HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year to ALL!

Here's hoping for a great 2009!
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Now playing: The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra - Auld Lang Syne
via FoxyTunes

Looking Back @ 2007

We’re a month away from our 1^st anniversary. And coming up we’re going to be having the Stinger503 Video Game Awards. So I decided I’d look into the awards I gave out last year and how they stood the sands of time.

Best Soundtrack- Halo 3

2008- I think this stands up still. Easily had the best soundtrack

Best Graphics- Bioshock

2008- Again still stands. I played and beat Assassin’s Creed and Bioshock is still better.

Best Demo- (tie) Halo 3 beta, Medal of Honour: Airborne, Boom Boom Rocket

2008- Still stands. Medal of Honour: Airborne especially since the game wasn’t that great.

Most Satisfying Game- (Tie) Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, The Orange Box

2008- Still stands I’ve played at least 20+ hours in each of these games.

Best 360 Gear- (Tie) Text Messenger & Messenger Bag

2008- Still carry my 360 in that bag and the messenger is so useful for doing messages

Best Multiplayer Game- Halo 3

2008- I was completely right and just look at the most played online game. Not Gears 2 but Halo 3. Enough said

Best Arcade Game- Boom Boom Rocket

2008- Still true. Played it recently in fact.

Best Atmosphere- Bioshock

2008- Still true in my opinion, which is why I’m excited for the next installment.

Best Story- Call of Duty 4

2008- Still true it was the most memorable

Best Game- Halo 3

2008- See Multiplayer

Prediction for next year- Grand Theft Auto IV

2008- We’ll see January 26 2009

Christmas Haul

• Rock Band 2: Special Edition
• JVC Everio Memory Camcorder
• 16 GB SD Card
• 500 GB External Hard drive
• Tickets to Lewis Black live (Jan 30th)
  
• Two 1400 Microsoft Points Cards
• $100 SHOP! Card
• T-Shirt with Stinger503 on it
• Chocolate Homer Simpson
• Chocolate
• Two Shirts
• Photo Album
• Gillette Fusioin Hydra Gel Moisturizing with Aloe + Cocoa Butter
• $200 dollars from grandparents
• Flashlight

I AM THE CHAMPION! HAMILTON MAULERS FTW!

Wow this was completely unexpected! After the exciting 97-97 finish, I checked the rules and saw that ties are decided by Winning Percentage (we tied in this) then Points For, which he had a over 100 more than me. So I resigned myself to losing.

Which is why I was surprised that I saw this message when I logged in today: "

CHAMPION!

Hamilton Maulers won the Bad Ass League Championship by a score of 97 to 97 over MUDCATS. Drew Brees led the team in scoring in the championship round and he also led the team in scoring for the season. Congrats once again to Hamilton Maulers on a terrific Fantasy football Season. Hope to see you all next year!"

I looked deeper into the rules and realized that the rules I read were for a standings tie not playoff games! So I won the Championship Game!

Hamilton Maulers are the Champions!

I'd like to thank Drew Brees for his magnificent play against the Detroit Lions. Matt Forte for his last 5 minute effort to close the gap for us. Rhodes and Issac Bruce for doing great! Lynch for being reliable and Steve Smith for his great playing last game and this game!

Thank you to my opponents and CBS Sports website for the fun times

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Now playing: Queen - We Are The Champions
via FoxyTunes

Year End Review

Well 2008 has been up and down hasn't it? Right now I'm going to take a look back at the biggest events this year!


January

• Back to College

February

• Valentines Day : Me and Jen go to the Warplane heritage museum
  

March

• I turn 20

April

• Finish first semester of college
• Waited outside till 12 on launch night for GTAIV
  

May

• Boring month

June

• Got a shitty job paving driveways
• Quit my shitty job paving driveways
• 4th year anniversary with Jenni
  

July

• Went to Pennsylvania and New York
  

August

• Went to Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland
• Went to Cedar Point
• Went to Vaughn Mills with Jenni
• Went to Blue Jays game
• Went some to with Amish people with Jenni

September

• Started second year of college
• Break up with Jenni
• Went to Fair
  

October

• Niagara Food Festival

November

• Got Fable 2 and Fallout 3
  

December

• Last time I really saw Jenni
• Got Rock Band 2

Well we're almost there!

Championship Game!

