Running and Nuking

Today was my first run of 2014. I love running, its moving away from something and towards a goal in a physical sense. Last year, I had to stop running for a few months and it sort of killed me. But I was never a sprinter or a marathon runner, I ran for me. The longest I ever ran was a whole hour interrupted: Sure it doesn't sound like much, but for me, that's huge.

Anyway, a large part of the motivation for running comes from taking the first step. Once I'm out the door, I'm fine. I'm not lazy, I'm motivated. I have various running playlists for various moods. Personally, I prefer songs with a high BPM so I can keep a rhythm.

Last year, I discovered an app that I could use when I run. It's called Zombies, Run! and boy is it fantastic. You get audio transmissions through your earphones as an operator gives you a mission to recover supplies, or rescue people while avoiding zombies. Occasionally, a zombie chase may activate where you have to sprint even faster or have a mark on your record.

The best thing is the story it tells as you become a Runner for one of the last settlements in the apocalypse. This zombie survivor story is just brilliant. Imagine The Walking Dead or any other zombie fiction of your choosing: Now you are in that story, running to help people, running to survive, being a part of the plot twists, hearing people joke, people sacrifice themselves and people use the zombies against you. It's great fun.

https://www.zombiesrungame.com/

In other news, I went to a local pub quiz the first time last night and I discovered something: I suck at pub quizzes. I'd say I was responsible for about five or six of my team's correct answers, but either way, it was a good laugh. Something to get me out and about while I search for a new job.

I have also tried a game I found in my steam backlog called Defcon (Everybody Dies) as best as I can tell, its a Nuclear War Simulator and I have not seen this many nukes launched at once since the first Starcraft. The visual interface looks very nice, just like what I'd imagine a war screen to be. It is a strategy game, it makes you decide where to put your radars, where to hie your submarines, where to sent bombers, whether to have your Nuke facilities fire nukes to focus on shooting them down. It actually scary when a little nuke icon hits a city: there is a blob of white light, then such monotone words as 8.2 Million Dead. Just like that.

Trust humanity to create a weapon of such mass destruction that could wipe out all life on earth... then make a fun game about it. And that is why we're the dominant species. But seriously, the game is a nice time-waster, go go go.