Sometimes Sharing Helps

I apologize for not posting every week like I was doing up until the end of last year.  Between the Feed-The-Beast Minecraft modpack (specifically the Mindcrack pack) and work, I've been pretty busy!  Although I think my life will get much busier now that the 'Insanity' update for Don't Starve was released.  It makes the game much harder and much more...interesting.  And freaky.  Also, Diablo III released a patch that looks super interesting.

There goes my free time.

That aside, I had a rather interesting experience related to my current singles ward.  For those of you who aren't members, a ward is a congregation of members who live in an area.  A singles ward is specifically for singles only.  I tend to be a pretty introverted and shy person in new social situations.  I'm either not inclined to participate all that much or I tend to make jokes and hide my true thoughts and feelings.  One particularly rough weekend, I decided to post on the ward's Facebook group, explaining my feelings and how a large part of it was due to my perception.

The reaction was quick and very positive.  Many other members also expressed trouble with feeling like the 'fit in'.  Apparently during this last Sunday meeting, the bishop actually spoke about how we should act toward other members of the congregation (at least he did according to my friend, Joe.  I was probably falling asleep at that time).  It shows me that even if I am afraid of sharing how things are going, sometimes the response can be really positive.

I could argue that this post is geeky because it mentions Facebook.  To further add to the geekiness, I'll share a song.  It's from an anime called .hack//sign which is about a video game.  I don't think I could get any geekier than that.




That being said, I need to go figure out how to keep from going completely insane in "Dont' Starve".

Joe's top ten best Geek romances

Hay, guess what tomorrow is? Valentine’s day! And while you’re either getting ready to take your sweetheart out on the town or stay home, eat a carton of Ben and Jerry’s and cry, this list ought to put you in the right mood to do either on this fake holiday invented by girlfriends in order to get chocolate. So here it is, Joe’s top ten romances in geekdom. Enjoy!

10: Mario, Peach, Link, and Zelda from Nintendo

This is just on the list so I don’t have to hear about it later. I put both couples in the same place because it’s the same relationship. Every year or so Link and Mario trek across an increasingly visually appealing landscape to save their respective princesses from the bad guys. It says something to devotion when these characters are willing to go through the same thing over and over again for the women they love, though it could just be a sign of insanity.

9: Wash and Zoey from Firefly

I know some people are going to be disappointed that Mal and Inara aren’t on this list, but unfortunately the brevity of Firefly made it so that they’re attraction never really developed past a spark. Wash and Zoey on the other hand got some time to develop their love for each other. Like Roger and Jessica, they seem completely mismatched, but also like the cartoons they’re completely devoted to each other at the end of the day, even to the point of risking their lives with each other. In my saddest deaths post I discussed where there relationship end up, and to me it only cements them in my heart as one of the cutest, and saddest, couples.

8: Batman and Catwoman

The Batman story has too many writers and too many interpretations, putting Catwoman on any given day as a villain, a friendly ally, flirtatious tease, to true love for the Caped Crusader. Generally though, they have a certain bad-girl-good-guy chemistry that’s just irresistible  They've rescued each other more than they've battled at this point, and you always know whenever Batman and Catwoman team up the furs going to fly.

7: Homer and Marge Simpson

Say what you will about the Simpsons, at the end of the day they showed how a marriage can endure anything. These high school sweethearts married after Marge got pregnant with Bart, but they've shown that these two would've ended up together no matter what. No matter what ridiculous situation Homer gets into, his biggest concern is always to try and make Marge happy, and when she isn't he’ll move heaven and earth to put a smile on her face again. Marge has defended her husband dozens of times to her cynical sisters, saying that despite his flaws he really is a good man, and Homer would give Marge the world if he could. Although the show has gone through controversy and arguably isn't currently working with its best material, at least you can say it showed us a beautiful example of true love.

