IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!

Not really. Just though I would take the time to post something. The holiday season is here and mostly gone. Oh well, I never did like the whole "Let's celebrate because everyone else does at this time of year" thing. Personally, I prefer Festivas. On a side note, Christmas was lousy this year. My dad got sick, my uncle couldn't spend the day with us (He lives at a local nursing home and we didn't want to risk him catching what my dad has), and we didn't have a nice Christmas dinner. Whatever. On the up side, I did get Shadow of the Colossus for the PS2. I can think of one word to describe it. Awesome. So without further adieu, Jacob's spectacular game review #1:

Shadow of the Colossus takes place in a distant land. You play the role of a young hero out to bring your recently killed girlfriend back from the dead (presumably not as a zombie) The game starts with you setting your dearly departed gal on a large stone alter within a temple of some sort. Soon after an echoing voice calls down from the ceiling telling you that to resurrect your sweetie all you have to do is destroy the giant stone idols that line the room. Simple enough, only problem is, the idols can't be destroyed by mortal hands. Right. Luckily for you, there is a loop hole. If you can seek out and destroy the sixteen colossi that inhabit this land the idols will fall. The stage is set and away you go.
The first thing one might notice about this game is the massive scope of the playing field. The player is given a horse (its name is Ago for those who care) and the standard holy sword and bow and arrow set. From there you are left to roam the land on horse back guided by a form of divine GPS by means of reflecting light off your sword. Your travels lead through dark forests, across vast gorges, over vast fields and through baren deserts. The landscape is stunning. Spread across the land are the ruins of some ancient civilization. The player is free to explore wherever they see fit. My personal favorite spot is a thin pass leading along a high cliff that overlooks a towering waterfall that drops into a deep lake far below.
Aside from the scenery, the Colossi are definitely worth seeing. As there name implies they are huge. Most are the size of small apartment buildings. Each Colossus is unique, ranging from four legged beasts to towering giants wielding massive swords. Most can be found roaming the ruins of some lost city but some inhabit the depths of deep lakes and a few soar through the sky. They all have a vaguely Aztec feel to them and all appear to be made of stone with patches of fur in places. Battling the colossi involves climbing onto the hulking creatures and scrambling across their bodies desperately searching for that one weak spot to sink you sword into to slay it. This is often much easier said than done. Many of the giants require quite a bit of strategy to reveal the weak point or provide an opportunity to mount them. Once on them the player is provided the challenge of holding on for dear life while the Colossus bucks wildly to dislodge the unwanted passenger. All the while, the player, like a tick on the back of a bull, must slowly crawl across the creature in search of a symbol that marks the Colossus' weak spot. One the creature has fallen the player is returned to the temple and sent out to find the next one.
This game is definitely one of my favorites, visually stunning, strategically challenging and an all around great gaming experience. In fact, my only complaint is that the game is a bit short. It took my less than ten hours of game time to beat it on normal difficulty. Even so, I would recommend this game to anyone looking for something challenging and fun. Jacob's rating: 9 out of 10.

A few good guys.

Sooo, today I had the pleasure of participating in Scouting for Food! This is a food drive sponsored by the BSA. We got to go around leaving bags on people's door knobs. Next week we get to go back and collect the bags (hopefully) full of canned goods and non-parishable foodstuff. That's all I got.

The Door pt. 4 Resolution

Hurray! the curse of the nonfunctional door has been lifted! With a little work, and a look at the instructions, we found the problem and fixed it! My brother didn't know that the assembly would require all the parts they gave us so he left some out. It was an honest mistake... really... Ok, fine, maybe it was lazyness but that doesn't matter anymore.

A little motivation.

Behold the beauty of my motivational poster. If you have no idea what that means than you are an ignorant bafoon... Or you can discreetly go to Wikipedia and look up lorem ipsum, or if you are really lazy you can just click on the links I gave you. Whatever, its not like I would ever know the difference. Unless I am watching you right now... I saw that!

ps. If you want to make one of those yourself, just click the Arts and crafts link over to the left, or just click here. Lazy son of a...

Check it!

I've added a short story and the prologue of a not so short story to my other blog. Please check it out and comment, just click the link over there on the left of the screen, The only one under the section labled "Other Blogs o' Mine"

I can't say that

I have a ton of really important information to report tonight. So I guess I'll just rant a little about nothing really all that important. Don't you hate it when someone posts and makes the title the first word or phrase of the post? Man, I hate it! If you don't catch on, the first sentance makes no sense! And sometimes missing it can change the entire meaning of the post..... Ok, I'll stop complaining, but this is my blog after all. That means you Zed!

That's all she wrote.

Sooooo, today I had midterms. It was boring. But more importantly, It was the final class of my College Success Seminar! Oh the joy! The cursed 8 weeks of 1 credit slow death are finally over! (Cue the joyous " Hallelujah ! Hallelujah! Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Halle-lujah!")

The Door pt. 3 Vengeance

Supplementary Log, Stardate 10232006.1621:
All attemps to bring the garage door opener to operational levels have been thwarted. The captain believes that First Officer Jesse has made a grievous error during the wire installation process. There is a good chance the motor is periminately damaged. It is unclear whether the automatic door opening system will be operational within the next week or not. We can only hope that the problem is not perminate.