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A few weeks back, Bethesda released Fallout 3 to the world.  Anyone that is already a fan of the Fallout series will be familiar with the mess that was Fallout 3.  Several years back, Interplay owned the rights to the Fallout series and the first two games were developed by Black Isle.  Unfortunately Interplay made some poor decisions and ended up going belly up.  Since Interplay owned both the Fallout series and Black Isle (who were actively developing Fallout 3 at the time) everything went to hell.  Eventually the rights to the Fallout series were sold to Bethesda.  To many this sparked a wave of concern.  Bethesda was known for their Elder Scrolls series.  The Elder Scrolls games were pretty different from the Fallout series (as created by Black Isle).  While both rpg series, Fallout took on more of an adult storyline, level of humor, and gameplay.  So as you can imagine, people's fears were more than warranted.  Over the years of development, Bethesda remained somewhat tight lipped about the game aside for to say fans of the original series wouldn't be disappointed.  Other then that, prior to the game launching, all that was really known about the story was that you grew up in a vault in Washington, DC with your father.  At some point he leaves and you end up leaving the fault to find out why. 

Now I'll try to get through this review without any spoilers.  Perhaps I'll wait until a later post to comment on the story.  First off, I'll deal with the new interface.  Where as the former Fallout games were made from an isometric point of view (i.e Diablo, 2.5d, etc), F3 was done just like Oblivion (the latest Elder Scrolls game) where the game is 1st person (with the option to switch to 3rd person).  Bethesda did stay pretty close to the character development of the original games (with the SPECIAL system and the skills).  The new real time vs. turn based (using VATS) provided enough of the originals turn based action to make it ok (though the VATS system is a far cry from the original turn based combat).  All in all, the interface was good enough to not disappoint (and make me quite happy when viewing an enemy get blown to pieces).

On to the bad.  First, there wasn't enough enemy variation.  There were a handful of different monster types, super mutants, raiders, slavers, and some robots.  For the most part that was it.  In Fallout 2, depending on what city you were by, the enemies could change quite a bit (i.e. if you were by Vault City you might run into slavers, but if you were by New Reno, you'd run into Mafia thugs).  Secondly there wasn't enough variety in the weapons or information on those weapons.  As an example, in F2 there were probably 20 different hand guns, but in F3 there were more like 6 (while F2 probably had too many, F3 had too few).  Also, there didn't appear to be any information for distinguishing if one weapon would provide better accuracy then another.  If you look at the details of the sniper rifle and the hunting rifle, there really isn't anything to show that the sniper rifle can shoot farther more accurately (which you'd assume it would).  F3 still has one of the same problems that the original two do, not having energy weapons early enough.  Anyone that devotes a lot of there leveling up to the energy weapons skill at early levels will be pretty disappointed with only finding laser pistols until later in the game.

The last gripe I'll make (for now) is regarding the story.  If you stick to the primary story, you don't see a lot of the map.  With Fallout 2 and 1, even if you stick to just the main story, you end up visiting pretty much every city.  You don't necessarily have to stick around and see and do everything, but you'll at least visit it.  With F3, it seemed there were a lot of areas (that or F3 just doesn't have a lot of areas in the game) that you don't visit when following the primary story.  Secondly, the primary story is too short.  When I was just one quest away from being done all I could think was, "This can't be it."  Sadly it was.

All those things being said, Fallout 3 was an incredible game.  The story was good (while short).  The graphics were amazing.  The quest variety was good.  There was enough of the old Fallout to not entirely piss off fans of the original series, but enough new to show that Bethesda wasn't just copying someone else's game.  They made some cool decisions (i.e. allowing you to pick a perk for every level and not making you worry about ammo weight).  I would highly recommend to anyone that they pick the game up (and then play the original 2).  I played it on a PS3 and the rumors of issues are somewhat true.  I had the game lock up the system once and noticed a few clipping issues.  So quit reading and go play some Fallout.

