Today I am in a funk. I failed to make a strategic change at work. I could complain but that’s too easy. I’m getting up again and dusting off.

I think back to my youth. I remember lying in bed reading a book. In the other room my father was practicing guitar. He was tackling the song ‘Riders in the Sky’. As I listened I could hear him start and stop the song as he made mistakes. Subconsciously I learned disappointment happens when you try to accomplish new things.

The cowboy in ‘Riders’ is asked to change his ways or be damned to an eternity of chasing ‘the Devil’s herd across the endless skies’. I believe in order to get people to change you must present them with a future which compels them to escape the emotional gravity of the present. Unfortunately, we don’t often have anything as powerful as eternal doom to compel change. I certainly didn’t.

Eventually my dad mastered the song and played it through entirely. I’d like to think he gave me the value of being persistent in the face of frustration. Friends, I will try again to introduce innovative change. But for now I’ll wait until the sound of the ’steel-hooved cattle’ is closer.

photo credit: eye of einstein

Instructions: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15 friends, including me because I’m interested in seeing your fifteen too.

01. You’ve Gotta Have the Want To by Rev Alan Oggs
02. Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury
03. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
04. The Holy Bible, King James version
05. On Writing by Stephen King
06. Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein
07. On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony
08. Think Better by Tim Hurson
09. A Practical Guide to the Unix System by Mark Sobell
10. The Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks
11. Getting Things Done by David Allen
12. Starship Troopers by David A. Heinlein
13. Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum
14. Design Patterns by Erich Gamma et al
15. The Annotated Alice by Lewis Carroll

In honor of Mother’s Day I decided to repost my recipe for perfect deviled eggs, a recipe which my mom loves.

Perfect Deviled Eggs

• 1 dozen eggs
• 1 teaspoon prepared mustard
• 1/3 cup Miracle Whip
• Pinch of sugar
• Splash of apple cider vinegar
• Paprika
• 6 pimento-stuffed green olives

First, put the eggs in a large pot and cover with water. Heat the water to boiling. Remove the eggs from the heat, cover and let sit 15 minutes. Now the trick is to get the eggs to stop cooking. Immerse the eggs in ice water and sit them in the fridge. This will keep the yolks nice and yellow.

Once the eggs have cooled down, remove the shells. Cut them lengthwise and dump the yolks in a mixing bowl. To the yolks add several tablespoons of Miracle Whip, a teaspoon of prepared mustard, a pinch of sugar and splash of apple cider vinegar. Mix well.

Fill the egg halfs with the yolk mixture. I find filling a sandwich bag and snipping a corner helps cut down on the mess. To complete the presentation I sprinkle on a little paprika and place an olive slice in the center of the yolk.

photo credit: kirinqueen

A meme from Facebook..

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you. Please play along!

1. I don’t usually participate in these things. I’m going to respond but not tag anybody new.
2. I wrote three live action role playing (LARP) games: Kobolds on a Plane, Black Tie Affair and Tabriz School of Magic.
3. My high school mascot was the Orphans.
4. I have a twin brother.
5. I have two computers and two laptops.
6. Growing up we did not have a television in my house.
7. I play the guitar but need more practice.
8. In video games I collect the shiny things.
9. I like the sounds that trains make.
10. I taught myself to play chess when I was eight.
11. I like toast without jelly and butter.
12. I hate needles.
13. I want to visit Europe, maybe parts of Ireland that were once divided as recently as 20 years ago.
14. I want to learn another foreign language, maybe Russian.
15. Televised baseball puts me to sleep.
16. I used to sing in a choir.
17. I work on my social skills.
18. Beets make me sick.
19. I think global warming is a hoax designed to prey on our fears.
20. I like Mary Ann but when I was younger I was seduced by Ginger’s shiny dress.
21. I don’t have any tattoos or piercings. Why mess with perfection?
22. I was in a church play in high school, the beginning and end of my acting career.
23. I have learned to walk around my house without the lights on.
24. In the summer between high school and college I taught nature classes at a Boy Scout camp.
25. I am a Christian who once thought the little fish that folks stick on their cars meant they bought it from a Christian car dealer.

Breaking the Tower

I told my brother that I’d post an entry with some of the freely available video games I am playing. I listen to the Bytejacker netcast for the latest in free indie games. The host does a good job of covering everything from downloadable games for consoles to Flash games.

The adventure game genre has totally been snubbed by all of the mainstream game studios. Thankfully, several indie developers have stepped up to produce some great games. I enjoyed Spooks produced by Erin Robinson. While I did get stuck once or twice, I felt compelled to figure out the puzzles and finish the game.

Here are other adventure games on my list of titles I plan to check out: Cave Story, Dirty Split, Duty and Beyond, Kaptain Brawe, Life of D. Duke II, Loftus and the Sky Cap, Reactor 9, The Chef, The Guardian of Paradise and The Winter Rose.

