You ever heard the saying “sleep forever” meaning to die? Well, what do you do when you sleep? Dream, right? Yeah, you dream. This is also what you do when you die: dream. There is no “Heaven” or “Hell,” believe it or not.

Ever since Christianity was “publicized”/exploited during the Medieval times, there’s been lots of talk about going to Heaven and Hell; most want to go to Heaven and to avoid going south. Don’t call me sacrilegious because of this post but this is truth. Early philosophers and religious figures proclaimed Heaven as the ultimate nice place and Hell being a place of fire and ultimate bad place. Truth is, it’s your brain making the illusion of peace and spite based on its experiences.

What I mean by this is, if you lived a regret-free life and your mind was blissful, you’ll “live” peacefully in the afterlife. If you had major guilt or burden such as a murder or something you regretted, your mind will repeat those events over and over for eternity, much like what’s depicted in fiction (bad things you did are done to you ad infinitum). In a nutshell, your brain sets up its own world based on experiences and keeps you there till it shuts down. Of course, no one really knows what it’s like after you die but this is my personal opinion.

Geek, out!

Here it is. 100 facts about me, influenced by Twitter’s latest trend, #100factsaboutme. Let’s begin.

<Updated 1/21/2012 with new information>

1. My name is Zach
2. Born July 2nd, 1990
3. Lived in Denver, CO for 9 years (1990-1999)
4. Diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome at the ripe age of 2
5. Computer geek
6. Pie (lol)
7. I run several sites, including this
8. Registered the domain ‘aspiegeek.com’ on July 28, 2010 for $9.98
9. I have severe social anxiety, especially in large crowds
10. My first best friends were Darek, Jeff, Sherise, and Kevin
11. Static-X might have been the first metal band I’ve heard
12. Mudvayne’s “Happy?” unofficially got me into (nu)metal/alt-metal.
13. My mom used to have a huge collection of CDs that got stolen years ago – most of them were rare
14. NES was my first console
15. Latest console owned is PS3
16. Love root beer
17. Hate chili (don’t hate)
18. Using a Dell Insprion 15R laptop right now
19. Google Chrome is my favorite browser
20. I take Seroquel to help me sleep
21. My typical bedtime is usually 5am
22. I like pie, especially pumpkin <3
23. Dolly Madison fruit pies are freaking amazing
24. I miss Cartoon Cartoons and Cartoon Cartoon Fridays on Cartoon Network (overuse of the word “cartoon”?)
25. My brother, Cody, is in the Marines. He is currently in Afghanistan
26. I use Facebook and Twitter constantly. Facebook through website and Twitter through Seesmic Desktop TweetDeck
27. Got my first real life girlfriend June 7th, 2010. Broke up in September
28. Preordered Duke Nukem Forever February 20, 2011
29. I suck at talking to people
30. One of my biggest regrets is screwing up my eyesight by wearing my brother’s glasses
31. I took German class during high school
32. I am overweight and hate it
33. I watch cartoons – CONSTANTLY
34. Certain reality shows irk me
35. Cannot cook
36. Living with my mom
37. Only had one job, though it was only training. Hired at a data entry company
38. Fastest typing speed is ~90 WPM. On average, ~59 WPM
39. I type with two or three fingers. My index fingers to type and thumb to space. Occasionally I use my other fingers
40. Seldom use my pinky fingers for anything
41. Have about 3GB of music stored on my computer and iPod
42. First movie I seen in theaters was A Bug’s Life in 1998
43. My public speaking skills suck
44. Tone-deaf
45. Was in a play during an overnight lockdown at my middle school. I was confused on what to do
46. Am immature
47. I think farts are funny, no matter what
48. I always die in Super Mario Bros. in the beginning. Damn goomba!
49. Horror movies scare me
50. First email I created was armyguy555@yahoo.com – now defunct
51. Sarcasm flies by me
52. I express light sadness with laughing
53. Never understood what being a “douche” is
54. Have a habit of popping my neck and knuckles
55. Sleep on the couch, have worn the cushions
56. I tend to annoy my mom with strange noises I like to make
57. Cereal is my favorite snack
58. Don’t know how to cut nails, have my mom do it for me (DON’T LAUGH D<)
59. Love to play MMORPGs on my laptop
60. Only met my dad twice my whole life. He died June 25, 2010
61. Got my wisdom teeth taken out a week after my birthday
62. Am terrified of thunder and lightning
63. I wear wristbands on both wrists at all times. Left is a black silicone one that has “Dielated” embedded that I got years and years ago, second is a cloth wristband that shows an NES controller with the words “Original Gamer” above
64. Bought my first smartphone May 3rd, 2011. HTC Inspire 4G (AT&T)
65. Will utter music lyrics out of nowhere, especially after just hearing the song
66. Always wanted to start a band but never had the tools/knowledge
67. Started the “Aspie Geek” name in community college. My Intro to Information Tech instructor had us make emails to use “for school” using Gmail. I thought of the name because it describes me but was taken. I settled with ‘aspiegeek42′ (the 42 was just arbitrary)
68. Constantly worry about death
69. Always get depressed at various times but then forget all about it
70. Hungry D:
71. Am picky on what I eat
72. Have been on local TV when I was younger. It was during “Blinky’s Fun Club”, a kid’s show in Denver
73. Love to use WordPress and Tumblr
74. Pepperoni pizza is my favorite
75. Have always lived in the big city, never in a rural area
76. Used to watch Power Rangers every day when it was popular
77. Pokémon is one of my favorite series. Couldn’t believe Satoshi is an Aspie
78. Enjoy watching anime
79. Tend to overeat not to fill my stomach but the desire of taste
80. Tendency to overdo certain obsessions, such as making various website accounts based on obsessed theme
81. I have asthma and use an inhaler when needed
82. Like to watch fans spin, particularly tracing a single blade for enjoyment
83. Boggles my mind how the sun is so bright, it acts like a huge room light
84. Sometimes act like a child, out of habit. Examples would be begging to get a certain food at the store or begging my mom to leave said store
85. Always make forums that pretty much goes nowhere but like the fact I can
86. Don’t have a bank account Do now thanks to my job
87. No job, but looking
88. Hate feeling stupid when saying something stupid/out-of-place
89. Am afraid of calling businesses because not sure what to expect
90. When getting cereal, I always overfill the bowl
91. My full name is Zachary but hate being called as such
92. This
93. is
94. the
95. final
96. fact
97. about
98. me
99. so
100. there

