No time.

New Year:

One of my resolutions this year was to give you guys new stuff to read about, new games to check out, and most of all, more content. So far, that hasn’t happened.

I’m sorry.

Slap me, yell at me, or kick my shins. I just hope you can forgive me.

New Missions:

Room Cleaning…
If you’ve been keeping up with us at the end of last year, you’d remember that we had a GoodReads Reading Challenge and that Sick’s prize for completing was ME cleaning the kids’ room. Well I have been working on that… DEAR GOD was it a challenge. I’ve been hacking at it bit by bit like you would a big tree with a machete… It’s taken a week.
And Tomorrow should be the last day… Thank BUDDHA! I need some Zen after that…

Site…
We’re also going to be doing a little straightening up around here. People need props, we have more stuff to add, and a way to make certain parts of the site look better. So stay tuned and, “Please excuse our mess while we remodel”… something of that sort.

Achievements…
Another thing from last year was my Hunting Party. I’m adding stuff to that. Tips, Tricks, and not so many Cheats. I don’t like cheating, but I know some of you do, so I’ll post things that I find that might help you through the games that I talk about here.

New Problems:

Nunya! Just know that this is why I be slackin!

Complaints…
What’s a video game writer if he doesn’t have shit to complain about? Yeah, Yahtzee? He doesn’t complain…

New Findings:

Oh boy have I got some treats for YOU! I’m gonna roll them out one by one over the next week, so keep a look out. Here’s a sneak peak at what’s in store…

There’s a tidbit of what’s to come… I’m also revamping some of the other posts I started last year, adding more stuff that I hope you guys like. Of course, If you DO NOT, you can always let me know in the comments. Just be constructive about it…. Oh yeah, and Nice.

Props to those who give me the names of the three games in these Pics in the comments below. (Hint: Nothing to do with an AR)

PAX Day 2…. PAX Day 2… What did we do on PAX Day 2? I can’t tell you how many times Psycho and I asked each other that. I shit you not, for the life of us, we can’t remember what we did on day 2. Well that’s not entirely true. We just can’t remember what we did on day 2 in regards to PAX.

So…. since a picture’s worth a thousand words, here’s a few to keep you busy. Oh yeah, and we’re throwing in a video of dancing zombies for good measure!

Note: Come back tomorrow for a more detailed recount of PAX Day 3. We’ll be going over the games we played and our swag (which we’ll be giving away on Thursday) collecting adventure.

…and he does it again.
By “he” I mean Halcylon, and by “it” I mean creates awesomeness in PhotoShop. Here is his latest creation:

To check out more of Halcylon’s work visit him on Deviant Art.

To get things started on our glorious trip to Seattle/Kirkland for PAX, we flew in two days early to get a feel for the area (and because tickets were $100 cheaper .) When SickNdehed told me that we had a layover in LA, I wasn’t too thrilled.

Well, something interesting came out of our stop in LAX. While we were traveling down that conveyor belt for people with heavy bags we saw a couple familiar faces walking the other direction in the center aisle. Sick and I glanced at each other and I asked, “Is that…?” She cut me off by nodding her head and said “Yes, that was the RvB guys!” So… they actually ended up being on our flight to Seattle and we got a chance to ask them for a picture with us.

Our next point of interest on this day was a nice visit to the wonderful Bungie Studios. We happen to come say “Hi” not too long after the building was swarmed by “Kirkland’s finest.” It seems they spooked a local when carrying their well known (to the Halo fans anyway) Sniper Rifle from one building to the other. You can check their past Weekly Update for more details.

After sticking our noses through the door SickNdehed and I were surprised to meet Stephen Totilo of Kotaku (who actually flew down to cover our wedding.) After seeing him finish up, we got to poke around the studio lobby for a few. We snapped some pretty pics with some trophies, memorabilia, and even got a few friendlies to come out of their cave to meet us.

Click image for more pics!

I’d say we started our trip off with a -BLAM!- This day is well set in our memories.

Well this wraps up our first story surrounding our PAX visit. Be sure to keep an eye out, there’s much more to come.

