Oy

$122.50, that’s how much this stupid speeding ticket costs me. I just want to pay it and get the whole ordeal over with, it’s really not something I want to dwell on more than I have too, it doesn’t leave me in the best of moods. So I traded in Saints Row today, after realizing that sitting and playing, trying to get to the cut scenes in between missions just felt like work, and I wasn’t enjoying myself. I put the money, towards picking up Smackdown Vs Raw sometime in November, and while I was there I picked up a booster pack of the new World of Warcraft trading card game. This is something that I really don’t need to be getting into, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to check it out, especially with a chance to get one of the rare in game item cards. I also stopped by that used game store in town and managed to find a Super Gameboy, so I’m halfway to my goal in this department. I just hope the girlfriend doesn’t forget the SNES.

Now I’m sure some ones wondering “If you need to pay this ticket, why are you spending money??” Well I can’t help it, I have a little extra cash to spend because of the birthday, but I am trying to cut back. That’s about all I have to say for right now, we’ll see if anything else interesting happens today..

Number 30!

How about this for a thirieth post! So here’s a long one in the making, lets just get the bad news out of the way. I complained about this yesterday on ACF (check the links), and it’s been bothering me quite a bit. To the point where I didn’t really want to leave my room today to go anywhere. I’m of course talking about the fact that I received my first speeding ticket yesterday. Now it’s not so much the fact that I received the ticket, but the circumstances that I received the ticket in. I admit, I have a problem speeding, and I did have this coming to me. I’ve been pulled over twice before and got away with just warnings. The problem is I got a ticket and I didn’t even KNOW I was speeding.

So the context of what happens has to factor in a few things. I had just gotten back to the University campus, after spending two and a half hours on the interstate and another road (speeding) and I unloaded the stuff I had brought back with me. I decided to take my car back to the parking lot, and just to add in, this is during day two of a four day weekend, where almost everyone has gone home. It’s a Sunday on top of things, so the campus is extremely deserted. Deserted as in, I am the only one of the road. So I am driving around, minding my own business, when I park my car. Right as I turn my car off I hear the siren and his lights go off. Apparently I was doing 43 in a 30, but I never once saw him behind me until I had parked the car. In conclusion I now have my first speeding ticket, which I have not found out yet what I owe, but he thought it was around $106. I contribute my speeding to the fact that I had been driving at high speeds all day, and having no one else on the roads at all to gauge myself against, it had seemed like the natural speed. I also have to add in the rat bastard had to have been waiting for someone to do just that, because he was no where on the roads at the time.

Now that that is out of my system I can get onto other things. As I mentioned earlier I am back from going home for the weekend, from my house where we are packing everything up getting ready to move. That’s basically why I came home early, because all of my stuff is here at school, and my room is literally empty. No bed, dressers, no carpet, which was removed to put new carpet down before we sell the house. To top it off my parents were going to the new house yesterday anyways, so there was really no reason to stick around. The girlfriend is still at home, but I wanted her to spend time with her family, so that was another motivator to come back early. I did have two great dinners with my mom and dad, and I brought back a ton of winter clothes, which I sorely needed, so I am glad I went. I just felt bad having to tell my ma that I got my ticket yesterday, I didn’t want them to be disappointed, but she was more worried that I was going to be depressed myself, and didn’t want it to ruin my weekend, or my birthday (which is next Sunday!) While I am still somewhat resistant to go driving again any time soon, I feel much better that they aren’t pissed at me.

After finally sitting down and giving my Xbox some loving I’ve decided I am going to trade Saints Row in soon. The game itself is good, but I just can’t see it holding my attention anymore, especially with other titles that I want to play coming out soon. I am thinking of playing some more of it tonight, getting it out of my system, and then trading it in tomorrow towards buying Smackdown Vs Raw. I was tempted to trade it in towards Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and had I not gotten that ticket yesterday I may have done just that, but since I didn’t want to drive anywhere I did some reading, and decided that it would be best as a rental, seeing as it isn’t a very long game, and I can’t see the replay value being to high. So I may try to grab that as a rental tomorrow if anyone is carrying it. The big draw of the game for me is the fact that one of Spiderman’s alternate costumes is the Scarlet Spider, which just rubs me in all the right places. I was a huge fan of the Scarlet Spider and the clone storyline in general, because that was when I was really getting into comic books as a kid. Everyone else hates it though heh..

