nessnaj

hope everyone had a pleasant day! i’m just gonna run through my halloween/other related events from this month - 

first i’ll start off with all the costumes from the halloween party i went to on saturday

in case you were wondering, the costumes (from left to right) are the leprechaun from lucky charms, hyde from that 70’s show, pee wee herman, hooters girls, a teddy bear, and my personal fav, a juggalo hahaha

and i was donnie darko! haha
as for the actual day of halloween, i didn’t do anything that special

me and my brother carved pumpkins. his is the one above ^

and this one is mine ^ obviously mine is better…

i also went trick or treating with dom for like an hour. we went to the rich neighborhoods in naperville and got some big ass candy bars. #nevertooold

also keeping in theme with halloween, i saw paranormal activity 3 and munger road during the month of october. i didn’t care too much for PA3, mostly because of the ending, but it had its moments. munger road was surprisingly good, and the movie takes place about an hour from where i live, so that’s pretty awesome!

oh and i just got back from gamestop with andrew to get uncharted 3 at midnight, because uncharted is just that amazing.

happy halloween!

i went to bachelor’s grove cemetery yesterday with andrew, alex, and dave.

before we could make it to the cemetery, we had to park a mile down the road just to get to it.

as soon as we entered, we were greeted by another group of people looking for ghosts. throughout the rest of the night, numerous other groups joined us.

andrew thought this shot was peculiar because of the glowing white “orbs” but i think it’s just a problem with the camera lens.

we stumbled around the graveyard looking at tons of other tombstones, even one that was for an infant child.

we even found the “supposed” bench that the ghost woman is said to be sitting on in the cemetery.

last but not least, we found the best of our tangible evidence in the form of a woman humming. atleast that’s what i thought it sounded like.

this was my second trip to the cemetery and i definitely hope to go again sometime soon. like zoinks scoob!

let me just begin by saying that i absolutely loved crysis 2. it was honestly one of those games that kept me entertained throughout the entire experience and there are many reasons as to why why i believe it was such a great game.

first off, the graphics are phenomenal. i played the xbox 360 version of the game and the visuals are superb. during the game, i  stopped numerous times to actually look around the scenery. it’s that beautiful. it’s hard to play another fps game after this, considering i’ve never played a game that has looked this gorgeous.

the soundtrack is also incredible. composed by hans zimmer (the dark knight, inception), the music is some of the best i’ve ever heard in a video game. if you don’t believe me, listen to the game’s main theme entitled “insertion”. totally badass.

the gameplay is probably my favorite part of the game. this is for many reasons, but the biggest one definitely has to do with the nanosuit. players are given the ability to power jump, activate a thick shield of armor, or even cloak themselves altogether. my main gripe with first person shooters (specifically war games) has to do with the recovery system. while it’s understandable that if a player gets shot at a few times - but does not die - he or she must have the ability to recover and get back in the fight. however, in real life, if a person were to get shot in battle, they wouldn’t be able to just crouch behind a barrel until their wounds magically disappear. this is why i liked crysis 2’s nanosuit so much - it’s actually understandable that the suit can recover itself. thanks to a thoughtful use of an energy limit with the nanosuit aswell, the game makes sure the player is never too overpowered. and the ability to turn invisible and stalk your prey is something straight out of predator (the suit even makes a snarl noise when you tap the right bumper).

i never played the first crysis, so i can’t say that the story for the sequel made a whole lot of sense to me. while parts did get confusing, i did understand the general consensus of what was going on. it actually reminded me a lot of halo mixed with a few plot devices from district 9. the ceph (the aliens attacking new york city) played their role perfectly, being not too ominous to wonder why they were there but also only showing up when it was necessary. the only thing i disliked about the game was that the campaign was really short. however, thanks to the intuitive upgrading system and tactical options made readily available throughout the story, i can see many reasons as to why i should replay crysis 2.

crysis 2 is an incredible game that totally changes the way i look at first person shooters. from graphics to gameplay, the game is truly an accomplishment and crytek should be proud of what they have achieved with this astonishment.

i’d have to say that i was iffy iffy about today’s press conferences…

…modern warfare 3 looks like more of the same… which isn’t to say that’s a bad thing, definitely still looks like a solid shooter

…battlefield 3 still looks better though

…the halo anniversary looks pretty fun, albeit a bit dated

…even if i’m not big on kinect, there were a few motion controlled games that stuck out, such as ghost recon

…and the new fable

…halo 4 definitely stole the show though (for microsoft atlest), pretty excited for this

…insomniac’s new game overstrike also looks pretty awesome

…the return of sly cooper is very exciting

…the psvita’s price point is something to grin about, and the games don’t look half bad either

…but honestly, my favorite thing out of e3 today had to be the new uncharted 3 content, totally looks incredible

all in all, e3 wasn’t bad today but it wasn’t all i was hoping for (god of war 4, kingdom hearts 3, etc…)

however, i’m mostly looking forward to nintendo’s press conference tomorrow anyway, considering they’re about a new console and all!