For those of you who don't use Twitter (or know what Twitter is) you're missing out on something great.  Twitter, to those that don't know, is sort of a social network that revolves completely around status updates.  You can send messages, you can reply to other people's status, but really, you just put your own status in there.  Well since it became quite popular, everyone has hopped on it from the Mars Phoenix Rover to every single candidate in every election between here and Canada (ok that last part was a joke, Canadians don't have internet).  Well, on August 29th, some witty genius created an account under the name "FakeSarahPalin".  To say that the status updates of FakeSarahPalin are funny would be an understatement.  How can you possibly lose with stuff like this:

If you do use Twitter, start following FakeSarahPalin immediately (as in before the debate tonight).  If you don't, then hit up http://www.twitter.com/fakesarahpalin and allow the hilarity to ensue.

Note:  You may notice that the picture at the top of this post is not in fact Sarah Palin, but is in fact Tina Fey.  First of all, Tina Fey is funny, Sarah Palin is just sad.  Tina Fey went to a single college and graduated with a degree relevant to what she does, Sarah Palin went to about 15 (4) different schools and graduated with a degree relevant to what Katie Couric does.  Also, Tina Fey is hot and Sarah Palin is just scary (she's more attractive than Biden but then again so is Goatse).  If you can't figure out which way I'm leaning in this election, don't worry, I'll be writing about it later.

It's been awhile since I've written a book review.  That's probably mostly due to the fact that I've been rereading a lot of books instead of finishing new ones.  With the third Paolini book out now, I wanted to start rereading Eragon so I made a push to finish my current book, The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman.

Now this isn't a book about the planet actually being flat as some religious and other bat-shit insane people but is instead about how the world has taken on the aspects of a level playing field as more and more people are able to compete and join in the world economy.  It's also a reference to how things changed when people realized the world wasn't flat (dimensionally speaking) many things changed and people had to adapt to those changes.  With the flattening of the world referred to in this book, people will again need to adapt if they want to come out on top. 

Friedman mentions ten flatteners in his book: the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Netscape, workflow software, open sourcing, outsourcing, offshoring, supply chaining, insourcing, in-forming, and "the steroids."  Essentially these ten things have "flattened" the world and allowed everyone a chance to compete.  For example, Netscape (and other browsers) and the internet allow everyone the same level of access to the same information.  A link to wikipedia takes me to the same article here as it does in India or Australia (but maybe not China).  Outsourcing and offshoring allow companies to break up their activities.  If its cheaper and more efficient for my company to allow another organization to handle a facet of my business for me then it's better for my company.  Examples of each of them can be found.  Just to clarify, "the steroids" are all the technological gadgets which make us more efficient (some would debate that) such as cell phones, iPods, IM, etc.

A good portion of the second half of the book points out how the United States is falling behind the rest of the world.  The primary reason for this is our lack of education.  It doesn't take much looking to find stories about how interest in scientific fields has been lagging in US students.  On the flip side, countries like India and China are producing more yearly (while maybe not as many per capita or as many of the same caliber, many more).  The advantage that the US has, according to the book, is that many more of our engineers are dynamic, or capable of adapting.  While this may be true, we're still falling behind and our countries lack of funding or caring about education is making the problem worse.  In order for the US to stay on top, we need to refocus on making sure our work force is trained with the right skills.  That is, make sure training or education is readily available for everyone and that people who are in those positions that are affected by outsourcing can be trained to do something else. 

One of the last things Friedman discusses is how this flattening has affected the rest of the world in negative ways and what can be done to overcome it.  The strongest example he uses is Al-Qaeda.  Al-Qaeda made great use of the internet, outsourcing, and supply-chaining to plan and carry out it's attack on the world trade center.  As powerful as the flatteners can be to benefit everyone, they can be equally horrible when used negatively.  In a flat world everyone has to be willing to help everyone else.  Putting up walls around your country and trying keep others out only results in a week nation (look at China (before their spout of capitalism)).  One of my favorite quotes from the book deals with just this.  "It is imperative that we be the best global citizens we can be - because in a flat world, if you don't visit a bad neighborhood, it might visit you."

So, all in all, not a bad book.  If you're interested in learning more about how outsourcing to India isn't the worst thing to happen to the United States or why our current educational paradigm is going to fail us, I would recommend giving it a read. 

