Inspired by silverdragon's blog post and the sheer insanity in terms of number of get-to-know-me-better blogs popping up today...I will post my own post-Superbowl list of random factoids about the biggest Cardinals fan to ever knowingly call both the spread against his team and exactly how much they'd lose by, still holding a shred of hope that they'd win anyway, because he forgot he's a Cardinals fan. Sorry, had to get my moping out of the way.

First, the less relevant...10 NVGR things you probably don't know about me.

1. Semi-VGR: I was born left-handed, but taught to do everything right-handed, because my grandmother believed that left-handed people are tools of the devil. This is kind of a bitch, because other than having terrible handwriting and not really having a best way to masturbate, I handle all types of controls that require two hands in an unorthodox way, resulting in an inability to play some games (or instruments in the case of Rock Band) properly.

2. Twice, I nearly made it to the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. Yes, I was almost one of those headcases you see on TV with neurotic parents who demand perfection and nothing less. I brought a dictionary to school in seventh grade. Clearly it didn't help...the two words I lost out on were "ignominious" and...SAXOPHONE. To this date, jazz makes me flinch.

3. I've seen more horror movies than people will see total movies overall in their lifetime...around 1500. I probably have actually enjoyed less than 200 of those. The Lost Boys is still my favorite.

4. My favorite number is 17. This number haunts me everywhere I go, so I can only assume that it must be my favorite number, and not some sort of harbinger of doom. I'm really not cool with doom.

5. Despite being afraid of heights and hating hot temperatures in general, my two professions I always dreamed of being when I was a kid were an astronaut and a firefighter. I really need to get my priorities straight.

6. I fear spiders more than you do. No, really. You cannot fear spiders more than I do. I will more than likely have my girlfriend preview all comments that appear on this blog to see if there are spider pictures on it (even video game ones!) before I make any attempt to read what's been said here...and if there have been, I'll probably make her reply for me as well. Damn you all ahead of time.

7. Bad Religion is my favorite band of all time. I think Greg Graffin is a god among men, a lyrical genius, and a master of stage presence. The best compliment I ever received was that I looked like him (at a Bad Religion show, no less!).

8. I probably look like somebody you know, or you've seen before. I have been told at some point in my life that I look like the following: Steve Buscemi, Johnny Depp, "a young James Dean", "a young Jack Nicholson", the crazy guy from The Green Mile, "my brother" (that's what she said), Greg Graffin...and I know there's more, but I can't think of them off the top of my head right now.

9. I can't be happy when other people are miserable around me. I have to go out of my way to try and make them laugh, cheer them up, something...or else get away from the misery. I have a tendency to get really depressed when other people are down, so I try and stem that as quickly as possible.

10. I always want a bunch of friends, but I never know how to go about making them, because I generally don't share common field of interest with people my age. Hell, my girlfriend is about eight years younger than me. She's my best friend. I can't seem to relate to anyone near age 30. I'm also shy as hell at first when trying to interact with new people, which doesn't help my cause. Part of the reason I lurked here for about six months before even joining. :P

And now for something completely different...WITH PICTURES!

Ten (or more) VGR things you probably don't know about me.

1a. I won second place in Nintendo Power's Final Fantasy contest they had back in the day. Three different contests, were held over three months...I won second place in the second contest, which netted me a sassy pink Final Fantasy Fanny Pack. It was...magical. It did come with three chocolate candies though!

1b. I share the same birthday as Nester from Nintendo Power's Howard & Nester comic strip. May 23rd. It's in the 1987 Nintendo Power calendar if you're ever curious.



1c. To continue the Nintendo Power run, I still have the Counselor's Corner phone number memorized...along with the code to Mike Tyson in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!. 12068857529 is the old phone number...the area code changed, but I know some seven years ago when a friend in Washington tried calling the proper area code, the number still worked then. :P As for Mike Tyson...007 373 5963, bitches.

1d. I can't beat Mike Tyson. I'm sorry, world. I was not meant for boxing.

2. I can destroy hardcore MVC2 players using unorthodox lower-tier characters. Yeah, I'll still use Sentinel. But while everyone's playing pixies or pulling another Hyper Viper from their dimensional asspocket, I've got The Hulk and The Juggernaut backing me up. This really throws people off, as they're less commonly used characters by conventional standards of tournament play.



3. My best games are Contra, Lifeforce, F-Zero GX, and Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. I live for these games.

4. I love creating things in games. Level-builders, editors, stuff like that...it all makes my day. I've made over 150 stepcharts for Stepmania, 55 levels for Smash Brothers Brawl, 20 or so levels for Trackmania. I live for this stuff.

5. Final Fantasy IV isn't just my favorite RPG/game ever. It was all I knew for awhile in my high school years. One summer, I took a notebook and scanned every single enemy possible, while doing load/reloads to calculate boss enemy HP as close to the point as possible. I also took four VHS tapes and used the six-hour recording method to record an entire playthrough of the game so I could watch the game when I wasn't playing it and memorize the main dialogue. I don't remember it perfectly anymore, but that probably just means I need to go play the game again.

6. I have a short attention span when it comes to new games. Unless they can capture my attention and hold it steadfast, I will give up on them after a few hours to pursue some other fling with gaming.

7. Survival Horror is my favorite genre, but the only games I've beaten from it are AITD1 and 2, SH1, 2, and 3, Resident Evil 1 remake for the GameCube, Carrier for the Dreamcast, and Hellnight for the PSX. Not a very big selection, despite my enjoyment of the genre. I guess I always hope to be scared, or on the edge of my seat in a state of intensity, but none of these games really do the trick. They usually frustrate, rather than entertain. But I still keep hoping for the next one to keep me glued to it straight through.



8. I prefer multiplayer over singleplayer any day of the week, even if multiplayer means having someone watch me, or me watching someone play through a game. It always seems more enjoyable with more people present.

9. I loved Xenosaga's story through the entire trilogy. This wouldn't normally be a big deal, but most everyone I've heard seems to think of the games as crap. And I think most everyone is wrong. So nyah.

10. In an ultimate move of dickery, I made my girlfriend play through FF7, with her having never been spoiled by hearing about Aeris's death. I felt there was no need to tell her, despite the fact that she loved Aeris so much, that she leveled her moreso than anyone else. Needless to say, after the cutscene of her death, my girlfriend about raged over her wasted time leveling Aeris. And I laughed a lot. In fact, I still find it funny.

And now you know a little about me. If you cared. Which you probably didn't. But if you did read through here and you did find something interesting amidst this, I'm glad. This community rules and it's nice to be able to see us come together to learn from/about one another.



Me from a year ago. Full of rage and metal, clearly.