i hope you all had a great day one for e3 and here’s hoping that nintendo steals the show again, just like last year!

i went to this snow cone place today called tropical sno. these two girls from my work took me there

when we got there, it was packed. and rightly so, there’s so many different flavors to choose from! they even had flavors called “tiger blood” and “slime”.

i ended up getting a pina colada and a peach razzmatazz. the peach was for ryan but he wouldn’t take it, so i ate both. they were really delicious and cheap.

definitely wanna go back here soon, especially on a hot summer day!

smash burger’s grand opening finally happened today in my hometown!

this is pretty much for the kids in my hometown that read my tumblr, but go ahead and read this review if you’ve ever heard of/wanted to try smash burger.

for a grand opening, it wasn’t very busy. in fact, there was maybe 3 other groups of people eating there when i went in. maybe they should’ve done more to promote it? it was a nice looking place however.

“after hours” by we are scientists was playing when i walked in, and i love that song so it put me in a good state of mind for da burgerz haha

this is the menu that you see as soon as you walk in. i chose the spicy baja burger (pepper jack cheese, guacamole, spicy chipotle mayo, jalapenos) while i got the rest of family the all american burgers. i also got some of the regular and sweet potato smash fries.

the burger was pretty good, definitely better than five guys. it might be the best tasting burger for fast food in my hometown atleast. i would still gladly go to kuma’s corner over smash burger though.

the fry portions were kind of wimpy, and in comparing smash burger to 5 guys, 5 guys definitely has the better fries. however, the sweet potato fries were delicious and they even came with this cute little ketchup container.

i found it a little weird that smash burger’s logo is so similar to gamestops, and that they chose to place their location in the same strip mall. all in all though, i really did like smash burger and would definitely eat there again!

so i recently went on a 2 day road trip with alex, andrew and caleb. we first went to washington DC.

the washington monument was pretty cool. it was so tall!

then we started walking over to the lincoln memorial.

which was even better. the big abraham lincoln was pretty amazing. he’s gigantic!

we also saw the white house, which is guarded off by fences. it didn’t really make for good pictures, but it was cool to see none-the-less.

after washington DC, we drove to philadelphia.

i actually really loved philly. there was this huge clock tower in the middle of the downtown area and it was so awesome to look at. we also ate at geno’s steaks for some authenic philly cheese steaks. they were so tasty!

after philadelphia, we stayed at a motel for the night.

it was actually pretty nice. i showered twice (naturally) and we got a good nights rest.

in the morning, we started driving to the big apple.

plainly put, new york city is awesome. while i still like chicago better, nyc was something you just have to experience. one of the coolest things was that we could walk up and down the middle of the streets, because alot of streets are blocked off for cars. 

after walking around for a little bit, we stopped at this place called the diner (real original huh?). we all got grilled chicken sandwiches and they were super good.

after eating, we walked down to see all the stores of nyc.

we stopped at supreme, kid robot, bape, the hundreds and a few other stores. literally all the big name stores are located within a few blocks of eachother, so it was super cool to see all of them. i got a keychain from the hundreds that says “good for one NYC fare”. good souvenir if i say so myself!

after leaving nyc, we drove to new jersey to see the bulls vs. nets game.

the nets won, but the game was pretty fun to watch either way. the bulls only lost by 2 anyway.

all in all, it was a fun (yet expensive) road trip. we didn’t really get to see any of the big things in new york city, like times square or central park, but i still had fun.

i would definitely wanna visit all these places again!

merry christmas to everyone! i’m gonna post the stuff i got -

the sly collection for ps3. i never got a chance to play these back when they were on ps2, so i’m glad i got this

air curve play. this thing makes your iphone sound so much louder. i think i’m gonna use it in the bathroom while i shower

gift cards! keaten got me the xbox live, and it was much needed, so that was nice of him. and then i got $25 to panda and $20 to noodles. thinking about eating $25 worth of panda express makes me sick haha

stocking stuffers! just a bunch of candy and burt’s bees

a bunch of posters from my dad. kinda upset he didn’t get the “homespun” version of the fargo poster, but beggers can’t be choosers. pulp fiction is definitely my favorite.

2 shirts, a hoodie and some pajama pants from old navy. cool i guess

and that’s it! i wouldn’t say i really got anything i wanted, but i don’t wanna seem greedy on christmas so i’ll try to be happy with what i got. plus i got like $100 in checks from my relatives so that’s not bad either. happy holidays!

today i decorated my christmas tree with my family

along the way, i found some pretty cool ornaments from my past

this is my favorite one of all time, a pirate ship. i don’t remember exactly when i got it, but i think it’s so cool

this is from elementary school. does anyone else remember making these type of ornaments?

i just thought this was a pretty cool one

the batmobile! awesome

this one is from when i took a horse back riding class with my brother. i’m not sure why i thanked my parents for the class, because i genuinely hated it haha

i mean, it looks pretty cluttered but my family hasn’t all gotten together to put up ornaments in a long time, so i had fun. underneath the tree is looking pretty bare though! haha