STFU OR I'LL CUT YOU

My shirt arrived.  Buy.

Sunday Afternoon Time-wasting

Man it's been a while, I almost forgot about how much fun it can be to post. In any case, I'm wondering how everyone's Christmas/New Years was. Mine was pretty dang good, hectic but good. I went to DanaWillEatU's Mom's in Sauk Centre for Christmas, back to Owatonna to work on that Friday, to my parent's place in Iowa for the weekend, back up to DanaWillEatU's mom's on Sunday, back to Owatonna on Monday, work for two days, up to DanaWillEatU's sister's house in Hutchinson Wednesday night for New Years, back to Owatonna Friday morning. Needless to say I'm tired of riding/driving.

I don't have an engagement to announce following the holidays, but it's been crossing the mind quite frequently now. One perk of that day coming is that I won't have all of DanaWillEatU's family checking her ring finger every time we come visit.

My New Years report is far less glamourous than last year (at least I didn't get kicked out of a club), although it was quite fun. I mixed Crown and Coke all night with DanaWillEatU's brother-in-laws and watched Superbad and Eagle Eye. We all probably know how entertaining Superbad is, but I'm curious as to whether any of you know how entertaining Eagle Eye is. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being not entertaining and 10 being Iowa beating up on South Carolina in the Outback Bowl, this rated a 3.2 for me. I think I've gotten more enjoyment out of a Patrick Dempsey chick flick than I did out of Eagle Eye.

Holy cow, the TV just told me that the Baltimore Ravens' Ed Reed has 5 career interceptions in 3 post-season games, that's pretty damn good. Too bad the game isn't all that entertaining and I've been watching Smokey and the Bandit for much of it instead. I never would have guessed that transporting Coors east of Texas back in 1977 would be considered bootlegging. Here are some other online tidbits I've come across as of late:

- Nothing worse than an out of control beaver

- A mildly intense video

- As if we didn't already know

- A buddy at bowling showed this service from Google to me a couple weeks ago, I've already used it when I was lost trying to find DanaWillEatU and I's hotel

I'm going to make another attempt at coming up to the cities for a weekend, potentially the 24th. Go Vikings!

Monday

Couple things I have been thinking about over the weekend, in no particular order.

- The game Braid is really fun you should buy it on Xbox Live Arcade.

- The demo for Mirror's Edge was also really fun. You should down load it one Xbox Live.

- Anyone play Fallout 3 or Gears of War 2 yet? Are they good? Is it worth it?

- Still can't get Adobe CS3 to install and it's really pissing me off.

- Civ Rev was on sale at target for 35 bucks. You should buy if if you haven't yet. SB and Pablito play it frequently.

- I bought Little Big Planet for PS3. It's pretty fun, it was a lot more fun until they started deleting the user made levels for copyright infringement.

- Vikes Won, Steelers Lost, Bears Lost. Good day.

- What are peoples holiday plans? Who's going to be in the area and when? Hope everyone is doing well.

Sincerly,
Monster

Saturday Night?

This Weekend:
So as some of you know, I am making my way to Minnesota this weekend and I cleared my schedule for Saturday night. I know you guys just had a major Boozeapalooza party and are in the planning stages of a Halloween party or something, but I will be in town and I would like to hang out with as many of you as possible.

SB, I will most likely be spending the night at the KofC Clubhouse. Hopefully on a couch and not freezing my ass off under the beer pong table with my hands inside my sleeves, or on a random persons porch, or in the back of Dammer's truck.

Josey, I want to celebrate another law school victory with you, and possibly get in an argument.

Pablito, we only have so much time together before you become are first member to actually move abroad for real. Unky, Malta doesn't count.

Video:
Also, when I worked at CareerBuilder for a very short and un-enjoyable time, this dude was kind of my boss.

"That Timberlake Kid" not Christian Laettner.

Video 2:

Check out Soulja Boy talking about how he is the best at Halo 3. Sweet K/D ratio of .91.

Football:
Why are the Vikes so bad? 12 points against the Lions? Seriously?

Thank God the Bears lost, one of the best ends to a game I have seen in a long time.

Questions:
Does anyone play video games anymore? Puyo, how is the 2009 Pontiac G8 GT?

Minnesota Bound

No, not the show with Ron Schara and his dog Raven.

I am going to be coming to Minnesota Friday Oct 17 and leaving Wednesday Oct 22nd. I am not sure exactly what the plans are but I will be in the area. Possibly Saturday night or on any of the weekday nights? Anyone have any plans?

Ninja Glove

So, my Brother-in-law sent me an email with a link to this game. I tried and thought it was near impossible, but with a little bit of perserverance I have come close to mastering the Ninja glove.

The game is essentially 21 mini challenges that resemble other great free internet games. From like an astroid type game to a mini golf game, you need to complete all 21 challenges to work your way up from ninja pinky, to ninja thumb and if you are truly a master... NINJA GLOVE!

