Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Path of the Righteous Man.

A nice little detail and Pulp Fiction (and Jules) reference in The Winter Soldier. It’s awesome that Samuel L Jackson plays both characters and both are pretty iconic. 

Ezekiel 25:17.“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.” I been saying that shit for years. And if you heard it, that meant your ass. I never gave much thought to what it meant. I just thought it was some cold-blooded shit to say to a motherfucker before I popped a cap in his ass. But I saw some shit this morning made me think twice. See, now I’m thinking, maybe it means you’re the evil man, and I’m the righteous man, and Mr. 9 millimeter here, he’s the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. Or it could mean you’re the righteous man and I’m the shepherd and it’s the world that’s evil and selfish. I’d like that. But that shit ain’t the truth. The truth is, you’re the weak, and I am the tyranny of evil men. But I’m trying, Ringo. I’m trying real hard to be the shepherd.“

The Long Dark Hidden Bunker

I found it while exploring, I found I had enough food and water so I went out exploring and avoiding wolves. I’ve read/heard that it is a random spawn but I found it in the hills near clearcut and the ranger station. It had a ton of food and water as well as tinder for fires. It has let me survive around 12 days so far, which is a new record for me and I’m still going.

I forage out for frozen deer carcasses and scavenge meat then head back to 1 of 3 locations where I stashed extra supplies (clothes, food, water, extra materials for fires and lanterns.) Then I just cook the meat, stash it and then rest. I travel from 1 of the 3 locations to the next making a circuit looking for meat to survive and it is working out pretty well. However, in my current game I had no gun spawn but I found 15 rounds of ammunition for a rifle but no rifle to shoot with.

This is probably the most fun I’ve had in awhile and the game was well worth the 19.99$.

UFC 178

Great night of fights today and going 2/3 isn’t too bad for my picks. Cowboy Cerrone really showed he is ready for a title shot soon with that win over Alvarez.

I can’t wait to see Rousey vs Zingano, that will be a great fight. I liked Manny Gamburyan’s call out of Caraway as well.

Awesome night of fights today.

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

That was the best revenge story I have listened to or read or (comparatively) watched. There is no movie or an episode in a show on TV that has even come close to the enjoyment of a story of revenge like this and no story of revenge from any book or comic or graphic novel that even comes close to how I felt listening to the story of “Best Served Cold” unfold.

The story and characters are great, and they both develop with interesting turns as the story comes to a close.

The narration by Michael Page was ok, although I prefered the narration that was done for the first 3 books in the First Law Trilogy by Steven Pacey.

It was also a nice touch to have characters like Shylo Vitari, Nicomo Cosca, Caul Shivers, and Carlot dan Eider in the story as well. I liked the appearances of Yoru Sulfur and Jezal dan Luthar as well as the references to Sand dan Glokta, Bayaz, Ferro Maljinn, and the Bloody-Nine Logen Ninefingers.

It was definitely worth binging on these last few days and now I am onto the next book in the series “The Heroes.”

UFC 178 Picks

So after seeing the weigh-in’s and everyone made weight for their respective fights, I am gonna go with Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, Eddie Alvarez, “The Notorious" Conor McGregor, and "Alpha” Cat Zingano with wins on Saturday.

I think even with Jones vs Cormier being forced off this card due to injury, which was a replacement fight Jones vs Gustafsson which was changed due to Gustafsson’s injury, it is a pretty stacked card. On the Prelims there is Cruz vs Mizugaki, Masvidal vs Krause, and Cote vs Thompson to check out. The other notable fights are Romero vs Kennedy and Howard vs Ebersole. So yeah, pretty stacked card, and I can’t wait to see the fights.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Travelling Monster Hunter

February can’t come soon enough, The Witcher 3 is probably my most anticipated game now, more than Mass Effect 3 now. The more I read about it or see on youtube the more I want to play and enjoy it.

The Environments look great, there seems to be a huge of amount of monsters in the country to deal with, lots of places to travel with some options on how to do it (on foot, horseback, boat, and even fast travel when you unlock it), and the story looks to deliver a grand experience.

One of the things I like most about open world games is exploration. In Skyrim I liked just roaming the world hunting wildlife and killing monsters, and in the Witcher 3 it looks like I can do just that with all the abilities of Geralt of Rivia. I will basically be doing what Jules in Pulp Fiction wanted to do: “You know, walk the earth, meet people… get into adventures. Like Caine from ‘Kung Fu’.” Except, instead of just being Jules, I will be just Geralt of Rivia.

God, February can’t come soon enough.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Best Served Cold audiobook

So far, so good. I’m about 2 and ½ hours into the audiobook and thoroughly enjoying it. The narration is okay, however, I am primarily interested into how good the story and characters are so far. Those 2 things were what I liked most about the First Law Trilogy, and are very much a strongpoint of Abercrombie.

Definitely happy to have picked up the First Law trilogy and the related books.

Longest I’ve survived for in The Long dark

Nice view from the Ranger Station

Leaving the Ranger Station at dawn

I am really liking the game so far, the survival elements are pretty good and are very challenging. It becomes a risk vs reward kinda deal, with hunger and thirst being the primary issues and then staying warm coming in a close fucking second.

It’s surprising to me that a game like this hasn’t been done (or done well) before. I enjoy that is solitary game, no online psycho’s camping and killing for just amusement or just to be dicks, no half assed zombie’s, and, most importantly, the game is offline. My net still sucks for now but that should change soon, a week or so ago they hooked up our house with a fiber optic line and I’ve been told it should be up and running in a month or two. Back to the game, this is probably the best I’ve played of early access games so far (the others being FF14: ARR, DayZ, and Starbound)

It’s still in early access so there are no real player animations or models so far and there is only one large environment to survive in but there is great potential in this game and I’m glad to support this type endeavor. Hinterland Studios being based here in British Columbia is a plus as well. Voice Work is also done pretty well with Jennifer Hale voicing the Female Survivor and Elias Toufexis (not 100% sure on that but it sounded like it to me) as the male survivor.

The Episodic Story mode should be available soon and I think it will be worth the wait.

Audiobooks for September.

So my 2 audible credits are in today and I used them to pick up 2 more Joe Abercrombie books:

• Best Served Cold
• The Heroes

Downloading both now and can’t wait to listen to them. I was really impressed with and enjoyed the “First Law” trilogy, and I really like Abercrombie’s ability to tell a story and have interesting/compelling characters (Sand dan Glokta, Bayaz, Logen Ninefingers, and Ferro Maljinn in particular.)

On a related note, I just finished my re-listen to The Dresden Files, from book 4 “Summer Knight” to book 15 “Skin Game.” Which is probably no surprise with crazy amount of Dresden Files quotes I’ve been putting out there (which will probably become more of a trickle than torrent it is now.)

Next month I think I’ll end up picking up Red Country and World War Z (despite being abridged, I’ve heard some good thing about the audiobook, and check out dat cast.)

Nice try?” Butters said. “Mister, where I come from, there is no try.

Jim Butcher, The Dresden Files “Skin Game”