Pages

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Skidmore Story: I'm alive!

Yes, I am alive. It's okay, you can be relieved now. With the holidays, finals, and other stuff consuming my life, I really haven't had time to do other things, this blog included.

First thing: A new computer! For Christmas I got all of the parts to a computer, and I built it! It's really an awesome way to save money. If I would've bought the same computer from a store, I would have easily payed over $1,000, when I made it around $400. It's not top of the line, but still, I'm saving tons of money, and it does everything I need it to.

Second: Games! The truth is, I'm not a huge gamer, but with my new computer, I decided to try a few new games, and I like them all, surprisingly.

Minecraft:

This is by far one of the greatest games ever invented. 5/5 easily, and I recommend you go buy it... now. It's like a game of Legos. Tear down the blocks, rebuild them. It even has the ability to handle things like Integrated Circuits made out of a material called Redstone. It's by far the greatest time-wasting game in existence.

League of Legends:
/br> While that's not actual gameplay, it's a great game. It takes the unfairness out of the typical MMORPG (Games like WoW), by taking out the time factor. Meaning that each time a new battle starts, you start off at level one. Meaning that someone who spends 42 hours a day, 9 days a week playing a game, they still start off at level one, like someone who just downloaded the game (that's not going to happen, of course, as they have a specific matchmaking system in place.) By the way, it's FREE. FREE I TELL YOU! That means you should at least give it a whirl. If you do decide to try it, you can hit me up in-game at balt11t.

World of Tanks:

This game is in its closed beta, but I got in within a few hours of registering. It's a fun game, but it's a lot more graphically demanding than the above games. Even with my nice GPU (Graphical Processing Unit), I can still only hit about 40 FpS (Frames per Second) while on LoL (League of Legends), I hit 70 consistently. It's fun, but challenging to. There are three comprehensive tech trees right now, one for Russia, Germany, and the US, but there are more to come. You can also play as several divisions of tanks: Light, Medium, Heavy, Tank Destroyer, and SPG (artillery). This leaves the game up to what your play-style is. Personally, I play SPG, which is more of a defensive type position, which is more my gamestyle. I'm balt11t here too.

Third: Language! .ui .i mi tadni la lojbo ku

That's just a sample of the constructed language Lojban. It's completely unamigious, meaning that one thing always means one thing, whereas in English, one thing can mean a thousand depending on who you talk to. It's also logical, meaning that everything makes sense. If you hear a letter, it's there. If you don't, it's not there. None of this "i before e except in almost every case possible" crap. It makes sense. If you're interested, http://www.lojban.org offers free books to people interested in learning. While I'm not that great at it myself, I love it, and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions.

Well, that's all for me today. This is Taylor, signing off.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Skidmore Story: Woe is Me.

Well to kick things off: I'm sick. And that really stinks. I have a sinus infection coupled with pounding headaches, but I knew I needed to make an emergency post.

First: STARGATE UNIVERSE. The third installment to the Stargate series has been cancelled. While it wasn't a bad show, there were a plethora of mistakes made during its two seasons on air that set it far back. In the past, Syfy (previously Sci-Fi), has always broadcast its new shows in the summer and winter, in order to avoid the fall competition with the big channels like NBC or CBS. They decided to change that for this show, for unknown reasons (well, to me anyway). This move to the fall really hampered the show's promise, as most people watch the big channel hits. The second mistake was moving it from Friday at 9 to Tuesday at 10. At this point, a drop in numbers was seen for the show. And now it's gone. Let's face it: if they would've just kept Atlantis, we wouldn't be here now. But on the bright side, Stargate Worlds is still turning out quite nicely.

Second: Well, actually, I have nothing else. Being sick is pretty boring. Hopefully my weekend won't be a total drag.

This is Taylor Skidmore, signing off.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Skidmore Story: Pure Awesomeness

Man officially cured of HIV

Yes, you read that correctly. It has been done. Anyway, if you don't read the article, he was cured of his HIV by a mutation in Stem Cells he received to cure his Leukemia. While the process is not safe at all and the mutation is extremely, extremely rare, it's at least a start
If you've never been to Gizmodo, take some time to look around, it's a neat site.

Second: TRON LEGACY. Releasing tomorrow, Tron Legacy is the the 27 year overdue sequel to the 1982 movie, Tron. I'm pretty pumped, I have to say. Daft Punk composed the entire soundtrack, and even have a cameo in the movie. If you see it before me, keep an eye out for them!

Third: MUSIC (not Daft Punk). As you may not know, I am a bit of a metal head when it comes to music. I love metal, but I also enjoy a lot of rock. One of my favourite groups, Cage the Elephant, releases their new album on January 11, 2011! Their first album, entitled Cage the Elephant, had songs like "Ain't No Rest For the Wicked" and "Lotus," both of which are extremely good songs, and I definitely recommend them and the group as a whole. Or, if you're into heavier stuff, Wolf (My all time favourite band) is also releasing a new album in Q1 2011. They're a Swedish metal group (have no fear, it's in English), so they're a little bit of a different style. "The Avenger" is a great song by them, and "Children of the Black Flame" is also pretty good. No curse words are in the above songs, but not everyone will like them. You've been warned.

Fourth and final: BOOKS. That's right, I'm going to talk about books on a library blog. Unheard of, I know. If you've never been to Half-Price Books, check it out, it is one of the best stores ever. While I was there on Sunday, I picked up two new books, both in the Warhammer 40,000 (click if you want an idea of what I'm talking about) series. While I've only started one, it's pretty darn good. [i]The Sons of Fenris[/i] follows Ragnar, the Wolf Lord of the ultra-elite Space Wolves chapter of the ultra-elite Space Marines, as he protects the human race from the evils of Chaos in the year 40,000. These novels take on a different aspect to sci-fi, to where it integrates gothic elements into a futuristic thriller. These books are not for everyone, but I will review them here as soon as I can.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop a comment or email me at taylor.j.skidmore@gmail.com

This is Taylor Skidmore, signing off.

P.S. I'm fighting off a pretty bad cold, and I've been studying for the past 5 hours so give me a break if things seem oddly typed/written

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Welcome to the Skidmore Story!

Greetings readers!

I'm Taylor Skidmore, and I'll be hosting a new blog segment entitled "The Skidmore Story." For those of you who don't know me, I'm a sophomore at DeKalb High School, and facilitator of the Teen Advisory Board. I'm in the marching and concert bands where I play the mellophone and french horn, respectively. Other than that, I do speech team, where I participate in Impromptu and International Extemporaneous. I love computers (tech in general), sciences, and music.

This blog will essentially be a blog about recent technology, science, and life in general, as I offer you a glimpse into my life. This is the Skidmore Story.

See you soon everyone!
Taylor Skidmore

P.S. If you have any questions/"letters to the editor"/anything else, drop a comment here or email me at taylor.j.skidmore@gmail.com