Kevin's Musings

This last weekend I completed Oblivion, 1000 out of 1000 gamer score. Now, this doesn’t mean I did absolutely every quest in the game, just that I completed all of the “main” and “guild” quests. To get to this point took almost 110 hours of play time, which is pretty immense. I could now start playing Shivering Isles, which is an “add on” game for Oblivion and adds another 250 gamer score and about 30 more hours of game play, but I think I will put Oblivion away for a while and maybe come back to it later. All in all, it was a good time.

I got my Guitar Hero 3 last night including the wireless Guitar. The song list is really great and the missus and are having fun with the new “Co-op career” mode, although there is at least one bug related to achievements in this mode that I hope the fix quickly. I have also been playing a bit more Portal and started playing some Team Fortress 2, both of which continue to be fun.

I finally got the chance over the weekend at a friend’s (early) Halloween party to play the Wii (Wii Tennis and Wii Bowling). I had a really good time and while I would really love to play Mario Galaxy (which comes out in a week or two) I think I will continue to hold off on getting a Wii.

I completed Portal a little while back, well, the basic levels anyway. I got my cake. I heard a great song. All is right in the world. I noticed that you can re-play it with “Developer Commentary” enabled. The difference is that throughout the levels there are “speech balloons” that you can click on – when you click on them, various game developers will tell you something about the game or level design. While I have seen and enjoyed similar commentary on DVD movies, it is really neat to have this in a game, to learn about some of the process they go through to develop and refine the game.

The missus and I had a busy weekend. On Saturday, we visited a nearby fabric store to get some stuff for an upcoming project. She then played a fair bit of Puzzle Quest and then I played a touch of Oblivion. I am 8 achievements from 1000 achievement points in Oblivion, then I’ve got Orange Box and the soon to be released Guitar hero 3 and Assassin’s Creed. Fun stuff!

On Sunday, we went with some friends to the NYS Wool and Sheep festival (some pics here). The festival was a lot of fun, more sheep, goats, and yarn than you could shake a stick at (although I didn’t have any sticks with me). After we got our fill of wool and sheep, we went to the Headless Horseman Haunted Hayride (and haunted houses and corn maze). We did this with friends last year and since it was so close to the Wool and Sheep festival (about 15 miles), we decided to attend with some other friends. Like last year, it was a lot of fun.

Also notable in the  pictures: the fall colors are really in full swing. The drive up-state was rather spectacular.

We went to the sneak preview of Dan in Real Life, a romantic comedy / drama starring Steve Carell. It was a nice story, funny dialog and a somewhat believable story. I think Steve did a solid job, funny and awkward and always. Plenty of laughs. My only complaint was the turns were all pretty predictable.

If you want to get some of the flavor of Portal, somebody has created a 2D version of Portal in Flash – after you click this link click “PLAY THIS GAME”. It is only a little taste of what the Vavle game is, but might help folks with visualizing what Portal is. Also this video is a fun visualization aid.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=GWzmL05OlYA[/youtube]

I was debating getting one of Halo3 or Orange Box. This was difficult because I already own Half Life 2 and Half Life 2 Episode 1 on the PC, but I really wanted Portal and and Half Life 2 Episode 2 which (sadly) costs the same as just getting Orange Box (which contains all of Half Life 2, Half Life 2 Episode 1, Half Life 2 Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 – which, for the price, is an absolute bargain).  I just decided to bite the bullet and get Orange Box on the 360 as I am trying to mostly go with 360 games over PC games these days (for the simplicity of install, getting it running, etc). I started up Portal and am absolutely blown away – it is the most amazing, mind bending puzzle game I think I have ever played. There is “think out side the box” and then there is Portal. Valve really needs to get a Portal demo out there — plus a ton more Portal Puzzles. Anyway, I’m really looking forward to re-playing the whole Half Life 2 series again so I can play Half Life 2 Episode 2 (I don’t think I ever even finished Episode 1). Plus, I think it will be fun to try Team Fortress 2. — Anyway, since I mostly play “single player” games, I think Orange Box over Halo3 is the right choice. I’ll probably borrow or rent Halo3 so I can play it, though.

This week I also got Puzzle Quest (on XBLA) thinking the missus and I would both enjoy it, and I was right – this is a really fun game and missus really loves it. It is an odd combination of an RPG game and Bejeweled (the missus loves Bejeweled). It is odd but it really does work. All the fun of an RPG without the stress of instant decision combat. You still have spells, levels, etc. Lots of fun.

I’m still playing Oblivion, trying to get to 1000/1000 achievement points (at least eventually). Guitar Hero 3 will be here within weeks, I’m looking forward to that. Our upstairs neighbors played a bunch of Guitar Hero 2 while the missus and I were road-tripping and now they are talking about getting a Wii (or something) so they can play Guitar Hero 🙂 Guitar Hero is one of the most infectious games (even for non-gamers) that I have ever seen.

