Why I Don't Spend More Time On Facebook

I've been sort of neglecting my Facebook account lately. Sure, I'll add the occasional friend here and there, but as far as actively doing stuff, updating things, interacting with people, I've been on sort of a hiatus period. Which is really unfortunate, because when I first signed up (way back in Oct), I was genuinely excited about being able to add custom applications to my profile and share them with others. Apps like Scrabulous and Super Poke, which allowed me to casually interact with my friends at my own leisure. But as the site began to hit critical mass (amongst my friends), and I started to see more and more requests coming my way, I guess I sort of lost interest. That fresh new feeling wore off and it stopped seeming less like leisure and a little more like work.

Well, it's been almost six months since I joined Facebook (a little over a year since it was officially opened up to everyone), and that time has given me the insight I needed to understand exactly why I left Facebook, and every other SocNet before it..

Give me something meaningful to do. Every website needs something to draw the user in. For most sites, the web traffic is usually driven by page views to various bits of content, be it news, articles, videos, interactive forums, or the like. With social networks, it's a slightly different can of worms. Usually the main draw is in either joining existing friends or making new ones. And the content that continues to bring you to the site is largely user generated from your inner-circle of acquaintances . But apart from spending virtual time with friends, there's not much more you can do that you couldn't do with a good email and IM client. What about combining the draw of content from blogs and other sites into the mix? The closest thing I can think of is Google's RSS Reader. You can funnel all your daily web content into one place and still share interesting stories with all your friends. But what if you could also leave comments on those stories so your only your friends could see? This would certainly help me stay connected and still get my daily RSS fix.

Make adding custom apps effortless. I really admire being able to add my own Facebook apps, share them with friends, etc., but I really hate having to "install" them. It's the web, the whole point of having an online web app is to not be bothered by some invasive installation process. I know, it only takes a few clicks, but why force me to add something to my profile before I've even tried it out yet? The internet is all about instant access, previewing things beforehand, and the freedom to view short snips before reading the lengthy text. Why not give me the option of checking whatever it is my friend sent me on some sub-domain page first, then I can decide if I want to clutter my personal profile page later.

Give me more ways to post content. Just like Reason #1 up there, I don't always want to be bothered with logging in all the time. Sometimes I've on the go and am not near a computer. Sometimes I'm busy and simply don't have time. And sometimes I'm just lazy, or all of the above.. So give me options here. Let me change my status message via text message, email or even link my Twitter account. Allow me to check on my updates and possibly my friend's updates in email, an RSS feed, heck even simple text messages, but give me lots of options for exactly how much or how little I want to know. Maybe even allow me to setup automated scripts that check other web sources I contribute to, like maybe posting that I've updated my blog, beat a crazy song in Rock Band, posted a new YouTube video, or shared new pictures to my Flickr account. The main thing here is that I want these things to just show up on my profile. No hassle. No having to post things twice.

I guess what I'm really looking for with all these changes is a social network that's also an aggregate service, able to cull my entire web experience into one place, neatly and easily. One that works for me, and at the same time keeps me connected. So that I don't have to worry about the content updates, and can just spend that time actually interacting with my friends instead. Well, look at it on the bright side.. at least now I have more time to spend enjoying games!

I Love Vending Machines

So I walk over to the main building at my work to grab a Pepsi from the cafeteria vending machines. There's a Coke machine fairly close by, but I firmly align myself on the Pepsi side of the cola war, so I've gotta take a walk. Now that I've got my wallet out, counting up the $1.35 in small change, I realize that I only have 5 quarters, a nickel and 13 pennies. Naturally this makes $1.43, a more than adequate amount.. but since I'm dealing with a vending machine here not a person, I'm unfortunately out of luck. Seriously, what good is a penny if I can't spend it?

Anyway, I walk all the way back to the break room by my desk and swap 10 pennies for a dime from our community snack drawer. By the look of the endless sea of pennies and nickels, I can tell a few others have done the same. Finally, I trek all the way back to buy my ice cold 20-ounce, insert every one of my silver coins, and jab at the top button on the Pepsi machine. I look down, and instead of a dark blue bottle, I see something bright and white. Ummm.. Wtf? I glance back at the machine and look closely at the selection buttons.. This is what I see:

Diet Pepsi
Pepsi
Diet Pepsi
Diet Pepsi
Orange Slice
Root Beer
Iced Tea
Mountain Dew
Water
Diet Pepsi

..Figures.

Car's in the Shop

About a week ago my car decided to stop working halfway back to my apartment on the 405. Up until now, I hadn't really had any major problems so far (7 years old and still going).
So it can as a shock when I found myself unable to accelerate, while the car was uncontrollably downshifting every few seconds. Thankfully, I was able to pull off to the shoulder safely and call AAA for a tow. As I was waiting patiently in the driver's seat, cars whizzing by at what seemed like Mach 4, I thought why not try to start her up again. Sure enough it worked and I drove home at a cautious 60 mph (fingers crossed the whole time) back to my parent's house.

