One of the things I enjoy doing outside PC & video games is making videos and going hiking. In October I traveled to the boonies in Washington to visit a friend who recently moved out there; she is originally from Texas. I sometimes take video and pictures of the hike trails so naturally I took footage there.

This was my first hike trail in Washington, but what made this visit special was how my friend continued to cook home-made meals morning, day and night. I went back to California with a love for cooking again thanks to her.

This tale shares the hike trail we took when we ended up getting stranded out there. You see, I was astonished how prepared she was with a nifty device that I had never seen before.

The funny part about this day was how we went on the hike trail the day I was headed back to California that evening. While we were stranded she was upset because she wanted to cook dinner and desert before we headed to the airport that night. Since this place was over an hour away from the airport to drive she wanted to start cooking early. Anyways, here is the video. I hope you enjoy my first tale. Hopefully there will be more to come!

One of the major problems I have had for many years is air conditioning at the office. My hands tend to get cold after an hour or two in the office. I normally wash my hands in warm water or simply sit on my hands for a moment (lol, TMI).

When I lived in Texas for a couple of years I also had the same problem at home because A/C was used about 8 out of 12 months a year. Much like there is heated handles for scooter and motorcycles, have any of you seen that many heated keyboards? If so, do you have any recommendations?

If you noticed the recent community segment for Thursday's episode of Today on the Spot you probably chuckled when you heard me pronounce Talon as Tay-lon. I have to admit something that might upset you.... I have always pronounced that word in that way. When people would say Towel-in (like that pronunication spelling? hee) I thought it was a military term.

Two other examples that just about everyone has problems with is giblets and id Software. I know this because I have talked to many gamers in person about the Quake series. People can't believe it's pronounced as jiblets. As for id software, people call them 'I.D. Software.' When they pronounced it that way it almost sounds like they are talking about a company that makes software for databases that involve identification cards or passports. teehee. :)

Are there any words you pronounce wrong or is this just something I have done all of my life? :P

I have been digging this game if you haven't already noticed with the 2 blogs in the same week. ;)

There are a few things that have been a little awkward with the camera angles, but the positives have outweighed this problem a great deal. I originally found myself going around in circles or trying to figure out how to place the camera in angles I wanted. I could not tell if it was related to playing MMOs or if it was a mouse sensitivity problem. The problem isn't there as much now that I have played for a couple of hours, but there are still occasions it will happen. Anyone else having this problem?

Although I do think the graphics aren't up to today's awesomeness, I have been craving a game like this for too long.... it really doesn't matter to me right now. In fact, I have to say Oblivion turned me off within the first hour because it lacked the gameplay that Baldur's Gate had. *shields herself from the rotten tomatoes you throw*

The cut scenes with the story so far have been interactive enough to allow me to enjoy every moment. I also like how much the blood splats on the characters after a fight. haha.

Here are some additional tidbits on what I've experienced so far. I tried to be vague to avoid having any spoilers for this blog.

Tuesday night [aka game release day!]

- Spent nearly 2 hours trying to find things to remove on my computer to make room for 20gb. I am sure removing World of Warcraft would have helped a great deal but I refused to reinstall it. During the time I went through files and programs on my computer I also watched ABC's new show called V.

- After my installation there was a message about my drivers being out of date, but I decided to ignore it. I already wasted so much time on making space on the PC. Prior to the deletion hunt I also cooked dinner and submitted homework. By the time I saw this error message I was anxious to play even if it crashed. During the story cut scene it did have a little problems but not enough to fix the driver problem right away.

- Spent an hour alone creating my Warrior. Part of it was figuring out the races and classes to determine who I would end up playing long term. I did apply my BG and BF2 experiences in this area to determine who I might have the most fun with. I ended up going for a human warrior because BG & BG2 used to have characters that were rogue to tamper with locked chests and doors. I spent some time on the tattoo on her face to make her look almost like rock star warrior with flaming red hair.

- I go through the first part talking to my father and his friend. Then, I realized it was almost 2am in the morning so I quit the game to get some rest only to wake up wanting to play. I was pretty anxious to get home yesterday too!

Wednesday night

- Updated my graphics card drivers.

- I had a chance to play a bit more last night. Sir Gilmore is teh hotness. I automatically grew a crush on him after a few conversations before and after the dog in the kitchen problem (is that vague enough not to spoil anything?).

- The difficult part about this game is how the prejudice against the elves is quite believable - so much that it bothers me. I don't like the way the humans treat the servants. I have to say I want to tell them off in the game for mistreating them, but there has been no option to yet.

- I am curious about what the Grey Warden is all about. I am currently at the point where I am doing a 'joining' quest with 3 warriors, which is where I saved the game last night because it was 2am in the morning. If I am not careful, I will be up until 6 or 8am, which would be bad! Late nights are best for the weekends. :)

- There seems to be a kind of softness about the way the warriors deal with me as a female in the game. They do not mistreat me for being a female warrior or act like I am another man in the game. It is almost as if they treat me better because I'm 'female' and 'human'. The warriors I am currently dealing are gentle with me and they seem to appreciate that I am female. They also jest about being female a little, but not too much where I am being criticized. Obviously, I haven't enjoyed any RPG in years, which means that I haven't played through every RPG to know if this happens in them. Feel free to share any games you have experienced this kind of interaction with female and male players. The role playing games I used to play either treated me like a man for being a woman warrior, or they mistreated me like I was wrong for being a female warrior.

