Oh Hallowed Halo

Halo is sacred in our house. We own all but the newest game. Now, here's the part where I admit how much of a geek I am: Who loves Firefly?! I DO! Yea, I was heart broken that it got cut short. One close friend even has a spoof on the intro song that I sometimes can't get out of my head, which can be inconvenient as it's not a PG rated version of the lyrics. Maybe it's because I'm a sucker for Captain Mal, maybe I just like the sci-fi cowboy atmosphere.

So what do these two things have in common? Everything.

Now here's a little test of your Halo knowledge. Did you know that Nathan Fillion, aka Mal, is a Halo fan? Or maybe the Halo developers are fans of Firefly... Fillion's voice is featured in Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo: Reach. You can enjoy his vocals in Buck in ODST and as Gunner Sgt. Buck in Reach.

I discovered this one day as I idly crafting while the fiance was playing ODST. My keens ears picked up on a beloved and familiar voice. This knowledge was confirmed when my fiance bet me it wasn't true, so I looked it up. Haha, I win. But the relationship with Halo and Firefly doesn't stop there.

Alan Tudky, aka Wash, also stars in ODST as the voice of Mickey, and generally as "marines" in Halo 3. And, AND Adam Baldwin, aka Jayne, voices for "marines" in Halo 3, as well as Dutch in ODST. Woah, geek overload here!

Use that trivia next time you're in a jam.

What is a Koopa?

When we moved across country, my fiance and I rejoined the twenty-first century. At our old apartment we decided not to have internetz as we worked opposite schedules and were trying to save money anyway. Well, last weekend I told him to try hooking up the Wii to the wireless we have. Lo and behold, I was right that it would be fairly easy to do this. What resulted was my fiance spending $20 on buying some old Ninetendo games, Donkey Kong 2 and Super Mario World.

Now, I didn't grow up playing video games- honestly! So when I try playing Super Mario or any of the others it is not a trip down memory lane and I don't know any of the secrets. While failing miserably to beat a particular level I thought to myself, "What the heck is Bowser anyway?" The Super Mario Wiki tells me that Bowser is a Koopa, which is a turtle-like creature. Great, that's all good and fine since my generation has grown up with Super Mario and don't question why Bowser, or any of his eight children, are turtle-like Koopa Troopas that stand on two legs.

I went digging a bit further and found that at one short point in time someone gave Bowser a wife. Sweet! I wondered if it wasn't asexual reproduction or something since he has 8 kids and very few visible female characters. I mean, clearly, Princess Peach is chaste and waiting for Mario, so she couldn't be the mother.