Well, I'm lucky enough to have an uncle who used to run my family's auto repair shop, because he forwarded us a reliable contact who could work the repairs himself. Only problem was he wouldn't be able to work on my car until the following weekend. The timing worked out fairly well though, since my Mom recently retired from her long time Northrop job, and graciously let me borrow her car for the week. I wasn't all that used to her "big ol' Camry" (hey, I just happen to think my Civic is the perfect size, okay?) at first, but I got used to it. I still couldn't really adjust to how it always felt massively wide though. And I'd always feel 10 feet high in that seat (I don't even want to know how it feels driving a truck or SUV), like I could see over traffic or something. I guess I just never felt comfortable in that thing.

Now that the week's over, I had to drive back down and swap cars with my sister (she and my Mom went up North for a basketball tourney my sister helps coach). So now I'm driving her Corolla and it's still feeling awkward, like it's the first time I've driven a car before. Nothing reckless or anything like that, but it taking me a lot longer to do things than I'm used to, like starting the car, checking the blind spots, that sort of thing. I kinda feel like Goldilocks and I'm driving the Three Bears' cars. I seriously can't wait until I can finally get my car back so everything will feel "just right"!

Mass Effect: First Impressions

I finally got my hands on the new sci-fi, tactical RPG, Mass Effect; the game many view as the spiritual successor to Bioware's other sci-fi epic, Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR). And after having played a decent amount (about 12 hours of play time, and 15 if you counting reloading), I'm finally starting to "get" this game.

To everyone who enjoyed KOTOR, this has every bit of role-playing charm that that game offered, despite the lack of a Star Wars license. Having said that, you should be aware of its stark differences in combat. While KOTOR was billed as a turn-based, yet optionally real-time RPG, Mass Effect is much more the latter. You can still pause the game, but only to issue each party member to use an offensive/defensive power. None of these actions can be queued up and you have very limited influence over the movement of your other party members. After I had a few battles under my belt, I discovered that I was approaching the combat all wrong. If you look at it as more of a tactical shooter withRPG elements, you'll find yourself reloading your saved game much, much less.

Just as BioShock straddled the shooter genre line, so too does Mass Effect. For starters, you actually need to utilize cover. Don't worry, it's placed everywhere, with loads of crates and rectangular-shaped rocks. But instead of the "stop 'n pop" Gears of War gameplay, you'll need to strafe behind cover like in most other FPS games. Shields also work very similarly to those found in Halo, where you're can simply wait behind cover for them to reactivate. Circle strafing during the vehicle combat is also quite useful. For example, you fight your fair share of giant, Dune-inspired, sand worm creatures, and this tactic seems to work every time. But like I said, this game has it's fair share of RPG elements, though most of them won't hit full stride until you unlock more of the Biotic and Tech powers (let's just call 'em what they are.. Force Powers). Now that I'm at a much higher level, the combat has improved significantly over what I started out doing in the game's prologue.

The game does have some issues (namely, technical problems), most of which can be read about here. But my main problem with the game stems from the its failure to simply teach me how to play it. I'm not looking for a mandatory boot camp segment that holds my hand, but I was hoping for something more akin to Oblivion's brilliant first hour of play. Since you're being introduced to a huge game world with rather complex gameplay, I'd hope for a few pointers now and then. Instead I end up having to hunt through the manual or painfully learn the game's systems through trial and error. For example, the first time you come to a locked storage container, the game tells you little about how to overcome this obstacle. I must have reloaded my save 5 times trying to figure out that you needed to tap each face button fairly quickly to match the onscreen buttons. I also couldn't understand why I could only useMedi-Gels (ie: health packs) sometimes and other times I couldn't. Since there was no tooltip or visual cue on the HUD to inform me, it wasn't until I was 10 hours in that I learned they had a 60 second cooldown timer. I admit, the game does a great job documenting lots of information on the various alien races, technology, and history of the game world. However, I wish some of that effort was actually spent on helping the player learn how to play the game as well.

The nice part about this flaws is they're immediately overlooked once you've played enough of the game to understand the ins and outs. I'm well into the main story arc now, and it's been one of the best gaming experiences I've had this year. I'm already thinking about how I'll play it differently as a Renegade (ie: Dark Side) character on my second playthrough. So if you own a 360, you enjoy deep and engrossing gameplay, and don't mind a bit of a learning curve, then this is a must-buy, much like I'd say Super Mario Galaxy is a must-buy for all those Wii owners who are tired of playing Wii bowling. Even as I write this, I'm thinking I could be leveling up my party and exploring some uncharted worlds like a bad-ass Jedi Knight.. I mean Spectre.


If that didn't sell it for you.. How about a tastefully done alien love making scene?