6: Tony Stark and Pepper Potts from the Marvel Universe films

Okay, I admit it, I don’t know a whole ton about Marvel. I’d do something from the X-Men, but honestly even Scott and Jean’s relationship seems a bit weird, and I can’t really say anything about Rogue and Gambit since theirs is problematic at best, but I love what Robert Downy Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow have done with the characters. These two aren't the cheesy super hero one-rescues-another model. Pepper is more than capable of staying out of trouble, and serves as a voice of reason to the millionaire playboy. I like how their romance has room to bloom in the films, and how in the Avengers Pepper is the one Tony calls when he’s not sure he’ll make it. Marvel has worked hard at making their super hero films great, and this relationship is proof.

5: Snow and Charming from Once Upon a Time

I've talked about this one before too, but I just had to mention them. These two go through one nightmare after another for each other, and they always end up together. This is another relationship that’s nice to see develop, especially when they start out enemies. I also love that no matter how hard the evil queen Regina tries, she can never keep these two lovebirds separated for long, proving that love truly is the greatest magic of all.

4: Rick and Lori Grimes from The Walking Dead

Before the first walker ate somebody, their relationship admittedly had problems. But considering what Rick goes through just to find his wife and child, I’d say there’s definitely devotion going on here. Weather in the comic books or the TV show, their reunion brings tears to my eyes, as they are both so relieved that the other isn’t dead. Rick is even able to forgive Lori of her indiscretions, and does everything he can to keep her safe throughout the zombie apocalypse.

3: Roger and Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Say what you will about this saucy redhead and her silly rabbit of a husband, but this relationship was probably one of the best parts of the movie. Both Roger and Jessica go to any lengths to protect the other from harm, including posing for “dirty” pictures and holding a judge at gunpoint. One of my favorite lines is when Jessica is asked what she sees in that guy, referring to the wanna-be Looney Tune, only to answer “he makes me laugh”. Let’s face it, sometimes that’s all you need.

2: Han Solo and Princess Leja from Star Wars

I love these two! They start off hating each other, in fact Han didn't even want to rescue her at first, and they end up together. First off, I love how that annoying Luke Skywalker didn't get the girl, and second, I love how this relationship doesn't even develop into romance until halfway through the second film. These days in movies it’s enough time to fall in love, get married, and have an obnoxious kid get kidnapped. The now famous “I love you” “I know” line is epic, and shows their relationship to a tee, with Han knowing flat out that it was just a matter of time before they got together. I also love how, like Batman and Catwoman, they take turns rescuing each other, showing that there is now weak link in this chain.

1: Severus Snape and Lily Potter from Harry Potter

An unusual pick I know, but let me explain: I've mentioned several times that I like it when the relationship has time to develop, and this thing had seven books (or 8 movies) to develop, completely unknown until almost the very end of the story, where every one of Snape’s wicked and hurtful actions are all explained in one concept: he’s heartbroken. It’s not the romance that happened; it’s the fact that it didn't that makes me love this one the most. Snape is a good guy, just as good as Dumbledore or Harry, but being the happy good guy isn't his thing. He’s bitter and angry at the world for letting the love of his life go with his worst enemy, and then forcing him to teach and prepare their son to fight the man that took his beloved’s life away. Then he dies, so he can save Lily’s son, the son of the man he hates and the woman he loves, and fulfills his destiny. Now that’s romantic! 

-JOE

The Fall of DC

Last week I talked about how DC Comic’s latest decision to cancel Young Justice was the latest in a long line of mistakes that’s making me want to switch to Marvel. I also said that this week I would air my grievances with the world famous comic book company and give it the full psychotic rant it deserves. Let’s do this by medium.

Comics

DC wouldn’t be anything if it wasn’t for their comics, so it seems like the logical place to start. About seven years ago DC pulled off their masterpiece Infinite Crisis, a gripping tale that set to clean up parts of the DC universe continuity and set the seeds for amazing storylines later on. Then the economy crashed. Unfortunately when people don’t have a lot of money the first thing to go are luxury items, so DC and Marvel both started to hurt. Their solution? One giant psychotic event after another, forcing readers to pick up stacks of comics just to follow the storyline from month to month. Where Marvel kept things relatively grounded with Civil War and World War Hulk, DC decided to go snooky bananas with more world shattering, reality altering nonsense. The entire universe ended up convoluted and confusing with little hope of recovery, so DC then just gave up and restarted the entire thing with the New 52. Supposedly the idea was to restart the entire universe from square one, and tell all the classic stories through a new modern lens, much like what Marvel did in 2000 with the Ultimate line. Unfortunately when they hit “restart” it didn’t quite restart everything. Events line Blackest Night and Killing Joke had apparently still happened, even though the characters were much younger and events like No Man’s Land and Death of Superman hadn’t happened. This turned what was already a jumbled mess into an even more jumbled mess only with even less answers. Needless to say, fans are not pleased.