It was a long day filled sweat and excitement. Psycho and I spent the day at the Earth Day Birthday concert we won tickets to back in February. It’s been years since I’d been to any all day event. I couldn’t believe how many women were walking around topless with nothing more than body paint to cover themselves. One woman had Sponge Bob painted on her, her boobs were his eyes. Unfortunately we didn’t get a picture of that. Though we were able to get a picture of a woman with a penis painted on her (you’ll have to search our flickr pics for that one.)

{More Earth Day Birthday Pics Here}

Part of our prize was a ‘Meet N Greet’ with a few of the bands. I was thankful the ‘Meet N Greet’ took place in one of the more cooler parts of the Venue. While there, we got the chance to shake hands with and take pictures with Static-X, Chevelle and Candlebox.

One of the bigger highlights of our day was getting the chance to announce Chevelle on stage. It was a new experience looking into the crowd over the heads of so many people. I was actually a lot more nervous about being on stage the night before.

All in all it was a fun night and a great event. Perhaps you’ll even see us at Earth Day Birthday again next year. Hopefully I’ll remember to wear more comfortable shoes.

A couple of weeks before the wedding, Psycho and I had the pleasure of being interviewed by William Richards from Central Florida Lifestyle Magazine. It was great speaking with him and we were honored to have him at the ceremony.

Sadly, we have not been able to get a copy of the magazine. From what I understand it is delivered to all homes in Winter Park. If you or anyone you know is willing to give up their copy, please email us. We’ll be happy to pay for the April 2009 issue.

You can check out the online version of “Central Florida Lifestyle: Teammates for Life” on their website.

RF Photography was the official photographer for our wedding. We were introduced to Frank sometime in August of 2008. In early September we had the pleasure of having him take our engagement photos. They turned out amazing and are by far the best pictures of Psycho and I.

Although we had been together for over three years, we had very few photos together and even fewer good ones. Thanks to Frank that is no longer the case. He was very easy to work with and completely open to all the shots we wanted to take with our Legendary Halo Head, which happen to be my favorite shots.

RF Photography was started over 15 years ago in Orlando. The naming of RF Photography is a easy one. ‘R’ for Roxanne (wife and boss) and ‘F’ for Frank (primary photographer). Frank received his first camera at the age of 13 and it was love at first sight. He immediately immersed himself into photography. He worked at several camera stores to support his ‘habit’ and photographed his first wedding at the age of 18. He worked in photography his whole life in one aspect or another. From hand printing color portraits for a studio outside of San Francisco to custom B&W printing for labs in southern California.

Our wedding photos were just as beautiful as the engagement shots. Frank was able to capture great photos of everyone at the wedding. Family and friends (curious Halo fans too!) are able to order prints of the wedding directly from the RF Photography website. I’ve conveniently set up the domain name DesiraiAndJohn.com to go straight to the images. Sadly, they will only be available for purchase online until March 30th. Please make sure to order your prints if you haven’t done so already.

Over the next few weeks, I will be using Frank’s photos to personally thank each vendor. Thank you RF photography for providing us amazing photos of our extremely unique and special day.

Things have changed quite a bit since the wedding. Psycho and I have been playing Halo more often. We’re also beginning to discover how deep the Halo rabbit hole really goes. There are so many Halo 3 forums and communities but we were referred to one in particular, Facility B5D. It was named after the ONI Ordnance Testing Facility B5D in Swanbourne, Perth of Western Australia where they designed and tested the Mark VI MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/S variant and the Mark VI MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/R variant for the Spartan-IIs.

We’ve made several new friends which we’ve been playing with regularly, one of whom is graphic designer and B5D Moderator x Awal x. I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to x Awal x about graphic design and where I received my degree. After hearing all the good things I had to say about Full Sail, he decided to attend a Behind The Scenes tour.

PsychoVandal and I met up with x Awal x at the end of his tour to see what he thought. He was extremely excited. So will I be bumping into x Awal x in the Full Sail corridors anytime soon? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

It feels like I’ve been thinking about my Thank You cards forever. Do I make them look like the invitations? Use imagery of our spartans in Recon? a picture from the wedding? Well, after spending hours in photoshop with game images of us in Recon, and trying to incorporate invitation design elements, I gave up. I decided to go with something entirely different.

