“National Respawn Day”

[EDITOR’S NOTE:  I found this blog post just hanging out in ‘draftland’ from December 2nd.  I’m sure I had more to say, but I’ve got a new post in mind, so please enjoy this snippet.]

I just had an email pop through from Nerd Fitness, and it is exactly what I needed to hear.  We cleaned out our refrigerator last night and threw away too much food that was allowed to spoil. It was better than we used to be, but not as good as we wanted, especially when groceries can be so expensive.

This morning, a Facebook friend posted that he’s gone a whole year and a half without a cheat meal. His goals are current than mine, but I think the dedication needs to be the same.
(Pic)

I was thinking about this when Respawn Day was delivered to my inbox:

” In video games, we die when facing a particularly tough bad guy or challenge, and so we respawn – coming back to life and rejoining the battle from just a short distance away.

When we hit a terrible shot in golf when playing amongst friends, we shake it off, make fun of ourselves, and use a ‘mulligan’ to hit another one.

But in life, when we try to get fit and struggle…we call ourselves losers and give up. We’re ashamed that we tried and failed.”

I don’t know about you, but I’ve sometimes died in the first goomba in Mario. I’ve died so many times playing Guild Wars 2 that I know the respawn soundtrack as well as the environmental ones.. maybe even better.  It’s the same with weight loss–each time I go through it, I get a little better.

Party Rock – on a rock – in game

This weekend was 100% enjoyable.  a majority of it was spent gaming, hanging out with the family (Jeff, and our two fur-balls, Taz and Toby).  A LOT of it was spent studying because I had two exams to post for.

Breakfast this morning was Quaker Real Medleys with blueberry and banana, with a side of research.  See, I’m still dealing with chronic back pain.  Turns out, I’m doing it wrong.  When my back hurts, I feel like I can’t  exercise because of the pain.  It’s like, I can’t twist or bend, so why try?

Well, I was reading some peer reviewed articles on www.spine-health.com and one of them said that for Chronic Intractable Benign Pain (CIBP) one of the best things you can do is to exercise.

 A typical response to experiencing back pain is to take it easy – either staying in bed or at least stopping any activity that is at all strenuous. While this approach is understandable and may even be recommended in the short term, when done for more than a day or two it can actually undermine healing. Instead, active forms of back exercises are almost always necessary to rehabilitate the spine and help alleviate back pain.

Guess who’s going to the gym after work?

 

“I will tickle you all back to health”

“Klonex: Oh my.. I will tickle you all back to health.
Corrderio: Thanks.”

Gamer culture is weird, but that’s probably why I like it. Yesterday, I put in a 14 hour day at work followed by an hour or two of gaming.  I was having back spasms yesterday and that really put a damper on my mood.  Our guild had an event night last night, though, so it was fun to just give in to the distraction.

Warning: neurotoxins can alter reality and produce harmful hallucinations

Yesterday wasn’t all bad, though.  I made it to and from work without incident, had a marginally healthy day, and got to talk to my friend Lyz for about an hour on the phone.  It was really actually pretty good.

Today, I’m hitting the books, writing an essay, taking an exam, and hitting the gym.

Scarlet has Destroyed Lion’s Arch (GW2)

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Scarlet_Briar

Scarlet Briar, born Ceara, is the sylvari responsible for much of the mayhem that has wracked Tyria for the last year. She has facilitated a number of unlikely alliances, such as the Molten Alliance of the Flame Legion and dredge, the Aetherblade pirates and the Inquest, and the Toxic Alliance of the Nightmare Court and krait. With the help of these seemingly disparate groups she has threatened the northern continent time and again, culminating with the building of a massive Tower of Nightmares in the middle of Viathan Lake. All her schemes so far have been seemingly foiled, but she is not deterred by setback and occasionally seems to revel in her defeat.

Her other actions throughout the year include the plotting of Theo Ashford’s assassination and Mai Trin’s subsequent attempt to ascend to the Captain’s Council; hijacking the humans’ Watchknights; and an attempt on the life of Queen Jennah. Scarlet was intentionally failed to prevent the accidental destruction of the Thaumanova Reactor, and took a strong interest in the discovery of magical ley lines criss-crossing the globe. She has also been seen using steam creatures and their technology, though the nature of her ties to them is currently unclear.

