Everyone has to do one of these at some point, right?! Come in for the random top 10, stay for a creepy #1 image.



10) I married my high school sweetheart (some would say)

The reason I say “some”, is because I met her the summer of my Junior year, so I don’t know if that qualifies for “standard sweetheart status”, but I’d like to think that it does. She was going off to College, and I ended up following her there the following year. During my first semester we were seeing different people, but it didn’t work out for either of us and we started dating. The rest is history. As luck would have it, we both enjoy playing video games with each other (we just finished Resident Evil 5, and now are working on Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance for PS2).





9) My favorite total package Bruce Wayne/Bats is Christian Bale

Every top 10 needs a random ass fact. In my opinion, if you want the perfect Bruce Wayne, call up Michael Keaton. If you want the perfect Batman, give Val Kilmer a call. If you need an incredible voice, Kevin Conroy is your man. But if you want a real-live Batman, it’s gotta be Christian “trash your fuckin’ lights” Bale.





8) Through a series of unfortunate events, I gained 20 pounds
.
I used to be fit as a fiddle. I ran every night, ate well, and didn’t drink soda for 3 years. In what is not considered an unfortunate event, I went on a cruise for my honeymoon, but gained 10 pounds. Typical of a week long cruise right? What’s not typical is that apparently I developed cellulitis on my right foot before the trip, and I received a horrible bacterial infection courtesy of the sleazy beaches of St. Maarten (protip: Don’t ever go to St. Maarten). As luck would have it, my insurance plan just ran out, and my wife and I were drawing up papers to get a new one a bit after we got back from our honeymoon.

After 3 weeks, skin started falling off my right foot. We hurried to a local clinic, and they told me that if I had waited much longer, I may have either lost my foot, or had to have all the meat sucked out, which could potentially put me in a coma. The end result was me having to take off work with the added bonus of not being able to walk for a month. While it was a great time for me to finish my PS2 backlog, but a horrible time for everything else. I’m still working on getting rid of the extra weight as we speak.

The moral? Don’t fuck around when it comes to your feet!





7)I was once a Nintendo Man.

I bought my NES when I was 4 years old. When I was 6, I got my first Gameboy, when I was 7, I received an SNES for my birthday, and when I was 8, I bought a Gameboy Color. Video games were synonymous with Nintendo in my world. When the 64 came out, I had to have it; but something was standing in my way. My cousin showed me this platform called the Sony “Playstation”. I wanted it for all the wrong reasons.

I thought it would be really cool to have the coveted, “cool”, “non-kiddie” machine. Looking back on it, I was a moron for wanting it because of that, but I never looked back. Playstation 1 brought me my grandest moments of gaming; Metal Gear Solid, Tenchu, Final Fantasy 7, Brave Fencer Musashi, Gran Turismo. Not even Mario 64 or Ocarina of Time could match the sheer amount of fun I had with the titles I found on the PS1.

A few years after becoming a Sony Man, I considered buying a 64. Then it hit me: I had beaten Ocarina of Time and Mario 64 at a friend’s house. All of my buddies had WCW v. NWO Revenge, and Goldeneye. To boot, I was the best in my group of friends by far at Smash Brothers, so I had no reason to practice. I think I ended up spending my potential N64 cash on a Dreamcast or something. I actually passed on the Gamecube (same deal; beat the big titles at my friends, and played Melee at friend’s houses). Really, if I had to live with one system, it would be a toss up between the Dreamcast and PS2 (assuming the PS3 would have no backwards compatibility).





6) I have a passion for movies

I’ve always wanted to be a movie producer. Stereotypically enough, my favorite movie is Pulp Fiction, but what I dig is the performances. I can’t get enough of Tim Roth; I’ll hunt down everything that man is in, from Funny Games, to The Hulk, to the short amount of time he was in Four Rooms. I also believe that Pulp Fiction hosted some of the best performances of nearly every “A” list actor in the film, and had some of the best written dialogue you’ll ever find. With a big “oh no!” from you guys out there, my second favorite director is Kevin Smith. I just love his movies, social commentary, and jokes. Flaming, commence!




5) Music, man

I can easily narrow down my two favorite genres to power metal and hip-hop. I listen to a lot of old school Ice Cube (when he was good), and The Wutang Clan. Some of my favorite rap, however, comes from one man: Del tha Funkee Homosapien. You probably remember him from that insanely popular Gorrilaz video.

