happy for the internet!

Good to be able to connect to friends all over the world to chat with; especially after having a busy day.

Good to not have the TV on & just some silence in the house; save the chat indicators and the click of my fingers on the keyboard.

Although I've been in front of a computer much of the day for work, right now it doesn't feel like work at all - it's good to be here.

primaries!

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/375506_primary19.html?source=rss



Not sure if you've heard (I don't know if this has made national

headlines or not); Washington state is having a "top two" primary

tomorrow...vote for your favorite two candiates to duke it out in

November, regardless of party.



I'm leaning towards democrats & independents.



Some interesting green candidates; also one Republican who has based

his entire platform/manifesto on his AIR POWERED CAR!!! (his stance on other issues was non-existent, however...)



We'll see how it goes.



Yay democracy!

a little hard to believe

So apparently everyone on the Chinese gymnastics team is 16 years old.

They all look super young to me; but I suppose that gymnasts do tend to be short in stature.

The commentators did not really do much to hide their suspicions..."the IOC says that all of the ages on the passports received were 16."

Tough to say, I guess...I mean, it's really up to each country that sends a delegation out to the olympics, right? If the country really wants to send out underaged atheletes, they ultimately will find a way to do it - it's not like a government issues documents that are forgeries...(they might just be "errors", right?)

It's not as if the IOC can go claiming shennanagins on the officially government issued documentation of each athlete that is competing.

liking the Olympics

Have been watching the latest round of the Olympics fairly closely....keep hoping that they'll be showing something of the Beijing that I knew - but no luck on that so far.

Some things that caught my attention:

1. Announcers on NBC can't pronounce "Chaoyang park" (朝阳公园)...they keep saying "Chaoyong park"...doesn't seem like that should be so hard to say.

2. There was some Budweiser(?) sponsored ad supposedly showing some popular 'local' bar in Beijing...but it sure looked like a generic blues bar that was sparsely filled - really wonder how they came to even know of that bar.

Although it is fair to say that I'm totally out of touch with the Beijing bar scene, however, I do know what a popular 'Chinese' bar tends to look like - this wasn't it.

broken record?

Is it just me, or was the music during the Beijing Olympic opening ceremonies about a 15-minute record that was on continuous loop? Sure heard A LOT of bagpipes.

Might just be me.

on being broken?

Does one have to be broken to fit into society?

I mean, at what point does conformity to socially acceptable norms break down to smothering one's inner self?

At what point is it worth it to have stability vs the excitement (and huge risks) of a constantly shifting existence?

No good answers here...but it does seem to support the notion that one should take risks while you are young, as when you get older the stakes get higher and the chances of full recovery lessen.

1 year

It's been 365 days since we moved back from China. My world feels smaller.

More comfortable in a lot of ways, I suppose. 

My ass is fatter.

My mandarin is probably in need of some practice.

I can cook more things than ever have before. I've read more than I have before. 

Have broader, fuller work experience.

Still feel like there's a lot left to do - as if things are just getting started for me here.

But miss China & my friends there, the past life, quite a bit. Would be happy to revisit even if just for a little while. 

(I'll probably have to wait until post-Olympics, however, given the visa situation there and everything...)

Flight of the conchords - fantastic!

Well, although their show is sort of old news - having aired in 2007 (?), I'm just getting into the show & the music, and I think it's fantastic.

One of the better things that I've heard in a while.

At first glance, one might think that they are a New Zealand version of Tenacious D.

While they are a comedy music duo, their style & humor is different; perhaps a bit more dry. Tenacious D's music was more of a metal band with accoustic guitars, the Conchords do many more musical styles (pretty much everything except metal).

Also, the D haven't been up to that much lately...

This video is pretty solid anyway:

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proud

Never have I been more proud to share my homestate with Jessie Ventura as I was last night.

He was on Larry King live.

The article linked above does not do justice to the awesomeness of his interview there.

Highlights, paraphrased by me:

- Drilling in Alaska? Follow the money - clearly this is just gouging by the oil companies & a little extra drilling isn't going to affect our prices at the pump.

- Endorse a candidate? - He's not sure if he's even going to vote as both of them are pretty much pushing the same lines; neither is offering anything along the lines of being truly fiscally conservative.

- Iraq/Iran/Afghanistan - "Apparently the president talks to God. I've been a pretty good man for the past 7 years, and God hasn't told me anything about starting wars in other countries..."

Larry King looked uncomfortable, but I was so happy that Jessie Ventura kept it real (as he tends to do) rather than reading off some carefully scripted PR-bullshit.

MAME! :)

This is one of those things that I had always heard about but never tried...MAME is a program that lets one run arcade games on one's computer.

Ended up getting very drawn into this - playing many of the games that were in arcades everywhere back when I was 12-14.

Didn't find anything terribly engrossing, but I hadn't played any simple shooter games for a while (UN Squadron, anyone?). Got my fill.

MAME for OS X has been performing/behaving rock-solid.

iphone 3g madness

I did walk by the mall last night (we got ice cream), surely enough there was a line snaking around the Apple store, even at nearly 9pm.

The new iphone does seem like a pretty cool toy, but I'm not sure if it's so cool that it's worth spending hours of one's day waiting for it...I'm pretty sure that within 2 weeks availability will be all worked out.

Anyway, I'm also quite amused by the fact that the new iphone OS 2.0 has already been jail-broken...seeing as cingular would intend to rope me into another 2-year contract as well as charge me extra for the privilege, I'd really rather just get the hardware and plug my existing SIM card into it (a la every phone purchase I made in China or Hong Kong).

Seeing as I don't have reason to even use my cell phone that much anymore anyway, the whole scheme seems like a money sink anyway...

perfect day out - lazy day

Slept in until ~10 am. Felt good. Then worked through a pot of coffee, read up on the news. Bagel for breakfast.

Doors and windows wide open. It's hot out, at least by the standards in western Washington. Things are somewhere in the 80s, which to me is still very pleasant - it's nice to have a breeze.

May do a little reading; then will run errands later.

I suppose I could do more with my time if I was intent on fulfilling my ambitions today...but just relaxing feels pretty good for now.

disappointed in Obama

Gotta say - LAME that he supported this whole telco-wiretapping immunity thing.

I still prefer him over the republican option, but seriously - where the hell is this whole "change" thing that he's been pushing & riding to get to his present position?

I thought that he represented the part of the Democratic party that had spines.

Lame lame lame.

other news - July 4th was fine

Stuck around and saw a local fireworks display; made pizza with homemade dough, drove to a town on the other side of the mountains which felt like it lived up to many outside conceptions of "old west", later on found a cool area in Seattle & hung out.

Talked to bands that are looking for guitarists; had some phone conversations and one try-out; we'll see how that goes.

quickie game note

One title that I must recommend for Nintendo DS is Professor Layton and the Curious Village.

Have been playing through that before bed the past few months, usually solving a few puzzles at a time. Has been fun and I feel like I'm learning something.