I’m almost tempted to start playing Oblivion again, especially after watching this funny Gothic III trailer. http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/pc/gothic-3-combat-is-hilarious-207649.php What I have been playing while I have had the time is more Pokemon, besides Emerald where I’ve been messing around catching and evolving new Pokemon, and attempting to level my second team, I’ve started to reset for a shiny Charmander on my copy of Leaf Green. Unsuccessfully so far I might add. I’m going to keep trying though, and not give up like I did when trying to rest for a Mudkip on emerald, because I found that trying to breed for a shiny was much more tiresome.

I have concocted a new plan though, which has to do with the fact that the girlfriend’s family still has a Super Nintendo. No one besides her little cousins played the SNES, and due to the fact that her family is packing up to eventually move down to Florida, and that the little ones are going to be visiting any time soon (seeing as they live in Florida..) I asked her to bring the SNES to college for me. The plan is to find a Super Gameboy, and buy Pokemon Gold or silver again to play on my TV. It’s been a long time since I’ve played this version of the game, which is arguably the pinnacle of the series. I made it as far as setting up an Ebay and Paypal account yesterday to bid on a Super Gameboy, before I realized I needed to link the Paypal account to a bank account. That is something I’ll have to wait for, especially considering the whole ticket situation. I’m going to scour a mom and pop used video game store in town tomorrow and see if they have one, and possibly pick up a SNES game or two while I am at it.

So I’ve just been playing more Saints Row, and I have to say the storyline is getting somewhat compelling. I’m going to see how far I can get tonight and tomorrow, and then decide if I’ll trade it in right away or wait until later.

I haven’t touched WoW at all really since last Wednesday, and I have to say my interest in doing so hasn’t grown any. The fact that the expansion was delayed is making me want to get into the game right now, because I feel I’ll just burn myself out before it even hits retail, and I won’t want to play anymore. The fact that they have announced that the green items that are dropping in the post-60 quests are better than the dungeon Tier items, just makes me not want to waste my time doing these raids even more. Wasting all that time to have the items become obsolete right away just doesn’t sound appealing.

That’s all for now, I’ll post again soon, possibly with another podcast recommendation!

Four Day Weekend!

Quick update before I leave for home on my four day weekend for fall break. Watched UFC like I had said earlier, only not the way it was planned. My buddy and I had a sort of ritual thing to hang out on Thursdays, chill, watch some TV with it all climaxing in The Ultimate Fighter. Well I guess he decided it’d be okay to blow me off yesterday (at the time, only two weeks were left) and I didn’t really appreciate it. That’s all fine and dandy though, because I went to dinner with the girlfriend and one of her friends that I hadn’t really met yet, and had a great time, and then I ended up watching UFC so not all was lost. I have to say I am disappointed in the fight last night though. I knew the one guy would win, but it was boring and sloppy, and the only reason Travis won, was because Drago couldn’t get up, not because of and damage he was inflicting (almost none).

I am pretty sure I am going to come back to the dorms on Sunday, even though we don’t have classes until Tuesday, simply for the fact that all of my stuff is here at school because of the new house, so my room is literally empty. Going to get my hair cut, and pick up my winter clothes, along with seeing my family.

Alright, I am off to continue getting ready to leave. I’m sure I will post again tonight, later!

Bah..

