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Alabastor_Twob
How to get a Halloween costume, by TJB:
•Get a bus to town
•Take €25 out of the ATM
•Buy a suit in a charity shop
•Find out that was all the money in your bank account
•No bus back now
•Spend hours walking back home without knowing which way to go
At least I got home eventually
•Get a bus to town
•Take €25 out of the ATM
•Buy a suit in a charity shop
•Find out that was all the money in your bank account
•No bus back now
•Spend hours walking back home without knowing which way to go
At least I got home eventually
Well, I'm royally pissed off right now. I decided to resume an old map that I last did anything with about a year ago. It was the only map I'd ever made that stood any chance of being completed. It was a remake of an old TWHL map, so my weakest points, general level design and concept were already taken care of. I found the rmf, but it seems to have reverted to an old version where only a bit of one room is completed. I can't seem to find any more complete versions, but I will keep looking.
Not really any journal worthy content, I just needed to let of some steam. I'm not too happy at the moment.
Not really any journal worthy content, I just needed to let of some steam. I'm not too happy at the moment.
Longish journal incoming:
I'm back from Florida. Was very hot there, as usual. And while we didn't get to go to Kennedy Space Centre, we did see the space shuttle from where we were. I will upload a photo my brother took when I get access to his camera.
It was cool seeing it, and most of us went inside to watch the rest on the tv when we lost sight of it. My parents stayed outside though, and they heard the sonic boom. Apparently it was really loud, even though we were miles away.
On the way back I saw some really cool things out of the window of the plane, although I didn't have a camera. D:
As we were passing Kennedy Space Centre I saw a single massive cloud, really high up, with rain falling from it. It's difficult to describe, but it looked amazing, seeing the sunlight shimmering through the ribbon of rain underneath it.
The plane went up near the coast of the US and passed over the north Atlantic, but while we were about level with New York I saw a massive lightning storm in the distance. Big flashes of orange in the clouds miles away, surprisingly often, at least one every five seconds. Occasionally a big bolt would arc out of, then back into the clouds, lasting a few seconds. Some of them must have been at least a mile long.
We got back yesterday, and I fell asleep as soon as I got home. As I woke up at about 2-3am, I think I had a sleep paralysis experience, which has never happened before. I've hastily done some pictures to help illustrate it.
This is the general layout to my room, I have a bedside table and a desk beside my bed, and a brown door leading to the hallway outside, and a white door leading to the bathroom.
This is what it looked like when I woke up. The desk and the table had gone, and both doors had moved, and had switched colours. One corner of the room was too dark to see into. I could hear birds and other sounds through one wall, as if it were really thin. I could hear my mother outside the bedroom door talking to my cousins, who are about six years old. She was telling them I was asleep in there, and not to be too loud. After some conversation with them, I heard her tell them to go in. At this point a dark figure, down on all fours, lunged out of the darkness at me. I couldn't move and was panicking, but after a second or two the whole scene faded. It was odd, it wasn't like anything I had experienced before.
I'm back from Florida. Was very hot there, as usual. And while we didn't get to go to Kennedy Space Centre, we did see the space shuttle from where we were. I will upload a photo my brother took when I get access to his camera.
It was cool seeing it, and most of us went inside to watch the rest on the tv when we lost sight of it. My parents stayed outside though, and they heard the sonic boom. Apparently it was really loud, even though we were miles away.
On the way back I saw some really cool things out of the window of the plane, although I didn't have a camera. D:
As we were passing Kennedy Space Centre I saw a single massive cloud, really high up, with rain falling from it. It's difficult to describe, but it looked amazing, seeing the sunlight shimmering through the ribbon of rain underneath it.
The plane went up near the coast of the US and passed over the north Atlantic, but while we were about level with New York I saw a massive lightning storm in the distance. Big flashes of orange in the clouds miles away, surprisingly often, at least one every five seconds. Occasionally a big bolt would arc out of, then back into the clouds, lasting a few seconds. Some of them must have been at least a mile long.
We got back yesterday, and I fell asleep as soon as I got home. As I woke up at about 2-3am, I think I had a sleep paralysis experience, which has never happened before. I've hastily done some pictures to help illustrate it.
It's my 19th birthday tomorrow, but I won't be around to celebrate as I will be going to Florida for holidays tomorrow.
