The 10 Things You Absolutely Need to be a Gaming Snob

This set-up is complicated by the fact that no one can quite agree on who to poo-poo and what exactly deserves to have paeans written to its glory. Video games though just aren’t taken seriously and game journalism is seen of more as a cheer team rather than a bastion of stimulating conversation and critique.

Respect to a media isn’t given until those who profess a love for it, denigrate the majority of it… In an effort to bring more creditability to video gaming I’m offering this list of 10 things you’ll absolutely need to be one of those snobbish elitists you’d see if you ever went to art galleries, indy-music gigs, or read the New Yorker…

Tuesday Share for June 23, 2009

A little late with the post, this evening.  I had a lot going this weekend and hadn’t had time to write it up early, and free time seems to be scarce in these parts…  Anyway here’s this week’s odd collection of miscellanea from around the web.

The Atlas Obscura is a new website that has set out to catalog all the weird and bizarre places in the world that just aren’t mentioned in normal travel books.  This link is a short overview with more links talking about giant burning holes scattered about the globe.  I knew about the one in Centralia, PA, but didn’t know about the others, including one in Germany that has been burning continually since 1688!  Giant Burning Holes via Boing Boing.

I do some occasional cooking, my fiance loves it, so I keep my eye out for good cooking blogs and recipes that cross my path.  Annie’s Eats is a pretty good blog that always has a new recipe every day, just about?!  Most of them are baking or sweets, so I don’t pay too much attention.  I’m trying to maintain a decent weight not balloon into gross obesity. This recipe though for tinroof ice cream had to be looked over.  Chocolate, peanuts, fudge?!  Decadent and delicious sounding.  Summer is the perfect time to make ice cream and my next batch is sure to be this.

The index card is kind of ubiquitous. It has uses from the office to the kitchen, pretty much anywhere you look you’ll find them.  Their just so convenient and obvious, it’s hard to think that they had to be invented.  But they did and by the father of taxonomy to boot, Carl Linnaeus!  Mr. Linnaeus devised the card to help organize and manage a great deal of information.  Check out the entire story at Science Daily.

I don’t know what to call a link to a series of link?  Is there a word for that yet?  Anyway this short article is a quick summary by Phil Plait, of Bad Astronomy, of all the recent news stories that’ve been critical of alternative medicine and medical quackery claims and those who support them.  From Oprah to British Chiropractors, alt-medicine is taking a hit and hopefully losing credibility.

Michael Moorcock isn’t the most widely known science fiction author, but his creation, Elric has had a lasting effect on the fantasy and science-fiction genre, the music scene, and gaming.  With a new collection of his writings coming out Mr. Moorcock was interviewed by some of his lucky fans to help promote the book.  This is a lucky chance to get inside the head of  a real artist and arguably the most important British fantasy writer since J.R.R. Tolkien – The Readers of Boing Boing interview Michael Moorcock

I sometimes question of America has a culture at all, or if it’s been replaced by a marketable facsimile thereof.  The blind pursuit of profit purely for the sake of having more profit, is a poor goal for a person, organization, nation, or culture, but it seems that is what the United States has been reduced to at times, with considerations of family, community, meaning, a greater purpose to life having been discarded as unprofitable.  J.F.K spoke out against this most eloquently as has our current president Barack Obama, but this isn’t a partisan issue, or a Democrat one, every great teacher we know of from Moses, to Jesus, from the Buddha to Laozi has tried to humanity that life is not just the accumulation of items, but is instead a quest to understand ourselves and the community that sustains us.

The world’s rarest insect, Lord Howe Island stick insect, was thought extinct for the last 70 years until in 2001 30 individuals were found on Ball’s Pyramid.  The insect is now in a breeding program and scientists hope to one day re-introduce it to Lord Howe Island if the rats can be exterminated from the island.  Via Boing Boing, more info at the Australian Dept. of Environment.

The president of the Liberty University Democrats club is leaving the college behind… Liberty University, a fundamentalist christian liberal arts college, has had a history of controversy.  The most recent being the banning of the democrat club from campus.  I hope other students will be inspired and find other avenues of education and centers of higher education that respect a diversity of opinions and viewpoints.

Another link from Debunking Christianity, this time on the genealogies of Jesus, plenty to read over there so I’m not going to add to it.

That’s it for this week.  Expect an original post tomorrow or Thursday as well as some additional old stuff (Necrons, etc.)  The next part of my Camus saga will be this weekend or the beginning of next week.

Tuesday Share: June 16, 2009, Edition

Courtesy of Andrew in Pompey

Anything good last week?  Hmm… Let’s see

There’s this article from former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist for the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz, on how the United States refuses to practice what it preaches… In regards to rebuilding an economy.  See the IMF and the World Bank make stringent and harsh demands on countries which wish to borrow money from them:  cut their deficits, let banks and local institutions fail, etc… Pretty much everything the United States hasn’t done, now that it finds itself in a crisis…  This fact will be remembered for a long time down the road by other countries and will do much to discredit American-style capitalism in the future and the best way to set up an economy.

Got student loans?  Did you know that the Federal government is changing the rules on the direct loans they give to students?  The two big changes are debt forgiveness, for those who meet certain guidelines, and new income based repayment plans.  If you’re about to get loans, you might want to wait til after July 10, when the new rules go into effect as the interest rate will be dropping and the size of the Pell Grant will increase.  Overview here and the official site here.

Wired’s Editor in Chief, Chris Anderson, wrote an article awhile back in the magazine about how the future of business was free… This was before the economic meltdown… His book on the subject will be coming out on July 7.  I read the article and it was an interesting premise backed by some data… I don’t know see how the model Mr. Anderson advocates can be adopted by all businesses without a huge loss of jobs and capital.  I don’t know why the release date wasn’t pushed back, in the midst of recession isn’t the best time to bring out a book prescribing business to give their widgets,services, expertise, etc.  away.

The Art of Manliness continues with their 30 days to a better man project. Last week they covered memorizing things, giving yourself a testicular exam, creating a bucket list, decluttering, writing a letter to your father, making a meal, and creating a budget.  I’m pretty manly this week as I write to my father and cook meals regularly, am constantly decluttering and de-stuffing my life, have a budget and give myself a testicular exam twice a year.  I think bucket lists are stupid and the memorizing thing is something I have to work on.

That’s about it… I know there is more but I don’t know what happened to them… If you’re interested in seeing the stories I sites I read regularly and the items I tag to share you can follow my shared RSS feed here.  I also post links to interesting tidbits on Twitter.

Re-reading Camus: the Myth of Sisyphus Pt 3

No one gets up in the morning and continues living because they believe there is a God, they get up because they’re compelled to keep living by billions of years of evolution. They get up because life is, in general, pretty fucking amazing. They get up because they have a work they love doing, they have family and friends that care about them and that they care about.

Equality California’s protest of CA Governor’s Proposed Cuts to HIV/AIDS Prevention/treatment Programs Funding

Last Wednesday (6/10/09) there was a fairly large protest (maybe as many as at the tea party) on the north steps of the state Capitol in California. People from all over the state came to protest Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposed cuts to state programs that offer subsidized medication to Californians with the HIV or AIDS… I got it all on camera!

Tuesday Share: June 9, 2009

This week’s eclectic share of stories

Old Stuff: Necron Command

Pictures and thoughts on Necron HQ units

Tuesday Share: June 2, 2009, Edition

Weekly round-up of interesting stories I found on-line

Governor Schwarzenegger’s June 2, 2009, Address to Joint Legislature

A play by play, with commentary on Governor Schwarzenegger’s June 2, 2009 speech to California’s joint legislature