Out of all of our pre-wedding photos, the ones I enjoy the most include Augustus (affectionately named so by one of our bridesmaids.) Eventually I came up with the concept of photographing a romantic gaming scene with Augustus in the background while focusing on our wedding bands. Lacking equipment and photography skills, I called my good friend Tom Winn for help. The photos turned out great!

{ CLICK HERE to see pics }

Psycho and I were pretty torn about 3 different images. One showing Augustus, one with very focused wedding bands and blurred controllers, and lastly, an image of both our hands resting on a controller. After asking a few friends I decided to go with the last one. Our hands on the controller seemed like the most personal photo. We owe so much to our friends, family, and of course all the sponsors who helped make our wedding day possible. I’m hoping the Thank You card imagery helps convey our gratitude and sincerity.

As we’re rushing out of the house at around 10:30 am the phone starts to ring. It’s clear channel, they want to know if we’re still coming. What?!?! Apparently I missed when she said ‘We’re asking everyone to be here at 10 am so that we can start at 11.’

We rushed out the door and somehow still managed to get there just in time. We bumped into Supa Dave, Crash and Jenna the intern in the elevator. ‘The halo couple is here!’ she exclaimed. We rushed to fill out some forms and then patiently waited for the contest to begin.

At 11:30 we all picked a spot to stand and started smooching. It didn’t take long for my neck to start cramping and my feet to hurt. I started counting down the minutes until our first 5 minute break. We were told we’d get one every hour. When break time finally arrived Crash & LT went around the room interviewing the couples and which point John quickly rushed off to use the restroom. I surveyed the room. When he returned I pulled him aside and whispered to him. My exact words were “It’s going to be a draw between us and the Trailer Trash couple. They’re going to put our names in a hat and we’re going to win.” I don’t know what made me so sure. But from that moment on our goal was to make it till 8pm; the time which they’d officially declare a draw.

Note: They referred to themselves as “Trailer Trash Lot 420″ and proudly wore t-shirts that said the same. I believe it was the name of their band, not something I made up.

Couples dropped out of the game in almost every round, and often in pairs. The first two were disqualified for not returning from their smoke break in time. The next couple was quarreling and biting each other. The bickering escalated to the point where the guy was kneed in the privates. WTF? They broke apart and left cursing each other out the door. Another two couples lost because they misheard the DJ and pulled away from their partners 5 minutes early. At this point we’re heading into the 5th hour, losing another two couples because of a balloon pop. This one kind of cracks me up.

Apparently one of the guys thought he would be slick and eliminate other couples by scaring them. From what I understand he even told his girlfriend he was going to do it. Regardless, when the balloon finally popped he scared his own girlfriend and one other couple. Tsk…tsk…tsk. Thank god it wasn’t us. It definitely scared me. Thankfully though, I leaned closer to Psycho instead of away from him when I flinched.

Heading into the 6th hour, there are only 3 couples left. They started to bribe us with all sorts of gifts certificates and concert tickets. I must say a question mark rose above my head when I heard they were offering Slipknot tickets. But even still, Psycho and I were ‘in it to WIN it!’ and so we chose to pass up the bribe. The DJs eventually called ‘the banker’, adding more to the bribe. I can’t remember everything they were offering but the third couple just couldn’t resist. They took the bribe and headed out on their merry little way.

It was now only two hours left until 8 O’clock. It was us and the Trailer Trash couple. “You guys should just give up.” They said. “We’re pretty Lucky.” Oh… but they had no idea who they were dealing with.

“They let me pick…did I ever tell you that? …choose whichever spartan I wanted. You know me. I did my research… watched as you became the soldier we needed you to be. Like the others you were strong, and swift and brave, a natural leader. But you had something they didn’t. Something no one saw but me. Can you guess?… Luck.”

We both made it to 8. They put our names in a hat and… It was Halo Team FTW! It all happened exactly as I had predicted.

{ CLICK HERE to listen }

{ CLICK HERE for more pics }