My Top 10 Running Songs

I know I originally started this blog to talk about my video game adventures.  I'm a gamer and always will be. Running has also become a bigger part of my life than I ever thought it would be... so I can't help but want to share those adventures as well. :)

The running playlist on my phone is pretty small, around 60 songs or so.  I love all kinds of music, especially electronic... but when it comes to running music I'm pretty picky.  That extra push to go one more mile is what I crave.  I find that vocals really make a difference in my motivation, for some reason I just love singing along (in my head) while pushing myself and pounding the pavement.

Whether you run or not, here are some awesome songs to help get you motivated!
(in no particular order because I heart them all!)

Zhu - Faded
Simple lyrics that I love singing along with.  The baseline in my head makes me happy on a run.

Felix Cartal & Clockwork - The Fire
This song makes me feel like a superstar when I match the beat to my feet, haha.  Love the uptempo.

Paul Van Dyk - Time of Our Lives

Ever since I first heard Paul Van Dyk's music, I was in love.  I'm a huge fan of trance and this song can really get me feeling inspired. "There's a time for us to shine." 

Dada Life - Born to Rage (USA Version)

Need some extra adrenaline?  There's nothing like pretend yelling "Born to rage!" while running, lol.  Such a great feeling and I always look forward to when this some pops up on shuffle.

The Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up

I remember listening to this album over and over in my car way back in the day.  This song has always put me in a good mood for some reason and makes running even more fun!

Borgeous - Wildfire

I discovered this song while listening to the EDM station on Comcast cable one night while playing video games.  It really caught my attention and I really had to put it in my running playlist.  It's excellent to sing along with.

September - Cry For You

At the gym, I was going to stop the treadmill but then this song came on Pandora, so I kept going until this song was done.  Running on the treadmill is my least favorite so I just knew this had to be on my permanent playlist.

Afrojack ft Eva Simons - Take Over Control

This song always ends up on my driving playlists, just felt natural to add it to my running mix.  Good stuff!

Stereotronique - Sexy Beast

Not much in the way of lyrics but I always sing along (in my head of course) when the song goes "you sexy beast"... really pushes me to go faster for some reason, haha.

ATB - Could You Believe

I find this song super motivating when I'm running outside... especially when I hear "Don't Stop, oh yeah" :D  <3 ATB

Extra Life info and behind the scenes stuffs

Hello fellow gamer guys and gals!

How goes it?  Having fun playing video games and pwning noobs?  [laugh]

Sooooo Extra Life is sooooooooooooooon and I'm super pumped!
This will be my 5th year playing and still super excited about it.

I will be starting my marathon on Oct 25th @ 2pm (pacific time).  The reason for starting in the afternoon this year is because I'm also going to be running a 5K race that morning!  Am I crazy?  Perhaps.... but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to participate in a Halloween costume run!  My bf and I were going to dress up as Super Meat Boy and Bandage Girl but we're having trouble getting the shirts on time so I'll have to think of a last minute backup plan.  Here's the cool finishers medal:

Anywho... here is my donation page:
http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=88877
Live streaming the event here:
http://www.hitbox.tv/AmyPlays
Extra Life schedule:
http://vitaminamy.blogspot.com/2014/02/extra-life-2014-schedule.html

I will also have a Ventrilo server for drop in/drop out voice chat.  I won't make this info public so please msg me if you'd like the info.  Voice chatting will help keep me awake. :D

I'm not using Twitch this year because of
1) longer chat delay
2) Twitch mutes recorded video if there is music on it
3) heavier server loads during Extra Life
My stream will have music requests enabled this year!  Just type "!songrequest YouTubeURL" and it'll play on the stream for myself and everyone else.
Some hours I'll have it disabled like when I play The Evil Within... because scary games require listening to every sound possible so I'll pee myself.
Not my choice to play scary games, my friends like to torture me, haha.

So here are some pics of my Extra Life setup:
Behind the scenes!

My stream layout

Huge thanks to everyone for their support.

Updates and running music!

