Killer Teammate

I had the most confounding gamer experience of my life yesterday.

I was trying out the multiplayer for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.  There is a cooperative mode that can be played, wherein a team of three players try to complete a mini-mission.  Now, if you back out of a game, which ruins it for everyone, you lose $10,000 of in-game cash, and are put on stand-by for 90 seconds or more.  It is meant to promote the idea that when you start a game, you commit to it.  I actually like the idea.  You have to have very good reason to want to quit.

If you are shot down, a count-down timer starts.  If you are not revived by a teammate in time, you’re out for 60 seconds.  If everyone’s dead at the same time, the level restart at the last checkpoint.  Your team gets three tries before you lose.

STS: Extra Life

For October 2011, my charity team - the Fat Chance Heroes - participated in an annual charity event called Extra Life.  It is a 24-hour video game marathon intended to help raise money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals across the nation.  As residents of the Twin Cities, we chose to raise money for the Gillette’s Children’s Hospital in downtown Saint Paul.

In total, we were able to raise $231.

As promised, I made sure to document the event in order to prove to all of you that we did indeed stay up and play video games for 24 hours straight!  Of course, the greatest proof I have is this video!!!  It is not technically a Stranger Things Studios film, but seeing how they edited the movie from what footage we had, I am including it under their banner. 

Be warned, there is vulgarity, but it is fun none the less.  Enjoy!

There Goes the Planet: Part II

In my population control model, everyone is issued a “gene pool” (or GP) credit by the government.  If the government can issue everyone a social security number, they should be able to issue everyone a GP credit.  When a child is born, both the mother and the father are charged a credit.  One child, two credits. 

As long as a person only uses their one credit, they will not be effected in any way.  Now, not everyone intends to, or is able to, or gets around to having a child.  These people will be able to sell their GP credit back to the government for a permanent tax-break deductions.  The flip side of that is that anyone who has a second, or a third child, will be penalized and/or have their taxes permanently increased by a certain amount per child.

There Goes Planet Earth: Part I

Enough updates!  Let's talk about something.

I just finished watching the Planet Earth series put out by the BBC.  Overall, it is documentary regarding the beauty of the natural environment, and the continual pressure that we put on it.  The final disc of the five disc set is entitled, Planet Earth: Future.  It addresses the big question of, “Where do we go from here?”  The arguments that fire back and forth are so strikingly different that it absolutely astounds me.  On one end, there are the people that say without intervention we will destroy the diversity and sustainability of this planet.  The other side says that the environmentalist are exaggerating the situation; and for all sorts of legal, political, and pragmatic reasons, nothing can be done to address the issue.

Off the Charts! 2500!

In one fell swoop, I missed my chance to announce that the JonnyD Weekly has reach its 1000th visit, its 1500th, or even its 2000th for that matter!

Instead, I’m excited to say that the JonnyD Weekly has just had its 2500th visit! 

“How?!”  You ask.  I asked my wife the same thing.  Up until Halloween, I had been watching the number of visits teeter right around 990.  Well, after writing my Halloween blog about shaving my head, Tonya went ahead and posted the blog-link on Breaking Bad’s Facebook forum.  In the course of three days the JonnyD Weekly had almost 1500 hits!

Of course, traffic has dropped off now to what it normally has been.  People probably clicked the link, saw the photo, said “cool,” and closed the window.  But who knows?  1500 visits.  Some new people might be reading the blog now.  “Hello new people!”

Monthly Scoop: November 2011

It’s that time again boys ‘n’ girls!  Time to realize I did far too much talking, and not enough doing.  Time for the Monthly Scoop.

To begin, I apologize for the late post.  I promise I will make it up to you.  The truth of the matter is I have a large project I’m working on, and I was hoping to be able to write the blog for it last week.

Speaking of projects - what has JonnyDStrong been up to?


Extra-Life

As you may have read, the newly founded team, Fat Chance Heroes, had their first charity event.  It was called Extra-Life.  It is a 24-hour video game marathon to help raise money for children hospitals.  We had a good time, and recorded some of the event to prove we stayed up the full 24 hours.  I am currently editing the film, which is taking a lot longer than planned.  But as soon as I’m done I will post it on-line.