Fun Picture Day 1

I want to make these fun picture days come once every so often. They won't interrupt the flow of other posts. I'm hoping to find stuff that no one else will have found or seen before. This one I actually found on Digg, so there's a good chance you may have seen it before. Anyway, here goes.

Don't call something it is not!

Reader beware: Don't call something it really isn't. It doesn't matter if you are exhibiting innocent ignorance or simply are not as well versed as someone else. IT DOESN'T MATTER! You're going to piss someone off, I almost guarantee it. This has happened to me several times in my life, but I'm thinking of one instance in particular. This happened to me in the summer of '06. I was having a conversation at my place of employment with a co-worker. It went something like this:

Joey: Blah Blah Blah *small talk* Blah Blah Blah
Other guy: Well, I bought a new car over the weekend.
Joey: Really? What kind?
Other guy: It's right out there. *proudly gestures out the window to a blue car in the lot*
Joey: Oh, nice. What is that, a Neon?
Other guy: *blinks* Nooooo. It's a Subaru WRX.
Joey: *blank stare* Oh.
Other guy: *looks at Joey like an idiot* *thinks bad things about Joey*

Granted, those two cars aren't in the same league. I know a bit more about cars now, and can understand why he got a little annoyed/pissed. But, seriously?


vs


C'mon they look similar, at least to someone without much knowledge of cars. Especially when looking head-on at the car, the lights look similar enough. But, that doesn't matter, as stated before. People feel threatened if something they are interested in/have bought does not have the same effect on someone else. Even worse, if you miscategorize said item/concept/whatever, they may get super pissed.

I'll end with an amazing example of what I'm talking about.

Now you're thinking with portals!

I recently purchased the Orange Box for Xbox 360. While this blog isn't really about video games, this game in particular has something of a universal appeal, I daresay.
Though the Orange Box includes 5 games, Portal is the game I'm speaking of in particular. I'd heard bits and pieces of information about this game for the past few years, having seen an early preview of the game quite awhile ago. I must admit, I've been intrigued by this game for some time. I knew that the Orange Box was released in early October, so Sunday whilst I was strolling through Best Buy, my urge to play Portal prevailed over the ever present tug to experience Guitar Hero III (I'm a fan of the series), and I left with the Orange Box in tow.

Let me say, after finishing the game in a single afternoon, this game is amazing and innovative. The basic premise of the game: You are a woman named Chell who wakes to find herself in a white cell with glass walls. After taking a moment to orient yourself, a computerized female voice begins to speak to you, and introduces herself as GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System). She greets you and introduces you to your surroundings, known as the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. Oddly, there are no other people save GLaDOS, and something seems very odd about the things she says to you. She then guides you through a series of puzzles, giving you the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device i.e. the portal gun. This device allows you to shoot entrance portals on appropriate walls and floors, and then place an exit portal through which you can move. GLaDOS promises cake as a reward for completion of the tests, and cheerfully mentions a party. In fact, she cheerfully mentions
everything, including sometimes lethal obstacles. I don't want to spoil anymore of the plot, but below is a quick video showing how the game basics work.



As you can see, it's pretty neat. What really impresses me about this game is that it is a first-person puzzle shooter, which at first may seem a strange mix. The truth is, the game is appealing to all types of gamers. I'd predict that hardcore shooter fans will appreciate the first person nature of the game, while more casual and infrequent players can pick it up to play through a test or two at a time. There are also more advanced courses outside of the normal mode of play, as well as time trials, for those seeking an extra challenge. Also of note, the banter of GLaDOS is downright hilarious at times, and makes the loneliness of the game easier to bear.

The biggest drawback is that Portal is short. A few hours for a determined player will do it. If the game were a bit longer, it would be worth the cost of a standalone game for the 360 ($60). I haven't even really played Half-Life 2, because I honestly bought the whole package just for Portal, and so far I'm not disappointed.

Portal also has some interesting replayability with the neat little tricks you can do. For example chasing yourself in a circle through portals. In any case, here's another quick video showing some of the neato fun you can have.