But finally finished the game! I'm happy that I completed it, but this seems like one I'll really miss after it's wrapped up.

Holy Crap!

Turned on the radio in my car yesterday for the first time in a while, and I was drawn into listening to a remake of the Dio classic, "Holy Diver".

It kept my attention, but on further reflection I'm kinda shocked that such a half-ass cover song is getting airplay.

They haven't really done anything to re-invent or update the song, but instead they did the following:

1. Change out vocalist to a very generic-sounding dude
2. Update guitar sound from late 70's period guitar to late 90's / early 00's "big guitar" sound
3. Add in seemingly random death-metal growls (cookie monster style)

It's almost like they're trying too hard - it's almost like a parody of half-ass music remakes, but from what I can tell about the song it seems to be intended as a wholly sincere effort.

A google search reveals that there are some rabid defenders of this version, and I can't figure out why.

thoughts for now

Had time to reflect during the drive this morning.

Close to a year being out of the China life, and still adjusting; not so much in terms of how to live in the country, but now finding what I want to do with my life & taking advantage of the opportunities here.

It's easy to get caught up in the wake up / work / TV / sleep cycle and the net result of that is that I'm getting nowhere on what I feel like I should really be doing with my life.

Need to keep a positive attitude about things - at least in identifying this I can take steps to adjust.

Some unbridled joy would be nice too...by its nature, it can't really be an everyday thing...but it seems to have been a long while since I felt that.

Things here seem to be keeping up at a very solid medium...not that much bad happening, and not that much crazy good happening either. Given the situation in the world, I shouldn't complain. On the other hand, I might as well be striving for the ideal, as this life seems to be the only one I have, and it's likely not going to get crazy better unless I do something about it myself.

every day

Every morning I keep checking the RSS feeds, for something - for some sign, some purpose.

(Not having much luck)

Feel restless in a way - why am I here &amp; what am I doing with my life?

At times I think that it would be easier if I was back in China, but that's a cop-out...I was going through the same thing there.

Restlessness for its own sake is tiring and pointless - especially if you just let it eat at you.

However, I keep thinking that my subconscious is trying to tell me something, and that yes, some purpose is just around the corner if I just take a moment and notice it.

(but yeah, not much luck on that yet)

summer here?

Unusually warm weather here in the Seattle area this weekend, and everyone seems happier for it.

Very pleasant days all around. It's nice to leave the windows open and not worry about rain.

I think that my blood must have thickened from my days in Shenzhen - comparatively, this weather is not at all hot compared to day to day life during much of the summer there.

("Summer" in this case being the intensely sunny & humid period from approximately late March to mid-October).

Not bad here, but I recall when we arrived here in August last year, the weather was "hot" by local standards yet we seemed to want sweaters. That's no more the case for us.

yay for scrivener!

Have been playing quite a bit with this piece of software, and I'm impressed so far. Lightweight, easy to use, but also very convenient & powerful.

As such, I'm making more structured progress on the book project than I have been in a while...which is making me feel good, like I'm accomplishing something.

Still running the demo version though, and I'm still a little torn on actually paying the (reasonable) $39.95 for it.

1. I don't want to get locked into any specific OS platform - I love my mac laptop, but actually have some doubts if my next laptop should be a mac or maybe something else...part of me really wants to go all the way Ubuntu - but I keep clinging to other platforms due to things that have locked me in: phone/calendar/contact sync, iTunes, games I've purchased...

2. As much as OS X is good to use, there's actually very little of the OS X exclusive stuff that I use daily and couldn't live without.

3. That being said, I'm getting used to things working smoothly and without much user intervention on this computer (laptop), and a switch to anything else would probably leave me tinkering more often than actually doing. And while tinkering can be fun, the whole point of computers is to allow the user to do useful things, not just play with them for the sake of playing....

(so, if I'm actually getting more done with this software, yeah, I guess it makes sense to get it...)

thoughts on repetitive drum beats

This post is not intended to be a bash on techno, though the title of this post might give that impressions.

Rather:

1. In my high school years, Everclear was a band I heard a lot of, and after buying their albums and listening through, were indeed a very well liked band in my listening rotation. Some time later, when rocking out in a car with a friend and his new ipod, he pointed out to me (and then by playing each song), that the drummer from Everclear pretty much had one beat/loop that was used (to good effect) in many of their songs. After that was pointed out to me, I couldn't quite listen to them as earnestly as I did when I was in my late teenage years.
(still do like the band, however).

2. On the advice of one of my wife's colleagues, we were told to check out some reggaeton music; and as such we proceeded to check the work by Don Omar and in the process came across some other compliations. Was annoyed as hell by the fact that half of the tracks we downloaded had the exact same drum beat as "Gasolina" (apparently by "Daddy Yankee") which sure was played regularly in the clubs (per my hazy memory) in much of 2005, 2006, and 2007.

Per very brief initial research on wikipedia, however, it turns out that the extensive use of that one beat is very much a defining part of this genre:

Reggaeton’s most notably unique feature is a driving drum-machine track
which was derived from a popular Jamaican dancehall rhythm. As stated
previously this beat is called “Dem Bow,” from the Bobby Dixon-produced
Shabba Ranks song of the same title. The beat that can be heard throughout Reggaetonis an interplay of a steady kick drum and a syncopated snare. The kick
drum emphasizes a 4/4 beat, while the snare comes on the "and" of the
2nd 16th note and right on the 4th 16th.

I guess I need to pay more attention to the lyrics or listen more broadly in the genre before I dismiss it (as after all, I barely have been exposed to it) - but I think I'll be looking for artists' work where the beats used are more varied...

Not to say that that one beat is bad - it's actuallly very interesting rhythmically and good to dance to - but if I'm putting 50 new songs on my ipod, I tend to keep things varied.

- on the topic of beats -

There are some standard drum machine options that have been used extensively and frequently in many rap songs. Yet, to me, the repetition tends to be tempered by different bass-lines, choruses, breaks, and effects used with those beats.

Certainly within rock music there are many "stock" beats that most drummers have in their repitoire and use in various combinations.

Not sure what is making me write at this length about the few mainstream-ish Reggaeton songs that I've heard...it's just that one beat is so distinctive and is making many of those songs sound all the same to me.

Enough now, I guess I better putter back onto the porch and rest my tired, arthritic arms after effectively betaying my age and inability to "get it", so therefore telling the damn kids to get off my lawn...

Pathologic?

Heard a lot about this game so decided to take a closer look.

We'll see how long I can really stand it - sounded like a very interesting concept, but concept alone does not make a game fun.

Will post more if I have a change of heart.

_____


Installed and so far so good. Haven't started to pay attention; but pleased that a game from 2 years ago runs so well on my PC. Graphics do not suck, but aren't mind-blowing.

(esp. when compared to something more recent, a la Call of Duty 4 or Team Fortress 2...)

just waiting for an excuse...

have played with Ubuntu 8.04 and have been pretty impressed so far.

