Video Games vs. Real Life

So... The other day I had a weird thought while walking home from the train station after work. There was this guy just standing there half a block away from a bus stop, just... waiting. And my immediate thought was, "What the heck is he doing there? Should I ask him what he's up to? It's none of my business, but he's weirding me out." That just seems to be where my mind goes. He must be up to something.

But then I started wondering why I have that reaction... The world is such an untrusting place nowadays. What happened to the old days of smiling and saying hi to random strangers? I'm a friendly person, but I think I'm afraid to talk to strangers for fear of what they might say or do back.

It's funny, though, 'cause it got me started thinking about video games. I'll preface this by saying I've been playing a lot (A LOT) of Pokémon Y since it came out a week and a half ago. In all of the Pokémon games, and most role playing games in general, in order to progress through the game, you need to speak to all of the NPCs (non-playable characters) to get information. Sometimes they even have special items for you. So there's motivation to talk to everyone you run into.

So if talking to everyone you meet is encouraged in video games, why not real life? Maybe I should just walk around and talk to every person I meet. Maybe they'll have something interesting to tell me. Who knows? Maybe I'd learn some valuable life skills and knowledge!

Then there's the other side of that... Can you imagine if I just started going around to everyone I meet like, "Hi! What do you have to tell me?" Or better yet, "Hey! Do you have anything for me??" I think I'd start to get some really strange looks and reactions. But I almost wanna try it out, just to see what people would do.

Anyway, this was just a random string of thoughts that went through my head. Hopefully it won't be so long before I blog again. No promises.

Long Overdue, And Pre-SDCC

Okay. I know this is long overdue. I'm sorry guys! It's been a busy few weeks! Sorta. But sitting in the airport waiting for our now-delayed flight is as good a time as any to catch up!

So, what's been going on? Well, I moved. Away from my little hometown of PG to the big city of Vancouver. What an adventure that's been! Also: an emotional roller coaster. The week before the move was nuts. Too many teary-eyed goodbyes. Lots of fun. Rob came up to help the move go smoothly. And also to drive the U-haul for me. AND to meet everyone before he steals me away. It was a great week and a terrible week all at once. It's great to be on this new adventure, but it's really hard leaving everyone back home.

The drive down was scorching hot. Rob and I had coffee with my mom on the Sunday morning and then hopped into the truck and hit the road. We left early and the heat was already up there. It got as hot as 36 degrees through the canyon and it was above 30 the whole way. It was beautiful and such a great drive. It was kind of surreal, driving through there for the first time in a few years, this time with Rob taking me to my new home. I don't really know how to describe how it felt.

Unloading and unpacking went pretty smoothly. And my first week was pretty fun. Spent a couple of nice evenings getting drunk in the back yard. Had a couple of interviews and found myself employed my very first week. That was a huge sigh of relief. And I don't start until after my trip! So it's been like an odd long vacation. That's actually exactly how it's felt so far since I've moved. Like I'm on some sort of weird long vacation. It's finally starting to sink in that I live there, but now I'm actually going on vacation.

It is that most wondrous time of year again. No, not Christmas. Comic-Con! I feel like I've used that joke before... Oh well. I'm going with it. Anyway! The airport and delayed flight I mentioned before are the start to our Comic-Con trip. Andrea and I are still sitting in YVR airport. We can see our plane out there. But apparently there's another hour to go.

In other news, we are SUPER EXCITED!! And also really tired due to lack of sleep. I think I slept 2-3 hours last night? It was pretty dumb. Anyway. I can't think of anything else to say right now. Stay tuned for updates throughout Comic-Con!

Not Yet a Tough Mudder

Alright. I have no idea what to blog about. I was up late last night and and up early this morning, so I'm currently sitting at Starbucks caffeinating myself. Still half asleep. Not a good way to start the day. Oops.

I guess I'll start with an update of my athletic accomplishments (read: failures). I have definitely NOT gotten back into the gym like I intended to. I actually went and cancelled my membership on Thursday. I am going to try to get back to it once I'm in Vancouver though. I've been trying to stay active, though. I have been walking a lot. I need to step it up to running, but over 13 km over the last two days isn't so bad. I've been using the Zombies, Run! app on my iPhone for a while, and it makes running/walking a lot more fun.

This weekend a bunch of people I know are down in Whistler doing Tough Mudder. Last year when the one group of friends went, I decided that I was gonna do it this year. That didn't happen, clearly, but I'm making myself a promise right here on the Internet for all to see. I am going to get myself into shape to do Tough Mudder next year. The training needs to start pretty much immediately.

It is about time I make myself do these things I want to do. No one else is going to do it for me, I've got to push myself to be better. It's something I care about, something I want to do, so I've got to get it done. Anyway, self-pep-talk over, I think I'm gonna end this for now. Like I said, I don't have much to blog about, so that's it. Have a great weekend!

So Much Nerd Love!

Okay, so it's been an exciting week. My little nerd heart has grown three sizes with all of this tech love announced.

At Apple's WWDC event, they made a bunch of cool announcements. There's a new Mac Pro in the works. There's new functionality with iCloud coming, mainly the ability to use iWork on the web. Mac OS X Mavericks was announced with improvements to Calendars, Safari, and Notifications, and the addition of the Maps and iBooks apps to Mac. There's probably a lot more cool stuff that was announced, but I was really just interested in one thing.

iOS 7 was announced, and I'm very excited about it. As you can tell from the above picture, there's been a major visual update. All of the app icons are updated with a flatter, more simplified look. They've greatly improved the visuals of all of the apps. They've added Control Center, which gives you access to some the important phone settings with a quick up-swipe. There's improvements all over, but it would take me too long to go over it right now, so I'll leave it for a later post.

