Easter Eggs

In the spirit of Easter, I decided to do my blog about easter eggs. But not the brightly colored plastic eggs with candy packed inside. No, these easter eggs are located in video games. A video game easter egg is something that is hidden in a game, and you must find it. Easter eggs can range in size from a piece of paper on the ground, all the way to an entire story hidden inside of a game mode.

One of the earliest easter eggs is located within the adventure game labeled Adventure. The game places the player as a square on the hunt for keys to open doors, bridges to cross chasms, all the while dodging dragons (which look more like seahorses actually) to gain access to the castle door. The developer of the game made a certain key which unlocked an empty room with the developers name written as a wall divided the room. That is it. Of course easter eggs have evolved from that.

Borderlands 2 is full of easter eggs and out-of-game-references. One of the biggest is the Minecraft Easter Egg. This easter egg has the player go off the main path of the game and faces him with a wall of Minecraft blocks that look completely out of place. After the player 'mines' the block with their melee weapon, the wall opens up into a giant cave, with many Creepers (which are not in the game anywhere else) and one giant boss creeper at the end. Once defeated, the Creepers can drop extremely rare weapons (like a sniper rifle that fires arrows and a shotgun that fires a pixulated wall of fiery death) and can drop a head skin which will make your character have a block head like Steve from Minecraft has.

Possibly the biggest easter eggs ever are the ones from Call of Duty Black Ops Zombies. To the casual player, Zombies really doesn't have any secrets. You kill zombies, rebuild the barriers they break down, buy new weapons of the walls, and so on. But, to those who know where to look, it is full of secrets. From little teddy bears that play music when activated, to entire hour long easter eggs, the game is riddled with it. The easter eggs in this mode offer an entire back-story to this one game mode. Also, there are achievements built into the game for these easter eggs, so if somebody is a completionist, one has to do these to gain 100% on their game. 

Well that is it for my blog today. See ya.

Why I Play Airsoft

Why do I play airsoft? Because it simulates real combat strategy without real guns. Airsoft is the only sport I play (other than dodgeball). People say it is not a sport. Well, people also think that chess is a sport, so people have no knowledge of anything. Airsoft is a game of skill, tactics, team coordination, and luck. The rush of spotting the enemy and unloading your ammo into them is so much fun. What is not fun is running out of ammo and having to run as fast as you can away from the enemy. 

For those of you who do not know, airsoft gun fire small, plastic spheres called BB's  The inward mechanics of the gun either use spring, battery or CO2 powered gearbox to fire the BB at anywhere from 200-410 feet per second. Thus, when a BB is put in contact with a human being, great pain occurs. Airsoft is a lot cheaper than paintball. Also, there is more diversity. Pistols, shotguns, sniper rifles, assault rifles, grenades, mortars, claymores, rocket and grenade launchers, and even RC cars with turrets are all of the many weapons of airsoft.

In a world filled with high powered sniper and fully automatic assault rifles, I still love to use my shotgun. Pump action, three round burst with loadable shells that holds ten shots each. But why do i love my shotgun? "Well, shotguns go back to the day and age where combatants respected one another, where shooting someone up close said 'All men are created equal, except I am slightly more equal because you are dead (not literary dead, its just airsoft) and I am still alive'. Plus, when you are that close you have a chance to say some nifty one-liners, like "Doctor Abbott suggest taking two shells of buckshot and call me when you  are dead. Ring, ring. Hello? Yep, your dead' (Paraphrased from Sarge of Red Vs Blue)."                                

Well that is all, but before I leave, I need to make an advertisement. Every Sunday from one to three, my friends and I play airsoft at Luke Zockoll's house. He has a large woods and a perfect airsoft field set up. We are in need of more people so anybody that could come would be awesome. If you do not have a gun, you could rent a gun from Matthew Medley for around two dollars. Well thank you for your time. Goodbye everybody.

