Star Wars: The Old Republic Goes Free To Play!

So, I'm sure everyone has heard of the Star Wars MMORPG that was due to contend with the World of Warcraft franchise. Star Wars: The Old Republic was released on December 20, 2011... and the servers crashed very shortly after... And now went free-to-play as of yesterday, less than a year after the release.

As most know, I am a huge fan of Star Wars in general, but, being a college kid and not having so much excess money for games that charge monthly, was never able to play much of it except for few short times at friends' houses. I personally am very excited to play this game (downloading and playing it as I write this blog post and cannot wait for it to finish) 

If MMORPG's are your thing or you're a Star Wars fan, or both, you should really consider playing this, I mean what is there to lose, its free!

Ratings:

• IGN gave it a score of 9/10 and the IGN Editor's Choice
• G4tv gave it a score of 5/5 
• Gameinformer gave it a score of 9.5/10

You can download it on this site and the install is fairly straight forward:
 http://www.swtor.com/

Invaders vs. Boarders

      Being a video editor, skater, and gamer...

This video is extremely entertaining and equally impressive to me.
Made by G4's Mike Benson 2 years ago, my friend just turned me to this video showing Scott Stevens, Micah Hollinger, Chris Beresford, Tim Eddy, Ben Bogart, and Casey Wrightsman as they skate and board through an Invaders invasion, interacting with many characters from other well known classic video games and some well known newer games.

Although I know many people could probably make something of this sort, my editing skills are not up to that level yet, and I find the work on this video very interesting, combining many interests of mine into one piece of impressive "art" if you will.

College Students & Snow Fall

Skiing kitty doesn't give a... 

Time to hit the slopes! Yesterday, we got our fist real snowfall of the season, the greatest day of the entire year for me, marking the upcoming skiing and boarding season in New England. It was quite amusing to watch my fellow classmates react to this weather. The student population at Becker College is very diverse, spanning from other sides of the country. For some, this was their first snow in their entire life.

A hall mate of mine, in particular, is from southern California. She stepped outside of our hall as I was walking in, running out into the snow with a massive smile across her face, much like a younger, youthful child would. This made me remember what it was like to see the snow for the first time in a long year as a child, the innocence involved in it that I know was very influential on my childhood. I feel for those who were not able to experience the wonderful event of a blizzard as a child. To me there is nothing better than going outside in the midst of an extreme snow storm, no one outside but other people enjoying the weather, few cars, snow ball fights, snow forts, and the best part of all: days off from school!

I realize that with winter comes a lot of work and damage for many people, but it is a wonderful time of year no the less.

Episode... erm... what episode were we watching again?

Whelp, avoiding the interwebs battles between the Star Wars fans that are excited for the new movies that Lucas and Disney are making and those that are very angry from Lucas for accepting the 4 billion dollars from Disney (even though he's donating it), I chose to share my thoughts on the matter.

We already know that there is going to be an Episode VII, based about 20 after the ending of the Return of the Jedi. It seems that the next trilogy is going to focus on Luke Skywalker's rising to confront the Emperor in the midst of rebuilding the Republic. A few main characters will continue through this/these movie(s), Harrison Ford is rumored to return as Han Solo, he who shot first, Carrie Fisher returning to her roll as Princess Leia, Mark Hamill playing Luke Skywalker, the droids that we all know and love R2-D2 and C-3PO (the only two characters to possibly appear in all 9 movies).

I personally look forward to the new set of movies coming out, hoping that Disney will not dampen down action and plot line for the sake of their younger audience in mind. I would expect to see some amazing CGI in these movies, and maybe a small more dosage of gore thrown in there would be acceptable. What I most look forward to is to see where the plot line take the characters, which new worlds that they travel to that are virtually unknown to the fan base at the moment, and new creatures native to these planets. Minor character groups such as those, I believe, provide a decent twist to the plot every time they get involved.
i.e. Jawas, Ewoks

HARRISON FORD SHALL PREVAIL!!!!!!!

The Cannabis Vote

The Pro-Pot movement is growing rapidly in the United States. Yesterday, the voting day for the entire country, two states, Colorado and Washington voters have completely legalized marijuana for recreational use, and here in the Bay State of Massachusetts, we have voted for medical use of marijuana.

Now, obviously we know about Obama's drug war that he has implemented in his last term in office. Raiding countless dispensaries in California, even though they are legally selling the marijuana to patients who use it to improve their lives and health. I would hope that now more states are moving eagerly towards the use of medical marijuana, Obama will lighten up to the idea of the use of the plant and the plant's products, even though it is still currently against federal law.

The countless studies about the wonderful Mary Jane have proven that it can reduce cancer cells, relieve nerve pain, arthritis pain, reducing the pressure behind the eye from glaucoma, and as us tokers know, relief from lack of appetite i.e. the munchies that we all love. It only makes sense to legalize this wonderful plant in the entire country, to further the research of the amazing uses of marijuana.

In this awesome state of very diverse people, there are few things that we can mostly agree on. But in this cannabis culture, it does not matter what your race, skin color, or heritage is because we all enjoy the great effects of Tetra-hydro-cannabinol (THC), the active chemical in marijuana that gives it the amazing properties. When combined with our complex minds, THC triggers the release of a chemical called Dopamine, giving smokers/consumers of THC product, whether it be through the natural green, or cooking with cannabis, the amazing sensations. 

Some music I produced:

Ben Grizz ~ Pyromaniac (No Church In The Wild album)

enjoy :3

TF2

One of my favorite pc games to this day, having been playing it for 4 years, taking various breaks here and there when other games sparked my interest. What I see different about this game is that I always find myself coming back to play it, getting bored after beating a new game or something. I have not been able to stop playing since the "meet the pyro" update came out, trippy shit mannn ;P