Posted on February 16th 2009 in Friends
“Boom, headshot!”
{Something the gang at EAC IT used to yell out whenever someone was terminated that we didn’t particularly care for. Something I was tempted to yell out when I was laid off last year. Given what’s been going on in the gaming industry of late, you’ll forgive me a little gallows humour.}
Rick and I went to the newly-renovated (but still slightly odd) Denny’s, where we talked about an idea he has for a game. There’s two major chunks to it, and I think he’s got the action bit figured out, but the lead-up to the action needed a little something. Not sure what, but something.
I think it’d work. As an actual game, in the real world, which would be fun, and kinda hectic, like when you were playing in the basement with the expensive stuff your parents owned, and they’d yell at you for “having fun wrong.” Those were awesome games to play, until one of you broke a window, popped out a ceiling panel, bounced that switchblade off the wall back at you, or you (and I actually did this) lost a throwing star somewhere in the ceiling.
I bet that happens to real ninjas all the time, just like normal people lose socks in the wash.
I’ve always thought the best games are normal games (no learning curve for how to play) but messed with in some way. Normal pinball is kida dull after you’ve played on a table that has multi-ball. Foosball is just not the same after you’ve played it with three balls on the table at once.
Looking back to Rick and I in 1993, it’s deeply weird to think that the same place we used to go THEN to have some coffee and grease, is where we go NOW to have coffee and grease. Unlike in ’93, no drag queens there tonight (well, at least there weren’t while we were there, after the dinner rush, maybe later tonight – there really wasn’t enough of a crowd to warrant a visit from any queens).
I think I’m going to have to break my photographic silence on my moustache tomorrow, ’cause you people have just GOT to see what’s happening under my nose. I had to shave tonight ’cause I can’t do any ‘stache below the lip line, ’cause my sides-of-my-chin-growth is white, and my moustache is mostly reddish/brown (red?) Craziness, I tell you.
Posted on November 21st 2008 in Friends
I must be doing something right, I’m getting more spam in my filters in the last week than I have in the last year.
Found out something cute today, as a sorta followup to something fun Arwen found out a few years back. When she was doing some research for her degree, she was reading something about “Sniffer” programs (used to watch/capture network communications), and came across a German article talking about “Shnuffleprograms,” and we had a good giggle about it.
I mentioned it to someone at work who speaks German, and they pronounced it for me. It’s even cuter than Arwen and I originally thought.
It’s pronounced “Shnewfil-program.”
In which our hero finds himself endlessly fascinating, and thinks everyone else will agree with his take on things.
Ooh! Lookie Me, I’m A Reflecto Ninja!
Can you see around corners in your house? I can, sorta. Meaning, I know where every single reflective surface is in the place. I think it comes from wearing glasses from a fairly young age, and learning that I had what were essentially rear-view mirrors in my periphery.
Also, probably owing to some dyslexia, I got pretty good at flipping things horizontally a few times to decide what the most likely usage of a particular letter might be. Comes in handy when you’re looking in a mirror or two to see whether or not there’s a junkie on the porch (it’s happened a few times) without actually being directly visible from the outside.
Where was I going? Oh yeah, I’m fascinating. Maaaaan of mysteryyyyyy…
I have two theories I’d like to share, wanna hear them?
Just a quickie hello to the world, ’cause the Mighty Mighty MoxieSnacks is over, and we’re getting our drank on. It’s a thing that happens every few weeks, and usually when it’s deeply crapulent weather outside (as opposed to what – the weather inside?)
Oh, so I don’t have the headache today, but I am crackling some sorta tinfoil in my chest that makes me cough when I lie down, and my nose decided to have a gushing freakout, so I raided the bathroom cabinet.
So I’m on:
- About 2000cc of vitamin C. Couldn’t hoit.
- One daytime antihistamine/allergy thing (Sleep? Hah!)
- One nighttime sinus cold thing (Staying awake? Hah!)
- A cup of coffee (to smooth me out).
- A glass or two of Arrogant Frog “Ribet Red”. $12/bottle
- A glass of Peller Estates “Proprietor’s Reserve” $13/BIG BOTTLE
So I’m not writing much today, but I’m sure as hell yammering a LOT. Srsly. Shut. Me. Up.
Karla got to me, and I signed up to Twitter. It seems that NONE of my friends are on Twitter (with the same email address that I have for them in my messenger).
So yeah. I’m doing that.
Oh, and our soundtrack tonight was brought to us by RadioParadise. Thanks to Clara a few years ago for pointing me towards them.