Gamer Jargon

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In the video game world, there is a distinct language used. Some of it makes sense. Some of it is complete nonsense. This language is used heavily in the forums, blogs, and Youtube videos of the gaming community. Here is just a few of the many, many words used.

1337: If one takes the number 1337, flip it upside down, then read it backwards, it spells 'LEET', which looks like ELITE. As you may know, the elite are the highest order in anything, so people decided that if they use 1337, then they think that they are the greatest. This number has spawned a whole style of language called "Leet Speak", which replaced letters with numbers. For instance, Sir Galahad would be S1R G4L4H4D in Leet speak, and computer would be C0M9U73R. Tricky to use, the only gain from doing this is saying to people "Hey, look what I can do".

T-Arty.com

N00B: A n00b is leet for a newbie, or someone who has just started playing a game. Used as an insult, the term has shifted from describing  a novice to someone who uses cheap tactics in games. Some common tactics are bunny-hopping (jumping up and down constantly to make the jumper harder to shoot), camping (hiding out in one spot waiting for another player to go by, then the camper shoot the player in the back) and n00b tubing (using a rocket launcher to overkill a player). Although these tactics are frowned upon in the gaming world, practically everyone has been a n00b at one time or another.

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PWN3D: Pwn3d, or Pawned, is the act of being utterly defeated by an opponent. Pawned (pronounced Poned and just shortened to pwn) is best remembered by the Spanish word Poner, which means to put. Just add to the definition 'to put into its place' and you have pwn down pat. Pwn is generally yelled by the victor after a difficult victory, or if the victim is defeated in a spectacular way.

 

That is it for this week. There are plenty of terms out there, and I'm not going to even try to learn them all. Well goodbye everybody.

Why Facebook is Annoying

Facebook is by far the largest social network on the Internet. Millions of people log in everyday to do various things. People can chat to family members and friends who they do not see that often or who are halfway across the globe. People can play games to pass the time. To me, Facebook can be very annoying. Here are just a few of the many reasons why. 

The first major reason of my annoyance is all of the constant invites. Farmville, Cityville, Oceanville, and  Russiaville (a few are made up, but they could exist somewhere) are just some of the many, many games available on Facebook. Now I am not trashing these games, I understand that these games can bring some people some joy for a few minutes every day. I am just annoyed by the constant notifications. "John Doe has sent you a pound of seed. Return the favor so John Doe can get his tractor fixed". It only gets more annoying from there, when people do not realize that the person they are sending invites to does not even play the game at all.

Another huge reasons is the whole timeline thing. Your Facebook profile used to be set up so that you can put what you want on it in little customization squares, and usually what you want is pretty recent. The new timeline setup is made so that every single thing you have ever done on Facebook is put on your profile. This makes the profile cluttered and unsightly. Also, the timeline page just looks bad to me. 

The final thing that is annoying about Facebook is the Facebook Credit, the fastest way to transfer your real money into pixels. What the Facebook games do is that they let you play for free, then when you need more resources or in-game money, instead of waiting the 24 hour waiting time for your things to replenish, you can just use real money to get it now. These micro-transactions are extremely annoying and just get more frequent as you play more. Being an avid gamer, I admit I transfer real money into Microsoft Points, but I actually buy a full game with my points. Most people just use the Credits to buy themselves some extra time now, instead of waiting until tomorrow to play.  

Well that is all from me today. Ill be back next week with something to write about.

Game Talk: Minecraft: Know Your Foe (Part 2)

So about two weeks ago I made a post about the most common enemies in Minecraft. This blog is about the lesser known monsters (or mobs as they are known also) in Minecraft, some of which most players may have never even seen before.

Endermen: An Enderman is an unusually tall creature based upon the mythological being the Slenderman. Endermen usually walk around at night picking up blocks and replacing them in different places. Until the player makes eye contact with them. Then an Enderman disappears and teleports behind the player, and when the player turns around to hit the Enderman, he teleports again, making him a very annoying foe. Best strategy to defeat these things: either constantly hit him with a sword, or run towards the nearest water source. Endermen die instantly upon touching water. Upon death, an Endermen will drop an Ender Pearl, which is used for activating the End Portal, the game's only story.

