Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Videogame personalities
The Seattle Times had a recent article about Video Game Personalities. I think they left my category out, the Accessorizer. This person, unable to buy earrings or necklaces for his person instead accessorizes his gaming machines. His closet is filled with electronic fishing rods, steering wheels, dance pads, maraccas and drums. I am drawn to quirky games that will never make a mainstream impact, games that involve rolling up trash or driving a bus. One exception has been the mosquito game. That game still creeps me out. My most recent purchase has been a flip top lid on my ps2 that allows me to play japanese games as well. Let the odd games begin.
Phat
A week in Maui has inspired me to eat healthier. The trip was last minute and the wife and I did situps like mad the week prior to leaving with the insane hope that those last few crunches would somehow magically rid us of the post-wedding weight. I've been hovering around 165 when in Seattle. In Indonesia I was around 155, but put on the additional 10 pounds over the holidays. Even with that extra chub, I was one of the more fit tourists in Maui. Sad...
I realized that I would like to get back to below 150. I also realized from the middle-aged-men-in-speedos that from here on out it's all downhill.
Please note that healthier does not mean healthy. It means healthier than what I was eating before. When the bag of chips says that it has 20% of your daily amount of fat, that means you can eat 5, right?
I realized that I would like to get back to below 150. I also realized from the middle-aged-men-in-speedos that from here on out it's all downhill.
Please note that healthier does not mean healthy. It means healthier than what I was eating before. When the bag of chips says that it has 20% of your daily amount of fat, that means you can eat 5, right?
bored
I am so bored...
since my old company was purchased a few months ago, the workload has trickled to a mere trickle of a trickle. At this time last year I was up to my ears in Tax Reports and sql code. If work was like bodily fluid, last year was like a trucker reaching a rest stop after an 8 hour drive. This past month has been more like a dehydrated camel with a prostate problem and kidney stones.
Yesterday I got online and played 200 rounds of Kingdom of Loathing. I doublechecked my fantasy basketball team while bouncing back and forth between espn.com, si.com, msn.com, cnn.com, albinoblacksheep.com, iistix.com, tformers.com and some random links in-between. I doublechecked my fantasty teams and played a few games of dreadnoughts at virtualapple.com. I cleaned my desk and looked for recipes online.
Today I brought my playstation. I have a weakness for tactic games. The game that opened the tactics genre to me was 'Dynasty Tactics' on PS2. If I had to describe the tactic genre to my mother, I'd say it was playing a game of chess... a more geeky way to describe it would be saying it was like Risk, or even worse Axis and Allies. (Tangent: Axis and Allies wasted so much of my time in high school. We'd have the board up for weeks sometimes. The worst was if you were the unlucky fool who was Russia. All you could do was pump out more and more infantry against the german tanks)
Tactical games usually have a world map scattered with battlefields. These battlefields have smaller maps in which you command your units against the enemy. Units will have different jobs/classes/skills that each have thier weaknesses and strengths. For instance, an archer has great range but will get slaughtered by a calvary unit. Like RPGs, tactical games usually last 40+ hours and can be drawn out as long as the player likes.
Unlike RPGs, my wife hates tactical games. The graphics are usually minimal. The cutscenes are played over and over again and the story is usually hard to follow unless you play the game because the battles take hours. Fortunately I have hours of time to kill at work with no one complaining about how bad the game looks. yay work!
since my old company was purchased a few months ago, the workload has trickled to a mere trickle of a trickle. At this time last year I was up to my ears in Tax Reports and sql code. If work was like bodily fluid, last year was like a trucker reaching a rest stop after an 8 hour drive. This past month has been more like a dehydrated camel with a prostate problem and kidney stones.
Yesterday I got online and played 200 rounds of Kingdom of Loathing. I doublechecked my fantasy basketball team while bouncing back and forth between espn.com, si.com, msn.com, cnn.com, albinoblacksheep.com, iistix.com, tformers.com and some random links in-between. I doublechecked my fantasty teams and played a few games of dreadnoughts at virtualapple.com. I cleaned my desk and looked for recipes online.
Today I brought my playstation. I have a weakness for tactic games. The game that opened the tactics genre to me was 'Dynasty Tactics' on PS2. If I had to describe the tactic genre to my mother, I'd say it was playing a game of chess... a more geeky way to describe it would be saying it was like Risk, or even worse Axis and Allies. (Tangent: Axis and Allies wasted so much of my time in high school. We'd have the board up for weeks sometimes. The worst was if you were the unlucky fool who was Russia. All you could do was pump out more and more infantry against the german tanks)
Tactical games usually have a world map scattered with battlefields. These battlefields have smaller maps in which you command your units against the enemy. Units will have different jobs/classes/skills that each have thier weaknesses and strengths. For instance, an archer has great range but will get slaughtered by a calvary unit. Like RPGs, tactical games usually last 40+ hours and can be drawn out as long as the player likes.
