Sweet desperation

Ever since getting a refurbed Nexus 7 for Christmas, I've been playing some awful time wasters. Lack of full-time employment was quite enabling. And I've been quite aware of my poor choices in how to use my free time.

But I know it got bad once I decided to take the plunge, without any prompting or invites from Facebook, to download Candy Crush.

The obsession of yesteryear finally sunk in, long after I think most of my friends have stopped playing. I wouldn't feel so ashamed right now if it were a similar game, and not this one. There's nothing wrong with a casual puzzle game to play while waiting for the train or while winding down and watching TV. But Candy Crush! I've been marked forever.

Though I don't find myself addicted (at level 30ish), I see its appeal. Unlike a lot of other games with in-app purchases and Facebook integration, you can play for a long time without feeling the call of spending real money. The better and luckier you are, the longer you can play without waiting a half hour for another life. (And there are simple sync/un-synching tricks to give you even more flexibility.) And its popularity is in itself its strength. My leaderboards were pre-populated with 60+ friends, many of whom I would have never pegged for a little bit of Candy Crush obsession. I don't like to be too far from the top on any given level, and so there's a decent replay value. I like the timed levels the best.

So hello, my name is Diana, and I may have a Candy Crush addiction brewing.

But at least I've never played Farmville.

late post, but in case you didn't know

The Madden '09 simulation of the Super Bowl was only off by 2 points.

Madden 09 predicts Pittsburgh Steelers victory in Super Bowl XLIII

They predicted a Steelers victory of 28-24. Now, I do understand that 28-24 is VERY different from the real 27-23. It'd be pretty awesome if the simulation also included a safety. But I was still excited at the time. No one really understood my mile-a-minute muttering trying to explain how/why a video game prediction even happened, and no one really cared because the game was awesome, but I thought I'd point it out to anyone else who thought that was cool.

bowling hero

You know how Guitar Hero and Rock Band do not prepare you at all for the real thing? Drums, maybe. Vocals, sure. But the guitar plays more like a recorder that comes with a Disney songbook than a guitar.

Well, it's not like I even play Wii bowling. But I definitely forgot how hard real bowling was. I took bowling gym class once upon a time because my high school shared a gymnasium with an elementary school and so we took "cool gym classes" because we um "had no resources to accommodate the needs of a high school." So I took folk square ballroom gym class in a room the size of a normal classroom, rock climbing at this place at the bottom of a hill on the west side which took half the classtime to commute to, the same with the swim gym class, and BOWLING GYM CLASS AT PORT AUTHORITY (Times Sq). It was fun; not gonna lie. And shoe rental came with the class so if we wanted to pay for an extra game after class it was pretty cheap. But it's not exactly the average P.E. requirement.

Anyway, as much as I remember my 4-step approach, how to give courtesy to those in lanes adjacent if they're set up before you, and how to not get your fingers crushed by balls coming up through the return, Wii bowling has spoiled me in terms of how well I think I can do after some drinking. I'm just saying. =P Plus you don't have to factor in the chipped finger holes.

End stream of consciousness. Hasta la vista.

I wish I were cool enough to manage this

I've posted it everywhere. And I can't stop listening to and watching it.
Wind Waker Theme Unplugged

easier or harder than normal juggling?

Quite intrigued with this video. As does happen when it's one of the first things you see when you wake up. This is like a halftime show for Deadball.

homage to the good things

Example of a good thing:
The old King Arthur cartoon. And the kickin' theme song.


Been going through a lot lately and it won't stop! I'm letting people down, people are letting me down, it's a big mess. I also pulled my first all-nighter, but not even to get work done (if it happened, it happened) but I kind of wanted to know if I was capable of doing it a week or two from now.

Other good things. Hmm.
I've managed to label myself as a casual gamer. I hate that term, because I feel like I'm "better" than that (whatever that means) but I'll face it. I haven't been able to get into a game since...Gunbound. And I couldn't handle that 'cuz there were items you could only get with real money. Anyway, most of my fun on the computer happens at work during lunch (or not) so it has to be text or flash based, and most likely labeled as "casual".

