area the pool is in, and you have a respectable liquid particle effect.
Add to that a brush entity that fills its volume with the chosen particle and then removes itself on map start, a prop_container with differing model and liquid choices, the ability to see the particles inside transparent props, and a new console command to update the particles in hammer form the game (think the command to update prop_physics), and there you go.
Just make sure you recode the prop_container to make +use open/close the container and switch submodels appropriatley, and that's the peak of innovation.
Are you reading me, Valve? Got it? Good. I expect to see it either in Episode 3 or HL3.

EDIT: Chapter one is here: http://www.twhl.co.za/forums.php?thread=16415&page=last
So, I've been thinking of writing a short novel of some kind to practice my writing skills. And I came up with Half-life: Guard duty, A story about Sargeant Henry Pierce, a security guard in Black Mesa. Henry works in the Area 7 Security offices, near the recreation centre. Below is an exerpt from the first chapter, which I just finished. (This is the first section, Pierce is not introduced here)
8:47 AM
Black Mesa Research Facility
Black Mesa, New Mexico
(Tram line)
The young man on the tram glanced at his watch, a look of worry on his face. Late again. The Administrator would have his head if just one more experiment was delayed on his account. The tram, leaving the stop at the sector B coolant reserve launched into its automated welcome speech. Like anyone else was on the tram line this late.

?Good morning, and welcome to the Black Mesa transit system. This automated train is provided for the security and convenience of the Black Mesa research facility personnel??

?It?s gonna be a long day? he thought.

Post below with your opinion, Because I may just post a thread with the chapters in it as soon as they get writen.

I love exposing bugs in games.
I was playing c2a5, and having a pistol fight with the ickyosaur, when I killed it mid-leap. It hung in the air, twitched, and rolled over, just like when you kill it in the water. Then it slowly floated down towards the water's surface.
"Hey look! A floating prehistoric fish! Fasinating!"
"Sure, doc, sure. Someone's had one to many aliens appear in front of him"
Hilarious.
Side note, press F5. I got a new avatar, to celebrate my re-discovery of the fun of my gamecube games.

I'm in the process of making a model using Ambient.Impact's scientist source files. I'm removing the pen and pencil, the nametags, and adding new textures, but I'm not sure whether I want the tie or not. It's beautifully animated, but it probably won't fit so well in a 'town urban' setting.Which looks better to you considering the setting?
Also, I've made a barney model for the same setting. Say hello to police officer barney;He also has an alternate 357 model for spirit usage.

This is a list of some things I've learned since I registered here. Most things are from TWHL, but a few are from other sites.
1. Basic, intermediate, and 'advanced' mapping.
2. Basic modeling.
3. Gabe Newell and World Crafter share a hobby.
4. People who save lives as a job may spend every free second shooting anything that moves.
5. Trilby wearing geeks make good voice actors.
6. Luke thinks I should STFU.
7. If he can't ask politely, he should STFU.
8. Just because you've been banned from a forum 102393257358746 1/2 times, doesn't mean you have to stop going there.
9. Never pet a burning dog.
10. People with MP5s pwn people with M4s. (Actually, that's from The Rock, I suggest you watch it if you haven't)
11. Gearbox had some really bad ideas for the HD pack. Terrible ideas.
12. Kirby is a peashooter....?
13. Black Mesa will be done when it's done. AKA, 2 days before the resonance cascade. The maps will be 100% accurate.
14. Just because it seems like a good example map, doesn't mean it IS a good example map.
15.16. There's nothing like a good MOTM review.
17. You can even recycle RMF and VMF files. Many, many times.
18. Lupus is a good diagnosis for anything.
19. If it won't do it's scripted sequence, kill it!
20. HL can have up to 16 levelchanges in a single map. This can make a FPS RPG possible for goldsource.
There's a lot more I've learned, but this is just off the top of my head.