While I live in Vancouver, I am an American, and today is Memorial Day in the United States. On this day, we remember those who have fought and died for their country, making the ultimate sacrifice so that we all may celebrate the freedoms that we enjoy.
My heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones in the current wars, as well as in wars past. You are all heroes in my book, and we salute you.
I wish I had a 21-gun salute to give you, but my thanks are all I have.
Monday, 31 May 2010
Sunday, 30 May 2010
Putting a deadline on friendship
My recent post on ungrateful people, as well as a comment from the excellent Dawn, reminded me of something that happened to me a few years ago.
Any of you who have been following this blog (and most of you know anyway, since most of my readers already know me in some way) know that I graduated from Iowa State University. In the last two years of my time there, I became good friends with a couple of great guys. We hung out together, and we even lived together for our final year. Three bedroom apartment for $600/month, split three ways? Sweeeeeet!
After I graduated, I stayed in touch with Mike. He stayed in Ames while I moved to Chicago, but we'd talk often. I'd come to Ames and visit at least once a year, and he would come to Chicago too. I remember one visit we gorged ourselves on Mexican food at Carlos Sweeney's, and then listened to the Star Wars soundtrack triple-CD boxed set that I had bought before dinner while our food digested. We had a great time together overall, and I considered him one of my best friends.
Something happened when I moved out to Vancouver, though.
He got married, I got married and moved totally away, and we fell away from each other.
My friends back home know that I am not the best Internet pen-pal out there, and I am sorry for that. I have no idea why that is, but sometimes things just get away from me. But even though we don't talk that much, those bonds of friendship are still there, and they know (I hope they know, anyway), that if they ever need me for anything, I will do my damnedest to be there for them. If they email me with something they need an answer too, I'll be as quick as I can be about it.
Just general "How are you doing?" emails, though? I do my best. I really do. But sometimes I'm just really lame.
How does that apply to this situation?
After about a year or two out here, where we hadn't had much contact, I received another email from Mike. It wasn't anything urgent, more of touch base type of email. I took a while to respond to it. I don't have an explanation, it just happened.
A week later (or something like that; it wasn't too long, though), I get another email from him basically saying that if I can't be bothered to respond to him, then he could no longer be my friend. I was stunned when I got this email, and my first thought was "What the fuck?" But my second thought was that we had been friends a long time, so it would be worth it to try and save the friendship.
So I responded to him, apologizing profusely, stating that unfortunately, I'm not great at doing this kind of thing. I asked him how things were going, etc, etc. He responded positively to it and we had a good dialogue going for a couple of emails.
But then something happened that made me lose track of things again. I don't remember what it was, but I know I took a while to answer his last email. He sent me another email basically ending the friendship.
Seriously? Friends move away all the time, and sometimes you only talk to them a couple of times a year! Sometimes you get Christmas cards and that's about it. But those bonds of friendship are still there, and again, if you're needed, you're there. They are just a phone call away, or an email, or whatever. But to end the friendship over two weeks? Maybe it was a month, but I do know it wasn't *that* long.
Needless to say, I didn't try again.
The incident did teach me something, though. While I'm still not very good at *initiating* contact regularly, I do a good job of responding to it. At least I think I do.
Of course, this all happened before things like Facebook came around. Nowadays, it's easy to stay a part of somebody's life with periodic contact that doesn't require that you sit down and write a long missive (I know some people are saddened that this is no longer the case). If Facebook were around back then, we'd probably still be friends. Who knows?
Is it right to put a deadline on friendship? I know friendships can fade away when neither party is making much of an effort to keep it alive, but can you put an execution deadline on a friendship? Where if that line is passed, you put it out of its misery?
Or is it possible to stay friends even though the contact is periodic? I know it's possible, because I have a few like that (or, at least, I like to think I do). I guess I know of at least one person who doesn't feel that way.
Edit #1: Added a couple of commas and words to that third paragraph. No, we didn't buy the CDs while we digested our food. :)
Any of you who have been following this blog (and most of you know anyway, since most of my readers already know me in some way) know that I graduated from Iowa State University. In the last two years of my time there, I became good friends with a couple of great guys. We hung out together, and we even lived together for our final year. Three bedroom apartment for $600/month, split three ways? Sweeeeeet!
After I graduated, I stayed in touch with Mike. He stayed in Ames while I moved to Chicago, but we'd talk often. I'd come to Ames and visit at least once a year, and he would come to Chicago too. I remember one visit we gorged ourselves on Mexican food at Carlos Sweeney's, and then listened to the Star Wars soundtrack triple-CD boxed set that I had bought before dinner while our food digested. We had a great time together overall, and I considered him one of my best friends.
Something happened when I moved out to Vancouver, though.
He got married, I got married and moved totally away, and we fell away from each other.
My friends back home know that I am not the best Internet pen-pal out there, and I am sorry for that. I have no idea why that is, but sometimes things just get away from me. But even though we don't talk that much, those bonds of friendship are still there, and they know (I hope they know, anyway), that if they ever need me for anything, I will do my damnedest to be there for them. If they email me with something they need an answer too, I'll be as quick as I can be about it.
Just general "How are you doing?" emails, though? I do my best. I really do. But sometimes I'm just really lame.
How does that apply to this situation?
After about a year or two out here, where we hadn't had much contact, I received another email from Mike. It wasn't anything urgent, more of touch base type of email. I took a while to respond to it. I don't have an explanation, it just happened.
A week later (or something like that; it wasn't too long, though), I get another email from him basically saying that if I can't be bothered to respond to him, then he could no longer be my friend. I was stunned when I got this email, and my first thought was "What the fuck?" But my second thought was that we had been friends a long time, so it would be worth it to try and save the friendship.
So I responded to him, apologizing profusely, stating that unfortunately, I'm not great at doing this kind of thing. I asked him how things were going, etc, etc. He responded positively to it and we had a good dialogue going for a couple of emails.
But then something happened that made me lose track of things again. I don't remember what it was, but I know I took a while to answer his last email. He sent me another email basically ending the friendship.
Seriously? Friends move away all the time, and sometimes you only talk to them a couple of times a year! Sometimes you get Christmas cards and that's about it. But those bonds of friendship are still there, and again, if you're needed, you're there. They are just a phone call away, or an email, or whatever. But to end the friendship over two weeks? Maybe it was a month, but I do know it wasn't *that* long.
Needless to say, I didn't try again.
The incident did teach me something, though. While I'm still not very good at *initiating* contact regularly, I do a good job of responding to it. At least I think I do.
Of course, this all happened before things like Facebook came around. Nowadays, it's easy to stay a part of somebody's life with periodic contact that doesn't require that you sit down and write a long missive (I know some people are saddened that this is no longer the case). If Facebook were around back then, we'd probably still be friends. Who knows?
Is it right to put a deadline on friendship? I know friendships can fade away when neither party is making much of an effort to keep it alive, but can you put an execution deadline on a friendship? Where if that line is passed, you put it out of its misery?
Or is it possible to stay friends even though the contact is periodic? I know it's possible, because I have a few like that (or, at least, I like to think I do). I guess I know of at least one person who doesn't feel that way.
Edit #1: Added a couple of commas and words to that third paragraph. No, we didn't buy the CDs while we digested our food. :)
One Hit Wonders of the 90s (Part 16) - Western Edition
Hello, dear reader. I have a favour to ask you. The original post begins after all of the asterisks, if you want to skip this.
Now that the One Hit Wonders of the 90s series is over, I'm not going to be doing my weekly revisiting of all these posts (I had to do that to add the new post to the bottom). Thus, I won't be able to catch any broken picture links or deleted videos any more. Yet I want these posts to be as good as possible.
Please, if you happen upon one of these posts, or if you take a walk through a whole bunch of them, let me know if you find anything that doesn't work. You can leave a comment, or you can send me a message using that handy "Contact Me" page linked above.
Also, feel free to let me know what you think of the post or any of the videos!
Thank you.
**************************
There's something romantic about the Old West. And when I say "romantic," I mean "full of psychotic killers and lots of dust." Yet we seem enamored of it for some reason. The Western was one of the main staples in the movies for decades. I'm not really sure why that ever went away. Sure, you can't have "Cowboys & Indians" any longer, but what's wrong with a few outlaws, cattle rustlers and what have you?
Every once in a while, though, a Western does come out. There was that Yuma remake a few years back, and in the video game area, there was Gun. Last week, Rockstar came out with the game Red Dead Redemption, and in its honour (as well as the honour of the fact that I'm going to be getting the game this week), how about a Western edition of my weekly one-hit wonders post?
There were many one-hit wonders in the old West, though granted most of them didn't last very long (usually the guy they were facing was a multiple hit wonder, leaving them all sorts of dead). It's a perfect fit! Of course, if the movies were to be believed, the West would have been so full of dead bodies that you could have made a fort out of them.
Hey, wait. Maybe they did!
I thought about making a "silly pet" edition of the show, but then I saw this:
I got tired even visualizing it.
As usual, you can find the list of one-hit wonders I'm using here. You really don't want to know what I'm going to do if you take a look before I'm done, though.
He did.
And here we go!
1) Cypress Hill: "Insane in the Brain" (#19)
Ok, I kinda thought last week that there wasn't going to be much rap this week.
Wow, how wrong could I be? So wrong that I might as well have said that Nicolas Cage is totally sane.
I think I just threw up in my mouth a bit. This song sucks by rap standards, and that's saying something! My ears are totally rebelling right now, actually. I'm not sure if they're going to let me continue this post. Not without some serious sedation.
This song is truly Unforgiven.
2) Big Daddy Kane: "Very Special" (#31)
(no real video is out there that I can find...no real music, either)
I'm getting so depressed.
That being said, this song isn't necessarily that bad. At least there seems to be a song behind the rap, which you can't really say most of the time. This rap/singing hybrid is probably one of the least objectionable ones on this list.
It's still stupid, of course. You can't get *that* far away from normalcy.
This song is a Pale Rider compared to most, you know, *good* music.
3) Haddaway: "What is Love" (#11)
Redemption!!!! I had no idea what this song was when I stuck it in the old Youtube randomizer, but I love it! Great keyboard work, this song makes me want to get up out of my seat and dance! Except that my cat will look at me funny. Even so, this song makes me feel good at the best of times, and after the rap deluge, I really needed it.
Yeah, the video is silly as hell, making me laugh out loud a couple of times. What's with those costumes?
Why do I not have any trouble seeing Haddaway standing up to a mob in some godforsaken Western town and saying this?
4) Blind Melon: "No Rain" (#20)
Two for two in the "no more rap" sweepstakes. Nice to see.
I feel sorry for that kid. Don't you? But then she tortures all of those other people, and I no longer do. It's funny how the field of the bee people is locked away behind a fence like that. But how can you not lock the gate?
Anyway, I actually kind of like this song, in a "brain not quite working" way. It's kind of cute, though the lead singer's voice starts to grate after a while. They always seem a little counter-culture, if you can be counter-culture in the 1990s.
Maybe they *didn't* smoke weed? That would be definitely be counter. Kind of like the Outlaw Josey Wales of acceptable music.
5) Intro: "Come Inside" (#33)
More soulful soul music. Not quite Boyz II Men wannabees, but they do come close. While it's not a bad song necessarily, it once again doesn't really distinguish itself from the rest of the pack. Though if you *really* listen to the words of this song, it's a lot more direct than you would think otherwise. Master of the double entendre!! I wonder if that's not all that he's master of.
I'm starting to feel better about this list now. I just hope my stagecoach doesn't get ambushed just on the outskirts of December 1993.
Because that would really suck.
I was starting to feel like this guy:
But I'm much better now.
6) Lisa Keith: "Better Than You" (#36)
They seem to have left the "There's none" part out of that title, though. Here I thought she was going to say that she had found a guy that was better than you at doing everything. Nothing like singing about somebody's shortcomings! In more ways than one, I'm sure.
This is kind of a cute bubblegum pop song, the likes of which we haven't seen much of in the 90s (at least not the one-hit wonder variety). It brings on some 80s flashbacks a bit, which is never a bad thing (or can be Hell on Earth, if you listen to the wife).
