Ok, so we didn't get quite as much snow as Washington. About 18 inches compared to DC's 26 or so. Drew and I made it our mission to stay ahead of the storm, so we shoveled a total of 6 times over the course of 24 hours. Still have to shovel the end of the driveway after the plows come through (that will be at least another day) and we will have to do the sidewalks (damn HOA).
Last weekend's snow gave us Mon - Wed off, then we went to school for half a day Thursday and then had another snow day Friday anticipating this weekend's storm. They already called this coming Mon and Tues off, and we are supposed to get more snow Tuesday night, so I think we might go back Thursday. I wanted a snow day for my birthday, and I got a snow week and a half! Yippie!
Holy smokes. You guys could beat us for snow this year! It's been pretty tame here. I did play some pond hockey yesterday and had to help shovel a pond in between "periods". What a workout that was (both shoveling and playing!)
Abby said about 12 hours later
....can I have a few snow days? :'( BH-BL has only had about two snow days this year, and I can only remember one delay. That's a LOT less than we usually have. :0
Marc said about 14 hours later
We saw a bunch (20" or more) last weekend, but nothing since. Ours was constantly turning our roads into ice rinks every morning for the rest of the week because sand does nothing but make the roads dirty for 6 months.
GJ said about 20 hours later
We are going on two feet under average at this point. I've been able to see the grass for most of the winter, and worse, it's greener than it is in the summer.
If you've spent any amount of time on the Internet, you've probably encountered some or all of the following:
viruses / trojans
spy / ad ware
spam
phishing
spear-phishing
dns poisoning
The Net is a dangerous place for the uninformed, but many products exist to minimize the risk. Over time, some people (hopefully) have learned to also stop their risky online behavior, so they're at little risk of damage.
However, most people still engage in unsafe online conduct. They fail to keep their antivirus up to date, don't use a router, open every attachment they get from people, and buy products sold by spam. The criminals are still at it, because there are marks freely available even after all these years.
Well, the fine researchers at Criminals R Us developed some nasty software that works like this:
You get infected the usual way (spware / trojan).
Windows alerts you to corrupted files (looks pretty official).
Holy crap--your TPS reports are corrupt! And you have no backup! (you, my friend, are asking for it).
Whew--Microsoft recommends a product to fix this. Data Doctor 2010 to the rescue!
You download it, run it, and it cleans up one file. See, now you can access TPS report #1...but you have 19 more to fix. The trial software only does one file.
You then pay those nice folks at Data Doctor $89.99 for the complete version of the software. Shortly thereafter, all your TPS reports are fixed. Yay! You tell all your friends...
Unfortunately for you, you didn't have corrupt files. What you had were encrypted files. The nice spyware app found a list of files, likely your Microsoft office docs, but maybe even just files you've recently touched hoping they're not backed up, and encrypted them (that means scramble them with a secret key, and you can only unscramble them with that same secret key). To the uninitiated, the files will indeed appear corrupt--a mess of weird characters if you try to view them directly.
The spyware then hijacks the windows security icon in the taskbar to alert you to the problem, and "Microsoft recomends" text is shown to the now panicked computer owner. You then download Data Doctor 2010, which is a sweet looking app (uh, I mean trojan), but it's only the unregistered trial version--to give you a taste of the "fix" b by correcting just one file. It picks up the encryption key stored in the original spyware app, and unscrambles your one file. It then helpfully gives you a way to pay for the full program.
By the time it's all over, you have:
paid a crook $90
effectively installed TWO pieces of bad code on your machine
given your credit card info to that same crook.
probably given this to your friends, either directly, or that bad code sitting on your box helpfully passes it to them.
How to protect against it?
First: don't get it. If you're following all the guidelines for safe computing, use a router, antivirus software, antispyware software, etc., you probably won't get this fun guy.
Second: Back up your files regularly. Best way to combat this would be to nuke the corrupted files, run an antivirus scan, and move on with your life without giving the crook anything.
Third: Got corrupted files, and now it's telling you to download Disk Doctor? Don't. Disconnect this computer from the web, and go to another computer and look up the information on this infection to see how it might be undone (today, I don't know of a way, but in the future someone may write a tool to extract the key from the spyware and decrypt your files for you...but don't bet on it).
