StarCraft 2 Logo

A little less than two years ago, Blizzard announced it was coming out with a sequel to the famous StarCraft game and I, like many others, was tickled pink at the promise of a sequel.

You see, I love the Warcraft universe that Blizzard has developed over the years, but StarCraft was the game that fully introduced me to what Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games could be.  I was in highschool back when it came out, and we would commandeer the computer labs after school and play 8-player games late into the night.  Truly an amazing experience.

And after 12 years, the game has been thrown back into my life, as the email I received last night invited me to participate in StarCraft 2’s beta testing!

I can’t tell you what I think of the game yet, partly because I havn’t played it yet (its downloading and installing at the moment) and partly because I’m not too sure how much I can say (the legal agreement was a tough read).

I’ll have a look and see what I can find, and if I can post my testing experiences and thoughts on Folaji.com, I most definitively will.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to fight aliens on a far away planet.

Marge: Oh, that sounds like a good movie!

Uhh… yes, yes… movie…

So here goes:

City Lights

There’s something eerie about walking alone in the city at night.

The fact that you’re just one of a few million souls walking from one street to the next makes you feel like such an insignificant piece of of the puzzle.

Yet, when you stop to look down at the traffic below, and you hear the horn of the passenger train in the distance, you realize that the city is alive, and that you are a part of it as much as it is a part of you.

And its then that you feel safe, realizing that you are never really walking alone.

That being said, anybody looking for this week’s Blog Tools Review can find it on FuglyCode.com.  This week I detail a very important anti-spam plugin called Akismet, which you can read here.  Note that, as I stated previously, Blog Tools Reviews will now only be posted on FuglyCode.com, so head on over to the new site every Wednesday at 12pm EST for your weekly dose of blog plugin fun!

Also, after almost a year of hiatus, Rise of the X-Syndicate is back with Chapter 7 – The Fall.  I found this chapter extremely difficult to write, partly because I wasn’t to certain how I wanted to present the conflict in the chapter, and mostly because it truly is a backbone for so much of what’s to come.  With it now published, I feel like I’ve jumped a huge hurdle, and future chapters are all starting to fall into place.

And finally, although I am spending much time on FuglyCode right now, I still have big plans for this site.  I intend to begin adding new content over the next few months, which will allow the site to grow into a much more rounded and interesting site.  I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll leave it at that for now.

Talk to y’all later!

The large Tauren had lived through many battles, but had never felt pain quite like this.  It was as though something was clawing at her side, trying to rip her left arm off of her body.  She ignored it as best she could and rolled to her right side, pushing herself into an upright sitting position with a quick jolt.   She then turned to look at her left side, and was surprised to find a big empty and bloody space where her arm used to be.

“We tried as best we could,” Gregory Victor said  from the other end of the room.  ”By the time you got to us, the arm was gone, and I thought you as well.  You’re lucky we were able to save you.”

Without acknowledging the Undead doctor, Zuxana attempted to stand.  The room began to spin as she made it to her feet, and she quickly grabbed hold of the wall to avoid stumbling onto the wounded that lay on the ground around her.

“Be careful,” Victor said, “you’ve lost a lot of blood.”

Zuxana looked down at her armour and nodded.  It was drenched in drying blood, most of which was becoming solid and crusty.  She instinctively tried to wipe it off, but soon realized that it wouldn’t do much.  Still, she kept on trying to wipe the blood off until Victor walked up and forcefully stopped her hand.

“Can I get you anything?” he asked, trying to convey a sense of concern that his Undead body simply did not know how to mimic.

“Numbers?” she asked dryly.

“It doesn’t look good I’m affraid,” he said, “so far I’ve counted over 180.”

The number caused Zuxana’s heart to skip a beat.  Razorwind, at its peak, had boasted about 230 members.  If the numbers were correct, and over 180 warriors had perished, then the guild’s numbers had just dropped to less than 20 members.  No, this couldn’t be right, 90 percent of her guild could not have just been killed by the Alliance.

“I need to get back,” she said in a weak but firm voice, “I need to get to Undercity.”

Victor hesitated, looking at her wound with concern.  He knew she wasn’t in any shape to fly, yet something told him it wasn’t any use arguing with her.

