Friday Links!
Leading off this week, from Wally, the results of the annual (and treasured) Bulwer-Lytton contest: Winners.
Also from Wally, an interesting interview: At Every Turn: Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher. And a perspective on the war: Winning: Long Term Ukrainian Prospects.
From D. Fitch, and it's so ingenious: a website that turns website streams into cable channels, so you can navigate YouTube like cable television. It's fantastic: YouTube cable.
From D. Willhite, and Brian May is such a badass: Don’t stop me now: Queen’s Brian May on saving badgers — and the scientific method.
From C. Lee, and it should surprise no one: When Is “Recyclable” Not Really Recyclable? When the Plastics Industry Gets to Define What the Word Means.. This is quite odd: Flight Diverted After Pilot's Shocking Admission to Passengers. Absolutely infuriating: Your TV set has become a digital billboard. And it’s only getting worse. C. Lee called this "bone flap flap," which is outstanding: Atlanta hospital sued for allegedly losing part of a patient’s skull. Art is everything, everywhere: Chinese social media users hilariously mock AI video fails. This is a stunning story: Ex-bank CEO gets 24 years after falling for crypto scam, causing bank collapse. An interesting read: Does lipstick still have economic staying power? I eat Grape Nuts and blueberries (and oat squares) almost every day for breakfast, so this is promising: The Unlikely Popularity of Grape-Nuts Ice Cream. This is fantastic: Firaxis preserves the 33-year-old, $10,000 386 PC Sid Meier used to develop Civilization – and it still works.
Tennis and Life
We went to Austin to see Mom 94.5, which is why I was AFK for a few days.
While Eli was in Grand Rapids, we'd played tennis several times. He's been playing 2+ hours every day this summer, after he was fortunate enough to find a friend who played tennis at a similar level. As a result, he's playing far better than he ever did.
I hadn't played in two years. Didn't even bother trying to get ready. I figured it was going to be ugly.
Surprisingly, though, it wasn't. I was still able to hit with him. I just had to have match-level focus instead of goofing off. I was happy I didn't embarrass myself, at least.
In Austin, my sister found out we played tennis and asked if he'd blown me off the court. Eli said, "Dad is like an old computer covered in dust, and when you turn it on, you never expect it to work, but it boots up and runs all the programs it used to, even though a little slower than when it was new. So he hadn't played in two years and hit like he'd been playing last week."
Which is true. Muscle memory is a good friend to have.
Art Quilting
How's that for two words you never thought you'd see in this space?
There was an art quilting convention last weekend, and, as E.B. White said (almost), I went for secret reasons.
I didn't know there was such a thing as "art quilts." After seeing the exhibits, I'm still not entirely sure, but it did appear that calling quilts "art" was making lots of people lots of money.
However, while 95% of what I saw didn't seem like art, I did see a few that did. I should also clarify that quilts can be very complicated now, with photos on fabric and all kind of non-stitched work.
Here's one:
Here's another, and it was definitely art:
I also found a street style quilt (at least, I thought it was):
I experienced something I thought I never would, it only took an hour, and it was a good experience. Also, doing anything with C is fun.
Who Said His Name Three Times?
Peter Molyneux is back.
His game is called "Master of Albion," and it looks like a reskin of a failed, previous game called "Legacy" that was blockchain-based. It supposedly sold "tens of millions" in land, yet somehow it couldn't make a go of it.
The one thing you can count on with Peter Molyneux in this part of his "career" is that he's going to disappoint you. He's done it over and over in the last two decades. I'm not even linking to a preview, because his promises are worthless.
What he will do: push out an incomplete game with a massive number of missing features and an armload of bugs and abandon it as quickly as possible.
In that sense, he's utterly reliable.
Rules
We went to a lake town and spent an afternoon there a few weeks ago. It was a fine afternoon.
"Lake" doesn't really encompass Lake Michigan, because it feels like you're on the shore of an ocean. On our walk, we had this view:
A real beauty.
We also walked through a park, and while it was quite pleasant, there were rules. These rules:
Damn, it's like Singapore. Also this city is ultra-conservative. I don't know if it's related.
Away From Keyboard
I'm out of pocket until Thursday, so please enjoy pre-recorded content for the next few days.
EA College Football 25 (more)
I hate to use this word, but I played a full game this morning and I'm almost excited. This game does so many things right.
A few I forgot to mention yesterday:
--the bands are amazing, along with the crowd in general. Huge atmosphere bonus.
--running the ball is both possible and makes sense.
--you can throw screen passes and they actually work.
Defense is definitely difficult, but in a challenging way, not an unfair one.
It just feels like college football, much more than any EA college football game has ever felt in the past.
