OddballGreg - Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead (And The Unfortunate Tale Of Victor Henning)

Screenshot was nicked from the Cataclysm website's screenshots page. Don't you just love ASCII graphics? XD

ASCII Graphics, an absurdly fun (lack of) premise and the perfect mix of seriousness and humor, Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is one of the most fun roguelikes I have ever played. Lets talk about that.

If you've been reading the TCSA blog for a length of time, you may be familiar with my absurd tastes in games and content, preferring originality and fun over all else. You may also remember me talking about a ridiculously difficult strategy game called Dwarf Fortress at some point as well which is another of my favorite ASCII based games.

If you're wondering, ASCII is the the american character classification system for all the symbols a computer might need to use. (Though ASCII is hardly as all encompassing as USF which includes various non Latin character sets like Cyrillic or Kanji.) In any case, I found Cataclysm by chance while, big surprise, I browsed YouTube for something interesting to see and came across a YouTube Commentator by the name of Aavak, who had just begun playing the game and proved to be quite entertaining to watch as he did his best to make the most of a character he'd purposefully made inherently flawed. (Like you do in games like these. The fun is in the story that results from the game, not the victory screen.)

What caught my eye about Cataclysm in particular, (apart from it being open-source and free - big plus there), was just how insanely detailed this odd little game is. Apart from the interesting premise built around almost any apocalypse you can think of in a strangely cohesive pot of madness, there are some truly well thought out systems which, apart from helping to create the story of your character by morphing their actions, are incredibly well thought out and logical. Learning is determined by how focused your character is, skills degrade over time, clothing encumbers individual parts of your body to provide a detailed understanding of whats affecting your ability to do things, and for good measure you can build a functional car from all kinds of various components and drive it using logical car controls instead of the direct control most games give you over the vehicles... and that's only some of the stuff.

Suffice to say, there's a lot in this game to make for absolutely fantastic gameplay and storytelling, to the extent that I thought it might be a fun exercise to chronicle the (admittedly short lived) exploits of my first character in the form of a narrative that explains his various character traits and skills through a story, rather than simply spelling out stats. It's probably a really terrible read if my inner critic is to be believed, but the purpose isn't good reading, it's to give you an idea of what kind of story's can emerge from this ridiculously detailed game. So without further ado, here is the unfortunate (and rather short) tale of Victor Henning.

Victor Henning had never been a particularly lucky person. Born with an unfortunate jaw deformity which is best described as "hideous", he spent most of his life as a social outcast. While his parents were more forgiving of his looks and did the best they could for him, even those he spent a lifetime training martial arts with at his parents behest shunned him for looking so intimate with the proverbial ugly stick.

Eventually Victor's parents grew old and could no longer support a son that nobody wished to be near for long, forcing him to enter the job market without any marketable skills. As it turned out, he made a rather good construction worker, and few people had to look at him while he was at it. At least until the "Cataclysm".

Not many people know what happened (or lived to tell the tale). Whatever it was, Victor had been having lunch while it happened. Stampeding people, car crashes, screaming, explosions. Whatever it was, Victor didn't want to find out, quietly finding his way to an evacuation shelter outside of town that he had helped build a while ago. Seemingly under-stocked and empty of people, save himself, Victor set about looking for something to help him survive whatever was going on.

The shelter was basically furnished. Benches, counters, lockers and a couple computers were it's contents. The room was also centered around a central staircase which added to the building's symmetry, as did the 4 doors on the 4 sides of the building.

Victor, figuring his best bet would be to take what he could and leave, looted the lockers quickly for the thermal blanket and luminescent emergency jacket that they contained before heading for the basement to continue his looting.

The basement was dark. Not dark in the ominous and evil sense of the term, but the "I can barely see my hand in front of my face" sense of the term. Stumbling around blindly for a few minutes, Victor realized that the floor was strewn with a wide variety of items, and decided to gear up, starting with a set of hiking boots.

Of course, this being the "unfortunate" tale of Victor Henning, it should come as no surprise that trying to put hiking boots on in an near pitch black basement during some apocalyptic event is probably a bad idea. Having not yet even removed his own shoes, Victor suddenly found himself covered in disgusting smelling bile which had issued from the bloated stomach of what looks like a fat, rotting man. Said man then beset upon Victor with violent intent.

Victor, however, fell immediately into the instinctual self-defense movements that he had practiced for so long, delivering a startlingly strong punch to the assailants face from which a sickening crunch emanated. Oddly, this blow did little more than cause the bloated man to stumble before setting upon Victor once again with renewed rage. Taking no chances, Victor delivered an additional set of blows to the head which would have crippled an ordinary person, but instead prompted an enraged swing at Victor's own head. Ducking this, Victor bounced into to rabbit punches which rocked the creature's head further.

Still not subdued however, the assailant tired to grab Victor with a flailing swing, only to be yanked forward with the offending arm and tripped. Unceremoniously delivered to the floor, Victor delivered a unceremonious kick to the it's bloated stomach, with veritably explosive results. Wiping the gore from his face, Victor quickly set about looting the basement of some basic supplies before hurriedly heading for better lit surroundings above.

Emerging from the basement, Victor considered two things. Firstly that he had just been covered in gore after beating the hell out of a raotting fat man, and secondly that there was enough food and supplies in the basement to keep him in health for weeks if need. Was Victor surprised about the fat guy though? Nope. Anyone who lives in the 21st century knows what a zombie is, and poor Victor had spent many solitary hours of free time playing games and watching movies about them.

Taking a seat at one of the computers, Victor decided to see if maybe the government knew about the zombies. Logging into the computer, Victor was greeted with the glowing green message you would expect at a time like this.

"Greetings citizen. A biological attack has taken place and a state of emergency has been declared. Emergency personnel will be aiding you shortly. To ensure your safety please follow the below steps:

1. Do not panic.
2. Remain inside the building.
3. Seek shelter in the basement.
4. Use provided gas masks.
5. Await further instruction."

Victor chuckled at step three considering how he currently stank like a lunch, once digested, with a side order of grave-robbers delight. Of course the useless terminal had no internet access, leaving Victor with a problem.

While Victor did have enough supplies to last him weeks in this building, and probably should just wait like the terminal told him to do, that would make for an absolutely rubbish story about an ugly hermit. So of course in the grand scheme of story telling, Victor decided he'd go exploring.