Recently, Scarlet seems to have begun preparation for her biggest attack yet. After the destruction of the Tower of Nightmares and the death of the Toxic Hybrid, Energy Probes have been placed throughout Tyria and the Mists themselves in search for something – the constant thudding of which have unintentionally attracted a great three-headed jungle wurm to the surface in Bloodtide Coast. In early 1327 AE, her Twisted Watchwork minions were recalled to Lornar’s Pass, where she proclaims to be testing her her most powerful weapon seen so far, though she detonates the weapon instead of utilizing it if powered up. Adventurers who have found their way into her secret lair have reported schematics for her Marionette, some huge drill (that appears to be the complete form of the device floating above Marionette’s Landing, and maps marking Vigil Keep, the Chantry of Secrets, the Durmand Priory, and Lion’s Arch. And on the ceiling of her lair, there is said to be a painting of a dragon.

A new patch advanced the live story in Guild Wars 2 today and man oh man… it’s rather upsetting!  Good ‘ol Lion’s arch is in tatters, her people scattered.  Heroes have been summoned from all over the realm to help rescue refugees and evacuate the city.  So, if you need me… that’s where I’ll be.

Aminarra Westin rushes in to fight Scarlet’s minions and rescue the citizens of Lion’s Arch

The city is burning…

everyone died of toxic fumes while trying to evacuate the city. Good thing it’s a game and you get res experience…

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Thursday: less hectic, still busy. Mom was so nice. She bought me breakfast and made sure to healthify it by subbing turkey bacon.

Lunch was soup, snacks included fun dip (not pictured), carrots, cracked, laughing cow cheese, and thin mint cookies.

In class tonight, the debate was about whether or not the bible influences American legislation the same way that the Koran influences theocracy in, for example, Saudi Arabia.

Recreation included a couple hours of gaming. I played Hearthstone Heroes with Jeff, then I ran a few dungeons with Peebo, Roberto, Starry, Tiamalia, crazy, and preyed.

Can we still sayTGIF? TGIF.

GW2 – Again…

My guild buddy gave me some gold in game so that I could get up and running again… here’s how my character looks now:

Super Adventure Box | GuildWars2

I am slowly starting to get back into Guild Wars 2, after my forced hiatus and subsequent return.  The only down-side is that my mic doesn’t work so I cannot grace the guild with my lovely voice.  The good news, though, is that my headphones themselves work, so at least I can get verbal cues from my team.  It makes running dungeons and stuff a lot easier and it means that I get to be introduced to content that I didn’t know about–like Super Adventure Box: [start this video with the official sound track here: http://youtu.be/6Ut8xPZVLMQ]

Super Adventure Box – “WHAT! HA! Awesome.”

From what I’ve read, Super Adventure Box is supposed to be a virtual reality sim created by one of the engineers in Rata Sum.  It is to-the-bones 8-bit fun, which, is kind of hilarious because my own character and that of my guild-mates are fully fleshed out but our environment is an 8-bit wonderland. Here is a no-spoilers beginning review of the game:

Take this pointy stick

Level 1 starts with a picnic with a princess who is then (predictably) kidnapped–then her handy helper pops up “omg the princess has been kidnapped” and challenges you to find her–arming you with a Pointy Stick! (lol)

Rabbit!!

My mates were describing it as “Minecrafty” and I thought I kept hearing bits of Mario and Legend of Zelda playing through my headphones.  I was completely enthralled.  What originally started out as an April Fool’s joke turned into an immersive playable game with 3 levels and a final boss.  I haven’t reached the final boss, yet, but needless to say, this portion of Guild Wars 2 is a welcome distraction from the serious warfare going on in Tyria.

Happy Rainbows!

The game has got all of the old fashioned elements that I appreciate in the 8-bit games including haunting bass lines for dungeon-type areas, and exaggerated elements.  I mean, have you seen the happy cloud above?  It’s ridiculous and I love it.  Haha.  When you kill monsters, break pots, or go flippin tables, you’re awarded with baubles which can be used to buy health potions or better weapons.  The life-bar uses a heart container system and has extra lives available.  Getting food refills your heart containers.  Not jumping into poisoned water or getting hit by enemies ensures you won’t need food… easier said than done.