This wasn't really meant to be a review, but I guess it turned into that. What I'm basically trying to say is, this is an impressive game that all sorts of folks can enjoy. I was interested in the story and extremely so in the nuanced gameplay. You should be too. Portal has my endorsement, and that means something. So go forth, my fellow Portal-ers! Get that cake!

Fall smells like memories

The smell of fall (season) is the smell of nostalgia. I'm not really sure why, but walking outside on a cool, crisp early November afternoon makes a tidal wave of memories flood my brain. At times it can be overwhelming, but it's usually a pleasant sort of flood. I think it has to do with where a grew up. That area can be adequately described with one word: rural. Rural means a great deal of smells, mainly those coming from nature. Trees, plants, the ground, etc. all added to the collection of interesting smells. I've always been told that smell is the sense most linked to memory, and experience is teaching me that this is probably true. The strange thing is that even if every time I step out of the door I am met with a similar smell, the nostalgic onslaught is unpredictable. That is to say, the "fall" smell of yesterday may evoke a memory of jumping on the trampoline at age 12, whereas the "fall" smell of today brings to mind driving home from school with windows down, during junior year of high school.

In my freshman year of college, a few of my friends came up with the idea to start a band called Dirty Wisconsin. One of the tracks on our fictional debut album was to be named "November Clearly Sucks." At the time, I believe that we were simply disgusted with the classwork workload onset by the rapidly approaching end of the semester. Looking back, I'd say we were quite short-sighted. I think that November is a wonderful month, at least for myself. I have the privilege of having smell recollections nearly every day. If I were president of any country or political unit, November would be given some sort of special significance. But since I am no such leader, instead I'll just provide a bunch of good pictures I found. The following were found using Google Image Search, Flickr, and deviantART. The search term was simply "fall." Here are the ones I liked the best:

Drive a stick? No? Well, some of us do.

I haven't posted recently due to car trouble. I know that sounds odd, but a trip to visit friends this past weekend turned into an extended stay because of some issues with my car. It's a touch ridiculous since my car has less than 30k in miles on it. All that aside, the car subject has led me to evaluate some of the trouble I've encountered on the road, specifically because I drive a car with a manual transmission. I realize that most drivers on the road drive automatics, as most cars now come standard that way, and that's perfectly alright. What is not alright is driving in an inconsiderate manner just because you assume everyone else is or should be driving the same type of vehicle. So, I've quickly compiled a very short list of tips so that we can all drive in a somewhat harmonious accord.

1. Don't pull up extremely close behind other vehicles at stop signs, traffic lights, etc.

I can't reiterate this enough. In case you don't understand how a manual works, when the vehicle is in neutral or the clutch is depressed (one of which has to be done at stops), the wheels are basically free to roll. Therefore, manuals have a tendency to roll forward or backward at stops, which is why the driver will usually push down thee brake. However, when starting again, the driver must quickly begin to release the clutch and depress the accelerator. This basically means that there is a brief period where the brake is released, and there is the possibility of the vehicle rolling, usually backwards.

Most experienced manual drivers have no problems with this. More inexperienced drivers may roll back a few feet when this happens. If another car is too close behind said vehicle, the former may roll back into the latter, and no one wants that. This tip is especially important to remember on hills of any sort. It always makes me mutter under my breath when I'm stopped on an incline and some massive SUV screeches to a halt 3 inches from my bumper. It just adds more tension and risk to driving, so don't do it.

2. Be patient when starting from a stop.

If you drive an automatic, to "go" all one has to do is let off the brake and the car starts forward. It's a touch more complicated in a manual. If I wanted to, I could drop the clutch and screech away from every stop, but that's obnoxious and would destroy my clutch plate pretty quickly. Most (read: most) folks are concerned with the longevity of their clutch, so they let the clutch slip evenly as it engages and start smoothly. However, this doesn't always happen immediately, so be aware.

There may also be an instance where the driver expects to sit for a bit, so he/she will shift into neutral. When the light turns green, sometimes it's a quick scramble to get back into 1st gear and start moving. It's not always an instantaneous thing.

