05 November 2008

Obamowned

So this country finally shook off 8 years of neo-conservative stupid last night. I watched the whole thing on both the computer and TV until after 1am. Something I never do on election night.

I don't know if this result is a good thing or not. Nobody can really know that, at least not for a few years. But I know it is a different thing.

I was born in 1971, and in the span of my short life, we have gone from a country where a black person had zero chance of becoming President, to having it come to pass. America is a crazy animal, unlike anything else in the world, really. We have the most diverse population on earth...racially, religiously, economically speaking. We have been (at least until the neo-conservatives took over) the most innovative and hard working nation on earth. And yet, with all that diversity and creativity, we're also maddeningly resistant to change. And when you get down to it, we kind of hate each other at times (especially every 4 years).

But last night we sobered up a bit. I am not convinced that it was an endorsement of Obama's message (though that is certainly a possibility) as it was a repudiation against the Republican party for going so far astray over the last 8 years. The Republican party of today resembles little of the party it was under Goldwater, who's conservative principles have all but been abandoned by the party. The party's problems didn't start in the last 8 years, however. The seeds were sewn by the patron saint of the GOP, Ronald Reagan, when he courted the religious right. He - and they - signed a deal with the devil and only now are paying the price, having gained so very little for either of their causes along the way.

So now we have largely cast off the big spending, big government, imperialist Republicans and are left with the Democrats...a party that is no stranger to any of those same faults. The question now is, can Barack Obama demonstrate the strength of character and conviction to be able to not only fend off a Republican minority sure to try to sabotage his every move, but also to stand up to his own party when they inevitably try to bring their own brand of stupid to the dinner table?

My only hope going forward is that the answer to that question is, 'yes he can.'

10 October 2008

Yeah, yeah, I never post. Whatever

So, I made a funny pic. It is an homage to the terrorist hunting permit stickers that showed up after 9/11. I thought this was appropriate given the economic terror that has hit this country.

Of course, I don't encourage anyone to actually go out and hunt a CEO. Because that would be bad?


10 April 2008

XBox360 Wiimote???

So, apparently there is rampant speculation that MS will be coming out with a knock-off of the Wiimote. Well, I don't have any problem with them coming out with motion controls. As an owner of a Wii, I can honestly say that - at the very least for certain genre's of games - the motion controls are some of the most intuitive and fun controls I have ever used. But my concern is that MS will rush this through and fuck it up. The PS3's motion controls were rushed and generally disliked by both developers and gamers, so making the same mistakes would be costly.

I've thought some about how I would approach bringing motion control to the 360. First, the 360's controller is incredibly comfortable. Easily the best of the three current generation consoles, with the caveat that the Wii nunchuk is on par. In fact, both have a similar palm profile. Look at the following images (which will hopefully not be borked or goatse'd):




Not the best images to tell, but you can see they have the same sort of elegant, curvy form-factor. These things just nestle into your palms so nicely. The wiimote itself suffers from the same sort of comfort issues that A/V remotes are plagued with...a rectangle being pointed forward isn't comfortable in the hand. But, the nunchuck is very nice.


Anyway, back to the 360 controller. If I were to try to convert it into a motion controller, I would take some of the best aspects of the current 360 controller and combine them with the best of the wii's controller(s). First, split the unit into two parts like the Wii. Obviously, this gives you two distinct sets of gyros to work with to implement left and right motion 'sticks'. Second, carry over the 360's buttons, triggers and analog sticks. I don't think the Wii controller has the 360's pressure trigger and button sensitivity, so we definitely want to keep those from 360. The 360's analog sticks, with their concave tops, are really good, so we keep those. One thing we steal from the wii for the analog sticks is the octagonal base frame. This makes it easier for you to find the 8 absolute directional positions. Unlike the Wii, we keep the two part untethered. The D-pad would definitely need to be better than the 360's, which is pretty bad. Just make the guts like every other D-pad on the market instead of the weird internal arrangement they have now (google for more info).


So, I went ahead and used Google Sketchup to quickly draw up some mock-ups. I am, however, not great with 3D modeling tools, so I wasn't able to put in the nice curvy shape of the nunchuck/360 palm rests, but hopefully you will get the gist. Here are the images:







As you can see, the shoulder buttons and triggers of the 360 are retained. Also, on the right controller, the offset analog stick is also retained. Notice that both units have a base. This would be where you could connect batteries and also store gyros or whatever. They also make a convenient resting base. A friend of mine also suggested making the base have a rounded bottom so the controller could be rested on a knee or whatever and used like a flight control stick.



Anyway, this is my thinking of how I would go about it. Guess we'll have to see how MS goes.

03 April 2008

Speaking of baseball....

So, I haven't blogged about baseball in a very long time. Honestly, I have gotten to a point where I just don't expect much from the team as far as the post-season is concerned. Even last year, when we had the best hitting team in FSU history, I just never really believed that we'd get to Omaha,(and we didn't). So, I didn't bother blogging.

At the start of this season, my feelings hadn't changed. But, over the course of the season I am slowly starting to get optimistic. This will probably come to bite me in the ass with a giant chomp of disappointment later on, but oh well. Right now this team - while flawed, especially in fielding - seems like maybe it has the mythical 'IT factor.'

They are prone to lapses and getting themselves in a hole, but it just doesn't seem to bother them...they just keep fighting. The first I saw of this was the first game against UGa. They got way down early in the game before the game was postponed because of rain, but the next day during the continuation, they just keep fighting and fighting. They were dug too deep to pull out a win, but the fight was there. This has been a recurring theme so far, vs Wake, vs UF, vs JU.

The team is again hitting well and we may have settled into having the best pitching staff I have seen in a long time. With the condensed scheduled, all teams needed to be able to find 5 true starters, and I think we have actually done that with Fairel, Parker, Villanueva, Strauss and McGee. We still probably need to get more guys as strong relief, but I think that will get settled before the end of regular season with Gast coming off injury and other guys getting work. Buster Posey is a legitimate, albeit unconventional, closer.

The glaring weakness has been in the fielding, where we're really just not very good. This month will be a real test of fire for the team as we play arguably the best teams we have on the schedule in UVa, UNC and Miami. Making fielding errors against these teams will be costly, so the fielding is going to be under a lot of pressure. I hope they respond with as much fight as they have shown so far this year.

What is this, a fucking BBQ blog?

OK, so there are two updates to make. First, Wilson's BBQ is kaput. Not real surprising considering the BBQ wasn't out of this world spectacular, and because the location is shitty.

Second, I think I have a new #1 in the form of Shane's rib shack. The ribs are better than Mr. T's simple because they don't drown them in sauce. As far as inherent tenderness and flavor, they are on par, but that sauce issue is important. Moreover, Shane's has ridiculously good Brunswick Stew. Definitely the best I have ever had. It is thick, meaty and flavorful. I have, on several occasions now, gone there before baseball games to pick up dinner in the form of a pint of the Brunswick Stew. That pint is filling for a meal, and way cheaper than buying food at the stadium.

Baseball is actually how Shane's was introduced to me. The owner of the local franchise (yes, like Famous Dave's it is a chain) is a sponsor for the Animals this year and had a bunch of us come in for a free meal early this season. I was hooked immediately. This isn't some spiel to brown-nose an Animal sponsor either, the food there is really good. The only problem with the place is that it isn't located closer to home so I can have it for dinner more often.

So, I suppose a new BBQ ranking list is in order:

1) Shane's Rib Shack
2) Mr. T's
3) Jim & Milt's
4) Famous Dave's
5) Gerdie's