I stumbled across this on Digg tonight. And although she takes a few points to the extreme (for me it’s Diet Coke cans, not Mountain Dew lol), she does have some valid points.
Why Geeks and Nerds Are Worth It
It doesn’t necessarily mean that all geeks/nerds are rejected outright by women. But, they may have a harder time (never got comfortable around women) or have spent a lot of time more focused on a career and relationships weren’t nearly as important. There’s a huge difference between a geek with a career, someone closer to the 40-year-old virgin, and that guy who is living in his parents basement.
And, for the record – Geeks are the ones who are naturally technically inclined, etc. Nerds are average guys who aspire to be geeks.
It’s really a shame that more women don’t think like the above writer, especially here in North Texas. It seems like there are far too many women here who are more interested in how much a guy makes, what kind of car he drives, and when was the last time he appeared in GQ.
So, here’s my million dollar idea of the week (I don’t want credit – just send me the check)
Geeklove.com – or something along those lines – a place where women can find any number of single geeks, and where geeks can post their profiles without having to feel ashamed about their accomplishments (go ahead and brag about the number of level 70 characters you have in WoW — maybe you can find a girlfriend here and get her hooked on the game too!)
Maybe we should have a “Have you hugged a geek?” day?
Because, really, where can a geeky person find someone? The online dating world would seem like an ideal place. But, it’s become such a big business now that more non-geeky people are dwelling there. So, you could try that arena, but you might have to omit certain details about your life (which is ok, because recent articles show that a LOT of people tend to fudge their online profiles – that’s another post).
Clubs? Bars? Ugh. Does anyone really know someone that has found true love at a club? What about the speed dating thing? Or, even the social dinner? Speed dating seems silly to me. The social dinner concept appears interesting. An organization hosts a dinner for a small group (6-12 people) who they have done some profiling on in order to establish a group with some common ground. But, if a true geek doesn’t have the social skills, he’s probably going to end up quietly sitting in a corner.
If you looking for ideas on what to do, I’m as stumped as the rest of you. I’m probably more geeky than I’d like to admit. But, there’s nothing WRONG with me. I have job, and a home (mine, not my parents), and friends. Although I can’t quote Shakespeare to you in the original Klingon, I do have a lot of geeky traits. At the same time, I’m also an artist and writer. And an uncle. I do have a life, more or less. : )
I really haven’t the foggiest idea where to start when it comes to dating these days. My luck has been beyond horrible, which just makes me push the whole relationship thing further and further down on ‘the list’ of stuff I’d like to get done. I tried the “it’ll happen when you aren’t looking” approach as well, but strangely, UPS never delivered that dream girl to my door.
Yet, at the same time, every year there are stories that come out about how marriages are down and that there are more and more single people out there in the world. If there are so many single people out there, why is it so hard now to find them?
I recently picked up a CD called Love. It’s a collection of Beatles songs that have been ‘tweaked’ by George Martin – a legendary producer who once worked with them. One of the songs on the CD is “Elanor Rigby,” and it’s funny how a song from nearly 40 years ago still rings true today…
Windows Vista – The Next Generation OS For Your… Mac?
This is classic! Engadget has a story with pictures of a Microsoft rep demoing Vista on a computer. Wait, isn’t that an iMac?
Vista on an iMac
World of Warcraft – the burning question…
A couple of weeks ago, the first expansion for World of Warcraft was released. The good news is that there’s lots of new things to do. The level cap has been bumped up to 70. There are two new races and two “new” classes (one for each faction). Of course, the “new” classes already existed, but they were unique to each faction (paladins for Alliance, shaman for Horde). Now, both sides have them, meaning there are no faction-unique classes. The new races have new starter areas, and there’s a new continent with new lands to explore, but only for those above level 58.
But, now comes the REAL question? What to do first? Do you roll one of the new classes and start over? Or, do you explore the new areas and start the grind to 70?
I had no idea what to do. I have some friends who are more casual players. For them, rolling a new character is an easy call because they haven’t really invested a lot of time in their existing characters. I have other guildmates who only play one or two characters, both are level 60, so for them the grind to 70 is the way to go.
No one was looking forward to grinding to 70, especially after Blizzard had told everyone long ago that leveling to 60-70 would take as long as it would to level a character from 1-60. But, fortunately, the reality is not nearly as bad. Within two days, someone had already reached 70, and now, a few weeks later, there are numerous players who are either or close to that level. Granted, the experience point totals look huge: 494,000 points to go from 60 to 61. 574,000 points to go from 61 to 62. But, Blizzard has put a lot of effort into making sure there are plenty of quests for players to do and that the experience rewards are scaled up.
