I realized today that I have been completely approaching things the wrong way. Yeah this is one of those blog posts where I will be completely vague and write it mostly for myself. Feel free to stop reading here.
Anybody still here must know that I'm officially changing my status from "satisfied" to "work in progress." In three months I'll report back. I'm changing my approach to health, work, play, and life.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Winning in the tenth frame.
"Games are won or lost in the tenth frame." - Bob the bowler from Ephraim, Utah.
I once attended a college course titled "bowling with Bob" at Snow College in Ephraim Utah. Our instructor Bob liked to say that the game was won or lost in the tenth frame. Well, the 90's kid in me says "duh". If your technique is off and your ball rolls in the gutter in the last frame, then you will score zero points. This can also happen in the other nine frames of the game. However, the tenth frame is your last shot. Your last attempt at closing out your efforts of the past 30 minutes or so. I am often a last minute crammer in college. I'm the guy flipping through the my textbook furiously while the instructor is passing out the pencils and bubble sheets. Why? I don't know. I just have to hurry and refresh my memory of that one formula. I just need to look up that definition one more time in case there is some trick question.
I just have to close out the tenth frame.
I'm not always the best college student. I have fallen to the despair of procrastination many times. My point is that games are won or lost in the tenth frame. The last little push before the buzzer goes off can make all of the difference.
I served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints a.k.a. the Mormon Church. I knocked on doors in Monterrey, Mexico and taught people how to have faith and follow the Savior. I studied Spanish and gospel lessons in the Missionary Training Center in Utah. My instructors seemed to have a zeal that I had never seen before. They were experienced missionaries. They were pros. My fellow new missionaries and I looked up to these men and women as our heroes. One day we filed in to a classroom to begin our final week of training. It was the general attitude among many people at the M.T.C. that the last week is the best week of all. There wouldn't be much more to learn. Our instructors would lighten up and share stories of their missionary glory days. We would have a small break. When our instructors arrived, however, the mood was different. One trainer looked around the room until he locked eyes with all twelve of us in the group. The chatter died down and he kept staring. His balding head twitched with excitement. His worn out leather dress shoes squeaked as he shifted his weight to his toes. After a moment he cracked a wide smile and said, "Gentlemen, this week will define each of you for the rest of your lives."
I cringed slightly at the over-the-top declaration that he made. I wasn't sold quite yet. He continued, "You all have one week until you do this for real. Are you going to take a vacation? Should we stop learning? You will face this decision all of your lives. It isn't time to quit."
I doubt this instructor understands the impact this little Monday motivational speech had on me. I'm sure he had delivered similar statements in the past, and would continue to do so in the future. After I heard that statement I put it into a real effort and I have since tried to put in my very best effort when others stop.
I have one month until I graduate with my Bachelor's degree. It occurred to me in the past few days that my last week of the M.T.C. was the week that I worked my hardest. That final week of effort paid off immensely. I was more confident in my Spanish. I was better prepared to approach strangers and preach the gospel. I won't give up my last month of college, but I will put forth my best effort. I am trying to make my tenth frame the best that I can. To anybody to is still reading this, don't give up. When you see others in your school or work giving up, then let that be a signal to you that it is time to start. The moment your start when everyone else stops is the moment that will define you for the rest of your life.
I once attended a college course titled "bowling with Bob" at Snow College in Ephraim Utah. Our instructor Bob liked to say that the game was won or lost in the tenth frame. Well, the 90's kid in me says "duh". If your technique is off and your ball rolls in the gutter in the last frame, then you will score zero points. This can also happen in the other nine frames of the game. However, the tenth frame is your last shot. Your last attempt at closing out your efforts of the past 30 minutes or so. I am often a last minute crammer in college. I'm the guy flipping through the my textbook furiously while the instructor is passing out the pencils and bubble sheets. Why? I don't know. I just have to hurry and refresh my memory of that one formula. I just need to look up that definition one more time in case there is some trick question.
I just have to close out the tenth frame.
I'm not always the best college student. I have fallen to the despair of procrastination many times. My point is that games are won or lost in the tenth frame. The last little push before the buzzer goes off can make all of the difference.
I served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints a.k.a. the Mormon Church. I knocked on doors in Monterrey, Mexico and taught people how to have faith and follow the Savior. I studied Spanish and gospel lessons in the Missionary Training Center in Utah. My instructors seemed to have a zeal that I had never seen before. They were experienced missionaries. They were pros. My fellow new missionaries and I looked up to these men and women as our heroes. One day we filed in to a classroom to begin our final week of training. It was the general attitude among many people at the M.T.C. that the last week is the best week of all. There wouldn't be much more to learn. Our instructors would lighten up and share stories of their missionary glory days. We would have a small break. When our instructors arrived, however, the mood was different. One trainer looked around the room until he locked eyes with all twelve of us in the group. The chatter died down and he kept staring. His balding head twitched with excitement. His worn out leather dress shoes squeaked as he shifted his weight to his toes. After a moment he cracked a wide smile and said, "Gentlemen, this week will define each of you for the rest of your lives."