So, if there are any other casual gamers out there ::gag:: Here are two sites you shouldn't live without:
Jay is Games - Self labeled as a casual gameplay site for reviews, walkthroughs, and discussion. The reviews are almost too thorough, for reviews that possibly take themselves too seriously. (Love them anyway.) Aaaaaand, most of the time you're not going to be reading the reviews. Say you're done wasting time the normal way - reading your news and blogs far too efficiently using Google Reader, checked sports standings, facebook, etc - and you just want a fresh new distraction! Updated about 1-3 times a day, there will be at least one link you'll want to check out. Even if it's just a 5 minute flash animation or click around no-replay value game. It'll be a good break!

Casual Collective - "built by two friends to provide a place to combine their two great loves: Social networking and Casual gaming." Yeah. Sigh. I only discovered this today, and only to play Flash Element TD2. But then I caught glimpse of multiplayer DTD. It's gotta be good.

yum, homebrew

In case you didn't know: You can now easily hack your Wii to play DVDs and also add a nice little Homebrew channel for other things, like DOOM. DOOM!!!

All you need is a copy of Twilight Princess, and a (probably dedicated) SD card. And a minimal amount of effort, for such a substantial hack.

It'll be my weekend project!

casual diversions #2

My next post is another tower defense game...Protector: Reclaiming the Throne.

Originally found from this casual gaming site, Jay is Games, it's a whole lot of lost productivity. :-) At first it was under control, but I'm still not sure if there's a pause button. Instead of attack towers like in Desktop Tower Defense (from the first casual game post) you have mages and warriors, and you level them up with gold via certain tracks. A "Skill Tree" determines available tracks and your skill trees grow with skill points, which you earn with each map you clear.

Anyway, I almost gave up on this game after not being able to beat any maps for a while. But after some peeking at a walkthrough for strategies I'm back and more engrossed than ever. (Not super engrossed.)

I like DTD better, but I'm over that game for a while, after resparking interest in it a whole 3 times.

link roundup?

Catsitting and end of the biweek leads to no posting! But here are some links of note from the past few days. :-) (Mined from my tumblrz)

Muxtape: NEStape
If you are unfamiliar with muxtape, it's a site where you can create your own mix tape, and share it with the world! Did anyone ever make a mixtape? I've definitely recorded radio onto a cassette tape to listen to on my walkman way way wayyyyy back when. And then there were mix CDs. And now playlists. Or worse yet, people just putting their whole mp3 device on shuffle!!! (I do it too.) Anyway, this muxtape is just some NES sound files (midi sounding style!) and I had a good morning with it yesterday. =P

NYTimes: Records Say Chinese Gymnasts May Be Under Age (OLD)
This is an article from July, outlining the more specific allegations and evidence against the Chinese girls. Until I found this article, I thought it was all speculation and people ratting on asians that don't look their age (ahem) but this seems a lot sketchier than I thought. Either the records are wrong now, or they were before, and neither is something to be proud of.

Can You Guess the Movie from Just One Letter?
I failed miserably. I think I got 10 or 11, but after looking at some of the more distinctive ones, I feel like I should've known them. Or at least seen the movie. :-) I need to take 2 months off and get a netflix trial...

casual diversions #1

I don't have much to say these days. By these days, I mean during the course of the Olympics.

Let's begin in what I hope to be a series of posts that are in reserve in my brain.

Writing lesson #1 (or maybe it's #5, but it's something basic): Write about what you know about.

Unfortunately for productivity, I am a connoisseur of addictive (but not too involved!) online distractions. Mostly in the form of flash games. :-)

These have to be a special kind of game. There has to be very comfortable natural breaks in the game (e.g. between levels) or the pause function has to be non-detrimental.