That being said, I'm still happy between my XP desktop and OS X laptop (and Vista work laptop, but there's no choice in that so it's kind of moot...).

Wishing for either (both?) MS or Apple to do something stupid that will make me say, "fuck this proprietary OS shit!"

As it is though...doing fine in both regards on both platforms, and as such, despite all the goodness/progress made by Ubuntu (and other Linux desktop distros), I don't feel any real reason to switch over yet.

That being said, I'm still pretty sure that I'd never pay full retail for MS Vista. (although, if I could get it for free or next to free, yeah, I'd have to consider it....)

I'm flippant and indecisive.

awkwardly chilling

it's friday and things are mostly well. at home, having a few drinks, watching battlestar galactica with the wife (who, as it turns out, really got into that show).

can't complain too much.

Feel like there should be something more to this, to everything.

But despite my unease/discomfort, nothing is springing to mind.

So I'll have some water & enjoy.

I like this quote

"Give a man fire, and you warm him for the night. Set a man on fire, and you warm him for the rest of his life." - Terry Pratchett

working with cat

While working late at home sometimes is not always desirable (especially if you'd rather be doing something else), one thing that usually makes it better is when one of your cats is willing to share your lap with the laptop.

Venezuela - baywatch for the children!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7338131.stm

So, apparently Venezeula feels that "the Simpsons" is inappropriate as a morning cartoon for children.

(I can understand this).

So they have pulled the show from the airwaves and replaced it with "Baywatch".

That seems really funny to me. But on some reflection - are we to think that children couldn't handle the simplistic storylines or bouncing boobs (and David Hasselhoff)???

From a certain point of view, Baywatch might be better for children than the simpsons. At least the women are empowered to go kick ass and save lives, just as much as the men on the show are.

I have heard that Venezuela is home to many beaches; and I'd imagine that any child going to the beach is probably going to see an eyeful of skin anyway...and for that matter, I doubt that Venezuelans are as uptight about seeing skin on TV as some folk are in the US.

(but on the other hand, the simpsons does make a lot of literary and cultural references that may inspire kids to look them up and read further in order to get the jokes..actually, on further thought, some of those references are probably lost in translation; from my experience having watched Simpsons episodes in Spanish while in Mexico & occasionally on DVD)

For further thought, I guess that baywatch was something frequently on TV when I was growing up & visiting friends...and I've turned out fine...right?

And if you didn't know Baywatch, then this wouldn't be nearly as funny:

ubuntu 8.04

As of right now, 16 days to go until the next version of Ubuntu linux is released.

I downloaded the beta this weekend and tried it out as a live cd for a little bit - seems very solid so far. Was responsive and good looking on my system.

Did not do a full-on install of it yet on my home PC, mainly since it is still running XP quite acceptably. Would be neat to dedicate an entire physical machine to it; but haven't really had a need to yet; my late 2005-vintage iBook is still running fine (although the battery is only good for ~30-40 minutes if wi-fi is on...

Regardless, pretty impressed with it.

If I only needed a PC for web, email, documents, pictures, & listening to mp3s, and watching movies/files that I had donwnloaded, or I needed to outfit a lot of people with PCs and I was on a budget, then I'd be pretty confident in choosing Ubuntu.

Not sure if it's ready for prime-time yet if you do a lot of PC gaming and like having the newest games to play, or if you're using your computer to make/record music, or if you are dependent on some proprietary application that only works on Windows.

The thought of "letting go" of being tied to proprietary software is pretty attractive, though a bit misleading. It's not as if by adopting an open-source only approach to things that somehow one's tech life will be free of complication or hassle. One still needs to do backups.

Regardless, I think more people being aware of the option and using it is a very good thing.

eee pc

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/30/windows-xp-powered-eee-pc-laptop-400-april-9th/

Seems pretty cool - have gotten a chance to play with one at work (one of my colleagues won it).

Not sure what I'd really do with it or why I'd need one at the moment - not to mention that it's also pretty well known that a bigger-screen version is on the way soon.

(On another note, I do find it amusing that Windows XP has had its lifespan extended (again) for the eee PC since Vista is a bit too bloated to work well on a low-spec system like the eee)

Rancid makes me feel better

Had been feeling down (was in a bit of a rut) well after last thursday's post...the weekend was mostly better, but Monday was unsatisfying.

Yet, rocking out to songs by Rancid helped me feel much better.

One of my all-time favorite bands - I have a lot of love for them and have been enjoying their music nearly half of my life.

This is just a convenient video from a google/Youtube search with pretty clean audio.

what's up with boring city development?

Lease is coming to an end, and so we're thinking about what to do next.

Living now in a part of the greater Seattle area that is very pedestrian-friendly, in that there are not only lots of crosswalks, but there are also businesses & things to do within walking distance. I can't honestly call it vibrant, but one will see people nearly anytime...maybe it's better described as an "active" area?

We like that. Unfortunately, home prices where we live now are on the high side. Annoyed that most of the places we can afford (further out) are in neighborhoods where there's nothing around...just a lot of houses - that seems really boring to us.

Alternatively, I guess we could try living in Seattle proper, but the areas we can afford aren't super compelling either, and are also going to require a longer drive for both of us.

Maybe just keep renting for the time being?

unease?

Not sure exactly what has been bothering me - but feeling a little aimless/restless right now.

Work is fine. Life at home is okay.

Just not really sure what I want to do 'next', if that makes any sense. Not a lot of clear goals right now - I guess I need to figure those out.

Perhaps finding something more fulfillling for my hours outside of work would be a good idea.

(Had some moments where I was playing games this weekend and I realized/hoped that there is more to life than just consuming digital entertainment...)

question to ponder

Which is the more evil organization to work for - Clearchannel or an Oil company?

Had this debate with a friend a while ago who had options to work for either in an international context.

While I guess it's possible that US oil interests have instigated more human misery to the world than Clearchannel, and have done more in the past to block sustainable fuels (which has caused the earth greater damage than clearchannel's moves to kill music artistry), I just don't like Clearchannel at all.

Although they have near monopoly status in many markets, what they control is a dying industry. Can't find a lot of redeeming value in what they've done.

For all of their evil, at least some oil companies try and push for semi-sustainable and responsible drilling and collection where they work.

Also, I'm probably also biased in that of the people I've met who work in the oil industry, most of them have been pretty alright people. I haven't met anyone who works for Clearchannel, and as such I can't associate the concept of their company with anything more than their logo on a billboard.

down day?

Just felt kind of down today. Not exactly sure why.

But perhaps I didn't get enough sleep? Really...trying to figure this out.

But, seeing this bit of news made me happy.

Though, I get the feeling that I need to finish reading Quicksilver and the rest of the series. Just 2600-some pages to go. But apparently the series picks up in the next 2000 pages. We'll see.

Decided to attempt a little experiment - I have a bunch of books at home that I've bought over the years and never read; have games that I've bought but haven't finished - I guess we'll give that a shot & see how long I last.

what is the point of .mac again?

