co-op saturdays: Borderlands Part 1

Let me start today off by wishing everyone a happy St. Patties Day and I hope all of you are wearing green to avoid the pinching. Today I am wearing a flogging Molly t-shirt with a green logo so I am untouchable.
It is Saturday so it is time to bust out the game controllers sit down with some Cheetos and Ice Tea Cool and have a good old gameathon. Now Boarderlands two is coming out in September and I decided that I should finally play through the first one. I have been wanting to play through this game for quite some time. So i called my Brudar and asked him to bring over his copy. Then me and Brudar sat and started a new file me playing as the hunter and he as the the solider.

We played for a couple hours not really getting past the first area. After sitting for so long our legs started to get antsy and our junk food rations began to dwindle. We decided to put our controllers down and called Mr. Devo and went to rehash our childhoods and went and ran around some playgrounds around our area. Then we parted ways he went home to get ready for St. Patties Day and we went to every bodies favorite convince store seven eleven to restock.
Upon returning home we discovered that my character had saved but Brudar's had not. After much grrring he restarted as Lilth and we restarted a file from the beginning for a second time in the day.
If there is just one thing I have to say about this game is the graphics are awesome. The cell shading gives this game such a great atmosphere I think if they had gone any other direction with this game it would be no where near as fun.
Now let's take a moment to talk about those guns... Why the hell does my shot gun have a scope better then the range of the gun. The guns and gun types of this game remind me of the old ratchet and clank games in their bright colours and incredibly strange functions. The only difference between Borderlands and Ratchet and Clank is that in Borderlands shit blows up and blood and guts erupt from skags when you blast them to smithereens. Brudar found a scattergun that's bullets do a neon blue wave pattern upon being fired and only stop once they collide with something.
Strange yet fun game and I cannot wait to play more with Brudar on next Saturday. Look for part Two next week.

What if Wednsday: if I were a cartoon character

So I have a phone app that gives me random what if questions, now I thought it would be fun to write about these and go into some serious thought. So for each what if I will pick my top five answers and try to explain my reasoning behind each answer.
This week the question was, if I could be any cartoon character who would I be?

1. Ash Ketchum from Pokemon



Why him he is such a loser? You may find yourself asking and my answer for you is I could do it better. I know compared to ash every trainer ever even Joey with his top percentile ratatta looks like they are the champion of the Pokemon league. Ash doesn't know how lucky he is to live in a world full of adventure and where hard work and determination will yield powerful beasts that you can control. If Ash ever applied himself properly he could find himself crossing the globe on the back of a powerful dragonite or surfing the seas on a mighty blastoise or perhaps charging across the plains on the back of a tarus ( he has 30 of them what a freaking waste ).
Now I know it begs the question of what Pokemon would I use? Not sure right now but obviously I would have Pikachu because he was Ash's starter and therefore would be mine too



2. Donatello from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles



Ok so I know that most people hated Donnie when I was a kid but I thought he was awesome. See he was the only turtle who was a ninja and more, think about it he built all of the turtle tech that helped them out of garbage he found littered about the sewers.
He had a slew of useful technical skills, which is way more than any of his brothers could do. On top of his technical skills he was also filled with all the useful information that was always relevant to what ever trouble the turtles found themselves in. He was also the more docile of the brothers with a weapon that takes more skill to wield properly and is only used for submission not for the dealing of death.

3. Aang from Avatar the last Airbender



Bad ass body tattoos...check
Sweet flying bison...check
Crazy lemur companion...check
Power to control all the elements ummm yes please
Ok so being the last of your kind is depressing as well as being hunted by those who committed the genocide against your people is not really that much of a good thing. Let's look at that as being a slight cost to pay for unlimited power. What would I do with such power? The fun would never stop I am telling you

4. Nightcrawler from X-men



Oh man Nightcrawler is so awesome I don't know where to begin on this one so let me start with the obvious. Teleportation, how often have you just wanted to poof away to some where far away from what you are currently having to deal with. How many times have you forgotten something at home and just wanted to teleport home and grab it.
Second reason is he has a wicked prehensile demon tail. When two hands are just not enough you got your ass covered literally with a third appendage.

