TOP TEN FAVORITE DINOSAURS!!!

I recently did a review on Jurassic World (and it's LEGO counterpart) and I realized I never did a "My top 10 personal favorite dinosaurs" post. So here we are, with me making the first ever top ten dinosaurs list on my blog. LET'S GO!!! (NOTE: NUMBER 8 IS A TIE BETWEEN TWO VERY SIMILAR DINOSAURS).


#10

BRONTOSAURUS!



Let's face it. Land before time made this guy popular. Brontosaurus is one of the most iconic dinosaurs in history! Even though scientists questioned it's existence for decades. Now they completely made a 180 mood swing and decided to keep Brontosaurus as a dinosaur. Oh and Brontosaurus means "Thunder Lizard" in Greek. Most epic name ever!

Brontosaurus was a sauropod (hence the long neck) and was believed to be primarily a herbivore. For decades Brontosaurus was believed by science to be a myth, due to Apatosaurus being almost identical to this guy. Until someone realized that they were using the wrong skull when they reconstructed the skeleton. So even science can have EPIC FAILS!


#9

MOSASAURUS!



Yes I know I am cheating. Mosasaurus technically isn't a dinosaur. But it lived alongside Dinosaurs and that's what counts. Mosasaurus was one of the largest sea animals ever during the Cretaceous period. It's total body length? 69 feet (or 21 meters) long. Yeah. To say this thing is T. Rex of the Sea is an understatement!

Mosasaurus was a carnivore that ate just about anything. Sharks, turtles, and ammonites were common meals for this beast of a whale. P.S. some paleontologists argue that Mosasaurus is the ancestor of modern whales.


#8

TRICERATOPS/STYRACOSAURUS!


Triceratops



 
Styracosaurus

I couldn't decide which one I liked better so I decided to put these two together as a tie. Triceratops is yet another Iconic Dinosaur, but Styracosaurus is the lesser known of the two. Both dinosaurs are Certopsians (four legged dinosaurs with a shield like frill on the back of the head with a certain number of horns on the facial region that varies from species to species). They are both herbivores. So ultimately, with very similar dinosaurs, you can see why I put two dinosaurs in the same slot. But they are both awesome!

Random fun fact about Triceratops and Styracosaurus. they are the only dinosaurs to have a beak AND teeth at the exact same time.

#7 

PTERANODON!



Again, I am cheating. Pteranodon is NOT a dinosaur but a pterosaur (dinosaurs that fly around). And again, this thing is primarily a piscivore (a carnivore who ate mostly fish). Pteranodon is arguably the most iconic pterosaur ever.

Pteranodon was believed to have a similar flying style to that of an Albatross. Plus the ratio between the strength of the wings and the weight of the body was similar. Pternadon's ratio was 9:1, while Albatross' is 8:1.

#6

DEINONYCHUS!



Deinonychus is a carnivore and dromeasaur. What's a dromeasaur? They are small bipedal dinosaurs that have a large sickle like claw on the second toe (the toe facing inwards). The Velociraptors in the Jurassic Park films are actually based off of this guy. After all, in real life, Velociraptors are only three feet tall (less than a meter). So to incorporate maximum wow factor, Steven Spielberg (I hope I spelled his surname right) originally was going to use Deinonychus in the films but switched the name to Velociraptor due to it being easier to pronounce.

Either way the dinosaur didn't even have feathers. Get over it. Anyway, paleontologists have LONG debated the purpose of the sickle claw on the feet. Some say it helped them climb trees. Others say it was used as a slashing weapon. The most popular theory is that it was used as a stabbing weapon, probably puncturing a arbitrary or even a vital organ and letting the prey animal bleed to death. Your welcome for the violent mental image.

#5

DILOPHOSAURUS!



Out of all the dinosaurs ever to appear in a film, Dilophosaurus is hands down the most misunderstood. Jurassic Park depicted it as a dog-sized little critter who can spit venom and has a frill on the neck that extends outwards. First, there is no tangible evidence that any dinosaur had venom at all. Second, the purpose of the frill was just so people don't confuse Dilophosaurus with Velociraptor. And finally, in real life, Dilophosaurus was 20 feet (6 meters) long. THE MORE YOU KNOW! *twinkle*

Anyway, even at the proper size this thing is adorable. LOOK AT IT! Cutest dinosaur ever. And then it eats you. Probably whole because it has loosely hinged jaws like a snake.

#4

ALLOSAURUS!



