Ramblings

Posts wherein I let my mind spill out all over the page. Usually lacking focus and quite possibly whiny.

There are 164 posts filed in Ramblings (this is page 10 of 17).

Memeage – 4 Things

Eli got me! I’ve seen this one going around recently, and figured it was only a matter of time. So, away we go:

Four jobs I’ve had:

1. Library Page, Fairport Public Library
2. Library Clerk, Fairport Public Library
3. Tech Support / Lab Assistant, Pitt’s Barco Law Library
4. Reference/Instruction Librarian, UAH

Yes, I have never worked outside of a library! Unless you count volunteer stuff, in which case I was an ambulance dispatcher.

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. Zoolander
2. Robocop
3. The Rocketeer
4. Toy Story

Three places I’ve lived:

1. Fairport, NY
2. Pittsburgh, PA
3. Huntsville, AL

Other than college, those are the only three.

Four TV shows I love:

1. Arrested Development
2. The Tick (animated version)
3. Battlestar Galactica
4. Firefly

Four places I’ve vacationed:

1. Hawaii
2. Bermuda
3. Myrtle Beach
4. Toronto

I really wish I could add somewhere non North-American to that list.

Four of my favorite dishes:

1. Primanti Brothers’ Sandwiches, Pittsburgh (my mouth waters just at the thought)
2. Stuffed Shells, any variety
3. Pizza with mushrooms, black olives, and any kind of meat
4. Crackers and cheese, preferably cheddar

Four sites I visit daily:

1. Kotaku
2. Urban Dead
3. PvP
4. Unfiction Forums

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. Pittsburgh (more specifically, immediately following the Super Bowl)
2. Back in Hawaii (I will return some day!)
3. With friends
4. Dave and Buster’s

Four books (or series) I love:

1. Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series
2. All the Myriad Ways, Larry Niven
3. The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
4. American Gods, Neil Gaiman

Four bloggers I am tagging:
(I have no idea who has been tagged already, so feel free to ignore me if you’ve already gone through this. Or even if you haven’t.)

1. CoffeeJedi
2. Tame The Web
3. Fare Forward
4. Deucenet

There, now I’m free of chain-letter-style bad luck! Doing the books and movies list was painful. So few spots for so many choices!

Oh, and I’ll toss in my own optional super bonus element,
Four video games I love:
1. Halo 2
2. Burnout 3
3. Mario Kart DS
4. Guitar Hero

RSS Drain

PIX_#41.jpg

I’m pretty sure I cemented my nerd status today while getting a drink from the water fountain at work.

While drinking I thought to myself: “Gee, that drain looks a lot like Firefox’s RSS icon.”

2005: A Year (almost) in Pictures – 1 year later

Today I posted the last entry (taken yesterday) to my year in photos project.

It’s done! I’m both excited and sad. To be honest I’m a bit amazed that I not only stuck with the project, but also remembered to take one every day. Sometimes it came down to literally one minute before midnight, and me madly taking a shot, but it worked. I ordered a book of all 365 photos from Qoop, and can’t wait to see them all in print! I’m also glad to regain my freedom of when to take my camera with me, when to take shots, etc. Towards the end of the project I got very un-creative, and it shows.

Here’s some of my favorites from the year, click them for larger versions and descriptions:

1/30/05
01/30/05

2/4/05
02/04/05

2/26/05
02/26/05

4/30/05
04/30/05

5/22/05
05/22/05

5/24/05
05/24/05

7/10/05
07/10/05

8/23/05
08/23/05

10/4/05
10/04/05

11/12/05
11/12/05

11/26/05
11/26/05

12/4/05:
12/04/05

1/7/06:
01/07/06

Stuff I liked in ’05

In no particular order and by no means comprehensive:
(items with links are available for free online)

Books:
Eastern Standard Tribe, by Cory Doctorow
Everything Bad Is Good for You, by Steven Johnson
Mindscan, by Robert J. Sawyer

Albums:
Audioslave – Out of Exile
Ra – Duality
Harvey Danger – Little by Little

Movies:
Sin City
Batman Begins
Serenity
Kung Fu Hustle

Games:
Mario Kart DS (Nintendo DS)
Burnout: Revenge (Xbox)
Guitar Hero (PS2)
Gun (Xbox)
Urban Dead (online)
(And an honorable mention to Halo 2, which I still play on the Xbox just as much as when it was released in November ’04)

One year down, many to go

I am a sucker for year-end wrapup entries. I won’t go all out as much as I have in the past, but felt like putting a few thoughts down.

What was my life about this year? In a word: change. A second related word would be travel. And I’ll throw in community as a third.

I started 2005 one third through grad school. I had just started blogging in the last week of December ’04, and had no idea how it would steer my life in ’05. I’m a bit proud of myself for sticking to it all year. And, I have no plans to give it up any time soon.

