Well, it’s time to revisit my Quest to own every single Super Mario Kart record. Eric Schafer from Houston, TX, has annihilated virtually all of my records. Woohoo! Time to fire up the ol’ SNES!
Archive for the ‘games’ Category
The Quest: Update
Saturday, March 20th, 2010Follow the Red Balloon…to Fortune and Glory!
Monday, November 30th, 2009This article was written for ScienceCheerleader.com. By reading it, you justify the public humiliation that I endured while walking nearly a mile with a giant red balloon.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the Internets, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced the DARPA Network Challenge, a competition that will explore the role of social networking in communication, team building, and group mobilization. The challenge is to be the first person to submit the locations of 10 8-foot, red, weather balloons at 10 fixed locations in the continental United States.
Here’s how it works: The red balloons will be deployed on Saturday, December 5, in readily accessible locations and visible from nearby roads. Teams and collaborators will have approximately 9 days, until 12:00 PM (ET) on December 14, to collect the locations of the balloons and submit their entries. All locations must be submitted in latitude and longitude coordinates. The event is open to individuals of all ages irrespective of nationality or residency (except Federal employees and their spouses and dependents), but first you must register your team on the DARPA Network Challenge website.
Find the red balloons. Win $40,000. Do you have what it takes to be the next Balloon Boy/Girl?
Five New Super Mario Kart World Records
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
In August, Brandon Skar of Snoqualmie, WA, systematically destroyed all of my Super Mario Kart Records on Twin Galaxies. I’ve chipped away at his efforts with five new World Records, but there is still a long way to go before The Quest is complete. I will try to post some of my record-setting runs on the YouTubes when I get a chance.
Click on these links to be impressed by my accomplishments:
SkyMall Fest 2009: Ye Olde Baseball Pinball Game
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
There’s gotta be a Facebook app for this out there somewhere.
The Quest Reinvigorated!
Monday, September 7th, 2009
Not that I’m looking for more work, but it appears The Quest will need quite a reboot. During the past month, someone named Brandon Skar from Snoqualmie, WA, did a number on my once impressive array of Super Mario Kart records. I now hold world records in just three categories and am runner-up in 14 categories and second runner-up in one category.
It’s interesting to note that he didn’t record any scores on my favorite course, Mario Circuit 1 (12.11 lap and 1:00:93 race), but perhaps he had bigger fish to fry (i.e., maintaining his Nintendo Wii Sports Resort records?).
This is good. I’m excited. It’s always nice to have a little competition.
Let The Quest begin…again!
Frogster!
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009I wrote this for ScienceCheerleader.com. It will change your life…
The Vancouver Aquarium has re-imagined the classic arcade game, Frogger, to better reflect the global decline in the amphibian population. The new version, Frogster, retains the spirit of the original game (e.g., horrendous controls and even more horrendous graphics) but now offers a myriad of new dangers, including loss of habitat, pesticides, pollution, and other human factors. The game also provides informative “Did you know?” facts about the amphibian population; for instance, did you know that air pollution is deadly because frogs breathe through their skin? Neither did I!
Frogster is advertised as “The Hardest Game You’ll Ever Play”, and they aren’t kidding. Navigating through car exhaust, polluted water, and human interference is a lot harder when you’re a helpless little frog. In fact, it was so frustrating to watch my frogs repeatedly drowned or flattened by oncoming traffic that I was compelled to help.
FrogWatch USA makes it easy! Since 1998, they’ve leveraged citizen scientists to monitor the health and behavior of various frog species around the country. In as little as 20 minutes a week, you can monitor frogs and toads in your own neighborhood wetlands and help scientists develop practical ways to help conserve these important animals. You can even learn to make your own frog calls — great fun at parties!
So play Frogster, get motivated, and let’s start monitoring some frogs!
Spring DC Bocce League: Week 4-6 Recaps
Monday, June 1st, 2009The spring season’s unpredictable bocce schedule has made it difficult to keep up with our weekly Change You Can Bocce recaps. I realize this has been a major inconvenience for the entire DC Bocce League, since each and every member experiences their share of awesomeness vicariously through our adventures. In any case, the playoffs start tomorrow, so you’ll have to deal with this ultra quick week 4-6 recap…
Week 4: The Teals Have Eyes
Our first experience playing on the declined portion of the park ended in disappointment. Deboccery took full advantage of An-HUGE, the Captain, and Dr. Clutch’s inability to master the slopes and won handily, 16-7. Despite losing, we had fun, and that’s really what bocce is all about. Well, fun and winning. But, mostly just winning.
