Archive for December 2008

Last links of 2008!

• Running an Effective Code Review: Exhaustive guide to software reviews.
• Ultimate 80s Movie Quote Quiz
• New Sidewalk Art photos: You’ve probably seen these before. New set plus the steps in creating one [Link: ThirdHyphen].
• Listropolis: All your lists are belong to us.
• Factory Balls: Addicting game where you create balls to match the ball on display.
• Snowflakes as you’ve never seen them before
• People who died in 2008
• The End

Those who know me know I rarely write about myself as I am about giving you info you can use. But this post looks at 2008 from my perspective. Plenty sites and folks shared theirs. I thought 2008 would be grand because:

1. It’s an even number. Always had better luck with even numbers.
2. My youngest started kindergarten.
3. My oldest started high school.
4. It’s not a year ending in “7″.

The one thing that bugged me about ‘08:

1. 20 years after graduating high school makes a gal feel older.
2. My family dealing with the loss of my fabulous dad at the end of ‘07.

Well, it turned out to be a memorable year, but not quite for the reasons I imagined. Thankfully, my business remained steady as ever, although some things got in the way.

Good things:

1. My son’s preschool graduation. It was adorable complete with singing and dancing and little caps ‘n gowns.
2. Blog turning eight and giving away lots of great prizes and welcoming even better guest bloggers.
3. Jumping out of a plane because of the blog birthday and inspired by skydiver Peter Shankman. Now I have a story to tell! OK, I admit it that we put up the skydiving bet in hopes it would spread the news a little further.
4. My daughter’s high school volleyball team winning the city championship.
5. Working with the greatest clients.
6. Getting sucked in twitter and Facebook where I met lots of new friends and colleagues plus renewed old acquaintances (Whoops…. there goes “Auld Lang Syne” in my head).
7. Dumping Sidekick and its lousy network service for the TitaniumBerry (hey, it’s not black!). It does a better job helping people reach me away from my computer.
8. The end of the election campaign.
9. Gas prices dropped.

The icky parts about 2008…

1. My youngest started kindergarten (It means he’s not a baby anymore).
2. My oldest started high school (It means she ain’t no baby no mo’).
3. Health challenges for my middle child and his needing to attend a program after school four days a week. Tiring for him.
4. Herniated disc leading to ESI and a spinal headache (more painful than it sounds) requiring a blood patch.
5. Hurting my thumb within a week after the last injection leading to an UCL tear known as skier’s thumb. This mean I couldn’t type articles and blog posts for over six weeks. Still can’t until pin comes out next week — had to do blog entries in a few sittings. Talk about feeling guilty about many things — work, getting things done in the house, not being able to play tennis.
6. Dealing with the election campaign.
7. Economy. Economy. Economy. Family member was laid off.
8. Gas prices.

I’m looking forward to a fine ‘09 as it begins with getting the k-wire out of my thumb. I hope soon after that I’ll be on the road to returning to my previous working and athletic schedule.

How about you? How was ‘08? What do you expect in ‘09?

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Mon. December 29th: 60% off on Chewman

Tue. December 30th: 70% off on Galatron

Wed. December 31st: 50% off on Spectromancer

Thu. January 1st: 60% off on Xplorer

Fri. January 2nd: 50% off on Rooms: The Main Building

Sat. January 3rd: 60% off on Trashman

Sun. January 4th: 50% off on PipeDreams

I raved about Build-a-lot 2: Town of the Year. When the Build-a-lot 3: Passport to Europe started showing up, it both thrilled and worried me. It’s a marvelous game, but how could it be better than the previous? HipSoft succeeds to take the game to another level. I can’t wait to see how the company manages to make #4 better — if that in the works.

We get to go to Europe and work in its beautiful countries including England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. While I love the varied locations, I would like to see more of the culture and architecture appear in the locations next time.

It has the distinction of being the most difficult Build-a-lot game of all. I have to replay a few levels especially one many times before I can finally conquer all the goals before time runs out.

The game comes with new features of including services buildings. These being fire department, police department, post office, and hospital. House catch on fire, people get hurt, and robbers break into homes. When you don’t have these services, you have to click the houses as soon as you can to prevent the crisis from getting out of hand.

