The Bella Online walkthrough was most helpful in figuring out what I was doing wrong in the archery test. Also, see the comments for another walkthrough that I used to figure out stuff.
Also, I used the walkthrough here:
http://faqs.ign.com/articles/553/553965p1.html
I’m currently stuck in Hobbe Cave, so I don’t know some of the rest of the stuff. I’ve also on the “good” path, so I don’t have hints on doing the evil quests.
I gave a set of these cat butt magnets to my friend Kathy for Christmas, but I never realized they also have a set of Humpy Puppy magnets, too.
Interesting post and subsequent design discussion at kottke.org on the old design adage of “good, fast, or cheap: pick two.”
Two articles on the subject of blogging showed up in today’s Arts and Letters Daily about how the “Upper ranks” of bloggers are dominated by white males. One article says that it’s so and calls for greater diversity. The other article says it’s so also, but claims that it’s the case because women and minorities either don’t hold forth with opinions (wow, they must not know the women I know) or aren’t skilled enough to use the web (wow, they must not know the minorities I know.)
Both of them are wrong, because they’re both making a stupid assumption that isn’t true — there is no “upper ranks” or “A-list” or “top tier” of bloggers. They both throw out the premise like it’s an accepted fact, without defining what the hell this “top tier” is. Do they measure that by traffic? By cross-links? By name-recognition? Number of comments? They never say. One lists the “top 100 bloggers” but never says who determined who that is, or how.
Sure there are some bloggers that talk a lot about each other and link back and forth to each other and a lot of that group are white men. But the idea that they’re somehow important, or that there’s some sort of heirarchy amongst bloggers is ridiculous. It implies that all bloggers are doing the same thing for the same reasons, or that there’s some standard by which we determine who’s who.
“Steven Levy’s minimum prescription for joining the ranks of Alpha blogging: “You have to post frequently . . . link prodigiously,” and, like one technology guru he describes, spend two hours daily writing your weblog and “three more hours reading hundreds of other blogs.”
Why? Why the hell is that the standard? That’s just ridiculous. Hell lots of sites get lots of cross-linking and comments, but a lot of them don’t have nearly the traffic numbers that I do. Of course on my site, most people are just here to look for the lyrics to plastic jesus and they end up reading my journal on a lark, but still, my numbers stack up to some big sites. But here’s a challenge — if you’re reading this, comment.
This is what happens when the mainstream media tries to define something that it’s already behind the curve on. Here’s a tip people: shut up until you catch up.
I will say this — between these two articles, this is some of the worst writing I’ve read on the web recently. Most blogs examine ideas more thoroughly and intelligently than these two pieces do, and that’s truly a sad state of affairs for “mainstream media.”
How’s that for a woman expressing an opinion, National Review?
This is NOT an April fools joke:
Sponsored by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, the game, called “A Force More Powerful,” resembles a cross between a political science model and one of the popular city-builder games. The player represents the chief of staff of a non-violent resistance movement. He gives orders to various characters within the movement, who will attempt to carry out actions such as making speeches and organizing demonstrations.
The non-player-characters are rated for factors such as willpower and ambition. “There is a balancing act between the different egos and wills of the individuals involved,” said Bob McNamara, a producer at Breakaway Games, a Hunt Valley, Md., developer of entertainment games and military simulations. “They will always attempt to carry out your orders, but if they don’t like the task, the chances of success will be modified. We wanted to capture the dynamic of the fact that you’re in a movement of volunteers, and they won’t always do what you say.”
Google announces new drink product: Google Gulp
Think Geek announces new products; among them:
USB Fondue set
The iCopulate ipod-to-ipod transfer thingy
If you buy anything over $10 on thinkgeek, you get the fake April 1st t-shirt. For real.
The Boing Boing Parody — Boring Boring
Also, Motorola’s new iTunes enabled phone.
A new Japanese craze is modding a Suzuki van to look like a VW Micro Bus. Cool. Since I can’t actually get a new microbus (VW decided not to produce the new concept car) I might have to do this, instead.
Judging by how many there are, this seems like a pretty big trend over there. I’m going to try to hunt down what the original Suzuki van looks like. It seems they don’t make an American version.
I wrote a couple of years ago about one of my favorite quirky contests, the World Beard and Mustache Championships. Now National Geographic covers the contest in a recent issue. This years event occurs October 1st in Berlin.
I have found a new place to spend unearthly amounts of time reading and writing and amusing myself no end. Like I needed another place like that.
I love technology. Technology is the best. I pity the Amish. And people from the olden days. They had no technology. They must have been very sad. And bored. Maybe this is is why the Christians hate gay people. Because they don’t know how to use the technology, and therefore are bored and sad and have to take it out on someone. I recommend they get better computers, and take it out on the Amish, instead.
Piers has a pattern for creating your own iPod dock. It’s a PDF file that you download, print out, attach to cardboard and shape to hold your iPod. Pretty fun, and saves you $35.