For more technical information and screenshots of the infection's windows and popups, please see this report.
Well put GJ. There really needs to be an Internet Safety class that everybody should go through before being allowed to use it.
Abby said about 8 hours later
Hah. BH-BL offers practically everything BUT Internet Safety. Instead of recommending Keyboarding, they should put together an internet safety course and recommend that.
...instead they just block two-thirds of the entire Internet. (not cool!)
Super Mario Brothers returns to the Wii, this time with up to 4 player simultaneously on the screen helping to get through the puzzle.
I was hesitant to get this, because it's pretty expensive and I don't know how much better it would be than Super Mario Brothers 3, which you can download on the Wii as well. I also heard the multiplayer is "kinda cool" but really frustrating. Disregarding all of these seemingly valid points, I decided to throw my money away and pick it up anyway.
This game is cool. If you like the feel of Super Mario Brothers 3, you will love this. It can get just as challenging and frustrating as the old games and the multiplayer is really fun (so long as you don't get overly frustrated with taking your time through the levels). I find it's actually more challenging with other people because the difficult sections become even harder trying to get another person with you through them. Nintendo came up with an easy out though in case it's just too frustrating, just have your partner enter their bubble and they'll float around as you finish the section of the level.
All-in-all, I've been pretty addicted to it this past week and would recommend it.
That video is an unlockable video in the game and is really impressive and cool.
GJ said 33 minutes later
The game is awesome, and I'm enjoying it more than Galaxy. Multiplayer will be very frustrating if you take it too seriously, but once you chill out it's a blast. We've had it for a few weeks and are still playing it all the time.
GJ said about 1 hour later
And the bubble is hilarious--that's how you come back into the game after you die, provided other players are still alive and not in bubbles. Nothing like getting popped over a chasm or some other trap!
Marc said about 6 hours later
Laura is the champion of the dying, or I should say was. She's gotten real good at bubbling right before she falls to her death. I didn't realize how often I had been doing it too until I played the single player and started to die a fair amount!
I liked Galaxy, but from a multiplayer standpoint is was pathetic, which is fine since I thought it was at least a neat little addition over no multiplayer. Galaxy was really easy though, this game just has that classic feeling of difficulty and well thought out maps.
GJ said about 9 hours later
Yeah, we're mired somewhere in world 5 with those damn rolling logs. We're *all* good at dying, but some of us (I'm looking at you Darcy) have made an art form out of bubbling. Unlimited continues is a good thing...Aaron is somewhere around 60 now. I'm about halfway there. :)
GJ said 3 days later
Oh, and the bubbling to get players through would be fine, except when the bubble drifts near you. See, you interact with the bubble--hit it in midair during a jump, and you fall from where you hit the bubble...likely over a death trap. So you bubble to save your skin--and of course the original bubbler has (probably) bubbled. If all players bubble, the music slows to a crawl and you're booted from the level. You don't lose a life (good), but you lose any status changes (dammit, I want my propeller hat back!!!!).
Marc said 3 days later
The propeller hat is by far the cheapest upgrade in the game. I love it to death, cause it's so much fun, but man it makes the levels easy. Laura and I beat the game last night (or DID we?!) and we were really struggling with Bowser, then I had the bright idea to upgrade before going into the level to the propeller hat and beat it first go.
To me, the ice levels kill me. I thought the swimming world would suck based on the first swimming level, but it turned out to be pretty tame. Now I'm just going through and collecting all the gold coins (I never was a big fan of collecting everything, but it's kinda fun in this game) and man some of them are in ridiculous locations. One of them I found by "dying" or so I thought until I was warped into another part of the level.
Playing back and forth between multiplayer and single player is a very strange feeling with Mario. Some things are super easy by yourself (pretty much all the castles), and other things are super easy in multiplayer (collecting star coins). The best part is attempting to bubble right before you die in single player, it's so disheartening and makes you feel like such a cheater that you even attempted it. :)
Marc said 3 days later
I also love, love, love jumping off walls. I don't remember what mario they first added that in, but it's a joy in this game. That's actually how I found another star coin, I was fooling around waiting for Laura to catch up (hopefully she doesn't read this ;)) and I was trying to get really high up bouncing between two close walls and suddenly got warped to the coin part of the level.