Since I forgot to mention this last time I’m throwing it in now. EA has once again pushed the bar for how greedy a company can get. To make just a short list of the crap they are doing: Tigerwood’s 07 for the 360 lets you buy what are eccentrically cheats online with Microsoft points. When I say cheat, I mean it in the term that what you purchase can be unlocked buy just, get this, PLAYING THE GAME. They are justifying this by saying some people don’t have the time to play through it, and just want to enjoy everything they can right away. If those people don’t have enough time to sit there and unlock a few things while PLAYING THE GAME, then they need to find a new hobby all together. After this we have the Battlefield 2142 fiasco, where EA has put software in the game that monitors what websites you visit, in order to better market advertisements IN GAME to you. Yes folks, not only do you have to pay full price for this game, but you must also endure being monitored online and having to deal with in game advertisements. Back to the Xbox Live Marketplace, the upcoming EA release Godfather will be the first game to offer “consumable” purchases (shocking, that EA would be the pioneer??). Yes for a sum of points you can buy three different tiers of in game money to spend, and once it’s gone, it’s gone. This brings me to my conclusion; I am not buying any more EA products. Sure, one person is not going to make the difference, especially when we are talking about software giant Electronic Arts, but I can feel better about myself, knowing I don’t have to deal with their bullshit anymore.

Seeing as I am on a Nintendo DS kick right now, I suppose I will talk about a DS focused podcast this time around. Today I will mention DS Life, which is a young podcast in the sense that they only have six episodes up so far. I enjoy listening to the two hosts, Edgar and Lloyd, talk about the DS and other things that they are interested in at the moment. It is nice to have a podcast that does focus their attention on the platform and it’s games, because it doesn’t get enough else ware. They do lose track of themselves though and talk about other things, such as the other platforms, but I actually enjoy these parts of all of the podcasts that I listen to, because it seems like it’s just a bunch of guys sitting around talking about games, which is something I can relate to. It makes me respect their opinions and views more, and this goes for almost all of the podcasts I listen to.

Anyways had a pretty uneventful day yesterday. Played WoW almost all day when I should have been working on school stuff, ended up missing LOST. Had a Scholomance and a Molten Core run, both of which I didn’t get any drops. Two set pieces dropped for me, and a nice shield, but those were quickly given to the top three tanks (how they decided who was what is beyond me) without anyone rolling on them (we are JUST starting a DKP system with that run, and everything else that dropped last night was rolled on), and then claimed it was for the good of the group, and that the rest of us would get equipped faster. Yeah whatever, I just don’t want to see this crap keep happening. That’s my little rant for the day, there is more to it but I’ve thought about it enough and I’m over it, time to focus on something else.

The Ultimate Fighter is on tonight, and is going to kick ass as usual I am sure. Not much else to say at the moment, if I think of anything I’ll be back.

I’ve got no Idea

Okay so it’s been a few days since I posted last, just a quick update from last time, didn’t go see the movie, BUT I had a good weekend none the less. Haven’t accomplished to much in WoW since then other than running through LBRS to finish the first part of the Onyxia attunement. Supposedly another MC run tonight, hopefully it does go down because I am looking forward to it! Our guild Epilogue recently merged with the guild Disruption, and now there is a ridiculous number of 60’s in the guild. The problem is even though there are enough people to run stuff now, nothing is really happening. The guys from the old guild seem to stick together, and no one really says anything in guild chat. One of the guys from the old guild was preaching to me about how the guild would dissolve within two weeks, but I think he was just a naysayer. I’m going to give it a chance, and hope it sticks, I think we all just need to grow together a little more, get a few runs under our belt as a group. I did want to mention my great disappointment upon hearing that Burning Crusade has been pushed back to January. I was looking forward to playing that this Christmas, but I suppose this just gives me more time to do all of the old world stuff that I haven’t experienced yet, and finish getting my first dungeon armor set, even though it will become obsolete so quickly with the new items.

I’ve had a link to Threadless in my links section for awhile now, but haven’t ordered from there in awhile. That is until yesterday! They sent me an email saying that another $10 Tshirt sale was going on and I ended up ordering two more shirts, Pandamonium, and The Communist Party. I’ll throw some pictures up for the blog post so you can check em out. The sale is still going on so take advantage of it while you can!

I’ve been throwing more ridiculous amounts of time into Emerald, with a list of things that I want to accomplish before I open up Leafgreen. I’m at 68:30 time wise, and I’ll leave it at that heh.

