- Offensive names for ethnic groups
- Possibly offensive names for ethnic groups
- Probably not offensive names for ethnic groups
- Criminals
- Objective names for ethnic groups
- Complimentary names for ethnic groups
- Singular nouns
- The sport you play
Category: Hobbies
Role Model
When I was growing up, people often asked me who my “role model” was. Saying “I don’t have one” would lead to strange looks or awkward conversations, so I would typically say “Bill Gates” or “Wade Boggs” or some other easy answer. Those weren’t lies, I did admire certain facets of these people, but I certainly never emulated them. A few years ago, decades past the point where people ask me that question, I realized I finally have an answer.
I’ve been lucky enough to have several great dogs in my life, all of whom have been very unique, but Stella is, unexpectedly, the closest thing I’ve ever had to a role model. I admire, and try to emulate, how much she lives in the moment. Her ability to grasp the excitement, or the mystery, or even just the simple peace of any given moment is amazing. Even at 6 years old, she takes every minute as a new adventure. I am not, nor will I ever be nearly as effusive as she is, but I do find myself noticing and appreciating the immediate moment even more.
As I observe this furry creature living her life, I’ve collected a some rules that she seems to live by, and that perhaps we all should too:
- If something bothers you, bark at it.
- If someone bothers you, leave them alone.
- There is no such thing as too many hugs.
- Do not eat when you you’re not hungry.
- Do not sleep where you don’t want to.
- Do not be alone when you can cuddle.
- Do not care how ridiculous you look when you’re comfortable.
- You don’t have to be happy about it, but share your toys.
Today I Learned: Wood Finishing
I took a beginner wood finishing class at Woodcraft last night, and was very happy with it. It was taught by Gary Wood, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone that is intimidated by the craft of finishing, as I was. Some highlights:
- Put simply, dye is a color liquid, while stain is a suspension of pigment particles. This means that dye will get into your wood, while stain will sit on top. This means dye will preserve the beauty/grain of the wood better, while stain is easier to work with.
- You can add color at any step of the process (stain/dye, seal, fill/glaze, finish, polish) so you can get the color just right. Doing colors at different steps will also increase the “depth” of the finish.
- Don’t oversand when you’re applying a finish – I learned this the hard way on my own, sanding some maple down to 320 and subsequently seeing the wood fail to pick up any finish. Most of the time you don’t need to go past 180, and never go past 220.
Browser Games: Tribal Wars
Third in a series on browser-based games. First post here.
I initially checked out Tribal Wars because I saw a few people mention it, and was skeptical because of it’s rather amateurish UI. After giving it a fair shot, however, I have to say it’s probably the most balanced web game I’ve seen to date, and I’m still playing it.
TW is fairly generic in its setting, I’d say loosely medieval. It is very combat oriented, as it’s name implies, and your struggle is not only to stay alive but to expand and improve in a congested world. You can grow somewhat fast if you forgo defending yourself, but that’s rarely wise. The world expands, with new players being added to the outside. Over time this makes the distribution form a kind of donut, with dense areas of newer players on the edge, and sparse areas of powerful veterans inside, often hours or days from the newest players and therefore unlikely to steamroll them.
The UI is useful but not very refined, and there’s a premium (paid) option that makes it even more useful and a little less refined. Combat is predictable and errs on the simple side, not quite RPS, but close. Income gains from expansion are proportional to their cost, and both escalate rapidly, which gives a nice sense of progress.
TW also has the option of playing in a “speed round”, where the game is sped up by a factor of 100-400. This effectively turns the highly diplomatic/political game into a brawl that can be more exciting than I expected a text-based game would be. You can build a town up to completion in hours rather than months, and you can also lose it in minutes if you make a mistake or tempt a more powerful player.
I’ll give TW a big thumbs up and recommend it to anyone looking for an involved, strategic game.
Olympic Gripes
Michael Phelps is a tremendous athlete. Jarrod Shoemaker is also a tremendous athlete. So why is Phelps is able to compete for 8 medals and get the attention and sponsorships, while Shoemaker can win but one, and you’ve probably never heard of him or know what sport he plays. Do we really need separate medals for the 100m and 200m and 400m butterfly, and yet 2 more for the 100m and 200m freestyle, and more for the individual medley, the breaststroke, and so on. There’s one medal for running 200m. There isn’t a separate medal for running it uphill, or backwards, or with a hat on. There’s only one medal for the grueling triathalon (Shoemaker’s sport), for the entire basketball/softball/soccer tournaments, yet some sports pile them on the same people because the events simply aren’t differentiated enough.
Another gripe I have isn’t Olympic specific, but is definitely in full effect there. Some sports have weight classes, others don’t. It seems like if being bigger is an advantage, they add weight classes, but if being smaller is an advantage (e.g. gymnastics), then there are none. I’m not saying I want to watch the 300lb+ marathon, but if you want to claim you’re the best weightlifter in the world, lift the most weight, period. If you want to claim you’re the best boxer or fighter, take on all challengers or stop adding “pound for pound” disclaimers to your dubious claims.
That said, good luck to all of the athletes, especially the surprising number from Massachusetts!
Browser Games: Ikariam
Second in a series on browser-based games. First post here.
Ikariam is a strategy game, with Roman themed artwork and an ancient/medieval setting. As of this posting, it’s in version 0.2.7, so I guess that means it’s beta/still in developement. I’m still technically active in the game, though active is an overstatement since I basically log in each day to see that it will still be many days before I can grow again.
It probably has the nicest art of any of the browser games, it’s even better than many installable games. Ikariam starts out strong, with fairly rapid build times and cheap expansion, but what might be its fatal flaw develops later on. Expansion costs are exponential, typically doubling or more, while the returns on that investment are meager, 10-20%. This makes the game slow to a crawl after a few weeks. Combat is slow and relatively simple, and there really isn’t any reason to fight someone except to pillage them, which is barely worth the effort.
I’m not sure what the designers were thinking, perhaps there is some unreleased feature that will open the game up, but for now, I’d have to say its a dud.
Browser Games: Intro
Lately I’ve been exploring the not-new-but-maturing area of BBMMO (“Browser Based Massively Multiplayer Online”) games. They have some cool aspects that drew me to them, and I figured I’d talk a bit about some that I’ve tried in my first-ever series of posts.
These games largely fall into two categories: strategy and role-playing. The role-playing ones are all about you building up a character, typically to compete with other characters. The strategy ones are usually about building up cities and armies and warring with other players or guilds. Both types can be found for all of the standard gaming genres: medieval fantasy/sci-fi/cyberpunk/sports. They also vary widely in terms of competitiveness and social aspects.
Persistence and asynchronicity are defining attributes. They are designed to be played casually, whenever you want. You can attack someone who is not online, or assist a friend on a completely different schedule. This is more like the old play-by-mail games than games like World of Warcraft or Starcraft. Active players often log on several times a day, typically for just a few minutes, and read messages, read reports, launch attachs, issue build orders, etc.
These games typically lack the flair of a downloadable/installable game, or even that of a flash game. Some of them are even almost entirely text-based. They seem to be heavily focused on game mechanics rather than interface, not unlike a board game, and this has a noticeable effect on the type of gamers you’ll encounter. Those lacking patience or the desire to dig deep typically become inactive quickly.
There are hundreds, possibly thousands of these games out there, many with active playerbases in the tens of thousands, yet they are largely ignored by the mainstream gaming community probably because of their lack of commercialization and blockbuster titles. Over the next few days I’ll be discussing some of the ones I’ve tried, including Ikariam, Tribal Wars, Travian, Duels, and Baseball Boss.
Molly the Neurotic Wonder Dog
I’m writing this to honor the memory of Molly May. Molly wasn’t mine, but it doesn’t feel that way. I met Molly only in the last of her 10 years, and she was a pretty amazing dog. She was so smart and responsive you’d quickly find yourself talking to her like a person because she had an uncanny ability to really understand you in a way that was clearly not training.
Her intelligence also seemed to manifest as an endearing set of neurosis, from being deathly afraid of thunder and photo flashes, to literally pouting if things didn’t go her way like getting her spot on the bed. She’d even go into the bathroom and close the door behind her (locking herself in) when left alone at home.
Molly, I’m glad I got to know you, and you will be dearly missed.
DeepSkyStacker
It was a clear, cold night in the suburbs. I can typically make out most of the major constellations, and other random stuff, and if the moon is down, a fair number more. The moon was about 1/2 this night, and I figured it was worth a shot. I took 9 3-second exposures with a 50mm/1.4 lens on a Nikon D300. The pictures themselves were pretty good, showing several times more stars than I could see with the naked eye. But then my friend showed me how to use DeepSkyStacker. This program basically does some fancy noise reduction to get rid of the haze of each shot and make the stars really stand out. The results speak for themselves.
Ideas: Animal Background for Zoos & Aquariums
A recent post at Seth Godin’s blog reminded me of an idea we had discussed a few weeks ago. Zoos and aquariums often have signs that give some basic information on the species of the animals they house, but almost never any information the actual animals themselves. You will only see it done now for major attractions like pandas, and I wouldn’t expect it for every prarie dog or lobster, but I think it could be done much more often.
In this day of easy and on-demand printing, it seems like it would not be a big effort to put up a little placard for each one. The names, birthdates, and birthplace of the animals, with a picture and perhaps some notes on the lineage or personality of the animals would make the whole experience much more engaging, and I might even say that it would boost donations or visitor involvement. This information exists, and you can get it if you opt to bother the staff, but they are always very busy and do most of their work before and after visitor hours.
This could even be taken to a new level if the information is online, editable by volunteers in a wiki-esque format and available as news feeds or email alerts when something happens involving your favorite/sponsored critters.