Last modification: December 13, 2007.

• Jonathan’s section
• Joel’s section
• Nicolas’ section

Jonathan

Hey there,

I’m fifteen years old, and I’m in grade 10 with FVDES, which is located in the Vancouver area of British Columbia, in Canada. I like playing PC games a lot, and my favourite genre is RTS, or real-time strategy games. I also like drawing comic strips and writing about various subjects, but I spend most of my time on the computer, doing school and playing games. I like rainy season the most in Congo, when it rains often and all the dust and heat is washed away in the heavy African rain.

Currently playing: 

Age of Mythology – a Microsoft game by Ensemble Studios. Control vast armies composed of both human and mythological soldiers and conquer your rivals as the Greeks, Egyptians and Norsemen, who each have their own distinct game-play, units, buildings and technologies. Check it out: www.microsoft.com/games/ageofmythology

Introduction

Joel

Hello. I'm Joel, and I'm a Grade 8 student at FVDES. My main activities are school (during the school year), programming, and playing on the computer. I don't play much games on my computer, but I program more than usual.

Moninga

Moninga is my dog. I like her a lot, and take care of her every day (petting, feeding, etc.). She is quite small for a dog, yet very energetic, and fast. I've had here for about a year and she's been spoiled/pampered too much. A few funny stories can be told about her, such as heating up Chilli since she wouldn't eat it cold.

Index

Music

• Intro
  
• Relient K
• Falling Up
• Pillar
• Thousand Foot Krutch

Programming

• Game Maker 7.0 and the Game Maker Language
• Microsoft Visual Basic C++
• My Creations
• The Story Behind Zach

Games

• Age of Empires II and Age of Empires II The Conquerers Expansion
• Age of Empires III and Age of Empires III Warchiefs Expansion
• Age of Mythology Gold Edition

Pictures

Contact

• Yahoo! Messenger
• Windows Messenger
• Skype

More About Joel and Moninga

• More about Joel
• More about Moninga

Prayer

• Requests
• You

Music

Intro to Music

The range of musical styles I listen to are Rock, Alternative, and even some few Blues songs. I listen to this on my MP3 player and on my computer, or from my Dad's iPod Classic on the iPod HiFi. Below is a description of the bands I listen too and the albums I have from those artists. Maybe you'll find something you know or like!

Relient K

Relient K is one of my favourite artists since they have a good Christian meaning integrated into non-sense songs, yet also normal Rock songs. They have a lot of albums out for a band and they are probably one of the most known Christian bands among the Christian youth.

Here is the list of albums I own of Relient K:

• Two Lefts Don't Make a Right... But Three Do (Gold Edition)
• The Anatomy of Tongue In Cheek (Gold Edition)
• MMHMM
• Five Score and Seven Years Ago

You can find out more about them with the following links:

www.relientk.com
www.purevolume.com/relientk
myspace.relientk.com

Falling Up

Falling Up is my second favourite band (after Pillar), because they make good music and they have a great Christian meaning integrated to all their songs (especially in Captiva). Not many people that I know know about them or like them but they still are a great band, and I recommend you to buy Captiva.

Here is the list of albums I own of Falling Up:

• Crashings
• Dawn Escapes
• Captiva

You can find out more about them with the following links:

www.fallingup777.com
www.purevolume.com/fallingup
myspace.fallingup.com

Pillar

Pillar is by far my favourite band, since they are a great Christian Rock band that have good meaning hidden in their songs. I'm really looking forward for For The Love Of The Game to come out, on February 26, 2008, and I'm probably going to buy it as soon as it comes out.

Here is the list of albums I own of Pillar:

• Where Do We Go From Here
• The Reckoning

They used to be a Rap band before, but they changed a lot. Since I don't like Rap too much, I don't have the two previous albums, Above, and Fireproof. So if you like Rap, you could check out Above and Fireproof, but they aren't producing any Rap albums anymore.

You can find out more about them with the following links:

www.pillarmusic.com
www.purevolume.com/pillar
myspace.pillar.com

Thousand Foot Krutch

Thousand Foot Krutch is a band that I like for their music, and also since they are from Peterburough, Ontarion, in Canada. They are a Rock/Alternative. My favourite album from them is "The Flame In All Of Us", which was recently released in September 2007.

Here is the list of albums I own of Thousand Foot Krutch:

• Phenomenon
• My brother Jonathan has The Art Of Breaking
• My brother Jonathan has The Flame In All Of Us

You can find out more about them with the following links:

www.thousandfootkrutch.com
www.purevolume.com/thousandfootkrutch
myspace.thousandfootkrutch.com

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Programming

Game Maker 7.0 and the Game Maker Language (GML)

Game Maker 7.0 is a simple game creation program that was made by Mark Overmars. It has a simple interface and actions that are used to make professional looking games in no time, and there is also a built in programming language called the Game Maker Language, refered to as GML. I'm fluent in GML and can write games quickly, or slowly with quality. I've made programs/games ranging from platform games, to programs that synchronize music inside it's library to your MP3 player/iPod/anything in Drive E of your computer. If you are a Game Maker user and want help with programming, you can email me and I'll help if I can (if the question is related to drag-and-drop, no problem I know all you need to know about that). I use Game Maker 7.0 Pro.

