Bot's Early Morning Video Game Pick's of the Moment (Classic Version)

Okay, so neither is this in the early morning or a game I am playing at the moment. But since I am still occupied with Rock Band 2 and Spore and I have the time, I thought that I would reminisce rather than go on and on about Rock Band 2 and Spore......... which are awesome........... still....

Anyway!!! Here we go. Imagine, if you will, a beautiful summer in Northern California. Hot weather outside, but the cooler keeps the house nice and cool. The Sevy house has just bought an Atari 2600 and one of the first games we got was Yars Revenge.



For the time, this game was amazing and it probably still is! I just haven't played it forever. For those of you who don't know (and most of you probably don't) the object of this game was to take your flying mechanical insect (a Yar) and destroy the enemy base that was protected by a thick layer of shield that the Yar could eat away.


The static in the middle of the screen is not a glitch, it is the safe zone where the enemies missile could not kill you. Aww the memories..... For more information on this and other wonderful games go to wikipedia and look them up.

MONDAY MOAG ART: The Early edition (WIP)

Obviously, this is a work in progress (hence the WIP in the title). I'm going for a nomad-like dude, with native american influence. It's a little dark, and I plan on lightening it up a little over the weekend (hope to finish it too...) but overall I really like where this is heading. Anyway, not much else to say. The in-laws are coming to visit this weekend, and to be honest, not much excitement to be found.

Oh well... at least I'll have Spore and my Photoshops...

Bot's Early Morning Video Game Pick's of the Moment

Well, I thought since Salvaggio had his movie picks of the week that I would start to post my games of the moment... and I say "of the moment" because I suffer (or enjoy every moment of it) from ADD and have the ability to change video games at the blink of an eye. So without further ado.... LOOK!!! SOMETHING SHINY!!!....... on with the show.




Not just the Creator Creature that we talked about a while ago, but the whole darn thing. It may be short, but it leaves you saying "oh man Spore 2 is going to be freakin' awesome." (Kind of the same thing I did with Fable.) The premise is simple. Take your creature from a single cell organism to a space faring being. That is also where the fun lies. It's an amazingly addictive game that can be played quickly (it took me two night to get to the Space Stage) but you can enjoy every moment of it. The down side is it does cost $50! Which for some people (namely college students, the generally poor and family people whose names are not Salvaggio) can be a little steep. I give this game a score of "try it, you'll like it!" And that's with none of the fizzy alka seltzer after taste.

Now on to number 2!!! Which is my number 1!!!





OMG!!! (G = Gosh) I never really got into the whole rhythm game thing until Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii which was fun but didn't keep my interest, and then I played the first Rock Band with some friends (Omally, Kadaj and PRP to be exact) needless to say, that was the game that finally made me get the XBox 360. Not Halo, not.... umm.... is there anything else out there for the 360???...... Oh well! Anyway, I heart this game! I played it every day for the the almost 6 months I owned it and when I had the chance to pre order Rock Band 2 I had it paid off lickity split. I got Rock Band 2 over the weekend (I won't say on Friday) on Sunday and it is better then the first. All the songs that I had downloaded for the first one work perfectly on the second. 55 out of the 58 songs on the first disc transferred nicely to the 360 HDD and now work great on 2. PLUS Rock Band 2 has 84 songs on disc! I have over 200 songs now and it's just going to get worse!!! Harmonix puts out 3 - 5 new downloadable songs every week and you know I am going to be getting more. (I got Duran Duran's Rio for Heavens sake!) This game gets an "ACTIVATE OVERDRIVE!!!"

Anyway, try these two games whenever you can. They are fun and well worth it.

Hmm... New ideas maybe?

Okay, I bought this book recently (I know you have it already, Shadowwire, but I paid $1 for it at a used book sale at the library, so there). It's got some very weird ideas, basically the stuff that made us want to change and make MOAG in the first place. But there also are a lot of ideas that I think MOAG could use, with a little help.