GJ said 3 days later
Yeah, overall this is a terrific game (which is high praise indeed from a non-Mario gamer).
Geoff said 4 days later
how much is it?
GJ said 4 days later
$50 (but I got it on sale for $40 at best buy several weeks ago).
Netbooks posted by Kristen on January 19, 2010 @ 7:25PM
So, netbooks. What exactly are they? Minature lap-tops? Web surfers? Glorified camera phones?
We're tossing around the idea of getting one for Drew's mom to help keep her busy and less lonely. If there was an easy for for her to access the internet and email with something that didn't take up a lot of space and was easy to learn how to use....
Netbooks are essentially mini-laptops used for simple computer usage. The lack in hardware is merely to aid in making it more portable. There's tons of netbooks out there and all are probably pretty closely matched. One thing to keep in mind is that many have about a 7" screen and for some reason a ridiculous huge resolution (only wide though, they have small vertical screens) for such a small screen. This adds up to you needing some awesome eyes to see things. The keyboards are also usually 70-80% smaller than a regular keyboard. I have tiny fingers and it's still hard for me to type on them.
Personally I would recommend a smaller laptop, but not something that is advertised as a netbook. There's some Thinkpad X60s that are small and the Macbook Air is really thin and pretty small (but full size keyboard and good screen size to resolution ratio), although the Air isn't cheap.
Alternatively, there's a new tablet device coming out likely next Wednesday from Apple. It may or may not be released immediately, but I imagine it will be under $900 and will be easy to use and do basic computing with it. I'll post an update here when I hear more about it.
Steve said about 3 hours later
I would also suggest you go for a laptop instead of a netbook, mainly due to the small keyboard.
GJ said about 12 hours later
I've seen a fair number of my older clients go for netbooks. While the keyboards are smaller, this is more an issue for two handed typists like Marc and I than it is for hunt and peckers. If all you're doing is email and web surfing, buying more than a netbook is a waste of money, imho. As far as the screen resolution, most of them have an easy zoom to make reading easier on the eyes. I'd look for that feature if you go for a netbook for Drew's mom.
Just my $0.02.
Abby said 2 days later
Hmm... I'm a two-handed typist and you said I should get a netbook instead of dragging my desktop to college. Hm. Then again, I got used to typing on my iPod touch, and that's an itty bitty keyboard...
Haven't used a netbook before, though. So don't mind me :]
GJ said 2 days later
If you're going to college to write papers, do homework, and do the email/web thing, get a netbook. If you're going to school for computer science, get a laptop. Same advice if you're going to college to play video games, but Abby won't be doing that. Riiiiight?
A desktop makes absolutely no sense at college, unless you already have one and don't have the money for a laptop or netbook. I had a desktop at college, but I also lived in a converted high school classroom at the time and space wasn't an issue for me. I also drove a full size van, which helped to move the giant metal desk I got with the computer.
Abby said 2 days later
...of courseee nottt. :D that's what I have an iPod touch for!
Geoff said 3 days later
and if you plan on doing cool stuff like me, get a laptop :)
Microsoft Paint is really computer intensive.
GJ said 4 days later
Yeah, I hear MS Paint in Win 7 requires dual-core processors, minimum.
Kristen said 4 days later
Hum, not sure. Definitely not interested in spending over $500. She does have horrible eyes though--she can barely use her cell phone (probably overdue for an eye exam by like, 10 years.). You know what they need to invent? You know how they have that jitterbug cell phone? We need a jitterbug laptop/computer for older folks. Email, internet, word processing, pictures. Bingo! Pardon the pun.
Let me know when you guys hear of something like this. If it's not invented yet, tell Steve Jobs Marc.
Kristen said 4 days later
Drew says, don't tell Steve Jobs. You invent a prototype, and then Drew is (ever so graciously) offering to help get a patent and pitch it.
