Hero Strike

Best Songs of 2011 Side B

2012-01-24T20:44:00.000-06:00

And now all the other good songs from 2011. No real order, and only slight moving around; I just threw them down and made a few continuity edits.

Hold It Against Me - Britney Spears (let's just get this out of the way first, lol)

SheiBe - Lady Gaga

Born This Way - Lady Gaga (if you watch, skip to 2:30)

Bad Kids - Lady Gaga

Crystalline - Bjork

Civilization - Justice (or a better video with Katy Perry O.O Adidas Commercial)

This is How it Goes - Haley (not the regular version in the video, but still good)

Peace Sign - Lights

Re:Boots - Lights (watch it in youtube for download link)

Toes - Lights

Under My Thumb - La Roux (this isn't the original version, but close enough I guess)

Heart is a Beating Drum - The Kills

Amazing - Inna

Little Too Much - Natasha Bedingfield

Run-run-run - Natasha Bedingfield

All I Need - Natasha Bedingfield ft. Kevin Rudolf

Rock Party Anthem - Lmfao (why the vid? why not!)

Save Yourself, I’ll Hold Them Back - My Chemical Romance

The Kids From Yesterday - My Chemical Romance

Sing - My Chemical Romance

Threadbare - Stonesour

Wolf & I - Oh Land

Plains - Oh Land

(no vid, lol)

White Nights - Oh Land

Forget That You’re Young - The Ravonettes

74 Years Young - Buddy Guy (not the recorded version, obviously)

Hell on Heels - Pistol Annies

A Commotion - Feist

Arlandria - Foo Fighters

Eyes Wide Open - Staind

The Bottom - Staind

This is Gonna Hurt - Sixx: A.M.

Set it on Fire - My Darkest Days

Move Your Body - My Darkest Days

Porn Star Dancing - My Darkest Days (there is a vid with Ludacris, of all people)

Talk That Talk - Rihanna

That’s All She Wrote - T.I. ft. Eminem

Black and Yellow - Wiz Khalifa

So Special - Lil Wayne ft. John Legend

(no good video, just sample in iTunes, lol)

N****s in Paris - Jay-Z & Kanye West

MegaMan - Lil Wayne

Martians vs Goblins - The Game

Welcome 2 Hell - Bad Meets Evil

Take From Me - Bad Meets Evil

My Own Planet (remix) - Royce da 5'9"

Beautiful Lasers (2 Ways) - Lupe Fiasco

Just a Dream - Nelly

Gone - Nelly ft. Kelly Rowland

Spectrum - Florence + The Machine

Video Games - Lana Del Rey

2010 Videos Released This Year

"Sprawl II" - Arcade Fire

"E.T." - Katy Perry ft. Kanye West

"All of the Lights" - Kanye West ft Rihanna

"S&M" - Rihanna

"Space Bound" - Eminem

LOL, and the only songs that didn't get vids were my favorites, "Seduction" by Eminem and "Skin" by Rihanna... :(

Divisional Round

2012-01-14T04:00:00.000-06:00

Last week didn't go so well, but my boy Tebow came through. Tebow haters should stop, you've lost the battle, you may win the war, but not today and not if Tebow loses this game. Now if Tebow actually wins this game the haters will have lost the war.

Broncos
Total Offense: 23
Passing Offense: 31
Rushing Offense: 1

Total Defense: 20
Passing Defense: 18
Rushing Defense: 22

Patriots (-13.5)
Total Offense: 2
Passing Offense: 2
Rushing Offense: 20

Total Defense: 31
Passing Defense: 31
Rushing Defense: 17

You have a below average offense and defense squaring off against pretty much the worst defense and best offense in the leauge. The Patriots kind of need some turnovers. I think you're playing with fire if you expect the Broncos offense to be so bad all the time. Don't forget, Patriots have been bad in the playoffs, and when these teams played in the regular season the Broncos were on a roll until they turned the ball over. Smart money is probably on the Pats to get a few turnovers and apply pressure to Tebow on the road for a snowball win, but since they were my only win last week, I'll say the Broncos at least cover.

----------------------

Saints (-3.5)
Total Offense: 1
Passing Offense: 1
Rushing Offense: 6

Total Defense: 24
Passing Defense: 30
Rushing Defense: 12

49ers
Total Offense: 26
Passing Offense: 29
Rushing Offense: 8

Total Defense: 4
Passing Defense: 16
Rushing Defense: 1

The war of defense and offense. If the old sayings hold true, defense wins championships, then the 49ers will win. I believe I heard somewhere that the Saints have never won a playoff game (non-super bowl) outside of Louisiana. The problem is that the Saints have had so many blowout wins, and if you've been watching them play Brees has thrown a lot of INTs, but the defenders haven't caught them all. I say go 49ers.

-----------------------

Giants
Total Offense: 8
Passing Offense: 5
Rushing Offense: 32

Total Defense: 27
Passing Defense: 29
Rushing Defense: 19

Packers (-7.5)
Total Offense: 3
Passing Offense: 3
Rushing Offense: 27

Total Defense: 32
Passing Defense: 32
Rushing Defense: 14

Smart money is on the Giants, who seem to play better on the road at all times. Good offenses vs bad defenses, in spite of the recent heroics of the Giants d-line and the Packers great defense of last year. I would not expect a shootout, but I would expect the Packers to win, with maybe the Giants covering.

--------------------------

Texans
Total Offense: 13
Passing Offense: 18
Rushing Offense: 2

Total Defense: 2
Passing Defense: 3
Rushing Defense: 4

Ravens (-7.5)
Total Offense: 15
Passing Offense: 19
Rushing Offense: 10

Total Defense: 3
Passing Defense: 4
Rushing Defense: 2

And now two mediocre offenses vs superb defenses. The Texans showed they may have something on offense, but it was the Bengals they played at home. Ravens could be on a Super Bowl run here with the Steelers out. While I don't believe the Ravens defense is that good, I would look for Yates to fall apart. Maybe it's a game, but late the Ravens could tack on an extra score.

Top 20 Rihanna Songs

2012-01-03T21:29:00.000-06:00

Well if Lights can have 20 great songs in a career that includes two albums, certainly Rihanna can fill 20 spots with six albums and numerous collabos.

So what makes Rihanna more than just another pop artist? The first thing is that she has a pretty good voice. She isn't Whitney Houston, but she can sing. Secondly, she can dance; not the Britney Spears dancing with backup dancers, Rihanna can actually dance. Lastly, she innovates, both in her fashion and song style - dance, pop, ballads, R&B, and rappers everywhere. You can go beyond her singles and there are a few gems on most of her albums.

This list will include songs she was only featured on because part of her x factor is taking over a song without having the majority of play time.

20. Princess of China (Coldplay)

19. Run This Town (Jay-Z ft. Kanye West)

18. Live Your Life (T.I.)

17. All of the Lights (Kanye West)

16. What's My Name (ft. Drake)

15. S&M

14. Talk That Talk (ft. Jay-Z)

13. Question Existing

12. Don't Stop the Music

11. Rehab

10. Pon De Replay

09. Unfaithful

08. Photographs

07. Drunk on Love

06. Love the Way You Lie (Eminem)

05. Only Girl (In The World)

04. Skin

03. Rude Boy

02. We Found Love

01. Umbrella (ft. Jay-Z)

BONUS VIDEO: Paranoid (Kanye West)

The Fix, Wild Card Round

2012-01-03T20:38:00.000-06:00

7-9, but if I had spent more than 20 seconds on this I would have realized the Colts were playing for the #1 overall pick.... I thought I did pick the Rams, the Bears were handed their win, the Bills started as I thought, and there are no excuses for the Lions or Broncos.

I don't think I did poorly this year, somewhere around .500, but there are reasons why gambling isn't a viable profession...

But let's do the playoffs!

Wild Card Round

Cin @ Hou (3)
I gotta go with Cin just on the hope that they are a complete team, and maybe they can at least lose by a few points.
SCORE: 26-21

Det @ NO (10.5)
I gotta believe Drew Brees is human, or that the Lions will at least make a game of it and even in defeat not lose by a late score.
SCORE: 28-31

Pit (8.5) @ Den
Somehow I think the Steelers will not play their best game, and at the very least Tebow time may come up a little short. I like Denver to win, but I'll play it safe and go with the spread.
SCORE: 24-23

ATL @ NYG (3)
I'm sure you can simulate this game on Madden a few times and it would by near 50/50. If the Falcons can prevent Cruz from getting more than one big play a game, they should at least keep it interesting if not win.
SCORE: 24-20

The Fix Week 17

2011-12-31T04:58:00.000-06:00

INB4 final Sunday of the regular season. Didn't do so well week 16, but I picked most of the winners, and even had the Falcons just covering. 7-9 ain't bad.

I have a good feeling about week 17.

Best Songs of 2011 Final

2011-12-31T02:10:00.000-06:00

I was going to make a separate list for the top 25 alone with no repeated artists, but I think in this way the playlist is best. I also considered waiting until late into January, but there is more than enough music here, AND I'm going to make a side B list just for 2011 alone! So there's over 100 songs already.

I gave each song a video, so if there is no official video then it will just be the song rip on youtube. There are more than a few songs from years past.

Flux and Flow - Lights ft. Shad (unofficial video)

She Will - Lil Wayne ft. Drake

Birthday Cake - Rihanna (Y U NO FINISH?!)

Fast Lane - Bad Meets Evil (Eminem and Royce da 5’9”)

Red Nation - The Game ft. Lil Wayne

On My Level - Wiz Khalifa ft. Too $hort

I’m on Everything - Bad Meets Evil (Eminem and Royce da 5’9”)

Welcome to the World - T.I. ft. Kanye West

Born in the Trap - The Game

The Other Side - The Roots

Like Smoke - Amy Winehouse ft Nas (audio only, for obvious reasons)

Moment 4 Life - Nicki Minaj ft. Drake

Roll Up - Wiz Khalifa

It’s Good - Lil Wayne ft. Drake and Jadakiss

Words I Never Said - Lupe Fiasco ft. Skylar Grey

Everybody Breaks a Glass - Lights ft. Shad and Holy Fuck

Destroya - My Chemical Romance

Monster - Paramore

All American Nightmare - Hinder

Country Girl - Luke Bryan

Like Nobody Else - My Darkest Days

Again - Flyleaf (2008)

Not Again - Staind

Something for the Pain - Redlight King

Invisible - Skylar Grey

I'll Be There - Chris Rene

Wish You Were Here - Avril Lavigne

Start Over - Beyonce

Earth Song - Melanie Amaro

Rope - Foo Fighters

Come Undone - My Darkest Days

Last Day of Magic - The Kills

Punching in a Dream - The Naked and Famous

Princess of China - Coldplay ft. Rihanna (unofficial)

Derezzed - Daft Punk

Fourth Dimension - Lights

Paradise - Coldplay

Timebomb - States

Suspension - Lights

No Light, No Light - Florence + The Machine

Lights - Ellie Goulding

Sun of a Gun -Oh Land

We Found Love - Rihanna

Timing is Everything - Lights

Physical - Haley

Club Rocker - Inna

Starry Eyed - Ellie Goulding

Siberia - Lights

Lonely Boy - The Black Keys

Pumped up Kicks - Foster the People

Break the Chain - Oh Land

Rolling in the Deep - Adele

Lost in Paradise - Evanescence

Only if for a Night - Florence + The Machine

I’m Not Lonely Anymore - Jessica Lea Mayfield (2008)

Joga - Bjork (2009; I know I'm butchery the accents on the spelling... Lights did a youtube cover on this and didn't do too badly considering Bjork's version is out of this world: Joga - Lights )

Welcome to Hell - Plan B

Our Hearts are Wrong - Jessica Lea Mayfield

Underneath the Sycamore - Death Cab for Cutie (too poor to make a real video I guess)

Perfection - Oh Land

What the Water Gave Me - Florence + The Machine

And Counting... - Lights

Where Do We Go From Here - Chris Rene

Drunk on Love - Rihanna (WINNING The XX - Intro ; first song from last year's list )

Taking Pictures of You - The Kooks

Young Blood - The Naked and Famous

Young Homie - Chris Rene (it's even more emotional knowing how far he went, top 3)

And that's 68 songs I believe. Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

The Fix Week 16

2011-12-21T18:58:00.000-06:00

And I'm back to making football picks! I stopped because I couldn't keep up with the Thursday games, but at least for the last three weeks I'll give it a whirl.

What I'm gonna do is use EPSN's pickem and just screenshot them, now that I know how.

I actually took my picks last week, but didn't post them. Did well, went 10-6. You see the X by the Falcons meaning I didn't get that one in time, but rest assured I would most likely have picked them; even without that I went 9-6, more than solid. Picked 4 upsets, not bad at all.

And now week 16

I'm not sure how I did before, but it wasn't pretty and it was somewhere around .500. Just eyeballed it and looks like I went half in my last posted week.

Best 150 Pokemon Part 3

2011-12-20T21:23:00.000-06:00

And now we conclude with what will surely be the most debatable 50 as it will mean the last chances for some Pokemon. In a franchise reboot, whatever Pokemon don't make this list would very well never be seen again.

Relax, it won't happen, but here are the final 50. It's way heavier than the final 50 of the original 150, where it wasn't until about the last 15 where there was a drastic change in quality. If they were making a real game on this, the first thing would be to take out a few of the dragon trios for less serious monsters.