A few weeks ago I went to over to my buddy Tom E.’s place to play some Duke Nukem 3D. The game was released by 3D Realms way back in 1996. Thanks to the efforts of the guys over at EDuke32 it is possible to play it on Windows Vista PCs. It was painful getting a networked game going. But we had fun once we worked it out.

Then we tried a game of the one of my favorite pointless games called Red Pixel. It is a multiplayer deathmatch in which you can destroy parts of the world. It was fun to blast away for a while. But soon it became tedious. With more players the game becomes mass chaos! Basically it has all of the fun of a modern first-person shooter without all of the eye candy.

I found this Java-based game I like called Breaking the Tower. It is the closest I have come to enjoying a strategy game since Dune II. No, I am not going to crab about the things that modern RTS games do wrong. Also, I have no schadenfreude when the folks who make those games fail. Hey guys, maybe you could make some nice adventure games instead!

There are scores of Flash-based games available. At best most of them are forgettable. I like 41st Reality for its catchy soundtrack and decent design.

Lastly, another genre that has been snubbed these days is the space simulation shooter. I recently installed Freespace 2 (FS2) thanks to the FreeSpace Open Installer. Now I am playing through the game again. It is amazing that its creator, Volition, managed to produce the game in under a year. It helped that they were able to leverage the work that they had done for the first Freespace game. FS2 features a deep story and awe inspiring effects such as beautiful nebula clouds that wreak havoc on your sensors and battles with massive capital ships that shoot impressive beam weapons. If there is a genre that is crying out for a revival, it is this one! Can you imagine a big battlefield filled with a great number of space ships each lovingly rendered with shader magic and high polygon count love? Be still my heart.

Donations for Pizza

When I was back home visiting relatives for Thanksgiving, my brother told me he was planning on a having a LAN party. For those who don’t know LAN parties are events where people bring their computers, network them together and play multiplayer games. What follows is some sage advice I have gleaned from organizing several LAN parties.

First of all as the host you have to choose the location. Make sure there is plenty of power to supply everyone. The largest event I had involved 11 computers. I planned to spread the participants over two floors of my house. But everyone choose to set up in my basement. Thankfully, there were no power issues.

Here is a list of items the host should provide (or ask somebody to bring)

LAN PARTY HOST

• Network Switch – Switches are good; hubs are an adequate alternative. These days most cheap switches made for home networks have 4-5 ports. Make sure you have enough ports and crossover cables to support the number of intended players. Ask somebody to bring a switch/hub if you don’t have enough.
• Wireless Router – It is common that laptops have wireless network cards built into them. A wireless router can handle the assigning of IP addresses (DHCP) to both wired PCs and wireless laptops.
• List of Games – Do some research. Many multiplayer games have demos that are freely available. Try some of them out and see what you like. Provide a list of games to your guests so they can install them before the event. Oh yeah, pirating computer games is evil. I don’t care how you justify it to yourself. Don’t do it!
• Food - Something that has worked for me is to ask for donations for pizza/soda. You can have a donation jar. If donations are low, carry the jar around to the guests. You do not get any points for subtlety.

Watching people play computer games is lame (kinda like watching televised poker *yawn*). If you show up to a LAN party, be prepared to participate. There are several things which guests should be expected to bring. The following is a list of those items.

LAN PARTY GUESTS

• Functioning Computer – Hey, any of yose guys know how to install an operating system? Although there are usually a lot of technically saavy folks who can help, it is a bummer to spend your time working on your rig.
• LCD Monitor – Limit yourself to a single monitor. Multi-monitor setups are pretty common these days, but aren’t really necessary for LAN play. Also, LCD monitors are infinitely more portable than the old CRTs.
• Network Cable – Wireless connections will never beat the performance of a wired connection. For that you need a network cable. Bring an extra if you have one.
• Powerstrip – A powerstrip with a surge protector is invaluable. Daisy-chaining strips is not recommended. But if you find it necessary, limit the chaining.
• Headphones – There is a lot of noise at a LAN party. If everyone brought speakers, it would be even louder. Headphones also have the benefit of allowing you sneak up on your friend in a game without announcing the approach over your speakers.

I should also mention that there are some nice party games for consoles these days. I have been to a few events now where the host has fired up a game of Rock Band and Guitar Hero. I am excited to play the Burnout Paradise Party Pack. But we will have to wait a couple more months before it is released.

When my brother Kevin and I were in high school he wrote a simple game in Commodore BASIC he called Mines of Minos. In it a miner had to move around mines in order to escape a cave. This past week I wrote a version in Java using the Slick 2D library.

This is a gift for Kevin. You will need a recent version of Java to run it.

Click on an image for a larger version.