I really want to talk about some of the cool stuff announced at E3 as well. As usual, my favourite part of E3 was Nintendo, but they didn't even do a press conference this year. Instead, they did a special Nintendo Direct featuring a bunch of new games. And they did not disappoint.

Super Mario 3D World is a new sequel to last year's 3D Land. This time they are throwing back to the old Super Mario Bros. 2 with the inclusion of Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Peach as playable characters. They've introduced the new Cat Mario suit, giving the characters cat-like abilities. It's also multiplayer, so that's a really cool addition. I'm definitely getting this game.

They also brought news on Pikmin 3, Pokémon X and Y, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, and Zelda: The Wind Waker HD. They brought the MAJOR announcement of the new Super Smash Bros games for Wii U and 3DS, including the new characters added: Mega Man, and the Villager from Animal Crossing.Bayonetta 2, Sonic Lost World, Mario Party 8, The Wonderful 101, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. So many awesome games. I'm really gonna have to get a Wii U.

Otherwise, I haven't really been keeping up with all of the E3 news. I watched the Xbox One press conference, but nothing really stood out for me. I skipped the Sony press conference, but I'll probably watch it eventually. There's really only two other games I've followed. One was the re-announcement of Final Fantasy Versus XIII, now called Final Fantasy XV. The previous announcement that it would be PS3 only is now out the window as it's been announced instead for the PS4 AND Xbox One. Also announced, and I'm REALLY excited for this one: Kingdom Hearts 3! It's still early in development, but I can't wait.

So yeah, it's been an exciting week. I've already calculated that I'm gonna be very broke with all of the new games coming out over the next year and a half. At least iOS updates are free. Anyway, it's time for work. Enjoy your Saturday!

Ready To Nerd Out

So, Andrea and I will be on our way to San Diego in a little over a month for our third annual nerdy adventure! 36 days from now we will be headed to Comic-Con once again, and I'm getting pretty excited about it!

We've done SDCC twice now, and you might think the novelty would've worn off by now, but I can't wait to get there again. Pretty soon the panel schedule will be released and we can start planning exactly who and what we wanna see, and figure out how many insane line-ups we'll be waiting in. I love all the exclusive clips and special announcements and the excitement of the crowds.

I've taken a step to improve communication while I'm there. I found a great company operating out of Vancouver called Roam Mobility. As the name of their company implies, they are a company that specializes in all of your cell phone roaming needs. Check them out! They have great plans for use while traveling in the USA. For about $28, I will have unlimited calling and texting in the US and back to Canada, plus 700 MB of data, for a week. It was a huge pain not having use of my phone last year, so I'm hoping this will be the solution I'm looking for!

Otherwise, I think we are pretty prepared for the trip. We just booked our flights. Hotel has been booked for a long time. We both managed to get our 4-day plus preview night badges. AND we bought our tickets to see the Nerdist Podcast again. I've got my USD savings account just sitting there full of money to spend. I just need to actually go!

In other news, today marks the beginning of WWDC AND E3, and I wish I was an Apple developer and/or in the gaming industry so I could be at one of them. I'm a very excited nerd right now. Anyway, this thing is already late enough and I should probably get to work, so have a wonderful week!

Better Late Than Never?

I'm falling behind on my blogging again. I'm sorry! I've made a few attempts over the last week and a half, but I keep losing interest partway through. I've really gotta be in the right mood and place to do this right.

There's plenty new going on. My life is currently in a state of change. I'm preparing to make my big move to Vancouver, and it's a little scary, but also really exciting. Adria and I have given our notice at our place here in the Great White North and are making arrangements for our respective moves. I've been applying for jobs in Vancouver, which is a little scary 'cause I haven't actually heard back about anything I've applied for. I wish I could just make a career out of being a nerd. That would be ideal.

When I was in Vancouver last weekend I got my first taste of what it would be like to be a foodie. Rob and I joined our friends George and Richard dining at a fantastic restaurant called Fable. Their whole theme is "from farm to table," meaning they use only fresh local ingredients in the food they create. We went for a special menu put together by recently eliminated Top Chef Canada contestant Geoff Rogers. And I think we were all impressed.

The three course meal started with a pemberton beef tartar served with everything bagel chips. I had never had tartar, and when I saw it on the menu I considered getting something else, but it was so delicious. Unexpectedly great. The second course was braised rabbit pappardelle, which was another thing I'd never tried before. But it was also pretty fantastic. I'd eat rabbit again. The finishing touch was a peanut butter s'more, which I don't even have to tell you was amazing. Layers of chocolate brownie, marshmallow, and peanut butter ice cream served in a mason jar. Just fantastic.

Probably the best part though was talking to the staff and the chef. Our server was fantastic, full of conversation and stories, answered all of our questions about the menu and the restaurant. And Geoff Rogers came to tell us about the food when our main dish was served. Plus he came and talked with our table for a good 20 minutes after we had all finished eating. It was a really cool evening, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

That was pretty much the big highlight of the weekend, but it was pretty packed full of awesome. I got to spend the better part of my Friday with my wonderful friend Nicole. Coffee, amazing doughnuts, arcade games (old TMNT! Dinosaurs! And zombies!), some shopping, and just some general good hangout time. Got to enjoy the beautiful sunshine walking around with Rob, and exploring downtown with George and Richard. Ran into Pam and Rob randomly on Robson Street. And Rob and I got to see Star Trek Into Darkness with Andrea and some of her friends! Fantastic movie.

