Bawls vs. Brawndo

Ok, so the question at hand here is Bawls or Brawndo? This sparked my interest at the last LAN I was at. From what I saw at previous lans I noticed Bawls were always the first choice of drink, but I saw quite a few Brawndo's being put to use as well. So let's break this down.

Bawls is a high caffeine guarana beverage as where Brawndo is more or less just a high caffeine beverage. Surprisingly, I figured out that Brawndo has 200mg of caffeine in one of their 16. oz cans and Bawls only has 100mg of caffeine in their same size. So right away Brawndo wins that. However, Bawls aren't slacking on the sugar count that's for sure. One can of Bawls G33k B33r (16 oz) has 72g of sugar. That's like eating 18 sugar cubes! As compared to Brawndo's weak 17g of sugar.

Now, more importantly the taste. Bawls come in a clear 7up style fizz while Brawndo comes in a smooth tangy green substance. So this really depends on if you prefer the Sprite styled drinks or the tarty and tangy ones. You can get a can of Bawls or Brawndo for about $1.50-$2. They both price about the same so I say give both a try. Even if you're an avid drinker of one you might be surprised when you try the other!

Left 4 Dead - Review

Let me just start off by saying, holy shit. This game has blown me away. If you're looking for the best zombie apocalypse of your life, then Left 4 Dead definitely dishes that out. There's diversity in every map, character and zombie. The AI director was brilliantly configured to always mix things up so you never know what's going to happen. Even being ran on a Source engine the graphics are phenomenal. It's spontaneous, thrilling and zombie-licious. How I see it, this game was basically designed to be the most kick-ass game of the year.

The single player, versus and campaign mode L4d offers is amazing. The match making system that was implemented in the game is a life saver. It's simple and it works. What more could you ask for? Whether you feel like playing alone, with humans or bots it's all do-able. You have your 4 standard difficulties:Easy, Normal, Advanced and Expert. Being the avid video gamer I am I figured Expert would be a piece of cake but I kid you not, it brings a challenge. If you're up for the beating I definitely recommend Expert.

Several types of "special" infected zombies roam around as well. You got your hunter, smoker, boomer, tank and witch. Each bringing their own special perks to the table. Perks like pouncing, strangling and other joyful killing maneuvers. I also noticed how important team work was in this game. If you ever want to make it alive that's the first thing you need. You'd be surprised how much effort it took from everyone as a team just to make it limping into the safe room at the end.

The AI director feeds you with random zombies constantly. It's never the same on any map, and it's always a surprise. Same goes for the placement of pipe bombs, Molotov's and helpful first aid kits. So no more memorizing where those tanks are! You just have to tough it up and go with whatever is thrown at you. Did I mention the graphics? The detail in the blood dripping from the zombies teeth or the flame on your Molotov. You can tell a lot of time was put into all of it. I was quite impressed with the quality of texture details as well. Walls, floors, blood splatter. It's all drawn with great detail making the game even more realistic.

All in all this game is worth every penny. If you haven't bought it yet, do so. I've spent countless hours on this game, and have yet to ever get bored of it. Overall I give it a 9/10 Why not a 10? As much as this game has endless possibilities you are only limited to 4 campaigns. I wouldn't have minded a few more maps and possibly more free range on them. None the less, this game still sits as one of my favorites.

Powered by Google.

Google has yet to let me down with anything they've relased so far. I still stand impressed with their new browser, Chrome, and everything else they've put out. Yeah, they may be one of the most powerful search engines on the web but I've fallen in love with something else of theirs..

Google chapstick, baby! Ok, so at first I was a little skeptical about this. Chapstick? From Google? This isn't no downloadable software. This is the real deal. I started off buying just one.. and giving that a try. I was instantly in love. These however are the tropical flavors. Your basic mango, passion fruit, mint and watermelon. Mmm! They're also 100% organic. You really can't go wrong with Google chapstick. A 4 pack goes for $7.00 so if you want to be fun, fruity and nerdy at the same time, give it a try! http://www.googlestore.com/product.asp?catid=1&code=GO42067 Kaboom highly recommends this.

Ding!

Ok, so my mildly small obsession with WoW has finally been exploited. Initially I figured WoW was just another grind, quest, level game. Which it is more or less, but having given into my peer pressure to play I finally dinged last night hitting 65. Took about 8 days 4 hours and some odd minutes or so WoW claims. but totally worth it. Behold my glorious Blood Elf Priest.

I am quite proud of myself. She's my highest character so far reigning over Daggerspine (PVP). I only have the Burning Crusade expansion so my top level is 70 for now. Soon enough I plan to dedicate some more time to hitting that, but it currently seems to be LAN season so I might need to hold off for a bit. My WoW armory is quite impressive as well if I do say so myself. http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Daggerspine&n=Kaboomy I'm tagging along a few epic items, mostly just some rare instance drops. I've even developed my own merchant tricks. Kabooms tip: just sell lots of small eggs. You'll make a fortune because everyone needs them and they go for about 5 gold per stack. Just head over to Silvermoon and right as you leave the city there's tons of birds that drop 1-2 every time. Stop by if you're ever bored, I do.

PDXLAN 13

Let me just start off by saying well done to the staff and attendees for another wonderful LAN party. With upwards of 500 people attending, and the couple dozen cases of Bawls lying around you can only imagine how intense the atmosphere must have been. Honest first thoughts, were how bad it was going to smell with 500 sweaty nerds crammed together like sardines in a can, but surprisingly wasn't so bad. Or maybe I"m just use to the smell of nerds.

Thanks to Activison though we all got a free copy of Call of Duty: World at War which I will admit was my first. A majority of people were caught playing COD:WAW, World of Warcraft, DOTA and Left 4 Dead. Disappointingly, not many playing Team Fortress 2. Which of course is one of my all time favorite FPS games.

Really glad I got to travel around the city of Portland with Andy and Stan . Considering I'm at my computer most of the day this was quite the treat. Met up with @on3nightstan's lovely friend Kristin Reilly who gave me some excellent tips on choosing the right wine (thank you). We picked up some Voodoo donuts, Thai, Pizza, Cajun and of course, bananas! Plus doing all of this while totally overdosed on caffiene, hell yeah!

Overall it was a nice getaway in the heart of Portland, OR. Access to what felt like unlimited energy drinks and nights where if you got 4 hours of sleep you were considered lucky. A gamers dream, basically. PDX 14 is defiently looking like a plan to me. Unfortunetly, that won't be happening until sometime in July, but hopes are held high because Intel Lan is soon to be coming up sometime in February which of course I will be booked for. If you're interested in seeing a few more pictures from PDXLAN 13 go ahead and check out my myspace page or for any more information hit up their website http://www.pdxlan.net