By all rights, this should be the Magnificent Seven, but I know what's coming next, so I definitely can't use that joke in its proper place.
Comedy hampered by reality. Who would have thunk it?
7) D.R.S.: "Gangsta Lean" (#4)
And then I go on to find that even I can be totally wrong.
Instead of a rap, it's a very touching song about the gang mentality and the often fatal lifestyle. It's an ode to friends lost. I do wish it had been a firmer indictment of the gang culture rather than just showing the effects on those left behind (though that, by itself, can be a strong voice), but watching the lives shattered by this violence (which was quite prevalent in the 90s) can be almost heartbreaking. Especially considering this song charted late in the year, when people are thinking about Christmas and all that stuff.
No joke, no Western theme on this one. Just a powerful song.
8) K7: "Come Baby Come" (#18)
Ummmm, ok. I know most rap songs are pretty blatant, but this one takes the cake! And the cream, and...well, I'll stop there.
Yet for some reason, the beat's just got me tapping even as I'm rolling my eyes at the lyrics. It's almost like a mixture of Shane and the Quick & the Dead remake (boy, that Sharon Stone can shoot a sixgun, can't she?).
This isn't enough to make me say I enjoyed listening to it, but it didn't make me want to go postal or anything.
So that's an improvement!
And that's it! We've come to the end of 1993, not with a bang, but with a huge whimper and the promise of yet more rapping to come. I know I can't wait! Just glancing ahead to subsequent years, we may be exiting the wilderness, getting over the side of the mountain, entering the land of our freedom, parting the Red Sea to save our people!!!!!
Oh, sorry, wrong Charlton Heston movie. This is a Western show!
Many thanks to my co-producer, the Waco Kid, without whom I wouldn't have been able to do today's post.
And I hope you have a great Sunday. I know you'll be hardened by having to listen to this crap today. Wait, you don't have to listen! That's my job. Now, I have to decompress.
Ahhhhhh, much better.
One-Hit Wonders of the 90s
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
Part 32
Part 33
Part 34
Part 35
Part 36
Part 37
Part 38
Part 39
Part 40
Now that the One Hit Wonders of the 90s series is over, I'm not going to be doing my weekly revisiting of all these posts (I had to do that to add the new post to the bottom). Thus, I won't be able to catch any broken picture links or deleted videos any more. Yet I want these posts to be as good as possible.
Please, if you happen upon one of these posts, or if you take a walk through a whole bunch of them, let me know if you find anything that doesn't work. You can leave a comment, or you can send me a message using that handy "Contact Me" page linked above.
Also, feel free to let me know what you think of the post or any of the videos!
Thank you.
**************************
There's something romantic about the Old West. And when I say "romantic," I mean "full of psychotic killers and lots of dust." Yet we seem enamored of it for some reason. The Western was one of the main staples in the movies for decades. I'm not really sure why that ever went away. Sure, you can't have "Cowboys & Indians" any longer, but what's wrong with a few outlaws, cattle rustlers and what have you?
Every once in a while, though, a Western does come out. There was that Yuma remake a few years back, and in the video game area, there was Gun. Last week, Rockstar came out with the game Red Dead Redemption, and in its honour (as well as the honour of the fact that I'm going to be getting the game this week), how about a Western edition of my weekly one-hit wonders post?
There were many one-hit wonders in the old West, though granted most of them didn't last very long (usually the guy they were facing was a multiple hit wonder, leaving them all sorts of dead). It's a perfect fit! Of course, if the movies were to be believed, the West would have been so full of dead bodies that you could have made a fort out of them.
Hey, wait. Maybe they did!
I thought about making a "silly pet" edition of the show, but then I saw this:
I got tired even visualizing it.
As usual, you can find the list of one-hit wonders I'm using here. You really don't want to know what I'm going to do if you take a look before I'm done, though.
He did.
And here we go!
1) Cypress Hill: "Insane in the Brain" (#19)
Ok, I kinda thought last week that there wasn't going to be much rap this week.
Wow, how wrong could I be? So wrong that I might as well have said that Nicolas Cage is totally sane.
I think I just threw up in my mouth a bit. This song sucks by rap standards, and that's saying something! My ears are totally rebelling right now, actually. I'm not sure if they're going to let me continue this post. Not without some serious sedation.
This song is truly Unforgiven.
2) Big Daddy Kane: "Very Special" (#31)
(no real video is out there that I can find...no real music, either)
I'm getting so depressed.
That being said, this song isn't necessarily that bad. At least there seems to be a song behind the rap, which you can't really say most of the time. This rap/singing hybrid is probably one of the least objectionable ones on this list.
It's still stupid, of course. You can't get *that* far away from normalcy.
This song is a Pale Rider compared to most, you know, *good* music.
3) Haddaway: "What is Love" (#11)
Redemption!!!! I had no idea what this song was when I stuck it in the old Youtube randomizer, but I love it! Great keyboard work, this song makes me want to get up out of my seat and dance! Except that my cat will look at me funny. Even so, this song makes me feel good at the best of times, and after the rap deluge, I really needed it.
Yeah, the video is silly as hell, making me laugh out loud a couple of times. What's with those costumes?
Why do I not have any trouble seeing Haddaway standing up to a mob in some godforsaken Western town and saying this?
4) Blind Melon: "No Rain" (#20)
Two for two in the "no more rap" sweepstakes. Nice to see.
I feel sorry for that kid. Don't you? But then she tortures all of those other people, and I no longer do. It's funny how the field of the bee people is locked away behind a fence like that. But how can you not lock the gate?
Anyway, I actually kind of like this song, in a "brain not quite working" way. It's kind of cute, though the lead singer's voice starts to grate after a while. They always seem a little counter-culture, if you can be counter-culture in the 1990s.
Maybe they *didn't* smoke weed? That would be definitely be counter. Kind of like the Outlaw Josey Wales of acceptable music.
5) Intro: "Come Inside" (#33)
More soulful soul music. Not quite Boyz II Men wannabees, but they do come close. While it's not a bad song necessarily, it once again doesn't really distinguish itself from the rest of the pack. Though if you *really* listen to the words of this song, it's a lot more direct than you would think otherwise. Master of the double entendre!! I wonder if that's not all that he's master of.
I'm starting to feel better about this list now. I just hope my stagecoach doesn't get ambushed just on the outskirts of December 1993.
Because that would really suck.
I was starting to feel like this guy:
But I'm much better now.
6) Lisa Keith: "Better Than You" (#36)
They seem to have left the "There's none" part out of that title, though. Here I thought she was going to say that she had found a guy that was better than you at doing everything. Nothing like singing about somebody's shortcomings! In more ways than one, I'm sure.
This is kind of a cute bubblegum pop song, the likes of which we haven't seen much of in the 90s (at least not the one-hit wonder variety). It brings on some 80s flashbacks a bit, which is never a bad thing (or can be Hell on Earth, if you listen to the wife).
By all rights, this should be the Magnificent Seven, but I know what's coming next, so I definitely can't use that joke in its proper place.
Comedy hampered by reality. Who would have thunk it?
7) D.R.S.: "Gangsta Lean" (#4)
And then I go on to find that even I can be totally wrong.
Instead of a rap, it's a very touching song about the gang mentality and the often fatal lifestyle. It's an ode to friends lost. I do wish it had been a firmer indictment of the gang culture rather than just showing the effects on those left behind (though that, by itself, can be a strong voice), but watching the lives shattered by this violence (which was quite prevalent in the 90s) can be almost heartbreaking. Especially considering this song charted late in the year, when people are thinking about Christmas and all that stuff.
No joke, no Western theme on this one. Just a powerful song.
8) K7: "Come Baby Come" (#18)
Ummmm, ok. I know most rap songs are pretty blatant, but this one takes the cake! And the cream, and...well, I'll stop there.
Yet for some reason, the beat's just got me tapping even as I'm rolling my eyes at the lyrics. It's almost like a mixture of Shane and the Quick & the Dead remake (boy, that Sharon Stone can shoot a sixgun, can't she?).
This isn't enough to make me say I enjoyed listening to it, but it didn't make me want to go postal or anything.
So that's an improvement!
And that's it! We've come to the end of 1993, not with a bang, but with a huge whimper and the promise of yet more rapping to come. I know I can't wait! Just glancing ahead to subsequent years, we may be exiting the wilderness, getting over the side of the mountain, entering the land of our freedom, parting the Red Sea to save our people!!!!!
Oh, sorry, wrong Charlton Heston movie. This is a Western show!
Many thanks to my co-producer, the Waco Kid, without whom I wouldn't have been able to do today's post.
And I hope you have a great Sunday. I know you'll be hardened by having to listen to this crap today. Wait, you don't have to listen! That's my job. Now, I have to decompress.
Ahhhhhh, much better.
One-Hit Wonders of the 90s
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
Part 32
Part 33
Part 34
Part 35
Part 36
Part 37
Part 38
Part 39
Part 40
Saturday, 29 May 2010
Viva Pinata - Thoroughly Charmed
Was looking around for something to play this afternoon, since I really wasn't in the mood for more Bad Company 2, and happened upon Viva Pinata. We had bought it a while back for really cheap ($5, maybe?) because the wife thought it was "cute." Just never really decided to play it because it was such a "kid's game" and I'm into action!
So I stuck it in the Xbox and sat down. The opening montage is extremely cute, almost too much so. I thought I was going to have a sugar overdose (and this wouldn't be the first time). The game then introduces you to wasted plot of land where you will be setting up your pinata garden. The goal of the game is to create (and attract) a thriving community of cute little pinatas to the little garden plot that you're assigned. As the game goes on and more pinatas join you, these in turn attract even more types. You can choose to plant various types of flowers and buy other types of garden items that will turn your garden into a thriving paradise.
As pairs of animals move in to your garden, you can entice them to "romance" (how you do so varies from type to type, but one requirement is always that you build them a house, because I guess they like their privacy). Once they have paired up, you have to complete a simple mini-game to consummate the relationship. Don't worry, there isn't any graphic pinata sex. They do a little dance, and voila! The Stork-like pinata brings an egg!
The 3-D graphics are extraordinarily cute, the audio even more so (this is definitely a "kids" game, complete with sing-song voice-overs and tinkly music). It's the quality of the graphics that make the little pinatas so endearing. I love Scottish accents, so it's no surprise that I really like the voice of Leefos, your main garden helper who explains all of the intricacies (if you can call them that) in the game. I think if you play this game for too much at a time, you will get overloaded with "cute," but in small doses, it's pretty good.
This is not a review of the game, as I have only played it for all of an hour. But I did want to acknowledge how thoroughly charming the game is, and I only hope that I don't end up hating them for crossing that line between "cute" and "annoying."
There's just one thing that's mildly bothersome (at this point). You need coins to buy things for your garden. After you've destroyed all the junk that's in your initial plot of land (which usually produces coins), you have to find things to sell. Hey, your pinatas have resale value! So you end up breeding pinatas so that you can sell them.
The circle of pinata life never ends, I guess.
I'll let you know if the fun wanes, but right now I've just got a smile on my face.
For those of you who might be too embarrassed to admit playing a kids game like this, listen to this Palette Swap Ninja song (fronted by the great Dan Americh).
Edit (4 hours later): Ok, I've now OD'd on cute...
So I stuck it in the Xbox and sat down. The opening montage is extremely cute, almost too much so. I thought I was going to have a sugar overdose (and this wouldn't be the first time). The game then introduces you to wasted plot of land where you will be setting up your pinata garden. The goal of the game is to create (and attract) a thriving community of cute little pinatas to the little garden plot that you're assigned. As the game goes on and more pinatas join you, these in turn attract even more types. You can choose to plant various types of flowers and buy other types of garden items that will turn your garden into a thriving paradise.
As pairs of animals move in to your garden, you can entice them to "romance" (how you do so varies from type to type, but one requirement is always that you build them a house, because I guess they like their privacy). Once they have paired up, you have to complete a simple mini-game to consummate the relationship. Don't worry, there isn't any graphic pinata sex. They do a little dance, and voila! The Stork-like pinata brings an egg!
