So I'm sitting around at home really wondering what am I going to do for exercise this winter since I cancelled my gym membership this summer. It's already starting to get too cold to run and I really dislike that parched feeling my face gets when I run in sub-zero temperatures. I need to do something indoors. So a quick visit to Future Shop and I'm now the proud owner of Dance Dance Revolution Supernova 2 on PS2!
My first session went predictably poorly: I laid the mat on the floor of my bedroom, hooked the ps2 up to my PC (don't want the neighbors watching my uncoordinated self flailing around on a dance mat in front of the TV), booted it up and started the workout mode. I ended up missing about half the notes because I had no idea where to step. After a couple more tries I started to get the hang of it and before I knew it I was sweating, not a I'm-so-drenched-I-can-wring-my-shirt-out-like-a-towel drenched but definitely enough to need a change of clothes afterwards.
After about 30 minutes the program told me I had burned about 170 kcal which is not bad for the beginner level. One step up to Basic and I think I've found my solution.
Wednesday, 31 October 2007
Tuesday, 16 October 2007
Coding Horror: A Visual Explanation of SQL Joins
Coding Horror: A Visual Explanation of SQL Joins
This is the simplest explanation of JOIN operations I've ever seen.
This is the simplest explanation of JOIN operations I've ever seen.
Friday, 12 October 2007
Portal
Wow, talk about short and sweet.
Portal, the new mini episode from the good people at Valve Software is a great little diversion. Great setup, devious puzzles and awesome final boss. Topping it all off is the best end credits to a game ever.
Portal is part of the Orange Box which also includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Team Fortress 2 which is probably the best value to date in gaming.
Highly recommended!
Portal, the new mini episode from the good people at Valve Software is a great little diversion. Great setup, devious puzzles and awesome final boss. Topping it all off is the best end credits to a game ever.
Portal is part of the Orange Box which also includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Team Fortress 2 which is probably the best value to date in gaming.
Highly recommended!
Friday, 14 September 2007
Bioshock
As a part-time gamer, sometimes it's easy to start playing a game then get caught up in reality that by the time you get back to playing games you've either: a) forgotten where you left off, b) tried out some other game and fallen for its charms or c) completely lost interest in the game altogether.
The amount of time it takes me to complete a game these days is measured in months and years, not days and weeks. However, I've recently played a game that has defied all my expectations for a game and I must say that it's one that I played exclusively for a few hours a day until I completed it about a week later. That game is Irrational Games' (or 2K Boston/Australia) Bioshock.
This is one of the most atmospheric, creepy, visually stunning and highly addictive games I've ever played. Much of that is due to the game's removal of most of the main frustrations involved with other single player first-person shooters. The save/reload practice I adhere to with most FPS's was not necessary here (except to reduce crashing problems, more on that later) since death penalties are not that severe.
Playing Bioshock was so much fun I was compelled to continue right through to the game's conclusion. For a game to be able to grab this easily distracted gamer like this says something about it's quality. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes single player first-person shooters. It's probably the best game the genre has seen since the original Half-Life.
I had a few technical issues with the game crashing frequently, until I turned off "High Quality Shaders" for my modest nVidia 7600GT video card, but I had none of the installation problems that much of the internet was abuzz about during the early days of the game's launch. I did experience a few Steam outages during the first day or so of play (probably due to the overwhelming number of people downloading and installing the game at the same time).
The amount of time it takes me to complete a game these days is measured in months and years, not days and weeks. However, I've recently played a game that has defied all my expectations for a game and I must say that it's one that I played exclusively for a few hours a day until I completed it about a week later. That game is Irrational Games' (or 2K Boston/Australia) Bioshock.
This is one of the most atmospheric, creepy, visually stunning and highly addictive games I've ever played. Much of that is due to the game's removal of most of the main frustrations involved with other single player first-person shooters. The save/reload practice I adhere to with most FPS's was not necessary here (except to reduce crashing problems, more on that later) since death penalties are not that severe.
Playing Bioshock was so much fun I was compelled to continue right through to the game's conclusion. For a game to be able to grab this easily distracted gamer like this says something about it's quality. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes single player first-person shooters. It's probably the best game the genre has seen since the original Half-Life.
I had a few technical issues with the game crashing frequently, until I turned off "High Quality Shaders" for my modest nVidia 7600GT video card, but I had none of the installation problems that much of the internet was abuzz about during the early days of the game's launch. I did experience a few Steam outages during the first day or so of play (probably due to the overwhelming number of people downloading and installing the game at the same time).
Sunday, 15 April 2007
Lord of the Rings Online
For the past few days I've been playing around with the Lord Of The Rings Online open beta and I must say I've been having a great deal of fun. The graphics are nice, the setting is great and having played World of Warcraft previously, it is very easy to get into.
I've so far taken two human and elf characters to level 6. The Human character is mostly playing around in his main area but the elf minstrel is going on a "World Tour" of Middle-Earth. She's running through the Shire right now and will soon be heading for the next adjacent area. I don't know which areas are open and closed off during the beta but it will be nice to see how far I can go.
I've so far taken two human and elf characters to level 6. The Human character is mostly playing around in his main area but the elf minstrel is going on a "World Tour" of Middle-Earth. She's running through the Shire right now and will soon be heading for the next adjacent area. I don't know which areas are open and closed off during the beta but it will be nice to see how far I can go.
Tuesday, 3 April 2007
How many this week?
What A.D.? You started ANOTHER blog? Why on earth would you want to do that?
Well... because I'm looking for the best format to get my ideas out. I want to know how these things work, whether they are able to help me express my creativity or whether they will just sit there and rot for all eternity (or until someone deletes the site).
What can I say? I'm up to three blogs now:
http://faao.concordia.ca/behindthefarm
http://www.myspace.com/dedpijun
http://adlee.spaces.live.com
Sigh... and some of my friends want me to use facebook too...
Well... because I'm looking for the best format to get my ideas out. I want to know how these things work, whether they are able to help me express my creativity or whether they will just sit there and rot for all eternity (or until someone deletes the site).
What can I say? I'm up to three blogs now:
http://faao.concordia.ca/behindthefarm
http://www.myspace.com/dedpijun
http://adlee.spaces.live.com
Sigh... and some of my friends want me to use facebook too...
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