Let's just get to the good stuff. Desktop Tower Defense

Featured in the best of Web 2.0 2007 on Webware, and featured on NPR, this was bound to be a winner. As you can tell from the title, it's a tower defense game. :-) I think those I've introduced the game to will refute my claim that it is not TOO addictive. It is. But only if you let it take over your life. I find it really easy to get to a point in the game where you can pause and not have to retain any groove in your mind, and just pop back in, especially if you choose to play a casual game and don't rush the waves too much.

The tower defense premise is just that you lay down attack units in a set place, upgrade them in a variety of ways, and usually are able to sell them for a fraction of their invested value. Waves of enemies, or "creeps" come in at intervals. In this particular game, you have the option of sending waves early.

Desktop Tower Defense is very easy to learn, and very hard to master. You can create group scoreboards with no effort, and you can look at other people's final maps for inspiration. Just youtube "Desktop Tower Defense" and you'll find a lot of people who want to show off their skillz.

Here's a video that is neither too too long nor too too insane? Reminds me almost exactly of what I've done in the past though...hmmmm...
Anyway, it's sped up and the music's added. No worries.

I did nothing else this weekend

Here are my first impressions of the Olympics. I'll try not to be too boring. :-)

• The Opening Ceremony - a combined effort
  I missed a good chunk of the artistic part of the opening ceremonies because of my false sense of security with DVRs. No matter. Am obtaining a copy as we speak. :-) Also saw most of the Parade of Nations...which I might comment on later. What I did see, visually speaking, was a marvel. It reminded me immediately of the Mass Games, now only practiced in North Korea. The premise is basically...communism. A lot of people, a sum of the parts, achieving a greater, larger effect. A documentary of two normal schoolgirls training for the Mass Games was made by the BBC, "A State of Mind". For some reason this was the only trailer I could find on Youtube. You see that image in the background changing at about 1:33? That's not a big screen TV; that's a lot of people with colored squares, changing the color on cue. I never got the chance to watch the documentary...you should also look up some of the mass games themselves. It's sheer madness.
  
  
  
  
• Michael who?
  In theory, before actually seeing Michael Phelps on TV yesterday I knew who he was. Swimmer. Awesome. Somewhat cocky. But for some reason, when I saw him, I was disappointed to see he did not have slightly long dark hair. Somehow, in my mind, even though I knew who the person was, the image I had in my head had merged with Michael Weiss, the figure skater. How this hair image merge happened, I don't know.
  
  
  
  
• Beach volleyball - one of these things is not like the other...
  Beach volleyball is an awesome sport. I don't have an opinion on whether or not it belongs in the Olympics. All I have to say, is that I think I should be at all of their games. Playing in a marching band. Given the music selection that seems to play at every timeout, I think there should be an Olympic side event of pep band-ing. I think I watched Women's fencing and Women's beach volleyball back to back and it was mindboggling that they were at the same games.
  I swear I heard Bon Jovi.
  
  
• Badminton - Shuttlecock. Ridiculous.
  I have no doubt that I would be completely and utterly trounced by a world class badminton player. I just have no understanding of the sport and what makes a good shot. But I watched a whole match because China was playing someone from Taiwa -- I mean Chinese Taipei, and I was pretty sure I'd never get to see Taipei represented on NBC coverage again. It just seems like the most fruitless sport there is. 90% of your energy expended goes into the frictional forces of the air against through feather on that...shuttlecock.
  
  
  
  

That's all for now! I'm catsitting and there's a cat asleep in the sunshine in a cat bed right now. 100% pure zen.

link roundup

Here we go! This seems to be the best format yet. :-) Least input as possible.

Telegraph: Viruses can catch colds, says study that redefines life itself
This BLOWS MY MIND. Is that too dorky? But as Slashdot put it, viruses can catch viruses. And they're alive I guess? Or rather, they should be given a new class of demi-organism. Kind of reminds me of Archaea Extremophiles.

NYTimes: A 10 Isn’t Necessarily Perfect in New Scoring System for Gymnastics
Whoa. Why do I think this is bigger news than it really is? Shouldn't this have been publicized? The new system is sort of like the one for diving, where you perform a dive with a pre-set difficulty and then the judges score on execution and the two are multiplied together. I first learned this from the Winter Games on the Commodore 64. I should probably be ashamed.