Just thinking - really, what is the big deal about .mac (apple's service that costs between $75-100 per year for web hosting and ~10 gb of storage)?

While I am impressed with what it is supposed to do and how-easy it is supposed to make things, and giving that I tried it for one year, I feel that it is more like a glorified version of aol.com; in that it's taking something that is pretty freely available and then charging people a premium for a crippled version.

Although I was happy with what I did with iWeb & .mac, I think that blogspot is a more sustainable and perhaps better long-term play.

okay weekend

Went to a bacon-themed potluck/party on saturday. Not bad - especially if you like bacon....

Sunday has been okay.

Slept in; then played some games (Half-life 2: episode one and super smash brothers), played with our cats, then installed an iphone-interface hack on my phone, then went to the gym, then did some shopping, then came home & had dinner, played with our cats, watched the L-word and then south park. Then finished our box of Franzia Sangria, and I played Team Fortress 2.

I guess not productive at all, but I feel pretty relaxed now and should be in a good frame of mind for real work tomorrow.

motorola is really hurting and hearing about why makes me sad for the USA

After reading some news postings about this, I was really sad, in a way - I mean, Motorola was a great company and it is too bad that their CEO was technically incompetent. Consider that the RAZR was a very cool, hot phone in 2004 but they are still trying to milk it even now in 2008.

Letter from concerned insider is here:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/26/motorola-insider-tells-all-about-the-fall-of-a-technology-icon/

Discussion is here:

http://mobile.slashdot.org/mobile/08/03/26/2051259.shtml

Seriously, what is wrong with most US-based CEO's that get caught up in pandering to Wall Street?????


Also, to paraphrase one of the comments in the Slashdot discussion..."If this is what Six Sigma can do for Motorola, think of what it can do for your company!"

reflection on differences in life abroad

Had a discussion with an old friend who is still living in China this morning, and I came upon the following conclusion, which hadn't seemed quite so clear to me before:

Socially, when living abroad in China, life in the ex-pat community demands that one is welcoming and inclusive to strangers/newcomers, since nearly everyone is only a semi-permanent resident, friends come and go literally every month, and as such it is clearly to one's benefit to keep one's social circles pretty open.

Whereas, when living long-time in one's own community, the need to include outsiders is certainly lessened. Not to say there is no benefit to being inclusive, but when people get caught up in career, family, existing social obligations + the commitment of a mortgage to a given area, it seems that the amount of time and room to meet new people is lessened.

At least that's how it feels now in Seattle. It's not that the locals are mean or anything, but it seems like most people that I do meet are already well involved in their own social circles and there's little desire or reason to get newcomers involved...seems to just take time.

Seattle is growing fairly quickly, however, and there are a lot of newcomers anyway.

Sins of a Solar Empire

This game has been getting a lot of hype for the volume it has sold and for its unique style of gameplay.

Indeed, the game is very unique; it's something like a cross between Starcraft and Civilization.

Ultimately, it is a bit more of an RTS than turn-based strategy game.

I'm doing terribly in it so far; mostly because (I think) that it has its own style of play that one needs to learn...and the learning curve is a bit steep.

Might be more trouble than it's worth to really bother getting good at...I dislike games that feel more like work to play than actually just "playing".

On the other hand, I might get somewhere in this game if I actually spent the 3-4 hours straight playing it that seems to be required in order to complete a single game. Unfortunately, it's pretty hard for me to do that...even on slow weekends like this one, giving 3-4 hours straight to a game is diffficult.

This is probably one of those cases where I've fallen more for the idea & hype of the game rather than the game itself...but we'll see.

It also still looks & plays very responsively on my old PC system. Will probably still try in the future.

Call of Duty 4

So, despite 2007 being the year of Portal, Bioshock, and Team Fortress 2, Call of Duty 4 came out and was widely hailed as one of the best action games of the year.

I'm usually not into straight military games, and I had never really paid attention to the Call of Duty series before.

But, after hearing all the hype, recommendations from co-workers, and finally seeing a deal to snag a copy for just over $30, I checked it out.

Glad that I did.

The game is beautifully done (looks great on my older hardware), very action-packed, and manages to tie together a bunch of fairly different mission styles with a coherent, mostly plausible story.

I think I completed the game over the course of 3 weekends, which was a little on the short side, but still acceptable.

The multiplayer is reputed to be very good, but I haven't given it much time yet - still will at some point.

Anyway, pretty pleased with that one overall.

The witcher

The Witcher was part 2 of the Christmas gift I gave myself, and my progress on it is considerably less exciting than that on Bioshock.

It seemed like a really cool RPG in concept, and as I've tried it so far it seems pretty good.

Drawbacks? Well, it's really, really pushing the limits of what my "possibly good in 2004" PC can do, and as such it's laggy & slow. Not entirely unplayable, but a lot of time is wasted in loading scenes.

Apparently there's going to be a big update/revision in content coming for the game in May, so I'll hold off on really getting into it until then.

Bioshock - my mini review

I hadn't thought that my PC could handle the requirements for Bioshock; but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the demo ran fine...so for a Christmas gift to myself I picked up a copy of the game via gogamer.com.

Anyway, it ran pretty well and I played through the game (mostly on weekends) for most of January and February.

The game's story & setting about a dystopian objectivist underwater city-state built in the late 40's/50's is pretty interesting & well thought out, and there's enough hidden enemies to keep things surprising.

Your character can get some special powers that are pretty cool, and you have to deal with some "moral" choices - you kill all the bad guys regardless, but you can choose not to kill some little girl mutants. An interesting twist, but not exactly earth-shattering.

The game kept my interest, the plot moved along pretty well, with some fun twists & turns. Some complain that the game is on the short side of things; and I guess that it is - but it was really a perfect length for me as a casual gamer...kept me busy on the mornings of quite a few weekends.

I picked up wired Xbox 360 controller to use with my PC on this game, and that was fun too - a little more comfortable for the setup in my house as I could sit on the couch & play.

Anyway, if you like well-told shooting games, this is certainly worth a look if you haven't tried it already.

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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reflective, again - things I've done & things still to do

Reflective like a puddle on a rainy night? Not exactly. Have been going through the process of preparing a Christmas letter, and in recounting the events in my life of 2007 - namely, the major shift in moving from China back to the US, I can't help but reflect on how things are different.

Life in the US has already gotten routine, to a point - not that that's a bad routine, but China sure did seem to offer more in the way of adventure and unpredictability.

Alternately, perhaps in some irony, it seems that although the US is my native land and I speak English perfectly well, I'm less inclined to actively push for new experiences here - after coming back , in a lot of ways i feel like I've been staying in a "comfort food" / "comfort zone" type of rut.

One of my biggest excuses, however, is money, which holds some water in that I don't have a lot of it, especially after relocating & trying to re-establish savings. However, it's also a bit of a crutch - one can be creative and engage in new experiences without blowing a ton of cash.