“You can get a bat from the bat handler outside”, he finally answered.

“Bat?” Zuxana asked surprised, “I thought Hammerfall was serviced by Wyverns?”

“It was, but orders came down a while back to start using bats, it was something about them being faster I believe,” Victor explained, then added: “and with the amount of bodies they’re currently flying to Undercity, its probably for the best!”

This peaked her interest, but didn’t change the fact that she needed to get to Undercity, where Razorwind survivors would be gathering for the battle debriefing.  If Zuxana didn’t get there soon, they would probably assume the worst and begin without her, and she couldn’t let that happen.

Zuxana pushed herself out of the cabin and headed towards the bat handler as fast – and as straight – as she could.

***

The door slammed open, catching everyone by surprise and revealing a very mean looking Hallpass.

The small Undead mage took a few seconds to let his presence sink in.  He then quietly scanned the room from end to end, making eye contact with everyone within it.  He knew them all, each a fellow guild member that he’d recruited, taught, and mentored, and each showing signs of fatigue and stress, having just survived a very horrible battle.

His yellow glowing eyes finally rested upon the large green orc that stood in the middle of the room.

“Varathron,” he said with his strong, deep Undead voice, “what’s going on here?”

“So nice of you to join us Hallpass,” the Orc said sarcasticly.  ”We were just talking amongst each other, going over the battle and what not.  Nothing wrong with that, is there?”

“Considering Zuxana isn’t here yet, I would say that yes, there is something wrong with that,” Hallpass replied dryly.

“Zuxana?!” Varathron asked laughing, “Bwahahaha!  Last time I saw her she was resting in pieces in Hammerfall.”

“Stop right there Var!”  Hallpass roared from the back of the room.  ”Zuxana is not on the list of casualties, and until someone informs me that she should be, she is still the leader of Razorwind.  We will wait for her to arrive before we start the debriefing.”

Varathron slowly stepped towards the undead mage.  ”Well then, maybe we don’t want to be in Razorwind anymore.”

“If that’s the case, then leave.  And anybody in here right now that feels the same way can leave too.”

Several of the most vocal members of the crowd got up and formed ranks behind Varathron, who stood proudly before them.  They then turned, and began marching out of the debriefing room.

“Var,” Hallpass said as the giant Orc walked by him, “think about what you are doing, this won’t bring Sefira back.”

Varathron turned, eyes as black as coal, “Don’t you dare say here name!  You’re lucky I respected you once, otherwise I’d kill you where you stand.”

Hallpass silently stood and met each one’s gaze as they walked by him.  Some looked back at himwith respect, others with anger, and others not at all.  When all had left, the room consisted of no more than five people, and Hallpass knew very well that the worst had just happened.

Razorwind was no more.

I’ve been working on this new site for a couple of weeks now, and noticed that the content of the Blog Tools Review articles was much more suitable for this site than for Folaji.com.  And so I’ve ported the series over, and will continue on publishing Blog Tools Reviews everyweek on FuglyCode.com.

With the launch of the new site, I’ve not yet had the chance to publish Chapter 7 of Rise of the X-Syndicate.  I can say for a fact that it will be posted this week, so keep an eye out for a new Chapter of this World of Warcraft story.

In the meantime, I leave you with a montage of my dog Koji, playing with an 8 week old black lab named Ramsay.  Aren’t they adorable?

Food And Foto (http://cookandsnap.blogspot.com/) is an amazing treat for the eyes where both Simon and Sophie cook wonderful looking dishes, and then post the pictures of those dishes online for us to salivate over.  They’ve been at it for almost two months now, and I’m always amazed at how mouthwatering their food looks (not to mention the awesome presentation that easily rivals professional restaurants).

I’ve yet to have the pleasure of eating such masterpieces, but to be honest, I’d be afraid of destroying something precious were I to get the chance of trying their food out, and I don’t have the skills nor the patience to follow the recipies they post.  I guess I’ll just stick to eating my homemade cheeseburgers and enjoying, with envy, the awesome food they create.

So take the time to view their blog and leave them a shout of encouragement.  In the meantime, I’ll get back to my Blog Tool Review, that I hope will be posted sometime tomorrow.

