Now, after having played it for two weeks, and prestiging once, I feel qualified to make a fair assessment of the game. Overall, the game is good, but it’s not great. There are some things I love about it and some things I really don’t like. Granted, on the Xbox I have only played Black Ops and not Modern Warfare, but I have played a lot of other games on the PC.

Overall, it feels and plays a lot like Black Ops, which isn’t a surprise since it’s related, but there are a lot of differences too. In Black Ops, players were limited to choosing their killstreaks once per game, but in MW3, killstreaks (technically pointstreaks as they’re now called) are set in each individual class rather than by themselves, which means a player can have five to ten different configurations depending on how many times they’ve prestiged. This is huge because you can start of with an aggressive package of guns and pointstreaks, but if needed, switch to a more defensive role using different guns and pointstreaks.

Also, there are different types of pointstreaks. In Black Ops, kills counted towards killstreaks until you died, at which point they reset, and that was the only type available. This is true in MW3 if you choose the Assault pointstreaks. They work the same way and include more aggressive things like bombers, missiles and other items that hurt the enemy.

MW3 introduces two new types of pointstreaks, Support streaks and Specialist streaks. Support streaks offer some of the same items as Assault streaks like UAVs and Counter UAVs, but they take more kills to get, however, the big difference is the streak doesn’t reset when someone dies. Say, for instance, someone gets 2 kills and dies and then gets 2 more kills. In Assault mode, no pointstreaks would be given, but if someone is running support, 4 kills, even if they died in the middle will result in a UAV.

This good and it’s bad. It helps those who don’t earn high kills, but it makes it easy for bad players to get pretty powerful pointstreaks like the EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse).

The second new type of pointstreak is the Specialist, which lets you gain extra perks. Normally a player has three perks available for use, but with Specialist, after two kills, a third perk becomes available. Then, after four kills another and after six another. Then, if someone is able to get eight kills, every perk in the game becomes available and is equipped for that player until they die. Kills do not stack like they do with Support, and the extra perks disappear when a player dies.

Another difference is the size of the maps. In Black Ops, the maps were small to medium size, but in MW3, most of the maps are huge. This is great for Groundwar, but it can make it difficult to hold down objectives in certain game modes.

The maps are also very open. Black Ops tended to have a lot campers because they could put a claymore at one entrance and then guard the other, but this isn’t the case in MW3. It’s harder to stay in one spot because players are more exposed and can be approached from multiple directions. That doesn’t mean people don’t camp, however. I was in a lobby last night, and the enemy couldn’t camp in one spot the whole game, but they would move around and camp in different spots, so it became really difficult to be aggressive.

For those who prestige, this is different than Black Ops too. In Black Ops, players basically just unlocked a new class each time they prestiged, but in MW3, players are awarded one prestige point each time they prestige and can choose how they use it. A new class can be unlocked. A weapon can be unlocked so it’s always available, and players don’t have to wait till they reach a certain level to use it. Perks can be unlocked the same way. This is cool because it lets players choose what works best for them. Some might only need a few classes but want a certain gun and perk combination. No problem. It can be done. Others may want to setup different classes for different game modes and not worry about what guns they have. No worries. It can be done. This part of the new game is awesome!

Overall, I like the game and enjoy playing it, but it takes awhile to get used to. I think most people will find it harder to maintain a high Kill/Death compared to Black Ops because of the open maps. The way pointstreaks are setup in each class is great. The way players choose how they want to use their presige points is neat. The large, open maps, will take some getting used to, but I’m slowly learning them, but overall I’m happy I bought the game.

What are your thoughts of the new game?

I’m not sure how they got there, but somehow some super sweet and fatty junk food made its way into our cabinet. Normally, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but we slacked off this week and hadn’t done any healthy shopping for “snacks,” which usually consists of fruits, nuts and things like that. I was really hungry one night and saw the junk food and ate a package. Then, I did it again…two more times.

We also had pizza during the week, and I ate a lot. On top of that I didn’t walk because it rained almost everyday.

When I got on the scale, I was surprised to see that I had managed to lose something. I felt guilty about the junk I ate, but then I felt a little better that I was still able to lose something. This coming week will be different. I can’t slack off again.

I’ll eat better and will hopefully have a better weight loss report next week.

About a year ago we got rid of our TV service and got an Xbox with a Kinect, thinking it would be a fun way to spend time together as a family since we wouldn’t be watching much TV. We enjoyed playing the Kinect-based games because it really feels like you’re participating, but we started getting bored with them after awhile. About that time Matt started researching the internet for other types of games and quickly learned that Call of Duty Black Ops was the must have game.

We bought a copy and don’t think we’ve played any Kinect games since. We started playing online but would end up in random matches with players who wouldn’t play as a team and wouldn’t play the objectives. This got very frustrating, and I started talking with a local friend who said I should join a clan, which is a group of players that regularly play together online.

