RSS in Plain English – Common Craft – Our Product is Explanation is worth watching if you’re not already using an RSS reader. If you read blogs or webcomics or any other source of information or entertainment that’s updated regularly, you really should be using an RSS reader. It’ll save you time and frustration and help keep you from missing those great posts by that one writer who only updtes every 2 weeks.
RSS in Plain English
Mar 10
Suvudu Cage Match
Mar 9
Suvudu Cage Match’s writeups of the matches they’ve set up between an assortment of science fiction and fantasy characters amused me. So far my favorite was the match between Ged and Edward Cullen.
The scary thing was realizing just how many Mary Sue / Garry Stu characters there are. Put any of these in their own narrative and they are INVINCIBLE! Take them out and they become vaguely pitiful.
The Best 2009 WoW Fanart Poll highlights some of the year’s best WoW Fanart. A number of the pictures were depictions of Sylvanas. Part of that is doubtless due to her outfits. I found the different ways in which her face was pictured to be particularly interesting. In some pictures she looks like a goddess of vengeance while in others she appears to be acting more in sorrow than in anger.
All Art is Remix
Mar 7
All Art is Remix is a fun video showing how art builds on what has gone before.
happy things’s Tumblelog
Mar 7
I ran across this today: happy things’s Tumblelog. Itseems to be a collection of picture and quotes that struck the collector as happy things. There’s some fun and thought provoking stuff in there.
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”
Bernard Shaw (via lovemidori)
Why Can’t They Read?
Mar 6
I found this Metaquote from fadethecat interesting. The argument is that the reason people miss obvious warning signs is that they filter signs automatically:
I ignore the seven thousand signs on the windows and doors when I walk into that gas station, because they’re all just going to be implausibly enthusiastic renditions of “Buy this thing” interspersed with reminders that Illegal Things Are Still Illegal Doncha Know.
It’s not surprising that important signs are missed – there’s so much noise that the signals are drowned out.
Food storage containers
Mar 5
I find that our Food storage containers are in constant need of reorganization. this post and the subsequent comments have some good ideas for cutting down on that.
I found this graphic interesting: Why A Salad Costs More Than A Big Mac – The Consumerist.
I don’t know how accurate it is and if nothing else I’m sure people can quibble about the decimal points. At the same time, it’s hard to deny that eating healthier costs more. Even if you grow all your food yourself, that food will probably cost you more in hours than it would take you to earn the money to buy it. We spend less time and money on the food we need to survive than at any other point in history. Now we need to figure out how to eat well and not just how can we eat enough.
Not wrong, just illegal
Mar 3
I found this essay fascinating: Not wrong, just illegal – Winnipeg Free Press. The essay itself is a fairly standard discussion of the issues with file sharing. What I found interesting is that this essay was entered in an ethics writing competition and that it won! Maybe there is hope.
(via Michael Geist’s blog)
The Oatmeal’s list of 10 Reasons to Avoid Talking on the Phone really rang true for me. I hate talking on the phone. It figures that my job involves a lot of talking on the phone. 
Hunters Ding 80
Mar 1
Jaimie and I got our hunters up to 80!
I thought our dot-fear-win team of overpowered, but for leveling 2 hunters had them beat. The problem with dot-fear-win was that they’re at their strongest against many strong mobs. You want to load up a mob with dots, then immediately move to the next mob as the dots tick on the first one. Either the mobs would die before half the dots had a chance to tick or they’d make it to us and beat us down. With the hunters it was a nice straightforward pull, kill, pull, kill.
We went to Molten Core in our mid 70s and picked up a pair of Ancient Core Hounds. I thought I’d miss my cat’s dash a lot, but it turns out that the core hounds’ lava breath is great for pulling distant and caster mobs. I made sure to have my Core Hound Pup out as well so it was fun to have four core houds running around burning up the landscape.
As a special bonus Jaimie was hunting Northrend rares and she ran across Skoll the spirit beast wolf. She very kindly didn’t kill him and let me get onto my hunter to tame him. Getting a spirit beast was one of the goals I didn’t think I’d get to on my hunter. Thanks hon!
http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=35189
Freedom
Feb 24
This is a truth I try to keep in mind when I’m feeling trapped by life. I can choose something different. The barriers in my mind are far more powerful than the barriers that are actually there.
