Vacation

This is what I come back to after I'm away from the internet for forty eight hours. I think I may subscribe to too many feeds.

Google Voice

I just set up with Google Voice, and it is awesome. It does two major things:

1. Gives you a single phone number that people can call, which makes all of your phones ring
2. Takes messages, then converts them to text. This is the cool part.

I've already given my number to a company that I didn't want to talk to, they called me, and I can read their message like it was an email. We are living in the future.

I May Have To Change The Subtitle

If you search for "carsonist" nowadays, you still get this humble blog, but now it prompts you by asking "did you mean 'carsons'?" What an odd change. Seems like if it changed at all, it would just change to redirecting to my site, since I clearly dominate the word.

Google Chrome

I got Google Chrome, and I'm using it now. So far, it's only exploded my computer once, and I think that probably has more to do with my computer having some bad memory or something, which leads to periodic crashing.

Dr. Horrible

Have you seen this? It's pretty fun, and for right now, it's free.

8-bit Theater

The venerable 8-bit Theater is ending soon. It's run through a demented version of Final Fantasy for seven years now, and the author says that he's wrapping it up when he gets to the thousandth page, although it might not be exactly 1,000. That leaves him roughly 10 pages to resolve a story that isn't anywhere near resolving. This from a comic whose first 15 pages could be summarized as "They arrive at town," and whose first 88 pages can be accomplished in the game by pressing the d-pad down for roughly 3 seconds after the opening text. Frankly, I don't see it ending any time soon, but I'm ready to be surprised.

There's a real evolution to the comic. It's gone from terrible art to art that is pretty good, but still in its signature 8-bit style.

I believe the author has said he's not going to do Final Fantasy II, but how could he not? That's like making The Empire Strikes Back, then retiring.

Internet Time as Resource

This takes some reading, but I think it's very insightful.

PS.
The show Guiding Light has had 15,000 episodes. That's not a typo. Fifteen thousand.

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Now playing: Naoshi Mizuta - "Dash de Chocobo"
via FoxyTunes

LOLcats

Lately, I've become quite a fan of the LOLcats. I'm extremely late to the boat, I know. But this does not make the LOLcats any worse. In fact, I've found that the average recent LOLcat is better than an older one. Anyway, in honour of the site, I've made a LOLcat of my own. (With a little help from a friend). It's not that great, but I don't care.





PS. Note to self:

Golden weapons in Role-playing game: 60 * 20 * original value. Ultimate show of adventuring wealth.
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Now playing: The Beatles - Golden Slumbers
via FoxyTunes

Breathe and Breath

Dear Internet,

The word "breath" is a noun. It's the air that you breathe.

For example:

• "I took a breath. Then, I continued to breathe regularly."
• "If you cannot breathe, than you cannot take a breath."
• "his breathing became irregular, then he drew his last breath, then he died."
  

Get it right next time, ok?

PS.
Spoiler alert on that last example. Don't read it unless you want to know how every single human story will end.

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Now playing: The Rolling Stones - its only rock and roll
via FoxyTunes

Yahtzee

You've probably seen Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's reviews of popular video games. In fact, I've linked to them before. His talent and success gives me trouble: it's tough to give a review that says exactly what someone else said earlier and not feel like an idiot.

Anyway, did you know that Yahtzee has a website? Particularly, the games that he has made, basically on his own, are quite good. If you enjoy witty games in the King's Quest style, this is the man for you.

I used to think that video games had moved beyond the realm of being created by a single human being. After all, a "modern" game takes a life-time of man-hours just for the graphics and special effects. Yahtzee has made me realize that this isn't necessarily the case. An intelligent, creative person can make a good game, even though he can't necessarily make good graphics compared to a modern game.

Anyway, I've forgotten where I'm going with all this.

Xbox LIVE Is A Bastard

Look. It shouldn't be some diabolical riddle to discontinue a service that requires regular payments. You suck, Xbox Live. (Can anyone help me out with this?)

PS.
I figured it out, despite Microsoft's "support". The only way to cancel the account is over the phone, for no good reason. You can do anything else for your account directly through an Xbox, but you can't even cancel a subscription through a computer.

Your Webcomic Is Bad And You Should Feel Bad

So.

I have mixed opinions on this one.

Your Webcomic Is Bad And You Should Feel Bad is funny, and it provides a good service. It deflates those uptight webcomics that should just die. I'm particularly glad he's attacked VGcats, something that hasn't been funny for two years. I also appreciate the title, a reference which few people will recognize.

I wish the author would change one thing: I wish he wouldn't attack people that are so obviously untalented that no one could possibly love them.

Wikipedia, Again

First of all, I forgive you, Wikipedia. You didn't get rid of the Chain Chomp entry out of spite or malice.

But Wikipedia users disgust me. First, check this page. It may not have the same statistics when you read it as it does now, but I feel safe in saying that it won't say anything good about Humanity. Today, the most read page on Wikipedia that isn't about Wikipedia is the article on Naruto. In number 10 comes the Transformers movie. Surprisingly, there are 16 articles before the first article about sex, which is followed with yet another article about sex.

There is an article about a specific Naruto clan before the article about the 9/11 attacks. Simply disappointing.

Anyway, I'm sure you can find similar data to be embarrassed over on that page. One redeeming factor: The Simpsons scores higher than Family Guy.

PS: My blogger application still doesn't think Wikipedia is a word. Honestly, what do they have to do to get recognition? They're one of the top ten websites!

Internet Dependance

The Internet at my my apartment had been out for the past day and a half, and my actions were basically those of an smoker without any cigs. Someone could say that my pathetic dependence shows that there's something wrong, I like to think that I'm the first of a generation that this will be the norm.

I was trying to replace my regular Internet with my iPod Touch, and I have to say that the honeymoon is over. The iPod Touch is designed to download mp3's. If I wanted to buy a song over a wifi network, I could do it right now. If I wanted to get a podcast, though, I can go to hell according to iTunes. I'm more than a little irritated.

Also, where are the downloadable applications? Why must I only use html web-apps? Why can't I add a dice-rolling program to my main menu? Enraging. In fact, there are software features on the iPhone that aren't on the Touch. That is simply inexcusable.

I still like the Touch, I'm just frustrated that Apple decided to make it worse on purpose.

Picasa

If you're using Google's de facto OS accessible from anywhere on the Internet (see Google Docs, etc.) you may be interested in using Picasa. It's a program that finds all your pictures and gives you basic photo manipulating tools. Like all Google programs, it makes finding your files so easy you begin to hate Microsoft for being so cumbersome. Also, it coordinates well with the internet. For example, you can find all of the pictures I've taken that are any good at my Picasa site.

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Now playing: Queen - Who Wants To Live Forever
via FoxyTunes

Internet's back, thank god

There was a rough patch recently where there wasn't any internet at my place. Blaming a person who I don't like and who has sole access to the hardware responsible for the problem would be petty, so I'm not going to. I'm just reveling in the recovered internet.

You may have noticed that there hasn't been a photo contest for two weeks now. It seems that the contest may be dead. We'll see by next monday.

The World's Longest Running Blog

Isn't mine. In fact, the oldest Blog is none other than GURPS' Sjgames.com. You can see their full archives here, beginning in November 1994.

PS. This Realistic-looking Dinosaur Comics is pretty awesome