Velociraptor Manor

There's a computer game called Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis that I tend to play almost as religiously as World of Warcraft. It's a highly addictive "god game" of sorts, in that you have near total control over your own Jurassic Park, or Site B. The former is, obviously, a park like in the movie. You choose whether or not you'll create an amazing, 5-star, pricey-as-hell park, or just a cheaply-priced deathtrap.

Site B, like in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, is an island where your dinosaurs roam free, living our their natural lives. As a nature geek who's always been enthralled by dinosaurs, I prefer to play around in Site B, and try and imagine myself running this island paradise, where I could learn all I could ever dream of about them.

The amazing thing about this game, this genre in general, is that, depending on your actions, full-blown dramas could play out on your screen, influenced, encouraged, or silenced by your all-powerful clicker. JPOG is no exception.

Site B. I'd just finished releasing my dinosaurs to roam free amongst the rolling hills, steep mountains, dense jungles and lush wetlands to their heart's content. One of my favorite groups to target was my pack of five velociraptors, whom I'd named Pack Alpha. A proud dominant female (named after her pack) led this group with an iron talon, and for a few in-game months, everything was great for them. All the raptors were healthy, food was plentiful, the weather merciful, and they'd managed to avoid larger predators and my rival pack of raptors, Beta, and their fierce matriarch of the same name.

Alpha had found her way into the marshes of Site B in their search for food. A large herd of parasauralophus lived nearby, and downing one of those would mean her pack wouldn't go hungry for a good while.

They soon found, and killed, one of the large herbivores, and began to feast. Their victory was short-lived however, as the rumble of the ground beneath crushing feet, and an ear-shattering roar heralded the arrival of the resident Dark Lady of the jungle, the tyrannosaurus-rex.

It had been proven before that, despite her proud, regal stature, Lady was not above scavenging from other predators. A small pack of raptors? Candy from a baby.

Despite being considerably smaller, pack Alpha felt confident with their numbers. The pack hunkered together, all eyes on Lady, barking and hissing angrily at her, standing between her and their kill. Two raptors soon broke away, leaping to tear at Lady's sides. She shrugged them off like fleas, pinned one beneath her feet and tore it apart. She grabbed the other one in her mouth, and with a quick shake of the head, snapped it's spine like a twig. Lady turned back towards the carcass, to find it abandoned. The other three raptors had turned-tail and fled, leaving Lady to finish the feast alone.

Alpha had lost two members of her pack in a matter of seconds. This didn't bode well for her.

Indeed, her luck was only going to get worse. A few in-game days later, and the 3-raptor pack is wandering through an open field in search of a nighttime snack. A thunderous roar from their left, and Lady comes crashing through the trees, snatching up another member of the pack, shaking it like a rag doll, and swallowing it whole.

Alpha, in her panic, leaps up and latches onto Lady's neck. A roar and a shake, and Alpha is back on the ground. Lady leans down, thrashing her with her teeth, and sending her skidding away. Alpha, badly wounded, starts to limp away frantically. Her one remaining pack member, her own mate, hurries after her to give her support, as Lady devours their fallen comrade.

The next morning, and Lady has caught up with them again, determined to rid her territory of these pests. Alpha, still badly injured, tries to limp away, while her mate runs straight for Lady, leaping up at her flank and tearing into it. At the cost of her mate's life, Alpha escapes again.

Several in-game days later, and Alpha is still badly wounded, and alone. She's growing weaker and weaker by the day, unable to take down large prey on her own, and unable to run fast enough to catch smaller prey in her current state. She lays down quietly beside the lake, lapping gently at the water. She's hardly surprised when those booming footsteps catch up with her for a final time.

Needless to say, Pack Alpha was wiped out. Pack Beta have never run across Lady, though they have lost one raptor to the roaming spinosaurus.

This whole ordeal barely took a few hours on my computer, but in the game, it was much, much longer. This is just one example of all the drama you can have play out on your screen...and this one was completely by accident. ^_^

All The Birds Are Singin'

So...thanks to mom and Alex, I've sat through a 45ish-minute film called Dr. Horrible, which can be downloaded here: http://www.drhorrible.com/. Download it, like, right now. It's amazingly worth it. Definately an entertaining musical! Besides, anything that has a character called Bad Horse (the thoroughbred of sin) can't possibly be not worth watching.

Another funny video worth watching is here. There's a song called Barbie Girl, performed by the group Aqua, and the song playing in the WoW video there is the German version of said song. The creator of the movie, instead of directly translating it, decided to just make subtitles that sounded somewhat like the words in the song. It's...hilariously stupid! ^_^ FISH POKE!!

And finally...Alex and I watched The Dark Knight in Imax recently. It's easily the best movie I've seen so far this year. It blew Iron Man right out of the water. It's...stunning. Simply stunning. You'll constantly be on the edge of your seat, wondering what the Joker will do next. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll quake in your seat, and when you finally leave the theater, blinking into the sunlight, you'll be shaking. Literally shaking, and at a total loss for words.

There really are no words that can do The Dark Night justice. It's a masterpiece that deserves every penny it gets.

Go see it. K? K.

Three's A Crowd

There are several different "levels" of monsters in World of Warcraft. That being, how difficult they are to kill. For example, the majority of the creatures in WoW are non-elite monsters. This means that a single person, regardless of what class they are, or how they choose to play that class, can kill them easily. After this things get a bit trickier. Many quests feature 2-man monsters, most of them elite. They're rough for one person to fight alone, but it isn't impossible for certain classes, such as hunters or druids. Once we enter the 3-man monsters however, it gets very difficult. Many people opt to bring along a healer at the very least to keep them alive while they chip away the elite monster's health.

Levels like this continue on, from 5-man dungeon elites to 25-man raid bosses. But my concern was with three, 3-man elite monsters roaming the Bone Wastes of Terokkar Forest. Kallindra, my now level 66 draenei hunter, and her loyal frostsaber, Cheshire, first set out to slay a deadly frostwyrm called Teribus the Cursed.

Quite, erm...quite easy for a supposed 3-man monster.

The next target on my list was a gargantuan bone worm named Hai'shulud, the Bone Emperor. Upon summoning him my screen was immediately filled by one of his stomach-plates...he was immense! I fought him down to 20% health, before he killed me. Damn, I thought. Well, I got him that far down! I'll just try again!

I made my way back to my body, and as I healed up, I noticed the bones on the ground churning wildly. I called Cheshire to my side, edged closer, and Hai'shulud burst from the ground again. I frantically sent my pet in to attack, and fired a few arrows into his stomach. Just as Cheshire was about to fall, the Bone Emperor keeled over dead...at 80%. I'm still not entirely sure what happened there, but hey, I'm not going to complain!

Two down, one to go. The final target on my list was the matriarch Terokkarantula, who ruled over a vast swarm of terokkar widows. I fought my way through her drones, peered over a hill, and was greeted by the sight of quite possibly the biggest spider I've ever seen in this game. I readied a flaming trap, called Cheshire to my side, and the fight was on.


At the end of the day, three 3-man monsters were dead at my feet.

Hunters aren't overpowered or anything. ^_~