Okay well Matt Forte has done his job. It's the final minutes of the last game. 3 minutes left. I'm winning the game right now 96-94. The game on tv is 17-17 between chicago and green bay.
My New York Giants defense failed me and got 0 points. Everyone else has done great including Brees who got 26 points. We would've won easily but Williams on the other team got 34 points.

So here we are. If Chicago gets a field goal then he wins. If not and the game finishes then I win. If Matt Forte gets more points and then he get a field goal I could still win. Let's see...

1:44 left: Packers still have it!

:25 left: Packers attempt field goal

:18 left: we're goin to overtime

13:12 left: Forte make a good Reception and we go to 97

11:33 left: Gould has a chance to kick a field goal tying the game 97-97

TIE GAME!

Well that's it. It's a tie. That's all for this year in fantasy sports. I'll be starting again in February for NASCAR.

(re)Turning Point: More Anger

Well not surprisingly like the achievement whore I am I went back to turning point to scrounge as much as I can (I just hit the 30000 point mark!) So I beat it on Normal then I beat the final mission on insane and hard. Got some more achievements like Swirly, where you stick a guy into a toilet.

That's a good analogy for this game! Like sticking your head in a shitter! I'm going to lay down some fucking rules for developers!

1. THOU SHALT NOT MAKE MULTIPLAYER ACHIEVEMENTS!

For some stupid ass reasons developers want to make a brand new game (i.e. not a sequel) and throw in a multiplayer system. If you are going to do this DON'T put achievements there! Why? BECAUSE NO ONE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT YOUR GAME YET! If your game becomes somewhat popular then you can add achievements to the sequel!

For example Call of Duty 3: Has a fucking 20000 pt achievement which I estimated would take me 3 months of around the clock playing.

Prey: I loved the single player campaign. But where the hell did they get off thinking they could make a multiplayer? Why? It's fucking stupid!

Fuck even Medal of Honour: Airborne made a fucking multiplayer campaign with achievements and no one but three people play it.

THEN THERE'S Turning Point: Fall of Liberty

In my review I slammed it for bugs, lack of weapons, lack of story, etc. and instead of remedying those problems they built a fucking multiplayer system. FUCK ME!

There is NO ONE PLAYING AT ALL! NONE! ZERO! In fact in the Top 10 players list there are only 6 people for this month. 6 people in a fucking 10 person list!

Do you know why I hate multiplayer achievements? THIS! How the fucking am I supposed to get the following achievements from Turning Point: Fall of Liberty? (In order of preposterousness)

• Maybe I Should Go Outside: Get 2500 ranked match kills in any mode
• Killer Instinct: Get 500 ranked match kills in any mode
• Killer: Get 100 ranked match kills in any mode
  
• World Tour: Finish a multiplayer game on EVERY MAP in EVERY MODE
• One in the Chamber: Kill a player in a ranked match with the last bullet in a pistol clip
  
• Staying Alive: Finish a ranked match in Deathmatch mode without dying
  
• Team Player: Win 20 ranked matches in Team Deathmatch mode
• MVP: Win an 8 player Team Deathmatch with the highest score
  
• pwnt: Finish an 8-player Deathmatch with the most kills
  
• Uberdork: Win 5 ranked matches in Deathmatch mode
• Next Time Take The Stairs: Fall to your death during a multiplayer game
• First Time for Everything: Finish a multiplayer game

I can't get any of them! BETTER YET 2500 KILLS!

P.S. They also put in a fucking sprint for 30 minutes achievement which is fucking ridiculous since sprint only last 10 seconds or even less!

Canada In Afghanistan Pt1

Do you know what opium is used for? Heroin. 90% of opium comes from Afghanistan. Now I know what you're thinking, those darn Taliban people are making the drugs.

Well you're dead wrong. In 2000 the Taliban actually banned growing opium, and even succeeded in decreasing the amount by 90%! It was only after WE invaded that Afghanistan began to produce large amounts of opium. Now they are the #1 maker of opium! Woohoo! Take a look at this quote from wikipedia:

"While U.S. and allied efforts to combat the drug trade have been stepped up, the effort is hampered by the fact that many suspected drug traffickers are now top officials in the Karzai government."

Did I say it was banned in 2000? Actually it was July 2001, that's not suspicious at all now is it?

GOING ALL THE WAY!

