7 Days of Halo - Entry One

In honor of bs angel's Halo 3 Final Week Countdown, I've decided to participate in her week long Halo activities, all leading up to the release date on the 25th!

Entry One:
Tuesday, 09.17.07
Activity - Photoshop a picture of yourself with Master Chief.

Not bad for a replacement Prom date ;)

HANDLE WITH EXTREME CAUTION

Got my birthday gift to myself a week early today in the mail (along with the H3 bling shirt I bought for my sister's birthday, as well as the MC Visor shirt :).

Thinking about putting the Carnage patch on the back somewhere.

I opened up the bag, and this was along the inside flap:

"HANDLE WITH EXTREME CAUTION. The contents herein are protected by the UNSC Martial Circumstance Rules and the Official Secrets Act of 2550. Penalty for unauthorized dissemination or distribution of these contents is summary execution by a UNSC authorized firing squad. This is a field issue Messenger Satchel and as such is protected by extraordinary wartime provisions. This Satchel is rated for safe transport of UNSC-rated plastic and chemical munitions, as well as known types of Covenant material, including Plasma and Brute Grenades."

Awesome.

McTrollers

Yesterday I received an automated voice-message from Gamestop, telling me that the Halo Spartan/Covenant controllers should be in on Friday (today). If you remember from one of my earlier posts, I had these on pre-order long ago.

Today I gave my friend, Sabs, a call. Sabs works at Gamestop and gets me some nice discounts and swag. I asked if he'd meet me at work to pick up my controllers, he said sure thing.

Two minutes later I get a call back, saying he just called work, and the UPS man didn't show up with the controllers.

Heartbroken, I went to Gamestop anyway, since I had to pay off the last $45.09 for my Legendary Edition of Halo 3. My little Halo-playing sister came along for the trip, wanting to see if there were any DS games she wanted for her birthday. When we walked in, Sabs was there, talking to his buddy behind the counter. I paid for my Legendary Edition, griping about my disappointment in knowing the controllers we not available still. A moment later his buddy came out with a box fresh off the truck. I squealed and inside were the new wireless controllers.

The Spartan one is mine. The Covenant belongs to the sister :)

Shortly after my purchases, I learned that the employees at Gamestop recieve a bracelet with the Halo 3 icon on it. Sabs' friend said he had his in his car if I really wanted one, but before I could reply Sabs reached into his sleeve and handed me his.

"It's a little too punk-rock for me. Consider it an early birthday present."

It just about rivals my dog tags.

The figurines that came with the controllers look like junk in these images, mostly because of A) My camera B) Lighting or C) Me not being a photo major. But in person, they're amazing. Just like the ActionClix, there is so much detail on these tiny little guys. I love the MC with the shotgun, but he looks so cool with the Assault Rifle.

Oui, oui!

More pics of the controllers.

Master Cat

I was browsing the interwebz for a Master Chief helmet reference, and came across a typical lolcat photo. Normally these drive me insane, but this one is the only one I've ever bothered to save to my archives from now until Caturday.

link

Now where is Catana?

Every Girl Remembers Her First

And after many years, yesterday I experienced mine.

Megg Egg

An oldie but goodie.

Before I started frequenting the HBO chat/forums, I remember desperately trying to accomplish the Siege of The Madrigal egg. No such luck.

Maybe now I can accomplish my mission from years ago.

How Much Does Halo Cost You?

Similar to the TTL Homework assignment, I wondered exactly how much money has been spent on Halo (both mine, and my parents') since I first picked up the XBox the Christmas it came out.

Brace yourself.

Items Quantity Price Xbox (First Gen) 1 $299.99 Xbox (repl.) 1 $149.00 XB360 (plus HDD) 1 $180.00 AMAZON! Halo 1 1 $49.99 Halo 1 (rep) 1 $19.99 Halo 2 LE 2 $120.00 XBL (years) 4 $200.00 H3 1 $129.99 H3 Zune(with Warranty) 1 $309.33 EGM H3 Dec. 06 1 $5.99 EGM H3 Sept. 07 1 $5.99 OXM H3 Oct. 07 1 $9.99 Halo Dogtag 1 $70.00 Halo 2 Dogtag + Pen 1 $25.00 Beach Towel 1 $35.00 XB360 Faceplate 1 $14.99 XB360 Skins 1 $21.99 Heretic Action Fig 1 $14.99 ODST Action Fig 1 $25.00 Invisi Grunt Action Fig 1 $15.99 Zanzibar Shirt 1 $18.95 Cortana Tank 1 $18.95 MC Tuxedo Shirt 1 $18.95 H3 Beta Shirt 2 $33.90 HGN 1 $20.00 H:U 1 $3.99 Prisoner Print 1 $60.00 Print by the Greg guy 1 $25.00 FoR 1 $6.99 The Flood 1 $6.99 First Strike 1 $6.99 GoO 1 $12.95 Emotion Shirt 1 $18.00 Last Stand Shirt 1 $18.00 CTF Shirt 1 $18.00 We Do Our Part Shirt 1 $18.00 H3 Pins 2 $11.98 H3 Stickers 2 $5.98 Carnage Patch 1 $0.99 H2 Patch 1 $3.99 H3 Controllers 2 $119.84 Preorder ArtiFX Statue 1 $100.00 Preorder Grunt Water Bottle 1 $9.95 That’s how much the UNSC one costs, can't remember. Game Fuel (12 packs) 3 $11.98 Buy 2 get one Free Game Fuel (20 oz) 1 $1.59 May be off.. Game Fuel (2L) 1 $2.99 May be off.. H3 Brown Shirt 1 $0.00 Contact Harvest Cover 1 $0.00 ODST HGN Action Fig 1 $0.00 Black H1 Spartan Action Fig 1 $0.00 Total $2,278.17 $2,278.17
None of the prices above include shipping, or taxes. Thank god.

