FACE THE BOOK

I’ve been on FaceBook for almost two months now. I went there largely because of the strong recommendation of a friend I trust. He’s a convert to FB.

I am not.

I found FB to be bewildering at first but I quickly learned how to navigate the pages and to post my status updates. It was nice to be able to have “tag lines” that are more verbose than the single line in my Instant Messenger program. Plus I reconnected with friends that I haven’t seen since high school, and I was able to get David Lockes e-mails and even started an e-mail dialog with him. (FYI: David Locke is a local sports caster on 1320 KFAN)

I quickly discovered a number of FB games too. There was Mafia Wars, Pirates, Word Paths and others. In fact LOTS of others. In fact I had to quit looking for games there were so many.

I quit playing all the FB games about two weeks ago. They suffer from some common design flaws that I could no longer tolerate after the newness of the games themselves wore off.

My biggest complaint with the games I summarized in a comment on the Rabid Paladins site. I’ll repeat my comment on games here, but I recommend reading his blog for the full context. I have spell checked the version below but other wise I stated:

That is an excellent description of why I quit playing the FB games cold
turkey.

1) I'm penalized for not playing every
day. The "encouragement" to play every day is that you loose abilities or
opportunities by not logging in to each game you signed up for every day.
That is the complete opposite of a casual game. Casual gaming doesn't
actually have requirements like that.

2) The PvP aspects of
people who play to game the system. I have refused multiple friend invites
from people I didn't know who just wanted to add me to their mafia or other
game. I am not on FB for that and I refuse to "friend" complete
strangers. This personal decision leaves me in an untenable position in
any PvP game - I am unable to amass a large enough crew to even complete some
tasks much less to defend myself against someone with 500 pseudo-friends.
The aggravation was much stronger than the fun I was having.

I went
into those games hoping for Trade Wars from the old BBS days but instead I got
PvP wack-a-mole.

No Thanks.

The other thing I can’t take any more on FB is the HUGE number of web quizzes. I have admitted to being a sucker for them – but FB has done the equivalent of poisoning the town water supply by making it so simple for anyone to create a quiz. The quizzes I used to take had many questions and clever results with often funny or at least amusing quotes. The FB quizzes are short, simple and often non-sensible. I’ve taken more quizzes on FB than ever before and more often than not I don’t publish the results on my home page because I thought it ended up stupid. Not just that I didn’t like the result of what color my aura was (for example) – but that I thought it was completely wrong without the faintest trace of anything resembling me.

The only thing I’ve kept from FB over the last several weeks then, is my home page. I do like that method of keeping in touch with people and being aware of what is going on with friends and family. I can read or ignore the home page depending on how social I am feeling. It’s social contact with an off switch I guess.

FB isn’t the end all be all that it is hyped up to be. I’m not going to delete my account but I’m happy to have cut my FB time way back from where I was a few weeks ago and I haven’t regretted the time spent doing other things in the least.

I BOLDLY WENT….

….To the first showing of Star Trek last night. They did a limited opening of the show yesterday and the full opening will be tonight. I was absolutely blown away. Go see it.

No really. Go see it.

This is a well paced action movie with extremely likeable characters, a hopeful attitude, and enough nods to the old time fans like me to make us quiver with joy. I saw the movie with a room full of other nerds, err…. fanboys…. well I guess those are all accurate after all. Let’s just call a Trekie and Trekie I guess. The fans last night seemed to love the show just as much as I did, but I strongly believe that even non-fans will really like this movie.

In fact I think even anti-fans – if they can put aside any prejudice and give the series reboot a try will find that this movie is full of life and hope and excitement and altogether is eminently enjoyable.

The first thing that struck me as the film progressed was how likeable the characters are. I remember why I liked Kirk, and Spock and McCoy so much and that comes through strongly in this show. It applies just as much to Sulu, Scottie, Uhura and Checkov too. I want to go have dinner with all of them because they seem like fun people with interesting personalities and just so….. likeable.

