Don't sit in my chair! The sketchy maybe not legal adventures of a curious student.

So this is more a story than a post related to my hobbies and loves. I'm going to stray from my norm and talk about my day. Sounds boring right, well it's not so don't you dare stop reading now. Okay maybe it will only be slightly intriguing, leave if you may but I will be very grumpy, jk jk. So it started off kind of normal, I was walking around downtown with friends because I have a social life, okay... and I live in a place where you can walk around downtown without a fear of getting stabbed and the homeless people are just as friendly as any other Canadian. Stop and talk to them sometime, they actually have something to say.

Moving on though, we were feeling kind of bored so for the first time in my life I found myself exploring random alleyways and taking pictures. Hey, graffiti is pretty neat. I have a new found appreciation for "vandalism" that isn't penises or obscenities. It is by no means vandalism if there
is any artistic impression in and it is not defamatory. So I stopped and took some pictures of the scribbles because art is meant to be appreciated isn't it? Other than the graffiti it was kind of dirty and creepy back there, beer cans, cigarette butts, other random "shit" that I couldn't really put a name to. It seemed like the kind of place a deal would go down because you couldn't see it from the sidewalk. I felt a tad bit uneasy.

My adventure did not end there as somehow we eventually found ourselves in an abandoned antique shop covered in blood and not knowing who we were, actually kidding about the blood and amnesia. We ended up there because one of us wanted to go to an antique shop that it turned out didn't exist anymore. What we found was a large open room full of saw dust and construction materials and a random toy chair to go with our new home. The place had old checkered floors that nobody uses anymore because it is so out of style and the wood looked like it was from the ark. What was weird was that the place was unlocked and you could just go upstairs to where the shop once was. It was like they had never learned to lock doors. If it was anyone else things might have got stolen, I'm not even sure that it was illegal since the place was unlocked and there were no signs saying that we couldn't be there.

There was a random art studio shoved way at the back and unlike the rest of the place it did look like it wasn't abandoned. So at that point we realized we probably shouldn't be there.

That made for probably one of the most interesting days that has happened to me recently. Having a social life makes for a good time.

The Best of the best X-Men Part 1 of 2 (because i couldn't think of a full list, jeez).

With the new film coming up, I will be taking a look at my top 10 X-Men. This is based on the main 616 X-Men story arc and their appearances in film and cartoon. The powers are those exhibited by the main earth versions. Remember it is opinion based, you can suggest things in the comments.

Nightcrawler [Kurt Wagner]

Powers: Teleportation (looked awesome in X2) , Prehensile Tail, Infared Vision (Is there anything this guy doesn't have).
Nightcrawler is still and always be my favourite. Part of it is because of his character in X2 (which I loved), and he can freakin teleport, man. His powers are some of the most unique and the poof of blue smoke gives some added effect to an already awesome character. The fact that he is the son of
Mystique (hot) and Azazel makes him even more cool.

Wolverine [James "Logan" Howlett]

Powers: Superhuman Senses, Super strength, claws (Bone and Admantium), Healing Factor (It's kind of overused now), delayed aging.
The number one reason Wolverine is so high on the list is because of his sideburns , jk jk. Wolverine deserves to be on the list just based on the fact of how important he is to comics. He has an interesting backstory, tragic but good. Wolverine has seen his fair share of fights. Other than starring in one crappy movie, Hugh Jackman has really done the character justice, with his sarcasm and no fucks given attitude. Wolverine doesn't need to rely on others.

Rogue [Anna Marie]

Powers: Power Absorption, Deadly touch
Rogue is one of the most attractive women in comics. She also has unique and deadly powers, she can kill most people with just a touch. It makes things difficult for her, but that doesn't stop her from being awesome. She is so dangerous that Magneto was going to use to kill a large number of people in the first film. Rogue's relationship with Gambit is also one of the most d'awe in comics. I'm not a huge Gambit fan, but I love Rogue; especially the Rogue played by Anna Paquin.

Cyclops [Scott Summers]

Powers: Optic Blasts
Okay, so the only reason Cyclops is number four on my list is that he is a leader of the X-Men. I'm not a huge fan of the character, based on his arrogance and his relationship towards Logan. I will admit he is an important character and that is why he is so high on the top 10 list. I think his powers are kind of silly, shooting lasers from his eyes is kind of dumb. And come on man it is obvious your wife is less than faithful.

