Just A Thought: 1st Man Of Steel Trailer

1:00 into this trailer and you'll see what I mean. At first, I thought it was really cool to portray Superman's flight as something akin to a fighter jet. But after watching the trailer for the 2nd time, I thought this particular scene was a bit off.

First of all, I am no expert on what Superman can and can't do so the following is mostly conjecture. I do, however, remember watching Superman: The Animated Series as a kid on weekdays after school and what I remember of his power over speed is that he has little to no rate of acceleration. He's in one spot one second and in another spot the next. My guess is that to human eyes, this displacement would look like he's teleporting but in reality, he's just moving so fast that it merely seems that way. The cartoon illustrates this as a very brief red and blue blur on the screen; enough to let the audiences know that he is actually moving through the air and not using some magic trick. I thought that was cool.

So as I mentioned, he has no rate of acceleration, or at least, not at a level that is discernible by human eyes. I believe it is safe to say that Superman can travel in and out of supersonic speeds at will, considering he wouldn't be able to save a lot of crashing planes (planes are always crashing around Metropolis, you would think air traffic control would set up a no-fly perimeter) if he has to struggle to surpass commercial jets' speeds. So my question is: If his rate of acceleration is greater than 0-768 mph in less than a second, wouldn't he have broken the sound barrier on the ground, as he took off?

My only conclusion, then, to explain this mystery is that those sonic booms you hear and the vapor trail he leaves behind isn't him breaking the sound barrier. It's plain, simple, Kryptonian flatulence.

‹^› (': ' ) ‹^›

Diablo 3 - Keep It Going

You guys might be tired of reading my posts about Diablo 3 but I'm not tired of writing about it so too bad. After playing patch 1.0.5 for a little over a week now, I can safely say that Diablo 3 is definitely on the right track.

1.0.3 was the baby steps. Its biggest role was to start undoing the existing mechanics (as well as few changes added on with previous patches) that made the game horribly frustrating to play. Allowing ilvl 63 items to drop in Act 1 and Act 2, even at a lower rate, ensured that players had a more realistic chance at progression.

1.0.4 was the jog around the track. Its biggest role was to add another incentive to continue doing the only available end-game content: farming items. The Paragon System is not the ultimate solution but its benefits are a good enough reason for many to continue the item grind. Also, Witch Doctors.

1.0.5 is the parkour sprint through an elaborate obstacle course. Its biggest role was adding end-game content: the Infernal Machine. This is simply Diablo 3's version of Diablo 2's Pandemonium Event, in which you kill specific monsters across various zones to collect three different keys that grant access to uber bosses who drop organs necessary to craft a legendary ring with the potential to roll incredibly powerful properties. Run-on much?

Some might argue the ring isn't worth much outside of its experience boost because the Hellfire proc is worthless. Before my brain explodes from the sheer ignorance of such a notion, consider that the ring is a guaranteed +170 to your main stat and that if it rolls even one damage property (critical hit chance, critical hit damage, or attack speed), it's already better than 99% of the rings you can buy off the Auction House. A good ring is one of the most expensive pieces of gear you'll buy (if you don't find one) and the fact that you can obtain it without farming for weeks or months makes the Hellfire ring a very realistic upgrade for most players. Also, keep in mind that killing a Keywarden with 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor yields similar rewards to killing any elite or champion pack so there's no reason (other than deviating from a set farming routine) not to gather keys during your runs. The only hard part is killing the uber bosses, which isn't even that hard on Monster Power 4 if you have halfway decent gear. Having another competent player join you actually makes it a breeze.

Now all Blizzard needs to add is some PvP, an improved Blacksmith, further skill balancing, and one or two more end-game events and I will be very satisfied with Diablo 3 until the expansion.

‹^› (': ' ) ‹^›

Syndra, the Dark Sovereign

League of Legend's latest champion is Syndra, an AP (Ability Power) mage who looks like she would crush you with her big black balls and drop down from her effortless levitating to tap dance on your lifeless body. And she could, assuming she could land all her abilities. This, however, is not easy.

Transcendent (Innate): This passive is a joke. All it does is make her spells match the utility/damage of other champions' spells at rank 5. So prior to maxing out a skill, you'll be fighting an uphill battle.

Dark Sphere (Q): This skill discharges a small magical burst at the targeted area after a brief delay, much like Zyra's Deadly Bloom. It leaves behind a dark sphere for a short while, which you will need to utilize with her other spells. Though a decent farming spell, these types of spells are dicey to use on players because they can predict where you'll use it based on the simple fact that it has a brief delay.

So in order to increase your chances of landing this ability, you'd need to slow or stun your target beforehand. That or out-guess the direction the enemy player will move to after they attempt to bait you into using it first. Well, the good news is she has a slow AND and stun to do just that. The bad news is they're also both skillshots.

Force of Will (W): This skill grabs an NPC unit or a dark sphere for the first cast and throws it towards the targeted area for damage and slow on the second cast. This is also a decent farming spell but it suffers from the same problem as Dark Sphere in terms of reliable damage. As a matter of fact, it's worse than Dark Sphere because not only is the actual toss animation a built-in delay but the enemy will be alerted to your aggression as soon as you grab a unit/sphere. Oh, and did I mention that the grabbed unit/sphere has to be dragged towards Syndra to within a certain range before it can even be thrown, adding even further delay? This means you won't be able to grab and immediately throw right after. You have to grab, wait for it to get close, and THEN throw.