A few other things to note:

+ New game plus
+ Absolutely gorgeous visuals
+ Huge game world
+ Lesbian romance
+ Brilliant voice acting and dialogue

- Money not very useful
- Most off-world side quests aren't too interesting
- Lots of loading, lots of pop-in graphical problems
- Inventory system could use a tweak

The Bleep Button

Listening to this week's IGN's Podcast Beyond, I was reminded of the South Park episode "It Hits the Fan," where the word "shit" is used so much, a little counter is displayed at the bottom of the screen. It wouldn't have been so bad if they had just stopped using the expletive bleep button and just let it slide. After all, podcasts are more like Internet radio, so they don't have to abide by ridiculous FCC regulations. But when you have to hear that loud high pitched noise over and over, to the point where your ears are ringing, it just acts to highlight the actual use of the profanity, not hide it. Then it becomes a fun guessing game and vocabulary builder for little kids.. Try to fill in the blanks, given the context and the sometimes obvious first letter.

On the other hand, I understand that some shows (online or not) should not be casually dropping the f-bomb. There are some great podcasts out there that you might wanna share with your kids (The Word Nerds is a good example), so maybe leaving the foul language out altogether might be better.

So how about a compromise? If you must censor the audio, how about using the same technique network television stations use when they're rebroadcasting Die Hard on TBS. Simply redub the racier lines over with hilarious, toned down versions of the phrase. For example, instead of "Yippee-kay-aye, motherfucker!", use "Yippee-kay-aye, Mr. Falcon!". Win-Win-Win!

Rock Band: First Impressions

They weren't lying when they said it would be hard to find a copy of Rock Band. The morning of its release, I went to my local Target, thinking they'd have a bunch of them stacked up. The guy at the counter said they only had a few left from the initial shipment of 20 Xbox360 and 15 PS3 versions (might wanna take that with a grain of salt). Lucky for me, I was going home happy, clutching a big, huge ass box in both my arms. Seriously, you could probably use those boxes to smuggle small children inside the country. Once I got home, I proceeded with the epic unboxing ceremony. It took nearly 20 mins to unpack everything, and set it all up in the living room (drum kit, guitar, mic, USB hub, and yes they're all shackled with plastic wires on the 360). At one point, I had what seemed like 2 "extra" metal pipes.. But after a quick glance at the manual (I know.. RTFM), I found a home for those parts.

As for the peripherals, the drums were my first instrument of choice (obviously). They're pretty solidly made, but all the instruments felt heavier and more realistic compared to the Guitar Hero controllers. The drum stand is adjustable in height, so it should work from the comfort of any sized couch or chair. The addition of the bass drum foot pedal certainly mixes the gameplay up a bit compared to the regular guitar experience. Best of all, they actually included real Ludwig drum sticks with the game, keeping the authenticity quotient high. Overall, the hit patterns are much more demanding on the drums. I'm usually pretty comfortable on the Medium difficulty on Guitar Hero, but I had to demote myself to Easy when I tried out the sticks. Once you get the hang of it though, the experience is definitely the most satisfying of the bunch. I can't wait to work my way up to the harder difficulties, where the notes begin to match, beat for beat, with the real songs themselves.The guitar has been redesigned quite a bit. Mostly taken from the many criticisms by gamers over the past few years. The strum bar no longer makes a clicking sound, but I found myself missing that lack of feedback. The fret buttons are now totally flush with the guitar neck, which can make positioning your fingers tricky when things get hairy. The addition of extra "hammer-on" buttons at the bottom of the guitar neck and the effects knob, add a little extra variety. Lastly, the mic is your standard, metal-tipped karaoke bar instrument. It's got some weight to it, same as the guitar, and a really long chord, so you can dance around the room like a possessed rock vocalist. I gotta say, the karaoke aspect is pretty addicting, and if the drum and guitars are already taken, I'd gladly rock the mic.

One great feature they added to all the instruments are freestyle sections. These allow everyone to add their own flare to the song, like a glorified cover band would. For the mic and drums, these sections are actually the only way to activate your "Overdrive" (think "Star power") and add a multiplier to your score. Since each person (drum, mic, guitar, bass) has their own life bar, using your Overdrive is also the only way to revive a band member who has failed their portion of the song. Just like in a real band, it's a team effort, although some will obviously gain more groupies than others (sorry Mr. Bassist).
I have to say, the hit detection in this game is much more harsh than in past Guitar Hero games. I often find myself getting really into the rhythm, only to miss a note I was sure I'd hit perfectly. This could be due to the learning curve of the new game and hardware, but I think Harmonix should think about releasing a patch to make things a bit more forgiving. Especially considering that this is going to be more of a party game, and everyone knows parties are supposed to be fun, right?

One last note (pun intended) to cover is the new Band World Tour mode. You start out in one city and slowly branch out across the globe, gaining fans, managing your shows, even recruiting roadies. It's a great change of pace from the boring, incremental setlist progression of previous Guitar Hero games. Only thing is, this mode is only available in offline co-op. Why this isn't offered as a solo experience with A.I. band members is beyond me. One can only hope this gets added eventually.

Black Friday

Like a hungry, zombie mob, consumers can't resist the delicious savings!