There you go! Geek, out!

I’m baffled by the amount of people, especially modern gamers, who have never heard of Duke Nukem. Especially the people who are my age and have been gaming since the 90s! Has Duke really become a forgotten franchise since its major popularity in 1996? It’s almost mind-boggling how such a gaming icon has slipped the minds of the general public.

The snappy one-liners “stolen” from 80s action movies, the misogynous hedonistic nature, the over-the-top action we all weren’t allowed to see because it was “too violent” (this was a time when most of us were in elementary school) but eventually became old enough to play without getting in trouble… it was an early game, it was an amazing game. Now that the long-awaited sequel is finally coming out, gamers will be able to revel in the nostalgia and witness for the first time why Duke Nukem is the icon we’ve known since the early 90s.

A little history for those who are new to the series. Duke Nukem started out as a side-scrolling shooter game made by Todd Replogle, Jim Norwood, George Broussard, and Scott Miller of Apogee Software for MS-DOS in July of 1991. It briefly sported a different spelling of the last name as “Nukum” due to “Nukem” being trademarked by Captain Planet. Luckily, it wasn’t and the name was changed back to the name we now know. The next game, Duke Nukem II, also for MS-DOS, was released. This would be the last side-scroller Duke game.

The next-next sequel, aptly titled “Duke Nukem 3D” hit shelves in 1996 that completely revolutionized the face of First-Person Shooters (FPSes), along with such games as Quake, Doom, and Wolfenstein 3D. This time, Duke actually had a voice! And personality! Why, it even had strippers that you could tip! The voice was done through talent of one Jon St. John and has been since. This is the game everyone knows and loves. A port was shortly made for the then-popular Nintendo 64, titled “Duke Nukem 64.” This port was edited heavily to appeal to the younger generation. Blood and gore was removed and some of the more mature one-liners were edited. Soon, the Atomic Edition was made and released on the Xbox Live Arcade for 360 owners. Nothing was edited, thankfully.

Gearbox, I salute you. And Mr. St John that brought Duke’s personality to life. Oh, and how could I forget Apogee/3D Realms (same company, different names) for creating this epic series. I thank you.

This is a good time to get your preorders in for the game for your preferred system (PS3/360/PC) and play the hell out of the game as it comes out. I know I will. Mark your calendars for the soon-to-be historic day, May 3rd 2011. Do it NOW!

Yep, the game that no one would ever think to be finished since its first announcement back in 1997, Duke Nukem Forever finally is being released. Mark your calendars for May 3rd, 2011 for this history-in-the-making video game release…

And now a little history. Duke Nukem Forever, a game said to never make it to the shelves, has finally been finished. Their original developer, 3D Realms (now closed) kept pushing and pushing the release date over and over. Why? They kept changing engines and rewriting the whole entire game. It soon became apparent that this game would forever be in “development hell”.
Unfortunately, due to this game apparently sapping most of 3D Realms’ budget, they closed their doors in 2009; DNF would never see the light of day because of this. However, the great studio Gearbox Software, bought the rights and intellectual property (IP) of the series and have been hard at work finishing this long-awaited game. The king of games is finally returning to the modern public. P.S., Gearbox is the studio behind “Borderlands”, btw.

May 3rd, 2011, will be a tremendous day and will be a day to remember. I, myself, have preordered the game… the “Balls of Steel Edition.” If you haven’t preordered it yet, what’re you waiting for?! Do it! When you preorder, you’ll receive access to the “First Access Club” which has its own bonuses that I shall not disclose to you. Google it if you wanna know so badly.

As many of the veterans of TAG know that I had forums installed (MyBB forums) and all worked out fine. Unfortunately, things weren’t going too smoothly and I decided to take them down. Now, I’m starting to think: should I return the forums to the site or keep it as-is?

The reason why I removed the forums in the first place was because it wasn’t doing too well activity-wise. There was limited activity, almost no registrations – except from a select few – and nothing was progressing. Now that some time has passed and I’m feeling kinda… “forum-y,” would it be a good idea to bring back The Aspie Forums or let bygones be bygones. I’mma let you guys decide the fate of the forum.

Please leave your answers to this question in the comments section. ‘Yea’ for bring them back or ‘nay’ to leave them be? Don’t necessarily have to type just those; comments are welcome.

Geek, out!