So I went to class, I worked, I saw friends, and I blogged. Then, on Jan 27th (aren’t giant e-mail repositories fun to search through?) I sent an E-mail to Michael of TameTheWeb, introducing myself. I wish I could remember how I found his site, but it was the first library-related blog I read. Through him and links on a few other librarian blogs, I slowly stepped into the blogosphere. I read alot about the Computers in Libraries conference, and somewhere along the way I learned about the possibility of student discounts. So I found out details, signed up, and flew off to DC. There I met great people and made connections. For the first time I realized how much of an asset my background in computers could be to a library. I returned to Pittsburgh and went back to class, my head spinning.

Sometime later in the spring, I was asked to bring a student perspective to a panel of librarian bloggers at the ALA annual conference in Chicago in June. Again taking advantage of student prices, I attended. While there, I thought why not check out the job placement center? I talked to half a dozen employers that I never would have otherwise. That led to two job offers, one of which I gladly accepted.

Thus began the great cross-country (well, North to South anyway) driving expeditions. My Dad met me in Pittsburgh, and we drove to Huntsville. Spent most of a week picking out an apartment. Things looked bleak for a while, but I ended up with a beauty! We returned northward. A few weeks later, I drove back South on my own with a Subaru packed full of my worldly belongings.

I settled in, but not for long. The Last Call Poker ARG picked up pretty soon after my arrival, and I ended up flying to DC and driving to Atlanta for related live events. God bless Independence Air and their amazing sales! Unfortunately they’re due to go out of business next week, but I still highly recommend the airline.

Earlier this month I returned to Chicago for the Gaming in Libraries conference. There I reunited with people I’d met all year, at conferences and in games and online.

At the beginning of 2005, I told myself that I had to make sure to go to one new place this year. I did a bit better than that:
-DC (outside of the standard touristy stuff)
-Chicago (x2)
-Everywhere between Rochester, NY and Huntsville, AL
-Huntsville (outside of Space Camp)
-Atlanta

Not too bad for someone just starting out, if I do say so myself.

But the most amazing part is that none of it would have happened without blogging and communities from online games. I had zero awareness of conferences I could go to before I started blogging and reading blogs. I never would have made the effort to go to CiL or ALA otherwise. But the library blogger community drew me in. Similarly, the community of Last Call Poker and Alternate Reality Games in general had me hooked. I watched for affordable travel deals that I never would have kept an eye out for on my own, and ended up knowing people when I got off the plane or stepped out of my car. A year ago, my world was New York and Pennsylvania. Throw in my dispersing college and high school associates: Now I’ve got friends and colleagues all over North America, with the financial ability to go visit them.

What’s next?

Google and Yahoo – Together at Last?

Gmail added a feature recently where “web clips” show up along the top of your Inbox. Really, these are headlines pulled from various RSS feeds.

As I was checking my mail tonight, I noticed something odd. Take a look at this screenshot.

Notice where the web clip comes from? The new Ask Yahoo service. Apparently Google selected this Yahoo feed as one of their defaults.

I wonder what the thought process was behind the decision to promote their rival’s new service.

Speaking of Gmail, I’ve been meaning for a while now to update my contact info for, well, pretty much everyone I know. If there’s any info you’d like me to have (e-mail, phone, mailing address, IM name, etc), send me an e-mail to the address you can see in the top right area of the screenshot.
I’m so sneaky.

Top 10 multiplayer video game countdown: #1

Halo 2My favorite multiplayer video game of all time:
Halo 2 (Xbox)

If you’ve spent any time talking with me about video games in the last year, this one will come as no surprise. Before I launch into discussing the game, let me say that the #1 spot is really going to both of the Halo games. On a list with only ten spots, I didn’t want to take up an extra one. And since Halo 2 is basically just the first Halo with some extras, I’ll be sticking to talking about the sequel.

I’ll probably get a lot of grief for this from PC gamers. To them, Halo 2 is nothing special – PC games accomplished most of what it does long ago. To that I point out that I’ve never owned a PC capable of playing the current generation of games. So H2 is new to me.

But what makes this game worthy of the #1 spot? The social experience. At their core this is what any great multiplayer game is about. Not locking yourself indoors away from people, but gathering a group of friends together – in this case even across the world – and cutting loose.

The killer ap for Halo 2 is the Xbox Live experience. Playing online is nearly seamless. You form a group, then tell the system to match you up with another (theoretically) equally matched group. No messing with servers, lag times, etc. It Just Works.

Game developers Bungie made another wise decision when they made the game types highly customizable. Tweaking the default settings has produced some truly amazing results – My favorite is a zombie survival game, and there’s even a bizarre type of freeze tag we break out from time to time.

Notice that I’ve barely touched on the gameplay itself yet. The online experience is just that good! While the single player mode leaves a bit to be desired, multiplayer rises to a whole new level. H2 added the ability to pick up multiple weapons at a time, more vehicles to drive, and lots of little touches that put the sheen on.

