Spring RTS Engine

So as you may-or-may-not have realized, I got laid off this week... its not all that bad as I was planning on going on parental leave some-time in the next few months... and providing my former employer actually manages to find some work (I worked for a consulting firm) in the new year... he'll hire me back when he needs me again... its a lot less money and all in all I would call it a "bad thing"... but it does give me some free time... so I would like to mention some "stuff" I have found/refound/become interested in again.

First Up: Cafe World, which is a Facebook game where you manage a cafe... unlike other facebook games of this nature it takes a little more attention... keeping track of 5 stoves with different dishes maturing at different rates takes about 1/4 of my attention... anyway.

So my wife is playing too and he computer sucks so I set up my account in IE and hers in Firefox and squished them both on the same screen (oh right, I have duel monitors) so I could surf and keep track of them at the same time... uber-lame I know... but also kinda awesome.

Next: Future Pinball... its a engine/designer for building a playing 3D pinball games... there are a few tables out there and a few of them are pretty will done... if you enjoy playing pinball video games you should check it out... http://www.FuturePinball.com

Finally: Vampire books... So... the "Twilight" series is pretty good if you can restrain the gag reflex through the "Teen Angst Girl vs Emo Boy" parts... I wouldn't have managed if my wife hadn't read them and I like to read books she's read cause it gives us something to talk about... Also been reading the "Sookie Stackhouse" books... the ones that "True Blood" is based on... so anyways... books are MUCH better then the show... also, whoever cast Anna Paquin as a Hot Busty Blond needs to lay off the juice... I mean she was sorta cute in Xmen... but that must have been special effects or something.

SinbadEV wrote:Finally: Vampire books... So... the "Twilight" series is pretty good if you can restrain the gag reflex through the "Teen Angst Girl vs Emo Boy" parts... I wouldn't have managed if my wife hadn't read them and I like to read books she's read cause it gives us something to talk about...

I don't think I could manage reading the books about sparkling vampires, emo boy, and angst girl. Lestat in Ann Rice's Vampire Chronicles is a much better vampire character than an emo boy. He's supposed to be the hero of the vampire chronicles and, according to Ann Rice, the vampire chronicles are a metaphor for what's going on with people. I bet Lestat would say the same thing about emo boy that he does about, Louie, even though he finds Louie to be amusing, "Louie, Louie, Louie, always whining."

How's the movie? I haven't seen it, but may go just out of curiosity because I know a lot of people who think it's cool, especially since it's around Halloween time. However, I'm know I shouldn't go there expecting it to be like "Queen of the Damned" with the actor who played the part of Lestat being kind of a ham and Aaliyah dancing and mesmerizing people because she's the Queen of the Damned.

I kinda liked the movies... and the sparkly vampire aspect is basically gone after the first book (yeah, they still sparkle, but no one talks about it much)... meanwhile the author definitely improves through the books.

I've only seen the movie once and it was when it first came out so I forget most of it (also, I've read the book so it tends to color my appreciation)... I would definitely NOT call it a halloween movie however... its not even remotely scary... even when its trying to be.

True blood isn't much different from a daytime soap opera, kinda sad really.

And while we're at it... Sookie Stackhouse? Seriously? Every time I hear or read that name I wanna choke a bitch.
for all the uber sensitive non-americans out there "Choke a bitch" is slang

I like Anna Paquin, but a girl named "Sookie" cast as a busty blonde is just retarded.

SinbadEV wrote:So as you may-or-may-not have realized, I got laid this week.

I realized.

SinbadEV wrote:I've only seen the movie once and it was when it first came out so I forget most of it (also, I've read the book so it tends to color my appreciation)... I would definitely NOT call it a halloween movie however... its not even remotely scary... even when its trying to be.

It doesn't have to really be scary to be a Halloween movie. Zombieland looks like it would be funny and I think it would make a good Halloween movie, but not as good as Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Zombieland:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-cIjPOJdFM

I think the emoness in it makes it not a very good choice. I've always thought of Halloween related things as though they were supposed to be fun or funny, like in a masquerade ball or carving a jack-o-lantern, not so much emo vampires. Yes, I know that, in a lot of people's opinion, that is fun, but I'm just stating my opinion that it seems like a drag.

As someone who (was) in the business, can you tell me: what ARE consultants? What do they do?

We were the "develop and implement the piece of software you need developed" kind... basically as database-developers, companies would advertise that they need some work done and if we won the bid we would then build that software for them...

we weren't like Dogbert's Consulting firm that came in and told you what was wrong and how to fix it an then left...

ITT: shameless exhibitionism

I've been under the impression for a while that the internet with its vast stores of information would render that kind of service obsolete, any truth to that?

No, sometimes it ends up being our job to find the right software on the internet and set it up for them though.

Its a common misconception that the average person is not an idiot. Linux and other FOSS users/developers quite often neglect to realize that... As an example, sometimes its our job to program an Access database... something Microsoft has designed to make the process of data management as easy as creating a word document.

Databases frighten me