Knowing that whatever was out there was probably going to try to kill him, Victor decided that now was a good time to quickly brush up on his first aid skills from a book he found in the basement earlier. A few minutes of skimming and Victor felt a touch more ready to deal with any injuries if necessary, keeping the book on hand to consult.

Sucking up some courage from the air about him, Victor stepped out into what I *cough* he had forgotten to mention was the freezing cold of early spring. Walking about ten paces from the shelter, it was immediately apparent to Victor that he could no longer feel his face nor his fingers. Whatever was out there, it would have to wait for Victor to find a way to keep himself warm if they wanted a fair chance to kill him before the weather did.

Stepping back into the shelter which had suddenly grown colder itself as the night fell, Victor set about grabbing anything that might help keep him warm. Gloves, winter jackets and fur boots. Anything that might keep the cold at bay. When that turned out to be insufficient, Victor decided to set up a fire. Smashing one of the benches in the main room of the shelter, he quickly threw a fire together using the wood and a lighter he found in the basement earlier, sighing with relief as the heat washed over him from the warm flames. Calming down, Victor found himself dozing off into a relaxed sleep after the days events.

As you might expect though, lighting fires inside of buildings is a really bad idea, and Victor awoke to screeching metal, falling rocks and thick smoke in his lungs as the building began to collapse around him. Unfortunate Victor may have been feeling somewhat silly about this revelation as the first chunk of roof fell on top of him. And the second. Finding a moment of respite, he began crawling for the exit in the hopes of outliving his poor decision. Moments before reaching the door however, an significantly large piece of burning rubble fell upon him and set him alight.

Thus ended what Victor had likely expected to be a somewhat longer foray into the Cataclysm. In the final thoughts of those who had learned from bad ideas too late, Victor wondered what his tombstone might have looked life if anyone could make one.

In his head, his epigraph simply read: "Fuck.", before he died.

Fin

And so ended the badly thought out tale of Victor Henning. I admit that his death was a moment deserving of a truly epic facedesk on my part, yet it was still a very humorous thing to witness. If you agree, and think that it could be funny to have more of these stories written, do be sure to let me know down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear your feedback as it helps us bring you more of the content you enjoy. And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome stuff on the web and world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Good luck surviving my friends.

JovialJman - RimWorld (Entertaining Colony Sim)

This is an image showing a colony in-game taken from rimworldgame.com

RimWorld is an Indie game, created by Tynan Sylvester. It is a simulation of 3 survivors on a distant planet on the rim of the galaxy, (hence the name). It is a very interesting game and has many aspects to it that make it really enjoyable.

I have spoken about simulations before, and OddballGreg has spoken about RimWorld briefly, but I believe that it deserves a post of it's own. So with further ado, here is the post. When starting the game you are greeted with a message, (it is the picture below), it gives a warm feeling to show that this shall be the home of your colonists for some time.

This is a screenshot of the beginning message in Alpha 7 of RimWorld

From here, you will set up a base, by either creating the walls that will surround you or dig into the earth for some shelter, both having their pros and cons. You shall be visited by a range of people, some being wonders of the galaxy, while some are towns that are somewhere else on the world, some might not be friendly so preparations must be made. Without food you shall starve, without shelter you will go mad, and without defences you might get over run. All of these need to be thought of before beginning any activities as some people might be able to do some things better than anyone else, and others might not be able to do something at all.

I have spent many hours on this game, and is the cause for me publishing some of the posts as late as 11:58 on some nights, since you lose a lot of the sense of time when playing the game because there is nothing telling you what the time is on the screen. Everything in the game has a randomness to it so no two games are the same. If you were to go to a previous save and play from there, you will be surprised at the different events that may take place. One of the reasons that you cannot stop playing. The game is really well made, and it isn't even done yet. There are many features Tynan is still going to add to the game through input of those who play it.

In game development, Alpha is usually regarded to the stage when there is playable content, but there is still going to be new things added to it, which is where the game is at the moment. Beta is the next stage and is usually regarded as the stage where all content is in the game, but it is all being polished and made ready for the final release. However there is no regulation of the terms so some companies may use it in different manners. 

There is a whole community around this game, and some dedicated people have made mods for it already to add features that they would like to see in the game, and some of these might eventually be made into the original game. Many of these people work really hard for these mods and really enjoy making them. Tynan has let people mod it as much as they want, and even has a tab in the open menu for activating these mods. Tynan works almost every day on this game to try get it better than what it was the day before and most changes can almost be seen on the daily basis at this website.

Some people have made walkthroughs of how to best survive in their opinion and some have commentated while playing it. I really enjoyed Pyrion Flax's story telling of his game. It is the story of Rebecca Cain and how she survived. The way he tells the story is really amazing and when something bad happens you really feel it and have symphony for these moving pixels on the screen, it is beautiful.

This is the first video of his 6 part series, I really recommend watching them all

With that it brings today's post to an end. I hope you enjoyed reading today's rather short post on a game I really enjoy, and I hope you are able to play it yourself unless you are in matric at the moment then I hope you are studying for the exams, and you can try the game after you are done with them. Anyways, if you have any comment or suggestions on anything I have said in this post or anythings else, please leave it in the comments below and/or on Facebook/Twitter. Do you know of anyone who might like to read this blog because they enjoy reading, or playing games, or you wish just to contact them, please share this with them as I am sure they will thank you for the thought. If you would like to see more post like this and others please like us on Facebook and/or follow us on Twitter, using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. I hope you have/had a really good day.

Enjoy playing friends.

JovialJman - How To Survive The Zombie Apocalypse

The women on the track there might be fit for baby sitting, who would hire her?

Zombies are those creatures that indicate the end of the world, potentially. They seem to have an urge to seek out brains or the living, so there are a few that are safe, (maybe they are dead ... don't judge). Some say that the day they walk the earth is just a matter of time, So today OddballGreg and myself will tell you how to survive the zombie apocalypse.

