All Hallows' Eve

Halloween! It's a joyous day when kids dress up and collect candy from their neighbours! Or at least they used to when people still knew and trusted their neighbours. Huh. That's a happy thought. Aaaanyway...

Halloween has come once again, and for the first time in forever, I'm ACTUALLY prepared! I've got a costume ready and everything! It's not a scary costume. Just kinda fun. I'm dressing up as a nerd. Yeaaaah I know, that's not really a costume 'cause I AM such a big nerd. But just believe me, it's gonna be great!

I haven't really done the Halloween thing in so long! Last year for work I "dressed up" as Clark Kent. And by that I mean I wore my dressy work clothes with the shirt unbuttoned, a Superman t-shirt hiding underneath. Lame. I know. I'm hoping this year is a significant enough improvement to inspire me to continue doing better.

Wow, that sounds motivational. If only it was for a better cause than costume making. I'm pretty excited to see what all my friends are dressing up as tonight. Just as an added bonus, a reminder of my costume last year is below. Lemme know what you're doing for Halloween in the comments below!

That Is The Question

Today I want to discuss one of the question I often ponder to myself... If I had super powers, would I be a hero? Or a villain? (Fun fact: That's how I came up with the title of this blog.)

It's easy to SAY I'd be all heroic if I got some sort of special abilities bestowed upon me. Use my ice powers to rescue someone from a fire. Use my invulnerability to stop a firefight. Use my influence over the weather to help people dying in a drought. There are so many ways I could help the world if I had some sort of super powers.

But more likely I'd use them for my own benefit. Use my super speed to get to work in a flash and get to sleep in an extra half hour. Use my telepathy to figure out what people really think of me. Use my ability to fly to get away from it all and enjoy unique views and locations. Not necessarily BAD things, just things that might seem a bit selfish.

But that could lead to all kinds of other things. Get annoyed at that car that doesn't stop at the crosswalk and use my telekinesis to make an invisible wall where they should have stopped. Oops. Car totaled. Use my precognition ability to predict the winning lotto numbers. Use my mind control abilities to make people I don't like do stupid things, or confess their misdeeds. Still, this would be bad, but more vigilante level than actual villain.

But it would be so easy to become a super villain with the right abilities and motivation. No one likes the way the government seems to hate to listen to the people. So if I had Magneto's powers over magnetism, or the near omnipotent powers of the Phoenix, I might just take it upon myself to be rid of the world's governments and take over myself. Bend the world to my will. But then I've become an evil overlord despite my best intentions. Maybe I just want to run around with my super strength beating up bad guys. But what if I don't agree on who the bad guys are, and I'm strong enough to take out a tank? Law enforcement decides I'm too big a threat to be allowed to continue, so then it's me against the world. There are so many ways things could go wrong even with the best intentions.

So the question is: How strong is my moral compass? Could I handle the responsibility of that much power? Like I said before, I'd like to think I could handle it and use my abilities for good, but maybe it's a good thing I don't live in a comic book... How would you handle YOUR superpowers?

The Nintendo Hero

So! With this post, I'm going to introduce a new recurring theme post I'd like to call The Nintendo Hero. See how it's similar to The Noble Hero? You know, thenoblehero, my chosen nickname? Yeah, that's what I was going for.

So, what's this new recurring theme post about? My love for Nintendo, of course! I would like to take a moment to point out that I am in no way affiliated with or sponsored by Nintendo, but if they noticed me, that would be cool too.

Anyway, I wanted to make this post to commemorate the introduction of the Nintendo 3DS! The announcements have been coming in for a while now, but the official North American press thingie was a couple days ago, so new news! Woo!

The USD price point of $249.99 isn't surprising, and to me seems totally fair, considering what all the portable gaming device has to offer in comparison previous handhelds. One interesting thing I've noticed in my online research, though, is that the price is the same in the US as it is in Canada! I had fully expected to be paying $279.99 or $289.99, but with the dollar being pretty much on par, it appears the pricing will be the same! This new revelation does ruin my plan of buying it in the States when I'm down there in the summer, but really, it's probably better this way. I won't have to worry about packing a big chunk of extra cash on me. I can save my money for more important things, like food and souvenirs.

The release date of March 27th would be exciting and have me lining up to get one on launch day, except that there aren't really any games I want coming out at launch. I think I might pick up Nintendogs + cats, but it's hardly exciting enough to run out and get the 3DS right away. Where's Paper Mario 3D? Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D? Even their flagship title that they've been pushing, Kid Icarus: Uprising, won't be out at launch. It is interesting to note that the Future Shop website has Kid Icarus and Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance (the other game that I really want) with a release date of March 27th. I'm curious where they've gotten their information, if they are jumping the gun, or if they've got some inside info that no one else has.

So, that's pretty much all I wanted to say. I'm totally stoked for the Nintendo 3DS, and I can't wait for both the 27th of March, and more info on release dates of all the awesome games! Until next time...