more thoughts on a lazy weekend

So it's Easter Sunday, the wife is feeling a little ill, and I find myself with lots of free time but needing to stay at home as we wait to go to a family gathering.

Have played quite a bit of games already, so now it's time to do something semi-productive and blog a bit.

time to myself at 7:40???

Home after work, have had dinner & cleaned up - it's 7:40 and as such I have free time left in the evening.

Weird.

Will probably use this time to study a bit - I'm reviewing to take a PMP exam at some point in the next few months.

Maybe will do a little reading too - I should get back to finishing Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. I'm ~315 pages into the book so far...(just 600+ more to go).

Maybe can play some games too.

Maybe will get back to working on my book?

We'll see.

Crying nut video!!!

Was thrilled to find this on youtube - I love their music but hadn't really had a chance to ever see their videos.

Very pleased to say that their videos seem just as much fun as their music!

How does one pronounce "sheet"?

Having to try and clarify the difference; and I'm not exactly certified for teaching ESL.

Sheet = "Sh" + "eat"

Shit = "Sh" + "it"

While she knows that people understand her if she's asking for "5 shits of paper", she is a little self-conscious about it. Any suggestions?

Still on the Gaming kick

So yeah, although I could well be talking about anything, I've been recently compelled to write about gaming a lot - I guess that I've often had gaming on my mind for when I have free time to myself.

(This unfortunately, is at the expense of making/playing music - hopefully this is just a temporary setback - but my apartment isn't really conducive to much guitar play & I don't have a band yet)

Anyway - Since we're going semi-chronologically here:

Rise of Nations

- This is an older (2003) game, but I never found a stable copy in China. So, I bought one here last October. It's still a really well-made, fun game; one of my favorite RTS games, period. Not really fun to play at a distance - good on a laptop.

- Although more stable than the sketchy Chinese versions; it still crashes on me fairly frequently, sometimes even when trying to resume a saved game.

Still, the combination of growing your empire, advancing civilization, and attacking invaders/ conquesting more land is a super fun combination.

more game thoughts - The Orange Box

I'm pretty sure I've blogged on this one before, and it's already received its share of love in most mainstream sources, but I'm trying to be complete here.

Great deal for the $50.

I have never been into online gaming before, but Team Fortress 2 provides a very fun experience that is simple, easy to pick up, and yet satisfying for hours at a time.

Half-Life 2 is a well-made shooter with a pretty cool story, and the additional "episodes" 1 & 2 are included in the package as well. I'm actually still working through Episode 1 at present...mostly because I don't have time for a lot of games.

Portal is an excellent puzzle game that tells a story very well, revealing bits and pieces through the process of solving puzzles; the final chapter of the game is very satisfying opportunity to apply all the skills you have learned in the first part of the game. It's also pretty short (in a good way) - which was nice considering that I only had limited opportunities to play

Anyway- this whole compilation is notable in that I first bought it in October last year and I'm still playing through it now in March, which is additionally good as I feel I'm really getting a lot for the money I had spent on it.

game reviews, part 1 - Civ IV Beyond the Sword

Felt like I might as well give my impressions of the few games that I've acquired & played over the past 6 months; I guess I might as well do that in blog post form over the next few days this weekend as I have/find time for blogging.

Anyway, the first game I got since returning from China and getting a household established was Civ IV: Beyond the Sword.

Yes, it was more of an expansion than a full-on new game, but I had heard all the hype surrounding this and thought it would be really worth a try.

Indeed, it gives you a real bevy of options for new game variants to try - you have an adjusted-rules "regular" game with new cultures and leaders to have and fight against, and there are also 20+ different mods.

Considering one game of Civ IV can take at least 2-4 hours to play through (even on "fast" mode), this can get pretty involved.

I hadn't really felt like I played through the "old" version entirely, but this really, really gives me more options.

This sort of game doesn't ever offer much in the way of a narrative story; but it does offer a pretty immersive experience that can draw one in very fully from the start.

As others have said before, it's a "desert island" type game in that if you were stuck with only one game to play, this is probably one of the best picks that one could make.

That being said, I've found that:

1. I like playing games with a story, so if I'm looking for something that is more escapist fare, this isn't always what I'm looking for.
2. The game experience is so immersive that I can't really find a good time to play it - after work is hard as that time tends to be for the wife and I together; before sleep is also not a good time as I'll stay up late playing it. The weekend is good, but if it's sunny I don't really want to be spending all my time inside in front of a computer.
3. My PC set up uses our LCD TV as the monitor - and given that while playing, the screen can get pretty cluttered with a lot of small-font text - and it's not comfortable to play at a distance. This is a game that (for me) works best with a real laptop or desktop setup.

Anyway, it has a lot of replay value and I will play it again and again, just not that frequently.

Apparently the online multiplayer is good too, but I haven't ever tried it.

iphone? - SDK coolness? - I don't know

If you read this article by David Pogue of the New York Times, you may be inclined to believe that the iphone + app store via itunes model that is being proposes is going to be HUGE.