You can find out more about Game Maker 7.0 or download it at the following links:

www.yoyogames.com
www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker

Microsoft Visual Basic C++

Microsoft Visual Basic C++ a programming language, which makes most of the big computer games. Of course I don't know much of it, only enough to make small text adventures, but I know that Windows XP and all the Windows Operating Systems run off of it's sort of 'parent', the 'C' language.

You can find tutorials for it here.

My Creations

My first game that I ever made is Zach Yoder's Peanut Butter and Yogurt Quest. It's a platform game which I have written with the simple drag-and-drop actions of Game Maker. The only comment made on it was tons of laughter on it's realease at AOC and a 'Sucks' on YoYo Games. But I don't mind since it was my first ever made game. The goal of the game is to find peanut butter and yogurt since you couldn't get some for breakfast.

Click the image to download the game.

My second game I made was a sequel to Zach Yoder's Peanut Butter and Yogurt Quest, which is Zach Yoder's Fufu and Ndjama Ndjama quest. This game was also written with the simple drag-and-drop actions of Game Maker. No comments were made on this apart Zach Yoder (the star of the game). The goal of the game is to find Fufu and Ndjama Ndjama through the wide jungles of Cameroon since you couldn't get that for lunch.

Click the image to download the game.

My third game I made was a remake of Zach Yoder's Peanut Butter and Yogurt Quest, so that is why it was named 'v1.1'. Right now I'd like to rename it, but it was well saw and appreciated so I won't. The goal is the same as the first only the graphics, gameplay, and animations are pretty much a hundred times better. Everything was remade from scratch. Many of these features were things that revolutionized my vision on a platformer since I've added ledge grabbing, long jumping, high jumping, and belly flops. This game was NOT written with simple drag-and-drop, this was written with the Game Maker Language.

Click the image to download the game.

The Story Behind Zach Yoder

Zach Yoder was a young man at AOC in Cameroon, which me and my brothers got close to. He was a great guy that knew 'C' and other Microsoft Visual Basic languages. But the thing that was funny was that he used to have peanut butter mixed with yogurt for breakfast! This is what was weird to me, so I asked, "Hey Zach, what if you were stuck on an island with two seas which one contains crocodiles, and the other contains sharks, and that peanut butter is on an island past one river, and the yogurt is on an island passed the second river. What would you do?". So then he came up with an answer since he was a really smart guy. Then later that day, I decided to make a game out of it. This project is what got me into programming and got far in this domain today! I still keep contact with Zach, and still like him as much as I used to.

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Games

I play a few games on my computer, but mainly play a few small games, and do school or program more. These games are the ones I play, but not too often. Most of them are Jonathan's, the one I own is Age of Mythology.

Age of Empires II and Age of Empires II The Conquerers Expansion

Age of Empires II and AOE II The Conquerers Expansion are two games that we've had and have played for a long time until AOE III and AOE III Warchiefs Expansion came in. They are two classics that are very fun to play. You play with an ancient civilization, build up and empire, and slaughter everybody else. I like playing them, but I prefer programming, especially since I know that I could recreate it with GML, just multiplayer would be hard to make.

Learn more about it here.

Age of Empires III and Age of Empires III The Conquerers Expansion

Age of Empires III and AOE III Warchiefs Expanison are two other games thatwe play a lot now. Of course, I don't play it much myself since I program more but his game has an incredible 3D engine with building falling apart to canon fire allowing you to see through the roof and all, and nice ways of making soldiers fly off cliffs and bounce of walls with canons. I could probably never imaginate how much code of GML it would require to ever get the smallest thing to run properly on this game. I don't think I'll attempt a remake with Game Maker 7.0.

Learn more about it here.

Age of Mythology Gold Edition

Age of Mythology is another game from Microsoft (like AOE II and AOE III), which I played a lot for a while. It is a game when you select your major god or I prefer to call them, your major mythology, since there is truly one God, and then you build an empire, an army with four different unique cultures and trash your enemies. This game was very well thought of and very fun, since it was like a mini Battle For Middle Earth for my PC at the time.

Learn more about it here.

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Pictures

Click here to download a webpage of my small "Photo Album". Just download the link and open the file. Then you will see the page.

Contact

Yahoo! Messenger

Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 BETA is the IM software I use the most. I use it to chat with my friends using MSN Live Messenger and other Yahoo! Messenger users (I have the highest version, most people I chat with that have Yahoo! Messenger use lower versions). You can add Teenofcongo if you want to chat with me, but I'd like to maybe have a brief introduction of yourself, and if I don't know you, I may not accept to add you. So don't take it personally if I don't add you.

