This Is Water – Your Must Watch Video of the Moment

If you watch only one video anytime soon, then this is perhaps the one.

From the video description: In 2005, author David Foster Wallace was asked to give the commencement address to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College. However, the resulting speech didn’t become widely known until 3 years later, after his tragic death. It is, without a doubt, some of the best life advice we’ve ever come across, and perhaps the most simple and elegant explanation of the real value of education.
We made this video, built around an abridged version of the original audio recording, with the hopes that the core message of the speech could reach a wider audience who might not have otherwise been interested. However, we encourage everyone to seek out the full speech (because, in this case, the book is definitely better than the movie).
-The Glossary

Board Gaming in the Canton/Akron Area

I’ve been able to explore some of the stores in the greater Canton/Akron, Ohio area (CAK as our airport is called), and I’ve formed a few thoughts. My primary interest is board games, Netrunner and LCGs if I ever could play them, followed by roll playing (never get to play those either, but hey…), and then on from there. I list Canton first as I’m closer to Canton than Akron. I live between Alliance and Hartville, and work in Massillon…

I’ll cover stores first. Clubs and Meetups next, then a couple misc links that aren’t really local related but community board game related…
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Pondering Android Netrunner Must Haves

Android: Netrunner BoxFor people coming from a link to help, feel free to skip the intro, which is more for regular readers or those not familiar with Netrunner as much…

So I’ve been wanting to play Android Netrunner Living Card Game… I’ve played a couple times with Ari, but not any real serious games yet. I’ve listened to a couple of the Agenda 7 Podcast and a couple of the Breaking News Podcast, along with some of Team Covenant’s excellent video commentary series, and I’m ready to start playing some more serious games (if I can find people in my local area to play that is). I’ve got the following Data Packs (expansions for the game) so far, What Lies Ahead, Trace Amount, Cyber Exodus and A Study in Static, which are all there are at this point.

The challenge for me is that I’ve never played Magic: The Gathering, the original Netrunner game (on which this one is based), or any other games like it… my card game experience (beyond those using a regular deck of cards) is limited to games like Dominion and Elder Sign, both of which are far from the same category. Continue reading

The Hobbit At 48 FPS

I finally got to see The Hobbit today at the local theater in the High Frame Rate, 48fps 3D the way Peter Jackson filmed it and intended it to be seen. A bit about the movie… it’s a great movie and a must see, I’ll speak more about the movie in a bit.

The big news about the movie is that Peter Jackson filmed the movie at 48 frames per second…
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Me Playing Mechwarrior Online

Mechwarrior Online is a Free To Play game where you drive large Mechs around and engage in Mech combat…

Here I am playing a little… This is near my average game play in terms of piloting and shooting, though I normally bite it somewhere along the way. About the 5 minute mark I take too long to pull the throttle back to make my sharp turn, but otherwise I think my piloting was semi-okay in this. I need to master lasers better. This is using one of the trial Mechs. The game is free, and you get a choice of 4 Mechs, one from each class without buying any, and as you play, you earn in game money that allows you to buy stuff later on, or you can spend real world money to buy the stuff without the grind, which is how they make their money, though people like me tend to just use the grind…

Christmas Wishlists Updating

I am going through the wishlists and updating them… In all cases remember to sort them by priority…

There is my Amazon Wishlist for Brian A. Thomas. Things not on that list include an iPad (prefer one with the Retina display, and prefer one with the new A6 processor, though a Mini or an older iPad 2 would do as well)… and obviously things that nobody could realistically afford, a place to live close to the boys, a new car (Volt would be first choice, then Subaru Outback, Honda Civic…) :)

Ari’s Wishlist is under heavy construction at the moment… missing from the list are some things he would like to have like Lego Technic kits…

Sidd’s Wishlist is also under heavy construction at the moment… but he’s 3, so fairly easy to please…

For both boys, figures for Spryo’s Skylanders or Skylanders Giants on the XBox 360 (the figures for the game should work on all platforms anyhow) could also be good since they got the main game coming to them…