Sure there's T. Rex, the King of the dinosaurs. Then there is Allosaurus ("Allosaurus" literally means "different lizard"). Allosaurus is a much more common dinosaur, with literal hundreds of fossil discovered in less than a decade. And unlike T. Rex, Allosaurus should be the main attraction at Jurassic Park because T. Rex was around AFTER the Jurassic period. Just kidding.

Allosaurus was actually the first dinosaur to ever appear in a movie. Yes. Not T. Rex, but Allosaurus. On another note, the most famous fossil of Allosaurus was dubbed "Big Al". Big Al was a almost complete skeleton, but did not lead a happy life. Several bone fractures (and infections) in the hand, foot, rib cage, back, and tail indicated that Big Al probably died of injuries from fighting other dinosaurs. How Big Al got said injuries is a complete mystery. By far the most painful injury was a greatly infected and partially broken middle toe, that probably made walking difficult. And what good is a super predator if it can't walk, let alone chase after fleeing prey?

#3

PARASAUROLOPHUS! 



Parasaurolophus is my favorite herbivore dinosaur. First, this guy is the TRUE cutest dinosaur ever (sorry Dilophosaurus). The hammerhead/trumpet/horn/thing on the head is connected directly to the nasal cavities. It is often believed to live around water. And to top it all off, "Parasaurolophus" is a unnecessarily fun word to pronounce.

 #2

TYRANNOSAURUS REX!

     

Yes. Of course the almighty T. Rex is on my list. It's the single most popular dinosaur in the world. And yet paleontologists are freaking out over the fact that (Spoiler alert!) the Jurassic World T. Rex does not have feathers.

Tyrannosaurus Rex is so famous that their is an entire order named after it (Tyrannosauridae). For a long time it was the largest carnivorous dinosaur. But that honor goes to MY ALL TIME FAVORITE DINOSAUR EVER. And who is my  MY ALL TIME FAVORITE DINOSAUR EVER?

NUMBER 1!!!!

SPINOSAURUS!!!




Yeah boys (and girls!)! Spinosaurus is my MY ALL TIME FAVORITE DINOSAUR EVER!!! Spinosaurus is a piscivore (much like Pteranodon) that lived in/near lakes, rivers, swamps, and beaches. The crocodile like snout is designed to prevent slippery, struggling fish escape. It often switched from a bipedal stance (walking on two legs) to a quadrupedal stance (all-fours). It's jaws alone are SIX FEET (1.8 meters) long. It can swallow any time traveling human WHOLE! It is currently the largest carnivore ever discovered, weighing 10 tons (9071 kilograms), and surpassing 49 feet (15 meters) in length. In terms of height, Spinosaurus was eye-level with T. Rex, who was 12 feet (3.6 meters) at the hip.

So now you know my top ten personal favorite dinosaurs. All I have to do now is build some pixel art of them in my Minecraft survival world. Oh, and regarding the T. Rex vs Spinosaurus fight in Jurassic Park 3. That fight could never happen. For starters they lived on opposite sides of the Planet! (NOTE: T. REX IS AN AMERICAN DINOSAUR AS IT LIVED IN PREHISTORIC NORTH AMERICA, WHILE SPINOSAURUS LIVED IN AFRICA.).

Beautiful Finches!

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS, I am doing what this blog was originally supposed to be. A public thingy of me talking about my everyday life. If you are new, this blog reviews/previews movies and video games and delivers news and stuff about gaming. And spreading hype for Monster Hunter and Splatoon apparently. Speaking of which there is going to be a Splatoon Splatfest tomorrow (which yours truly will be partaking in)!

Anyway, on to proper blogging. I have pet finches (I mentioned them in my super sad post on the unfortunate passing of Satoru Iwata)! Which is awesome because ever since I was a kid I wanted pet birds. And now I have pet finches (which are birds!)!

 

These guys are not my birds. I have pictures

of my birds but it takes AGES to put them on

my PC, so I found a random finch pic to serve

as a visual aid.

In case you know nothing about Finches, they are small seed-eating songbirds. Really small birds. On average they are only 3.8 inches (or the equivalent of 3.8 inches in case your country uses the Metric System).

Finches typically have short strong beaks. However a species of finch known as the Hawaiian Honeycreeper are famous for having several different shapes (and sizes) of beaks.

Finches normally live in well-wooded areas (such as forests). As stated above they are primarily seed-eating animals, but they won't turn up a chance to snack on a insect or berry.

