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Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Life Hacks

This is a neat infographic with some useful tips on making your life easier and more organized.

Click to embiggen.



A few notes,

Domestic Hacks:

1. I don't reverse the hangers. Instead I always put clean clothes on the left and choose clothes to wear from the right. The shirts on the far right at the end of the season are sent to goodwill.

3. The movie Vengeance demonstrates this with a thin cord over the top of the door instead of a rubber band. This is why hotels use the solid metal hoops instead of the chains. Of course, a kid's suction cup arrow will defeat those.

4. Eating a banana 'upside down' is not all that great. There is a black nub on that side you don't want to eat, and that nub also serves to keep the banana in the peel for the last bite. If you follow their advice you end up eating the nub and the banana falls out of peel towards the end.

Work/Productivity Hacks:

1. This is awesome. Basically a weeks vacation in the company's bathroom. What more could you want? Make sure you save the world with that time.

3. Beer judges have to go to school where they are asked to drink beer that has been deliberately damaged for their BJCP certification. You are then tested on identifying how the beer was damaged. i.e. improper storage, hot fermentation, left over sugars etc. (Yes, there are floaties)

Health/Body Hacks:

2. This is something I really want to try. I hear staying awake for 24 hours will also reset your clock.

4. Super, but have you ever tried to open a coconut? It's next to impossible without a machete.

6. Do people over the age of 23 get brain freezes? (I would say 16, but college creates a lot of dumb opportunities.)

7. This never works for me.

8. Putting new pillow cases on and rotating towels sounds like a lot of work, but if it is effective, then it'll be worth it.

Miscellaneous Hacks:

1. This was discovered by Earl in the Best Buy parking lot in the 90's. He could unlock his car from forever away.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Next Time

We had an amazing time at PAX this year, and there are plans in the works to hit PAX: East in Boston around 2013. However, next time I’d like to play it a little different. Use the lessons learned etc.

1. Plan to be at most if not all of the Mike and Jerry’s events
2. Try to hit at least one JoCo Concert
3. Play a lot more board games and D&D

The last one there is the dark horse. I spend a lot of my time reading about and playing video games, so when we walked through the convention hall, I’d seen most of the big players before. I knew which games I would buy, and which games I would pass on. I pretty much knew what to expect from that hall floor.



What surprised me is how much fun I had playing Castle Ravenloft in one of the side halls. It's actually a cooperative board game. You aren't competing with your fellow gamers, but working together to defeat the challenges of the game itself. After reading GeekDad’s post on PAX, I lamented missing so many new and interesting board games that I could have tried out.

Oh, and next time, we’re doing the delve.

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

D&D: A Spectator's Sport

We almost skipped what turned out to be the highlight of PAX. The PA kids have an ongoing D&D game with Wizards of the Coast that was originally designed to show off the new 4E system. Their podcast of the game has proven to be so popular that they have continued their adventures sporadically throughout the years. This was the first PAX where the event took place in front of a live studio audience i.e. us.

The show was Saturday afternoon, so by then we had thoroughly learned the two major lessons of ‘Go to everything that the PA kids are involved in’ and ‘Go early because the line will be epic’. We arrived almost 2 hours early to take our place pretty close to the front of the line, which quickly filled out behind us with a thousand people.

The game itself is hard to describe. It was a combination of stand up comedy, D&D, good friends, and a ton of inside jokes. Kurtz and Krahulik are in rare form for the entire adventure. If you’re steeped in the geek culture at all, you owe it to yourself to watch this 2 and a half hour game.



Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
Part VIII
Part IX
Part X

After the show, we were slow to leave because we wanted to get a closer look at the table they were using. Everyone filed out, except for a handful of us, and the PA kids. I happened to have a first edition PA book in my bag on the off chance an autograph opportunity arose. It arose.

I scored signatures from both Mike and Jerry, and I'm now the proud owner of a piece of internet history.


Games
GameInterestRelease Date
Civilization IV1
C&C 31
Company of Heroes1
Half Life 21
Half Life 2: Episode One1
Supreme Commander1
Call of Duty 22
Darwinia2
Dungeon Runners2
Dungeon Siege II2
Far Cry2
Galactic Civilization II2
Hitman: Blood Money2
Jade Empire2
Neverwinter Nights 22
Prey2
Psychonauts2
Sam & Max: Episode 12
Titan Quest2
Dark Messiah Might and Magic3
Defcon3
Heroes of Might and Magic V3
Indigo Prophecy3
KOTOR II3
LEGO Star Wars3
Marvel Ultimate Alliance3
Space Rangers 2: The Rise of the Dominators3
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl3
Stubbs the Zombie3
War Front3
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos3
Infernal35/8/2007
Shadowrun25/9/07
Pirates of the Burning SeaM6/1/2007
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars?6/5/2007
Two Worlds?6/26/07
Sins of A Solar Empire?8/1/2007
BioShock18/21/2007
Mass Effect19/7/07
Age of ConanM10/30/07
Crysis1Fall 2007
Elveon?Fall 2007
Half-Life 2: Episode Two1Fall 2007
Portals1Fall 2007
Spore1Fall 2007
Stranglehold?Fall 2007
Tabula RasaMFall 2007
Team Fortress 22Fall 2007
Dragon Age?Winter 2007
Fable 2?Winter 2007
Field Ops?Winter 2007
Halo Wars?Winter 2007
Gods & Heroes: Rome RisingMWinter 2007
Haze?Winter 2007
Hellgate: London1Winter 2007
HuxleyMWinter 2007
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men?Winter 2007
Left 4 Dead?Winter 2007
The AgencyMSpring 2008
Empire Earth III?Spring 2008
Guild Wars 2 MSpring 2008
Jericho?Spring 2008
Sacred 2?Spring 2008
Savage 2?Spring 2008
Time Shift2Spring 2008
Universe at War: Earth Assault3Spring 2008
The Witcher?Spring 2008
CellFactor?2008
Darkest of Days?2008
On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkeness: Episode 122008
Warhammer OnlineM2008
Alliance: The Silent War??
Alone in the Dark??
Assassin's Creed??
BioWare MMO??
The Crossing??
Dungeon Hero??
Fallout 3??
Lego Batman??
Mythos??
Overloard??
Space Seige??
Culdcept SagaPC??
Gears of WarPC??
God of WarPC??
Beautiful KatamariPC??
OkamiPC??
Resistance: Fall of ManPC??
Odin's SpherePC??
Castle CrashersPC??

1 - I will buy it
2 - I'll buy it at discount
3 - Other people think it's good, but I wasn't interested when I first heard about it
M - Mainly Multiplayer. See if friends get interested.
? - Find out more about this game
PC? - Will it be released on the PC?