This makes Force of Will feel very clunky and quite difficult to land on a competent opponent. Also, your grab duration isn't that long so you have a short window of opportunity to pull off your combo. If not, you use up your mana for nothing. That's right; the mana cost is applied on the grab, not the throw. Whether you throw or not, mana is spent regardless...

Scatter the Weak (E): Now, this spell is pretty easy to use because it's an instant, cone-shaped AoE spell... except the range is relatively short compared to her other two spells. But that's okay because the real range of the spell is the distance of a propelled dark sphere, which is pretty far. No spell of Syndra's, however, exist without a prerequisite.

In order to land the stun component of the spell, you need to A.) make sure the dark sphere will travel far enough to reach your target and B.) ensure that a dark sphere exists directly between yourself and the target.

Now think about that. In the scenario where you're actually trying to land your Q, there's a HIGH chance you won't get to land your stun because the dark sphere will spawn ON or in very close proximity to your target. At that point, if they move in between or perpendicular to the alignment of Syndra and the sphere, you can kiss that stun goodbye. And if you decide to forgo the damage of your initial Q and cast it in front of your E just to initiate with the stun, you still have to be extremely accurate with the direction and timing of her abilities in that you're lining up two skillshots, both of which has a built-in delay (Q's obvious delayed blast and the dark sphere's travel speed on E), AND you're using significant mana just for an attempt at landing your combo.

Unleashed Power (R): This is the easiest and most devastating spell she has, being that it's your ultimate and all. If you have even one extra sphere out in the field and decent AP, you can easily half-shot anyone that isn't a tank with her R alone. With your full combo, I'm pretty sure her burst damage could rival Veigar's. Of course, executing her full combo is not at all an easy feat to accomplish.

I'm starting to think Syndra is a champ that has to start the fight with her ultimate, after getting two or three spheres out first. Once she casts your R, all the spheres converge onto the target, dispersing around that area's proximity. This makes landing her E's stun much easier as there are so many spheres to propel in multiple directions. Once your R and E has landed, there's a high probability that your target is near death and stunned, which you could follow through easily with a W and Q for the kill.

As of this writing, they just announced a few buffs to Syndra, some of which will definitely increase the viability of her CC skillshots. Hopefully these buffs are enough to offset the incredibly high skill-cap of this champion.

‹^› (': ' ) ‹^›

You Only Have One In Real Life

Life, that is. And you should care about preserving it to the best of your abilities because chances are, you're already fighting a losing battle.

Unfortunately, there's many things outside our control which effect our health negatively. We can't control what our supermarkets stock up on the shelves. We can't control the ingredients companies use in their processed foods. We can't control the sedentary work most of us do 8+ hours a day, 5 days a week. But the two things we maintain complete control over is exactly what we put in our mouths and how much exercise we do.

The following video is about 1.5 hours long. Yes, that is very long for a YouTube video but considering how much information is packed in that 1.5 hours, it's incredibly well composed and could very well change the way you look at a lot of the food we eat. Props to Dr. Robert Lustig and all his associates.

You should also take an hour of your day to watch this series on obesity. Most of it is reiterated information from the above video but with some new research added in. Still worth watching the whole series, just to thoroughly understand how dire the consequences can be. If nothing else, at least watch episode 3.

But if you want me to paraphrase...

Too much fat is bad, too much sugar is worse

Though we've reduced our total fat intake from 40% to 30% at the behest of the American Heart Association, the American Medical Association, and the U. S. Department of Agriculture over the last 30 years, the prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome rose dramatically. After breaking down the types of calories consumed, the item that correlates most with this rise is sugar.

Sugar is addictive

Much in the same way crack is addictive. The reward center of your brain (nucleus accumbens) is where the interaction of dopamine occurs. This neurotransmitter controls your feeling of pleasure. After prolonged exposure to dopamine, the receptors lose its sensitivity to the chemical. This is tolerance. So now you must eat more of it to feel the same effects. And when you take away the dopamine (stop the excessive sugar intake), you feel like shit. This is withdrawal. Tolerance and withdrawal is the basis of addiction.

Sugar Drives Insulin

And insulin drives fat production. Leptin is a hormone that comes from your fat cells and its job is to let your brain know that you're not hungry so you can burn energy. So why are obese people, who have plenty of fat therefore have plenty of leptin, still overeat? Because insulin prevents leptin from doing its job at the brain and with our current lifestyle, we have too much of it in our system.

Obviously, we all need insulin. If we didn't, diabetics would be perfectly fine. But why are we loaded with all this extra insulin and where is it coming from? Our body actually makes it because of the constant state of elevated blood sugar levels as a result of our poor diet. As long as insulin is present in your system, you will always be in fat storage mode instead of fat burning mode.

You're on your own

The U. S. Food and Drug Administration and the U. S. Department of Agriculture will not regulate your sugar intake. Why not? Because as bad as sugar is, it's only killing us because we eat too much of it. That's the bottom line. Eating ice cream once in a while isn't going to kill you. The main problem is that avoiding it is very difficult when a majority of the packaged foods in your local supermarket has sugar added in some way, shape, or form. This means that unless you're actually looking at the nutritional facts and ingredients list on everything you buy, you're probably eating too much of it.

Also, our food is sold all over the world for its convenience, taste, and affordability. Admitting now that the stuff will slowly kill you would be disastrous to trade. We are stuck with this food and no one is going to tell us to stop. We have to do this ourselves.