The 3-D graphics are extraordinarily cute, the audio even more so (this is definitely a "kids" game, complete with sing-song voice-overs and tinkly music). It's the quality of the graphics that make the little pinatas so endearing. I love Scottish accents, so it's no surprise that I really like the voice of Leefos, your main garden helper who explains all of the intricacies (if you can call them that) in the game. I think if you play this game for too much at a time, you will get overloaded with "cute," but in small doses, it's pretty good.
This is not a review of the game, as I have only played it for all of an hour. But I did want to acknowledge how thoroughly charming the game is, and I only hope that I don't end up hating them for crossing that line between "cute" and "annoying."
There's just one thing that's mildly bothersome (at this point). You need coins to buy things for your garden. After you've destroyed all the junk that's in your initial plot of land (which usually produces coins), you have to find things to sell. Hey, your pinatas have resale value! So you end up breeding pinatas so that you can sell them.
The circle of pinata life never ends, I guess.
I'll let you know if the fun wanes, but right now I've just got a smile on my face.
For those of you who might be too embarrassed to admit playing a kids game like this, listen to this Palette Swap Ninja song (fronted by the great Dan Americh).
Edit (4 hours later): Ok, I've now OD'd on cute...
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Multiplayer Questions
I finished the (oh so short) single player mode for BC2 and have been enjoying the heck out of the multiplayer. But some of it is still a mystery to me. Thought I'd post some of that here and see if anybody has some answers.*CRICKETS CHIRP*
Well, that was helpful.
Oh, you want the questions first!
First, I've only played Conquest mode, so I haven't tried Rush or Squad Team Deathmatch. To tell you the truth, I've been a little intimidated by the Deathmatch mode because:
- I'm not very good
- The description says something about multiple squads and every squad is out for themselves.
So does that mean there are more than 2 squads, and you have to kill the other squads? Kind of like 8 against 4 (or even 12 against 4, depending on how many people are allowed in a game)? I would hate to make my squadmates pissed off at me because I brought them down.
So I guess that's my first question. How does the Deathmatch work?
Secondly, in Conquest mode, how is a winner and loser determined? I know the objective is to capture and hold the various positions, but how do you *win*? Sometimes the round ends and it doesn't announce a "Your team won!" or "Your team sucked!" (ok, it actually says "Your team lost," but I'm reading between the lines). We just switch sides. Other times, it does say who won or lost, and we *still* switch sides.
Third question: why is the Engineer initially given such a peashooter of a gun? Or do I just suck? I swear I hit a guy with a full clip, got to the "Hit X to Reload" and then was killed by the guy as I was reloading. What the hell? And when it showed me who had killed me, the guy's health was at something like 50%. It's very weird. I use the Thompson SMG now when I'm an engineer.
Last question: Why do I keep getting killed?
Ok, that last one can probably be answered with something that rhymes with "Boo Shuck."
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Ungrateful People - or Writers are People Too
Too many people in this day and age expect something for nothing. In fact, not only do they expect it, they *demand* it. And they get snotty when they don't get it.
I'm a regular follower of the Writer Beware blog run by Victoria Strauss and Ann Crispin (Ann, when is the next book in "Exiles of Boq'urain Trilogy" coming out? Please??????). As an aspiring writer (not that I've been doing much about it over the last few years, but the kernel of interest is still there), I like reading the helpful information that the blog has for avoiding publishing scams and that sort of thing. These three writers (Strauss, Crispin, and Richard White) do a valuable service to up and coming writers.
Strauss recently posted about a different, though related, issue. And it's ungrateful people like the one she describes that really chap my hide, burn my butt, or whatever body-chafing metaphor you want to use.
Basically, a guy emailed her asking for some advice, the message being "from an aspiring writer who was worried that his friend's negative reaction to his work-in-progress meant the work was doomed."
She goes on to say:
A week later, just as she's finally sitting down to do something about this, she gets a nasty email from him about her "wasting" his time. When she replied that she had been busy and that he was asking her for a favor, "he informed me that he wasn't going to kiss my ass just to get my help."
Can you believe this?
It's bad enough when you ask a friend to do something for you and then get mad when they don't do it fast enough. There's an aspect of friendship that carries that extra bit of responsibility to at least be honest if you can't (or won't) do something. It's still rude to treat your friend like that, even so.
But a professional who is working in the business that you're trying to get into? Whose time they are willing to volunteer despite having no obligation to do so? You are asking them to basically donate their time and energy to your problem. The least you can do is be grateful that they're doing it.
That doesn't involve "kissing ass," of course. As Strauss points out, authors (or whoever you're asking for the favour) are people too. They're not perfect, and you are totally free to ignore their advice or decide that they're not being very helpful. If that happens, it's still a good thing to be polite about it.
Yes, Strauss could have sent the guy a quick email stating that she would get to it when she was able (as she readily admits). But even if that doesn't happen, realize that you are imposing on these people's time. If you have a time limit for some reason (maybe you're on some kind of deadline), then let them know that so they can take it into consideration. It may get them to move faster, or it may make them say "I can't get to it that fast, so I'm going to have to decline." Either way, both parties are better off because everybody knows where they stand.
Not to mention the fact that, similar to that blogger who writes about the trials and tribulations of trying to get published, you really shouldn't piss off the people who may one day have the power to make or break a sale for you. If you're asking for professional advice, it's very possible that you will come across that person again when and if you are finally successful. Do you really want to have that kind of history with somebody?
Patience is a virtue. Exercise it.
I'm a regular follower of the Writer Beware blog run by Victoria Strauss and Ann Crispin (Ann, when is the next book in "Exiles of Boq'urain Trilogy" coming out? Please??????). As an aspiring writer (not that I've been doing much about it over the last few years, but the kernel of interest is still there), I like reading the helpful information that the blog has for avoiding publishing scams and that sort of thing. These three writers (Strauss, Crispin, and Richard White) do a valuable service to up and coming writers.
Strauss recently posted about a different, though related, issue. And it's ungrateful people like the one she describes that really chap my hide, burn my butt, or whatever body-chafing metaphor you want to use.
Basically, a guy emailed her asking for some advice, the message being "from an aspiring writer who was worried that his friend's negative reaction to his work-in-progress meant the work was doomed."
She goes on to say:
"He wanted to know if I could give him some advice, since the subject of his book paralleled some of the themes I work with in my own writing.
For a variety of reasons, I never critique unpublished manuscripts. But his brief description of his book intrigued me, so I wrote back to let him know that while I couldn't read it, I'd be glad to dialog about ideas. He immediately sent me a very long plot summary. It looked complicated and I wanted to give it serious attention. Because I was very busy right then--a writing project, a trip out of town to work on a construction project, a similar project at home, and of course, Writer Beware--I put off looking at it."
A week later, just as she's finally sitting down to do something about this, she gets a nasty email from him about her "wasting" his time. When she replied that she had been busy and that he was asking her for a favor, "he informed me that he wasn't going to kiss my ass just to get my help."
Can you believe this?
It's bad enough when you ask a friend to do something for you and then get mad when they don't do it fast enough. There's an aspect of friendship that carries that extra bit of responsibility to at least be honest if you can't (or won't) do something. It's still rude to treat your friend like that, even so.
But a professional who is working in the business that you're trying to get into? Whose time they are willing to volunteer despite having no obligation to do so? You are asking them to basically donate their time and energy to your problem. The least you can do is be grateful that they're doing it.
That doesn't involve "kissing ass," of course. As Strauss points out, authors (or whoever you're asking for the favour) are people too. They're not perfect, and you are totally free to ignore their advice or decide that they're not being very helpful. If that happens, it's still a good thing to be polite about it.
Yes, Strauss could have sent the guy a quick email stating that she would get to it when she was able (as she readily admits). But even if that doesn't happen, realize that you are imposing on these people's time. If you have a time limit for some reason (maybe you're on some kind of deadline), then let them know that so they can take it into consideration. It may get them to move faster, or it may make them say "I can't get to it that fast, so I'm going to have to decline." Either way, both parties are better off because everybody knows where they stand.
Not to mention the fact that, similar to that blogger who writes about the trials and tribulations of trying to get published, you really shouldn't piss off the people who may one day have the power to make or break a sale for you. If you're asking for professional advice, it's very possible that you will come across that person again when and if you are finally successful. Do you really want to have that kind of history with somebody?
Patience is a virtue. Exercise it.
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Do you Google yourself?
Or better yet, do you have a Google Alert set up for your name to see when it comes up?
I do. Of course, anybody who posts stuff online, like reviews or articles or whatever, should probably do this just to see where their work is showing up (Amazon reviews show up on a *lot* of Amazon partner sites, for example). But increasingly, "regular" people are doing this as well. One of the pieces of advice given to those starting a relationship (advice especially given to women, though it's good for both parties) is to "Google the guy" before doing anything more than meeting for coffee (or even before *that*!).
Mashable has an article about this, "Majority of Adults Now Google Themselves [STUDY]". Most of the article is about online privacy, which is surprising given the headline. However, it does say that "57% of adults have used search engines to find information about themselves online," which doesn't surprise me at all. In fact, I'm surprised it's not more (though the article does say that this percentage is increasing).
So what about you? Do you check yourself out online? If you have an unusual name, like Joe Shlabotnik, it's probably easier. My name? "David Roy" doesn't show anything about me for at least 5 pages. "Dave Roy" is right there on the front page.
That will probably change when I become rich and famous.
I think it's time for a poll.
I do. Of course, anybody who posts stuff online, like reviews or articles or whatever, should probably do this just to see where their work is showing up (Amazon reviews show up on a *lot* of Amazon partner sites, for example). But increasingly, "regular" people are doing this as well. One of the pieces of advice given to those starting a relationship (advice especially given to women, though it's good for both parties) is to "Google the guy" before doing anything more than meeting for coffee (or even before *that*!).
Mashable has an article about this, "Majority of Adults Now Google Themselves [STUDY]". Most of the article is about online privacy, which is surprising given the headline. However, it does say that "57% of adults have used search engines to find information about themselves online," which doesn't surprise me at all. In fact, I'm surprised it's not more (though the article does say that this percentage is increasing).
So what about you? Do you check yourself out online? If you have an unusual name, like Joe Shlabotnik, it's probably easier. My name? "David Roy" doesn't show anything about me for at least 5 pages. "Dave Roy" is right there on the front page.
That will probably change when I become rich and famous.
I think it's time for a poll.
Light-hearted Blogging Tips
Thinking of taking up blogging?
I know I've posted a few articles about that sort of thing on here, though I have to reiterate that I am no kind of expert.
I've been a subscriber to Game Informer magazine for a while now, and the magazine recently revamped their web site to turn it into a community. Users can not only interact on forums, but they can also post their own blogs there as well. Last weekend, I decided to join that community (one personal response to my "online communities" article) and have copied my last couple of video game posts there as well.
"Saint" is a long-time member of that community, and I stumbled up on his Blogging for Dummies post that really made me laugh, as well as sit up and take notice (and believe me, doing both at once was kind of painful). I found it interesting enough that I decided to link to it here.
While this is a video game site, not all blogs are about games, and this particular post has both game and non-game items. In fact, most of the items are non-gaming. For example:
"Bloggers are volunteers and work for free (when they could be playing games). Remember that when you critique their work."
I think Murph in Edmonton needs to pay attention to that one.
Or there's this one:
"If you don’t have anything nice to say, find a nice way to say it."
That's true in life, not just for blogging. Of course, there can be exceptions to it, but not usually.
Finally, there's:
"If you read a blog and think it's spectacular, tell the person. It will mean a lot to them and if they go on to become a famous author they might remember you."
Keep that in mind, you readers! I'm watching...and remembering.
Seriously, though, go check it out. It's a great post and with some universal truths.
I'll even link to it again here so you don't have to scroll up again.
I know I've posted a few articles about that sort of thing on here, though I have to reiterate that I am no kind of expert.