Slimes: A Slime is a square green box of goo that is difficult to find. Out of the entire Minecraft world, only %10 of all chunks of the map can possible spawn a Slime. The Slime will start out as a large Slime and is hostile towards enemies. Once a large slime has been defeated, it splits into two medium-sized Slimes, which are also hostile. Once they are defeated, it splits again into four small Slimes. The small Slimes are hostile but cannot hurt you at all, but can still push you into, say, a pool of lava or a chasm in the ground. When a Slime is finally defeated, it will drop a Slime Ball, which is used to make Sticky Pistons, a very useful craft for the Minecraft engineer. 

Silverfish: A Silverfish is a very small insect that hides out in Strongholds, which is an underground fortresses. When mining a block of stone from the Stronghold, a Silverfish might pop out. Now one Silverfish is nothing to worry about. But when damaged, a Silverfish calls out to all the other Silverfish in the area, and then the player has a sea of annoyance upon him. Best strategy  the player should either kill it rather quickly or don't mine the blocks in the first place. The player can always make the blocks himself. Upon extermination, the Silverfish drops absolutely nothing but some Experience points, which can be gained from everything else in the game.

Spider Jockey: If a Spider and a Skeleton both spawn rather close to each other, there is a %1 chance of the Spider spawning on top of the Skeleton as a Spider Jockey. With a combination of the Skeleton's range and the Spider's speed, this thing is not something to mess around with. The best advice: Run. Just run away. These things will chew you up without remorse. If killed, a Spider Jockey will drop an Arrow, String, Fermented Spider Eye, Bone, and Experience Points from both of the creatures. The author of this blog has never seen a Spider Jockey before, and frankly, doesn't want to see one either. 

That is the end of this blog. The next Minecraft video will be showcasing the enemies from the Nether, the worst place imaginable. So long.

Valentines Day

Oh Valentines Day. Next to Christmas, the most commercial  day of the year. Every year millions of people buy something for their sweetheart just because the flyers at Walmart told them to. Why people give into this junk, I do not know. As a spectator of Valentines Day, (being without a sweetheart), I have noticed something. It seems that couples have to buy each other something, or else the day is ruined. That is just my opinion.



Since the Pope retired a couple of days ago, isn't ST. Valentine's day officially canceled anyway? Of course not. As long as there is money to be made, the business men will keep the holidays living on. I mean, they could probably invent a holiday in August, call it Love Day, and people would by Love Day-inspired streamers and stuffed animals. Truly outrageous. Of course this is just me rambling on and on.

And there is the Valentine cards. The mass produced, extremely corny cards you can get from the Dollar Tree if you really want. Honestly  I really don't like Valentine's Day. The only significant fact for me is that in exactly six months is my birthday. But this is just what I think now. Maybe in the next few years, if I get a girlfriend, it might be different  But for now, this bachelor says that Valentines Day is way to commercial for its own good.

Game Talk: Minecraft: Know Your Foe

Hi everybody. I was not fully satisfied with my last blog. I felt that I left out so much of it, just because of time restraint. Well today I have plenty of time, and I am ready. This blog is about the four most common enemies in Minecraft, their tactics, how to beat them and more. If this does not interest you, then please feel free to skip over this blog.

Zombie: A Zombie is a slow moving undead being.

The Zombies emit a low growling noise as it attempts to kill the player. Zombies are %100 melee attackers, so the player's best bet is to either kill them with a bow, or with a powerful sword. Zombies spawn at night, and if one is unlucky enough to be out during the daytime, it will catch on fire and die. Upon death (again), Zombies drop Rotten Flesh, which can be used to fill the player's hunger bar, but at the risk of poisoning himself.