Make your move
So what can you do in a world where fast, palatable, and cheap food is easily accessible almost 24/7 against healthy food that isn't as tasty (at first), harder to find, requires more effort to prepare, and more expensive? Realistically, it's not as difficult as it seems. There's at least three things you can do that won't impact your budget at all and might even save you money in the long run.

1. Cut the sugary beverages. This includes 100% fruit juices, as they are loaded with fructose which is just as bad as sucrose (table sugar). Even though sugar-sweetened drinks are far from being the only perpetrator, it's one of the fastest ways to get an absurd amount of sugar into your system because it's in liquid form. Also, when you're really thirsty, you tend to disregard just how much of it you drink.

2. Exercise. At least 30 minutes a day, even if it's just walking. Working up a sweat is better and if you decide to partake in rigorous physical activity, make sure you're warming up prior to the exercise, following proper form throughout your routine, and eating right to fuel your body. You don't need a gym. There's plenty of exercises you can do that don't require any weights or equipment.

In fact, one of the best exercises you can do is called a burpee and the only thing you need is a little room to move. Another really good exercise you can do are mountain climbers. Even jumping jacks are a great form of exercise. Yeah, I said it: jumping jacks. For whatever reason, one of my friends thought I was joking when I mentioned that jumping jacks could be considered great cardio. Then I told him he probably couldn't even do 50 jumping jacks. You know, the ones where you actually move your feet beyond shoulder width and clap your hands above your head? He tried. He failed. There's a reason why they still do these in the military.

3. Eat fiber, lots of it. This is a vital nutrient that we don't eat enough of because there's virtually none of it in processed foods. Though our body doesn't extract nutrients from it per se, the effects fiber has on speeding up the digestive process, keeping your bowels clean, helping you feel full so you eat less, making sure you shit properly, and a host of other benefits make it an invaluable part of your diet.

The best way to get it, in my opinion, is leafy green vegetables. I eat about 1.5 cups worth of broccoli, spinach, and carrots 5 days a week. But if you don't like those, try other combinations of cruciferous vegetables. However way you get them, just get them. Whole fruits are an okay source of fiber as well, though if you really want to lean out, vegetables win by a long shot.

My reasoning
So why do I, a gamer, care so much about health? You would think that I just sit at home all day after work and play video games until I have to sleep, stopping only to eat and shower. That's kind of true. But in all seriousness, I have a firm belief that physical health and mental health are closely tied to each other. People who have positive outlooks on life tend to live healthier lives. On the flip side, I believe that the healthier you are physically, the better your mental capacity. This is imperative for someone like me who, not only likes playing video games but likes being good at them.

That's why I exercise vigorously 3 times a week, keep careful watch over my diet, and only eat junk food about two times a week. You have to splurge every now and then, otherwise you'll feel like you're punishing yourself. Now that my body is accustomed to a healthier lifestyle, I tend to crave the nasty stuff a lot less.

Do yourself a favor and start giving a crap about your health. Don't wait until you're diagnosed with some terrible disease that could make this already difficult life even more difficult. This doesn't just affect us on an individual level. It affects us as a society in more ways than you can imagine. Plus, don't you want to live long enough to see what the world will look like in 50 years? I dream of the day when flying cars will fill the skies and cities exist in multi-tiered levels. Assuming we don't blow ourselves up first, of course.

On a side note, I always thought vegetarians were crazy when they made those outlandish claims that their poop don't smell as bad as those who eat plenty of meat. But strangely enough, it's actually true. Not that I would ever become a vegetarian as I love meat entirely too much but ensuring that I have enough vegetables in my diet keeps my shit from utterly destroying my nostrils. I mean, shit is shit any way you look at it so it still smells bad but it doesn't seem nearly as obnoxious.

‹^› (': ' ) ‹^›

Diablo 3 - What I Want Wizards To Be

Patch 1.0.4 temporarily reinvigorated my interest in Diablo 3, which is good because I want this game to succeed. There's still a slew of issues that weren't addressed in this patch and most likely, it was because Guild Wars 2 was right around the corner that they rushed it out. But that's okay; we knew the game wasn't going to be completely fixed in this particular patch alone. In fact, my guess is that Blizzard will take at least another year of patching before Diablo 3 becomes the game we want it to be. So until that day comes, we are left wanting. Here's what I want from what was supposed to be my preferred class to play and why they need a lot of work.

In Diablo 2, the Sorceress was my favorite class. I loved covering the screen with Frozen Orbs and zapping everything with Chain Lightning or blasting Fireballs into crowds of monsters and watching them drop in unison. There was this distinct feeling of overwhelming power when playing a Sorc in many ways; some subtle, others more pronounced. For example, there was no cooldown on Teleport so you didn't run unless you were out of mana, because you're too fucking awesome to physically exert yourself for the menial task of bipedal transportation. When you didn't want to die in 2 hits, you usually learned a powerful defensive spell called Energy Shield, which mitigated a percentage of incoming damage directly to your mana pool instead of health, because you're too fucking awesome to give a damn about what kind of defensive stats your equipment provided. You also had a spell called Thunder Storm that periodically struck a nearby enemy with a powerful lightning bolt from the sky, because you're too fucking awesome to allow a monster within close proximity of your presence without dire repercussion, whether you wanted it dead or not.

In Diablo 3, the Wizard is the new Sorceress and although some of the spells are familiar, the feeling of power isn't.