The part that bugs me is that I would be better off ignoring the rules from time to time, but I usually lack the courage or the energy to do so.
If you choose to ignore the rules remember that there will be consequences – good, bad, and neutral. (At the same time, if you follow the rules, there will still be consequences – good, bad, and neutral.)
His mother had often said, when you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. She had emphasized the corollary of this axiom even more vehemently: when you desired a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it.
– Memory, Lois McMaster Bujold
And a Pony
Feb 22
I’ve always been fond of this particular strip: Calvin and Hobbes Comic Strip, January 13, 1987 on GoComics.com.
That stupid Calvin. What does he call me names for no reason? It’s just mean.
I wish I had a hundred friends. Then I wouldn’t care. I’d say, “Who needs you, Calvin? I’ve got a hundred other friends!”
Then my hundred friends and I would go do something fun, and leave Calvin all alone! Ha!
… and as long as I’m dreaming, I’d like a pony.
If you’re going to dream your way out of a miserable situation, dream big! (Or maybe the moral is that sometimes sarcasm can help mend a broken heart.)
Tables of vampire traits
Feb 21
Everything you wanted to know about vampires by mythos in convenient table form: Tables of vampire traits – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Don’t hunt undead without it!
I find the comprehensiveness of this list the most amusing part. If ever I need to fight Count von Count from Sesame Street, I’ll know where to look!
(via BoingBoing)
I realize that this is just an Old Spice commercial, but it made me laugh YouTube – The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.
Back in the old days when Alterac Valley used to last for hours or days, I ran it a lot on my holy priest. I was determined to get my epic mount and the savings for buying the PvP mount at exalted was huge! Once I get the mount, I didn’t do much more PvP. Mostly I’ve run my toons through Alterac a couple times at level 55 for the XP from the initial quests, then ignored the battlegrounds.
Now that I’m leveling another priest, I’m having a blast playing in Alterac Valley again. The XP isn’t amazing, but it’s decent. I still stink at PvP but as a holy priest I can heal those who are better at it than I am (and hopefully annoy the other side). I feel as though I should get the Benediction staff to make it easier on the other side to know who to kill.
A few tips to remember:
- Use the terrain – healing from behind rocks, bushes, and trees can give you a few more precious seconds of life
- When you’re not sure who to heal, use Tab and Target of Target to find someone being targeted by the bad guys
- No matter how weak your stats, you can capture / defend an unguarded objective
- Buff the raid before the battleground starts – it’s free (except for the reagent cost). Buff yourself immediately upon rezzing.
- Have fun! It’s easy to find groups with the dungeon finder or to go do quests, so don’t put yourself through PvP if you’re not enjoying it.
Ebook checklist from EFF
Feb 16
I like this: Ebook checklist from EFF Boing Boing. One of my big worries about ebooks is that we’ll wind up with a a pile of intrusive, controlling crap instead of books. Why is plaintext so difficult to supply? It seems to me that most of the book publishers are hellbent on repeating or worsening the mistakes of the music and movie industry.
I used to play a lot of Command and Conquer, and now EA’s offering. Three C&Cs For Free | Rock, Paper, Shotgun. I wonder if the games are still fun or if the outdated graphics would just make them painful. One way or another I plan to download them and find out!
5 Ideas to Make Computer Engineer Barbie Realistic | GeekDad | Wired.com. I particularly liked the fifth one: “The choice between Mac Computer Engineer Barbie, Windows Computer Engineer Barbie, and Linux Computer Engineer Barbie. Then they could publicize the sales figures daily to encourage geek parents to buy the version they want to win for their kids.” It should come with flamewar transcripts too.
I’m now officially tired of winter.
For those of you who still need advice on dealing with winter situations John Scalzi has you covered: Everything I Need to Know About Winter I Learned From SciFi Movies. I’ll doubtless have plenty of chances to put these tips into practice in coming winters.