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Hi all…
Wow. It’s been a while since I had to admit an addiction to a game. Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Civilization 2, 3, and 4 are the most recent forms of addiction for me, but I have to add a new one…
Do you know what this game does to a roleplayer like me? It taps into some subconscious need to not only play UPS or FedEx driver, but it drives me to reload each time I die just so I can kill the monstrosities or bandits that happen to have sealed my doom…
Saphrym talked about it on his blog a while back. I waited. But evidently not long enough. This thing has created an itch I have to scratch!
It sucks you in so innocently… You start as a baby, grow up in the Vault, and then start chasing your Father down across the Wasteland. One thing leads to another and you get irradiated, blown up, shot at, eaten, stung, and who knows what else.
The images are clean and crisp (until of course you have radiation poisoning and you start getting blurred vision) and you do your best to not stare at the scenery too long or a sniper might get a lucky shot at you from a hidden position… It’s Oblivion all over again. [sigh]
Lucky for me I’ll get a break when I’m gone to Germany next week. But I’m guessing you’ll be seeing more updates from the Waste before I’m done.
If you get addicted to video games like Oblivion, stay away from Fallout 3. It’s insanely addictive. Insane. I can stop any time! Any time I say! Ha hahahaha hahahahahahaha!
[Sounds of sirens can be heard as the men in the white suits come to fit me for a snug fitting jacket...]
–Fitz
p.s. Whatever you do, don’t click these links to pick up this game from Amazon!
For far too long, the world has been touting the health properties of wine. Yeah, so it’s got anti-cancer and anti-aging properties. Beer tastes good and makes (many) men and women happy. Soon this argument may be a thing of the past!
Some researchers from Rice University have devised a way to use genetic engineering to create a beer with reservatol’s disease-fighting properties. Huzzah!
Evidently the idea is that they genetically engineer a type of yeast that would not only be used to ferment beer, but infuse it with reservatol at the same time. Yay! Healthy beer! A whole new reason to enjoy this very hoppy alcoholic beverage!
Ok, this is a break from our regularly scheduled programming… But this clearly falls into a “What the…” category.
A 5 year old boy in Florida was voted out of his kindergarten class 14-2 by his peers, put to a vote by their teacher. Now… Even if this kid didn’t have any medical issues to contend with, this would be a horrific thing to do. But this kid is autistic (Ausperger’s Syndrome), diagnosed with ADHD, and other issues. Why in the heck would a teacher do this to a kid?
But as a parent of two young daughters, one in 1st grade and one who will be going into kindergarten in a couple of years, this is just insane. Talk about being the formative years for a kid — kindergarten sets it all off. If you don’t have a caring, safe environment to learn in kindergarten - you’re going to end up with a mess of kids going forward.
My sister has taught kindergarten and 1st grade and I know some of the preparation and caring that goes into a typical kindergarten year — to subject your kids to this kind of abuse is unimaginable to me.
Anyway… Check it out, let me know what YOU think about this outrageous activity by a kindergarten teacher who thinks she’s done nothing wrong.
I was VERY amused when I saw this article on Engadget… And it gets funnier if you go to the original post that Engadget was writing about here…
This makes the guy who flies around with the jet pack look SOOOO much safer. Why didn’t Iron Man use one of these? ‘Cause he’s not crazy, that’s why!!!
With a show of hands… How many folks have traveled for business? Either for sales, conferences, or some other purpose. Yeah, I thought so…
Over the last few years I seem to average about 1 major trip a year… This year’s trip was last week to California for a technical conference. I got to schmooze and chat with as well as listen to folks from all over the world talking about this software engineering stuff that I do during the day.
I came home yesterday and was absolutely exhausted. All I wanted to do was sleep. Was falling asleep on both planes, which I never do. And then I woke up this morning and discovered…
I’d gained 5 pounds.
Now… This isn’t really a shock. I’m not exactly in great shape and I like to eat. Pretty much all I did was eat, drink coffee, soda, or beer, stand around or sit and chat with all these various people. Met some great folks too! But evidently all that eating and drinking and sitting around didn’t do much for my waistline. There’s a shock.
So it’s back to the gym this week while my wife and girls head off to Wyoming (Grand Tetons) for Spring Break.
I know there are lots of blogs out there where people are documenting their weight loss and workout progress… I think I’m going to start doing that myself, just so I can be held accountable for my actions. We joined a gym last month (Villasport, which is a great place) and I was going 2-3 times a week until I went on this trip. Guess it’s time to buckle down on my diet and exercise plan!
Anybody have any suggestions on where to start? I’m 37, about 40 pounds overweight, and want to slim down for my 20 year high school reunion in July. I’m very open to thoughts on how to get this party started.
–Fitz
Sorry there’s no new posts this week. I’m out of town at a conference in Santa Clara, California. So my days are spent in crowded rooms with a bunch of other software developers. Actually it’s not that bad. I enjoy meeting new people and learning new things. So I’ll just grin and bear it.
Anyway… I hope to post a review of Horton Hears a Who sometime this weekend. Went and saw it with my family last Saturday and absolutely loved it. So that’ll be a post. Plus at some point I hope to be able to sit down and watch Oceans 13, which I have in its DVD pouch from Netflix just waiting to watch when I have a couple of hours to kill out here this week.
So I hope this St. Patrick’s Day week finds you all well and enjoying yourselves. Please come back and read later in the week and I will try to have some new articles for you.
Thanks for your patience!
–Fitz
Hi and welcome to a new irregular feature on the Lair called “Paranoid Minute of the Day” or PMOTD for short…
[BEGIN PARANOIA]
Today’s minute focuses on the bizarre thought that robots are becoming cheap enough that they could be used against us by terrorist or criminal organizations sooner than later. A couple of articles brought this up for me this week…
Could the Terminator scenario come true? Probably not. Probably something more like the 1984 movie Runaway with Tom Selleck (penned and directed btw by Michael Crichton) where a madman or group of madmen intent on creating chaos or destruction start using robots against us.
Ok, so this is definitely one for the Wacky News category. Do you remember that great game from the late 1970s called Space Invaders? Well, a group of 67 people sat for nearly 4 hours in a French theater and created a 390-frame stop motion movie duplicating Space Invaders play…
fitz in 
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Today’s minute focuses on the bizarre thought that robots are becoming cheap enough that they could be used against us by terrorist or criminal organizations sooner than later. A couple of articles brought this up for me this week…
