Turning 30 For A Cause

Extra Life: A birthday present for kids

On September 1st, I will turn the ripe age of 30. Dirty thirty, as some people say. Truthfully, I don’t feel like I should be thirty. I dress like a youngster and people always tell me I look younger, although I don’t know why with all this grey in my hair. Regardless, I’ve been thinking of something to kick off my thirties in the right direction.

As you might’ve seen in a previous post, I’m geared to game for 24 hours to help kids at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. Unfortunately, the recession must’ve taken its toll because I haven’t gotten any sort of sponsorship yet and I’d love to see a bump in the donation meter on September 1st.

It’s not necessary to donate a dollar per hour for the 24 hours. If you’d normally buy me a beer on my birthday, perhaps think about donating it to kids-in-need instead. My cousin’s daughter, Amaya Grace, was born at Doernbecher and unfortunately passed away there. All I’ve heard from them is how great the people at Doernbecher were.

That would be a great birthday present for a dirty thirty. Please follow the link here and thank you for whatever you can donate.

Extra Life: Recollection of a 24-hour game session

It’s been nine days since I’ve endured a 24-hour gaming session for Extra Life and this entry should’ve been updated sooner, but life is busy right now. With the help of friends and family, we together helped raise $241 for Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. Pat yourselves on the back. This is a great thing we’ve done together.

I woke at 7 a.m. on October 16 with enough time to head down to Royal market to grab some munchies and caffeine before the gaming session began. Once back in the house, I started playing around 7:40 a.m. with the game Comic Jumper. It’s a funny little game from Twisted Pixel developed for the Xbox LIVE arcade that has a great artistic style and sense of humor. A few hours in, I got an invite from my friend Evan, or as he’s know on Xbox LIVE, tactical DBk.

I jumped over to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and started a multi-player gaming session with Evan (tactical DBk), Jay (SALSA DBK), and Matt (Zilla DBK). Notice something similar here? Our clan tag on COD is DBK, which stands for “Douche Bag Killers,” and trust me; there are a lot of douche-bags to kill on these multiplayer shooters. But we do it in good sport. It’s just a game.

Shortly after that, I went over to the game Watchmen: The End is Nigh so I could sit back and play a mindless beat ‘em up game. This is pretty much all you can expect from that game. It’s not a great game, fighting get bland pretty fast, and Rorschach has some strange lines in the game.

Around this time, Yaicha came home from work and we ordered some pizza to go with the I.P.A. she brought home. I felt it appropriate to begin Limbo, which my friend Dave (dead vp) bought me for my birthday back in September. It’s a small game that had gotten top reviews on game journalism websites across the Net. I specifically waited until Yaicha was home and for nightfall to arrive before beginning this 2-D somber sidescroller. I must say — I have NEVER played a game like this. Please, if you can, pay the $15 for the game. It’s worth it. 3 – 4 hours later, I finished that game and it felt so worthwhile that it made the day of playing video games feel refreshing, though it was 1 a.m.

Yaicha ended up heading to bed and I continued on my path of game playing until 7:40 a.m. I went back over to Modern Warfare 2 to “pwn some more noobs” until my eyes were getting fuzzy. Around 3 – 3:30, my concentration was starting to wane so Evan and I went over the some multiplayer Peggle matches. Peggle is a neat little game from Pop Cap that is pretty much like pachinko with awesome backgrounds and specific powers. It was a nice way to chill after some intense multiplayer shooter matches.

Evan finally fizzled around 6 a.m. and I chilled out with a second play through of Borderlands until 7:40. Directly after that, I sleepily posted a tweet from the computer and went to bed. It was a great gaming session and I’m happy to have helped with such a great charity.

Special thanks to the following people for donating:

• Adam Wagner
• David Vanpelt
• Rudy Rofinot
• Chelsey Campbell
• Benjamin Terrell
• Brianna Gardner
• Candice Voss
• Bob Cowell
• Katherine Wamsley
• Ariel Rhoden

Other specific facts:

Gamerscore Achievements:

235 gamerscore

Food and drink consumed:

2 Lo-Carb Monster Energy Drinks

5 Lagunitas IPA beers

Half of an extra large pizza from Papa Johns

One small bag of sweet BBQ chips

Playing games and healing kids with Extra Life

On October 16, 2010, I will play video games for 24 hours straight. This isn’t for any sort of test of endurance, nor is it because of the release of a new game. On that day, I will be helping children at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. With the help of Extra Life and the Children’s Miracle Network, I will be one of many who will help children across the nation.

So, I’m asking anyone who can afford it to donate a dollar per hour for 24 hours. If you can’t afford the full amount, feel free to donate a partial amount. As of this posting, I’m halfway to my goal of $96.00. If I can get some more donations, I will raise my goal another $100. Me and other gamers across the nation want to set an example  that games can be meant for good. Extra Life and Child’s Play are two charities that do just that.

I will be entertaining people on my Facebook and Twitter in between periods of play. Some of the things I have planned are as follows:

1. I will take a photo of myself every hour to see if there’s any visible difference during the 24-hour gaming session.

2. I will also take submissions on games to play beforehand that I can play on the Xbox 360.

3. If you can only donate a partial amount, I will thank you on the hours you’ve donated for.

Any donations are tax deductible. If you have any other suggestions, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment on here, Facebook, or Twitter. I’m super stoked to be part of this and hope that you will be a part of it too. Please, feel free to donate at my page here.

Thank you!