Also, yesterday I met an old friend who I hadn't seen in about two years, at a party. Apparently in the intervening time he had come out as gay. Then another friend who I hadn't seen for a year since he moved to Australia showed up. We had a pretty good time.
Also, yesterday I met an old friend who I hadn't seen in about two years, at a party. Apparently in the intervening time he had come out as gay. Then another friend who I hadn't seen for a year since he moved to Australia showed up. We had a pretty good time.
I know I said in my last Journal post that I would try to come onto TWHL more, but due to a few things I found I simply didn't have time. My schedule for the next few months has cleared up though, so I think I may have time to rejoin the community.
I started mapping in the last few days, I was shocked at how much of it I had forgotten. Not necessarily techniques, but things like entity names and setups, texturing, stuff like that. I mapped a room yesterday, tried to add some atmosphere. It was a dismal efort.
There were a few things going on in the past few months that were more important than going onto TWHL. Definitely the biggest one of these was to do with my girlfriend, Aibhin. Due to a broken condom, and emergency contraception being unavailable, she became pregnant a while ago. I was scared about the whole thing at first, as being 18 and not having a job, I felt that we wouldn't be able to care for the baby properly. Even though it was the result of an accident, we still wanted it. Aibhin did especially, due to problems with her ovaries she's almost infertile, and she will likely not be able to conceive at all in a few years.
Therefore it was rather depressing when she miscarried in the beginning of April. She was approaching the fifth month of pregnancy, so it was a shock.
Anyway, all of that is over, and for the next few months I don't really have any responsbility, so I should hope to start mapping again.
I started mapping in the last few days, I was shocked at how much of it I had forgotten. Not necessarily techniques, but things like entity names and setups, texturing, stuff like that. I mapped a room yesterday, tried to add some atmosphere. It was a dismal efort.
There were a few things going on in the past few months that were more important than going onto TWHL. Definitely the biggest one of these was to do with my girlfriend, Aibhin. Due to a broken condom, and emergency contraception being unavailable, she became pregnant a while ago. I was scared about the whole thing at first, as being 18 and not having a job, I felt that we wouldn't be able to care for the baby properly. Even though it was the result of an accident, we still wanted it. Aibhin did especially, due to problems with her ovaries she's almost infertile, and she will likely not be able to conceive at all in a few years.
Therefore it was rather depressing when she miscarried in the beginning of April. She was approaching the fifth month of pregnancy, so it was a shock.
Anyway, all of that is over, and for the next few months I don't really have any responsbility, so I should hope to start mapping again.
I've been rather depressed recently, so I haven't really payed attention to TWHL in the last three months. I'm feeling better than I have for a while though, might end up non depressed soon. Or at least I hope so.
On a lighter note I got laid in December. Now I have a girlfriend. Hooray!
On a lighter note I got laid in December. Now I have a girlfriend. Hooray!
This morning my brother was mowing the lawn when for some reason the lawnmower caught fire. My dad quickly began to move it somewhere where it could burn itself out safely, when it exploded and injured his leg. A while ago when he was cutting logs with a chainsaw a piece of wood was torn out and hit him in the leg hard enough to damage the bone, well whatever it was that came off the mower hit him in the same spot, and now it's broken in two places. Apparently it'll be three weeks until it'll be healed.
In my last journal, when I said I was back from my holidays, that wasn't strictly correct. I was at my grandparents house in England, where we were staying for a few days.
Anyway, I was in my Grandfather's shed mucking about when I spotted some old blank cartridges for a nail gun he no longer had. Being the enterprising spirit in the field of blowing stuff up that I am, I decided to try and set one of these off. Seeing as they looked like rimfire cartridges, I held a nail with some pliers and used a hammer to hit it into the rim. Other than making a hole, it did nothing. I tried again, with the same result. I took it out of the vice to inspect it - I found out I was right in my initial assumption, the primer was in the rim of the cartridge. I came to the conclusion that the powder must have gotten damp at some point. I decided to set it off by holding lit over a lit match. It worked. I decided to take another blank to hold over a match, as the bang from this one wasn't particularly loud. Not enough pressure had built up, seeing as there were two holes in the side. So I took a new cartridge, and held it over the match...
Long story short, the doctors managed to remove the metal from my arm. It wasn't in too deep, but it hit right in the elbow, where there's several large veins, arteries, nerves and tendons. It could have been rather unfortunate. I think I'm also partially deaf in my right ear as well because of it. My ears were still ringing several hours later.