I’m changing the titling so as not to offend KarlaBabble (like SHE ever comes HERE any MORE), but mostly ’cause yeah, I agree that the vast majority of my own “I’m going to write every day for X days” challenges are deeply depressing to myself, ’cause I don’t usually get past day three before skipping a day or two, and then doing one more day, and then giving up, assuming nobody noticed in the first place.
Karla has this to say about it:
Do us all a favor and vow NOT to participate in NaBloPoMo this year. If you’re already committed to it, then at least remove the word “NaBloPoMo” from every post, because that’s like announcing, “This is going to suck” in big letters across the top of the post. Allow us the temporary illusion that you blogged today because you were inspired, and not because there’s a national bore-a-thon going on and you’re determined not to be left out.
This is why I don’t use something like Twitter (or Twittr, or Twitr, or Twtr, or whatevr they’r calling it this wkr,) it’s just too much pressure. I’m afraid people would actually start to get annoyed by what I’m tweeting. See? I’m already annoying myself by talking about it. Shut UP.
In which our hero stays glued to CNN for the evening, watching the election, and constantly feeling like “How are they going to steal it this time?” Spoiler alert for those of you who TiVoed it: It wasn’t stolen, and Yes, They Did.
I’m not feeling 100% today. Little sore throat, a tiny headache in the side of my neck (?) but other than that a good day. Hard to complain when the good guys win, for once, though, woohoo!
Oh, and just in case you’re American, and voted, and felt like it didn’t matter much? Mr. Saul Williams would like to have a word with you (hat tip to DreamPepper) about the whole idea of history.
Click here for more videos from Vote For Change
My fave piece from this video is this chunk:
Dear History,
You are behind us and we are no longer looking back. We are standing on the threshold of new times, new days, new worlds, and charging forward without battle cry or trumpet, while cynicism, apathy, and cowardice take their place beside you, behind us.
Also, the HipHop-For-Thinkie-Types guy over at Ill Doctrine had some smooth stuff to say about voting, ’cause you’d feel like a real heel if you have to tell your children you sat at home the night Obama almost won.
What else? Today I figured out how to make Ubuntu perform badly on a network. Seems like the sort of thing one should avoid, but in this case it’s something we’re TRYING to create. Some “real world” networking stuff is needed to see what our all-multiplayer-online games are like when you don’t have $50,000 worth of networking gear between you and the server. I’ve been using Ubuntu as my surfing box for a year or so now, but it’s nice to actually have to learn something at work with it. Makes me push that much harder/faster to figure out how to make it do something I want to do. Good times. No, really, I enjoy that.
Cold Stares Gold stars for parenting, in which our hero wrangles a pound and a half of pot roast into an edible (and even non-life-threatening) meal, and my old job cans a few more peaches.
So, after the time change, and the kids of course not realizing the sheer joy of being able to curl up under the covers for that extra hour, we were up and at ’em. Some coffee and scones later, and we were booked for a CanCar (the Prius, for the discerning putting-around-towner).
Off to MEC, which wasn’t open yet, so we schlepped the four or so blocks up Broadway to Main, went to some non-Googleable place for caffeine and muffins, and then meandered our way down 10th again. Freakishly beautiful houses (many heritage ones) along 10th here. Like crazy-awesome places that are solid stone and giant beams with yards and old trees and just plain, like, HOMES, man. Who knew Vancouver still had ’em. Of course, in our bubble’s-a-poppin‘ Vancouver financial venue, these places are all probably pegging in at roughly the annual salary (plus unlisted bonus) of certain executives at my last job.
So, no, we’re not buying in the area quite yet. Ahee. Still, nice to see that they’re not all turned into quadruplexes and condo-wanna-bes.
As usual, metric schwackloads of swearing (if you’re shocked by this, I guess you haven’t heard our show before), so watch out.
Here’s April’s show. Right-click to SaveAs… instead of streaming it from your browser.
01 – Talkybit 1
02 – Broad Daylight – Gabriel Rios
03 – New Violence – White Williams
04 – You Are Never Alone – Socalled
05 – Talkybit 2
06 – Hustler – Simian Mobile Disco
07 – Can You Dig It (Bullet Proof Dirty Dub) – Journey Man DJ
08 – I Go Hard, I Go Home – The Presets
09 – Talkybit 3
10 – Certified Air Raid Material – edIT
11 – Ready For The Floor – Hot Chip
12 – Burial – Archangel
13 – Talkybit 4
14 – Istanbul – The Breeders
15 – Wata (Water) F. Mutabaruka – Beat Pharmacy
16 – A&E – Goldfrapp
17 – Talkybit 5
18 – Message FromOur Sponsor – Jello Biafra
19 – Anyone Else But you – The Moldy Peaches
20 – Testy