Now the beginning scenario was created by both OddballGreg and myself and we are both using it and expanding on it independently. It is a rather crude scenario one of which just might take place, (you never know). So without further delay here is the gruesome and rather morbid survival, (the Italics are what we both begin with):

My day begins as it usually does, my phone’s alarm going off beside me in it’s typical irritating tone in it’s occasionally vain effort to get me to wake up. 10 to 30 minutes later I'm, busy doing what I usually do in the tired stupor that comes with being awake so early.

Having managed to accurately dress myself with the correct clothing in the correct orientation after one or two tries, I gather up my usual trinkets like keys, phone, wallet, sunglasses, etc, and make my way outside to drive to work. (Yes. Drive. This is South Africa after all. Walking to work can take several hours, not minutes.) my tiredness making me fairly oblivious to my surroundings, I don't find the lack of cars on the road strange in the least, despite it being the middle of the week. “Maybe school term has finished?” I reason, that being a common cause for a lack of traffic.

Whatever the cause, I soon arrive at work, enter, and make my way over to note my entry time when I notice, strangely, that everyone is already clocked in. Must be something happening today that I wasn't told about, the lack of updates on the noticeboard showing everyone is probably somewhere else and hasn't had the time to sort things out here. Suddenly, my phone rings to tell me that I have a new message. Pulling it out of my pocket with a large yawn, I drop it in some ketchup that someone must've spilt on the floor at some point, I remove it and go to wipe it off in the bathroom, wondering at the laziness of my coworkers for not cleaning up after themselves.

Wiped and cleaned, I check who sent the message. It’s from OddballGreg, pressing the conversation to see what they said, I suddenly wonder how much he’s been drinking since his spelling is really bad. “Stsy hme, zomurs apixoltse.” Asking them to repeat what they said, I put my phone away and go to find out what work you need to do today.

Walking into the next room, I find a bunch of scared individuals looking around and throwing various things into bags while one watches the doorways while holding a cricket bat. Noticing me, the blonde haired guy with the cricket bat and something red on his white shirt’s breast pocket walks up to me and says: “Bloody hell man, I thought you were one of them.”
“One of who?” I ask incredulously.
“The zombies. Have you been walking around with your eyes closed man? They're all over the place. Listen, now’s not the time to explain. We're busy getting some food and stuff right. After that the plan is we'll go to me’ mum’s place, kill her husband who’s been bitten, drive through to the local pub, batten down the hatches, sip a beer and wait for all this to blow over. Sound good?”

Me, deciding that I've seen this movie before and that the noob with red on him clearly has no idea what he’s talking about and is probably going to get me unceremoniously killed in some pub somewhere, decide to come up with my own plan to survive:

So, since I have not noticed the events before, I ask a the group of 3 for their names and how it all started and any information that might help us survive. One of the gentleman said, "My name is Trace. I heard on the news that it was some or other diseases or infection that spread when a scientist was doing an experiment without proper preparation." Another person with a rather high voice said, "Yes! I heard that as well. My name is Rose by the way." I was astounded, she didn't really look like a female, since she was wearing rather torn up jeans and long sleeve shirt which was really dirty, which is rather different to the skirts and and skimpy tops you often see.

"Ok, so it is soem or other diseases. What are some of the things you 3 can do that can save our posteriors if the time comes to it," I ask. The man who had the blood stain on his short pocket answer, " My name is Nick, I am an ex-prisoner, I am rather good with sub-machine guns, and I know how to swing a bat." Rose interjects Nick and says, "Posterior, are you an english speaker or something?"
"No, I just tend to use rather obscure words, but there is no time for that. We need to get supplies, what do you have so far." "I have a baseball bat, we have some office supplies, and some food from the kitchen down the hall," said Nick.

"Nick, since you were in prison, do you know where the nearest gunshop is?" "Just because I was in prison does not mean I know where a gunshop is ... it's two blocks down." "Ok, awesome. Oh and my name is Jerome. I have my car parked outside, lets take that to the shop and stock up on some much needed equipment. Lets take whatever we can from here and be on our way." Once we left the office, I had my first whiff of what smelled like a dying animal. After arriving at the Gun shop, we scavenged around taking what ammunition and guns we could. Breaking the class that was between us and some of the weapons.

"There is a safe that I cannot get into. Does anyone know how to crack a safe?" asked Rose. "I might be able to help, depending on what type of safe it is. Wait, lets just search on the net for it. I have my phone with me ... just give me a sec. It is a turn wheel safe." "Yip" "Ok this one website says we need to try and bounce the safe." "Jerome ... It is a walk in safe. You can try if you want, but no. Try something else." Nick disappeared for a bit but none of us noticed. When he came back his pockets looked bulgy. He said really calmly, "everyone just wait outside for a second please." "Why?" we all 3 asked. "Trust me, just wait out side for a bit." We proceeded outside, and Nick was out shortly after, He said "Cover your ears now." We all did and then a loud BANG!!! came from inside, followed by a cloud of smoke. "What did you do man??? are you crazy?" "Relax, Jerome. There was a police station a block up, I got a duffel bag of weapons, along with some grenades." "Zombies are attracted to sound you id10t. We need to move now!" We had managed to get some of the weapons from the safe, with a not destroyed entrance. After we had loaded everything into the boot/trunk of the car, zombies started to chase after us.

If we lived in the game Unturned, these would be the zombies chasing us.

We all got in the car as fast as possible and started to discuss some of the places we could rest, or even better a place to barricade as a safe house. We all agreed that the mall was the worst place since that is where a lot of the zombies are seen to congregate. Parents were also a bad place to go, since they most probably have been turned and you don't want to see loved ones as zombies, they could give you a hug ... then bite off our ear. We decided to go to an old metal factory since there would be a lot of supplies for defences. After getting there we saw a few zombies on the ground. "We have to exterminate them. Remember Rule #1 - double Tap" After a few hours of zombie hunting, we had the problem of the bodies laying around.

When playing Shotgun Fun Fun you can expect a lot of blood, if you survive long enough

In the factory we managed to find a full body heat resistant suit, that would have been used to handle or check things close to the melted metal. We used this suit to move all the now re-dead bodies away from the factory so we can start preparations on the defences. We used metal sheets to block up all the windows and all but 2 entrances. When then made sure that these defences would hold in the case of emergency. Once we were safely locked in for the night, we decide to get to know each other around the campfire. As it turned out, Nick was in prison due to the fact he never paid any of his parking tickets, he broke out of prison when some of the guards were turned into zombies and utter chaos broke, however he was a gun enthusiast, and enjoyed hunting. Rose was a really open minded but spoke her mind all the time, if you crossed her you would be as good as ... a zombie. Trace was a military sniper, and was here on vacation when all of this started and lost his wife to the infection. I must have been asleep for the entire week since I hadn't noticed any of this until that day.