I cringed slightly at the over-the-top declaration that he made. I wasn't sold quite yet. He continued, "You all have one week until you do this for real. Are you going to take a vacation? Should we stop learning? You will face this decision all of your lives. It isn't time to quit."
I doubt this instructor understands the impact this little Monday motivational speech had on me. I'm sure he had delivered similar statements in the past, and would continue to do so in the future. After I heard that statement I put it into a real effort and I have since tried to put in my very best effort when others stop.
I have one month until I graduate with my Bachelor's degree. It occurred to me in the past few days that my last week of the M.T.C. was the week that I worked my hardest. That final week of effort paid off immensely. I was more confident in my Spanish. I was better prepared to approach strangers and preach the gospel. I won't give up my last month of college, but I will put forth my best effort. I am trying to make my tenth frame the best that I can. To anybody to is still reading this, don't give up. When you see others in your school or work giving up, then let that be a signal to you that it is time to start. The moment your start when everyone else stops is the moment that will define you for the rest of your life.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Halo 4 first impressions
Ok, so I just got Halo 4 for my birthday and I thought I would write a little bit about it.
I have played all of the games in the Halo series (well I guess I didn't play Halo Wars) and I really like the games. I've been playing more PC games lately, but Halo is the reason I keep my Xbox live subscription active. I bought my first Xbox when Halo 2 came out, and I bought the Halo Reach edition of the Xbox 360 when it came out. Therefore, yes I was very very likely to enjoy Halo 4. These are my first impressions. I am curious to see if my opinion on some things will change.
The campaign is really interesting so far. I have only completed a few missions, but so far the attention to detail is amazing. I mostly play Halo for the multiplayer, but the campaign is fun too. The first little bit you are Master Chief fighting the Covenant and it feels like "business as usual." It plays exactly like previous games. The change is when fighting the new enemies that glow in a Tron-like fashion and explode when they die. Like I said, I haven't played campaign much but these new enemies make it much more interesting. I really like how the story is back on Master Chief and Cortana.
Multiplayer is crazy! There are loadouts in Halo for the first time which means I can START WITH THE DMR!! I love this. You can choose your primary weapon instead of being stuck with the Assault rifle every time. The BR is back too which is cool. I don't really like the high scratchy noise that the BR makes now, but it is a small complaint. The DMR is fun for me because I like to shoot from a distance. Another change that I like is that the radar is more useful! It is much easier to tell when an enemy is above or below me on the radar (motion detector? I can't remember what I'm supposed to call it). The little red square has a line above it when an enemy is a level above, and the line is below it when he is below. There is no little line if the enemy is on the same level. I know that in the past they make the dot dimmer when the enemy is below and brighter above (or something like that) but this new radar makes it way more clear than before. I really like that change.
The controls haven't changed much. Now everybody has the ability to sprint all the time so it is click-in-the-left-stick-to-sprint just like Call of Duty games. In Halo Reach, sprinting was an armor ability that you used with LB. One major problem I have with this new sprinting control is that in Halo I'm used to clicking the left stick to crouch! Now crouching is done by pressing the 'B' button and I couldn't find a way to swap the left click with the B button! Anyway with the toggle crouch option I should be able to relearn it ok, but for now it is annoying. Crouching isn't a huge mechanic, but I like hiding away and crouching when my shields need to charge.
The weapons are awesome in this game. I like that the classics are all there. Having both the BR and DMR is really cool. Some new weapons I don't get yet like the Scattershot. I have picked it up a few times, but I can't get any kills with it. Some guy killed me with it and thanks to the new killcam feature I watched him and it seemed like he was shooting all around me! I have no idea how I died. It seems like the Scattershot is a shotgun with a big spread, but it wasn't powerful when I used it at extreme close range. Strange. The plasma grenade detonator is fun. I just hate it when I set down a grenade and then have to abandon it when the enemy ends up walking a different direction. There is now a grenade warning logo like in Call of Duty games. It seems to me that frag grenades aren't very powerful unless the enemy is right on top of them. Maybe they are just seeing the warning and moving, or maybe the grenades are really nerfed; I don't know. Anyway I need to get more experience on some of the new forerunner guns. Oh I like that the Covenant Carbine is back in Halo 4 as well.