I did some research and found a clan called Death Bringers (DB) that looked promising. I filled out an application and was accepted but quickly learned that many of the members were from overseas, which made it difficult to play together because of the time difference. A short while later, some of the leaders branched off, and Black List Gaming (BLG) was formed.

This is when things got really fun and interesting. BLG was founded and is run by three guys, each with their own duties. Thorskid oversees operations, Recon handles membership, teams and things like that, and Hex is head of security. Each of the leaders have others (regular clan members) who work with them, so there are always plenty of people around to make sure things run smoothly.

When new members join, the first thing they’ll notice is a professional looking website where clan members gather to talk about everything from online games, movies, music to personal things. This is the “home” of BLG.

When a new member plays online, they’ll notice the team-oriented style of play that BLG is known for. It’s rare that a BLG member will get online and find themselves having to play alone. Generally, as soon as someone gets online, they get invited to join a party with other BLG members or friends of BLG. When a group gets together online and forms a party, they use in-game chat to communicate and help each other by calling in enemy positions and coming up with in-game strategies.

BLG hosts “special” matches, which are private game modes that have unique rules, guns and requirements. For instance tomorrow night there’s a Modern Warfare 3 event, where players will only use their secondary weapon. It will be a blast.

After someone has been a member for awhile, they’ll start to notice the “deeper” side of the clan, the friendships that are formed, the actual, real life concerns that members have for each other and the desire to grow tighter as a group. All in all, BLG is a great group to be a part of. I encourage anyone thinking about joining a clan to consider BLG.

To answer some questions that might come up:

• There is no required Kill/Death ratio to join BLG.
• Members must be 16 years old, but exceptions can be made with the approval of one of the leaders.
• There are some rules that members must follow, but they are pretty basic and straight forward, be mature acting and things like that.

I hope you give BLG a look.

Do you get enough sleep? I don’t think I do. Here in Connecticut, we are coming off a week long power outage due to a freak snow storm that caused serve damage and widespread power outages. During the day we had things to do, but at night there wasn’t a lot to do, so we went to bed. Since it gets dark earlier now, we were in bed by 10:00 each night and would get up around 6:00 feeling refreshed and ready to go.

Now that we have power back, I find myself going to bed late at night again and waking up feeling like I need more sleep. I’ve become addicted to the newly released Modern Warfare 3 game, and before I know it, 10:00 has come and gone, and it’s way past my bedtime. During the day I can concentrate and work fine, but I can tell I’m more tired than when I get a good night’s rest, so I’m going to set myself a bedtime. I want to be in bed by 10:30 each night so I can get a full night’s sleep.

How much sleep do you get? Does getting more or less sleep make a difference in your day?

It was fun, but I got burned out and stopped for about a year but have recently started up again, doing a few whenever we’re in a cool area, but I’m starting to get frustrated again. Why? Because I’m noticing a lot of hides in dangerous areas or a whole hiking series that are all high difficulty.

I love caching because it has taken me to some wonderful places with amazing views, and I’ve met some wonderful people, some of whom have become close friends. Unfortunately, there are things I don’t like about it, like ticks, poison ivy and bad hides.  Let me explain.

I’m not opposed to difficult caches or ones that require a physical challenge, but when I see a whole series of difficult hides along a beautiful trail with excellent views, I get discouraged. Why bring someone to a beautiful area and then make them search for a deviously hidden nano stuffed into the end of a branch, then have them walk 1000 feet to a fake rock in a huge pile of rocks with the next hide hidden 15 feet down a cliff where you could die if you fall?

How is that family friendly? I wanted to hike and cache with my wife and son along a certain ridge line this fall because the views are gorgeous, but when I looked at the caches, they were all high terrain and high difficulty. A friend, who had done a few of them and wouldn’t attempt some others, said they weren’t worth doing. The biggest problem is that this beautiful area is now “locked up” by this series of caches, and there are no spots to put any family friendly hides. When one looks at the logs, the comments aren’t great, and only a handful of people have attempted them.

I love the idea of a series of hides along a trail, but mix up the types. If you want to challenge people, make a couple harder hides but keep the majority easier. Is the point of caching to discourage and frustrate people or give people an opportunity to visit new areas and find them?

For me, I believe the closer a cache is to parking, the more difficult it can be, but if getting there requires a long walk, keep the hide easier. What are your thoughts?

One is not better than the other; it’s just a different way of approaching photography.

For me, I would say that I’m somewhere in the middle, maybe even more technical. I have to make a conscience effort to bring out the artistic side of me, but I find it easy to tinker and play with all kinds of settings. For some photographers, they can look at a scene and instantly know what they want to shoot and how to shoot it, but for me, I have to look walk around and imagine how the end result will look and then take my photo accordingly.

