The Big J List.

So with another day of no work I have decided that I should start putting the gears in order to start looking for a job that involves a passion of mine.

With that in mind I jotted down a couple of ideas below.

My list.

Over time, things will be added to this list and taken away.

Now, I know what some of you must be thinking… “Keegan, my friend, those are some of the most competitive fields out there, you may struggle”… Now when I look at that, I understand that it may be an uphill battle and a struggle.

However, I don’t want to look back at my life and see that I invested my time into a profession that I am not passionate about, and I would hate myself if I didn’t give myself this chance to have a go.

I understand that for the foreseeable future I won’t be rolling in luxury cars or dining on caviar out of the navels of Arabian princesses (I don’t know why they are Arabian). Interning, starting on the bottom rung doesn’t bother me at all. I am willing to take that hit to get somewhere I will ultimately relish getting up in the morning and going to work.

This is where I get the shameless plug at the end of my blog and ask if you know of anyone that could even just point me in the right direction whether digitally or in the city of Melbourne, please leave a comment, or contact me on Twitter, and I will be more than receptive.

I actually just received a junk email, not news obviously, but there is a small quote sitting at the bottom of it I thought really relative in this journey of mine.

“If plan A doesn’t work. The alphabet has 25 more letters. Stay cool and keep smiling”

Until next time.

FIFA 15 Career Mode Entry 1: ‘Stoked’ to be manager

Since I have been pretty engrossed in FIFA recently I thought I would make a bit of a career mode diary for a new Career I started, hopefully once I come into a bit of money to upgrade my laptop and buy a recording device I can turn this into a Youtube/Twitch thing, but at the moment I am going to have to stick to the written form. Just a bit of background information, I am not too crash hot at the new FIFA currently so I am playing on professional, I turned off the transfer window to start the season as a bit of added realism, and I am going to simulate the friendlies and the Capital One Cup, but play all the others. I am going to try and get a couple of games an entry in, except the first where it will be purely opening up the career mode. So without further a do I bring to you the Stoke City career mode:

 

Entry 1: ‘Stoked’ to be Manager

‘This city deserves a better class of football, and I am going to give it to them. Tell your players they work for me now, this is my team.’ (Keegan Best, 2014…. with a little bit of movie inspiration)

So its 2014, and this team has been sitting in the middle of the table for far too long, with no improvement in sight, always safe but no signs of trying to push on, it seems that they are just happy to be stuck, well that isn’t how I get it done.

I have a massive list of players that I want to bring into the squad to improve it, to give the people of this fair the city the team they deserve… But unfortunately the board left it way too late to bring me into the fold and I won’t be able to make any transfers until January!

So, great, I have this team of goobers to use until January… That makes it slightly harder, but I will persevere. I also get a notice from the staff that suggests that they want me to purchase a new striker, well its a bit late for that now lads, could of told the old manager about that…

The board also comes at me with their demands, a mid table finish. Wow, way to shoot for the stars board, don’t worry I’ll be aiming for a top half table finish, perhaps even a Euro league spot. They would also like me to make it to the quarter final of a local cup competition, I think that can be done rather easily.

So now, is the all important team make up, I need to create something that is half way competitive and will get me through to January.

I have made 2 teams, one is going to be my primary XI, and one is going to be my fitness/cup team.

Stoke City First XI

Arnautovic (77) – Diouf (78) – Bojan (77)

Ireland (76) – Adam (73)

N’Zonzi (74)

Muniesa (72) – Huth (76) – Shawcross (78)(C) – Cameron (73)

Begovic (82)

————

Stoke City Second XI

Assaidi (74 ) – Crouch (75) – Odemwingie (73)

Whelan (73) – Palacios (69)

Sidwell (74)

Pieters (73) – Teixeira (61) – Wilson (72) – Bardsley (72)

Butland (73)

Reserve Players:

ATT: Alabi (61), Nardiello (60), Waring (57), Skapetis (56)

MID: Moses (75), Walters (70), Ward (57)

DEF: Wilkinson (72), O’Reilly (57)

GK: Sorensen (71), Eve (58)

Out on loan:

MID: Edu (71), Shea (68), Ness (64)

So that is the situation at the moment, the first team looks pretty filthy, and could be so much better. Charlie Adam will be one that I am looking to replace quick smart, also Cameron and Muniesa really need to be replaced ASAP. However, in all the filth that is the Stoke City playing list, there are some diamonds.

Diouf, Bojan and Arnautovic are all class up front with Assaidi being a decent back up. N’zonzi, Shawcross and Begovic all provide some decent coverage on the defensive side.

Everyone else: consider yourself expendable! (Except Crouchy, wouldn’t give you up for the world mate.)