This is the shrapnel:
And this is it with a 50 cent coin for scale:
Anyway, I was in my Grandfather's shed mucking about when I spotted some old blank cartridges for a nail gun he no longer had. Being the enterprising spirit in the field of blowing stuff up that I am, I decided to try and set one of these off. Seeing as they looked like rimfire cartridges, I held a nail with some pliers and used a hammer to hit it into the rim. Other than making a hole, it did nothing. I tried again, with the same result. I took it out of the vice to inspect it - I found out I was right in my initial assumption, the primer was in the rim of the cartridge. I came to the conclusion that the powder must have gotten damp at some point. I decided to set it off by holding lit over a lit match. It worked. I decided to take another blank to hold over a match, as the bang from this one wasn't particularly loud. Not enough pressure had built up, seeing as there were two holes in the side. So I took a new cartridge, and held it over the match...
Long story short, the doctors managed to remove the metal from my arm. It wasn't in too deep, but it hit right in the elbow, where there's several large veins, arteries, nerves and tendons. It could have been rather unfortunate. I think I'm also partially deaf in my right ear as well because of it. My ears were still ringing several hours later.
This is the shrapnel:
Anyway, I'm back from Mauritius. A rather nice place, and also the first time I've been in the Southern Hemisphere for quite a few years. It's very similar to India, and some places in Africa. And while I was there I took a Scuba Diving course, so now I'm a certified Open Water diver.
It's my eighteenth birthday tomorrow. Also, I won't be around to celebrate it, as tommorrow I'm leaving for a holiday to Mauritius, in Africa. I'll be gone for two or three weeks.
I had a weird dream last night. I figure it might be good for the competition. 
Here's a transcript that I made when I woke up:
Christmas Eve. Mum and Dad in bed, me, Jack, Sam, Ben and Molly (my siblings) in living room.
I go to my room to get something. In the time in between me going from the living room to the stairwell it begins to rain.
I notice the fire escape is ajar. I close it, and go back to the living room to tell the others.
When I get back to living room it's raining heavily.
When I'm at the living room door I notice the front door is open. I tell the others, and then wonder out loud if the rest of the doors are open.
I go to the kitchen to check the side door. At this time it's storm-like rain.
The kitchen is dark, and in the room next to the kitchen I can see a rectangle of light on the floor, as if the outside light is on.
I turn the outside light on anyway, the rectangle gets lighter, but almost unnoticably so.
I open the door, unlocked as expected, and when I look outside it isn't raining, although I didn't notice this or see it as important.
I walk to the shed and look in. Although still at night, I can see in the shed as if it's only slightly dark.
The cats are all in the shed, mostly lying on the ground, but some are lying on things. Fred (my dog) is lying on the concrete, apparently asleep.
I look in the kennel. Squirrel (one of my cats) is in there. I shoo her out, and then tell Fred to sit in there.
I walk out of the shed, Dad and Jack are at the door. I assume Jack went up to tell Dad, they both came down to look for me.
Although I don't notice until later, Dad's demeanour seems a little... off. I do however notice that Jack is smiling faintly, looking at Dad, listening to his words.
He puts me in mind of someone who has been indoctrinated into a cult, and is in the presence of the cult leader.
Dad says "The doors are supposed to be unlocked. Leave this one unlocked when you come in."
At this point, I wake up, although my brain seems to be throwing lines at me,
as if it's spent some time coming up with this dream and it doesn't want the good bit to go to waste.
"Oh, and don't let anyone... wimpy in, like the police or something."
"You'll know who's supposed to come in. She'll be the one smashing her fingers"
At this point I see a flash of an image, a young girl, about nine or ten, on the driveway, almost shrouded in darkness.
Her black hair covers her face, she seems to be floating a few inchess of the ground, and her fingers are mmangled.
I get a feeling that my waking up at that point was fortunate, as that would have been a hell of a nightmare.
It will be an interesting challenge to try and map it I think.
Here's a transcript that I made when I woke up:
Christmas Eve. Mum and Dad in bed, me, Jack, Sam, Ben and Molly (my siblings) in living room.
I go to my room to get something. In the time in between me going from the living room to the stairwell it begins to rain.
I notice the fire escape is ajar. I close it, and go back to the living room to tell the others.
When I get back to living room it's raining heavily.