Things that I should really do now that I live out here:

• Go hiking in the mountains
• Go skiing/snowboarding
• Join a band
• Learn Korean
• Finish my book
• Pursue more education (MBA or Product Management course?)
  

Things that (at least) I have done out here so far:

• Visit Snoqualmie falls
  
• Take a "Duck" tour of Seattle
• Visit Vancouver, Canada
  
• Greatly expand content of my book so far
• learn more about the web - new blog content, new things to see...(the uncensored internet in the US, compared with China, is excellent)
  
• Learn to cook better at home - more variety, more different recipies
• Learned to prioritize my time better
• minimizing tech experimentation for its own sake - while I love the idea of what Ubuntu and open-source software is about, I end up wasting a lot of time with it...at present, I still need windows for the games I run (I don't have a console), my PDA, and itunes. This probably isn't going to change for a while. I'll probably also still be running XP for quite some time too.
• seem to have gotten the obsessive need to check RSS feeds/updates constantly out of my system - using more time for my stuff.
  

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vancouver visit

This weekend went over to Vancouver, mostly to visit family.

This is my first time up there in 10 years. Also the first time in Canada after having lived in Asia.

I could understand a lot of the conversations by Chinese people on the street. Not so much of the conversations in Korean, Japanese, Cantonese, or Hindi (but at least I could tell what they were).

Vancouver is a delightful hodge-podge of a city. It reminded me of Hong Kong, Seoul, a bit of Seattle, New York, and even St. Paul at various points as we drove around in it.

Didn't really get to experience the nightlife so far as it was more of a family trip. However, hope to do more in the next visit.

I was really happy to try some of the super-authentic Chinese food at a place in Richmond...I miss food like that.

I'm due to post something

Things have been busy in the past 3 weeks since I've last blogged- there has been lots on my mind, lots to write about.

Just settling down and doing something to actually create more with my computer rather than just reading blogs is a bit of a challenge.

Main news:

1. I'm caught up on the US version of "the office" - Marsha & I are big fans, and we'd really like to start seeing more of season 4. It is too bad that NBC has decided to be super lame & pull-out from iTunes. While I don't really have an agenda against amazon.com, I don't want to support their DRM-laden windows-only download service. Too bad.

2. Beowulf 3d. Wow. Worth it. The story was on the light side, but managed to compel a bit of thought. Fairly good at modernizing the story without making it too full of ironic jokes.

3. TV Writer's strike. Really, it's amazing that the media companies aren't even trying to be liked. Just one greedy move after another as their distribution model becomes obsolete. Any good reason that writers don't deserve to be compensated & benefit a little more from the hyper-long copyrights that these monoliths have endlessly lobbied for? Lame.

4. OS X Leopard. Woot. Kind of unnecessary but pretty nice. Reinstalling got a ton of crap out of my system, so now I have a roomy 23 gigs of free space. (Tiny hard drive to begin with).

5. Vista - I'm using it at work and although it's fun to bitch about, it works pretty fine for what I need it for. I feel no rush to actually upgrade at home, however (since that pretty much will require a massive hardware upgrade that I don't need yet).

6. Ubuntu 7.10 - I've played with it and it seems pretty good, but I don't really have a reason to use it very much when I'm at home.

7. Rock - I need to start doing more musically. Did some messing around with making songs & beats on garageband and Ableton Live, but that's not moving very quickly.

8. Writing - Have been doing okay and the story is progressing, but erratic sleep & post-work activity last week got me a bit off-routine. Will re-establish it this week.

9. Thanksgiving - Should be fun - looking forward to it!

10. Upcoming travel - it's fun exploring new parts of the city & area out here. Everything's new. (On the other hand, in suburbia, everything is pretty much the same)

Rant on voice-activated telephone menus

Seriously...what's the deal with corporate phone systems that require you to speak to them?

I don't want to begin a chat with a computer, especially when it involves personal information and when I'm surrounded by my colleagues.

Mashing the keypad generally does get me through to someone useful, but that can't seriously be the best way to navigate these systems.

I recall a post on Slashdot some time ago from some admins that mentioned that such systems were generally implemented by managers who wanted the appearance of an up to date phone system - not that users ever liked or requested such systems.

new addiction

Despite better judgement to the contrary, I went ahead and purchased the newly released "orange box", which is a compilation of Half-life 2, Half-life 2 episodes 1& 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2.

Half-life 2 was an excellent game that I played about half-way through while I was living in China but then after a computer reformat I never bothered to finish up (was getting new games every month anyways).

Team Fortress 2 is an online game that is proving to be very, very addictive...simple to learn, but so difficult to master. Anyway, I've never really been into online games before, but this is making me reconsider my position.

The clerk at Best Buy was surprised that so many people were (evidently) getting the package.

However, I think that a solid collection of games at a fair price that still look on run great on basic hardware is certainly worthy of attention!

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Radiohead is cool

I think it is awesome that Radiohead has opted to distribute its latest album directly via its website.

Good on them.

I downloaded the album (and did pay them for it), and I'm pleased to report that it is a pretty solid release. More listenable than Kid-A and Amnesiac (which were fine in their own right).

Anyway, hope this is a trend that grows and continues.

M.I.A.

I did pick up the new album by M.I.A. (not sure if you pronounce each letter or read it like "mia" or maya...she says it a few ways herself on the record).

Anyway, different, funky-sounding beats and lyrics that are a good change from trite, tired love themes (that I heard way too much in china pop music) and rap cliches.

Her rapping style is maybe comparable to Missy Elliot, but she sings more than really just rapping all the time. Apparently Timbaland played a role with the album, I'm not sure how much of it he produced but I wouldn't be surprised if he played a pretty big role - many of the tracks are in his style.

Many of her songs stuck in my head. I can't honestly say all of them are great, but there are at least 3 or 4 excellent songs, and the rest are still all pretty fresh sounding.

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thoughts on the office

Lately, have been catching up on the US version of "The Office".

I had been familiar with the BBC version and had heard mixed reviews of the US show by fans of the BBC show.

However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed the US version quite a bit, and since the plot and characters do not exactly mimic that of the BBC version, it was a new experience.

Both series have their strong points.

BBC:

- More about the dreariness/monotony of day to day office life
- More about an insensitive boss who thinks he's an awesome and funny leader
- The series makes its point and then ends

US:

- Maybe a little more about the way that working with the same people in a monotonous situation can warp you - the supporting office characters seem to have a stronger role here; it's definitely more of an ensemble piece

- The series is still (?) going. I guess I've only seen the 2nd season thus far; I'm not sure how much they can drag out the love stories and other plot elements without straining my belief.

May have to make a Best Buy run to get season 3, as I'm pretty hooked.

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book review: Shatterday

Just finished up reading Harlan Ellison's Shatterday, a collection of (apparently) some of his best short stories.

