The Sun God

For the past several years, this time of year has been a bit of an unhappy affair for me. It was never an issue until fairly recently in my life, but for some reason the lack of daylight in the evening really bums me out! And I know there's things like seasonal affective disorder, but I wouldn't really say that I'm depressed or that the season has a significant affect on my life or happiness.

I just like seeing the daylight when I'm awake. The problem is that I tend not to wake up very early in the morning, so sunshine isn't a big part of my life this time of year. Maybe I'm suffering from a vitamin D deficiency?

Regardless of causes, this has me quite motivated to celebrate December 21st: The Winter solstice!

I've been debating how best to celebrate in style, but I'm leaning towards taking a hot citrus bath in the style of the Dōngzhì Festival revelers, as well as imbibing plenty of ale as per the pagan holiday of Yule. (This was before it was absorbed into and adopted by the Christians as part of their Christmas holiday.) I'll likely also enjoy a large feast (probably chicken nachos, I'm thinking) to commemorate the turning of the celestial tide like they do for Şeva Zistanê. Longer days, here we come!

I'm thinking I will not be decorating cattle dung around a bonfire as the celebrants of Lohri apparently do, nor will I be celebrating Mummer's Day style by rubbing charcoal on my face and dressing up as an animal.

In any case, I'm a firm believer that the modern world needs to celebrate many more holidays than we currently do... So if you know of a good reason to celebrate an annual tradition, lay it on me!

For now, I think I'll order some Chinese takeout to help me commemorate Alabama Day. Yay Alabama!

On The Domestication of Internet Nerds

I really just don't get it.

Is it because of how we're wired? I've read about why certain animals can be domesticated and others cannot, and one of the necessary factors is a pack mentality which includes submission before an alpha. Is it just something along those lines?

The question I'm struggling with: Why do so many people fall into fan-boy behavior?

I enjoy really getting into the guts of game mechanics, and love hashing out strategies and the whys and whats of optimizing my strategies. I'm often found lurking on message boards for a new game obsession, and if the game has enough depth I've even been known to register and start joining in the conversations.

But one doesn't have to actively participate in forum communities to know what I'm talking about; fanboyism is rampant among gaming devotees. I suppose that is partly due to misplaced passion? If you love something, you can see no faults with it? I dunno. I love a bunch of games but I still stay grounded and can objectively complain about bits I don't find enjoyable.

So many people don't seem capable of admitting there are any problems with their favorite games, and I just do not understand the motivation behind this sort of behavior.

Then again, when I step back for a minute, I realize that basically I'm complaining about people being irrational and engaging in shallow, immature behavior. (People on the internet, no less.)

I can't say for sure if its because of latent herd/tribal behaviors, but I do think we can safely blame "human nature" for the problem.

What tablet should I get for Christmas?

Christmas 2012 is fast approaching, unless the world ends before then. It has been years and years since I've come up with a big ticket item that I wanted, so I got pretty excited when I thought that I would enjoy owning a tablet!

This would be my first new bit of technology since I bought an iPod back in 2007. Well, OK, I recently got an iPod touch for my birthday. But that's no tablet! And this is ignoring, of course, my gaming computers, which I think we're safe to do for purposes of discussing new portable technology. As a result of my lack of early adopting (or any adopting, really.. I've still never had a smart phone other than a company-issued Blackberry that I didn't customize) my friends have been known to call me a Luddite.

But after seeing plenty of friends & my mother enjoy their tablets I decided that it might be time to get one myself. Turns out that there's a lot of options on the market nowadays! At first I crowd-sourced brand names that my friends and family found to be good choices. There was an immediate consensus between three products: Amazon's Kindle, Google's Nexus, and Apple's iPad.

I figured the next step would be deciding on a size. Do I want to go with a larger model or go mini? Since I have an iPod touch, I figure that my tablet should go big... But then I began second guessing myself, debating the convenience of carrying around a smaller tablet. With nothing decided, I began attempting to narrow down my choices by other means.

I looked at the Kindle Fire HD, the Nexus 7 & 10, and the iPads (both the mini and the 4th generation.) After an exhausting amount of research, user reviews, editor's reviews, and a few interrogations, I finally decided on a favorite choice for my requested Xmas loot.

It really was a close race the whole time, and I don't think that what works best for one person will necessarily fit another person's preferences. I came to my conclusion based on a number of factors:

For myself, I plan on doing a lot of reading on my tablet. From what I read, it sounds like Amazon's e-ink gives it a clear lead in this regard, though users say that this is only really game-breaking when you're reading outside on a sunny day. Nonetheless, I feel like that's a clear win for the Kindle.