It's the one day every geek loves to hate. Loves, because you're never gonna find more consumer electronics deals on a larger scale (every store, every type of item, one crazy morning). Hates, because it's one of the worst days to shop due to the crowds, pushing and shoving, and the absolute need to "camp out" in line for the really good stuff.

Every year, I vow never to put myself through the ordeal and every year I prove myself wrong. But it's hard to resist the promise of good deals. Only thing is, everyone else seems to have that very same problem. So, since you're going (yeah, quit fighting it.. you already know you're going), here are some tips to get you ready for Black Friday this year..


1. Bring a friend. If you're going to sit outside in the cold, darkened night, squashed up against a crowd full of electronics geeks of all shapes and sizes, you gonna want someone else there to share in the pain. See, you're misery and their misery now cancels each other out, thus balancing the universe. And if one of you starts dosing off, the other person can be there to poke them back into consciousness. What are friends for anyway? Besides, who are you gonna trust to hold your place in line while you go pee behind that bush? Getting them to make a quick Mickey-D's run at 6am is another good reason to bring someone else.

2. Bring stuff to do. Unlike most other waiting games, this one kinda requires consumer electronics. Unless you're waiting under a bright street lamp or you bring amaglite w/ extra batteries, you're probably not gonna be able to read anything or solve any sudoku puzzles. Sure, if you followed my advice in step #1, you could simply talk to your friend for your entire wait, but we all know that's only gonna take up a good 20mins, maybe 30 mins if you're lucky. If you want to prepare for the long haul, you'd do well to bring a handheld gaming system or two. Rack up the high score in that Bejeweled clone you've got on your cell phone. How about renting a mobile power generator and bringing an LCD with you? Now the guy behind you in line has got 2 things to be jealous of you.

3. Have a gameplan. This is like the big show, so preparing is everything. Maybe it's because I'm a guy, but when it comes to shopping, I never go just to go. What the hell is the point of just looking? I came for a reason dammit, and I've already memorized the fastest route to get my 5 items and then get to where I calculated the tail of the line should be by then. Hesitate even a moment and then little Timmy is gonna have one less overpriced gadget to brag to their friends about come Monday morning. Check the websites early (link1, link2, link3), so you're not waiting for the Thanksgiving newspaper. Also be sure to prioritize everything. Your gifts > Other people's gifts >USB Memory Sticks. Just remember to keep it realistic. Chances are you're not likely to get a shopping cart, so make sure your eyes aren't bigger than what your arms can carry.

4. Hit up multiple stores. If you're got the energy left, you might be able to grab a few more items elsewhere. Naturally, you camp the store where you can strike themotherlode , but don't forget that most people forget about going to those second tier stores like Sears, Comp USA, or even Costco. I know you're probably gonna be in zombie mode, but if you can just hold out a few hours longer, you can be soaking your feet in that brand new foot bath or relaxing in a new gaming chair. Trust me, you'll be glad you sacrificed your body in the name of electronics.

5. Be safe.



You don't wanna be those people on the ground when the shit goes down. One way to make sure you avoid the craziness and mayhem is to pick stores that you know will be handing out vouchers. I know Best Buy usually does this and I'm sure others do as well. Many stores only let groups of people into the store in controlled waves, but it's probably best to ask the store manager before hand. On the flip side, a class action lawsuit is always a good Plan B.

Let's Play Spot the Difference!

Completed Map:


My Map:


If you wanna know how crazy I am, take a look at the above pictures. See those two diagrams of the Castlevania Symphony of the Night map? If you look very closely, you can see them begin to mock you as you try to spot the differences. I was only missing 4 rooms (if you're feeling up to it, try to find them yourself). 4 little squares away from gaining 100% and satisfying the completionist part of my gaming brain. But as miniutes turned into hours, I quickly found that might not be so easy. I started questioning myself. I started questioning God, Allah, Santa Claus, as to why they'd put me through such pain and agony?

Then I thought maybe I should stop attacking this problem like a caveman and learn to use some 21st century tools. So I whipped out Thao's digital camera, loaded up my copy of Photoshop Elements, and like a CTU agent working on terrorist intel, I got to work! It was actually a nice little exercise, because until now, I had never used a Photoshop application before. I've used other, smaller apps like SnagIt to do simple modifications, but never anything that involved multiple layers. I think the hardest part was adjusting both images to match well enough for the whole thing to be useful. Once that got taken care of, it was fairly easy to modify the completed map's opacity (37% worked pretty well) to a point where the overlay of my map bleed through quite nicely.

The best part of the whole ordeal was that, almost instantly, a light went on and the all the secrets of the Universe were revealed to me. It was like finally fitting in that last piece of the jigsaw puzzle. Well.. now that I'm halfway done with the game, I might as well get moving. This castle map isn't gonna reveal itself.





Btw, if you're interested in the solution to the above challenge, look below.

A Big Misunderstanding

I don't know why, but this really cracked me up as I was listening to it..

