Coulton cover of Baby Got Back

This song came up on Pandora and I did a spit take when I realized it was a coffee house indie version of Baby Got Back. Awesome.

Irrational Games website

I'm jealous. Irrational Games' new website is slick, informative and fun to read. The podcast is great. Plus the forums have fraking achievements! I loved Bioshock, and I happen to be a Freedom Force fanboy. Kudos to Irrational. Can't wait to see the next game.

Body of Lies

I love Ridley Scott movies. Black Hawk Down. Blade Runner. Gladiator. Hell, I even enjoyed 1492. Body of Lies is an odd movie - full of action and cryptic conversations and beautiful shots of the middle east. I enjoyed it. Body of Lies is a movie you need to pay attention to, otherwise you'll miss important plot points. Russell Crowe is awesome in it; I liked his scenes better. The high tech CIA stuff was cool. I feel like I should read the book to get more backstory and details. I've never read any of David Ignatious' books but have heard good things.

Still on the play list -- we've got Milk, Away We Go, and Inglorious Bastards. I'm really looking forward to watching Bastards.

Got a big weekend lined up...

We're having dinner Sat nite at Old Angler Inn. First time, and read lots of good things, for Restaurant Week menu. Blondie's cousin, Max, is coming over tomorrow for a doggie play date. Nothing finer than watching dogs play. My spring semester class starts so I've got lots of reading and homework for the weekend, as well. And, of course, more Mass Effect 2. I restarted my character, decided I wanted to go back to Infiltrator (stealth w/sniper), which is what I played in first game. My wife needs a weekend break, too. She's been working long hours lately.

And now, the obligatory Hitler rants about Ipad video. Its not as good as the other Hitler rant videos but it has a few good lines in there. One of these days, I need to figure out what this movie actually is and watch it.

Elizabeth Warren on Daily Show

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Ipad, my obligatory 2-cents

I'm very interested in the inside, the custom designed A4 chip. Most reports proclaim the iPad is really fast. My hope is that future iterations of Apple's A4 chip make it into the iPhone.

Other than that, the iPad is more iteration than evolution. Very much an oversized iPod Touch. No stylus, no multi-tasking, no camera. I think iBook has potential to be a killer app. However, Kindle is such a good e-reader and Amazon offers the best pricing on books. (I am biased since I adore my Kindle). I hope the iPad makes its way into schools. I can see it as a tremendous tool  for learning.

Mass Effect 2

I'm about 3 hours in. They fixed a lot of the annoying issues from the first game. I'm having a blast playing it. The beginning is better if you played the first one. Too early to judge, but this might be my favorite Bioware game since Knights of the Old Republic.

Actually, it does always win

New year, new domain. Rice Always Wins. Great name, my wife Megen came up with it.

Banks

After finishing Burdett's fantastic Bangkok 8, my next book is Ian Bank's Consider Phlebas. I've never read any of his books, looking forward to it. I've read good things about his Culture books.

Need more space opera

Mass Effect 2 can't get here soon enough. My pre-order from Amazon should be arriving tomorrow. I wish the Mass Effect team would make another Knights of the Old Republic...or just add light sabers to Mass Effect. That works, too.

Escalation of commitment

Jamie Madigan's post on his blog, Psychology of Video Games discusses Duke Nukem Forever as an example escalation of commitment. To quote:

Consider an auction where a $1 bill is up for bid and the rules are (and this is the important part) that everyone who bids has to cough up their last bid whether they win or lose. Even when this is clearly explained to a room full of MBA students who should know better, someone always springs the trap by throwing out a bid of 1 penny in hopes of an easy $.99 profit.

Invariably someone else jumps on the bandwagon and outbids the first person, raising the stakes to two cents and a $.98 profit. But now the first person must either bid three cents or let the other person win and lose his initial 1 cent bid.

But people really hate losing money, so the second bidder is pretty likely to raise his bid to 4 cents, and the spiral keeps spinning until the break-even point of $1.00. Now one sheep-faced bidder has to decide whether or not to actually keep raising the bid and face a 1 cent loss even if he wins. Much of the time he will actually do it, presenting his opponent with basically the same conundrum.

Researchers running this experiment with groups of otherwise rational adults and had final prices go up to ten or even twenty dollars for a one dollar bill. The reason is that bidders escalate their commitment to the auction by citing prior investments as justification for future ones, even though those costs are gone, immutable, and completely out of the picture. Think of it this way: should you invest even one more cent on an auction that will only cause you to lose money even if you “win?” Or is it more rational to just cut your losses and bow out?

