Welcome Back to Fantasy Football! College Edition

Welcome back, after last years disappointing losses, I look forward for another championship drive.

Let's start with the college teams:

Canadian Football League: Fenix Firecrackers
Roster*
QB - Taylor Potts - Texas Tech
QB - BJ Daniels - South Florida
QB - Sean Renfree - DUKE

RB - Montel Harris - Boston College
RB - Stepfan Taylor - Stanford
RB - Anthony Allen - Georgia Tech
RB - Damien Berry - Miami

WR - Ryan Broyles - Oklahoma
WR - Randall Cobb - Kentucky
WR - Uzoma Nwachukwu - Texas A&M
WR - Dane Sanzenbacher - Ohio State

TE - Kyle Rudolph - Notre Dame
K - Phillip Welch - Wisconsin
DST - Clemson

* As of Sept.12

Week 1
Fenix Firecrackers v CC's Irish Thunder
Final Score: Firecrackers 134.5 - Irish Thunder 107
Opinion- This quick rout was exactly what I wanted for my team in the first week.

Week 2
Fenix Firecrackers v Blastman
Final Score: Firecrackers 145.5 - Blastman  141.5
Opinion- A close but good win, for the 2nd week in a row I'm the team with the highest score. These early wins are going to help drive me to the playoffs.


Only Real Fantasy Players Allowed League: Caledonia SPARTANS
QB - Taylor Potts - Texas Tech
QB - Blaine Gabbert - Montana

RB - Bryce Beall - UCLA
RB - Alfred Morris - FAU
RB - Roy Helu - New England
RB - Noel Devine - West Virginia

WR - Justin Blackmon - Oklahoma State
WR - Ronald Johnson - University of Southern California
WR - Malcolm Williams - Texas
WR - Doug Baldwin - Stanford
WR - Greg Childs - Arizona

TE - Ladarius Green - LALAFAY
K - Ross Evans - TCU
DST - TCU
 
Week 1
Cal. SPARTANS v Medford Drewids
Final Score: SPARTANS 90.75 - 90 Drewids
Opinion: HOLY CRAP! I though I had honestly lost this game (scores hadn't updated properly), both of our teams WRs were terrible.

Week 2
Cal SPARTANS v Flames
Final Score: SPARTANS 158.25 - 105 Flames
Opinion: That's more like it! After a couple waiver grabs the team is moving forward. Shout outs for Potts, Beall, Blackmon, TCU and Green (15 points for a TE!)

So far both teams have had great starts!

Geocache Update: Wild Saturday

Today I originally planned on no caches. My first two, happened before picking someone up at the train station. One was a unique cache by Dex and another was a cool magnetic.

After that me and Sharon12 went out to Tiffany Falls to get her 199 and 200th cache. It took some time, but we eventually got to Stephanie Falls and made a find. After that we went to Oasis by the 403 and found one I had missed. A good GPS makes all the difference.

After we returned home I found that there was another cache placed reasonably close, so I went solo to get the FTF, but came up 15 minutes short. After returning home again, I saw there was another cache, this one too was grabbed before I got to it. One of these days...

Geocache Update Victoria Day Weekend

Well let's start off with Friday, which was Ancaster. My first two caches were busts. During my 3rd attempt which led me to a house, unfortunately it wasn't at the house and the owner gave me a hint that it was next door. I found it and made an exchange for a turtle. After that I was wandering around a park trying to get my older GPS to work. Finally it did work and I got my 2nd cache.

Next was Bowling for Micros, which I tried with Sharon12 a week ago. It took awhile but I did find it. In a spot that I should have looked in before, but the coordinates were a bit off. The next one was a quick find by a little bike path. My 5th was a pain, it took me behind a church and my GPS led me around in a huge circle. The next one was a historical magnetic cache, and a quick find. My 7th and 8th were also quick micros.

Now Saturday was going to be my first event. Unfortunately, my older GPS (ironic) screwed me and sent me to the Queenston Bridge at the border. Being Victoria Day weekend in Canada, the line up was an hour, with no way out. So good bye 15 minute flash mob.
When I finally did make it there I immediately set out to find the caches around, including the Floral Clock cache, the Lake Pogo Multi and the Centennial Lilac Gardens Multi. Being that it just had rained, walking through foot high grass soaked my shoes and pants.

