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Naughty lizards

Life is stressful. No one can deny that. My father and I often discuss the difference between healthy stress and unhealthy stress. Healthy stress can make someone want to grow, to become a problem-solver out of necessity and/or to want to secure one’s future. Unhealthy stress is often dread-inducing and can make one feel trapped. I feel that the difference between healthy and unhealthy stress is determined by the person receiving the stress, not the input itself.

For example, a person who is acclimated to stress may find the stress that another person experiences…”chump change.” This means if you are able to endure reality and laugh it off from time to time, you will still be able to thrive and grow, without having too many issues.

In my case, I’ve found that the “Steam” network by Valve is a great gaming apparatus that allows me to download my favorite new and retro-games at very reasonable prices.

For example, I downloaded the game, “Rune” for $9.99 the other day. It was one of my favorite games that I played when I went to UCSB. It’s about a young Viking warrior who goes on a big adventure. The game is based on the “Unreal” engine which is great for making detailed and open-spaced environments. Unlike the old-school Half-Life one engine, Unreal’s environments are based on the concept of carving-out the landscape…as if you were scooping ice cream in order to make a lactose-valley. (I just drank some milk so I’m thinking cheesily right now)

When I play the game Rune, it is the perfect break from work and from my studies on Codecademy for Javascript. I’m actually 88% done with the Javascript course on Codecademy as of August 1st, 2012!!! That’s a big deal to me because now I finally am understanding advanced array concepts and recursion. So I’m pretty proud of myself especially since I had a lot of trouble with functions back when I attempted Trigonometry in high-school and during Pre-Calc.

One thing that I’ve found with Rune, is that the language of rune’s looks startlingly similar to the ancient Sumerian cuneiform writing which I’ve become so fond of. It’s as if they’re using a stick to write without the triangular aspect of the Sumerian wedge-shaped stylus. It’s intriguing. Also, I’ve found a connection between Sumerian writing and also the Zen Buddhist texts which have Chinese characters on one page and English translations on the other.

Playing games is a fun way to blow off steam. Sometimes I find silly things like these lizards for example. In the game Rune, you are able to eat lizards by pressing the “E” key near them. They help you replenish part of your life bar. But as I was traveling I found two lizards very close to each other. Click on the picture above to see for yourself to determine the situation.

-Tyler

K. Armor in Mass Effect: Heavy – I love the colors

Business has been anything but usual in the world of Mass Effect lately. Solaria Shepard has been investigating a strange ring of business operations near the Attican Transverse. The suspects are a group of smugglers which have been dealing in Geth technology.

Commander Shepard first uncovered a clue after taking out the primary operations hub of the Cerberus scientific operation. After docking with the Citadel, Solaria had a discussion with the C-Sec chief back at the C-Sec academy on the Citadel.

The C-Sec chief said that he had a new license available for purchase. But this one was…”Unique.”

Since Commander Solaria Shepard had already filled her omni-wallet with credits after raiding Cerberus, she didn’t hesitate to purchase this mystery license.

After a few glances, Shepard realized this was no ordinary license. It was in fact a contract pink-slip for the purchase and sale of an entire line of what was originally thought to be contraband Geth technology. Since this technology was completely banned by the Citadel Council and also by the Alliance military leadership, Shepard knew she was walking into hot water by even keeping the license…never-mind giving it to her requisitions officer back on the Normandy for fulfillment.

A civilian walking into the club, “Flux” overheard Shepard muttering to herself, “…Saren must be stopped…if I need to use some weird tech to do it, then so…”

One of Tali’s intercepted transmissions on the way back to the Quarian flotilla was decrypted by Kessler corporate authorities. They were expecting the transmission to be details onto how Solaria Shepard acquired prototype Kessler heavy armor. This armor was supposed be part of a small shipment heading for the Alliance counter-AI division. But instead Shepard stumbled upon the advanced and untested technology.

“…Shepard has been driving horribly!”

To the Kessler operatives’ surprise, Tali’s transmission was nothing but a series of complaints about Shepard’s erratic driving while on the mountainous worlds in the Horsehead Nebula. Tali was quoted saying, “…I don’t know why she needs to fire the jump jets all the time after we land. Saving an extra few minutes is not going to speed up the process as she quite literally has us turn over every rock in the galaxy looking for fulfill the UNC’s survey mission. I know the money is good, but in spare armor and IV weapon upgrades alone we have more than enough credits to keep the Normandy stocked and our equipment up to date. Fortunately Wrex has been converting old technology into Omni-Gel in order to help us keep the truck up on repairs. I tell you, if Shepard has us do another horizontal flip on a jungle planet I’m going to accidentally lose my lunch in my helmet. And since she hasn’t bought me a new Quarian suit of armor since Feros, I’ll probably have to sit the next mission after that one out…”

As for the transmission of files from the Cerberus project, I’m sorry that I was not able to convince Shepard to sell me the files. I’ll get them one way or another.

-Tyler