The Final 50

The first 50 were mostly the basic 6 types and normals; the second 50 was a mix of the remaining types except dragons; and the final 50 will include dragons, a few of the neglected types, and the only surviving legendaries.

First up are the Eeveelutions, but you'll notice Eevee itself is not here. The thought is that in a true game you would be tying 7 evolutions to 1 Pokemon. If anything, take away Tauros or Miltank and make the Eeveelutions easier to obtain.

See, left out, lol

101. Vaporeon (single)
102. Jolteon (single)
103. Flareon (single)
104. Espeon (single)
105. Umbreon (single)
106. Leafeon (single)
107. Glaceon (single)

LOL

Next is a healthy mix of types. I figure we needed a bear, cow, and bull just for the sake of world believability. Then a quad of fighters with the only non-second-evolution single Pokemon in Machoke. We got the Nidos' final forms, a few ghosts, and Dewgong for an extra ice type.

108. Ursaring (single)
109. Miltank
110. Tauros
111. Hitmonlee
112. Hitmonchan

Oh yeah, another one of the blitzers!

113. Hitmontop (single)
114. Machoke (single)
115. Nidoqueen (single)
116. Nidoking (single)

117. Drifloon
118. Rotom (non-legendary)
119. Dewgong (single)

Gotta have the most improved evolver in Magikarp, and then starts the flood of dragons. If cuts had to be made here I guess it would start with Dragonite.

120. Magikarp
121. Gyarados

#SWAG

122. Druddigon
123. Axew
124. Fraxure
125. Haxorus
126. Deino
127. Zweilous
128. Hydreigon
129. Gible
130. Gabite
131. Garchomp

132. Dratini
133. Dragonair
134. Dragonite

Then we have a package of darks and a psychic/fire type. Given that the final legendaries are psychic, this pack here are a nice solution.

135. Houndour
136. Houndoom
137. Zorua
138. Zoroark
139. Victini (non-legendary)

Now the legendaries start. I liked the idea of them being flyers, as opposed to the dog trio.

140. Arcticuno
141. Zapdos
142. Moltres

143. Ho-oh
144. Lugia
145. Rayquaza

Finally, two of the epic "world creator" kinds of legendaries, Celebi for the kids, and Mew and Mewtwo in correct order, lol.

146. Palkia
147. Dialga
148. Celebi
149. Mew

I would consider watching this movie, but no VCR :(

150. Mewtwo

The force is strong with this mutha fucka.

.... and of course we have to throw in one more because that's what they did, the original 151.

151. Arceus

Best 150 Pokemon Part 2

2011-12-20T18:18:00.003-06:00

Thanks for sticking around. As promised, this set will try to have few trios and get a bunch of mixed types.

The Second 50

We left off with Torterra, and we continue with some basic trios, and take a big jump by going to a late gen bug trio.

051. Slowpoke

052. Slowbro
053. Slowking (I really really really want Slowking to be the third form, not an alternate second)
054. Ghastly
055. Haunter
056. Gengar
057. Venipede
058. Whirlipede
059. Scolipede

Now that most of the types are on the board, we start with some pairs and continue introducing types.

060. Roselia (we accidentally Budew)
061. Roserade
062. Diglett

063. Dugtrio
064. Shinx
065. Luxio
066. Luxray
067. Sneasel

Before I stopped playing the card game, this was the best card . I don't have to tell you why, just look at this mother fucker! He's gonna Fury Swipes and Beat Up the shit out of your shit!

068. Weavile
069. Riolu
070. Lucario

Next up is the awesome block.

071. Scyther

The second part of winning blitz deck, lol

072. Scizor
073. Onyx
074. Steelix
075. Larvitar
076. Pupitar
077. Tyranitar

078. Aron
079. Lairon
080. Aggron

Next are some non-evolutions and then some birds. When I mean single, I mean it's just that form, not the early forms.

081. Ditto

082. Snorlax
083. Sableye
084. Absol
085. Xatu (single)
086. Noctowl (single)
087. Pidgeot (single)
088. Braviary (single)

089. Aerodactyl
090. Kabutops (single)

We conclude with a bunch of evolutions that are no more.

091. Tropius
092. Butterfree (single)

093. Beedrill (single)
094. Venomoth (single)
095. Lapras
096. Seaking (single)

097. Seadra (single)

098. Rapidash (single)

099. Ninetails (single)

100. Arcanine (single)

Best 150 Pokemon Part 1

2011-12-20T18:17:00.002-06:00

This is a fun idea I had. Rather than ranking the Pokemon, I thought it would be cool to redo the original 150 and in some parallel universe that be the end of it. It looks like Pokemon #1,304 may happen some day, so this is my effort to say that if there is a complete reboot of the franchise, these are the Pokemon to go with.

I'll try to follow a general idea with each set of 50. For the first 50 I would want to have the best of the basic types: fire, water, grass, rock, electric, and physic. And of course throw in a few great normal types.

For the second set of 50 I would go with only a few full evolutions and get as many quality mixed types and the remaining types as I can.

For the final 50 I would finish up with the unconventional types, throw in a few dragons, and finish with just about 10 legendaries, which is a lot compared to the four original legendaries. I also have the freedom to add 1 more amazing straggler...

The First 50

Of course I could really stir things up by going on a tangent here, or using different starters, but this is one of those rare cases where the original thing is the best and it's not because of nostalgia.

001. Bulbasaur
002. Ivysaur
003. Venusaur
004. Charmander
005. Charmeleon
006. Charizard
007. Squirtle
008. Wartortle
009. Blastoise

Sadly, Pikachu does not have a killer third third form, just a baby before him. We then get the best rock type, the best and original psychic trio, the coolest of the normal types, and the best of the "birds."

010. Pichu
011. Pikachu

012. Raichu

013. Rhyhorn

014. Rhydon
015. Rhyperior (I believe gen 4)
016. Abra
017. Kadabra
018. Alakazam

019. Porygon
020. Porygon2
021. Porygon-Z
022. Starly
023. Staravia
024. Staraptor

We then follow with two trios who were scattered among the generations.The first demoted starter trio appears, then Marill who was sort of the face of gen 2, the iconic Jigglypuff line, and a nice psychic trio that has a feminine and opposite appearance of the Abra line (I know Gallade is in the Ralts line, but no).

025. Elekid
026. Electabuzz
027. Electrive
028. Magby
029. Magmar
030. Magmortar
031. Snivy

032. Servine
033. Serperior
034. Azurill
035. Marill
036. Azumarill
037. Igglybuff
038. Jigglypuff

039. Wigglytuff
040. Ralts
041. Kirlia
042. Gardevoir (lol, I didn't realize there were many questionable pics of this one...)

We conclude with a ground pair (which means the end of pure rockers), the final pure normal trio, and the start of the dual-types.

043. Phanpy
044. Donphan
045. Happiny
046. Chansey
047. Blissey
048. Turtwig
049. Grotle
050. Torterra

Custom Classes of Skyrim

2011-12-18T15:52:00.001-06:00

This post will include my own class distinctions and my rundown of the races.

===========
Custom Classes
===========

You can go by these, or you can always go with a utility option in any armor.
Utility means you sneak, start with a bow, spend your mana, and then whip out
a weapon. Utility will live and die by the use of special powers, like racials
and shouts.

Heavy Armor Classes
-------------------
You are going to be weighed down unless you get the Steed stone sign. I would
suggest getting that as almost mandatory.

Don't think you can ignore the heavy armor tree and be protected by much; heavy
armor unbuffed is just like having full light armor plus one more piece.

Name: Brawler
Perks: heavy (smithing optional as it is your only defense)
Strategy: You basically bank of the Fists of Steel perk in the heavy armor
tree. Also, I've seen a few heavy armor pieces that boost unarmed attacks.
Would strongly suggest using a Khajiit for their claws, though I am not sure
if the perk, claws, and armor bonuses stack like I think they might.
Best Race: Khajiit

Name: Warrior
Perks: 2H, heavy (smithing optional as it is your only defense)
Strategy: Nuke melee attacks. You will need to drink potions when in fights
that you cannot handle.
Best Race: Nord

Name: Tank
Perks: 1H, block, heavy
Strategy: The most traditional of the classes. You balance defense and offense
effectively. With a shield you can wait to put points in the block tree until
you have some 1H perks.
Best Race: (in order) Orc, Redguard, Nord, Imperial

Name: Berserker
Perks: 1H, heavy (smithing optional as it is your only defense)
Strategy: Bank on the two dual-wielding perks in the 1H tree. I would also
suggest getting the axe and sword perks for bleeds and crits. You have almost
no defense. Be sure to use your power attacks often.
Best Race: Redguard

Name: Battle-Mage
Perks: heavy, destro, block
Strategy: I'm thinking shield bash and flames is your combat plan.
Best Race: High Elf

Name: Paladin
Perks: heavy, 1H, resto (block optional)
Strategy: Maybe go as a tank, and whip out a heal when needed, or keep your
healing spells ready at all times. Either a shield or wards.
Best Race: Imperial

Cloth Classes
-------------
You can use light armor here, but you'll find that most magic bonuses are found
on cloth gear. But with clothes you don't need to worry about stamina or
carrying lots of armor and weapons, so therefore you do not need the Steed
stone sign.

Also, consider using a staff. Staves can shoot destro spells or provide
powerful crowd control spells. Consider the Wabbajack from the Sheogorath
daedric quest in Solitude for some chaos.

Alteration has a nice Mage Armor perk, and resto has wards if you are looking
for magical protection. So any caster class can use the illusion or alteration
schools if they want.

Enchanting (without perks) is almost required to provide you extra boosts as
you will need them.

Breton, Dark Elf, and High Elf are the races to think about, though I would
say High Elf in all cases.

Name: Mage
Perks: destro
Strategy: You are a nuking caster with nimble feet as your only way to avoid
some damage.
Best Race: High Elf (in spite of Dark Elf bonus to destro and extra spell)

Name: Conjurer
Perks: conjure (destro optional)
Strategy: You summon minions to take enemy damage. You can use bound items or
some destro spells when needed.
Best Race: Breton

Name: Healer
Perks: resto, alt, illusion, destro or 1H
Strategy: You basically out-heal the damage you take. It's like taking your
armor and shield away in favor of a healing spell. I would not recommend this
unless you want to challenge yourself.
Best Race: High Elf or Imperial

I believe it may be possible to utilize allies and heal them, but that is very
risky as they can't down potions like you can. However, there are many spells
and scrolls that boost friendlies in combat.

Name: Warlock
Perks: conjure, destro, resto, alt, illusion
Strategy: The ultimate caster class. You will use all to survive battles. This
may be a slow-to-form idea to fully form, but I can see it working well. You
may need to start as a mage and quickly pick up the other perks.
Best Race: High Elf

Light Armor Classes
-------------------
Don't think of light armor as a slight step above cloth; it is pretty good
and can be buffed to be tougher than unbuffed heavy armor.

Name: Skirmisher
Perks: 1H, block, light
Strategy: You run a more nimble version of the tank class.
Best Race: Redguard

*NOTE: There is no light armor dual-wielding class suggested because you will
have less protection than the heavy armor berserker. If anything you could
try dual-wielding as a skirmisher after you have some light armor perks.*

Name: Ranger
Perks: sneak, archery, light (1H and shield as a back-up)
Strategy: Very simple, you sneak and shoot enemies and hide in the shadows
hoping they don't find you. If you are spotted you should fall back to a 1H
and shield until you have the Ranger perk, which allows you to move faster with
a drawn bow. Also get the Steady Hand, Slow-Time shout, and Unrelenting Force
shout and you can keep your bow always in hand.
Best Race: Wood Elf (Khajiit and Argonian work too)

Name: Assassin
Perks: sneak, 1H, light
Strategy: With the Dagger x15 damage perk in the sneak tree, and the damage
boosts in the 1H tree, you can one-shot almost anything in the game in stealth.
But you should have light armor and a shield as a back-up plan.
Best Race: Khajiit

Name: Necromancer
Perks: any magic (destro recommended), light, sneak
Strategy: Less a strategy and more of an idea. Rather than falling back to a
shield and 1H in all of the above classes, you instead whip out some spells.
You're basically a light armor caster with the freedom to start with a sneak
attack bow or dagger.
Best Race: Dark Elf

====
Races
====

Your race will have a significant impact on your gameplay. The abilities are
not ground-breaking, but they help. Most powers could mean the difference in
success and failure in certain fights, especially boss fights. The bonuses are
not as big a deal as you may want to believe, even the +10 ones.

Feel free to go against the suggestions of the powers, abilities, and bonuses;
you'll make the game harder for yourself but it won't be impossible at all.

*NOTE: All racial powers are once per game day.*

-----

Name: Argonian
Homeland: Black Marsh - swamp region, SE of Cyrodiil
Abilities: 50% resist disease, water breathing
Bonus +10: lockpicking
Bonus +5: alt, light, pickpocket, resto, sneak
Power: Histskin - restores health over a short time
Best Use: Stealth focus with a heal power when up against tougher foes. And
they seem to be the best utility race, which could mean they are the worst
race. Oh well, they are the best-looking race at least, lol.

-----

Name: Breton
Homeland: High Rock - Featured in TES2, varied climates, NW of Skyrim
Abilities: 25% resist magic; conjure familiar spell to start
Bonus +10: conjuration
Bonus +5: alchemy, alt, illusion, resto, speech
Power: Dragonskin - absorbs spell damage
Best Use: Conjurer, but melee or caster would benefit from the magic resist.