So yeah! It was a busy weekend, all full of awesome. It was hard to come back. Not that I don't love my PG family and friends, and not that I don't love PG itself, but it's gotten to that point where I know I'm going to relocate, and the constant back and forth is getting difficult. Leaving Rob always sucks. But luckily I do have my friends and family that are always there for me. That will be the toughest part of moving to Van. I can't even bring myself to type how much it hurts to think about leaving Adria after a year living together.

Yeah, I need to stop there or I'll start crying in the middle of Starbucks and no one needs to see that. So anyway, have a great weekend everyone!

It's The End

So once again, it is season finale... season. I could probably have worded that differently. Anyway. It's that time of year when all of our favourite shows come to an end, some forever, and some just until the fall. It's a bittersweet time of year. Most shows seem to leave you on a cliffhanger begging for September. BUT. It's summer. And who really wants to spend the summer indoors watching TV?

I've managed to fall pretty behind on a lot of shows, so I don't even know what's going on, or how they've been left for the season. The few I've kept up with have been pretty interesting. Oh. SPOILERS AHEAD! You've been warned.

Let's start with Castle, since it's the first one I caught up on. I had about 4 episodes to watch this week so they've all pretty much just jumbled together, but the season finale left things very much on the verge of change. Not like when Kate got shot and the season ended with her dying on the ground, but still pretty crazy. Beckett gets a job offer that she really wants to take, but it means she has to leave New York. And of course that comes into conflict with her and Castle's romance. Neither is happy about it. So Castle proposes. End. I guess it's not THAT crazy, but if you're as invested in their relationship as I am, it's pretty intense.

Next: Grey's Anatomy. I know, I know. This one isn't even remotely nerdy. At least Castle has Nathan Fillion. This one is just all full of drama. I'm sorry, but I got caught up in this one and I just can't stop watching. Just let me have this one. Anyway. This one has been all full of drama all season. (Big surprise, right?) after the plane crash last year there's been so many changes, that by the time we get to the finale, which is another two parter disaster story, you start wondering who's gonna die this time. And they keep teasing it all the way through. Two of them nearly get staked by a tree flying through their living room. Another doctor is in critical condition after getting beaten nearly to death by another doctor, making you worry someone might end up in jail. Another doctor nearly gets blown up saving a little girl from a burning bus. Birth-related complications nearly kill another doctor. And none of them die. Until the very very end of the episode, Richard Webber is lying on the ground in the basement of the hospital, dead or dying of major electrical burns after getting the emergency generators running (after having saved the maintenance guy who had a heart attack while trying to get them fixed). So yeah. Never work at a hospital. If I've learned anything from this show, it's that hospitals are dangerous, and you're far more likely to die working there than being sent there in critical condition.

Didn't realize I had so much to say about that one. I hardly have time for Once Upon A Time. Oh how I love this show. This one I've actually kept up on all season, except I only JUST watched the finale last night. And boy howdy was it good. It's funny, at one point, Adria and I were both all, "Well that was anticlimactic." But then it just keeps going and you're back to being all enthralled. The end of the season has been leading up to this point where the town is in danger of destruction, but suddenly it's not, but then you learn new facts, and suddenly everyone is off on a rescue mission through a portal and the show takes another twist for the next season. PLUS someone thought dead is not, and he's found by two other characters we haven't seen in a while with someone ELSE thought dead. I dunno. I'm being a little vague, but if you've seen it you know what I mean. My Adria friend can attest, I was very very excited about this episode.

We also watched the season finale of How I Met Your Mother. And I am not gonna say anything else but... we FINALY meet the mother! I mean, the characters don't. But WE do! Yay! Other than that, I'm still behind. I've got a lot to catch up on. And tonight! Season finale of Doctor Who! Can't miss it! I'm excited. And sad, 'cause I don't wanna wait until November for more Doctor Who.

Well, I'm off to work. I hope everyone has a wonderful day. And a great long weekend!

Busy Busy Busy

Well, this is gonna have to be a quick one this week. I slept in and missed my bus... So I walked to Starbucks and only have about 20 minutes until I start work. Lets see what I can do!

I really don't have much to report on the matter of nerdiness. I haven't been playing much in the way of video games. I started reading the Clockwork Prince this week. I'm not very far into it yet. It's the second book in the Infernal Devices series, spin-off of the Mortal Instruments series (the first book of which, City of Bones, is being released on film sometime soon). It's been so long since I read the first book that I'm having some difficulty remembering the characters and the plot of the first book. But it's coming back to me.

Otherwise, I'm too busy to do much. This weekend, for example, is a very busy one. Not only is it Mothers' Day, but it's also the Relay for Life this weekend, there's a bunch of birthdays (Happy bday today to my brother Paul, cousin Willow, and on Monday, Sylvie!), AND my Rob is here!! Very exciting! There's also Roller Derby tonight, and pretty sure we are gonna go out dancing. Gotta show off my fiancé! Lots of people to introduce Rob to, kinda most importantly, my Mom!

So yeah. Busy. Who needs sleep anyway? But I should run to work now. I'll try to eat my geek on soon so I have nerdy things to talk about again. For now, have a great Saturday! (And don't forget about new Doctor Who tonight!)

OMGWTFBBQ FCBD!!!

Hey guys! Guess what! It's one of my favourite days of the year today! It's a nerdy holiday of sorts. Free Comic Book Day! What is FCBD, you ask? Let me tell you.

One day a year, always the first Saturday in May, comic book stores across Canada, the United States, and around the world, give away free comic books to anyone who comes in! Comic book companies go to the effort of creating a selection of comics specifically for this special day. It's all very exciting.

This year I'm most interested in Marvel's Infinity free comic, which is supposed to lead into this summer's big Avengers event. There's also a special Walking Dead comic I'm interested in, and probably a bunch more cool stuff. I'd say I'm being vague about the selection to get you interested enough to go, but really I just haven't done a lot of research. Big fails. But still! Be interested! Go! Comics are fun!

