danbruno.net/blog

One of the fun things about my job is that the water cooler talk often revolves around video games. The other day someone mentioned a preview he’d seen for the upcoming title Glacier2:

In Glacier2 you find your self high up in the Alps and as you speed down the challenging mountain roads it becomes apparent what the game is all about. Avoid falling boulders, swerve around knife-edge cliffs and ready the battle equipment included on the cars. Rocket launchers, machine guns, shotguns and mines add to the thrill of the game.

Awesome explosions, huge jumps and shifting ice make Glacier2 a highly anticipated arcade combat racing game. The game boasts of an effects system specially designed for the Nintendo Wii. Glacier2 also includes seven finely tuned supercars and 18 frigid levels of traps, cliffs, canyons and jumps. Each vehicle has its own characteristic weapons ranging from sniper rifles to chainguns whose purpose is solely to cause maximum carnage on the track.

Outstanding questions about Glacier2:

• What circumstances caused you to “find your self” on top of a mountain?
• Why is there battle equipment?
• What happened to Glacier1?

All joking aside, I actually can’t wait to see what this is. It sounds like just my kind of tongue-in-cheek X-TREME.

I was browsing through my favorite MetaFilter comments today and happened upon this Ask MeFi comment from user grumblebee:

I play a game called “assume I’m wrong.” Once a month or so, I list some of my cherished assumptions and assume they’re wrong (the more sure I am that they are right, the more likely I am to play this game with them). Assuming they ARE wrong, I try to think in detail how this will change the world, my view of the world, and my life.

I’m an atheist. What if there IS a God? I love my wife. What if I didn’t? I’m attracted to women. What if I was attracted to men? I’m middle class. What if I was rich? What if I was poor? I don’t believe in the death penalty. Why is the death penalty good? I’m pro choice. Why is abortion wrong? “Citizen Kane” is a great film. How does it suck? I hate such-and-such Metafilter member because he’s always berating me. Why is he right?

If any of these questions are painful, I take it as a sign that I am really on to something and push myself to explore it.

I marked that comment as a favorite three years ago, but never took the advice to heart. It seems like a great tool for self-reflection.

I’m especially intrigued by the “How does Citizen Kane suck?” example. What are the weakest elements of my favorite books, or bands, or games? How well could I defend my taste?

Jay Barnson, in the indie game blog Tales of the Rampant Coyote:

Afterwards, we came to refer to certain types of accomplishments as “black triangles.” These are important accomplishments that take a lot of effort to achieve, but upon completion you don’t have much to show for it – only that more work can now proceed. It takes someone who really knows the guts of what you are doing to appreciate a black triangle.

A very perceptive point, and one I’ve struggled to put into words before. I wonder if I can get away with using “black triangle” from now on? (via)

Tonight I saw Man on Wire, a fantastic documentary about French tightrope walker Philippe Petit. Highly recommended. MetaFilter has a lot of fascinating background info (thanks Jessamyn!).

Daisy Owl is a newish webcomic about an owl, his bear friend, and his two human children. Simple, charming, occasionally poignant.

Via Ryan North, who is responsible for almost half of the webcomics I read.

Depending on your mood and temperament, this video may be depressing, uplifting, or oddly humorous. It was a bit of all three for me.

Odd Time Obsessed is a fun internet radio station DJed by Betsey “Countess B” Stephens, who shares my obsession. (via)

New stuff is up! Here’s a rundown of what’s changed:

• Another year, another new theme. Every time I do this I end up with a more minimal design. I’ll probably tweak the stylesheet some more — in particular, the post titles seem unusually large and I’m not so keen on the light grey — but I’m pretty happy with this look.
• I’ve created a proper homepage, with links to my assorted online activities. More people have been Googling me lately for some reason, and I feel better having a halfway decent landing page for them. (It was fun to write up a janky old table for that grid. I was tempted to ignore CSS altogether and maybe add an animated GIF for good measure.)
• I’ve separated out all of the blog-related content into the /blog/ subfolder to organize things a bit. I think I managed to avoid breaking any links, but let me know if you find anything. (Do you like that breadcrumb-style link at the top? That’s my favorite part of all this.)
• I’ve started a photoblog. Now that I have a big boy DSLR instead of a point-and-shoot, I figure I should learn how to take decent pictures. This afternoon I culled about twenty photos from the 300 or so I had on hand, which will ideally be enough backlog for now so I can put up a new shot every day.
• This blog turned four years old a few days ago. Dang.

Hello blog.

You are a New Year’s resolution of mine. Changes are afoot!