Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve done a game review. Could be because It’s been a while since I’ve played a game through to completion. Sadly I am finding it hard to make time to dedicate to playing games when things like school and work are in the way. Pesky thing, responsibility.
Having said that, with my school giving me far too much time off over the Christmas break, I managed to get my hands on a shiny new XBox 360. Granted that was a bit of a fiasco, in the end I landed me a couple of games. One of those games (obviously, I think, at this point) was LEGO Indiana Jones.
I recall my brother getting LEGO Star Wars, back when it came out. He was obsessed with it, and at the time I couldn’t really figure out why. Sure it was LEGO, which we were clinically addicted to growing up, but at the time I couldn’t see what the big deal was. Of course once I started playing LEGO Indiana Jones, my opinion has quite simply 180-ed. I’m just going to go ahead and assume that 180-ed is a term I can use.
Anyways.
I’m a little late with this, but the joy of the Internet is that someone out there doesn’t know about what I’m talking about yet. I’ve been using Dropbox since the last day of their private beta. As soon as I had invites to give, they went public and my chance to look ahead of the curve went up in a tiny cloud of blue smoke.
Regardless, since using Dropbox I can only say that it does everything perfectly. If ever you could have a backup system for the lazy, the inexperienced, or the uninterested this would be it. I know that casts an odd light on Dropbox, but trust me when I say that it is probably the single most impressive piece of software/service that I have ever installed. I’ve commented on using Dropbox before, but now I’m going to get into it with more detail.
The lolcat title reference aside, I have actually started producing WordPress plugins for myself. I’ve always wanted to make them, and so a while back I set aside a day (well two, once I got the hang of it) and learned. Granted I’ve still got a ways to go, but at least I’ve finally got my foot in the door with it all. The trick is to make sure to create things that are actually useful so that people will actually use them.
So as a result of my tooling around with WordPress, I’ve created two plugins for people to use.
I’ll preface this by saying that since getting my XBox 360, I’ve been enjoying it thoroughly. It works fairly well, It’s shiny, I can now play games from my bed, it treats me nicely. I know a lot of people will hate on me for getting a 360, what with the red ring of death issue, blah blah blah. I’ll say now that the Wii needs elbow room, the PS3 has absolutely nothing on it that I want to play (that’s a lie, Little Big Planet interests me greatly) and I don’t feel like having to repeatedly upgrade my computer just to play games that almost always come out for a console. I’m going for the hassle-free approach.
The irony in that statement will become apparent as you continue to read. It blows my mind how much effort and extra money all of this cost me.
Also it should be mentioned that the span of all of the following events took place over a week and a bit, because I was only at my home for about two days over the entire time-line.
So a while back I mentioned going back to school. In fact, I even recall writing a collection of articles all about the subject. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it in my twitter (or at the very least, bitched about it). Well unlike the real world, College gives you large, void-filled breaks between semesters. This allows people like me ample time to run out of excuses for things we should have either done, or been doing during the academic time frame.
In my case this revolves around:
Now since only a couple of those are actually proactive (I’ll leave you to decide which) I have to pick and choose what and when I do these things. What is the result? Well to give you a glimpse, it’s almost 2 AM as of the start of this post. This is after I applied to many, many bursaries through my school. Who knew that working two jobs wouldn’t be enough to actually stay out of debt? Guess I’ll have to get some more!
My financial woes are not what I plan to talk about today though. I plan to talk about what I can take away from my first semester.
Okay, technically this would be my seventh semester if you are counting the six from the last time I was in school. That is also part of this so read on!
I have been waiting for a long, long time for a new album to come rolling out from this man. The album was supposed to come out a while ago, but when your house burns down due to some forest fires that are ruining the local forestry… well I can understand a delay.
Thankfully after my faithful wait, I have been rewarded with his new release: Sycamore Meadows. After giving this album a couple of listens, it has quickly become one of my favorites for all time. It’s both amazingly happy and startlingly deep, many times simultaneously.
Let’s have a little fun with this post. The idea came to me randomly through the evening, and by now it’s been stewing in my brain for just long enough to have it start to make sense. I could also be going a tad insane from school, but I have no way of proving that as of yet.
So here’s the idea: I’m going to pick a word at random, and then continue writing down all the words and first thoughts I have based on that word and everything that follows. Things may not actually follow in a fluid pattern. I’m sure this will be a clear window into the dark regions of my mind. To stop outside influences, I am performing this without any music, Television or other stimulus.
You’ve been warned.
P.S. I invite any and everyone to participate in the comments!
Oh my God.
Datarock is easily one of my new bouncy favorites. The only way I can describe them is disco acid pop. There’s probably a better way of explaining them, but that’ll work for lack of the creation of new words.
As an aside, I want to apologize for the title of this post. I’m using the normal format, but their first album is actually called “Datarock Datarock” so it makes for some crummy article titling.
I am not the first person to talk about this book, and I know damned well that I won’t be the last. That aside, I have little choice but to talk about The Last Lecture. I meant to talk about the original online version when I first saw it the day Randy Pausch died. I know it’s somewhat of a morbid coincidence, but it’s true and I can’t tell you how heart-broken I was when I found out this tidbit of information.
When I saw the actual lecture, I was at work. Though I told myself I would let it play in the background as I worked, that idea was quickly thrown out and I watched the 76 minute video without pause. Actually there was one pause when I went to the washroom. You get the idea.
When I found out he had a book, the only reason I didn’t buy it was because my girlfriend wanted it. So I got it for her and borrowed it when she was finished.