My Palm Treo 650 has been acting up lately, not holding a charge. I suspect the problem is with the phone and not the battery, but to be sure I stopped by the Sprint store on my way into work to leave it with them for the day. I got there a few minutes before they opened and was the first one there. After they opened, I walked toward the front and asked the lady who opened the door which line to go to for “service”. She was a little slow to answer my question and while I was waiting an older man in a black shirt and jeans darted in front of me to the one service agent. The older guy, speaking rather loudly started saying something which included “do you know who I am? I’m Larry King” (I don’t believe he wasn’t being condescending, just making sure the service person knew who he was). Sure enough, it was Larry King. The women who opened the door for me quickly got the attention of the service agent helping Larry and said “umm, this guy was here first”. SLAM! The guy told Larry he would have to wait since I was there before he was. Haha. Larry none too pleased – I believe his statement was something like “Jesus! Unbelievable! How do I get some help here!”. He walked over to another employee and again said “Hi, I’m Larry King” and continued to explain his problem. The guy helping me just sort of rolled his eyes at all the name dropping. I got the feeling they see a lot of “celebs” who want special treatment.

After Larry finished talking to the service people he started talking to a women and her baby, just making chit-chat but she I laughed when she told her baby “Say hi to Mr. King” to her baby. It was all very amusing to me. She told Larry that her ten monh old was grumpy because he “didn’t like to wear his jacket”. Larry told her that his 8 year old doesn’t like to wear a jacket, either. Dang, Larry has an 8 year old??? I can see an 8 year old grandson but a son?

Anyway, my phone is now in for service and hopefully by the end of the day it will be working correctly again. I just wish I had my camera.

The missus and I took two weeks off for vacation, the bulk of which was spent on a road trip to Atlanta – as expected, I documented it with lots of pictures (1,189 of them, and I deleted a bunch to get down to 1,189).

Before we started the road trip, we spent a day at the Digital Life show (technology and entertainment). After Digital Life we sat in Bryant Park and people-watched.

The road trip started on Friday. Our first stop of the road trip was to Intercourse, PA, which is “Amish country”. We walked around, looked at the neat shops, bought some preserves, etc. We spent Friday night with a childhood friend of the missus in Virginia.

Saturday, we went to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA. We spent the day riding roller coasters. Saturday night we were feeling adventuresome so we tried “SUV-camping”. We had intended to do some camping on the trip, so we were somewhat prepared, but we mis-estimated the amount of space in the back of the SUV, so it wasn’t terribly comfortable.

Sunday we drove to Charleston, SC and spent the day taking in the sites of Charleston. We bought a real tent (and related supplies) and did more normal camping (well, as normal as you get at a KOA). It was a much improved experience.

Monday we drove to Savannah, GA and spent the day doing touristy Savannah stuff — much like Charleston, Savannah is really beautiful. Monday night we camped in the Savannah area. While the Charleston campgrounds were nicer and the people somewhat friendlier, we enjoyed Savannah a great deal.

Tuesday we drove the rest of the way to Atlanta, arriving mid-afternoon. In Atlanta we stayed with our brother-in-law Steve, saw our niece Rachel, and generally relaxed and did touristy stuff. We visited the “new” World of Coke, the Georgia Aquarium, Zoo Atlanta, the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, and the Robert C. Williams Paper Museum. We also made the obligatory trip to Frys. On Saturday, I rode the roller coasters at Six Flags Over Georgia. Saturday evening we took lots of pictures of (a) quilts Judy had made with Cheryl’s old t-shirts, (b) Cheryl’s Nativity sets, (c) and some cups/saucers.

On Sunday we left Atlanta and drove to Lexington, KY. We spent the evening with some friends then stayed the night at the Fort Boonesborough State Park campgrounds in Kentucky. The campgrounds had some really nice Halloween lights and decorations. On Monday we drove to Virginia – the fall colors were really starting to take hold making for a beautiful drive, especially in West Virginia. Monday night we stayed at a very nice campground in Staunton, VA. On Tuesday, we stopped at Dinosaur Land (in White Post, VA) then drove the rest of the way home.

All in all, it was a really fun trip. We saw lots of neat things, tried new things (camping), and spent lots of time with friends and family.

Wherever you are these days, happy birthday.

Where every you are these days, happy birthday.

One of the benefits of working at a University is that there are a lot of guest lectures that I can attend. One of the downsides of working at a Medical University is that most of these lectures don’t particularity interest me. But, when I got the notice that Jack El-Hai was going to give a talk based on his recent book The Lobotomist, a book about Walter Freeman, the doctor who (largely) developed and popularized the lobotomy, I was immediately interested. I attended the lecture yesterday morning and found it to be incredibly interesting. If this kind of thing interests you, check out his book (or at least the Wikipedia page about Walter Freeman). Part of the lecture showed two videos from the 40s/50s that actually demonstrated both the pre-frontal lobotomy procedure and the transorbital lobotomy (“ice pick” through the eye socket) procedure, maybe not for the squeamish but not really that bad. PBS is making a documentary based on the book that is scheduled to air January 28, 2008. He also mentioned the book My Lobotomy by Howard Dully (also see the NPR interview). Howard, as a 12 year old in the 1960s, received a lobotomy from Dr. Walters.

Ultimately, I think the most interesting part of the interview was learning that the lobotomy did actually help people. Freeman developed the technique to help people who were bound to have to spend the rest of their life in psychological institutions. Apparently, the lobotomy was successful in about a third of patients, allowing them to (after a “relearning” time) return to life, potentially even hold jobs, etc.