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Latest News and Blog Posts from Wayne “Pendragon” Owens.
100 Years – Least We Forget
Each year, on 11 November, the country falls silent to commemorate our war dead. This ritual, and the ceremonies and symbols that accompany it, have become part of national life.
Remembrance started long before the guns of the Western Front fell silent with people marking the loss or absence of loved ones away at war. 100 years later, the personal and political resonances of remembrance still stir strong emotions.
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
John McCrae (1872 – 1918)
XBox Time Machine
There was a time, many moons ago (That’s 2010/2011 for those of you who are on decimal digital time) when PlanetPete, CampyPhil, MIAdave and myself along with the occasional extra would often play as a group on various XBox multiplayer games. Over time the group dwindled in size, the times we played grew less and less, due to new Kids, Job changes, work commitments, getting addicted to triathlons, etc. basically life itself got in the way.
Time went by, The four worlds formed again and yet again, As endless aeons wheeled and passed. Time and the pure essences of Heaven, The moistures of the Earth, And the powers of the Sun and the Moon. All worked upon a certain rock – old as Creation, And it magically became fertile. That first egg was named Thought, Tathagata Buddha, the Father Buddha, Said, ‘With our thoughts we make the world.’... But that’s a different story.
Time did pass.
We now arrive at yesterday, (Let’s sit and rest for a while. It has been a long journey of years to get from the start of this post to this point).
Yesterday during a Skype IM chat with PlanetPete about the TV shows, Dominion & Constantine he asked that immortal question “Games night?” Which you have to admit is a good suggestion for winding down after a Monday in the office.
9:30PM We were both online, in a XBox party chat and ready to re-live old times.
Game 1: Batman Arkham Origins
Well, this did not go so well. We both started the game, created a private match, joined and spent a fair while trying to work out how to start the match. We tried a couple of game modes, still no luck! It was about this time the small print of “Multiplayer 3-8 players” was spotted. We were 1 person short.
Game 2: Tombraider
This had a slight bumpy start.
*XBox Chat*
GGN: “There are two discs”
PP: “Which one is it?”
GGN: “I’m putting in disc 1” *DISCONNECT*
*SMS*
GGN: “updates!!!!“
PP: “It’s disc 2”
GGN: “typical”
Once we (and by we I mean me) got online and running off the correct disc, things got better. We were soon running about lost on maps we had never seen, trying to remember how to play tombraider and do those useful things like climb, jump, not fall to your death. Eventually we got the hang of it, and started killing each other in a myriad of ways. After a lot of fun it was decided PlanetPete won after he managed to kill the whole level by pressing something inside a sub and the whole place starting to fall down around us.
Game 3: COD Modern Warfare 2
We ended the night on the game that used to get played the most back in the day, since it was the one game we all owned. Due to the countless times we’ve played this there were no issues in starting a match, or needing to remember how to play. Within seconds of the game starting we were madly running about stabbing each other, just using grenade launchers instead of guns, and general madness.
Half an hour into the game and we were back in 2011, we had lost the years in-between, nothing had changed PlanetPete still had his love of BIG BOOMS and explosions, and I was up high with scoped weapon.
I thought it was just nostalgia that made me travel back in time while running around trying to stab PlanetPete (At least it was only a virtual knife not a training knife). But this morning I received the IM.
PlanetPete: Last night i went back in time!!””!”!!!
Remember, Games with old friends can travel you back through time! But oddly you can not use that time travel to get the winning roll-over lottery ticket! Paradox’s People! PARADOX’S!
Until Next time, and in the Voice & words of Wil “Play more Games!”
One More than the Queen of England – Revisited
Last week I was annoying my mother while visiting my parents, and she threatened me :-
Mother: “Just remember your birthday is coming up!”
Me: “Yup, next Saturday!”
Mother: “Yes, Sunday”
Me: “Sat-ur-day!”
Mother: “No, Sunday, Saturday is the 1st”
Me: “Yes, the 1st, Saturday, my birthday”
Mother: “But your birthday is the 2nd”
Me: “1st!!“
Mother: “Are you sure? I’m positive it’s the 2nd”
Me: “It’s the 1st as it has always been”
Mother: “Really?. what does it say on your birth certificate?”
Me: “the 1st!!!”
Mother: “that does not sound right, Why do I think it’s the 2nd??”
The conversation then went into the area of, “When was I actually born” which reminded me of an old post where I explained my theory I should get a 3 day birthday.
From the vault “One More than the Queen of England“
Weird post title right? What I am referring to is birthdays, The Queen of England has two birthdays a year, Myself I have Three. So if you will sit down comfortably dear Reader, I’ll explain, mostly because its become a FAQ.