Insane Amount of Video Game Posts

Looking over all my old posts, there have been an insane amount of video game posts… of course there hasn’t been much else going on in my life really, and most of my friends/family are on my Facebook anyhow for the more random odd things… I keep saying I should update this more often and never get to it… :)

20,000 Beta Keys for Guild Wars 2 Being Given Away by Curse

Not sure if the world’s greatest game Guild Wars 2 is for you? What? The tons of posts here didn’t convince you? :) Want to try before you buy? The final Beta Weekend Event is coming July 20th to the 22nd, if you can get some game time in that weekend then try to win one of 20,000 keys. http://www.curse.com/betas/guild-wars-2

Wishlists Updated

I updated my Amazon Wishlists.

Brian’s Wishlist is mostly odds and ends that I want, books, video games and the like.

Brian’s Computer Build Wishlist is the wishlist in order to build a new computer. There are a few parts from this that I could use on the computer I have now… like a new headset and webcam… the primary list above includes a hard drive I need for the computer I have now, which is different than the hard drives on this list.

There are other wishlists as well, all on the side and visible when you go to one of the above. With all lists, remember to sort by priority then go from there. :)

I Suck at MOBAs – Video Proof

I managed to get a beta key for the upcoming MOBA game, Smite. I typically suck at MOBA games. I played League of Legends (LoL), and I have DOTA 2. I gave up on LoL because I felt bad. I knew I was doing bad and being of no use to the team. DOTA 2 I do occasional bot matches until the training/teacher area opens up where I might do more… I was, still sort of do, hoping that since Smite is 3rd person rather than isometric, and a bit easier controls overall, that I wold be better at Smite. So far not so much. Then again I only did one match so far without any training. I then did one training match did somewhat okay and the did the one I recorded, please excuse the breathing into the mic. This will be in three parts:

Part 1:

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Stress Missed

My Main during BWE2 in Lion's Arch - Guild Wars 2

Sthel visits an area under construction in Lion’s Arch

I missed the last Guild Wars 2 Stress Test on June 27th due to a massive headache. I got in some, but didn’t feel well enough to record more videos or take more screenshots. Lucky for me there is one more Beta Weekend Event coming near the end of July before the Guild Wars 2 releases… My original plan was to get a few more screenshots and videos that I could do commentaries on later, such as the release date announcement.

I also wanted to spend a lot of time in sPvP, and while I got there, I couldn’t figure out how to actually get into a sPvP match… lack of homework on my part. Perhaps due also in part because I skipped the tutorials… :) Anyhow, I got to the loby area, but never figure out how to get into the matches from there. Apparently there is a crier or something that can get you into the matches. I’ll have to look next BWE.

I really don’t know if there will be much Guild Wars 2 news between now and release… save perhaps details of the upcoming Beta Weekend Event. No word yet if one or two of the remaining races will be playable or if they’ll just keep them until release. There hasn’t been details yet about when we’ll be able to link our Guild Wars 1 account with our Guild Wars 2 account if we created the GW1 account after we made the 2nd, or some people skipped it or couldn’t do it at the time due to technical hiccups. ArenaNet has promised they would open that stuff up before release, so we’ll trust them on that. The only reason to link them, at least for those of us at low levels, is name reservation since names are unique to the whole game, not just per server. The head start is August 25th, for those of us who pre-purchase the game, so there is still some time to go before they have to make sure the system is in place. I would guess since they announced a date, they could do it at any moment, but my guess is that they probably will hold off until August.

Be sure to join me in this great game…

Guild Wars 2 Is Coming August 28th

Sthel Thomas in Lion's Arch - Guild Wars 2

My Main during BWE2, somewhere in Lion’s Arch

Not much else to say, but news over at the Official ArenaNet Blogis Announcing the Guild Wars 2 Launch Date. I got to get ready for work, so more later…

Here is the launch date trailer for it:

There is one more Beta Weekend Event that they also announced on July 20th to the 22nd. No word if they’ll do another stress test or slip in a public beta before release, but this frankly is all I would expect.

All the more reason to get it now if you haven’t already.