-----

Name: Dark Elf
Homeland: Morrowind - Wild climate and geography including volcanoes, East of
Cyrodiil, featured in TES3
Abilities: 50% resist fire; sparks spell to start
Bonus +10: destruction
Bonus +5: alchemy, alt, illusion, light, sneak
Power: Ancestor's Wrath - enflame to damage attackers
Best Use: Caster or stealth; maybe start in stealth and fall back to magic.

-----

Name: High Elf
Homeland: Summerset Isle - Isolated island SW of Tamriel
Abilities: +50 magicka; fury spell to start
Bonus +10: illusion
Bonus +5: alt, conjure, destro, enchant, resto
Power: Highborn - restores magicka
Best Use: Any caster class.

-----

Name: Imperial
Homeland: Cyrodiil - Center of Tamriel, seat of the Empire, featured in TES4
Abilities: Find more gold
Bonus +10: resto
Bonus +5: block, destro, enchant, heavy, 1H
Power: Voice of the Emperor - calms enemies from attacking
Best Use: Tank, paladin, or battle-mage.

-----

Name: Khajiit
Homeland: Elsweyr - Jungle region south of Cyrodiil
Abilities: Claw attacks
Bonus +10: sneak
Bonus +5: alchemy, archery, lockpicking, pickpocket, 1H
Power: Night Eye - always see at night
Best Use: Any stealth class.

-----

Name: Nord
Homeland: Skyrim - Featured in TES5 (this game, lol)
Abilities: 50% resist frost
Bonus +10: 2H
Bonus +5: block, light, 1H, smithing, speech
Power: Battlecry - fears nearby enemies
Best Use: A heavy armor melee fighter. Battlecry helps when against too many
enemies.

-----

Name: Orc
Homeland: Orsinium - Single city of a province within the region of High Rock
Abilities: none
Bonus +10: heavy
Bonus +5: block, enchant, 1H, smithing, 2H
Power: Berserker Rage - x2 melee damage and 1/2 damage taken
Best Use: Any heavy armor melee class.

-----

Name: Redguard
Homeland: Hammerfell - Featured in TES2, West of Skyrim, desert wastelands
Abilities: 50% resist poison
Bonus +10: 1H
Bonus +5: alt, archery, block, destro, smithing
Power: Adrenaline Rush - stamina regens x10 faster
Best Use: Archer or melee for the power.

-----

Name: Wood Elf
Homeland: Valenwood - Forest region full of migratory trees as cities, SW of
Cyrodiil
Abilities: 50% resist poison and disease
Bonus +10: archery
Bonus +5: alchemy, light, lockpicking, pickpocket, sneak
Power: Command Animal - makes an animal an ally
Best Use: Any stealth class.

-----

Skyrim Pro Run

2011-12-06T21:53:00.001-06:00

Skyrim and all Elder Scroll games have the tendency to have a steep learning curve for noobies, which is to say as steep as a suicide mountain. The usual pitfall is players not having a focused goal for their class. Most college students change majors a few times or remain undecided until dropping out, and the same goes here as most players will mix and match talent trees and perks until they finally focus themselves and have a bunch of wasted effort in other specializations.

I don't mean to explain the entire, deep mechanics of this game. I am simply here to tell you the best way to start out if you never played Morrowind or Oblivion, or even if you played a fairly weak game in Skyrim already. This is the best way to start out for anyone.

Race: Nord. The reason is for the fear shout you get once a game day. It's very useful when you find yourself up SOL creek without a paddle. Also, you will experience the friendly side of Skyrim as this is the Nords' homeland.

Specialization: 1H weapons, Shield, Heavy Armor. Specialize in a 1H weapon and a shield. When you hold your shield up you can press attack to perform a shield bash. Start picking up heavy armor from the start. Put your talent points in these trees only for the first dozen or so levels and you won't go wrong.

You could go overkill and max this advice out by seeking the trainers in Skyrim that will help boost these talents, but that will break the flow of the questing.

Optional: Grab a pickaxe and put points into the smithing tree. With the axe you can mine materials in the wild and with the smithing you can get more and better heavy armor in a hurry. I say put points into smithing after you have the first few 1H and heavy armor perks.

Stone Sign: Steed. This will give you a +100 carry weight, remove the weight of your equipped armor, and thus make you move freely as if you were naked or in clothes. This is a huge advantage for heavy armor wearers as you can both carry that armor without penalty and you can move like a ninja. Steed stone location below...

Start the game with the Warrior at the first Standing Stones, but quickly find your way to Solitude.

Starting Quest: Joining the Legion. Three reasons: first is that you are a patriot of sorts, second is that you will be near the Steed Standing Stone, and third is that you will approach the Dragonborn quest in a much better manner. Yes, by doing this quest line or the one to join the Stormcloaks in Windhelm, you will run into the Dragonborn quest anyway.

Back to the Steed sign, it is West of Solitude. There are two roads going west, but you want the main road leading out of the city. However, you will be sent to this area in the first quest of joining the Legion! OMG, it all works perfectly huh?! You will be sent to clear a fort and the Steed stone is just east of that fort - hard to miss on the radar.

As far as the Dragonborn quest, you'll pick up a shout called Slow Time in one of the Legion quests, and to be honest there were no useful shouts I found in the Dragonborn quest except for the powered up Force shout and the Call Dragon shout to help against wild dragons.

You'll also get to buy the house in Whiterun and have Lydia as an ally, so there is really no reason to start the Dragonborn quest before either quest to pick a side in the war.

And you won't get far into the Legion quest line until you start the Dragonborn quest line, and all you will have to clear in the Dragonborn quest is Bleak Falls Barrow and then the first dragon fight. You can then resume the Legion quest line.

But you should not pick up the Dragonborn quest line from there. The reason is that you will be stuck in the Dragonborn quest line when the Jarl of Whiterun wants the war settled or a treaty reached. You can only get a treaty by having no business in the war, which won't be the case with the advice above. So basically, finish the Legion quest line after you kill the first dragon.

And there you have it, all you need to know to have a fully successful game of Skyrim. Does that mean "warrior" class is the best? Probably, especially when combined with the Steed sign, but I can vouch for the power of the ranger / rogue / thief line as being just as if not more powerful with the only disadvantage of slightly more time spent sneaking around. And I'm sure a solid magic-user build would stack up well to the other two, but I would think magic, clothe-wearers would be like playing the game on hard mode. I have yet to go caster, but I doubt there is more solid all-around advice than what was given above.

Even if you don't want to be a warrior, the idea of choosing quests, weapons, armors, and the best star sign will apply to all. Whatever you choose to do in Skyrim, FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS. Study the talent trees, find the Standing Stone you want, and the game will be easy mode.

Skyrim Tips, Stones, and Races

2011-12-06T20:55:00.001-06:00

Here is a mash-up of some more Skyrim advice. It's not cleaned up from it's guide format, so take it or leave it, but it's there (it's hard to space things that were copied and pasted, as evident by the first two notes being spaced and the rest not, lol).

The wizard at Dragonsreach in Whiterun will have a wide selection of spells,
from conjuring to healing others you can find anything useful from any of the
schools of magic. Feel free to pick up a few when you have the coin for it. A
1000 gold will get you a nice handful of new spells.

Swords, maces, and axes swing for different power and speeds.

You have a shield bash; just hold up your shield and press attack.
You can dual-wield magic, 1H weapons, and mix the two. Try flames and a shield
and see if that works. You can do whatever.
There are raw minerals to harvest in the land from rock formations, but you
need a pickaxe to retrieve them. Very useful for blacksmiths.
Save anything with an effect and disenchant it at an enchanting table.
Save often. Make a minimum of three save slots per character, and I mean aside
from the auto-saves.
Choose light armor or heavy armor and stick with it. Or switch to the other
very quickly if you don't like how the game plays in one kind.
In the early game, stuff is not worth the base value. It may say 25 gold, but
you probably only get 6 or so out of it, so don't sweat the small gold amounts
in the early game too much.
Stamina will allow you to carry more items. If you must drop weight, have to
drop normal gear and weapons, no choice.
You can sprint, which consumes stamina.
Your horse can sprint too; or gallop, or canter, or whatever.
You can pick up objects (on the 360, hold A for a second or two and you will
carry the object, hold again to let go).
Pressing pause sometimes fixes glitches.
Keep good track of your minor quests. They don't take much to complete and
they give decent rewards.
Once you build up a few thousand gold, consider seeking out trainers to help
boost your leveling. It is expensive, but the reduced time to level is a big
bonus.
Don't buy gear or armor from merchants. You will find stuff from killing people
and the drops will level as you level, so there is a high likelihood when you
buy something it will be replaced in no time.
My trick to picking locks is to start at the top, go all the way to both sides,
halfway between top and the sides, and then anywhere in between. You can't just
jiggle a moment and judge from that. You have to jiggle it a little bit longer
to know if you are close.
Sneaking is easier than you will make it out to be. So long as you are not in
direct light and have a high stealth rating, you are most likely not going to
be spotted.
Clearing any outside areas is not permanent, as they will eventually be
repopulated with enemies and loot. You can use some outside chests as
temporary holding places, but you will need to work fast to find a home, like
in Whiterun.
You gain a resting bonus by sleeping every now and then. You can see how long
your rest bonus is in the Active Effects tab in your magic menu. It merely
lets you improve skills 10% faster than without, so if you see an unowned bed
and you haven't slept in a game day or more, may as well sleep for 8 hours. An
hour of rest is like a second or half of actual time, so no reason not to.
When you kill any dragon you gain a dragon soul. You spend these in your magic
menu under shouts on any shouts that are not yet unlocked.
Any allies that follow you can be killed by your hand (friendly fire), but I'm
not sure they can all die permanently from enemy attacks or world kills (like
traps). Given how shotty the AI is I would just avoid bring an ally, especially
if you're stealth or have massive magic attacks. Maybe a conjurer would find an
ally extra beneficial.
Powers that are once a day are once a game day.

===============
Standing Stones
===============

You can follow one of these star signs at a time, and you can switch back and
forth as you wish; though I doubt you could switch within a day to refresh a
daily cooldown, as it would take a long amount of game time to get around to
each stone.

Skills fall under three basic sets, and they have the following stones:

Mage - Learn Magic skills 20% faster.
Warrior - Learn Combat skills 20% faster.
Thief - Learn Stealth and the remaining skills 20% faster.

Location: All three are found at the bend in the road leading NW from Helgen,
which you will run into after you escape the first area in the game. You
can't miss them and you better grab one when you do even if you have no idea
if you want them.

Remember, you can always come back to these three and change. However, there
are so many more that may prove more useful to you.

Lover - Learn all skills 15% faster.
Opinion: An obvious choice if you yet to settle on what you want to be, like
an undecided major in college. It's a great choice if you find yourself
mixing it up with everything. But if for instance you don't use magic, then
this isn't helping you as much. You need to be committed to using all three
major sets of skills
Location: NE of Markarth, up a mountain, so just go to Salvius Farm outside the
city, head North a little bit, and then go directly East and you should at
least see the stone symbol pop up on your radar.

Steed - No speed loss from wearing armor, +100 carry limit, equipped armor
weighs nothing.
Opinion: A must-have skill for all heavy armor wearers, and possibly the best
stone for all due to the extra carry limit; it means you won't have to increase
stamina if you aren't melee just to carry more.
Location: NW of Solitude near Ironback Hideout. If you check your map it will
be directly West of the Thalmor Embassy, on the other side of the mountain
range/top. If you follow the road there will be a sign past Wolfskull Cave
and the stone is directly North of there; you can't reach it if you approach
from the East, you have to approach from the South which is the road.

Lady - +25% health and stamina regen.
Opinion: Helps if you fear dying and need help with power attacks.
Location: On an isle in the lake North of Falkreath. It's on the SW side of the
lake.

Lord - 50 points of damage resistance; 25% magic resistance.
Opinion: Also helps stay alive and protects against some magic.
Location: It's directly East from Morthal, but it's high on the mountains. I
was sidetracked by the headless horseman who I lost, but feel free to go south
to the Labyrinthian, NE up the mountain trail to a dragon and a shout, and
then further NE along the cliff until you reach the stone which is occupied
by three bandits.

Apprentice - +100% magicka regen, -100% magic resistance.
Opinion: A do-or-die stone which makes you powerful against non-magic users,
but you'll die quickly against strong magic users if you don't bring some
kind of resistances.
Location: NW from Morthal, in the middle of the swamp.

Atronach - +50% magicka, 50% absorb spells, but -50% magicka regen.
Opinion: You are better with magic to start a fight, but you'll have less mana
as the fight drags on, and you are somewhat resistant to magic users. A solid
choice if you want to use spells.
Location: Just go South out of Windhelm and you'll eventually run into in the
hot springs. It's just NE of Darkwater Crossing, if that helps.

Serpent - Paralyze for 5 seconds and do 25 points of damage once a day.
Opinion: A powerful spell that will almost guarantee a dead strong enemy.
Location: On Serpentstone Isle, which you will go to in the first quest to
join the Stormcloaks in Windhelm. The isle is east of the College of
Winterhold.

Shadow - Become invisible for 60 seconds once a day.
Opinion: Useful for escapes, but does nothing for you unless you get yourself
into a fubar situation.
Location: Go Southwest from Riften, find the road leading East, and you will
see the stone pop up on your radar. Should be a single mage to kill.

