Inclement Weather

My first day back home for the summer holidays was heralded by the worst lightning storms I can remember for a long time. Torrential rain, lightning bolts hitting the ground everywhere (one hit house - it was on the news), and the loud booms of thunder. One bolt landed right outside my house lighting up the whole room with whiteness. The noise was incredible. But it says Scottish summer all over it. My first day of the holidays was spent wading through icy water that had flooded the kitchen and hallway and trying to sweep it up whilst wearing nothing but my boxers. It's good to be back.

I've also got a bass guitar! I already play piano and guitar so it's cool to have something new to mess about with.

Now, anyway, I know no-one cares about what's going on in my personal life, so let's move on to NationStates things.

There's an interesting discussion about the maternity leave issue here. Well, I say discussion, but it's really a rant since everyone there has the same opinion. Interesting all the same.

There has been a lot of crying and moaning over issue repetition recently. So much that it has become, yes, really repetitive. I'm not sure what I can say to those who complain that hasn't already been said before. There are only so many issues in the game and sooner or later you're going to come across ones you've done before. As of now there are over two hundred issues, but way back in the day before issue submission was created there were only Max Barry's original thirty-one. New users may not be able to imagine this but it was a documented fact that if anyone should be asked whether they liked Harry Potter or not they would go insane, eat dustbins, and scream 'NOT AGAIN!' If you don't want to do the same issues again, just dismiss them.

I will put new issues into the game once I've found some worth doing. In the mean time, just hold tight and think of peaceful things like kittens and rainbows.

Modshort List

This is a photo of the ruins of an old fisherman's cottage on the West Braes outside Crail.

The Modshort series is at an end. Here is a list of them all:

Modshort #1 starring Katganistan
Modshort #2 starring TJ Hairball
Modshort #3 starring Cogitation
Modshort #4 starring SalusaSecondus
Modshort #5 starring Scolopendra
Modshort #6 starring Melkor Unchained
Modshort #7 starring Euroslavia
Modshort #8 starring GMC Military Arms
Modshort #9 starring Reploid Productions
Modshort #10 starring Sirocco
Modshort #11 starring The Most Glorious Hack
Modshort #12 starring Frisbeeteria
Modshort #13 starring Tsaraine

Summer Is Upon Us

This photograph of me conveys my manliness whilst betraying a fragility that is somewhat... beautiful.

Anyway. My last week living in university accommodation has arrived. I will soon have to pile all my belongings into a car and take it a hundred miles back to Fife only to have to bring it all the way back again when I move into my new residence on the second of July. During this month I'll devote some of my spare time to adding new issues to NationStates.

I was looking through the forums today when I happened across this thread by Hydesland about the first video games NSers have ever played. I'm fairly sure the first one I ever played was Alex Kidd in Miracle World for the Master System. Bloody hard game. I never got past the level with the thunderclouds... other games I recall playing are Phantasy Star (which I never completed either), Psychic World (nope), and Castle Of Illusion (I'm appalling at video games). That said, I decided to indulge in some nostalgia and skimmed my way through Youtube looking at these old games. Couldn't find anything for Psychic World which was a shame 'cos the big enemies were really cool. What I did find was this video for a game I'd never played called Psycho Fox. Watch this video but not while drinking. It made me snort Pepsi out of my nose.

I haven't been able to get Artpad to work for ages so I think I'll have to admit defeat and announce that there will be no more Modshorts in the series. I'll put up a list of them all with the links in my next post.

Home Sweet Home

I have recently secured myself a house to live in for the next year of my time at university with three others and am looking for a fourth. As you can imagine this is a serious drain on my finances and I am not a wealthy individual so from now on there will be adverts on the blog. Don't worry, they're very discreet and won't affect the integrity of the blog. I don't expect to get much revenue from them but I need as much as I can get if I'm going to be able to continue my studies.

Not much news in respect to NationStates right now. As you can imagine, I've been a little too busy to look through the issue list but another mod has been and may submit some of their own when they are ready. So, until then, you can watch this crazy little trailer someone's submitted to Youtube for a film about their NationStates country. I think it's great that NationStates can inspire such creativity. Kinda scary too.

More Issues On The Way

[violet] recently loaded up the latest batch of daily issue submissions so I'm pleased to announce that sometime in the near future we will have some new issues. Right now I'm in the midst of exams however so it won't be immediate.