Blizzard apparently didn't want us endlessly spamming our most powerful spells like we used to so they instead went the route of a resource system that quickly runs out and quickly regenerates. What this meant was that when our Arcane Power was depleted after a salvo of devastating spells, we needed something to do while our reserves replenished. This lead to the implementation of Signature spells.

I don't mind this system. The concept works fine and it provides some variety, albeit forced. The problem comes with the selection. There's four Signature spells. So with the addition of Arcane as an element, you'd think the Wizard would get four different elemental Signature spells: Fire, Cold, Lightning, and Arcane. Instead, you get two elements and one physical. Why didn't they make Spectral Blade do Cold damage that slows and call it Frost Blade? I think the idea that you coalesce ice swords into existence from thin air to slash enemies into ribbons is an badass idea. Also, why is the added range on the Thrown Blade rune seem to be nonexistent? Why not make Thrown Blade a complete ranged version of the spell, to give Wizards the ranged Cold Signature spell that we deserve? Kill two birds with one stone, I say.

Also, Why is Shock Pulse so utterly useless? Get rid of that shit and add a Fire Signature spell. No, the Fire Bolts rune doesn't count. The problem is the method of damage delivery: short and random. No one likes random directions, let alone short distances. The only useful versions of this spell is Piercing Orb and Living Lightning. And Living Lightning is only useful to proc Critical Mass. How about changing it to something called Fire Wave that propels an expanding wall of fire, damaging all enemies and applying a damage-over-time effect (DoTs for short). Simply change Piercing Orb to Blazing Orb and Living Lightning to Living Inferno or something like that. Cool? I think so.

But it's not just Signature spells that lack elemental variety. A majority of our spells deal Arcane damage. If I wanted to build a Fire Wizard, my selection without runes narrows down to Hydra and Meteor. That's it. If you want to include runes, you get the fantastically useless Fire Bolts in the mix. Boring. Why isn't Disintegrate Fire damage? Doesn't that makes sense considering you're turning enemies to ash? The lack of awesome Fire spells leads to passives like Conflagration being overlooked completely. When I think of any Fire spell hitting me, I think of the continual burning effects it might have on my clothes, my hair, even my skin. Fire spells should separate itself from other elements in its unique ability to apply DoTs. So why isn't this a mandatory passive on all fire spells? And what, then, should we do with Conflagration, which is completely and utterly out-shined by Cold Blooded? What if we make it so that it allows you to stack the DoTs from any Fire spell, to a cap? After all, the longer something is exposed to fire, the more likely it is to burn more intensely, correct? Too many questions. Need more answers.

The same goes for Cold spells. Including runes, you get only three Cold Spells: Ray of Frost, Frost Hydra, and Blizzard. I just want more variety. Is that too much to ask? The Cold Blooded passive is actually pretty awesome, but I wish the theme of Cold spells was better exemplified. Cold spells are unique in their ability to debilitate: to slow things down; to freeze them. The more things are exposed to cold temperatures, the more brittle they become. And when enough force is applied to brittle objects, they shatter. So in the way that Conflagration would stack DoTs, why not make Cold Blooded stack a debuff that increases damage-taken and increases amount slowed? And once it reaches the maximum stacks, the next spell shatters them, causing it to deal an additional 100%(?) damage that can also crit and refreshing only the damage-taken component of the stacks. Yeah? Of course, we'd have to adjust the initial slow amount of Cold spells to compensate for the stacking slow, but I'd love to see more thematic passives like this.

Diamond Skin is awesome. No argument there. But that doesn't mean we can't make it awesome'er. Defensively, Wizards are pretty good. We have a great escape, so-so diversion, and a good temporary shield. And while Wizards would never die if we could utilize all three spells at any given time, the fact is we only have enough room to take one of these, two at max. Diamond Skin is unique from the other defensive spells in that it caters especially well to melee Wizards. And what melee Wizards lack that other melee classes have is temporary Crowd Control immunity (Crowd Control spells are any spells that cause you to lose control of your character, CC for short). I think it would be really awesome if Diamond Skin provided CC immunity while the skin holds. Also, I think we should lower the base amount slightly and scale the shield amount to a percentage of our health. That way, tanky melee Wizards would have extra incentives to have a massive health pool.

Did I say so-so diversion? Of course, Mirror Image needs some love, as well. In short, they need to not get killed so easily and there needs to be more of them in order to warrant its use over Teleport or Diamond Skin. Why? Because while Teleport and Diamond Skin guarantees your safety at least temporarily, Mirror Image does not. It's Russian roulette where you have to hope that the monsters are dumb enough to go for your decoys instead of you. It's also virtually useless against Wallers with AoE affixes. Mirror Image is a gamble, especially with the chicken-shit AI of the images. When you try to run, they try to run as well. What the fuck? Stay there and take hits, stupid images. I get why they did this; so that Mirror Image isn't useless in PvP. But honestly, I doubt Mirror Image will see any PvP action anyway, mainly because they die almost instantaneous but also because they pose no real threat to the opposing player. They deal no damage (even with the crappy Mirror Mimics rune) and everyone will know that you'll be the guy in the middle. The only reason why I say it's a so-so spell and not a useless one is because it is useful against some Bosses. But here's the kicker: Bosses are a joke.

I could probably go on about what Wizards need but this post is already too long. Perhaps I'll continue this rant another day.