This was not as bad as I imagined, but still, erk. And to think it probably won't end here.

How much have you spent? Guesstimates?

Sci-fi Writers Join War on Terror

My literature/English class centers around Science Fiction, so today my professor brought in an article from May of this year, explaining how Science fiction writers are being used by the Homeland Security Department.

A great read, and really interesting to know that there is only one woman in the group. Sigma, the group name, requires that you have to have at least on technical doctorate degree, and obviously a heavy interest in Science Fiction. Both of these requirements are pretty male dominated. I think the whole Sigma funding sounds a little science fiction-y itself. That money is going to these authors who live in the future, and think of the impossible. Although if someone was clever enough to think of it, then maybe it's not impossible...

But the main part of the article that caught my eye was one of the members, Larry Niven. Mr. Ringworld himself!

His quote as follows:

Why offer their ideas to the government instead of private companies that pay big bucks?

"To save civilization," Ringworld author Larry Niven says. "We do it in fiction. Why wouldn't we want to do it in fact?"

This struck me as awesome because the second we started up on the article, I was immediately thinking about Halo/Ringworld, in general. Kinda like a subconscious deja-vu thing :)

Darnit Wu

Wu complained about the lighiting in my first Textana pic.

So he tricked me into going outside this morning and taking a new one, which makes me look 10x more grumpy. The one size smaller than labeled deal worked out just fine for a medium. So to all the girls I talked to about the shirt sizing: order away.

roar

Shopping Spree

Over the weekend I managed to accumulate a few goodies...

1. Halo: Uprising

I first got a glimpse of this at Comic-Con 07 and was eager to get my head wrapped around another comic book medium for Halo (HGN, anyone?). The guy at Comics n Stuff sold me the last copy and gave me a heads up on the release date for the next issue, not that I remember it though. I've already read through it. I love the illustrations, and the big, two page panel in the civilian storyline. What I don't like are the massive ads stapled into the comic itself, incredibly distracting from my read (well, they ARE ads...), only because I don't care about the conversation between a Lion and an SUV. What I did enjoy was the set up of the story to come. I'm sure someone was thinking "How bad of a position can we put the Master Chief in, for him to fight and frag his way out of?" 4/5

2.MadCatz Halo 3 Faceplate and Skins

At first I thought about giving this set away for my H3 Multiplayerpalooza birthday party, but my little sister really likes it. I'm a little sad it cost over twenty dollars, and that I snagged it on the other side a bit, but it looks much better than I thought it would. Since MadCatz signed their multi-year agreement with Microsoft, maybe I can get a hold on a much more appealing skin and faceplate design... 3/5

3. OXM Monthly Oct. 07

The content inside is nothing new, and only spans a page and a third (the remaining bit is on Halo Wars). I bought it soley for the cover art, which depicts a Master Chief, tinted in blue light. In his visor is a reflection of Cortana, passing out (like in the E3 trailer, but hotter). 1/5

4. EGM September Issue
Yeah, I know. Old. I had to fish out the Master Chief cover. Not leaving a score cause it's already been reviewed to death. But EGM > OXM. Tru fax.

5. Panera Bread for Lunch

Greek Salad and Broccoli and Cheddar soup, if you must know. Delicious. 5/5

6. Cortana Tank Top

I was stalking/tracking this item every minute since I ordered it the day it went up in the Bungie Store. I think the cute part is the stream of code printed on the inside collar :) It's quickly become my favorite new shirt, and like another female halo fan, I've already planned to wear this shirt to the midnight release at GameStop on September 25th. 5/5

Ta-Da!

After maybe a couple hours of searching, I found a template online for Blogger that I liked. Then after another hour or so of photoshopping, I Halo-ified it. I'm pretty happy with the end result, but that won't keep me from making a few adjustments here and there.

PAX is taking place this weekend. Guess who isn't going!

Have fun, everyone!