I really like the customization. I can tell that this game is really in depth. There are a lot of armor options, loadout options and all kinds of stuff. I also really like how in Infinity Slayer the player is rewarded for all kinds of things. You get points for comeback kills, being a distraction while your teammate gets a kill, getting a headshot while you are in the air, and a lot more. Instead of racing to get 50 team kills, you want to get 600 points. A kill gets you 10 points. I'm not sure if assist points go toward this total or not yet. I think that they do. I think the kill is split into 5 and 5 points or something. Obviously I haven't played this very much yet.
Ok, I think that is it. I just wanted to write down some first impressions of the game, and I'll have to read this later once I've put some time into the game. Anyway I think Halo is the best FPS you can get. It is just a solid game and a lot of fun. I wish they would make release it for PC, but MS wants to keep selling Xboxes (Xboxs? Xbox's?) so that won't happen. That's it for now. Bye.
I have played all of the games in the Halo series (well I guess I didn't play Halo Wars) and I really like the games. I've been playing more PC games lately, but Halo is the reason I keep my Xbox live subscription active. I bought my first Xbox when Halo 2 came out, and I bought the Halo Reach edition of the Xbox 360 when it came out. Therefore, yes I was very very likely to enjoy Halo 4. These are my first impressions. I am curious to see if my opinion on some things will change.
The campaign is really interesting so far. I have only completed a few missions, but so far the attention to detail is amazing. I mostly play Halo for the multiplayer, but the campaign is fun too. The first little bit you are Master Chief fighting the Covenant and it feels like "business as usual." It plays exactly like previous games. The change is when fighting the new enemies that glow in a Tron-like fashion and explode when they die. Like I said, I haven't played campaign much but these new enemies make it much more interesting. I really like how the story is back on Master Chief and Cortana.
Multiplayer is crazy! There are loadouts in Halo for the first time which means I can START WITH THE DMR!! I love this. You can choose your primary weapon instead of being stuck with the Assault rifle every time. The BR is back too which is cool. I don't really like the high scratchy noise that the BR makes now, but it is a small complaint. The DMR is fun for me because I like to shoot from a distance. Another change that I like is that the radar is more useful! It is much easier to tell when an enemy is above or below me on the radar (motion detector? I can't remember what I'm supposed to call it). The little red square has a line above it when an enemy is a level above, and the line is below it when he is below. There is no little line if the enemy is on the same level. I know that in the past they make the dot dimmer when the enemy is below and brighter above (or something like that) but this new radar makes it way more clear than before. I really like that change.
The controls haven't changed much. Now everybody has the ability to sprint all the time so it is click-in-the-left-stick-to-sprint just like Call of Duty games. In Halo Reach, sprinting was an armor ability that you used with LB. One major problem I have with this new sprinting control is that in Halo I'm used to clicking the left stick to crouch! Now crouching is done by pressing the 'B' button and I couldn't find a way to swap the left click with the B button! Anyway with the toggle crouch option I should be able to relearn it ok, but for now it is annoying. Crouching isn't a huge mechanic, but I like hiding away and crouching when my shields need to charge.
The weapons are awesome in this game. I like that the classics are all there. Having both the BR and DMR is really cool. Some new weapons I don't get yet like the Scattershot. I have picked it up a few times, but I can't get any kills with it. Some guy killed me with it and thanks to the new killcam feature I watched him and it seemed like he was shooting all around me! I have no idea how I died. It seems like the Scattershot is a shotgun with a big spread, but it wasn't powerful when I used it at extreme close range. Strange. The plasma grenade detonator is fun. I just hate it when I set down a grenade and then have to abandon it when the enemy ends up walking a different direction. There is now a grenade warning logo like in Call of Duty games. It seems to me that frag grenades aren't very powerful unless the enemy is right on top of them. Maybe they are just seeing the warning and moving, or maybe the grenades are really nerfed; I don't know. Anyway I need to get more experience on some of the new forerunner guns. Oh I like that the Covenant Carbine is back in Halo 4 as well.
I really like the customization. I can tell that this game is really in depth. There are a lot of armor options, loadout options and all kinds of stuff. I also really like how in Infinity Slayer the player is rewarded for all kinds of things. You get points for comeback kills, being a distraction while your teammate gets a kill, getting a headshot while you are in the air, and a lot more. Instead of racing to get 50 team kills, you want to get 600 points. A kill gets you 10 points. I'm not sure if assist points go toward this total or not yet. I think that they do. I think the kill is split into 5 and 5 points or something. Obviously I haven't played this very much yet.
Ok, I think that is it. I just wanted to write down some first impressions of the game, and I'll have to read this later once I've put some time into the game. Anyway I think Halo is the best FPS you can get. It is just a solid game and a lot of fun. I wish they would make release it for PC, but MS wants to keep selling Xboxes (Xboxs? Xbox's?) so that won't happen. That's it for now. Bye.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)