After sleeping through the night on the floor, we went out to try find beds, for better nights and supplies to survive in our safe house. "We must try stay in there as long as we can," stated Nick, while I said, "unless we try find other survivors. There might be some in other cities, look at me I survived without knowing about it for a few days." Rose looked rather confused now, "if we go out there, we will most probably die. If you want to risk your life on something like that, go ahead, but until we are much more prepared I am not leaving."

Me, being me, I wanted to find out if there was more survivors out there. So I let everyone know that I wanted to go out just for a day or two to see if there were any in the nearby towns. They were ok with me going, but did not want to come with, (who would have blamed them? Every time people do that in the movies they always get picked off one by one.) I gathered up some food and weapons and put them into a duffle bag, that was the dirtiest of them all. After stealing a car I went to a gas station to see if there was any fuel I can get. I started filling up my car when all of a sudden a zombie appeared right next to me, Thank goodness for Rule #1 - Cardio. I out ran the zombies, pulled a frying pan out of the car and had some batting practice.

Once I had filled up my car, I went to the mall ... to see if anyone was stupid enough to actually go there. I am to the entrance of Greenstone shopping center and then proceeded inwards. I noticed that one shop, Nandos, seemed to be barricaded so I inspected it. I found it strange that there were little amount of zombies in the mall. Once I was able to get around the barricades, I saw some movement in the back. A woman screamed and started running at me with a shotgun in her hand and pulled the trigger. I was shot in the head, the light faded in a matter of seconds and I was dead. I realized that I still had an extra life and respawned at the entrance to the center again. "Damn, never done that before. I must be really careful." I went back to Nandos and got around the barricades, this time I hid behind a pillar and shouted out, "Is there anyone there?" I heard 2 people quickly mutter and shot up from there chairs.


"Please don't shoot, I come in peace." "Who are you? have you been bitten?" "My name is Jerome, no I haven't. there are hardly any zombies out there, what happened to them all?" I slowly walked to the 2 people there with my hands up. The lady answered, "Hi, my name is Rochelle, we have managed to lure them to the other end of the center, but we couldn't do it with all of them, that is why we have the barricade." "My name is Bobby, but everyone calls me Coach." "Are there any other people here with you 2?" "No, it is just us, we thought there was no one else out there, so we stay here as much as we can." "I was with 3 other people in the town just down the road, if you want you can come and join us, more people, the better we can do things." Rochelle says, "That would be great, do you have a car, all the ones in the parking lot have been syphoned for our generator." "Yes, it is just out side, lets take as much as we can and head on back. I just need to eat something first." I go to the kitchen, and make myself something to eat. There were some canned tomatoes, and some mushrooms, I managed to find some rolls that were not quite steal and just put it all together. I quickly ate that, and we were on our way.

I may or may not have seen something from Plants vs. Zombies

I let Coach drive, since I started to feel rather strange. I felt really tired and started to hallucinate, and saw things on the road that were not really there. I thought I would just tell them where the place we were staying at is and then sleep it off. I managed to just explain where it was before I passed out. When I woke up, I saw people shapes in the daze, since my eyes were not all the way open. I tried to get up but was tied down. "Guys what is happening, why am I tied down" Nick says "you were running a temperature, and for the last 2 days you were having muscle twitches, we were afraid that you might turn into a zombie." "Why would I turn into a zombie? I wasn't bitten, I didn't even get close to any zombies. Wait ... why can't I feel my legs? Guys, why can't I feel my legs?!?" coached explained to me that on the way to the factory, there was a little mishap and one of them had bitten my legs, so they wanted to save me from turning, so the chopped it off.

As the day progressed I started feeling strange again, I was turning into a zombie. I shouted, "Guys, I am turning, you have to kill me and take off my head, you have to stay safe." "But you were getting better." "We can't do that, you are part of our team." No-one wanted to do it. Nick came up to me, leant down and whispered into my ear "do you really want us to kill you? You might not survive." My response was, "Rule #17 Don't be a hero." With that, Nick had decided to do it. He went and got the machete from the back and said, "We will always remember you Jerome." With a quick swoop, the blade went through and made a ding, with the concrete below my head.

Suddenly I got a falling sensation and woke up in bed to the sound of my phone's alarm beside me. "It was all just a dream? It felt so real though. I guess that explains the respawn thing. I must stop playing CoD Zombies." After dressing myself for work after a few attempts, I gather my things and head for the car. Driving to work I notice that there are not many cars on the road despite it being the middle of the week, it must be school holiday I reason to myself.

I soon arrive at work and make my way to the front desk to clock in. I notice everyone else has already, must be something happening today that no-one told me about. My phone rings with a notification that I got a message. While pulling my phone out of my pocket with a yawn, it drops and lands in some ketchup/tomato sauce. Geez I mutter, After going to the bathroom to wash it, I realize that this was way too familiar. I start to shake and unlock my phone, the message it from OddballGreg. It says "stsy hme, zomurs apixoltse" ...

The End

I hope you enjoyed this special feature, of OddballGreg and I today. If you have any comments or any other storeys you would like us to read, please let us know about them in the comments below, and on Facebook/Twitter. If you know anyone who likes a zombie story or just likes to read, please share this post with them as I am sure they will thank you for it. If you like what you see and would like to see more, please like us on Facebook and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left, to see the latest posts, as they are published. I thank you for taking the time for reading today's posts, and I hope you have/had an awesome day.

Happy zombie hunting. 

JovialJMan - The Joy of Fishing

"Is it me, or is the picture REALLY blue? I'm up too early for such bright colors..." -OddballGreg

Do you like sitting around, watching the ripples in the water and the grass grow while waiting for some unfortunately stupid creature to bite a metal hook you left in the water? If so, you probably enjoy fishing.

Yesterday I went fishing, (with my family), for the first time since I was 10 years old. I found out that it is really boring ... until someone catches a fish. Then it is game on as we all get into the competitive spirit of fishing.

