A couple of buddies and I have started a page for more publicly facing, sometimes politically oriented rants. I do not recommend you view it if offensive language and occasionally offensive opinions annoy you. In fact, if you are a member of my family and wish to avoid Thanksgiving arguments you should ignore this post altogether.
But if you don't mind the possibility of getting annoyed and/or offended, feel free to check it out. If you want to contribute, drop me a line with your rant.
Monday, August 21, 2006
Engagement Cruise
Sorry about the delay in the update, but I was on vacation last week with Jules. It was quite a trip.
First off, the most important news is that we got engaged. Some are probably saying "Finally!", and I suppose after five and a half years there is some justification for that, but we have always done things on our own terms and that hasn't changed.
Second, the whole trip got off to a pretty shaky start. We were scheduled to leave on Monday, and I picked up the ring after a couple months of shopping the Thursday prior. I brought a change of clothes in my carry on bag and put the ring in the pants pocket.
Well, the first thing I did as soon as we got to the airport on Monday morning was spill coffee all over myself. So that meant I had to change my pants. When I went to the bathroom stall to do so, I promptly dropped my sunglasses in the toilet and my driver's license (which was loose in my pocket) went skidding down two stalls next to me to an occupied stall. The fellow in there was clearly, uh, struggling with his breakfast, and my request for him to kick my license back my direction was initially met only with grunts of distress.
After getting out of there sans sunglasses (still resting in the toilet), I sat back down and tried to relax. I kept the ring on me the rest of the time.
When we arrived in Orlando, naturally my bag did not arrive from Philly. After waiting for an hour or so, we simply had to get going otherwise the boat was going to leave port without us. I filled out a baggage claim and resigned myself to wearing the clothes I had on for the next couple of days, my genius change of clothes plan foiled by earlier clumsiness.
Finally, we got on the boat, and I resolved that I would make the proposal THAT NIGHT before anything else untoward happened.
Lucky guy I am, she said yes.
The rest of the cruise we spent relaxing and enjoying being engaged, since we knew once we got back there would be a flurry of activity (phone calls and the like). On Wednesday my bags finally arrived in Grand Turk, and I got my camera and took some pictures. It was a great time, and certainly a vacation I'll never forget.
First off, the most important news is that we got engaged. Some are probably saying "Finally!", and I suppose after five and a half years there is some justification for that, but we have always done things on our own terms and that hasn't changed.
Second, the whole trip got off to a pretty shaky start. We were scheduled to leave on Monday, and I picked up the ring after a couple months of shopping the Thursday prior. I brought a change of clothes in my carry on bag and put the ring in the pants pocket.
Well, the first thing I did as soon as we got to the airport on Monday morning was spill coffee all over myself. So that meant I had to change my pants. When I went to the bathroom stall to do so, I promptly dropped my sunglasses in the toilet and my driver's license (which was loose in my pocket) went skidding down two stalls next to me to an occupied stall. The fellow in there was clearly, uh, struggling with his breakfast, and my request for him to kick my license back my direction was initially met only with grunts of distress.
After getting out of there sans sunglasses (still resting in the toilet), I sat back down and tried to relax. I kept the ring on me the rest of the time.
When we arrived in Orlando, naturally my bag did not arrive from Philly. After waiting for an hour or so, we simply had to get going otherwise the boat was going to leave port without us. I filled out a baggage claim and resigned myself to wearing the clothes I had on for the next couple of days, my genius change of clothes plan foiled by earlier clumsiness.
Finally, we got on the boat, and I resolved that I would make the proposal THAT NIGHT before anything else untoward happened.
Lucky guy I am, she said yes.
The rest of the cruise we spent relaxing and enjoying being engaged, since we knew once we got back there would be a flurry of activity (phone calls and the like). On Wednesday my bags finally arrived in Grand Turk, and I got my camera and took some pictures. It was a great time, and certainly a vacation I'll never forget.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
See ya Bobby
Looks like I got part of my wish from back in February.
One of my favorite players on the Phillies (and the one whose jersey I own) has been traded.
The buzz is that this is a terrible deal, although I don't think it's as bad as everybody says. This was mostly a cash dump, and Abreu had a back-loaded contract whereby the Phillies would have owed him a lot of money over the next 3 years. Hopefully that money can be used for something good.
But I do think it's typical that Philly fans are going crazy, when just a week ago they couldn't wait to get rid of this guy. Abreu has never been a fan favorite, despite his consistent play. Yeah, his defense was lazy (don't let last year's Gold Glove award fool you), but the goal of the game of baseball is to GET ON BASE, and Abreu was consistently near the top of the league in that category.
At least football season is about to start. Then Eagles fans can return to complaining about McNabb. Good stuff.
One of my favorite players on the Phillies (and the one whose jersey I own) has been traded.
The buzz is that this is a terrible deal, although I don't think it's as bad as everybody says. This was mostly a cash dump, and Abreu had a back-loaded contract whereby the Phillies would have owed him a lot of money over the next 3 years. Hopefully that money can be used for something good.
But I do think it's typical that Philly fans are going crazy, when just a week ago they couldn't wait to get rid of this guy. Abreu has never been a fan favorite, despite his consistent play. Yeah, his defense was lazy (don't let last year's Gold Glove award fool you), but the goal of the game of baseball is to GET ON BASE, and Abreu was consistently near the top of the league in that category.
At least football season is about to start. Then Eagles fans can return to complaining about McNabb. Good stuff.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Philly Loses Again
This time it's on the international stage: Philadelphia and Houston got knocked out of contention for the 2016 Olympics.