Marc said 5 days later
Like I said, there's an Apple Tablet coming out Wednesday, for all we know it'll solve that problem too. :) You'll know if it's worth it if I end up creating a post about how ridiculously cool it is and how it's going to change things. But, more than likely, I won't be impressed. I hate tablets.
Geoff said 5 days later
Of course you can probably tack on another 0 to that $500 for the Apple Tablet. The Apple logo itself generally costs $500 to begin with. Everything else is extra.
Marc said 5 days later
Yea, I'll guarantee it'll be out of the $500 price range. The iPhone was that price when it came out.
Marc said 7 days later
Wow, I was wronged! You can get an Apple iPad, 16GB for $499 (in 2 months). Check out the info:
This will likely blow the doors off any netbook in the area of web browsing, email, media, games, eBook reading, etc. The only better eBook reader is likely the Kindle, only because of its screen. But if you don't have a beef with reading off the glossy screen, this thing does it all. If you want Wifi access wherever you go, you'll have to up the price a bit, but if you just want Wifi, there's no competition IMO.
It also has a FULL SIZE keyboard, on screen of course, and can be docked to a real keyboard if desired.
uh, Marc, I don't think it touches the notebook you and I were discussing. :) Even though that one is twice the cost.
Marc said 8 days later
I said netbook, not notebook, two totally different uses. If you're willing to pay a little more for the iPad, no netbook is in the same ballpark, unless you're one of those silly people trying to accomplish a lot on a netbook to begin with, in which case: You're doing it wrong. :) I think Apple put it pretty well: There's a mobile need, and a laptop need. iPad is the in between, when you want to just quickly browse the web, quickly look at photos, quickly check e-mail, read a book, quickly play a little game, etc. This is the market netbooks are trying to hit, but do you really need a full operating system getting in the way of accomplishing that, not to mention all the software you need to add on top to, keep updated, etc. If you're looking for something that just works and gets the job done, this kills any netbook.
If, however, you do need more than that, a netbook or a laptop is a better option. For instance Abby is not suited for an iPad when going to college; a netbook would probably be better suited. But if the price looks right, Drew's Mom is looking for an iPad. If the price was lower than $500, it would be a no brainer, but $500 is a bit high, although reasonable IMO.
Geoff said 8 days later
For an Apple product, $500 is very reasonable for something this new and cutting-edge.
Kristen said 8 days later
Drew seems to think his mom may not be able to figure out how to turn the iPad on.
That might make for a slow start...
Geoff said 8 days later
it does require some hand-eye coordination. GJ may have problems as well.
GJ said 8 days later
marc--gotcha
geoff--only in your world would $500 sound reasonable. :) Never mind I'm going to pay $1k for a notebook shortly.
Geoff said 9 days later
:) dude the cool factor. Gotta calculate that into the equation.
GJ said 9 days later
OK, I've looked at the iPad. Have no idea why this is better than a netbook. With a netbook, I can configure it how I want--I can run whatever I want on it out of the box, limited only by the hardware present on the machine. That's why a netbook is still a computer. The iPad is just a big-screen iPod touch.
Now, I'm not saying that it's worse for email, or web surfing. I'm just saying that this is nothing special. It may wipe out the netbook market, but it's not going to be the end-all, be-all device tech consumers have been dreaming of.
Marc said 9 days later
I think that's precisely why it's perfect for its target. The netbook's main argument now is only price, from a size and use perspective if you want more of a "computer" a netbook is still better than the iPad, but if you really just looking for a coffee table/kitchen device that you can use to check e-mail, browse web, etc. the iPad is just way more fun, useful, and to the point. I do agree though, $500 isn't cheap. For Apple it is, but people are going to be less likely to just pick it up at this price. Give it time though, it will drop in price after their sales aren't quite as high as they were hoping. I give it 6 months (8 from now, since it won't be out for another 2) before that happens.
Geoff said 9 days later
$500 for a tablet device, common guys. That isn't a bad price. The iPod touch sells for $200 and those things are hot cakes. For $500, I bet this iPad is going to blow the competition out of the market. Just you wait.