In other news, it's a special day for another reason. I've got three birthday shout-outs for today. It's my little cousin True's bday. And also the not-so-little-anymore Acacia's bday. And last, but definitely not least, it is the birthday of the woman who brought me into this world. Happy birthday to my amazing Mom! (Who probably won't read this so I need to remember to talk to her after work today...)

Today is also Doctor Who day, so don't forget to tune into Space (or BBC/BBC America) tonight for a new episode, The Crimson Horror. There's only two more episodes after this for this season! Then we've gotta wait all the way to November for the 50th anniversary special. At least it should be amazing and worth the wait.

In no way related to the previous topic, I'm feeling excessively tired and sore from a run yesterday. I definitely pushed myself a little harder than I realized. Ran the university hill with my canine roommate. I thought I might just die when I got up this morning. But it'll be worth it if I manage to get myself back into shape. Anyway, I'm off to work. I hope everyone has a fantastic Saturday!

He Liked It, So He Put a Ring On It

I hate when I can't think of anything to blog about. I'm sitting here in Starbucks drinking my free giant coffee flipping through websites and twitter and Facebook trying to find inspiration, and it's just not working. I'm trying to think about what I've been up to this week, but I'm coming up blank on nerdy topics. Huh.

I haven't played much in the way if video games. I can't seem to focus on anything when I sit down in front of the Xbox. I played a little bit of Defiance, but I'm sort of awful at shooters so I stopped pretty quickly. But I want to play it! Same with Bioshock Infinite. I played a little but but quit pretty early into it 'cause I'm not very good at it, and I can't seem to sit still. I should just start one of my Lego games. I've got Lego Batman 2: DC SuperHeroes, and Lego Pirates of the Caribbean that I haven't started yet, and those games tend to keep me hooked.

I read a book really fast for a change. Maybe that's why I can't focus on video games: I'm in reading mode. I read The Rise of Nine (Lorien Legacies #3) in about a week and a half. It's not a terribly difficult read, but that's the most focused on a book I've been in a long time. It was really good! I love that series. I'm pretty sure I've talked about it here before.

You know PSY, right? That South Korean pop star that made the viral hit "Gangnam Style." You know the one. Well, he has a new video out. And it's terrible. Just terrible. But I couldn't help watching it. Like a train wreck, you can't tear your eyes away. Here, just look.

http://youtu.be/ASO_zypdnsQ

Gentleman. Not even. I dunno. Some Marvel guys were tweeting about it the other day and I had to check it out. It made me sad.

In other news: I am engaged! It's been announced on Facebook already, but I'll announce it here too. My Rob proposed a little over two weeks ago. I'm very excited about it, and can't wait to move to be with him. It's making me slightly miserable being away from him. That might also have a little bit to do with my inability to focus on anything that usually makes me happy. I just wanna be in Vancouver, where my heart is.

Anyway. It's time for work. I hope you all have a happy Saturday! And don't forget that there's new Doctor Who on tonight!

Can't Think of a Good Title

Hey! So, apparently I took a weekend off from blogging. Sorry. I wish I could say it won't happen again, but if you look at my track record, it is almost guaranteed to happen again. And soon. But I was in Vancouver last weekend! This is my excuse. I never seem to blog when I'm away. I started one in the airport on my way back but I got bored... But now it's my usual before-work-on-a-Saturday coffee and blogging time, so here goes!

Since my last blog post, much has happened. And by that, I mean not much has happened, but I can still make something out of it. The super-awesome weekend of TV came and went. I could tell you how awesome Doctor Who and Game of Thrones were, but you watched them so you already know. DON'T YOU.

While I was away in Van I went with my good buddy Andrea to her meet-up group, Nerd HQ! It's this great group of nerds that get together every Friday evening (as well as various other times) to enjoy some form of nerdy culture. The focus starting last week has shifted to Doctor Who and GoT, so it was a great night. It's always held at La Fontana Caffe, a great little place at Boundary and Hastings, and the owner makes some really great food. Plus he's awesome. So it was pretty great to hang out with some fun nerdy people, eat some delicious food, and watch some great TV. Plus there was karaoke. OH! And this one guy sang a song while doing a perfect Gollum voice. SO GREAT.

What else is new? Jurassic Park 3D is in theatres right now. I saw that with Rob, Andrea, and some of the nerds. That movie will never stop being awesome. I could take or leave the 3D, but I was a kid when it came out originally so this was my first time seeing it on the big screen. The movie STILL makes me jump, even though I know what's coming.

Also on the subject of movies, I saw the Host last night with my Mom, and we both really enjoyed it. I've never read the book, but she has, and apparently they did a pretty decent job of sticking to the story. There's plenty cut for time, but it was done well. I might have to go read the book now, 'cause it was a really good story.

I FINALLY finished reading the Mark of Athena this week. It only took me several months. I still don't know why it took me so long 'cause I liked the book! I love the story, the characters, the writing. I'm just a bad reader I guess. Except that I started the Rise of Nine (third book of the Lorien Legacies series, think I Am Number Four) right after that, and I'm already just about halfway through. This is another series I've really been enjoying. The books themselves are really good, but they've also got mini-e-books that they release alongside the main story, usually delving into the past of characters just introduced or mentioned in the main series. It's a good way to keep interest in the story even when there's not a new full book in the series to read.

Anyway, it's time to head to work now, so this is it for this week. Maybe one day I'll actually find a real focus to this blog so it's not so all-over-the-place. But that's kind of how my mind works. Oh well. Happy Saturday! And happy new episode of Doctor Who day!