3. Honking your horn doesn't help, ever.

We all stall when first learning to drive a stick. It's almost a certainty. After the first few weeks of driving, the driver usually figures out the vehicles' nuances and has no trouble. But, of course, those first weeks can be hellish. If someone in front of you stalls, play it cool. Go around if possible, or just wait. Everyone has somewhere to be, and everyone usually thinks their errand is the most important. Deal with it. Honking just puts more pressure on the driver and may make them stall again. Think about this; If your tire blew out, and everyone sat behind you honking and cursing, how would you feel?


These are just a few ideas off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more floating around out there, but these are some of the most important. Neither automatic nor manual are better, just different. Driving a stick can be challenging and a hassle at times, but it can also be quite a pleasure. Plus having direct control over your acceleration is way fun.


The shifter in my car

Pure Facebook? Those days are but memory.

Moving right along from all the OiNK hooplah, I'll turn to something I recently discussed with a a friend. Without warning, she turned to me and said, "You know, our children will never experience pure Facebook." I thought about it for a moment, and then agreed. Though I've never been a fan of Myspace, I was a big Facebook advocate initially.

I jumped on Facebook sometime in the summer of '05. I liked it because it was clean, simple, and uniform. No one was allowed to clutter their pages with huge swathes of copy-and-pasted code (read: Myspace). Everyone had their little place, and everyone's little place looked the same. You distinguished yourself with your words. In short, it was brilliant. It looked something like this.

Now, Facebook is a mess. I'm almost afraid of it. Facebook now embodies nearly everything I've always disliked about Myspace. The applications were neat at first, and now they are ubiquitous. I really don't like them, and I even have one or two. Everytime I log on, I see something like this:



Yet nearly all of Web 2.0's social networking communities are becoming this way. The more popular something becomes, the more complicated it becomes, but not necessarily in a good way. Myspace and Facebook seem to have fallen prey. Though I'm not a member a quick look at Friendster brings back nightmarish flashes of Myspace's homepage. Orkut is owned by Google, so that could be very good or very bad.

I think the phenomenon started occurring when marketing entered the picture. When Facebook was just some student's side project, it was more innocent and welcoming. But once folks started realizing the untapped revenue-generating power of these sites, the gloves were off. Ads now plaster most of these sites from floor to ceiling. Surprisingly, Facebook doesn't seem to be too bad about it. Their marketing is more subtle. Offering to sell prints of users' photos or having an Apple plug in the newsfeed are a few ways.

The point I'm getting at is this: Nothing is free. Facebook is no exception. We have to decide what is acceptable when it comes to the "payment." Are you willing to be solicited for money in order to browse your friends' profiles? Do you mind the clutter of the applications, enough to stop using Facebook? The answers are likely "Yes" and "No," respectively. I'm willing to bear it as well. I'm not ranting so much as I am lamenting the passing of something that was good, and free. Our children may not be able to experience Facebook in the sort of pure form that I did, but hopefully they'll be able to be a part of something new and innovative for their generation. It may even be in virtual reality.

OiNK is dead? Hooray! pt 2

Ok, well here's a clarification on what happened for all of the "flame first, ask questions later" types.

Joey: when you were banned from oink, what actually happened
Joey: ?
mooch: when I was banned from oink
mooch: it was without warning
mooch: I had been fiddling with my DNS settings
mooch: so I could upload on the fucking tracker
mooch: their tracker was impossible to work with, and I've never had that problem with any other torrent tracker
mooch: one day, I tried to get on, and I couldn't log on
mooch: I went to the chat area, asked an admin what's up
mooch: he told me my account had been shut down for ratio cheating
mooch: even though I hadn't upload a single kb of data, and hadn't downloaded enough to meet even the lowest ratio limit
mooch: and banned me
mooch: a friend of mine, also on oink, tried to talk to an admin, but they refused to look at it
mooch: that's why I hated oink

So to all of the cries of "He cheated on his ratio," I respond with "Alan Ellis/OiNK cheated on the law. The ban was deserved."

btw anyone have an OiNK invite?