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.