Post of the Day: 4.2.2009

Apparently this study proves that action games will improve your eyesight.

Post of the Day: 3.23.2009

As if we haven't seen enough of these lately, here's a periodic table of Final Fantasy characters. I couldn't resist posting that one.

Post of the Day: 3.12.2009

Periodic Table of Video Game Characters. Cool!

Post of the Day: 1.18.2009

I didn't like the whole brown theme, I'll have to find a better FFXIII image. In the meantime, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, and...

The Physics of the Mushroom Kingdom. Crazy.

Post of the Day: 1.17.2009

Gamers Love the Challenge, Not the Gore. Yeah, right.

Make Your Own Potions

In case you're one of those people who have always wondered how to make your own potions (you know, alchemist types), here's a how-to post for you. The people behind The Bronze Kettle recently wrote up a piece for WoW Insider on how to make your own WoW potions.

I think this is pretty darn nifty, especially for extreme cosplayers or those of us who like the retro look of lava lamps. They look even better with light cubes added, as is mentioned in the article.

Earthquake Procedures?

Early this morning, about half an hour before my alarm went off, the Midwest felt tremors from an earthquake that registered 5.2 on the Richter scale. You don't hear about the Midwest suffering from earthquakes very often, but we do sit on one of the major North American fault lines.

The epicenter was in southeastern Illinois, but was definitely felt here in Davenport, IA, as well as cities even farther away such as Omaha, St. Louis and Milwaukee. I actually felt this one, I'm pretty sure it finished waking me up, because I remembered cursing under my breath that I woke up 30 minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off at 5:00am. I was still groggy, trying to fall asleep again for another half hour, when I felt it.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting. I've heard of small, insignificant tremors here before that hardly register, but this is the first I've heard of a sizable earthquake in the Midwest in recent times.

Coolest Islands in the World

I found a post on WebUrbanist - 7 island wonders of the world. I thought it was a pretty cool article, especially the info about the smallest island in the world. I think my dad has a large, framed photo in his room that shows a huge wave crashing up against the lighthouse on that island. That post is definitely worth checking out.

Do the French Enjoy Life More?

This article should be right up my wife's alley. ;) But, it is rather interesting, in that it speaks of the reasons why the French (and, likely, this can carry over to other European countries) eat more, yet aren't as overweight in general as Americans. It also stretches into broader subjects such as lifestyles, happiness and the pure enjoyment of life.

Its been eight years since I was in Europe, however much in this article I can relate to, from what I saw during my three weeks over there. I spent most of my time in Germany, but I was in France quite a bit, as well. Everyone's so much more laid back, casual, not in a real rush to do anything or get anywhere. There none of this scarfing down an Egg McMuffin on the way to work, as so many Americans are likely to do these days - rushing everything to the last minute and trying to cram as many activities as possible into the same period of time.

This pretty much sums it up, quoting Laurence Hauben, a woman who helps people learn about French foods:

“The French don’t traditionally wolf down a meal at their desk or while commuting in traffic,” she said. “They sit down with family or colleagues at a table, taking the time to relax and share conversation. When you are talking, you are not eating, and because you are relaxed, the hormones released help in the assimilation of calories, unlike the stress hormones we are riddled with here, which trigger hoarding of fat. In other words, eat 800 calories while sitting at a café in Paris, and they will get spent. Eat 800 calories while sitting in your car in traffic on the freeway, and most of them will settle in your hips or gut.”

Sound familiar? I've done it, you've done it. I don't think there's a person in this country who hasn't done that sometime in their working lives.

The article closed with Hauben saying:

“If we want to lose weight, we need to make a choice to enjoy life more.”

Definite food for thought.

Are You Kidding Me?!

Google's "GPhone" to be unveiled by 2008?

Own Your Own Integer

Here's mine:

95 C5 51 F9 87 DA 45 46 24 1B 62 23 FB 8C D2 D6

STFU n00b!

I found this blog post last night about how an Irish study concluded that text messaging is to blame for bad spelling. I didn't read it last night, but the post struck me as interesting, so I did a quick post to my Google notebook to come back to today.

However, I did mention it to my wife last night before we went to bed. She knew exactly what I was going to say as soon as I said "I found a blog post about how text messaging...". She finished my sentence with "is the cause of bad spelling". Immediately following that, out of the blue she rattled off something out of a Cingular commercial (to get the full effect, say each letter in the acronyms individually).

Transcript:

Mother: Beth Anne!
Daughter: WU?
Mother: Your cell phone bill is what's up. All this texting.
Daughter: OMG, INBD.
Mother: It is a big deal. Who are you texting 50 times a day?
Daughter: IDK, my BFF Jill.
Mother: Tell your BFF Jill that I'm taking away your phone.
Daughter: TISNF!
Mother: Me paying this bill, that's what's S.. N.. F.
Voice-over: Now too much texting is no BD. Cingular brings you unlimited texting. Just five dollars more a month.

She just e-mailed me this morning and said the funniest line in that commercial is "OMG, INBD!" I have yet to see this commercial, but when I get the chance today I'm going to watch it and see what all the fuss is about.

[For those of you not leet-speak-savvy, here's the translation: WU = what's up, IDK = I don't know, BFF = best friends forever, TISNF = that is so not fair, OMG = oh my god, INBD = its no big deal, STFU = shut the f$@% up, n00b = someone new to something, actually not an acronym.]

That commercial does illustrate the point of that blog post I linked above though. Its annoying to me to have people talk like that outside of text messaging. I realize many of those acronyms were created because text messages usually have limited space, but when you start going off like that in instant messages, e-mails, web forums and even blog posts, it gets real annoying real fast.

Ceiling Height Affects Attitude and Actions

I came across this article today over on Lifehacker about a study that was recently done pointing out how ceiling height affects people's attitude, feelings and actions. States the article they link to:

"The authors theorized that when reasonably salient, a higher versus a lower ceiling can stimulate the concepts of freedom versus confinement, respectively. This causes people to engage in either more free-form, abstract thinking or more detail-specific thought."

Its an interesting concept I've never heard before. Both high and low ceilings can be good, depending on what you're trying to accomplish. Looking around my office right now, I wonder if there's been any studies done on how light affects people's thoughts and actions. Google, here I come...

Culture Clash

I found this rather eye-opening article on my travels across the Web. Its about a reporter visiting a tribe of "primitive" folks down in Papua New Guinea. After visiting them, he offered for them to visit his world in London.

The article just drew me right in wondering how these people who have never been far outside their village would react to the modern world. Some observations they make near the end of the article are pretty accurate. Who is more "civilized" - our modern world or their "primitive" one?

The Sun in Another Dimension

3-D glasses and all.