Beast [Dr. Hank McCoy]

Powers: Superhuman Strength, Speed (not the drug), Superhuman Stamina, Superhuman agility, Durability , Claws and fangs
Beast is cool; he's big, he's blue and he's hairy and he's super friggin smart. He is a key part of the X-Men as the team's scientist and expert on mutations. What I like most about beast is how animal like he is, yet at the same time his level of humanity. Beast is like a hairy genius Wolverine without the Adamantium skeleton or the Alcoholism.

End of Part One

Can I draw Bane? Can I?

So I'm thinking I may start putting some of my artwork up here, see what you organic meatbags think. It will mostly be Batman, comic characters. I may put some original content up depending on how my other stuff is received. I hope it is enjoyed, I've been drawing for like over ten years now. I don't consider myself good, it is just something I enjoy. I hope to improve through criticism. I may do an updated coloured version of Bane.

Thanks all,
Neil

The Original














And the finished project

My take on the "Console War" (continued from Neil's post)

    This post is just for fun and I won't go into too much detail into why some games are bad or better than other games for obvious reasons. If you want my honest opinion I can make a post on those later.

     Unlike Neil, I am mostly a PC gamer but my roots spawn from console gaming. Since I spend most of my gaming time on the PC I don't really care about how innovative the new consoles are. Instead of looking at the consoles, I look at the companies and the games coming out on their consoles. The kind of games I play center around reflex, role-playing, teamwork and classic style. Because of my gaming preferences, I own a working original Xbox, Xbox 360 and a Retro gaming console. Hold on, doesn't Playstation have more role-playing games in their game library then Xbox? They do, but we will get on that later.

     Games that I classify as "reflex" are FPS and fighting games. For me, a good FPS game should be strong in all aspects: Story, gameplay and fun factor. In that case, any CoD game past Finest Hour is insignificant to me. Halo is the FPS that influenced my father into buying the Original Xbox for our family thus it was also the first current gen (2000+) game I played. Halo had it all: the story was great, the gameplay was great and it was very fun to play. Later I was introduced to CoD Finest Hour and found its historical based storyline interesting. As the Xbox 360 and PS3 came around, CoD turned into a skill-less FPS with a short and uninteresting storymode. Sony's  FPS genre exclusive was Deadzone. 'Nuff said. Xbox 360 also had CoD, however it had the Halo series as its main FPS exclusive, which was far superior. For fighting games, my first fighting game was Soul Caliber 2. I was introduced to this game by my eldest cousin who owned the Xbox version. He beat me everytime, but that made me want to learn to play so I purchased the game myself and learned on my own time. Soul Caliber 2 quickly became my favorite game to play with my friends and I became good enough to defeat my cousin. Soul Caliber 4 came out when I already owned the Xbox 360 so no need for serious console comparison there. Besides, the Xbox 360 version had Yoda. 'Nuff said.

     My preference in role-playing games is hard to describe so lets start at the beginning. My first role-playing game experience was Baldur's Gate 2, which was once again introduced to me by my eldest cousin. I never got to play it but I watched him play it for hours and was fascinated by the world inside the game. Diverse races, using magic, exploring dungeons and completing quests really influenced my creative side as a kid. I was never able to get my hands on that game (until recently) but I could have gotten my hands on Final Fantasy games if I got a PS2. Now here was the dilemma. The gameplay style that the PS2 final fantasy games had were confusing to me as a kid and still are to this day. The modern day final fantasy games, like FF13, are just plain bad in many aspects. The storylines from some of the games were also too "asian" for me (i'm looking at you FF10). "But Ryan, what about Kingdom of Hearts?" I nope so much at that series i've run out of nope refills. 'Nuff said. Xbox 360 didn't offer many RPGs, but there was Blue Dragon, ES4: Oblivion and Fallout 3. Original Xbox had ES3: Morrowind but I didn't know that existed until I got Oblivion.