Skeleton: A Skeleton is a monster that is skilled with a bow and arrow. The sound of a bone xylophone will alert the player to them. Since range is their thing, the easiest thing is to sprint at them and constantly smash them with a sword. Skeletons also burn during daylight, which is a really good thing. When a Skeleton has been slain, it will drop either an Arrow, which is easier to obtain than making one, or a Bone, which can be used to tame a wild Wolf into a lovable Dog.

Spider: A Spider is an oversized arachnid that is known for its fierce jump attack. The distinct sound of a Spider hissing will alert the player of its presence. Since spiders love to jump on you, the best way to defeat it is to time its jump so that the sword will hit it as it is jumping on the player. Spider during the day will not hurt you, as long as you do not hurt it. Spiders will drop either String, which can be used to make a bow, and a Fermented Spider Eye, which is used in alchemy to make certain potions.

Creeper: Starting life as a coding bug of a pig in the original creation of the game, the Creeper is the most iconic (and possible the most dangerous) monster in the game. The terrifying 'PSSS' noise will alert the player, and cause a sense of dread. Best solution to handle a creeper: run up to it, hit it once, and stand back as it explodes, leaving a crater in the ground. The alternative is to constantly shoot arrows at it until it falls down defeated. Creepers do not die in sunlight and will always attack players. If the player managed to slay one of these Creepers, he will obtain Gunpowder, which is used to make TNT, a very useful explosive to clearing our areas.

These four beings are the most common enemies in the game, and everybody who has played the game has seen these enemies at one time or another. If this blog is well received, then I will make another one of the lesser seen monsters in the game. Until then, farewell.

Game Review: Minecraft

Minecraft is an adventure/creative game created by the indie (not affiliated with the big video game companies) developer Mojang. Minecraft started out on the PC, but now has a smaller version both on the Xbox 360 and any Apple products. The story of Minecraft is this: You awake and find yourself on an abandoned island with no other humans left. You then make the world as you see fit. First you need to MINE raw materials, which starts as you punching a tree until a small wood block falls out. You then CRAFT this wood block into, say, a pickaxe  which you use to dig up cobblestone, which you use to make a furnace, and so on. Also in the world is a plethora of animals, which you have to kill to gain their items, like you have to slaughter a sheep to get wool to make a bed with, a cow to harvest leather to make armor with, and so on. The very first thing to do is to make a house. House construction can be made out of wood, stone, dirt, sand, really anything you want it to. Now you are probably saying "Where is the challenge in making a house?". Well, your best bet is to make one before dark. Because after dark, the creatures of the night begin to spawn. Zombies, Skeletons, giant Spiders, freaky Endermen, and the most nefarious enemy of them all: The Creeper. Now you are probably wondering why a creeper is so nefarious. These guys seem to have great pleasure in walking up to your newly constructed house, and deciding to blow themselves up, just because they can.

And this is what makes Minecraft so much fun. The ability to do whatever you feel like, coupled with the awesome music score and the constant fear of your beloved house falling victim to explosions makes this a game like no other.
Abbott Abacus: 

An Average Day as a Bagger at Foodlion

Life as a bagger at Foodlion is not as difficult as I say it is. It is actually pretty straightforward. I begin work by arriving at Foodlion usually before 4:00 pm. Once I clock in, I proceed to check everything in the store to see what the situation is. I check on the milk, eggs, sugar and water to see what I need to stock. Then, I go outside and get the carts.



I grab six carts and push them inside the building, and then I go back out to grab six more until either there are no more carts outside, or I just go and do something else. On a normal, not-so-busy day, I repeat this process about five to six times. But on a busy day? I literally roll six carts in, and the customers grab seven carts before I could do anything else.

After all the carts are in, it is time to restock the milk (and no, that is not a picture of me). I am responsible to restock the whole, 2%, 1% and skim of the Foodlion brand, My Essentials brand and the Lewes Dairy brand.  After the milk, I proceed to restock the eggs, sugar and water. The milk is my greatest enemy, because since it is one of the essentials to humanity, the shelves keep on running out of it, so I have to keep on stocking it.