The next thing I noticed (OK this may actually be the first thing since one of the _VERY_ early sound effects is highly reminiscent of an old sound effect) is how faithful they were to the FEEL of Star Trek. The transporter sound, the ambient bridge noises, the red alert sirens were all modernized but based on the traditional sounds. Non fans won’t care but if you enjoyed the original series this will put you back in the mood. It goes beyond the sounds though to capturing the friendships between the leading characters and while it’s not strictly like the old days (you know what I mean if you’ve seen it) the budding friendship between the main three is absolutely true to form. And lets not forget to mention some absolutly histerical uses of key catch phrases.

The SFX. WOW. Amazing. There are two absolutely standout shots of the Enterprise that keep replaying in my mind. One in the atmosphere of Titan with Saturn in the background and one at the final battle that keep replaying in my brain. SOOOOOOOOO COOOOOOOL. The new Enterprise is amazing and I’m totally falling back into my fanboy….err trekie mode aren’t I? Maybe I’d better stop for a minute and take a deep breath….


…. OK I’m better now.

Speaking of new the look and feel of the technology has all be updated to look futuristic again but still retain enough of the old feel to be right. The hand phasers for example are really good looking. I may have to get a replica. But they look like phasers. The Enterprise has slightly changed lines but it looks like the Enterprise. The bridge looks WAY less like cardboard and plywood but it still feel like the bridge is supposed to.

The movie is full of action, and humor, and drama. The pacing is a skillful blend of all these elements to keep movie goers from being bored at all. The acting is well done and consistent. The characters have believable motives and internal consistency in both themselves and in their interactions with others. I’ll say it again and what I say three times believe.

Go see it.

AMAZING CAKE

My lovely wife is able to do the most amazing things with cake. She has a history of making amazing cakes. This year for the oldest boys birthday she made a Rock Band cake in the shape of the Rock Band guitar controller.

It's amazing. One of the cool things about this cake was that the youngest boy helped roll out the fondant. It was his first time ever working on a cake like that and he did a WAY better job with the fondant than I did my first time touching it.

I've noticed lately, that he is very interested in helping with anything in the kitchen. We may have a budding chef on our hands.

The game group also got a cake for my birthday along with Rabid Paladin and Coyotes birthdays.

This one was also a Rock Band theme but in this case was the drum controllers.

PICTURES FROM DISNEYWORLD

OK. Here is a selection of pictures from our trip. Since it was 29 degrees this morning and snow covered everything when I left the house the pictures look extra warm today. I wouldn't mind being back in 80 degree highs and 65 degree lows again.

These will be presented in somewhat chronological order with my comments along the way.

The first night in Orlando we went to Downtown Disney. After dinner we wandered the shops. They have a Lego store there with, like, every Lego in existence. Plus quite a few giant Lego sculptures. Here I am next to a life sized Lego clone trooper.

The next morning saw us off to the Magic Kingdom. This picture didn't turn out as well as I had hoped but heck, it's got that princess castle thing in the background so you know for sure where we were. Plus, it looks really warm there and I'm cold today.

The next day we were at Disney Hollywood. This is from the lobby of the Tower of Terror. You can see the cool shirt that got us an extra all-lines-bypassed ride on the Tower after one of the cast members working there saw me wearing it.

Look its warm!

Here we are indulging our inner geeks (ummm.... yeah OK you got me there, plus our outer geeks and pretty much our whole entire being as geeks) on the Star Tours ride. Note C3-P0 in the background.

Dinner at Le Cellier in Epcot ended with a fantastic Creme Brulee. Here is is half eaten after I realized I should take a picture of the cute decorations they made for us.

Here is the decoration our housekeepers made for us after they found out it was an anniversary trip.

Finally, this picture is just for fun. There were tons of people wearing character hats. They have just the very top of whatever character the hat is for. The top part of Stitch, the top parts of Chip and or Dale, the top parts of Donald Duck or Goofy. Every time I saw people wearing these hats I just kept thinking of Belkar, from Order of the Stick. Why? Well he has a habit of making his own hats, see.

Here I am in full Belkar mode.