Now this post is not here to list those ideas, Shadowwire has the book, and I'm sure he's well aware of what's in it. What I want to know, is what you think we need to change. Also let's keep it to the comments, that way we can read all the relevant ideas in the same forum. I know previously we've wanted to post a new post for every idea, but I think we all know the blog is here, so there's no need to keep putting up a new post for everything. And please, don't take that as a reason to not post anymore.

So... comment away. I promise that Shadowwire won't hold any of you responsible for ideas that you say you don't like. Okay, so I can't make that promise, but I'd like to think that he wouldn't do that.

But then again...

New Ideas...

Sam thought up the Idea to video-confrence a game of MOAG. this way, we'll be able to play with you guys. It's a great idea, seeing as we have 2 PC's with webcams here. (if I can find the other one.) I think we shall all answer to Sam's inventatous idea making. (OK I had to fit a big word in there somewhere) also, I'll bug him about joining the blog.

Our "Aliases"

Well I was just doing a cool picture of a astronaut guy for my weekend art. During the summer my uncle got into a bunch of his "pioneer astronaut movies" one of them I happened to see with him was "The Right Stuff" which is now a top 10 movie for me but that's why I started to do this picture.. . . Well as soon as I started the pic with "The Right Stuff" in mind, I started to think about the funny aliases or gamer identities we have (well actually most are pretty cool, unlike mine. . . hahaha) Um anyway the guy in the drawing started to look hispanic so I decided to make this a drawing of my alter ego "Juanito."

. . . Then, well just now, I decided to make a story for him. This is all the at the spur of the moment so go ahead and laugh through out it, you have my permission (as if you needed it).

Juan Casador aka Juanito was a pilot that entered a secret privately funded astronaut program which sent "specimans" to Mars much before the USA space program even began. This program was initiated by. . . Um. . . Mexico! . . . Yeah Mexico (yes, chuckle at the obvious impossibility) thats where Juanito comes in. He was the first man to go to Mars but got all radioactified on the trip and this made him able to have a very unnaturally long life, living up into the era of the current MOAG universe. . . oh yeah he is totally awesome because he is the leading human expert in space flight and navigation, because he has lived so long. . .

. . . Yep that my alter ego, hahaha! So anyways let me know what you think everyone.

Back in the Art

Hello everyone. . .

. . . Well I know that it is not the weekend, which is when I usually post some art but I was bored and wanted to do something so I just colored a funny picture I drew a while ago that some of you probably may have seen. . .

Please hold the applause for the Mr. Macaneon Gangsta. . .

. . . I think if Weird Al did a remix of gangsters paradise again it would be of this guy hahaha. Like I said, I was just bored and did this in just a few minutes, but let me know what you all think.

Deep thoughts....

Okay, so...

The answer is ...

The "M" in "M" Class Planet is from the Vulcan word "Minshara".
(thanks for the applause! Delighted to clear that up for ya'll!)

Now, to address the other part of Bot's topic of discussion... may I propose a different train of thought and refer you to Moses 2:5, where it says that God created all things spiritually, before he created them naturally. At first glance, we think, "Oh, He made the spirits of things first." And we tend to leave it at that. But let me coax you to delve a little deeper, dear readers!

Ponder on this...

When an artist, designer, architect, landscaper, writer, even the rocket scientist or other creative individual decides to 'create' something new, the first step is usually.... to think about it. To use the imagination. To ponder on it. Then, when said individual feels good about the initial design concept, they engage the next step, sometimes seemingly in conjunction with the imagining... they begin to sketch or write it out. Rough sketches evolve into more defined sketches, adding this, erasing that, til they feel it's just right. Then it begins to leave the "spiritual" creation stage, and it eventally becomes their current masterpiece, the "natural" or physical creation.

Since we are created in His image, and He gave us our imaginations and creative abilities, where we use similar steps that He uses every time we "create" something, I find it hard to believe that we could come up with things He never thought of. Do Klisks currently exist in the physical stage? The only definitive answer I can give is, I plan to ask Him. Will they ever exist past the spiritual stage? I would have to say yes, even if we have to wait til one of us can do the job.