Ritual - Raise all dead to fight for you once a day.
Opinion: Too situational, but very nice if you get into a fight with a lot of
corpses around.
Location: Directly East of Whiterun, along the road and river; hard to miss.

Tower - Unlock an Expert level lock once a day.
Opinion: Not too bad for allowing you to completely ignore the lockpicking
talent tree.
Location: This is West of the College of Winterhold, quite a way but you'll
hit it along the icy flows.

Races
-----

Argonian - resistant to diseases; breathe underwater; histskin restores health.
Breton - magic; resistant to magic; dragonskin absorbs spells.
Dark Elf - stealth and magic; resistant to fire; ancestor's wrath to enflame.
High Elf - arcane magic; highborne restores magicka.
Imperial - people skills; good with magic or weapons; more income; voice of the
emperor calm enemies.
Khajiit - thieves; quick, agile, stealth; see in the dark; claw attack.
Nord - warriors; resistant to frost; battlecry fears enemies.
Orc - warriors; good crafters; berserker rage.
Redguard - warriors; constitution and resistant to poison; adrenaline rush.
Wood Elf - archers, thieves; resistant to poisons and diseases; command
animals.

Skyrim Talent Trees

2011-12-05T22:36:00.001-06:00

This is just a list of the talent trees in Skyrim. This is taken straight from the guide I'm making, and seeing as how I'm not sure I'll ever post or finish it, I'll just start letting bits and pieces out as I wish. Forgive the format of 79 characters and a space, that's just how it is and I hope it doesn't display weird for all, though the spacing is off. If anything is incomplete or missing let me know.

The reason I'm posting this is because I would have loved to have known what I was getting into. I haven't gotten to the different levels of certain perks yet.

========
The Mage
========

These skills fall under the star sign for the mage.

Unofficially you want to wear cloth, meaning anything without an armor rating.
But feel free to dabble in magic in any build.

Illusion
--------
This tree mostly pertains to CC abilities; CC stands for crowd control. CC is
when you take one or more enemies and remove them from combat for a time. This
tree is pretty powerful to help you ensure you survive a big fight. However, if
you are better prepared for combat, or enter in stealth, then this tree will be
pretty useless I'm afraid. A decent option if you are a caster, to at least
invest a few points.

Key Abilities: Fear, Calm, Invisibility

Novice Illusion - Half novice level spells.
Illusion Dual Casting 20 - Dual casting illusion spells makes for a more
powerful effect.

Animage 20 - Work on higher level animals.
Kindred Mage 40 - Work on higher level people.
Quiet Casting 50 - Any spell is silent to others.
Master of the Mind 90 - Work on undead, daedra, and automatons.

Hypnotic Gaze 30 - Calm spells work on higher levels. Combines with animage and
kindred mage.
Aspect of Terror 50 - Fear spells work on higher levels. Combines with animage
and kindred mage.
Rage 70 - Frenzy spells work on higher levels. Combines with animage and
kindred mage.
Master of the Mind 90 - Work on undead, daedra, and automatons.

Apprentice Illusion 25 - Half apprentice level spells.
Adept Illusion 50 - Half adept level spells.
Expert Illusion 75 - Half expert level spells.
Master Illusion 100 - Half master level spells.

Conjuration
-----------
Summons allies, raise undead, or create weapons.

Key Abilities: Raise dead, summonings, bound weapons and armor, and soul traps.

Novice Conjuration - Half novice level spells.
Conjuration Dual Casting 20 - Dual casting a conjuration spell allows it to
last longer. (not sure how this works yet)

Mystic Binding 20 - Bound weapons do more damage.
Soul Stealer 30 - Bound weapons cast soul trap on targets.
Oblivion Binding 50 - Bound weapons will banish summoned creatures and turn
raised ones.

Necromancy 40 - Greater duration for reanimated undead.
Dark Souls 70 - Reanimated undead have 100 more HP.
Twin Souls 100 - You can have two atronachs or undead.

Summoner 30 - Summon atronachs or undead twice as far away.
Atronmancy 40 - Atronachs last twice as long.
Elemental Potency 80 - Atronachs are 50% more powerful.
Twin Souls 100 - You can have two atronachs or undead.

Apprentice Conjuration 25 - Half apprentice level spells.
Adept Conjuration 50 - Half adept level spells.
Expert Conjuration 75 - Half expert level spells.
Master Conjuration 100 - Half master level spells.

Destruction
-----------
Use fire, frost, or electricity to kill enemies.

Key Abilities: Fire, Frost, and Lightning

Novice Destruction - Half novice level spells.
Destruction Dual Casting 20 - Dual casting destruction spells overcharges the
effect into a more powerful cast.
Impact 40 - Dual casting will stagger enemies.

Augmented Flames 30 - Fire spells do 25% more damage.
Intense Flames 50 - Fire damage fears weak enemies.

Augmented Frost 30 - Frost spells do 25% more damage.
Deep Freeze 60 - Frost damage stuns weak enemies.

Augmented Shock 30 - Shock spells do 25% more damage.
Disintegrate 70 - Shock damage finishes weak enemies.

Apprentice Destruction 25 - Half apprentice level spells.
Rune Master 40 - Can place runes fives times farther away.
Adept Destruction 50 - Half adept level spells.
Expert Destruction 75 - Half expert level spells.
Master Destruction 100 - Half master level spells.

Restoration
-----------
Heal yourself, protect from magic attacks, and regen mana.

Key Abilities: Heals, turn undead, magic wards

Novice Restoration - Half novice level spells.
Restoration Dual Casting 20 - Dual casting resto spells combines them.

Respite 40 - Healing also restores stamina.

Recovery 30 - Mana regens 25% faster.
Avoid Death 90 - Healed for 250 when below 10% health once a day.

Ward Absorb 60 - Wards refill your mana when spells hit.

Regeneration 20 - Healing spells cure 50% more.
Necromage 70 - All spells are more effective against undead.

Apprentice Restoration 25 - Half apprentice level spells.
Adept Restoration 50 - Half adept level spells.
Expert Restoration 75 - Half expert level spells.
Master Restoration 100 - Half master level spells.

Alteraton
---------
Fairly useless no matter how you cut it; while paralysis helps you would still
need to use other talents to kill enemies.

Key Abilities: night vision, waterbreathing, etc, and protection and paralysis

Novice Alteraton - Half novice level spells.
Alteration Dual Casting 20 - Dual casting alt. spells combines the effects.

Mage Armor 30 - Protection spells are double effective if wearing cloth.
Magic Resistance 30 - Blocks 10% of a spells effect.
Stability 70 - Alt. spells last longer.
Atronach 100 - Absorbs 30% of the magicka of any spells that hit you.

Apprentice Alteraton 25 - Half apprentice level spells.
Adept Alteraton 50 - Half adept level spells.
Expert Alteraton 75 - Half expert level spells.
Master Alteraton 100 - Half master level spells.

Enchanting
----------
Allows you to buff your weapons and armor, and allows you to easily fill
soul gems to recharge your magic weapons.

Key Abilities:

Enchanter - New enchantments are 20% stronger.

Soul Squeezer 20 - Soul gems recharge more power.
Soul Siphon 40 - Death blows on creatures fill the weapon with 5% of victim's
soul.

Insightful Enchanter 50 - Armor enchants are 25% stronger.
Corpuse Enchanter 70 - HP, MG, and STAM enchants are 25% stronger.
Extra Effect 100 - Can put two enchants on an item.

Fire Enchanter 30 - Fire enchants are 25% stronger.
Frost Enchanter 40 - Frost enchants are 25% stronger.
Storm Enchanter 50 - Shock enchants are 25% stronger.
Extra Effect 100 - Can put two enchants on an item.

===========
The Warrior
===========

These skills fall under the warrior star sign.

Smithing
--------
Not entirely devoted to heavy armor. The ability to craft your own armor will
prove very valuable past level 15 or so.

Steel Smithing - Create steel items and improve them twice as much.
Arcane Blacksmith 60 - Able to improve enchanted items.

Elven Smithing 30 - Create elven items and improve them twice as much.
Advanced Armors 50 - Create scaled and plate items and improve them twice as
much.
Glass Smithing 70 - Create glass items and improve them twice as much.
Dragon Smithing 100 - Create dragon items and improve them twice as much.

Dwarven Smithing 30 - Create dwarven items and improve them twice as much.
Orcish Smithing 50 - Create orcish items and improve them twice as much.
Ebony Smithing 80 - Create ebony items and improve them twice as much.
Daedric Smithing 90 - Create daedric items and improve them twice as much.
Dragon Smithing 100 - Create dragon items and improve them twice as much.

Heavy Armor
-----------
At first you will sacrifice mobility for melee protection, but past level 20
or so you could tinker with going heavy armor and stealth.

*NOTE: Wearing base armor means head, chest, hands, and feet.*

Juggernaut - Increases heavy armor rating by 20%.

Fists of Steel 30 - Unarmed attacks in heavy armor do their armor rating as
extra damage.
Cushioned 50 - Half fall damage if wearing base heavy armor.
Conditioning 70 - Heavy armor weighs nothing and no longer slows you down.

Well Fitted 30 - 25% armor bonus if all heavy base armor.
Tower of Strength 50 - 50% less stagger when only in heavy armor (possibly
includes a shield).
Matching Set 70 - 25% armor bonus if the base heavy armor belongs to the same
series.
Reflect Blows 100 - 10% chance to reflect melee attacks if in base heavy armor.

Block
-----
Makes your shield more effective and a more potent "weapon."

Key Abilities: Shield Bash

Shield Wall - Block 20% more damage.
Quick Reflexes 30 - Time slows if you are blocking a power attack.

Deflect Arrows 30 - Arrows to your shield do no damage to you.
Elemental Protection 50 - Blocking protects against 50% destruction magic.
Block Runner 70 - Move faster while blocking.
Shield Charge 100 - Sprinting while blocking will knock down most enemies.

Power Bash 30 - Your Shield Bash can be powered up, like a melee power attack.
Deadly Bash 50 - Shield Bash is x5 stronger.
Disarming Bash 70 - Chance to disarm when power bashing.
Shield Charge 100 - Sprinting while blocking will knock down most enemies.

Two-Handed
----------
Improves the use of 2H weapons to better compensate for the lack of defense
they provide. This means you pretty much have to go heavy armor unless you want
to be a powerhouse paper doll.

Key Weapons: Battleaxes, Warhammers, and Greatswords

*NOTE: 2H means two-handed.*

Barbarian - 2H do 20% more damage.
Champion's Stance 20 - Power 2H strikes cost 25% less stamina.
Devastating Blow 50 - Standing while power attacking does 25% more damage and
may decapitate the target.
Great Critical Charge 50 - 2H power attack while sprinting will do double the
critical damage.
Sweep 70 - Horizontal power attacks hit all targets in front of you.
Warmaster 100 - Backwards power attacks have a 25% chance to stun the target.

Limbsplitter 30 - Battleaxes cause bleed damage.

Deep Wounds 30 - Greatswords have a 10% chance to be critical.

Skullcrusher 30 - Warhammers ignore 25% of targets armor.

One-Handed
----------
Allows you to specialize into maces, axes, or swords, but this also buffs
daggers as well (hint hint at stealth players and that x15 dagger perk). You
can also dual-wield (as I believe anyone can) more effectively.

Key Weapons: Daggers, Swords, Axes, Maces

*NOTE: 1H means one-handed.*

Armsman - 1H does 20% more damage.
Fighting Stance 20 - Power attacks with 1H cost 25% less stamina.
Critical Charge 50 - A 1H sprinting power attack does double critical damage.
Savage Strike 50 - Standing power attacks do 25% more damage with a chance to
decapitate the target.
Paralyzing Strike 100 - Backwards power attacks have a 25% chance to stun.

Hack and Slash 30 - Axes cause bleed damage

Bone Breaker 30 - Maces ignore 25% armor.

Bladesman 30 - Swords have a 10% chance to do critical damage.

Dual Flurry 30 - Dual-wielding attacks are 20% faster.
Dual Savagery 70 - Dual-wielding power attacks do 50% more damage.

Archery
-------
Pure focus in this tree can make it possible to use only a bow. Combined with
the stealth tree and you can kill the enemies before the know you're there and
stay in shadows if they do.

Key Abilities: Combine with sneaking to do extra damage (no reason not to)

Overdraw - Bows do 20% more damage.

Critical Shot 40 - 10% chance of a critical hit.
Hunter's Discipline 50 - Recover twice as many arrows from dead bodies (you
only recover about 1/4 normally).
Ranger 60 - Move faster with a drawn bow.
Bullseye 100 - 15% chance of stunning the target.

Eagle Eye 30 - Press your off-hand button to zoom.
Steady Hand 40 - Zooming will slow time by 25%.
Power Shot 50 - Arrows stagger most enemies.
Quick Shot 70 - Draw your bow 30% faster.

=========
The Thief
=========

These skills fall under the thief star sign.

Light Armor
-----------
Buffs your light armor to make it similar to base heavy armor.

*NOTE: Wearing base armor means head, chest, hands, and feet.*

Agile Defender - Light armor is 20% more effective.
Custom Fit 30 - 25% bonus if wearing base light armor.
Unhindered 50 - Not slowed down by light armor.
Wind Walker 60 - Stamina regens 50% faster in base light armor.
Matching Set 70 - 25% armor bonus if wearing a matching set of light armor.
Deft Movement 100 - 10% to avoid melee damage in all base light armor.