     Teamwork games are games that require multiple players to complete and/or play. There were no specific games on either console that specificly filled in this spot, but until PC gaming Halo 3 multiplayer was my "teamwork" game. Since one person couldn't carry the whole team (most of the time) fps multiplayer games were a place where you had to rely on your teammates to help win the game (well, atleast back then it was.) Once I got into PC gaming, League of Legends became my "teamwork" game because I was comfortable with the concept. 'Nuff said.

     Classic games have a special place in my heart because it doesn't matter what kind of game it is I will enjoy playing it. To me, classic games exclude anything going into the 3D era or PS1 and above.

     So as you can see, the way I would choose a console would be based on games and not hardware. I do not care if PS4 sold more consoles than Xbox One, considering my game preferences I would buy a Xbox One or a Wii U. Instead of fighting, just pick your console based on what you are comfortable with.

Reasons Why I Won't buy into the console debate.

I'm kind of behind the time when it comes to video game consoles, but at this point in time I pretty much refuse to upgrade. Newer isn't always better, and I am content with what I have now. This consumer culture that we live in, always portrays the newest thing as being better than everything else that has come before it. I don't buy this, not one bit. It may have to do with a technology course I took or it may be the fact that it just don't give a giant fuck about the console war.

So while people are out buying their Xbox ones and PS4s , nerd raging about which is better and getting mad at the lack of good content; I will be at home with a bottle of wine being sophisticated and playing my console that is now 8 years old. I can just sit and laugh and enjoy my "old" games.
I have no problem still playing games that are old news. I will not buy into the system (bad pun) of buying something because someone else has it.

I don't care which one is selling more; the PS4 or the Xbox One. I also do not care about graphical differences, so if the gaming world would just shut up it would be just grand. There is absolutely nothing revolutionary about either system and the game line up so far has been lacklustre. The games
that are coming up that I want are being released on previous generation consoles and yes maybe they won't look as good, but why pay the extra money for something that is not worth it.

What a lot of people fail to understand is that most next gen games come to PC and generally run better and look better. The so called "next gen" consoles are reaching graphical levels that the PC was capable of quite a while ago. No, i'm not a PC gamer ; but I refuse to believe that "those graphics are rad bro!" and "Holy shit, the gameplay." Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

I recently bought a WiiU for the reason that the upcoming lineup looks better than both next gen systems. Sure, the WiiU has had a slow start with very little content, but the future looks promising. Nintendo knows how to continuously deliver games that are incredibly fun. Like how much fun would drunken Mario Cart 8 be, or drunken Smash Bros? an extreme amount of that is! Plus, like there's always the potential of a new Legend of Zelda. I enjoy it.

I'll take the Xbox 360 over an Xbox One any day. So that is why I will stay the way I am.

My thoughts on life (Taken from, About Me?)

Do you really need to know anything about me? Is it that important to the insignificance of your life, the monotony, to know every little detail of a complete stranger. Maybe you were hoping for something you could connect to, something to make you feel better about your mortality; you adorable little cosmic speck. Thats all we are,  dust in the wind. The cosmic wind. So might as well tell you all that is to be known about me.

So we will begin with my birth... hmm... how about let's not. All you need to know is I was born, not hatched and I was conceived normally. Not at all like the weird hair tentacle, animal riding; sex stuff that happens in that mediocre Pocahontas ripoff (Avatar). I have not had what you kids like to call
the sexual relations.

I'm human just like i'd assume everyone else reading this blog is (including you NSA). I'm average too, well as average as any multi celled organism can be. Like many people my age , my venting is through gaming. It is that one thing that has been with me most of my life. Friends come and go, but that little Italian plumber has stuck around. I may have ditched my kids games for some more mature
things, but Pokemon, Zelda and Mario have a lasting effect.

Comic Books, yes I read a lot of them. So many that I couldn't tell you which one and at what time my eyes first glanced upon. It may have been Garfield, or an Archie my grandmother gave me. It really doesn't matter because in the long run nothing you do in life matters. What I do enjoy in this mortal point of existence is a good Batman story, or something involving my favourite mutant ; Wolverine.