Taken from EGM Live - 11/12/2007, talking about the classic 1996 blockbuster, Independence Day.

I think that we're the bad guys in that movie. Cuz if you think back on it, when the aliens first come to Earth and they try to make contact with us, we send up a helicopter that's got all these lights on it. The scientists say it's like Close Encounters. they show all these lights and the aliens will understand it. So the helicopter goes up and shows its lights to the aliens and the aliens shoot green lasers and blast us all to hell. But how do they know we didn't just say the most degrading insult in the universe to these aliens? Like, "We're gonna find your homeworld and we're going to ass rape your mothers!" So of course the aliens are gonna blast us and then they start this whole war.

And then there's the whole chase sequence where they're chasing Will Smith and Harry Connick Jr. But I think that was another alien trying to catch up with him and say it was all a mistake. But Will Smith pulls out his parachute and blinds the alien and the alien crashes. And Will Smith opens the alien's hatch. The alien's all flailing around and it's probably saying, "Stop! Stop! We don't want a war! We think there's a misunderstanding!" Will Smith punches him in the face and says, "Welcome to Earth!"

At that point of course it's a downward slide. If you look at it from that point of view, it's all a big misunderstanding and in the end we send a virus through their firewall and kill them, and good riddance! And if we ever do go to their homeworld, we know how to kill them with our computer virus.

Why do we gotta kill everything we don't understand?? What they really could have used at the time was a babelfish. Or maybe not go to war with everyone that doesn't sing the Star-Spangled Banner.. Just a thought.

Phase

So I just bought the $5, Harmonix-developed iPod game, Phase, and I'm highly recommending it to all fellow 5th gen and up iPod owners. Harmonix being the developers of the original Guitar Hero 1 and 2 games, as well the upcoming peripheral extravaganza, Rock Band. To be honest, it's not really fair to compare it to any of its console siblings. I'd view it more as a cell phone game, since it's relatively cheap and simple. The gameplay basically consists of hitting 3 buttons (rewind, center select button, fast-forward) in time with the constant scroll of dots, while also sweeping your fingers along the scroll wheel to follow any series of dashes. It's not really different than any other rhythm game out there. But where Phase really shines and where it will likely earn it's replay value is its ability to play any song you own.

Yes that's right, you can convert any song on your ipod to work with this game and it'll automatically generate the proper hit patterns. That said, I'm sure some genres of music may work better than others. Fast-paced dance mixes and techno J-Pop songs come to mind as ones that might make for some challenging hit patterns. I've already taken the liberty of playing some Guitar Hero classics (eg: "More Than A Feeling".. my personal favorite guitar hero song). I also couldn't resist playing some Ouendan and Elite Beat Agent songs, to see if the DS-tapping games translated well. Keep in mind, the game does come preloaded with some 7 decent songs already.

I just love the idea that any song I want is available for this game. I really hope this is where the future of rhythm games is taking us. Imagine if you could convert any song you own to play with a guitar, drum set, piano, or even karaoke machine. You never have to buy any new songs, because that's a library you have full control over. Buy once, play anywhere. That's the system we need to adopt. Instead, we've got music stores that only play on a limited number of players. Movies that aren't easily made portable, or worse, you're forced to buy multiple versions. I could go on and on, but you get the picture.


Update: I noticed that there might be a issue with this game if you use multiple computers to update your iPod's content. The game can only be installed by syncing all your games from one PC/Mac and it creates a special playlist called "Phase Music". However, if you manually modify any of your iPod playlists on a different computer, the game won't run at all and you'll need to reinstall it using the original computer. It's unfortunate and hopefully this bug will be fixed soon. This could be why Apple is reluctant to allow third-party apps on the iPhone.

The One About Anatomy

Old Penny Arcade post..

This is today's comic, which represents an authentic conversation between my son and I. There really should be some kind of licensing requirement for procreation.

~

Kotaku post..

Excerpt from tonight's conversation with my son:

Mini-Bash: (coloring in a coloring book) What happened to mommy's penis?
Me: Huh?!
Mini-Bash: What happened to mommy's penis?
Me: Mommy doesn't have a penis. She's a girl. Girls don't have them.
Mini-Bash: Did it fall off?
Me: She never had one.
Mini-Bash: Did it fall off because she didn't take good care of it?

Nope, not looking forward to the where-do-babies-come-from conversation in the least. NOT IN THE LEAST.

~

I was gonna call this post "The One About Penis Envy", but instead I went with my better judgment. I just find it funny how fascinated we are, as little boys, at our own reproductive organs. I guess even at that age, we're constantly trying to categorize things to make them more identifiable. And back then, girls and boys were just about the most different things I can think of.. come to think of it, that's still kinda true now.