Great Week to be a Geek

It's a great week to be a geek. I mean, most weeks are good weeks to be geeks, you know, unless it's sports week in high school, but this one is particularly great.

Reason #1: New Doctor Who! TODAY! Seriously, guys. It does not get much better than that. It could be a terrible week otherwise, and it would STILL be a great time. It's been a few months since we've had our last dose of the Doctor, and I couldn't be more excited to have it back! After everything that's been happening in the show, I need to know what's next! And the 50th anniversary is coming up and THAT is looking like it's gonna be pretty fantastic.

Reason #2: New Game of Thrones! Season 3 starts TOMORROW! I managed to get myself all caught up for the new season, so bring it on! Now I can feel out with the best of 'em as the episodes air. I'm very interested in seeing what's gonna happen next. The season finale was pretty crazy.

Reason #3: The season finale of The Walking Dead! Also tomorrow! This one I'm not actually caught up on though, so I'll just have to assume it's super exciting. At least now I can watch the whole of season 3 all at once and not have to wait a week for a new one. But still, I need to make sure I'm caught up on this one for next season.

Sundays have been a pretty great TV night... Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Once Upon A Time. Plus Revenge, and while it lasted, 666 Park Avenue. Anyway...

Reason #4: Actually not TV-related, but this week was pretty awesome for comics too. Age of Ultron #3 was out this week, and I've been pretty unsure about that one so far, but the last page was somewhat shocking and has definitely got me hooked now. Uncanny Avengers has really brought up its game this week and I definitely recommend giving it a read, however it would help if you've read Remender's run on Uncanny X-Force prior to reading this. New characters and the beginnings of some really interesting plot points.

Astonishing X-Men brought the next chapter of the X-Termination crossover which I'll admit has me wanting to pick up the last few issues of X-Treme X-Men and Age of Apocalypse so I don't miss any of the story. Young Avengers is really kicking it up, and I'm enjoying it a lot. Uncanny X-Force seems interesting but also pretty jumbled. The different points really need to come together and make some sense or I might get bored. Wolverine and the X-Men is trying hard, but I'm struggling to stay interested. The current arc just isn't doing it for me. And Ultimate Comics: Wolverine is turning out to be a pretty interesting mini-series. I'm enjoying the story, and the artist is great. Even had a fun little cameo by some familiar scientists.

Anyway, those are the main points of geeky interest from my week. What made your week great and/or geeky? Have a great Saturday! And Happy Easter!

Early Morning Rambling

Okay, so, I'm getting really tired of this winter crap. It just keeps dragging on. I know, I know: it's PG. Winter lasts until May some years. But come on! Can't we have spring on time for once? There's green grass and flowers in Vancouver already!

Anyway, that's my rant for this morning. What brought that on is just the fact that I bought this new Jawbone UP and I've been trying to be active and eat better, but it's really not going all that well. I probably shouldn't blame the weather, but I just find it so hard to motivate myself to do something in the cold. I should really just accept that I'm lazy and deal with that problem.

The one sorta-benefit of being lazy is that I've finally been catching up on some of my nerdy pastimes. I've gotten myself all caught up on Game of Thrones for the new season. Can't wait for that! I've also made a tiny bit of progress on reading Mark of Athena. That book is taking me forever to read. And there's no reason for it. It's a good book!

I finished off Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance a couple weeks ago and started playing Harvest Moon: A New Beginning. It's a pretty fun game, but I'm really not far in it yet. I haven't gotten to build anything yet, and that's the part I'm really looking forward to. I spent a large portion of the day yesterday playing Mass Effect 2. It's not my usual kinda game. I'm not very good at aiming, so I usually prefer games that auto-lock on to your enemies. But it's pretty fun anyway. I like story driven games, and this seems to have an interesting story so far.

I've been keeping up on my comics, but I can't remember what came out recently. I forgot to take my usual "this week's comics" photo for Instagram. I know I enjoyed them. There was All-New X-Men, Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man, Cable and X-Force, and New Avengers. I can't remember what else. Hmmm. I'm a failure of a comic book fan.

Whenever I go to Great White, which is where I buy my comics, I always go look at the Lego. I desperately want to get a few of the sets they've got. All of the Hobbit Lego sets they've got. And the Marvel and DC Superheroes sets. At the Lego store in Vancouver they have even more awesome sets. If I was rich, I'd have a whole big room dedicated entirely to Lego. It would be epic and amazing. But sadly, all I've got are my few little mini-sets.

Anyway! That's my rambling for this week. I will try to come up with something more focused and cohesive for next week. Happy Saturday!

Going UP in the World

I really have no idea what I wanna blog about today, but I already missed a week so I'm gonna just have to go for it and see what happens. Hang on for the ride! ...Or just keep reading...

Last weekend when I was in Vancouver (yet again), I visited my good buddy Nicole at the Apple Store, and she introduced me to the Jawbone UP! Remember last year at Comic-Con when I got that Nike+ FuelBand and was all excited about it? Well this is kinda like that, but BETTER!

Much like the FuelBand, it's a band you wear on your wrist that measures your movements and tells you how many steps you've taken and works that out into calories burned and makes a pretty little graph in the app that goes with it. So far it sounds pretty familiar. Nothing too terribly exciting right? Might as well just have a step counter. But WAIT! There's MORE!

You also wear this thing to bed and switch it into sleep mode, and it somehow records your sleep! When you wake up in the morning and sync the band to your iPhone app, it pops up with a cool little graph showing you how long you slept, how much of your sleep was light versus deep, and it shows you how many times you woke up. I'm not sure how it works, but it's really cool.

