It has been a busy couple of weeks for the Watchful Penguin clan. Last weekend some of us went to Fort Collins, Colorado to see a band that one of our friends plays guitar in called Take to the Oars. @taketotheoarsCO
They were playing a c.d. release party for a band from Fort Collins called Post Paradise.
On Saturday we headed down to Denver where we stayed at the Hyatt Regency at the Convention Center in the downtown area. We took some pictures off of the 19th floor where we stayed.
While we were in Denver we went to P.F. Chang’s for dinner where Dustin tried sake for the first time. The waitress brought a few samples to test before deciding which one to go with. Zach then suggested we go to the 1Up bar (the-1up.com) for drinks. This particular bad has a bunch of old arcade games, pinball, and skee ball. Some of our favorite arcade games at the bar include: Paperboy, Rampage and The Simpsons. They also happened to have large versions of Jenga that night. They used cut up 2 by 4s as the Jenga blocks, which as you can imagine made quite a crash when your tower fell.
While we were in Denver we also stopped by Ikea. We didn’t really need anything special, but this Ikea just opened and is the second largest Ikea in the United States, so how could we not go and check it out. We managed to fight our way through the insanely large number of people and purchase a couple of things including a wine rack. Dustin put the wine rack together when we got back and it turned out pretty well. 
This week the Battlefield 3 open beta was live on the PC, 360, and PS3. We represented and did well against the other players. The only map that was available to play was Operation Metro, but it looked very good. Unfortunately it was just a beta so there were a few problems with squad and team selection. Also there were a few places were you could fall through the map. Over all the game looks like it is on track and won’t disappoint.
Also this week the game RAGE from id software came out and Dustin picked it up. The game is a lot like Borderlands in the mission style and driving aspect. The visuals are more realistic and it is obvious id worked hard on their tech engine. The visuals are stunning. Sometimes you can just stop in the middle of the wasteland and be struck by how good the surroundings look. As always the water makes the effect most apparent as you can see water running down the front of your helmet. Even the reaction to grenades exploding in water is outstanding. If you are thinking of playing the game make sure to look online for tutorials on finding the easter eggs. They have one for each of their most popular games. Rage is neat to step into a classic game as a modern game character. The missions are mostly made up of fetch quests so that can get old real fast but you can break it up by racing your buggy in the town races. If you win you earn tokens that allow you to upgrade your buggy with tires, suspension, engine, boost, and themes to apply. It definitely is a game to check out for the visuals, and an interesting new game world.
On TV this week was another good episode of The Big Bang Theory. This episode focuses on Raj and his relationship woes. There are a lot of funny moments to keep you laughing. Also on TV was the third episode of Person of Interest. We watched this show for the first time and were very intrigued. It features Michael Emerson and Jim Caviezel as an eccentric billionaire and an ex Special Forces agent respectively. Michael Emerson’s character has developed a computer program that finds people who are going to be involved in some sort of violent crime. Jim Caviezel must find this person and determine whether they are the victim or perpetrator and save the day. This show is one to keep an eye on, it could TV’s next big hit.
Today the Chargers and the Broncos faced off in Denver and finally John Fox put Tim Tebow in the game. The first half was very rough with Kyle Orton completing 6 for 13 passes gaining only 34 yards with an interception. Denver trailed 23-10 going into the half. The defense scored Denver’s only touchdown of the first half off of a pick six. With the offense struggling and the fans chanting Tebow got the call to start the second half. Tebow started off slow and the Broncos trailed 26-10 going into the fourth quarter. Tebow finally settled down and ran for a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter. Denver then converted the 2 pt. conversion to pull them within 8. New life sparked into the Denver defense and they forced a San Diego turnover on the next possession. After they got it back they drove down the field and Tebow threw a short pass to Knowshon Moreno for a jumping touchdown. Unfortunately Brandon Lloyd could not hold on to the 2 pt. conversion and left the score 26-24 with a little over 3 minutes remaining. The Chargers moved the ball down the field on their next possession and got one more field goal to make it 29-24, while using up all but 28 seconds of the game clock. Still Tebow made the game interesting by driving the ball to the chargers 30 yard line with 1 second remaining. The final second ticked off as Tebow scrambled around, heaving one last pass into the group of players in the end zone. But the pass fell to the ground and the final score read at 29-24 Chargers. This second half showed the energy and excitement that comes with Tim Tebow leading the Bronco offense. They have a bye week next week so that gives the coach two weeks to evaluate and decide what happens next at the Quarterback position.