I am a bit clumsy, so durability always factors into very expensive, very droppable purchases. In this category, the size of the products didn't seem to matter and there was a clear hierarchy of the Nexus being more durable than the Kindle being more durable than the iPad. That said, if you're not particularly prone to accidents, I'm sure just buying a case and a screen protector would make even the iPad seem like a tank, as far as tablets go.

For apps? Hands down, there's no contest: Apple has the market there. Google is making a dent in their market-share, but at this point Apple still dominants handily. Amazon is still playing catch-up, although they did beat Google's selection of movies and TV shows. In almost every other respect, Amazon's content is available on both competitors through an Amazon app... almost seems unfair, eh? But truly, the selection from Apple is just superior in every measurable way. They have more apps and their apps are a lot more stable and/or customized to the iOS, whereas Google's offerings sometimes suffer from being sloppy smartphone ports.

When it comes to customization and overall control of the user interface (and the product in general), the Nexus shines. One would think the Kindle having an Android OS would make it comparable, but unfortunately Amazon has things pretty locked down which negates Android's main strength when being compared to iOS.

In the end, I decided that although all three had merits, what I was looking for in a tablet was best met by the Google Nexus. I appreciated the durability and user control, and didn't mind having less app options since Google's selection is still robust enough to meet my needs and is growing every day.

I will probably eventually still pick up a Kindle specifically for e-reading, but for my first dive into tablet computing I'm going to go with the Nexus 10. The smaller tablets seemed nice but I trust my initial instinct: given the fact that I have an iPod touch (and probably a smart phone in the near future,) I went ahead and chose the big'un.

I hope that my shared research can be helpful for your own difficult holiday choices, but please remember that this is a very amateur job of comparing the products and isn't meant to be a definitive comparison and review.

The Frugal Gamer

I was unaware of any particular change, but at some point it appears that I have become a very frugal person. I will freeze and shiver under heavy blankets all night long rather than turn my heat on too early in the season. Why buy a ton of stuff to fill your apartment, if you've got everything you need in a box full of good books and your computer? And why would I pay full price for a brand new game, (not to mention the hardware necessary to run new games,) when I can wait for a year or two and get AAA titles at bargain bin prices?!

Don't even get me started about Steam sales... it is unbelievable how I've been able to buy literally thousands of dollars worth of games over the past few years, while actually ponying up only a few hundred bucks. We're talking across years here, I rarely spend more during a Steam sale than I pay for a single steak dinner.

Of course, this has created one small problem for me. I tend to snag a lot of great looking games for cheap, which is great, except that I literally never finish all the games I own. Don't misunderstand me; I'm plugging along, beating games as I can... no, what I mean is that the massive virtual pile of unplayed games continues to grow far faster than the meager pile of games I beat.

Then again, even putting things into two discrete camps like that isn't really accurate. My two favorite genres are RPGs and sandbox games... so beating a sandbox game generally means you've just barely scratched the surface, and RPGs usually have at least two different stories based on choices the player made during the play-through. So even if I've beaten a game, that doesn't necessarily mean I'm done playing it.

Only if I won the lottery would I hope to ever have enough time to catch up on my gaming. Until then, I suppose you could more accurately classify me as a video game collector. Coincidentally, I do (upon rare occasion) enjoy various parts of my immense collection.

Full disclosure: I actually only own about 230 games, with fifteen or so of those being Humble Bundles that I still haven't bothered to redeem. (I hope those don't expire!) Although this feels like a mountain of games to me, especially considering how many of them are 4x sandbox games that literally can take several days of playing to complete a single play-through, I can naturally understand that there are some titans out there whose collection likely dwarfs my own.

So how many games do you own, and how many of those have you never played?

Urban Decay as seen in the Fallout Universe and America's East Coast

So while I was working at my last job, I stayed away from Fallout: New Vegas. I knew I wouldn't possibly have the free time necessary to enjoy the game, and boy was I right. It is almost like I replaced one full-time job for another! (This time, of course, it is insanely fun and I cannot wait to start "working"... a shame I can't find a real job that both makes me that excited and also actually pays me.)

Anyways, I played Fallout 3 when it first came out and have recently been diving into Fallout: New Vegas. Both games' settings are pronounced by the 200-year-old ruins of America. Buildings are more often than not just gutted shells or half-destroyed frames full of rubble. There's abandoned tools and industrial machinery scattered about carelessly all over the landscape, and the roads are barely more than rivers full of blacktop islands separated by spider-web potholes.

It is a very interesting setting to explore, and I especially enjoy it because of my fascination with the fragility of society. Namely, how quickly and easily everything we've managed to accomplish could disappear in the event of a major disaster resulting in the collapse of society.