What do people besides us geeks actually use their computers for: Email, surfing the web, writing documents, and playing games. This does all that. What more could you really ask for? Not to mention you don't have to pay for or worry about viruses. I'd love to hear an argument for what this can't do, that the general public would want it do to.
I'm not quite convinced this can't be used for college students. I mean, it wouldn't work for a designer or software engineer, but for the other 75% of newbie college students who don't have a clue what they want to do, would allow them to research, write papers, and chug beer (in fact, now a keg of beer instead of the tiny glass you get on the iPhone/touch).
Not to mention, I bet it is a whole lot easier to connect to a wireless signal than it is in Windows. I still can't get that Lenova laptop to connect consistently.
GJ said 9 days later
When you say "play games" keep in mind you mean "play little crappy games." No Supreme Commander 2 for you, my friend.
Would it work for college students? Depends entirely on what they need. Again, it's not a computer, and that's my point. Well, that, and you won't find me getting one as a result. :)
Ease of wireless connections is all about the driver program. Has nothing to do with Windows if you don't use the windows connection manager, silly. And Windows isn't the only game in town, either.
Geoff said 9 days later
Windows and Mac...and mac lovers will probably want the iPad, and that is the only "netbook" offered by apple. I don't know too many average users who run Linux, or even know what Linux is.
speaking of which, have you played any of these "little crappy games?" Some of them are quite good, and cost little to nothing. Sure beats paying $50 for a "big crappy game."
Regardless, I doubt too many netbooks or even notebooks for that matter will play (insert your top notch game title here) very well.
The fact remains, this TABLET pc can do more than look pretty. I keep saying the iPhone is an incredible device and a terrible phone (AT&T is mostly to blame at this point). Since the iPad isn't being sold as a phone, I'm fairly confident it will gobble up the competition and be a hit for students and business professionals. It's light, thin, and can do just about anything I need it to do for business travel (even connect to a projector). I'm sure I'll have one sooner than later.
Marc said 9 days later
You may be right Geoff, it could be good enough for most people in college, especially if you get the dock integrated with the keyboard. It certainly will rock that you can download all of your college books and keep them in the iPad and not have to carry around a huge book bag (Calculus books are heavy!)
I wouldn't call them little crappy games either, this thing has full OpenGL support, and I've seen some pretty awesome games on the iPhone. Granted, it's not the best interface for many popular types of games (FPS, anything that really should be played with a controller). Basically, Real Time Strategy, driving, and any other kind of motion sensing/touch game. "Flight Control" is one of the most addicting games I've played in a while and it's such a simple, nice looking app that utilize touch...things like that people would love to play. I can see RTS being pretty popular on the iPad too, screen real estate was a big problem on the Touch and iPhone.
This will cause a lot of vendors to change their idea of what a netbook should be. One big problem for Apple is Windows 7 is very touch friendly supposedly, and the first person to make a device similar to the iPad running Windows 7 could gobble up some of the market. Not too surprisingly though, I think it's a slim chance since everybody else seems to follow Apple's lead WAY too slowly. Not to mention Windows 7 is still a pretty hefty operating system, might be hard to run it on such terrible hardware.
We'll see what Google's Chrome OS has to offer for netbooks, but if it's anything like Android, it'll just be a laughable attempt at entering the market. Supposedly 'droid is plagued with memory leaks due to multitasking support; Apple got it right after Windows Mobile fell into this same trap, go figure!
Geoff said 9 days later
Yeah I think this iPad has some tremendous potential. I just wished they gave it a different name. Too darn close to iPod lol. I do like Pad better than tablet, but just gets confused with iPod.
GJ said 9 days later
Other companies followed Apple's lead on the iphone pretty freaking quickly in my book. Just look at what's on the market these days. I think you'll see iPad competitors pretty quickly if the iPad sells well beyond the fanboy boost in the first few months.
I would still call them crappy little games. Let me know when you get Civ IV running on it. Or Bioshock 2.
