The HG Blog

Well…sorta. I’m not off engaging in revelry on a Latin American beach with miles of scantily clad classmates and finding myself in an alley covered in any number of liquids…but I did get a little bit of a vacation this last weekend. I joined my university’s band to support our women’s hockey team in the national finals in still cold-as-balls Duluth, Minnesota. Our team unfortunately lost, but the trip was still a lot of fun. Minnesota beer is tasty.

Even though I didn’t get the full revelrous (is that a word? Yeah, probably not) spring break experience, the break from the whole needing to go to classes is very nice. I’m using the week to get ahead/catch up on a lot of work - and eat gallons of canned ravioli and ramen since the dining halls are closed - including stuff for HeavenGames. Given the nature of my work (ie, tons of long-term planning and sending thousands of emails), there’s not a whole lot of crazy new stuff that will come out right away, but I will absolutely let everyone know of how things turn out. I’m going to be meeting with Zen this week to talk about various HG-related things, inluding Cloud 9 (formerly HG 2.0). Hopefully I’ll be able to discuss our progress on that!

I’m a cowboy.
On a steel horse I ride.
I’m wanted.

Dead or alive.

Or that’s at least what Harmonix’s Rock Band has been trying to tell me every time I play Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi. One of my roommates bought the game last week and my ability to keep up with my coursework has dropped 10-fold. I can’t conceive how much time I’ve spent on the game, and my release from its deliciously rocksome clutches does not appear to be near.

Screw you, Kurt Cobain.

So being a proper American college student, I really play way too much of the following games: Halo 3, Guitar Hero 3, and Super Smash Brothers Melee. My roommates and I have played Smash since the days of Gushers and Capri Sun. (Brief tangent: Why the hell didn’t Capri Sun turn me into the Silver Surfer like the commercials so obviously indicated?) As expected, we have all been eagerly anticipating Super Smash Brothers Brawl for a looooong time and were destroyed when it was postponed.

All I’m saying is: if Brawl gets postponed again, I’m going to snap. I’ll go into the streets and throw turtle shells, metal fans, and Pokeballs at people. There’s only so much of no Zero Suit Samus ogling and Snake awesome watching that one person can take.

I do not have a video game addiction.

I’m a college student, it’s kind of a predestined thing. I’m always freakin talking about this, but to help get HG’s name out to everyone:

Join the HeavenGames Facebook group!

and

Friend me!

It’ll be a grand olde tyme, and the latter will get you access to photos like this:

I really have no idea.

Monday morning, September 24th. A hand reaches up and claws at a radio alarm that just continues wailing Fergie’s introspective, deeply philosophical song: Fergilicious. I force myself awake, and by force myself awake I mean I swear in multiple languages because I have to go to a professor’s office hours at the ungodly hour of 7:30 am. I don’t even know Romanian. Eventually, I stumble out of my residential house and head on up to the science center, passing through Harvard Yard. I look around and see the same things that have been around: the Freshman dorms, University Hall, Romance Languages department, the statue of the Master Chief…wait, what?

The statue of John Harvard, my University’s very Puritan namesake, was turned into the Master Freaking Chief. By MIT.

Brilliant.

You might have noticed that my blog posting has been a bit delayed recently. I do apologize for that, I’ve been on thesis research/vacation in Greece for the past month or so, so I’ve had somewhat limited internet access. My travels were action packed though, I had a great time on my Herculean journey through the land of Hydrae, Titans, and Nymphs.

It actually started in Amsterdam, with a day layover. I met up with HeavenGames Chief Operations Officer - Jayhawk - and we drank many beers and ate many stroopwafels. At the end of the day, I bid Jay farewell and made my way to Athens. Athens was a grand olde tyme, checked out the Acropolis, Archaeological Museum, and Socrates’ prison. Ballin.

Off to Corfu, where there was beach, kayaking, and some good old-fashioned partying. I followed Corfu with up with a retreat to the mountains of Delphi. Hanging out with the gods for a couple days was pretty cool; I had a great time checking out all of the ruins hiking around. Afterwards, I met up with a Scottish mate in Athens and we went on to the Cyclades.

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