‹^› (': ' ) ‹^›

A Tiny Cause For Celebration

A little over a month has passed since my first post about how my blog is going to be "THE SHIT". Up until two weeks ago, I have also kept up with my own goal of writing at least once per week. The reasoning behind the effort to maintain this endeavor is simply so that you have a place to regularly visit (even if it's once a week) for a worthwhile read. And why do I bother with all this?

Back in high school, shortly before starting my senior year, I was directed to this article on The Best Page In The Universe by a friend. At the time, it was the funniest thing I ever read. I enjoyed it so much, in fact, that I stayed up the rest of the night reading all the articles on the site, unfortunately waking my parents in the process due to uncontrollable laughter. Even the posts that I disagreed with were still worth reading because they were well composed and hilarious regardless. This singular event is what sparked my desire to write.

But writing isn't something you do in 5 minutes. At least, not for me anyway. Before I even start typing, I simmer on a few topics for several days or even a few weeks. By the time I start constructing sentences, a majority of what I want to say is already in my head. When the actual post is completed, I proceed to revising the shit out of it. Is this the best vocabulary? Am I punctuating correctly? Does the sentence even belong here? This process is a never-ending one. Sometimes, I even find myself reading over posts that are few years old and still find ways to improve them. And aside from the one Writing Composition class I took in college, most of what I know is self taught.

I love writing. Even when the process can be a pain in the ass at times, I've been doing it on and off since the day I discovered Maddox's site. When I started consistently blogging again on Facebook (which has a convenient Notes feature that almost no one uses) back in September of 2009, I did it mainly for myself; to see how well I can arrange my thoughts in a unique and/or humorous manner. In a similar fashion, I draw as a hobby primarily to see what kind of imagery can be cooked up with my imagination. None of this was really to garner attention but I left that option open for anyone curious about my rants.

Interestingly enough, however, I learned that the people enjoying my posts on Facebook weren't just my friends, but also friends of my friends who I barely know or don't know at all. Then I started thinking that maybe I should create my own blog apart from Facebook, to promulgate my writing not just to Facebook junkies but to internet junkies everywhere. I chose to go with Blogger because Google will probably own everything in the future but feel free to share any blogging tool that you think is better.

Maddox did a AMA (Ask Me Anything) on reddit a few years back and I found a lot of what he said in terms of publishing content to be compelling. I say "compelling" because his points appear to be such obvious standard practice yet the reasoning behind them seem to be understood by so few and eluded by too many.

"I self-edit because I respect my readers. I have written or started to write 13 articles last year, and only published 1. That's because I don't think everything I write is worth posting, and I wish more web authors followed suit. There's way too much bullshit out there; too many half-assed assertions, uninteresting observations, long, tedious fiction tomes and an endless supply of shitty photo blogs. Being able to point a camera at something and snapping a photo doesn't automatically make you an artist, and no nobody cares about your stupid link dump with a clever name. If it took you 5 minutes to make, it'll probably take me half as long times zero seconds to lose interest. If half these dick holes stopped flooding the Internet with so much shitty content, it wouldn't be so hard for genuinely talented up-and-commers to get noticed. Then again, if your goal is fame, you're in it for the wrong reason to begin with. Nobody cares about the quantity of articles, it's the quality that counts. If you post a thousand shitty articles and one good one, you think anyone will remember the shitty ones and say "hey, that one article is really good, but the reason I go back is for the shitty daily updates!" No, you cocks. Nobody remembers the shitty ones. All they care about are the good ones."

- Maddox

As for the cause for celebration, I just wanted to share that as of this writing, Droll Logic has received 189 visits from United States and 97 from other countries since its inception a little over a month ago. Now, I know for a fact that these visits are not unique and that there's a good chance more than 50% of the hits from United States are probably from myself. That's okay because there's about 100 hits from outside the US that can't possibly be from me! I know these are very small numbers but as someone who started this blog with the goal of sharing his thoughts with a broader audience, it's pretty exciting.

For anyone who's following closely, thanks for sticking around. I promise there's plenty of stupid awesome things to look forward to in the near future. And if anything, you could just watch me fail! Watching people fail is usually pretty funny.

‹^› (': ' ) ‹^›

Some Games I Like

One of the best things about growing up in the 90s was witnessing firsthand the evolution of video games. I began my journey in the SNES era, which ended up being a great time to start because to this day, three of my top five favorite console video games of all time are on the SNES.

Fast forward about two decades and you have one hell of a different environment for the medium. Video games have grown up with us and they're no longer considered an entertainment venue exclusive to children and/or teenagers. As a matter of fact, Kotaku reported that the average age of a gamer (defined by the Entertainment Software Association as anyone who plays a video game for more than an hour a week) is 30. This is even after the median age dropped 7 years due to the inclusion of a broader range of platforms.

So here I am, in the latter end of my twenties and wondering what the future holds for this amazing industry. Where will video games take us in the next five or ten years? We could think about that all day... OR you could just read up on some of the games I play, played, and will play.

Current - League of Legends

League of Legends is a Mulitplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) or Action Real-Time Strategy (ARTS) game that currently has one of the biggest followings despite the fact that the genre is relatively new. If you have never played a MOBA/ARTS before, imagine playing a typical RTS game like StarCraft except you control just one of the units out of an army. This one unit, which we will nickname McBoss going forward, can level up, buy items, and learn spells to decimate enemy units, enemy structures, and other enemy McBosses controlled by opposing players.

