This Should Work

I got some great gifts from family and friends for Christmas this year. But the one that I’m feeling right now is the severe cold that I brought back with me from California. I’m now sitting on the couch with my hot tea and kleenex waiting for the hours to pass before I can take my next dose of cold medicine.

While visiting friends and family for the holidays, I had little to no Internet access. I was driving to the nearest Starbucks just to check my email. But now I’m back home and I can start blogging once again. Yippee!!

Podcasting had a big year in 2005 (big enough that Podcast was named Word of the Year). I’ve heard many, but these are my favorite:

1. Cinecast- Two guys from Chicago talk about all things cinema with a critical eye, but still manage to keep the show entertaining with bits like Massacre Theater. The guys were also nice enough to mention my name on their blog and on a podcast, that’s worth extra points in my book.
2. KCRW’s The Treatment- It’s the west coast version of NPR’s “Fresh Air” but with a better host and more Hollywood-type guests (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sarah Silverman, etc.)
3. Security Now- Steve Gibson talks about computer security in terms that “normal” folks will understand while still keeping it interesting to the techies.
4. TWIT (This Week In Tech)- Leo Laporte and an every changing cast of technology folks discuss the weekly tech news. It’s always entertaining when John C. Dvorak is on the panel.
5. Diggnation- This one usually starts off slow but gets really funny by the end (mainly because they’re drinking beers through the podcast).

Normally, I’ll play a game for about a month or two, get tired of it, let it collect dust on the shelf, and finally sell it back for credit toward my next purchase. But these five games are not gathering dust yet. Some I have no intention of selling back. Here’s my Top Five Video Games for this year:

1. Shadow of the Colossus- I really can’t say enough about how much I love this game. It took a big risk by stripping the adventure genre down to the bare bones and it paid off. There’s no collecting of coins, no power up or new weapons to find, no army of mindless bad guys to slash through; it’s just you, your horse, and 16 colossi. By limiting the game element, the developers created great depth with the remaining parts, which had me playing this one over and over.
2. God of War- All the things that Shadow of the Colossus left out, this game kept in; a variety of enemies to kill (and multiple ways to do so), power ups that give the main character the abilities of the gods, and lots of blood. But this game has a really good story (even my wife would stop reading to watch the CG scenes) and a ton of un-lockable extras.
3. Burnout Revenge- This game is a wonderful stress reliever. Drive as fast as you can, create as much havoc as possible, get to finish line first. My favorite levels are the crash levels; try to create as large a traffic pile-up as possible.
4. We Love Katamari- Cute, colorful, addictive. I once spent three hours on the same level trying to get my ball o’ crap just a little bigger (I was unemployed at the time and had nothing better to do).
5. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory- This series keeps getting better. This time around the graphics are amazing, especially the lighting and sound effects, and the addition of the knife into Sam Fisher’s arsenal encourages games to sneak up even closer to the bay guys, which raises the tension level while playing.

While I have enjoyed reading many of my friend’s personal blogs, I’ve decided to leave them off this list (many can be found under “Links” on sidebar). So here are my five favorite websites that I ran across in 2005.

1. digg.com –A user-driven news site that has links to great tech tutorials, information on scientific discoveries, funny websites (check out slut-o-meter.com), and scary ones too (check out rentmydaughter.com)
2. bloglines.com –It like creating your own news paper headlines from different websites. Setting up an account is free, you decide which websites to add, and the best part is because it’s on the Internet, you can get your headlines from anywhere. I’ve tried Newsgator’s Outlook plugin, but this is much better and more convenient.
3. local.live.com –Still in beta, this is Microsoft’s “Google Earth Killer.” While I think Google Earth is a great product, it has two big flaws: One, it’s an application (not a website like Mircosoft’s). And two, it takes a pretty hefty computer to run the program. I also love the “Bird’s Eye View” feature on this website; it shows low-angle aerial shots of cities. It’s not available for every city yet, but it is available in my city Lexington, Kentucky. Check out UK’s Football Stadium on local.live.com.
4. overheardintheoffice.com –Some of the funniest things are said at the office and this website tries to chronicle as many as possible. It’s got tons great conversations and simple one liner’s like a boss who said “So with his experience, he will help us ferret those waters.”
5. counterfeitmini.org –This site had me laughing on every page. The videos are extremely funny as well.

