Join Us On Pandora!

The smash hit Borderlands 2 released in game stores all across America as of today September 18, 2012. The first expanded in a variety of, well, almost everything. Millions upon millions of weaponry and hundreds of different enemies suspended the surface of the Pandora, also known as a wasteland.

Starting from the beginning, you have a choice to choose from four mercenaries, Zero, Maya, Salvador, or Axton. Zero works best with his digistructed sword and his ability for an invisible stealth attack. Maya is a Siren who relies on her phaselock skill and elemental weaponry. Salvador is rip gunzerker that relies mostly on his rampage and dual wielding abilities. Axton is a former commando who fights best with his Sabre turret and military experience in action.

The action held within the game sucks you in whether you want it to or not. It preserves its foretold “awesome” reputation by drawing in more people to experience blood and gory death cause by their hands. If you’re the type of person who would last a second without the thought of puking, there is a feature to turn off high graphics, AKA the gory deaths.

Borderlands 2 dominates the first by crushing the enormous gun count by 10 fold. No more worrying about trade risks by dropping guns and trading. People can easily steal what they want and leave, but not with the new trade feature allowing you to trade anything you can get a hold of. This includes a winner takes all dual in a fight to the death. Unlike most games, Borderlands 2 brings back the beloved players of the first game so you can take a stroll down memory lane.

This game has its own unique qualities compared to most games. This game brings in trillions of more gun combinations, twice as many enemies, maybe even more, and more skills and characters to choose from. Other games offer small amounts of weaponry compared to our action packed thriller. My personal experience beaten both the first and now the second one, I can truly say this is my favorite game series and couldn’t wait any longer to get ahold of the third, if there is one. I wouldn’t be able to stress how much more awesome this game can get so find out for yourself and dig up your hidden stash of cash and get it.

The Story of Pandora

After reading the  title, the first thing that most likely popped into your mind was Pandora's box. Wrong my friends. I elaborated more into the release and reviewed Borderlands 2. Now as for this, my goal is to get you up-to-date on the background story of the first game.

The quest for seeking the vault and it's awaiting treasures is stationed on an Eco-hazardous wasteland known as Pandora. Most, if not all, inhabitants of the planet seek for the ultimate dream, to uncover the mystery of the vault's location. The vault is said to open every two hundred years with a key constructed with three vault fragments. So unlike some saying where your given a once in a lifetime opportunity, this literally is.

Other than the human lifeforms the reside here, there are the native creatures that roam. The most infamous, yet most common would be skags. They resemble the shape of a dog, minus the ears, add three razor sharp claws per foot, and a mouth that opens as if you cut a vertical slash down it face.

Another common creature are Rakk.  The only possible way for me to describe this would be a mutated, tour up, overgrown moth on steroids. The nest in piles of trash in the ground until approached thus triggering their defenses. They hardly ever attack individually unless all but one are picked off.


 Starting from the beginning, you have a choice to choose from four mercenaries, Mordecai, Roland, Brick, or Lilith. Mordecai specializes in snipers and revolvers and fights along side a blood thirsty bird known as Bloodwing. Roland is a train soldier that specializes in combat rifles and shotguns who can release a partially shielded turret. Brick is a huge rip "outlaw type" that relies mostly on explosive weaponry and his fists. Lilith is a siren who can phase-walk through separate dimensions, mainly relying on any elemental weapon.

Some guns don't contain any special ability to its making, yet the rest hold one of four elements, incendiary, acid, shock, or explosive. Mentioning earlier about Brick's use of explosive weapons, I mean explosive elements given to the gun, not things like rockets or grenades. Each element can be multiplied up to 4x which increases the element damage and its average appearance in each shot.

Sources:
Skag Picture
Rakk Picture

Release and Review - Borderlands 2

The smash hit Borderlands 2 released in game stores all across America as of today September 18, 2012. The first expanded in a variety of, well, almost everything. Millions upon millions of weaponry and hundreds of different enemies suspended the surface of the Pandora, also known as a wasteland.

The first game revolved around the vault-hunter's prize: the vault. It's untold stories and riches scoured the minds of every individual residing there. Endless power and wealth would  bring you never-ending fame: well according to what people thought. You are to choose among the four vault hunting mercenaries, Mordecai, Roland, Lilith, and Brick.