5. Matt Ishida from Digimon



He was way better then Tai and had a much cooler Digimon, Gabumon, a reptile with a unicorn pelt who turned into a wolf then a werewolf and when provoked became a mecha wolf. Also in the show he was a way better leader then Tai because he thought of what consciences would become their actions instead of rushing into things all bull headed.

So tune in next week for what if I had to get stuck in an elevator with someone who would it be (real life people)?

Everyone wants to be a hero

So I was asked to do a very interesting favor yesterday by my mother. She inquired as to wether or not I could get some friends to help one of her co-workers move on Sunday, that is not the interesting part the reason why is, we are flash mob style moving some one out of her house... Say what? Oh and it gets even more interesting we are doing it at request of the person we are moving why? Because she is escaping an abusive relationship and is scared of what might happen and well I can't blame her.
So after grilling my mom for more useful information, which was like pulling teeth trying to give some kind of idea what we are up against. I discovered he is of average build, which works to my advantage of being bigger and more intimidating build. Now the second thing I found out is the guy is a gun collector, ok now that is a little worrisome. I won't back down now cause last thing I want is for things to go bad knowing I could have prevented it.
So this morning I looked up the non-emergency police line on everyone's favorite search engine google an I called to find out if this is the right thing to do. Which in my heart and in the eyes of the law yes it is so I am not going to jail this weekend score! I also found out I can call the lovely Calgary police and have them present just in case the proverbial shit hits the fan.
This just goes to show that we can all be heroes just by reaching out and following the principles of Jim Carrey in Yes Man. Just say yes and watch all the places you will go, and look at all the people you will meet!
So this Sunday won't be just any other family outing this one is so super special the cops are getting involved. Oh what an strange and eventful life I lead, I wouldn't change it for the world!

Enter the fifth

So the Internet is all a buzz with elitist geeks raving about how bad wizards of the coast's fifth edition of d&d will be. That's right nerds are discrediting something that doesn't even exist yet. Yes we know that 3.5 was fantastic hell I play it every week if I can help it.
However not only has Wizards approached actual players to field test the games, and used said feedback to improve upon the game but let us face facts how could you screw up worse than 4th. So I am very excited to give the fifth a good old run for it's money and if it turns out to be a dud well then then it will be a gaming one night stand.
So let us all look at D&D fifth as what it is, the company's putting money into the products and making more miniatures for us to run out and shell out cash for. Well let's face it even if by some crazy turn of events the fifth does in fact suck then at least there will be new minis for us to get our grubby little paws on. Think about it even tho the fourth edition really sucked all the challenge and imagination out of a game based around challenge and imagination we still all went out and bought the dungeon tiles and miniatures and hell I have even converted a few of the campaign books to function with third edition.
So let's all go into this with an open mind and if we see any power cards we all know to cut our loses and get the hell out of there to avoid any future embarrassment.

Warriors assemble!

So what's new with you?

The question that we all get asked or ask ourselves when we run into someone we haven't seen in a while. Most of the time we opt to say "nothing" and then there is that awkward silence before you revert to talking about the weather for the third time in the conversation. This happens to me all the time, perhaps it is because I didn't move to far from where I grew up but non the less it is frustrating.

So then what's new with me????

Well I am training 6 days a week to get into a shape that isn't round.

And why am I training so hard?

Well aside from the endorphins and thanks to legally blond we all know that "Exercise gives you endorphins Endorphins make you happy Happy people just dont shoot their husbands" . There is the reason the I am getting married in August and want to look awesome when I am dressed to the nines. But the primary reason is that come September me and my favorite ginger are competing in THE WARRIOR DASH!!!

Here is the link to check it out
http://warriordash.com/

This is the video I saw that made me stop and say "I need to do this!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyDdMViZ3tk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Now if you have to ask why is this cool you obviously don't understand how much of an accomplishment this for me. For starters for the past two years I have been on a slippery slope as I not only gained the freshman fifteen but I doubled or nothing not once but twice, and then proceeded to become a smoker with asthma. So as of right now this is a challenge that requires dedication.