Landmark buildings also enter the landscape in the form of clock towers, hedge mazes and two others. Landmarks not only add character to your neighborhood, but also up the appeal. With workshops and sawmills, and banks affecting the appeal of houses, the landmarks help make up for that.

When I read all the details of the new features, I freak. The details sound overwhelming, so I fear the game’s interface will finally become cluttered. Miraculously, the information / data screens stay clean despite all the things we need to track. We track workers, materials, goals, rent, and more.

Also new in this edition is the weather factor. When it’s freezing or wet, we all slow down, right? OK, those of us not born and bred in ice cold weather or wanna be mermaids. When bad weather hits, the workers slow down.

We also see run down homes. You can either upgrade them or smash ‘em to make room for something bigger ‘n better. It also gives us an opportunity to buy homes for less money.

The levels vary greatly to prevent boredom. One level may focus on money while another requires increasing the appeal big time. Rarely, does a level provide just one goal.

Build-a-lot 2: Town of the Year could easily fall into the trap of your applying the same strategy to all levels. That won’t work in Build-a-lot 3. You must change your strategies to get through the game.

One thing that amazes me is casual mode. This would be the “endless” mode for the typical game with two modes: story and endless. Campaign mode is the main one. Casual mode has no clock requirements, but it’ll motivate you to better your scores time-wise. I never like endless mode, but find this one actually enjoyable. This extends the game play beyond story mode.

What can I say? I’m impressed with Hipsoft’s ability to retain the things that make Build-a-lot so addicting while adding new features that fit without weighing us down. {Hearty applause}

Download it from your favorite site:

• Big Fish Games
• Reflexive Powered by Game Center Solution

Photo credit Frankie Roberto

All fun links because we should all take a break no matter what we celebrate. Apologies for no Kwanzaa stuff. Couldn’t find anything fun. Happy Chanukah! Merry Christmas! Happy Kwanzaa! Happy Everything!

• Buzzwords of 2008
• I Do Dog Tricks: Enter ‘em all: sit, beg, roll over, speak, shake, lay down, sing, dance, and kiss.
• Coffee mugs of all kinds: Scroll down to see the story on various intriguing mugs.
• 54 oddball Christmas ornaments
• Dogs rockin’ around the Christmas tree
• 10 cars we want: in honor of my son who loves cars like these.
• Top 8 ways to make Hannukah Hanukkah Chanukah (you get it) cooler
• Bambi does the Dreidel song.
• Adam Sandler Chanukah song
• Fa La Freezing Chanukah song

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Mon. December 22nd: 50% off on Arabesque

Tue. December 23rd: 50% off on Z-Raid

Wed. December 24th: 50% off on Filler

Thu. December 25th: 50% off on River Raid II

Fri. December 26th: 50% off on Virus

Sat. December 27th: 50% off on River Raider

Sun. December 28th: 50% off on Blocks Away

After two years or so of reviewing casual games, I discovered a new passion: writing game reviews and announcing game news. I thought it was time to create a separate games web site as not all of you care about computer, mobile, and handheld games.

But every single one of you offers great insight. So I’m asking if you would please take a look at the test site and provide feedback: good and needs fixin’. Ready to meet my latest baby?

http://test3.spyrestudios.com/

I want to make the launch fun and exciting for you. So I think I shall seek out prizes. Yes, the catch is that the prizes will promote the new site. Contact me if you’d like to donate a prize or two.

• How to Sell Twitter to a Client (And Your Boss): You could do this with blogs, but twitter takes less time to read and you can read many more folk’s thoughts.
• 70 Tools Freelancers Rely on Most
• Editors as Mentors
• How to Write Great Query Letters: Write a Great Headline
• 35 Best Tools for Writing Online
• Readers share their favorite words and why in Powell’s Books contest.
• 40 creative blog footer designs

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Pilot School: Pilot scripts of many shows. Loved reading the pilot for 30 Rock. Liz Lemon was originally Lisa Lemon. Yeah, Liz works better.
• 70 Beautiful Dual-Screen Desktop Wallpapers: Love my dual screens. This collection includes Dallas’ skyline.
• drop.io: Share files without registering.
• Oooh. I want this laptop with three screens. No hanging out at Geekologie for me. Just turns me into a kid in a toy store.
• Drawminos: Play with dominoes creations or create your own.
• Cardboard cutouts: Wish she lived close and I’d recycle all my boxes.