The new issue batch runs from the 24th of February 2006 to the 23rd of May 2007. All issues submitted before then have either been deleted or coded into the game. The batch is made up of 2428 issues altogether so it'll take me a while to find the diamonds in the rough.

I hope to have more news soon.

The Wishing Well

Here's a photo I took of Crail's 'wishing well'. I edited it to make it more colourful.

Ardchoille

This photo is of some trees behind my flat.

We have a new forum moderator!

Ardchoille has been helpful around the forums for a fair while now so we're very pleased to announce that she'll be doing it in official capacity now. I wish her the best of luck.

In other news, I discovered another groovy XML feed stats site called NSDossier which is pretty useful for those deprived of their pie charts and bar graphs after the demises of NSTracker and NSEconomy (which is still up but does bugger all). The site was created by the members of the Texas region so kudos goes to them. This site completely passed under my radar until recently. I'd be very grateful if readers with interesting NationStates-inspired sites would e-mail me so I can mention them here.

I have exams to do starting on the 22nd and running up to the 28th. I'm confident I'll do well, but I'll be dropping English next year to take Music as my sole subject of study.

You Know You're An Old-Time NSer When...

This is a photo I took of the New King's Hall of Aberdeen University. I've become quite fond of the photo editor as you can tell.

I was browsing the forums today and noticed this thread:

You Know You're An Old-Time NSer When...

Pretty cool for any indulgent nostalgiacs out there.

TJ Hairball And Euroslavia Retire

It's a great shame, but two more have left the fold for the big wide world of things that may not have the slightest thing to do with NationStates. I wish them all the best in their lives which will presumably be all the richer now they're not having to clean up after the mess of some nutter with a computer hundreds of miles away.

Here's a link to the official retirement thread by [violet]: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=525094

Meeting The Freethinkers

Last Saturday I had the good fortune to meet a NationStates player (The Freethinkers) for the first time. It was an unusual experience meeting someone who knew what NationStates is, let alone actually play it.

We arranged to meet at a pub called the Bobbin where we discussed NationStates, paintball, our uni subjects, being hit in the groin by paintball pellets, daily issues, concussion brought on by paintball, football, and Aberdeen University's paintball society. I did become aware of an underlying trend throughout the conversation but it was fascinating anyway.



Pictures:

Top: My edition of Company was sent to me by Max Barry.
Middle: The Freethinkers and myself.
Above: The Freethinkers
Below: I only just discovered this. I'm not sure exactly what it is but it's certainly, um... inspired.


Why does it have no legs?

Black Hole

This is a rather cool picture I took of a rip in the universe opening over Crail.

I have good news! The latest batch of issues, which went up to the 18th of February 2006, is complete! This means I'll have a lot of new issues to work through when the new one comes through. If you don't want to have to wait until I've got through that one to see yours, though, then I would submit my issue as soon as possible.

Back To Aberdeen

This is a photo I took of Crail, the village I lived in before I moved to Aberdeen to go to university. I hear it's been promoted to town recently though. That's pretty groovy.

I'm heading back to Aberdeen today as you may have guessed. It's been an enjoyable three weeks living it up in Fife but I can't wait to return to uni. I shan't be able to access IRC while I'm there so if you desperately need to speak to me, send me an e-mail. I'll be back in the summer.

NationStates-wise, I am glad to report that I've just finished the last batch of issues which stretched from October 2005 to February 2006. So you can imagine how big the next one's going to be if the admins choose not to divvy it into pieces. I'll have updates as soon as possible on this.

A UK NationStates meetup is being plotted in the General forum. Click here to have your say.

The WTF Files

This is a photo I took of my student halls of residence shortly after it was sent to Hell.

In a similar vein, I just discovered an old issue submission from 2003 that I kept because it was so strange. I might as well share it so... enjoy:

Should fish be allowed to walk backwards (or, klaw sdrawkcab)

The Issue: Dalevdor "boing boing ipswich dada yellow" Sali of the monster raving revolving surealist church, says " Hello how are you, doing anything yesterday. Duck!"

