The Friendly, Neighborhood Canadian

August 6th, 2011
I have an addiction. It's not an extremely horrible addiction like drugs, alcohol or sex. I don't have addictions like that. My addiction is some-what tolerable, and easy to manage. My addiction is Achievements/Gamer score.

I love seeing my gamer-score get higher, and higher as it places a sense of fulfillment inside of me. I feel like I have quite the decent amount of gamer-score since I'm sitting at about 29,425GS which for me feels like a sweet accomplishment. So, what's so addictive about getting achievements for me? I think it's the whole sense of accomplishment that I've completed something that gives me points, and sometimes rewards me with my feats. Like, avatar awards or gamer pics. The sense I get when completing achievements is very, very fulfilling.

Down below are a list of the achievements I'm most proud of, and the ones that gave me the best sense of accomplishment.

Heat In The Pipe - 75G (Halo Reach)
Scored 1,000,000 points in a Firefight game.

One Million points in a Firefight game. Yeah, that's a great achievement and a pain in the ass at the same-time. Most people downloaded a custom game-type that would allow them to snag this cheevo in roughly an hour or so. However, doing it legit takes a long ass time, and is recommended you play on Legendary..so it's tough. Made me feel good seeing the notification pop up on my screen. Felt good.

Mission Impossible - 50G (Dead Space 2)
Complete the game on Zealot setting.

This wasn't easy. Playing through on Zealot was a pain the ass, and I got stuck multiple times and would quit due to sheer frustration. However, I kept trucking along and eventually completed the game on Zealot and snagged this achievement. I was also very, very close to getting 1000/1000 on Dead Space 2 but needed to complete the game on Hardcore (can only save three times and ammo is scarce). That achievement was a pain in the ass, my frustration peaked and I ended up trading the game in. However, the Mission Impossible achievement felt good when I received it.

The Bigger They Are - 20G (Fallout 3)
Kill all the Super Mutant Behemoths.

Sure, this achievement isn't the most amazing, and bad-ass out thing out there, but it did feel pretty good completing it. The Behemoths are quite the pain in the ass to take down if you have shitty weapons, but once you start leveling up and getting some bad-ass weapons these guys are pretty much a cake-walk. Their sheer size kind of frightened me at the start, but sooner or later I was gunning for them all across the Wasteland and craving to put some bullets into their heads.

Confedaracy Of Crunches - 30G (Left 4 Dead 2)

Finish a campaign using only melee weapons.

This achievement isn't easy, especially when Tanks start coming, and the horde starts coming. However, I snagged this achievement at the same time as SOB STORY (Navigate the sugar mill and reach the safe room without killing any Witches.) both of which were a pain in the ass. However, reaching the end of the level and seeing two achievement indicators pop up felt great, which net me a total 60G on that play-through of Hard Rain. It felt good, and not to mention running around with a Fireaxe felt pretty bad-ass.

Audiophile - 75G (Halo 3: ODST)
Found all Audio Logs, alone or with another ODST.

This achievement was the bane of my existence for a while. I really wanted to complete this achievement, and would stop at nothing to finish it. In the end after a week of collecting audio logs, I finally collected all the logs and the achievement popped up. Talk about a sigh of relief seeing that notification. My friends would then ask for help, but I refused. I wouldn't want to do it again, ever.

Vidmaster Challenge: Deja Vu - 25G (Halo 3:ODST)
Completed Highway on 4-player Legendary LIVE co-op, with Iron, and no 'Hog or Scorpion.

This sucked. I'll say it multiple times. It pissed me off to no end, and I wanted it to end every single time we played. The stress was unbearable, frustrating and at multiple times I just wanted to throw my controller at the wall, but I didn't. I thought this would be hilarious, and a hoot of a time like the similar achievement in Halo 3, but it wasn't. It was stressful, annoying and made me want to kill someone.

New Squadron Record - 20G (Call Of Duty 4)
Complete the cargo ship mockup in less than 20 seconds.

This achievement was hell. Pure, heinous hell. I tried so many times to complete it in 20 seconds but I eventually did it. The sense of relief that came with this was godsend, and I was so happy I accomplished it. Never again.

So, my confession? "I'm addicted to getting achievements, and as soon as I buy a new game I look through the achievements list. I love getting them, and love raising my gamerscore."

August, 7th 2011
I dislike dogs. It's kind of a fear of mine, and people think I'm an asshole for not liking "man's best friend". I just cannot stand dogs, due to an accident or whatever that happened a long time ago. I was playing with the neighbors dog which was a Dalmatian, and was a beautiful dog. Extremely beautiful.

My sister and I were tossing a ball around, and the dog would catch it. My fear came to me when my sister tossed the ball at me, and I dropped it, bent over to pick it up and the dog jumped on me and bit my wrist and started shaking it about, which was apparently play-fully seeing as it didn't hurt, but some of my skin kinda got scraped off, but no blood or anything.

After the fact I would never approach a large dog, seeing as I'm terribly afraid of them. The worst part is, I keep having a recurring dream of a Pit-bull following me around, and killing me in my dreams. A large, black Pit-Bull. Being the dork I am I googled "black dogs in dreams" and apparently that's a death omen.

Whee! So, my confession is "I'm deathly terrified of big dogs because I was attacked/hurt as a child. Even though it wasn't really an attack, or anything serious." I just cannot stand big dogs, and their booming barks.