Windows Messenger

Windows Messenger is another IM software I use, since I don't feel like downloading MSN Live Messenger. Most of my contacts have it, but I use Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 BETA instead. You can add me, with the same address, and if you can, with a brief introduction.

Skype

Skype is another IM software I use a lot since it has relatilvely fast file transfers, and it is a perfect internet indicator. Sometimes internet doesn't always work here, so when Skype's on, internet is on. Same address, and 'regulations' as the others.

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More About Joel and Moninga

More About Joel

I'm Joel Leblanc, a thirteen year old teenager that lives with my parents in Congo, Brazzaville. I don't mind my being here since I know that God has a plan, and something he wants to use me for here, so I have faith he will show me his plan in his perfect timing.

I've been a Christian since I was around five years old or so, and still am today, only I know more about God's word, and have much more faith than I used to during all of my childhood.

I was born in Quebec, Canada and grew up there until I was seven. There I grew up with friends from Church which I still know now, and still am very close to them, since we grew up together. One is Jeremie Legendre, and the other is Nathanael Durocher. I also knew David Girard, who was one year older than me but was a great guy that I liked to hang out with. Later, when I was seven years old, almsot eight. My parents felt as if God was calling them to become missionaries. Then they had a lady over, and we then got enroled for a Wycliffe mini-orientation in Calgary, Alberta. So, we packed stuff, and packed our car, and drove all accross Canada to Calgary, for that course. There me and my brothers met some more friends, who were two Korean kids (I don't remember from which part), and I don't quite remember their names either since they were Korean, and I haven't seen them or heard of them since a long time. We had fun with them during the camp.

After this course, we were off to British Columbia, where my Dad studied at CanIL (Canada Institue of Linguistics), at Trinity Western University. There we met a family at our new Church, the Szukalows. They had an ten year old daughter, and a eight year old son (by then I was nine years old). We became close friends, me and Mitchell, their son. We still keep contact today, and are hoping to see each other soon since it's been a long time (about three to four years) since we've seen each other. I also had met another kid my age, who was Curtis Wright. I haven't seen him, or heard of him for as long as I've not seen Mitchell. I also met other kids when I took some Tae-Kwon-Doe classes, who were James, and Charles, who also went to our church. I also knew the rest of their family. They were the Carpiucks (sorry to you if I spelt it wrong, please e-mail me to tell me the correct spelling if you stumble accross this).

Then came the time to go back to Quebec to raise our support! I was excited about getting to see my friends again, and yet sad to leave my other friends behind. When we came back, it was great we got to see our friends again, do dumb things together, and also watch time fly by as it came closer to the time to leave for Congo. During that year or two, I met another guy my age, Gabriel Despins. He was a very nice guy, who liked sports, and also had an incredible sence of humor. We got along well him and me, and all the rest of my friends. At this time, I got to know David more and this was a great time. We had spent good times playing together, and yet also fooling around.

Then off we were, to come to Congo when I was twelve years old, and here we are serving the Lord on high here. We are blessed with great people who live here, and other commodities, that the average Congolese doesn't have.

More About Moninga

Moninga is my most beloved dog, that is very good. She is a mixed bread of a lot of things, but what sticks to her must be the looks of a German Shepherd. She's very energetic, and loves to play with either her rag, or most preferably her tenis ball. When she fetches, she never brings it back.

How I got Moninga was really nice. I've always wanted a Dog my whole life, and when we arrived on the SIL compound in Congo, Brazzaville, there she was. A tiny little German Shepherdish dog. It was the most beautiful dog I've seen and she was very friendly. The first thing she did was came to us the new comers and greeted us with a waggy tail that could whip you down. She then just flopped down for a belly scrubb when we started petting her. She loved to have attention. Then later I found out that she was the only puppy left from the litter that the guard dog had had not too long ago, that wasn't claimed or purchased. So then they offered it to me (though I already was trying to pursue my parents about me getting a dog here in Congo). Then after prayer, we heard that somebody would like to claim her, but the parent of the kids who were taking care of the puppies said that somebody was already wanting it and was waiting. So then that is when my parents told me that I could buy her. She was named Junior at the time, a name that wouldn't really match a female dog, so we asked a person on the center, how you could say "Friend" in Lingala, the trade language in Brazzaville. He said 'Moninga'. So then we thought that it sounded great, and she was named like that.

I've had her for about a year now, and she was very trainable. She had a gentle behavior, and was never really mean with anybody. Now she's more protective of our house, and has bitten or 'nipped' (since it didn't even draw blood, just a little scratch) somebody. But she is still a very good dog to someone she knows.

 

Nicolas

I am 12 years-old. I am in grade 7 at Fraser Valley Distance Education School, in British Columbia, Canada. I like playing with my Legos, and puzzle games on the computer (such as Prof. Fizzwizzle), drawing, and doing Flash animations on the computer. Also, I really like monkeys, whether they are real of plush toys (like Chimpy, my puppet)!