Playing around with screenshot software

Evil Japanese clan takes on the might of the Shimazu who are happily in the little castle

The AI is pretty smart - attacking all at once from multiple angles

Enemy bowmen stopping for a quick shot

I had some cavalry and matchlock infantry to the side of the castle. They ended up accidently taking on more than they could handle

Baddies just about to storm the walls

Some baddies routed along the base of the castle walls- heading down to the beach.

From a higher angle

My troops defending the castle walls- bow troops don't make very good defenders

Luckily in come my Ashiguru spearmen

Baddies rout down the wall as fast as their short Japanese legs can carry them

I downloaded some software to do ingame screenshots. The results are very pleasing...

Inconsequential blogging

Tuesday morning and having my coffee and toast before walking down to work. The dust cloud has lifted and Ginny can fly out now. I am on the verge of capturung Kyoto (my first act will be to pass the Kyoto Protocol about 450 years earlier - to nip global warming in the bud).
Haven't done any painting for a while... Erin went away to have her baby so we hired a new teacher to replace her - and I changed my schedule to teach Elementary  in the afternoons.

ShogunTotal War 2

Never having played Shogun Total War 1 ( I came in with Rome Total War and survived through the debacle of Empire to the cool but limited scope of Napoleon TW) I wasn't that quick to rush in and buy STW2. Playing for domination of Japan in the 16th century just didn't grip me as much as marching across 19th century Europe.  Having played the game for a couple of weeks I am impressed with the battle AI and the general strategic AI but there are still major issues.  If I ever take Kyoto I don't think that STW2 will ever become a game that I will ever become addicted to. I notice that there is a multiplayer component that I have not got into yet but aI am not sure how much interest multiplayer will have for me. I prefer multilayer shoot 'em up games like Left for Dead 2 or Modern Warfare. All in all the game is pretty slick but battling is Asia in the days of the Shogun is just not as interesting as doing the same in Europe. I would like a huge expansion of Medieval Total War to include the sweep of Empire and the individual countries of Europe and Japan/Mongols and China with the AI of STW2 - is that too much to ask for Creative Workshops? I see massive expansion packs!

Chilean Volcano

Ginny is off to China next week and as things are going now that frigging volcano in Chine could mean that she either won't get out from the country or might not get back in after the marketing trip. Extra nights in Hong Kong could welll be very expensive for the school!

Quiet on the blogging front...

I upgraded my computer last week but I didn't do it very well - or the guys in the shop didn't set the process up very well.
 Anyway the story goes that I was a little worried that I was getting to the end of the spave on my hard drive. It was only a 500 gig grive and I was up to 90% disc space used.  I decided to go the whole hog and revamp the entire operating system while I was down at the shop so...
32 bit -----64bit
500gig-----1 Terabyte
Dual Core-------Quad Core
Windows Vista Home Premium------Windows 7 Home Premium.
At the same time I wandered down to EB Games and bought an off-the-shelf copy of Shogun Total War 2.
I was told that the new setup would allow me to play this rather graphics intensive game well and keep me ahead of the curve for gaming for the next couple of years. Anyway I said that I wanted the stuff installed and up and running by Saturday at 4.30 (since I arrived at 10.30 am this was going to he a mission for the techie in the shop to get everything to me by the end of trading) When I came back to the store the dude said that he had done everything but the software. All he said that I needed to do was install Windows 7. I have done this before so I took the box home to start immediately.  The problem was that I ended up installing 7 and wiping out my Vista and all of the programmes that I had on it!!!! I was left with a new machine and none of the really quite expensive extras like QuickTime Pro and my Microsoft stuff.  Anyway to cut a long story short I was able to get back my saved data but I have to reinstall all of the programmes again so that I can transfer the data folders into them. That means that a lot of the stuff still isn't back where it should be. On a brighter note, Shogun runs well and I am enjoying the game.

Distinctions for Both Girls!!

