Ever wondered what Pac-Man would look like running through a supermarket being chased by ghosts?
What about playing Mario Kart on the streets of France?
RodeoClown: now you know.
Videogames… in Real Life
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Monthly Archives: April 2009
Your Improved Minesweeping Experience
I’ve been playing minesweeper on Windows Vista lately, and I have discovered an awesome new feature they have included, but have not made any mention of anywhere (that I can see).
You can’t get caught in a lose-lose situation.
I can’t prove this, but as far as I can tell, whenever you are in a situation where there is no way of clearing a space or marking a flag, no matter where you click next, you are guaranteed to not hit a mine. In previous versions of the game, the board was completely predetermined (past the first click at least – you weren’t (and still aren’t) able to hit a mine in your first move), so if you had two squares remaining and a single flag to plant, you had a 50% chance of winning or losing. No longer is the coin-flip win/loss an issue. This small addition removes so much unnecessary frustration. And even better – they didn’t even tell anyone they did it.
Is there anything you/me/we can do to improve something that won’t ever be noticed, but if we’d left it alone could cause frustration? Suggestions in the comments.
RodeoClown: well played, Microsoft!
Sex and Death
Justin had an (almost) throwaway line today while we were discussing resurrection in the Jewish scriptures. My paraphrase:
Even now, when there is almost no visible difference between Christians and “the world”, there are two areas where the distinction is evident: sex, and death.
Impersonal sex dominates the media; death is glossed-over and buried away. Christian morality calls for an extreme monogomy, a lifetime of sex exclusive to two people. And the Bible prompts a celebration of death as we look forward to “life after life after death”, the resurrection of our physical bodies as displayed in Jesus.
It is worth thinking about how and why we keep these areas “sacred”, and what other parts of our lives we can reclaim as distinctly Christian.
RodeoClown: anticipating.
The End of Birthday Season
Today marks the end of the 2009 birthday season for the kids.
Matthias has just turned five, Jesse was three in March and Aravis one in February.
Several months ago I was blessed to see Matthias’ face as he finally got reading – it was an incredible moment, seeing him realise that those letters on the page actually held a deeper meaning. Quite probably the most amazing thing I have seen, in the space of several seconds he went from being a ‘looker’ to a ‘reader’. I hope I’m there to see the other two grasp this fundamental concept too.
Jesse has started telling us of his ‘dreams’, fantasies mixing the mundane and fantastic with improbable results. He is so much a people person, always talking, wanting cuddles and kisses and informing everyone of how much he loves them. I’ve never seen a child so good at sharing either.
Aravis has finally entered the world of walking and talking, with a record of three steps and a vocabulary of three words (dad-ad, mum-um, (ba)nana). She is the cutest kid I’ve ever seen. I am, of course, completely free from bias.
It used to feel strange lugging a single small human creature around; now I feel something missing when a single one is gone.
RodeoClown: loves his kids more than ever.
New Toy
Sorry about the lack of updates, after a five-year mission, my laptop expired several weeks ago – it blue-screened, and no amount of CPR would revive it.
My new laptop arrived today, and it feels and looks nicer, runs faster, and cost around a grand less, despite being better in every single department (by an order of magnitude in some respects).
That actually has very little to do with my laziness and procrastination in writing. I have several posts in the works, and hopefully they will actually turn up on the site soon.
RodeoClown: gets expensive toys. But only rarely.