Movies

Okay I’m just going to say this to get it out of the way, yes the Dark Knight series is awesome and yes we’ll get to the few things DC has done right in a bit, but I want to talk about the other movies. I wish I could say DC has been hit or miss with its films lately but it’s easier to say they’ve been Batman or miss. It started with Superman Returns, which while pretty good if you know the Christopher Reeve Superman storyline was confusing to audiences who didn’t catch a movie franchise that had ended 25 years beforehand. I’m sorry Superman, but especially near the end you’re just not Star Wars, and you can’t expect audiences to pick up where you left off. Next we get a few titles which would’ve been awesome if implemented correctly, namely Watchmen, which was needlessly turned into a gory pornography, Jonah Hex which had the same advertising and film budget as one uses to sell a bike, and Green Lantern, which was just out and out bad. DC has also been releasing straight to DVD and Netflix a bunch of animated films based on some of their most popular comics, which actually has more hits than misses, but let’s face it, comics translate best to animation anyway so this wasn’t a hard feat to pull off. Which brings me to…

TV

DC did the same thing that Fox did to Firefly when they messed up then cancelled Justice League Unlimited a while back. The Justice League cartoon was a tight, no-nonsense show about a team of heroes protecting the earth, and while I did like the fact that two of my favorites, namely Zatanna and Captain Marvel made appearances, I felt opening up the cast for Unlimited hurt the show more than it helped. Then when they were leading up to this big old war between the villains and heroes, they cancel the show and end with this stupid fight where they team up to take out Darkseid. A massive letdown for sure. Next DC tried to recapture the magic of Batman the Animated Series with The Batman, a show about Batman in high school of all places, and Brave and the Bold, which to me felt like DC Muppet Babies. Then we got a star, a glimmer of hope on an already bleak world in the form of Young Justice, and I already told you what they did to that. I could mention Smallville, and I will by saying take Dawson’s Creek and mix it with Twilight and there you go, except again, shout out to Zatanna who was totally awesome in her parts. DC’s been hinting at a show called Arrow, supposedly about Green Arrow and yesterday I heard rumor of Amazon which will follow Wonder Woman, but as I said, comics best translate to animation so live action is problematic at best.

As I said earlier, yes, DC has done a couple things right, which basically means just writing Batman on a big piece of paper and circling it a bunch of times. The Dark Knight series was excellent, some of the Batman titles in the comic books are actually okay, as long as he doesn’t deal with any of the other heroes in that world, and even some of the animated films are decent, I highly recommend Batman: Gotham Knight for the Anime buffs out there. The problem is that Batman alone cannot save DC Comics, and he shouldn’t have to. I know a lot of people give grief to DC heroes for being overpowered, but they still have some really great stories to tell, and they don’t always need to involve an emotionally bankrupt rich man running around in his undies. I have high hopes for the new Man of Steel movie coming soon, but if DC is really going to get back on track with its fans and the rest of the world, they need to stop playing catch-up with the Avengers and go back to what made them great in the first place: Great stories with heroes we loved.

And more Zatanna.

-JOE

RIP Young Justice

I’m about ready to switch comic alliances. To anyone not in comics this is big, like switching the kind of underwear you wear, but DC is really leaving me with no choice. First they quasi-reboot their entire continuity and give us this New 52 trash, then they bomb the Green Lantern movie, and now this: Young Justice will not be in Cartoon Network’s 2013-14 lineup, essentially cancelling it. 

GRRRRRAAAAWWWWWW!!!!