Once the patch drops next week, I'll definitely start a dynasty and keep you updated with what I find.
EA College Football 25
I've played about ten exhibition games at this point, including a few against Eli 23.0, and here are some general impressions. I'm waiting on Dynasty mode until they release one more content patch (around the 27th), which should update rosters and fix a few issues.
First off, I'm surprised, because many things in this game are done very well.
The atmosphere is top-notch. The stadium entrances for teams are usually accurate (based on a sample of about 15 teams) and they're outstanding. Fight songs are accurate. There's plenty of detail, even down to showing accurate hand gestures from fans (for instance, Texas Tech and Hawaii). The stadiums are accurate too, in the vast majority of cases. All in all, it's very impressive.
The presentation is improved from Madden because it's not nearly as bulky. Madden is so weighed down by cut scene after cut scene between plays, and they show the coaches constantly (which drives me insane). So far, I haven't seen one coach so far, which is a huge pleasure. Oh, and another bit of authenticity: accurate crowd chants for the teams I've seen so far.
All they needed to do was not f*ck up the gameplay, and they didn't. It's fast and smooth, and so many little improvements have been made, like receivers and cornerbacks turning to look for the ball, as well as excellent and varied catch animations.
It's much more fun than I expected.
I haven't started a Dynasty, as I mentioned, but I'm looking forward to one feature in particular: the ability to set up a relegation structure with multiple tiers. Conferences mean almost nothing in college football now, anyway, so having a fictional structure that promotes and relegates teams at the end of each season is fantastic. I'm looking forward to seeing it progress through multiple seasons.
In short: it doesn't suck, and it's quite good in many ways. Which is more than we could ever expect from an EA game.
PC Help (Update)
This could have been much worse.
After flipping the switch on my power supply, I was able to boot. Still stuck at the BIOS screen, but it was progress. What I didn't know was after the third or fourth reboot, Windows takes you to the Windows Recovery Environment, which gives you options to pursue fixing the problem.
Repair install? Didn't work.
Booting into safe mode did, though. Once there, I was able to run chkdsk from the command line and repair various files, after which the PC booted as normal.
Ironically, this morning on The Verge, an article appeared: How to troubleshoot a Windows PC that won’t boot. It's thorough, too, even though it came a day after I needed it.
I'm suspicious of the drive now, particularly with it being ten years old, but for now, I'm just not turning off the system again and copying everything I don't want to lose to Dropbox.
Occam's Razor
C. Lee with the Occam's Razor suggestion: check the switch on the power supply and see if I bumped it into the "off" position.
Which I had, obviously.
I'm still endlessly hung at the BIOS screen, but that's something I can troubleshoot with more possibilities than not getting any power to the motherboard.
PC Help
I've got a bit of a problem.
I almost never turn my PC off, and it's been chugging along for years. With Eli 23.0 here, though, and him sleeping in my study, and my graphics card having obnoxious RGB lighting that is both bright and highly visible, I've been turning it off every evening and turning it back on in the morning.
No problem.
Yesterday, when I turned it on, it hung at the ASUS logo on the BIOS screen. I unplugged it, let it sit for 30 seconds or so, plugged it back in, turned it on, and it was fine.
Today, it hung on the ASUS logo again. I unplugged it, waited, and plugged it back in.
This time, though, nothing turned on.
I looked on the motherboard and no lights were visible. I believe that is definitive proof of a dead power supply, but are there any other possibilities? I did order a new power cord, just in case, even though it's an unlikely source of the problem. It was cheap, though, and easier than replacing the power supply, so I thought I'd try it.
Ugh. I don't have time to deal with this right now. Thanks for your help.
ESPN Bet
It's gross, obviously, but there are some interesting comparisons to games.
ESPN has a a huge stake in online gambling now, and ESPN programming is the Trojan horse to get you involved. The ESPN Bet program was originally showing on the ESPN sub-channels, but now it's on ESPN at times, and it will become more and more prominent.
It reminds me of every game that's ever had microtransactions.
One microtransactions creeped into games, they rapidly became all that mattered to big publishers. Game content was designed to push you to buy additional content, and the microtransaction revenue numbers were what guided future development.
It's the same thing with ESPN. Now that they're an online sportsbook, nothing else matters. Every scrap of ESPN content is going to have only one goal: push you to bet. The revenue numbers from the gambling operation are going to 100% determine which sports get covered and how.
It's depressing, and there's no way to stop it.
Very On Brand
Eli 23.0 arrived at 3:30 p.m. yesterday after a 16-hour trip through consisting of Oxford/Heathrow/Dublin/Chicago/Grand Rapids.
I picked him up and he said, "Is the tennis stuff packed?"