This is it. Unless My Giants D some how loses a ton of points, the Hamilton Maulers are going to the Championship Final. It's currently 88-64 for us against the Circle da Wagons. So we might be able to breach the 100 pt mark.
Analysis: Henderson (WR) let me down by getting 0, Steve Smith (WR) and Rhodes(RB) got 22-23 respectively. Everyone else got varying amounts of points, even my reserves got a ton of points!

Giants lost so the final score 98-64 for Hamilton Maulers! We're going to the end zone people!

Thoughts on Bobby Leavin' 43

Well a couple hours ago I learned the Bobby Labonte and Petty Enterprises separated ways. This is sad to me because I enjoyed watching Bobby race in the Yellow/Blue 43 (actually he probably wouldn't be yellow/blue next year anyway with General Mills gone). I actually wanted Bobby gone before that, because to be honest, Petty Enterprises has been a crappy team for awhile, not because of Bobby, but just a bad win to sponsorship ratio. Their last good year was 1999, and then Adam Petty died in 2000, after that Andretti stopped performing and Kyle stopped performing.

They've had tons of drivers too, Greg Biffle, Jerry Nadeau, Jeff Green and others, all only getting a couple of top 10s. Then Bobby came and brought some life to the company, getting 3 top 5s and 8 top 10s in 2006.

In 2007 I don't know what happened, did the quality of cars stop? It seems like the cars could only get him around the top 20 as that was his average start and finish. And it carried over to 2008.

When Bobby does find a new team that might mean he'll have to adjust and that could mean a slow start. Luckily Mark Martin's coming back this year so I'll be able to root for both of them.

Here's how my 2009 Favourites Team are:
Favourite- Mark Martin
Star- Kyle Busch (Don't Hate Me)
Veteran- Tony Stewart
Rookie/Noob- ?? Possibly David Regan, Scott Speed (but I don't like Red Bull), Ryan Newman or Hell, Carl Edwards
Underdog- Bobby Labonte, or Ryan Newman/David Regan if Bobby some how doesn't get a ride

The Final Countdown...

Wow the past couple weeks have gone by quickly.
The Maulers aren't in the playoff and ended the season with a 5-9 record.

So of course I'm going up against Circle da Wagons with my Hamilton Maulers.
The second game is Scatter Brains versus The Mudcats.

Here's the low-down:
Mudcats-(East Division)
Record: 8-6

Scatter Brains- (West Division)
Record: 9-5

Circle da Wagons- (Central Division)
Record: 9-5

Hamilton Maulers- (East Division)
Record: 8-6

As you can see the East Division has the stack against us but we're going up against the two titans right now.

Here's the Projections:

Hamilton Maulers vs. Circle da Wagons: Maulers by 34

Mudcats vs. Scatter Brains: Mudcats by 11

Could there be a East Division square off in the final? Time will tell...

Last but not least I've changed up my teams a hell of a lot. Here is my crew: (* is a traded player)

Quarterbacks (Unchanged):
Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints (@Chicago)
Backup- Chad Pennington of the Miami Dolphins (@ San Fran)

Running Backs (Changed):
Matt Forte of the Chicago Bears (@ New Orleans)
Dominic Rhodes* of the Indianapolis Colts (@ Detroit)
Backup- Marshawn Lynch of the Buffalo Bills (@New York Jets)

Wide Receivers (Changed):
Bruce Issac of the San Francisco 49ers (@Miami)
Devery Henderson* of the New Orleans Saints (@Chicago)
Steve Smith of the Carolina Panthers (@Denver Broncos) We've come a long way. I've had him since before the season started when he was suspended.
Backup- Davone Bess* of the Miami Dolphins (@ San Fran) I'm getting him and dropping Matt Jones who is suspended

Tight End (Changed):
Zach Miller* of the Oakland Raiders (@New England)

Kickers (Changed):
Dan Carpenter* of the Miami Dolphins (@San Fran)
Backup- John Carney of the New York Giants (@Dallas)

Defense Teams (Unchanged):
New York Giants (@ Dallas)
Backup- Miami Dolphins (@ San Fran)

God Speed Gentlemen...God Speed.
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Now playing: Europe - The Final Countdown
via FoxyTunes

Important Info: Aspartame

I'm a follower of Alex Jones, and when I heard this interview today my immediate thought was to let you watch/listen. I didn't even know what this crap was.