The app also lets you input your other activities, like biking, cross training, weights, and a bunch of other things, and then tells you approximately how many calories you burned. You can also put in all of the food you've eaten throughout the day. This one is a really big thing for me. You put in the nutritional information of what you ate and it compares it to what you should be eating, and then I feel guilty for having way too much sodium and not enough fibre, or whatever. Did you know that EVERYTHING you eat has sodium? Even water.

One of the really interesting features of the band is the "smart alarm." I mentioned before that it somehow can tell when you are in a light sleep versus a deep sleep. Well, you can set an alarm on the band with a window to wake you up. You can set it to wake you at 7:30am, with a window of half an hour. The band will then find a point between 7am and 7:30am when you are in a light sleep stage and wake you up then so you'll be less groggy. The band vibrates on your wrist, which worried me at first, but it's not a bad way to be woken up. It's pretty interesting. It seems pretty effective, but me being me, I still set an alarm on my phone. And my alarm clock. But maybe I'll change that after I test it a little longer.

There are a lot of fun features in the UP app. You can add your friends to your "team" and see their activities and comment on them, cheer each other on. I've got a few friends on it, and I love that. It's nice to have friendly encouragement. You can also look at a timeline of everything you've done since you started using the UP band, and you can compare your sleep and activity on different graphs. And the app pops up with helpful tips and information based on your activities.

All in all, I'm really enjoying the Jawbone UP so far. It's pushing me to get more active again, and that's something I need. Plus it's fun AND pretty. And I think you should get one.

Flaming Bear Powers?

This week was a really great week for comics. After a somewhat disappointing week last week, it was pretty exciting that I had seven new issues and I enjoyed nearly all of them. So just for fun, I'm gonna give you a quick recap of them all. First up we had...

Ultimate Comics: X-Men #23
This is one title I've been struggling with a bit lately. It's become more of a political book and less about the X-Men. I understand that they've gone a new direction with the Ultimate Marvel line, but it's just been somewhat boring for a while now. This issue was a little different. It was sort of a background story with a bit of recap. Nothing terribly exciting happened, but it seemed like it might be setting something else up. I'm hoping this title gets some action going on soon, or I might have to drop it. Next up, we have...

Astonishing X-Men #59
This is another title I'm starting to struggle with a bit. On the one hand, I love the characters. Wolverine, Northstar, Gambit, Karma, Iceman, and Cecelia Reyes are all very good characters. But for some reason I'm just not caring very much. I think part of my problem that the relationship of Northstar and his new husband Kyle is so much the focus that it seems like all we're ever hearing about is their whiny problems. I'm all for relationships in comics, and the fact that it's a gay couple should be cool considering I'm gay myself, but enough is enough. I want some astonishing x-heroics, not astonishingly boring x-drama. Either Kyle is okay with being married to a super hero, or he's not and they can break up. Get it over with. Anyway... Now on to...

Uncanny Avengers #4
Now things start to get better. This was the first new Marvel NOW! title to come out after AvX, but it's also been the slowest one. And by that I mean release-wise, not pace-wise. It seems to keep getting delayed. But it's really good so far! The first story arc just wrapped up, and we've seen the Red Skull become an even bigger threat than he ever was before. A new team of Avengers made up of classics as well as X-Men has formed, and they've set things up to make this a pretty exciting book. The writing is good, the art is good, and the final page was a very big WTF moment that I can't wait to see play out. From there, we move on to...

Young Avengers #2
The end of the first issue was a bit of a shocker, and seeing things play out from there has been really fun. This book worried me a bit at first 'cause it's just a little bit hipster, but this issue really turned that around. The art is great, and I can't wait to see where this story is going. And they way artist and writer are working together on this is creating a really fantastic book. This is a shining example of a gay couple in a super hero book, as well. Wiccan and Hulkling make things effortless. It's not a big deal that they are a couple, it's just how it is. The story doesn't have to keep referencing it to remind people like a certain other comic I mentioned earlier. It's only two issues in and I really look forward to this one continuing on. Speaking of continuing on...

Avengers Arena #5
I really love this book. I think I've brought it up a couple times in this blog already. It's Avengers Academy meets the Hunger Games. And it's just so good! Every issue is full of those WTF moments that keep you reading on, and the characters are so interesting. Every issue picks a character to focus on, and it fluctuates between the present events in Arcade's new Murder World, and flashbacks of their lives prior to being captured. Much like Lost. And no one died this issue! That's my only problem with this is that the characters are all very cool, but they're probably going to die before the story is done. Not cool. So then...

Uncanny X-Force #2
I love Betsy Braddock. I'm not sure why. Something about a sexy purple haired psychic ninja just does it for me. And this is really her book. Storm, Puck, Fantomex and Cluster, Spiral and the new mutant girl, Ginny. And the reintroduction of Bishop with crazy flaming bear powers. I'm really not sure what's going on with this book yet, but it's fun to read so far, and I can't wait for the next issue. Finally...

Uncanny X-Men #2
I saved the best for last. I'm loving this book. From the amazing art by Chris Bachalo, to the great writing by Brian Michael Bendis, this book is a lot of fun. We've got Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magik, and Magneto, all dealing with broken mutant powers and being on the wrong side of the law. They've recruited some of the new mutants resulting from the end of AvX, and they're trying to start the mutant revolution. If you haven't already picked this one up, I recommend it.

So that was my comic book haul for this week. I may not have a future in comic book reviewing, but it was pretty fun talking about them anyway.

It's funny, anything comic-book or sci fi related reminds me of Comic-Con lately, and how extremely excited I am for that this year. Andrea has to put up with random text messages from me being all "I'M SO EXCITED!" But luckily she is as well so it's not so weird. Anyway! Happy Saturday! May all your weekend plans be merry!

