Future of Gaming – Microsoft IllumiRoom + Bungie

[YouTubeUlar] <— 441,095

Ummmmm, I've never been a fan of Microsoft ever... and especially since they acquired Bungie back in 2000 to steal Halo away from the macintosh platform in favor of their unreleased XBox platform.

Not many people realize how integral Bungie was to the Macintosh platform for keeping Apple’s computing platform more awesome than the others (Windows)… but it’s true. If you can remember Pathways Into Darkness then you most certainly will remember Marathon, Myth, and totally fucking awesome Oni.

Obviously Marathon was finally ported to Windows in 1996, and the entire trilogy is now available for free on all platforms – but that didn’t completely change the company from abandoning the Macintosh platform as Bungie’s developing platform of choice. Bungie loved Apple and during the 1999 MacWorld Keynote Address Steve Jobs allowed Jason Jones to unveil Halo for the first time to a public audience to showcase Apple’s new adoption of OpenGL.

On June 19th, 2000 Microsoft announced that it had acquired Bungie Software and that Bungie would become Bungie Studios underneath the Microsoft Game Division. Luckily the core team of Bungie game developers resisted all of Microsofts efforts to ‘boring’ize the group and they were actually able to finish Halo specifically for the XBox and thus changing the world of gaming… again.

Bungie continued making Halo 2 (2004) and Halo 3 (2007) underneath Microsoft and specifically for the XBox until 5 days after Halo 3 was released and they announced they were leaving the ‘boring’ giant. After leaving they continued development work on the Halo brand for a couple years until finally parting with Microsoft with a new publishing deal with Activision Blizzard in 2010.

And now, finally – that your slightly educated – we can announce the future of gaming… Pathways Out of Darkness — Destiny.

[YouTubeUlar] <— 4,949,334

I just hope IllumiRoom does some stellar work with this game.

[Geek out on Illumiroom - Engadget]
[Geek out on Destiny]

I Love Awesomeness – STOOPIDTALL Cruiser

[VimeeeeeO] <— 45,717

The I Love Awesomeness inspirational award of the week goes out to Richie Trimble for creating this 14.5 foot cruiser and GoProYourselfing riding that bad boy through the streets of Los Angeles.

14.5ft at the Seat
Built in 12 work hours
One Huffy beach cruiser, 2″ square tubing, 3/4″ round tubing, and 1″ round tubing
26″ single speed coaster brake wheelset
6 1/2 single speed bicycle chains (32.5ft of chain)

STOOPIDTALL, is the inbetween from that one (Kafourki) and the world record tallest bike that i’ll be building next this year. Thank you to all the Angelopes who guided STOOPIDTALL through the sea of fellow cyclists!

No, thank you for being awesome Richie Trimble and putting some serious character into the LA Bike Cult Awesomeness level.

Boston Bombings Hero – Carlos Arredondo

Carlos Arredondo Boston Bombings Hero

Carlos Arredondo is a Trill Boston Hero for helping save Jeff Bauman following the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15th, 2013.

“The man in the cowboy hat in this photo’s name is Carlos Arredondo. Carlos was at the Boston Marathon with his wife handing out American flags to runners. He lost a son to a sniper bullet in Iraq in 2004 and a second son to suicide a few years later – a depression triggered by the death of his brother. Carlos now spends a significant amount of his time on peace activism and working with vets coming home from war and was at the Marathon to hand out flags and inspire people.

Carlos does not having any medical training but when the blast went off, he ran towards the danger, jumped two fences and found the now-famous man in the wheelchair on the ground, both his legs blown off, and suffering from severe shock and critical wounds. He got him into a wheelchair and pinched the man’s artery closed with two of his fingers (you can see him doing so in the photo). Because of Carlos, this man is alive today, having had surgery earlier today to remove both of his legs.

This man is a hero and deserves recognition. This man who lost so much still threw himself into the frenzy of panic and saved another guy’s life. That’s Trill.”

[Carlos Arredondo - The Washington Post]
[Trill - UrbanDictionary]

I Love Awesomeness – Backflip of the Week by Jacob Wester

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Indescribable.

This makes me want to backflip on skis again... or just go really really really big, again. Holy shit :)

“While on a backcountry trip through Telluride, CO, Sweden’s Jacob Wester gives us a first-hand look at a 100-foot backflip off a mining trestle that was built in the 1920s. The crew was staying at the Alta Lakes Observatory nearby”

Jacob Wester, you win our I Love Awesomeness athlete of the week award for this ridiculous backie.

