PixlBit

     I’m currently transitioning out of the psychology help and into physical help. No more anti-depressants needed, but now I’m on stuff to heal my back. I hope I can kick that too in a few weeks and get into some core strength exercises. Back issues are the absolute worst thing ever. Also, I got this new free app on my phone (also for pc) called MyFitnessPal, and it’s excellent for watching calories. You just log in your food and exercise, and it measures your calories (and other nutrients) against your goals for weight loss. I’m loving it and it’s really helping. Hopefully I can get to where I want to be within a year. It’s also kind of fun, but onto gaming.

Retro Con:
     This convention is very close to where I live, so it’s easy to get to every year. It’s not huge but it gets some celebrities and lots of cosplayers. Dirk Benedict of Battlestar Galactica and A-Team was there. So was Dwight Schultz, Howling Mad Murdock on the A-Team and Reginald Barclay of Star Trek Next Generation. Mark got Dirk’s signature on a vinyl album of the original Battlestar Gallactica soundtrack. We both guessed that the sweet white Masserati outside was Dirk’s, but who knows. There was the original A-Team van there as well. Here’s a pic:

     It got me thinking about the A-Team movie that came out in 2010. Sharlto Copley played Howling Mad Murdock. He was great, and the movie was a ton of fun.
     Cosplayers were there aplenty. Mortal Kombat characters, Batwoman, Star Wars storm troopers, at least one Goku, an amazing predator, Ghostbusters and various anime characters I barely recognized. I’m sure one of them was Sailor Moon. Here’s a pic of some of the Storm Troopers.

     Around the corner was a Minecon and we almost went in there by mistake. So many kids and adults there in Minecraft costumes.
     I saw an old board game I played back in ’76 when it came out, Chopper Strike. It has two levels so you can put ground forces on the bottom and choppers above on a clear plastic table. Here’s a pic:

     We met with two of Mark’s graphic artist friends there. Scott Derby and Dave (darn, I forget his last name). They do really cool pop culture art stuff I wish I could buy. Here’s Scotts website. 

Then we had some burgers and left to do some gaming.

Fable II:
     I am definitely hooked on Fable II. I started using the remaining achievement list as a guide and knocked off the Perfect Date one (use expressions on a date at the right location to get her in the mood) and the Hunter (kill a rabbit) one. Then I went after the Destroy all the Gargoyles achievement. You need 50 Gargoyles and 50 silver keys to complete it. I used a rough guide, but it was still difficult enough. It got me to explore a lot and that’s fun. Along the way I did anything else that seemed fun: getting into random battles, using expressions on random npcs to get funny reactions and gifts, buying small shops to make money for me (made me want to do that in real life) and upgrading my gear and my dog.
     Yes the dog is quite useful. As you level him up he’ll find more treasures for you and have more expressions that complement the ones you make. You need that for a certain demon door that wants to be entertained by “the furry one”. There’s lots of fun stuff to do in the game and each has a pretty satisfying reward that leads you to better things. I think I’m in it for the long haul. Lego City Undercover will have to wait ‘til I’m done with it.

And that’s a pretty long day. Have a happy one.