Monthly Archives: December 2008

The Most Innovative Video Games of 2008

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As the year ends, I feel like I pointing out some of the most innovative games to be released this year. They have all been pretty high profile throughout the year.  Alright now I guess it’s time to show everyone the games.

Braid (Xbox 360, PC 1stQ ’09)

This game is probably the most innovative game in this century so far. It takes the idea of controlling time and runs with it in all directions, to solve puzzles and complete levels, turning this platform game into one of the best games of the year.  If you haven’t played it pick it up on Xbox Live Arcade now or if you don’t have a 360 you can wait for the PC version to come in the 1st quarter of 2009.

Audiosurf (PC-only)

This is probably my favorite time waster of 2008 and the foreseeable future. The game takes your non-DRM audio tracks into race tracks, based on various elements of the audio file, and crosses it with a puzzle game. You end up having something that resembles what you would get if you crossed Guitar Hero and F-Zero. Since it is using your audio to create the game you can keep adding more and more levels as you add more and more audio to your hard drive. Pick it up from Steam for $9.99 right now.

Mirrors Edge (Xbox 360 ,PS3, PC 1stQ’09)

This isn’t a truly large innovation but this game has laid a whole new path for future games that harness first-person perspectives. It was seemingly so real that it had people vomiting from the virtual induction of themselves into the game by seeing the arms, torso, and legs of Faith. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more games that use this induction to make their games more realistic.

Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360, PC)

This game is just another FPS until you get into it and have hundreds of enemies rush you out of nowhere. The AI Director has it’s issues but it provides this game with some suppensful moments that make every play-through completely different. It analyzes whether your doing well or barely hanging on and adapts how many and when it’s going to flood you with enemies.

Those where the most innovative games that I have seen and played in 2008, all are recommended purchases. I’ve also already spotted one that is going to be an innovative game when it comes out in 2009 or 2010. The game is called LOVE and is a MMO that is procedural rendered and completely editable by the players.

If you think I missed a game let me know and I’ll look into it or tell you why it didn’t get on the list.

Just A Christmas Post

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Christmas time is upon us, the one time a jolly fat man brings us gifts every year. The time we share our own gifts with each other and watch the joy that it brings to others faces.  The time to make memories and share stories with those around you. I doubt many of you will see this as of the holiday, but I want to thank you for reading this if you do.

Remember no man is a failure who has friends.” ~ It’s A Wonderful Life

Merry Christmas

Non-Linearity Of Education

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I was re-reading through, “The Black Swan,” and came across this passage.

Your child does not seem to have a learning impediment, but he does not seem to want to speak. The schoolmaster pressures you to start considering “other options,” namely therapy. You argue with her to no avail (she is supposed to be the “expert”). Then, suddenly, the child starts composing elaborate sentences, perhaps a  bit too elaborate for his age group. I will repeat that linear progression, a Platonic idea, is not the norm.”

Now, the reason I mention this is that I know for a fact that this exact example is very true. I went through it when I was in  2nd grade, of the K-12 system, at age 7. I didn’t know how to tie my shoes, dress myself, but the big one where school comes in was my reading comprehension and verbal language.  However, by my 3rd grade year, age 8, I could tie my shoes and dress myself, but also my reading comprehension had jumped to that of an average 10th graders, verbal language was also on par with older students. Over time, they have both lost that advantage.

Education will never be a linear system, yet, that’s how our systems treats it. Our system focuses on the ones with the most promise to fill the position, the rest are left alone or sent to remediation to see if they can recover, most can’t. I was the exception to this case and even now I’m behind in my composition and verbal usage, I’m sure it shows.

I would be pleased to hear any stories that you may have to share on the subject.

The Value Of Providing Assistance

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Over the weekend, I met a couple who had just gotten off of their plane, and had had someone drop their vehicle at the airport for them. Unfortunately, they were not informed of the location of their vehicle. Not having any other tasks at hand I decided to help find their vehicle and once found I offered to help them with their baggage, which they graciously allowed me to do. After, we had finished packing the luggage into the vehicle we talked for a few minutes and I waved them off as if they were my friends. I guess, technically, we were and we had created a relationship, in under 15 minutes, just by me offering to help. You read that correctly, “We had created a relationship in under 15 minutes.”

How often can you manage to meet nice people and forge a relationship with them in so short a time? It’s rarely happened to me that it has occurred in the same way as it did in that situation. Normally, if I attempt to help people they get offended or are just genuinely unappreciative of the effort that I put into their happiness and satisfaction. No matter what their response I’m going to feel good for assisting.

I guess the value that I get is a good feeling and occasionally some single-serving friends, even if you didn’t meet them on a plane it’s a great term.

So have your ever assisted somebody and formed a relationship or just felt good about what you had done for them? Leave me some comments on what you think the value of providing assistance would be to both parties. Hope you enjoyed the post.

Collection of Twinspiration Nov. 11 – Dec. 10

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For anyone who doesn’t know what this is, it is a set of inspirational quotes that I deliver every day on Twitter.  I have been doing it for a few months and it’s my way of adding value to my followers. If you would like to read the others you can find a Collection of Twinspiration Oct. 10 – Nov. 10 and you can also  follow me @jimminy.

“A true gentleman is calm and at ease; the Small man is fretful and ill at ease.” ~ Confucius, The Analects Book VII, Verse 36

“What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.” ~ Albert Pine

“One’s gratitude is a far greater judge of character than one’s attitude.”