The Ramifications of the Writers' Strike

Well, the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) strike is in full effect. The first ubiquitous protest from the group in almost 20 years. I can't say I blame the Writer's Guild for fighting to gain proper compensation for their work. The truth is that the entertainment industry is evolving and the television networks and movie studios are not properly keeping up with the recent change in climate. Reality shows have become a dominant slice of programming pie, requiring dirt cheap production costs and virtually script-free programming. In addition, many TV networks are experimenting with newer forms of media like time-shifted Internet clips and webisodes, excluding writers from earning royalties off these new ventures, along with the highly lucrative DVD business as well. Obviously, both sides clearly recognize that having a dominant position among these new media types is where the money will be in the future. But the group that will be ultimately lose out the most from this strike are the millions of viewers across the world this Fall and next Spring.

Most likely, the shows that be affected the earliest will be the late-night talk shows and weekly news programs (like The Tonight Show and The Colbert Report), since these are usually daily offerings that are highly topical in nature. The scripted comedies and dramas that started in September will likely have enough episodes in the hopper to cover up till X-mas hiatus, but I predict many of these will opt for shortened seasons. No doubt a few may have even been scrambling to hammer out season finales early. And I can't imagine what will happen to shows like 24 and LOST that were slated to begin in January or February of next year. How can you produce a proper serialized show when you've only got half of the episodes finished? And with LOST and Battlestar having a finite set of remaining episodes to go, I hope they don't get compromised in the end.

Even if the strike only lasts a few months, that could carve off nearly half the episodes required to finish most of the seasons this year. After all, producing a high quality program takes months. It's not quite as simple as filming the actors and sending it off to press. Just like a threaded process running in parallel, it quite costly to abort an instruction midway through. Even worse, networks will have to come up with something to fill those empty time slots. Whatever they decide, it's not gonna be pretty folks. I've heard everything from an onslaught of reality and game shows, to lots of reruns, to an influx of foreign programming (think UK imports). Mostly, I'm concerned that the jarring season endings will hurt the ratings of many shows out there, simply due to viewer apathy. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but too much may leave you wanting something new, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a huge reboot across the board of high profile programming in the Fall 2008 lineup.

So enjoy those episodic gems of TV goodness now, while you still can. I, myself, am looking forward to catching up with as many DVD box sets as I can get my hands on. I'm currently working my way through Battlestar Galactica. Next up is Twin Peaks. As for anything beyond that, I'm welcome to take recommendations..

WTF Moments in Halo 3

So apparently, Bungie is making the infamous Recon Armor permutation available to a few "lucky" individuals outside of the Bungie studios. You see, Halo 3 offers you the ability to uniquely customize your appearance in the game. By changing your helmet, shoulders, and body armor of your space suit, you can hopefully distinguish yourself from the other 50 million Master Chiefs running around online. One such customization is the rare (previously Bungie only) Recon Helmet armor type that displays a flaming particle effect around your skull (which I've heard still persists even when you pick up the invisibility powerup). Naturally, this makes you a bigger target than a fat guy at a comedy club, but I guess exclusivity has its benefits.

So how might you obtain this honor, you say? Well, experience something that's both depressingly unfair to you, and yet hilarious to everyone else on the Internet..

Explosion + Cone = WTF!?!



Sniper Rifle + Real Time Physics = WTF?!?



And here's one more that's worth checking out..

Plasma Grenade + Blind Luck = FTW!


And thus, we finally understand the awe and beauty that is the Saved Film. Never again will you be able to dispute an unfair kill with your friends and/or loved ones. The Saved Film has spoken and it never lies (or so Bungie would have us believe). And although I have yet to experience a WTF moment myself, such as the ones above, you can bet I'll have that replay saved, edited, and posted on YouTube if I ever do.

Guitar Hero III vs Rock Band

Update (10/27): This just in from IGN's latest playtest session.. So as of right now, the Les Paul Guitar Hero 3 controller apparently DOES work on RB. However, on the flip side, the Fender Strat Rock Band guitar DOES NOT work on GH3. My guess is that this was an intentional, lockout move on Activision/Red Octane's part. It makes business sense that they'd allow their controller to work with other games, yet not vice-versa. But underhanded moves like this are rarely accepted by the gaming industry with open arms. I really hope this comes back to bite them in the ass. Karma, karma, karma..

I was gonna write a diplomatic bit about how Guitar Hero III and Rock Band are both equally good, but with the recent news circulating, Guitar Hero III has lost my vote entirely. If you're somewhat confused right now, I'll try to straighten things out for you.

In the beginning, the rock gods known as Harmonix, developed the Guitar Hero games and Red Octane published the ridiculously popular series for them. After making a retarded amount of money from the sequel, Red Octane was acquired by Activision and they went on to create the next Guitar Hero sequel, GHIII. Meanwhile, Harmonix partnered up with MTV and began work on the multi-instrument follow-up game, Rock Band. This month, the stage is set for both of these guitar games to come out, and go head-to-head "Battle of the Bands" style.