The 100 Most Common English Words
Not a post or an article. Just a sort of game. Try and guess as many as you can in 5 minutes. I scored 50, which I think is respectable enough. I got a phone call in the middle and I didn't see a pause button!

Today's bonus video:
Speaking of gymnastics, and since my coworker was wasting time watching her videos recently, here's Mary Lou Retton's uneven bars routine from her Gold Medal all-around win in 1984. She performs her own move: The Retton Flip. :-) You should watch her other videos. I like to believe that girls didn't abuse themselves as much back then. That's probably not true due to old timey taboo body image issues. I just don't know about the 80s though. Maybe it was a good time! That's what the parties make it seem like.

but...I...it's...THIS IS UNFAIR

Webware: 'Scrabulous' disappears from Facebook after Hasbro suit

I can't really put a finger on why this is wrong, and in fact, maybe it's the right thing to have happened, but it was probably one of the few facebook apps I never considered getting rid of. I still love to Scrab.

hungry

"I like rice. Rice is great if your hungry and want 2000 of something." -Mitch Hedberg

Play the Free Rice vocab game, earn points and rice for hungry people!

I don't know how effective it is in actually helping a large population, but at least you'll learn new words?

PS - due to the desire of not losing my job, I am going to try and post less. =P It was a good run though, no? Check out the tumblelog for randomness. I guess I'll still end up posting here at least once a day though! :-)

aw, widgey

So in my blood-deficient haze, I was looking for an EASY way of importing my tumblr posts into blogger. I didn't find it. But I didn't look long. However, I did find Widgetbox.

Because of Widgetbox, I was able to effortlessly throw my tumblr tumblelog into a decent (though not perfect) standalone widget on the sidebar of this Blogger blog. (You'll have to come to the site itself and see! Those of you who read a feed anyway.) I'm diggin' it. Unfortunately, the way that tumblr posts go, you don't even get prompted for a title of the post even if you cared to put one in...so most of the time the "headline" IS the post itself...anyway. What was I expecting with a quick fix? =P

And in general there are a ton of widgets available for browsing in Widgetbox. Super Mario, a virtual cat...I'm resisting from turning this page into a CF of widgets...it's difficult.

Here's the virtual cat. KITTY!!! You might have to click on it. But it'll follow your cursor and meow when you scratch its head and purr when you rub its belly and yayyyyyyy.

look lively!

Oh, Google. What have you done.

Google is launching Lively, it's own take on Second Life. At first I thought, cool! Another Google service to add to my list! But I'm not sure about what this might achieve. I guess it'd have to start running better on all computers and some more customization would be added...
IF I still used chat rooms, ever, Lively might be cute. You could hang out in someone's virtual room and chat with a lava lamp or an aquarium or whatever goin' on. But otherwise I think I'm getting too old for this stuff.

Webware first impressions, here.

OOL

CNN article, here.

I remember listening to an NPR program about this once...scratch off lottery tickets sold when the grand prize has already been won! Although I can understand why this is outrageous statistically when you work out price of ticket vs. possible payout, I still buy scratch off tickets even though I know a lot of the grand prizes have already been won. I feel like since I don't expect to win the grand prize anyway, that it's no loss...as long as there's something left...

port me

In what I thought was a hilarious bit of the morning in which someone from my a cappella group in college decided to include me in an e-mail thread intended for an all-male audience, I see that Chrono Trigger might come out for the DS. Nice. And to think, I was holding out for a character to appear in the next Smash Bros. (No, not a serious hope. But it's where disembodied characters from old franchises go to die, right?)

The super sweet sexy clock ticking from the link in the e-mail thread in question, here.

Can anyone else imagine like, RPG character Smash Bros that's turn based, each Smash attack taking a full minute, in full blown visuals? My favorite moves in RPGs were always the ones that seemingly destroyed the earth.

*edit - yay it's been confirmed. I might get it just to listen to the music, which I hope will be fantastically remastered. :-)