Month: December 2006

The Real World
I’ve had so much stuff to blog about this week, but I just haven’t been sitting in front of a computer much. (The Sale has been kicking my butt.) But this info is just too good to wait any longer. A certain designer friend of mine mentioned this week that she turned down an upcoming gig in Sydney to “design a house for some show called The Real World.” UM, EXCUSE ME? I quickly learned that yes, it really is the MTV proto-reality show, and their next season is going to take place Down Under. In Darling Harbour. About ten minutes’ walk from my house. (They’re going to convert the old bowling alley, apparently.) I also discovered that most Australians have never heard of this show. It just somehow missed their radar entirely. As you can imagine, I gave this designer person an earful. “But the Real World house is iconic! It’s always super-cool, and you’d be the one to design it!” Nah, she’s not interested. Whatever. I’m already planning to rejig all my jogging routes to go by the house. Watch for me next year!

I would just like to thank the Snook for sending me a link to this rant, which perfectly encapsulates the frickin’ craphole of a day I’ve had. “The customer is always right” my ass…

The 40 Best Celebrity Rumours Ever. There’s some nice trashy gossip for you to muse over today…

Greatest. Baby Picture. Ever.

Thanks, Sis!

And just what am I doing over there on DeskCam? I’m playing with WiiSaber. It’s a little application that connects up your Nintendo Wiimote with your Mac and makes light saber noises as you swing around the controller. It even rumbles as you connect with your “opponent.” It’s way, way more fun than it sounds. (Note: I do get an error every other time I launch the application. If I go into System Prefs and delete the controller from my Bluetooth devices list, then it works fine again the next time I start it up.)

Fun Quiz of the Day: Hair Care or Digital Audio? I actually scored an amazing 12/14. You’d never guess it, considering the haystack that is currently sitting atop my head. I’m totally getting it all cut off on Thursday. (Link courtesy of Daring Fireball.)

Oh man. If they make a Bob Ross game for the Wii, I will have to get it.

One’s a wish,
two’s a kiss,
three’s a very bad cold.

Recited to me by a very cute old lady in the shop this morning after I had a sneezing attack

I keep forgetting to give a little bit of explanation for my Wii evangelism. A couple people have mentioned that they’ve been reading the references to it on my site and they just don’t get what the big fuss is about. I mean, “it’s just a video game, right?” Here’s the thing: I’m not a video gamer. I loved Atari and NES back in the day, but I haven’t really been into video games in, like, the last ten years. Why? Because all the games suck. They all seem to be first person shooters or real-time strategy… and I’m just not into those. (My all-time favorite games NES games were Tetris and Dr. Mario and Super Spike V Ball.) I don’t care that Sony and Microsoft keep pumping out more polygons so I can shoot ever more realistic looking people. That’s not fun. So then I read this article about the Nintendo Wii, and here’s the bit that really got me: “The classic controller was something we had become fond of and gamers had become comfortable with. It had many important elements. But it also had come to dictate a lot of what went into games—the way graphics were made, the way battles were fought in role-playing games, the arc of in-game stories. They were all being made to fit one standard. Creativity was being stifled, and the range of games was narrowing.” Exactly, dude. So the idea was to go in a completely different direction, to step back and see if maybe the way we interact with technology could change the types of game being created. And that’s what sucked me in. I feel cheesy for saying it, but buying the Wii was almost political for me. I wanted to let the industry know that there’s a market beyond 15-30 year old males. And the best part is – it’s actually pretty fun! So now I’m a gamer.

Wiikend Update: The sad thing is, a week ago I was totally dismissive of reports of “wii shoulder.” Now? My right rotator cuff is killing me. And we didn’t even play that much! We played for like two hours on Thursday night, and not at all on Friday (since I was at the shop all night). I played maybe two more hours on Saturday. And today my arm kills! It was the tennis. I’m a little bit addicted.

Anyway, today we had Andrew and Kathleen and Steph and Eva over for a little Wii-B-Q action. Kathleen got right into the boxing, as evidenced by the photo below. Steph also worked up quite a sweat knocking out his opponent. Andrew played it much cooler. The six of us had a great time working our way through the various Wii Sports and Wii Play games. (I think my new favorite is the Wii Play where you ride a cow and knock down scarecrows.)

Many, many drinks later (and after I tried rather unsuccessfully to convert Eva to my love of High School Musical)… the guests went home and the Snook and I fired up the Legend of Zelda again. We’ve decided to play it together and take turns trying to take one character through to the end. We’ve just made it through the “village” bit and we’ve somehow turned into a wolf. (?) It’s starting to get spooky…