My sexual preference or orientation doesn't really matter. I have the idea that emotional connection means more than the gender a person is. That is not to say I don't find people attractive, I guess i'm taken to finding those we call female attractive. That is not to say I wouldn't date a guy, its really not as big of a deal as people make of it. Whatever makes you happy, guys and gals. Which would bring me to the topic of this thing humans call religion, I won't begin to share my opinion about.

In the end I'm just a lonely down to earth geek who likes to share his mind and humour with the world. I live life how i'd like to live it, because i only have one life. If it means i'm going to cut a few classes, I will. My history major in the end will only get me so much, life is so much more.

Should I start a Bucket list? maybe I will and then I'll get someone and we'll be like Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. What is the fun of making a Bucket List and doing it alone? I do not see any, nor do I see any fun in following every norm. The term "live a little" applies here, life needs a little bit of spontaneity in it. Carpe Diem my friends, seize the day and run with it. Smoke Marijuana if you want, what is it for people to judge others when life is so short. This is where i'll say "hasta la vista, Baby!" 

Fairy Pokemon: Are they really that strong?

Hey there! I am the second author of this blog and it was tough picking a topic to blog about but here it goes! Ever since the early spoiler of Sylveon, the new "Eeveelution" for Pokemon X and Y, we speculated as to what type it was. I personally hated the Pokemon so I never really cared about what type it was, but everyone on the internet was trying to figure this out. They speculated that it could be a flying type, a ghost type and even a new type: Fairy. Well, eventually Pokemon confirmed the brand new Fairy type during its June 11th press conference at E3. Now that Pokemon X and Y has been out for 3 days, and the pokedex has been updated with 36 new (and old) Fairy type Pokemon!

Here is some information about this new type:

1. Fairy type Pokemon have a huge advantage over Dragon types, doing 2x damage to them while taking 0 damage from them. Wow!
2. Fairy type Pokemon are weak to Poison type and Steel type Pokemon, doing 0.5 damage to them while taking 2x damage from them. Ouch!
3. Fairy types Pokemon are effective against Fighting type and Dark type Pokemon, doing 2x damage to them while taking 0.5 damage from them.

With that being said, Fairy type Pokemon will be a terror to anyone that extensively uses Dragon types in their team. But, are they in anyway useful against other Pokemon? Lets take me for example. As of Pokemon Black 2 my Pokemon team was centered on tanky, fast and powerful Pokemon. They are also all level 100. The only Pokemon that would have trouble with a Fairy type Pokemon in my team would be Scrafty, being a Fighting/Dark type Pokemon, but even Scrafty could take one out before fainting, mainly due to half of the Fairy type moves having low damage and the base speed of most of the Fairy type Pokemon being very slow. Even if they hit Scrafty first, putting a Focus Sash on him would allow me to take it out with a Head Smash, resulting in both being KO'ed. Other than Scrafty, neither of my main party are really effected by this new Fairy type. A possible exception would be Flygon, but his speed outmatches the majority of the 36 Fairy type Pokemon. Out of the 36, Arceus and Whimsicott and possibly Xerneas have the base speed to match Flygon at level 100. Out of his 4 moves, only 2 are Dragon type. The others are Crunch and Earth Power. Earth Power would be the move to use due to Dark type moves being not very effective (unless it were a Fairy/Psychic Pokemon). Since most Fairy type Pokemon are not also Flying type, this move is still effective, especially if they are Fairy/Electric, Fairy/Steel, Fairy/Rock or just plain Fairy (which a majority of them are). So the only Fairy type Pokemon that pose a threat to Flygon are Whimsicott and a high level Arceus.

So, do I think Fairy type Pokemon are too strong? No. They can be easily countered with speed and exploiting their secondary types. Do they ruin competitive play? Possibly, considering how strategies will have to be changed to take in account that your opponent will have 1 or multiple Fairy types in their team.  Some popular Dragon type Pokemon will probably be swapped out for lesser used Dragons (Flygon) or less risky non-Dragon Fairy type counters (Ferrothorn for example). Since I don't play competitively, Fairy types will not be a problem for me. I explained how even Pokemon that are completely overpowered by Fairy types can still take them out and how speed and secondary types are the key to defeating most of the Fairy types. I'm no Pokemon expert and these are just my opinions, so if you have anything to add to this go ahead!