Late night drives

Well I'm back on the road. Heading home after a week at my parents house.

Going home to my parents house is a strange experience since I am ten years removed from their constant presence. The house has changed, in my case it's a completely different house, and the people that come and go changed too. It is a weird dizzying time that oft remind me of when I was young, but still its unable to fulfill that need to regain my childhood.

It is a wild time of catching up with friends and family as most of them have not seen me face to face in six month or more. Encounters full of silly and useless question like, “So, hows life?” The one question that makes my heart sink as I realized when its all over I have to go back to my life and worries. I know they honestly don't really want to know how I am. So I reply, “Good,” in hopes they will leave it at that.

It is a time when I get to ignore the world. My only real thought is can I finish this book and still beat Zelda again before I have to go back to my normal world. A normal world that just does not allow me to sit around all day and play games or read. As a result, it is a time I plan for. I dig out old books and games in the hopes I can spend countless lazy hours at home zombified on a couch.

All the while the galactic dance of the universe goes on around me. People in other countries, on other worlds go about their daily lives. The world keeps turning. It is something I just don't care about. MY time spent home is like a portal into a realm where time and space does not not exist. A time where worries of the galactic dance cant reach me. The only worries I do have is, can I save Hyrule, again?

I didn't get you this year Ganon. Oh well, maybe next.

Uncopyrightable

Nothing is more amazing than when we are able to find a new way of looking at the world. It does not have be a great inspirational moment, and often times it is something very simple.

Today I was looking at the alphabet strewn across my fridge. An eclectic spread of of letters that my mind tries desperately for find patters in whether I am actively looking or not.

"Those three spell BIG"
"Those over there are all blue"

It is a mad scramble as my mind makes sense of the chaos. I rest assured as there is a nice pattern of them right above it. They spell out BAD OLE FISH. It made me think. We have always played this game with the letters on the fridge. When you pass them, you are allowed to change only two letters and rearrange the order of the words. So I rearranged the letter to say RAD MOLE FISH. With only the slight change the image changed from a plate of week old fish, baking in the sun, to a strange burrowing creature fervently digging to find an underground water source. The world is a bizarre place.

Racing in Space

All my life I have been a huge race fan. Anything that is loud and goes fast has always been cool. I recently came across the Rocket Racing League. I am quite impressed.

The creator of the X-prize believes that his newest child will be up and running with several events featuring 10 of the best pilots in the country by 2008. With the idea of creating a virtual track in the air, which pilots see it in a head up display, that gives them the course they must follow. They are designing unique planes that will burst out 10 foot long jets of fire and race at 300 MPH. Only upgrading the excitement by requiring that the pilots land mid-race to refuel. Its very impressive.

Although the Rocket Racing League is not the first to come up with the idea of racing in the sky. Red Bull Air Racing World Series, the Formula 1 of air races, is very popular and very exciting to watch. It uses a style like European rally racing. Pilots are timed as they run a course just feet off the ground. Air Racing holds world wide events and has around 20 teams competing in each event.

The key differences that excites me about the Rocket Racing League is how they have compared themselves to series like Nascar. Rocket Racing League is using pit stops and as close to side by side racing as you can get. So check out their website and tell me what you think.

Retro Gaming

The folks over at 1up.com have released an amazing article about some very bright members of the younger generation and their take on the games of my generation.

The article places kinds in front of some of the greatest games of my time and allows them to comment on them. While most of the comments are understandable and even expected. The really amazing thing happened when the children sat down to play the original Zelda. They told the director of the project they preferred it over Windwaker. I was amazed.

I am a person that can still remember the last time I played Pac-man, because it was not that long ago. Ask some of your friends when was the last time they played the game. You will get one of two answers. They will reply either "when I was young" or "less than six months." I am the type of person who still has his NES hooked up next to his PS2. I am the person who still has the way though the final level of Super Mario Bros. memorized. That is who I am and that is why these kids amaze me.

In all honesty though these kids do not know how good they have it. Their games have save points, they have 3-d graphics and an actual story line. I wish someone would make a game that could give me that tension that was involved back in the day of Super Mario Brothers. That feeling you get when you realize if you die again you have to start all over from the beginning. That was a tense feeling. The feeling of finally getting further than you ever have and were able to see what was around the next corner of the level. Newer games need that element, its call a replay value.

I understand that games today are longer and more involved, but why cant someone make a game that actually has to be played in one sitting. That requires the player to feel that "all or nothing" pressure. To allow newer players to understand the desperation you get when you realize you are inches from the final boss and you lost your last life. That is why people today still play these older games.

71 Degrees and Sunny

So we just had our first snow storm of what is probably going to be a long winter. It was an interesting thing too. It was 71 degrees outside and sunny one day then the next we had nearly a foot of snow on the ground. It was an interesting situation that can caused some rather severe thunder with the snow storm.

As the storm swept across the Midwest it knocked out power in each town it crossed. Like a certain monster raging its through the streets of Tokyo. The interesting thing that happened was as the storm moved in I began receiving calls, IMs, Emails or any other form of communications about the nature of the storm. The question was always the same. Is it snowing there yet?

The amount of messages from the east grew at such a rate that I was unable to answer them all at once. So, in frustration, the answer soon became, "No, It's still 71 degrees outside and sunny." While I still hoped that wasn't a complete lie, I was growing tired to the same question over and over.

I have this theory about winter though. Ignore it and it goes away. Like a two year old throwing a tantrum. When it sees that nobody is paying attention it will eventually stop. At least thats my theory anyway.

What?

Do you remember the last time you were watching TV and a commercial came on that when it was over you realized they hadn't actually plugged a product or the commercial didn't make sense. I am beginning to believe that when a person gets older not only do they like music quieter but commercials and advertising quits making sense.



I guess I'm moving out of an age demographic.

Also could advertisers just be using the total confusion approach to sell products. Like the classic, put your billboard upside down strategy. I mean they appear with some thing new in the intention to start a trend. But, does it work when after the commercial you are left saying, "What?" I think it does.

Now as a result of the commercial Im not only trying to figure it out, but I'm constantly thinking about the product. As a result what ever they were trying to sell me stay on my mind as the mind boggling riddle they presents me drives me into a downward spiral into advertising induced insanity.

Well apparently thier advertising is working, cause now I'm writing about it in my blog. That is free advertisement. Salutations Holiday Hawk.