Thank GOD!!! the semester is over. The grading is done, the grades are turned in, and the slacker may be feeling a hint of burn-out :-)
Good things... my video game junkie son has put the DS down long enough to begin reading the Series of Unfortunate Events books. He's up to book eleven, which means we need to quickly lay hands on books 12 and 13. He likes puns and wordplay and is laughing out loud while he reads. It does an aged bookworm's heart good to see the old ways still being practiced by the young. (My kindergarten-age daughter reads a little, but mostly she demands stories be read to her. And since she likes fairy tales, I'm happy to oblige!)
Geek news: Bill Gates recently said DRM is too complicated. Just buy the CD and rip it. Bravo, Bill! I'd love to hear more like this from Mr. Gates in the coming months. Also, Linus Torvalds spoke out against making the Linux kernel not support binary-only drivers. He called such a move stupid and pointed out that it was motivated more by political than by technical considerations. You go, Linus!
Speaking of technical considerations, has anyone played with a Wii yet? My son thinks the motion sensitive controller sounds like an awesome idea. I'm a bit more skeptical. Without force feedback it seems more like an exercise in tai chi (not the worst thing that could happen to videogame junkies).
Well, Christmas is rapidly approaching. The season of gift-buying and giving, of wrapping paper and ribbons and cards and other paper products that will end up in the trash (or, in the case of many cards, in storage for a year). Of greed and gluttony and envy and more than a bit of pride and sloth. A season, in short, in need of redemption. Oh, for a savior to come into the world and deliver us from our worst selves into our better selves!
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6 comments:
Hurray!!! Whatcha teachin'?
DRM just makes me angry every time I hear about it. The music I buy from the iTunes store refuses to play on any computer other than my 5 authorized systems...which are permanent for the period of a year, and then can be reset and redefined. I can play my CD's wherever I want, so what gives? I have to do a manual work-around--burn the cd, delete the songs from my system, then rip the burned CD. Now it is no longer recognized. Enough soapbox.
Good luck with the whole greed and gluttony thing, it's such a beautiful time of year. ;-)
FWIW, I absolutely HATED the end of Unfortunate Events. It was great right up to that point. Maybe you'll love it and help me appreciate it.
And reshelving. Reshelving's great. Yeah.
No, don't be scared to read them! They were really excellent, but I just couldn't get into the ending. Maybe I didn't read them close enough together, as the last couple weren't published yet, so I had lost the thread by the time I got to the end. Or maybe I just have a conventional mind that demands a tidy, Law-and-Order-style ending to any drawn-out story of suspense. Either way, the first books are enjoyable, so nothing lost, right? I hope you find this disclaimer reassuring (which here means "persuasive enough to plow through a dozen books just to give me a second opinion").
About Wii I know nothing, having only seen it in the store. My parents still have our original Intellivision. Does anybody but me even know what that is anymore?
Sure, the Mattel Intellivision had a controller with a number pad and a circle thingy on the top. I remember it because there were a couple of D&D branded games for it! (And now that you've reminded me, I probably want to track down the PC collection that includes that...)
I'm glad that you are finally done with the semester. I'm sure it was quite grueling. Hope you have a pleasant break, and have a great Christmas.
Yep, they still have our copy of "Advanced D&D," which I assure you is nothing like the real thing. Plus Snafu, Frogger, Stampede, Asteroids, etc. It's a regular treasure trove. Our kids love to play the games still every time we go to grandma's.
I realized that in my previous post, I made a Snicket-related joke. Which was stupid, since we were ACTUALLY DISCUSSING the fact that you haven't read the books. So obviously didn't get it. Which makes me smart enough to make a witty joke, just not smart enough to know WHEN to make a witty joke. Hmm.....
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