I've been a subscriber to Game Informer magazine for a while now, and the magazine recently revamped their web site to turn it into a community. Users can not only interact on forums, but they can also post their own blogs there as well. Last weekend, I decided to join that community (one personal response to my "online communities" article) and have copied my last couple of video game posts there as well.
"Saint" is a long-time member of that community, and I stumbled up on his Blogging for Dummies post that really made me laugh, as well as sit up and take notice (and believe me, doing both at once was kind of painful). I found it interesting enough that I decided to link to it here.
While this is a video game site, not all blogs are about games, and this particular post has both game and non-game items. In fact, most of the items are non-gaming. For example:
"Bloggers are volunteers and work for free (when they could be playing games). Remember that when you critique their work."
I think Murph in Edmonton needs to pay attention to that one.
Or there's this one:
"If you don’t have anything nice to say, find a nice way to say it."
That's true in life, not just for blogging. Of course, there can be exceptions to it, but not usually.
Finally, there's:
"If you read a blog and think it's spectacular, tell the person. It will mean a lot to them and if they go on to become a famous author they might remember you."
Keep that in mind, you readers! I'm watching...and remembering.
Seriously, though, go check it out. It's a great post and with some universal truths.
I'll even link to it again here so you don't have to scroll up again.
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Video Game guide for the non-gamer
Looking back over the last couple of weeks on the blog, I see that I'm on a video game kick. Don't know how that happened (ok, I can guess).
However, this is not one of those posts! Instead, this is a notification that I have a guest post over at the wonderful Musings from the Over-Caffeinated Mom blog that I recommended a couple of weeks back.
It's entitled "Video Game Guide for the Non-Gamer", and it's just a short little piece helping those parents who may have grown up with video games but who haven't touched one in a while. And now their kid wants an Xbox. What do you do if that happens? Read the guide.
And when I say "short," I mean humongous! (Those do mean the same thing, right?) I think it's at least triple the size of her normal posts. So sorry to use up so much of your real estate, Cheryl.
Thank you so much for the forum.
Don't worry. I didn't go as outlandish as I did with the Pet Shop Boys guest post, but there is a little bit of humour in there. And Cheryl had some very kind words to say about me as well.
So head on over and take a look! And check out the rest of her blog as well. You'll enjoy it.
However, this is not one of those posts! Instead, this is a notification that I have a guest post over at the wonderful Musings from the Over-Caffeinated Mom blog that I recommended a couple of weeks back.
It's entitled "Video Game Guide for the Non-Gamer", and it's just a short little piece helping those parents who may have grown up with video games but who haven't touched one in a while. And now their kid wants an Xbox. What do you do if that happens? Read the guide.
And when I say "short," I mean humongous! (Those do mean the same thing, right?) I think it's at least triple the size of her normal posts. So sorry to use up so much of your real estate, Cheryl.
Thank you so much for the forum.
Don't worry. I didn't go as outlandish as I did with the Pet Shop Boys guest post, but there is a little bit of humour in there. And Cheryl had some very kind words to say about me as well.
So head on over and take a look! And check out the rest of her blog as well. You'll enjoy it.
Borderlands - Video Game Review (Single-Player Only)
Have you ever played a game, felt like you were having a blast dismembering lots of bad guys with your bullets, and then just over half-way through starting thinking to yourself "Man, this is getting tedious!" For me, Borderlands is that game. I came to realize that, as much fun as I was having, this may not have been the game for me because it was starting to feel like a bit of a grind to the finish. This game is definitely designed for co-op play (up to 4 people can play together on Xbox Live), so I also felt like I was kind of missing something (none of my friends play this type of game...c'mon, Steve!)
Borderlands is kind of a cross between a first-person shooter and a level-grinding, Diablo-like clone. While there is a story (you're dumped on the planet Pandora to find the Vault, a potential treasure-trove that can only be opened every 200 years), the meat and potatoes of this game is the funky combat system. It's definitely a first-person shooter in that sense, with enemies coming at you with great regularity (or shooting at you from a distance).
The amazingly cool thing about Borderlands is the wide variety of weapons that you have the opportunity to use. There are lots of weapons available on Pandorda, with everything from a sniper rifle that shoots corrosive bullets to a combat rifle that shoots electrical bullets that help take down an enemy's shields. Blast weapons, fire weapons (especially useful if you buy the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned DLC, as zombies are pretty much immune to any other elemental effects), revolvers, rocket launchers, you will be subjected to an almost endless stream of weaponry! Don't start drooling, now.
Almost every enemy you kill will drop something, whether it's money, a weapon, ammunition, a shield, or whatever. You will spend a lot of time looking at the ground to see if you can pick up what's there. There are also waste dumps, chests, boxes, and other lootable items that contain the same stuff. It's pretty much a looter's paradise, and if you've been itching for a game where you get to collect stuff, Borderlands is definitely your game. Just make sure everybody's dead before you start scouring the ground. Just in case.
Each character type (there are 4) has its own "Action Skill," which can be useful in combat. I played as a Soldier in my one playthrough, so I had a turret that I could set up that would start help me if I was being overwhelmed with bad guys. The Action Skill lasts for only a short period of time and then it has to "cool down" before it can be activated again. It can definitely come in handy, though.
While you can definitely get critical hits (which impact with appropriately gory effect) when you're shooting at your enemies, the game seems intended to be a scattershot affair, spraying bullets here, there, and everywhere. There's nothing funner than having a horde of enemies coming at you and just mowing them down en masse. At least for a little while, anyway. It does become a bit tedious after a while, and even more so in the Zombie DLC.
What makes it even more annoying is that the enemies respawn at an irritating rate. If you clear an area, rest assured the next time you pass through there, those same enemies will be back again. I started killing them for the experience points and loot, but after a while I became so frustrated that I just rode right on past them (since in most areas, you can drive).
This brings up another annoyance, too. The save system can be brutal. The game automatically saves whenever you walk near a New-U Station. If you die, you will respawn at one of those (for a fee that's a percentage of the money you currently have) and have to move forward again. If you exit the game, it will also save, and you should appear at the nearest station. But that isn't always the case. There are some missions where you have to fight your way through a complex until you get to the final Boss battle. There's usually a New-U station right before the Boss.
I was having trouble with the Boss and decided to come back to it later. Next time, I booted up my machine to discover that I had to fight my way through most of the complex again! After that happened, I decided that I would never turn the game off if I was in the middle of a mission. It was just too unpredictable. This was difficult sometimes.
The graphics for Borderlands are beautifully done in a cell-shaded style that almost looks like a cartoon. This doesn't take away from the visceral feel of the game, though it does modify it somewhat. There's nothing cooler than watching a bandit take a sniper bullet to the head and having it splatter into a bloody mess, or to see a Lancer's arms or legs get shot off. I think it might not be as "cool" if the game had more "realistic" graphics. I love the style, and it gives Pandora its own unique flavour.
I also loved the humour in the game, though most of it comes through audio logs that you find. There is no dialogue in this game. Instead, the purpose is pure, intense combat. But even that can be funny. The game also revels in its humour with enemy names like "Mutant Midget Psycho of Badass Brute. It's hilarious watching a shotgun-wielding Midget Psycho shoot at you and get blown off his feet.
All of the above is great for a while, but eventually I found it all become mind-numbing. I wanted to finish it so I could finish the story (and finish the Zombie Island DLC because I had paid for it) but I found it less and less fun as I went along. Perhaps that would be rectified if I played it cooperatively.
But I didn't, and a single-player experience shouldn't become more of a job than a fun endeavour. I was getting sick of the same Spiderants showing up every time I went to visit Dr. Tannis (though the game levels your enemies as you increase your level, so they get increasingly tougher). I was getting sick of the bandits and skags that kept respawning at the New Haven exit. It was just more of the same, with greater and greater loot to pick up.
Don't get me wrong. Borderlands is a fun experience, and if you love the loot-filled, experience point-gaining grind of games like Diablo, then you will love this (if you can get past the first-person shooter aspect of it). This game is perfect for the right mindset. I thought I had it. And I did for a while.
It just got boring.
Note: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned is a great addition to the game if you're not already bored with the action. Plan to use a *lot* of ammunition, though, as those zombies truly do come at you non-stop in some areas. That part got even more tedious, making me want to avoid certain areas that I would have to traverse. If you like Borderlands, you'll love it. If you find that it gets old, then this DLC will get *really* old, really quickly.
I did find it funnier than the main game, though.
Borderlands is kind of a cross between a first-person shooter and a level-grinding, Diablo-like clone. While there is a story (you're dumped on the planet Pandora to find the Vault, a potential treasure-trove that can only be opened every 200 years), the meat and potatoes of this game is the funky combat system. It's definitely a first-person shooter in that sense, with enemies coming at you with great regularity (or shooting at you from a distance).
The amazingly cool thing about Borderlands is the wide variety of weapons that you have the opportunity to use. There are lots of weapons available on Pandorda, with everything from a sniper rifle that shoots corrosive bullets to a combat rifle that shoots electrical bullets that help take down an enemy's shields. Blast weapons, fire weapons (especially useful if you buy the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned DLC, as zombies are pretty much immune to any other elemental effects), revolvers, rocket launchers, you will be subjected to an almost endless stream of weaponry! Don't start drooling, now.Almost every enemy you kill will drop something, whether it's money, a weapon, ammunition, a shield, or whatever. You will spend a lot of time looking at the ground to see if you can pick up what's there. There are also waste dumps, chests, boxes, and other lootable items that contain the same stuff. It's pretty much a looter's paradise, and if you've been itching for a game where you get to collect stuff, Borderlands is definitely your game. Just make sure everybody's dead before you start scouring the ground. Just in case.
Each character type (there are 4) has its own "Action Skill," which can be useful in combat. I played as a Soldier in my one playthrough, so I had a turret that I could set up that would start help me if I was being overwhelmed with bad guys. The Action Skill lasts for only a short period of time and then it has to "cool down" before it can be activated again. It can definitely come in handy, though.
While you can definitely get critical hits (which impact with appropriately gory effect) when you're shooting at your enemies, the game seems intended to be a scattershot affair, spraying bullets here, there, and everywhere. There's nothing funner than having a horde of enemies coming at you and just mowing them down en masse. At least for a little while, anyway. It does become a bit tedious after a while, and even more so in the Zombie DLC.
What makes it even more annoying is that the enemies respawn at an irritating rate. If you clear an area, rest assured the next time you pass through there, those same enemies will be back again. I started killing them for the experience points and loot, but after a while I became so frustrated that I just rode right on past them (since in most areas, you can drive).
This brings up another annoyance, too. The save system can be brutal. The game automatically saves whenever you walk near a New-U Station. If you die, you will respawn at one of those (for a fee that's a percentage of the money you currently have) and have to move forward again. If you exit the game, it will also save, and you should appear at the nearest station. But that isn't always the case. There are some missions where you have to fight your way through a complex until you get to the final Boss battle. There's usually a New-U station right before the Boss.
I was having trouble with the Boss and decided to come back to it later. Next time, I booted up my machine to discover that I had to fight my way through most of the complex again! After that happened, I decided that I would never turn the game off if I was in the middle of a mission. It was just too unpredictable. This was difficult sometimes.
The graphics for Borderlands are beautifully done in a cell-shaded style that almost looks like a cartoon. This doesn't take away from the visceral feel of the game, though it does modify it somewhat. There's nothing cooler than watching a bandit take a sniper bullet to the head and having it splatter into a bloody mess, or to see a Lancer's arms or legs get shot off. I think it might not be as "cool" if the game had more "realistic" graphics. I love the style, and it gives Pandora its own unique flavour.
I also loved the humour in the game, though most of it comes through audio logs that you find. There is no dialogue in this game. Instead, the purpose is pure, intense combat. But even that can be funny. The game also revels in its humour with enemy names like "Mutant Midget Psycho of Badass Brute. It's hilarious watching a shotgun-wielding Midget Psycho shoot at you and get blown off his feet.
All of the above is great for a while, but eventually I found it all become mind-numbing. I wanted to finish it so I could finish the story (and finish the Zombie Island DLC because I had paid for it) but I found it less and less fun as I went along. Perhaps that would be rectified if I played it cooperatively.