I do not buy into the hype, in that the proposal is sounding pretty restrictive in that apparently 3rd-party apps will be restricted from multi-tasking. Thus, if you are using an app and then need to answer a phone call, text message, or email, you'll actually exit & shut down the 3rd-party app...this is basically the same thing that any piece of software on the Palm platform must do (and that is an OS that was created in 2002) - my point being that this is an old-school model of doing things.

Not that I'm a Microsoft fanboy, but comparatively, with Windows mobile, one can have 5 things running at the same time, which is actually useful - you could be downloading something, writing a text message, and talking on the phone (via bluetooth) at the same time.

I guess I'll likely not be getting a new iphone anytime soon (although the 3g version coming this summer is appealing since it will be shiny, pretty, and hopefully have fast data downloads)...

Neocha - NEXT?

This is sort of cool - a dedicated online player for Chinese indie music.

http://www.neocha.com/-/music_next.html

There is some good stuff on here; although it's certainly not all rock all the time.

Currently listening to a band that seems to have never learned how to tune a guitar (not the first time I've encountered that issue, but a little surprising that they bothered to record it that way, especially on an acoustic track).

Regardless, seeing this site and hearing some of the non-crappy stuff here makes me happy - reminds me of my days in China and I'm thrilled to hear that there are some cool bands making their own original music here!

Was alerted to this via Lostlaowai or danwei.org.

The spice must flow

Just wrapped up viewing the "Children of Dune" miniseries (and I had watched the 2000 miniseries version of Dune prior to that).

Wow...pretty decent adaptation of the books. I am glad that I read the series (Frank Herbert books anyway) prior to watching the adaptation, but I was pretty satisfied with it - they did a good job, and even Marsha got into watching it.

I had been waiting a long time to see the series, since I had heard about it while I was in China but it proved very difficult to obtain.

So yeah, well over half a year after moving back to the US, I'm still catching up on things.

________

Caught a bit of the news while flipping through channels at the gym as I had finished my workout...ever get the feeling that CNN is for children?

Firefox 3 Beta - Yay!

Have installed Firefox 3 beta on my Mac - not too shabby!

Only complaints so far (which are relatively minor) - the scribefire extension doesn't work yet, and my system hasn't yet totally adjusted yet.

Webpage rendering is much faster compared to firefox 2.

Seems pretty good so far. Considering that outside of gaming (at home) and excel sheets (at work), nearly everything I do is based out of a browser now*, it's good to see that things are developing quickly and working robustly.

The extensions on Firefox are also still pretty useful to me; I've started to use del.ico.us (it's blocked in China so I was late in ever trying it out) in addition to Foxmarks, scribefire, and download status bar.

*It's interesting noting really to what extent this is coming true. My company runs their official email application and groupware suite via a web-based client, and most of our internal systems are web-based as well. While I'm running a Vista laptop at present, to me there really isn't a compelling reason for why I'd ever need a windows OS at work (I guess Office for running Excel...that's really about it). At home, I'm running most of my personal stuff on my laptop, which runs OS X but 95% of the time is used for web browsing, which is most often done with Firefox. Anyway, I guess my point is that I have no compelling reason to use Vista, and given the performance hit it tends to require + the need to upgrade to significantly beefier hardware in order to use it for gaming, I do not see any reason to upgrade anytime soon.

seeing the wife off

Well, Marsha has started her new job and since her work start time is earlier than mine, now I'm the one seeing her off to the door in the morning.

Interesting reversal from the status quo for the past 6 months or so - but it's okay.

She was a little nervous before heading out; readjusting and checking one of the professional outfits we had put together earlier in the weekend.

Maybe this is a little bit what it feels like when one first sends their kids to school?

We'll see how things go for her - I imagine that it will be an interesting week for her as she gets introduced first-hand to work culture in the USA.

be kind rewind?

Really liked that movie...cool stuff that has been "sweded".

Made me think a bit. Creativity, making your own films, etc.

'Ghostbusters' theme in my head, and had to revisit that.

Buddha

Just finished reading this series - and it was excellent! Beautiful artwork, moving story...enjoyable simply as a comic but yet good on the level of an interesting retelling of a religious story.

Buddha, by Osamu Tezuka

Really can't complain with the series - I'm thrilled that it was available at my local library.

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enjoying "rome" again

Have decided to re-view the 2005 BBC/HBO series "Rome" with my wife.

She's liking it, and I'm re-appreciating it.

What a well-done show! Great writing, superb acting, excellent mock-ups of city life. Season 1 is very tight and moves along very quickly. Season 2 isn't quite as tight, but the story is still compelling and at this point you've grown to care about the characters so much that you're happy to see how it plays out.

While (budget allowing), this could no doubt have been drawn out into a much longer running series, the fact that it's kept very finite I think has helped contribute to its overall quality.