This is the view from where we were fishing.

After we had arrived, the 3 kids (my brother Alex, my sister Anya, and myself) set up our fishing rods and cast them. We weren't able to throw them very far since we were still new to fishing, but after a few throws we could clear the dam. We didn't have a single bite for the first 2 hours, so I somewhat gave up for a bit and ate a few rolls that we had brought with for lunch.

There was also a very friendly lady there that was fly fishing whom my mom went to go speak to, and myself joining shortly after. She was explaining how to actually fly fish and offered to let me try. So, taking the very light rod, I gave it a swing but failed to cast the line. The lady explained how to do it by referencing 10 and 2 o' clock as how far my arm/rod should go. So I tried again and was far more successful for about 20 minutes doing that, until my sister wanted to try as well. While she was trying, my brother suddenly yelled out that he thought he had caught something.

As it turned out, my brother was the first to catch a fish that day, and the way he explained how it happened was; "I was reeling in one rod, then as it was just coming out of the water I look to the other rod. I saw the end of the rod going up and down (*indicating with an appropriate hand gesture*). As I started to reel it in I felt that something was nibbling on the other end, so I gave it a little tug. It tried to get away but failed, so I started to reel it in." The lady with the fly fishing rod came with a net and scooped it out of the water. My brother Alex them took a few pictures of it (see below), after which the fly fishing lady took the hook out of the fish and we let it go back into the water.

This is the fish in the net

Alex holding the fish he caught.

 After that, my sister Anya and myself decided we needed to catch one now as well. So I cast out a bit more hoping for the best while Anya went off to try a different spot while my brother just stayed where he was. Of course, my dad had a go at the fly fishing, after which Anya took the fly fishing rod again and, of course, she managed to catch one.

My dad trying to fly fish

Anya had this to say when it happened; "I took the fly fishing rod from my father, for my second attempt to do it right after learning how to fly fish and on my third throw in, I felt something tug on the line so I pulled as hard as I could. Then everyone around came to help me. The lady that let us use her rod came with the net to get the fish out of the water. My dad wanted me to hold the fish for a photo, but I really didn't want to. But in the commotion I grabbed the fish and it was really slimy. When suddenly it wiggled out of my hand and flop around on the ground. It managed to escape because it was really slippery and I didn't want to touch its's gills. I picked it up and my dad took the picture, (see below). Then the lady took the hook out of its mouth and I put it back into the water. It was the first fish I have ever caught."

Anya standing very far away from the fish she just caught.

She really doesn't want to touch it.

She finally allows my dad to take the picture.

She releases it back into the water.

Now this was where I was like " oh come on." I have to catch one. I cannot be the only one who hasn't caught one." So I tried a different bait, (a piece of fat from the chop I was eating at the time), and various different spots. After a while my brother took a rest so I used his rod as well. Despite the effort, my parents decided it was time to go after 40 minutes of not getting any bites. I was rather disappointed that I was unable to catch anything.

The day, however had been fairly awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed it, had a lot of fun and developed a fair bit of respect for those that fish frequently because they must have so much patience, but fly fishing is much more fun as you are not just waiting for something to bite, you are continually busy trying to coax a fish into biting, which makes it somewhat more interesting.

Anyways, if you liked my fishy tale, (see what I did there? Heehee), or would like to tell us about any of your fishing stories please do so in the comments down below, on Facebook or by tweeting us on the Twitter of the Tweeters. If you have any friends who are into fishing, please share the post with them as I am sure they will appreciate the fun of a beginners story. Of course, if you would like to read more posts as they are published or just want to show your support please like us on the official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. Regardless of what you do, I hope you have/had a really good day, and I shall ramble again soon.

May patience be with you, my fellow readers.

Storytime Sunday - TCSA

Them's a lot of words. Thankfully, it's only a temporary smattering of words. Header images will be pointedly more succinct from here on.

Exactly 62 days ago I started putting out blog posts every single day. I've gotta say... that's really freaking hard to do. (Trust me, it's a miracle if I remember to eat breakfast 4 days in a row.) Still, it's been fun, and now some interesting new things are happening to change things up.

First and foremost, allow me to introduce my awesome friend Jerome Damhuis (AKA JovialJman, Canoe, and various other strange things we call him for fun.), who is the first of an expected 3 to be joining us as crazy South Africans with too much time on their hands. (He's the blue fellow in the header image that is actually far taller than the image would have you believe.)

While perhaps not as eloquent as myself, Jerome has a penchant for understanding things that confuse the living hell out of me. (He can solve a Rubik's cube which is inhuman in my opinion.) While his first few posts may seem a little unsure, he is new, so do avoid being too critical of his posts. I'm sure that he will bring plenty interesting conversations to the blog, as well as some fresh perspective on the world. We may even occasionally make comments on each others posts just for a change of pace. (The possibilities are endless!)

At this point though, you are probably wondering 3 things. Why did I decide to stop blogging all by myself, where on earth did TCSA come from, and why is this blog this disgusting blue? Firstly, I should point out that I also think the blog looks fugly with the blue, but in honor of JovialJman's joining, it shall stay that way for just one more day. (Thankfully, even he hates it. Teehee)

To answer the other questions though, I decided to stop blogging all by myself because after 62 days of blogging, I've realized that blogging is REALLY hard to do daily for so long. I cannot think of any other blog run by a single person that pumps out content on a daily basis. (With good reason I think now.) There were days where I was facedesking multiple times a day in an effort to think of a good topic to discuss. It not always straightforward. The other problem is that it's stressful. I had to be within reach of my computer every day to make sure a post went up in the 24 hours slot, or had to sit late into the night writing posts ahead of time if I wanted to go anywhere. (That gets a little exhausting. Just so you know.) So thankfully, with the advent of co-operative blogging, I will have more time. Sure I won't be the author of every days posts now, but I'll be a lot happier for it, and the posts I do will be of a higher quality as a result. (No more posts talking about me being too sick to write a post.) Besides, you'll probably thoroughly enjoy reading the content written by the good people who have or shall be joining us in the future.

