Ah, I’m in a state of bliss right now. You see, Apple just updated their PowerBooks. Now they are faster, better, and about $200 cheaper! Go here and check it out, I’m so excited! Then again, I could never dream of having the kind of money to actually buy a Powerbook (or any Mac, for that matter), but it’s still fun to look at.

Anyway, a new Japan link! UnversedLyric. Go there. I have to go drool in front of the new PowerBooks now. Bye.

#m

I’m not going to come and accuse play practice as the reason for me not posting in a week - the real reason is I just haven’t bothered. But I’m in the blogging mood again, so you all get to hear about my favorite childhood computer games. Sure, the 3D games that everyone loves now are fine and all, but there is just something about the classic 2D floppy disk games that will never lose their flavor.

First on my list: Zoombinis. This is the obvious choice that I would hope you’ve all heard about. The Zoombinis are a race of creature that have various features about themselves that you have to pass through a combination of puzzles so they can reach their new home in Zoombiniville. They have different hair, different feet, eyes, ect., and these differences in features will determine how you solve the puzzles given to you. I grew up on this game - my sister and I could go down to my dad’s office downstairs and play Zoombinis until our minds could no longer handle the puzzles. If I were to name the top game of all time, this would tie with the Myst series in overall greatness. You can imagine my surprise when I learned that there were two sequels I had never played, “Zoombinis Mountain Rescue” and “Zoombinis Island Odyssey”. Ah, the memories this game holds for me.

Number two on the list: Of course, Myst. You just have to enjoy the simply blissful nature of this game. Given, there were parts I never beat when I was only 8, but I enjoyed every minute of it. The series has unfortunately gone down hill for me. I can’t say the newer games are boring, but then again, I can’t say anything about them, because they have deemed my computer unworthy of supporting them. You can’t make a sequel to the best game ever that only runs on the newest computers!

Spelling Jungle. This little known game from Sierra taught us how to spell with the help of Yobi the Talking Tribe Tutor. You raft upriver, making 100 stops along the way to solve spelling puzzles and collect trinkets. Alas, I never beat it, but there was apparently a sequel called Spelling Blizzard which is now too old for me to find online. Alas.

You know I wasn’t going to leave off The Incredible Machine! Yet another brilliant piece of work from our friends at Sierra, this game let you play around with levers, gears, basket balls, and of course Mel, that gave you dozens of hours of enjoyment. I sadly have not played this game in years, but I’ll find it again someday and do the whole baseball to light to tinder to fire to hot air balloon to lightswitch thing all over again.

One more brilliant game was Math Rescue, or as we referred to it, “Gruzzles”. This game, from Apogee, had you run around a side scrolling world, collecting numbers to open doors and solve math problems along the way. You went underwater, in space, and to candyland, looking out for the evil Gruzzles that stole the numbers, so you can slime them with the help of a butterfly! Games were so much more creative back then… There was also Word Rescue, but it could never compare.

The rest of these games I can’t remember enough about to write much, so I’ll just list them:

Mission T.H.I.N.K.

Marble Drop

Cluefinders

I couldn’t imagine a childhood without these games, it just wouldn’t be complete. If any of you can think of any childhood games you loved, tell me, I’d love to hear about them.

#m

I won’t get around to posting again before Friday, so I decided to show my excitement now. You see, friday holds the future of the next three months. It is where stories begin and suspense builds. Friday summons forth the world beyond our own, and calls to attention an understanding of our universe. What I am obviously talking about are the half season premieres of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and of course Monk. These three shows represent the genius of Canadian television, and if you haven’t watched any of them, #m will get slightly irritated, and we don’t want that. So anyway, this friday will henceforth be considered my slump day. From 8-11PM, you know where I’ll be (sitting in front of a TV with a vacant gaze in my eyes, doing what one might consider to have no real purpose other than to waste time on something you get no lasting value out of).

I really can’t imagine it being 2005 already. Sure, 2004 was last year, and 2003 was technically the one before that, but I’ve always pictured the year as being not far from 2000. It’s supposed to be 2001, people! Yet it’s more than that - we’re half done with the 200X’s! I guess I really miss the 1990’s. Back when internet games stole hours of innocent children’s time, when shows like The Magic School Bus were still on, and when you could listen to Techno without being deported to Germany or Japan (not that I would mind the later). But back to the year, I still don’t understand why we are still calling it two-thousand-five. I’ve said this before, and I will say it again: The year is twenty-oh-five, got it!?

