I bought Burnout Revenge for Xbox today, and as I was unwrapping it I realized that it had been a long time since last I unwrapped a little green box. I checked my Xbox archive page, and was absolutely astonished to discover that it had been 11 months since my last purchase. That is just insane! I have felt like there haven’t been any good games for a while, but I didn’t realize it had been THAT long... And that’s assuming that Burnout Revenge is good! (I haven’t played it yet because I also bought We Love Katamari today and, of course, that takes precedence!)
October 2005 Archives
Check this thing out.
This product is running code that I wrote for my first project here at e***! Pretty neat to know that something I wrote will be sitting on rich people's coffee tables all around the country...
Y’know what I love? Not watching TV. Seriously, it makes me happy that I only watch a few shows. When a show turns to crap, I am nearly giddy to cut it out of my viewing schedule. This season I dropped both Stargates. Last season I dropped Alias and Scrubs. And it all started when I dropped The Simpsons after their terrible decline, what was it... 5 years ago? I also don’t go out of my way to pick up new shows, I average about one new show a season. So if I’m doing the math right, I guess I’ll be completely TV-less in a few years? So, what do I deem worthy to watch?
Meet the Press
Family Guy
Arrested Development
My Name is Earl
Lost
Battlestar Galactica
That’s it. No sitcoms with unbearable laugh tracks. No worthless reality shows. No shows that used to be good but aren’t any more but I’m still watching them just because I watch them. And, of course, thanks to Tivo I never mindlessly flip through the channels hoping to randomly find something good to watch.
Y’know what else I love? The library. It’s safe to assume that I also love reading, but I think my reading enjoyment is enhanced and perhaps even perpetuated by the library system. Here’s the deal... at my slowest, I go through one book a month. And when I’m on one of my periodic reading kicks, I’ll go through up to 3 books in a month! I can afford to buy those books, but since I never re-read stuff, it’d feel like sort of a waste (I guess I could handle $5/book, but paperbacks are up to 8 or 9 bucks, and don’t even get me started on hardbacks!)
But, ahhh, the library.... all the books you could ever read, and it’s completely free (fine, my taxes pay for it...) And not only are the books free, the system is ridiculously simple to use. Yesterday I realized that I am almost done with Startide Rising. So I fired up telnet and connected to linas.lincc.lib.or.us and within a minute I had discovered that one of the two books I want to read next, The Uplift War, was available and waiting to be picked up at the Ledding library (Ender’s Game is checked out with a 2 person hold queue... looks like I’ll have to join the queue if I want to read it after Uplift). I was in the area yesterday evening, so I walked in, grabbed it off the shelf, checked it out, and voila, I've got hours and hours of entertainment for free. Seriously, it almost feels like stealing!
When I have kids, I intend to burn this deep appreciation of the library in to their fragile little brains. I know that MY love of reading and the library is thanks to one person... Thanks dad!
Speaking of books, I’ve read a number of them in the last few months and haven’t commented on any of them! So, here goes:
Mr. Paradise – Elmore Leonard
This was a sub-standard Leonard book, definitely not recommended. The story was uninteresting, the bad guy was too dumb and unsympathetic, and the romance was a shell of what it could have been. It had most of the pieces of a good Leonard book, but missed the magic.
A Coyote’s in the House – Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard’s first kid’s book, I read it out loud to Kalin. It’s about a coyote that lives in the Hollywood hills that befriends a couple of rich dogs and sees what the ‘good life’ is like. This one was cute but sadly the story didn’t really go anywhere. It starts off good, and you think you know where it’s going to go, but then it gets bogged down with the Hollywood scene... I enjoyed reading it to Kalin, but I wouldn’t really recommend it to kids or adults.
A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson
A great nonfiction book about an out of shape writer who decides to hike the Appalachian Trail with an old high school buddy. No small feat, since the trail runs nearly 2200 miles from Georgia to Maine! The situations these two guys get into are hilarious and Bryson has real skill at making you feel like you’re right there with them. The second part of the book is a bit of the disappointment, but only because the first half so absolutely great! Chris recommended this excellent book to me, and now I’m recommending it to you!
In a Sunburned Country – Bill Bryson
Same author as the last one, this time he’s traveling through Australia. Not nearly as inspired as A Walk in the Woods, but still a lot of fun. As he describes his journey through the Outback, he also mixes in observations of the history, culture and nature of the regions. Let me tell you, Australia has a pretty crazy history, so reading up on that is alone worth picking up this book.
Startide Rising – David Brin
The second book in the Uplift series, recommended to me by Peter. This one is WAY better than the first (Sundiver) but it still didn’t capture my imagination like I thought it would. The story involves a space crew of dolphins, humans, and one chimp stranded on a mysterious planet while being sought after by malevolent aliens. The slow revelation of the planet’s secrets was intriguing, the plans to get out of the sticky situation were interesting and intense, but the dolphin characters were definitely the highlight of the story. This was a very good book, I definitely recommend it, but I wonder why it didn’t suck me in like Hyperion or Dune did...
Seriously, does ANYONE like Martin Short? Because I seriously hate that guy... even more than Chevy Chase, and THAT'S saying something...
Ryan and Heidi hosted the annual Halloween party on Saturday, and good times were had by all... well, until the riff-raff showed up. But anyway, check out my costume. There were ballots to vote for best/funniest/scariest costumes, and I won best costume! For it, I got a couple cool martini glasses and what appears to be the full contents of a mini-bar from an upscale hotel. And honestly? I worked for it.
I thought up the costume idea on Saturday morning, so I visited a few thrift stores where I found the shirt, gloves, and doll... but I could not find white pants ANYWHERE! I wanted sweat pants, but apparently there is a white pants embargo in our fair city of Portland. I went to: two Goodwills, another thrift shop, Target, Gart, Fred Meyer, Mervyn’s, and Kmart... but nothin’. With less than two hours until the party, I recalled that my dad has a pair of white Levis (that he still wears!) so once again his 1980’s wardrobe saved the day!
Let me also add that the hat is a true work of art. Kara and I made it from scratch, there was much pinning and stuffing and sewing. And it turned out absolutely perfect, FAR better than I thought we’d fare before we started.
So basically all day Saturday was spent collecting and building my costume... but it was definitely worth it, not only did I get free alcohol, I also blue myself...
We must stay the course. If we pull out too early, we’ll only leave a mess on the belly of Iraq.