To answer the other question, we've got to go back about 3 years, where myself, Jerome, and the as of yet unnamed blogger for the green letter were discussing ideas for the future, and how we wanted to do all sorts of silly things like make a YouTube channel. (We're still gonna do that mind you, give us a month or two.) Deciding it sounded like a great idea, we came up with TCSA. Those Crazy South Africans. (A fitting name for us lot if you ask me. Teehee) Fast forward 3 years to the present, and the three of us had never quite forgotten about that idea, despite being busy with other things. Long story short, Jerome came along one day and asked if I wanted him to help with blog, which reminded me of TCSA. Considering I was using this blog to start an eventual YouTube channel anyway, it made perfect sense to change the blog to support our longtime dream. And so here we are.

You will notice that there have been multiple changes to the blog as a result. For one, a lot of the Blog's information has been updated, it's now an ugly blue, there are new Facebook and Twitter pages for TCSA, and it's now an ugly blue. Did I mention the blue? Okay, just checking. Anyways, your support in liking and following our new Facebook and Twitter pages is, as always GREATLY appreciated, as is your continued support. It's you awesome people that make it so much fun writing out these strange stories each day. And if you guys think it would be great fun to see what kind of strange things we'd get up to for YouTube, then you had best get sharing and help us get to that point. We also want to see what strange things we'd get up to. (Fairly certain it'll be funny even if we don't know what we're doing.) And of course, we are looking for sponsors to help us get there. If you would like to be featured, spoken about, mentioned or advertised on the blog, or just want to say hello for some reason, be sure to do so with our fancy new email address. (*gasp* an email address. Teehee) Drop us a message at thosecrazysouthafricans.tcsa@gmail.com and we'll be sure to get back to you if we can.

As always, regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time out of your day to read this lengthy blog post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Farewell my friends.

Storytime Sunday - Blue Moon Rising By Simon R Green

Hello and welcome to Storytime Sunday; the day of the week where I try out the reviewing of a book, and then hope that I didn't spoil anything overmuch.

The book cover is probably the property of Simon Green or whoever published the book. I'm not sure which. (also, notice there's a unicorn in the art... Teehee.

As always, my want for adventure has me ever wanting to try new things. As a result, I decided I would like to do one of my typical informal reviews of the book "Blue Moon Rising" By Simon R Green, which was suggested to me by an absolutely wonderful person I met recently. I'll try not to spoil it.

Blue Moon Rising a medieval fantasy story written by Simon R Green which follows the story of the Prince Rupert, Princess Julia, A Dragon and the character that effectively sold me on this book, Prince Ruperts trusty  yet sharp-tongued unicorn steed in the lands of the "Forest Kingdom". (Seriously, a talking unicorn with a keen wit. What more reason do you need to read a book?)

First and foremost, I suppose I should say that this is actually is rather good book. I am a frequent reader of books, but am notorious for putting off my finishing of them if they do not interest me sufficiently. I finished Blue Moon Rising's 377 pages in roughly 3 days, beside all my usual blog writing and my other strange machinations. So take it that the book is fun, unique and original enough to keep my interest firmly held. (Seriously, when you say one more page at 11PM and find yourself reading at 3AM, it's probably a good book... or you're an insomniac.)

With that in mind, I'm going to attempt to describe the aspects I liked about the book, namely the aforementioned fun, originality and uniqueness. When Simon Green wrote this book, I find it highly likely that he was as tired of the same, worn out tropes in fantasy novels and stories as I am. Between pointedly discarding the idea of a perfect knight riding on a majestic quest to slay a dragon, to having a dragon who's horde is nothing more than a collection of butterfly's, it's clear that he was enjoying breaking all the tropes that are commonly found in stories which revolve around a character going on a quest to rid the land of evil.

Perhaps something that further lends itself to the book, the characters themselves are very much outside of what I would refer to as "Cookie Cutter" in terms of personality, with each character feeling well established and motivated. Perhaps a work of effort or talent, but no character feels like someone you would have read about or thought of in another story, lending an aspect of unpredictability to their actions which makes reading further all the more enjoyable.

And of course, creativity goes a fair way into making this book fun to read, while perhaps nowhere as complicated as reading The Tale Of The Malazan Book Of The Fallen, enough effort has been put into creating a new mythos and history for this book to use in it's world, making it that much more interesting to read as you learn about the events that made the land into what it is, and the characters into who they are.

As such, all in all, Blue Moon Rising is a fairly entertaining book with some interesting twists, a fair deal of fun and humour, a good style of writing that left little feeling under or overdone, and a talking unicorn. Despite some occasional pacing issues, Simon Green is sure to have you enraptured with this tale of magic, friendship, love, and more than a few cheeky nods towards common tropes in fantasy novels and stories. (And a smart mouthed unicorn. You cannot forget him.) I would highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys fantasy stories, or simply books in general.

In any case, I hope that you have perhaps found something new and fun to read now, or perhaps enjoyed finding out what I thought of the book. (Teehee) If you enjoyed the review, and would like to see me do more like it, make sure to tell me so in the comments section below, or over Facebook and Twitter as some like to do. If you have any bookworm friends who need something new to read, perhaps consider sharing this review with them so that they can perhaps also enjoy Simon Green's lovely stories (And the unicorn. Very important!).Of course, if you would like to see more articles like this written by me, be sure to like my Facebook page and/or follow me on Twitter so that you can get the latest articles, as I post them. Regardless of what you do, I thank you very much for taking the time to read this; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again tomorrow.

Farewell my friends.

Thoughtful Thursday - One Red Paperclip (Bartering Of Note)

Hello and welcome to Thoughtful Thursday; the day of the week where I talk about an interesting story a friend told me about, and wonder at the kind of people that take part in such a scheme.

Apparently Blogger is having a blue day... I have no idea why it's tinging this image blue, or how to fix it... Image is of http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/

If you're wondering why the header image is blue... I must point out... That I have no idea. Ignoring that, today I'm going to talk about the tale of One Red Paperclip in which Kyle MacDonald bartered an actual Paperclip for various items until he got a house. How crazy is that?