As JP Auclair states,

“You can’t go wrong with a backie!”

[Jacob Wester on Facebook] <— 5,940
[Jacob Wester Blog]
[Freeskier Link]
[UnofficialNetworks Link]

Alexander Polli – Crazy Wingsuit Mind BLOWing Flight

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What goes through your head to try and accomplish this? My mind is blown with this unbelievable wingsuit cave flight by Alexander Polli. I Love Awesomeness, but this is an entirely new level of crazy accomplishments beyond a scale of awesome. This is crazy.

“Winguit / BASE-jump athlete Alexander Polli does the never before done—a tactical flight through a narrow cave on a rugged mountainside. The flight starts with a jump from a hovering helicopter, Alexander reaches speeds of 250 km/h (155 mph) while following a precise trajectory leading to the cave opening, he then fully commits and flies directly through the narrow opening of the “Batman Cave!”
Shot in full HD, this extraordinary flight exceeds the level of commitment most fliers would ever consider—there can be no attempting, the only option is success!
The narrow cave, no wider than Alexander is tall, is located in Roca Foradada Mountains in Montserrat, Spain—a location that has inspired this professional Italian Norwegian athlete’s flying dream his whole life. Alexander hopes his success will inspire others not only to ‘climb over their mountains,’ but to also fly right through them!”

Whatever Morals Arrivederci is…?? They just launched in a crazy way.

[Morals Arrivederci - Facebook] <— 86 likes
[Alexander Polli – Facebook] <— 17,622

Mat “Condor” Hoffman – Toughest Guy in Sports

Mat Hoffman - Toughest Guy In Sports

ESPN claims Mat Hoffman as the toughest guy in sports. After reading this intriguing article about the history of this legend… I would have to agree.

“I was flipping and tumbling through the sky, holding on as tight as I could. I felt like someone had put me in the dryer and turned it on high. At 8,000 feet I threw my bike and stopped spinning. My chute opened at around 6,000 feet and I started looking for my target. Flying above the desert, the ground below looks like Mars; nothing but cracked earth. I saw what I thought was our van and started flying toward it. I went about three miles before I realized I was headed toward an abandoned house. I dropped into the backyard and noticed a kid sitting by a fire, roasting marshmallows. In the desert. In 100° heat. He saw me, pulled his stick out of the fire, reached it toward me and said, “Would you like a marshmallow?”

Hoffman shares even better stories about his childhood growing up and how his parents never limited or stopped him and his brother Travis from accomplishing danger. I was very entertained by this write up from Alyssa Roenigk from ESPN The Magazine.

[Read Full]

John Spriggs – Corbet’s Couloir Backflip

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Apparently this session with John Spriggs backflipping into Jackson Hole's infamous Corbet's Couloir took place last year - but none the less it is still impressive and probably will be for the rest of my life.

Teton Gravity Research (TGR) was actually conducting a ski shoot for their upcoming film The Dream Factory and they had this shot into Corbet's covered by 10 different camera angles - but it was this RAW shot by Erin Lunsford who just happened to be at the right spot at the right time to intrigue me to look up this epic morning of shooting for TGRs Dream Factory. Now I want to see the movie.

The Dream Factory- Teton Gravity Research

Straight from TGRs Behind the Scenes at Corbet’s video

“In March of 2012, Teton Gravity Research filmed a segment for The Dream Factory on the most challenging in-bounds run in the United States — the infamous Corbet’s Couloir at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. On a bluebird day, the TGR crew put together what may be the heaviest session to have ever gone down on this run riddled with history. John Spriggs kicks off the session with a giant back flip, Griffin Post sends the West Wall, 13-year-old Daniel Tisi airs it bigger than most grown men ever have, Matt Phillipi spins a giant 360, Max Hammer throws a huge switch 180 and local Jeff Ledger does his signature front flip. There’s no doubt about it, this session was “all-time.”

[Teton Gravity Research - Behind the Scenes at Corbet's Couloir] <— 64,085

John Spriggs is a local kid (younger then me) who I have spent some time with in the past. I actually sold my old Sony FX1 camera to him a couple years back for him to shoot his ridiculous skiing antics. It's good to see Spriggs continuing his skiing career to new levels.

The Dream Factory- Teton Gravity Research