Sneak
-----
Allows you to avoid detection at all and buff your attacks while undetected.

Key Weapons: Daggers and Bows

Stealth - More difficult to defect when sneaking.
Muffled Movement 30 - Noise from armor is reduced by 50%.
Light Foot 40 - Pressure plate traps won't trigger anymore.
Silent Roll 50 - Sprinting while sneaking does a silent roll.
Silence 70 - Walking and running does not affect detection.
Shadow Warrior 100 - Crouching during combat will cease combat and distant
enemies will need to locate you again.

Backstab 30 - 1H sneak attacks do x6 damage.
Deadly Aim 40 - Sneak bow attacks do x3 damage.
Assassin's Blade 50 - Dagger sneak attacks do x15 damage.

Lockpicking
-----------
Allows you to open more and more chests. You may be able to open all chests
at any time, but you'll go crazy trying to open a master chest with novice
level skills. This is not a big priority until after you've got a good combat
set of talents.

*NOTE: Being easier to pick is hard to define, but just know that you won't
need to work so hard for locks of a certain level once you get the skill.*

Novice Locks - Easier to pick.
Apprentice Locks 25 - Easier to pick.
    Quick Hands 40 - Pick locks with detection.
    Wax Keys 50 - Copy a picked lock's key. (??? not sure what this means)
Adept Locks 50 - Easier to pick.
    Golden Touch 60 - Chests give more gold.
    Treasure Hunter 70 - 50% chance to find more good items.
Expert Locks 75 - Easier to pick.
    Locksmith 80 - Pick starts near the opening position.
    Unbreakable 100 - Lockpicks never break, so you only need 1.
Master Locks 100 - Easier to pick.

Pickpocket
----------
This is a very interesting skill. It's not nearly as useless as one would think
by just knowing what pickpocketing means. You actually get some useful talents
up to 50 skill level, and at the end of this tree it can become an offensive
skill against humanoids.

Light Fingers - 20% easier to pick.
Night Thief 30 - +25% chance to pickpocket a sleeping target.
Cutpurse 40 - Taking gold is 50% easier.
Keymaster 60 - Taking keys works most of the time.
Misdirection 70 - Can take equipped weapons.
Perfect Touch 100 - Can take any equipped items.

Poisoned 40 - Put poisons into someone's pocket to cause damage without being
detected.

Extra Pockets 50 - Carrying Capacity increased by 100.

Speech
------
Not bad to invest a few points to get better prices for sold and bought items,
and you can use a "persuade" option in some chats to avoid certain things.

Haggling - 10% better buy/sell prices
Allure 30 - 10% better prices with the opposite sex.
Merchant 50 - Can sell anything to any merchant.
Investor 70 - Can invest 500 gold into a merchant to increase his gold
permanently (this allows you to sell your more expensive items).
Fence 90 - Can sell stolen goods to any merchant you invested in.
Master Trader 100 - All merchants have 1000 more gold to deal.

Bribery 30 - Can bribe guards to ignore crimes.
Persuasion 50 - Persuasion works 30% more times.
Intimidation 70 - Intimidation works x2 more times.

Alchemy
-------
Allows you to create deadly poisons or beneficial potions easier and more
effectively.

Alchemist - Crafted potions and poisons are 20% more effective.
Physician 20 - Crafted potions to restore health, mana, and stamina are 25%
more effective.
Benefactor 30 - Crafted potions with a buff are 25% more effective.
Experimenter 50 - Eating ingredients reveals two effects.
Snakeblood 80 - 50% resistant to poisions.
Purity 100 - Removes positive effects from poisons and removes negative effects
from potions.

Poisoner 30 - Crafted poisons are 25% more effective.
Concentrated Poison 60 - Poisons on weapons last twice as long.
Green Thumb - Two ingredients are gathered from plants.

Top 20 Lights Songs

2011-11-18T14:54:00.000-06:00

Lights started as an auto-tune, super poppy, almost campy act.

The artist known as LIGHTS (for some reason called The Lights on amazon.com). She's Canadian, she plays World of Warcraft, she's a huge nerd, she has tattoos, and she has tons of genuine personality - all good traits to have, lol.

In just a few years she has gone through a huge evolution. I first heard her on Old Navy commercials, didn't connect a name to the artist, and it took maybe a year or so before I came across her EP. It was just 6 songs, including Drive My Soul, February Air, I Owe You One, and The Last Thing on Your Mind. I liked it, though at the time I wasn't too proud of it, and I'm not sure how I kept up to date with her because it took maybe a year or so from then until she released her first full LP The Listening. It was her EP plus about 6 new songs. With the rest of the songs in her first album she demonstrated that she was more than just a commercial artist with an intriguing voice. She sung about some meaningful subjects, had good lyrics, and tied it all together with great music and choruses.

When I was attending OU she came by on tour with Lydia and someone else, and I was thinking about going, but of course at the time I hadn't fully embraced her. I regret not going :(

Between her first and second albums she released an acoustic album with one standout song, Romance Is, and she released a single called My Boots as well as a free download for the remix called Re:Boots. All three were great and were departures from her old sound, so I knew her next album was going to be very different.

With her latest album, she proves she is here to stay.

I was right as Siberia is a complete overhaul of her sound no matter how you look at it. Her second album features more upbeat tempos, dance beats, dupstep, and two rap collabos. Even the last track is something you would expect from Trent Reznor. The more I listen to the album the more each song grows on me; Banner and Peace Sign the two biggest examples, and Time is Everything being the most improved from its first impression.

I can only hope she keeps up the momentum into her third effort. I was kind of hoping she would have had more dance / techno influences on Siberia, so she can always try that. Dubstep probably has a short lifespan. If she could find a way to extend its life in her music, more power to her, but the minimal amount of it in Siberia was just enough. She didn't keep the amount of auto-tune she started out using, so I have faith she won't become a tired act.

She's a great example of a new-age musician who embraces social media.

Her site here.
Her youtube channel
Her twitter.
and her facebook.
It's very cool that she debuted #44 on Billboard: story.

Oh yeah, and the list:

#20. Re:Boots http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25pPQEVxxY
#19. Toes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI_vHoMtsBQ
#18. And Counting...
#17. Fourth Dimension
#16. February Air http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcYFl9bjnW0&ob=av3n
#15. Everyone Breaks a Glass http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEBLCoNVwds
#14. I Owe You One
#13. Face Up
#12. Suspension
#11. Pretend
#10. Saviour http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUwjWDZoWVw
#09. The Listening
#08. Drive My Soul http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7_ucPlzaiA&ob=av2e
#07. My Boots http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiLHe3mkJf0&ob=av2e
#06. The Last Thing on Your Mind
#05. Timing is Everything
#04. Romance Is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu35esNT9bs
#03. Flux and Flow
#02. Siberia New video
#01. Quiet

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review

2011-11-10T13:14:00.000-06:00

Let's put it this way, I'm sort of a World of Warcraft addict. I can play it all day and night long if I don't make myself stop or do something else. Playing Skyrim makes me completely forget about Warcraft and the grinding and the PvPing and the achievements and the repetitive leveling - all that is keeping me from a roster of 10 level 85's is my 9th trip through Mount Hyjal and my 10th through Northrend.

Mentioning Warcraft is very relevant when talking about Skyrim because veterans of Oblivion who played Warcraft will see that Skyrim is the child of both. Oblivion was sort of an obscure title in that character development was difficult to wrap your head around. Stats powered up your combat stuff, but there were stats, abilities, star signs, racial bonuses, and so on. What they did with Skyrim was toss all of that out and when you level you get to increase either your mana pool, health, or stamina (physical energy) and you get one "talent point."

The talent point system is a feature of most every MMORPG on the market; in Skyrim they are called perks. Like in archery you can increase damage, add a zoom-in feature, add critical strikes, and so on. If you use your bow regularly to increase the skill level and spend your points in the archery tree, before long you will be able to one-shot the bigger goons (which are the tougher, normal enemies you encounter frequently). That's the other part of the equation, that all skills in the game also level up.

Here is a quick rundown of the skills:

Destruction magic
Restoration magic
Illusion magic
Conjuration magic
Alteration magic (? think this is in there, but never used it, sorry, away from the game at the moment)
Light Armor
Heavy Armor
1-Handed weapons
2-Handed weapons
Bows
Stealth
Lockpicking
Speechcraft (get better buy/sell prices)
Smithing
Alchemy
Enchanting

Each skill has its own separate perk tree, and each perk requires the skill to be at a certain level. These trees are displayed as cool star systems in the sky. It's eye candy only, but it's better than a tab or something. And it's neat how the view spins around.

I'm probably forgetting some but each of these separate skills have their own levels. When a skill gains a level, that will increase your level bar. It's about 10-20 skill levels will increase your level and give you a talent point, and the skills level through use. If you never use illusion magic, you will never raise it's level unless you buy training for it. Also, the game doesn't force you to level or spend your talent points. You can save up your points until the skills develop more and allow you to buy the perks you want.
What this talent system does is allow you to specialize in one area. Since talent points are shared among all skill areas, it's not wise to dump your points into speechcraft or alchemy, but you could consider putting them all in a combat or magic skill. Not long into the game you'll run into normal enemies who are considerably tougher than the rest of the minions, and they will require either overwhelming force or stealth. This is especially true when you have two of them to deal with. And when you run into that ice troll shortly into the main quest, you better have some quality talent choices or about 100 potions ready.

In a way this system is like what Warcraft is doing, which is to make players pick a specialization area and have them "feel" like their spec is unique. Of course waiting for skills to level or not realizing you should at least partially focus in one combat tree will lead to talent point wasting. One way could be that you decide the heavy armor isn't working for you and you want to go light. Another way to spread out points is the partial design of the game where you have to wait for skills to reach a certain level, so you would rather spend it than sit on the point. The folly that I and probably a lot of veteran RPG gamers will make is not realizing the effectiveness of talent tree focus. No one will anticipate the effectiveness of the bow critical strike or the zoom function unless they get those perks.

It would have been nice had they given you two points and divided the skills into combat and non-combat halves. This way you would be forced to level and spend your points. You would be allowed to focus on your choosen combat perk tree while also gaining some of the other perks, like for lockpicking which everyone will at least feel is essential. Perhaps that is the game design, to make sacrifices in character development.

One of the reasons for this leveling system is most likely because all the enemies are permanent. When you kill a mob in an area that area will be safe forever (as far as I can tell). If you didn't know, the enemies and gear will level as you level. This means that you are never "out of place" when you do the side quests or main quest, you will always have worthy enemies to fight.

Combat is a lot of fun when done properly. Perhaps the ideal combat script is for you to approach a mob in stealth, sent a sneak attack arrow or two, switch to magic as they approach you and open up, and when they are close switch to weapons to finish them off. One thing to keep in mind is that stealth works very effectively. It's not like you fire an arrow from stealth and they will immediately find you. There is an eye icon while you are hidden that will open as the enemies get closer to finding you. So long as that eye isn't fully open you are hidden. Light seems to help, which seems obvious, but even in what appears to be dim light you could get standing right in front of enemies and they won't see you. The effective strategy I found was to get in medium range of an enemy, fire an arrow and fall back to farther back, they would come to investigate where I was when I shot, and I could then keep firing and backing up or let the eye icon go back to closed which means the enemies reset. It's pretty cheap and makes no sense for someone to take an arrow in the back of their head to return to being uninterested after one half-assed look around the room, but oh well.

Magic users will like the new spells that have more range than before. In Oblivion the spells were hit-or-miss, or melee range; maybe a few weren't but I remember them being more like arrows than anything. In Skyrim the spells are more like shotguns in they can have range beyond melee. I didn't try the Flames spell until an hour or so in because I assumed the magic was the same, but once I found out it was like a flamethrower and that I could hold my weapon in my other hand, I was burning and chopping enemies from then on. Things got really fun when I found the tome of sparks and invested an extra talent point in the destruction screen to dual-wield spells. So from the favorite menu I was able to left trigger one spell and right trigger the other to have two spells at once. It was loud and looked cool, and I'll be very interested to see how the other spells combine.

That is the one gripe about magic, is that you have to find or buy the spells. It's not a bad system, but it's not like there are magic sellers in each settlement who carry the same spells. And many hours in I'm still using the basic spells and don't really know where to get more. I think the Riverwood trader guy has some, but hopefully someone in Solitude will.

I'm not so sure the path of the warrior (heavy armor) will be the way to go for new players. I think if you use heavy armor you will need to devout your talents into buffing your armor because I can't imagine sitting and taking a beating with a 2H weapon would get you far. Maybe with a shield and heavy armor spec you would be okay, but I'm not sure how the 2H users will get by.

Things changed from Oblivion:

No more pie game to make people like you
Lockpicking is a much more sensitive and precise system
New talent trees
Star signs help you build certain skills quicker and can be changed at any time
You can at least walk when carrying too much
Children are in the game, but most likely a void zone will appear under your feet if you draw your weapon and think about striking them, lol
You can take an ally with you on quests, usually at an inn or from some quests
Carriages outside of cities will drive you to other cities for a small fee
Merchants only have so much gold to buy stuff off of you (think this is different), so you'll really need to find a chest to store stuff to sell later
Argonians are the best looking race, lol, which is a nice change up since they looked horrible in Oblivion
You can sprint, which eats stamina
No longer need to repair items
Stamina increases your carry limit (not sure if different, just fyi, lol)
(there is probably more and I'll add them to here later if I remember)

As a closing note, the world has almost endless quests, two segments that would be considered "main quests" (one about dragons, the other about the war), and everything just looks amazing. Never have I seen better snow weather effects, but all the special effects look beautiful. Just wait until you run into a dragon in the wild, that will be quite the experience. There is just so much to Skyrim. It really is the closest thing to a perfect game as I could imagine. The load screens are a bit too numerous and there are about the same if not more glitches than Oblivion (though a patch promises to clean some of that up), but if you own a gaming system you are almost required to play this game. I imagine the next TES game will be set a little further into time and most likely have guns, and that is when The Elder Scrolls will be the defining game - period.