I occasionally travel through America using Amtrak (our national passenger rail service), and coincidentally two of the longest trips I've taken happened to be while the Fallout universe was fresh in my mind. (Shortly after completing FO3 and while still playing FO:NV.) From the windows of a train, huge swathes of the East Coast (we're talking from Cincinnati to DC to NYC) look remarkably similar to the ruins depicted in Fallout.

Abandoned buildings in ill-repair or falling apart, stripped down vehicles left to rust, crumbling roads littered with debris, big heaps of masonry and garbage just piled up randomly, even some industrial machinery left to the elements. It was really quite striking to see the similarities. Maybe I should start stockpiling drinking water and firearms? Or maybe I'll just enjoy my legal right to a cold beer, instead. Happy Repeal Day, everyone!

On Advertising

Advertising is pervasive in our modern consumer culture. One of my favorite jokes from Futurama involves a man from 1999 complaining about how in the year 3000, commercials are broadcast into his dreams:

"That's awful, its like brainwashing." A friend asks, "Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?"

"Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV, and radio. And in magazines, and movies. And at ball games, and on buses, milk cartons, T-shirts, bananas, and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no-siree!"

That never fails to crack me up, because it is so true! I'm sure it is only a matter of time before we have advertisements beamed directly into our brains. Now, I don't think that advertising is an inherently evil thing. Obviously we live in a consumerist society and as such, it follows that sellers need a way to communicate what they're offering to buyers. And yet...

Where does one draw the line between manipulation and effective advertising?

I occasionally listen to "binaural beats" videos to relax. I don't really believe all the hype but I do find the sounds to be pretty unique and maybe its just placebo effect, but I do enjoy relaxing while listening to one. I noticed something in the YouTube comments, which is always a dangerous place to find oneself, unless you're actively looking to become dumber.

It was a reply from someone comparing binaural beats to getting high; the seemingly legitimate person said "yeah this video is totally trippy, I'm going to save my last sensestamp for watching this again" And what, pray tell, is a Sensestamp?

A quick Google search came up with one sketchy website (lots of animal-meme-based-advertising), and a ton of Youtube comments. All of the comments had the same type of grammatical mistakes as the website itself, which is supposedly offering "completely legal" chemical-laced stamps that you can lick to experience a trip. Sounds totally legit!

My money's on it being the website's creator doing some guerrilla marketing, and I'm going to guess that we're going to increasingly see this form of marketing pervade the social media.

Is it only a matter of time before commercials invade our dreams?

Convalescent

I've had a fairly unexpected turn of events this Turkey Day: an old friend drove 7 hours (one way) to pick me up in order to deliver me to my parents. In particular, this gesture of kindness was because this will be the last holiday season I'll enjoy in the States for a year or two at least.

Thank you, Matt, for your 14 hour donation towards the reunification of parents and son!

As if to add a few more levels to the mountain of gratitude I felt, I was then invited to his home on Friday for an after-Thanksgiving feast worthy of Turkey Day itself! Followed by an evening of board games with friends, I can safely say that this Thanksgiving as a whole has been an outstanding success.

Of course, Saturday I woke up feeling like I was fighting off a cold, and Sunday I woke up feeling like death warmed over. I spent the better part of the week asleep, awakening only for a few hours at a time before succumbing to a fevered dreamworld once more.

I am so thankful to have been visiting my parents' home when this illness struck, as it is infinitely more comfortable than my glorified indoor campground of an apartment. (Everything's in boxes and I'm ready to go just as soon as I can get a sublease signed!)

I'm on the mend now and about to return to Virginia for another few weeks, then holidaying with my folks and off to the Japans in early 2013! Life is good.
I did happen to log into Steam to check out the Autumn Sale. Although I did make a few purchases here and there, overall I felt the offerings weren't that robust compared to previous years. Then again, perhaps this was just to warm us up for the Christmas extravaganza? One can hope.

A funny thing I noticed once again (as this has been a previous thorn in my consumerist side) is how terrible  Steam's UI is for the purchase of DLC. If you're looking at a particular DLC, it conveniently notifies you of which friends already own it, but doesn't actually tell you if you do. A lot of games have a ton of DLC, and it is a huge pain in the ass to go through and figure out which ones you already own. Meanwhile, once you do add a DLC to your shopping cart, the "continue shopping" option takes you back to the store's homepage... very inconvenient if you're purchasing a bunch of DLCs.

I suppose Steam has gotten big enough that a bureaucracy now exists which prevents some common sense upgrades from being implemented quickly and effectively. I'm such a bargain hunter that I slogged through the 50+ clicks necessary to figure out which I didn't already own and make the purchase, but I easily could have said "forget it" and walked away. It is never a good idea to build an obstacle course between your customers and products. Hopefully they'll rework it in time for the Christmas sale?