Here is the link to the game:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/456622

Right now I am ranked 51st in the world. But those scores are impossible to beat since they fixed some sort of pause glitch. I dare anyone to try to challenge me at Ninja Glove.

Holiday Weekend

Not too much to talk about today, but I feel like I should write a couple things.

I jammed my right thumb on Tuesday and it was swollen and black and blue, so I was using my pointer finger for the buttons on the controller. It's finally getting better and I think I can go back to using my thumbs. Pretty exciting!

SB, you going to watch Survivor: Gabon this season? Starts on the 25th of Sept and on of the castaways is the defending world champion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I played that game for about 34 seconds, the worst 50 bucks I have ever spent.

Other castaways include a dude named Ace Gordon, who, I can already tell, I am either going to love him or hate him. Everyone else is your standard Survivor contestants, couple African Americans, a couple old people, a couple gay people, all mostly from California and New England.

Yeah, I get out early today for the Holiday weekend so I better get back. Dammer you going to post an interview this weekend?

Thoughts from the Monster

It's been a while since I posted anything, and that's because I have been camping for most of the last week. I also broke my phone and now am only capable of receiving calls, calling the last person that called me and occasionally being able to read a text/email. Not sure what I should do as my contract with T-mobile runs out at the end of September and I am tempted to get an iPhone with AT&T.

I would just get the new contract with AT&T today and let my t-mobile run out for the last month but then I would have to get a new number. I don't think my number is that important as I could essentially count the people on one hand that call me, but I would be kind of bummed to lose one of the final ties to MN. Currently I have a 612 number and I would most likely end up with a 312 number if I switched. Does that one digit make a difference? I could probably get a MN number here but then it would kind of be like lying. It would be like if I got a 212 number and claim that I am from NYC.

I dunno. What do you guys think? Puyo will say iPhones are for nubs and that real hackzors use a modded Nokia 5160 to play Starcraft on or the classic snake. Should I just renew my T-Mobile contract and get a new BlackBerry?

What's the Brokeback situation? Can someone please video tape the moment and post it on the site?

I'll be in MN the first weekend in October anyone going to be around?

Monday Morning Notes

So it's Monday morning and I haven't posted much lately because I realized that no one really gives a shit about my insightful thoughts about, well, pretty much anything. But I am going to talk about some stuff I have been thinking about this weekend.

First, I want to establish the KofC video game swap system. I tried to pick up Gears of War the other day at Best Buy and they didn't have it. I think KofC members should list some of the games they have and we could mail them to each other to play for a bit. Even thought I know no one will ever do it (myself included) I thought it was worth a shot. Some one mail me GoW.

Here are the games I can think of off the top of my head. PSP and DS games not included.

Xbox 360
Halo 3
Rock Band
Rainbow Six Vegas 2
Assassins Creed
Call of Duty 4
Scene It

PS3
Warhawk
Tiger Woods 08
MLB The Show 08
Call of Duty 3

Wii
Mario Kart Wii
Super Smash Brothers Brawl
Mario vs Sonic Olympics
Harry Potter and the Something Something

Dark Knight
Good movie. Actually great movie. But not as great as everyone made it out to be. And I am not saying that because I want to be the "cool" guy that goes against the grain but I had a couple of issues with the plot. First and foremost [Spoilers Ahead!] Gordon's fake death. There is no way this could have planned or carried out, and if memory serves it doesn't really make any sense. There is no way any of that could have worked, nor would Gordon put all of his men and Dent in danger by doing that.

Also, the whole boat thing seems pretty out of character for the Joker, why wouldn't he have a timer set to midnight, everything else he did was perfectly planned but on this one he essentially didn't go along with the rules he set up. I won't buy the "he thought they would blow it up themselves", because then why would he bring the detonators. I have more on this but unless people want to discuss it in the comments I'll stop ruining the movie for people.

Minnesota Twins
First place. Fuck yeah! Hopefully it lasts but who knows, I would feel super confident about playing the Mariners if it was at the Dome, but I still think we can take the M's even out there in Seattle. Then to KC, hopefully they will be still so pissed at the Sox for throwing at Miguel Olivo's head (twice) that they will just roll over for the Twins this weekend. If Ozzie doesn't get at least a one game suspension for his actions yesterday I will be very surprised and pissed.

After the KC series the Twins have a pretty decent home stand before heading out on the road due to the RNC.

Liriano pitched well yesterday, obviously it's a huge upgrade over Livan, but I don't think he is going to be much over .500 this year. His velocity is down to low 90s and so is the speed on his slider. He still is way above average but don't expect a 2006 performance out of him. By this time his velocity should have been where it was pre-surgery if not higher.

With all that said, I'm pretty excited about the series right now, a lot can happen in the next two months but it's August and the Twins are in first. If anyone would have said that during Spring Training we would have laughed our asses off.

This Weekend
So Dammer, you coming up to MN? Is that still happening? Anybody doing anything fun? Should I come up to MN?

Seriously, read this and respond.