The first game was a sensational best selling game revealed in September of 2007, but released to North America  on October 20 of 2009 as a console version. The PC versions for MAC and Windows released 15 months after the console versions did.

Borderlands 2 made its grand debut as of Early today. To emphasize the game's popular demand, in week one of the first game release it sold 450,000 units in comparison to the 1,250,000 pre-orders for the sequel. These numbers are sure to rise more throughout the remainder of the week.

The two games seem "too cartoon-ish" for the average person. Someone with the ability to see past small let-downs is a true gamer. Although the true gamer would be the ultimate critique for our subject, somethings aren't worth putting the entire game down. Based on my personal experience with game one and views of game two, I would say the quality, animation, upgrades and additions are worth killing for; saying Borderlands was and still is my all time favorite.

Sources:
The Escapist
Wiki
VGChartz
Borderlands 2 Picture

Class: 9/11

The day of September 11, 2001 a tragedy involving the two World Trade Center towers. Between 8:45 am and 9:05 the towers had been struck by two US airliners. Close to about 3,000 people died on that horrific day. After the impact of the first plane, It was thought to be an accident, but was quickly understood to be a terrorist attack after the South Tower was struck. The third plane crashed into the pentagon, not as devastating, but still a tragic event.

According to Wikipedia, approximately 2,977 people died that day, including the 19 hijackers and 246 flight passengers. The plane that crashed into the North Tower hit around the 93rd floor. The South Tower was impacted between the 78th and 85th floors. Both towers collapsed within the following hour. The debris spread across the blocks surrounding the buildings. This tragic attack killed hundreds of people on the streets below due to inhaling of ashes.

I was only only four years old when this happened and to think about a time where I knew what this was would be astonishing. This is one of America's number one tragic events in history. I don't know how I would have reacted knowing that terrorists destroyed the nations trade center. The kids who were in school panicked, crying and screaming to leave. I have the up most respect and honor for those lost in the attack. 

Found Poem: 9/11

Two massive voids, on all four sides, waterfalls descend
Water whips and lashes their polished bronze parapets and smooth-surfaced walls
Cleanly manufactured
Square voids, footprints of the towers, it digs down
All the while that those deep, dark voids express a sense of loss and grief
Reach into your feelings about the grave
A unified sheet of water, a mingling that speaks of the many lives joined by the vast event that was 9/11The memorial doesn't carry you into a dark place
It manages to acknowledge the inevitability of grief
The memorial offers more than one way to soar
The massive voids digs a space to deposit feelings about that whole wretched day

Rachel's Challenge

Rachel's Challenge

We've never understood the consequences of bullying and its side effects. Neither its impact on the person or people. The bully finds it amusing and fun to tear apart a person's spirit. For we can only be ourselves and no one else, we have no right to interpret current struggles someone faces.

The results of bullying at Columbine High School, Colorado have led to the worst high school shooting in American history. Thirteen tragic deaths occurred throughout the duration of the massacre. Two victims of bullying snapped due to continuous torture in the form of public humiliation, name-calling, etc. The first life to be taken was Rachel Joy Scott's. She as a senior on her last year, had nothing more than the admiration and respect for every living thing. She was an outstanding writer with pure intentions. She wrote about how just a little kindness and care would lead to spreading love and the elimination of prejudice.

I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go.

--Rachel Joy Scott 

After her death, soon after were hidden secrets that know one knew of. On the back of her dresser, she drew her hands and written inside them was, "These hands belong to Rachel Joy Scott and will someday touch millions of peoples hearts." Her use of the word will instead of hopefully, maybe, etc, is a major inspiring self goal. The Scott family created a non-profit organization called Rachel's Challenge. In a powerful essay Rachel wrote called My Ethics, My Codes of Life, she challenged her readers to spread kindness. Her challenges were:
1) Look for the best in others
2) Dream Big
3) Choose positive influences
4) Speak with kindness
5) Start your own chain reaction

I, Chris Cook, accept Rachel's Challenge
Do you?

Procrastination is Good?

We've always been scolded to never procrastinate. Everyone's only thought of its negativity, we have only looked it in disapproval. Are there any good factors to this rejected habit. It seems Megan Gambino had three pages worth of talking about its benefits. She describes the topic and its positive outcomes and uses from a new book by Frank Partnoy. He wrote about his key to success and his use of procrastination to get there.

