Tuesday, September 30, 2008

My Campout

Last weekend (September 26-28) I went on a campout called the Boyscout Camporee. The campout started on Friday when we left at four in the afternoon. We arrived at five and started to set up camp. By the time we were done, it was dark out. We had dinner and then went to bed. The next morning, we got up and had breakfast then got into our scout uniforms. At 9 we went to a flag ceremony and then went back to camp to wait for the rest of our troop to show up. They arrived at 10 or 11. We then helped them set up their tents and then went out to do this little challenge course out in the meadow. We did 3 of the 6 challenges because the group refused to do more. When we got back we set up a game of capture the flag for some cub scouts. Later we had to stop because someone stepped on a wasp nest and 4 people got stung (One person got stung 5 or 6 times). The lead scout (Sheridan) went and hid in his tent when this happened. We had a great group campfire at night with all the Boyscout troops and did funny little skits. The next day we packed up and went home.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Some old comic books

A few days ago, I went into our garage to look for some old comic books, I found three. One is "Whisper" #1 by Capital Comics with a cover price of $1.75.The other 2 are "Mars" # 2 and 3 by First Comics with a cover price of $1.00. I was hoping to sell them but the comic book store in town will only buy comics with a cover price of $0.25 or less. I plan on keeping them safe until the comic book store will buy them.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

"Screamer" vids

A "screamer" is a video that has you staring intently at something and then a freaky-looking thing pops up and screams at you. I hate these things. I have fallen for a few of these things and now I check videos for screamers all the time. Youtube (www.youtube.com) has quite a few of these. My advice is, when watching youtube videos is to check the reviews, when someone gets spooked by a screamer they tend to get mad and swear about it on the review section. Just make sure you pause the movie while you read the reviews or else the screamer might go off while your reading.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

My Upcoming Campout

I have a campout coming called the boyscout camporee. This will be my second fall camporee. I am hoping this one goes well because the rest of my boyscout patrol is not going to be there, as a result, I have to join up the rowdiest, wildest, most uncontrollable patrol in the troop.These guys are so energetic that they make my bouncy, annoying younger brother look tame. I just hope they dont forget the cooking gear. If they do then I will start bringing my own gear every time I have to work with them. The camporee will be at Moose Creek. The camping area is in a meadow, with cows in it. The last time we were at Moose Creek, it was full of cow dung. So you know, I will not be posting on Friday. Also, I might not post Monday and Tuesday next week.

P.S. I am sorry about not posting flood pics like I said I would, I didnt get time to take any these last 2 days.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Asian Giant Hornet




The Asian Giant Hornet (Vespa Mandarinia) has many names, such as the Japanese Giant Hornet, the Yak-Killer Hornet, the Sparrow Bee, and the Hornet from Hell. It can reach a length of 50.8 mm. (2 in.) and queens can reach 55 mm. They can have a maximum wingspan of 76 mm. (3 in.). The hornet's stinger is up to 6 mm. (1/4 in.) long and contains at least 8 different chemicals. Some of these chemicals cause pain, some dissolve flesh (even human flesh) and at least one produces a smell that attracts more hornets to sting. These hornets are very territorial and will attack absolutely anything that comes within 10 meters of a food source they are protecting. This hornet can kill about 40 bees each minute and, on average, kills 40 people in Japan each year. Note:none of these pics are mine, I found them all on the internet

Monday, September 22, 2008

Halo "Flood Infection form"

In Halo, the Flood are a parasitic race that take over dead bodies and use them to find more dead bodies (or make more). The Infection form is the most basic and most common form of Flood. They look like little glowing... things, with legs. they are the smallest enemies in the game. Infection forms usually come in large swarms. When one is killed, it bursts, killing all nearby infection forms, which then burst. Due to this fact, it is often possible to kill a whole swarm with one shot. Infection forms do almost no damage to shields but do a massive amount of damage to unshielded beings.As with all flood, it is not advisable to stick plasma grenades to them, as they will bring it right back to you before it explodes.I will post pictures of all flood forms tomorrow or the next day.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Coconut Crab



The coconut crab is the largest terrestrial (land dwelling) arthropod in the world. It Is Just HUGE. Coconut Crabs are known to crush coconuts with their claws. That is a big crab!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Halo "Jackal" Enemy