Unlike RPGs, my wife hates tactical games. The graphics are usually minimal. The cutscenes are played over and over again and the story is usually hard to follow unless you play the game because the battles take hours. Fortunately I have hours of time to kill at work with no one complaining about how bad the game looks. yay work!
Friday, February 11, 2005
Back from maui
Just got back from maui...
played some recreational volleyball at cbc tonight and was reminded why my piano teacher wouldn't allow me to play volleyball or basketball the two weeks before a competition. I jammed my right ring finger today. I didn't jam it actually playing though, I jammed it while rolling the ball under the net... yay me.
Maui was fun. It was a relaxing vacation. Will post more later
played some recreational volleyball at cbc tonight and was reminded why my piano teacher wouldn't allow me to play volleyball or basketball the two weeks before a competition. I jammed my right ring finger today. I didn't jam it actually playing though, I jammed it while rolling the ball under the net... yay me.
Maui was fun. It was a relaxing vacation. Will post more later
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Accepted
Yay, got my UW letter in the mail today. I was a little worried because they always say the thin letter is a 'no' and the thick packet is a 'yes'. It was a thin letter so I didn't open it up in front of the wife, instead I ran to the kitchen to open it so she wouldn't see the disappointment. Even though it was a thin letter, it still was a 'Yes'. I'm going to hollywood... whoops too much american idol.
Monday, January 31, 2005
Djan's!
We tried the thai place, Djan's, on 45th and Latoya. It's right next to the comic book store, two blocks west of I-5. It markets itself as a fusion thai place with japanese and chinese influences. Remarkably, unlike most fusion asian restaurants the prices weren't inflated.
Djan's is a house converted into a restaurant. The 10-foot ceilings, thick mouldings and hardwood floors give the dining area an uncluttered and contemporary feel. The upstairs has floor pillows around a long low table reserved for larger parties. There is a small parking lot behind the restaurant, but street parking is easy to find.
For an appetizer we had the tempura tofu, a deep-fried tofu served with a spicy-peanut sauce. Unlike Japanese tempura, their version had a heavier breading but still was quite good.
Our main courses were duck a la funk and samurai phad thai. The duck a la funk was delicious and the portion was generous. The roasted half duck was served with garlic sauce, peppers and onions. The samurai phad thai was the traditional noodle dish with tempura shrimp. The phad thai itself was quite good, but the tempura shrimp didn't add much to the dish.
The service there had a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality. While one hostess was polite and helped us choose dishes, the second was forgetful and sometimes rude. On two occasions she came to pour water and would only fill one of our glasses leaving the other person's empty. After ordering desert she instead brought us our bill. When the desert, a cheesecake with lychee sauce, was finally brought out the whipped cream had begun to melt already.
Djan's is a house converted into a restaurant. The 10-foot ceilings, thick mouldings and hardwood floors give the dining area an uncluttered and contemporary feel. The upstairs has floor pillows around a long low table reserved for larger parties. There is a small parking lot behind the restaurant, but street parking is easy to find.
For an appetizer we had the tempura tofu, a deep-fried tofu served with a spicy-peanut sauce. Unlike Japanese tempura, their version had a heavier breading but still was quite good.
Our main courses were duck a la funk and samurai phad thai. The duck a la funk was delicious and the portion was generous. The roasted half duck was served with garlic sauce, peppers and onions. The samurai phad thai was the traditional noodle dish with tempura shrimp. The phad thai itself was quite good, but the tempura shrimp didn't add much to the dish.
The service there had a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality. While one hostess was polite and helped us choose dishes, the second was forgetful and sometimes rude. On two occasions she came to pour water and would only fill one of our glasses leaving the other person's empty. After ordering desert she instead brought us our bill. When the desert, a cheesecake with lychee sauce, was finally brought out the whipped cream had begun to melt already.
some random thoughts
Tony Parker is dating Eva Longoria. Looks like the French finally conquered something.
American Idol is a show that needs to be watched in large groups.
Kingdom of Loathing is a pretty horrible game, but if you have nothing better to do at work it rocks.
We will be in Maui next week. I should start doing situps.
American Idol is a show that needs to be watched in large groups.
Kingdom of Loathing is a pretty horrible game, but if you have nothing better to do at work it rocks.
We will be in Maui next week. I should start doing situps.
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Mini-bush is unafraid...
I was on my way into work this morning, listening to the radio when REM's "It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)" came on. I was convinced that I heard an updated version where the lyrics were altered to lines such as "Mini-Bush is unafraid" and them mentioning ashcroft and iraq... but maybe i just imagined it. It went by so fast.
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