Well, I'm 24 now. Had a good weekend. Thanks to Unky Warthog and Pablito for the warm facebook wall messages. It meant a lot.

A few things:

I don't think I have turned on my Xbox/PS3/Wii in several weeks. I've been spending too much time outside. But anyway, I guess today is Bungie Day and they are giving away a remake of Chill Out (It's called cold storage) on Xbox Live today. Not sure if it's gonna be free forever so maybe you should download it today, just to be safe.

Twins are on ESPN tonight vs the Red Sox. I'm going to watch that, but listen to the radio broadcast as I cannot stand ESPN commentators.



A loooong time ago, I mentioned going to Wisconsin Dells. I think I said sometime around early June, good thing we didn't go as thats when the Housewarming party was and it's been really fucking cold until this week. Well, I still want to go, and I wanted to find out if anyone else was feeling it. I was thinking July 26 and 27th. No one has to miss work and it's pretty cheap. Come on, who is in?

SB will be back, it's less than 3 hours from, Decorah, Owatonna, Twin Cities, and Chicago.

Don't go to Sex and the City this Weekend!

While I think I could leave it at that and have all of you be like "Well, no shit, I wasn't planning on it anyway." I would hope not, especially with the Housewarming Partay this weekend. But, just in case any of you were going to be dragged to it, by I don't know... Wifeclipse, I have another, MORE important reason to not go.

I could win a weeks worth of delicious Chipotle burritos. A girl at work made an outrageous statement that the Sex and the City movie (SATC) would be the largest grossing movie in the first weekend of any film. Bigger than Spiderman, bigger than Pirates of the Carribean, bigger than that third, but technically the sixth Star Wars movie. I nearly spit out my Dr. Pepper at the sound of such an ludicrous claim.

I then bet her a weeks worth of Chipotle that it would not be the top grossing movie, she backpeddled a bit and we finally agreed that it would have to be in the top four movies. So it can't beat these blockbusters or I have to buy 5 Chipotle Burritos:

Title Opening Gross Date
1 Spider-Man 3 $151,116,516 5/4/2007
2 POTC: Dead Man's Chest $135,634,554 7/7/2006
3 Shrek the Third $121,629,270 5/18/2007
4 Spider-Man $114,844,116 5/3/2002

Full list can be seen here. Besides Shrek, all of these are action movies, SATC is not. All of these are rated PG-13 or lower, SATC is rated R. I think you need the little kids with their parents to make a ton of money. That's almost like an additional ticket guaranteed for every viewer.

I think I got some free burritos coming.

Not Exactly a Get to Know 'Em: The Daymonster

I asked some KofCers for some interview questions. Only Pablito was nice enough to supply some. Since there is only a handful of questions, this is more of a discussion starter as these questions are very interesting.

Estimate the amount of money you've sent on video games in your life. Do you wish it were more, the same or less? Are there any systems/games you wish you had played but didn't?
That's an excellent question. First I want to go through all the video game systems I have or have had, in approximate order. Commodore 64 (and other computers along the way), Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Gameboy, Game Gear, Virtual Boy (two of them), Playstation, Playstation 2, Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, and PSP.



As far as an amount of money, it's really difficult to say. Most of my video games from about Virtual Boy and earlier were presents from Christmas and birthdays. I didn't really start spending my own money on games and consoles until Playstation. One of the more defining moments in my life was when I took a piece of computer paper, drew a N64 on one side and a Playstation on the other. I spent the entire day in 8th grade asking people which one I should buy. The Playstation side had one more vote than the N64 and I ended up getting a Playstation. A decision that changed my life from then on. I was dedicated to the Sony video game brand, and will admit to playing golden eye probably three-times in my life.

That is of course until I played Halo, I sold my PS2 on ebay and bought an Xbox. I think the majority of my money goes into games, as I have always had a ton of games by the time the console goes obsolete. I had about 25 games for the Playstation and close to 30 for the PS2. Right now I have about 5 games for each of the three major consoles I own. And about 6 and 3 for DS and PSP respectively.

I am sure I could add up all the accessories, controllers, games and consoles and it would certainly be in the thousands but I think it's best not to look at it that way. Because that's way too depressing.

Compare and contrast the difference, if any, between using a disabled person bathroom stall to a disabled person parking space.
Well I have never parked in a handicap space but I tend to always use the handicap bathroom stall. I just enjoy the extra leg room. Until you asked this question I had never thought about it. What is interesting is how the Handicap parking space is always closest to the entrance to the building, while the handicap stall tends to be the farthest stall away.

I am not sure what I would do if I was in the handicap stall and the other stalls were empty and someone who actually needed the stall rolled up to the door. That would be very awkward.

But anyways, I think it's okay to use the stall as it's a little different. If I park in a handicap spot I have left the area of my car and forcing that person to park farther away. With the stall, I am right there and have the ability to move (provided I can take a few seconds to wipe). I would say using a handicap bathroom stall is closer to parking in the handicap spot IF you are still in the car. It's not good to do, but it's certainly better than the alternative.

