Blizzard of Kozz: Captain's Log Part II: The Least Interesting Man in the World

I believe that it was world famous boxer Ivan Drago that once said "I must break you." This was said prior to him being repeatedly pummeled in the face by fellow famous boxer Rocky Balboa. The result was the end of the Cold War.

The Cold War lasted 50 years because the match lasted 50 years. Duh.

You may be asking yourself right now ("yourself" referring to the likely one other person besides myself that will ever read this), "what does that have to do with anything?" That is a very excellent question. And all excellent questions deserve equally excellent answers. Over the last few years, there has been one particular friend of mine, whom we will refer to as "Rick," that has insisted that I must create a blog. Why is beyond me. As per the title of this post, I do not consider myself to me a very interesting person and certainly do not lead an interesting life. I am a 19 year old college kid from the Pittsburgh area. That's about it. Not a lot of excitement there. However, Rick insists that I have interesting topics to discuss, from my interests, opinions, and happenings in my life. As such, after years of prodding, I have been broken by his iron will. This blog has been forged out of my own blood, sweat, tears, and the blood, sweat, and tears of my enemies. The jury is still out on if there will be anything to post that will actually be interesting to anyone, most importantly you, my dear readers (all 1 of you).

If you haven't guessed, his name isn't actually Rick.

I suppose that the proper thing to do would be to discuss what this blog will be.... well... discussing. If you accidentally happened upon this page, firstly, I'd like to apologize. Secondly, you may have read the as-of-this-time poorly made header and seen the background which I am actually quite proud of, despite improvements that still need to be done. As all of this information purports, in addition to being the aforementioned college student, I am a gamer, geek, and enthusiast of the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team. The current background also suggests a few other interests of mine. For those of you (Editor's Note: All one of you) that may or may not know classic rock very well, the image was inspired by the classic Pink Floyd album The Wall, this author's personal favorite Floyd album.

Look familiar?

The rather peculiar man and star image is the logo of the band Rush, this author's favorite band (Pink Floyd being numero dos). I am a huge fan of rock music in all of it's forms that have been present since its inception, but these two bands have connected with me the most. Other bands that I have come to appreciate over the years include (in no particular order of preference) The Rolling Stones, The Doors, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, Jethro Tull, Stone Temple Pilots, Guns N' Roses, Metallica, The Wallflowers, Foreigner, Megadeth, Wolfmother (who is playing as I type this), Queen, Aerosmith, Nirvana, Muse, The Smiths, U2, etc., etc., etc. As you (again you referring to what is likely to be one person. I hope you are catching on to the theme here) may notice, while my musical interests never stray from the rock genre, my interests blend between a wide variety of the movements that rock has experienced over the years. I find it to be a very diverse genre, and constantly am finding new songs and bands to listen to. With each of my posts, I plan to include a song at the end of every post to hopefully instill my readers (all one of them) with the urge to listen to something that they perhaps would never have though to listen to.

Another important faucet of my life is my love for gaming. There is video evidence of me as a baby attempting to play the original Sonic the Hedgehog (which by the way, if you haven't played it, DO SO ASAP). I was born to game. As per the image in the background, I am currently in heavy anticipation of Call of Duty: Black Ops II. That particular series was my favorite for the longest time, but we have had a bit of a love/hate relationship the last few years (something that I'm sure will find its way into a future post). I grew up playing PlayStation, so as such when I think of my all time favorite games, I like to think back to my youth; a simpler time, when men were men and toilet paper was leaves. The greatest game of all time, in this author's humble opinion, is Twisted Metal 2 for the PlayStation. If it were not for that game, which I received for Christmas at the tender age of 3 or 4, my life would not have been the same, for better or for worse. In a nutshell, it is a free for all deathmatch in which each player is in control of a car of some sort (my personal favorites being the mascot ice cream truck Sweet Tooth and military Humvee Warthog). Each car can gather weapons from around the map, in addition to each vehicle's unique special attack, and must destroy each other to be the last man standing. Each map was based on a real local, such as the rooftops of New York City (Protip: don't fall off) to the streets of Paris (another Protip: place a remote bomb inside the Eiffel Tower. You'll thank me later). All were awesome. I could go on and on about this game. I sincerely love it to death. My copy is honestly one of my most prized possessions for the sentimental value that it holds.

Just looking at this image makes me want to go play it. And also cry because I'm old.

A few more have been released since TM2's 1996 debut, with the most recent being this February. The previous game released in 2005, so I had been waiting for a while. I'm sure that a future post will include my thoughts on that title. Other favorites of the PS1 era include Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Team Racing, a kart racer akin to Mario Kart, with the key difference being its superiority to every Mario Kart ever released. I'd love to talk about that in the future as well.

PS2 era favorites include the Ratchet & Clank and Jak games, along with the early Call of Duty games, which were pivotal in opening my eyes to another one of my great passions, which will be brought up later in this incredibly lengthy introductory post.

Of the current generation of consoles, I own the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, and also occasionally dabble in PC gaming. Now I mostly play shooters with the occasional game from another genre on the side. There are too many games that I enjoy from this gen to list here, so quickly a few of my current franchises from this gen are Uncharted, BioShock, Call of Duty, Fallout, Rock Band, Halo, and others I can't think of off the top of my head. They exist though, let me assure you. I'm sure there will be many a post on this blog about gaming, be it reminiscing, ranting, or reviewing.

If you can't handle how nerdy this post has become, I suggest leaving this blog now before it gets worse, because let me assure you dear reader, it will get worse. Now that I have effectively alienated my readership (which once again, consists of approximately one individual), I am going to sign off for the night. There is much more to discuss, however. If this post has somehow enticed you to continue reading, I suggest to first seek therapy, and then scroll down for a sneak preview of what Part III of my introduction (referred to as the Captain's Log, for the tl;dr's among you) will include.

My love of history, why World War II matters to me and why it should matter to you
Why it's A GREAT DAY FOR HOCKEY
A brief introduction to the one television show I care about
A particular set of celebrities that have impacted my life in pointless ways
Whatever else I feel like including, obvi

So, what do you know? You made it through the first real post on K-Squared. I believe that all of you (all one of you) deserve some sort of commendation, and this is the best I could come up with on such short notice: