New Super Mario Bros. Wii Multi-player Mode Is for Experts
Thursday, 4 February 2010
The other day, somebody mentioned on Twitter that the multi-player mode on New Super Mario Bros. Wii made the game play really difficult. Agreed. The fact that you can push and bounce off other players, and hit them with shells and their ilk can make things a bit frustrating. On one level, I lost about two dozen lives because I kept getting pushed around by my bully family. But, I find the chaos part of the fun.
Last week I watched some of the hint movies available in the game. I quickly realized that multi-player mode is for experts and gamers who can communicate very well. The multi-player movies are performance art.
My favorite so far is from Level 1-3. Luigi touches the ground for maybe ten seconds throughout the two minutes it takes to complete the level.
Here’s a list of all the hint movies.
You can also try searching YouTube.
The Life and Times of Martha Washington
Saturday, 23 January 2010
Last year, Dark Horse Comics published the oversized, hardcover The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-First Century, by Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons. It collects every Martha Washington stories. At $99 list price (usually available for around $65), it was out of my price range.
Fortunately, a trade paperback, priced at $30, is being released at the end of June. You can pre-order it from Things from Another World for $24. Not available on Amazon yet.
If you’ve never read any of the Martha Washington stories, make sure to pick this one up. They’re some of my favorite.
Jeff Smith's Favorite Comics of the Decade
Thursday, 31 December 2009
Jeff Smith has published his favorite comic books of the decade. I’ve only read two, 100% by Paul Pope and the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels. I placed requests for all the rest at my library, except for the Peanuts anthologies and the web comic Rice Boy. I’ll have to read some of Rice Boy online to see if its worth purchasing the dead-tree version.
Barf It Out, Then Clean It Up
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Colin Marshall, on the heuristics he’s picked up in 2009. My favorites:
“Barf it out, then clean it up.” A friend quoted her journalism teacher as saying this, and I’ve since adopted it as a pithy reflection of the broader phenomenon that the sole path to non-suckage winds through the treacherous woods of suckage. I must therefore make peace with producing something sucky and then iterate that initial product until it achieves decency…
“What’s the hardest thing I can do?” Again, my hat tips to Paul Graham: “This is a good plan for life in general. If you have two choices, choose the harder. If you’re trying to decide whether to go out running or sit home and watch TV, go running. Probably the reason this trick works so well is that when you have two choices and one is harder, the only reason you’re even considering the other is laziness. You know in the back of your mind what’s the right thing to do, and this trick merely forces you to acknowledge it.”
I’m trying to live the first one by writing faster; by not re-writing endlessly, or telling myself I’ll come back and polish something later. Write it now, and give it to the world.
I need to remember that second one. I’m horribly lazy and would much rather sack out on the couch to last night’s Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson than actually work at producing something. Produce more, consume less.
Via Ben Casnocha
Sesame Street's Yip-Yip Aliens Traumatized Me As a Kid
Friday, 18 December 2009
You know what scares me the most? Not monsters, or horror movies, or vampires, or ghosts.
Aliens.
Scariest movie I’ve ever seen? Signs, followed by Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. (I think E.T. is also responsible for my fear of the woods at night.)
But it all started with the Yip Yips from Sesame Street. Those things scared the crap out of me growing up. I can still feel a little of the paralyzing terror that would wash over me when they would appear. That eerie music would start. There they’d be, floating down from the sky, chanting their creepy “yip yip yip yip yip”, landing outside some window. They were Out There.
Here they are on YouTube:
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review
Thursday, 17 December 2009
The Star Wars prequels were pretty much crap. They got progressively less crappy, but still pale in comparison to the originals.
Red Letter Media has put together a hilarious, scathing, 7-part, 70 minute review. I have a hard time disagreeing with anything in it.
At about 1:15 of part 7, there’s a scene showing George Lucas and producer Rich McCallum after watching the rough cut screening for the first time. Lucas rolls his head and McCallum just stares at the screen. I can see it in their eyes: the realization that they’ve just created a horrible movie. It’s a beautiful moment of Schadenfreude.
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review Part 1
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review Part 2
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review Part 3
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review Part 4
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review Part 5
Avatar Preview
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
When I first saw Avatar teaser trailer I thought, “Oh. Dances with Wolves in space.” I wasn’t impressed, especially since the trailer pretty much left no part of the plot a surprise. Gee, I wonder what’s going to happen.
Subsequent previews, however got me a little bit excited, and recent good press has increased it. Roger Ebert gave it four stars. It’s got an 85% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes four days before release. It also just got nominated for a Best Dramatic Motion Picture Golden Globe Award.
Color me surprised.
As much as I hate to admit it now, this looks to be my kind of movie: I go to be entertained and escape from life for a while. My life is serious enough without seeing movies that dramatically show the scope and scale of the human condition. I’m living the human condition and don’t need reminders. I just want to have fun.
Avatar looks like it’s going to be a blast.
Greatest Traffic Stop Ever
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
I first saw this video of a major meltdown during a traffic stop years ago on some reality video show. Over Thanksgiving, my dad mentioned he had seen it on World’s Wildest Police Videos, and yesterday I found it on YouTube.
What would he have done if he got a $300+ ticket for speeding here in Oregon? I wonder.
New Study Reveals Most Children Unrepentant Sociopaths
Monday, 7 December 2009
A study published Monday in The Journal Of Child Psychology And Psychiatry has concluded that an estimated 98 percent of children under the age of 10 are remorseless sociopaths with little regard for anything other than their own egocentric interests and pleasures.
Am I a bad father for finding that hilarious? Is it so funny because it’s completely true?
Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2009
Monday, 7 December 2009
My four-year-old son loves when we read to him, so I’m always on the lookout for a good children’s book. I don’t like to browse the stacks, and I need a big list, otherwise we end up reading the same stories to him over and over and over.
The New York Times recently published their list of the best illustrated children’s books of 2009 . My local library has 9 of the 10, with the missing book currently on order. This should keep us entertained for a few weeks.
Via Playgrounder
MacSlaps
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
These are really cool. I wish they had a design that better fits my personality. Maybe a sack person from LittleBigPlanet
Three Head Minimum
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
I’m married to a worrier, so this recent Wondermark still has me laughing.
David Foster Wallace Was Not Afraid
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
David Foster Wallace seems to have reached into my brain and pretty succinctly summarized my thoughts about terrorism:
bq.In still other words, what if we chose to accept the fact that every few years, despite all reasonable precautions, some hundreds or thousands of us may die in the sort of ghastly terrorist attack that a democratic republic cannot 100-percent protect itself from without subverting the very principles that make it worth protecting?
Exactly. Acts of terrorism are like forces of nature: hard to predict and understand. Time and money should be spent to help recovery and response.
Via the excellent Fraidy Cats.
TopUp
Monday, 23 November 2009
This looks like a good JavaScript image popup library.
Via A Fresh Cup
Status and Self-esteem
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Interesting article arguing that our feeling of self-esteem is really a feeling of our status compared with those around us.
While there’s no question that there’s a deep human drive for a feeling of self-esteem or competence, this feeling of competence is almost never assessed on it’s own: we are social beings at the core, and as such our sense of competence appears to be deeply connected to others around us. Self-esteem may not be an accurate way of understanding this feeling of ‘okayness’, when we actually measure this constantly against others. Instead of self-esteem, we need to start thinking about the more dynamic sense of ‘status’.
Backup Software for Windows
Saturday, 10 October 2009
People frequently ask me what program they should use to backup their computer. My answer is “Buy a Mac.” since it has the wonderful Time Machine built-in. I’ve never had an answer for Windows since I haven’t used it at home for years.
I have an answer now: Rebit Backup Software (pronounced ree-bit).
Granted, I haven’t actually used it, so take my recommendation with a grain of salt. However, it got a good review from How-to Geek.
Remember, your backup solution should have two components: a backup of your entire computer to an external drive for quick recovery and online backup of your data (i.e. documents, photos, music, etc.) in case your computer is destroyed or stolen. I personally use Backblaze.
Netflix's Freedom and Responsibility Culture
Monday, 17 August 2009
This is a fantastic slide-deck from Netflix about their company culture.
The real company values, as opposed to the nice-sounding values, are shown by who gets rewarded, promoted, or let go… Real company values are the behaviors and skills that we particularly value in fellow employees
I see it as a vision statement without the typical rhetoric and spin. I sense genuine sincerity.
Via Kottke.
What's Really Going
Monday, 3 August 2009
People are funny. A lot of the time what we say is not what we mean. Most of the time, we don’t even know ourselves well enough to know the things we say and feel are lies. This is a story of a woman who saw through her husband’s words to what was really going on.
Via Kottke
DIY Adjustable Glasses
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
I love brilliant ideas like this:
Silver has devised a pair of glasses which rely on the principle that the fatter a lens the more powerful it becomes. Inside the device’s tough plastic lenses are two clear circular sacs filled with fluid, each of which is connected to a small syringe attached to either arm of the spectacles.
The wearer adjusts a dial on the syringe to add or reduce amount of fluid in the membrane, thus changing the power of the lens. When the wearer is happy with the strength of each lens the membrane is sealed by twisting a small screw, and the syringes removed. The principle is so simple, the team has discovered, that with very little guidance people are perfectly capable of creating glasses to their own prescription…
The implications of bringing glasses within the reach of poor communities are enormous, says the scientist. Literacy rates improve hugely, fishermen are able to mend their nets, women to weave clothing. During an early field trial, funded by the British government, in Ghana, Silver met a man called Henry Adjei-Mensah, whose sight had deteriorated with age, as all human sight does, and who had been forced to retire as a tailor because he could no longer see to thread the needle of his sewing machine. “So he retires. He was about 35. He could have worked for at least another 20 years. We put these specs on him, and he smiled, and threaded his needle, and sped up with this sewing machine. He can work now. He can see.”
Especially great because it helps people become more self-reliant. Extra bonus points when those people live in third-world countries.
Via Core77
Earth Rise
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Taken on the Apollo 8 mission, you can download your own copy, in four different sizes, from NASA’s web site.