Which character are you most looking forward to seeing again when The Office starts?
I think that Micheal is getting worse as a character. He was always dumb but he is getting more and more dumb every episode. Ryan bothers me now and Dwight is too obvious of a choice. Probably Kevin or Toby are characters that I am most looking forward to.

If you could get rid of one law, what would it be?
It would be sweet to be able to shoplift. But I would only want that to apply to me. And some how the law would say that by me shoplifting I would be stimulating the economy. I don't know if that's really what you meant by the question but... that's my answer.

Or the law of gravity. (which is still technically a theory isn't it?)

How many beers does it take for you to be at that perfect point where it feels like you can dodge bullets and you only get head shots (in Halo/COD)? How about in real life?
I have a theory about the perfect level of drunkenness for video games. It only works for me if I start drinking while playing the game. If I go to a bar and come back I'm not as good as if I start drinking while playing (oh man, this is not a good thought during work. I really want to play vids and drink beer right now). But if I am playing I would say it's somewhere around 4-6 beers where I am feeling in the zone.

Dodging bullets in real life? About 20-25 beers.

What is your favorite casual game to play while at work?
Desktop Tower Defense for sure (Thanks Josey). Haven't played it in a while but it's a great, great, game. Line rider is good, but I get really frustrated when I can't get it to do exactly what I want it to do.

Third and final DLC map revealed: It's Lockout.

The third map is called Blackout and is almost exactly same as Lockout except it's at night and is an Alaskan USNC weather station. Read all about it here.

Video Game Tattoos and New Halo Map

IMPORTANT: At 5pm CST, I will be migrating the website to kofcclan.blogspot.com. Update your bookmarks, homepage, business cards and anything else that has the old information on it.

There is a kind of a lot of news today so try to stay with me.

Video Game Tattoo:
Yesterday's post about the guy with the Halo Legendary tattoo got me thinking. What if he had received a tattoo with the images of his other favorite games. Would they be as cool if it were some other video game character instead of the Elite head and crossed swords?


While this tattoo isn't as cool as these ones, I did get a chance to talk to the man that got legendary tat and he agreed to answer some of my questions. He told me that he first considered getting a couple different games tattooed on his back and sometimes regrets his final decision. He was always a big fan of Pong so he considered the iconic Pong paddle and square ball.


He decided that a large vertical black line might not be recognizable as a video game character and could show through his white shirts. Thus making it look like he was always wearing a jersey numbered, 1.

He also considered his favorite game of all time. It's a rather new game but the programming is top notch, he has been playing it pretty much non-stop since the midnight release party.


That's right, he is a HUGE Dr. Daisy Pet Vet fan.

New Halo Map: Avalanche
They released the details and images of the second new map in the Legendary Map Pack. It will be released on April 15th (tax day! yay!) for 800 MS points. This is the same prices as the Heroic pack but let's hope it's better.

Like I predicted the second map, which was named Cottonball is now named Avalanche and is a remake of Sidewinder. They say it's more of a tribute to Sidewinder and not so much a remake and I think it's neither. It has a similar curved shape but that seems to be where the greatness that comes from the Halo 1 map ends. They have gotten rid of the tunnel system that connected the two bases, and there are no portals nor ladders.


According to Bungie they want to focus the fighting out into the open with vehicles. I never really used vehicles in Sidewinder, well, except for using the turret in the hog to slip through the gate where the overshield and cloak was. I really don't want to be forced to do anything in a map, that seems to take a way the creativity that Halo 1 was known for.

Anyway check out Bungie's write up of the new map and let me know what you guys think. I think Josey knows what I am talking about when I say I am not getting my hopes up.

OMGGH4DS:
Guitar Hero: On Tour for the DS was revealed today. Check out the link. There is a peripheral for the DS, I don't think you will be disappointed.

Dammer gets 50 bucks:
Dammer you did buy the HDDVD player for the Xbox didn't you? Did you get it at Best Buy or Circuit City? Well if you did, and if any other Knight did, you can get a $50 dollar giftcard from the retail stores if you can prove you bought it before the Microsoft called the format "dead".

COD4 Update for PS3 (No one cares? Oh okay.)
The COD4 update just came out for the PS3 version of the game, so I can finally see the improvements you guys have been playing with for a while.

Tips from the Daymonster

Yesterday I dropped off 19 shirts and three pairs of pants at the dry cleaners. When I pick those up today it's going to cost me more than 50 dollars. It's definitely worth it, because the last time I tried to wash some of my dress pants I really messed them up. On occasion I will iron my own shirts, but only on rare instances as I would always rather pay someone $1.50 to do it for me. For those of you who do not know how to iron, I will give you the tricks I have learned.

1. Make sure the iron is a the right temperature. Hotter for cottons, cooler for mixed fabrics. Just look at the dial on the iron. I'd tell you about using the steam feature but the iron I bought doesn't have one because it was 10 dollars.

2. Iron the top back part first (up near the collar, where your shoulders are) by sliding part of the sleeve into the ironing board tip and then doing the other side the same way.