A few years ago a friend offered to do one of those astronomical charts for me, One of the larger complicated ones that show your personality, and long term fortune, etc. So I gave my friend the details I had, Date of Birth, and Location of Birth. Both of which are required for accuracy. I was then informed that if i wished a more accurate chart then they would need my time of birth, because when it comes to stars that take a millennium for the light to reach us, knowing what minute you were born makes all the difference. So I asked my parents for the time of my birth.
I think I’ll jump ahead here to the conversation with my friend later, for pure comedy affect.
F=Friend, M=Me
F: “So, you got the time of your birth?“
M: “Yes, Nov 1st“
F: “no the TIME? if you don’t know the exact time you can narrow it down to morning, afternoon, evening, night. it will still help with accuracy“
M: “Nov 1st“
F: “No, can they narrow it down a bit?“
M: “They did, they narrowed it down to Nov 1st. Apparently no one made a note of when i was born, and they latter could not work out if it was Oct 31st, Nov 1st, Nov 2nd. so the narrowed it down to the middle one, Nov 1st“
F: “You just can’t do anything normal can you? you even managed to mess up and complicate getting born!“
It turns out that it was a very long and painful labor, and I was a home birth (a uncommon occurrence at the time). Also the Midwife was not that good, and forgot to fill in the forms at the time. She also banged my head repeatedly against the bed, but that’s a different story. So basically everyone was tired, exhausted, and under belief that the midwife did her job. It was only later when it came time to register my birth they realised they were unsure of the date. My father, Mother & Nian (Grandmother) all believed different days.
They settled on the middle day of the range, since it was central and my mothers vote (well she did have the pain so its only fair). Since then a few people have stated I’m more suited to a Halloween birth than a All Saints Day birth. The upshot is that since I was born on one of three possible days, I think to play safe I should celebrate my birthday over the full three day period. Its the only way I can be sure I have got the right day.
o2 Sales Call
I just had a nice entertaining sales call from o2.
O2: “Hi, we’re calling from o2 to thank you for being a loyal customer and to let you know about some great offers we have for you to thank you for being loyal. Are you free to talk?”
Me: *watches code compile* “Sure why not!”
O2: “How do you find your O2 experience.”
Me: “Fine apart from having no signal anywhere.”
O2: “Oh.. right, are you happy with the amount of free minutes and texts you have? could we offer you more?”
Me: “I never use the ones I have, due to never having a signal.”
O2: “right, I see you have a data plan. Using the internet on your phone is good, do you need a bigger allowance so you can use it more?”
Me: “Never use the data, There are no places around here with an Internet signal.”
O2: “we are slowly upgrading our masts from 3G to 4G so you will soon have super fast internet to your phone. Does your phone handle 4G?”
Me: “4G? I’d be happy with 3G, No, I’d be happy with 1G or even just a phone signal…”
O2: “errr.. is there anyone else in your household with mobile phones?”
Me: “Yes.”
O2: “Ahhh.. are they on O2??”
Me: “Yes, yes they are….. currently”
O2: “And what’s their view of O2 and their accounts?”
Me: “They are happy, apart from not having a signal anywhere!!”
O2: “err, since you use a lot of Data would you consider or be interested in getting a contract with us with a tablet computer, we have a nice deal on iPads…..”
Me: “Didn’t we cover I don’t use the Phones data use because there is no signal anywhere.”
O2: “right.. errr.. ok.. hummm.. well Thank you, have a nice day….”
O2: *Hangs Up*
Phoning to talk about increasing use of phone and 4G. When there is NO phone signal where I live for even calls/texts. There is no signal during my commute to work, and barely a phone signal in the area I work (Phone only no data). I believe the local Town has a 13 foot circle where you can get 3G, if the wind is blowing in the right direction.
This is a shame, I have been with O2 since before they were O2, My sim still says “BT Genie” on it. And apart from the last several years I never had any signal issues, I had voice/sms everywhere. And now, nowhere.
Isn’t progress great.
Answers via carrier pigeon please.
Katawa Shoujo – UPDATE
You may recall a previous post where I was playing “Katawa Shoujo” after watching along with Metadating, which was one of the original Geek & Sundry shows.
If you don’t remember it, or did not read it, or maybe suffer from long term memory issues due to a alleged incident with a baseball bat (Sorry Dave) then you can remind yourself about it by re-reading the original Katawa Shoujo post
TL;DR
Basically it’s a visual novel style game where your choices and options dictate which of five girls you end up with. And where the game taught me that sometimes the best match for you is not necessarily the first person to catch your eye?
The Replay:
I was still a little bit annoyed about not getting the girl I wanted, So I replayed the game and made different choices with my life to get a different story. And I may have done a little bit of research to make sure I got the outcome I wanted.
It’s not cheating. It’s putting in the effort to get to know the girl? Oh who am I trying to kid, I cheated at the beginning to make sure Act 2 was on the path I wanted.