Pressing on I went into Queenston and down a trail by the Niagara River, it had beautiful views and I could see jet boats going by. I picked up three caches by Dex on the trail and then grabbed another a short ways away that was a magnetic on some antique equipment. The next was a Virtual that led me from Brock's Monument down to Queenston, I haven't received confirmation yet so it hasn't been submitted yet. Since I was already in Queenston, I decided to skip going back up and do the Tour of Quaint Queenston. A very nice Puzzle cache which takes you on a walking tour through the historic Queenston. After that I attempted another multi but couldn't find the second stage after A LOT of bushwhacking. Short on time I left.

On the way home I wanted to round off my day with a 10th cache. So stopped at a nearby cemetery cache and came up short. So I went to another nearby cemetery and after a little searching I made the find. Then back in Ancaster I found a cache that I had skipped yesterday. I searched for two more but the light was dwindling and called it a day at 11 caches.

On Sunday I did succeed in getting to an event. The Introduction to Geocaching in Cayuga was at a great spot I'd never been to before in Ruthven Park. Although I didn't learn much that I didn't already know about caching, I did get to test drive two GPSs. After finding an on site cache. My sister and I went into Cayuga and did the Cayuga Warrior series. To finish we had some hot dogs and a drink before going back to the Park. After that we headed home. So my total for the whole weekend was 25 caches. Sweet!

Geocache Update

Been awhile since my last big geocache hunt, last Wednesday to be precise, and with Sharon12 down in New York geocaching (lucky bum). I think it's time to do a little tour of Ancaster. After that I'm going down to Niagara Falls tomorrow for a Flash Mob geocache event and then on Sunday it's Cayuga for an Introduction to Geocaching Event! Busy weekend!

I also had my 150th cache this Wednesday. I wanted to help get Sharon12 a travel bug before she went to New York, so at about 10PM we decided to detour and grab a new cache. It was fun, tons of decoys, and it was our first night cache too, without a flashlight we were going by GPS and cell phone light. But in the end someone else grabbed the tb earlier in the day. Too bad.

Book Review Halo: Contact Harvest

This is probably my first Halo novel not featuring SPARTANs or Captain Keyes. So rather than a simply prequel, this was an extension on the Halo universe. By Joseph Staten, the book can be divided into four main narrations: For the Humans there's Avery Johnson (a key character from the video games) training and fighting with the Harvest militia, and Mack and Sif, two Harvest A.I.'s. For the Covenant there's Dadab and Lighter-Than-Some, a Grunt and Engineer respectively, and the politics of the Prophets on High Charity.
Avery is haunted by his fighting with the Insurrectionists and his decisions. Undoubtedly the stars of the book to me were Mack and Sif. Their bickering is humorous and their development as characters is fantastic.

Dadab and Lighter-Than-Some's segments are great too. It's amazing that A.I. which speak through text and Engineer which speaks through sign language are the most fascinating characters in the book. The Covenant segments are confusing until you get used to the names.

The politics with the Prophets on High Charity is about as interesting as it sounds. Of course you want to get back to Avery and Dadab, but it helps weave the back story together, so it has its place.

The fighting sequences are great and a joy to read too. Overall if your a Halo fan or not, the book is a great read. I definitely recommend it.   

 

New Love?

I know, I haven't been updating lately. I'm appalled. A lot has been going on lately and I'm far to busy to do proper posts. I guess my first thing to introduce is Geocaching, geocaching is a game (although I don't like calling it that) in which you use coordinates to find caches that other "players" hide. I enjoy it because it basically combines everything I love: history, geography, nature, exploration, finding stuff, technology. It also gives me a much needed reason to exercise.

It started as a solo thing but I quickly got my mom and girlfriend into it. I'm already at 137 finds! Which is shocking to me because it seemed like I was just at 100 a week ago. I guess I have to set some sort of goal for myself. So if I get to 399 before it starts to snow (so Nov. Dec.) then I'll buy a Premium Membership a Geocaching.com and likely get a GPS for Christmas. If I can somehow keep my current pace it should be no problem.