3. Now do the collar. Lay it flat on the ironing board and go over it fairly quickly. The collar seems easy to burn.

4. Do the sleeves third. Unbutton the cuffs and iron those. Then take your time and make sure you make a single crease from the shoulder to the cuff and flatten out the sleeves. Iron the sleeves very carefully. Switch the sleeve over and make sure there are no wrinkles and line up the crease again. Iron that side.

5. Now to the main part of the shirt. Iron the one of the front sides and work your way around. Be careful between the buttons.

6. For extra crispness use some spray on starch. The can recommends spraying the whole thing first but I think spraying each part as you iron works better. Make sure you let the spray penetrate the fabric or else it can get really shinny or get white flakes.

7. Or get a shit-ton of the Downey Wrinkle Releaser, some Febreeze and call it a day.

There you have it, my tip for this Friday on how to iron your shirt. Stay tuned for next week when Squatting Bear shows us how to make a lovely double-chocolate fudge bundt cake.

Also, here is a Wired Magazine interview with Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios. It's long and kinda boring but it gives a bit of insight into where the Xbox is going.

Call of Duty 4 won AIAS Game of the Year. The game also beat Halo again this week for most played on Xbox Live. Pablito, it's 50 bucks, go buy it.

Writes and major media companies end writer's strike.

Dammer's First Impressions of COD and Daymonster's Response

Dammer posted a long comment about his experience with COD4. I took his comment and posted it along with my response. Also at the bottom of the post is a couple links and a list of the COD4 perks.

Also, last night I woke up and saw that LP, SB and Dammer were online playing COD. I turned on the Xbox and stared playing multiplayer until their game was done. Will anyone be playing tonight? I might shorten up my drinking schedule if that's the case. I haven't had much problem with lag lately (knock on wood).

DWEU: First impression of the game: I have a lot to get used to. The first online match I played I spent the entire time dying 5 seconds after spawning and being bombarded by air support. I was trying to practice up in the single player campaign but LP and SB signed on when I barely got into it.

TD: Maybe Puyo and SB can tell me if I am wrong, but as soon as I hear "Enemy Air Support" I do two things, either a) get indoors or b) get away from the rest of my teammates/move. I think I have only been killed by air support two or three times since I started playing.

As for playing single player to help you with multiplayer. I think besides getting to learn some of the buttons in the game, the campaign won't help too much.

DWEU: I think I'll like the game more after I get used to not being able to take a shot or two and get back in cover. The last couple games I played I was getting better. Sometimes I swear I'm in cover, or I can almost guarantee that I turn the corner of a building, but then I get shot down and watching the opponent's camera it looks like I was just sitting out in the open. I also get hung up on doors a lot.

TD: The hardest thing for me to adjust to is that in Halo if someone runs by you you can just run after them right away and start shooting. In COD4 it's best to let them run by, shoot them when they get right in front of you and then move away.

As for thinking you get around corners, you could be getting shot through walls. If you are behind thin walls, boards or corrugated metal the bullets can go through them especially if they have a high powered gun and/or the deep impact perk.

DWEU: I also don't like how the jumping works out. It's kind of like a mix of Halo and Gears of War, some things you can jump on, some you fail to jump on because they're too high and then have to push A to climb up.....I'm definitely going to play through more single player and read up on the different weapons.

TD: I originally thought the same thing for jumping. But now I think it works okay because its like saying, you can jump up on this but this you can't so you have to put your gun down for a second to do it. It's more realistic and you are not jumping around like crazy.

DWEU: I'm on the "Harder" setting I think and the part in the TV studio during the first level took me FOREVER. I would walk in far enough to get the evildoers going and then pick a few off, then die by grenade. My arm was getting so tired from throwing grenades back. I have a problem too where I push the button to throw a grenade back before it shows on my screen, so I just huck one of my own and then die as the other explodes. Finally I just sat back in a room and picked them off for about five minutes, they kept coming back, so I hucked some nades and advanced into some other rooms with cover that I could get into before but never survive. This time I had more support but I had also already taken out some annoying bastards on the second floor walkway.

TD: One thing you have to remember is that when you see the grenade icon it just means you are close to it, it could kill or hurt you. If you see the icon that shows you how to throw it back, you are right over it and if you don't get away or throw it back you will die. If you hold RB while you just see the regular grenade icon you will throw your own and still could be hit by the enemies.

DWEU: All in all so far I would not say I'm super impressed, and the first couple of multiplayer sessions just simply put were not fun. It got better though, and I think it will continue to the more I play.

TD: I think once you get a decent weapon/scope, (I really like the red dot) you will find it more enjoyable. Learning the maps is important and can be really fun. I hope you keep playing it because I think we will find it more enjoyable in the long run and it's fun to have a couple games to play together.