If you were to receive an e-mail but wouldn't have to reply to it for a week, why do instantaneously. You're given a week to think on the topic and gather info and details, but rather than taking the time provided you sacrifice time at that moment to reply. This statement derives from the article I'm talking about. His argument states that is your given excess time, why rush to compete it then when you can wait.

Just take a breath. Take more pauses. Stare off into the distance. Ask yourself the first question of this two-step process: What is the maximum amount of time I have available to respond?

 --Megan Gambino

A valid point stated in the quote above. I perceive the people around me(classmates, family, etc) and one thing I notice is they never slow down. If they're working on one thing, they're working on another thing. Everybody is like a freight train, they keep moving forward, never stopping even when something blocks its path. People just need to slow down and work steadily with what they have. Hence the phrase, "Enjoy life while you can because it's too short to give up".

Algebra ll Style

I find math to be quite easy considering it runs through the family, but otherwise it gets rather irritating. One thing I found simple and easy to do after it being taught were inequalities. In addition, absolute value inequalities, but weren't as simplistic as normal. Absolute value inequalities are a mix of absolute value and compound inequalities. An example of a normal inequality is 7-3x < or equal to 2x+6. An example of an absolute value inequality is |2n + 1| < 9.

The first step to solving 7 - 3x < or equal to 2x + 6is getting x on one side and constants on the other. First you would subtract the 6 from the right to the left, vice versa with -3x(add instead of sub.) to the right. You should then get 1 < or equal to 5x. Next you just divide both sides by 5 to get x > or equal to 1/5.

The first step to solving an absolute value inequality is to isolate it everything in the value bars from the rest. |2n + 1| < 9 is already isolated so next is to determine if it is one of two inequalities, an “AND” or an “OR”. You determine this after the inequality is isolated by looking at the symbol. < means it’s an AND, > means it is an OR. |2n + 1| < 9 is an AND because of the symbol. After this you must solve this twice, first time with the original inequality, the second time with a flipped symbol and changed signs on the constant(s). |2n + 1| < 9, now you subtract the 1 to the right side leaving just 2n. Last you divide by 2 to both sides to get n < 4. Now to start the second part of the problem with |2n + 1| > -9. Same as before just subtract 1 to the right side leaving 2n > -10. Now divide both by 2 giving you n > -5. The compound inequality now looks like -5 < n < 4.

Anime's Presence

Anime has portrayed itself as a self sustaining Japanese sensational TV animation. Although it could be seen in multiple more forms, the popular animation became a grand slam favorite rising in the eastern part of the world. The style of animation arose specifically in Japan. Several popular series are Dragon Ball Z and Inuyasha. Not to be fooled by the looks of the show, animation, or "cartoony" feel, anime was intentionally directed towards an adult audience. With a few tweaks and modifications, it can easily be displayed on teen channels. As much violence, blood, and language used in most anime, taking too much from it is basically ripping apart its designated purpose. 

A great example of a sensation hit would be Dragon Ball Z. This series of course originated from the minds of people who thought strong language, violence, and blood were perfect to fit due to the story's background and main plot itself. And yes of course it made its way to the screens of out televisions. I personally think they stripped as much from the original without destroying its unique mixture and personality.

I myself am a fan of this fantasy sci-fi action series. The show describes the life story and developments of this one alien of his own race. The shows background forms around Goku's journey in search of seven orbs, also known as the dragon balls. The journey sets off with his companion Bulma. As years past, he still is unaware of his true identity. Not knowing of his intention on the planet he calls Earth, Goku is raised being taught to believe he is a human martial artist who performs the everyday standards of the human life. Thus this sets the stage of his adventure.

Quarter Quell: Back to the Arena

Hunger Games

Once you're out, you're out. Well that only applies if you win. Every quarter year(year 25, 50, 75, etc), a card is drawn to declare that special year's event. Sad enough everyone knows there's another math for the Games, but it like any other pain when you find out that every victor in the past years are returning to the arena once more. The event of the 75th Hunger Games is to send every past victor back to the arena for a go round.

 Katniss Everdeen returns victorious along side her "lover" Peeta Mallark. Only one victor can return but the rules were shifted among the last four survivors. Only a year passes allowing them and their families to live with style, money, and peace. Sadly the year comes for preparation for the Games. The Quarter Quell arena is selected to enforce suspense and difficulty. One of the hardest parts about returning is dealing with the good-byes and the the thought of not coming back.

