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October 03, 2008
random updates
Just a few random updates:
I'm now on both Facebook and LinkedIn. Shouldn't be hard to find me.
I am actually finding Facebook to be quite amazing...it's surprising how many people from back in the day have accounts. Since I've had this blog for quite a few years now, I never found it necessary to sign up for MySpace/Facebook--it seemed like something that was for the generation just behind mine, or for non-technical people who didn't run their own websites. But Facebook seems to offer networking resources that are above and beyond what I could easily do with just a blog, and since I'm not doing very much hacking these days, I'm finding more and more value in pre-rolled services (using Weddingchannel.com versus setting up our own wedding website, or contemplating Comcast PVR instead of building my own MythTV box).
The network effect has also grown them to the point where they are useful, which is something that, say, Friendster never had going for it. I mean, when I can find people from my class at Middleburg using a service, that means it's pretty much arrived. Nothing against my old class, it's just that I think my generation is the last who really grew up with the Internet as something exciting, new, technical, slightly scary, and optional, in the same way that you might not have had a TV in the mid-1900s. This is opposed to Brother Matt, who pretty much always had an email address, or Brother Mike, who has never not lived in a world without instant messaging and cell phones (more or less...yes, both were born in the 80s, before the invention of the Web, but I'm talking more about the presence of technology during formative years).
As an aside, I'm sure everybody has seen this by now, but I've always gotten a kick out of it: Beloit College Mindset List
Anyway, I've got people from Middleburg, Syracuse, BU, and other friends on there, and it's kinda neat seeing what everybody's been up to. Very voyeuristic as well!
We had a great pizza party last weekend with lots of friends visiting, and Brother Matt and I attended Belgian Beer Fest. I'm finding a lot of enjoyment in lambic and sour-style beers lately; I've just gotten so bored with everybody's Look-At-How-Much-Hops-I-can-use IPA. I'm not sure that I've tried as many beers as Matt has, but I've definitely had hundreds, and I find myself drawn to two styles:
Prime examples of category 2 are the Ham on Rye beer from last Extreme Beer Fest, the Bloody Beer from the same, various Belgian sour styles, Rogue's Smoke Ale, and even beers that I didn't actually enjoy but still was intrigued by, such as the Tabasco Beer from Extreme. If I'm just in the mood to sit around watching TV and drinking beer, I'll usually go for the CL, but if I want to drink a beer to actually enjoy some beer, I do tend to go for things that are more out-there.
The new PC is running Half-Life 2 flawlessly at max settings and resolution, and I recently completed Bioshock and Portal, both of which I enjoyed. I do take umbrage, however, at Obligatory Spooky Level. I just don't enjoy being scared by a game I guess.
Minor Spoiler Alert:
Bioshock's real OSL was Fort Frolic. So you're making your way through the level and you see these "statues" everywhere which, although it's never explicitly said, appear to be actual human corpses covered in plaster. You're expecting one to jump out at you at any second, but they don't, until you go into this basement room and see spooky corpse sitting in a chair facing the corner of a room. You go into the next room, turn your back to open a safe, and when you turn back around...wait, where's the chair dude, and was that other statue there before? And said statue then proceeds to attack you. So now as you're making your way around, you need to remember whether or not a "statue" was there before or not.
Another part of the level has you going into a big square basement room with water on the floor and evenly-spaced mannequins throughout the room. Of course, you turn your back, and when you turn around again, some of the mannequins have become spooky statues, which then proceed to come alive and attack you. I mean, you know it's coming. The room is just too weird for weird things not to happen. And there's nothing spookier than turning around, then turning back, and seeing that things are not as they were.
Example here: Ninja Cat
Anyway, Half Life 2 has Ravenholm as its OSL, which actually turns out not to be quite as bad as I thought it would be...when I first arrived I figured on monster closets everywhere, but most of the spookier enemies can be seen coming from a distance away. There were still a couple of startling moments, but not that many.
End Spoilers.
Anyway, can't I just play through an interesting FPS without having to sleep with the lights on? The disadvantage of everything being first-person is that the startle factor is much more significant; you can walk The Nameless One through plenty of creepy environs with a certain level of detachment, but you can't do that if every time you walk through a door you're expecting the windows to burst open and Greater Shadows to start wailing on you. I'm hoping Fallout 3 doesn't go overboard in trying to be survival horror.
I'm sure people will tell me to just get over it and not be such a wuss, but listen: I watched The Ring and I couldn't be near a TV, well, barn, or open field for two weeks. What do you want from me?
Anyway, life is good. Kara is working late most of this week so I've been kitty-sitting. Grad school is going well, the house is once again somewhat clean, and fall has arrived. No complaints. We've got a lot of social engagements over the next few months and we're currently starting to schedule for December, which is business as usual.
Posted by Mark at October 3, 2008 01:08 PM
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