Although they are songbirds and are very popular for their vocal talents, my finches just keep saying "Hey!" all day. Not really but their main chirp sounds like they are saying "Hey!" in a chipmunk voice.

Oh, and they are ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE!!! They are the cutest little things ever!

Finches require a moderate of........RESPONSIBILITY!!! Yes. Me. Being responsible! Because you have to restock their feeders, their water fountain thingy, and their bird bath AND clean the whole cage out once a month.

Also, I have cats. Now I know what you are thinking, "SPENCER! How are you going to take care of your birds if cats are running around?". Well I will tell you. One cat doesn't even mess with the birds and just stares at them from a distance. The other cat is weird because he tries to mess with the birds in the morning but if you cover one side of the cage with a towel he leaves them alone. After noon he pretends the birds don't even exist. 

For more info about finches go to Wikipedia.

CEO of Nintendo passed away!? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?!?

This is a sad post. If the title wasn't obvious.

Anyway, on July 11, 2015, Satoru Iwata passed away. In case you don't know who he is (in which case shame on you! He's the most famous name in gaming!)  Satoru Iwata was/is(?) the CEO of Nintendo. Nintendo is a video game company.


This is Satoru Iwata.

LIFE STORY TIME!!!

EARLY LIFE!!!

Satoru Iwata was born on December 06, 1959, in Sapporo, Japan. He expressed interest in the creation of video games early on. He made quite a few simple number games (using an electronic calculator) that he shared with his friends during his high school years.

After high school, Iwata was admitted to the Tokyo Institute of Technology, where he majored in computer science. While attending this school Iwata was one of the several unpaid interns at Commodore, Japan, helping subsidiary's head engineer with technical and software development.

HAL LAB!!!

Iwata also did freelance work at HAL Laboratory Inc. (which he would become president of before working with Nintendo), which was a video game developer that often worked closely with Nintendo. After graduating from university/collage (both of which are the same thing) he began to work at HAL Laboratory full time. He became the company's coordinator of software production in 1983. Some of the games he worked on were Balloon Fight, Earthbound (which the whole world wants a sequel to), and the Kirby franchise.

NINTENDO!!!

Although he wasn't working for Nintendo at that time, he helped to make Pokemon Gold and Silver for the Game Boy Color in 1993. Also in 1993, Iwata aided in the programming of Pokemon Stadium for the Nintendo 64.

In 2000, Satoru Iwata held a position at Nintendo as the head of the corporate planning division. When Hiroshi Yamauchi, the president of Nintendo since 1949, retired on March 31 2002, Satoru Iwata became president of Nintendo with Yamauchi's blessing. Iwata was the first CEO of Nintendo who was not related to the founding family at all.

At the time of Iwata's promotion, Nintendo wasn't doing as well as it's competition. In 2006, Iwata stated that the gaming industry is becoming too exclusive. So he made two systems designed for a very wide audience: Everyone. The first was the Nintendo DS, a handheld gaming system that had a secondary touchscreen, and had several novel games in it's library. The second was the Wii which introducing motion control in gaming. Both systems were very successful, doubling Nintendo's stock price.

He also pushed production of the Wii U (which had a lot of early confusion because most people thought that it was just a add-on and not an entire console) and the 3DS (even though it took Nintendo years to make the 3D work without giving people headaches). He also made Nintendo focus part of it's attention to mobile gaming in early 2015.

ILLNESS AND PASSING :(

In June 2014, Nintendo announced that Satoru Iwata couldn't come to E3 2014 (a convention where video game companies showcase their upcoming products) due to medical reasons. It was later revealed that he was undergoing surgery to remove a tumor in his bile duct.

On July 12, 2015, Nintendo announced that Satoru Iwata died the previous day at the age of 55 from the tumor. He is survived by his wife, Kayoko. Funeral plans are being held on July 17, 2015.

Flags at Nintendo were lowered to half-mast. The entire world expressed sadness for Iwata's passing (the picture below shows you how sad the world is). The day after his unfortunate passing a rainbow appeared at Nintendo HQ. Everyone there dubbed it the "rainbow road to heaven", after a race track in Mario Kart.



Fun fact about my blog. This was an unintended post because today's blog was going to be about my new pet finches (maybe I'll write about them in the next post!? STAY TUNED!!). But my good friend Vincent called me and was like (and I quote) "O MAH GAWSH SPENCER SATORU IWATA IS DEAD!!!" and I was like "...what?". So shout-out to Vincent for a blog idea!