In 2005, Kyle MacDonald had the idea to do something strange. He figured that he was going set up a blog online, which can be found here, with which he would trade a single, red paperclip with various people until he got "a house, an island, or a house on an island." (And I thought I had ridiculous idea's. Of course, if it sounds stupid, but works; It's not stupid.) Impossibly, people actually decided to go along with his mad scheme, and in the series of fourteen trade's, he eventually became the owner of a house in Kipling, Saskatchewan. (That's a place in Canada that I've never heard of. Good to know though.)

Listed below, in order, from the red paperclip to the house, are the items which he traded until he reached the house. I have even taken the time to link each one individually to his blog posts about each trade, simply because they are somewhat rather humorous. (Kyle MacDonald has quite the sense of humor, going as far to start a very false, very absurd petition against a TV Show presenter to force him to go with him to Yahk.)

1. The Red Paperclip
2. Fish-shaped pen.
3. A Hand-sculpted doorknob, which he nicknamed "Knob-T".
4. Coleman camp stove (with fuel).
5. A Honda generator.
6. (After having the generator temporarily confiscated by the New York City Fire Department),
   one "instant party": an empty keg, an IOU for filling the keg with the beer of the holder's choice, and a neon Budweiser sign.
7. Ski-doo snowmobile.
8. A two-person trip to Yahk, British Columbia
9. Traded the second spot on the Yahk trip for a cube van.
10. A recording contract with Metalworks.
11. A year's rent in Phoenix, Arizona.
12. One afternoon with Alice Cooper.
13. A KISS motorized snow globe.
14. A role in the film Donna on Demand.
15. A two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan. (And a honorary day long mayorship.)

What I quite like about this story, apart from Mr. MacDonald's keen sense of humor and mischief, is the idea that people are so willing to go along with such a seemingly crazy scheme that they found on the internet. Quite simply, the most paying that he did in this entire endeavor was for food and travelling to the various places for this trade. Otherwise his investment was nothing more than One Red Paperclip. People are weird, as I've noted many times on this blog.(Especially with cats though.) More humorous is his open admittance to the fact that he had no idea what he was doing most of the time, nor did he have any idea how he managed to create such a massive following for these trade's online, with over 10 million visitors to his blog. Still, trading things online is a strange enough concept on it's own.

On the other hand, considering a recent Kickstarter project by a gentleman by the name of Zack Danger Brown managed to make $55000 dollars in crowdfunding... to make POTATO SALAD. Maybe trading random things online isn't as weird as one would think... (I want some of that potato salad though.)

In any case, I hope that you find the story of One Red Paperclip as interesting to read as I did, or at least just have a laugh at this man's strange antics.If you do or don't, or even have a similar story you want to tell me about, be sure to let me know in the comments below. Better yet, if you've got some friends looking for a strange story to read, perhaps consider sharing this with them so they too can be amazed at what people will give away. And of course, if you would like to see me talk about more strange things like this, make sure to like my Facebook page and/or follow me on Twitter so that you can get these articles, as I post them. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for taking the time to read this article; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again tomorrow.

Safe Travels Friends.

Storytime Sunday - The Tale Of Plugless (Another Of My Nicknames)

Hello and welcome to Storytime Sunday; that day of the week where I detail the story of how I earned yet another of the countless strange nicknames I have.

This could be the weirdest thing I've used in a header image so far... Well. First time for everything. :D

Have you ever done something so incomprehensibly silly, that the only reaction for both yourself and those around you, was to laugh? Probably. People do stupid things all the time. In my case though, it was bad enough that some of the fairer humored individuals took to calling me Plugless afterwards. Quite the story actually.

If you've read some of the articles that I post on this blog, such as the fantastic idea I had of jumping off of a almost 2 story high platform of sorts, you'll understand that I have a certain propensity towards ill thought out decisions, often in the name of spontaneous fun. While perhaps not always a bad thing, this does sometimes lead to strange situations such as today's topic, how I came to be known as Plugless.

Just less than 3 years ago from today, I had just become a leader (prefect) at my High School, and was, alongside the rest of the leader body, tasked with helping to get the school into a condition that would allow for the marking of that years Matric Examination papers to proceed without an issue. This also involved the assistance of running a small shop which was to provision the South African teachers marking said papers with food and drinks so that their job could pass by with less hassle.

So here's the fun. For some reason, South African teachers are coke addicts. (Not that coke... The stuff you drink. On a side note, I've tried sniffing coke before. The bubbles kept tickling my nose.) In any case, running this shop passed by with relative ease apart from the near constant demand for cans of Coca-Cola. The shop had set up a massive metal bin which was filled with water and ice in order to keep the cans cool as they were sold nearly as quickly as they were put in.

The problem with such a setup of course, is that the freshest cokes were always placed into the tub on top, and the oldest ones were to be found at the bottom of said metal container... by the rubber plug which held the frigid contents in their watery suspension. So of course Murphy's law dictates that at the end of the day when there is no longer a supply of ice to further cool more drinks, I knocked the infernal plug out of the drain.

Allow me to place this into perspective. This bin was tall enough to reach over your average persons hips, and deep enough that placing your arm in, your shoulder would be submerged if you placed your hand flat against the base. So there I was, innocently searching for a cold coke, when the sudden splatter of water on the ground gives away what I've done, and seeking to preserve the now more precious supply of cold water for the remaining drinks, I quickly weighed my options. 

There was no way to refill the bin, and no alternative plug, and after frantically brushing my hands about the bottom for 30 seconds, I decided that the only remaining option was to sacrifice my own limbs to frostbite in the name of preserving the precious commodity that was cold water. (I should point out that almost 3 years later, I'm still laughing at how ridiculous this sounds.) Placing one hand over the drain to prevent leakage, I stood with my arms up to my shoulders in icy water with my behind dangling over the edge of the bin as if I was bobbing for apples. 

If you're wondering how funny that looked, one of the school teachers accompanying the leaders with this job spotted this and asked what I was doing, only to break out into non-stop laughter for 5 minutes when I told her; while I continued to desperately find the rubber plug beneath all the cans of drinks with my remaining arm. Good times.

