noGood Gaming

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I thought it would be neat to create a group for people interested while working on the President’s Challenge. Well, today I created the group and I hope you guys join and get encouraged to stay healthy alongside others!

To join, you first have to register on the President’s Challenge site.  I’d do this even if you don’t want to join a group since it’s a nice exercise tracker that values your type and vigor of exercising using a point system.  During your registration, or afterwards, you can opt to join the Healthier Bloggers group by putting in the following information when asked:

Group ID Number: 68810
Group Name: Healthier Bloggers

Once you’ve done that, you can compare your success with others in the group.  And, don’t worry, you can leave the group at any time from your own admin panel.

Please spread the word, because the more people who join the more people who will be encouraged to live a healthier life.  And, no, I get absolutely nothing out of this other than the pleasure of working alongside people across the nation.

Found a well written and heartwarming article by Adam Rogers of The New York Times today. Not that there has been a lack articles appropriately extolling the impact that Gygax had on the gaming genre as a whole, but the article also came with a graphical representation of how much of what we have today was influenced by his work. I’ve included a link to the image below.

Audi has two new clips showing new scenes for the upcoming Ironman movie. A fairly logical and well played product placement considering Stark’s playboy attitude and taste for all things mechanical and overpriced.

A quote from Bryan Singer has popped up on the Web regarding the success of Superman Returns his work on the sequel.

“That movie made $400 million!” Singer says incredulously. “I don’t know what constitutes under-performing these days…Look, I can understand, I suppose, what some people mean. Perhaps some people went in with the expectation of it being like an X-Men film, and Superman is a tougher character than that. Especially bringing him back. It really goes back to the fact that you can only please some of the people some of the time. But, yes, I’m just getting back with writers after the strike. We’re just in the development phase. I’m starting to develop a sequel…with the intention of directing it.”

…

“The first one was a romantic film and a nostalgic film,” he says. “I’ll be the first person to own up to that without making any apologies for it. I knew it was going to be that from the outset. And now that the characters are established, there’s really an opportunity to up the threat levels…Clearly there’ll be a body count [laughs]. From frame one, it will be unrelenting terror! All those teenage girls who found the movie and mooned over James Marsden or Brandon? Well, I’m going to wake them up!” He may be joking about the unrelenting terror.

And with superhero news never dying down these days as well as the upcoming Superhero Movie, yet another parody production, Dave over at TheBadAndUgly.com wonders if superhero movies are now dead and done with. Personally, I think the movies are far from being over. Sure, tons of money is being shifted around at this time, possibly hurting future production values, but the sight of a spoof movie about the genre only means that it’s something that the public can relate to, not that the public is tired of seeing.

With hunting licenses falling nearly $2 million and the concern over kids who spend less time outdoors and more time indoors on computer games, legislators in West Virginia are looking to pass a measure that would allow kids to opt for learning how to hunt in school. Frank Jezioro, director of West Virginia’s Department of Natural Resources, had this to say:

There are no down sides to it. If you don’t want to take it, you don’t have to take it. But teaching anybody safety is a good thing. When I grew up, you didn’t have video games. We have an obligation to see that these kids have exposure to the outdoor world and if they like it.

I personally see no issue with this, especially if it focuses heavily on gun safety as well as properly teaches the kids about the importance of hunting in certain areas of our nation. I’m not so sure this will do much to increase the state’s revenue from hunting licenses, though.

The above clip above is a preview of the full trailer to come tomorrow night. The full trailer will be shown during the showing of MTV’s Gauntlet. If you’re like me, though, you’ll just wait for it to hit YouTube.

Because when I think comic book movie, I think MTV? I guess this goes hand-in-hand with MTV trying to get its claws into all things video games, such as their ownership of GameTrailers.com. I won’t go into my detailed rant here about their behind-the-scenes dealings with MicroSoft to promote the XBox 360 over the PS3, I’ll just say that it’s far worse than viral videos and they know what they’ve been doing is just as bad as what the news media does to promote certain presidential candidates.

Anyway, it’s about time the trailer made its way to the public. I think they’ve held off on it so as to not take away too much from Iron Man and because they’re being careful not to make it look like the first movie. I think they would have had much more success showing Hulk and Iron Man side-by-side at the various ComicCons.

Edit: I think they took pictures of me just getting out of bed in the morning to help with designing Ledger’s look as the new Joker. Especially the hair.

This time I’m not talking about the Jackie Chan movie. I figured I’d be the one to start one of the “tell us about yourself” questionnaires. This one is simple, items in green are one’s I’ve done and items in red are items I’ve yet to do. Not sure if some of you have done it before or not, but feel free to add your own items as you go along.

Gone on a blind date
Skipped school
Watched someone die
Been on the opposite side of the country
Been to Canada
Been to Mexico
Been on a plane
Been lost in the woods
Gone to Washington, DC
Swam in the ocean
Cried yourself to sleep
Played cops and robbers
Played cowboys and indians
Recently colored with crayons
Sang Karaoke
Paid for a meal with coins only (but it was a very small meal)
Did something you promised yourself you wouldn’t
Made prank phone calls
Laughed until some kind of beverage came spitting out of your mouth
Caught a snowflake on your tongue
Danced in the rain
Written a letter to Santa Clause
Been kissed under the mistletoe
Watched the sunrise with someone you care about (I’m a nighttime person…)
Blown bubbles (and Michael knows all about it)
Gone ice skating
Been skinny dipping outdoors
Seen a live Broadway play or musical
Climbed a mountain
Swam a mile without resting (and got the merit badge to prove it)

In elementary and junior high school I earned the Presidential Fitness Award patch every year. I was extremely active, and that continued into high school, but the idea for recognizing fitness in youth seemed to have gone away at that time.

Now, as any who might have read a previous blog post know, I’m getting back into shape. I’m not going to be like I was in high school, running less than five-minute miles or playing basketball all day long, but I want to get to a point where I can at least run a six-minute mile consistently. At least.

Surprisingly, I get an e-mail at work today about the President’s Challenge. Talk about perfect timing. I’m getting back into shape and they’re focusing on keeping us big bellied desk huggers and the youth of our nation in shape. So, I immediately logged on, joined a group that certain people at our workplace are joining, and logged my first day of activity with the Web site immediately prior to writing this blog post.

I don’t know how many of you out there are serious about your health or want to get serious about your health, but this is a great way to get started. The site lets you join as many groups as you want, including family, schools, work, or other groups that can be created by anyone, and then you can track your progress as a group or as an individual. It’s essentially a free tool for logging your schedule of work and can include regular walks, housework, house repairs, and almost anything else that involves being active in your daily life.

I’m 100% for creating a group for us 360-ers if you guys want to participate. I think it’s great fun to do things with others, even if you’re not doing it with them in person but in spirit. So, if you’re interested, let me know, and let’s think of an appropriate group name! And, no Moth, we’re not going to go with Moth’s Minions or anything of that sort.