Was inspired by with my mangling of “Let it Snow” into Let Us Blog. Since I use Twitter lots now, I thought we needed “Let Us Tweet.” Apologies again to Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, the composers of the original.

Also, Dragon NaturallySpeaking makes an appearance at the end of the post with both songs

MP3 of my mauling my own lyrics.

Oh the weather outside is frightful

But the monitor is so delightful

And since we’ve no place to retreat
Let Us Tweet! Let Us Tweet! Let Us Tweet!

Twitter doesn’t show signs of stopping
And I’ve done all my shopping.
Since the tweets continue to fleet.
Let Us Tweet! Let Us Tweet! Let Us Tweet!

I finally sign out for the night,
But please tweet me lots tonight.
So while I’m away from the keyboard,
I know that in the morning I won’t be bored!

The fire is slowly dying,
And, my dear, we’re still defying.
But as long as you have some heat,
Let Us Tweet! Let Us Tweet! Let Us Tweet!

Dragon NaturallySpeaking version

Note: I trained the software on the words “Twitter,” “tweet” and “blog.”

Of the weather outside is frightful
Part-time monitor is so delightful
And skins we know place two weeks week
Let us tweaked that escalate bad us tweaked

Twitter doesn’t show signs of stopping
And I have done my shopping
Send a police continue to freaked
Let us tweaked that as two-week that us tweaked

Dominates signout for the night
That please tweaked me lats tonight
Self I’ll comment on my thumb the keyboard
I knows back in the morning I want the code

Faced I is slowly dying
Amide be was dealt defying
But at last I feel asked them he
Mattos tweaked let us tweaked let us tweaked

Let Us Blog the Dragon way

Oh the love for outside is frightful
Back the Monaco is so delightful
And since we’ve know plays to Jeong
Militarists blog let us log metas blog

Than nine dozen shows signs of stopping
And I gone to Amazon for is shopping
We play at the Mac doesn’t clout
Metas blog let us log that gossip blog

We find out I sign our Brooklynite
How I hate bellowing away from the keyboard
Fact is you’ll e-mail me lasts to my
Zen and the morning abruptly toward

The Frio is slowly dying
And my dear we’ll still ironing
Pat as long but as you have some Orlov
Let us allowed that as blog let us blog

This post will show you what I said and what this stuff where code [Line spoken should be, "the software heard"]. I strike out the software’s mistakes and picked [put] the correct version in practice [brackets]. Here we go…

For those of you not familiar with beast to pick up where [speech to text software], you begin by planting the stuff where [training the software] with your voice [for]. I completed a puce shim at this Nilan my guess asked them to wood made the top then the average user. [I completed a few sessions of this knowing my deaf accent would need more help than the average user].

Victim … err… product is Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 Preferred. I opted to go with v9 instead of 10 to save cash and not worry about crashing problems it supposedly has.

Needless to say, I’m not to let that [I'm off to a bad start].

I’m trying the speech recognition software. Unhorsed for get a pass when I say [I'm hopeful it'll catch what I say]. Starla far [so far] it’s not perfect. It looks like it needs blood twanging [more training]. IM into this to write auto close [I'm anxious to write articles].

I have not been able to write because to [of] have my hand touchingly [surgery]. I have t will [it typed "two," so I said "backspace backspace" and "o"] may [lay] off use and [using] my hand because of Salonika [swelling].

Let’s go back to planning [training].

(Conducted more training… another attempt…)

Comeau nutcake [communicate]

I talk to my clients regularly and ensure they are happy with my luck [work]. I’ve gone [learned] from mistakes and client platform things [preferences]. I aim for high quality and provide personal sofas [service].

Bill pays not to worry [Build A Lot 3 review (awesome game, by the way)]

Linked [I couldn't wait] to play this game. The previous two games Laden [captivated] me. I could not imagine it could get better. That [but] it did.

We talked a to Gravenhurst and you [Return to Ravenhearst review (another superb game)].

To blame for is it that it’s week he is as gay yeah [Return to Ravenhearst is the best Mystery Case Files game yet]. If you compare at the first list week he file game to the latest [the first game to the latest...]

That’s still the see at clout a.m. it [cursing here. No translation as this is a family friendly blog].

MP3 of the above script (opens in new window so you can follow script). I talked slower than usual for the software’s stake.