I take it that Ellison stuck to writing a lot of short stories; he's very good at getting a point across concisely - most of the stories in this collection are 20 pages long or less.

He writes some sci-fi/fantasy and horror, touching on aspects of the human condition.

I'm not used to reading short stories collections; on one hand this type of book really lends itself to reading bit by bit; but on the other hand the experience does not offer the same type of immersion as a long story. I felt a little bit like I was back in English class from high school, reading short stories and abridged versions of things.

I can't say that I thought everything Ellison did in that book was golden, but there were certainly some thought-provoking stories within with unusual twists.

On the other hand, I'm glad that I got the book at the library; while Ellison is good, I do not think I would have been happy with having paid $15 for the trade paperback.

Next in the que - another collection by Ellison.

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touristy weekend...

One of my best friends from back home came out to spend the weekend, and we hung out all day friday, saturday, and sunday.

Really good catching up and finally doing some of the touristy stuff in the city that I've never gotten to do yet. Saw the space needle, the EMP, rode the monorail, saw a band do a show, and finally started to sample many of the watering holes around town.

Can't complain at all.

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Love for Missy Elliot

Under Construction:

Listening to it again, and really liking it...very, very well done album all around; every song is good. I think it is one of her better ones (though really, just about everything she does is good).

Not many filler tracks on the album, the only thing that sometimes get a little old are the tracks where Missy goes and speaks her mind - I appreciate her perspective and all, but it can get boring hearing that all the time.

Anyway, still a very solid record, almost 5 years later...I think this one should still be good another 5 or 10 years from now as well...

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I have a marker in Korea!

Apparently I have been marked as party of the family on their ancestral site. My name has been marked as "American Dan".

Awesome.

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flight of the conchords

Just heard this band on the radio during the drive to work.

Funny stuff.

They seem to be keeping this website current here:

http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=1937162361

There are songs to listen to on that site; I highly recommend "Business time" (it's totally in the style of Barry White / Chef / and the ladies man character from SNL).

Books Read: Spider Kiss

Working through the several Harlan Ellison titles I picked up earlier from the library.

"Spider Kiss" is the story of the manager of an Elvis/Jerry Lee Lewis type singer who becomes hugely famous in 1961. The book's perspective on fame is pretty dark; what struck me is how universal the theme of fame & corruption/darkening of the soul is. Certainly writers of today's celebrity scene have no shortage of material to work with, but Ellison has summed much of it up very well, and had done so in 1961.

On the other hand, I didn't quite get the author's claim about just how evil and depraved his star's excesses were...in today's day and age (and probably from the 70's on), it became almost expected for rock stars to be drugged out, misbehaving, overspending, womanizers (or man-izers).

Power-hungry, single-minded machiavellian meglomaniacal ambition? Also kind of expected for success in Hollywood/entertainment, no matter what the carefully cultivated exterior image may be.

Regardless, a quick and entertaining read.

I'm reading "Shatterday", a collection of short stories by Ellison. About 100 pages into it now, ~230 to go. Will post on that at some point later this week, if I finish it...

Raves: Rammstein

A couple weeks ago, I left my ipod shuffle in my pants pocket. That's not usually a problem, except that my wife put those pants in the washer & drier (not knowing my ipod was in there)...suffice it to say, that ipod no longer works.

So, I've been re-discovering many of my cd's by listening to them in the car. I pretty much have nothing more recent than 2004 - era stuff, but that's okay.

Anyway - Rammstein "Live Aus Berlin" is fantastic!

They're a solid band and I hope to see them next time they're touring in the US.

switch 100% to Linux at home?

This is always a tempting thought to me; especially as home Linux distros keep increasing in usability & convenience.

Per one of my earlier posts, I'm less & less locked in to any one software suite - more and more of the things I do with my computer at home are browser based...Firefox & Opera run well on any of the major OS' out there.

Some things I like on OS X that I can't get (exactly) on Linux:

- Garageband
- Itunes
- Ableton Live (but I can get this for Windows)
- iPhoto

Options on Linux that should cover me for those things above:

- Hydrogen, Rosetta, (indeed, there ARE audio creation software options for Linux)
- Amarok (in many ways better than iTunes)
- use WINE to get some version of Ableton Live working
- Picasa or digiKam on KDE (in some ways better than iPhoto)

Things on Windows that I like & can't do anywhere else:

- Sync with my pocket PC (on OSX you can get "the missing sync", but that's ~$40 in additional software costs). Doesn't seem to be a good Linux option for this yet.
- Games - My PC is the main source of my video gaming entertainment; I like strategy games like Civ IV, RTS' like Rise of Nations, and action games like Quake IV. While it's possible to have some Windows games work in Linux (usually major releases from id Software, among others), that's kind of the exception, not the rule.

That's about it, however.

My iBook G4 is still quite healthy and working well for all I need it to do. I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon.

After having had such a strong impression made on me from using the mac so much, (hassle-free, responsive, no viruses, only need to reboot once every 2 weeks or so, etc), I was totally inclined to consider upgrading to a Macbook Pro (or equivalent) whenever time for upgrades drew near.

However, I'm now reconsidering that. It might be cheaper (and arguably, just as effective) to get a well-spec'd Linux-friendly laptop, and dual-boot (with Linux as the default, of course), keeping a small-ish windows partition open for gaming.

No rush to really figure this out, as my mac is working totally fine. But, as much as I like OS X, I'm still a little unsure if it's really worth the premium in hardware cost.

On the other hand, if virtualization technology improves further, then in the near-future (if not now, with a healthy-spec'd computer) it should be possible to run several instances of different OS' within one OS, so the whole issue of needing to dual boot to get the best apps across different platforms could be moot...you'd have to worry about ensuring you have Linux-friendly hardware, but that would be about it.

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quiet, quiet friday

The wife is away on a trip back to Korea, and it was a long day of pouring over excel sheets with rules & targets that seemed to be ever shifting.

I don't know what I really should be doing, but blogging about it seems like a good idea.

At some point it might have seemed strange to me that my choice way of spending free time is by using my computer to look at things on the internet when it seems that so much of my daily work is using the computer to look at spreadsheets, emails, and things on the internet.

But here I am.

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Things I like or am re-appreciating, lately

1. Quake IV...action-packed game that still runs well & looks fantastic on my noisy old (by gamer's standards, anyway) PC.

2. Firefox...runs well on Linux, OS X, & Windows - reliable for fun & work; extensions are useful!

3. ScribeFire extension for Firefox - I can do all my blogging in here without even needing to visit the blog page.

4. Jalepeño peppers - they make so many dishes taste that much better

5. Web-based apps...between syncing my bookmarks, calendar, email, read rss feeds, to do lists, project managment, documents, passwords (yeah, the security on that is still a lot questionable), blogs, & photos - the bulk of stuff that I'm mostly doing on a computer is now all through a web browser. I like that, and the fact that everything is so light-weight your hardware has little impact on it.

(well, I do most writing & spreadsheet stuff on office software...gaming & music software are unique non-web related apps).