H1 was a worthy multiplayer game in itself. While it had no online component, luckily I was in college when it debuted. There were enough players on campus that online play wasn’t missed. Halo 1 is the only game I’ve ever felt competent to compete at in a tournament (we took second place). While I miss having people in the same room, Xbox Live makes for a capable alternative.

As with any multiplayer game, the experience comes down to your teammates and opponents. The worst game can be made extraordinary or the best game turned to mud, just based on the personalities and interactions of players. I’ve been lucky to stumble upon a great group of Halo 2 players, and before that great friends to gather around a TV for Halo 1. If we didn’t end up playing this game, if we’d met playing anything else, you might be seeing that game at number one instead. So here’s to you guys, wherever you may be.

If you’re interested in duking it out against me online, I go by Thunderclap 8. Note the space in there that I eternally regret choosing. As always, anyone who can tell me where I got the name from on their own wins a no-prize.

In summary, here was the list:
#10: Worms Armageddon (PC)
#9: Tekken 3 (PS1)
#8: Secret of Mana (SNES)
#7: Turok – Rage Wars (N64)
#6: Super Mario Kart (SNES)
#5: Super Monkey Ball (GC)
#4: Super Smash Brothers Melee (GC)
#3: Goldeneye (N64)
#2: Tetris (GB)
#1: Halo 2 (Xbox)

iPod Video

I’ve had my iPod for less than five months, and am already two generations out of date. I don’t remember things progressing this fast prior to the purchase of mine.

I have to salute Apple’s marketing savvy though. With a switch to intel-based processors coming up, there was a real risk of sales dropping off as people wait for the new line to hit. To take up the slack, Steve Jobs has a pile of iPod upgrades and new products on hand. First, a switch to only iPod photos. Later, the Nano. And now, video. What next?

I do admit to being intrigued by the video offerings. However, rather than the new hardware I’m more attracted to the fact that major TV shows, if only a few, are now legitimately for sale in iTunes. A tiny first step in the right direction.

Top 10 multiplayer video game countdown: #2

TetrisMy second favorite multiplayer video game of all time:
Tetris (Game Boy)

I almost forgot to include Tetris in the list. That would have been a shame for such a revolutionary title. First of all, it pioneered multiplayer portable gaming. Second, it was simple to play – like some other games on this list, anybody can pick it up and play. Lastly, it came with every Game Boy shipped.

My brother and I were lucky enough to receive Game Boys for Christmas the first year they were out. Via the included link cable, we Tetrised our way through many a family car trip in the years following.

Is there anybody reading this who hasn’t played Tetris? Or at the very least, knows the concept? Line up blocks into rows. The rows disappear. Repeat. In multiplayer mode, clearing more rows hinders your opponent in their effort to do the same. First to let their screen fill up is eliminated. That’s all there is to it.

Literally everybody with a Game Boy had this game. The universal presence of it gave a huge boost. In the days before online gaming, being able to take a handheld system with you to other players was a capable substitute.

Currently, it is almost unheard of for a first-run system to come with a game, let alone an accessory like the link cable to connect players.

Unlike other multiplayer games (even some on this list) I could dig out my Game Boy, sit down, and enjoy Tetris just as much today as the first day I got it. In fact, I think I’m off to do that right now.

#1 tomorrow.

Top 10 multiplayer video game countdown: #3

GoldeneyeMy third favorite multiplayer video game of all time:
Goldeneye (N64)

Put simply, Goldeneye was amazing. Soon after the Nintendo 64 launch, this little James Bond first person shooter hit the scene. Based on the movie of the same name, you run around as Bond, shoot bad guys, save the women, and play with cool toys.

While the single player game was capable with a nice variety of objectives beyond “shoot your way through a level”, the multiplayer was and is spectacular. The N64 was the first major console to include four controller ports by default. Goldeneye was the first game to take advantage of it.

Four-player split screen matches are fast paced and highly customizable. Alone, the variety of characters to play as still puts more modern games to shame. This was one of the first truly social console games I played. Four players meant that a crowd could cycle through rounds and stay interested. Four players made more interesting games and more complex strategies possible. Four players meant more opponents to yell at after a loss, and brag to after a win.

That isn’t to say I was ever very good at the game. But oh, how fun! Friends and I would tweak the settings to no end. All mines? sure! No weapons, only karate chops? sure! Everyone playing as the annoyingly short and hard to hit Oddjob? Well ok, we drew the line there.

Four player console games have since become pretty standard, with both the Xbox and Gamecube having the capability. But Goldeneye pioneered the idea, and did it very well. Just don’t get tricked into buying the more recent, and far inferior, game of the same name. Stick with the N64.

I’m hitting the final stretch here. If you know me at all, you probably know what #1 will be. The real contest is for the #2 spot. Tune in tomorrow, you might be surprised.