So....dream a little dream, sketch a little sketch or two, write a sonnet or a story, all in all, we bring Him glory.

No art, but plenty of Movies...

Okay, I apologize, didn't get much art done over the weekend, so there isn't any Monday MOAG art today, but I did get a lot of HTML/CSS work done on some websites, so that counts for something. Maybe.

I did have a good long weekend of Movie watching (along with the BYU-Washington game, horrible call, good result). Turns out the wife was gone for the weekend, so I had the kids and borrowed some animated movies from a co-worker, and that was that. Here's the list of movies, and what I thought about them.



As you can plainly see from the image, the first is another epic from Miyazaki, Nausicaa: Of the Valley of the Wind. I hadn't seen this one, but had heard it was really good. I'd have to agree. While it's not my favorite Miyazaki film, it was, as expected, very good. The kids really liked it, which surprised me, seeing as it's a little more complex and/or darker than My neighbor Totoro. But all in all, it's worth it to see it, if not just it being one of the all time epics in animated movies.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.1 Don't ask what the .1 is for, I don't know and frankly, it's none of your business.



The second is Triplets of Bellville. Bot and I watched this when it first came out a few years ago, and I have to say it's one of my favorites. This one I will recommend, but I honestly think you need to be an art snob to get it. There is hardly any dialogue in the movie (my kids kept asking why they don't talk), so it's just watching for art's sake.

Rating: 3 Bags of chips and an extra cheese dip. Again, no meaning whatsoever.



The last movie of the weekend was Brad Bird's "Iron Giant". If you're not familiar with this one, you should be shot. It was a spectacular piece done by the director of The Incredibles, and I think it's just as good. I believe Shadowwire and I saw this one, but I wanted my kids to see it. Just a sweet movie.

Rating: Ah, geeze, just go rent it okay? It's good, I promise.

So, there you have it. Anyway, let's keep the posting up. We're on track to have a record month, so bring all the finest meats and cheeses and let's do this...

Okay, it's late. That last line made no sense, and I'm starting to type double...

M class revealed!

In reality, M class refers not to a planet, but the planets star. M class, as you can see on the Hertzsprung - Russell Diagram, typicly (but not always) refers to a Main sequence star with fairly low luminosity. About 78.6% of all stars fit this catagory.

However I think Mr Bot was refering to the Fictional Classification created by "Star trek" wich refers to a planet able to support life. Seems kind of vague to me.

Sorry to waste your time with such a trivial post.

What are some ways you think planets should be classified? Commical or not.

Brought to you by Monday...

Okay, here's a quick image I did this afternoon while at work (we have some down time at the moment, so needless to say my time is spent between rousing Wii Tennis matches on the plasma in our lobby, and concept art). It started out as a lizard, possibly a macaneon, but as I sketched away "Harvey" here came out. I really like it so far, I'm going to add some darks and whatnot, but there it is. All done in Photoshop in roughly 2-3 hours.

Also, please don't stop responding to Bot's philosophical quandaries. I would take the time to post my thoughts, but I'm quite busy at home with some freelance stuff.

But since you asked, if Isaiah saw Seraphim with six wings, and many prophets have seen animals and whatnot around the throne, perhaps a Klisk can exist, as a sentient animal, or something like that (the reason I bring up Seraphim, is that they appear different from a person, and while this is mostly representational, it is possible that other beings are out there). It is a very interesting question. I know that God has made all His children in His image, so the only way a "Klisk" would exist is if it was not a Child of God. Now don't get me wrong, if it is a sentient animal, then it's still a creation of The Almighty, and would still be loved and redeemed through the atonement of Christ, and would have it's place in the eternities. Anyway, I'm probably going off the deepend here, but it seems like a reasonable explanation to me. I'm pretty sure there are some life forms out there that we have never seen, but that the Lord is all-knowingly aware of.

Anyway, enjoy the art.

The Truth About Klisks!?

Ok normally I would go along with squirrel-the-tire on the "Extraterrestrial Topic"...