Infantile Mode – Achievement Unlocked: Baby’s First Adventure

The part I liked the most was discovered last night–You can play Super Adventure Box by yourself, without a party.  It’s not that I’m being anti-social in an MMO, but sometimes I want to do things that my guildies are not doing at the moment.  Being able to get in a round of Super Adventure Box while they’re off doing an AC run is really liberating.  There are all sorts of secret rooms and easter eggs to discover in this portion of the game, so if you haven’t already–please get GW2, and check out this unique add-on available through April.

For more about composing 8-bit music with modern technology, take a look at this handy report from the Guild Wars 2 Team:

The Music of Super Adventure Box | GuildWars2.com.

Crunch Time: (not abs)

So, we’re really heading into “crunch time” for the wedding and things are heating up at work, too.  There are 7 weeks left until the wedding and a lot of loose ends are getting wrapped up.  Jeff’s parents came to visit over the weekend recently and we had a wedding shower (hosted by my lovely sister and my equally awesome Grandma) to celebrate.

There are lots of pics I WISH I could’ve taken, but I did not have my camera and the available photos are mostly focused on myself and Jeff.  We did get a few great shots, though, thanks for my friend and bridesmaid Gloria, and Jeff’s Mom Sarah:

 

We got our invitations mailed out weeks ago and I think people have had a chance to appreciate their beauty before we posted them online… check ’em out:

 

The damask pattern was really pretty and doing the printing in black ink really helped us save on costs.  It’s a delight to check the mail these days in the hopes of receiving another RSVP.

We’re using Google Drive to manage our guest list, vendors, gifts, and everything.  It’s been really handy to have everything in one spot online–I was able to make a new tab and move folks over to that tab and share it with my sister so that she could get the invites out for the shower.

I just took a look at the spreadsheet and realized that so far we’ve got

125 unknown
92 accepted
32 declined

If you’re planning a big event and coordinating with people that may not be local, I highly suggest using a data system such as Google Drive to keep it organized.  My sister liked the idea so much that she has her guest list imported now, too.  Since she moved out of state, this will be a great way for us to keep in touch and coordinate about all the goings-on.

I’ve also been wrapping up a lot of the other details for the wedding, like crafting these adorable bookmarks and getting the vendors all squared away as far as a payment plan goes:

 

I had one of my last dress fittings before the wedding on Friday and it’s going to be pretty close.  I need to drop at LEAST five pounds before the wedding, more if at all humanly possible.  That means any and all stress eating needs to go out the window.

Maybe I’ll de-stress by gaming instead, now that I’ve got my rig back up and running… If you play GW2, look me up 🙂 I’m in JQ and my sn is Aminarra Westin.

Gourmet Gaming, Guild Wars 2 – Chocolate Omnomberry Cake It’s…

Gourmet Gaming, Guild Wars 2 – Chocolate Omnomberry Cake It’s….

I haven’t played GW2 since the Laurels came out, but this cake makes me want to renew my fandom.  Check it out!

I have a new computer…

So, I don’t remember if I mentioned this, but, my computer fried about a month ago… I have had limited time to game, to blog, to peruse pinterest, to really do anything casually online.  It was all because of a stupid pair of speakers that discharged an electric shock when I went to plug them in.  I started out just trying to have a cleaning house dance party and ended up with a fried motherboard.  Jeff thinks that it was starting to fail anyway and that three speaker thing is a coincidence… I kind of wasn’t to burn them anyway.

The good news is that now I’ve got a new computer that’s on par with Jeff’s instead of a hand-me-down.  Don’t get me wrong, Jeff loves technology, so a hand-me-down from him is still far superior to anything I’d get for myself.  Because of this, he’s also had a hand in building my new rig.  It’s shiny and new and…currently doing a windows update, so I’m blogging from my phone.

Mother Board: AS Rock Extreme 4 Processor: I5 3570k
Memory: 8 gigs of DDR3
Video Card: AMD 7870
Inboard water cooling

We reused the power supply and the sound card. We wanted to reuse the video card as well, but the motherboard couldn’t “see” it.

I’m really happy to have my own computer again, especially with school starting back up. I’ll need to balance play time with work, though.  *giddy*