Oh, what’s Young Justice you ask? No, it’s okay, I don’t blame you for not knowing, since DC is too busy trying to convince everyone that healing Batgirl’s spine was a good idea they haven’t really promoted the best cartoon they’ve had since Batman the Animated Series. Young Justice follows a team comprised of the Justice League’s sidekicks, called the Team, who are deployed by Batman to go on covert ops missions in order to stop a secret cabal of villains called the Light from destroying the League and taking over the world. The first season was hands down amazing, Every character had their own intriguing story arch full of surprise twists and more emotional draw-ins then a book about the pioneer’s puppies. The thing that sealed the deal for me was that they brought one of my longtime favorite super heroes, Superboy, in as a main character, complete with his trademark tee shirt. Although they do take liberties with the original continuity, I personally am not a purist (Unless DC does something stupid, see earlier rant on New 52, and extended edition coming next week) and loved the changes they made in Young Justice, like Superboy being a broody anti-social, and Miss Martian being a flake.

The second season took place 5 years after the last, introducing a pile of new young heroes to the team, including Lagoon Boy, Batgirl and Wonder Girl. The story became a little harder to follow with the addition of so many new faces, but it still worked, and this time centered on a secret alien invasion, but the show was put on hiatus mid-season last year. Now it’s all but official: Young Justice is cancelled.

Here’s my question: What is DC doing? At this point they’re pretty much on life support with comic sales dropping since last year, most of their movies either crashing and burning and then cancelling popular shows like Young Justice and Green Lantern. Nolan’s Dark Knight movies was pretty much the only thing they really had going for them and even then Rises had more than its fair share of problems. As of now, DC is looking at rebooting Superman this summer with Man of Steel, rebooting Batman in four years, and after that putting together a Justice League movie much like the Avengers last summer. I really hate to say this, but unless DC makes some major changes soon, they’re might not be a company left to make a Justice League movie!

So here I sit about to give a tearful goodbye to my precious Young Justice, and maybe to my favorite comic book company with it, hoping against hope that they manage to pull themselves together soon before we lose Batman and Superman forever, while wondering if Hot Topic still had those light up Iron Man boxers I was looking at the other day.

-JOE

For a sample of Young Justice, click here!

Video game sales restrictions

Confession: I bought Saints Row the Third for XBox 360 because the idea that I could play a Grand Theft Auto game while dressed as Ronald McDonald filled my little heart with glee. Turns out the game was glitchy and the story was unimaginative that wasn't even helped by the fact that Burt Reynold's made a guest appearance, but the fact is that I like violent video games. I'm the guy who picks up the Blood and Guts feat in Fallout 3 that makes every kill look like I just put the guy in a blender, but for +10% damage how can you argue? Legislation is once again being looked at to restrict the sales of such video games to minors and, despite my love of gore, I personally agree with every word.

Now let me say that I am not representing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, any political organization, movement, fast food chain, underwear brand or video game distributor, this is just my own little humble opinion, but I do agree with the idea of not allowing Mature or Adult Only video games into the hands of minors. Do I think that these video games should be outright banned, which is usually the next logical step brought up in the argument? No, I do not and here's why:

I consider video games to be an art form, meaning that they're a format for self-expression. Granted, it's hard to find the artistic value in Saints Row the Third, but play a game like Red Dead Redemption, or the Assassin's Creed series, and tell me that they weren't the painstakingly loving children of someone who wanted to create a unique experience. I will never be the one to ban nude or violent images from the world of art, since it is some of these images that have impacted us the most in our history, so I will not say that they should be banned from video games. 

Here's an interesting fact for you: No act of violence has ever been directly traced back to video games. Granted, people have done acts of violence that resembled what is seen in some video games. I'm reminded of a young man a couple years back who smashed a window of a game retailer and stole a bunch of copies of Grand Theft Auto 4, only to be caught while trying to steal a car, but the kid was on drugs or something at the time. I honestly don't think that video games make kids violent, because if that was the case then every child of a less-than-vigilant parent would be running around the streets trying to make the world into a video game, and that's not what we're seeing. What I do believe is that video games desensitize children to the realities of the world, as well as expose them to adult situations and themes that they do not need to be exposed to at such a young age. Let's go back to the Saints Row the Third example. Not even talking about the people shooting people, in one playthrough I saw excessive drug use, prostitution, several sexual acts performed, swearing, human trafficking, theft, destruction of property, arson and racism (And before you ask, no I am not proud that I played this game, but come on I got to dress up as Ronald McDonald...).