Anyway, Play-through #2 got me the Girl I wanted based off first impressions instead of personalities (Take that Game mechanics).
And I am man enough to admit…
Gods the Girl I picked from first impressions was an annoying, annoying thing. By half way through Act #2 I did not just realise how much a mistake this was, but I actually hated the character. I longed for the parts of the narrative she was not in. I missed the girl form Play-through #1. Hell I missed any of the characters that were not the girl I picked.
I have to admit I am impressed, It is really looking like this simple free game knows which type of woman I am better suited to than I do myself.
It is an eye-opener.
Also it’s possible that I have really bad taste in women!
You can download the game Legally & For free from :- http://www.katawa-shoujo.com/download.php
Katawa Shoujo
I have been slowly trying to catch up on a backlog of Films, TV Programs & YouTube shows. To demonstrate just how bad the backlog is. I’m currently catching up on Metadating, which was one of the shows on the 1st year of Geek & Sundry back in 2012?. (I know right.) So Metadating did a 2 part show on “Katawa Shoujo”
Katawa Shoujo is a bishōjo-style visual novel by Four Leaf Studios that tells a story of a young man and five young women living with varying disabilities. The game uses a traditional text and sprite-based visual novel model with an ADV-style text box running on the Ren’Py visual novel engine. The game is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND.
They had split it into two 2 hour episodes so that they could show the game and discuss it while playing part of the 1st act, then give everyone a chance to play the game themselves (Its a Free Cross-Platform Game) and then they could play some more and discuss it in the second episode. I started playing while watching the second episode, where I discovered if you really messed up your choices YOU CAN DIE!
Luckily, unlike one of Metadating’s Presenters I survived without dying.
Katawa Shoujo
So the game starts with a quick back-story to explain what is going on and why you are now in a new special school. After this you are introduced to your new school and get to meet each of the main girls. You have to meet them all to make an informed choice right?
The Game/Story then progresses with you learning about the school, the people, etc.. Every so often you are given options, and what you pick influences the story, like those old “Make your own Adventure” books.
The Game is in 4 Acts.
- Act 1: Meet the Girls and get interested in one (If you fail you die)
- Act 2: Get to know your Chosen Girl and move from friendship onto Romance
- Act 3: Troubles and if you do not do well, A BAD ENDING
- Act 4: If you get to Act 4 you get a Good Ending.
- Also you can die at any time you totally mess up.
Playing Act 1,
I had picked out the girl I wanted and was playing to get her. She was a shy little thing, and at one point I thought I had won. She had stayed behind after class because I was finishing up some homework (I did mention it was set in a school). Her best friend came looking for her, and after a whispered conversation left leaving the girl in the class. She kept looking at me, and seemed to be waiting for me to notice her and talk to her.
Real Life me went “YES. I got the path I wanted, come on notice what’s going on”
Character me did his homework, nodded at the girl and left!
This annoyed me as being male I generally need to be hit with a baseball bat with the words “I like you” written on it to notice these things, and yet character me was more oblivious than real life me. I calmed myself down with a beer, and in spite I refused to share with character me.
It turns out, that making the choices I had, which in turn influenced the personality of the Character I was playing made me better suited for the personality of a different girl, rather the the one I had picked after quick first impressions. And the game had realised this. Who knew that the best match for you is not necessarily the first person to catch your eye?
This was too deep for both real life me and character me, and we had another beer.
Without any Spoilers. Act 2 went along fine, and I started thinking “Humm, OK my character could get along with this girl”. Act 3 was a bit touch and go, and I strongly suspect I almost ended up heading towards the BAD ending where we split up. But my overall brilliance let me slip into Act 4 and the Happy Ending…
Overall the story was interesting, and I have since seen the flowchart of the various ways the story can change based on your choices and am even more impressed with the writing. I am tempted to play the game again, with different answers to see just how much the path/story changes based on a single moments decision. (It’s the Multiverse people!)
You can download the game Legally & For free from :- http://www.katawa-shoujo.com/download.php
Happy We let you off the Reins to Join the Big Kids Day
Four score and seven years ago, or in 1776 We decided that the young country of America had become old enough to trust not to run out in front of traffic, or try and play with dangerous animals and as such we took the reins off.
There comes a time in every parents life when you have to trust that your early guidance and teachings have given your offspring all the help they need to make their way in the world alone.
So the UK took off the training reins and watched as America took its first hesitant steps on it’s own. Yes there was a few stumbles and mishaps along the way. Several times America slipped and cut its hand or knee and UK wanted to pick it up and hold it safe.
“Maybe we should leave the reins on for a bit longer.”
UK.
But like all good parents we stayed back, Watching carefully and holding back our urges to guide and jump in at every hurdle. You have to trust your children will do the right thing.