In the 75th games not a specific set of people are sent in. Normally only 24 would enter, but some some victors died from age leaving every remaining victors to enter. The most that can enter is 24. In this particular situation, the highest age for any victor to re-enter would be 93. The possibilities of that are extremely slim. The shocker in the story is that Katniss and Peeta have to re-enter, considering they are star-crossed lovers, things now get complicated. They have to make a decision, who kills who, that is if it comes down to them two in the finals.

When Did Spiders Get Claws?

Trogloraptor

Sometimes I don’t realize these complex words that ramble through my head while I’m reading. Whether I know them or not, when I read the text of an article, paper, interview, etc, I read these long terms or phrases that completely shut my brain off. I come across the words, then all of a sudden my mind just powers off like these groups of letters are killing me.

This is why English is an important subject. So we can increase of intelligence and knowledge, our understandings of things. We as a class read this article about a new species of spider that has been discovered. Trogloraptor is what they call it. Trogloraptor is latin for “cave robber”. While we were reading, most the words were simple and easy, but there were a few that stood out. One of the words was “rapacious”, which I now know means aggressive. The spider's name is Latin for "cave robber," a reference to its habitat and rapacious-looking talons. Of course everyone would just be saying use your context clues. I tried that on this word but the things I come up with weren’t close to aggressive.

The spider itself has claws on the ends of its legs. They prey of food by snapping them in its claws as they fly underneath him. Trogloraptors hang from the ceilings of caves until it's time for them to feed. They appear to be a shy species that avoids most creatures to insure its own safety. According to the article they also don't seem to be poisonous to humans.

Dain Fagerholm

What are the results of a creative artist and an art form that creates a three-dimensional illusion? Not only does Dain Fagerholm draw with his own style of drawing, but he intertwines it with stereographic animated GIFs. In a previous blog I talked about animated GIFs and his uses of his masterpieces. These animations require at least two or more frames, or photos to cycle through.

Dain's style of drawing are sort of weird but awesome at the same time. His supplies contain pens/pencils, his creative creatures, and paper. His artwork includes these monsters that look like they hide under your bed or in your closet. The only difference is, he puts a smile on their face. Don't get me wrong their his preferred choices and I respect that. But these monsters aren't the only things he uses. Recently he drew a different girl that transitions through a cycle of colors that look like some retro hallucination.

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/images/images_2/leigha/dain%20fagerholm/df17.gif

Dain's career as an artist has became a artistic wonder across the nation. Among everyone who I met that has recognized his work, some supply negative criticism. They say they aren't attracted to his art because of his "weird" creations and simple drawings. I see where they're coming from when they say it's too simple. Dain's monsters or girls aren't involved in any activity or action. The only thing that keeps his viewers intrigued is how he uses the animation with his art to make it stand out.

Speech Defects

As of now we have a project to remember for public speaking. Not only do we have to balance college with , math, civics, and blogs, but now to add to that is a famous speech to memorize. Each student is suppose to choose a separate speaker from everyone else and memorize the speech that person gave to say on Thursday. I admit for myself that I am bad public speaker and have many flaws that follow.

Every time I am put on the spot, I get this annoying shake that sometimes distracts my own self. Not only that but I often get this minor stutter when I get confused with what I'm saying. So far I've covered the shaking, stutter, and I forgot to mention a strong memory lapse when I feel uncomfortable.

http://publicspeakingactivities.com/wp-content/uploads/public-speaking.jpg

These are a few things that irritate speakers or professional people that are use to intelligent and sophisticated speeches. But among everybody, I'm not the only person who faces speech defects. I could name out people in my class who do the same but I find it easier to just say everyone. Everyone has their own problems to improve on and work with. I for instance am going to take my own advice there.

Each student had to write down five things a speaker should never do during a speech for an earlier assignment. A common thing everyone wrote down would be chewing gum, no eye contact, and inappropriate language depending on the topic.

What's been learned?

Civics and Economics is the study of government, economy, and citizens rights and citizenship. The class is important in learning since we America as a nation are the most ignorant of all countries because we are the youngest. In the class, we've already learned about citizenship and partially about the process of being naturalized.

What I mean when I say being naturalized is becoming a US citizen. This process is call naturalization. The first step in becoming a citizen is signing the declaration of intention. Step two involves an interview and/or an exam. The citizenship exam usually consists of at least one-hundred questions. The last step is taking the oath of allegiance. You raise your right hand and repeat word for word what the speaker says. Oath below-

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.

