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31 Jan 08 – I'm tired of Star Wars
Can we please put Star Wars down with the rest of the sci-fi canon and stop referencing it constantly?
Star Wars remains a special part of my childhood. I respect it, and enjoy watching it.
But it seems like there's a new YouTube Star Wars parody every week. People still joke about it. The original trilogy is thirty years old now, and it's quoted more often than any ten-year-old movie.
Frankly, I'm tired of Darth Vader. I don't care about Luke Skywalker's moral dilemmas. R2-D2's kinda boring now.
Can we please move on?
27 Jan 08 – Deeper Review of the Kindle
More complete thoughts about the Amazon Kindle:
One's life changes when one has a device loaded with a handful of books. It can easily fit in a large coat pocket, so I take it with me everywhere. When I stopped by a nearby Chinese restaurant for some take-out, while I waited for my order, I read a few pages of a novel (instead of watching their VHS tape of Dragonball Z). When I paused at work for some rest and a cup of tea, I read a few pages of a novel. When I made lunch yesterday, as I waited to the fish to finish frying, I read a few pages of a novel. I continued reading as I ate; because the Kindle lays flat and I just have to touch a button to turn pages, it's not nearly as awkward as holding open and flipping the pages of a book.
I've now finished two novels and am well into my third, in just over a week. Moreover, there's tremendous power in finishing a novel by a good author, and being able to start reading the next novel in under a minute. It's not just impatience; it's avoiding the whole process of tracking down the author's books, finding the next title in the series, adding it to a list of books to buy, and waiting for the next time I'm in a book store.
Moreover, because of the solid-state screen, the Kindle is more robust than most devices, and stays charged for a good week.
When I first heard of the Kindle, some folks prophesied it would be the "iPod of books." I dismissed that notion, but I'm less dismissive now. Certainly, books are used differently than music; I can listen to music all day and want my entire music library at all times, but not so with books.
That said, I can see a time when a lot of folks just take a reader with them pretty much wherever they go. It's lighter than a paperback, it's darned convenient, and as Dan Brown and J.K. Rowling have proved, people will read.
Moreover, I sold 7 copies of my Kindle Fan Guide in two days. There is a market out there.
25 Jan 08 – Success with the Kindle Fan Guide
So I self-published the Kindle Fan Guide yesterday, and posted a note to the main Amazon.com Kindle forum about it. I've received eleven forum replies and two emails so far, with ideas and full-scale copyediting. I'm almost ready for a second edition, and it's not even twenty-four hours since I published the thing.
24 Jan 08 – My Kindle Fan Guide
Just finished assembling and posting The Kindle Fan Guide, a compilation of tips and information on using the Amazon Kindle. After receiving one a week ago, I assembled this book in great excitement.
What amazes me is that I'm able to offer it in print form, as a PDF, and in ebook form. They were all generated in one evening.
About the Kindle? It's great. I've been reading like I'm possessed. I've devoured several sample chapters and a whole novel in less than a week.
21 Jan 08 – Modern Lust
| J.B. Philips: | Modern man has a lust for full explanation and habitually considers himself in no way morally bound unless he is in full possession of all the facts. |
15 Jan 08 – Ugh
Well, it's been a long week. My computer's hard disk died last Monday, so I've been unable to update this blog.
Not quite true. I could have updated it, but didn't feel like editing the files directly on the website. Wouldn't have updated the newsfeed anyway.
This was the last of several misfortunes: my heat pump died, and my truck had heartburn. I spent a week without heat. I believe I'll be back to normal tomorrow, with a slimmer bank balance and a calmer disposition.
Oddly, I remained content through this experience. Not depressed, at least. Oh, I ground my teeth a few times, but overall I shrugged and moved on. Fortunately, none of these problems were long-term; I didn't lose any friends or family. It was just...stuff, breaking down.
8 Jan 08 – Inner Adventure
No outdoor adventure this week. Instead, an inner adventure.
I'm two days into The Five-Day Course in Thinking, a book Edward De Bono wrote forty years ago. Isaac Asimov wrote the Foreword. It's a malnourished paperback, barely a hundred pages long. The edge of the pages are that odd dusty Martian red that seemed so popular in paperbacks of the sixties and seventies. The cover proclaims "Astound Yourself! Be a Genius! Play Your Way To Greater Brain Power!"—and I don't know if it's serious.
I could read it through in an hour or two, but I've decided to resist that urge. I'm going to take my time and process it. Fully. Get my money's worth out of it, if you will.
The first day's exercise: Take three empty soda or beer bottles, and place them equally apart so that you can fit a regular dinner knife between each. Now, take four of those dinner knives, and arrange them on top of the bottles so that they form a platform that you can rest a glass full of water on. None of the knives can touch the surface on which the bottles rest.
As with most things, there's a twist to this. It's not about finding the answer (there is one). Observe how you try to solve the problem. What do you try first? What do you do?
I'm kind of surprised that there aren't more books/videos/websites/whatever about mental athletics. (Yes, I'm aware of Brain Age). Isn't this important?
3 Jan 08 – Now Here's a Crazy Idea
Imagine a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game with...
- ...no elves or dwarves.
- ...an emphasis on player skill instead of level grinding.
- ...a vast, completely original world that the game encourages you to explore.
- ...the ability to hire shopkeepers, guards, and any other NPCs to automate things
- ...active GMs who regularly interact with players.
- ...quests tailored specifically to your player.
- ...consequences for compromising your honor. If you don't rescue the little girl, she'll die.
- ...an in-game magic system similar to programming. Spells are just like scripts, right?
- ...a cap of 400 players total.
I'd pay a lot of money to play that. Question is, of course, would you?
What's even more interesting is that none of these ideas are technically difficult, or even new. It's just that none of the MMORPGs bother to try them.