It's that time again!
Arg.....
I'm having so much trouble focusing. I'm not used to really NEEDING to study. Like, if I don't study a lot for Ag Markets it will not be good. But I can't focus, I'm freaking out. My Dad and his wife are coming to stay with us this weekend, which I'm really looking forward to, but we need to clean up a lot. We have to finish Christmas shopping, the dogs are pretty nuts, Katy is sick, and we now have a Nintendo Wii, which is of course a distraction. Then just plain, old-fashioned, ADD-induced, Jason procrastinating. Doing things like, oh, I dunno, posting to my blog.
Again I say:
Arg.....
2006/12/12
2006/12/07
The Decline of PC Gaming
There was a time when most households did not have a computer. Many of them did however, have a Nintendo. Then the PC's started to become more popular. With Windows 95 it became common, and by the early 2000's and Windows XP, they were in almost as many homes as a telephone or a TV. We saw games for all platforms, but there were a lot that weren't really doing as well on the consoles. They didn't have the graphics and processing capability, they didn't have the controls, and perhaps most importantly, they didn't have the Internet. I actually started to think that the PC gaming was going to eat away at consoles enough that they would fade. But instead it started moving the other way. I had friends tell me they didn't worry about what their video card was because they used their XBOX or PS2 for games, not their computers. One of the biggest changes was Halo. Suddenly someone figured out how to make a First Person Shooter work with a game pad.
Now with this generation it gets even better. The Wii has what perhaps could be a better system than keyboard and mouse for things like first person shooters and point and click systems like command and conquer. The online setups are in place. Nintendo's online system lacks the ability to find people that people probably want, but with the consoles connecting to friends will be consistent among different games. All three new systems feature wireless controllers. Another huge pointer to the shift is Call of Duty 3. This is a major FPS, and so far they aren't planning to release at all for the PC. At this point it's hard to argue as much cause to stick with PC games. The big MMORPGs are still on PC, but that will change with time.
Time will tell which one of these three systems will rise to the top, but I certainly think the Wii will do better than the Gamecube did against its competition, and I think we will see less focus on PC gaming.
Now with this generation it gets even better. The Wii has what perhaps could be a better system than keyboard and mouse for things like first person shooters and point and click systems like command and conquer. The online setups are in place. Nintendo's online system lacks the ability to find people that people probably want, but with the consoles connecting to friends will be consistent among different games. All three new systems feature wireless controllers. Another huge pointer to the shift is Call of Duty 3. This is a major FPS, and so far they aren't planning to release at all for the PC. At this point it's hard to argue as much cause to stick with PC games. The big MMORPGs are still on PC, but that will change with time.
Time will tell which one of these three systems will rise to the top, but I certainly think the Wii will do better than the Gamecube did against its competition, and I think we will see less focus on PC gaming.
2006/11/30
Back to blogger
So I created a Blog at Wordpress, but in my recent phase of "must perfect my computing enviroment" I decided that Google=good. I thought it would be smart to use google services when possible, so I pointed laydros.org back to blogger. It has been a good service, and they have a new beta with some extra features. The old posts are still at Wordpress, including a big article on pencils. Later I may try to move some over.
Justice is served.... to an alligator
What happens when a Florida druggie gets cracked out and decides to go seduce an alligator? Well, it's pretty funny, if you are as cynical as me.
Adrian Apgar was heard yelling for help at about 4 AM and when police arrived they found the man, naked, on crack cocaine, and partially digested by an alligator.
Best line of the article:
Judd said Apgar told deputies he was smoking crack-cocaine at the adjacent park, but it was unclear why he was naked or why he was attacked by the alligator.
Link
2006/11/28
History of Zelda
This is a great video for the Legend of Zelda fan. It's certainly not short or for the non-geek, but it is quite tastefully done. I'm pretty excited about the Wii and hope they drop a bit in price soon so I can excuse picking one up. As many people my age I have a soft spot for Nintendo and wouldn't mind seeing them take the lead in the "next-gen console wars" or at least get a bigger presence than they have had over the N64 and Gamecube eras.
We take a look at the humble beginnings of the boy dressed in green, and the adventures he found on his quest for greatness It continues with a look at Link’s return to his roots, and his first handheld outing. Then we find Link riding his way onto the Nintendo 64, and becomes the ultimate master of disguise. After that Link brings us back to the handheld market where Link meets a few new friends. Lastly, ventures onto the GameCube where he undergoes an extreme makeover, and meets a talking cap that’ll change his world perspective. | |
2006/06/17
Flock beta
Flock is a "social browser" built on the Firefox code base, which integrates blogging, photo sharing with Flickr or Photobucket, "favorites" (a.k.a. bookmarks) using del.icio.us or Shadows, and other collaborative features. Last November I took a look at an early Flock release, and found it to be interesting, if a little bit rough. The Flock folks have been hard at work, and the new Flock beta release looks solid enough to be a must for users who spend a great deal of time blogging, sharing pictures, or using services like del.icio.us.