So, back to the original question: What to do? For players like me, who have managed to acquire multiple 60s, and have more on the way, it’s a really tough call…
Some of us decided to roll new characters and test out the new races. That lasted about a week. By then, the reports started coming in from the new high level zones. “HOLY CRAP!!! Look at the stuff I just got!!!” Then, it was on. To contrast, in the first week when the expansion came out, my guild consisted of new alts all level 10 or under. By the weekend, 98% of the guild had their level 60s on and were in the new zones.
Ultimately, for me, it looks like I will do the same thing I’ve always done. Level multiple characters. After a year of simply running instances, I have had a chance to re-discover the power of my mage in killing non-elite monsters. I’ve also got a druid that I really want to finish out, but he’s not quite high enough to hit the new zones. Plus, I have had some old friends – the casual players – who have gotten re-hooked on the game. So, now I’m leveling a new character that will be set aside explicitly for grouping with them.
Oh, I’ve got other 60s I could level, and I may eventually when these are done. The hunter did pretty well in Outland, but the paladin was painfully slow compared to the dps of the mage.
Speaking of, it’s time to log on now… : )
What is the internet good for?
Heh, this is a bit old, but if you haven’t seen it, you really have to. : )
Internet is for porn (no it’s not actually porn – trust me, it’s funny)
Mac vs. PC – religious parody
Nope nope, not what you think. There’s no mac zealot vs windows fanboy ad here. But these are kinda funny anyway.
Christian vs. Christ Follower
Normally, I wouldn’t post anything religious on my blog, but these are fun today because I think it portrays a lot of the things that are wrong with “Christians” today. I know a few people who are like this: they’re more interested in convincing you that they’re “Christian” by making a great effort in showing off how they go through the motions and with their holier-than-thou attitude, when the reality is they’re not any better than anyone else (usually, they’re worse).
Ironically, the “christians” will probably be offended by these videos. Why aren’t we the cool “mac” guy? Why are we the geeky “PC” guy? It should be the other way around, they’ll say. They should be the “cool” ones because they’re Christians, while the rest of us heathens should be the “geeky” losers.
But, where are the truly fun “Mac” vs. “PC” religious ads? Like “bible-thumper” vs “athiest”, “palestinian” vs “jew”, or “american” vs “muslim terrorist”? Or, for you really hard-core folks, what about the mother of all religious battles: “coke” vs. “pepsi”?
Ahhhh! A snowflake!!!! EVERYBODY PANIC!!!
Yes, that’s right. North Texas is experiencing the first winter storm of the season.
How crazy is it? Well, it was 79 degrees yesterday. Today, the high was 35. And that was at 4 am. It’s been dropping since.
Plus, we’ve got sleet and a bit of snow. But, that was after the rain overnight.
Ice transforms all of the overpasses and ramps here into new arenas of fun for Texas drivers. And we have a LOT of overpasses and ramps.
Unlike most parts of the country, we usually stay warm enough most of the year that we miss out on snow entirely. Instead, we get sleet/ice storms. At least on pure snow, you can get some traction. On ice, it doesn’t matter what kind of drive you have, it’s spin city for everyone.
It’s interesting to watch the local news around this time too. A couple of fox 4 reporters probably needed a change of pants after recording a truck losing control on a highway at around 5 a.m. this morning. In the video, we see the truck hit the brakes and swerve to miss two other trucks previously wrecked, only to skid directly towards the cameraman. Fortunately for them, there was a guard rail and it held, so we see the truck catch the rail and slide down just to the left of the cameraman.
On the way home this afternoon the high five exchange was already shut down on one side from a multiple vehicle pile up. There will probably be some footage on tonight or in the morning of people trying to use the ramps on the high five or 190 exchanges only to discover they’re coated in ice. For those of you that have never seen our interchanges, the ones I am referring two link between two major highways, with two or more layers of bridges and ramps towering up to 100 ft above the lowest level.
The scariest part of driving in it isn’t the ice itself. It’s the other drivers. Sadly, most Texas drivers don’t encounter ice often enough to remember how to drive on it. A lot of them simply ignore it and drive as fast as they would on a normal day. Others believe their 4-wheel drive vehicles are impervious to any forms of harm and drive the same. But equally dangerous are the few who go the complete opposite way and crusie down a left lane of a major freeway going 15 mph when its clearly not warranted to drive quite that slow.
Fortunately, we only have to endure the ice tomorrow morning (it’ll be a good day to go in late to work). Tomorrow’s forecast? Sunny and 49 degrees, which should be good enough to melt all the crap from today. : )
Which is better? 1, or 2?
I stumbled across this article today with some very interesting videos.
1up has a blog called ‘what the cell?’ which does a comparison of identical titles running on the Xbox 360 and the PS3. On some of them they’ve even spliced the video so you can see the same sequence on the Xbox on the left, and the PS 3 on the right.