Imagine you’re on ER, Scrubs, Chicago Hope, any of those hospital shows. Now imagine your dying. You’ve been the victim of a hit and run, and it’s only when your college professor noticed you lying on the street did you get an ambulance to the local healing center (oblivious to the fact that it was really your professor that hit you, and he took you to the hospital after dumping the car in the reservoir as to avoid suspicion). Your heart has stopped, and your only hope is one of those magic shocky things they give you (I supposed you could call them defibrillators, if you wanted to be correct). First try: nothing. Second try: nothing. Finally, the doctor with perfect hair that’s too young to even be a resident tell’s his assistant to give it one more try. “Clear!”, he shouts, accidentally tossing his neck-length bangs behind him with that work. He pushes the cold, metal pads onto your chest, your $100 ripped shirt hanging off the crash cart. The jolt of electricity runs through the wires, racing to your heart to give you the gift of a few more precious years. They leave the pads with a jump, seeping into your body. Your chest spasms slightly as your muscles contract. Your heart give another beat as the organ pumps another rush of blood through your dying body. And it’s over. You’ve been pronounced dead at 2:30 AM.

Fortunately, it was only a dream, and your really just sleeping at you computer, layering the keyboard with a thin coating of drool. In another stroke of luck, you’ve clicked on the shortcut to Amazon.com, and what do you find on the front page? An Automated External Defibrillator, of course! Now, you can experience the same excitement of the Emergency Room in your own home. The Philips HeartStart Home AED can give you all this for the low price of $1,495 (you save $500!). Note, I do not suggest or condone the use of any medical device in any way other than it was designed to be used for, including the use of AED when not experiencing cardiac arrest or as a way to surprise you dog.

I am both awed and disappointed in this years Macworld. Coolest thing - the Mac mini. I must confess at first however that I don’t use a Mac. Practically the only experience I’ve had with them involved my mom’s boss and her computer troubles, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t peacefully observe the goings on from a distance that doesn’t cost quite as a Mac would. It’s barely larger than a few CD cases stacked on top of one another, weighs less than my laptop, and costs $500! True, I couldn’t by any means afford that at the moment, but as fairly up to date computers go, that’s awesome. You have to take into account that it doesn’t have a monitor, keyboard or mouse, but who cares! Obviously, it doesn’t have your latest $600 graphics card, and I would imagine any upgrades other than memory would be next to impossible, you have to admit it looks pretty darn cool (go to apple.com and I’m sure you see lots of pretty pictures).

Yet another iPod has hit the streets, though I don’t imagine this one will kick off as well as every single other iPod that Apple has ever made. The new iPod Shuffle does just that - it shuffles all of your songs on a iPod “smaller than a pack of gum”. Just as with the iPod mini though, there comes a capacity downside… They come only in 512 MB and 1 GB models at $99 and $149 respectively. What I don’t like about this is the following: 1, it barely looks like an iPod! Who doesn’t love the iPod’s unique design and scroll wheel. An iPod isn’t complete without the satisfying click of scrolling through songs. But random song shuffling and no scrolling means no click. Secondly and most importantly, both hold less than 250 songs! Is it just me, or was something that made the iPod so successful was that it held your entire music collection? The $99 version will run out songs before it runs out of battery! At least the mini holds a respectable number of songs.

Also, I’m all excited right now because there are rumors that Miyazaki’s recent movie Howl’s Moving Castle will be released this June in the US! No idea if they’re true, but then there is still the question of if it will be shown anywhere near Charlottesville.

#m

I can’t sing. At least not in the stressful conditions of the choir room, in parts, with few people, and the most complex music I’ve seen on paper. Of course, if I were any other Jet, I would have a solo at some point, so there lays the silver lining of having a practically silent role (in addition of course to little memorization of lines, people not counting on you for cues, ect.). But really, I haven’t sung in a choir for years, this is much more complicated than the music I used to sing, there are like three people in my part, and I get a headache after every rehearsal.

I am very picky about toothpaste. It must be mint, a certain kind of mint, gel - not paste, and you’d be surprised how many other small differences change the taste. Now, we’ve all seen the commercials for Crest Whitening Expressions (you know, with Emeril Lagasse and his BAM). But when I saw that these people had started making vanilla flavored toothpaste (with a hint of mint, of course), well, I mean, come on! It’s not bad - beats my old toothpaste, anyway. I’m disappointed that I gave into a commercial, regardless of how good the toothpaste is - next you’ll start to see me buy as seen on tv music collections and strainer pots.

My sister recently showed me an interesting website that you should all check out (if you use Google anyway). elgooG, Google backwards, is a yllatot looc etisbew that you can spend a good five minutes on. It’s Google, but it’s been flipped left to right, you even type from the right. You can have fun by typing in your normal searches (backwards, of course), and seeing all the nice pages with text flying the wrong way and a flood of backwards images. The best part - Google news is backwards too! See if you can find hsuB or NNC anywhere. I was a bit upset that Google in Japanese became all messed up - I guess FireFox gets confused with backwards kanji. And if your feeling genorous, there is a Paypal donate page to help with bandwidth, so I gave $.50. Aren’t I kind?

I’ve found another awesome blog! This one is by Nynaeve al’Meara, who has been at it for a while. Anyway, she’s done a really nice job with it - check out her blog, no inhibitions. Well, I have to go get ready for school to take my History exam. It was sure nice to get to sleep in because I had PE during first exam period today, so I get to come in late. Later,

#michael