Here a thread that has people talking about what guns/perks they use: Team Xbox COD Thread

Here is the List of Perks:
Perk Slot 1:
* Bomb Squad (detect placed C4 charges)
* C4 x 2* Claymore x 2- Master Gunnery Sergeant 1 (lvl 23)
* RPG-7 x 2
* Special Grenades x 3
* Frag x 3 - Colonel 1 (lvl 41)
* Bandolier (adds more ammo to your clip)- Captain 1 (lvl 32)

Perk Slot 2:
* Juggernaut (More Health)
* Sleight of hand (Reload quicker)-unlocked at Master sergeant (lvl20)
* Stopping power (More weapon damage)
* UAV Jammer (Jams enemy radar)unlocked at Sergeant lvl 11)
* Sonic Boom (Bigger explosions)
* Double Tap (increased rate of fire)-unlocked at 1st lieutenant (lvl29)
* Overkill (carry two primary weapons, no pistol)-unlocked at lieutenant colonel (lvl 38)

Perk Slot 3:
* Extreme conditioning (Sprint longer)
* Steady Aim (Steadier aiming)
* Last Stand (Shoot your pistol while dying)-unlocked at Corporal (lvl 8)
* Deep Impact (Better bullet penetration through walls)
* Dead Silence (Less noise when running)-unlocked at Brigadier general 1 (lvl 44)
* Iron Lungs (Hold breath longer when sniping)-unlocked at 2nd lieutenant (lvl 26)
* Eavesdrop (Allows you to listen in on enemy chat)-unlocked at Major (lvl 35)
* Martyrdom (While dying, player pulls a grenade)- unlocked at Gunnery sergeant 1 (lvl 17)

Wednesday's Untitled Post

So as many of you know, there is a new round of interviews that just started. This is very exciting for me because it usually means its a long post that I don't have to write. I am working on some questions for Squatting Bear right now, so email me any questions you want to ask him.

As for the mix up with the Dammer pic below, let me explain. I said to SB, "what should I do for Dammers pic on the new interview?"

SB: "Put him with an ice pick."

TD: "Why?"

SB: "Because LocoPollo and I put fruit in his room to try to make it stink and he came after me with an ice pick."

TD: "Jesus, why the fuck did you have an ice pick?"

SB: "To scrape up the fruit."

I though this response was somewhat weird, I mean you could use an ice pick to get the stuff out of the cracks I guess, but it didn't answer the question of why did you had an ice pick in your dorm to begin with. But I decided not to continue this conversation anymore and just make the picture.

And when Dammer was confused, I was really confused and decided to let them just sort it out. But now it makes perfect sense, and I no longer think Dammer is messed up and ACTUALLY wanted to kill SB. But he might have.

Last Night:
Last night might have been some of the best video gaming I have had since college. First SB and I played some good COD4 and have since pretty much fallen in love with it. Then SB had to go to a movie with Rose Bear, so I changed discs to Halo 3 with Tilla, Adeclipse, and two of Adeclipses friends (Dajuicee and MyBigDumbFace). We played 12 games and in those 12 games we had a record of 11 wins and 1 loss.

It was a fun time and here are a couple of memorable games.

Team BRs on Valhalla.
This game was memorable because I decided to not shoot at anyone the entire game. I had zero kills and 16 assists, 15 of them were wheelman. The other assist I think I bumped into an enemy while trying to splatter him. We won pretty easily and I only got lasered 4 or 5 times.

Team BRs on The Pit.
During this game I was on the phone and trying to have a conversation without getting owned too badly. My best tool of destruction was my grenades on this mad as I tried to hang back and huck them at people while my head was titled 90 degrees holding on to the phone. But the real story here is Adeclipse. He had 14 kills 7 assists and 0 deaths. We won pretty handily 50-22.

Team BRs on Last Resort.
This is just another ass kicking that Adeclipse had. This time he had only 1 death. I also did alright. But I think if we had the formula done, he would have a better rating.

Monday Morning Randomness

So on Friday night I went to this bar called "The Store" after we had about 12 pitchers of Sangria at this restaurant down the street. When we got to the bar I immediately noticed one of my favorite things... Arcade Basketball. It was your standard Super Shot machine with moving back board (although the one pictured is a three-across model and the one at the bar was just your standard single shot) and I just so happened to have 18 one dollar bills in my pocket, due to the good people at McDonald's not having any fives or tens.

I first challenged this one girl to a game and I obviously crushed her. As we were planning our rematch a guy and a girl came up and asked us if they could play after us. I told them that we could make a friendly wager and which ever team scored the least amount of combined points had to buy the winning team drinks. The two agreed but not before the guy switched his girlfriend for another guy and we played alternating turns. This continued on for about 6 more teams of two as a large crowd gathered around the Super Shot.

We finally lost to this small guy decked out in New England Pats gear that threw up a impressive 65 pts. Besting my nights best by 6. We were heart broken as I came back from the bar with two bottles of Coors Light (I made it look like a bought them, but I had a few left from the bounty I had already won) I got back in line to take on the team that had now won two in a row. After a good 10 minutes I was back up to challenge the same reigning champs that beat us. Just as I am putting in my dollar in the machine. I hear someone say "AJ is next."

