Snipers In the Grass

I used to be kind of into air-soft guns, and I would have fun battles with some of my friends. Our typical battleground was this open lush field type thing. I’m not exactly sure what it is, it’s found in the middle of a neighborhood but its a fairly large secluded oasis of lush vegetation. It’s not a park per say, but I digress.

Given our leafy green battlefield, I found it appropriate to purchase a guile suit. It served its intended purpose a few times, but you would be surprised how useful it is to have a guile suit lying around. Combined with my pizza bag, I used it as a last-minute Halloween costume. And then one time, I had a good amount of friends over at my house, I pulled out the guile suit to show them. Next thing you knew we were all causally talking in my room, while one of my friends was sporting a guile suit. I’ve also used it for school plays.

So yeah having a guile suit has been a fun experience, and has proven to be a surprisingly useful piece of attire.

Have you ever gotten something that has proven to be much more versatile than first expected? let me know in a comment!

Registered Sex Offenders Banned from Online Gaming!

TechSpot.com

As of Yesterday, the state of New York has officially taken the initiative to protect young and vulnerable gamers from dangerous sexual predators in the world of online gaming. This action was named “Operation: Game Over,” and was an arrangement made between New York state officials and the major gaming companies in the U.S., including Microsoft, Sony and Apple as well as many other content creators. Because most major gaming platforms require their gamers to submit personal information when they sign up for their services, such as their email address, billing address and other key information pertaining to their identity, these gaming companies can cross reference this information with the record of registered sex offenders in New York and then ban confirmed accounts linked to offenders.

Since this operation took place, 3,580 gamers online accounts have been banned. This event is significant because it is the first occurrence of the law interfering with online gamers directly when concerning the safety of the players in real life. Although this is an overall improvement for the general gaming community as there are so many young kids who play games online and who need protection from possible predators, this may end up negatively changing the way the gaming world operates. If the government can step in whenever it wants and censor online gaming, it could cause a chain reaction that might put the freedom of the whole gaming world at risk.

What do you guys think about this event? Is the law overstepping its boundaries by enforcing restrictions on online gaming or is this an important step towards maintaining a safe and enjoyable online environment for gamers of all ages? Let me know in a comment!

The Endeavor to Obtain My First Car

Today my car arrived from Denver Colorado on one of those giant car transporting trucks. Why did it come from all that way when I live in California you ask? The short answer is, because my parents are bad at thinking things through.

It is a very nice car and I am very excited to start diving it. It is a ford escape. I actually feel very strange getting a new car for my first car, but hey, I’m not complaining.

So anyway as I said the car arrived from Denver, and I will try to tell this tale as quickly as possible. My older sister lives in upstate New York, and for Christmas my parents bought her a car, and sent it all the way there on one of those giant trucks. The car was under my dad’s name, and unfortunately she wasn’t making the payments on the car. Thus my dad’s credit score began to drop.

To solve this problem my family and I, flew to New York, fully payed for a new car for my sister, and then started driving back to California in my sister’s old car, which would now be mine. My family couldn’t exactly handle driving across the country, so I flew out from St. Louis (as not to miss school), and my parents flew out of Denver (as they were fed up with driving). So we put the car on another moving truck from Denver to California. And that is the story of the many adventures my first car endured.

What do you think of my first car or the story that accompanies it? Let me know in a comment!

The Possible Release of a New Xbox!

Kitguru.net

After nearly 7 years, rumors of a successor to the Xbox 360 have finally surfaced. The Xbox 360, the sequel to the Xbox Original was officially released in November 2005, and since then gamers have been eagerly awaiting the release of a next generation gaming console from Microsoft. As of Monday, rumors from the depths of cyber space have surfaced saying that this might soon become a reality. Although Microsoft has not officially released any statements regarding anything about a new Xbox, it is possible that it will be released in time for Christmas 2013. Although this seems far off, you have to keep in mind that the Xbox 360 has already been around for 7 years so one more year is really not all that long on the timeline of Xbox release dates.

Although this new Xbox is exciting, it may not be everything that everyone hopes it will be. Some rumors say that this console will force gamers to register their game with their console. In order to do this, Microsoft may also have to force players to be connected to the internet through their console, even if they do not plan to play online. This would completely end the resale of used games because once a game is registered to a console it cannot be played on any other console. Companies such as GameStop would lose a huge portion of their profits, which are generated solely from used games, and companies such as GameFly would completely go out of business.

Also, this new Xbox might end support for older Xbox games. Although the current Xbox only supports certain games from the original Xbox era, the new one may drop this feature completely. This would mean that if you ever get tired of playing new releases, you won’t be able to scavenge your shelf for that old Harry Potter game you used to play as a kid and waste countless hours finding your away around Hogwarts in the land of 2004 graphics.