Now both games have their strengths and weaknesses. Guitar Hero III is really all about a great guitar experience with a top-notch song set. Rock Band is promising to deliver a much broader experience with the extra inclusion of the drums and microphone. I had thought (actually everyone on the Internets had thought) that either guitar controller would work with either game. But apparently, Activision and Red Octane are keeping the Guitar Hero III peripheral in a more proprietary state. In contrast, Harmonix has stated that they are abiding by the open standards set forth by Sony and Microsoft (you know, for all those other guitar games out there).

In other words, Activision and Red Octane are a bunch of greedy, money grubbing bastards that wanna force people to choose between one game or the other. Fuck you Red Octane. Fuck you Activision. Fuck you Neversoft for letting your publishers force us consumers into that decision. It's bad enough a guitar game costs over $100 now, but to have to buy two separate bundles containing plastic guitar controllers is nothing less than a travesty. A travesty that must be avenged! The bizarre part of this convoluted mess, is that EA, Rock Band's publisher, seems more likely to pull this kind of crap on us. Well, if there's already a Rock Band 2 out nine months from now, you can be sure I'll be back bitching and moaning about the situation again.

The Office - Local Ad

Wow, a lot of great moments tonight, but it was the ending really lifted this episode up into the stratosphere for me. I've been waiting all season long for that one act of Michael Scott brilliance, where he manages to redeem himself despite his constant failures. From the moment I heard that Chariots of Fire song, I had a smile on my face and I'm anxious to see that "Great Scott Production" again on YouTube.

I also loved the whole Dwight playing Second Life thing. I totally bought that he would make his character would fly around the world like some creepy Heroes side character. And I'm glad they included Jim's jab at the sorry excuse for an online community. Guess the WoW reference has already been done already. I still like the concept of an office playing Call of Duty as a team-building exercise better though.

Dwight: Second Life is not a game. It is a multi-user, virtual environment. It doesn’t have points or scores, it doesn’t have winners or losers.
Jim: Oh it has losers.

Man, Daryl and crew can really sing one heck of a jingle. You've got Andy rocking the a capella harmony, Kevin adding his wedding singer vocals, Creed lending his musical talents, and Kelly in there for good measure. Almost as good as the teleconferenced serenade of "Take a chance on me" to Angela a few episodes back. As the guys at the That's What She Said podcast say, whatever they're paying Ed Helms, it's not enough.

I had planned on writing more, but really those are the only things that stuck out in my mind from my first viewing. But like other great shows out there (Lost, Simpsons, Futurama), The Office is one that really benefits from repeat viewings. Those subtle, unspoken jokes are ones that make this show one of the best on TV.

Things I've Learned From Kid Nation

Every new season of TV shows begins kind of like a new sports season. You start out with some fresh new blood, and that group slowly whittles down to only the best and brightest. Some shows barely make it through the season and usually find themselves on the chopping blocks come next Spring. Some turn out to be break-out hit sensations that go on to last 10 solid seasons, ending in a "better-late-than-never" sliver screen treatment. Well, rounding out my list of new shows this year that I'm keeping an eye on (along with NBC comedy/drama--or cramedy--Chuck) is the controversial new CBS reality show, Kid Nation.

Now, I know a "Survivor" type show when I see one, and this is definitely not one of them. Sure, it may look like "Survivor with braces", but trust me, there is so much more here than artificially engineered friction among the kid-aged contestants town residents and competitive mini-games physical challenge events. These kids are trying to recreate a better society through their own means and that's no easy task, if you ask me.

So here it is. The list of things I've learned from watching Kid Nation:

- Kids cry. A lot. Judging from the footage, you'd think they're always playing that Bambi's Mom death scene every time they point a camera at these kids. To be fair, I also frequently cried at times when I was younger. But that was because clowns are evil. Also, that Greg guy can be really hurtful sometimes.. Fuck him. That's right, he's on TV now, so I can say whatever I want about him and it's perfectly fine. Like criticizing that YouTube Britney sympathizer chick.

- People who do volunteer work will always do their work more willingly than those that are required to do that type of work. Like when the lower class kids are forced to do their jobs, it feels to them like a bunch of chores to them. But when the upper class team pitches in, they're making a difference for the community. Therefore, if you want to get a bunch of work done, just tell them it's volunteer work for a good cause. That way, they feel good about themselves and you get the job done at little to no cost.

- The kick-ball method of picking teams is the best way to divide people into groups. Like a fantasy-basketball draft ritual, the best people are picked first, leaving the real losers of the bunch to be picked by a random number generator. Oddly enough, these seemingly random divisions usually spawn a healthy amount of rivalry. Which explains why in multiplayer First-Person Shooter games, the people on the red team are usually bitter enemies of the people on the blue team, and vice-versa.

- "Deal with it!" is just about the most effective thing you can shout at people to get things done. In fact, simply yelling out "Quiet!" at the top of your lungs can solve practically any dispute. I think the folks in the Middle East could really learn a thing or two about diplomacy from these brave young souls. Settling their differences, despite the difference in color of their designated teams' neckerchiefs. Just think, someday these kids will be the ones running this country when we're on life support in some hospital. Who am I kidding? Old people run this country, and by that time, it won't matter too much to us who's running what.

