Yes!

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Happyness

Just got done watching The Pursuit of Happyness, which, even though it wasn't particularly well reviewed, it certainly got to me. Maybe it's because of the acting, or the story, or just the thoughts of how little I've really had to struggle through, but it got to me.

I mean seriously? How ridiculous do I feel when the stresses that I deal with on a daily basis aren't how to keep a roof over my head or what to eat, they're on the order of "I need to pay a lot of money to get one of my cars repaired", or "I've got to sort through all the useless crap I've accumulated". How quickly and easily we forget just how blessed our lives are. I was lucky enough to grow up with enough money to have nice things, go to good schools, have supportive parents and not even worry about college. All of it was handed to me on a silver platter. And what's even worse is that only one generation back (my father) was struggling when he came to this country, fatherless, working three jobs to pay his way through school and sending back money to India to support his mother and brother. How close and yet so far away.

The hardest part I really found were the sections where the sections where Will Smith was so mentally stressed by the situation that he snapped as his son. Even the thought of the "real life" nature of it, where someone has fully altruistic goals, (in this case to have a good life for him and his son) deal irrevocable damage to the people you're trying to help. Especially when it's a child, is just hard to see. Harder still for me to see in a father-son relationship. I know if / when I do have kids, I won't be a perfect father - nobody is. But even just considering the thought of hurting my child makes me a little sick to my stomach.

(if you haven't seen the movie, potential spoiler alert in the next section)

Which, I think is why a little part of the ending actually seemed bittersweet to me. Throughout the movie, there are allusions to Will Smith being so stressed that he begins to hurt his relationship with his son in the pursuit of this job (to get the money to live). Then, the end pre-credits-text has a happy-go-lucky note about the fact that Will Smith's character sold part of the company in a multi-million dollar deal (the movie was inspired by a true story). Going in a few seconds from struggling to find a place to live to becoming a multi-millionaire just seemed to rub me the wrong way, and think about how much all that work by Will Smith's character must have hurt his relationship with his son in the long run. How weird is that?

(end spoiler)

It absolutely makes me think about, and often reconsider what I do on a day-to-day basis. Surely there are better, more effective ways to leave this world a better place. I had a discussion with a coworker who recently got a Tesla that started on the topic of whether he was keeping his old car and somehow ended up on the goals he has about how he wants to affect the world. To summarize a long discussion, we were talking about his goals (something we share) to help people - the benefits over helping a single person by day-to-day actions, or whether to succeed in other ways (financially as an example) and then try and help more people en masse - by donations, by volunteering, etc. The end goal being the same, which is the "most correct" solution? It was an interesting discussion that left me with a new respect for him, and of course reconsidering what I have done, am currently doing, and want to be doing with my life, on a day-to-day basis and a long term basis.

Totally devoid of answers, here I am - thinking, trying to figure out how to help. Trying to figure out how to progress forward myself as well as anyone I can help. Far too often we need a reminder as to how much help we've already received in life, and how much we should be giving that help to anyone we find that could use it.

Geeks

Alright, this is just hilarious - and I must say happens when you just spend time around geeks, you don't have to be married to them :p

I always turn the car around

Well, it's almost time for another new start. Just around the corner are a new job with new experiences, new goals, new challenges and new attitudes. In times like this, my mind always wanders back to a comment a close friend of mine, Michelle said during one of our many desert-laden multi-hour talks. (I think this when I was dealing with some particular stresses in my life) She said something to the effect that life is split up into Chapters, often much more explicitly than we usually realize. Over time, I've certainly realized that to be very true, and can almost visualize the book of my life, closing a chapter, moving the red silken bookmark to the next page and getting ready to start another. Maybe it's because each of these changes are usually so large in scope or attitude adjustment, or simply because I've already gone through so many chapters in my life, but ever since then, that image always surfaces in my mind. And for some reason is pretty darn comforting.

