What I need, really, is an interesting distraction.
Really. And I’m sure you do too!
So here it is: Pax Britannica!
It’s a one-button real time simulator with up to four players, or you can play against the AI.
Need more description? Here’s a Youtube video
Once again, I’ve been a bit too busy to keep up with the blogging. I don’t even know what I’ve been doing so I can’t tell you about it, however we have had a couple bike-centric Saturday’s recently. Last week we went to the Roswell Criterium, shown here…
…and this week we biked the Atlanta Beltline path with the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition. Much fun was had. Pictures of both of these events are available at my flickr stream although there’s way more of the Criterium than the bicycle tour. I need a small camera that can be thrown into a bike jersey pocket.
One of the stops on the tour was at the Beltline Bike Shop, a non-profit that serves the local community with emphasis on the kids in the neighborhood. I saw a bike there for $25 that might just fit the bill of somethign I’ve been looking for. ((heavy, and suitable for beating up in-town, possible to a single-speed conversion. Heavy, so that I’ll get a better workout!))
Bill Hammack has a series of educational and entertaining videos about engineering.
This is currently my favorite.
We’ve got five people hanging out and watching the Superbowl while doing other stuff.
In order to pretend that we’re being useful contributors to society, we’ve decided to evaluate the commercials as they go.
Theme: Hack Job. Kitchen Upgrade with Bud Light
Votes: 5 no 0 yes
My opinion: Wow, that sucked. Usually Bud does a better job.
Theme: Pugs and Doritos
Votes: 1 yes 1 no 3 abstain
My opinion: Dogsploitation. Not amused.
Theme: Prison Escape Audi
Votes: 5 yes
My opinion: Quite amusing. Kenny G makes it. “Lancaster! It’s a trap!”
Theme: Doritos Office Weirdo
Votes: 4 Yes 1 No
My opinion: Very creepy, yet amusing.
Theme: Old Folk Audi
Votes: 5 No
My opinion: Uh…?
Theme: Couples Pepsi
Votes: 1 Yes 2 No 2 Abstain
My opinion: Dumb.
Theme: Bud Light Musketeers
Votes: 5 Yes
My opinion: Awesome
Theme: Lassie Truck
Votes: 5 Yes
My opinion: “I didn’t even know this town had a volcano!”
Theme: Nerd Pepsi Max
Votes: 3 No 2 Abstain
My opinion: Meh
Theme: Doritos Roomate
Votes: 5 Yes
My opinion: This probably would have been less well received except for the Grandfather resurrection. Rock on.
Theme: Hyundai Commercial
Votes: 1 No 4 Abstain
My opinion: Booooring
Theme: Kia Car Stealing Commercial
Votes: 5 Yes
My opinion: Points for creativity
Theme: Eminem Brisk
Votes: 2 Yes 3 Abstain
My opinion: Uh…huh…
Theme: Office Email Reply-All
Votes: 5 Yes
My opinion: Hah!
Theme: Electric Car
Votes: 5 Yes
My opinion: Eh. Kinda boring.
Theme: Go Daddy .Co
Votes: 5 No
My opinion: I do not every approve of the Go Daddy Commercials. I refuse to use their services simply based on the fact that they advertise at the Superbowl.
Theme: Western Budweiser
Votes: 3 Yes 1 No 1 Abstain
My opinion: It broke my brain
Theme: Faith Hill Valentines
Votes: 1 Yes 1 No 3 Abstain
My opinion: Kill me now
Theme: BMW in Spartanburg
Votes: 1 No 4 Abstain
My opinion: Lame
Theme: 1984 Xoom Commercial
Votes: 5 Yes
My opinion: Poor Apple. Android will win.
Theme: BMW Clean Diesel
Votes: 5 Abstain
My opinion: [Yawn]
Theme: Animated Assault on the City (Coke)
Votes: 2 Yes 3 No
My opinion: Strong strong no. But at least it wasn’t the stupid polar bears.
Theme: Darth Vader Child
Votes: 5 Yes
My opinion: It’s not new, but still amusing
Theme: Snickers
Votes: 2 Yes 3 Abstain
My opinion: Yawn
Theme: Office Monkeys
Votes: 3 Yes 1 No 1 Abstain
My opinion: I love the office monkeys
Theme: Chevy Facebook
Votes: 5 No
My opinion: Facebook needs to die in a fire. And think of the teenage driver distraction.
We took a detour on the way home from the Peachtree City 5k/10k to deliver Sharon’s accordion to a repair shop. I got to see what the inside of an accordion looked like!
Honestly, I had zero mental image of what the thing was going to look like when it was pulled apart. Thusly, I was thrilled and excited to see all the little pieces and gizmos.
Click through the image to see the notes I put on the picture.
It appears that Astrologic horoscopes from Yahoo have a bunch of similarities. Big surprise, I know.
Click through the image to go to the Information is Beautiful site that includes discussion of how that did this.
The biggest fundamental problem1 with working as a Traffic Engineer is that most of my colleagues don’t get my math jokes. For example, I will have to explain this to a lot of people in the office today.
1: Truly, this is the biggest problem. Huge, even.
Just now coming to my attention: Experiments in packing have determined that tetrahedra (4 sided dice) pack together most efficiently (subscription req’d) when randomly shaken in boxes.
This news, from last year, is quite cool because how else do you apply the “Role Every Die You Own For Damage” rule unless you can pack your dice into as small a volume as possible?
Here’s an article from Science Daily talking about the study. They used an MRI to image the boxes!
Science!
For Christmas and New Years of 2010, Jennifer, David, Sharon and I went to Key West!
There was much fun and hijinks. You can see many pictures over at my flickr set (currently all the images are unlabeled. Hopefully I’ll get to that soon), but a quick run down is thus:
The drive home was a killer, though. We got up at 3:30 AM on Sunday morning and I didn’t sit down and be done until about 8:30 PM. That was a long day.
Be sure to check out the flickr set. We had a blast.
