Litmus Test
Permalink | March 28, 2008 by John in Video Games
I’ve always thought there was a litmus test for everything. Take ethnic restaurants for example. When I go to a Chinese restaurant for the first time I usually try the cashew chicken. When I go to a Mexican restaurant, the chimichanga is the indicator of quality.
So I’m just about done with Assassin’s Creed on the Xbox. It is an outstanding game, but just how great is it?
I have dreams about it.
There have only been a few games that have made me obsess so much that they invade my dreams since the early 90s: The Doom series (mostly 1 & 3), the Halo series and now Assassin’s Creed. Other games, such as Gears of War and Call of Duty 4, while very good, didn’t invade my slumber. Of course this is entirely subjective and perhaps only subconscious. I’ve had countless dreams that were similar to video games, but they don’t resemble any specific game, and there was some other issue involved.
Germany or Florida? Round Two
Permalink | March 23, 2008 by John in Carolla, Interesting/Trivia
A mother in a psychiatrist’s office for supervised visitation with her 15-year-old son pulled out a dagger and drywall knife and stabbed the boy in the abdomen, then cut his throat, [the police officer] said Saturday.
[The mother], 55, was arrested on charges of attempted murder and carrying a concealed weapon Saturday morning…
Germany or Florida? Answer after the jump…
Do. The. Test.
Permalink | March 18, 2008 by John in Motorcycle
DOTHETEST (via BonnevilleAmerica.com)
Am I a Lifer? Should I be?
Permalink | by John in Career, Of a Personal Nature
My dad worked for the phone company (in its various incarnations) for over 30 years. With his pension/retirement and social security he has a fairly comfortable lifestyle (while certainly not opulent or luxurious) in his retirement, even living in California. The world is a very different place than it was when he started with Ma Bell. It was normal for people to work for the same company for the majority of their adult life and retire with the proverbial (or not-so-proverbial) gold watch.
Due to the change in the country over the past 20-30 years, and especially working in the IT industry, I never thought it possible that I could fall into that category. But having passed my 10 year anniversary at Northrop Grumman, I’m beginning to wonder. I’ve seen a lot of ups and downs in that time, and yet I manage to stay alive here.
I started my own web design side business a couple years ago because I was bored at my day job and wanted a creative outlet. I considered different ways my career vs. my business could go. One plan was to grow my business large enough to back my Northrop Grumman hours eventually back to half-time so I could keep my benefits, I figured eventually I might be able to leave the day job and do my business full time. While that’s entirely possible, it doesn’t feel likely. Add to that I recently met two Northrop Grumman retirees who non-stop sing the praises of their retirement and pension. If I stay here for the duration I’ll have 34 years at age 65.
I guess what I’m trying to articulate that my side business is what gives me job satisfaction and let’s me exercise my creativity, while the day job …is just a job. Good benefits. Flexible hours. A modicum of job security. Decent pay. But still, just a job. Long gone are the days when my day job defined me (I’m not sure what does define me, but that’s another post).
So as long as it doesn’t suck, should I stay here indefinitely? Am I just being complacent? I’m no longer feeling the need to go set the world on fire. Have I sold out?
A Bit of Randomness
I’ve implemented a random slogan generator at the top of the page, using the last few slogans and one new one. It’s something I thought about for awhile and finally got around to doing. I snagged a random quote generator in PHP and integrated it into my WordPress theme. I can override the random quotes if I enter a new quote in the tagline field of the Options page in WordPress. But I can also edit the script through the WordPress theme editor, just in case the quote’s a keeper.
I didn’t find an existing plug-in for this little widget, so future goal might be to convert this into a plug-in and distribute it.