Cruftbox: My Box of Cruft

I’ve been traveling quite a lot. Two more hotel rooms.

The Millennium Broadway in Manhattan

I saw a link to making Mac & Cheese Pancakes on kottke.org. Of course, I had to try it.

Our new clothes dryer plays music when it’s finished.

Seven years ago I was awaken by a call from my mother-in-law asking “Did you see? Did you see?”.
Seven years ago I was driving to work, to send everyone home, when I heard on the radio that the Twin Towers had fallen.
In those seven years, I have seen the best and worst of America.
I have seen honest debate about the future of our country, and I have seen citizens call each other traitors simply because they don’t share the same politics.
I have seen America respect it’s military and our dead, but I have also seen America abuse other peoples and their dead.
I have seen America unite in joy and in grief together regardless of race, gender, or politics, and yet at other times question the foundational concept of America that “All men are created equal.”
America, we are a better country than this.
Our forefathers deserve a better legacy that an era of personal name calling and character assassination.
Our descendants deserve a better future than an era focused on fear.
I saw this video today and I’m with on Uncle Sam on looking forward, not back.

Here are a few videos you might find amusing.
First, here is a clip of Michele aka Scarymommy aka my wife, running in the Disneyland Half Marathon. I am very proud of her and her dedication. Remember, she broke her foot/leg back in June and still was able to run this half marathon in August. The video is by her trainer, Steve Mackel, triathlon & Chi Running coach.

What to if your refrigerator dies and the new fridge doesn’t arrive until Friday?

Here are a few things I saw wandering around PAX.
Many people like and comment on my This is Portal shirt.
I am the only person at PAX without a Nintendo DS.
I have not seen a single Sony PSP since I arrived.
Zalman FPSGun – Basically a new form factor mouse specifically designed for playing first person shooter games. The mouse buttons are moved vertical in orientation, like a gun trigger. It feels strange at first when using it, but quickly felt natural. I think it would be hard to use this as your regular mouse, since it’s so focused on just FPS games.

Gunnar Optiks – Special glasses for gaming. At first I thought this was stupid, and then I put them on. Just like traditional firearms shooting glasses, the Gunnar lenses are yellow and cut down the blue/white light reducing the total amount of light hitting your eye. As someone with eyes sensitive to light, I find hits very interesting. My eyes did feel more relaxed while wearing these. Worth a look if you spend a lot of time at the computer.

TN Games FPS Vest – This is a vest you wear while playing shooters. In the vest are air actuators that reflect the damage in game with a physical sensation. I tried it and at first it felt like someone was poking me. After about 60 seconds, I could tell when I was taking damage from behind because I could feel it and my mind was translating the feeling into action in the game as I would turn based on non-audio/visual info. I can see this kind of thing catching on with the console community. With Wii & the guitar games breaking the controller-only paradigm, anything goes in the future.

Plantronics Gaming Headsets – For years I’ve used Logitech headsets. They are good with minimal issues. I’ve gone through several due to children slobbering on mics and dogs chewing through cords. The Plantronics people are going for the gaming business with a gusto. I tried out their new headsets and they are really good. ore comfortable than the current Logitech I use now. Worth $100? Not sure, but I’ll have to think carefully when my current set breaks. I was looking at the 777 model which works both with analog audio connections or as a USB input device.
I stopped by the Eve Online booth, and one of the Dev Tema showed me a Titan-class ships firing the Doomsday Device.