Game Developers Conference 2010

In San Francisco, one of my favorite cities. Trying to decide if I should go. My schedule will allow for it, just not sure I want to spend the money on the trip, especially if Megen won't be with me. I always find the conference interesting. I know there are lots of parties and such; but I don't really do much of that. I like to try new and interesting restaurants, then go to bed. I get tired walking around all day at the conference.

Borderlands

Count me on the bandwagon. Borderlands is fun. Diablo with guns addictive fun. And I've only played for a couple hours. So I'm flipping between Borderlands and my Madden 10 online franchise games (I'm in 3 leagues). Waiting for Mass Effect 2.

Bangkok

I don't remember where I saw this book or what prompted me to buy it (I have LOTS of books on my Kindle now, more than enough to read yet I keep buying more. Need to stop that.)

Really enjoying John Burdett's Bangkok 8. Crime novel set in, tada!, Bangkok. Interesting characters and setting. Reading about a detective in Thailand, great change up on police procedural.

If you like crime novels and mysteries, try this one.

Dear Apple

If you want me to buy your new tablet (and please don't call it a iPad. That sounds like a hygiene product), show me that I can read comic books on it, per subscription, and I'm sold.

Thanks.

Mass Effect 2

Nice trailer, complete with Jed Bartlet voiceover.

100 Friends

The other day, I reached my Xbox Live friends limit. I used to think, 100? Seriously? I'm never going to have that many friends on Xbox Live. But now -- between co workers, colleagues in the industry, friends, random people who've sent me friend requests...sheesh. I'm actually removing friends to fit new friends.

I wonder why there is a limit and why 100? Odd. Seems fairly arbitrary to me. Hopefully, it isn't too major a change to increase the limit. But who knows.

NYC

We had a great weekend. Took Hola Bus, which leaves from Rockville, only 5 minutes from our house. Left Saturday morning around 6 AM, arrived in NYC by 11 AM. Checked into our hotel - we stayed at a new Fairfield, next to the bus terminal. Were in Chinatown by lunchtime for soup dumplings from Joe's Shanghai. Got a bubble tea next door that just only average. Found a vietnamese sub shop with fresh baked baquettes throughout the day, what a great sub. Megen had her first cannoli ever. Walked over to Greenwich, then back to hotel.

Saw Lion King that evening. This is our anniversary gift from last summer -- took us this long to find a date we were free and got tickets. It was really, really good.

After Lion King, we checked out Carnegie Deli. Shared a woody allen, corned beef and pastrami on rye (we asked for more bread), and a cheesecake. All in all, a great way to spend a Saturday.

Sunday, we slept in. We heard it was going to rain but when we left the hotel, no rain yet. We walked up towards Columbus Circle to walk around Central Park. Just as we got to the circle, it started to rain so we ran into the Time Warner mall right there. We hung out there for a while, had lunch, sent a stalker text to my boss who had reservations at Per Se that afternoon, then we hopped on subway to our bus stop. We were home by 9 PM.

Kimmel on Leno

I watched this the other night. Hilarious.

Dec NPD data

December's console sales --

Wii: 3.81 million
Nintendo DS: 3.31 million
PlayStation 3: 1.36 million
Xbox 360: 1.31 million
PSP: 654,700
PlayStation 2: 333,200

I wonder if the blu ray factor is finally catching up with the Xbox 360. The PS3 is such a terrific blu ray player. If we were to go feature by feature, the 360 and PS3 are identical in a broad sense, except for the blu ray. Both play games, disk and download; both offer downloadable movies and music; both offer online friends lists -- albeit Xbox Live had a huge head start so more users and a better interface/implementation. Both have netflix streaming. I don't recall if PS3 has facebook or last.fm but it shouldn't be long before they do. Avatars vs Home. (side note: ping.fm on 360 is pretty awesome) One could nitpick the individual implementations and criticize either one, but from the general consumer perspective, there isn't a big difference. Blu ray and price.  PS3 is still pricier, I believe.

If I were shopping for a console today, I'd have a tough time picking. I prefer the 360 controller, but I like not having to buy a separate blu ray player.

BTW, I got to play Wii Sports Resort  briefly over the holidays. Wow. I gotta pick that up. And New Super Mario Bros, too!

PS: Who am I kidding? I'd get a 360 because I'm a big Mass Effect fan boy :)

Liberty Prime, grocery shopping

Pretty awesome.

Jeff Zucker's voicemails to Conan

Leaked! NBC CEO Jeff Zucker's Vociemails for Conan O'Brien - watch more funny videos

Conan

Big props to Conan for his response to getting hosed by his bosses at NBC.

My favorite parts:
In the last few days, I've been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I've been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I've been absurdly lucky.

 I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn't the Tonight Show. Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.

Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it's always been that way.

Predictions. 2010.

In no particular order of importance. I have no specific insights, going purely by instinct here. Inspired by the latest episode of This American Life.

Time Magazine's Person of the Year will be shared by the founders of google – Larry Page and Sergei Brin. (ok, not that big a prediction. those guys are finalists every year.)

Tiger Woods will be back, playing in PGA as soon as the warm weather returns. (cha-ching!)

Netflix will be bought by another entity before the year is done (probably Amazon, though I wish they would merge with Tivo!).

Despite dumping several brands and models and receiving more government bailout money, GM shut its doors.

This season's 24 will be its last. (It will probably be one of its best, as well).

2010 will be the year the vampire craze ends. What takes over? Gnomes!

And finally, a gaming prediction:
The MMO that will surpass World of Warcraft in terms of subscribers will be officially announced this year -- I have no idea what that MMO will be, though. My vision of the box art is hazy.

What's flashing on the Kindle?

Started reading Fiasco. Interesting, and blunt. Comes right out of the gate and lays out W's sins. Finished The Last Colony, the 3rd book in Scalzi's magnificent Old Man War series. Brilliant and fun. I loved it. I started to read Zoe's Tale, as well.

Head in shame, Brutal Legend...

My head is full of shame. I want to finish Brutal Legend to see how the story ends. I'm not very good at the RTS portion of the game, though. I think I'm about 50% of the way through the main story. I'm contemplating watching youtube videos to see how the story turns out. I'm going to try not to do so (though watching videos of gameplay on youtube is pretty fun, I love watching people play games, any game really); we'll see how long I can resist the urge.

Seeing the light

After working in the basement floor for almost a decade, 2010 welcomes me and my fellow development team with spanking new offices on the top floor of our two-story building. New carpet and paint, new offices and cubicles, new furniture and conference rooms. Big beautiful windows everywhere. Someone said, it feels like we've changed jobs. I'm actually in a temporary office as there is still work being done on this floor. Being able to see the outside is just awesome. Great way to start the new year.

Waiting for e-books

I don't understand what the big deal is, waiting for the ebook version of books. The rationale being that the ebook is less expensive than the hard cover, so we should have to wait for it. We wait for the cheaper paperback versions. 

Publishers Struggle with Strategies on When to Release Their E-Books - DailyFinance

Schadenfreude

Screenwriter John August writes on his blog:

Life, movies and popular culture are a lot more like Settlers of Catan than Monopoly. You don’t win by destroying and humiliating your opponents.

I love that line and agree wholeheartedly. I'm jumping on his anti-schadenfreude bandwagon this year.

Glee, vol one.

Glee is easily my favorite new show. The writing is good, the songs and dance numbers are fun, and Jane Lynch is the highlight of each episode as the evil cheerleading coach. I can't wait for her to get her own musical number.

The first part of the season is available on DVD now. Highly recommended.

QT3 Madden Online Franchise: End of season 1

Catching up on my QT3 Madden Online Franchise league. 

I switched to the Washington Redskins half way through the season. I tried to make a final push for playoffs but fell short. In the last few weeks, my Madden skillz have gone as stale as a Law and Order rerun on TNT. Looking forward to the draft! My biggest needs are the offensive line, secondary and I wouldn't mind picking up a QB, as well. Jason Campbell is ok as a QB. Just ok.

Injuries hurt. Rocky McIntosh, Chris Samuels and Clinton Portis were hurt most of the season, and losing Cooley during the last few weeks was a nice kick in the pants. 

NY'ers Resolutions...for the blog

Write more. Write better. Write posts that are well thought out, worth reading.

My goal for 2010 is to write at least one interesting, well thought out blog post essay each week. Topics will vary but here's the thing, my work is such a big part of my life, that for me to *not* write about it -- heck, it would be like asking all the teenage girls out there to *not* listen to Taylor Swift. 

And lots more Blondie videos. 

Wishing you and yours a wonderful 2010!