But I didn't, and a single-player experience shouldn't become more of a job than a fun endeavour. I was getting sick of the same Spiderants showing up every time I went to visit Dr. Tannis (though the game levels your enemies as you increase your level, so they get increasingly tougher). I was getting sick of the bandits and skags that kept respawning at the New Haven exit. It was just more of the same, with greater and greater loot to pick up.
Don't get me wrong. Borderlands is a fun experience, and if you love the loot-filled, experience point-gaining grind of games like Diablo, then you will love this (if you can get past the first-person shooter aspect of it). This game is perfect for the right mindset. I thought I had it. And I did for a while.
It just got boring.
Note: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned is a great addition to the game if you're not already bored with the action. Plan to use a *lot* of ammunition, though, as those zombies truly do come at you non-stop in some areas. That part got even more tedious, making me want to avoid certain areas that I would have to traverse. If you like Borderlands, you'll love it. If you find that it gets old, then this DLC will get *really* old, really quickly.
I did find it funnier than the main game, though.
Monday, 24 May 2010
Game Addiction
I can't help it. I'm addicted to Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2.
There's something about the short and intense gameplay that just keeps me going game after game after game. I guess I should consider myself lucky that I don't have to keep pumping quarters into the thing or I'd be a very poor man right now.
When "Deadline" only takes 3 minutes, "Waves" takes even less unless you're having a *really* good game (and even then, it's not much more), and the other modes also taking around the same time, it's so easy to just say "one more game." My drive to increase my high score is keeping me up much later than I really should be.
Here's my gamercard as of tonight. I'm quite pleased with being in the top 70,000 in Waves.
Just have to keep plugging away!
It's these short little games with fun gameplay that gets your adrenaline running that are the most insidious ones out there.
Online Communities - Pulled in Multiple Directions
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about blogging communities and how some bloggers band together to form their own little social circle, as well as the best way to attract new people to it.
But it didn't start out that way. I went off on kind of a tangent. While I did like what I ended up writing, that was not the initial inspiration for my post. I'll post the beginning of it again:
The reason the idea of community came to mind wasn't necessarily blogging, however. It was actually the wide array of online communities that we often become a part of that are apart from blogging.
How many forums do you go to and regularly read? Do you go to a Lost fan forum and discuss last night's finale with fellow fans? How about your favourite football/hockey team? Do you go to a fan site and hash out your arguments on whether Roberto Luongo is overrated or Patrick Kane has an awesome chest? How about a hobby? Do you go to a scrapbooking forum and discuss the latest techniques with other people who do the same thing? Or do you subscribe to email lists?
Before web forums, there was Usenet (various newsgroups that discussed anything and everything, depending on the name of the group). Before that, there were bulletin boards.
Ever since humans starting getting online and interacting with their fellow man (and woman) around the world, they have taken their sense of community that they carry in the real world and translated it to the Electronic Age. Humans seem to have a need to connect with like-minded people, and in this way communities are born. In real life, you can't usually choose your neighbours (though you can decide whether you are going to interact with them), but online, you can to an extent.
Sure, you can't choose who joins a group after you, but you can choose to leave the group and find another one. It's a lot easier (not to mention cheaper!) to find a new online community than it is a real one.
If you have joined various online forums, do you find yourself feeling a bit fragmented if you join too many? Are you like me, reading a bunch of different ones but not really feeling a part of any of them? I post to a few, but with nowhere near the regularity that others do. I sometimes feel more like an observer than a community member. I see the "regulars" post there and realize that I will never be like that. Whether it's the lack of time or the lack of desire, or maybe it's my inherent shyness that is still with me 30 years after it first manifested itself.
I don't know what it is. It's been a while since I've felt a part of one of those. Part of me would like to get that feeling again, but every time I start to get a little close to it, I draw away for some reason. I tell myself I just don't have the time, but is that really it?
I'd be interested in your thoughts. Have you joined any forums online? What types of forums? And do you participate or just read? What do you think?
Here's a poll for you, but I'd love to see a comment as well. Blogging communities aren't the only communities out there, you know.
Please note: In this post, I'm not talking about social media, like Facebook or Twitter. I'm talking about discussion forums.
But it didn't start out that way. I went off on kind of a tangent. While I did like what I ended up writing, that was not the initial inspiration for my post. I'll post the beginning of it again:
"As human beings, we strive to organize ourselves into communities, whether they're actual ones (a town or city, for example) or social ones. The Internet has done much to foster the social communities we form, but even before that, we would have our own little groups of friends and fellow travelers, be it in high school, college, at work, or at play. We strive to be with people of similar minds, or those who complement our own personalities even if they aren't similar.
Some of these communities we form out of necessity because we are all forced together, such as in school. We form these communities because that's how we deal with shared situations. A group of people trying to handle the same situation all as individuals never really accomplishes much.
Other communities we seek out on our own, to give us another place to belong or because we have a certain inclination and we want to share it with others who feel the same way. You join a club, or a gaming group, or whatever. And sometimes you blog."
The reason the idea of community came to mind wasn't necessarily blogging, however. It was actually the wide array of online communities that we often become a part of that are apart from blogging.
How many forums do you go to and regularly read? Do you go to a Lost fan forum and discuss last night's finale with fellow fans? How about your favourite football/hockey team? Do you go to a fan site and hash out your arguments on whether Roberto Luongo is overrated or Patrick Kane has an awesome chest? How about a hobby? Do you go to a scrapbooking forum and discuss the latest techniques with other people who do the same thing? Or do you subscribe to email lists?
Before web forums, there was Usenet (various newsgroups that discussed anything and everything, depending on the name of the group). Before that, there were bulletin boards.
Ever since humans starting getting online and interacting with their fellow man (and woman) around the world, they have taken their sense of community that they carry in the real world and translated it to the Electronic Age. Humans seem to have a need to connect with like-minded people, and in this way communities are born. In real life, you can't usually choose your neighbours (though you can decide whether you are going to interact with them), but online, you can to an extent.
Sure, you can't choose who joins a group after you, but you can choose to leave the group and find another one. It's a lot easier (not to mention cheaper!) to find a new online community than it is a real one.
If you have joined various online forums, do you find yourself feeling a bit fragmented if you join too many? Are you like me, reading a bunch of different ones but not really feeling a part of any of them? I post to a few, but with nowhere near the regularity that others do. I sometimes feel more like an observer than a community member. I see the "regulars" post there and realize that I will never be like that. Whether it's the lack of time or the lack of desire, or maybe it's my inherent shyness that is still with me 30 years after it first manifested itself.
I don't know what it is. It's been a while since I've felt a part of one of those. Part of me would like to get that feeling again, but every time I start to get a little close to it, I draw away for some reason. I tell myself I just don't have the time, but is that really it?
I'd be interested in your thoughts. Have you joined any forums online? What types of forums? And do you participate or just read? What do you think?
Here's a poll for you, but I'd love to see a comment as well. Blogging communities aren't the only communities out there, you know.
Please note: In this post, I'm not talking about social media, like Facebook or Twitter. I'm talking about discussion forums.
Sunday, 23 May 2010
One Hit Wonders of the 90s (Part 15) - Lazy Edition
Hello, dear reader. I have a favour to ask you. The original post begins after all of the asterisks, if you want to skip this.
Now that the One Hit Wonders of the 90s series is over, I'm not going to be doing my weekly revisiting of all these posts (I had to do that to add the new post to the bottom). Thus, I won't be able to catch any broken picture links or deleted videos any more. Yet I want these posts to be as good as possible.
Please, if you happen upon one of these posts, or if you take a walk through a whole bunch of them, let me know if you find anything that doesn't work. You can leave a comment, or you can send me a message using that handy "Contact Me" page linked above.
Also, feel free to let me know what you think of the post or any of the videos!
Thank you.
**************************
It's Sunday morning once again. Just where does the time go? Just yesterday, it was Saturday morning and now? You guessed it. It's Sunday. It's amazing how that happens. If that's not a sign that God works in mysterious ways, I don't know what is.
Though I guess it would be even more amazing if yesterday was Saturday and today was Monday. Then again, that could be explained by the blackouts I've been having rather than some miracle. And what if yesterday were Saturday and *today* was Saturday too? That's not going to happen. I'm not Bill Murray.
What am I trying to say with all of the above? Is it time to torture the cat? Don't ask her. She sees the lack of treats being dumped on her post on an hourly basis as torture. No, it's time for more one-hit wonders of the 90s! This is a themeless edition, as I'm just too lazy to come up with one.
Wait. Maybe that could be the theme? Yes, by gum, that's it!
Welcome to the Lazy Edition of the show. Where we honour those who choose to take it easy rather than work too hard. People who work too hard are celebrated too much in this day and age. Why shouldn't those who can't be bothered to get off their ass and do something be honoured as well?
Oh my. Lazy *and* bad feng shui? Tsk tsk.
As always, you can find the complete list of one-hit wonders here. And you know what? I'm not going to threaten you this time if you decide to go look for yourself.
If, after all I've done for you, you want to reward me with something like that...I can't stop you. I just thought you were better than that. You go on. I'll be ok. Don't worry about me.
And now, on to #1!
1) Duice: "Dazzey Duks" (#12)
Gee, another rap. Why does this not surprise me?
Yes, a song celebrating a rather tacky fashion trend made famous by Catherine Bach in the "Dukes of Hazzard" TV show. The extremely short shorts that the character wore became a sexy symbol that survives to this day (why, oh Lord, why?). Yes, I admit they look damned fine on the right woman, but still.
I guess I'd rather see a bit of ass hanging out than some other things.
Oh, the song? Typical rap crap. I'd give it two thumbs down if I could muster the energy to raise my arms.
2) Tag Team: "Whoomp! (There it is)" (#2)
You might think this song sounds familiar, and you'd almost be right (see below).
As annoying as this song is (and it is really annoying), I find myself not hating it as much as other songs of this type. I don't know why that would be, but it's true. Maybe it's fatigue? Maybe it's those Funyuns I had last night? I went through, like, four bags.
Mmmmmmm Funyuns.
3) U.N.V.: "Something's Going On" (#29)
(sorry for the audio. It's the best I could find)
Wow, our first Barbershop Boyz II Men wannabes in a long time! Except these are leaning more toward the "men" side of that equation. That guy can really hit the high notes, can't he? I'm impressed. I wonder if he's sung the National Anthem before? It's nice that they take a break in the middle of the song to commiserate about the rest of the group's love problems too. Very considerate. That must be why they follow their leader, that kind of compassion.
The song isn't bad, exactly. It's actually a decent ballad. But once again, it just sounds like more of the same. There's nothing to differentiate it from all of the other wannabes, not to mention Boyz II Men themselves.
That's something a lazy man would do. So welcome to the club, guys!!!
4) 95 South: "Whoot, There it Is" (#11)
The song that started it all! Even if you stayed away from all popular music in the 90s, I'm sure you've heard the "Whoot, There it is" part somewhere. I wouldn't be surprised if it showed up on a club scene on a soap opera somewhere. Or do those people even go to clubs? I don't know.
But does anybody even know the rest of the song? I doubt it. I don't know why this version caught on more than the other one, especially because that one charted higher than this one. But this one has stuck around. Also, these songs hit their respective places in the charts within 2 weeks of each other. That makes no sense to me, and I have to wonder if some listeners were confused.
For some reason, rappers in the 90s seemed to be obsessed with butts. I will hazard no guesses as to why. I called my friend Michael to ask his opinion, but it was shortly after noon so he probably wasn't up yet.
5) 4 Non Blondes: "What's Up?" (#14)
Finally, a "regular" song!!! And not a bad one, either. I remember enjoying this song a lot when it first came out. Of course, why it's not called "What's Going On?" is one of the grand mysteries of the universe (along with the appeal of Justin Bieber) (Peanut Gallery: "Ooooo look at him go for blog traffic!")
I actually do love this song. I really like Linda Perry's voice for some reason (Yes, I realize it's not the greatest voice and grates a little bit, but I like it). Great guitar work too.