P.S. I am sorry if I made anyone feel sad.

Splatoon Update!!

This post is a update on Splatoon. In case you do not know what Splatoon is go read my reviews on it (I did two reviews).



Anyway, Splatoon got a few updates since my reviews so this is a Splatoon UPDATE video.

First and foremost, they added a new game mode called Tower Control. It's basically the Splatoon equivalent of the classic F.P.S. (First Person Shooter) game mode: Capture the Flag.

 
Tower Control!

Now I played a LOT of matches of the game mode, and I personally don't like it that much. It kind of renders my favorite weapon (the Kraken Roller) pretty much useless (except for getting kill streaks! :P). This game mode requires a mid range weapon at least, and I terrible with any weapon that is NOT a variant of the Paint Roller (I exclusively use Roller weapons. I admit it. I am weak).


These guys look like their ready to wreck faces!

Some minor news though. Instead of buffing up the Ink-Brush weapon (weakest weapon in the game mind you) they actually nerfed some of the stronger weapons. Which is fine by me because Nintendo made way too many instant-kill weapons. But they nerfed the Kraken special move. Which I don't understand the logic behind nerfing it because if someone sees you coming they can run (swim?) circles around you. It's only a good weapon if 1: You are playing with new players that have never seen the Kraken before. 2: you catch them from behind. Or 3: If you camp a super jump/the other teams spawn point. By the way it's my FAVORITE special attack In case you are wondering how they nerfed the Kraken you can now shoot it to put some space between you and the Kraken. Of course the Kraken player won't take any damage whatsoever.


The Ink-Brush is the weakest weapon in the game
You have to hit somebody FIVE times to KO them.
No other weapon takes as long to kill another player.
At least you run crazy fast with it equipped.

And the biggest thing that happened (by the time of this post it just ended) is the Splatfest. The Splatfest is basically a team-based tournament you can compete in (and I competed in it for obvious reasons) where you choose one of two teams. And The winning team is decided by 1: Popularity. And 2: How many multiplayer matches that team can win within 24 hours. And they change the theme of the Splatfest changes pre-regularly (the one I partook in was Team Cat vs Team Dog).

Speaking of which the ending of the July 4 Splatfest (the one I was in) was ABSURD! Okay so I joined Team Cat (because I love cats way too much) and when it ended Team Cat won the most matches (makes sense. I swear I won at least nine matches in a row. Each with a 15+ Kill Streak and less than three deaths on average!). But the Dog menace won by default due to sheer popularity. So sad! :(

Next Splatfest though I will win. I WILL avenge the Cat Kingdoms!!! Oh and wreck people too. Because that's the fun part! :P

Anyway, back to the update news. Splatoon also got not one but TWO brand new maps. The first map is called the Kelp Dome. It's a giant greenhouse. It's also Roller City. Because the map is loaded with narrow passages it's perfect for killing peeps with a Roller (the roller is a melee weapon by the way. Narrow Passages = kill spree fun times if you use a Roller). There are THREE really good snipe spots on the map but two of which are only available in my favorite game mode, Splat Zones (in it you try to control a specific spot on the map for as long as possible, but if your team holds to to count of 100 you win automatically). But I am not about the sniper life-style! Mostly because I am terrible at using any snipe focused weapon. Ironic because in Destiny my favorite weapon is a sniper rifle.


This is me on a kill streak. Just swap the nerd
glasses for a jungle hat and the polka dot shirt
with a GLORIOUS camouflage hoodie.

The second map is Bluefin Depot. It's basically a ghost town type map. For whatever reason Nintendo doesn't want to play this map in the rotation because I literally played this map ONCE. I am not kidding! They NEVER have this map in the rotation. And that is sad because I want to explore this map and develop pro strategies of the GLORIOUS variety for this map.


KELP DOME (A.K.A ROLLER CITY!!!)!!!



Bluefin Depot (the map you rarely get to play on!)!

I liked most of the new updates. I still don't like tower control because it forces me to use ranged weapons and the only weapon I am good at (because I practice with it pre-regularly) is the Kraken Roller. If they tweaked Tower control so Rollers were on the same play field as the Splatterscope (probably the best weapon for this game mode. I am bad at using it but I've seen people do some INSANE kills with it so it not bad. I just don't personally know how to use it like a boss).

For more info please go to the official website and if you want to know if you should get the game, read my reviews! Spencer reviews!