Android laughable? Not by a long shot. I think the mobile phone market is in for another shift in the next six months, and Apple won't be leading that charge. But then again, I don't get paid for my technical predictive prowess. :)
Geoff said 9 days later
I may eat my words a little here...didn't occur to me that the iPad will likely not support Flash. That is a big bummer for web browsing since most sites use it in some way...even if it is advertising :)
MSI sucks, everybody knows that. Show me a real competitor. :)
I don't see a real big deal with Flash support, I think it's going to see some big competition from HTML5. Yea, all the Flash based websites won't work, but people complain about Flash because they can't get their video streaming without it (except YouTube, which is probably 60% of the market anyway). HTML5 has built in support for streaming video and has been implemented by all major browsers except, you guessed it, Internet Explorer. YouTube has even jumped on the HTML5 bandwagon and has support for streaming video if you join their beta. I'm happy to be without the Flash ads though (especially lately on Yahoo's homepage, holy crap people), so I consider it free ad blocking. Thanks Apple! ;)
This is a rather long discussion that could come from this, but Stevie J. himself gave a very good reason for not supporting Flash (besides it likely being CPU intensive and thus battery draining): How do you bring the Flash experience to a device that doesn't have a mouse. You'd be surprised how many Flash based applications utilize mouse movement as an important user interface interaction. How do you replicate that with a touch device accurately? Apple actually just picked up a patent that uses proximity sensing that would enable that, but that's likely a year out, if not more.
Supposedly Android supports Flash, has anybody seen it in action?
GJ said 10 days later
No, I'm still using the equivalent of a 386 for a phone.
Geoff said 10 days later
HTML5 won't be replacing Flash anytime soon. It may support video, but as far as I know, it can't provide the interactivity and game play that Flash offers. Until another service can do this with the penetration that Flash has, it isn't leaving! Flash is currently the defacto standard for most videos on the web and until HTML5 is fully supported on all major browsers with enough penetration, I doubt providers will jump aboard. I have no doubt in time HTML5 will offer up some competition, but I will say it is about time the Flash player leveraged hardware acceleration. This is a huge leap forward for Flash...finally.
Marc said 10 days later
Oh no, it won't replace Flash as a whole, just maybe the video portion of it. I agree though, hardware acceleration is a must for Flash to take the interactivity to the next level.
Geoff said 11 days later
Yup...same with video as HD surges. It takes a lot of processing power to play HD material and hardware acceleration takes care of the problem.
Snowblowers posted by GJ on January 15, 2010 @ 1:02PM
Some people prefer snowblowers over shoveling. Of those snowblowing people, some need a little American Muscle Car in their snowblower, and they think they have the biggest, baddest snowblower around.
Not to be outdone by your neighbor, you could get one of these:
Or, if you need your private rail line cleared of winter's fury, you might want one of these:
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads. And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below. When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer.
With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St Nick. More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!
"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky. So up to the house-top the coursers they flew, With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof The prancing and pawing of each little hoof. As I drew in my head, and was turning around, Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot. A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.
His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath. He had a broad face and a little round belly, That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself! A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk. And laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight, "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"
If you liked this song, check out Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. They all play similar styles, and you can find them on the G3 Concert disc together--and of course, that disc absolutely rocks.
Marc said about 1 hour later
You can also find Satriani playing with the supergroup Chickenfoot, whose self-titled album rocks. Not as big a fan of Vai, I don't find he has quite as good phrasing as Satriani. Although to be fair, Cliffs of Dover is the only Eric Johnson song I've latched on to, so I can't say I'm a huge fan of him either. I'll have to look into that G3 Concert disc, sounds interesting.
GJ said about 1 hour later
Give a listen to Eric Johnson's Bloom. I think you'll get into that album just fine.
GJ said about 1 hour later
And Vai is freaking awesome. Dammit, I just went and created yet another Pandora station. Look what you did!
GJ said about 3 hours later
Check out this song by Steve Morse, it is awesome!
Stan Freeburg also does Green Chri$tma$, which it very good too...and also on that CD
Eric said 2 days later
You have to check out The Dan Band, "I Wanna Rock Your Body Hard This Christmas." It's not for the kids (they have a much higher IQ than I!) It's pretty stupid and tasteless, but I thought it was funny. Sorry I don't have the link.