Places I've Geocached:
Welland
Caledonia
Port Colborne (met Dex4 a veteran geocacher)
Brantford
Angola
Hamilton
Pelham
Petrolia

2010s Stinger503's Video Game Awards

2010s Stinger503's Video Game Awards

Biggest Game I Didn't Play But Wanted To
Nominees:
Battlestations: Pacific
Ghostbusters: The Video Game
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
Wolfenstein
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Halo 3: ODST
Winner: Halo 3:ODST - No doubt the biggest upset of the year was that I did not play ODST. It just didn't drum up enough interest in me as Modern warfare 2 or Beatles Rockband did.

Worst Game
Winner: None for 2009, I just never played a bad game this year, not saying there weren't any.

Best Music
Nominees:
Band Hero
Lego Rock Band
Modern Warfare 2
Beatles Rock Band

Winner: Beatles Rock Band, tons of great Beatles music. Undeniably good.


Best Cinematics
Nominees:
Halo Wars
Resident Evil 5
The Beatles Rock Band
Winner: Resident Evil 5 - Just amazingly well done.

Best Voice Acting
Winner: - Billy Murray as Captain Price in Modern Warfare 2

Best Accessory
Nominees:
Facebook
Twitter
Wireless Headset
Winner: Wireless Headset

Best Multiplayer Games

* Best Two-Player One System

Nominees:
Resident Evil 5
The Beatles: Rock Band
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Winner: (Tie)Modern Warfare 2 & Left 4 Dead 2 - Definitely equal, because of how good they are, but also by how limited they are. Modern Warfare 2's Spec Ops were great but only offline multiplayer is a huge issue. Playing Left 4 Dead with a friend is how it should be.

* Best Online

Nominees:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Resident Evil 5
Halo Wars
Winner: CoD Modern Warfare 2 - By adding attatchments, weapons, titles, callsigns and killstreaks, they revolutionized online play again.

* Best Overall

Nominees:
The Beatles: Rock Band
Lego Rock Band
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Band Hero
Left 4 Dead 2
Resident Evil 5
Winner: The Beatles Rock Band - Just magnificent fun, especially adding microphones, just completely enhances the experience.

Best Xbox Live Arcade Game
Nominees:
Braid
Castle Crashers
Battlefield 1943
Shadow Complex
Peggle
Winner: Shadow Complex - Amazingly well made game. Great year for arcade games.

Best Music Game
Nominees:
Band Hero
The Beatles Rock Band
Lego Rock Band
Winner: The Beatles Rock Band - Build off of the great Rock Band games with more microphones, better unlocks and great music.

Best Racing Game
Winner: Burnout Paradise - Fortunately its demo wasn't fully indicative of the game. The game was quite good.

Sports Game
None- Just wasn't a big year to me for sports games.

Best RTS/RPG
Winner: Halo Wars

Best Action
Winner: Resident Evil 5

Best Shooter
Nominees:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Left 4 Dead
Winner: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Yet again one of the best experiences in shooters this year.

Best Level
Nominees:
Left 4 Dead- Final Stage of Dead Air
Modern Warfare 2- Second Sun
Resident Evil 5- Volcano
Shadow Complex
Winner: Second Sun - Turns the game on it's head. Completely unexpected.

Best Story
Nominees:
Modern Warfare 2
Resident Evil 5
Lego Rock Band
Shadow Complex
Left 4 Dead 2
Winner: Resident Evil 5 - Definitely one of the best stories of the year. Also has a ton of history behind it.

Best Game
Nominees:
Halo Wars
Resident Evil 5
The Beatles: Rock Band
Lego Rock Band
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Band Hero
Left 4 Dead 2
Left 4 Dead
Shadow Complex
Winner: Modern Warfare 2 - Although the campaigns a little lack luster. The Spec Ops and Multiplayer more than make up for it

Prediction for Next Year:
Alan Wake (again), Splinter Cell Conviction or Rock Band 3