So I've been hooked on eating healthy, exercise, and running lately... my body feels so much better being more active.
I'll always play and love video games, I'd just like to keep physically fit also.
I've lost about 25lbs since in March and feel fantastic.  I was never overweight but was getting uncomfortable and was probably borderline.  My clothes are much looser and I have tons more energy since changing my diet and exercising a lot more.  People close to me have even noticed without me saying anything.

Xbox Fitness has been an amazing thing for me.  Working out AND achievements!?  Done and done.
I have one achievement left and it's pretty grindy/long, and yes, I'm up for the challenge.  *flex*

I've also started the C25K (Couch to 5K) running program.  It's an 8 week program to get you from being a couch potato to running for 30 minutes straight.
It's a free app for Android and iPhone. (search for C25K by Zen Labs)  Add a music playlist, hit start, and GO!  30 minutes 3x/week, easy peasy, no excuses.
Week 3 right now feels so good and I'm always looking forward to my next run.  It's meant to be done every other day with active rest days in between.  That just means on days you don't run, you gotta still keep moving. So I usually do Xbox Fitness on those days.  I love MOSSA Fight 1 and random 10 Minute Solution workouts.  Ripped in 30 is also good but I can't stand Jillian Michaels talking for 30 minutes haha.

As far as what I'm currently playing, LEGO The Hobbit and Sacred 3 co-op.  LEGO The Hobbit isn't too bad, not as much platforming I've noticed as other LEGO games.  My bf and I just got Sacred 3 and have been playing that with another friend.  Holy hell... the gameplay is fine... the voice acting is terrible and annoying, lol.  I'm looking forward to Diablo 3 for Xbox One even more!

I've been spending my Sundays at the local animal shelter.  I love walking dogs and playing with them.  Here's some cuteness of one sleeping on me.

I love electronic music and they make for excellent running songs so here are some long continuous mixes for your listening (running?) pleasure.

Extra Life Music Requests!? Okay!

Through the power of the interwebz... this year's Extra Life stream will have some new awesomeness.
Today I am going to introduce you to music requests! You can request a song via chat (during certain hours) and it'll auto play on the stream for me and everyone else to hear.

How does this sorcery work?

Well, in Hitbox chat you type in a certain command that'll allow a song to be played over the air.
You must be registered on Hitbox in order to use chat.

Here is the command:

!songrequest YouTube URL
(For example: !songrequest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0)


Please do not request a song that is offensive, not music, and no longer than 5 minutes long.

Extra Life Medals!

When these awards showed up in my mailbox today, I was super stoked!  They are awards for my previous years of raising money to help out Children's Miracle Network in an event called Extra Life.
Am I doing it again this year?  You can bet your pants I am! 
This October!  Be there!  It'll be fun, I promise. ;)

It's All About Community!

I love video games.
I was fascinated by video games ever since I saw one.
I've loved them since the first time I ever held a controller.
Looting treasure chests, hunting down the bad guys, getting the epic piece of gear, and saving the world... these have been a part of my life for a very long time.

I started with single player RPGs. FFVIII is my first real retail game and I was hooked.

I'd sit by myself and play 'til I passed out, rinse and repeat.
Then I discovered the MMORPG... I picked up Everquest and had no idea what I was getting into. Playing online with other people? GASP!
It's when I joined a guild and actually got to know other players I discovered what it's like to have a gaming community. To be a part of something with others. To share that feeling of helping each other and goals.

Unfortunately my class in Everquest was nerfed (beaten to death with the nerfbat is an understatement) to the point where I couldn't even solo anymore. This was right around the time that WoW came out. So I switched. I felt bad leaving my EQ friends behind but to my surprise a couple of people followed me. It was fun learning a new game and meeting new people. The WoW community is strong and after 10 years (I played for 6+ then quit) I'm still friends with several people outside of the game.