Top 10 Christmas Movies

As chosen by me (with clips too!)

I was inspired by one of the blogs I frequent, by one of the radio personalities I frequently listen to, to make a Christmas Movie list

Honourable Mentions: Frosty the Snowman, The Santa Clause (yeah with Tim Allen I know. But the other 2 are crap), Unaccompanied Minors (new, and I love Lewis Black), Gremlins (sure why not?)

10. Home Alone 2: Although Kevin is older than he was in Home Alone 1 the New York setting livens it up.


Classic! I Love you!

09. Charlie Brown Christmas: I don't think any kids have that particular song memorized but you never know.



08. Elf: Unfortunately I'm not young enough to have had this in my childhood but it's still hilarious and heartwarming.



07. How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Just plain classic.



06. Home Alone: skip ahead to the 4 minute mark if you want to see one of my favourite scenes



05. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: Another classic. I wonder whatever happened to Fireball? Probably scooping out the crap from the stable. Backstabber.



04. It's A Wonderful Life: A classic. I only saw this what? Two years ago and because I worked at a video store. But when I saw it I immediately knew why this is a classic. The ending is so heartwarming.



There is no movie with a more heartwarming ending then that. None.

03. Santa Claus is Comin' to Town: I've only seen this once but I loved it and remember most of it. I love it mostly because it 'explains' our Christmas traditions like stockings and stuff.



The whole movie is there if you double click

02. A Christmas Vacation: Shitter was Full!



01. A Christmas Story: Fra-gee-lay must be Italian. Classic.

Fantasy Sports This Week

Well both my teams lost. It was my bad. I didn't check my teams before Sunday. Steve Smith did amazing but the rest of the team didn't do well.

True North in Trouble Part 2

What the hell did I tell you! That is exactly what I was afraid of! Jesus I hope I'm/we're wrong about this. But right now Canada is just one step away from anarchy. We have no government. Alex Jones was talking about it this Friday and he and his guest said that if Canadians weren't protesting the Queen/Governor-General's decision to stop parliament, we'd be in trouble. Being in Canada and seeing the news, the media is portraying this opposition coalition as a separatist/illegal/coupe. And Canadians are eating it up! Rather than protesting blocking parliament, Canadians are protesting the coalition! It's ridiculous!

Game Review: Turning Point: Fall of Liberty

Well I lucked out. The rental store I frequent had accidentally put this game as a used dvd and put it at $9.99 So I got a great deal.

I played at 6 o'clock and finished the game at 9:45 so it was pretty short. The game is riddled with bugs. One thing that pissed me off was at a latter portion of the game I was in a bridge that had xxx like supports, and when I tried to shoot through the middle it wouldn't go through, in fact it showed up as bullet holes! In mid air! BUT THEY COULD SHOOT ME THROUGH THERE! But for some reason I could shoot through the top part!

The game felt rushed. I know this because it seems like the final level had more bugs than the rest. One guy got stuck in a wall. Another got stuck in the wall and then when I tried to use an instant kill I got transported outside the map and fell to my death. Then there's the checkpoints which are okay at the beginning but again
(giving the feeling of being rushed) at the end they're a joke. Example:
I go up an elevator, go down a hall killing baddies. Go into a tough room and kill some baddies go over a gap and kill more. Go down a hall into another room and kill a guy then go up some stairs. Snipe 10 people from a door way then go through it into a big room. CHECKPOINT. I then walk down a stairway and die. Okay so that's not too bad. Oh wait THAT checkpoint wasn't there. Instead I go back to the fucking elevator! The game also froze on me.

The game was okay but the story which should be awesome, was quite bland. Think about it this way, Gears of War was a novel compared to this game. The graphics were passable but not good by any means. Not many weapons, about 10 by my count. The AI is stupid by all count. Mostly you just run up to them and shoot them with a shotgun and repeat. It's just bland. Standard Medal of Honour you're a God and kill armies with no problem.

Thank God they released a demo or I could have bought this at full price.