Validity: Take internaly twice a day on random thursdays

[option]"Are you mad? I am , driving insane by fish not looking where they are going. They should hop diagonally as everybody shade of purple knows" Says Cardinal Elvis
[effect]People called Norman grow by 2 feet
[stats]Politcal status becomes that of neighbour

[option]This is all very silly just ingore it and it will go away" says John smith
[effect]Country dissapears in a puff of logic
[stats]population drops to zero , enconomy crashes

[option]Agree to everything
[effect]Everyone lives happily ever after
[stats]Economy becomes irrelevant Polictal status becomes perfect

It never made the final cut.

Cat In A Basket

This is our third, oldest, and fattest cat. His name is Otis.

I noticed a site recently where people of similar interests arrange to meet up, so I of course joined the NationStates section. I've never met another NationStater and I don't really expect to anytime in the near future. Aberdeen isn't exactly a hub of the United Kingdom. Still, got to be optimistic. NationStaters over eighteen years of age can join this site to find others nearby. Check it out...

Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da

The photo is one I took of the University of Aberdeen where I study.

Not much happening NationStates-wise right now. I'll be heading back to Aberdeen next week to finish my first year so you'll maybe not hear from me for a while.

NationStates Monopoly

This is our kitten Malibu. And yes. Yes it is a crap name. No I did not choose it.

April Fool's Day went very well. Kudos goes to all the sceptics, and bemused disbelief goes to Kandarin who was so completely suckered he still has hideous weals all over his body. We DID log all regional moderator complaints. We're hoping to release them so that you can all share in its hilarity. The only thing I'm saying is that I never realised how many of our users were guilty of the heinous crime of being 'utterly ghey'.

There is also some rather interesting discussion of aspects of NationStates on a blog by TerraNova. You can read them here, here, and here.

But moving on swiftly I have got to say that I've not always been a big follower of Monopoly but God damn it if this is not every single kind and subspecies of awesome.

I bow down to the collective creativity and genius of Thel DRan, Gasponia, and Erastide for creating this absolutely amazing NS version of everyone's favourite game (that is, until it enters the third hour of playing and you can't feel your bottom anymore).

I'm very flattered that the flightless hippo adorns the 'Issues' cards and also chuffed that Lancre was deemed worthy for inclusion as a place on the board.

... I SO want a copy.

Regional Moderation

NationStates has hit version 1.10! We've introduced some new features to the game which should hopefully improve the quality of everyone's playing experience. What are these features? Well:

1. Specially selected region members will have the power to personally tag and warn problem nations without the need for moderator intervention. This means that the general management of the game is more under the control of the players. Not only that but it will ease the workload for the mods. These region members will be called Regional Moderators and will get a special badge on their nations.

2. Well, there is no '2', really, but all regional mods will be invited to join the secret IRC channel where we discuss moderation. No-one else can join though, so if you have anything you want us to hear about you should ask your local reg mod.

3. Well, there is no '3' either but how else would I mention that the kitten in the photo is Tiesto? We all call him Tio.

Easter Holidays

It's the Easter holidays, as you may well have gathered, which means I can spend some time helping the mods out with NationStates. Long story short, you can expect to see some new issues in the near future. That guy in the picture's me by the way. I'm considering posting more photos of Aberdeen so, yeah, watch this space if you're interested. Which I kinda doubt but there you go.

In other news, we're going to have some fairly cool improvements to region management in the near future, for all those people wanting to teach problematic region members a lesson.

Of Octopuses And Death

I am back in Aberdeen where life continues to continue in a most continuous fashion. I'm enjoying it here but there's not that much to say except that we wandered into one of the lecture thatres at night and I rigged up the projector so we could watch a film called Octopus on the big screen. It was awesome. Octopus is quite possibly one of the most awful films I have ever watched and it was quite simply hilarious to sit through. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves bad movies.

You may have noticed I changed my blog's format. I reckon this one's easier on the eyes. Enjoy!

NationStates-wise there are two things of interest: there is a new issue, and my nation Sirocco gave up the ghost just as its population reached eight billion. That's pretty cool I think. I s'pose I'll miss it. It was nearly going to be four years old, but ach well.

My access is going to be difficult right now. Much work and exams! Joy! See you in a bit.

Oh, and I'm nineteen now. It's fairly groovy.

Hello, 2007

Happy new year, everyone! Not much is going on NationStates-wise as far as I'm aware except that there's a new issue which raises the grand total to 201. I shall be nineteen years old in three days and heading back to Aberdeen on the sixth.

New issues are being processed.