I literally have no desire to play Warcraft now that this game is here. 10 complete game hours (while creating a walkthrough, meaning full coverage of everything possible) in and I know I've barely scratched the surface of what this game has to offer.

The Fix Week 9

2011-11-02T00:08:00.000-05:00

I need to recap two weeks. Week 7 and week 8. I did not post on week 8, but believe me when I said I wrote them down before the games started. I have no reason to lie, and yes I did write down my point spreads.

Week 7

Correct

Ten @ Hou (spread, thank goodness)
Den @ Mia
Was @ Car (I almost got the score exact, if Skins had a FG)
KC @ Oak (spread, thank goodness, lol)
GB @ Min
Ind @ NO

Incorrect

Sea @ Cle
Atl @ Det
SD @ NYJ
Chi @ TB
Pit @ AZ
STL @ Dal (of course this week the Rams came through like I thought they would last week...)
Bal @ Jax

Spreads saved me this week.

Week 8

Correct

Ind @ Ten
Mia @ NYG (spread)
Was @ Buf
Cin @ Sea
Dal @ Phi

Incorrect
NO @ STL
Min @ Car
AZ @ Bal (spread)
Jax @ Hou (spread)
Det @ Den
NE @ Pit
KC @ SD (OT loss, and I had them winning by 3...)

Ugh, that's all I got to say, ugh. A gambler's life must be rough.

Week 9

Mia @ KC (4.5)
Maybe if Mia was at home, but KC should find a way. As far as the spread, total crapshoot.

SCORE: 24-34

ATL (7) @ Ind
I would have gambled away my future betting against the Falcons, who always lose when I do pick them, but not this week. Maybe at home and losing so long keeps the game interesting.

SCORE: 31-18

TB @ NO (8)
Neither team has been impressive, so any outcome seems plausible. I'll go chalk and say the Saints at home and mad will at least win.

SCORE: 21-34

NYJ @ Buf (1.5)
This is a complete toss-up.

SCORE: 24-27

Sea @ Dal (12)
Seattle shocked the Giants on the road, but even though Dallas has the potential to be shocked at home, I would expect them to at least pull out a win.

SCORE: 20-24

Cle @ Hou (11)
Browns appear to have been a flash in the pan last season, and even though they are still playing good defense, they should be exposed in this game.

SCORE: 16-28

SF (3.5) @ Was
There should be no trouble to continue the 49ers reversal of winning on the East Coast.

SCORE: 26-16

Cin @ Ten (3)
I would think the Titans are riding high after their win, and prime to be upset at home.

SCORE: 33-28

Den @ Oak (8)
The wild card here is Palmer. Will two weeks of practice pay off? Or will Tebow be able to overcome Palmer's slight improvement? An upset special is in the works.

SCORE: 21-13

NYG @ NE (8.5)
Giants have not looked impressive this season, and the Pats will be focused after how they lost.

SCORE: 27-34

STL @ AZ (no spread as of Tuesday, and I made this score on Sunday, so it's a complete toss-up all around)
A battle of the bottom-feeders. Rams showed signs of being a pro team, while the Cards showed they can't play 60 minutes. Look for the Rams to at least come correct.

SCORE: 20-21

GB (5.5) @ SD
Looks like the Pack's first lost to me. Whatever it is, go with the Chargers.

SCORE: 23-24

Bal @ Pit (3)
99% chance of this being a Steeler win.

SCORE: 20-24

Chi @ Phi (8)
The inside track on this game says the Bears have won the last 9 of 10 meetings, or something like that - it's ownership basically. But the Bears no longer have a strong defense, so look for the Eagles to continue their comeback with another convincing win.

SCORE: 20-42

The X Factor Prediction

2011-11-01T21:24:00.000-05:00

I really don't know how they will decide a winner in the final round, but I assume they will pick them off two more times from each category and then have a free-for-all.

I'm just going to list them in order that I think they will finish in.

Girls

3. Melanie Amaro - Yes she can sing, but the voting public probably isn't too high on her. She will have to stun everyone to move on.
2. Drew Ryniewicz - She needs to sing something with a faster tempo because I'm not sure of her full potential. Yeah she can sing a great soft, love song, but what else can she do?
1. Rachel Crow - She was trending on twitter during the show, so I have a feeling she is the favorite.

Boys

3. Marcus Canty - He was trending on twitter, but for some reason I just think the other two will perform better than him. If he puts on a good show he can easily move on.
2. Astro - He's interesting because he's been stellar so far, he could be amazing with age, and he's got the rap/hip-hop angle pretty much all to himself.
1. Chris Rene - Sadly for Astro, Chris' story is amazing and he should be a hit with the ladies. If you look at some current chart-topping hip-hop artists like B.o.B., Wiz Khalifa, and Drake, they seem to favor the more musical side of things and arguably sing better than they rap. I'm unsure if Chris' voice can hold up, but if he can keep singing as well as he can he should beat out Astro who can only rap.

30+

3. Josh Krajick - He's got a great voice, but he probably needs a band.
2. LeRoy Bell - I like him more and more, but Stacy will win if she just maintains what she's done.
1. Stacy Francis - Easily pegged as a crowd favorite. She will have to stink up the place to lose her group.

Groups

3. InTENsity - A huge wild card. Their only appeal would be to children unless one or two of them really stand out.
2. Lakoda Rayne - If they can go a bit more pop they could be the dark horse of the competition.
1. The Stereo Hogzz - To outshine Four Shore must indicate how strong this group is, and there is a huge void of a pop music group, male or female. I would expect they get big support from the ladies.

Final Four
I'll list them in order of finish, but no idea how it will be decided.

4. Stacy Francis
3. The Stereo Hogzz
2. Rachel Crow
1. Chris Rene - Only because I think he can pull in so many votes from all groups of people. His best act may have been his first, but I think he can duplicate it.

If I'm wrong it will most likely be Drew.

20 Scary Video Games

2011-10-30T00:03:00.002-05:00

List in no real order. 17 with videos, 3 without, and 3 extra mentions.

Resident Evil (REmake)

Resident Evil 4

F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R. 2

Amnesia

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead 2

Condemned 2

Half Life 2

Dead Space

Dead Space 2

Dead Rising

Dead Rising 2

BioShock

Heavy Rain

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Dead Island

The Rest
I haven't played these, but they no doubt belong here.

Silent Hill 2 - PS2/Xbox title
Eternal Darkness - Gamecube
Fatal Frame - PS2

Mentions
Couldn't find good videos for them, but they are decent.

Alan Wake - haven't played

Alone in the Dark

The Darkness

20 Scary Movies

2011-10-27T11:45:00.001-05:00

Favoring more recent movies. Besides, all of the "classics" like Freddy, Jason, Chucky, and whatever have had so many bad sequels that the characters are almost complete parodies these days. Also, Scream is very overrated; like to the point where Scary Movie didn't need to parody it. Torture porn is not happening.

List in descending order.

Gremlins - It's a comedy, but like the other horror comedies, it's a little frightening.

The Crazies (2010) - Turns into an action movie, but at least the hospital scene will stick with you.

30 Days of Night - It's like the apocalypse with vampire/zombies in endless night and in freezing temps - does it get any worse than that?

Pitch Black - Don't be quick to judge, especially with the pure action movies that followed, but this movie will leave you feeling pretty wrecked inside.

The Sixth Sense - If you don't know the ending and haven't seen the movie you will be in for a treat.

Predator - It's like a classic horror film mixed with a serial killer movie set in the jungle.

28 Days Later - It gave new life to the "zombie" genre, but lost a little steam in the final act.

Silence of the Lambs - Two serial killers for the price of one - what a deal!

Jaws - Unlike the other so-called horror classics, this is an all-time classic.

The Fly - A lesser-known gem, and bonus points if you have seen the carnage in the sequel.

Event Horizon - Hell in space - nuff said.

The Ring - A scary movie that plays like a detective movie. Also, Naomi Watts.

Seven - A true crime movie that blends with horror.

The Thing (1982) - Body horror at its finest.

Sleepy Hollow - Another detective/horror blend. It's not the scariest movie ever, but it's required viewing for Halloween enthusiasts.

28 Weeks Later - I have always felt this movie is the perfect blend of horror and action.

Let Me In / Let the Right One In - Either one will work.

Alien - This movie combines body horror, space horror, monster horror, action, and elements of a zombie horror.

The Nightmare Before Christmas - Come on, it's on this list no matter what. And it isn't exactly the most pleasant movie to watch if you don't notice.

The Shining - Because unlike almost every film on this or any other list, the allegory possibilities are almost endless. A haunted hotel, psychic powers, cabin fever, ghosts, creepy children, and Jack, now that is true horror.

The Graveyard

Interview With the Vampire - It's not too scary, but it's a great movie.
Zodiac - A thriller that should haunt you about a very real terror: a psychopath who would tie you up and stab you in the belly over and over.
Aliens - A little more action than horror, but still scary.
The Host - The monster movie from Korea.
Splice - Because there aren't enough "sins of science" horror movies.
Final Destination 1 amd 2 - Either one is about equally decent.
A Clockwork Orange - Horrifying in many ways other than traditional horror.
Dawn of the Dead (2004) - A little bit more than just an average zombie movie, but not by too much.
The Road - The end of the world will look like this for some.
Sweeney Todd - It's dark throughout, but in the final act it gets very creepy.
Beetlejuice - It sure is more scary than funny.
Dead Alive - A brilliant blend of comedy and horror.
Ghostbusters - It's a comedy, but it is a little scary.
The Hitcher (1986) - More a thriller, but it fits.
Godzilla - Not scary these days, but back in the day was another story.
Cabin Fever - A sort of cult classic; it's not bad until the very end.
Terminator - I don't really mention it a ton, but it is scary unlike T2 which is pure action.

The Crow - I just bought this movie as a $10 blu ray. Yet to watch it but I have a strong feeling it belongs here. Just sayin'. Oh yeah, and they are remaking it too.
Spawn - It's a little funny, but there is plenty to be scared about.
Pan's Labyrinth - For a pseudo children's tale, it should haunt you after and make you feel sad.
The Orphanage - Not too terrifying, but it is creepy.

I'm sure there is a good werewolf and witch movie, but I haven't seen it.

Halloween Playlist 2011

2011-10-25T23:26:00.000-05:00

Here is a link to the first Halloween playlist last year psycho playlist . This year I will add a few new entries while dropping a few.

"This is Halloween" - The Nightmare Before Christmas

“Thriller” – Michael Jackson

“3 a.m.” – Eminem

“The Beautiful People” – Marilyn Manson

"Down With the Sickness” – Disturbed Follow this link for the video

“Duality” – Slipknot

“Die by the Drop” – The Dead Weather

“Otherside” – Red Hot Chili Peppers Follow the link for the video

“Ain’t No Grave” – Johnny Cash (skip to 2:53 for the video itself)

“Blue Orchid” – The White Stripes (not an official vid, and RIP White Stripes)

“Clint Eastwood” – Gorillaz

"Monster" - Kanye West ft. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, and Nicki Minaj (not an official official video, but oh well)

"ET" - Katy Perry ft. Kanye West (more for the video, but yet again Kanye's lyrics fit)

“Heads Will Roll” – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

"In for the Kill" [remix] - La Roux ft. Kanye West (the most out of place saved by Kanye's lyrics, which fit)

“Dracula’s Wedding” – OutKast ft. Kelis

“Come Alive” – Janelle Monae

“Disturbia” – Rihanna

“Music Box” – Eminem

"Enter Sandman" - Metallica

"Nightmare" - Avenged Sevenfold

“Sick Sick Sick” – Queens of the Stone Age

“Schism” – Tool

"The Dream is Collapsing" - Inception Follow the link for the video
I know this isn't the most fitting, but it fits the flow of the playlist and you can't help but be overcome with a sense of fear.

The Graveyard

"The Devil Went Down to Georgia" - The Charlie Daniels Band
"Sweet Dreams" - Beyonce
“Psycho” – 50 Cent ft. Eminem
“Murmaider” – Dethklok
“Crazy” – Gnarls Barkley
“Supermassive Black Hole” – Muse
“The Whole World” – OutKast ft. Killa Mike
“Together Again” – Evanescence
“Stay Wide Awake” – Eminem
"Out Here All Night" - Damones

There are many other scary videos, but not all of their songs match too well.