Hope it was fun!

Back at the first door, we listened carefully to hear if there was anything on the other side. We heard some funny noises and figured out it was a bunch of kobolds being boisterous. We quietly opened the door and managed to surprise them. While the fight was over fairly quickly, some of us had to spend a while picking dice out of our clothing. Because he’d been surprised, one of the kobold slingers hadn’t had time to get our his sling ammo, so he used the dice from the game he was playing. The resulting grapeshot was more annoying than actually dangerous. After thoroughly searching the area and obtaining some loot we continued on our way.

The second door was quite simply massive. Since we hadn’t really encountered anything too difficult up to this point, we decided to simply slam the door open and rush in. The room was a sort of sanctum, and it was occupied by a wererat and his rodent swarms. We tried to talk to him, but he attacked before we could say anything of substance. This was our toughest fight yet, but we pulled through without any serious injuries. Searching the area, we found the Rat King’s journal; it was quite revealing.

This wererat used to be a man called Gord. The one we encountered earlier is Dralliw; and, before he died, the ghost was a man named Terrius.

Dralliw had hired the other two to help him in a quest. They discovered the aqueduct and looted the place. One night, while still in the underground, Dralliw kills Terrius in order to get his share of the loot. Gord was pretending to be asleep and plans on killing Dralliw later on. The next day, Dralliw bites Gord and runs off. Apparently he had very sharp teeth.

Gord spends the next few days looking for Dralliw. During this time he slowly starts to change into a feral looking creature with a craving for cheese. Also, on a few occasions, he hears playing a flute that he found and he notices the the rats seem to react to the sound. At one point he sees another adventurer exploring the aqueduct. But this man dies soon after; the victim of a pack of zombies. Of note was a fancy ring on his finger.

A little over a week after entering the aqueduct, Gord catches up to Dralliw for a little while and manages to connect the dots.

Dralliw is a wererat. Terrius’ child had recently been killed by a rat-like creature; it was probably Dralliw. (Terrius’ wife is in mourning at the church of Ilmater in Candlekeep.)

Dralliw came to the aqueduct looking specifically for the flute. He hired the other two because he needed their help.

Two after entering the aqueduct, Gord realizes that he’s become a wererat. He accepts his fate and declares himself the RAT KING. He plans on defeating Dralliw and getting the flute. To that end he allies himself with a tribe of kobolds who live in the aqueduct.

After reading the journal, we took a long rest in order to recuperate our forces.

I like it because this is probably the first site that I’ve ever created for myself, and after a year and a half online, I find nothing more relaxing than sitting back and looking at my site, which I built the way I wanted to, without the constant input from some external party about advertising revenues and traffic statistics.

Its not that I hate developing sites for other,  I’ve been doing that for as long as I can remember, and I don’t see any reason why I would stop.  But there is something liberating about creating a site that is yours and yours alone, a site where you have final say on content, look and feel, and overall organization.

And that’s what Folaji.com is for me: a place I can escape to and be myself, where I can publish ideas, stories, and videos that had once only been a sentence on a piece of paper in an old binder.  A place where others can come and read those stories, discuss them, and share their own if they would like.  (Ok, maybe the Folaji.com community isn’t big enough for that yet, but hey, I can dream, can’t I?)

Alright, so why am I writing all this?  Well, I came to the realization a few days ago that none of this would be possible if not for the array of wonderful free web tools available online.  When you look at this site, you should understand that the look and feel, the blog engine, the different tools showing up on the side bar, were all developed by a large online community of bloggers and developers that offer their products for free.  If it weren’t for these people and their willingness to share their tools with the online community, then Folaji.com would only be a shadow of its current self.

So I decided that, as a thank you for everyone’s efforts, I would take the time over the coming months to review each widget, plugin and tool I use on Folaji.com.  This would be my way of thanking the community for such great work, and for allowing me to create this site, and hopefully will encourage others to do the same.

“Everything was going great until you showed up and brought them with you!” he replied, throwing his backpack back on top of his shoulders.

The intercom crackled once more, advising all passengers to exit the station and again mentioning code 54-A.  Both our heartbeats raced as we panicked, trying to figure out what to do.

