PixlBit

1337B07: “1337B07 h3r3. G0nna 7r011 7hi5 b10g 5up3r hard!” [trans.: LeetBot here. Gonna troll this blog super hard!]

Me: “Get lost LeetBot!”

               

                                                        Terramorphous

     I played a lot of Borderlands 2 with my friend Mark co-op and reached level 35. We beat the main story line and mopped up all but the last side mission You.Will. Die. (Seriously) which, apparently, requires multiple level 50 or better characters to beat.

1337B07: “0n1y 13v31 35? N00b!” [trans.: Only level 35? Noob!]

Me: “Shut the heck up LeetBot! You stupid fool!”

     Then I started going after achievements I’d missed - nothing too hard there except for finishing that last side mission, which I ignored for the time being.  I had to respec my skill tree to get the achievement for my Assassin class. You have to build your ability to create a decoy and maintain it for ten seconds. Key to this is the ability to re-spawn the decoy by making a kill while hidden; then you can chain it and get to 10 seconds. It wasn’t that hard. I got it pretty quickly in the next battle. Giving Moxxi $10,000 in tips was easy too. I had over $300,000 in unspent cash. Another achievement was for equipping all purple or higher rarity items. I realized early on that a rare item isn’t always the best item, so I sold a lot of them. I have eight items to equip: four weapons, and four other things. I’ll rebuy them or just find them again. No prob. Finally there are the achievements for exploration which are just about revealing every named location in the game. That will be easy. I just have to go back to each map and make sure I’ve been everywhere.

1337B07: “3xp10ra7i0n i5 4 babi35!” [trans. Exploration is for babies!]

Me: “Suck it Leetbot!”

     I downloaded the first DLC for the game Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Booty and will play through that probably on Monday. I’ve played almost all of this game in co-op so far. I think I played maybe an hour on my own with the other 34 hours in co-op. It’s the way to play this game, otherwise it gets a lot harder.

1337B07: “C0-0p i5 5o gay. R3a1 p1ay3r5 PwN n0065.” [trans.: Co-op is so gay. Real players pwn noobs]

Me: “Troll. Have a magnet bum-bot.”

            

    I played Starmaster on PSP via the Activision Hits Remixed collection. This collection is super well done by Digital Eclipse Software (now Backbone Entertainment). You get 80’s music (which I turned off after a while ‘cause it plays during the game as well), close-up views of the box art and instruction book (which has been edited to add the PSP controls), saves of high scores and goals to unlock for each title. The games have been redesigned to fill the wide screen format of the PSP with an overlay you can hide reminding you of the controls. Starmaster is a shooter but there’s strategy as well. You’re given a ship and a set amount of power that depletes whenever you fire your weapon, go warp speed, or take damage. Your object is to destroy all the alien ships in the 36 sectors in the shortest time. There’s an overview of the 36 sectors showing your star bases, yourself, and the enemy ships. You pick a spot and warp there, avoiding asteroids on the way. When there, you see a star field and enemy ships begin to attack just like in the tie-fighter segments in Star Wars arcade. I found it really hard to hit anything as the enemy darts all over the place. You can also dock at a space port for repairs and more energy. Starmaster is surprisingly complex for an Atari 2600 game but is not too hard to learn. I just wish it was easier to target enemy ships.

1337B07: “I w33v3, I da54. U 7arg37ing c0mpu73r n0 hand13 my mad m0v35!” [trans. I weave, I dash. Your targeting computer can’t handle my mad moves!]

Me: “Oh my god. Seriously, go away.”

                               

    I got Okami Official Complete Works in the mail from Amazon and read most of Dark Souls Design Works. I’m at the interview on the last pages. The text is too small, but in good light it’s ok. A lot of the monster design makes me think of Dante’s Inferno and the various punishments and demons that he described - The Egg Burdened especially. I also finished reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. This is an excellent book going into great detail about what habits are and then describes how manipulation of habit is key to many great achievements showing many various examples. It sums up with the message that with willpower powered by belief (not necessarily religious belief), control of your habits can help you achieve anything. I’ve already begun to put stuff from this book into practice.

1337B07: “B00k5 r b0ring. 57upid p30p13 r3ad b00k5. I 4ACK 1IF3! N0 in57ruc7i0n5 n33d3d.” [trans. Books are boring. Stupid people read books. I HACK LIFE! No instructions needed.]

Me: “Hack this! Axe to the motherboard mofo!”

                              

                                                   Behemoth's current look

     Still haven’t listened to my new Behemoth album The Satanist - been too obsessed with audio books. I did watch about twenty minutes of the live concert DVD that came with the CD. Behemoth has a powerful presence on stage. At one point Nergal (Adam Darski) yells, “It’s good to be alive in Barbarossa!” Nergal was diagnosed with Leukemia and had to undergo bone marrow transplant back in 2010. He’s surviving the disease so far, but I imagine he’s had to think about death quite a bit in the last few years. It’s good he’s well enough to perform again.  I should mention that Behemoth often plays in some sort of costume. Here on this DVD they have a tattered clothes look with mottled face paint suggesting they are of the undead. I like the bleak color designs in their look. It reminds me of black and white silent films like Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

1337B07: “Mu5ic i5 backgr0und 2 game5, to 1if3. 5n0b5 LIS7EN to mu5ic.” [trans. Music is background to games, to life. Snobs LISTEN to music.]

Me: “That’s it! Wait ‘til the end. You’ll get yours.”

                   

     Just saw The LEGO Movie in 3D. It was really good - just a giant celebration of creativity and cooperation - two of my favorite things. Charlie Day (of TV show Always Sunny in Philadelphia and the mad scientist in Pacific Rim) was Benny, The 1980’s Space Astronaut Guy. I’m such a fan of him especially after Pacific Rim – so glad to hear his voice again.

1337B07: W4a7 big baby u r g0ing t0 baby m0vi3. Baby.” [trans.: What a big baby you are going to a baby movie. Baby.]

Me: “Take this LeetBot! BLAM!”