1Up What the Cell?
Download the HD ones if you have time. Can you tell the difference?
1Up wasn’t out to show off one versus the other. They were more concerned about why the PS3 titles are not as bleeding edge as they have been advertised to be.
But, for the rest of us, it makes a compelling argument on why shell out the extra $$$ for a PS3, if you can even find one.
Sony has no clue about the PSP…
Sony is in big trouble with the PSP. They can’t figure out how to market it. First it’s a gaming machine. Then it’s a multimedia machine. Now, it’s something of both.
The truth of it is that the PSP is a remarkable machine. It could be so much more. But, one of the problems is that Sony’s advertising is misleading, in my opinion.
Take a look at their new “find me” commercial: Find Me PSP
The girl in the commercial drops off a memory stick with the message “find me” to a guy sleeping (we can only assume it’s his bedroom – which is interesting because the situation implies he’s already “found her” and spent the night with her – but I digress).
Anyway, the guy looks at the various things on her memory stick for clues to her whereabouts. We see a video of her singing and a photo of her in a shirt with a unique logo that he finds on a poster.
Sure, its nice that you can put pictures and video on the PSP. What they don’t tell you is that you can’t do that very easily. You can if you cough up another $25 for Sony’s media manager. Or you can dig around for one of the freeware apps.
But, what would make the PSP a really cool machine is if the girl in question could have done all of this on the PSP natively. Oh yeah yeah, they have that nasty god awful brick of a camera that’s supposed to come out at some point (and costs more $$$).
Pics of PSP camera / GPS unit
So, why not just go ahead and make a PSP2 or PSP redux and integrate the camera in it? You would think it wouldn’t be that hard since every cell phone now has some type of camera in it, if not something with 2-3 megapixels.
While you’re at it, let’s rethink the GPS thing as well. I don’t care if it’s integrated, but I would like it to be a separate attachment that looks like it’s part of the overall design, not a big clunky block sticking out on top of the PSP.
And, go ahead and open up the source. The modders are coming up with really cool things for the PSP, so why stop them? How hard is it to make good music player UI?
It’s really sad because the PSP is one really cool little machine. It’s unfortunate that Sony can’t make up their mind about what they want it to be or invest the resources in making it a much better machine.
Wii are the champions…
For anyone not paying any attention to the world of gaming lately, two of the latest next gen consoles have released in the last week or so: the playstation 3 (ps3) and the nintendo wii (yes, it’s “weee”).
If you look at what’s out there now, I think the Wii is going to blow away the competition in sales over the next year, even though the Xbox 360 has a year-long head start. Why? Simple:
1) The Wii doesn’t use the bleeding edge technology the other guys have, which is a plus because they can crank them out production-wise. Sony barely managed to get out 400k units of the PS3 at launch, and they’re still struggling. Rumor has it that Nintendo plans to have 4 million Wii’s out there by end of year.
2) The Wii has a lower price point than the others. At $250, it’s a bargain compared to the other two (360 is at $399 and PS3 at $599 – don’t let the marketing guys fool you – sure they have a “lower end” model – but you’re better off getting the higher priced one by the time you buy the components separately).
3) Nintendo is making sure their major brands are out there with new games at launch, especially Zelda, which is by far one of their most popular titles. The worlds of Zelda and Mario have sold them millions of machines over the years, and their popularity transcends the usual gamer market. That means, someone would buy a Wii purely on the basis that there’s a new Zelda or Mario game. Microsoft and Sony don’t have anything on their consoles that can even compare to that type of consumer loyalty.
4) Nintendo is trying something different with the way we play video games. They’re trying to make the experience more interactive with their unusual controllers. It’s hard to say how well this will work (and they can easily come out with standard controllers if it doesn’t), but the initial reviews have been positive.
In a way, Nintendo appears to be borrowing a page from Apple, whose ability to design products that “just work” is uncanny. Instead of making something bleeding edge, Nintendo went the other way. Let’s make a video game system that’s “FUN” to play.
Wow. Imagine that.
Things could get interesting if Microsoft chose to drop the price of the Xbox 360 to $199/299, but there’s no indication at this point that they are willing to do that. Even so, after looking at all three consoles this week with my family, there’s not a single title on the Xbox or the PS3 that entices me to buy the game.
But, that new Zelda game, on the other hand, might be worth picking up…
Now, if I can just get my hands on one of those Wii’s…
Moving day(s)
After a long absence, I’m in the process of doing something with this blog. Part of it is a redesign. Part of it is to actually contribute something to it. And, part of it is moving it to another hosting company.
I’m hoping to get this knocked out over the Thanksgiving holiday, so come back in a week and see how it turns out.
This theme, by the way, is called freshy, and can be found at http://themes.wordpress.net.