...but as soon as I thought that, "I had an apostrophe, um don't you mean an epiphany"... (a reference from the movie, "Hook")

... anyway I was thinking why couldn't there be guys like Klisks on other planets, um maybe not in the sense of being covered in rock hard plated skin, and being basically impervious to any type of physical attacks... I was thinking in the general size sense... I can't really explain my "apostrophes" so i'll just give you some examples.

... Look at these http://scriptures.lds.org/en/num/13/33a ...

















... SO what do you think?! Abraham saw everyone so i'm pretty sure he saw these guys too... looking all normal... ... an um... ... Huge.

OK bot, time for the seminary kid.

Alright! as for most of us being mormon, that does include me, so Abraham is involved in my answer. Well, he did see EVERYONE, in other worlds, and man was made in god's image, so seeing as god is perfect in every way, we only have flaws that help us learn from mortal life, so since extraterrestrials (I'm not as worried about misspelling, as you are.) do indeed exist, and are as close to god as we are, I think Klisks, and so on can exist to an extent, but will be extremely similar to us. We to have birth defects, and so on, that could end up in a one-eyed man or two, but it is probably uncommon.

ToD: Is there anybody listening!

I thought we would get a little philosophical on this one... maybe even religious. Anyway, what are your thoughts and view on the possibility of extraterrestrial (holy cow, I didn't need spell check on that one! Exhibit A for the Nerd File) life? Lets remember that most of us here are Mormon and I don't want the generic "worlds without number" answer. Give me YOUR insight. What do you think the life would be like? Do you think that Klisks exist? What is the true meaning of M Class planets on Star Trek? And other such fine Nerdosophical questions.

Remember, do not answer the ToD in the comment area. Please post a new... post? (Too many posts!) That way we don't have to keep fumbling through the comment area to see if something is new.

Bonus points for the first person that can name the song and group that the title to this post came from and more points to anyone that can give me a Star Trekish definition of a M Class planet along with what the M stands for...... these can be left in the comment area.

Welcome Back Mr. Cotter... Er...

I'd just like to say welcome back to Juanito and Savara. Juanito, I'm assuming, was off in some place not named Cedar City during the summer months, and has now returned to the blessed realm for another year of scholarly study at the prestigious University/College/Technical Institute of Southern Utah/Northern Arizona, Eastern Nevada. Ah, many a good time was spent at UCTISUNAEN. Although we used to call it Garfield County Tech, due to the high number of students who attended from said county.

Savara as we all know has been... well... okay so maybe we don't know. But that's okay. I mean, who are we to judge? And if she decides not to enlighten us, even more the better. Pernicious internet rumors anyone? Because we all know, if you hear/read/see it on the internet, it must be true.

Aaaaaaaaaanyway, welcome back. It's always nice to get more people on the blog. Speaking of people, anybody (bot) heard from Punk-rokk Princess or Omally? How about Kang? Do we need to send out a search party?

Pirates! And Castles! In the SKY!!!

Well, this week's movie pick of the week is Studio Ghibli's classic, Castle in the Sky (also known as Laputa:Castle in the sky). How did I come up with this particular movie as opposed to all the other masterful pieces by Miyazaki? Well, I couldn't make up my mind, so i went with the first Miyazaki film I had the pleasure to watch. And I must say, it was sweet. The animation is a little more cartoon-ish than what I really like, but as with all Miyazaki films, the story was exceptional. Plus, the kids really liked this one as well (it comes in a close second behind "My Neighbor Totoro" which I also recommend to anyone who has kids). Anyway, the Sky Pirates are my favorite part of the movie, but it was all good.

So I give Castle in the Sky a healthy 5 out of 6. I don't really know why I rate these, I'm not a critic, and I'm not going to recommend something I didn't like. So take that for what it's worth.

Since we're talking about movies, I feel I need to add a small plug about a movie that I saw in the theaters last week. If you have the opportunity to see "The Rocker", please take it. Yes Bot, I'm talking to you.