The Fix 10/23/11

2011-10-23T03:03:00.000-05:00

I need to recap two weeks ago:

Week 5 Recap (look away)

Right

KC @ Ind
Cin @ Jax
SD @ Den (covered by a point)
GB @ Atl (looked like a dead wrong pick, then I was right)

Wrong

Oak @ Hou (though I meant to say Hou, I put down Oak and made a typo, maybe divine intervention? lol)
Ten @ Pit
Sea @ NYG (should have gone with my gut, and the hatred in my blood)
AZ @ Min (double dead wrong)
NO @ Car (didn't cover)
Phi @ Buf (cry)
TB @ SF (wow)
NYJ @ NE (did cover)
Chi @ Det (did cover)

Sigh, those darned close games, but maybe that KC pick would have paid off big, lol

Did you hear about the STL Cardinals fan who placed a bet on the Cards to make the World Series when they were at their furthest back? He has like $120,000 and is looking for like $250,000 if they win, and he just put down just $250. Makes me consider putting down some cash on a crazy bet myself.

Week 6 Recap (???)

Didn't post, but I believe I would have missed 3 and if the Pats were favored by 4 or less I would have gotten that too. Unsure on a few others, but let's just say I at least would have drawn even.

Week 7 Predictions

Den @ Mia (1)
I would look for Tebow to run in a few scores, but have no idea where Mia will even get 16 points.

SCORE: 29-16

SD @ NYJ (1)
Chargers could get down early and have like 3 consecutive TD drives to end the game.

SCORE: 28-19

Ten (3) @ Hou
For some reason I just think the Titans are playing better team football. No clue why. Surprised they are actually favored, so go Houston for the spread.

SCORE: 24-23

Atl @ Det (3.5)
Lions should get a big lead, fend off a rally, and like kick a FG to secure the win.

SCORE: 20-31

Was @ Car (2.5)
Is Beck starting? Either way, doesn't look good for the Skins after the Panthers know they let the Saints and Falcons escape.

SCORE: 23-33

Chi (1.5) @ TB
Just when faith in Chicago is restored, look for a puzzling Bears showing in London. I say it's a blowout with scores added late.

SCORE: 26-31

Sea @ Cle (3)
Should be close, maybe a last drive TD by the 'Hawks.

SCORE: 21-17

Pit (4) @ AZ
On paper is looks like a blowout, but I would think the Cards can put up a fight in this one.

SCORE: 23-21

KC @ Oak (4)
With Palmer I would think smart money is on KC to at least cover, but I think Palmer can get three first half scores and then the team survives the rest of the game.

SCORE: 20-21

GB (10) @ Min
I would look for the Vikings to play inspired ball, and though my gut says the Packers will cover, I'll say they finally get a good scare.

SCORE: 27-24

STL @ Dal (14)
Again, my gut is saying Rams win, but I'll at least say they can cover, which is all that matters here.

SCORE: 28-30

Ind @ NO (13.5)
Yet again, my heart says the Colts will at least show up, but this shapes up to be a snoozer.

SCORE: 17-38

Bal (9) @ Jax
The Jags could keep this close enough to cover, wouldn't shock me, but Ravens should win no matter what.

SCORE: 35-18

The Fix 10/8/11

2011-10-08T22:33:00.000-05:00

Way late, but I'll get this in the books before the games go.

As far as last week, I didn't write down the spreads, but I should have because I'm not certain which of my picks were on the money; though I did glance at them. Here is a quick recap as I recall it:

Last Weeks Picks

Think I got right

NO @ Jax
Det @ Dal
Ten @ Cle
Pit @ Hou
Mia @ SD
Ind @ TB

Uncertain

Car @ Chi (made the spread?)
Atl @ Sea (made the spread?)
Buf @ Cin (pretty sure Buf was favorite, so this is most likely a not)
NYJ @ Bal (I got the winner, but by only 3 so not sure about spread)

Certainly did not

SF @ Phi
Was @ STL
Min @ KC
NYG @ Ari
Den @ GB (spread)
NE @ Oak

So I think I would have made some money

For this week and from here on out I will include the spread as of the time of posting by putting the number next to the favorite.

This Weeks Picks

KC @ Indy (2.5)
It smells like an Indy win after they showed signs of life last week, but I would look for KC to win.

SCORE: 26-17

AZ @ Min (3)
Don't let the Vikings record fool you, this is a complete toss up game. I think the Cards win by a bit.

SCORE 30-24

Phi (3) @ Buf
Another Philly heartbreaker most likely, but they should pull away late if the game is close.

SCORE: 33-23

Oak @ Hou (5.5)
RIP Al Davis, but should win this game.

SCORE: 30-22

NO (6.5) @ Car
Could easily be close, but NO should win by a TD.

SCORE: 31-21

Cin (1) @ Jax
Complete toss-up, but look for Cincy to come alive.

SCORE: 34-28

Ten @ Pitt (3)
Steelers should be angry right? They'll be really mad when Big Ben gets knocked out of the game.

SCORE: 28-19

Sea @ NYG (9.5)
At home I would probably pick Seattle, but this should be a blowout.

SCORE: 21-37

TB @ SF (3)
Another toss-up, but I'll say Josh Freeman > Alex Smith and hope that is true.

SCORE: 28-21

NYJ @ NE (7.5)
Jets should put up a fight, but it's hard to bet against Brady.

SCORE: 23-28

SD (4) @ Den
Why is the line so low? SD SD SD!

SCORE: 35-24

GB (6) @ ATL
Look for a road blowout here.

SCORE: 36-13

Chi @ Det (5)
This is a prime time to stop believing in the Lions as they've been behind for a few games, but on paper they are the better team.

SCORE: 21-24

Best Music of 2011 Update

2011-10-07T17:14:00.002-05:00

The cut-off is January 2012, but I feel safe is declaring Siberia by Lights as album of the year, and "Fast Lane" by Bad Meets Evil as song of the year. Dubstep has been considered somewhat of a joke, and I was never too high on it myself, but who would have thought that little ol' Lights would take such a strong turn away from her past sound to make a more dance/dubstep album that works - light on the dubstep was probably key to this success. It's a shame My Boots didn't make the album, or even RE:boots.

As far as singles go, "I'm Not Lonely Anymore" will remain an all-time classic, and even though it came out in 2008 it will be be highly regarded here. "Sun of a Gun" slipped over time, and "She Will" looked to capitalize on the success of last year's best song "Seduction" by Eminem. But ultimately, the more I heard it, "Fast Lane" is near-flawless and at least Eminem's parts are hard to criticize, and Royce didn't do too poorly - just a few questionable lines. As far as I'm concerned, "Fast Lane" is among the best rap songs ever. Oh yeah, and the song "Siberia" by Lights makes the top five as well.

At the end I will do a Side B list of the songs that did not make the final list, and it will be full of songs that are possibly more popular.

It's good that rock made a strong bounce-back from non-existance last year. True, a lot of songs on this list could have made last year's batch, but they make 2011 that much better. Honestly, without the 2010 songs that carried over, this list would still be solid on just 2011 releases.

*I hope the videos make it through in one piece*

Flux and Flow - Lights ft. Shad (unofficial video)

She Will - Lil Wayne ft. Drake

Fast Lane - Bad Meets Evil (Eminem and Royce da 5’9”)

Red Nation - The Game ft. Lil Wayne

On My Level - Wiz Khalifa ft. Too $hort

I’m on Everything - Bad Meets Evil (Eminem and Royce da 5’9”)

Welcome to the World - T.I. ft. Kanye West

Born in the Trap - The Game

It’s Good - Lil Wayne ft. Drake and Jadakiss

Everybody Breaks a Glass - Lights ft. Shad and Holy Fuck

Words I Never Said - Lupe Fiasco ft. Skylar Grey

Monster - Paramore

All American Nightmare - Hinder

Destroya - My Chemical Romance

Not Again - Staind

Come Undone - My Darkest Days

Again - Flyleaf (2008)

Something for the Pain - Redlight King

Rope - Foo Fighters

Like Nobody Else - My Darkest Days

Break the Chain - Oh Land

Fourth Dimension - Lights

Derezzed - Daft Punk

Under My Thumb - La Roux

Paradise - Coldplay

Suspension - Lights

Lights - Ellie Goulding

Sun of a Gun -Oh Land

Club Rocker - Inna

Physical - Haley

Starry Eyed - Ellie Goulding

Siberia - Lights (unofficial video)

Heart is a Beating Drum - The Kills

Pumped up Kicks - Foster the People

Rolling in the Deep - Adele (141,000,000 views on youtube!!!!1!!)

I’m Not Lonely Anymore - Jessica Lea Mayfield (2008)

Welcome to Hell - Plan B

Our Hearts are Wrong - Jessica Lea Mayfield

Underneath the Sycamore - Death Cab for Cutie

Perfection - Oh Land

What the Water Gave Me - Florence + The Machine

And Counting... - Lights

Here is a video for a song not on the list, but still worth checking out:

Toes - Lights

Oh yeah, and because this is just badass:

Gears of War 3 Act 3 Chapter 1 Unbreakable

2011-10-06T18:16:00.000-05:00

This is a quick tip for how to beat this chapter like a pro ;)

Pre-Fight

In the starting garage you have a ton of weapons to choose from, but hopefully in the previous few chapters you loaded up on Boomshots and still have them. Ideally, you will have Boomshots, Lancer, and frags, but if you don't have Boomshots you can grab the Longshots at the start.

Also, there are three collectables: one on the wall behind you as soon as the chapter starts, a painting in a room on the right side path, and a COG tag by some ammo on the floor if you continue down the right side path which will cross over a bridge to the left side.

First Gate

When you reach the front you are just trying to survive. You can't do anything to stop the siege beast from breaking the first gate (as far as I know), so you just need to hop on and off the left side turret (staying on the left is important) and spray down anything that moves. The left side is the hotter side as ther creek is a prominent spawning point; the other being the center bridge. You'll have to hit Reavers, Bloodmounts, Grinders, and if any Drones get too close they will grapple up to the gate. Just survive until the siege beast rolls up and you can sit back and do nothing.

Second Gate

After the scene, run back (remember, down the right side as you retreat). You'll be on the upper walkway and have access to ammo, a Longshot, and a Vulcan cannon. You need to survive four waves of Maulers and Grinders to get out of this fight the easy way. But first you must mop up some Bloodmounts and a ton of Drones before the first Maulers show up.

So again, you have the following at your disposal:

A few ammo crates
Longshot
A few frags
Vulcan Cannon
Palate of gas containers hanging over the yard

We will assume you have almost full Lancer ammo, a full Longshot or Boomshot, and four frags. If you have Boomshots, save those for the Maulers. If you just have a Longshot, use that on the drones. You will have to kill a lot of drones, so don't take them lightly. You should only have to dip into the ammo crates for the drones, but feel free to use Longshot rounds.

Once the drones stop pouring in and the yard is quiet - get some Lancer ammo - a horn will sound and Maulers will appear followed by two Grinders. Pour a few Lancer rounds into the Maulers to get them to slow down and toss a frag or two; one for the Maulers, another if you need to finish off more than a few Maulers, and then Lancer the Grinders. The key is to not let the Maulers get under the walkways. You can't really see down there, so your only hope then would be to try and bounce a frag off the gate wall and hope it lands under the Maulers and not on the guys in the lower walkway. So if the conga lines head out of your vision you can then use the hanging gas tanks.

Try to repeat with the second wave, but don't be shy about using the Vulcan. On the third wave you can deplete the Vulcan and use any frags you want. You may want to save a frag or two if you can manage for the fourth wave, but it's up to you. For the fourth wave you can go about it any way you wish, but you should still use some Lancer bullets to slow them down. Let them get to about the middle of the yard and then hit the hanging palate to drop it for a huge explosion. If any Maulers survive, drop frags and/or go Lancer crazy - Boomshots would be good to use in this case. Mop up the Grinders and you will end the chapter right there.

If you had a full stack of Boomshots on you, those would have been overkill and would make the higher difficulties a relative breeze. If you don't know, the Boomshots come from the previous act and can be saved for this chapter.

Third Gate and Beyond

If you weren't up to the task and the Maulers broke through, you can basically just let the Locust reach the garage because it will be hard to prevent the Boomers from doing their job. At the garage, just sit back until you are told of the last resort and hit the tanker to end the chapter.

If you were never able to complete the second gate you could have just let the first Maulers go through and then sit back until you get the last resort.

The Fix 9/30/11

2011-09-30T15:09:00.001-05:00

Like the new look of the blog? I finally feel like I'm getting my money's worth, thanks google/blogger!

Anyway, I may not do this every week or on the regular, but I want to try and test my luck at picking games. I played all the picking games a few years back but I lost interest. I figure that since I have money, if I were to place bets I might be able to turn my small pile of cash into much more over time. I don't know anything about placing sports wagers or how to, but I'm looking at Vegas odds when I make my picks. What I do if I want to make these bets is what I don't know, but I could find out.

Here is the source http://www.vegas.com/gaming/ and of course you have to pick against the spread. If you don't know, the spread will look like "-2.5", which means that team is favored to win by that many points. But if the non-favored team loses by 2 points or less, then the bet on the losing team will still win. This basically means the losing team has a cushion for your bet's sake. Of course what is dangerous is the fact that every sport has goofy finishes when a game is a blowout, so you'll have to take that into account even if you would bet your life on a blowout happening.

So let's start:

I'll write little because I assume you would have all the info in front of you as well. I was going to list the spread and the over under (o/u), but I figure if I post my predicted scores, that will satisfy those needs as well as the ever-changing odds as people place wagers (odds always change).

I want to grab notable games in all sports, but don't expect season NBA or MLB as those games are basically 50/50.

Scores are displayed as away team first and home team second.

I make no guarantees that I've got a full injury list, so use caution.

This is all a test for me, FYI.