Thankfully, as luck would have it, I eventually managed to find the rubber plug and pulled my now shinning pink arms from the water. If I'd seen that colour on a hunk of meat I would have called it pork most likely. And it hurt... a lot. Thankfully, this was during the spring so they warmed up quick enough. As an added bonus, the still cackling teacher decided to thereby dub me "Plugless", hero of the cooldrink bin from there onward. In good humor of course. Still, what a sight my round bottom over the edge of that tub must have been. (Teehee)

In any case, since then, Plugless has been one of the many strange nicknames that I am known by. Still not quite as strange as "Dr. Unikorn" though. In any case, if you think that Plugless suits me as a nickname, or perhaps just want to let me know how stupid you think I am, make sure to do so in the comments below; and make sure to share this with any of your friends who appreciate stories of people doing things that make no sense. Everyone likes a good laugh. And of course, if you would like to read more stories like these, make sure to like my Facebook page and/or follow me on Twitter using the associated button on the bar to the right so that you can get the latest articles as I post them. Regardless of what you do however, I thank you for taking the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again tomorrow.

Fare Footing (and solidly held plugs) in your travels.

Storytime Sunday - Shorting out a school

Hello and welcome to Storytime Sunday. The day of the week where I tell you how I almost died in fear, and then laugh about the circumstances which had caused me to feel that way.

If you were lucky, and are human, then you probably went to school like me. If you are unlucky, and are human, then it is likely you also did some things that almost got you into deep trouble while you were at said school. Like me.

Last night while reminiscing about memories of high school with some old and new friends, one of my friends, whom with I had been on the backstage crew at my old school, as mentioned here, reminded me of perhaps one of the scariest days of my life in that school.

We were at school during the holidays while various activities, play's or otherwise, were being rehearsed. Obviously, as members of the backstage crew, we were being put to use fixing various odds and ends all over the place in order to make sure that everything was ready for the performances. All was going well until we found ourselves with a set of non-functioning stage lights which myself and the aforementioned friend had to take down to test and, hopefully, fix.

Of course, Murphy's freaking law, it wasn't going to be that easy. Having performed some tenuously balanced acrobatics on desks and chairs in order to take these lights down. (Our misfortune to never seem to have access to a ladder when we needed one.) Having finally accomplished that mission of a task, we began testing the lights under the impatient eye of the teacher on duty during the rehearsal. My memory of the events that followed are fuzzy, but the next few moments were filled with my friend being electrocuted and stumbling back. Short of some worry and annoyance over that incident, we realized that the Stage's power had tripped, and wanting to get something done in the meantime, moved the stage lights with us to the sound and lighting room up at the top of the gallery I had jumped off of.

Proactive? Yes. Intelligent? I'm not sure since if what happened next had gone worse, it's likely the school would have demanded my friend and I to pay for damages to the school. Let me explain why. We had just shorted out an entire section of the stage with some lights we weren't convinced were working properly, and had figured it was a good idea to test them in the room with the most expensive electronics in the whole school, barring the computer labs... *facedesk*

So we tested one light which worked, tested the next which did not, and tested the third which promptly shorted all the electricity in the school and had my friend and I panicking slightly at what might be damaged. (oh boy...) Having to face the stage manager, sound and lighting crews, teachers and various other people after that was not fantastic to be honest. All I can say though, is that thank all the heavens and lucky stars that nothing more had happened than a circuit breaker tripping on the main switchboard for the school. (Que sigh of relief.)

All I can say is this. If you have faulty electronics, try not to test them while other, far more expensive electronics are running, unless you want your heart to feel like it is going to jump out of your throat. It's also a good idea to not let people rush you when dealing with electronics of that sort. Electricity be dangerous yo. That's your Public Service Announcement of the week from OddballGreg. 

On the upside, at least the event gave myself and my friend something great to laugh about, so silver linings can be found. Anyways, if you have something to say or have a suggestion for what I should talk about in a blog post, please feel free to leave it in a comment below. Also, perhaps consider following me on Twitter at @OddballGreg or liking my Facebook page. Perhaps even share this post with someone you know who's narrowly escaped deep shit and needs a laugh. Regardless of what you do, thank you for reading, and I hope you have/had an AWESOME day.

Dasvidanya my friends.

Madness Monday - Inspirational Quotes Day

Madness Monday... the day of the week where I try and find a way to make you feel uncomfortable so you appreciate your mundane day to day existence... or... you know... just talk about madness maybe.

Here's a picture of me looking like a crazed murderer because
I didn't know what picture to upload for this post... (Shhhhhhhh)

Mondays are hard. We all know that. Just the idea of getting up in the morning is a miserable prospect for a lot of us. (Those of us that aren't crazy like me at any rate.) This Monday had been hard for even me though. I could not actually think of a good subject to talk about in a blog post. I had eventually even begun writing a story akin to the "This Morning" in one of my other blog posts. However, strangely enough, in my typically daily tweeting like a typical twit, one of my dear friends began tweeting inspirational quotes to which I replied with my own. (Jumping joys of goodness, an idea falls into my lap.  *claps hands*)

Inspiration is always a handy thing to have, so here is a list of some of the best one's we threw to each other to help you guys get through the Monday and, with luck, the rest of the week.

• "I'm proud of the scars in my soul. They remind me that I have an intense life" - Paulo Coelho 
• "Do not pray to for an easier life. Pray to be stronger men." - John F Kennedy 
• "Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder" - Rumi 
• "To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering." - Friedrich Nietzsche 
• "Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day" - Sally Koch 
• "What are miracles but the extraordinary acts of ordinary men?" - Me 
• "Hanging onto resentment is letting someone you despise live rent-free in your head" - Ann Landers 
• "I'd rather regret the things I've done than regret the things I haven't done." -Lucille Ball 
• "When you have a clear purpose, you won't have time for negativity" - Mark Victor Hansen 
• "It's better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life." - Elizabeth Kenny 
• "Instead of waiting for the moment, live the moment" - R. Green 
• "It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important." - Arthur Conan Doyle 
• "Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength" - Eric Hoffer

Today's word of the day is "Axiom". I don't know why, but every time I find a useful word like that which I haven't seen before, I get really excited. :D Huzzah for Axiom.

Anyway's, I would like to thank the wonderful Madeline De Franca (@MiniiCanha) for bestowing upon me the idea for today's Madness Monday post (and for informally naming today "Inspirational Quotes Day". :D ) She's a really awesome person and you should definitely be following. In all likelihood our quote train continued for long after, but time waits for no man. 

As always, thank you for reading, and have an AWESOME day.

Adeus Amigos