This Went a Very Different Direction Than Intended...

So, this week I was gonna blog about the new comics I picked up on Wednesday, but when I tried to do that, I realized I barely remember reading them. That either means they weren't all that exciting, or I was too tired to really take it in when I read them in bed that night.

So, what else can I blog about? I have been watching Game of Thrones finally. I started a few weeks ago. I finally signed up for HBO and I've been recording the second season as it aires, and I managed to find the first season online. I'm only two episodes in to season two right now, but it's very good.

What I've learned so far: the Starks are fairly naive which gets them in trouble, the Lannisters are pretty awful, and someone really needs to kill Joffrey, and there's a lot of cool mythology that needs to be explored. White walkers? Dragons? The weird stuff going on with Bran? I'm pretty excited to continue on with it and see what happens.

While on the subject of good TV, I have also signed up for AMC, which means I can finally watch new episodes of the Walking Dead! Sadly, though, I had set up the first eight episodes of season three to record when they had the marathon the other day leading up to the ninth episode, but my PVR decided to die that weekend while I was in Vancouver, so none of it recorded. Which means finding it online. Which isn't difficult, just annoying when I could be watching it in HD on my TV.

In other news, last weekend when Comic-Con badges went on sale, I had way better luck than I thought possible! I was standing there at work waiting for the link to go live on the badge sales website at 9am, which also happens to be when the bank opens. Convenient right? Luckily, it wasn't busy, so when the link went live, I clicked it both on my work computer and on my phone. And then sat there and waited. It was about 5 minutes of loading before I got a weird error message. So I refreshed, which you're not supposed to do. No luck still. So I clicked on the address bar and hit enter, and it started loading again. All wasn't lost! And finally when I got into the waiting room, I was number 147 in line! Apparently I was lucky, 'cause at the same time my phone popped up with me sitting 6489th or so in line.

Two minutes later, the waiting room let me through and I was on my way! I managed to secure 4-Day with Preview Night badges for myself AND Andrea! So we are on our way to Comic-Con and getting the full experience once again! I really can't wait to start planning our trip! Andrea and I were talking about last year and our odd theme of accidentally stalking Chris Hardwick the whole trip, and how we're curious what this year's theme will be. Hopefully something fun and exciting again!

The other thing this has made me think about is that I really need to eat my ass in gear saving money! I still owe money from last year's trip, plus my oddly expensive summer, so it's time to really start sticking to a strict budget so I can afford flights and whatnot. I already have US cash saved for spending money, but the other expenses need to be prepared for.

I am really excited right now! And it's still five months away! That's not all that far away though... Oh boy. Anyway! Time to go to work! Have a great weekend!

A Very un-Craig-like Feat

So, yesterday was a pretty amazing day for me. Why, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. I finished a video game. But wait! That's not all. I finished... wait for it... TWO video games! Wow, right?!

I rarely finish a video game. It's pretty rare. Most games I get to a certain point and just... stop. Quite often it's at that point right before you head into the final level/boss/whatever and it's your last chance to do all of the sidequests and collect all of the collectibles (you know me and collectibles).

Yesterday I managed to get through the last chapter of Jurassic Park: The Game. There is replayability in this one 'cause there are still a bunch of achievements to unlock, but this game frustrated me so much that I probably won't make any attempts at that anytime soon. Seriously, I am so terrible at reflexive button presses, and that's the whole base of the gameplay, so I relied more on repeatedly dying and memorizing the button prompts. My roommate probably got a little tired of my swearing constantly while I played this game, so it's being retired.

The other game I finally beat was Paper Mario: Sticker Star for the Nintendo 3DS. I started this game a while ago and, as usual, quit playing it right at the final boss fight. Although not for the usual reasons. I had actually managed to collect all of the stickers and find all the HP hearts and hidden Luigis and all that stuff. I just got wiped out in the final boss fight and got all discouraged. I knew I needed to prepare better, but I didn't wanna go to all of the trouble finding better stickers and whatnot, so I just quit for a while. I picked it up a while ago and did all the prep work, but didn't wanna try the battle again. But last night I was already on a roll with JP, so I gave it a shot, and sure enough, I managed to beat Bowser!

I loved Paper Mario: Sticker Star. I was so afraid that I'd hate it with the big changes they made to the gameplay mechanics, but it's my favourite game for the 3DS so far. It's cute and fun, lots to do and collect, and challenging to figure out the right strategy for each battle. It's overall a very charming game that I'd recommend to any 3DS owner.

So now that I've beaten those two, it's time to refocus my video gaming efforts! I'm thinking I'll push to finish off Lego Batman ('cause I STILL haven't finished that one), and I'll try to get into Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance. I tried playing KH:3D when it came out, but for some reason I had a lot of trouble really getting into it. It's odd 'cause it's one of my favourite video game franchises.

Anyway! That's all I've got for this week. Time for work! Oh! AND Comic-Con badges go on sale today! Wish me luck in getting mine! (And good luck to you if you're trying today too!)

Do-you-think-he-saurus Rex

So, I'm not sure what's going on, but I seem to have a bit of a dinosaur obsession right now. Specifically with Jurassic Park. I've always really liked dinosaurs. Not enough to study them or know the difference between a brontosaurus and a brachiosaurus. But enough that I love the Jurassic Park movies, and I was devastated by the cancellation of Terra Nova.

For years now I've had the habit of occasionally doing a google search for Jurassic Park 4. And for years there have been little bits of news here and there that its coming, but never anything concrete. Just that there's a producer attached, and a writer is working on it, and then a new writer has taken over, and various bits of useless information.