Fuck that, who is AJ? I turn around and it's AJ Pierzynski offering $20 bucks to play the next game of Super Shot. No way am I letting this happen. So I told him that he can wait in line like all of us and that the integrity of the game can't be bought. I used the term duesch-bag somewhere in there but I can't remember exactly when or in what context. He walked away and started talking to some older blond chick at the bar. But not before I got a couple pics of him.

Here is the one from my cell phone. I am not sure why he wouldn't pose for me. It's obviously not very good but you get the idea. I have another from a friends camera but I am waiting for her to email it to me. Update to follow.

Anyways, in other news, I know that the talk on the Formula have stalled a bit as of late and hopefully I will have the finalized formula by the end of the day today to give Dammer. But I also came across a couple things that might help. First off there is a new site called Halo API, supposedly it makes it really easy to get all the statistics from Bungie. Dammer, you might have already got that figured out but if this was easier I thought you should know about it. Using Halo API, this guy made this pretty easy app to get your simple career stats.

As some of you are no doubt aware, LOST starts up again in a few days and I am getting pretty excited. I specifically avoided Thursday night classes because of this show. For those of you who are planning on watching it I recommend reading up on some of the characters for a refresher. Here are some of the pages. Kate Austen, Jin-Soo Kwon, Juliet Burke, Hugo "Hurley" Reyes, Claire Littleton, Desmond Hume, Benjamin Linus, Michael Dawson and Sun Kwon.

Nintendo DS should have it's own Guitar Hero game by June. The much rumored video game is expected to be released sometime this summer. Guitar Hero: On Tour (clever) is also rumored to have some sort of peripheral. We'll see if it's sweet and hopefully won't go the way of Halo DS.

KofC Waterslide Fun Time Plans

I was thinking, we should really plan a sweet trip. Where should we go? Australia? Brazil? Nauru? But those places are all very expensive to get to. So I figured it out and there is one place that is better than all of these exotic locations and is in the geographical center of where the majority of us live (Sorry Adeclipes).

Where is this magical place you ask? Well it is Wisconsin Dells of course.

Here is what I am thinking. We go to Noah's Ark on Saturday June 14th and then stay at the Raintree Resort across the street from Noah's Ark that night. The next day we take in some high speed Go-Karts and maybe an haunted house. And then after we are all tuckered out we go back to our lives with memories that will last a life time.

For those of you who aren't familiar I will give you some information on the best rides Noah has to offer.

Time Warp – Billed as the world's largest bowl ride. It's a pitch black descent in 4 person tube and then goes into a strobe light filled bowl where you swoosh around until you drop through the middle, just as the next group of 4 comes flying down. The initial drop is the best but the whole thing is entertaining.

Black Anaconda – Billed as the longest water coaster in the United States at over 1/4 of a mile long. It's pretty fun, my sisters and brother-in-laws liked it a lot. You go over 30 mph at one point and you go up and down the slide powered by water jets. I am not a huge fan of water coasters though, I like gravity to do the work. Josey and SB, it's kind of like the beginning of the tube rides that shoot you up and down on the way to the lazy river.

Sting Ray – This ride is the most under rated in my opinion. It consists of two large halfpipes about 5 stories tall and who go down in tubes of 1 or 2. The initial drop is the best part as you go almost vertical back and forth until you slow down at the bottom of the halfpipe. Since there are 2 of them and it's fairly quick the lines goes fast.

Point Of No Return – Two 10-story-tall speedslides that take riders three to five seconds to descend. This is your classic speed slide, but the tallest I have ever ridden. You go over 40 mph. JW and SB, it's like the abyss but taller, but also not dark. It has timers at the end so I can continue my domination over you.

Congo Bongo – Large 4 person raft ride, that wouldn't be fun except that you often try to flip the raft on the turns.

Big Kahuna – Large wave pool, one of the largest wave pools in Wisconsin Dells. Always a good time to knock each other of rafts in 10 ft waves.

Adventure River – Not to be confused with the "Endless River" this one features waterfalls and rapids but not as cool as the one at Atlantis unfortunately.

The Plunge – One of my favorites for sure, two side-by-side speed slides with a couple bumps. But on these you go down head first on like a rubber tobaggon thing.

Paradise Lagoon – An activity pool featuring slides and zip-lines. It doesn't sound that cool, but there are several raft crossing areas where you can dominate little kids and water slides that drop you a few feet above the water. It's also fun to watch people fall off the zip-lines on their faces.

Miniature Golf – Miniature golf course that is included in the price of admission.

There are of course dozens of other slides, bumper boats, a ride similar to the Wave at Valley Fair and of course a bunch of Arcades.

I think we should leave MN/Chicago early in the morning to get to the Waterpark around 9-10am. That means SB/Josey/Pablito/Tilla/Dammer would need to be up by about 6am as it is exactly a 3 hr drive to the Waterpark Capital of the World.