Well, there you have it. An opening to my career mode, who do you think I need to be scouting and targeting in January?Also do you think there are any improvements I could make to to the teams or the diary itself? Let me know.

Wanted: Gaming Convention Advice!

Yesterday, I let out that tiny little excited squeal when my tickets for PAX Australia arrived, the kind of squeal you would expect from a teenage girl if One Direction were to appear on the television.

So here’s what this little blog post is about. I have never been to a pure gaming convention before, I have been to pop culture and comic book conventions in the past that have little gaming blocks here and there but never a whole convention dedicated to it.

 

PAX Ticket: So flippin’ excited!

So this is where I need everyone’s help: what should I be looking to do when I go?

Have heard there is a FIFA tournament, do love me a bit of FIFA, or should I be more interested in checking out the new games?

So I am leaving it up to you guys out there to help me out! What should I be doing? Are any of you lads and ladies going to PAX in Melbourne?

A new beginning…

Finally after me threatening my computer with physical violence for the past 24 hours I have finally fixed up my site to the point I can post stuff again. I still have a couple of niggling things that aren’t working at the moment, but at least I can put some content up here.

I have made the monetary sacrifice and thrown down a crisp $20 so I can change my design up and as you can see it looks so much nicer, even having a link to my Instagram and Twitter on the side bar seems a far cry of what my little blog used to look like.

Also the URL change, which has been giving me nightmares is somewhat fixed, so my new URL is http://www.therainbowroad.com .

Ties in nicely with my addiction to video games, when I am 40 it might feel a bit lame, but at the moment I’m really into it.

So this is just a small post to get me started on my new home for this blog and hope that is a successful one.

Now in celebration let us dance…

G is for Gaming “I am hoping for a white (PS4) Christmas this year”

It is that time of year again, we are heading towards the end of the year and the video game Valhalla is almost upon us. Numerous installments of popular series being released such as the Call of Duty, Borderlands, Pokemon, FIFA just to name a couple. We are also getting a nice release of new IP’s that have me just as excited such as Destiny and Evolve.

(As I am writing this, I can hear my brother in the background playing the Last of Us remastered, awesome game by the way, only enhanced on the PS4.)

This year is the first time in a long time that I am actually looking at my bank balance and wondering if it will stretch enough to allow me to get my hands on all these games. There are so many titles that have me actually excited about gaming again, enough to drag me away from sinking countless hours into League of Legends which seems to dominate my screen time these days.

So I thought I would go through 3 titles I am most excited about, and what about them grabs my attention and interest.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

I have always been a massive fan of the Borderlands series, the writing and over the top comic presentation has always been things to behold, the lines that some of the characters come up with always bring a smile to my face. The gameplay follows a simple but effective formula, a FPS that borrows parts of the RPG genre, (leveling systems, ability trees, open world layout). However above all else, the primal instinct in my head that it taps into is the loot, all I want is simple, larger more flashier weapons that help me dispose of my enemies in quicker and more spectacular ways.

Watch the IGN crew look in depth into one of the playable characters, Nisha the Lawbringer here.

Destiny

I unfortunately missed the beta for this game, because of my travels back to the UK. However through the various online media outlets I was able to get an overall feeling from the game from watching gameplay and listening to opinions on the internet. The game has been developed by ‘Bungie’ who are the masterminds behind the Halo franchise, so you already know the game is going have some quality minds behind the development process. The gameplay is in a similar vein of Borderlands, a shooter with RPG elements attached. However, the part that has me mostly interested is the seemingly immense options players have. They can progress through the story missions, they can engage in ‘instance’ areas where the player will team with a small number of other players to complete an area, and players can also engage in PvP areas where they will be assigned teams and engage in a variety of different modes. The seemingly immense range of activities players can partake in has me excited.

Check out all the latest details from the official Destiny website here.

Super Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS

I thought I would take a break from the FPS, and go with another game that seems to have the video game community swept up and that is the new edition of the Smash Brothers franchise. These games have always been amazing party games. The best memories of my youth involve sitting around to all hours of a Friday or Saturday night just playing continuous games with my friends, getting that feeling when you were able to wipe your friends characters from existence through a well placed Baseball bat hit or Pokemon (Zelda was my muse in previous installments). The big difference this year is the expansion to the portable platform of the 3DS. I will be interested to see how the format of the Smash Bros franchise transfers to the smaller screen.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Smash_Bros._for_Nintendo_3DS_and_Wii_U

4 Characters from Super Smash Bros: Villager, Mega Man, Mario, Wii Fit Trainer

There are other games that I am excited to get my hands on, Evolve looks like a really interesting concept that I am excited to check out, the 4 v 1 concept will be an interesting one to follow.. The Pokemon nostalgia trip always gets me, and I find myself really looking forward to the remakes of Ruby and Sapphire, one of the stronger generations of the series.