But the wait is over! Sorta. There is finally a release date, and things are happening! June 13, 2014 is the date to remember. It's a ways off yet, and there's no director yet, but it's gonna happen! I'm seriously excited for this! I want to know what direction they'll take with it, which characters they'll bring back (if any), what dinosaurs will show up, where it'll take place, all that stuff!

I've also gotten somewhat obsessed with the Jurassic Park Builder app on the iPhone/iPad. It's one of those freemium games, where the app is free, and you don't HAVE to pay any money to use it, but to speed up building times and all that, you need to use you cash, which you can earn in game or buy for real money. Anyway! I've gotten obsessed with it. I keep expanding my park, and getting new dinosaurs, evolving them, levelling them up, and completing quests set forth by the characters from the movies. It's a very simple game, but it's a little bit addictive. I now split my time pretty evenly between that and DragonVale, my other favourite iOS app.

My other new obsession is Jurassic Park: The Game for Xbox 360. My friend Sylvie bought it for me the other day as my birthday present, and I've already played through most of it, but you know me! I'll have to play through again to try to unlock all of the achievements. It's a relatively simple game. You mostly just follow along the story, but it gives you options for dialogue and let's you search for what you have to do. And when action sequences come up you've got to hit various times commands to make it through the scene. Quite often these are dinosaur encounters, and I've already lost count on how many times I've missed commands and ended up dead. I'm starting to feel guilty at how many times I've had to listen to the characters cry over each other's deaths.

The game is pretty fun, and it gives a lot more backstory on the island, plus it follows up on the lost barbasol can with the dinosaur embryos hidden in it. None of the movie characters really appear, but there are plenty of references to the movie, and early on you come across a lot of familiar locations where the movie characters have clearly JUST vacated the scene.

So that's it, the past, present, and future of Jurassic Park (not necessarily in that order). I'm thinking after work today is going to involve some more escaping from dinosaurs. Oh! Last I played I had just gotten to a part with a giant underwater dinosaur! Gotta see what happens with that! Until then... work...

Lego Everywhere!

So, I'm sitting in my room at home attempting to come up with a blog idea. I am not in my usual blogging environment, so we'll see if I can still come up with something if I'm not sitting in Starbucks.

Have you ever played a Lego video game? Like, Lego Batman, Lego Star Wars, Lego Harry Potter? They are some of my favourite games. It's ridiculous, 'cause they have been made to appeal to children, but the games are just so fun! And addictive!

I think I've mentioned before that I have a thing about collecting things, and these games definitely play to that part of me. I've been playing Lego Batman for a long time now. I've beaten the main story to the game already, but every level has a bunch of things to collect, and I have to get all of them. There are pieces of special mini-models I every level, plus a person needs to be rescued from bad guys, and there's a special red brick that can be found, bought, and when activated give you special abilities in the game. There are also a ton of characters to be unlocked as you go that you can then use in levels afterwards.

This is the basic premise in all of the Lego games. Plus, the fact that its on the Xbox means there are achievements to be unlocked, which is another huge pile of things to unlock/collect. So far I've only managed to beat two games to 100% completion. Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, and Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7. Both I have gotten all of the stuff in game, as well as all of the achievements. I'm nearly there with Lego Batman. But then I've got Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Star Wars, and Lego Pirates of the Caribbean to beat, plus Lego Lord of the Rings just came out, and Lego Marvel Super Heroes comes out this fall, so I've got my work cut out for me.

And that's just the Lego series of games! I've also got all of the Assassin's Creed games, Dragon Age II, Bioshock 2, Fable II and III, Skyrim, and so many other games to get through, PLUS all of the games I've got for other systems. I could probably take a year off from work and do nothing but play video games, and STILL not get through them all. Oh well. There are worse addictions.

New Year, New You?

Alright! It's 2013! First blog post of the New Year! Woohoo! ...Yeah, it's not really that exciting. Sorry. I'm tired, and apparently excitable in my writing.

So! It's a new year, which is when most people make a bunch of silly resolutions to do things that they break within a week or two. I don't believe in resolutions, but I do believe it's good to set goals for the new year. Nothing too crazy, nothing necessarily finite, but general goals about lifestyle.

For example, last year, I set a few goals. I knew I needed to make some sort of decision in my relationship status, and that happened. I also decided I needed to be more active. And while I didn't turn into an Olympic level athlete, I did greatly improve my activity level. Started going to the gym and took up running.

This year I'd like to build on that goal of being more active and be more consistent with my activity levels. I need to get back to the gym, and try to push through this wintery lethargy. I had a sudden burst of energy the other night and did a bunch of push-ups and abs exercises. I was feeling pretty frustrated at the time which is always a good motivator for me, but I've been longing for the snow to disappear so I can go for a run outside again. Find a playground and do some pull-ups. I really just need to go to the gym. That's what the facilities are for.

Anyway. A lot more important of a goal for me this year is to try to be a better friend. I hadn't really realized it was happening, but I've drifted away from many of my friends, including some of the most important people to me. I hope it's not too late to fix things, but I've never been good with confrontation, so I'm not sure how to go about approaching the problem. I guess the best way is to just talk, and hope she'll listen. I probably shouldn't talk about it here anymore, but it's on my mind and I really can't stop thinking about her.

Uuuh... So where was I? Goals? There's a few other goals I have. Be better with my money. Visit family more. Be more productive. All vague things with no finite measurable levels of success. Also, I want to figure out exactly what I want to do with this blog. Right now it's basically just my little outlet of nerdiness, but I want it to be more than that. I'm not exactly sure how to make that happen. But I guess I'll just keep plugging away and I'll figure it out eventually!