And I want that hat! That's so cool. I thought about going out shopping for a hat like that, but then said "Nah, I'd rather play a few more rounds of Geometry Wars and have a beer."
6) Fu-Schnickens: "What's Up Doc? (Can We Rock)" (#39)
*sigh* I'm beginning to wonder if these posts are even worth it anymore, as more and more they consist of annoying Rap or Hip Hop groups. It's almost like there were tons of them throwing all of their crap out there to see what sticks, and many of them are finding one little song that stuck (thus putting them on this list). At least this one barely made the list. I have a little more faith in society now. Listening to it now in the background as I type this, it's about to drive me crazy. And it's dated, too! "Forget Tony Danza. I'm the boss." What the hell?
Anyway, inertia is a powerful thing when it comes to laziness, and so I'll probably keep going...
7) The Proclaimers: "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" (#3)
OH THANK YOU GOD!!! The Proclaimers come with salvation. I love this song! I remember when this became a huge hit in the US in 1993. It was originally done in 1988 and became huge in the UK, but when it was used on the Benny & Joon soundtrack, that's when it hit in the US. I love singing along with this song.
Of course, I don't do the air guitar. That would be more like, you know, work. Uh uh.
One thing I love about them is they don't hide their Scottish accents at all when they sing (sort of like Karen Matheson from Capercaille). It can make it hard to understand at times, but that makes it all the cooler. Besides that, they look like nerds, so that gives us nerds hope that there's always a chance for us.
My faith has been restored.
8) Onyx: "Slam" (#4)
And just like that, I get punched in the gut.
What more is there to say? It's more crap rap.
It's taking all of my energy to stay on this couch and go back to sleep. That's really hard! Who knew being lazy was so much work? That just doesn't feel right at all. Being lazy shouldn't be so tiring!
So there you have it. The penultimate episode from the one-hit wonders of 1993. Thankfully, glancing ahead to the rest of 1993, it doesn't look like there is any more rap (or maybe one or two...I just glanced, you know). That means next week will be a thrill to do.
I'd like to thank my co-editor and idol for his help today.
Norm!!!
He really came through for me, though it was tough to decide who would do what on the post. And more importantly, who would sit on the couch and have another beer.
It's time for me to go out and enjoy my Sunday. Oh, and I can't forget my partner.
He makes me tired just looking at him.
One-Hit Wonders of the 90s
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
Part 32
Part 33
Part 34
Part 35
Part 36
Part 37
Part 38
Part 39
Part 40
Now that the One Hit Wonders of the 90s series is over, I'm not going to be doing my weekly revisiting of all these posts (I had to do that to add the new post to the bottom). Thus, I won't be able to catch any broken picture links or deleted videos any more. Yet I want these posts to be as good as possible.
Please, if you happen upon one of these posts, or if you take a walk through a whole bunch of them, let me know if you find anything that doesn't work. You can leave a comment, or you can send me a message using that handy "Contact Me" page linked above.
Also, feel free to let me know what you think of the post or any of the videos!
Thank you.
**************************
It's Sunday morning once again. Just where does the time go? Just yesterday, it was Saturday morning and now? You guessed it. It's Sunday. It's amazing how that happens. If that's not a sign that God works in mysterious ways, I don't know what is.
Though I guess it would be even more amazing if yesterday was Saturday and today was Monday. Then again, that could be explained by the blackouts I've been having rather than some miracle. And what if yesterday were Saturday and *today* was Saturday too? That's not going to happen. I'm not Bill Murray.
What am I trying to say with all of the above? Is it time to torture the cat? Don't ask her. She sees the lack of treats being dumped on her post on an hourly basis as torture. No, it's time for more one-hit wonders of the 90s! This is a themeless edition, as I'm just too lazy to come up with one.
Wait. Maybe that could be the theme? Yes, by gum, that's it!
Welcome to the Lazy Edition of the show. Where we honour those who choose to take it easy rather than work too hard. People who work too hard are celebrated too much in this day and age. Why shouldn't those who can't be bothered to get off their ass and do something be honoured as well?
Oh my. Lazy *and* bad feng shui? Tsk tsk.
As always, you can find the complete list of one-hit wonders here. And you know what? I'm not going to threaten you this time if you decide to go look for yourself.
If, after all I've done for you, you want to reward me with something like that...I can't stop you. I just thought you were better than that. You go on. I'll be ok. Don't worry about me.
And now, on to #1!
1) Duice: "Dazzey Duks" (#12)
Gee, another rap. Why does this not surprise me?
Yes, a song celebrating a rather tacky fashion trend made famous by Catherine Bach in the "Dukes of Hazzard" TV show. The extremely short shorts that the character wore became a sexy symbol that survives to this day (why, oh Lord, why?). Yes, I admit they look damned fine on the right woman, but still.
I guess I'd rather see a bit of ass hanging out than some other things.
Oh, the song? Typical rap crap. I'd give it two thumbs down if I could muster the energy to raise my arms.
2) Tag Team: "Whoomp! (There it is)" (#2)
You might think this song sounds familiar, and you'd almost be right (see below).
As annoying as this song is (and it is really annoying), I find myself not hating it as much as other songs of this type. I don't know why that would be, but it's true. Maybe it's fatigue? Maybe it's those Funyuns I had last night? I went through, like, four bags.
Mmmmmmm Funyuns.
3) U.N.V.: "Something's Going On" (#29)
(sorry for the audio. It's the best I could find)
Wow, our first Barbershop Boyz II Men wannabes in a long time! Except these are leaning more toward the "men" side of that equation. That guy can really hit the high notes, can't he? I'm impressed. I wonder if he's sung the National Anthem before? It's nice that they take a break in the middle of the song to commiserate about the rest of the group's love problems too. Very considerate. That must be why they follow their leader, that kind of compassion.
The song isn't bad, exactly. It's actually a decent ballad. But once again, it just sounds like more of the same. There's nothing to differentiate it from all of the other wannabes, not to mention Boyz II Men themselves.
That's something a lazy man would do. So welcome to the club, guys!!!
4) 95 South: "Whoot, There it Is" (#11)
The song that started it all! Even if you stayed away from all popular music in the 90s, I'm sure you've heard the "Whoot, There it is" part somewhere. I wouldn't be surprised if it showed up on a club scene on a soap opera somewhere. Or do those people even go to clubs? I don't know.
But does anybody even know the rest of the song? I doubt it. I don't know why this version caught on more than the other one, especially because that one charted higher than this one. But this one has stuck around. Also, these songs hit their respective places in the charts within 2 weeks of each other. That makes no sense to me, and I have to wonder if some listeners were confused.
For some reason, rappers in the 90s seemed to be obsessed with butts. I will hazard no guesses as to why. I called my friend Michael to ask his opinion, but it was shortly after noon so he probably wasn't up yet.
5) 4 Non Blondes: "What's Up?" (#14)
Finally, a "regular" song!!! And not a bad one, either. I remember enjoying this song a lot when it first came out. Of course, why it's not called "What's Going On?" is one of the grand mysteries of the universe (along with the appeal of Justin Bieber) (Peanut Gallery: "Ooooo look at him go for blog traffic!")
I actually do love this song. I really like Linda Perry's voice for some reason (Yes, I realize it's not the greatest voice and grates a little bit, but I like it). Great guitar work too.
And I want that hat! That's so cool. I thought about going out shopping for a hat like that, but then said "Nah, I'd rather play a few more rounds of Geometry Wars and have a beer."
6) Fu-Schnickens: "What's Up Doc? (Can We Rock)" (#39)
*sigh* I'm beginning to wonder if these posts are even worth it anymore, as more and more they consist of annoying Rap or Hip Hop groups. It's almost like there were tons of them throwing all of their crap out there to see what sticks, and many of them are finding one little song that stuck (thus putting them on this list). At least this one barely made the list. I have a little more faith in society now. Listening to it now in the background as I type this, it's about to drive me crazy. And it's dated, too! "Forget Tony Danza. I'm the boss." What the hell?
Anyway, inertia is a powerful thing when it comes to laziness, and so I'll probably keep going...
7) The Proclaimers: "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" (#3)
OH THANK YOU GOD!!! The Proclaimers come with salvation. I love this song! I remember when this became a huge hit in the US in 1993. It was originally done in 1988 and became huge in the UK, but when it was used on the Benny & Joon soundtrack, that's when it hit in the US. I love singing along with this song.
Of course, I don't do the air guitar. That would be more like, you know, work. Uh uh.
One thing I love about them is they don't hide their Scottish accents at all when they sing (sort of like Karen Matheson from Capercaille). It can make it hard to understand at times, but that makes it all the cooler. Besides that, they look like nerds, so that gives us nerds hope that there's always a chance for us.
My faith has been restored.
8) Onyx: "Slam" (#4)
And just like that, I get punched in the gut.
What more is there to say? It's more crap rap.
It's taking all of my energy to stay on this couch and go back to sleep. That's really hard! Who knew being lazy was so much work? That just doesn't feel right at all. Being lazy shouldn't be so tiring!
So there you have it. The penultimate episode from the one-hit wonders of 1993. Thankfully, glancing ahead to the rest of 1993, it doesn't look like there is any more rap (or maybe one or two...I just glanced, you know). That means next week will be a thrill to do.
I'd like to thank my co-editor and idol for his help today.
Norm!!!
He really came through for me, though it was tough to decide who would do what on the post. And more importantly, who would sit on the couch and have another beer.
It's time for me to go out and enjoy my Sunday. Oh, and I can't forget my partner.
He makes me tired just looking at him.
One-Hit Wonders of the 90s
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
Part 32
Part 33
Part 34
Part 35
Part 36
Part 37
Part 38
Part 39
Part 40
Saturday, 22 May 2010
The abolition of writer's block
As I mentioned in my last Potpourri post, I've been having a bit of a writing issue lately, mainly in deciding what to write about. I just haven't been that inspired.
Of course, this happened to occur almost immediately after I agreed to do a guest post for a fellow blogger. While I might let my own blog go fallow, I'm not going to go back on an agreement I have made! So I've spent most of this morning trying to hammer out a post that would be both good and agreeable to her.
So I sat here this morning for almost an hour, a blank post staring out at me and the cursor blinking malevolently at me ("Hahahahahahahaha! You suck!"). I started writing something that looked kind of interesting, but I hit a roadblock and realized I had no idea where to go from where I was at. Not that it was bad, but that it would either end up being a huge post or would be such a shallow look at the subject that it wouldn't be interesting at all to read.
That's when I decided to trash the whole thing and start over. And suddenly, the words just started flowing. I had a topic and I knew basically what I was going to write. It was a marvelous feeling because I have felt intellectually constipated (Peanut Gallery: "Oh, that's a nice image...thanks!") for a little while now.
I don't know if this means my block is over or if the urgency to get this post done because it was being submitted to somebody else drove me to break through the wall temporarily, but I feel a lot better than I did earlier this morning.
Who knows? Maybe I'll actually tackle a review next. We'll see. Of course, tomorrow's another "One-Hit Wonders" post, and I can always do those, though those have been a bit tougher recently as well.
I guess we'll find out, won't we?
*update - 11:31 am*: Just pounded out a review! Let's keep this thing going over the weekend....
Of course, this happened to occur almost immediately after I agreed to do a guest post for a fellow blogger. While I might let my own blog go fallow, I'm not going to go back on an agreement I have made! So I've spent most of this morning trying to hammer out a post that would be both good and agreeable to her.
So I sat here this morning for almost an hour, a blank post staring out at me and the cursor blinking malevolently at me ("Hahahahahahahaha! You suck!"). I started writing something that looked kind of interesting, but I hit a roadblock and realized I had no idea where to go from where I was at. Not that it was bad, but that it would either end up being a huge post or would be such a shallow look at the subject that it wouldn't be interesting at all to read.
That's when I decided to trash the whole thing and start over. And suddenly, the words just started flowing. I had a topic and I knew basically what I was going to write. It was a marvelous feeling because I have felt intellectually constipated (Peanut Gallery: "Oh, that's a nice image...thanks!") for a little while now.