When the original Flock developer's preivew (which meant alpha) came out I tried it and didn't think it really did anything that I wanted. I had seen a little bit of praise for the new beta when it came out so I decided to try it again. I haven't really had a good chance to take it through the paces yet, but so far I like it alot. I'm using the blogging feature right now to make this post, and all I did was highlight the text in that newsforge article, and then right click on it and choose "blog this" and it popped up a nice window for me to work in. It will now, at least in theory, just send this right to my blogger account without me needing to do anything. It also interfaces your bookmarks with Del.icio.us, and your picture with flickr. I'll see how things go.
Blogged with Flock
2006/05/04
Almost.... there.......
One exam down. Now all I have left are the corrections for my FEWAS and 2 exams. I took my Ag Mktg exam today, and I still have Interpersonal Comm on Monday and Law on Tues. I know I made a solid A in my English class, but I honestly don't know how I'm doing in the other three, I doubt I have an A in any, and I doubt I'm going to fail any, but it could go either way. If I can manage to come out of this semester without failing anything and without totally slaughtering my GPA, I think I'll be ok.
I'm just ready for more of a break from this crap. Most of all I want to spend more time with Katy, but I also want to do more with the church, and I want to be able to watch primetime TV, and go to see music shows once in a while. Some things like TV seem so mundane, and I don't really watch much TV, but it just sucks because so much "stuff" happens in the evenings, and I just don't have evenings.
On another subject, NC State has hopefully found a basketball coach. Sidney Lowe was on the 1983 NCAA winning team. He's been an unsuccessful head coach for two NBA teams, and a very successful assistant more recently with the Pistons. So we will see how he does. Good to have an NC State grad in there, but hopefully his coaching will be more student oriented that Jimmy V.
I'm just ready for more of a break from this crap. Most of all I want to spend more time with Katy, but I also want to do more with the church, and I want to be able to watch primetime TV, and go to see music shows once in a while. Some things like TV seem so mundane, and I don't really watch much TV, but it just sucks because so much "stuff" happens in the evenings, and I just don't have evenings.
On another subject, NC State has hopefully found a basketball coach. Sidney Lowe was on the 1983 NCAA winning team. He's been an unsuccessful head coach for two NBA teams, and a very successful assistant more recently with the Pistons. So we will see how he does. Good to have an NC State grad in there, but hopefully his coaching will be more student oriented that Jimmy V.
2006/04/26
5 things
Every now and then the internet does turn up to have something good. This comes from a pretty good site called 43folders. It is about organization, and is named after a part of David Allen's Getting Things Done program. This though, is the authors site with lists of 5 things. http://www.5ives.com/
The one that made me totally laugh outloud was the fifth in his list of Five requests with regard to my eventual death, the last one threw me out of my chair:
1. If it happens that my death occurred in some public place, there is to be no ersatz memorial created on that location comprised of teddy bears, mylar balloons, or terrible poems written on posterboard in pink Magic Marker™. This is very, very important.
2. If you choose to have any kind of service “memorializing” me, there will be no use of the phrase “looking down on us.”
3. At no time is any outraged friend or family member to appear in public looking indignant and holding up a framed photograph of me.
4. If you refer to anything I’ve ever done as “brave,” “courageous,” or “special,” I will personally come back from the grave and shit angry ghost turds in your coffee pot.
5. If the resources exist and the weather is fine, I’d prefer to have my remains torn asunder by vicious dogs while “Tusk” is performed by an enthusiastic high school marching band.
I personally have fairly similar feelings about a lot of it. While I believe that I might be "looking down" I think it is somewhat cheezy, and I pretty purely agree with the other 4, including the last one.
The one that made me totally laugh outloud was the fifth in his list of Five requests with regard to my eventual death, the last one threw me out of my chair:
1. If it happens that my death occurred in some public place, there is to be no ersatz memorial created on that location comprised of teddy bears, mylar balloons, or terrible poems written on posterboard in pink Magic Marker™. This is very, very important.
2. If you choose to have any kind of service “memorializing” me, there will be no use of the phrase “looking down on us.”
3. At no time is any outraged friend or family member to appear in public looking indignant and holding up a framed photograph of me.
4. If you refer to anything I’ve ever done as “brave,” “courageous,” or “special,” I will personally come back from the grave and shit angry ghost turds in your coffee pot.
5. If the resources exist and the weather is fine, I’d prefer to have my remains torn asunder by vicious dogs while “Tusk” is performed by an enthusiastic high school marching band.