Victoria got her Grade Three and Josephine her Grade Five - both with distinction! Yey for the girls!

Wedding Anniversary

We celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary last night witha trip out to an Indian restaurant and a trip to see Pirates of the Caribbean in 3D. The story line was as thin as paper - and the continuity and dialogue pretty shocking. The two girls really enjoyed it however. The Indian restaurant food was really yummy and most of us experimented with some pretty exotic sounding dishes. It was so good that both girls ate everything.  During the movie we were all so full that we didn't even indulge in the snack bar.
The girls had their music exams yesterday as well. Josie did her Grade 5 RSCM and Victoria did Grade 3.  Victoria is optimistic that she got distinction while Josie thinks she might get a merit.

Must dash off to school now...

Anti-matter Discovered

The Age of Discoveries continues thanks to ... Europe! Those crazy Europeans have managed to develop and fund CERN long enough for the discovery of antimatter to occur. It seems that 60 years after that ridiculous brain fart from Germany, Europe is regaining its place as the crucible of science and exploration.  All of those Florida technicians and engineers laid off as NASA boldly goes where everyone has gone before and the poor people at Fermilabs  must be shaking their heads and wondering at which point in the last 20 years the golden dream of exploration and progress was lost

A few shots of the school

My cool desk that I bought to replace my old one after I changed rooms.

I don't have my own office. I share with the other teachers (who use their classrooms as their own offices) I have a little cubbyhole where I can escape to during my down periods.

This is the staff area from a little further away.

The photocopier and the three strawberry pots which are supposed to keep the staff supplied with strawberries during the early summer.  We used to grow tomatoes but they were not very successful.

Classroom 2

Classroom 3

The front reception area

Heading down from the kitchen area (right) to the bathrooms

Looking towards the reception from classroom 4

Classroom 4

Classroom 1

Looking at some of Victoria's work on the board in classroom 1.

 As promised here are some shots of the school. They were taken without much light this afternoon (Queen's Birthday) without any students - which means no mess.

Spare Time- New Project

Can anything look as cool as a battalion of British infantry? I had these guys as Airfix figures back in the 70's and I battled them all throughout the house, lawns and garden until I was about 13.  It would be so cool to paint a 1/72 army!

I am really looking forward to starting a Penninsular War British army.  These long weekends have the downside of allowing me to think of expensive projects.  During the next 10 years I want to paint 1809 Austrian, 1813 Prussian and joint Portuguese/British and maybe Spanish armies

Queen's Birthday

After IELTS marking, we packed up the car and headed up to Hampden.  The weather isn't all that great this weekend but we did manage a walk around the township before retiring indoors for the rest of the weekend. Nan bought herself a bitchin 42 inch flat screen plasma to keep her company over the winter. She has a subscription to the Sky Rugby channel which she can watch in HD. Anyway we spent a large proportion of the weekend eating too much and doing too little. Anyway today is Monday and we are heading back after lunch. I have quite a bit of lesson planning to do for the coming week. Luckily I don't have to prepare for any UMAT for the next couple of weeks so my evenings won't be too busy. My biggest problem is figuring out whether to base my 95th rifles instandard formation or in extended skirmishing order. I am leaning towards one standard battalion AND one in open skirming order jsut to be on the safe side.

Friday Off

Well I took the day off today to recover from the op. Actually it was a bit of an anti-climax (to excuse the weak pun). Not nearly as bad as I had imagined it would be. I actually even watched the operation. In the morning I painted the base grass on my British light cav, retouched a lighter green on my 95th Rifles and finished reading The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes. It was a good yarn. On Monday I have a new class starting so I will have to do prep for that. I am also doing script marking for IELTS on Saturday before we head up to my mum's house for Queen's Birthday.

The girls have their exams on Tuesday and Mari starts temping at the Dunedin Public hospital for a month on Wed so the next month promises to be quite busy.

A New Style

I have nothing to add. Except a new squadron of light cavalry and a vasectomy tomorrow. SIGH.