Jan 13
There is one big main quest, like the arrow of time through your life, that you have no choice but to follow. The main quest, like life, can be boring at times, but you will follow the path anyway or else you will never make it to the end.
Like life, there are countless diversions to take your mind off the main quest. Honestly, these are what make the game and life the most enjoyable. Even though I know I don't have to deliver Lucy West's letter to her family, how else will I discover all that happens in that part of the Wasteland? Or, even though I know I don't have to have a Twitter account and tweet about my comings and goings, how else will I meet so many people from countries I'd never be able to afford to visit.
So, there's lots to do in life and Fallout 3. It's nice to have a planner in both to help keep various tasks organized. It's easy to GTD in both worlds with buckets, lists, and task management.
Finally, there are many different way to experience life and Fallout 3, depending on the kinds of funds and toys at your disposal. Some might have fancy LCD or plasma televisions hooked up to next generation PS3s or X-Box 360s, and the game runs smooth and sleek. Others may be struggling to find the joy on a PC with a graphics card that can only handle the lowest possible resolution, all environmental features turned off, and framerates lower than a handheld Viewmaster. I'm sure there's some kind of rich man, poor man analogy that works here, but doesn't the cheapy desktop PC vs. the snazzy video game console say it all?
Maybe this analogy holds water, maybe there is some truth to these examples, or maybe this is just the late night ramblings of a madman. Now, off to dream of Nuka-Cola machines and Super Mutants.
Jan 8
How I get anywhere on time is a giant mystery to me. I'm looking around my aparment and realizing that none of the clocks work.
The alarm clock in my bedroom is blinking 3:39am. I still haven't adjusted it since the power went out sometime over the holiday break on my vacation to Arizona.
I've never programmed the VCR since I moved in. It reads --:--. At least it's not blinking.
The wall clock I bought from Bed, Bath and Beyond a few years ago has gone beyond the life of the batteries I last put in it. It should be the most reliable clock in the apartment because it's next to the door out and I always look up at it on the way out. It says 6:59, and I'm not sure if it's stuck there or not.
The microwave in the kitchen has a clock too, but with the fritzy wiring in this apartment, if the power just goes out for a second, this thing never retains its time. Right now it alternates flashing between "SHARP SIMPLY", "THE BEST", "PRESS CLEAR", "AND", and "PRESS CLOCK."
Then there's the other wall clock in my office. This is a funny clock because the background for the clock is black, and so were the hands. I had to disassemble the thing, paint the hands Sharpee metallic silver, and put it back together just so I could distinguish the hands from the background. It says 9:00 right now.
Of course the iPhone works great. In fact, that's where this post was written as I walked all over my apartment. Oh, by the way, AT&T says its 8:19pm.
Jan 5
“If I were at a party with me and these 15 other people...”
Mr. Comcastcares, Frank would say something fascist to Thomas Hawk. Mona would get worked up by Frank's fascist remark and send a DM to Chris Pirillo. Pirillo would get Scoble, Laporte, Calacanis, Belmont, and himself together and they'd have a McLaughlin hour style discussion about bandwidth, tcp/ip, and the social media ramifications. Then Arrington would do some crunches. All the rest of us would be, I don't know, thumb wrestling.
Dec 29
•Moved into a new management position at work
•Began research on possible future entrepreneurial ambitions
•Became completely engrossed with social media with online communities and software like Friendfeed, Twitter, and Facebook
•Made two road trips to Northern AZ
•Got back into going to concerts again after a five year hiatus
•Quit smoking
•Started using a money clip instead of a wallet
•Broke my laptop
Bought a cheapy desktop
•Reconnected with some old friends and made a bunch of new ones
•Got an iPhone
•Stopped playing LOTRO
•Dated
•Returned to a more frugal lifestyle
Nov 15
Last week, after listening to the latest FFundercats podcast, I went out and relistened to all the TV theme songs that FriendFeeders had posted, like this great one from Lindsey. Then Helen and Mattie get crazy about asking me to do one too. Ok, Helen was polite, Mattie turned into a straight up terrorist. And, what can I say, I caved in.
The problem was that I couldn't do a video like everyone else, so I had to improvise. I've got a headset with a microphone, but a brand new PC. I've never recorded anything on it. I searched for some open source software, and discovered Audacity. I installed it, got the mp3 codec working, and played around with it a little. After I got something recorded, I couldn't figure out how to get it posted on to FriendFeed. Then I remembered that Lindsay D had asked about that last week and Glen C helped out with an answer: Posterous.
I never used the service before, but I'm usually pretty quick to pick things up. It worked really simply. All I had to do was email the mp3 to post@posterous.com and it automatically showed up in my feed. Then, I just needed to grab the rss feed, dump that into FriendFeed, and voila.
So, the only thing that even gets imported into my FriendFeed is the rss feed of my Posterous account, but now, somehow, two people have already subscribed to my Posterous feed. I don't get it. I honestly planned on never using Posterous again, but now that I have two subscribers, I feel kind of obligated. So, here's a post. May it be the first of many?
Nov 11
You'll have to turn the volume up to 11 to hear it, because I basically had to whisper it. My walls are paper thin, and it's just midnight.
(download)
