Brainstorming Is A Bitch

I just came out the shower. Whenever I'm in the shower I tend to think about my work. Why I do that is anybodies guess.

I was thinking what I should be doing with the social media section for my on-campus news paper, The CHIMES. I have to admit that I was pretty stumped for the past few days trying to come up with something to do with Facebook and Twitter. I had been thinking that there wasn't a lot to do with Twitter and Facebook. You post what you are doing, or eating, or...ew...and what not, then you post a picture of something extremely random and you're done. But then I remembered, there are apps! Twitter has a slew of sites available to turn it into something different than what it was designed for. Facebook has thousands of applications which can change the tides of my thoughts.

I want to give my staffers some kind of work. I don't want them just posting things and that being it. I want them to do some research and find ways to prove my old thoughts wrong. Maybe I'll get them to find apps every week, like an App of the Week or something where they look for new applications to improve students productivity or usefulness of Facebook and Twitter and write small 250 word articles explaining them.

I want to make things better and more fun for them and myself.

I'm Selling My Xbox Today

You would do anything for the person you love, right? I sure would and I have. I posted my Modern Warfare 2 Special Edition Xbox 360 on Ebay just a few minutes ago.

Why would I sell one of the few things I cherish most in this world? I also cherish my girlfriend and when she isn't happy, I'm not pleased. Early last week I found out she couldn't make it to her second year of college because she can't afford a bus ticket. She already had a bus ticket from school but it is defective and she can't use it nor can she get a refund. Those bastards who sold her to ticket should just quit life, like now. I've decided that I love her way more than I love my Xbox 360, maybe, and will pay for her way to college.

The only set back to this is that I lose one of the few forms of entertainment I have here at Morrisville and I won't be able to write any reviews because I don't have a system to play on.

I have my damaged Nintendo DS Lite from my brother, but that isn't much. I do have Dragon Quest IX, so maybe I am set for the time being. I sure will miss my beloved console. Maybe I will buy one of the newer models with the extra cash I get if I sell the 360. Good luck with that.

UPDATE: She got the money for the bus from her friend and her sister. I'm still selling my Xbox because I want an upgrade, damn it.

What If A Zelda Game Was On The Xbox 360?

Life Size Link as seen on DeviantArt by Yuki-Myst 

Can anybody else picture it? The current incarnation of Link, in HD, battling a nasty version of Ganondorf on a mount. It could be so epic.

Why does Nintendo have to have one of my favorite characters in video game history all to itself? Share, with me at least. I wouldn’t mind taking a super-secret copy of The Legend of Zelda 360.   

No Sleep For the Fearless Wanderer

I could not fall asleep last night.

What did I do? Try and get some much needed rest? Hell no! I stayed up all night and played Fallout 3 in its entirety. I finished the last mission, Take It Back!, and purified the wasteland.

Even though I saved a whole population and gave them a chance at regular life, I have way more to do. I tried to finish it as fast as possible so I can get to the other video games in my back log. I might go back to it one day but for now  I think I will fall back from Fallout 3.

Crackdown 2 Failed My Heart

Video game blog Joystiq's Justin McElroy brought up a point on the Joystiq podcast about Crackdown 2 that saddened me. He said that Crackdown 2 is a lose/lose situation. On one side, the game is a failure and will most likely not have a successor. On the other hand if the game was to sell a good amount of copies the game would have a half-assed sequel just like it in the works. No one would be happy. 

It hurts me when games that could be such great hits come out and turn out to be complete trash. I have such high hopes and they are burned to the ground by developers who don't put enough effort into their work or just have a vision that looks stylish and clean only in their heads but once it hits the shelves it turns out to be an utter disappointment.  

Picture provided by IGN

Frustration in Video Games

Shooting the giant moth over my head was like arguing with my mother. I wasn’t getting anywhere as I continued and I was looking at the sky every few minutes as though I was rolling my eyes. The fight was finished with me on the floor and the moth savoring its victory in the sky; that’s about the only difference between arguments with my dear mommy.

On the moth topic, not parent/child disagreements, it made me extremely frustrated because I attempted the engagement five times before I gave up, turned off my Xbox 360 and gave Borderlands the pretty side of my middle finger.

There are many times, not just in Borderlands, that I got so hot-headed I had to shut down my system, put the title back in my stack of video games which  I desperately need to finish, and just sit in my chair and think of what I’m doing wrong. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the one doing something wrong or is it the game with a specific flaw that drives me to failure. Who knows? I sure as hell don’t.

I recently finished Assassins Creed II. That game is one of those games that I point the blame of all my failures and hick-ups on the controls. I knew what I wanted to do, but the game wanted me to do something else as if it had a mind of its own and it just wanted to screw me for kicks and giggles. One example was when I was about to assassinate a naughty templar who killed my family. I was going in for the kill and I pressed the correct buttons to commence with the assassination, but instead Ezio jumped into a singing jerk and stabbed him right in the forehead. My target got away and all I was left with was shame and anger. Maybe it was my fault or it could have been the game; I stick with the later.

What did I do to get rid of stress? I used break things. It is a foolish temper I held, but it was there and it got out sometimes. I bought a special edition Halo 3 wireless headset along with the legendary edition of Halo 3, a purchase I regret. I smashed the headset against my cousin’s bedroom wall when I was having a bad day and lost numerous multiplayer matches in Gears of War. I was one pissed-off fellow. I did get past all the brutality that video games brought out of me.

How did I lose these feverish rages that I succumbed to after getting my ass kicked? I learned that it wasn’t worth it to get angry over a game. The key is to just keep trying, no matter what. Give it a few attempts and if you just have no luck, turn the game off and hit the sack or do something else. Then, come back to it and try again. I guarantee it works.    

What Am I Playing?