I personally have fairly similar feelings about a lot of it. While I believe that I might be "looking down" I think it is somewhat cheezy, and I pretty purely agree with the other 4, including the last one.
2006/04/17
Where did we come from
Today, for some reason, sitting with the dogs, my mind wandered to this place it doesn't go very often, and I try not to go to often. I am very much a Christian. But I try to also be open minded and see things from others points of view too. And one place that neither Christian's or aethiests have any explination. If God (of any religion, not just Muslim-Judeo-Christian) put us here, where did he/she/it come from? If the scientific explinations are true, and there was a big bang, and bam, stuff started happening, where did that initial stuff come from.
Doesn't everybody think about this? If so, why don't people talk about it more. If not, why doesn't everybody think about it.
Doesn't everybody think about this? If so, why don't people talk about it more. If not, why doesn't everybody think about it.
2006/04/16
Wasting time again
Again I have a paper to work on, and more importantly a few case's to analyse, and I'm doing other stuff...
This seemed to be fairly accurate, but I think one thing about this is my current state exaggerates how I usually am. I am more stressed right now that I have been in the past, and I tried to answer the questions in this quiz with the current in mind:
Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com
Stability results were low which suggests you are very worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious.
Orderliness results were moderately low which suggests you are, at times, overly flexible, improvised, and fun seeking at the expense of reliability, work ethic, and long term accomplishment.
Extraversion results were medium which suggests you are moderately talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting.
Just two more weeks of class, then 3 exams, then I'm done for the semseter....
This seemed to be fairly accurate, but I think one thing about this is my current state exaggerates how I usually am. I am more stressed right now that I have been in the past, and I tried to answer the questions in this quiz with the current in mind:
| Advanced Global Personality Test Results
|
personality tests by similarminds.com
Stability results were low which suggests you are very worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious.
Orderliness results were moderately low which suggests you are, at times, overly flexible, improvised, and fun seeking at the expense of reliability, work ethic, and long term accomplishment.
Extraversion results were medium which suggests you are moderately talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting.
Just two more weeks of class, then 3 exams, then I'm done for the semseter....
2006/04/12
I guess I'm stalling
I'm in the NCSU library with my laptop, hoping to make some progress on my Business Communication final paper. In reality I've got little more than a page done. As usual, I'm struggling to focus. I'm more interested in reading stuff on the web, looking at what people are doing around me, etc. But this semester is almost over. Just about 4 more weeks.
2006/02/26
Missy and Milo
A couple of weeks ago Katy and I got a new puppy. He was born on Katy's birthday, which is kinda neat. He is a German Shorthaired Pointer like Missy, and has a similar level of energy. They are nuts running all through the house, biting each other, growling, and causeing a rukus. But he's ofcourse cute, and it will be nice to have him from a puppy for training, unlike Missy who we got when she was about 2.
New Toys
So I finally got a new laptop. In fact, this is the first new computer I have ever purchaced. Everything else I have bought second hand. It's nice. Turion ML-32, 512MB ram, 80gig HDD, and the ATI 200M turns out to be nothing bad for video. It was fairly cheap, and I really haven't touched my desktop for much of anything since. That was my hope, to basically just stick with the laptop, and it seems to be working out. I wanted to get something from Apple, but I don't want a PowerPC, because they are moving to Intel chips, and the only Intel laptop is about $2k. So it just wasn't time yet. Hopefully this will get me through school, then I can get something different.
On a seemingly different end of the spectrum, I also found out this week about Moleskine notebooks. As I look further into this, I realize there is a whole culture around it. If you do a search on flickr for moleskine, it is interesting what you will see. They are these overpriced notebooks that people seem to love. Most people use them for one of 3 things: journal, sketchbook, or organizer. They company claims that they are the same notebooks that great minds like Van Gogh, Hemingway, and Picaso used, but in reality they are just making a similar product, that was previously offered by a number of makers. But nevertheless, I'm hooked. They are nice, and very functional. After first learning about them I explained to someone that they are the Macintosh of notebooks, and sure enough a lot of the pictures I have seen on flickr have also featured either an iPod or some sort of Apple computer.
On a seemingly different end of the spectrum, I also found out this week about Moleskine notebooks. As I look further into this, I realize there is a whole culture around it. If you do a search on flickr for moleskine, it is interesting what you will see. They are these overpriced notebooks that people seem to love. Most people use them for one of 3 things: journal, sketchbook, or organizer. They company claims that they are the same notebooks that great minds like Van Gogh, Hemingway, and Picaso used, but in reality they are just making a similar product, that was previously offered by a number of makers. But nevertheless, I'm hooked. They are nice, and very functional. After first learning about them I explained to someone that they are the Macintosh of notebooks, and sure enough a lot of the pictures I have seen on flickr have also featured either an iPod or some sort of Apple computer.
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