Programming: 5/10 : Unacceptable amount of bugs and stupid AI
Graphics: 6/10 : About as good as Medal of Honour (for the Xbox)
Story: 6/10 : There are some parts where the story shines through but then again this is a NAZI invasion of the U.S. how could this not have been great?!
Atmosphere: 6/10 : Horribly bland representation of 40s-50s New York and Washington
Control: 7/10 : You move too slow but it's passable.
Overall: 5.5/10 : They tried to reach Call of Duty 2 but fell to Call of Duty: Finest Hour

Fantasy Football This Week

Well November slashed the posting record. I doubt that's going to happen in December but since I have time off you never know it could go either way.

The Hamilton Maulers:
162 Mudcats- 96 Maulers
Analysis- All my players played well but his team was crazy! 17s across the board!

Maulers:
118 Maulers- 84 Spartans
Analysis- They played well. The Titans and Romo did amazing.

Demo Review: Dead Space and Left 4 Dead

Here is what I am saying. If I like this game I will have spaghetti for supper otherwise Mac And Cheese.

Okay well I'm having Mac & Cheese. I was having fun at the start, shooting the shit out of stuff. Then I ran out of ammo. So I moved at a snail pace around the room looking for ammo to no avail. I ended up beating the thing with my hands. Seconds later I had at least 2 more coming at me and still had no ammo. That's not fun. That's a pain in the ass! Exit.

Good/Bad: BAD

Okay I'll give Left 4 Dead a chance to redeem it. If I like it I'll have spaghetti.
Wow Left 4 Dead was great. I actually got to kill shit with guns. Using ammunition. This is a game I definitely have to get!

Good/Bad: GOOD

Games That Have Annoyed Me

1. Mass Effect
Last Played: I honestly only played for a few hours after I beat the game.
Reason: First off, I was lied to. That's right, LIED to. How you ask?



Notice the end of the trailer. How you switch from person to person? That was completely cut from the game. Also the longer trailer showed how you could dynamically effect conversation, that wasn't in either. I never heard that before the game was released and I checked the website and forums frequently.

Finally the worst offender to me was that once you finish the final mission, that's it. Your character is done. You have to create a new character or reload a save if you want to explore the other worlds.

These betrayals hurt me because I was extremely excited for the game. I bought the book, had all the trailers on my 360 and watched them religiously, and pre-ordered the Limited Special Edition.

2. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Last Played: 3-6 Months Ago
Reason: Someone thought that I'd like the idea of losing all my multiplayer 'mini' achievements so I could rank up more. NO! That is a big pile of bullshit. Fuck you! I don't need your fucking ranks! I earned this fucking achievements and I'm damn well going to keep them! And since I'm not ranking up anymore I'm not going to play! So fuck you!

3. Fall-Out 3
Last Played: A week ago or more
Reason: They borrowed a page from Mass Effects shitty ideas and ended the game after you beat the story. They didn't do this for Oblivion! I read on the Fallout 3 forums where people complained about this: "People don't get that this isn't an Elder Scrolls game it's a Fallout 3 game" Well that reasoning is fucking stupid! Is there a story line? Check. Is there dozens of missions, characters and areas to explore that don't involve the story? Check! THEN DON'T END THE GAME WHEN THE STORY ENDS!

The big reason this pisses me off is because no other games do this. FPSs let you choose a level for example, so if I need a certain achievement I can just go to that level and play. You can't do that for RPGs!

Finally fuck Mass Effect for their play the game over! but this time with so and so only achievements! And the same for Fallout 3

4. GTA:IV
Last Played: Months ago
Reason: I got fucked over by their completion score, I got like 99.3% completion and I've done fucking everything!

True North in Trouble

There are two things that scare me about what is happening here in Canada.
1st is the ignorance of Canadians- Especially the whole "Oh no the Separatists are going to destroy Canada!" First the NDP and Liberals wouldn't vote for that and neither would the Conservatives. Second the Cabinet wouldn't have any Bloc in it. It would be mostly Liberal with a few NDP. Also a lot of people seem to believe this is a coup or illegal. It's not. They were voted in! Now they're just joining up together. It's not like there's tanks rolling up the Parliament!

2nd is the dangers of this. My worst fear would be Harper suspending Parliament and then have a terrorist attack/attacks on the scale of 9/11 or Mumbai in Canada. Joe Biden (Vice-President-Elect of the U.S.) has stated the Obama will face some sort of catastrophe early on. He's goes into office in Jan. if we go to an election or Parliament is suspended for more than Jan we'd be in trouble

To be continued...