I was tired of WoW after so long and after so many changes... I needed some gaming variety in my life so I decided to get a PS3 and FFXIII. My gaming started with Final Fantasy VIII so I wanted to get back into JRPGs and consoles in general. It was great being able to play at my own pace, hog all the loot, and actually FINISH the game. Next after that was Heavy Rain... and I've been loving my consoles ever since. The variety and actually being able to finish a game feels so satisfying.
Of all the places I've worked, I've been the only gamer. I felt like the odd one out because none of my coworkers played video games. It's almost like I was the little kid of the office to someone once they knew. Yeah I'm young at heart and most people don't believe me when I say my age anyways lol... to most people, someone my age should be married with a mortgage and have kids. NOPE!
Fast forward to three years ago when I met my boyfriend. He's the most amazing person and I feel so lucky to have him. When I met him I maybe had around 15k gamerscore. He had 200k. I was like ! So then I started achievement hunting with and along side of him, and I love it.

The first game we 1000'd together was Portal 2. I've also met some of his Xbox pals and they are awesome people. Then I joined x360a looking for achievement guides... and kinda felt that "community" feeling again. I hunted some more sites wanting to meet other achievement friends and found myself on TrueAchievements. Friend lists and blogs? See what others are playing and a feed that you can comment on? YAY! So I joined and have met some pretty awesome gamers.  I'm also glad to be a part of the Retroids gaming community, even if they don't understand my gamerscore/trophy hunting, haha.

I started live streaming my gaming last month looking for yet another community, but there are too many trolls and rude people (especially towards females) on Twitch to make it worth trying to do full time. One guy was nice but became "too nice" if you know what I mean. So I had to make a new Twitch channel so hopefully he won't bother me there.http://www.twitch.tv/AmyPlays
Kinda sucks starting over and not having all the cool viewers I met, but it'll be nice streaming more casually. I honestly don't have enough of an outgoing or talkative personality to be able to make partner anyways. I'll use the new channel for Extra Life this year, yay! I also have a hitbox.tv page as a backup in case Twitch is unstable. (Hitbox is a new upcoming game streaming site. It's actually very stable and the delay is awesome... however since it's new there aren't many people who know about it.)

I still mostly play games by myself or with my boyfriend, but I love being a part of a community. 

How important is a gaming community for you?

If you made it through this entire wall of text, you are awesome. <3

Steps forward, zig zag, and everywhere!

The past month or so has been pretty stressful... my living situation drives me bonkers so I've been in weird moods lately. My desire to game lowered and I was feeling pretty meh.
I tried streaming regularly on Twitch hoping that chatting with new people about games would cheer me up but instead I got judged based on how I look... constantly. A guy can broadcast all day and no one cares... being a girl and everyone has to comment on how you look instead of how you're playing the game.
Reading this today reminded me of that fact: http://kotaku.com/critics-of-felicia-days-hairdo-dont-even-know-what-sh-1516188224
"My hair doesn't affect what words come out of my mouth...but he can't see me as anything else, I guess. Guys like him tune in because I'm attractive to them. Without long hair, I'm not attractive to them. Ergo…goodbye." -Felicia Day
I see a lot... and I mean a lot... of "girl gamers" on Twitch with boobs hanging out just to get viewers. 
I don't play games to get attention from guys... I play video games because I enjoy them.
I don't lick controllers or #girlgamer on Twitter.
It's sad and makes me not want to be a part of the streaming community anymore. 
If nice people from here would like to watch me play a game, I'm all for it. 

But I needed something...
Anything...

Then it hit me.

A few days ago I decided to go back to school, along with volunteer at my local animal shelter (humane society). I need to get off my arse and do something with my life that I'm proud of. Screw all the haters! I'm just a nice and good person that loves video games. Now that I'm not streaming on a schedule anymore I can focus on the games that make me happy.
Fable Anniversary came out today and I'm having a great time. The camera is a bit wonky but that's probably because I'm used to more current games. Overall it's great and Lionhead did a great job with the HD.

I'm sure my GTASC team is super pissed at me (someone even came into my stream and scolded me, which I didn't really appreciate when I was live... PM me instead, k? ). I promise to do my best around schoolwork and volunteering. I heart you guys and sorry that it was just 6 Boobies for a while. Let me know if there's a game y'all wanna play together or something I can help with! (Yes, I'm American, can ya tell? lol)

Since I'm going to request helping in the cat section of the humane society, here you go:

Save all the kittehs!