Author Archives: TheUser

First Time Geocaching

Geocache
Today I went with geocaching for the first time! For those of you that don’t know, geocaching is like GPS treasure hunting. You take coordinates for a known geocache that someone else has placed and set off to find it. Usually, there’s a small description or hint. Once you reach the GPS coordinates, the goal is to find the geocache, some sort of small container, and sign the log located inside. In some, there might be small goodies that you’re encouraged to exchange. There also might be a special bonus for the person who’s the FTF – the first to find.
gem surprised me with our first hunt near my house. Unfortunately, we didn’t succeed. We’re fairly confident it was missing. We reached the coordinates but only found old duct tape. Our guess is that the geocache had been removed, but maybe we just missed it and the duct tape was unrelated. While we were at the location, we looked at some very cool houses and found a sidewalk near our house that we didn’t know existed. It goes through a tunnel under the street. It was pretty cool.
Laster, at Jessica’s house, we tried again. Again, we failed. Like our first attempt, we found what we think are remnants – velcro attached to a lamppost, but nothing velcro’d to it. From the geocache description, we learned that it was created by a couple for their grandchildren. Cute!
We didn’t want to keep failing, so we tried for another. It wasn’t too far from our last attempt, but this one turned out a lot better. We managed to find the small canister with a log, a dime, and a penny with the shape of an angel cut out of it. We forgot a pen, so we went inside a nearby store to sign the log. Finally, a success!
Excited from our victory, we tried for another. Sadly, we had another failure. We got to the location only to find heavy shrubbery and palm trees. Unlike the other failures, we found no remnants. Was it missing? Were the coordinates a little off? Were we just dumb? I have no idea. Sadly, this one actually seemed the most interesting. It was part of a geocache series called “Around the World in 80 Days,” I think. Inside the geocache were supposedly hints toward another geocache. Maybe we’ll go back sometime to try again.
For our first day, one out of four wasn’t bad I suppose! It’s definitely a fun activity, and I could see taking it up as a hobby. Maybe we’ll try geohashing sometime!

ASH II: Shadows

ASH II: Shadows | iPhone/iPod, Reviews, RPG

After putting some time into SRRN Games’ RPG, ASH II: Shadows, provided to me by Konami, I can definitely say I’m impressed. ASH II has the classic RPG style and feel combined with rich graphics and 2D sprites. The game features some of the normal goals – find dungeons on the overworld, explore, talk to NPCs, and battle enemies. Its writing is it’s strongest part, but I’ll go into more detail on that later. I should note that ASH II: Shadows is the sequel to ASH, which I did not play. The game starts in medias res with players following what I assumed to be an antagonist. I might have known more about what was happening had I played the original, but the story was immediately engaging regardless. I didn’t have any problems. In fact, it makes me want to go back and play the original too!

Fun RPG, humorous dialogue, great dialogue system that allows you to go backwards if you missed a line… fun game!

Steampunk Exhibit at Muzeo



Steampunk Exhibit at Muzeo, originally uploaded by theuser.

Today we set out to see the steampunk exhibit at Muzeo in Anaheim. What we ran into first was a Black History Month parade. We saw bits of it while we walked to the museum, and then we got to see gears galore. Pieces ranged from walking sticks to weapons for hunting supernatural creatures courtesy of the League of S.T.E.A.M., who we had seen at Anime Expo 2010. There was also a section on fiction, including Jules Vernes, H. G. Wells, Sir Arthus Conan Doyle, and Mary Shelley. It made me want to go read some of these books!
There was also an exhibit on the bible. I looked at this too, but it was far, far less interesting than steampunk.
Then we checked out the street fair for Black History Month. It didn’t have any ethnic food. I wanted something out of the ordinary. Sadly, there wasn’t anything, so we went ahead with our original plan of having Indian food. And that was quite tasty!