From above we heard footsteps rushing down the stairs accompanied by the sounds of guns cocking.  Stuck in the corner, Steve and I looked down at the metro rails.  We both knew this was our only way out, so we hopped down onto the tracks and began running  into the dark underground tunnel of the metro, occasionally looking back to ensure no train was going to run us down.  As our feet quickly moved us away from the cops, we heard their radios come on and off as they searched for us.  Luckily, they didn’t know if we were dangerous or not – though I assume Officer Murray was able to convince them we were – so they would probably take their time in searching the station, covering and securing every corner before moving on.

We continued down the track and soon saw a parked train in the distance.   We ran along side of it, up to what seemed like a small metro station, and then found the end of the tunnel.  Steve explained that this was the employee entrance, which meant we could walk out of the station as did the train conductors.

We tried a few doors only to find that they were all locked, and finally gave up and sat down on the platform floor.  My mind was spinning, but obviously not as much as Steve’s.  He began shaking, saying incoherent things and incomplete sentences regarding jail, gambling, dept and murder.  I realized at that moment that I obviously didn’t know the guy as much as I thought I did.  Nevertheless, I tried to calm him down, telling him that everything was going to be okay.  Truth be told, however, I wasn’t so certain of that myself.  I knew it was only a matter of time before the SWAT team would come walking down the track, and they’d find the two of us, sitting casually in this small, dark station.

Maybe they’d be nice with us if we surrendered, I thought to myself.

“You kids need help?”

The voice echoed in the darkness of the station and made both Steve and I jump to our feet.  We looked around for the person who’d spoken, but saw only shadows and darkness.  Then, as though appearing out of nowhere, a tall lean man with bushy hair and a beard appeared before us.

“I presume those cops be lookin’ for both of ya?” he asked with a lisp that could only be caused by the many teeth he was missing. We both nodded slowly, uncertain if we could trust him.

“Well,” he continued, clearing his throat, “if ya don’t want ‘em to find ya, better come this way.”

The man turned and began walking to the other side of the track. From there, he climbed up a wall and shimmied his way into a crack about four feet tall and one foot wide. Steve and I both looked at ourselves, somewhat puzzled, and figured we didn’t have much choice but to follow him.

We hopped down onto the track and climbed up the other side.  I squeezed through the crack first, the sharp stone scratching both my arms. Once I was through it was Steve’s turn, and he pushed himself halfway before coming to a complete stop.

“Ah shit dude, I’m stuck,” he said, trying to pull himself out of the crack.

“Yea, I think its your backpack, seems to be caught on something,” I said, looking over his shoulder. “Can you back out?”

Steve answered with a shake of the head: he wasn’t going anywhere. I put my hand against the backpack and tried to pull it, but it wouldn’t budge. We tried once more, and then we froze like deer caught in headlights.

“Do you hear that?” Steve quietly whispered to me, sweat dripping from his brow.

“Yes,” I answered, trying to move as little as possible.

The echoes of quiet footsteps could be heard from behind Steve, which could only mean that a small group of someones were walking down the tunnel towards us. Those someones, I assumed, were members of the SWAT team, and a radio cackle confirmed my suspicion.

“What are you two doing?” The lean man that had lead us to this crack in the wall asked from a distance.

“We need to go, now!” I told Steve as forcefully as I could without raising my voice.

“But I’m stuck!”

“No, you’re not stuck, your back pack is, take it off and lets go!”

Steve looked at me as though I had just betrayed him: it was clear that he wasn’t going to leave the backpack behind.  I plunged my hand into his bag and searched around, finding the pliers he’d used to remove my handcuffs earlier during the night. The pliers were multi-use – kind of like two Swiss Army Knives attached at the ends – and I opened them up and pulled out the knife part.  Then, with little effort, I sliced through the bag’s straps, separating it from Steve, who came crashing to the ground with a swear and a thud.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing? I need that!” Steve shouted, some of the money falling out of the backpack that swung on the wall.

My reply was to grab him and slap him across the face, which quickly made him realize what he’d just done.  We then turned and quickly ran away as we heard someone shouting from the other side of the crack.

“They’re over here! Through the crack in the wall!”