Time to pimp out a new Podcast for you, today I’m mentioning the EGM Live Podcast, which frequently plays host to some of the cast members of 1UP Yours, my podcast of choice. I’ve heard people refer to EGM live as 1UP Lite, or 1UP 0.5, and while it isn’t AS good, I think it has a different all around feeling than it’s sister show. EGM Live of course has a focus on the magazine, so if you are a reader this makes for a good supplement. I’ve thrown up a link for the podcast, if you don’t use iTunes.

Fall break is closing in fast, and I am going home for at least a day or two to see my family and pick up some winter clothes, but I’ll be back shortly. Don’t think that this is going to keep me from posting, in fact I’ll probably be on here twice as much, for the simple fact that literally ALL of my stuff is here at the dorms, to the point where my room is virtually empty. My parents gave away my bed and dressers because we are building a new house, and they didn’t want to have to transport all of the furniture. I will have my laptop, which can run WoW, and of course my DS with my, so I wont be lacking to much. It will give me enough to have something interesting to talk about anyways.

Clubhouse Games is still getting attention from my DS, and I managed to pull myself away from the Stamp mode to check out Mission mode, and found a whole new section to waste time on! Mission mode works in a different enough way than stamp mode in that instead of traversing upon a board, not being able to pick your games, you can select whatever you want to play (within the options they give you) under which difficulty level you choose to try, and then you must complete their specific objective, which usually involved completing the game with a specific score, or under a specific time. Upon doing so it unlocks new icons for you to use in multiplayer. Again this brings me back to the wifi adapter, I can’t wait to get my hands on one and take this sucker online!

Toys R Us has a Buy 2 Get 1 Free deal going on, and I am dieing to take advantage of it to pick up Brain Age and Big Brain Academy, but alas I am broke, and buying the two Tshirts didn’t help at all..

That’s all for now, if I think of anything else I’m sure I’ll be back!

Shiney

Ran UBRS again last night with the guild, and I’ll tell you what, we are smoooooooth as buttah. Supposedly another Molten Core run today some time, not sure if I’ll make it or not, I really hope so though. Although I have been getting my fair share of drops, it’s mostly been tanking armor that isn’t really as good as my valor set pieces. I am dieing for some new good equipment, especially some weapons. I’ve been rocking the same Ice Barbed Spear for way to many levels, and need to upgrade desperately. One of the leaders of the guild asked me what spec I was, and I was shocked when he said we had to many Protection warriors in the guild. I just freaking respeced, and had I known we didn’t need another would have stayed my arms/fury spec. Ah well, if I get a kick as two hander I am going back, that’s for sure. I thought this picture was pretty neat, so I tossed it up for you, what do you think? Still some change I want to do to the blog, maybe put pictures and such around the edges. I’m not sure really yet, it just doesn’t feel complete yet.

Playing Emerald right now while the girlfriend is still asleep. I am exactly 60 hours in, and just got to the Elite Four! My team is as follows: Ludicolo – Lvl 54, Linoone – Lvl 52, Magneton – Lvl 53, Aggron – Lvl 51, Exploud – Lvl 50, and Tropius – Lvl 50. Wish me luck! So I just finished the Elite Four, took nearly an hour, but I did it! Jesus was it a pain in the ass too..

Okay I wrote this all earlier on this morning, and just now got around to finishing this up so I could post it. MC ended up not happening, the guildies were trying to get people Onyxia attuned for a run tonight, and were already in UBRS so I just logged off and did other stuff. I did manage to beat the Elite Four, took me nearly an hour. Thought I’d give the game a bit of a rest and pick it up again later on tonight, seeing as how the girlfriend plans on sleeping over again. I did play some more of the Clubhouse games, and this thing is going to keep my attention for a while. I just cant wait to get the Wifi adapter.

The girlfriend and I are going out with a friend and his girlfriend for dinner tonight, and to possibly see the new Robin Williams movie. It looks good, and I am a huge fan, but we will see.

Bed?

