Christmas for my brother
My older brother is getting a PS3 for Christmas and I can’t decide what game to get him. Any suggestions?
He likes first-person-shooters, I know he asked for the new Call of Duty a couple or sports games. Im really tempted to get him Little Big Planet, but I think that’s just because I love it so much, he’d probably enjoy another game more.
I thought about Metal Gear Solid 4, but I know he hasn’t played any of the other ones. Would starting the series on 4 be weird? I think it might be.
I’m also considering Fallout 3, but I’m afraid Fallout has too much dialogue and pausing and that he might lose interest since he asked for Call of Duty which has constant action.
Some other titles in the running are: Grand Theft Auto 4, Resistance 2, Dead Space and maybe the new Prince of Persia.
Feedback appreciated!
Tim Burton Making Alice in Wonderland
Let me start by saying I love Tim Burton. I think Alice in Wonderland is a great title for him to tackle. The movie doesn’t come out until 2010, so unfortunately we will have to wait awhile. Johny Depp is playing the Mad Hatter, and an 18 year old Australian girl named Mia Wasikowska is going to star as Alice. As for the rest of the cast, Anne Hathaway is playing the White Queen while Helena Bonham Carter plays the Red Queen, and Michael Sheen will be the Cheshire Cat.
Group Chat
Personally, I hate group chat; it just seems futile. The biggest problem is that there are too many conversations happening at once, and it’s hard to tell which statements belong to to which conversations. Intelligent discussion in chat room with more than five people is highy unlikely. Especially when the ADD people interject off-topic/useless comments every 5 seconds; it makes it really hard to keep up with any relevant comments. I usually just get frustrated, and stop participating, but that’s just my personality. In an actual physical group discussion I don’t usually say much unless I feel it’s relevant or adds something to the discussion, and I typically behave the same way online. Occassionaly, I interject an “lol” to indicate I’m still alive.
For a large group chat to work, like in classroom setting, there needs to be a set topic, otherwise people will wander all over the place. There also needs to be a moderator to keep people on topic and discourage off-topic comments.
The only purpose I have found group chat useful for, is to plan an event. Like, when I was in junior high and high school and my friends wanted to hang out; we would all get online and try to decide what we wanted to do, like go to a movie or get food. It was a lot easier for us to chat online than to call everyone seperately and see what each person wanted to do and then play phone tag for an hour.
Who is stealing my pumpkins?
I had a couple of pumpkins outside my apartment door for Halloween, and they both got stolen. The first pumpkin to go AWOL on me was the one I carved for Halloween. I carved the Weighted Campanion Cube (from Portal) into it the day before Halloween and it sat untouched for the next week. It was getting pretty nasty and moldy, because I was too lazy to take it to the dumpster, and then it disappeared. I was actually glad because it saved me a trip to the dumpster.
The second pumpkin was uncarved and I just like the way it looked sitting there outside my door, it was very appropriate for fall. Then on November 12th University Village put citation on my door for having a pumpkin outside my apartment. Absolutely ridiculous! I refused to remove my beloved pumpkin and decided that if they gave me another citation for having “Halloween” decorations, I would argue that it wasn’t for Halloween, but for fall or Thanksgiving. That would show ’em…stickin’ it to the man.
Two days after I received the citation I walked out my front door and noticed my pumpking was gone. My first thought was that those bastards at the leasing office had confiscated it; but as I proceeded down the stairs (I live on the third floor) I noticed a smashed pumpkin on the ground below. Alas, my poor pumpkin, murdered. I doubt it was the leasing office, since it was obviously dropped over the side of the building. Perhaps it was those shifty people across the hall…
Now I’m thinking of ways to boobytrap my pumpkins for next year. Maybe they should explode when touched, or maybe I could used ‘mild’ electrocution…
The Chronicles of Sergeant Truffles: Part Five
The only complaint I have about owning a rabbit is the smell…and the occassional chewing of non-approved items. I did some online research and found that odor is fairly controllable. One thing to do is use a good bedding and change it at least once a week. Second, the ionizer works pretty well, but doesn’t completely eliminate the odor. The third thing that I’ve done to control the rabbit smell is buy this product called Bio-Odor: Internal Waste and Odor Eliminator. It works really, really well, I’m very pleased. You just put several squirts of this stuff into your pets water bottle and within a few days it really starts to cut back on litter box odor.