“We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

“With fame I become more and more stupid, which of course is a very common phenomenon.” ~ Albert Einstein

“Measure not the work until the day’s out and the labor done.” ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“Think to yourself that every day is your last; the hour to which you do not look forward will come as a welcome surprise.” ~ Horace

“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, “Why not?” ~ George Bernard Shaw

“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” ~ Mark Twain

“We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever. The goal is to create something that will.” ~ Chuck Palahniuk

“There is no formula for success, except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.” ~ Arthur Rubinstein

“In order to learn the important lessons in life, one must, each day, surmount a fear.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The world doesn’t revolve around me (or you), but by people caring for others.” ~ A Life Defined By Death

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” ~ Hellen Keller

“Familiarity with danger makes a brave man braver, but less daring.” ~ Herman Melville

“In giving, a man receives more than he gives; and the more is in proportion to the worth of the thing given.” ~ George Macdonald

“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut

“If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

“Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“Today is not the time to be thankful for what we have accomplished and have individually, but what we can accomplish and share together.”

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” ~ Voltaire

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” ~ Leo Tolstoy

“We haven’t got the power to destroy the planet or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves.” ~ Ian Malcolm

“Be not afraid of greatness: some men are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.” ~ Shakespeare

“Little things you take for granted may be something huge and astounding to someone who doesn’t experience them every day.”

“Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” ~ Albert Einstein

“Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.” ~ Confucius

“Apologize when you screw up and focus on other people, not on yourself.” ~ Randy Pausch

“The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.” ~ Bertrand Russell

“Our wise acts accompany us through life to please us and help us. Just as surely our unwise acts follow us to plaque and torment us.” ~ George Clason

“We were making the future,” he said, “and hardly any of us troubled to think what future we were making. And here it is!” ~ H.G. Wells

Blogs, Books, and Tools For Money Management

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The majority of what I’ve learned about managing my finances I have learned in the past few months. I’m going to list some of the major sources that I have used and are solid sources of personal finance information. So I’ll list some blogs that are good for this, some of my favorite books on the subject, and some sites that can help you manage it.

Blogs –

Get Rich Slowly – This is the best blog on personal finance that I have found. J.D. goes over so many different topics and various projects  that this is one of the biggest repositories for personal finance tips, tricks, and information.

Wise Bread – This blog is written by multiple people so there isn’t the same connection as with J.D. The topics can range widely from the writer’s experience and the quality is sometimes lacking. Good information it’s Lifehacker for finance.

Books –

The Richest Man in Babylon – This book is astoundingly in how simple it is too understand and it’s approach of using a story to achieve an osmotic effect with it’s information and your mind. It teaches multiple lessons in how to handle your finances while also having an underpinning in humility. A great read and also a classic from the 1920’s

Rich Dad, Poor Dad – This isn’t necessarily dedicated towards personal finance so much as street wise thinking on finance. This book isn’t to be taken literally but it does off plenty of good advice for business, and investing outside of the stock market. It makes it on the list because of these facts.

Hackers and Painters – I recommend this book not in it’s entirety, but for one essay that is contained within. You can read this essay entitled “How to Make Wealth” at Paul Graham’s website. A much different approach than what we have been ingrained with.

Tools –

Mint – My personal web tool to help chart my monetary flow. I find it fitting for my lifestyle in that it is simple, it easily connects, and implements multiple security measures. Pluses, SMS, nice tagging feature, allows you to break down bills into their subsequent parts, and handles almost any form of monetary trade, from checking, credit cards, and savings to stocks and loans.

Wesabe – This in the personal finance blogging arena comes out on top. It has community support, allows your to set goals, and update manually to keep it balanced. * I had issues with it miscalculating my credit card and telling me I had $245 on the black rather than $70 in the red so it was screwing the debit/credit balance of by $300 .

Geezeo – Another community connected online management tool. This comes out on top in the user happiness it seems. As far as I can tell, it lets you do what the other two do but it seems to be a more complete package haven’t actually used this but I may look into it.

Spreadsheets – Nothing like handling all the pertinent details yourself. Though this isn’t as easy as the others and will take some time out of your day I would at least recommend knowing how to do this either by hand or using software such as Excel, Quicken, Google Spreadsheets, etc.

Owning Your Brand

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Had a discussion on Twitter over how much you would pay for your brand and the reasons why you would want to own it. Today, with the internet everyone can own his/her brand, but with the brand comes the brand identity across the board which you might not be able to capitalize on if someone else already has it. Now it’s important to possess your name across the major urls and also across the major social media spectrum. There are 4 major reasons that you would want to own your brand across the board.

1. Easy to Find: Sharing an unanimous identity across the spectrum means that people only need to know that one aspect to find you on their favorite service. This makes it easier for you to not ostracize your followers by not being where they feel comfortable.

2. Reputation Proceeds You: If someone knows you from another service it will make it easier for you to gain following as you enter a new service. You also will have a beacon set up for when followers from another service come looking for you.

3. Protection From Miscreants: This is probably one of the big ones in this day and age. If someone shares the name with you and they do something that could only be viewed in a negative light; they are going to hurt your brand.

4. Multiple Connection Points: You can connect with people on multiple fronts in a multitude of ways. This provides heightened connectivity with those around you. Allows you to create deeper relationships that connecting on only one front.