GJ said 2 days later
The lyrics are right here, and yes, it's not something you want the kids singing along to.
SNOW. posted by Kristen on December 19, 2009 @ 6:11AM
"Blockbuster": will be studied for decades to come
"an Historic event"
"Catastrophic"
We are cracking up over the excitement of the local weathermen about this storm!
I heard even Raleigh got some snow. A little dusting, but I'm pretty sure schools closed the night before, which I still find comical.
Kristen said about 11 hours later
Our schools just closed for Monday and Tuesday of next week.
Score! Of course that means I no longer have an excuse to avoid laundry.
GJ said about 11 hours later
study this? really? nor'easters hit us 2-3 times a year. they're great snowmakers--about the only way we get measureable snow, since lake effect only accounts for about 2-3" for us per year.
ahh, weathermen...
now, if north carolina got a foot of snow, they'd close the state for six months. :)
Abby said about 13 hours later
hey, where's my snow day? we've had one, and no delays either. :(
moar snow plz!
GJ said about 13 hours later
moar? and you call yourself an A student??
I can haz cheezeburger, indeedz
Marc said 1 day later
Looks like Abby and GJ have ventured to the "other side" of the Internet. It's dark, mysterious, and full of kittens.
GJ said 2 days later
I haz no idea wut u r takin bout. Nuthin 2 C her.
Abby said 2 days later
me, A student? whatcha talkin bout? tht cant b me, noooo not me
Geoff said 2 days later
all your base are belong to us.
Marc said 3 days later
This comment thread is turning into the Internet Meme Hall of Fame, which is about as legitimate as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. :)
GJ said 3 days later
Funny that you mention that. Click here for the best meme evar! If you don't get it, post a comment and I'll explain it to you.
Christmas is coming SOON and I probably don't have room to bring every board game I have these days. So, here's the list, you folks get to vote on what you'd like to play. Note, Steve and Parsla have dupes of some of these, so perhaps they can bring one or two of them. Anyhow, here goes:
Dominion & Dominion Intrigue
Ticket to Ride / TTR 1910 expansion
Ticket to Ride Europe
Settlers of Catan
Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot
Apples to Apples
Balderdash
Clever Endeavor
Inklings
Risk
Axis & Allies
I'm sure there are a few more, but I forget.
Vote in the comments below. Voting is open through 12/24.
I'm definitely bringing Dominion along with Intrigue, plus at least one social game if no one suggests one.
Marc said 22 minutes later
Dominion is a must, Ticket/Settlers (I'm ok with one of these staying home). I feel like I've played Balderdash, but with my memory, I have no idea how to play it. All I know is it requires some form of lying and we always think GJ would be best suited for that game. :)
Killer Bunnies might be a fun social game, but it will certainly take some time to get people acquainted with it.
I'm already home and brought Xbox with Rock Band 2 (with likely 100+ more songs than last year).
GJ said about 1 hour later
RB2 is cool, so long as I get to play medium on guitar. Aaron will amaze all with his ability to play expert, Jeff Healey style.
Steve has Catan, so maybe he can bring that. I'll probably bring Ticket 1910, since I don't think everyone has played that yet--but if everyone would rather play Europe, I'm cool with that too. For Dominion, I think I'm going to obtain a card box, so I can fit both big games in a small package.
Geoff said about 1 hour later
I vote for Dominion, Ticket, and Catan to come.
Abby said about 7 hours later
I vote for Killer Bunnies, Apples, Dominion, of course, and Ticket to Ride. I guess I just don't feel like Catan at the moment.
Steve said 1 day later
Dominion(s) is a must, as are the ticket to ride derivitives (I haven't played the 1910 expansion I don't think). I can bring Catan home, but I have to admit, after playing it a few times, despite having about a 50% win record, I'm not overly impressed with the game. So much is decided in the beginning of the game. Only in my last game did I luckily come from behind and win.
I could certainly be talked into playing a game of risk or axis and allies, if there is enough interest.
GJ said 1 day later
Yeah, I'm not that thrilled with Catan myself.
