Who is this Master Chief?

Posted on August 30, 2007 by chatty

I don’t have an Xbox 360. But working on a site like T&G makes me want to get one (one of many things I’d like but don’t need nor can afford right now). It makes me want to be good at games like Halo 3.

I love that Nathan Fillion loves his Xbox. I can’t actually confirm that he owns one, but it’s my guess based on this fantastic blog post, in addition to this awesome interview clip with sci-fi writer PJ Haarsma. Read the full interview.

In general, I love buzz. I love that the “I Love Bees” thing actually worked (If you don’t know what ILB is, refer to Wikipedia). When buzz works, it can bring out that crazy impulse in you to care about something you normally wouldn’t care about. Or, in my case, to want something I really have no use for (seriously, when am I going to find time to play and get really good at Halo?) Buzz can’t be duplicated, no matter how hard PR folks try.

All this talk about Halo 3 makes me want to buy the Xbox 360 but I know it’ll be a big mistake. Just like the last time, when I bought the Xbox and never played it. I complained because I missed my old N64. Then sold the Xbox to my good friend, only to later find out the game console at times almost led to the decline of her marriage (how would you like THAT hanging on your friendship until the end of time?).

There is too much pressure behind another Xbox purchase. Instead I will try to enjoy the buzz that the Halo 3 kids are trying to conjure (it’s ok, just slightly crazy impulsive). I’ll try to make sense of Master Chief and the Covenant, whatever that is. I’ll enjoy the buzz, but that’s it.

Related note: Overheard in the vanpool … BioShock is another game to lookout for.

All You Can Eat Freako-Shrimp

Posted on August 30, 2007 by chatty

Following up from my previous post on Shrimp, I’m happy to announce Prof. Levitt revealed the answers to his Shrimp Question Experiment. See the results. I mentioned in my previous post that I was comment #500, and having received over 1,000 replies, Levitt sampled only the first 500. Yee haw I made the cut! Sweet.

This, by the way, is the only blog I’ll comment on regularly (if by regular I mean 3 times). It’s fantastic and I’m slowly but surely getting used to its new home on the NYT Web site.

Row

Posted on August 30, 2007 by chatty

After cruising technorati for some popular rowing blogs, I realize now how bo-ring the topic is for everyone except me. And even for some of the blogs I found, they were boring to me, too. I will try to refrain from being that boring, though there may be times where I can’t help it. Like today. But I’ll just keep it short.

This morning I intended to scull, but because the batteries in my lights were DOA, I jumped into a sweep boat at the last minute (thanks, MST, for letting me). Practice: warm-up/drills down the Fremont canal to the Ballard Bridge. Then back up the canal doing one-minute each six…with 5 strokes pausing at half-slide to begin the minute. Back down the canal, rowing by sixes for one minute, then all eight for one minute, etc. Then back up the canal, full pressure.

Conor’s goal (and my guess is Frank’s goal) was “perfect matching”. Considering the particular 8 I was in, the delicate words of the husband came to mind: “You’re living in a fool’s paradise.” I imagine Frank called upon all of us to focus on matching because of the bow four of my boat, but can’t be certain, since I rarely saw the launch close up today. But I digress.

In my aforementioned technorati research this week, I did discover a gem. In addition to covering all sorts of rowing in the US, Sculler’s Deck also provides spectacular video of ‘the greatest races’. And, in July of this year, he did a swell post about rowing in Seattle, specifically Lake Washington & Lake Union, my ‘hood. He also calls out two special coaches, Frank & Bill. Nice work.

shrimp cocktail, coconut-crusted shrimp, shrimp scampi…

Posted on August 27, 2007 by chatty

I can’t wait to see the results of this homework assignment from my favorite economist, Steven Levitt, of Freakonomics fame. He asks why shrimp has become so popular in the past 25 years, and requests that readers respond without doing any research or looking at anyone else’s comments. My response is number 500 (as of 8:00 PM PST, there are 671 posts). I was very Econ 200 in my reply (what can I say. My background is Intro to Econ from the economics mecca of the University of Chicago). Not as witty as the “I like shrimp” camp or “Forrest Gump” made shrimp so popular.

At any rate, if you have an idea, you should definitely add your 2 cents. I’ll probably post a link to Levitt’s results here as well.