There are two ways you can become a citizens. The first way is by birth and there are only two ways to become a citizen by birth. The first is to be born in the US(American territory) or born on a military base. The second by birth is born from US citizens outside the US. The second way to become a citizen other than birth is by naturalization.

As citizens we have our duties and our responsibilities. Our duties are things we have to fulfill required by law. Our responsibilities are obligations we should do but can be done voluntarily. The government of the US is considered a bureaucracy. The term means complex systems, many departments, many rules, and a chain of command.

One useless fact that I myself didn't even know of until my civics class was that on the back of every US coin is the Latin phrase "E plurabus unum" which stands for "out of many, one".

How to Survive

How would you feel if your life was controlled by a tyrant who strictly limited you access to certain places. Staying in one city for your entire life without a glimpse of life from anywhere else would suffocate you. In the book The Hunger Games, Everyone is glued to one district, which is the one you were born in. Out of all 12, each district has its own special occupation. For example, in the book District 12 specializes in mining.

You must be wondering why people don't just run off, ditch everyone and leave. It's not as simple as it sounds. Each district is bound inside due to highly electrically charged barbed wire fencing that stands higher than 10 feet.

The main purpose in this entry was to mention the torturous punishment due to the rebellion between the Capitol and the district. The results of the war were District 13's annihilation and the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a survival challenge where each district sends in a male tribute and a female tribute to compete. All twenty-four tributes are tossed into an arena to fight to the death.

In the middle of the arena is a cornucopia filled with polished, sharp, and helpful weapons. Once the gong sounds, there are two options you can choose from. You can choose to fight your way through the bloodbath or run. The reason I bold the word run is because that is the wisest choice to make(that is if you want to survive). The best strategy you could use in a situation like this id to hide and wait out most of the deaths. You must remember to run for a water source because wherever water is, you find life, thus life=food! Always remember-you can’t hide forever.

Mother Earth Gets An Attitude?

Would you appreciate Earth trying to get rid of the human race. If you've ever read Planet Earth Doesn't Know How To Make It Any Clearer It Wants Everyone To Leave then you would first think planet earth is tired of everyone. If you took a minute or two you would understand that someone is trying to make us think about what we as humans are doing wrong to the planet we live on.

The purpose of this post is to try to raise the issue brought up by this story. Once you think about it you realize that if earth could talk, its most likely what Earth would say. This story makes you think about all the trash being thrown around and us polluting the air and water we use.

http://www.dreamstime.com/sick-planet-earth-thermometer-thumb10795386.jpg

The author uses Earth's perspective in the story to help raise the topic. His tone assists with that by setting an agitated, tired of everything we're doing to the planet. His use of these help strengthen his writing and his possibility that people would recognize the awareness.

In the story, the author is questioning why we haven't left for another world when we have the technology to do it. He/She makes it sound tiring killing millions of people just to hint our unwelcoming stay. Apparently all the natural disasters we face are the planet’s way of hinting at our unwanted presence. If I were to comment under Earth’s perspective, I would call the human race a horrible rapidly spreading disease that plagues the planet’s surface.

Gaming Life

To start off, Super Mario Bros. is one of the most famous classics of all time. I have never met a single person who has not liked this game. Scratch that, I've met one person but he doesn't know what he's talking about. Old time games started the gaming revolution that led to what we have today. If I had the choice to trade my PS3 for Nintendo 64, I would make that trade in a heartbeat.

http://www.hark.com/clips/nkccclgmpk-sample-from-super-mario-brothers-theme

I love playing video games that rely on strategy and thinking. That can include a variety of games from Super Mario Brothers to Portal 2 or Left 4 Dead to Minecraft. I don't only play strategic games, of course nobody can forget the classics like Zelda, Mario, Pac Man. Although I love top play the classics, I unfortunately don't own the old gaming systems or consoles.

Life doesn't always rely on the past. Today games are made realistic, futuristic, past based, or even cartoon styled. Two of my favorite games have opposite styles and genres. Minecraft (first game) is a sandblock-RPG-and adventure game. Borderlands (second game) is a cartoon style RPG and FPS game.

Gaming has been a major part of my life and I intend to keep it that way. When  mention games, I also mean board games and sport games.

RPG- Role-playing game

FPS- First person shooter