When I'm at the living room door I notice the front door is open. I tell the others, and then wonder out loud if the rest of the doors are open.
I go to the kitchen to check the side door. At this time it's storm-like rain.
The kitchen is dark, and in the room next to the kitchen I can see a rectangle of light on the floor, as if the outside light is on.
I turn the outside light on anyway, the rectangle gets lighter, but almost unnoticably so.
I open the door, unlocked as expected, and when I look outside it isn't raining, although I didn't notice this or see it as important.
I walk to the shed and look in. Although still at night, I can see in the shed as if it's only slightly dark.
The cats are all in the shed, mostly lying on the ground, but some are lying on things. Fred (my dog) is lying on the concrete, apparently asleep.
I look in the kennel. Squirrel (one of my cats) is in there. I shoo her out, and then tell Fred to sit in there.
I walk out of the shed, Dad and Jack are at the door. I assume Jack went up to tell Dad, they both came down to look for me.
Although I don't notice until later, Dad's demeanour seems a little... off. I do however notice that Jack is smiling faintly, looking at Dad, listening to his words.
He puts me in mind of someone who has been indoctrinated into a cult, and is in the presence of the cult leader.
Dad says "The doors are supposed to be unlocked. Leave this one unlocked when you come in."
At this point, I wake up, although my brain seems to be throwing lines at me,
as if it's spent some time coming up with this dream and it doesn't want the good bit to go to waste.
"Oh, and don't let anyone... wimpy in, like the police or something."
"You'll know who's supposed to come in. She'll be the one smashing her fingers"
At this point I see a flash of an image, a young girl, about nine or ten, on the driveway, almost shrouded in darkness.
Her black hair covers her face, she seems to be floating a few inchess of the ground, and her fingers are mmangled.
I get a feeling that my waking up at that point was fortunate, as that would have been a hell of a nightmare.
It will be an interesting challenge to try and map it I think.
I'm just back from a five day sojourn in England. The first three days I was in London, although I was rather sick for those three days so I missed out on most of it. I did get to see my aunt though. The next day I was visiting my aunt in the Cotswalds, which is a rather nice place. I may try mapping her house at some point, it's very nice, although it wouldn't be too good for a deathmatch map. She would complain about the gunfire. The last day I was in Burton-on-Trent, where my grandparents live.
A while ago one of my cats got its foot caught in a trap, and was limping quite badly. Today I came home from college to find out that the leg had to be amputated. Poor cat. 
Merry Christmas everyone from my new computer, which unlike my old one works perfectly. Hooray!
I'm rather cold at the moment, and due to the cold we have no water or heating.
Lovely.
I'm rather cold at the moment, and due to the cold we have no water or heating.
Lovely.
Well, I'm bored and I haven't posted a journal in a while, so here's one.
There's very heavy rain here at the moment, and there's some bad flooding. The area where my uncle works is in about eighteen inches of water, flowing pretty rapidly, so that place has been shut down. One of the bridges in town has become unstable, the water is now almost over the bridge, and it's been closed off. If it collapses, it will probably dam the river and cause the water level to rise enough to flood the place where my dad works. A few streets away from where I'm sitting now is a field that now resembles a lake, and all of the schools in town have been shut down bar the one I used to go to, which is odd because it's the only one right next to the river. The military are around helping with rescuing some of the worst affected people. It's odd though, my house is in a valley yet it's affected no worse than any other time that there's rain. I feel I've got off lucky.
Edit: Oh yes, I've been a member of TWHL for 1000 days now. Over a quarter of the time that Half-Life has been out. Sweet.
There's very heavy rain here at the moment, and there's some bad flooding. The area where my uncle works is in about eighteen inches of water, flowing pretty rapidly, so that place has been shut down. One of the bridges in town has become unstable, the water is now almost over the bridge, and it's been closed off. If it collapses, it will probably dam the river and cause the water level to rise enough to flood the place where my dad works. A few streets away from where I'm sitting now is a field that now resembles a lake, and all of the schools in town have been shut down bar the one I used to go to, which is odd because it's the only one right next to the river. The military are around helping with rescuing some of the worst affected people. It's odd though, my house is in a valley yet it's affected no worse than any other time that there's rain. I feel I've got off lucky.
Edit: Oh yes, I've been a member of TWHL for 1000 days now. Over a quarter of the time that Half-Life has been out. Sweet.