I don't know if this means my block is over or if the urgency to get this post done because it was being submitted to somebody else drove me to break through the wall temporarily, but I feel a lot better than I did earlier this morning.
Who knows? Maybe I'll actually tackle a review next. We'll see. Of course, tomorrow's another "One-Hit Wonders" post, and I can always do those, though those have been a bit tougher recently as well.
I guess we'll find out, won't we?
*update - 11:31 am*: Just pounded out a review! Let's keep this thing going over the weekend....
Friday, 21 May 2010
Happy Birthday, Pac-Man!!!
Yes, it was 30 years ago today that Pac-Man first burst on the scene in restaurants, pizza parlors, and arcades everywhere.
It always seemed to me that this was the first really huge video game success story. While Pong was a big hit because you were actually playing a game...on your TV(!), it never really seemed like it was *that* big of a deal. When Pac-Man arrived, the 80s video game craze went into full swing. A hit record was spawned (I had a "Pac-Man Fever" record, and for you kids out there, "records" are vinyl discs that you put on a spindle, and when you stuck a needle on it, you heard music!).
That being said, I was never really that into Pac-Man. I do remember the books that came out about the phenomenon, including how to play the game to the very end, since the ghost enemies had set patterns. Some people figured out the pattern and could play until the game basically said "No Mas!"
I always enjoyed Donkey Kong more, though I did buy the (really horrible-looking) Pac-Man game for the Atari 2600 (ok, I asked my parents to buy it for me). I was never any good at it, though, because I didn't want to learn the pattern and I just kept on dying.
Oddly, that sounds like my video-gaming now too, so I guess not much has changed!
And don't get me started on how horrible Pac-Man was when it went 3-D. Ugh.
So happy birthday, Pac-Man. You don't look a day over 25.
And for a rather strange birthday wish to honour the little yellow munch-monster, see this Talk Radar article.
Finally, check out the Google home page if you haven't already! That sucker's playable!
It always seemed to me that this was the first really huge video game success story. While Pong was a big hit because you were actually playing a game...on your TV(!), it never really seemed like it was *that* big of a deal. When Pac-Man arrived, the 80s video game craze went into full swing. A hit record was spawned (I had a "Pac-Man Fever" record, and for you kids out there, "records" are vinyl discs that you put on a spindle, and when you stuck a needle on it, you heard music!).
That being said, I was never really that into Pac-Man. I do remember the books that came out about the phenomenon, including how to play the game to the very end, since the ghost enemies had set patterns. Some people figured out the pattern and could play until the game basically said "No Mas!"
I always enjoyed Donkey Kong more, though I did buy the (really horrible-looking) Pac-Man game for the Atari 2600 (ok, I asked my parents to buy it for me). I was never any good at it, though, because I didn't want to learn the pattern and I just kept on dying.
Oddly, that sounds like my video-gaming now too, so I guess not much has changed!
And don't get me started on how horrible Pac-Man was when it went 3-D. Ugh.
So happy birthday, Pac-Man. You don't look a day over 25.
And for a rather strange birthday wish to honour the little yellow munch-monster, see this Talk Radar article.
Finally, check out the Google home page if you haven't already! That sucker's playable!
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
Ebay stupidity
A fool and his money are soon parted.
You've heard that old cliche, right? Phrases become cliches often because they're true. And this is never more beautifully demonstrated than on Ebay sometimes.
The video game Red Dead Redemption, a Western open-world game, came out on Tuesday. If you pre-ordered it on Amazon, you received a code for a downloadable "Golden Gun Weapon Pack" that you could outfit your character with. If you didn't pre-order it, you didn't get it.
According to Games Radar, somebody is selling that code on Ebay. And it's currently (as of the time of the Games Radar post, anyway) at $36!
$36 for something that you would get for free if you had pre-ordered the game? Just how stupid are these people? Would you pay for something like this if you missed the pre-order period? Or would you just say "oh well, I guess I missed it" and move on with your life?
I really don't get it.
What other weird Ebay sales have you seen? I'd love to know (mainly because I don't have time to find any more right now).
And don't forget to answer the poll question on the Games Radar page!
You've heard that old cliche, right? Phrases become cliches often because they're true. And this is never more beautifully demonstrated than on Ebay sometimes.
The video game Red Dead Redemption, a Western open-world game, came out on Tuesday. If you pre-ordered it on Amazon, you received a code for a downloadable "Golden Gun Weapon Pack" that you could outfit your character with. If you didn't pre-order it, you didn't get it.
According to Games Radar, somebody is selling that code on Ebay. And it's currently (as of the time of the Games Radar post, anyway) at $36!
$36 for something that you would get for free if you had pre-ordered the game? Just how stupid are these people? Would you pay for something like this if you missed the pre-order period? Or would you just say "oh well, I guess I missed it" and move on with your life?
I really don't get it.
What other weird Ebay sales have you seen? I'd love to know (mainly because I don't have time to find any more right now).
And don't forget to answer the poll question on the Games Radar page!
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Potpourri (Part 4) - Motivation, blogging and great games!
More thoughts too short for big posts.
1) I'm really suffering a bit of a writing motivation crisis right now. My goal with this blog is to do an average of one post a day (i.e. by the end of May, there will be at least 31 May posts, 30 in June, etc). I'm a bit behind that goal for May right now, and some days it's really hard to decide what, if anything, to write.
I also owe Curled Up at least one book review, and I'm close to finishing another book so that will be too. I've got a stack of books I've received from Curled Up to read as well.
I just sit in front of the screen, with either the Word document open for a review or the Blog open, and nothing comes to me.
It's just frustrating sometimes. Maybe it's just feeling a bit overloaded at work along with everything else. And I'm over-tired, I think.
Whatever it is, I'll work through it. There are much worse things that could be wrong, aren't there?
2) I use Feedburner for this blog and it's a really handy way to propagate the RSS feed and get it out there. It also can give you a good idea of how many people are subscribing to and reading your blog through blog readers rather than coming to the site itself. That number you see in the box on the right side of this page is today's subscriber numbers.
But I'm still not entirely clear how it works. Is it a daily number, or is a daily *average*? Because it jumps around a lot. I've been averaging between 55 and 68 subscribers over the last couple of weeks (once even hitting 70!).
So it really hits hard when that number drops to 20 or 30 on a day, like it did today. That's happened twice now in the lasts couple weeks. Last time, the next day was back in the 60s, so I have no idea what happened. Part of me is afraid that some of the "subscribers" are automatic bots and that my readership truly is in the 20s.
Tomorrow it will probably pop back up again.
I hope.
3) One thing I am definitely loving, though, is the Xbox Live "Deal of the Week." This is where you can download an Xbox Live Arcade game, or some downloadable content (DLC) for a regular game, for 50% off.
This week's deal is The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, the old LucasArts adventure game that has been remastered for today's consoles. Ryan McCaffrey, from the Official Xbox Magazine, has been singing this series' praises on the OXM podcast, so to see this one for only 400 Microsoft Points (that's $5 for those of you who don't know), I had to pick it up. So far, it's quite enjoyable.
This "Deal of the Week" is also what inspired me to purchase Zombie Apocalypse as well as a bit of DLC for Borderlands. I'm anxiously awaiting next week's Deal, though I realize it is still costing me money.
But boy, is it worth it!
If you're an Xbox 360 gamer, you'll see these deals announced on your dashboard. A lot of the stuff is really worth picking up.
1) I'm really suffering a bit of a writing motivation crisis right now. My goal with this blog is to do an average of one post a day (i.e. by the end of May, there will be at least 31 May posts, 30 in June, etc). I'm a bit behind that goal for May right now, and some days it's really hard to decide what, if anything, to write.
I also owe Curled Up at least one book review, and I'm close to finishing another book so that will be too. I've got a stack of books I've received from Curled Up to read as well.
I just sit in front of the screen, with either the Word document open for a review or the Blog open, and nothing comes to me.
It's just frustrating sometimes. Maybe it's just feeling a bit overloaded at work along with everything else. And I'm over-tired, I think.
Whatever it is, I'll work through it. There are much worse things that could be wrong, aren't there?
2) I use Feedburner for this blog and it's a really handy way to propagate the RSS feed and get it out there. It also can give you a good idea of how many people are subscribing to and reading your blog through blog readers rather than coming to the site itself. That number you see in the box on the right side of this page is today's subscriber numbers.
But I'm still not entirely clear how it works. Is it a daily number, or is a daily *average*? Because it jumps around a lot. I've been averaging between 55 and 68 subscribers over the last couple of weeks (once even hitting 70!).
So it really hits hard when that number drops to 20 or 30 on a day, like it did today. That's happened twice now in the lasts couple weeks. Last time, the next day was back in the 60s, so I have no idea what happened. Part of me is afraid that some of the "subscribers" are automatic bots and that my readership truly is in the 20s.
Tomorrow it will probably pop back up again.
I hope.
3) One thing I am definitely loving, though, is the Xbox Live "Deal of the Week." This is where you can download an Xbox Live Arcade game, or some downloadable content (DLC) for a regular game, for 50% off.
This week's deal is The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, the old LucasArts adventure game that has been remastered for today's consoles. Ryan McCaffrey, from the Official Xbox Magazine, has been singing this series' praises on the OXM podcast, so to see this one for only 400 Microsoft Points (that's $5 for those of you who don't know), I had to pick it up. So far, it's quite enjoyable.
This "Deal of the Week" is also what inspired me to purchase Zombie Apocalypse as well as a bit of DLC for Borderlands. I'm anxiously awaiting next week's Deal, though I realize it is still costing me money.
But boy, is it worth it!
If you're an Xbox 360 gamer, you'll see these deals announced on your dashboard. A lot of the stuff is really worth picking up.
Sunday, 16 May 2010
One Hit Wonders of the 90s (Part 14) - Alien Invasion Edition
Hello, dear reader. I have a favour to ask you. The original post begins after all of the asterisks, if you want to skip this.
Now that the One Hit Wonders of the 90s series is over, I'm not going to be doing my weekly revisiting of all these posts (I had to do that to add the new post to the bottom). Thus, I won't be able to catch any broken picture links or deleted videos any more. Yet I want these posts to be as good as possible.
Please, if you happen upon one of these posts, or if you take a walk through a whole bunch of them, let me know if you find anything that doesn't work. You can leave a comment, or you can send me a message using that handy "Contact Me" page linked above.
Also, feel free to let me know what you think of the post or any of the videos!
Thank you.
**************************
Do you know what the biggest danger to our world is currently? No, not the Economy or the fact that Brittany Spears reproduced.
It's alien invasion! That's right. The world is in imminent danger of some alien force taking over our planet and stealing our women for some vast reproduction plot. Either that, or just because they're so hot, one of the two. Or maybe there's more than one alien force and they're going to fight over us for our resources and trying to recruit us to fight in their godsforsaken war on some distant alien planet!
We've got to fight back!
Or maybe we just need to start issuing them parking tickets.
You know how I'm going to fight back against our eventual alien overlords? That's right, I'm going to make them go insane with one-hit wonders! When the Visitor leader Anna comes down to our planet, I'm going to ask her to sit down and read these blog entries. They will ultimately go home because we are of no use to them, the signs of intelligence that they had picked up and been attracted to obviously just a "false positive" on their "Intello-meter".
Of course, I have to continue to build up my arsenal (not to mention my arse), so here's the latest edition!
As usual, you can find the master list here. But if you check them out before I'm done, I shall be very cross with you!
Let's begin!
1) Paperboy: "Ditty" (#10)
I'm having trouble understanding the point of this song. But I did hear "cookies" in there, so it must be good! A guy after my own heart. Or gut level. So is this really a rap video?
Beautiful girls dancing around in almost no clothes? Check
Man talking about scoring with beautiful girls, whether or not it's the same girls in the video? Check
Rapper talking about the act of making this song? Check
My brain hurting? Check
Yep, it's a rap video.
Ok, it's got a cow ass in it. That's different.
Still no better, though.
That little "get together" Paperboy's singing at looks like a perfect spot for a face-hugger alien to show up.