Okay, I am writing this at 3:30 in the morning, so forgive me if I sound loopy. I did end up buying Clubhouse Games, for the Nintendo DS, and the girlfriend and I gave it a whirl not to long ago. I played it by myself for about fifteen minutes earlier, when I had just bought it, but didn’t really get far into it. It has three main single player options, free play, which lets you pick and of the games and have a go at it against computer opponents. The second option is Stamp mode, where I spent most of my solo time. This particular mode send you through specified games on certain difficulty, and you have to complete them to earn three stamps, in order to move on to the next one. You get three stamps for winning, and one for loosing. So in theory, even if you suck at the game, as long as you lose three times you can move on. I can see how it will still be a pain in the ass in some of the really long time based games, but I like that play mode none the less. The third option, called Mission, I have not yet tried, so I’ll write something up on it layer. Multiplayer if where this game is really going to shin though. It can get very competitive, and equally as addicting, and that was just with the girlfriend and I dueling it out against each other and sometimes CPU opponents. I cannot imagine how much fun it would be online using the wifi connection, which the game is enabled for, and also has a built in picto-chat. This gives us another reason to pick up the USB wifi dongle for the DS soon, the main reason is that the girlfriend wants to visit other towns in Animal Crossing. So if anyone out there (ever reads this) wants to exchange friend codes, once we get the dongle we will be playing some DS games online! Time for bed..

Fresh

This goes without saying, because I am almost positive NO one has even glanced at this blog, but just incase you have, you will have noticed that there were some drastic changes that happened to it. I felt like it needed a redesign, and that I should post more about myself, so I mixed things up a bit. In addition to the changes, there was an addition to the page, of the MMO news feed, provide by www.VirginWorlds.com which deal with all things Massive. They so happen to also be one of the podcasts that I listen to, which you can find at http://www.virginworlds.com/podcast.php if you don’t use iTunes. I’ll throw that link in my links section also.

Anyways, a bit about myself. I’ve been playing MMO’s since I was about 14 (I turn 21 this November), starting with Everquest. I played EQ on the Fennin Ro server to begin with, playing multiple characters, my highest being a level 40 Barbarian Warrior named Khaul. I also had a level 25 iksar monk named Gabool, and a 30ish Beastlord named Jerrek.

I had an on and off relationship with EQ, in between playing it over and over again, I played many other MMO’s. This includes, Dark Age of Camelot, Anarchy Online, Shadowbane, and some other old ones. The one that comes in second place in both memorable moments, and sure fun game play, is Asheron’s Call. AC still has a fond place in my heart, right next to Everquest. I had some great times in the group on Solclaim that I played with, called Pandora’s Hope.

Asheron’s Call was such a different game compared to Everquest, there were no classes, no different races, just three different heritages for you to choose from. The skill based leveling system felt so open, like you could make your character whatever you chose, you were not limited in any way. The open world environment was also the complete opposite of Everquests Zone fest, and the portal traveling felt almost interactive, compared to staring at a frozen screen, wondering when you would pop on the other side.

But alas just like EQ, I tried to go back to this game a couple of times in the last two years, and it just doesn’t feel the same. I lost that newbie feeling, where everything is new, and I am experiencing it for the first time. It doesn’t help that none of the new MMO’s that have come out innovate in any way that helps make you feel “fresh” again. I’ve played plenty of them since those fateful days, including Star Wars Galaxies, Final Fantasy XI, Asheron’s Call 2, City of Heroes, Planetside, Everquest 2, and World of Warcraft. Will some of these didn’t hold my attention for more than the free thirty days, others like World of Warcraft were enjoyable enough that I would stick with them, but I still never feel the way I have since Everquest and Asheron’s Call. I don’t know if I can contribute that to my own growing up, or the familiarity of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games in general. All I do know is that I truly miss the feeling.

For anyone who is curious about contacting me in WoW, which I am currently playing, I am on the Emerald Dream, RP/PVP server, horde side. My level 60 Undead Warrior is named Jerrek, and I am a member of the guild Epilogue. I’m going to also toss a link to my 360 gamer blog, and my gamer tag website, even though it hasn’t seen much action lately except as a DVD player. My gamer tag for XBL is Jerrek BSU.

Well, that’s all for now, maybe I’ll post again later on tonight if I can think of anything to add. Later!

