| Action | Shadow of the Colossus |
| Target | Gradius V |
| Adventure | Ōkami |
| Tactics | Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty |
| Action | Sonic Adventure |
| Target | Rez |
| Adventure | Shenmue |
| Tactics | ChuChu Rocket! |
| Action | Super Mario 64 |
| Target | Star Fox 64 |
| Adventure | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time |
| Tactics | Worms Armageddon |
| Action | Metal Gear Solid |
| Target | Einhänder |
| Adventure | Final Fantasy VII |
| Tactics | Final Fantasy Tactics |
On August 8th I made the following tweet:
There wasn't any particular reason for me to feel that way; it was just a feeling.
Three days later, on the 11th, I was looking up behind-the-scenes videos of The Dark Knight Rises. The first one I came across took place during the football scene as someone in the crowd was filming the explosions set off by Bane. Through that, I found a YouTube channel where a guy in Pittsburgh had recorded over 50 videos of various TDKR sets along with a few scenes being filmed there. What stood out to me the most was just how close people that weren't working on the film were able to get to the cast and crew during production, or even to vehicles and props used. It seemed odd, so I looked into it, and came across a site called Before the Trailer. It was there that I saw We're the Millers, a comedy starring Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Aniston, was filming in Wilmington, North Carolina, which is only a couple of hours away from me. The website is always looking for photos of sets and actors, and I toyed with the idea of driving to Wilmington to watch them film. I decided not to as I would feel weird standing off set like that staring at people as they're trying to work. Afterward, I saw that Before the Trailer also posts casting information, including that for background actors (extras). I soon learned that Wilmington is, apparently, a popular place for filming movies and television shows, a fact my brother has known for a year now but never told me. If only I knew sooner, I could have been in Iron Man 3! Perhaps I'll be able to do Captain America 2...
After a little more research, I found Facebook pages for various casting agencies in the North Carolina area, which seems to be their main way of posting job info. I created a Facebook account - after a year of not having one - to follow the pages more closely and researched how to apply for roles properly. Four days later, on the 15th, I had gotten a role as an extra on Revolution, and then, on the 20th, I got a role on We're the Millers. I'll be writing and releasing separate posts for these and any more of my acting experiences as the movies/shows come out.
My only prior experience with acting is doing three musicals during my time in middle school and taking a drama class in high school. The first two musicals were at the Junction City Little Theater in Kansas, while the final (and worst) one was at Fort Riley Middle School. Only the first play I did, Kilroy Was Here, was any good. I'll write more about these sometime in the future. Of course, acting in a musical and doing background acting are completely different things, and I'll soon be going into more detail on just what a day as an extra can be like.
While this isn't something I'm currently interested in making a career out of (not that I could in North Carolina), I will be taking as many opportunities for background acting as I can. It's a fun diversion that pays well and gives a cool story to tell. Plus, the food is always free and delicious!
A couple of the Google+ posts I made that day.
I went to The Art of Video Games exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. yesterday with my brother. I'll upload more of the video we took when I get back from the two-week road trip I'm leaving for tomorrow, but I wanted to show off one of my favorite things at the exhibit: the guestbook. This guestbook was laid out for visitors to sign just a few days before on August 30th, and it already had quite a few people write in it. There are a lot of nice messages in there, along with people mentioning their favorite games or drawing their most beloved characters. It's a little lengthy, but I recommend checking it out to see what fellow enthusiasts had to say about the exhibit and video games in general. You can see my brother and I put our own messages in at the end.
I didn't see any mentions of Giant Bomb in there (I'll do that when I return to the exhibit later this month), but someone did draw the NeoGAF logo!
Go to the 15:00 mark for my hilarious suggestions for what my brother should write.
In December 2011 my brother and I took a road trip for Christmas. First, we drove from North Carolina to Washington, D.C., then from there to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and from there to Kansas to visit our mom. Usually when we take trips I fill up my phone with old Bombcasts, but I've heard most of them at least two or even three times now, so I needed to find something different. I don't listen to any other podcasts and generally don't like to listen to music anymore (unless it's a soundtrack I can associate with some experience I had, like a game or movie), but I wanted something that wouldn't easily be tuned out to make the drives seem shorter. This meant I needed people having conversations, and the only thing that came to mind that would be suitable for both my brother and I was the talk radio stations from the Grand Theft Auto series. So along with Giant Bomb's Game of the Year 2009 deliberations (my brother hadn't completed Uncharted 2 when the podcast was first released), I placed Chatterbox FM from Grand Theft Auto III, V-Rock from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (has some good music along with more Lazlow), West Coast Talk Radio from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Integrity 2.0 from Grand Theft Auto IV on to my phone. It didn't take my brother long to realize what we were listening to.
None of the subsequent talk radio stations were as good as Chatterbox FM.
We're about to take another road trip in September after he returns from Afghanistan and I'm trying to figure out what to do next.
With Kitty peeing all over my only real pair of shoes, and my nurse clogs I wore as Nurse Joker for Halloween 2008 being a filthy mess (for a different reason), I was out of options for footwear in the first half of 2011. I preordered a pair of Penny Arcade's new shoes, not realizing the wait for them to be manufactured and shipped out would take so long. They eventually arrived on August 15th.
They feature the Penny Arcade logo on the front and the Konami Code on the back.
Small Order of Vegetable Lo Mein, Small Order of Vegetable Fried Rice, Small Order of Fries, Egg Roll(s), and Two Bags of Butter Popcorn. Mmmm, delicious.
I went to China Star, a local Chinese restaurant right by the Food Lion, on June 4th to get a bunch of food that would last me throughout the whole day of press conferences. I wanted to cut down the amount of time not at my computer watching streams as much as possible, which meant no unnecessary cooking. I also went to Food Lion while my meal was being made (everything is cooked fresh when you order it at China Star) and got two large bags of butter popcorn. The meal was far more delicious than what E3 2012 deserved. Thankfully I didn't die, though I knew it was a possibility.
I know this is old, but in my defense, I took this picture on December 27th, 2010. My brother and I were with our mom for Christmas, and at some point when we were out I saw this place:
Photo by Dwight Burdette