These are just some of the games that have me excited, I am hoping that each of the games mentioned turn out to be just as good as they have been hyped up to be.

What games have you excited? What are you looking forward to most?

Twitter: @keeganbest

Walking Dead Dad (and looking for a job)

Just a tiny update on what’s been the go and why I have been quiet over the past couple of weeks. Firstly, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to everyone that reads this little spiel about my life.

I am currently updating myself on the current Premier League scores and great to see (for all you Football nerds out there) Arsenal are going to be top come new year, and it will be interesting/stressful to see if we can go on with it for the rest of the season and not do the ole Arsenal fade away.

I am currently on the job hunt, looks like lying on the beach, playing FIFA, League of Legends or Magic the Gathering (not together) is not a career. So I have stepped onto the interwebs and have started at Seek to look for some resemblance of work. I am yet to decide if I want to do the teaching thing, or try something else? It worked so well for me in London, so I may have to put some more thought into that. Though, if I could have lived off working in the Blues Kitchen cloak room I would have probably preferred to do that instead. I am looking at some jobs which are involving social media and blog writing, which could be something right up my alley, but we will see. I am still currently holding up for Travel presenter, but as the days roll by, I think that the chances of that shrink.

Also received some awesome presents over the Christmas break. My favourite would have to be the pair of Pacman Havs (flip flops for the uneducated out there) that I received; my White/Black Heroic deck is starting to really take some shape. Hopefully you all cleaned up well too.

Lastly, part of this little update for each and every one of you, is an update about my Dad. Well, it isn’t an update since I have never told you about him. He is 53 Caucasian male, originally from Ulverstone in Tasmania, and works in an office doing things I have absolutely no idea about, likes sport, so pretty much, your average middle aged man. The reason I had to give you a bit of a backstory to this was because it makes the next part of the story so awesome, might I say a #nerdvictory.

I had recently downloaded the second season of The Walking Dead video game (#Forclem). Amazing episode, really enjoyed it, suggest anyone reading this to stop reading NOW! Go onto your Steam, PSN, Xbox Live or App store accounts, download the game, play the awesome 2 hour episode and join us back here…..

Done it? Good! Isn’t it amazing?!

Well I had an inspired moment and thought, “You know who loves awesome storytelling, interesting characters and also a fan of the Walking Dead television show, my Dad.” So I went up to him and asked “Would you be interested in playing The Walking Dead video game if I downloaded it for you?” He looked up all confused and said “OK?” with a sort of bemused look about him. So I grabbed his iPad and downloaded the first episode of season 1… FOR FREE!  Love free things. So the man sits down and begins to interact with this story, abot Lee and his struggle to survive the zombie apocalypse. Now this kind of game is perfect for people who don’t engage with games that often, and here is why in a couple of short, sharp statements.

1. It is super linear, so there is no chance of getting lost or confused.
2. If you get your face munched off by a Zombie there is no repercussions, you just go back to the start of the encounter.
3. No confusing button combinations or movements, it is pretty straight forward, point and click, and occasionally a very tame quick time event here and there when you need to avoid zombies, bandits, your sister etc.
4. Voice acting is quality and engaging, story is emotional and gripping.
5. Making dialogue choices, giving a unique (to a point) experience when communicating with other people in the game.

There are probably other reasons that I am missing. Anyway, he sat on the couch for a good hour, iPad in hand actually engaged with, enjoying it and occasionally jumping at certain points! I take that as a #nerdvictory if there was ever one. So in conclusion, if you haven’t played the Walking Dead video game, you are doing a disservice to yourself. Secondly, once you have finished pass it off to your partner, parents, brother or sister, because if they are a fan of the show, comic or just enjoy an awesome story, The Walking Dead is an amazing jumping off point.

So I know this was only supposed to be a small post, but I did get carried away with my Dad actually playing The Walking Dead! Hopefully he may be a future guest on my video blog, which is coming along, I promise! I can use my actual camera to record to a pretty decent quality, I have been looking into the editing part of the videos, and what programmes to use, if you have any suggestions let me know. Also if you have any other slight nerd victories, or you can suggest any other video games that are awesome for beginners to the video game world, share in the comments below, let me know on Facebook or Twitter also which I will put down below also.

Have an amazing new year, and hopefully 2014 is an awesome ride for you.