What i'm saying is that while violence is being focused on for a lot of these discussions, they'res a lot more to this story than people shooting people in make-believe.

In conclusion, I know a lot of people are already on board with restricting video game sales, my goal here is not only to give argument as to why I think it's a good idea, but to give some more insight into the world of gaming so that you can better make an informed decision for you and your family. 

-JOE

What do you want to see?

Hiya folks! First week of school and I'm more busy than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest, so I've got no real post, but what I would like to know is what would you like us to write about in the future? What topics or fandoms would you like us to indulge? Let us know in the comments!
-JOE
Also, don't forget to check out our Pintrests!

http://pinterest.com/meyere13/stuff-from-a-mormon-geek-d/

I drew a Cubone! :D

Minecraft - Feed the Beast - Mad Scientist style

To start off today's post: a humorous story.  My nieces and nephews love it when I come over.  Not simply because they like to see me either.  Within moments of me walking into the door at my parent's house Sunday, one of my nephews approached me and asked "Did you bring your laptop?!" in a very excited voice.

That's right.  I somehow have my nieces and nephews addicted to Minecraft, despite the fact that they have never actually played it.  It ended up with all of them (except the little guy learning to crawl) crowded around my small laptop screen to watch me play.  Then comes the barrage of things to do, and sadly, I can't do all of them.  After nearly dying twice, it was time to head upstairs for dessert.  When they were all leaving, my nephew (the same one who approached me before) asked my mom for some paper and a pen.  Moments later, he was asking me how to spell my name.  He left me a cute little folded note entitled 'open these'.  I opened it up to read 'Bring your laptop, Andrew.'  Well, so much for the 'cute' part.

That aside, Minecraft has been keeping me very busy.  Feed the Beast has officially launched some of there mod packs.  One of them is called the 'Mindcrack' mod pack.  I've been really enjoying playing this one.  Here are some screenshots:

I changed my minecraft skin to look a little bit more like me!

This is a world anchor.  It was supposed to keep my base loaded when I wasn't there (so the machines would run).  I found out later that it required Ender pearls to run (been super hard for me to find those!).  I got angry, so I flew up and put it up on the ceiling where it has stayed ever since.  I just learned that I could turn off that requirement.

These are the barrels that I use to sort things that I have a lot of.  It may be hard to notice, but the rightmost barrel one up from the bottom contains leaves.  I discovered that the electric chainsaw tears through trees rather quickly.  In about 15-20 seconds, I can make an entire small tree disappear.

I have a skylight in my base for solar panels.  A few times, spiders have dropped in to visit.  This one spun in place for about 30 seconds while I stared at it in confusion.

These sorting machines hook up to the barrel as well as other chests.  I love sorting machines.

These chest allow me to send items to different machines in my secret lab without having to walk over and put the items in myself.  I even have it hooked up so that all the results get sent to the chest on the far left.

My 'older' machines.  In the back, you can see my geothermal generators.  I found a massive pool of lava underneath my base that I am pumping up to my base to use for energy.

The bigger, newer machines.  The one on the right is a blast furnace.  The one on the left is a grinder, for grinding up ore.  You can also kind of see my sorting system working.  The little items in the purple boxes are flagged to go to my 'machine output' chest.

Better look at my geothermal generators.

View of my base from the stairs.

Another look at the industrial grinder and an electrolyzer

My solar panel array.

My fully automatic tree farm!  Doesn't require me to babysit it at all.

This whole area used to be a giant lava lake.

This is the level it is at right now.  The obsidian is the old 'surface' level.

My magic room!  The enchanting table from vanilla minecraft, and some items from a mod called Thaumcraft which allows you to do 'magic'.

Another shot of the magic room

My old farm, with two of the Thaumcraft golems hanging out.