Week 5: Tuesday Night Lights OUT!
One week after losing to Deboccery on the slopes, An-HUGE and the Captain returned for redemption. We immediately bolted to a 3-0 lead over our Texas Orange-colored opponents, Tuesday Night Lights, who were confused and intimidated by our intimate knowledge of the sloping greens. Unfortunately, they responded to our quick start with an unprecedented 16-0 run. Had we not been preoccupied with our own loathing and self-doubt, we might have noticed the nuclear explosion that was apparently taking place in the background.
Week 6: Leave it to Beaster
Leave it to The Beast to recapture the momentum and turn our season around. In perhaps the most closely contested bocce match in recent years, The Beast called his shot and then landed his ball of fury right next to the polina just as time expired for a 16-15 win. It was classic Beast. Though Step Off Biocce came up short this time, we expect to see them again in the playoffs. We’ll beat them then, too, but that’s another story.
Spring DC Bocce League: Week 4 Recap
Thursday, May 14th, 2009A Teal of Two Schwettys
Fact: The only thing better than eating salmon for breakfast is eating salmon-flavored Schwetty Bocce Balls for dinner.
In Week 4 of the Spring DC Bocce League, Change You Can Bocce feasted on their salmon-colored opponent in a 14-9 shellacking for the ages. Though The Beast, The Captain, and Mr. Awesome were significantly outnumbered (2 humans, 2 dogs) by their opponent, Petes Schwetty Bocce Balls, their insatiable hunger for salmon-flavored victory was enough record their second consecutive win this season. You had to see it to believe it!
The win marked a critical step toward our goal of an undefeated season; indeed, few teams in bocce history have ever lost their Week 4 match and still managed to go undefeated. Will there be a challenger?
Do you have what it takes?
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Week 2, April 28: Change You Can Bocce 16, Bocce Ballers 10
Week 4, May 12: Change You Can Bocce 14, Petes Schwetty Bocce Balls 9
Regular Season Record: 2-0
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Spring DC Bocce League: Week 2 Recap
Friday, May 1st, 2009Change You Can Bocce
The 2009 spring bocce season has already offered its share of adversity. A 10-minute torrential downpour postponed Week 1, and DC Metro construction left Change You Can Bocce without two of its stars, Mr. Awesome and Dr. Clutch, for its Week 2 match against Bocce Ballers. Even worse, our Week 2 match took place on the bocce courts, which meant we didn’t have the luxury of relying on the unpredictable grassy terrain, “the great equalizer”, to mask our inadequacies.
For these very reasons–and because they agreed to pay the $40 entrance fee–we recruited two entirely new team members for the 2009 spring season. Until Week 2, neither of these individuals had even so much as cradled a bocce ball in their hands, let alone competed in an organized league, and therefore neither had been assigned nicknames clever enough to pass our rigorous nickname-vetting process. After all, everyone knows that nicknames can only be awarded for amazing feats of physical dominance, clutch maneuvers, or generous gifts of golds and spices.
Fast forward to the end of our Week 2 match — the score is 13-10 and only a few minutes remain until the game is called. Our newest teammate, Anuj, against all notions of logic and tradition, hurls his ball into a tight corner, knocking all of our opponents balls out the way, and securing a 16-10 victory for his team. A HUGE shot by Anuj! An-HUUGE!!
And, so it was decided, to the list of Change You Can Bocce members, which includes The Beast, The Enforcer, The Captain, Unkle Unkool, Mr. Awesome, and Dr. Clutch, we add An-HUGE!
Now that we have that resolved, we will try to work on perfecting our simultaneous complex aerial maneuvers, as demonstrated quite unsuccessfully in the above picture.
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Week 2, April 28: Change You Can Bocce 16, Bocce Ballers 10
Regular Season Record: 1-0
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Tea(l)Bagging Party – You’re invited!
Friday, April 24th, 2009
The 2009 DC Bocce Spring season may have been postponed by a 15-minute thunderstorm that sent the District of Columbia into a whirlwind of uncontrollable fear and panic, but that didn’t stop our team, Change You Can Bocce, from showing up to Garfield Park last Tuesday night for our opening match. Of course, you wouldn’t know that because we were the only team that showed up!
While we were disappointed that our match was cancelled, we were thrilled to pick up our swanky teal team t-shirts. That’s right: TEAL. Become familiar. It is the color of inevitability. The color of your doom.
DC Bocce League: mark your calendars for June 13, the DC Bocce Spring Championship. There will be a Tea(l)bagging party, and everyone is invited.
(cue extended maniacle laughter)