Gaming, Reading, Movies, Star Wars and other Geek Culture

I Have Saved Middle Earth!

On December 2, 2015

What began in January of this year, has finally come to an end. It took me 11 months and 2 days to finally walk the distance Frodo walked from Bag End to destroy “The One Ring” in Mordor. 1,779 miles, which is approximately 3,543,997 steps! My Walk to Mordor challenge is finally over (and I did it better than Frodo because I still have all ten of my fingers)! I think next year I will try for the extra 1,625 miles, which is essentially from Minas Tirith back to Bag End, so I guess I will have to update my little calculator on my website to include those milestones. Since I got a bit of a late start this year and I didn’t start exercising consistently in the mornings until July, I think I have a pretty good shot at completing the extra distance.

So 1,779 miles is the hypothetical distance between Bag End and the point inside Mount Doom when Frodo destroyed the ring. I’m sure most of you, like me, probably can’t fully appreciate that distance in terms of two fictional locations, so I did some research to find some actual locations. I used the map coordinates of Cincinnati as my starting point and I picked the more interesting locations and points of interest that would be within that distance. So, after having walked 1,779 miles, I could have essentially walked from Cincinnati to …

[table]
Location,Distance,Direction
El Salvador – San Salvador,1772 miles,South
Canada – Nunavut – Coral Harbour,1731 miles,North
Canada – Alberta,1689 miles,Northwest
Dominican Republic – Santo Domingo,1669 miles,Southeast
Phoenix – Arizona,1581 miles,West
[/table]

There are several more locations that are within that distance, but I just picked a few to give the distance some perspective. I found the following website to find these distances. http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/distances.html?n=414. I don’t have any reason to question if the calculations on this site are legitimate so I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Anyway, since I am going to do this again next year, who will be brave enough to do it with me?? I can add you to my calculator to help you keep track of your progress if you like. Frodo didn’t do it alone, so why should I!

/cheers

Turkey Holiday 2015

By Biggs

On November 30, 2015

In General Cogitation

It’s been a while since I have posted something. It wasn’t from a lack of subject matter (which has often given me writer’s block in the past). No, this time it was warm climates and crashing waves. I spent another Thanksgiving along the shores of southern Florida. I’m not a beach person. As far as I’m concerned silicon belongs in circuit boards, not stuck between my toes and in the crevasses of my feet (I’ll let that visual sink in).

I was in Fort Lauderdale last week, staying in the house pictured above. While the beach was, literally, across the street, I only visited it once. Actually, probably one of the best highlights from the trip was spending 3 hours in Sun Life Stadium. Granted the Dolphins lost that game, but watching a game in the home stadium has long been a bucket list item for me. I mean, how often can you cross off a bucket list item?

Everyday it was in the mid-70’s and a hot tub was just beyond the door, which I did use quite often last week. In fact my post-Thankgiving meal activity was sitting in the hot tub (before watching the Bears and Packers game). A steaming, bubbling hot tub is very cathartic both mentally and physically.

Despite the warm climate, after a week I did long for home. I don’t mind vacationing in Florida, but I don’t think its a place where I could live. I don’t mind the seasonal weather changes that marks the passage of time. After a week, sleeping in your own bed sounds just as refreshing as a Florida vacation sounded prior to leaving for vacation. So I’m back in chilly Ohio, ready to get back to work.

I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving too, no matter where you celebrated it.

/cheers

Meeting Your Fitness Goals

By Biggs

On November 17, 2015

In General Cogitation

Rarely have I ever set a fitness goal at the beginning of the year and actually met that goal, but it looks like that is about to change. I’ve talked a lot over the past 10 months about the Walk to Mordor fitness challenge and, as of the writing of this post, I am less than 100 miles away from completing it (currently at 1,696 miles); 1,779 miles walked within a calendar year and I have until December 31st to get there. I am going to do the challenge again next year and hopefully improve how far I go to eventually attempt the other half of the challenge (… And Back Again, which adds another 1,625 miles which is the approximate distance from Minas Tirith to Bag End). I think next year someone should join me! Frodo didn’t do it alone!!!

I also set another goal late this past summer. I started at a client in mid-to-late July, and I had just started a morning exercise routine. I decided that I was going to work out every week day morning (starting around 5am) until I take vacation the week of Thanksgiving. I am 3 days away from achieving that goal. Granted I may have missed one or two days since July because of illness or complete and utter exhaustion, but I’m proud to say that I did it! During the week of Thanksgiving I am going to take some much-needed time to rest and tell myself that I have earned a week of sleeping in the mornings instead of getting up to work out. Of course my body is trained to do that so unlearning it for only a week will be the biggest challenge (especially come Monday the 30th).

I still have quite a bit of work in front of me to slim down, perhaps that will be a goal for next year (beyond going “back to Mordor”).

/cheers

I could get so much more accomplished if I only had minions!

The MMO Times: Wil Wheaton. Best. Host. Ever.

By Biggs

On November 13, 2015

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

Issue 137: Now that BlizzCon is over we can all start thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas; after all we need something to keep us distracted while we wait for all the new goodies to be launched (or while we wait for our beta invites). I’ve decided to stop using Star Wars pictures for featured images and the header (unless the content of the post warrants it). Clearly I’ve made my excitement known, and honestly, while my excitement for The Force Awakens hasn’t waned in the slightest, after BlizzCon my gamer geek is equally as excited.

Beyond what was announced at BlizzCon, what else could be going on out there in the gaming world. I did provide a link to a BlizzCon recap that you can check out to see what you may have missed, or just to rekindle those feelings in your special places about the new content. Another game is getting a possible movie deal (I don’t know why). If you are a visual effects geek then you should check out the article about Moonlight Blade. The Secret World has unlocked some new content and there is a trekkie charity opportunity. KCGO

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Book Review: Gone Girl

By Biggs

On November 9, 2015

In Book Review, Thriller

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
My rating:[rating=5]
(See this review on Goodreads.)

This book and the associated movie had been talked about so much that I decided I really wanted to read it before I saw the movie. I tried as much as I could to avoid finding out anything about the twist ending. If you have managed to avoid it I wouldn’t continue reading. I don’t think I can write a review about this book and not talk about the twist. I would highly recommend reading the book. I have not seen the movie so I don’t know how much was changed but the book is always better.

***** SPOILERS AHEAD *****

I knew, going into this book, that Nick hadn’t actually killed his wife and, in fact, his wife is the one that tried to make it look like he did. What I didn’t expect was how twisted and psychotic Amy really was. The diary entries you read from Amy’s “perspective” successfully create this persona that make you believe (just as the police believe) that Amy really is an innocent, doting wife. It’s a brilliant writing mechanic on Flynn’s part. She successfully endeared me to Amy for the first 300 pages. I was even thinking that I had heard wrong and that she actually was abducted and/or murdered.

Then you read the first chapter in the second part of the book and you are just stunned. She is well deserving of the “Psycho Bitch” moniker Nick gives her later in the book. As I read the last 150 pages I kept wondering how this was going to end. I was not expecting this book to be one of those where the villain wins. In fact I wonder if Gillian Flynn has plans to write a sequel because the book ends with that as a possibility. I would definitely be in line to read it.

View all my reviews