Ok, my rankings for this week are: Clay, Ruben, Kimberley, Trenyce, Josh. It's time for Josh to go. I fully expect it to come down to Clay and Ruben: at that point it's anyone's game. I felt like Ruben was coasting this week, and he's going to have to do a little better than that to beat Clay.
Enigmo is a really cool game for the Mac that is somewhat reminiscent of The Incredible Machine. You have various contraptions for manipulating droplets of water, and your goal is to divert the flow so that it arrives at the appropriate container. It's really addictive.
So this is what our little group of blogs (including this one) looks like to an external observer. Link courtesy of Ben.
BTW, am I the only one who thinks Blake's blog is funnier than it's ever been? A non-stop laugh riot. I can't stop clicking.
And since I haven't yet mentioned it on this blog, there are no pictures of Kate Bosworth naked. Check out Blake's blog. I'm sure they're hidden on his site somewhere.
Maciej writes about a quiz for determining what type of brain you have. I got an Empathizing score of 50 and a Systematizing score of 51, so my brain is apparently type B (a balanced brain). Then again, I also fill out quizzes very quickly and sloppily, and I'm not sure if that's ever factored in at all. :)
The speakers I purchased two weeks ago are finally here. I can pick them up tomorrow (err, later today)! Becca and I ended up going with Paradigm Studio/100s for the fronts and matching rears, center, and sub. Yes, I could shake my house to the ground. I love it.
We went a little cheaper on the receiver, opting for a Marantz 8200 (big discount since it just got discontinued in favor of the 8300).
The question is, will we be able to get them hooked up in time for movie night? Stay tuned... :)
I just finished Steven Erikson's Deadhouse Gates, the sequel to Gardens of the Moon. I haven't included links to amazon.com because (and this really boggles my mind) his books aren't available in America. They are, however, available in the UK and Canada. I went through Amazon UK to get my copies of the first four books.
I actually got a little misty-eyed reading the end of Deadhouse Gates, and it takes a lot for a book to affect me that deeply. I am a freak in this regard. I will cry at the drop of a hat, e.g., if someone's pet gerbil gets caught in a blender on TV, but I can read descriptions of mass slaughter in print and not bat an eye. Unfortunately this should give you some idea of just how brutal this book is. It's not for the faint of heart.
Erikson's view of the world is deeply cynical and yet deeply moving at the same time. It's a much more believable place than the conveniently cheery worlds of Jordan or Eddings.
If you like The Black Company books by Glen Cook, or A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, then you will like the Malazan books. Although they can be a little disjointed and hard to follow, you'll be rewarded if you stick with them.
This whole flap over the Phoenix renaming is really ridiculous. I've received over 100 emails in garbled English from .br email addresses. Apparently 10-year-old children all over Brazil are busy pounding out angry hate mail over the Firebird DB telling me (and everyone else who ever worked on Phoenix) what horrible people we all are for renaming Phoenix to Firebird.
I've also noticed a concerted effort to spam the Mozillazine forums. To the Firebird DB people: this does not help your cause. It just makes you look utterly unprofessional.
I love the editorializing that takes place in TVGuide.com's news articles.
Dawson's Creek star Joshua Jackson — who was arrested on Nov. 9 for being drunk and disruptive at a Carolina Hurricanes hockey game — was placed in an alcohol education program on Wednesday. As part of the deal, the 24-year-old actor must attend 15 hours of alcohol and substance abuse education, complete 24 hours of community service and sit through the last three seasons of Dawson's Creek.
ROFL.
I am really looking forward to both X2 and The Matrix Reloaded. I have impossibly high expectations for both, though, so I'll probably just end up disappointed.
My rankings for this week.