To me, he’s also known as Deltron 3030, and the leader of one of my favorite groups, Hieroglyphics. There’s only so many people in the world that would be willing to rap about Starscream (my favorite Transformer oddly enough). Deltron 3030 is a collaboration between Del and Dan the Automator (an amazing producer), that is actually a rap narrative concerning a future incarnation of Del in a dystopian environment.

Deltron 3030 Title Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7_jbluF0qo

Oh, and I like HIM (I made sure to let you know I was married, aka not gay, before I told you this). If you’re thinking of “Wings of a Butterfly”; that’s Dark Light, and I loathe that album. There’s something about Ville Valo’s vocals that I dig; he really gets into his music, and I respect that.

If you think Metal is just Metallica and Pantera, you got another thing comin’! (Oooh metal reference) Listen to these below, and if you find any of them interesting, hit me up and I can get you boat loads of listening material.

Fusion Metal – Liquid Tension (aka Dreamtheater without James LaBrie providing questionable vocals)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEZC0ZJ1AW8

Typical Power/Progressive Metal – Symphony X
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUn4jXZko5E

Typical Power Metal – Gamma Ray
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvk1BfH2_mc

“Alternative” Power Metal – Ayreon (This project has many albums, and all of them sound distinctly different)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6foW8QXyUg






4) Tom Cruise is my favorite actor (I know what you're thinking; fuck this kid)

If you doubt him, I strongly urge you to go watch Born on the Fourth of July. In what is one of the most truly guilty pleasures of all time, you could name me any Tom Cruise movie and I probably loved it; even Cocktail.

There’s something about his energy and the way he carries himself throughout a film that’s just gold. The Last Samurai is one of my top 5 favorite movies, and Collateral was another top notch recent performance that proves that he’s still got it (pretty soon you’ll realize just how much I enjoy guilty pleasures). As an added bonus I have an excuse to post a funny looking Tom Cruise picture.





3) My blog header give it away? I love anime.

At one point I owned around 120 anime DVDs (sadly I sold most of them to afford college), but I had a friend in High School that literally owned 500 titles (confirmed). He would let me borrow boxed sets at a time, so I could easily absorb myself in just about every popular show ever made. Some of my favorites include Trigun (obviously), Full Metal Alchemist, Berserk, and the Lupin TV Specials and Movies (not the TV show).

I remember in High School some of my favorite moments were spent watching boxed sets all night with a group of my friends. Naturally this hobby led me to Otakon a few times, and while I enjoyed it, I found it to be way too big. I most definitely prefer the smaller cons, like how Katsucon used to be.





2) Give me a flamboyant Japanese hero or give me death

Well, not definitively. I do enjoy games of all sorts of genres and origins, but ultimately, I’m a sucker for action-adventure games, specifically of Eastern descent. There’s something douchey and uninteresting about the Master Chiefs and Marcus Fenixes (Fenix, LOL) of the world that turns me off. I thoroughly enjoyed the Halo series, and to a less extent Gears of War, but I can’t get enough loudmouth theatric anime-esque antics; ever.

Take a look at the above picture: man that looks like a woman? Check. Giant sword getting ready to clash with ridiculous claw hands? Check. That’s my shit, that’s my shit!

Bonus: This is my favorite feature found in a video game – “Enhance the challenge! Replay in Hard or Expert mode and face more difficult opponents, different types of enemies, and even changes in the environment that will test your sword-swinging skills to the limit.” I beat good action games at least 3-4+ times depending on the title.





1) Jim Stoilon’ and Jonathan Holmes inspired me to write about gaming (and naturally inspired me to make the creepiest image ever)

After lurking Dtoid for many months I decided to create an account and start blogging. Jim Sterling’s unique writing style (har har) and Jonathan Holmes’s pure passion for gaming sparked something inside of me.

I wasn’t always the greatest straight-writer, but one thing’s for sure; I love video games of all shapes and sizes. Shortly after my writing tenure with a particular site, I was promoted to Editor-In-Chief, and I currently have a pending admission to E3; I never looked back (except at Dtoid).

Dtoid is the best community I’ve came across for any medium, not just gaming. The sheer amount of passion that pulsates from blog posts (not to mention the forums or weekly events) is astounding. No matter what happens in terms of my writing career, I know that I’ll always be a Dtoider.

I've posted some blogs before, but I hope this thing will allow me to familiarize myself with the "in" blog crowd a bit. What the fuck is up with long time members leaving? I suppose it just happens in cycles; I've dug years into the blog backlog and seen drama before. Here's to a long lasting Dtoid relationship!