You usually do this with a team against a rival coalition in a fight to destroy each other's base. There's a lot more to it than that but discussing the more advanced tactics of the game could take multiple posts (we will save those for another day). LoL is a lot of fun with friends, especially when you find the right champion for the role that best fits your play style.

I play LoL primarily.

Current - Diablo 3

If you've read my post about the current state of Diablo 3, you might get the idea that I hate the game. That just isn't true. I only talked about the negative things about the game because I was expecting so much from it.

For starters, I really like the attention to detail in the aesthetics of the game. Have you zoomed in on a Wizard when they use Diamond Skin? Ever see your enemies melt to the bones when killing them with poison damage? What about the dust effects of the Barbarian's Seismic Slam? Even melee abilities like Fists of Thunder look pretty awesome. I personally find the game to be incredibly easy on the eyes. And while we're on the topic of aesthetics...

Armor looks awesome! I remember how my Sorceress looked like a stupid hobo in Diablo 2, even with really great gear. In contrast to that, all my characters in Diablo 3 look badass, with the exception of my Monk's helmet. I hope Blizzard will take it a step further and allow us to skin lower level armor pieces onto the higher level ones. Some of the earlier armor sets look better than the endgame equipment. The same goes for weapons. I would love to be wielding a sickle on all my characters.

Skill swapping is also pretty intuitive and easy to do, which will come in handy when they buff the crappier spells to improve build diversity. I just wish the option to enable Elective Mode was more pronounced.

The Auction House, albeit a pain in many ways, still establishes a legitimate means for a player to easily offer up his or her items to thousands of players. There's some of work to be done, especially in search functionality, but I find the Auction House to be a step in the right direction.

I still play Diablo 3 but very sporadically. Looking forward to the coming improvements.

Past - Terraria

Terraria hit me out of left field. I haven't heard of this game until my friends started talking about it incessantly on Ventrilo. Once I gave it a chance, there was no turning back. Ever play with Legos as a kid? Imagine a world built entirely of Legos except in 2D. You start in this world with nothing but some clothes, a pickaxe, and a regular axe. Using these tools, you take apart the environment to scavenge the necessary elements for a myriad of items. Your mission? Whatever the fuck you want.

Want to explore caves for treasure? Go ahead. Want to build houses and shit? No problem. Want to kill monsters, including epic bosses? There's only about 100 different weapons to choose form. Want to PvP with your friends? Better have the gear for it. There's little you can't do in Terraria and all of it starts simply with digging, slowly dismantling the untamed world so that you can rebuild it as you see fit. My love for this game is further justified by how affordable it was, so much so that I had to buy it for a couple of my friends. Terraria, as far as I'm concerned, is a sufficiently enjoyable solo experience but it only gets better with more players.

I was sad to hear that development on Terraria has come to a halt, with the creators moving on to bigger projects. This is highly unfortunate, because I felt Terraria still had plenty of unlocked potential and I would have easily spent another $20-$30 if it meant another year of patches. Nevertheless, this game is incredibly fun and I don't regret any of the 300+ hours I spent on it.

I don't play Terraria currently because there's little left for me to do in the game. That's saying a lot. But if the itch to dig ever returned and someone was willing to join me, there's no guarantee those zombies will remain unharmed.

The Den of Evil: My 3rd House

Makeshift fire effects via my Flamethrower.

Past - Minecraft

Minecraft is basically Terraria but in 3D. I didn't invest nearly as much time into it as its 2D counterpart but from what I remember, building massive structures is quite difficult unless you have Creative Mode on, granting you infinite flight and infinite blocks of any kind. Oh, and beware of motion sickness and fear of heights.

While the 3rd dimension definitely aids in immersing the player into the game world, the downside to Minecraft is that there's a lot less variety in terms of combat, both from lack of specialized equipment and monster types. And I found Creepers to be more annoying than anything.

The coolest thing about Minecraft, which I didn't even play around with because my brain would explode, is that you can automate your structures by utilizing wires, levers, pistons, and a slew of other mechanical components. This means you can build automatic doors, escalators, roller coasters, and all kinds of crazy shit. I guess that's Minecraft's end game?

Need a ride?

Future - Skyrim

Can't say all that much about a game I haven't even played yet but from what my friends tell me, Skyrim is an amazing Action RPG where you kill dragons, yell at everything, and look badass with epic armor. I like doing all these things individually but when you perform these acts concurrently, that's a recipe for success. Also, this video explaining how you should beat the shit out of everything makes me wonder why we ever started resolving disputes with words.

Future - Mass Effect 2 & 3

Ever watch Star Trek: The Next Generation? If you have, you already know why this game would resonate with me so well, being a fan of the show and all. In this Action RPG, you basically play the role equivalent to Captain Jean-Luc Picard except there is no Prime Directive. The only directive you follow is that of your penis and your gun. Unless you took on the role of a female Shepard, in which case, you'd be following the directive of your nipples and your gun. I played Mass Effect 2 very briefly before taking a break from this sci-fi universe but I eagerly anticipate a chance to return to this series once I manage to peel myself off my current games. I hear that 3 wasn't so hot with the fans. Doesn't matter, because I'll be playing it anyway.

To anyone who's been following this blog, I apologize for the late and lengthy post. I intended to have this up last week and thought it would be a quick write-up but halfway through, I realized this entire article could be broken down into at least 3 parts. OOPS! =D

‹^› (': ' ) ‹^›

Diablo 3 - I Wish...

I wish...

... there weren't stupid affixes on Elites that are neither challenging nor fun to fight against like Shielding, Invulnerable Minions, and Reflects Damage.