It is important to remember that all of this is still only rumored, but it will be interesting to see if Microsoft makes a move to confirm or deny this information in the near future. I personally think that a new Xbox would be great, but with the current limitations that it is rumored to have such as no support for old games or used games, I don’t know if it will really be an upgrade or a downgrade from the current Xbox.

So what do you guys think about this new Xbox? If it really is as limited as it is said to be, will you still buy it? Let me know in a comment!

My Buddy Peter Griffin

Right above my couch chills a cardboard cutout of Peter Griffin.

I am a person who enjoys his family guy very much, so when I went over to my sister’s house for Christmas and I saw had gotten me a cardboard stand up of Peter Griffin, I was ecstatic. But over time, his cardboard legs began to give in. So I salvaged his top portion and stapled it above my couch. Peter has been there so long it hardly even notice him anymore, that’s why I hadn’t thought to do a post about him until just now. But every time a friend sees my room for the first time, they are really surprised to see Peter Griffin staring at them.

So what do you think of family guy or my cardboard cutout of peter? Let me know in a comment!

My New Skyrim Character

Switching over to PC definitely breathed new life into Skyrim for me, which has been exciting. Especially since I could really plan out my what my character would be like before I started this time. I decided to go with a Necromancer type build, but not necessarily a typical one.

She is practically a warrior who specializes in dual wielding swords, bow and arrow, and raising the dead. Her name is Desiree. I believe the main thing that has appealed to me about PC gaming has been the opportunity to modify the game. Most of the mods I have installed have been re-texture mods, and quest adding mods. I need to be careful though, because I don’t want to ruin the game for myself. That’s why I don’t install very many weapon or armor mods, because I don’t want to make the game too easy. I have a lot of plans for my future characters and I can’t wait to get started.

What do you think about Skyrim, or character builds? Let me know in a comment!

My First Time Witnessing the Real Occupy Wall St. Movement!

My friend's picture of the movement

The past week was officially my spring break and for the week my friend and ventured to Ney York City. We made the trip across the country on Friday, March 23, arriving late in the night and within the first day alone we managed to see so many different things. The highlight of my first day was probably witnessing the Occupy Wall Street movement for the first time. Despite the cold and slight drizzle, we watched from the side as thousands of New Yorkers joined together to stand up for a variety of different causes.

There were posters advocating different movements ranging from bringing down abusive Wall Street corporations to simply standing up for individual human rights. We also stayed long enough to listen in on a public meeting between many of the movement’s leaders.

The whole time we were there the area was flocking with police and crowd control officers. Many news stations were also present, waiting for something to go down so they could be the first to report on it. Overall, this brought about a feeling of hostility and nervousness between the protesters and the police and I saw many signs advocating protection from police brutality.

Although I don’t associate myself with the Occupy Movement and its many different causes, I do support their overarching goal of individual rights for the people and not for corporations.

This is just my opinion. What do you guys think about the Occupy Wall Street movement or any if the Occupy Movements? Let me know in a comment!

So Much to Do, So Little Time

I have really been at a loss of what write about as of late. Due to the fact that I simply have not had enough time to play games as much as I may like to. This mainly stems from my recent conscious decision to prioritize homework before video games, but ironically, this decision has hindered my ability to complete some of my homework. Because these blog posts I do are technically homework, but with this being a video game focused blog it has been hard to come up with topics with my reduced amount of game time.

Between homework, theater, family, driving practice, learning Italian and friends, the best I have been able to get in is maybe half an hour of Skyrim here or there, but certainly not enough to actually get anything done. I’m not so much complaining, as much as I’m just recognizing it. It is actually kind of refreshing, because at the height of my gaming life video games just about dominated my free time. It feels good to have many other things happening in my life, but it is also exhausting . I guess now I’m just trying to find the balance.

how do you manage your free time and work time? Let me know in a comment!

Regulations for Electronic Use in Flight are Changing!

CorbisImages.com

I am sure that many of you will agree that one of the most frustrating aspects of flying is the 20 minutes during takeoff and landing when you are not allowed to use electronics. Many experienced flyers have learned the trick of leaning your head into one ear bud in order to hide it from the flight attendant or just pretending you’re asleep in the hopes that the flight attendant is not so inconsiderate as to wake you up. But soon this all may be unnecessary.

My friend posted a blog on this specific topic, which you can read here. To summarize, the reason that no electronics have been cleared for on ground use is because the airlines are responsible for doing their own tests on all devices as apposed to the manufacture. Soon though, airlines will attempt to work with manufactures to make sure that all major devices such as iPods and other music players are safe for use during takeoff and landing.

So tell me what you guys think about the rules currently in place preventing the use of electronics during takeoff and landing? Will these changes affect the way you fly or do you already use electronics despite the rules against it?

Also, tell me what you think of my friend’s blog. He will continue to report on all different aspects of technology, especially Apple products and other mainstream devices so if you are interested, follow his blog.