- Alistair happened to remind me of a wrestler in the sense that he thought he was THE man. He started off like that but softened up a bit. At one point I told him that I looked forward to working with him. He responded with something on the lines of, "Huh. Oh, really? hmm..." I wondered if he thought I was flriting or if he thought I was being suspicious. The conversations with the other characters in the game are much like an interactive movie with your plot unfolding based on your own actions in the game. I heard about this kind of interaction happening with Mass Effect, but when I tried playing the game it didn't interest me (/hides).

- Addition thanks to Joesocwork's comment reminding me about the excitement I had when I had a few players join my party last night. Once I finally got to exploring I forgot how much I missed this style of gameplay. I liked being able to play other characters, but Dragon Age Origins adds some interesting elements because I can change the combat style and a couple of other things about how the players will react in my party. I would also compare it to my experience with World of Warcraft as a hunter. I never feel like I am alone in combat because I have the pet. In this game I normally have a couple of people in my party to help out.

I look forward to sharing more thoughts if anyone else is interested in my Dragon Age Origins journey! If I have any spoilers next time I'll be sure to hide them. :)

I know what I'm buying at lunch today, Dragon Age: origins on the PC! I always rent my games, but this is not one of those games I can rent. I actually saved this GameStop gift card for a special game worthy of being purchased.

If I get some time I'll share my stories about my experience with the game versus the Baldur's Gate games I have adored.

*chants* Old school Baldur's Gate fans unite! */chants*

Hope you all have a wonderful Halloween tonight. I've been playing way too much... won't name the game or you will all lower your heads in shame. Be sure to share your stories in your blogs and flag as 'editorial' drop down so I can read them. :)

Our Halloween special episode of Today on the Spot [Oct 31] is packed with plenty of surprises. One of the areas you have to take a look at is the GameSpot Zombie Squad film trailer. There were a variety of GS staff in it that work behind scenes, and a couple you all know and enjoy seeing. The cast besides me includes Ryan, Homer, Frank, Marco, Lee (intern), Kayvan, Kim, Werner, and JustinP. I'm in there as a zombie and non-zombie. We whipped that up pretty last minute, but it is still full of humor. The show also has some gameplay footage of Left 4 Dead. Go watch the whole episode, and please excuse the zombie noises I made. lol

One of the courses I have been taking in college as of late has to do with interaction among other cultures outside the United States. I find it interesting how different cultures take on a different approach when it comes to business or even leisure activities. With my own experience I have always enjoyed playing games with other cultures. For instance, during the Quake days I had some strong friendships with players from South Africa, Australia, United Kingdom, and a couple in China. These cultures brought different perspectives to the way they played the game, and the way the MIRC chat environment was when we discussed our favorite gaming hobbies. However, of these Quake gamers from these countries did share one common interest; we were all competitive and proud of the country we came from.

With this week's course materials, I read some information about there being cultural simulations, which is required training for those who plan to relocate to another country. Do any of you know of any interactive cultural simulations; either a free java game or simply a retail game that also has some of these elements that involve dealing with other cutural behaviors or methods?

Came across this cute video with a rap song worth sharing about a beanie baby plush lion. The song is based on a spoof about the New Boys You're a Jerk song. Enjoy! "You're cute; i know. You're cute; I know." :)

If you haven't heard of it yet, you probably haven't logged into GameSpot in the past few weeks. The Game Heroes will be facing off on September 1st so you'll want to get in your brackets before then. I'm looking for Jade sig banner so I can provide a type of campaign blog about her to link to. This will also give you all an idea of what I was talking about in the sticky thread of the Game Heroes forum.

Some old files I had with wallpaper is located on my old fan site located here. Each of the navigation menus also have some different logos I made when the game was released years ago. I'm sure the Beyond Good & Evil gamespace has images too.

Since I have so little time with work and evening/weekend school to create my own image kit, would someone create a signature that says to vote for her in the game heroes feature? You know, she does have a fierce opponent!

The best signature [follow the campaign rules] will receive a t-shirt and some other little schwag items I can send you!

UPDATE: Still looking for some Jade signatures! Have one so far (haven't checked link yet), but I'll continue to accept them until 4pm PT today. Any kind of border or bevel would be pretty awesome on the edges! You could also do a silhouette of her although she has some awesome green eyes!

UPDATE 2: Thanks for making the image kits! I'll showcase everyone's (any anyone else who makes any later in the submission thread) in a future blog post. As for the winner, it was whitemute and ClayMeow because I had a hard time choosing! Congrats.

My friend's daughter and her niece wanted to play with my Nintendo DS during an hour and half drive home. Both girls didn't realize that I had the camera filming the occasion. Because it is night vision I also included a few pictures of the girls.

To give you a little history about my friend's daughter her mom used to be pretty big into Quake 3 Rocket Arena and was a skilled player at rail in particular (hard weapon to master). She also used to do some gamecasting (play by play for tournament matches) for Quake 3. When her daughter (the one you'll see doing most of the sound affects) was almost 2 years old she would often quote the Quake 3 timer. So, picture a baby stating 3, 2, 1 FIGHT! in baby talk. :)