So how do I plan on achieving my goal of completing this five kilometer obstacle corse?

1. Loose weight, through the help of my friend Jessica over at Jenny Craig I have already dropped 25lbs of my goal 70 so well on my way

2. Rebuild muscular mass, with the use of Tony Horton's P90X I am using precision exercises to build my muscles up.

3. Build endurance, by running intervals I am reshaping my lungs to shake my asthma and to try and reverse the effects of smoking for a couple years

4. Eat well, so Jenny I teaching me portion control but nothing beats good old home style cooking. And one thing I want to do is be able to cook well for my future wife.

So I am well down the path three months into my lifestyle change and I will overcome all future obstacles.

Transcending media

So I am a huge x-men geek I started watching the cartoon when I was a kid in the 90's and it was nerd love at first sight. Nowadays I still love watching the old cartoon with my brother and laughing how great and yet how terrible it is.
I do not consider myself an elitist geek about X-men, I embrace the movies and own all of them no matter how many continuity errors there are. However considering how much back story and cannon there would need to be explained, and the limited time that Hollywood has to hold the fans attention they did quite well. One of the many pluses to this is that it brought new fans to the fold and thus brought new money to the franchise.
Now with that in mind it got me thinking that there is one media that as of recently has sweeping success and is heavily promoted by almost everyone,..........

NOVELS!!!.

I am not talking about their graphic novels because those are plentiful and well received by the nerd masses. I am talking about the written word, books with out the images but in their absence mass amounts of descriptive words.
And so I thought some more...
Then I had an epiphany, the most popular and wide spread of books right now is the teen novel. Primarily the ones focused around extraordinary teens who are trying to find their way in the world while combating monstrous evil villains in control of army's the likes of which would make a trained navy seal wet his knickers. And what is the X-men? Well they are a group of extraordinary teenagers trying to find their place in the world all whilst trying to defend the planet from those who wish to destroy it...

PERFECT!!!

Now to top it all off all through out the X-men series there have been relationships that have a rocky time such as gambit falling for rouge even tho he cannot touch her, the impenetrable man (Colossus) and the girl who can walk through anything (Shadowcat aka Kitty Pryde) is fantastic or even Polaris daughter of Magneto falling in love with Bobby Drake aka Iceman you can't get a better Romeo and Juliet story.
Now myself I could probably never be able to write something like this but if this ever came to be you can bet your bottom dollar I would read it and sing it's praise. That's a big if but in that situation all I can say is Harry Potter watch yourself because this could be the end of you and all of Hogwarts!

The weekday woes

So my weekend was filled with many arts and crafts, not your kiddy arts and crafts mind you! These arts and craft hand nails and screws, hacksaws and hammers the requirement of a heavy duty breathing apparatus. I felt like I was a mad scientist creating the unthinkable laughing maniacally as I added piece after piece to my spectacular master piece.
Granted I am painfully aware that I am merely making props but non the less a man can dream of creating a rocket pack over his weekend just for fun. In many ways my weekend feels like one of those movie montages where the protagonist aka me build some crazy Rube Goldberg Machine to stop the antagonist, which I don't have any at this time. But alas Monday strikes and once again the frivolous fancies of the weekend come to a crashing halt as reality once again resumes it's unmistakably draining coarse. I sit at my familiar chair managing electronic documents dreaming of the weekend past and the weekends yet to come
Now what was I building you may inquire well me and my lovely bride to be, my future wifey, the Bonnie to my Clyde are mutually working towards the finale of our massive steampunk group costume. So for all those steampunks and cosplayers out there you know that any good costume takes a lot of work to pull off the paint must be applied in layers, the glue must be left to dry the parts must be tracked down and acquired at numerous specialty shops the work of a cosplayer is never done until the last possible second. It also does not help when I am not only working on my costume but also the props for others.