Random Links

Yoga for wine lovers.

Why didn't someone think of this before?

This is insane.

Did they get the right natural wonder in your state?

Mr. G and Jellybean.

That's a lot of people who live in such a cold place.

Happy Birthday, G!

Ready Player One -- Take 2

This was an interesting one.

I am not a regular participant (or any kind of participant, really) in the world of video games or virtual reality, so it took me a while to understand this book.  In the first few chapters, I frequently wasn't sure if our main character, Wade Watts, was in the real world or in his gaming world.  It didn't help that I was listening to this on a new iPod, and it took a little while to figure out how to get all the tracks to play in order.  Eventually it required retitling all of the tracks in the first nine chapters to start with a "0".  That was annoying.

Once I figured out the tracks and my new technology, I did get into the story.  It's the tale of Wade, who lives in a dystopian future (yes, another one of those) in which nearly everyone's great escape is to play a giant multi-player interactive video game called the OASIS.  OASIS was created by a now-deceased developer, who buried in the game an Easter egg hunt, and Wade is one of the hunters.  The prize for winning the hunt is control of the OASIS.  With that much real money at stake (think the virtual-real world interaction in things like Farmville and bitcoin), obviously there are corporate baddies throwing considerable resources at the hunt.  Political commentary, yadda yadda.  You can pretty much imagine it for yourself, so I'll avoid it.

Things start to get serious for Wade when the virtual villains come after him in the real world.  Thus begins the true test of his gaming skill.

The part I found the most interesting, and this may have only been my lack of familiarity with the subject matter, was the blurring of the lines between Wade's online and real personas.  My feelings on Facebook are well-known (see here, here, or here for examples). This post in particular addresses my concerns about our inability to change ourselves because our pasts are recorded online for the world to see.  There's a lot of that mixing up of lives in Ready Player One.

This book, as I said, was not really my cup of tea.  I am, however, reminded why I love reading, even in the digital form.  It can transport you to somewhere you never expected, even a place you don't understand, and make it enjoyable.  So there's that.

A Fond Farewell to an Old Favorite

I am finally retiring probably the oldest articles of clothing in my possession.

I've had these bike gloves for 20 years, maybe more.  (Yes, since I was a kid.)  Dad, you may even remember buying them.  I think we were on one of those vacations up to the Door Peninsula?  I can't quite remember, but I do remember that K and I were at the bike store but I don't think E was, and that was about that era in our lives.  These are definitely from back when I was riding the green Diamondback.

The gloves are in sorry shape.  They're frayed at the edges, there's a hole in one palm and at the thumb joint on the other, and the elastic in the spandex portion is basically shot.  But when you think about how old they are and the beatings they've taken in the intervening years (including one RAGBRAI), they've actually held up quite well.

And they're the best gloves ever because they're actually padded.  I know that's a wild idea for bike gloves, but they make biking fairly comfortable.  Perhaps I do strange things with my hands but I find the gloves you can buy now, with just a few of those little padded gel cushions scattered about the palms, to be grossly inadequate.  These are gloves; I can put my hands anywhere on the handlebars, in any position, and they're comfortable.  And as a bonus, there's lots of space to wipe your nose.

Or at least they were, and there was.

Memorial Day

Goal #21

Goal #21: CDs.

I moved my boxes of CDs into the middle of my apartment over the weekend, and hopefully I can make some progress at sorting, storing, and eliminating this week.

Recap of goal #20: during the first three days of the week, I worked pretty efficiently.  Then I spent most of Thursday in bed and moved at a snail's pace on Friday, so it turned out to be a mixed bag.  I'm not sure if those last two days should be held against me though.

Apologies

Sorry about the lack of posts this week.  I failed to do my customary "get ahead of the posts" last weekend, and then a nasty bout of food poisoning on Thursday kept me down.

(Although I ask you this: is there such a thing as an un-nasty bout of food poisoning?  I think "nasty bout of food poisoning" may be redundant.)

Bonus: I have gotten a lot of sleep in the last couple of days.

Posts will return, I promise!

(Another question: is it fair to label this as a "food" post?  I'm doin' it.)

Goal #20

Goal #20: work efficiently.

More billables.  Fewer hours.  Easier said than done.

Recap of goal #19: um.  Yeah.  That didn't happen.  Not even close.  That is all.

RIP Baxter

Another sad event for our family where the pets are concerned -- Baxter had his last breakfast on Wednesday.  Lots of love to G&G!

What I Watched -- D.O.A.

D.O.A. is another C-recommended old movie.  Two great things about old movies: 1) they're usually short; 2) camp.  This one was on TV on Tuesday afternoon, and I saw a few minutes of it while I was in C's office.  The backwards plot made it sound interesting enough to check out.

It starts out with Frank, our hero, going to the police station to report a murder.  "Who was murdered?" the homicide detective asks.  "I was."

Then Frank backs up and tells the story of how he came to be in San Francisco, and all the mysterious goings-on that had happened since his arrival, including the poisoned drink that would eventually be his undoing.

Bottom line: classic film noir -- worth having seen it once, but I probably won't watch it again.