It really is the Water of Life

Any one who knows me knows my love of a fine Scotch Whiskey. My favorite brand is Cardhu. It is a smooth, sweet, mellow whisky whith only a hint of peat. It's mild flavor is what indeers me to it although i do enjoy a stronger tasting whisky on occation. Well a while back Cardhu came under a little heat for a stunt they pulled that pissed off a lot of people.

Anyone who enjoys whisky will tell you that a single malt is generaly superior to a blended whisky. Blends where designed to combine a number of malt and grain whiskies in such a way that the resulting drink is more than the sum of its parts. By mixing a bunch of malts together you can produce a prodect that is consistant from year to year and indeed there are many blends that are not bad and very popular, you only have to look to Jonny Walker to see that, a principal constituent of which is Carchu. In the end blends are cheeper than the same quality of single malt dew to the addition of less distinctive malts. Much of the enjoyment of scotch comes from the distinctivness of each malt, the grain used, the peat used to dry it, the water source, all of which can be lost in a blend. As one of my friends liks to put it is amazing how easy it is to fool people with blended whiskys. What would you do if someone offered you a fine wine blended from 25 of the best wines in france.

The porblem occured because Cardhu is so approchable as a whisky. It became very popular, especially in places like Jamaca, so popular that the distillary began to run out of stock. Unlike many drinks , it takes 12 years to make Cardhu so if you run out you can make any more. I guess 12 years ago people did not expect this level of popularity. To keep up with demand Chardu make a new blended whisky they called a Pure Mault insted of Single malt. The porblem was that they where marketing it as if it was a single malt. There is a lot of money tied up in Scotch, it is the most expensive dink in the world so there is a lot at stake. Misrepresenting a vatted malt (blend made from malt grains without any other grains added) as a single malt may not seem like such a horrible thin but it could do serious damage to the industry. Full Story Here

Any way i have kind of gotten off topic. What I intended to discuss was an article I found online. Apparently Scotch has the same chemical found in red wine that fights cancer but in larger ammounts. This led to the headline:

Cure Cancer With Single Malt Whisky So Says Whiskey Consulant


So I will continue to drink my favorite drink secure in the knowledge that I am helping to heal my body in the process. BWT, The Cardhu I own, A wonderfull birdtay presand from some of my close friends, is the single malt variety and it still tastes good even though it's a couple of years older now =:>

Trials and Tribulations

Ah well my AutoAssult beta test invite arrived last night. I downloaded the client right away hoping to play only to find that they are still very early in the testing. Don't want to say much cause i had to agree to a non disclosure document before they would let me in. Either way, i can only play a couple times a week when the servers are up.

I have heard from other people in the MMOradio IRC room who have received their E3 prizes yesterday so i expect mine to come tomorrow (i hope). Expect more news then.

I'm heading home July 22 for 2.5 weeks to attend my friends wedding. I think i have to give a speech, not sure what i will say but i am sure it will be embarrassing

My New Aquisition

So if you have never hear of Craigslist let me tell you about an awesome web site. It origionaly was started in san francisco. It is a free internet classified ad site. people poast things they want to buy or sell every day. They have a site for most major cities, including 11 canadian cities. You can get great deals. For instant check out what i just purchecd.

A poker set for $40 canadian.
500, 11.5 gram poker chips. Casion weight.
2 decks of cards. and a dealer chip
5, 6 sided dice.
Fairly heavy duty Aluminum carrying case with locks.



Now if you have ever looked at the price of good poker chips you realize this is a pretty good deal, and i just drove over and picked it up. This list is full of deals like this, check the website out.

Battlfeild 2

I have been playing around with the Battlefield 2 Demo. I must say this is one of the best multi player FPS I have ever played. I have 2 Problems in general with FPS's that try to simulate real combat (games like Call of Duty, Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory etc, and epically Counter Strike)

1. You die to easily. True in battlefields you do die easily. The average person can not take an rpg and survive. However these are games not real life and i don't like spawning turning a corner and instantly dieing without knowing why. Especially in counterstrike this can cause a long learning period as it is difficult to learn anything when you die so easily.
2. Snipers/campers. I'm sorry but snipers relay piss me off. I like actually fighting someone, not getting ambushed with no way to defend myself. Mabe it's cause i'm not very good but to me sniping and getting sniped is not fun. Seriously get in the frey people. To me snipers are people who are too scared to get into real combat and risk being virtually killed. So my scores are not so high at least i'm in there having fun.
   

Anyway Battlefield 2 has not solved these problems but it has lessened them. You can still die in 1 hit but it's harder. You have more HP than in most games. Unless you get hit in the head a sniper will not kill you in 1 shot. The guns are less accurate. To hit someone at distance you need to get down, zoom in and aim. Even then only 1 in 3 shots may hit depending on gun and distance. The only advantage snipers have is that their guns are more accurate and have longer range, not Uber power.

The classes are well balanced, each has good and bad thing but the differences are smaller, they are not extreme. You can easily do without one class or another, except anti tank, every team needs a few of them to kill vehicles. You can build squads and you have a commander that forwards orders to each squad to control the battle. Also it has a built in voice chat but that is pretty standard now.

Now for the vehicles. They are very cool. You have Tanks, Jeeps, Dune buggies, APC's, Attack Helicopters, troop Transport Helicopters and jets. using the vehicles is fun and necessary especially to extend your life and get to the battle quickly. I still cant fly those planes though, crash every time but since every one has a parachute you can fly over the battle and jump out. Fast way to get to there artillery so you can destroy it.

To conclude Battlefield 2 is very good. If you a noob you can drive vehicles or be a vehicle gunner fairly easily. You can choose an easy class like anti tank or assault or hang back and heal people until you get the hang of the game. Plus since you only have a 15 second re spawn you and die a bunch of time and still get back into the game fast. Play it now. The only way to make it better would be to remove the sniper rifle compleatly from the game.

Big News

Ok ive got some big news. Today i learned that my direct transfer to PhD has been approved. That's right I can put off writing my Thesis for another 4 years. It also means that i will be out west for another 4 years. This is the point when my friends back home who havent viseted me yet now feel obligated to as i am not comming home for a while (except vacations).

And to make things even better im on the beta test for Auto Assult. Not sure what it is but ill get to beta test it in a couple of weeks.

Could things get any better. Next thing you know ill have a girlfriend or something wacky like that.

Only 2 Things Come from Texas

For those of you who like Full Metal Jacket, this Doll is for you.

Amazing Computer Generated Art

oke_ola in the MMORadio Forums poasted this link to an art contest.

POVCOMP 2004: Hall of Fame

The pics are amazing, you would sware that some of them are photographs. The picture, "The Last Guardian" look like something out of WoW. I could sware it's a darkshore thresher in the pic. I think I am going to get a few new wallpapers from this site.