So the browser is the OS? I used to think that was crazy talk but I'm nearly living it...

6. Libraries...although I mentioned it before, it bears saying again...free books & information is a wonderful service.

7. Civ IV - a very well designed game that is addictive & deep; yet simple.

8. Gomez - wonderful band from the UK that produced 3 solid albums in the late 90's and early 00's. Their 4th wasn't as good. They made a 5th one that I haven't listened to very much yet...probably still not as good as their first 3 but seem to be improving.

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Paprika

Wanted to relax after a VERY long day - I was up at 3 am to take the wife to the airport.

So, after getting back from a long day at work, I put in a frozen pizza and turned on this movie - I had picked up a copy while I was still in Asia.

While the subtitles were not correct, a quick google search proved to be very useful. Unfortunately, they only worked for about the first 30 minutes of the film; I followed along with a text file that was open side by side with the main movie window...the broken english subtitles on the disc helped me keep my place.

Anyway - the film itself was beautifully animated, and the story was trippy, broad, yet suspenseful and engaging. The pieces with elaborately detailed collages of different people's obscure dreams (nightmares?) all coming together are really wonderful eye candy. Anyway - I feel it is worth a look if you have time or inclination to obtain (read: download) it. Apparently it had a very limited US theatrical release between Nov. 2006 and the end of May 2007 across different regions. A real US dvd should be available at some point, but I've no idea when - have not seen mention of it yet.

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updates to picasaweb albums...

New pictures for your enjoyment:

http://picasaweb.google.com/daninbusiness/CatsOnComputer

(apparently there is a "benefit" when macbooks run hot)...

http://picasaweb.google.com/daninbusiness/Sept1418

(Fun with fire trucks, other random pictures from the weekend previous)

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on my own for a little while

The wife is headed to Korea for ~ 1 month. Guess I may have more time to myself for a little bit; I could try & do something productive with this...

And/or, I could also go out more & get to know more of Seattle.

We'll see how this plays out; but I do intend on getting some writing done, amongst other things.

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bowling night!!!

My company has sponsored a group of us to play in a bowling league in the neighborhood. Tonight was the first night, with 3 games played. I bowled a 150, 186, then 118.

One would think that I'd improve as the evening went on; I hope that I can stay a bit more consistent (in a good way) as I get used to playing more...this will be a 12-week activity; this could well be the most regular/steady bowling that I've had in my life. Hopefully some good/improvement will come of it.

It was fun thusfar!

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Final Fantasy III is torturing me!

Trying to make a final push and wrap up my game of Final Fantasy III, which has been dragging out ever since I got a Nintendo DS back in March...it's been a really, really fun game to play, but getting to and beating the final boss is an exercise in patience and frustration.

I've come way too close now to just give it up; on the other hand - it's at the point where pushing on just feels like work, and not like a fun game or escape...

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Virtual Machine on my home PC

Looks like I might get to do a Solaris (the operating-system) related project at work. As such, I'm going through the process of installing it as a virtual system on top of my Linux system via VMware.

I'm impressed with how well Virtual Machine works - it's a really cool idea.

I had read about it on the web and how it would be "the next big thing", and that does seem to be believeable; especially as multi-processor CPU's become standard.

I haven't actually tried running this OS on its own yet; I'm a little doubtful how well it will ultimately work on its own within Linux....my home CPU is just a 1.8 gig AMD Sempron - that's a single-core budget CPU, and while it still totally is doing fine for the most of the tasks I throw at it, perhaps it will be a bit much for any sort of decent day-to day operations...suddenly it feels like I have a reason to upgrade...

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A scanner, darkly - dystopian movie weekend!

Just finished up viewing the film adaptation of "A Scanner, Darkly". Interesting and depressing. The visual style in the film was pretty unique, however. I'm still thinking about that one; haven't really made my mind up on it yet. Like many other Linklater movies, it was very dialog driven, and there wasn't really a distinct action-filled climax (though, with careful editing I'm sure someone could rig something up)...

Last night, we watched the movie "Ultraviolet", featuring Mila Joviovich (from the Resident Evil movies, among others)...cool that much of the "futuristic city-scape scenes" were at least based on footage that was done in Shanghai. The story was sorta forgettable, and the action scenes were pretty much "inspired" by the Matrix and John Woo movies and Blade and many, many other films I've seen before.

Anyway, it wasn't a total waste of time.

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site maintainence & no more .mac...

Well, my .mac membership expired a few months ago and I haven't missed it...certainly not worth another $80 for everything that I can already do for free (and more transparently) via google & yahoo's free services.

So I won't miss it.

Too bad that Apple can't get their shit together as far as .mac goes...but they seem to be focusing on making their ipods attractive (and are doing a good job with that), so good on them.

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dan finishes "Overclocked"

Cory Doctorow has done some fine work, and his writing is easy to read, interesting, and hard to put down once you've started reading it.

While he often uses titles that are plays on other famous sci-fi titles (I, Row-Boat & Anda's Game come to mind), his content is unique and stands well on its own.

Anyway, his stories were really interesting and had some cool twists in them that I don't want to give away here - I totally recommend checking it out.

You could, literally, check it out from your library, purchase a copy at a bookstore or on Amazon.com, or download it for free from Cory's website.

Totally worth the time.

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Dan's reading situation

Further to my last post about my rekindled love for libraries, I've actually finished reading one of the books I checked out and even went ahead to check out some more.

I've been inspired a bit by the feature that's running on AVclub.com by a critic who bought a box of bargin-bin sci-fi books and is reviewing one or two a week.

While I'm not buying any books (yet) to do this on my own, I've found a lot of good stuff at the library (and had been introduced to some new authors by a very helpful clerk at Barnes & Noble the other day...)

Latest report:

Shadow of the Giant, by Orson Scott Card

I'm a big fan of his; and I've read everything he's published in Ender/Bean series of books he's done. I was in China when this book came out in 2005, and it was pretty difficult to find a copy in Hong Kong (or on the internet...and I wasn't willing to pay for Amazon shipping)

So I finally get to read it now. I burned through it, as I usually tend to do with his books.

Basically, I think that he did a pretty good job of tying all the loose ends of the series together.

And although the book is set ~100+ years in the future (?), due to the far-flung political nature of the conflict going on, he's had to adjust a bit for events that have happened in the past 7 years as he's worked on this series - the result is still pretty cohesive.

Card's personal religious and political views do seem to make an impact on the writing, and it makes for a pretty unique perspective - he never mentions the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at all in this novel, but the gentle respect for religion while still pointing at the many political realities intertwined with it are interesting.

I'm a bit sad that the series is over, but this does mean that I'm "free" to go on with some other books...

On deck:


"Overclocked" by Cory Doctorow

I really liked "Down & Out in the Magic Kingdom", I read Cory's blog, and I'm a big supporter of his anti-DRM philosophy. Overclocked is a collection of short stories by Cory. I'm on page 45 right now, in the middle of a story called "When Sysadmins ruled the earth"...it's an after the bomb type story set in the age of google. Interesting.