NFL

Det @ Dal
Basically a toss-up. Dallas is injured and has a streak of like 9 games decided by 3 points or less (not all wins of course). So I say go with Detroit as they have played Dallas well, even when bad, and Dallas has been unimpressive.

SCORE: 33-17

NO @ Jax
There is no telling what kind of team Jax is, so you have to go with the Saints

SCORE: 38-19

SF @ Phi
Questions about a few Eagles on offense, but the Eagle defense should have a field day on the staggering Niner offense.

SCORE: 13-31

Was @ STL
Are the Skins ready to come down to earth? I think so, and the Rams will win a game eventually.

SCORE: 9-24

Ten @ Cle
A huge toss-up here as both teams seem like pretenders. I favor Ten, and Browns at home should play well, but I'll go Titans big.

SCORE: 45-27

Buf @ Cin
Look for this game to be close. I'm thinking a late Bill TD.

SCORE: 24-20

Min @ KC
Is McNabb poised for a breakout game against a shell-shocked KC squad? I think so, and if the offense could have done something or the defense kept going strong in the second halves, Min would be 3-0. I think they finally pull it together and win big.
SCORE: 27-10

Car @ Chi
Both teams could be better than their records indicate, but this is a pretty even contest from the body of evidence this year. I would not be surprised if Cam pulls out a second half comeback or if they manage to blowout the Bears.

SCORE: 26-20

Pit @ Hou
You know Hou has the offense, but we really don't know what kind of offense the Steelers have. Look for the Steelers to be down early and come back to make it interesting.

SCORE: 22-27

Atl @ Sea
This is a matchup where the home team has the advantage. Atl seems a bit overrated, and I would think poised for an upset.

SCORE: 20-24

NYG @ Ari
Giants riding high, Arizona not looking amazing so far. Smells like a wake-up call for the Giants.

SCORE: 28-38

Mia @ SD
Looks like a chance for SD to show their #1 offense and defense of last year.

SCORE: 20-52

Den @ GB
People probably think blowout city, but I can see Denver getting early stops and keeping the game close, or coming back late.

SCORE: 30-34

NE @ Oak
My upset of the week! lol, too bad the spread is so low or I would feel really strong about this.

SCORE: 17-21

NYJ @ Bal
You may think defensive struggle, but that doesn't factor in until late in the game.

SCORE: 23-26

Ind @ TB
Look for the Colts to play well, but not well enough.

SCORE: 23-38

I'll try to get in a college and MLB post if I can.

Fantasy Football 2011

2011-08-26T20:38:00.000-05:00

This is inspired by a facebook note I made. I was planning on a post similar, but a quick and dirty approach seems best.

A quick rundown of who I got and who I like in no real order among a few teams:

QB - Bradford, Freeman, Vick, Brady, and backups being McNabb, Flacco, Cassel

No Manning, no Romo, no homo (lol). May want to use a midround pick on Freeman for potential Vick-like numbers.

RB - McCoy, Hillis, Green-Ellis, Felix Jones, Wells, Hightower, Lynch, Ronnie Brown

Of course it goes Peterson, Foster, Rice, McCoy, Johnson, MJD, Steven Jackson, Mendenhall, Gore, Turner, McFadden, etc. eventually Forte.

WR - DeSean Jackson, White, Jennings, Bowe, Vincent Jackson, Braylon Edwards, Steve Johnson, Brandon Lloyd, Santana Moss, Mike Wallace, Sims-Walker, AJ Green may be a huge value pick and is like the only rookie I trust

TE - Mercedes Lewis, Celek, Pettigrew, Heap (would take Olson instead of a few, no faith in Lewis and I'm thinking Celek wont be the backup for long)

DEF - PIT GB BAL PHI SD NE STL (kinda an overall order, but there is a gap of teams between NE and STL)

Value picks are the keys to winning. A value pick is someone who simply performs better than the players drafted above him. If you follow pre-draft rankings to the heart you will probably find yourself with nothing but busts, or that the guy who didn't get anyone he wanted actually wins the league because the cards dealt him pure value picks. Every year there are a few guys from free agency who can carry you to a championship - you just have to get them first.

I grab first defense high either 6th or 7th round or once it's a grab-bag of talent left, meaning once you have your RBs, WRs, QB (maybe), and maybe after your bench RB, THEN get a defense.

I say get a TE late, like really late, like after you've started filling your bench late. If you bust on a few high round RBs or WRs, it's better to have a solid backup/replacement than to blow one of those picks on a TE who will likely have some good games, a few great games, but a lot of bad games - which is how most TEs operate.

I think Alex Henery will do good in Philly, but other than that don't matter who your kicker is. You can either go with the high-scoring teams, the teams that can't run the ball for those last yards, or the previous season's rankings.

Celek (mostly as a backup), Henery, and Green-Ellis are on every team I have.

Some picks were hamstrung by week 7 bye weeks. Gotta pay attention to that.

I prefer the 9th spot, but any spot past 5 is best because if you're any lower (or higher??) and you pick a first round bust you are pretty much dead in the water - Chris Johnson, Vick, and MJD owners in the top 5 are on notice.

Always be wary of the top performers from the previous season, and I mean the top 3 at each position. Defenses are most likely to bust, but may be better off under-rating the top previous season's performers and provide actual reasons why you would rather draft someone else. I think McCoy is the 4th best RB because this same offense produced Brian Westbrook, who for the prime of his career was a passing and running threat. And everyone is high on Phillip Rivers, but all of his WRs are just mid-rounders - Vincent Jackson has top 10 potential. That doesn't mean draft him ahead of the Johnsons and everyone else, but maybe you can hope to get him as a value pick.

As always, ESPN leagues are good. Unless yahoo has changed a ton, don't go there. NFL, CBS, and FOX leagues are worth a try.

Rumble Royale Part 32

2011-08-15T21:20:00.000-05:00

And now the conclusion of Rumble Royale. The Final Four will square off and then the last two standing will fight to the death to determine a champion.

These competitors have spent a lot of good pics already. With what they have left we will now go in descending order. Really, the last fight isn't necessary, but who can argue.

The Final Four

Megan Fox

Lucy Pinder

Keeley Hazell

Kate Upton

Championship Match

Runner-up

Keeley Hazell

Champion

Kate Upton

I figured that until the end of time no one could supplant Miss Keeley Hazell, but Keeley is currently retired from modeling to pursue acting. Even I knew Keeley seemed to have a screw loose as she made a few questionable comments, made a horrible music video I refuse to watch, and made a sex tape. But the killer is that she is pursuing acting, which leads me to believe I won't see her again :(

Meanwhile, Kate Upton is the hottest woman I've ever seen, and the best part is she doesn't have a screw loose as I can tell. She's on SI, she's got horses, she's modeled Victoria's Secret, she's got spunk and charisma, she can dance, and she's got a twitter account - what more could you ask for?

Sorry Keeley, it's a new day.

Rumble Royale Part 31

2011-08-15T17:22:00.000-05:00

The Elite Eight.

Round 5

Kate Upton

Megan Fox

Scarlett Johansson

Anna Kendrick

Kate and Megan keep up their double-team work for at least one more round

Keeley Hazell

Lucy Pinder

Jenna Haze

Tori Black

Keeley and Lucy keep their double-team into the Final Four

Rumble Royale Part 30

2011-08-14T22:48:00.001-05:00

And so round 4 ends. 2 more to the finish.

Round 4

Jenna Haze

Tori Black

Emma Watson (Daniel Radcliffe with the assist)

Thunder Girl Ashley

Jenna and Tori join the Elite Eight, Emma playing her +1000 internetz card is not enough

Keeley Hazell

Lucy Pinder

Tiffany Taylor

Zooey Deschanel

Keeley and Lucy bring the British power to the Elite Eight

Rumble Royale Part 29

2011-08-14T21:46:00.000-05:00

The Sweet Sixteen.

Round 4

Scarlett Johansson

Anna Kendrick

Sienna Miller

Freida Pinto

Scarlett and Anna are the first to reach the Elite Eight

Kate Upton

Megan Fox

Ashlynn Brooke

Olivia Wilde

Kate and Megan continue their new double-team

Rumble Royale Part 28

2011-08-14T20:33:00.000-05:00

And just like that round 3 comes to an end.

Round 3

Ashlynn Brooke

Olivia Wilde

Jessica Alba (congrats on the new baby :)

Jennifer Connelly

Ashlynn and Olivia advance

Kate Upton

Megan Fox

Irina Shayk

Hope Solo

Kate and Megan emerge from a tough one

Rumble Royale Part 27

2011-08-14T19:40:00.000-05:00

Round 3

Lucy Pinder

Tiffany Taylor

Nicky Whelan

Eva Mendes

Lucy and Tiffany continue their double-team

Keeley Hazell

Zooey Deschanel

Sasha Grey

Lexi Belle

Keeley and Zooey prove that names ending in "ey" are awesome!

Rumble Royale Part 26

2011-08-14T18:53:00.000-05:00

Half and half. Half is great and then some, and the other half is just eh.

Round 3

Jenna Haze

Tori Black

Ashley Greene

Jessie Andrews

Jenna and Tori move on

Emma Watson

Thunder Girl Ashley

LIGHTS

Kristin Bell

Emma and Ashley, mostly because the other two didn't have great pics... admittedly, this has been a weak segment of the bracket

Rumble Royale Part 25

2011-08-14T18:35:00.000-05:00

The end is just in sight, and this is because of the 4-ways (lul) and because they are posted in pairs. Now we enter the broiling inferno of the Hot 32!

Round 3

Sienna Miller

Freida Pinto

Izabel Goulart

Gemma Atkinson

Sienna and Freida move on in match 1

Scarlett Johansson

Anna Kendrick

Katy Perry

Bruna Schmitz

Scarlett and Anna advance

Rumble Royale Part 24

2011-08-14T17:50:00.000-05:00

And so we conclude round 2, and in doing so we may catapult this thing to a conclusion today.

Round 2

Megan Fox

Hope Solo

Adriana Lima

Jennifer Lawrence

Fox like duh, but Solo edges Lima on the fact that she possesses a skill

Kate Upton

Irina Shayk

Esit Ginzburg

Malin Akerman

Kate and Irina display the power of SI

Rumble Royale Part 23

2011-08-14T17:06:00.001-05:00

Round 2

Olivia Wilde

Jennifer Connelly

Ana Ivanovic

Lucy Lui

Olivia and Jennifer advance

Ashlynn Brooke

Jessica Alba

Olivia Munn

Bryce Dallas Howard

Ashlynn and Jessica move on

Funny story, I thought Ashlynn and Bree Olson were the same person. Get this, Ashlynn is from Oklahoma, but Bree did a recent interview on an OK radio station. Luckily, Ashlynn is the girl of choice here and she is the only one pictured.

Rumble Royale Part 22

2011-08-09T21:44:00.000-05:00

Round 2

Sasha Grey

Zooey Deschanel

Marisa Miller

Elisha Cuthbert

Sasha and Zooey give those models the business

Keeley Hazell

Lexi Belle

Taylor Swift

Minka Kelly

Keeley and Lexi with ease

Rumble Royale Part 21

2011-08-09T19:08:00.000-05:00

Round 2

Lucy Pinder

Tiffany Taylor

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Emma Stone

Lucy and Tiffany continue their successful double-team combo in this scorching match

Nicky Whelan

Eva Mendes

Monica Bellucci

Arianny Celeste

Nicky and Eva move on in part 2 of perhaps the best pair of matches yet

Rumble Royale Part 20

2011-08-08T19:21:00.000-05:00

Just two more brackets to complete after this post.

Round 2

Kristen Bell

Thunder Girl Ashley

Maria Sharapova

Alyssa Miller

Kristen and Ashley make it by on intangibles

Emma Watson

LIGHTS

Kate Beckinsale

Kirsten Dunst

Emma and Lights snuff out Kate

Everyone made it by on intangibles today.... the losers probably should have won, LOL

Rumble Royale Part 19

2011-08-08T18:28:00.000-05:00

Round 2 rolls on

Tori Black

Jessie Andrews

Rianne Ten Haken

Beyonce

Tori and Jessie are just too much

Jenna Haze

Ashley Greene

Gemme Arterton

Mila Kunis

Jenna and Ashley advance, though Ashley should thank Gemma's lack of stellar pics

Rumble Royale Part 18

2011-08-07T21:38:00.000-05:00

This is the second half of a bracket, so there are not going to be as many matches from here to the end.

Round 2

Anna Kendrick

Katy Perry

Alexis Bledel

Brooklyn Decker

Anna and Katy, with Alexis suffering a last second defeat (which is to say she was supposed to advance...) when Brooklyn Decker comes up 4th you know it's insanity up in here

Scarlett Johansson

Bruna Schmitz

Selma Blair

Christina Hendricks

Scarlett and Bruna advance quite easily

Rumble Royale Part 17

2011-08-07T19:45:00.001-05:00

Welcome to round 2, about a week after the end of round 1 but I figure no one cares anyway....

Be warned, though there were not many obvious or apparent upsets in round 1, it's face-melting hotness from here on out.

Round 2

Freida Pinto

Gemma Atkinson

Bar Refaeli

Naomi Watts

Freida and Gemma advance, though it was not easy

Izabel Goulart

Sienna Miller

Zoe Saldana

Penelope Cruz

Izabel and Sienna easily

I guess it makes sense that women who are models would do better than women who are paid to act...