- Incentives will only push a person so far, but it's what's in your heart that really determines a person's motivations. Take for example, the $20,000 ($10,000 after taxes) gold star prize that is awarded each episode. Based on the show's current recipients of this honor, it's really more about doing what's right, not about the positive reinforcement that's being shoved down their throats to get them to do shit. It's just like that "Leave Britney Alone" chick, who I hear is getting her own show of some kind. She's doing it because that's what she believes in, no matter how backwards and twisted that may be. Wait a minute.. That's not a chick, that's a dude? No way.

Browser Issues

So apparently, my blog has a slight problem with Internet Explorer.. Try it out (don't hold your breath though). And by "slight", I mean it doesn't fucking work. At least it hasn't worked for me on 3 of the PCs I've tested so far (all using IE 6.0, of course). I'll research the problem, but I just don't get it. It's Blogspot for crying out loud, not some crazy Web 2.0 shit I pieced together from scratch. I don't even know if it's a individual blog post that's violating the whole deal or if it's a template issue, but I guess figuring that out would be a good place to start.

So far, the page seems to load just fine using both Firefox (ver 2.0.0.7) and Opera (ver 9.23). I've yet to try out Safari, but I don't have a Mac so I'm gonna need some help on that one. I know having any type of website (I suposed your Myspace page is a "tyep" of website..) means you should check for browser compatibility, but I guess I just forgot about IE. But it's still the mass market choice out there (more like default choice), so it's still important to cover all your bases.

It's just that IE seems to be the worst offender out there. I can't even go to Google without getting some kind of debug error, which is just sad. It really goes to show how continually adapting an existing system can be a burden over time. Every once in a while, you have to stop iterating on the same old ideas and leap forward to keep up with the changing times. Sure, you'll face security hurdles initially and people may not be willing to quickly adopt the new ways, but change is good, and that extra robustness really pays off in the long run. Especially when your web browser is bombarding you with a million dialog boxes complaining about run time errors.

RSS Backlog

Well, since we're still without internet at the new apartment (actually there's one computer that I'm using to "borrow" wifi from a very generous neighbor.. thanks, btw, whoever you are). But yeah, for the most part, it's been hard to keep up with my podcasts and various RSS feeds. I don't know why, but if I fall behind in checking my email or if the articles in my RSS feed reader start piling up, I can't just let them be. It really bothers me to leave them unread. But things are getting so bad that I may need to do the unthinkable.. "Select all and mark as read" (a travesty, I know). The last time I had to do this was when I went on vacation, and believe me when I tell you it was a difficult few mouse clicks.

Usually I can get by with just listening to my weekly list of podcasts (since they usually do a good job of covering the major stuff), but it still bugs me--maybe I do have a problem. The news tid bits are like my marijuana and Google Reader is like my bong. Each time a feed is updated, it's like taking another tiny hit of digital bliss (no hits for Jesus?). Just like a smoker trying to quit, I think I should maybe try to cut back, trimming my RSS feeds down to only the utterly necessary. If only there was a way to filter out the good stuff, saving my eyes the trouble of sifting through a never ending scroll page, but sadly, that alien technology is still very far off. For now, the best way to stay updated is to cram in as many feeds as possible and click, click, click.

How's Your iPhone?

So I just heard about the bricking iPhone fiasco on TWIT this past week. To those of you who fought the good fight against AT&T, I'm sorry for your loss. But good news, I heard there might be a class action lawsuit in the works. I wonder if this is coming as a result of pressure from Apple's business partners. Certainly, Apple knows they're not winning many popularity votes with this kind of recent behavior.

Let's just hope they make good on this in the near future. I suppose the true Apple loyalists out there have already made the telco switch. For everyone else.. Be careful what you put in your iPhone, or risk turning it into a $599 $399 paperweight. But sexy paperweight nonetheless!

Weeky Radar - Week of Oct 1st, 2007

This Week in Gaming
10/1 The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
10/2 NBA 2K8 (PS2/PS3/PSP/Xbo360/Wii)
10/2 Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox360)
10/2 Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (PC)


This Week in Movies
10/5 The Heartbreak Kid (Ben Stiller)


This Week in TV (All times in PST)
10/1 Chuck - Chuck Versus the Helicopter (NBC 8pm)
10/1 Heroes - Lizards (NBC 9pm)
10/3 Bionic Woman - Paradise Lost (NBC 9pm)
10/4 My Name is Earl - The Gangs of Camden County (NBC 8pm)
10/4 #8 Kentucky at #11 South Carolina (ESPN 4:30pm)
10/4 Grey's Anatomy - Love/Addiction (ABC 9pm)
10/4 The Office - Dunder Mufflin Infinity (NBC 9pm)
10/6 #1 LSU at #9 Florida (CBS 5pm)
10/6 Notre Dame at UCLA (ABC 5pm)
10/6 Stanford at #2 USC (TBD 4pm)
10/7 Family Guy - Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air (FOX 9pm)