Lots more to rant about, from reminiscing childhood happiness randomly, to a incredibly relaxing month of February, all the way to what the overarching story of this book of my life may even be. (Just waiting for the characters to develop a little more :p) But for some reason my head is all over the meetings I have tomorrow instead. So maybe more manana, but definitely more this weekend! A new company will have started, Watchmen will have come out, may have gone to an Irish festival and even a pajama party!

Have a fun week!

I found God on the corner of First and Amistad

Haven't posted in a long time, which is strange considering that I haven't been working this month. Plenty to say, but not enough time or energy to do it. However, I did recently stumble across this website: Portrait Photos, combined with Flickr's Interestingness provides a near constant stream of tickling my photographic muse. Anyways, I stumbled across one such pic that was so gorgeous, I couldn't not post it:



Happy Tuesday, all.

Settlers...

So what happens when you introduce the Settlers of Catan board game to a few fellow game players who have never heard of it?

Why, you stay up playing it until 6am, of course :p

Ok, time to pass out. -_-

Halo Wars Demo is Live!

The Halo Wars demo came out this morning, and it's being received remarkably! :) If you have a 360, go download it!

"It looks great, plays great and it really might be the first great RTS for consoles"

"I had no difficulty in learning the controls and dishing out Spartan justice."

"If you’re a Halo fan, I don’t have any doubts this one will be a must buy. For me, I’ll be picking it up day one."

"I honestly believe Halo Wars gets the console RTS done right for the first time. The combination of Halo Universe, easy game play, great visuals while actually on the field and not just the cut scenes, and story are really shaping this game up to be a generational classic."

"From the moment you start up the demo you get this strange feeling of excitement. Just think back to the moment you picked up Halo 3 and you will understand what I mean."

"Halo Wars is without a doubt, the best strategy game I have ever played. Even if you don’t want to call it the best strategy game of all time, not one single person will be able to exclaim that it isn’t the best one on console."

"For the RTS and Halo fans and also the non-RTS and Halo fans, this is a top notch game that most will enjoy and be surprised by. It’s everything and anything a Halo fan or gamer looking for fun would want."

"Those who thought this was just another game with the Halo name tacked on to make Microsoft more money think again."

http://www.unscripted360.com/2009/02/02/halo-wars-demo-impressions/

http://www.360evolved.com/2009/02/04/halo-wars-demo-impressions/

http://loot-ninja.com/2009/02/02/demo-impressions-halo-wars/

http://www.msxbox-world.com/xbox360/features/article/352/Halo-Wars---Demo-impressions.html

http://ve3tro.com/1852/halo-wars-demo-in-depth-impressions/

http://www.gamingobsession.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=402&Itemid=1

http://www.xboxinsider.net/halo-wars-impressions/

http://oxcgn.com/2009/02/02/halo-wars-demo-impressions/

The Cat is Out of the Bag

Sort of - I can't say anything really specific about it - but look for more information from the new job:



Robot Entertainment

It's going to be an adventure! :D

The Last Tour

Gamasutra has a great article regarding the last days of Ensemble, specifically highlighting the cultural ideals and some of the projects that didn't make it. I enjoyed reading it, but I certainly have a little bias :p



Ensemble Studios: The Last Days

And now for something completely different

It was recently brought to my attention (thanks Mike!) that the commenting service that I used to use on this blog, YACCS was finally shutting down its service. This is because this blog was set up back in the stone ages, when blogger wasn't owned by google and comments weren't supported by default, so you had to use another service to set that up.

Anyways, I digress - in order to get comments setup, I needed to overhaul the blog to get all the template changes from google - so... there's a new look! Very much in potential transition, and it emulates the older look for the most part right now. Bear with me during the change. In addition to this, I'm hoping to start making this blog more diverse, including new technology, gaming, interesting information as well as my random musings. Which will hopefully mean more updates. We'll see how it goes.

Additionally, this sadly means that all my old comments are purged from the site - I'm looking at seeing if I can import those into the new comment system, but that's a work in progress.