Long Time No See
I’ve been very busy in the past few days, getting settled into my school routine and doing the massive amount of homework I’ve been given. I should have expected the enormous workload – I am taking 4 high school courses this year – and managed my time better. Thankfully, the first two weeks of school have been short, due to holidays.
I haven’t had any time to play Runescape during the past week, but now that I have the next 4 days off, hopefully I’ll be able to get more playing in.
First off, Jagex released the “Grimy Herbs” update while I was off. The update is very useful, even though I do very little with herbs. Still, it’s nice to know that Jagex is thinking up ways to stop scammers. Also released while I was off was the Varrock Achievement Diary. I haven’t had an opportunity to try it out, but I may do so this weekend. Hopefully my efforts will be rewarded with some nice xp – or that new armor.
Before school started, I also gained a bunch of Hunter levels. The first level I gained was 59 hunter, up 12 from 47 the week before.
I’m planning to take a break and get my farming level up, but once I do that it’ll be back to hunting, which I’m hoping to take all the way to 80.
Just Got Back
Well, I haven’t posted in a week, due to my being on vacation. My family and I visited the Baseball Hall of Fame and th battlefields at Gettysburg. It was very interesting, and I learned a lot more about the battle. It’s too bad there were no reenactments going on.
Anyway, before I left for vacation I gained a bunch of Hunter levels, 16 in total. Since I’ve gotten back, I’ve gained another 6. I plan to spend the next few weeks working on hunting, mainly hunting tropical wagtails, then moving on to Larupias once I hit level 31. Here’s a pic of me getting Hunter level 19:
I’m also hoping that hunter will give me a good amount of xp giving random events, which I can use to get my runecrafting level to 44.
Runescape is Good for You
Found this while surfing the BBC site. It’s very old, but still interesting. I find it interesting that a game could be teaching life skills, not that I’m surprised. Runescape teaches hard work (getting 72 woodcutting in 3 weeks) and budgeting/money management. It’s nice to know that my “addiction” is doing something other than ruining my eyes.
After reading the article, I would like to pose a question to my readers: What do you do to “chill” in Runescape? Whenever I need to “chill”, I head to Relleka. It’s usually pretty quiet and pickpocketing Relleka citizens is a lot of fun. I especially like the Viking style and all the wintry terrain. It reminds me of a quiet, Christmas snowfall, which I find very beautiful and relaxing. When I’m here, I usually spend time thieving fish from the stalls, and cooking them.
What is your favorite place to relax or hang out with friends?
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Other the past few days, I’ve worked on a bunch of things, namely 40 runecrafting and the Grand Tree quest, which was pretty good. The demon was easy (I maged it with 40 mage), though if I had meleed it, I expect it would have ended quite differently. The Gnome King’s naivety was very annoying – he seemed to be unable to accept that Glough (the antagonist) was really evil. It seems like all the quests include one of 3 things:
- A Naive king, lord, or some other official
- A guy who hates humans, monsters, or everyone else
- A megalomaniac who wants to conquer Misthlin, Ardougne, or all of Runescape
The list is a bit depressing. Unfortunately, it’s also a little biased, since I’ve only done a few quests. But personally, I would like to see an interesting and innovative quest – something that hasn’t been done already.
Oh, before I forget (again) I changed my player’s look again. The red was starting to hurt my eyes, so I changed to naturally brownish colors. My hairstyle is black samurai.
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In other news, I saw the Bourne Ultimatum yesterday, which was an awesome movie. It was very intense and action packed, and not at all confusing. The entire thing was realistic, even if not plausible. I highly recommend it. Now I just have to watch the first two.
Ulmaris Castle by SavaTheAggie
SavaTheAggie has posted a very nice looking castle, which could have won the Classic Castle Competition. Be sure to check out this amazing moc.
Post Apocalyptic ‘Gangs’ by legohaulic
Legohaulic has built some very nice post-apoc gangs to inhabit the barren, deserted landscape.
I liked these guys mouth pieces, they’re cool.
The Guy on the far left is wearing troll pants (from the Harry Potter troll set).
This one is really cool. The leader looks awesome. I also like how the grunts’ helmets look.
Shellshock by Adrian Florea
Adrian Florea has posted an awesome evil transformer, Shellshock, which actually transforms.