I know what you are probably thinking. "Jonathan, why don't you bag groceries for people?" Well, I would love to, but I cannot bag for people unless the store is really busy. The cashiers do all of the bagging themselves. I know, it is a little weird, but I am only going to be a bagger till March, then Foodlion will remove the position of bagger from the company. Anyway, back to my list. I then proceed to do a combination of all these things, in addition to exchanging the customer's empty propane tanks with filled ones and cleaning something that our beloved customers dropped on the floor, until around 6:30, which is when I take my lunch for half an hour. Afterwards, it depends on the day. If I am working on a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday or Sunday, then I have to sweep the entire floor and push around this miniature Zamboni machine to clean the store. If I am working any other day of the week, Foodlion outsources to a floor crew. So, I then proceed to do the other things on my list, unless it is really, really, dead in the store. Then I usually hide out in the supply closet and play games on my phone until around 8:45. Then, it is time to clean the bathrooms.

Typically, the men's bathroom isn't that bad. I just wipe down everything, clean the mirrors, and that is it. The women's bathroom? It looks like a toxic waste dump. I exaggerate, but not by much. And it seems that every time that I am cleaning the women's bathroom, somebody just has to bust the door down and come right on in while I am still there cleaning it. I place about two to three wet floor signs in front of the door hoping that somebody would notice them. But no, they do not. Well, I try to clean the bathrooms as well as I can, and then I wipe down the break room. Then, I go outside at around 9:30 to grab every single cart from the parking lot and bring them inside the store. Finally, at 10:00, I clock out, and then I go home, feeling tired but satisfied that I made some money.

Game Review- Portal

I have had the pleasure of playing a very different video game called Portal. Made by Valve back in 2007, Portal was designed as a test to see if any of the gamers out there will actually like it. They did, and so, a few years ago, the sequel Portal 2 was released. Portal is a very unique game in that there is no guns or death involved, but is actually meant to stretch your brain by giving you problem solving challenges. Portal is available exclusively in The Orange Box, a collection of Valve's best games.

Portal begins with you being in a very clean and white walled room, with a robotic voice awakening you and telling you that you will be doing some test for her. The robot, GLaDOS, (picture on the right) is an artificial intelligence that seems very determined for you to die, even though she promises you cake if you survive till the end.. She then directs you into a room where you pick up the Aperture Science Portable Quantum Tunneling Device, or Portal gun as it is commonly called. With this gun, you can shoot a blue portal on the wall or floor, and an orange portal on another surface, and then proceed to walk through the portals like walking through a doorway. With this you must open doors, activate buttons, and dodge little robots with machine guns. All the while GLaDOS is harassing you and taunting you, which turns out more comical than anything else.

The Verdict

I started Portal thinking that it would be boring and way to challenging. Boy was I wrong. Portal has a way of making things fun, easy and simple but also making you think outside the box. And to do it with absolutely no curse words or suggestive themes, well that is just great.

The Abbott Abacus: 

Dumb Questions People Ask Me At Work. Part 1

A little background information about me: I work at the Delmar Foodlion in Delmar, DE. For those of you who do not know what a Foodlion is; imagine Walmart, take away everything not food related, add friendlier  employees, and you have Foodlion. I have been working there about eleven months now, and i have heard some pretty stupid questions in my time. Here are just a few of the questions and my commentary on them.

1. "Where are the bathrooms at?" Ok look, at the back end of the store there is a big blue sign plastered against the wall that says 'restrooms'. You can see it from the front of the store as you walk in.
2. "How long do eggs last?" I don't know if you have ever bought eggs before, but there is a bunch of numbers on the side called the 'expiration date', and if you look around, those numbers are on a bunch of other food items in the store. 
3. "Where is the sugar at?" It might be under the the aisle marked under 'Sugar' but that is just a guess. 
4. "Where is the couscous at?" I have no idea what couscous is, let alone where it is.  

That is all I can think of at the moment, I am sure there is a lot more that I have forgotten. Be on the look out for part two.