One thing Rick & Juan always say is that you can get too wrapped up in the technical side of things and totally miss a shot. Thankfully, that’s not me. Then there’s an interview with an amazing studio photographer who can do the most magical things with light that evokes such emotion.

I feel fortunate that I fall somewhere in the middle. I enjoy expressing my artistic side, but I’m also geeky and love playing with technical things. I think the trick is to know your equipment and how to use it quickly and then being able to able to use that equipment to create a photograph that makes people “Oooo” and “Ahhh” over it.

We were fortunate because we had purchased a small generator before Hurricane Irene hit earlier this year and could keep the food in our fridge cold, but we couldn’t cook and only had one light to live by. I knew this would be a challenge to my Weight Watchers weight loss and healthy eating plan, but we made do. Without a computer or internet, I had no way to track my food online, so I guessed at the amount of total points I was eating. Yes, I could have written things down and done it manually, but that would have been a pain and taken a lot of time, which I didn’t have a lot of since I had to drive around and find an open gas station that didn’t have an hour long wait to buy gas.

Turns out I ended up doing okay and lost a total of 1.6 pounds, not bad considering we ate out a couple times, once at a fast food burger joint where I stuffed myself with fatty burgers. For lunch I ate nitrate free turkey and ham sandwich meat, yogurt and salads. For dinner we ate salads and other foods that didn’t require cooking. The first couple days without power were fun, but I was thankful when it came back on.

What did I learn from this? I learned that because I have eaten eating healthy for a couple months, I knew what to buy even though I couldn’t track the foods I was eating. I learned that it still comes down to portion control and choosing carefully. I was tempted to give up and eat out more than we did, but I knew I’d regret it in the end, and I’m so glad I listened to my heart and held strong because I was delighted when I got on the scale on weigh-in day and saw a loss.

I’m not saying that snacking is bad (see my post about splurging once in awhile), but if you get discouraged and want to give up, be strong and think of the long term rewards. They far outweigh the short term satisfaction of giving into temptation.

More Americans are overweight than ever before. The foods we eat are being genetically modified and inundated with chemicals and pesticides. The animals we eat are treated inhumanely, and food-related illnesses like e coli are reaching frequently in the news. Are you ready to help make a difference? I encourage everyone to check out the Food Day site or the Center For Science In The Public Interest for more information and to see how you can get involved.

I have and it can be discouraging seeing others enjoying themselves, eating a large meal while you much away on a salad. My personal feeling is that once in awhile you should splurge and treat yourself to something special. For every person, this will probably be something different. For some it could be a big, juicy cheeseburger, and for others it could be some ice cream or soda.

The good thing for those of us on Weight Watchers, is that we’re given 49 bonus points to use however and for whatever we want. I’ll usually save mine and use them to eat pizza or to get a special drink from Starbucks or something like that. At work, if its someone’s birthday, we’ll order food to be delivered, and I can splurge and eat with everyone else.

The point is that it’s important to treat yourself to something extra once in awhile. If not, it’s easy to get burned out and frustrated by having to eat the same things over and over and not enjoying something extra now and then.

People have asked how we can afford to shop there because everything is so much more expensive, but from what we’ve seen, that’s not the case. Sure, you can buy expensive things, but you can do that at a regular grocery store too. We did a direct comparison of 10 items that we regularly buy, including chicken broth, fruit, chicken and more and found that, not only did we spend less, we’re eating healthier because many of the items are organic, meaning they’re free from pesticides and aren’t genetically modified. If they aren’t organic, they’re still free of artificial colors and things like like nitrates & nitrites because Whole Foods won’t sell foods with that in it. For more information, check out Whole Foods Unacceptable Ingredient List.

We’re also saving because we’re not buying junk. In the past we’d have no idea what we wanted to buy and would buy whatever looked good to us, which was usually sugary junk food, but now we have a list and buy only what will be used for meals. We usually go twice a week so that we’re getting the freshest foods and not buying more than we can eat and will spoil.

It may seem like a small amount, but Whole Foods gives everyone a 5 cent credit for each bag they reuse, so if we get 5 bags of groceries a week, that’s $13.00 a year additional we save. Not bad!

Also, think about how much eating out costs. A fast food breakfast and coffee is $4-$5. Most quick lunches cost $5-$10. If our family of 3 goes out for dinner, we spend around $45 each time. A main course is $10-$13. Non-alcoholic drinks are $2.50ish and then tip. It’s even more if we get an appetizer. Yes, we’ll usually be able to bring half of the meal home to eat another day, but that’s still $22 per meal.

To compare, an antibiotic-free, roaster chicken from Whole Foods cooked with organic potatoes, peppers and onions will cost around $20 or $10 per meal or a little over $3 per person. Not only are we spending 50% less, we’re also eating healthier because many restaurant meals are loaded with salt and other ingredients. By cooking at home, we have control over what’s being added.