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reflections after the labor day weekend...

It's been a full (yet relaxing) labor day weekend and I'm waxing reflective now prior to going to bed.

I was about to write this up in a notebook when I realized that I'd later probably be kicking myself for not putting it online (and thus further neglecting my blog).

On the other hand, I've had a lot of "screen time" with our computers and it is probably just as well to be pulling off of using a computer all the time during my free time...

(I use one a LOT during work).

3 major themes coming together this weekend:

1. Marsha is studying for the GMAT. No big surprise there, this has been a plan in the works for quite some time now. Good luck to her...the test is next weekend and she's got a lot to do to get ready.

2. Realized that I am using a computer for nearly all of my entertainment during my free time. I usually run mp3's through iTunes, which is hooked up to my stereo. I can watch youtube movies on my TV, and if I want to play games, I play them through my PC (which is hooked up to the TV).

- Have come to the realization that while being computer saavy is a good thing, excluding the contact of other people just to be online is probably not a good thing. (That seems like an obvious, common-sense thing...it's also the kind of thing that's easy to ignore since it seems innocent...

- Have also come to the realization that constantly checking RSS feeds (while probably a better alternative to watching cable TV) is still keeping me from actually creating things...writing a book, writing music, etc.

- Computer-based entertainment is pretty cheap compared to almost all of the other alternatives out there ( in my opinion; especially considering since I've already got the hardware investment) - as we're still re-establishing our selves; "starting out" all over again, cash is tight...

Just to confirm - Marsha and I did get out of the house every day this weekend; we went running & exploring on Saturday, and visited the Snoqualmie waterfall on Sunday. Monday (still today) we went to the gym and I explored a bit of Seattle - namely where Marsha will be taking the GMAT exam so I don't get lost while attempting to drive there.

3. It's weird (and yet so matter of fact not weird) reflecting that it's barely been over a month since we left China behind. I miss it, and my friends there. But life here is another kind of adventure, another new level of things to come. The funny thing about being in China was that there was no sense of real establishment (maybe since I was nearly always aware that I was a guest there); of course, the rapid change of pace in China may have contributed to that perception as well. Maybe the low cost of living helped create a false sense of security; everything is "funny money". Things feel more permanent here.

Well, I guess I should go to bed now.

Oh yeah - I certainly DO appreicate that the internet is unblocked here, blogspot and wikipedia and the rest of the web flow freely and quickly here; Linux updates are fast and efficient, as well as nearly any other type of web content. China's web could be very fast (for domestic stuff), but since I was more interested in content from the western world, the lag could be very frustrating.

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the rough thing about working with computer hardware...

My new job is working in a company that assembles custom computer hardware setups.

The thing there, is that EVERYONE seems to have an awesome home gaming setup...and while I used to think my home PC was respectable, now I'm finding that it's severely underpowered.

(yeah, it plays most of the games I want well enough, but I have zero bragging rights! Not like that's really important...)

Anyway, gotta try and not get suckered into a "keeping up with the joneses" complex, as that might get expensive quickly....

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on the topic of the written word

Really plan on doing more reading/writing; but really, my reading is mostly focused on working through the stacks of RSS feeds that I get every day; and writing is limited to the occasional email to friends.

Writing in this blog could be a good way to get back into the habit of regularly creating content.

I suppose that I could put my picasa and flickr accounts back to good use and REALLY keep updating things; there certainly are pictures from China shows and now here that could be shared; and perhaps appreciated by the few people who ever read this... :)

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libraries!

Also, while I'm on the topic of "cool things for mostly free that I used to take for granted", I've been pretty impressed with the library system in the area as well!

Haven't really had a chance to do much with our new library cards, however - haven't had much time to do a lot of reading (and there's a little backlog of books that I own but haven't read through yet)...

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props to radio

Due to accidentally leaving my ipod shuffle in my pants pocket and having it washed, I've had a lot of time to appreciate the radio situation in Seattle.

Much better than I can compare with the FM radio scene in Minnesota, as I can recall. Without question, it is much superior (in my opinion) to the radio in China, from the little I heard of it via riding in taxi cabs.

I haven't found the University of Washington equivalent to the U of M's 770 Radio K, however - which I found to be excellent and a great introduction to a LOT of cool indie bands before the mainstream caught onto them.

Anyway, in Seattle, lots of cool stations; we can actually use 20+ of the available radio memory slots on our stero in home, and I think a lot of those are actually worth listening to repeatedly!

So, the fear of being stuck in traffic with just the radio as a friend isn't really there anymore.

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all set up...

After a lot of time & weekends spent getting our apartment ready for our habitation, we have finally finished it up...and are happy with the results.

May eventually post pictures sometime, though honestly, I'm happy & content with doing NOTHING today, and dragging & dropping & sorting images from my camera over to my laptop (which is pretty low on free space at the moment) doesn't seem like a super fun idea to me.

But whatever.

The wife & I will attempt cooking something later...think some type of BBQ chicken.

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rainy day

First day where it's really raining a LOT in Seattle. Guess I better get used to it...

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1st day of new job...

So, my first day was spent doing paperwork formalities, meeting the
40+ people in the company in various departments, and then doing
random tasks in production - folding SATA hard drive cables, then
tightening screws on server racks, then cutting plastic off of server
handles, then attaching cables to new servers for "burn-in" (where the
OS is installed and the systems tested).

Today (tuesday) should be more of the same. I'll probably be doing
mostly production-related stuff this week, then next week will work a
few days in each of the other departments...should be fun too.

Company has people of all ages, but most are 25-35 in age. Very casual
dress (jeans & t-shirts are fine). Lots of men wear earrings. If I
wanted to dye my hair blue, it would not be a problem.

Everyone gets two monitors at their workstation (for extra efficiency;
& the actual desk space is limited).

Anyway, seems like it should be okay.

Gotta get ready for work now!

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dirt star is the #1 alternative music act in China (according to myspace.cn, that is)

Here's the details; check it out directly for yourself on the dirtstar website:


http://www.bubblegreentea.com/wordpress/?p=147#comment-171

Cool!

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getting settled

Well, it's been 9 days since relocating to Seattle from Shenzhen, and here's the status report:

• Have found a car that seems both reliable and fun to drive
• Have found an apartment and will be moving in tomorrow
• Have been searching the internet for low-cost furnishings; seems like we are doing okay with that.
• Have contacted my new employer
• Have been to Starbucks - only once
• Have been to a Seattle's Best - only once
  
• Have been downtown - only once
• Have woken up at 3 am and not fallen asleep again - just once
• Gone out for burgers - 2 times
• Gone out for Thai food - once
• Gone to Ikea - once
• Gone to the Asian supermarket - once
• smarmy car sales men dealt with: 2
  

Will keep you up to date with more stories & less statistics as time.

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