It’s the end of the year and I thought I would look back and share some of favorite things I’ve seen/played/heard/discovered in 2005. For the next few days I’ll be putting together Top five lists in the following categories: Movies, Websites, Video Games, and Podcasts.

Starting today with my Top five Movies of the Year:

1. A History of Violence- One of Cronenberg’s best films. The pacing may seem slow at first, but stick with it; this isn’t a John Carpenter movie with excessive blood or a Michael Bay movie with useless explosions. Everything is carefully crafted to be harsh without being sensational. This is a movie not to be missed.
2. Batman Begins- Christopher Nolan has brought the Batman franchise back from the grave by showing us the psychological undercurrents that drives Bruce Wayne. Not too sure about that Batmobile though.
3. Sin City- Lots of style, lots of blood, all Frank Miller.
4. Crash- I think this film came out in 2004, but I just saw it this year. It’s a good movie that takes the subject of racism head on and an excellent performance by Terrence Howard.
5. Jarhead- I expected more from a Sam Mendes film, but this was still a solid movie about the first Gulf War and the “Hurry Up and Wait” mentality of the US Miltary.

All the i’s have been dotted and t’s crossed on the paper for the house and we were given the keys to our new house today!

We are now officially home owners!

In the movie Dogma Cardinal Glick (played by George Carlin) says one of the keys to raising the attendance numbers in the Catholic Church is to “Hook’em while they’re young!” To which Rufus (played by Chris Rock) replies “Kinda like the tobacco industry.”

Well now McDonalds is taking the “Hook’em while they’re young!” into the high tech world. Many McDonalds recently installed WiFi hotspots in their restaurants where you can play with your Nintendo DS for free (laptop users pay a small fee). And now it looks they’ve got a new patent (with Disney) to keep the little ones coming back for more according to arstechnica.com.

The patent, which names McDonald’s as a potential customer, describes a portable media player that would be bundled with kids’ meals and would offer incremental downloads of movies, music, and games (Oh, and ads, of course. You do like ads, don’t you?). The “incremental” bit is key to the system, because it means that you have to go back again… and again… and quite possibly again to gain access to the complete content. The idea is that each Happy Meal purchased would provide more credit that could be used for downloading the latest Disney tie-in.

The scary thing is I could see this thing branching out from Happy meals to “adult” Value meals. Just think, it’s the end of your favorite show, let’s say Lost, and after you’re left hanging with a great “sneak peek at next week’s episode” they say “Want to see more? Watch the first fifteen minutes of next week’s episode for free with the purchase of any McDonalds Extra Value Meal.” It could happen.

I walked by Starbucks eight times today, and didn’t purchase a thing from them. The only caffeinated beverage I’ve had today is the morning cup of coffee at home.

There’s a brief moment in the book The Life of Pi where the main character orders a pizza, but instead of giving the parlor his full name, which no one ever gets right, he tells them “I am who I am.” Half an hour later a pizza arrives for “Ian Houlihan.”

I can relate to this. I rarely give out my last name, Schoenfeld, because I have to spell it out for people (S as in Sam, C like Cat, etc.) and people have a hard time saying it.

But my first name, Carter, is not that hard but it is unusual for a first name. I used to try and help people remember my first name by saying “Carter, like the former President” but then people thought my name was Clinton.

So today I’m at Starbucks ordering my drink and they ask for my name.

“My name, Carter.”

“What was that?”

I say a little louder “Carter”

“Can I get a Grande, Non-fat, No whip, White Chocolate Mocha for Clark.”

Close enough, I’m in need of a caffeinated beverage. And next time I’ll remember to show them my ID Badge which has my name on it.

Later in the day, I go to Starbucks for another drink (yes, I’m an addict). This time I say my name and show them my ID Badge. This time the employee says:

“Can I get a Tall, Non-Fat, Latte for. . .” she looks at my Badge again “Carter”

Success! Well almost; I standing near the pickup stand and I hear the barrista say this:

“I have a Tall, Non-Fat, Latte for. . . I’m not even going to try and say that name”

“It’s Carter” I say.

Next time they ask for a name I’ll say something like “My name? My name is Raul!”