After almost two months I’ve finally managed to finish this damned thing. The weather here is completely awefull, the heat makes anything I touch instantly stick to me. Anyway, I wanted to build a transformer for a very long time, i’ve had numerous failed attempts (helicopters, hot-rods, helicopters), every time I searchd for a unique alternate model, this made it even more of a challenge, trying to stay true to the original American M3 Halftrack from WWII. This model is a definition of my building style, it’s extremely unstable because I tried to score a high cool-factor, and manage a complex transformation with numerous msmall moving parts. The robot mode is familiar to the busy looking transformers from the movie, it has a slight resemblance to Brawn and Blackout.
Brickshelf: Back Again?
A new message has appeared on the top of the brickshelf.com home page:
Notice: Brickshelf will not be shutting down!
We will be offering “featured” accounts for $5/month shortly.
We have received hundreds of supportive emails in the past few days including many who said they would like to contribute financially but did not know how. This has had us rethink the practicality of charging for enhanced features.We plan to do this without reducing current functionality for free users. Thank you for your enormous show of support. IMPORTANT: do NOT try to download the entire site, it causes major problems, slows things down for normal users and you will be permanently blocked.
Speedo Tip
This week’s Speedo Tip of the Week comes from David Swensen, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and assistant coach for the YMCA of the North Shore in Beverly, Mass. Swensen offers some advice on an in-season, dry-land program for a distance swimmer.
Swensen’s Tip:
For a distance swimmer, an in-season resistance exercise program should focus on muscular endurance. This involves 1-2 sessions per week (depending on the competition schedule), executing two to three sets of 15 to 20 repetitions of exercises performed as a circuit, with 20-30 seconds rest in between each set. He should be sure to include core strengthening exercises in his routine. Using an exercise ball is a good way to train the core stabilizing muscles to work effectively.
Here is a sample exercise routine: include oblique crunches, planks, reverse flies, wall squats and hip extensions with opposite shoulder flexion exercises, all performed on a ball; then add side bridges, lat pull downs, triceps extensions, seated rows and lateral shoulder raises. This is just one example. Many other types of exercise and combinations are possible. Rotator cuff exercises performed on a more frequent basis of three to five times per week would help him go the distance with a lower risk of injury.
Peirsol, Peterson Win in Santa Clara
The Toyota Santa Clara International Invitational Swim Meet began Thursday night with timed finals in the womens’ 1500m free and the mens’ 800m free.
Hayley Peirsol, from Club Wolverine, won the womens’ 1500 with a time of 16:12.08. North Carolina Aquatic’s Chop Peterson took the mens’ 800 in 8:02.59.
Coughlin Goes 4:10 in 400m Free
Natalie Coughlin went a 4:10 in the 8 lap 400 meter freestyle at the Janet Evans International, which is a best time by 4 seconds, to secure gold.
Zeigler Breaks 1500: 15:42 WR
The oldest record in the books – Janet Evan’s 1500 meter freestyle world record of 15:52.10 – fell to Kate Zeigler after 19 years in the books.
Here are the splits:
29.23; 1:00.49 (31.26)
1:32.09 (31.60); 2:03.46 (31.37)
2:35.17 (31.71) ; 3:06.74 (31.57)
3:38.34 (31.60) ; 4:09.87 (31.53)
4:41.41 (31.54) ; 5:13.01 (31.60)
5:44.80 (31.79) ; 6:16.48 (31.68)
6:48.07 (31.59) ; 7:19.63 (31.56)
7:51.06 (31.43) ; 8:22.57 (31.51)
8:53.91 (31.34); 9:25.42 (31.51)
9:57.07 (31.65) ; 10:28.74 (31.67)
11:00.19 (31.45) ; 11:31.70 (31.51)
12:03.42 (31.72) ; 12:35.17 (31.75)
13:06.55 (31.38) ;13:38.54 (31.99)
14:10.13 (31.59) ; 14:41.85 (31.72)
15:13.27 (31.42) ; 15:42.54 (29.27)
LEGO is #1!!!
In a survey by Reputation Institute, LEGO was named number one out of six hundred companies for having a good reputation. According to the survey, LEGO has the best reputation, not nationally, but world wide. Read the full article, here.
Pick-a-brick Expanded!
The Pick-a-brick section of Lego Shop@home has been greatly expanded and is no longer “train-centric”. A variety of new pieces in many new colors have been added.