It was. I know him.
We went straight to the tennis courts and hit for an hour, then grabbed a quick dinner and he went for a half-hour run an hour later.
Meanwhile, I pre-gamed with Celebrex and feel less creaky than usual after tennis. "Pre-game" has a different meaning nowadays.
Hero Emblems II
This is a brain worm, and I don't mean in the creepy, RFK Jr. way.
It's a match-3 game with character development and equipment. RPG-Very Lite, with the match-3 mechanic used in combat.
The match-3 element is particularly well done, as it's fair and has some interesting twists. Plus it's pleasing visually and has music you don't mind listening to.
It'll cost you a tenner, and you'll get 30+ hours of gameplay. I think this has taken the crown from Puzzle Quest, at least for me.
Shoes (September 2023-August 24)
I bought these shoes in Tokyo, on day two or three of the Japan trip, when my feet felt like uncooked hamburger meat. I wasn't going to be able to keep up the pace.
I tried on the Gel Nimbus 25 in an Asics store (in the Shinjuku district, I think) and they were magic. I went from barely being able to walk to handling 7-9 miles a day with no problem, even as the original injury healed.
They went to Tokyo, to Austin, To Merida, Mexico, and to Montreal. Huge mileage trips, all of them, and my feet felt great the whole time. I'd never had a pair of shoes make my feet feel so good.
I've stockpiled three additional pairs as a safeguard against inevitable model year changes. I may pick up another pair or two before they're all gone.
Total mileage: around 750. Injuries: zero.
Satisfaction: infinite.
The Summer Continues (part two)
I never saw Eli on the U.S. feed when he was at the Olympics, but he was on the BBC feed several times. He told me his phone blew up with texts, and three of his friends texted within seconds with the same message: "No f---ing way."
He replied that there was, indeed, a way, and all three responded "No f---ing way."
He also said the women high jumpers high-fived him as they went along the first row of the crowd after the event concluded.
Wimbledon and the Olympics. Oh, and he spent a week in the house where they filmed the move "About Time." All in all, not a bad summer.
He's coming here next week for a quick visit, broken into two stints. I haven't seen him in person since the holidays last year.
Can't wait.
Useless Things In Your Brain
I saw an article on Blue's News. This one:
WordStar 7, the last ever DOS version, is re-released for free.
I used Wordstar, but not for long, because it had approximately 1,000 keyboard commands. However, for absolutely no reason, the one command I did learn was the save command: [Cntl]+KD.
Forty years later, I've forgotten an infinite number of useful things, but if I hear "Wordstar" in any context, I immediately remember that keyboard command. It will never break free.
I Think I've Been Doing It Wrong
I have a long list of tasks every day.
Mundane tasks. Bill-paying, insurance calling, credit card-checking tasks. All the stupid things people must do.
It's stressing me out.
Having slipped into responsible person mode from the day Eli 23.0 was born, and even more so after Gloria's accident and subsequent passing, it's started to weigh me down to the point of becoming a problem.
I was thinking about this earlier and suddenly had a realization: why do I need to be doing tasks every day? What if I just held them for Tuesday and Thursday, for example? Surely almost everything could wait a day or two. Then I'd have a few blissful, task-free days a week.
Except for writing and working out, of course. Those are locked in.
I'm going to try this and see what it feels like. And I can't believe I didn't think of it before now.
The Summer Continues
Eli 23.0 left a message Saturday morning saying he'd found tickets for the Sunday track and field events in Paris and had worked out all the associated logistics. "The seats are probably terrible," he said, "but I'll be in the stadium" for the 100 meter finals, the showcase event.
He also knows a guy from Michigan (Hobbs Kessler) who was running in the 1500m semis during the same session, and he was excited to see him.
He sent me a picture from outside the stadium as he was walking in, and it's hard to even explain how excited I was. Track and field at the Olympics is so iconic, and the 100m finals is the greatest single event.
Then he sent me a message and a photo:
Remember what I said about having bad seats?
Never mind
In the front row. Literally.
He got to see the closest 100m final in Olympic history, and Hobbs made it to the finals. What a day.
The Perfect Birthday Strategy
"Dad, I've discovered the perfect birthday strategy," Eli 23.0 said last night.
"Tell me," I said, "because you know what my birthdays are like." You do, too, if you've been reading for a while.
"Here's what you do. You ask people to do all your favorite things, but you don't tell them it's your birthday. So you get to do everything you like, but no one makes you the center of attention. It's just a great day."
The funny thing is that Eli's the center of attention all the time, but he never seeks it. It's the opposite, really. He's never been a self-promoter.
Now I have a perfect birthday strategy for myself, too.
