Been a while since I posted about anything. Life’s been kicking me in the shins (repeatedly). So I caught a link to an Xbox 360 commercial this morning over on Evil Avatar. I’ve watched it three times now, and laughed my ass off (repeatedly). It’s actually getting some airplay in the US on Spike TV and a few others, but it’s been pulled from the UK and Europe because of “local sensitivities”. I can understand that the Menezes shooting had an impact on folks, but it still baffles me when I hear things like that.

Here’s actually two links. The first goes directly to a higher resolution WMV file that some guy is rehosting. You can at least resize this down in Windows Media Player since it’s a local copy and get a better appearance. If you follow this Google Video link, you can still watch it, just not see as much of the finer details.

Current Mood:  hopeful

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Sometimes you just find the strangest things. I guess I’m theoretically supposed to adopt this guy and embed him in my website so that’s he’s always around to watch and play with, but for now, he’s just hanging out in my news post. Too bad the hedgehog doesn’t have toys to play with. Though you can click on him and make him happy…

Current Mood:  thoughtful

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Staring at the same background all day at work tends to get on your nerves. So I change it every few weeks to something new. I think my friend Steve changes his every other day. Right now though, I’m rotating between pictures of my kids. And to be honest, it’s not as boring as the old wallpapers, so I’m not changing them as often. I mean, they are my kids afterall.

Before they were born though, I had worked on a new desktop based on the poem Jabberwocky. I knew I wanted to base it off of Eric Andreycheck’s perl poem, but the text of the poem itself wasn’t enough. I went through several iterations, and finally settled on a version that incorporates the original poem with the perl version and uses some colored word markers. This was my wallpaper for a few months, and I was really satisfied with the result:

Now, it’s time to switch back to it for a few days. It’s not that I don’t want to look at Connor and Alia any more.. It’s just that I want to get back into a rotation, which includes some non-kid items. Did you know that this poem is actually executable? You would if you read the above link. The final version of the image for the wallpaper is 1280x. If anyone is interested, let me know.

edit: I didn’t realize the version of the screenshot I uploaded was too big, so it’s getting cut off on the right hand side.. You’re missing part of the poem, a picture of Alice from American McGee’s Alice video game, and whatnot.. nothing too critical as you get the idea with what’s still there… but I wanted to point it out for those who wanted the full copy.

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I’m just not sure what else to say… at first I thought the title of the article was the catching phrase:

Bird killed for knocking over dominoes

But, later in the article, this is the phrase that caught my attention:

The bird was shot by an exterminator with an air rifle while cowering in a corner.

Current Mood:  shocked

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So it’s a nice lazy Saturday morning. I’ve been up for a few hours with the kids, and I’m laying around in bed watching 3000 Miles to Graceland. I haven’t decided if it’s worth my time yet, or not… but when feeding and changing the twins, I’ve gotten a chance to watch alot of movies early in the morning, or late at night.

We’ve got lots of these little shaker noise making toys for the kids. One of my favorites have these little spiral sliders on each ends with beads on them. Sometimes I just sit on the bed in the morning and shake them for Connor or Alia. Until now, every time I try to get the kids to play with themselves, they usually drop the toy after a few seconds. Because of the double spiral, there are plenty of spots for them to grab onto.

This morning though, they are both grabbing at the toys and even after they lose their grip, they go back and pick it up a second time. Alia had even picked it up and put the end in her mouth. What a big change! I’m still not entirely sure that the acts aren’t reflexive. Maybe she’s just closing her hand on something, and is getting lucky…But they’re both doing it, and they’re doing it repeatedly.. so I can’t (or don’t) want to believe otherwise. Plus they’ve both got smiles while they are doing it. That’s gotta mean that they’re happy with what they did, and aren’t just coincidentally smiling at a passing shadow or something.

Current Mood:  excited

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Sudoku (Japanese: 数独, sūdoku), sometimes spelled Su Doku, is a logic based placement puzzle, also known as Number Place in the United States. The aim of the canonical puzzle is to enter a numerical digit from 1 through 9 in each cell of a 9×9 grid made up of 3×3 subgrids (called "regions"), starting with various digits given in some cells (the "givens").

I learned about Su Doku earlier in the year. I must have caught an article on it somewhere. At that time, it was very popular in Europe but still hadn’t made major inroads into the US. I wound up buying Jean a book of puzzles (Su Doku for Dummies I think), and then solving some of them myself! She was forced to get me my own puzzle book so that I’d stop solving hers. It’s a great way to pass some free time, and for her, during the day with the kids, its perfect.

Now, she’s far enough through the book that she’s into the really hard puzzles. I dunno when she’ll be done, but I wanted to mention that there are web-based alternatives, such as Websudoku. I prefer that site to the one on USA Today. I guess it’s a personally preference, but I like the ability to use pencil marks (under options) on Websudoku. This makes it more similar to the traditional approach.

I’d recommend reading the Wiki first and getting a good grasp on the game. It’s about logic, not about math. Understanding how the solve for unknown values from known values, or process of potential elimination.

Current Mood:  indifferent

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Every year, my friend Steve does his Snoopy dance around their Christmas tree. Now, theirs (currently) isn’t as pathetic as Charlie Brown’s.. it’s just a nice litle ritual he has.

This year, though, wouldn’t it be nice if he had the actual tree to dance around?

Replica of Charlie Brown’s Xmas tree

Cory Doctorow: Urban Outfitters is selling a replica of the "pathetic" Xmas tree Charlie Brown took home in A Charlie Brown Christmas:

The tree is an exact replica of the tree from the famous cartoon, made of wire branches and plastic needles with a criss cross wooden base. The bendable branches allow you to make it look just how you want, super pathetic or just kind of pathetic. The tree comes with one red Christmas ball ornament.

I know he’s looking forward to it again this year.. maybe he’ll even wear his Charlie Brown zig zag shirt.

Current Mood:  pissed off

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Joi Ito discusses a Funeral in World of Warcraft

[004] Snowly of The World of Warcraft (Xinhua) A young girl nicknamed "Snowly" died last month after playing the online game "World of Warcraft" for several continuous days during the national day holiday. Several days before Snowly’s death, the girl was said to be preparing for a relatively difficult part of the game (namely, to kill the Black Dragon Prince) and had very little rest. She told her friends that she felt very tired. A big online funeral was held for Snowly one week after her death (see photo from The Mirror).

 

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With 4.5M users there are bound to be deaths in the World of Warcraft and gauging by the relationships I’m building with fellow gamers I can definitely see how an online funeral would be a very big deal. I often see players playing until they pass out, especially when they are questing in a group where their participation is required for the group to hold together as a team. (I’ve passed out a few times as well.) There is also a lot of pressure to catch up if you drop behind a group of friends in order to play your role in the quests.

However, I don’t see this as a reason to bash these games. Clearly the addictive nature of these games are a risk from a productivity and health perspective, but I think that the sense of responsibility and teamwork that is built by the games exceeds this cost.
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I have to take a different stance than Joi on this. While I wholeheartedly agree that the relationships and teamwork building is a good thing, it’s the extreme that it’s taken to. As Joi himself says, “I’ve passed out a few times as well.”. See, this is where the problem lies. You shouldn’t have to play for that long that you pass out. This actually goes against the spirit of teamwork. It’s one thing to push yourself to your limit, but it’s another to know what that limit is and not put your team in a position of depending on you, and then having you not be there.

Play for hours at a time if you want. Have marathon sessions with lot’s of Mountain Dew or Bawls. But, don’t do it all the time. Don’t force yourself beyond what you can handle. Don’t become so absorbed in the game that the rest of the world ceases to exist.

Current Mood:  aggravated

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