... summoned minions and Followers weren't so useless.

... we had a horde mode, unlocked only after killing Inferno Diablo, where you battle wave after wave of Elites that progressively increase in difficulty, awarding greater prizes the further we go until our eventual demise.

... item progression wasn't completely random and that upgrading an existing mid-range item into a high-end one was possible through a gradual process with new end-game materials that can only be salvaged from ilvl 63 items.

... hitboxes were accurate.

... the range on a lot of abilities were longer.

... Whimsyshire wasn't purely for novelty.

The list goes on...

Don't get me wrong, Diablo 3 was a lot of fun in some ways. I leveled every class to 60 and poured over 400 hours into the game, the majority of which was the intial, frustrating, under-geared farming of Act 3 Inferno. My biggest problem is simply that I can't utilize a spell of my liking because it isn't viable for Inferno (the only difficulty that matters to me). I'd like to Disintegrate or Arcane Torrent things into oblivion but channeling a spell requires you to be stationary and staying still even for a brief moment as a ranged class usually means death. I want to run around and tear shit up with my Gargantuan and Zombie Dogs but they die in 2 seconds with a cooldown of 60 seconds. I want to make a Mantra Monk equivalent to Diablo 2's Auradin but there's only one Mantra that even has a passive damage component to it.

There's just so many viable builds that were possible for each class in Diablo 2. That lack of variety in Diablo 3 is ultimately boring the shit out of me. The only saving grace the game has right now is that it will eventually be patched into the amazing sequel that it should have been on launch. That means the long wait isn't really over. I can understand a game of this caliber being made in 3-4 years from a company that doesn't have a vast amount of resources at its disposal. But we ARE talking about Blizzard and we ARE talking about 10 years.

I own:
Starcraft
Starcraft: Brood War
Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty
Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos
Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne
World of Warcraft and it's three expansions:
- Burning Crusade
- Wrath of the Lich King
- Cataclysm
Diablo 2
Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction
Diablo 3

One could only guess that I am quite the Blizzard fan. I always held them in high regard as a company that placed value on their fans before anything else. I always told the naysayers that Blizzard won't disappoint us. But with Diablo 3, I'm actually starting to have doubts. I'm actually beginning to think that maybe Activision is indeed working its ugly magic on the company I loved for a very long time. Maybe that's just crazy talk. Or maybe I'm just crazy to begin with. But damn, I hope I'm wrong.

I wish... I wasn't bored of a game I waited over 10 years for in about 2 months.

‹^› (': ' ) ‹^›

Taken 2 - My Guess

Have you seen Taken? If you answered "yes", pat yourself on the back. If you answered "no", go run into a wall. Then watch the movie. Then pat yourself on the back.

Now that we got the hard part taken care of, I can proceed to elaborate on a few points about the movie that might give you a better understanding of what happened and what will happen in the coming sequel.

Why is Liam Neeson such a boss?

Being a retired CIA agent is definitely a part of the reason, but that's only a piece of the puzzle. In reality, he's the badass that he is because he's also a retired Jedi. Maybe you've seen him somewhere.

That's right. He's none other than Qui-Gon Jinn. When you're a Jedi, you just do whatever you want, whenever you want. All the stupid stuff that happened in The Phantom Menace is a lie. He didn't actually die to some stupid clown. As a matter of fact, what really happened was that he killed Darth Maul before the movie even began and disguised himself as the Sith, while simultaneously projecting an image of his real self into the minds of everyone in the movie using Jedi mind tricks. After realizing this silly prequel trilogy was going nowhere fast, he decided to kill his own image and pretend to be sliced in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi, thus allowing him a prompt exit from the series without anyone ever knowing how awesome he was. Qui-Gon Jinn? More like Qui-Gon Win.

What does this mean for the events that took place in Taken?

To put it simply, his daughter was kidnapped on his orders. That's right. But why did he do it?

- The Daughter

Clearly, the rich bastard that his ex-wife remarried to spoiled his daughter senseless. Qui-Gon Jinn will not suffer a spoiled brat. Fuck ponies.

- The Ex-Wife

Did she not exude an air of bitchy from the very first moment she got screen time? Maybe she forgot that Jedi and sassy attitude don't mix very well. A reminder was in order. 

- Nostalgia

Gone are the days where he can just run round effortlessly halving people with a lightsaber. That doesn't mean he can't relive the good ol' days every now and then. He needed an excuse to kill people. His wish is his command.

What does this mean for Taken 2?
Apparently, this time his ex-wife gets kidnapped by men who lost their friends/family from the previous incidence and from the looks of the trailer, the daughter is going to help him save Sassy McSasserson (the ex-wife) from their clutches. We all know Jedi don't actually let kidnappings happen in their presence unless it was warranted. Based on that fact, we could accurately posit that this is all just an elaborate birthday present for his daughter so she could have the opportunity to feel even a tenth as badass as he did being the man-hunting killing machine that he is. When it comes to birthday presents, Qui-Gon Jinn doesn't fuck around. She'll be running around acting like Sherlock Holmes and by the end, it's going to be like, "SURPRISE! YOU DIDN'T SAVE SHIT! IT WAS A GIANT EASTER EGG HUNT FOR SOME CAKE! COME HAVE SOME CAKE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"



‹^› (': ' ) ‹^›

P'hall - The Hottest Thing I Ever Ate

I'm not sure of the actual spelling of this curry, whether it's "phall", "phaal", "phal", or whatever but what I do know for sure is that it is the hottest thing I've ever ate (so far, anyway). Many of you have probably seen this dish conquered on the show Man vs Food and might be thinking of putting your capsaicin tolerance to the test. Well, as someone who has completed the challenge, I will generously share my experience along with a few tips on how to make this suicide run for your taste buds a bit less excruciating.



