Qblog

I am glad to say that 2008 is now officially history, and I hope that 2009 brings positive changes (foolish optimisim though this may be).  For all the babies of 2008, and all the new marriages may 2009 bring hope, love, growth, and happiness. For those who found troubles in 2008, may 2009 grant you a new lease on life.

I hope this year brings good challenges and opportunities for all of you.

In that spirit, here is a little game challenge for you.  http://www.wickedpissahgames.com/games/gravitypods/GravityPods2.html

CNN’s ireport is reporting that this is the last month of production for the iconic Polaroid film.  I will miss the cool white rectangle and shaking the picture to see what comes out.  Technology claims yet another victim.

For those of you who are fans of Heroes of Might and Magic, do you recall the first game of the series.  No, not HOMM 1, but King’s Bounty.  Well, a group of Russian programmers have remade it, and it looks and sounds freakishly fun.  But don’t take my word for it, check out this blog post by Rock, Paper, Shotgun.  I am so getting this game, WOW be damned.

Sorry folks, just need to vent a little.  So far this week, I have managed to quit my job, kind of by accident, and now my water main burst.  I am beyond frustrated by now, but I am sure one day I will look back on all this and laugh…  Just not now.

I think Tycho from Penny Arcade has summed it up best, ” We determined that there was no satirical entry point for a comic about one of the world’s most addictive games being embedded inside one of the world’s most most addictive games. It’s Chicken Cordon Meth, and there is no escaping the folds of its eternal midnight. We stood outside its high walls awhile, he with the pitchfork and I with the torch, until eventually the torch went out.”

What is he talking about?  Well, apparently the boys and girls from Popcap games (makers of such games as Bookworm Adventures, Peggle, and of course Bejeweled) have created a free addon for the World of Warcraft. Yes, now you can have the Bejeweled Addon for World of Warcraft.

Right, like this is a good idea.  Let’s place a super addictive game into another super addictive game, then see what happens.  This would be akin to dropping Tetris into Myst.  Freaking genius or freaking insane, there is no middle ground.  Still, I am thinking of restarting WoW for 3 months, so there is a chance that this demonic pairing may indeed destroy my time and wrack my brain to no end of pain.  Cause really, I need to find more ways to waste my time this year.

You know that I have taken a keen interest in solor energy of late.  If I was in the business, I would so hire this 12 year old, who developed a design for a 3 dimensional solar cell that is theoretically capable of absorbing both visible light and UV light and converting them both into energy.  Makes perfect sense when you think about it, which leads me to wonder why no one thought of it till now.  See Geekdad’s blog for the post.

So I would like to thank Ryan Sohmer of lfgcomic.com and leasticoulddo.com web comics fame for pointing out a fantastically cool site. Do you remember when we were young and used to play with those plastic swords? Yeah, the crappy viking hat, the lame plastic sword that would bend after like 5 swings. Or if you were cool like me and knew where to get the plastic swords from Japan that looked like samurai swords and hurt like hell? Well, the toy swords and armor have grown up. Thanks to LARPers and groups like SCA, NERO and Darkon, an armory such as Edhellen Armory can exist and thrive. An armory that produces high quality foam weapons and shields.

I don’t know what more I can say about this, other than maybe this could become a good workout? So, who’s with me?  I feel the need to purge my inner geek.

The second thing I wanted to post about is a little old school RPG I found called Echelon, Book 1. It’s from a small developer named Basilisk Games and it’s a single player 2d turn based RPG, similar to the early Ultima games that I loved so much. The demo is cool, character creation feels deliciously old school, and yes, I did buy it. Many props to the Penny-Arcade crew for showing me the way to this gem. Man I missed old school RPG’s. Now I just need Fallout 3 to come out.

A short one from the comic archives of Least I Could Do.

How products should be advertised:

Yeah, I would buy that.

But before I explain what I did, may I just say that Chad Johnson is an idiot, abet a very entertaining idiot.  Or should we start calling him Chad Javon Ocho Cinco.  Lovely ring to it.

But as for my Gayle moment…  I was going ocean kayaking and snorkeling today, and I was getting into the kayak for the first time when I flipped the boat.  That by itself isn’t a big deal, I have never been on a kayak before today.  But what was Gayle like was that I forgot until I hit the water that my cellphone was still in my pocket.  Saltwater + Electronics = bad things.  And to top it all off, my memory card on the phone floated away.  I guess someone somewhere will soon come across a card full of random porn floating along the ocean currents.  That thought alone brings a smile to my face.  I guess now is the time to start thinking about a new phone upgrade…