Twitter: @keeganbest

Facebook: Keegan Best

Cultured Nerds (and other random updates)

Well I don’t know if all this spare time is a blessing or a curse. On the one hand I get to do all the things I enjoy doing (indulging in a PS4, walking down to the beach, getting stuck into League of Legends, writing, listening to podcasts and taking photos). But on the other hand I am running low on funds and you know in this world, money is usually a useful thing to have with you, plus I do not own a car at the moment which makes getting anywhere outside a 30 minute walk away very frustrating. Thankfully I have a very understanding Mother and Father so I am depending on the kindness of my family. I honestly feel like I am back in high school, no job, no car and living at home, who knew at 25 I would be back here, next I am going to have packed lunches left outside my door. Well, focus on the positives I get to do this, which doesn’t pay for anything (yet), it is extremely enjoyable and keeps me entertained through these long days and nights.

Before I get onto the main point of today’s post, I am just letting you guys know; I am thinking about putting a couple of video posts of the blog up. Now I do enjoy the written portion of this, but as a change up once and while I was thinking a video might be nice, so I am going to look into this further down the track, you have been warned  ;).

So, I decided to go a different route, my last entry was the start of an ‘epic’ trilogy of entries about my life and times in London and Europe, which I will get around to finishing. But for today, I decided to put a bit of a piece together about something else, and I will keep you on the edge of your seats about what happens next. I will get back to my ‘Migration Musings’ in a later entry of the blog.

So as I said in a before post (which you should totally go read below, Marvel vs DC Movies) everything that is posted here, is my opinion and my take on the world. If you don’t agree with me, more power to you, and I would love for you to try and change my opinion please do. I will put my Twitter and Facebook details below for you all.

I was listening to the Nerdist podcast recently, which I do enjoy immensely; Chris Hardwick is an absolute God in my eyes, with what he has been able to do, and create. If you get a chance and haven’t been really interested in podcasts, the Nerdist one is excellent, they interview people from a range of different fields from Matt Smith to Mel Brooks to Stan Lee, and you get a massive insight into the differing worlds of these people in their fields. Anyway, in this episode he was talking to another favourite of mine, CM Punk, professional wrestler, former WWE Champion. Punk was talking about his teenage years and growing up in Illinois in the mid 90’s, and he was mentioning about how he was seen as the outcast because of the things he found interesting and was into, professional wrestling, comic books and punk rock among such other things. His story continued, and he went on and talked about how the emergence of Green Day made him more popular in his school. As Green Day made it as a band and became ‘cool’ and ‘popular’ and more accepted in the culture at the time, it changed how CM Punk was seen through the eyes of those people who were living in that culture bubble at that time, because he was at the forefront of the trend.

Now this really got me thinking, how can things such as that can change so quickly? There has been no greater example of this than the Superhero movies that have started to grace our screen more and more regularly over the past 15 years or so, starting with the X-men and Spiderman films, to more recent films such as Thor 2, and the new Guardians of the Galaxy film due out next year (which looks awesome btw). If you were to come across a person reading a comic book 20+ years ago, the usual comment from someone in the wider community would be “You Nerd/Geek” said with a tinge of superiority by the person, because of the pre-conceived notions of comic books. These days, with the introduction of these movies, comic books (in my opinion) are becoming more and more socially acceptable. Is this because movies are seen as a more socially acceptable form of entertainment? And if they are, have they dragged the format and ideal of ‘superheroes’ to become a very popular form of entertainment. Are they still seen as ‘nerdy’ or ‘geeky’?

Another example of this would be The Walking Dead. It started as a gritty and brutal survival horror comic created by Robert Kirkman. It focuses on the stories of a group of survivors led by Georgian police officer Rick Grimes, as they try to survive the zombie apocalypse. Now, after the comic was released and developed a solid following, AMC picked it up and have turned it into a wildly popular television show. The show uses characters and settings from the comic, however the story is treated differently, characters are developed differently, and people are written out at different points of the story. The TV show has shot the franchise to popularity, spawning video games, board games and the comic series is still going strong 100+ issues in. Again, a comic series has inspired a massively popular show that is now appealing to the wider TV viewing community. Would ‘The Walking Dead’ as a whole be considered nerdy/geeky?

Probably the largest example of how nerd/geek culture on our screens is’Big Bang Theory’. A sit-com about 4 ‘geeks’ trying to fit into a 21st century world, and how they deal with everyday problems, with constant references to nerd culture ideas and interests. This show is arguably the most popular sitcom on TV at the moment, pulling in ratings similar to Friends in the late 90’s/early 00’s, showing that people are becoming ever more interested in this differing lifestyle.

As time moves on, the line becomes more blurred between popular culture and ‘nerd’ culture; I only outlined a couple of examples. You could delve into video games also as a great example of the impact on society (COD, GTA).

Well, that is just something that had been playing on my mind. As I said above I will work on another European post and have that up (hopefully) by the end of the week. Again, if you want to discuss anything I have said, or just see what’s going on with me, follow me on twitter (it has been a lot of Ashes things recently, destroying England), but you don’t read this blog for sports news ;).

Twitter: @keeganbest

Facebook: Keegan Best