Again!

Ah what to talk about today.. Last night was pretty fun, watched some UFC with my buddy, my boy Matt Serra won just like I knew he would! Before that we watched a bunch of episodes of Scrubs Season 4 on DVD, which has got to be one of my all time favorite shows.

I went and did my scheduling for next semester, and hopefully I get the times I have picked out. No more late night classes, or 8AM classes woohoo!! Right now I am in the process of doing laundry. After I toss my clothes in the dryer it’s off for a shower, and then it should be right around the time that the girlfriend gets off of work. At the moment before I go switch things around I am listening to the CAGcast, or the Cheap Ass Gamer Podcast (located here, if you don’t have iTunes http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=111839 ), and playing Pokemon Emerald some more. I am up to 86, got my last gym badge, and am working my way to the Elite four. Time is currently 58 hours and 30ish minutes. I’ll post my final team before I take them on.

Tonight the girlfriend and I are just going to hang out and spend some time together, since we haven’t seen much of each other this week. We saw each other twice earlier today, and both times neither of us were in very good moods, and I don’t think we helped each other out. After she gets off work hopefully all of the stress will be gone and we can both unwind. I know we are both aching for some alone time, so that may help too!

The guild is supposedly running Molten Core again tonight, which they ran yesterday and took down another boss, but I’m not going to risk ruining the night with the girlfriend by trying to go with them. She does have some movie that’s going to be on TV tonight that she wants to watch, which I have no interest in. I did tell her she could watch it here though, so maybe if I am lucky the two things coincide and I can go to MC while she watches her show. We’d both be happy!

I’m going to make that run to Best Buy tonight, once the girlfriend does come back, but I still haven’t decided on what I am going to purchase. I know she enjoyed messing around with Big Brain Academy when we found the demo on a display unit somewhere, but I also think she might enjoy the multiplayer games that are on the Clubhouse Games.. Then there is the whole $10 difference.. Oy, I’ll let you know how things go later on, it’s about time to go throw my stuff in the dryer.. Later!

Kickin’ Ass

So yesterday ended fairly well. I ended up going to Molten Core with the guild (along with part of another guild and some pick ups) and had a great freaking time. We only wiped twice, and those were due to miscommunications, and the fact that it was the first time for lots of people. Amazingly we One Shot the first three bosses, and what a rush it was! It’s crazy seeing yourself and thirty nine other people take down one massive creature. I am hoping we do that run again soon. Neither myself nor my good friend who got my into the game got any loot, even though one of the T1 warrior pieces and two of the shaman pieces dropped, along with multiple other epics and rares, we didn’t win any of them.

Unfortunately the new episode of LOST aired while this was going down, and I was only able to half watch it, which I think was more of a mistake than not watching it at all because if you don’t pay attention to every little detail that is happening, you are completely lost. No pun intended.

Speaking of Television, The Ultimate Fighter is on tonight! Can’t wait, Matt Serra Vs Shonie Carter, most anticipated fight of the season!

I haven’t done much so far today, napped in between classes, played a little bit of Pokemon. Got my 8^th gym badge, and am up to 83 on the Pokedex. Going to run around the world a little bit, level my guys up some more and then hit the Elite four. I’ll let you know how that is going. After I beat them once, I want to start a whole new team to beat them again, just to play with some different Pokes. I still have Leaf Green that I bought a week or two ago that I need to crack open and get started on, but I have no rush to do that, if the rumors are true that Diamond and Pearl wont be released here until march, or maybe even later.

I’m thinking about going out Friday or Saturday and picking up either a DS game, which would be either Club House Games, or Big Brain Academy. Both of these are $5 off at Best Buy until Sunday, which would make their prices $25, and $15 respectively. If I don’t end up getting either of these, I’ll spend the money (which I shouldn’t be spending!!) on a Pride Fighting Championships dvd set, which has five of their PPV’s on five disks for $20. I think that is a heck of a deal, and I am itching for some MMA.

Alright, I need to be getting ready for my last class of the day. I’ll post again later on maybe, depending if anything interesting happens. Hope UFC is great tonight!!