This means nobody will get to throw batteries at the Ethiopian speed walking team. Very disappointing.
This means nobody will get to throw batteries at the Ethiopian speed walking team. Very disappointing.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
The Motivator
Some of you have probably seen this before, but somehow it flew under my web radar and I was only introduced to it this week.
Motivator is a simple web tool that allows you to create your own corporate motivational posters. You know the ones with a flock of birds or something that say "Teamwork" followed by something trite.. uh, I mean inspiring.
Needless to say since discovering this I have wasted a lot of time making my own. I'm sure some of you out there could come up with some gems yourselves.
Motivator is a simple web tool that allows you to create your own corporate motivational posters. You know the ones with a flock of birds or something that say "Teamwork" followed by something trite.. uh, I mean inspiring.
Needless to say since discovering this I have wasted a lot of time making my own. I'm sure some of you out there could come up with some gems yourselves.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Dancing
I hate to link and run, but something about this really moved me.
Maybe it was the music. Maybe it was the idea of a guy just dancing all over the world. I dunno, but I really dug it.
I encourage you to check out this guy's story on the site too... it's pretty interesting.
Note: Thanks to Mia for pointing this out to me!
Maybe it was the music. Maybe it was the idea of a guy just dancing all over the world. I dunno, but I really dug it.
I encourage you to check out this guy's story on the site too... it's pretty interesting.
Note: Thanks to Mia for pointing this out to me!
Monday, July 10, 2006
Perplex City
My search for new and innovative types of games has led me to an interesting little product called Perplex City.
I discovered this game in The Escapist, a superb magazine for the more cerebral gamer. In a recent article about ARGs, or "Alternate Reality Games", Perplex City was highlighted as one of the best of a fledging genre that has, up to this point, largely been used as market ploys for upcoming products and not necessarily fully developed games themselves.
But Perplex City is definitely a fully developed game. The basic mechanic revolves around the purchase of "puzzle cards". There are over 200 unique puzzle cards which vary in rarity and difficulty.. and the difficulty really does go from dog easy to diabolically complex.
Here's an example of a typical card I recently solved: the card has about 20 flags on it with no other real information. I go on the internets to discover that somebody has put together a searchable flag database and begin looking up all of the flags. Once I've looked them all up, I discover that if you read the first letter of each country represented by the flag from the bottom up, it spells out a message that asks you another question about another flag. Go to the Perplex City webpage, type in the answer, and the card is solved.
Another example: You need to find 2 side effects of a fictitious drug called "Ceretin" that is being sold in the alternate universe of Perplex City. The card looks like a typical spam email, and contains an url for "Cheap Ceretin". If you go to the homepage (which is brilliantly designed to look like your typical internet scam), you can follow to the "official website" of the "makers of Ceretin". From there you can find a "Contact Us" email address.. if you send them an email, you get an automated response about Ceretin which includes the side effects. Go to the Perplex City webpage, punch in 2 of them, and the card is solved.
The game is very addicting, because it doesn't stop at the puzzles. There is an ongoing story as well, as other people, both real and fictional, are trying to solve the puzzles as well in order to get clues to track down a mysterious cube... whoever finds the cube gets a real cash reward of $200,000. And there are clues everywhere.. in the cards, in the various websites set up by the game makers, in the newspapers... there is even a music CD that comes with the game that supposedly contains some clues. The whole thing really sucks you in.
There are a couple of free puzzles on the website, and the game tutorial is really cool (you make phone calls and get text messages on your phone!) as it demonstrates all the clever ways the game exploits different real life tech. I encourage everyone to at least try it out.
I discovered this game in The Escapist, a superb magazine for the more cerebral gamer. In a recent article about ARGs, or "Alternate Reality Games", Perplex City was highlighted as one of the best of a fledging genre that has, up to this point, largely been used as market ploys for upcoming products and not necessarily fully developed games themselves.
But Perplex City is definitely a fully developed game. The basic mechanic revolves around the purchase of "puzzle cards". There are over 200 unique puzzle cards which vary in rarity and difficulty.. and the difficulty really does go from dog easy to diabolically complex.
Here's an example of a typical card I recently solved: the card has about 20 flags on it with no other real information. I go on the internets to discover that somebody has put together a searchable flag database and begin looking up all of the flags. Once I've looked them all up, I discover that if you read the first letter of each country represented by the flag from the bottom up, it spells out a message that asks you another question about another flag. Go to the Perplex City webpage, type in the answer, and the card is solved.
Another example: You need to find 2 side effects of a fictitious drug called "Ceretin" that is being sold in the alternate universe of Perplex City. The card looks like a typical spam email, and contains an url for "Cheap Ceretin". If you go to the homepage (which is brilliantly designed to look like your typical internet scam), you can follow to the "official website" of the "makers of Ceretin". From there you can find a "Contact Us" email address.. if you send them an email, you get an automated response about Ceretin which includes the side effects. Go to the Perplex City webpage, punch in 2 of them, and the card is solved.
The game is very addicting, because it doesn't stop at the puzzles. There is an ongoing story as well, as other people, both real and fictional, are trying to solve the puzzles as well in order to get clues to track down a mysterious cube... whoever finds the cube gets a real cash reward of $200,000. And there are clues everywhere.. in the cards, in the various websites set up by the game makers, in the newspapers... there is even a music CD that comes with the game that supposedly contains some clues. The whole thing really sucks you in.
There are a couple of free puzzles on the website, and the game tutorial is really cool (you make phone calls and get text messages on your phone!) as it demonstrates all the clever ways the game exploits different real life tech. I encourage everyone to at least try it out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