Anyway, thanks again to my friend Brian (still in China), for introducing me to this.

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learning to make fart jokes in korean

The title of this post says it all.

I can say: "Silent, but deadly"

or

"Not silent, and deadly".

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since I'm at it, here's two minor episodes of late

Both are geeky and have no relation to China (unless you want to get really, really obtuse and count things related tangentially):

1. Had to re-install XP on my home Desktop. It took me a week to finally pull the trigger and do it rather than try and pull the malware off via a convoluted series of steps that must be pulled off in precisely the right order (the repair instructions read more like those for casting a magic spell or making a potion in Harry Potter).

2. While running out to get some food last night, my cell phone dropped off of my belt, which sucked. I didn't notice it at the time and it was dark out - so when I finally noticed it was gone, it was really, really gone. A search of the house, retracing my steps, and visiting 7-11 and KFC again (where I had gone to get some food to go) was to no avail. Luckily, I had recently backed up the information on those devices earlier in the day. Still wasn't too happy about the prospect of needing to venture out and either get a new SIM card or a whole new phone the next day.

All's well that ends well - Luckily, we got a call this morning from someone on my wife's phone (which I had been using to call my phone constantly) - apparently someone had found the phone on the street in the morning and they gave it to a nearby business.

I had the service shut off last night anyway as a precaution, and it seemed like no calls had been made or personal data stolen, and the phone was working fine...so it was no problem to re-activate it and continue life as usual.

(*Okay, shallowly - I would have been fine with replacing my phone with something new and cool. But, that would have been a very bad idea financially; and I've only had this phone for a little over a year - it should be no problem getting another year out of it - at least until whenever the 3g iphone comes out...)

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1st post for 2008

So, here it is - another year, and I'm older and (perhaps) a bit wiser.

Still adjusting to life in the US and figuring out what the hell I'll be doing with my time in the future.

Had a large family gathering in Vancouver this year (it was nice to see everyone); it did prompt some reflection about where I am in my life & what I want to do.

Starting to feel old. Well, not really OLD old, but realizing that I'm really no longer in college anymore and am a part of the mainstream adult workforce now.

Maybe questioning if I really should be using my free time to be playing computer games? On one hand, I think they're okay as an alternate option to movies or TV watching or blindly surfing the internet just for the sake of surfing the internet.

On the other hand, if I'm cutting out doing things that will develop myself socially and personally to accomodate video games (being in a band, writing a book, spending quality time with my wife), then maybe I need to cut back.

Also, I feel like I'm coming down with a cold. Am taking things easy so as to try & reverse it...but instead it feels like I'm just delaying the inevitable.

Personal:

I guess the usual goals of being fitter, happier, stronger, more learned, etc all are things that I'd like to do during the next year.

Now that the wife & I are back to life as usual (ie, no guests and no visits), we're eating more healthy and in smarter portions, and are trying to exercise.

Sight-seeing:

Have been uploading stuff to both Picasawebs and Flickr. (Picasa's desktop software's integrated websharing is awesomely convenient since I use Picasa on the windows box I have); Flickr is nice since there isn't a cumulative limit on content you can upload.

Here's the link to the Picasa page:

Here's the link to the Flickr page:


Fun stuff:

We have a gas-powered fireplace in our apartment and it is really, really warm. I thought such fireplaces were more for decoration. Apparently not - it is keeping the house toasty-warm.

(I'm reconsidering the efficacy of leaving our computer so close to it ).

Trivia:

Finlandia cheese is not produced by the same company that makes Finlandia Vodka.

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Google vs MS - interesting

Came across this article today (about how Google & Microsoft are headed for a showdown in online services) and found it pretty interesting - what do you think?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/technology/16goog.html

Good discussion is here: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/16/2127244

My .02 - per what I've seen in my own experience among my friends, family & even in my company, I'd say that Google is in the better position - MS is in a weaker position for the future based on its tendency to promote closed, proprietary solutions. It seems that when people are spending time on their computers, both during & outside of work, they are doing it to be online - and most online applications are browser independent. It's not unreasonable to think that in a few years people will be doing most of their web surfing via iphone (or equivalent) - I'm not sure where the compelling reasons are to pay the extra cost of maintaining a Microsoft desktop*.

*Aside, of course, for those out there who really, really need/love PC games and don't have a dedicated console gaming platform.

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irritable?

Not really sure what it is that's bothering me - but I'm restless & can't sleep. It's past midnight - normally I would be well on my way to dreamland now, but something is different today.

Still adjusting to life in the US - for the purposes of sending out Christmas cards, I've been reconnecting with a lot of old friends, and I guess it's hitting home how much I miss them, and how different things are here.

It's tempting to want to run back to the old, comfortable, known way of doing things, but I guess it's not really an option now, both (plainly) financially and more importantly since I don't think I'd be growing if I went back - here is the new way of life, new challenges for me.

But yeah, I still miss China a lot.

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