I love spicy food. I mean, you know you really love spicy food when you use Sriracha to protect your meal from the gluttonous mouths of your friends and family. I observe this adoration of spicy cuisine almost as a mutation of sorts, kinda like those of the X-Men, that separates us, the chili pepper enthusiasts, from normal human beings. Then again, perhaps we are the ones who are normal and they are mere Neanderthals to our Cro-Magnon. There is a war coming. Are you sure you're on the right side?

But therein lies the tragedy of wielding such power. The truth is, being able to consume spicy food gradually makes you more tolerant to it. Eventually, the spicy things of yesterday may not help you reach that awesome zen-like state between pleasure and pain for your senses tomorrow.

This puts us on an endless search for increasingly spicier foods. And sometimes we grow a bit too bold and jump to a level we can't handle. I was well aware of how hot the Naga Bhut Jolokia (also known as the ghost chili pepper) is, as I've been regularly using a hot sauce made from it. But there is obviously a difference between dripping a few drops onto a sandwich and consuming an entire bowl of it, which is essentially what P'hall is.

So back in January of 2012, my friend, who also loves spicy food, randomly calls me out to eat at Brick Lane Curry House, the only place we know of that serves P'hall. He wanted to take on the challenge with me, as it was something we were looking forward to face for quite some time. Spicy food and beer is always a good time, especially if the beer is free. Unfortunately, this particular spot did not have a liquor license so we wouldn't be awarded a free beer upon completion of the challenge. Instead, we'd be getting a free mango lassi, which is probably the better drink to down after eating something as spicy as P'hall.

Now, here's the part where I list the stupid mistakes I made and what you should do to make this challenge a little easier.

1. Go hungry.
I ate a lot of appetizers prior to tackling the actual P'hall. The show says it's 16 ounces of the stuff. We got 20 ounces each. Along with the rice you'll probably be using to dissipate the curry into manageable bites and whatever liquid you'll be drinking to help quell the heat, you'll be very full, very quickly. Keep your stomach empty before you start.

2. Order a mango lassi (or any drink with dairy in it) with your P'hall.
I only had water and it did little to nothing to control the nuclear meltdown taking place in my mouth. What it did do, however, was help it go down my gullet. I think having something that will not only wash the inferno down but also ease the pain would be greatly advantageous to your efforts.

3. Be ready to throw $20 away.
Depending on the meat you order with the curry, you're going to spend around $20 on just the P'hall itself. The friend who invited me to the challenge took 3-5 bites and surrendered. That's a lot to waste. Even if you do manage to finish it, I highly doubt you'll enjoy it. I've read on a few forums that some people actually enjoy P'hall. Can't say I'm one of them. Just be sure you know what you're buying.

4. Do not touch anything sensitive if you got P'hall on your hands.
Wash your hands thoroughly even before using the bathroom. Trust me. You don't want any of this stuff going near your genitalia.

5. Make sure you don't have anything important to do the next day.
The company I work at is pretty lenient with me taking off. Good thing, too, because it hurts as much coming out as it does going in.

That's about all the advice I can give you. Unfortunately, I was so full by the time I finished the challenge that I couldn't even drink the free mango lassi I won. I gave that away to my friend. But to his credit, he paid for my meal since I was triumphant. Did I mention I vomited shortly afterwards? And on that note, good luck!

‹^› (': ' ) ‹^›

This Blog Will Be The Shit

Inaugural posts tend to say a lot of boring things like how humble the beginnings of a recently hatched blog will be and how hard the poster will work to make whatever they write worth a couple minutes of your time. Well, fuck that. I'm telling you right now this blog is going to be THE SHIT and I'll give you 3 reasons why it will be.

1. I am incredibly smart.
I know the difference between "there", "their", and "they're". This automatically makes me a genius on the internet because 95% of the people who write on the web don't know the difference or worse, don't care enough to make the distinction.

- This means some of my writing might be insightful to you.

2. I am incredibly stupid.
In 2009, I was working as a Production Assistant for two weeks on the set of my friend's thesis film. On the last day, while driving one of the actors up from New York City to the Catskill Mountains, I got a speeding ticket since I was in a rush for daylight shooting. About an hour later, I was pulled over again. Guess what it was for.

- This means some of my writing might be funny to you.

3. You are incredibly bored.
Let's face it. You are all bored as hell. That is the reason why I think the internet is the monstrous success that it is today. A little over a decade ago, whenever you were bored, you might have turned to the TV to watch a show or put a movie on. You might have turned to the stereo to tune in on the radio or play some albums. You might have even went outside to partake in some sort of physical activity with your friends (something that is probably missing in a lot of our lives now). Well, now you have an enormous bulk of entertainment ready at a moment's notice in one convenient place: at your personal computer in your room.

- This means most of my writing might be worth the extra five minutes you spend visiting other sites to kill time.

So stick around as I will try to update every week or two. I guarantee you'll find at least one thing worth reading here before the year's end. And if that's not the case, oh well. I'll just keep writing anyway.

‹^› (': ' ) ‹^›