The 1910 variant replaces the card in the USA game to be full sized, and adds a whole lot of destination tickets and an additional bonus card. You also end up getting far more destination tickets. It makes the USA map a whole lot more fun, in my opinion. Maybe I'll bring both versions, since there still seems to be a lot of interest in the TTR series.
Axis and Allies--hoo boy. I have three bastardized copies of the game, and may even have several editions' worth of rules. I think that might be a stiff order for this visit, but we will have to pull that out sometime for old times' sake.
Geoff said 1 day later
Ok well I guess we can leave Catan home since I seem to be the only one interested in it. If you really want to sacrifice a full day, I can whip out Civilization (I don't think we've ever actually completed a game). ;)
GJ said 1 day later
The Civ game has issues...there's a reason we never completed a game, if I recall correctly.
Marc said 1 day later
I think I have like a 2% win record in Catan, which may be why I didn't vote for it. Although I think Ticket to Ride is similar if not worse record wise, but I don't feel like I'm screwed in the beginning at times. :)
Steve said 1 day later
Geoff, I'll try to remember to bring Catan, I'd be up for playing it. I'm always up for playing games.
Kristen said 1 day later
Bring on the Guitar Hero! I played the other day and had almost forgotten how much fun it is. I can't think of a better reason to give myself some carpal tunnel syndrome.
Killer bunnies sounds interesting....I'm kind of done with the apples. I wouldn't mind whipping out a game of hearts....
Geoff said 1 day later
Civ had big issues...as in it would take a lifetime to complete.
GJ said 1 day later
Only problem with Rock Band is the total lack of a stereo to play it on at Mom & Dad's. Few other games are so awesome to play through a good stereo system, but this one is a "duh, of course!" one.
Killer bunnies is pretty amusing, but fairly complex (well, as least complex sounding).
So, if I'm counting right, I'm bringing: Dominion (both games), Ticket to Ride (both games), Killer Bunnies, and one yet to be determined social game. I might bring Inklings, we haven't played that one in a while--or somebody could bring Scattergories, that's always fun. Actually, think Mom and Dad have that one.
Marc said 2 days later
I should mention I brought my guitar amp, so we'll have plenty of kick for Rock Band. :) No 50+" widescreen though, which is the clear problem we have with video games. We need to get a portable projector.
GJ said 2 days later
I have a crappy one. But they don't work well with all those thugs holding guitars in front of the screen, ya know? Nor do we have a good place to put the projection, sans Apsen House.
Eric said 4 days later
Just wait 'till you see Kyle on the drums in Rock Band. I can't even compete with him, not in the same universe. He might rival Geoff!
GJ said 4 days later
So, we'll have Aaron (Jeff Healy) on guitar, Kyle (Keith Moon? Shannon Leto? Neil Peart?) on drums. Quite the lineup! :)
Oh, btw, I just picked up TTR Europe 1912. So if you thought you were up to speed on all things Ticket to Ride, get ready for some warehouse and depot action! More long routes! More routes, period! New bonuses!
Marc said 4 days later
If Geoff sings we'll have either one of the Beastie Boys or Bon Scott/Brian Johnson. Can't wait to see the kids playing, I've been playing drums on expert almost exclusively (And up until yesterday, Rush's YYZ was the only song I couldn't beat).
Warehouse and depots sound interesting, looking forward to that too!
Geoff said 5 days later
I'm sure Kyle is probably better than I on the Rock band drums...I haven't played those in a long time. Marc would probably be a better comparison. Now if we decide to do an improvised drum off...I'm game hahaha. Hopefully Marc brought his real guitar :)
Marc said 5 days later
I brought the real guitar. I can't be away from one for more than a week. :)
Geoff said 5 days later
excellent. I'll try and remember to bring my vibration resistant sticks...works very well for those rubber/hard plastic drums. I could also bring a single chain-drive beater too for the kick pedal...I don't have it hooked up right this moment :)
Geoff said 5 days later
where did you come up with Shannon Leto?!?
I could picture Kyle as Terry Bozzio (which by the way is one of the few drummers who actually has more drums than Neil on stage if you can believe that!)
GJ said 5 days later
Working on a picture to help you see the connection.