The Hobbit, an unexpected problem

When I heard Peter Jackson was in production of a Hobbit film, like most geeks I got excited. I had grown up reading Bilbo's classic adventure, and I even like the animated movie (It may be also that I physically resemble the Gollum from the cartoon). When I heard that the story would be made into two films I thought that was fair and didn't think much of it. Then when I heard that the story would be three films, and that the first film had a run time of nearly three hours, I felt a clenching feeling in my chest I used to get when I'd have to review a  comedy for the paper.
This wasn't a good sign.
Last weekend I sat down and watched the Hobbit and I sadly have to say that, both as a geek and a film buff, I was disappointed. And while I'm fully aware that most geeks have already seen the Hobbit by now so this is pretty much a retro review, I still wanted to throw my two cents in.
Let me start off by saying that somewhere in the three hour extravaganza, there is a good movie. Scenes like Bilbo's unexpected dinner party with the dwarves, as well as his riddles in the dark with Gollum were taken straight from my imagination in beautiful clarity. Jackson still knows how to make a world of dwarves and elves feel real, which actually kind of added to the overall problem.
Here's where my issue is: The film is padded to psychotic levels. Whenever the party goes from one place to another they insist on showing endless scenes of mountain landscapes and waterfalls of all things, to the point where I felt I was on an endless hopeless journey, only instead of looking for a dragon I just wanted the credits.
Another piece of needless padding was the fight scenes. In Lord of the Rings the most characters they had to keep track of in a fight was nine, which is a pretty sturdy number but it was pulled off well. Here most of the time they have to keep track of 14 characters in the fray, which they attempt to accomplish through cutting to them one or two at a time. This makes the spectacle a confusing mess and a few times I thought I'd have to throw up in the popcorn bucket. On top of that several of these scenes just go on for nearly a good five minutes. They'res even one piece with them running around in the goblin caverns which I swear took half an hour. At one point I don't care how many interesting ways you can knock a goblin off a cliff, I just don't care anymore.
Here's the sad truth about it: Yes, I would watch this movie again, but not in theaters. I'd watch it in my own home with a fast forward button, the same way I'd watch 2012 and cut through all the irritating talking. The film has about 45 minutes of needless nonsense that could've easily been cut for time and left in the extended edition. I'm honestly scared to see if this thing will even get an extended edition, since the only thing they could conceivably add is the party's conversations between place to place.
-JOE

Geeky Mad Libs!

Ever do mad libs growing up?  It's been years since I have.  I watched some YouTube videos where people were doing mad libs, and I was laughing really hard with all the stuff that they were saying.

To do a mad lib, you pick a word that matches each category given.  Then, you read the paragraph, substituting your words into the numbered places. (Wikpedia has a decent explanation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Libs).

Without further ado, a geeky mad lib!

Don't scroll to the bottom, or you'll spoil what all the blanks are used for.

Here are the words:


1. Number:
2. Noun:
3. race:
4. title plural:
5. Noun:
6. Number:
7. race:
8. title plural:
9. place plural:
10. noun:
11. Number:
12. adjective:
13. race:
14. verb ending in -ed:
15. verb (unconjugated, for example run, drink, etc):
16. Number:
17. adjective:
18. title:
19. Adjective:
20. piece of furniture:
21. Noun:
22. name of a place:
23. plural noun:
24. verb (present tense):
25. verb (present tense):
26. verb (present tense):
27. verb (present tense):
28. noun:
29. verb (present tense):







































































































<1> <2>s for the <3>-<4> under the <5>,
<6> for the <7>-<8> in their <9> of <10>,
<11> for <12> <13> <14> to <15>.
<16> for the <17> <18> on (his/her/its) <19> <20>
In the <21> of <22> where the <23> <24>.
<16> <2> to <24> them all, <16> <2> to <25> them,
<16> <2> to <26> them all and in the <27> <28> them
In the <21> of <22> where the <23> <24>.


Want the reference?  You can scroll down even further.









































The paragraph comes from the Lords of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkein.  It talks about the rings of power that were created in the books.

Merry Christmas!

By the way, isn't this a cool present?