2) Men at Large: "So Alone" (#31)
(This can *not* be the radio edit, but it's the only one I could find).
Yay, it's not rap!
It's not a bad song, but it is freakin' long! Wow, seven minutes? I wish I could find the radio edit to see what people were actually listening to.
It sounds like the woman left the guy, but when you really look at the lyrics from just a little bit off center, she might have died, too. Or went out for cigarettes. (Or is that only guys?)
It's amazing what can go through your mind when you're sitting here listening for 7 MINUTES.
Did I mention that this song is 7 minutes? Because I wouldn't want there to be any surprise in this.
It was a sad but good song for the first 4 minutes or so. Then it became a sad and annoying song. If he talked like this to her, no wonder she left! She wanted to get a word in edgewise.
Maye we should get these guys to sing when the aliens arrive. They'd get bored and leave, and Men at Large would have saved humanity!
3) Sunscreem: "Love U More" (#36)
Awww, isn't that cute? They were using "textspeak" before it became so common! Sunscreem are just so cutting edge!
"Let the sky fall down. Let the leaves turn brown. Still, you know you can never make me love you more." Are those positive things? Redwoods dying? Is he trying to impress her with these things?
"You could become a multiple murderer and you know I won't love you any more than I already do, dear."
Isn't it wonderful when love songs don't make sense?
It's kind of a catchy tune for the dance clubs, though, isn't it? Nice driving drum beat and synthesizers. You can't go wrong with synthesizers, you know.
At least that's what Klaatu always tells me. No, not the icky Keanu Reeves version, either. The one that can act.
4) Joey Lawrence: "Nothing My Love Can't Fix" (#19)
A bare-chested Joey Lawrence! Oh, isn't he dreamy? *SCREAMS*
I know if I was playing beach football with a bunch of beautiful women, I'd let them sack me too.
*sigh* Another teen hearthrob that they decide to foist on us in the music scene too. Write him an extremely corny song, take off his shirt, and watch the girls go wild. Once. After they hear him sing, they decide "maybe he's not that much of a hearthrob, eh?"
Seriously, it's a shame Mayim Bialik got shunted to the sidelines on her own show, "Blossom," for this guy. She should be recognized more for her work in it.
I think Anna would agree.
5) Tasmin Archer: "Sleeping Satellite" (#32)
Wow, a song I remember! (I've blocked Joey Lawrence from my memory)
I love the guy playing the cobwebbed keyboard, though they really should dust the studio a little bit before they shoot a video there. Who knows what's crawling around in there! And that other guy looks too old to be in one of these videos. Surely he's earned his retirement by now?
It's really a beautiful song, and Archer has a great voice, but what the hell is she talking about?
I have no clue. So I guess I'll just glory in listening to her instead.
By the way, Mork says that the Moon is wide awake, and Archer doesn't really know what she's talking about either.
Shazbat!
6) Robin S: "Show Me Love" (#5)
Woohoo! Dance music! I'm ready to get my toe tapping. And the rest of me jiggling (that's so attractive, isn't it?)
I hear ya sister! Don't just tell me you love me. You gotta show me! Because words are too easy to say.
Or you could just buy me a corvette.
This is why women commiserate with me. I'm so understanding.
Amazingly enough, I actually like this song. Robin's got a great voice and the song's got a great beat too. I could see myself dancing to this stuff. In fact, I did a bit, if I remember correctly.
That stopped when I danced with these lovely ladies.
That kinda put me off dance clubs for good.
7) Green Jelly: "Three Little Pigs" (#17)
Why does reading the name of this band and song give me the willies?
Oh, that's why.
Oh. My. F***ing. God. This just makes my ears hurt.
This song actually charted? I could see it on the Heavy Metal charts or something, but the Billboard Top 40?
I am shocked. And awed. And turning this shit off.
And the Independence Day aliens wasted their death rays on the White House, when they could hit the Green Jello studios? Tsk tsk.
8) Captain Hollywood Project: "More and More" (#17)
80s flashback!!! I know I'm having one, are you? Ok, they added a bit of "rap" to it, but that's ok! The music is funky, but I hate it when dance music tries to be "relevant." I guess that's a sign of the 90s.
*sigh* My 80s flashback is broken.
Ok, it's back. But now I'm blind. Was it worth it?
Speaking of which, Alf really liked this song too, but he also complained about the words.
And that there weren't any cats in it.
One track mind, that guy has.
So there you have it! Another edition of the One Hit Wonders of the 90s is in the books. I'd like to thank my co-editor, Mr. Brain, for his assistance as well. But I won't.
Does he need an even bigger head?
And thanks to you, the reader, for making these posts so successful. I couldn't do it without you.
Now it's time for me to run.
Ouch. Who put that glass there?
Note: This "alien invasion" edition is in honour of the show V, the season finale for which is airing this Tuesday. One of the few shows we watch here at the Roy household, despite Scott Wolf being a horrible actor.
One-Hit Wonders of the 90s
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
Part 32
Part 33
Part 34
Part 35
Part 36
Part 37
Part 38
Part 39
Part 40
Now that the One Hit Wonders of the 90s series is over, I'm not going to be doing my weekly revisiting of all these posts (I had to do that to add the new post to the bottom). Thus, I won't be able to catch any broken picture links or deleted videos any more. Yet I want these posts to be as good as possible.
Please, if you happen upon one of these posts, or if you take a walk through a whole bunch of them, let me know if you find anything that doesn't work. You can leave a comment, or you can send me a message using that handy "Contact Me" page linked above.
Also, feel free to let me know what you think of the post or any of the videos!
Thank you.
**************************
Do you know what the biggest danger to our world is currently? No, not the Economy or the fact that Brittany Spears reproduced.
It's alien invasion! That's right. The world is in imminent danger of some alien force taking over our planet and stealing our women for some vast reproduction plot. Either that, or just because they're so hot, one of the two. Or maybe there's more than one alien force and they're going to fight over us for our resources and trying to recruit us to fight in their godsforsaken war on some distant alien planet!
We've got to fight back!
Or maybe we just need to start issuing them parking tickets.
You know how I'm going to fight back against our eventual alien overlords? That's right, I'm going to make them go insane with one-hit wonders! When the Visitor leader Anna comes down to our planet, I'm going to ask her to sit down and read these blog entries. They will ultimately go home because we are of no use to them, the signs of intelligence that they had picked up and been attracted to obviously just a "false positive" on their "Intello-meter".
Of course, I have to continue to build up my arsenal (not to mention my arse), so here's the latest edition!
As usual, you can find the master list here. But if you check them out before I'm done, I shall be very cross with you!
Let's begin!
1) Paperboy: "Ditty" (#10)
I'm having trouble understanding the point of this song. But I did hear "cookies" in there, so it must be good! A guy after my own heart. Or gut level. So is this really a rap video?
Beautiful girls dancing around in almost no clothes? Check
Man talking about scoring with beautiful girls, whether or not it's the same girls in the video? Check
Rapper talking about the act of making this song? Check
My brain hurting? Check
Yep, it's a rap video.
Ok, it's got a cow ass in it. That's different.
Still no better, though.
That little "get together" Paperboy's singing at looks like a perfect spot for a face-hugger alien to show up.
2) Men at Large: "So Alone" (#31)
(This can *not* be the radio edit, but it's the only one I could find).
Yay, it's not rap!
It's not a bad song, but it is freakin' long! Wow, seven minutes? I wish I could find the radio edit to see what people were actually listening to.
It sounds like the woman left the guy, but when you really look at the lyrics from just a little bit off center, she might have died, too. Or went out for cigarettes. (Or is that only guys?)
It's amazing what can go through your mind when you're sitting here listening for 7 MINUTES.
Did I mention that this song is 7 minutes? Because I wouldn't want there to be any surprise in this.
It was a sad but good song for the first 4 minutes or so. Then it became a sad and annoying song. If he talked like this to her, no wonder she left! She wanted to get a word in edgewise.
Maye we should get these guys to sing when the aliens arrive. They'd get bored and leave, and Men at Large would have saved humanity!
3) Sunscreem: "Love U More" (#36)
Awww, isn't that cute? They were using "textspeak" before it became so common! Sunscreem are just so cutting edge!
"Let the sky fall down. Let the leaves turn brown. Still, you know you can never make me love you more." Are those positive things? Redwoods dying? Is he trying to impress her with these things?
"You could become a multiple murderer and you know I won't love you any more than I already do, dear."
Isn't it wonderful when love songs don't make sense?
It's kind of a catchy tune for the dance clubs, though, isn't it? Nice driving drum beat and synthesizers. You can't go wrong with synthesizers, you know.
At least that's what Klaatu always tells me. No, not the icky Keanu Reeves version, either. The one that can act.
4) Joey Lawrence: "Nothing My Love Can't Fix" (#19)
A bare-chested Joey Lawrence! Oh, isn't he dreamy? *SCREAMS*
I know if I was playing beach football with a bunch of beautiful women, I'd let them sack me too.
*sigh* Another teen hearthrob that they decide to foist on us in the music scene too. Write him an extremely corny song, take off his shirt, and watch the girls go wild. Once. After they hear him sing, they decide "maybe he's not that much of a hearthrob, eh?"
Seriously, it's a shame Mayim Bialik got shunted to the sidelines on her own show, "Blossom," for this guy. She should be recognized more for her work in it.
I think Anna would agree.
5) Tasmin Archer: "Sleeping Satellite" (#32)
Wow, a song I remember! (I've blocked Joey Lawrence from my memory)
I love the guy playing the cobwebbed keyboard, though they really should dust the studio a little bit before they shoot a video there. Who knows what's crawling around in there! And that other guy looks too old to be in one of these videos. Surely he's earned his retirement by now?
It's really a beautiful song, and Archer has a great voice, but what the hell is she talking about?
I have no clue. So I guess I'll just glory in listening to her instead.
By the way, Mork says that the Moon is wide awake, and Archer doesn't really know what she's talking about either.
Shazbat!
6) Robin S: "Show Me Love" (#5)
Woohoo! Dance music! I'm ready to get my toe tapping. And the rest of me jiggling (that's so attractive, isn't it?)
I hear ya sister! Don't just tell me you love me. You gotta show me! Because words are too easy to say.
Or you could just buy me a corvette.
This is why women commiserate with me. I'm so understanding.
Amazingly enough, I actually like this song. Robin's got a great voice and the song's got a great beat too. I could see myself dancing to this stuff. In fact, I did a bit, if I remember correctly.
That stopped when I danced with these lovely ladies.
That kinda put me off dance clubs for good.
7) Green Jelly: "Three Little Pigs" (#17)
Why does reading the name of this band and song give me the willies?
Oh, that's why.
Oh. My. F***ing. God. This just makes my ears hurt.
This song actually charted? I could see it on the Heavy Metal charts or something, but the Billboard Top 40?
I am shocked. And awed. And turning this shit off.
And the Independence Day aliens wasted their death rays on the White House, when they could hit the Green Jello studios? Tsk tsk.
8) Captain Hollywood Project: "More and More" (#17)
80s flashback!!! I know I'm having one, are you? Ok, they added a bit of "rap" to it, but that's ok! The music is funky, but I hate it when dance music tries to be "relevant." I guess that's a sign of the 90s.
*sigh* My 80s flashback is broken.
Ok, it's back. But now I'm blind. Was it worth it?
Speaking of which, Alf really liked this song too, but he also complained about the words.
And that there weren't any cats in it.
One track mind, that guy has.
So there you have it! Another edition of the One Hit Wonders of the 90s is in the books. I'd like to thank my co-editor, Mr. Brain, for his assistance as well. But I won't.
Does he need an even bigger head?
And thanks to you, the reader, for making these posts so successful. I couldn't do it without you.
Now it's time for me to run.
Ouch. Who put that glass there?
Note: This "alien invasion" edition is in honour of the show V, the season finale for which is airing this Tuesday. One of the few shows we watch here at the Roy household, despite Scott Wolf being a horrible actor.
One-Hit Wonders of the 90s
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
Part 32
Part 33
Part 34
Part 35
Part 36
Part 37
Part 38
Part 39
Part 40
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