I will say, America you grew up ok. Ok. you have made some really poor dating choices, and Looking at your teenage photographs “What were you wearing??” But all in all, you did well.
SO we here in the UK would like to wish you a Happy Anniversary of your First Steps without the Reins!!
Happy Independence Day.
Full Moon Powered Friday 13th
Today is Friday 13Th.
Don’t Panic.
It is just a stupid superstition right? In this modern technological world we have no need for ancient superstitions right? Or in this impersonal online world are we more in need of reminders of things beyond our comprehension?
And just how bad is Friday the 13th anyway? Fridays are good, they herald in the weekend, and we all like the weekend don’t we?
OK, SO it is supposed to be unlucky, So it is the day when Murphy’s Law is in full swing, and if anything bad can happen, it will happen in triplicate! So what if people stay off the roads, and refuse to fly and other such things. It’s only superstition.
isn’t it?
DON’T PANIC!!
BUT wait! Tonight there is a Full Moon! You know a full moon, The time of Werewolves, and Witches Covens, of Lunatics, and increased madness!
So to recap.
- The Unluckiest day of the year
- The Day of the month most likely to cause Insanity, Shape-shifting, & evil magic.
- AT THE SAME TIME
FRAK IT, PANIC!!!
Sitting in the Chair of the Holy Royal Arch – Chair 3
This evening I was Installed into the Chair of Joshua.
In the Holy Royal Arch the Masters chair is actually split into three chairs. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Principals. representing Zerubbabel, Haggai and Joshua. This evening I entered the first of the chairs, which is the 3rd Principals chair of Joshua.
Joshua, also known as the High Priest, is one of the three Principals who rule the Chapter. He represents the High Priest during the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity.
So step 1 of the path to the master of the Royal Arch has been taken.
I also get a robe and a sceptre, which is probably dangerous for my ego.
Graig Aid Music Festival 2014
Hi Everybody.
It is that time of year again when the GraigAid People are pleased to announce that they are back again for this year’s two day charity live music festival which will be held on the 25th and 26th July 2014.
We here at the Three-Ninjas in a un-characteristic gesture of cooperation and helpfulness have decided to help spread the word a bit, and get some helpful information for YOU dear Constant Reader by interviewing an un-named member of the organisation team.
Wayne Owens: So Deep Throat, may we call you Deep throat?
Deep Throat: I would rather you did not!
WO: Ok. So GraidAid. Let’s start with the basics. When is it this year?
DT: It will be held on the 25th and 26th July 2014.
WO: And where?
DT: Once again we are back at the Three Pigeons in Graigfechan. (Location Details: Here)
WO: That was a little bit odd. You just responded with a href web link. Are you drunk?
DT: What? Wait? What kind of interview is this?
WO: The awesome kind. So talking of Drunk, Will there be anything good to drink at this So Deep Throat, may we call you Deep throat? years event? Just asking as some of our readers are alcoholics, err Drink connoisseurs.
DT: The event is in the grounds of a PUB! there is plenty to choose from, including real ale and ciders, hot food, etc. Including some very nice local brewed real ale
WO: Is that Stuart’s stuff? because Dear Reader, that stuff is GOOD.
DT: Yes. Yes it is.
WO: So. How’s this years line up going?
DT: 15 bands confirmed so far, you can get a basic list here
WO: And Tickets?
DT: They are available from our website now! along with tickets for Camping.
WO: There is camping available, for those who wish to drink late, and not drive home?
DT: Yes, the camping tickets need to be booked in advance because we need to allocate spaces and confirm to rules and regulations.
WO: Do the entry tickets need booking in advance?
DT: No, only the camping. Entry tickets can be got on the day. But we recommend people pre-book them anyway.
WO: SO. If people want to know more about this event what should they do?
DT: Well they can visit out official website http://graigaid.com or go see our Facebook Page, Twitter account, etc to be kept up to date on all news and details.
WO: Thank you for taking a break from your hectic schedule to spend a few minutes answering our questions.
DT: It was a pleasure… HEY! hold on a moment, you are still calling me Deep Throat?
WO: Is that our phone.. Right got to go…..
RECAP.
Graig Aid Music Festival 2014
We are pleased to announce that we are back at the Three Pigeons in Graigfechan for this year’s two day charity live music festival which will be held on the 25th and 26th July 2014, with 15 bands, real ale and ciders, hot food and camping facilities.
We have more than adequate covered areas from which the stage is visible and following last year’s successful experiment, dry weather and sunshine have been re- booked !!
Children Under 12 accompanied by an adult are free, whilst there are concessionary prices for Under 16′s. Please join us at our family friendly festival in the beautiful Vale of Clwyd in North Wales, why not come along as part of your holiday ?
Please watch their webspace for more details as they emerge for ticket ordering and if you fancy volunteering to help!