Party Down, Better Off Ted, and Breaking Bad

I finished up a few different TV series recently. Most recently I watched Party Down. This witty comedy follows a group of caterers, most of whom want to break into the entertainment industry in some way (as an actor, comedian, writer, or musician). All the action takes place while the crew is working with each episode featuring a different party. You could watch any episode and still have a few laughs, but the series definitely has an overarching plot that’s best absorbed sequentially. After Better Off Ted and Party Down, I need to find another intelligent comedy. The Deadline reported on 1/8/12 that Megan Mullally, actress in Party Down, confirmed a movie is in the works.
Like Party Down, Better Off Ted is another quirky yet smart comedy that spanned two seasons. It follows Ted’s struggles to work for evil corporation Veridian Dynamics while still behaving ethically. While both seasons were enjoyable, the first was absolutely fantastic. I stayed through the second because I enjoyed the first (and I’d recommend you do the same), but it definitely lost a lot of the magic. It just wasn’t as witty anymore.
I also finished season three of Breaking Bad. I know there’s more, but it’s not on Netflix yet. Wow, what a great show. Season three ended amazingly, I can’t wait to find out what happens in season four.
Now, what’s next? I’ve been catching up on The Office with gem, and we’ve started Glee as well. Still, I like to have something to watch alone. I tried an episode of Workaholics today, but it’s not doing it. I suppose the problem might just be that the shows I watched were too good! I’ll keep looking.

Sometimes I play video games

The last time I made a large Game Journal post, I was playing Sonic Generations, Ocarina of Time 3D, inFamous 2, and World of Warcraft. I was also thinking about starting Gears of War 3, Ivy the Kiwi?, Sonic Colors, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Epic Mickey, and Kirby’s Return to Dreamland.

* * * Playing * * *

World of Warcraft
Of course, I’m still playing World of Warcraft. I have a separate blog to talk about that, but we’re now 5/8 in Dragon Soul.
Mario Kart 7
Mario Kart’s always been one of my favorite series, and 7 is no let down. As usual, there’s a Mirror mode unlocked after 50cc, 100cc, and 150cc. I’m working on it now.
inFamous 2
I’m so close to that damn platinum trophy! I really need to put some more time in it!
LittleBigPlanet 2
I actually just started playing this today, but I bought it for gem for Christmas. We’re playing through the game in co-op! Unfortunately, after every play session, we have to login as the other person and start the game again to sync trophies to both accounts. So much work. Fun game though, and I’m glad she’s enjoying it!
Plants vs. Zomibes
More content was added to the iOS version, so I’m playing that off and on a bit as well as the PC version ocassionally.
Super Mario 3D Land
I stopped playing this because of Pilotwings and Mario Kart, but I’ll hopefully get back to it soon. It’s amazingly excellent. Great level design. Every element is there for a reason, and when I die, it’s my fault. Perfect. Wonderful use of 3D as well.
Game Dev Story
I started playing this again just a little bit. I’d like to get a perfectly reviewed game.

* * * Finished * * *

Pilotwings Resort
I played this a lot of while! Alex let me borrow it, and it’s pretty fun. I didn’t manage to get perfects on everything, which keeps me from unlocking some bonus missions, but I did beat the main game!
Sonic Generations
I finished this and loved it. Thankfully Sonic Team didn’t make it super long by adding too much worthless content.

* * * Gave Up * * *

Zeno Clash
Zeno Clash is a weird first-person fighting game with a really bizarre story. I got stuck for a little bit, put it down, and never came back. I might be done with it. Maybe I’ll just switch it to easy mode and plow through it.

* * * Thinking About Playing* * *

Grand Theft Auto
I don’t even know which one I’d like to play. I suppose I’d like to finish the first one, but it crashes when I alt-tab. I have the third on Android that I could play, but I’m not sure how much time I’d want to devote to an Android port. What if I get stuck later because I lack good controls? Of course, I have all the pre-4 games on Steam as well.
Co-op Platformers
Lots to choose from after we finsh LBP2. Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, and Kirby’s Return to Dreamland come to mind.
More
Gears of War 3
Ivy the Kiwi?
Sonic Colors
Epic Mickey
The Binding of Isaac
Sequence
Cthulhu Saves the World
Psychonauts
The Old Republic…?

New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve, originally uploaded by theuser.

 
For New Year’s Eve, we went and saw Wicked! Sadly, gem had to work in the morning, but at 2 PM we were at the Pantages watching the start of Wicked! I love that show. I’ve seen it before, but it’s stil excellent to see again. I also bought her an overpriced Wicked shirt!
For dinner we went to the Stinking Rose. So. Good. As usual. I had an amazing filet mignon (although it should be redder than a bit pink when I order it rare). She had a prime rib. All in all, an excellent last meal of the year!
It was super foggy that night, but we made it home without dying. That’s always good.
For the first meal of 2012, I wanted Chipotle. Unfortunately, Chipotle was all stupid and closed. Wing Stop had to suffice.