Busy, busy

We’ve had a really busy weekend so I haven’t had much time for updates around here. I know you’re probably bored and looking for something to do, so I thought I would help you out with a few “mind expanding” websites:

Mentat Wiki – This wiki is a collaborative environment for exploring ways to become a better thinker. They have some neat stuff on memorization and mental math that I really need to work on.

Be A Genius (…or just look like one) – This site is dedicated to teaching you to effectively improve and display your mental prowess. This looks like some more interesting stuff. I actually haven’t dug too deeply into this site.

So there you go. I expect everyone to tell me the value of pi to at least 100 digits the next time I’m around…

Bath Time

Matthew used to get mad when it was bath time, but I think he really likes it now. Here’s a perfect picture of him right after a bath a few days ago:

Matthew in a towel

He splashed in the tub with his feet a little last night. I’m sure it won’t be long until he’ll be splashing water all over the floor.

Where’s My Hammer

I’m always looking for better ways to organize my stuff. The problem is, I have lots of it. I have bookshelves and boxes overflowing everywhere.

What I would really like is a nice system of shelves that could possibly cover an entire wall. That way I would be free to organize things however I wanted while keeping everything within reach.

Finally, someone came up with the perfect solution for me. And, they made it extremely geeky:

Tetris Shelves

That’s right, Tetris Shelves. Why didn’t I think of this. There is one unfortunate drawback to these shelves – they cost $7,000 for 10 pieces.

Oh well, maybe I’ll get inspired this summer and build a few of these myself…

Your Linguistic Profile

It seems like I’m on some kind of strange “how we talk” trip lately. Anyway, here’s my Liguistic Profile:

Your Linguistic Profile:
50% General American English
30% Dixie
10% Yankee
5% Midwestern
5% Upper Midwestern

Find out how you rate at What Kind of American English Do You Speak? Yes, I have been known to say ya’ll. I’ve even uttered “fixin’ to” on a few occasions…

Now I just need to go back through the test a few times and figure out what I’m supposed to be saying in those situations. Doesn’t everybody push a buggy, bring home groceries in a sack, and drink Coke (even if it’s Dr Pepper)?

Happy Birthday

Yes, April 15th was Paige’s birthday. Thanks to everyone who bought her things from her wish list. It’s much shorter now than it was before, and she got lots of nice gifts.

We spent most of yesterday in Dallas. For her birthday dinner, we went out to eat at Arcodoro & Pomodoro. This was, without a doubt, the nicest restaurant I’ve ever been in. Paige had the Ravioli Arcodoro, voted the best ravioli in the world. It was stuffed with a mix of cheeses and seafood and topped with crushed pistachios.

I had the Stinco di Vitella Logudorese (yes, I copied and pasted that from their website). It was the most amazing veal shank. The waiter told me that the proper way to eat it is to scape the marrow out the bone when you’re done and mix it with some of the risotto. He even brought out a little marrow scraping fork. Paige and I both tried it, but I’ve got to say that the meat was much better than the marrow.

I’m sure we looked totally out of place in that restaurant, but everyone there treated us very well. I’m sure we’ll go back from time to time since the food was so good. Unfortunately, a meal there costs about as much as we usually spend on groceries for a week, but I think it’s worth it. You’ve got to live a little sometimes.

Wicked

Dude, this is like the coolest site ever – Eighties Speak.

I can’t believe people used to talk like this. Thank god I never talked this way. Psyche!

Rolling in the Clouds

Matthew is getting pretty good at rolling over now. Here he is practicing on his cloud blanket.

Matthew in the clouds

If he keeps going at this rate, he’ll be crawling soon.

Oops

There used to be something else here, but now it’s gone. Sorry about that. I’m afraid I linked to a site that was a little undesirable.

Let’s just pretend this never happened…

Tutorial Updates

I’ve recently updated my tutorial Managing Game States in C++. I added a port of the source code to Object Pascal provided by Marko Peric. Also, I have a link to the French translation of the tutorial provided by Ceasy. Thanks to both of these guys for their hard work.

Also, due to quite a few e-mail requests, I’m in the process of writing another C++ game programming tutorial. I’ll hopefully have it done in a week or so. In the mean time, you can check out my other tutorials on Game Programming, Lua, and SDL if you’re interested.

Game Room

Now this is what I call a game room. It looks like he has at least one of every game system I’ve ever seen, along with enough games to fill every free moment for the rest of my life. Be sure to click around on his home page and see what else he’s up to.

This is why I try not to collect things. Once I get started I just can’t help myself. I have two closets full of vintage computers that will probably just collect dust until the end of time. Even worse, I tend to collect things in cycles. About 10 years ago I sold all of my comic books, then about 5 years ago I became obsessed with buying them all back.