It's been a long time since I posted about Halo. So I figure that now is a good time to post on Halo. The Jackal is a halo enemy that you see all over the place. I can honestly say that you can spot a good 50-100 of them or more in any level other than the first one (first level only has elites and grunts). Jackals are easy to spot, they have a large, glowing shield on their left arm. This shield is blue for minors and orange for majors. Halo 2 and 3 have sniper jackals that have no shield but rather a 2-handed "beam rifle". This post is about the minors and majors. Jackals carry plasma pistols and can use the overcharge ability on it (the overcharge has a little homing and completely drains any shield down to 0). The best way to dispatch a jackal is to either use explosives (shield can't deflect and jackals are completely oblivious to grenades in Halo 1) or plasma weapons (sustained fire will fry shield). Another option is to snipe them if your at a distance and carrying sniper rifle. The shield does have a weakness, there is a small slot from which the fire past the shield, and you can hit them through this slot. Jackals are pathetic alone and annoying in numbers.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

My Brothers New Computer

fortieth post! My brother's getting a new computer soon and it is currently set up in the living room. As of now it is sitting in the living room with a blank hard drive doing nothing. But soon it will be full of fun games and programs, and windows XP!




Expect pictures tomorrow or the next day.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Hamlet

I recently finished reading Shakespeare's "Hamlet", and I must say, it is confusing. Some of the words were very hard to understand at first glance, but most were not that bad. I think this is a good book. I would recommend this to all experienced readers.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Funny Webcomic I Found

I found a funny webcomic called "userfriendly" (www.userfriendly.org). It is a hilarious webcomic about a group of internet technicians and a few other characters. One of these characters is dust-puppy, dust-puppy is a little ball of animated lint with feet and eyes, he also dominates at quake 2. The webcomic started in 1997 and has been going 5 days a week ever since. I really like this comic and I think you will to.

Friday, September 12, 2008

My New Monitor

Yesterday I got a new monitor installed. My old monitor was a Micron PC 700EX. Needless to say, it was huge, the thing was a good foot-and-a-half long and very heavy. My new monitor is an HP 1730 flatscreen, I really like this thing, it's thin and has a crisp image. I'm glad I switched them. The only downside is that I cut my finger on a bit of frayed wire on the safety cable.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Webcomics

Web comics are like the the comics in the newspaper, but are on the Internet, or the web(obviously). When looking at new web comics, be careful, some people cant resist putting a swearword of some kind in every line( I've seen them before). When you find a good one though, it is a good idea to bookmark it if you like it. One example of a good web comic is Freefall(freefall.purrsia.com) which is a fun sci-fi type web comic. There are many kinds of web comics though, like "furries", web comics in which all or most of the characters are fuzzy things. All in all, I like a good web comic.

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Risk 2210 A.D.

Risk 2210 A.D. is a fun world-domination strategy game. The goal of the game is simply to be in control of the most territories at the end of five turns. These five turns take about five or six hours, depending on the number of players. There five different commanders, each allows you to use command cards of the same type. The commanders are: land, water, space, diplomat, and nuclear. My favorite is the nuclear commander, nuclear command cards do a lot of damage but are hard to control. Thus, a nuclear card is just as likely to blast the user as it is to blast the intended target. This is an awesome game and I'm planning to try and set up a game with my family today.

Monday, September 08, 2008

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Cordylus Cataphractus - The Armadillo Girdled Lizard

The Armadillo Girdled Lizard(Armadillo Lizard for short) is an interesting lizard. The most amazing thing about it is that the Armadillo Lizard gives birth to live young instead of laying eggs. The Armadillo Lizard is covered in large plates with spines on them. The lizard curls up when threatened in order to protect itself. Here are some pictures:


http://academic.sun.ac.za/botzoo/cindy/DSC00015.JPG


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2315/2277376556_0dda4cf401.jpg?v=0

Baby Armadillo Lizard

I personally think this is an amazing lizard

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Golden Scarab Beetle (plusiotis resplendens)

The Golden Scarab Beetle is a mid-sized, gold colored scarab beetle (hence the name). This is the most beautiful beetle I have ever seen. The explanation is beyond words so i will show you some pictures.


http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/989/20000035.JPG


http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com/ArchOLD-5/1132106874.jpg

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Cannonball Tree

The Cannonball Tree is a large, tropical tree named for its fruit. Cannonball Tree fruit looks like a cannonball and grows in large quantities around the trunk.

Cannonball Tree fruit:
http://www.worldofstock.com/slides/NTR1548.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Cannonball_Tree_Fruit.jpg


The Cannonball Tree has a very strange flower as well.It looks like it could bite your finger off when you view it from the proper angle.

Cannonball Tree flowers:
http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Cannon%20Ball%20Tree.jpg
http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/cannonball_tree.jpg