I would also need to leave at 6am as it is exactly 3 hr from Chicago to the Dells. The best part is you can come and go from the park as you wish, and since we would be there early we can park right next to the best water slides. This means we can bring our own food and drinks (emphasis on drinks), which will save us money and increase our level of fun.

Another real good thing about the dells, is checking out the mullets and all around dirties. It is awesome.

The hotel is about 100 bucks a night, so that split up would be like 25/person if we had 4 to a room. The price of admission to Noah's isn't super cheap (about 30 bucks) but it's definitely worth it. Anyone else can come, if Rose Bear wants to be scared of water slides, or if Tilla's mysterious fiancee. The Knights of Cydonia don't exclude.

I already ordered the tickets and got 2 hotel rooms so we are set to go. I also got a round trip ticket from Dallas to Chicago for Adeclipse. Just send me the money.

No, but for real, anyone else down? I know it's an awfully long time in advance but I am already getting excited just thinking about it (and Josey's tan).

Happy MLK Jr. Day!

Thanks to the good people at the company I work for, I have the day off. But no thanks goes to the bad people that run the school I attend as I have class tonight. But after tonight's class I plan on playing some COD4.

If anyone wants to try a new FPS besides Halo. Please feel free to join what looks to be SB and me for some COD4 fun.

Who's in?

Daymonster to Leave Clan and other Bizarre Things

I haven't had the opportunity to play too much Halo lately, but when I have had a chance no one from my beloved KofC has been on. In fact some haven't been online for over two weeks! Last night I did play a couple games with Dammer, and that was good, but not as good as it used to be, back when we all played.

But then something happened, I saw Dajuicee was on. Now, many of you might not know Dajuicee but I played a couple games with him and Adeclipse back when Adeclipse was new. I don't know Dajuicee very well, and as far as I can tell he is some sort of secret gay lover with Adeclipse, but that's not important. What is important is when I checked out his Halo party, I saw he was playing with 4 other people. Wow, 4 other people! That know each other?! That are communicating?!

I joined in their party and saw that Adeclipse was playing under a different name and we proceeded to play some social slayers. It reminded me of the good old days when we were all playing, talking, laughing, livin', L-I-V-I-N'. I miss those days and that is why I am leaving the Knights of Cydonia. It is too hard for to be a part of this great group and still be missing the everyday discussion and frequent Halo play dates of yester. It's been great knowing you guys and maybe one day we can be clan-mates again.

P.S. I am joking about quitting the clan. And the gay lover comment (kind of).

Speaking of other things that are about as strange as The Daymonster quitting the KofC, a USA Today article talks about how major music labels and individual bands are now approaching game makers trying to get their songs onto games like Rock Band and GHIII.

2.5 million songs have been downloaded since Rock Band has come out. And since only about 1 million copies of RB have been sold, that's like 2.5 downloaded songs per copy. That's a lot.

Here is the list of the 10 most popular songs for Rock Band DLC:
1. Metallica (Ride the Lightning, Blackened, And Justice for All)
2. The Police (Can’t Stand Losing You, Roxanne, Synchronicity II)
3. Black Sabbath (covers of N.I.B., Sweet Leaf, War Pigs)
4. Queens of the Stone Age (3s and 7s, Sick Sick Sick, Little Sister)
5. David Bowie (Heroes, Moonage Daydream, Queen Bitch)
6. Weezer, Buddy Holly
7. Foreigner, Juke Box Hero
8. Creedence Clearwater Revival, cover of Fortunate Son
9. The Knack, cover of My Sharona
10. All-American Rejects (Dirty Little Secret, Move Along)

Other strange occurrences? Well, somebody combined Super Mario and Halo into a strange side-scrolling adventure, called Super Mario Fusion. The video can be found here, and if you want you can download the game here.

Since this is a post about things that aren't normally done. I want to take this opportunity to extend the proverbial olive branch to LocoPollo/Puyo. Why let little things like what computer or what OS is better get in the way of a long and illustrious friendship? Let's stop this right here and show the Jews and the Muslims how saying you're sorry can go a long way. I'm sorry Loco, I hope you forgive me. Also, can you get me a free copy of Dr. Daisy Pet Vet.

I also noticed Josey typing in the shout box at the right --->. This is also something that rarely happens. But it something that makes me very happy. I have been downloading about 8 new maps everyday (that's the limit you can do each time). What you need to do is sign into bungie.net. Make sure it says "Welcome, Josey Wales!" or what ever your Gamer Tag is.

Now go to the Game Map Variant Forum on the website. When you click on the forums you will go to a new page where the Map is posted. Here is an example of a map called "Titanic" at the top you will see something like this.

Now click on "Download to Halo 3". Once you click on that you should see this.

Now click "OK" and you can continue doing this 7 more times. Game variants are the same way and often they are posted right with the Map so you can use them together.

Hope that helps Josey.

Also, go to google and type in "what you didn't know about the knights of Cydonia". We have gotten over 20 visitors in the last month from this search. People are going to know a lot about you, Eternal.