dwinn

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Pre-blog Archives

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Obligatory "Look How Well-Read I Am" list for 2001

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Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon, Larry Millett

Clear and Present Danger, Tom Clancy

If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor, Bruce Campbell

Get a Life!, William Shatner

Dune, Frank Herbert

Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

**Star Trek Movie Memories, William Shatner

**The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Archangel Protocol, Lyda Morehouse

** Star Trek Memories, William Shatner

The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action, Wendy Northcutt

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, Anthony Bourdain

Kingdom Come, Mark Waid and Alex Ross

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers

Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology, Kenneth L. Feder

Mort, Terry Pratchett

Voodoo Science : The Road from Foolishness to Fraud, Robert L. Park

Echo Platoon, Richard Marcinko

A Morbid Taste for Bones: The First Chronicle of Brother Cadfael, Ellis Peters

The Big U, Neal Stephenson

Sherlock Holmes and the Ice Palace Murders, Larry Millett

Elric of Melniboné, Michael Moorcock

The Cardinal of the Kremlin, Tom Clancy

1984, George Orwell
** -- reread

I've been crippled by death insomnia all week. I don't think I've been able to fall asleep until 5am at the earliest, and the six hours I got this morning is the most sleep I've gotten in 3 days. Ah well, at least I'll be prepared if the robots attack.
posted by dwinn at 5:50 PM

Demands! Err, Negotiations!

Allen Barra is right on the money. I hope Cougar Pines does not play on the tour next year -- we'll see how fickle the public consciousness is when you don't have every media outlet kissing your ass every weekend.
posted by dwinn at 5:18 PM

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/11/21/virtual_suicide/index.html

While the phony suicide angle of this story certainly gives food for thought, I think the information that is more relevant is what this story says about the effect that our online experience takes from our relationships in reality. Consider that the average Everquest player plays 20 hours a week -- that's three hours a day, every day. While a person may be in the same house, the same room -- hell, sitting right next to another person in reality -- when they are immersed in an online game or communicating in that fashion, they are as good as gone. No wonder so many breakups and divorces are prompted by online communication or internet addiction.
posted by dwinn at 4:31 PM

Well, election day has come and gone, and unless you haven't been born yet you know all of what's happened. Basically, at this point in the game, if one person gets elected, I feel better about our country, and if the other gets elected, then I demand my tax break. Ah, politics.
posted by dwinn at 5:39 PM

Addendum:
- If you waited outside a store all night for a PS2, you're a chump.
- If you bought a PS2 on eBay for more than retail price, you're a double chump.
- If you waited outside a store all night, didn't get a PS2, and then complain about people selling PS2's on eBay for big green, there's no hope left for you.
- If you wrote a rant about the editor of Games Magazine being a Dreamcast fanboy, you've got some levels of dorkitude.
That is all. Be good to yourself and others.
posted by dwinn at 3:18 PM

I was all excited to get my hands on the December issue of Games Magazine (sadly, this excellent periodical has no web presence) to read the Games 100 -- a listing of the best games, normal or electronic, of the year. Imagine my dismay to read the lead-in to the Electronic Games 100, written by Thomas L. McDonald (who also goes by T. Liam McDonald in Games, PC Gamer magazine, and other gaming periodicals), which ends up being a total fanboy fluff piece promoting the Sega Dreamcast. Over 25% of the Electronic Games 100 are Dreamcast titles -- including the Parappa the Rappa ripoff Space Channel 5 as Puzzle Game of the Year and Shen Mue and Ecco the Dolphin(?!?!?) as the two best RPG's of the year -- and McDonald goes on, in typical fanboy fashion, to tear apart pc's and Playstation 2 (despite admitted limited exposure.) Check out these quotes:

"...We've had a chance to see the PS2 and it's not the Dreamcast-killer some say it is. It's a more powerful system, but it is also less reliable..."

(Less reliable in what sense? Compared to what? Does it just power itself off at random intervals? What the hell does this mean?)

"...And more difficult to develop games for. Thus there are precious few good titles for the PS2, and if trade show previews are any indicator, there aren't many more on the horizon."

(Uh... Ever heard of Final Fantasy? All of the EA's sports games will come over as well, not to mention Gran Turismo III? Metal Gear Solid 2? MacDonald also conveniently decides not to mention the perhaps most desirable aspect of the PS2 -- it's a fully functional DVD player as well)

Mcdonald sums up with this:

"Use your PC to play online, stick with your Dreamcast, and don't hurry to buy a PS2 this holiday season."

(Don't hurry to buy a PS2 because the incredible demand has sold them out until 2001. Oh, and play your Dreamcast while you can, before they go belly up or are bought by Microsoft.)

I realize that Sony versus Sega is a polarizing issue. Sony has done nothing to my gaming experience for me to bash them, save some irritation at the very few PS2's available, and some sparse titles available so far. I'd really like to play some of the Dreamcast titles -- RE: Code Veronica, Marvel v Capcom, Crazy Taxi -- but given their track record (the horrible Sega CD and the even worse Sega Saturn) and their current financial straits, it's hard to find any justification for McDonald's worship other than simple fanboy bias.
posted by dwinn at 2:38 PM

People need to learn the actual rules of the road. If you and I are in separate driveways across from each other off of a two-way street, and I want to make a right, and you want to make a left into the same lane I want to go, the person making a right always has the right-of-way. This is regardless of the fact that you have been waiting longer than I have. Honking doesn't help your case any, either.

Halloween was nice -- our first year in the townhouse and we had about 35 trick-or-treaters. The little ones were cute, too; one girl was dressed up as an alien from Space Channel 5, I think. Best part is that there were no 17 year old with no costumers demanding candy. I had the soy sauce and taco sauce packets ready to drop in their bags if necessary, too.
posted by dwinn at 6:21 PM