In conclusion, it’s possible to own a rabbit without the stinky rabbit smell.
Mirror’s Edge
I saw the demo for Mirror’s Edge recently, and it was pretty sweet. I’d seen commercials for this game, and the graphics looked great, I was surprised to see how similar the in-game graphics looked. Normally the graphics featured in video-game commercials are way better than the actual in-game graphics, but this isn’t the case for Mirror’s Edge. However, I did read a review that said when you slow down and actually look around the graphics lose a lot of their luster. This is a game when you are constantly suppose to moving, and not just moving, running, jumping, falling, climbing…so I can see how easy it is to overlook the imperfections in the graphics.
The game comes out for the PS3 November 11, and for the PC sometime in January. I think this game is better suited for the PS3, which is unfortunate for me since I don’t have one. The demo I saw was on the PS3 and I think using a mouse and keyboard to control your character would feel really awkward and break the illussion the games sets up for you. I guess you could hook up a PS3 controller to your computer, although I’ve never done that, so I don’t know how well it works.
Intrepid Ibex
I successfully installed Linux on my laptop, finally. Last spring I tried putting Sabayon on it, but there were some driver problems and a few other issues; I gave up and reverted back to Windows XP. Today I installed Ubuntu and it runs without a hitch, I’m really pleased.
My favorite feature of Linux is Beryl, it’s the best thing ever. I love having a cube for my desktop that I can spin around.
It’s really easy to switch from Windows to Ubuntu, so for those of you who are frustrated with Windows, this is a good alternative, especially if you aren’t fond of Macs like myself. I don’t care for their interface, it makes me feel lost. I don’t feel lost in Ubuntu. I have a Windows Vista desktop for my games, but if that’s not an option for you, you can run most games and other Windows applications on Linux through a compatability tool called Wine. You can find a list of programs that run on Wine here http://appdb.winehq.org/.
Even if you don’t want to make the switch to Linux, you should download it to a CD and just try it out, it’s really fun just to mess around with.
Little Big Planet
Last night I got to play Little Big Planet, and I wish I had a PS3 just so I can play that game. Really, it’s fantastic. The game is a lot of fun whether you are playing solo or with few friends. The art style is really interesting and captivating. One of the funnest parts of the game is creating your little sack person character, but the good times don’t end there. The levels are dynamic and exciting; each one is unique and has its own story and charm. Players can also create their own levels and upload them to the PlayStation online community so others can play them. If you have a PS3 this is a game you MUST own.
The Chronicles of Sergeant Truffles: Part Four
I came up with a solution to my rabbit’s dislike of petting. I bought small playpen that she can’t jump out of and force the love out of her. It’s not as terrible as it sounds. I just sit in there and she has to let me pet her becuase she can’t run away. She doesn’t seem to really mind, but after about 15 minutes she starts to get restless and begins chewing. I’m hoping if I do this often enough she’ll get used to be petted and maybe let us hold her without struggling.
Another issue with the bunny is that she’s kind of smelly. I recently bought a small Ionizer, I hope it cuts down on the odor.
The Chronicles of Sergeant Truffles: Part Three
My rabbit, Sergeant Truffles, is getting more friendly but not as quickly as I’d like. She run up to you and sniff you, but as soon as you move your hand like you’re going to pet her, she runs away. If she’s in her cage (where she can’t escape) she will let you pet her, she doesn’t seem to mind at all, but if she’s loose in the apartment forget about it. She really needs to get over this fear of being held thing, becuase we have to able to hold her to groom her and clip her nails. It my room mate and I about thirty minutes just to clip her nails. Loren held her in an old towel (which Truffles chewed numerous holes in) while I clipped her nails. But she kept squirming and trying to escape, I feel clipping her nails shouldn’t be such a huge task.
Sara's Weblog - ATEC 3325 