Recently I spent a little bit of time (about 4 months) living in Scottsdale (Phoenix), Arizona.  When I made the decision to move back in late July I knew that at some point I would have to make the long drive back to Michigan.  When I first moved out to Phoenix, I took my time and drove out over 4 days.  I stopped every night at a hotel and got a good nights sleep.  I think the longest stretch of driving I did was 9 or 10 hours.  When I figured out the logistics of driving back, I knew that I wanted to drive as straight back as possible (i.e. no detours like I did on the way there so I could go through Denver).  I also knew that I wasn't going to stop at any hotels.  I figured I would drive until I got tired and sleep at a rest stop or something.  If you map the drive from Scottsdale to Livonia, you get a 2034 mile drive that takes 30 hours.  On Wednesday, August 13th at 3:32 pm, I got in my car and headed back.  Aside for stopping for gas (and take a leak) I didn't stop for anything.  No naps, no resting, no stopping.  The drive went something like this:

August 13th, 3:32 pm - Left Scottsdale
August 13th, 8:19 pm - Left Arizona, entered New Mexico
August 14th, 1:44 am - Left New Mexico, entered Texas
August 14th, 4:27 am - Left Texas, entered Oaklahoma
August 14th, 9:59 am - Left Oaklahoma, entered Missouri
August 14th, 2:38 pm - Left Missouri, entered Illinois
August 15th, 12:10 am - Arrived at the parents house in Westland

I kept pretty good track of when I arrived in what state but I seemed to have missed recording when I entered Indiana and then Michigan.  I was trying pretty hard to get home by midnight on the 15th.  I would have made it too if it wasn't for construction traffic on I-94.  The trusty Jetta got me back though.  Towards the end of the drive I'm pretty sure I was starting to hallucinate and seeing shit in the road.  After about 33 hours I was back in Michigan and ready to sleep.  A lot of those "things you should do before you die" lists have "drive from one coast to the other" as one of the things.  I'm pretty happy with my not quite coast to coast drive.  Short of a very good reason, I think that is the last sort of drive like that I'll be doing anytime soon.

A month or so back I found out that two of my very good friends were pregnant (or in the family way if you prefer).  Not long before then they had decided to get a dog and I made a little web site they could use so that people could vote on what to name the dog.  Well if I made one for the dog I couldn't not make a page for the baby.  So awhile back I started working on a site for people to suggest baby names for them.  Apparently their plan is to print off the list of names and take it with them to the hospital and pick one while looking at the baby.  They both come from family's that had a certain fetish for J names so the question is going to be will they continue the trend and use a J name or will they branch out into something new.  Either way, I'm calling the baby Stewie and aiding him/her in his/her quest for world domination.

This Saturday, I decided to go hiking out in South Haven.  Several of my friends were in town, however, they were attending a wedding so I had nothing to do during the day.  After looking around online for trails in the Kalamazoo area, I found the Kal-Haven Trail which runs between South Haven and Kalamazoo.  Since I haven't been out to South Haven in several years.  I decided to drive out there and start the trail from there.  The trail is 33.5 miles so there was no way in hell I was going to make it that far (and back since my car was parked by the beach in South Haven).  I had to take care of a few things in the morning so I didn't make it out to South Haven until around 2 pm.  I spent a little bit of time walking by the beach and taking some pictures before I grabbed my backpack and head over to the trail.  You're "required" to have a trail pass when you're on the trail so I paid the $3 at the little staff station at the trailhead, though in reality, there really wasn't anyone to stop me from just going down the trail.  I ended up hiking about 7 miles down the trail in about 2 hours (mind I was just walking, no jogging, no running, no skipping, no Segway).  By then it was about 5pm and, as I didn't want to be on the trail past sunset, I turned around to make the 7 mile trip back.  The way back was plagued with rocks in my shoes repeatedly which was more then a pain.  I finally got back to the car around 7:10 and my feet were dead.  I drove back (with the aid of some Monster).  On the way back I got a text from one of my friends at the Reception telling me to get dressed and come out.  After getting home I realized I had giant blisters covering the balls of my feet, which being an idiot, I popped before showering.  That was painful. Then after getting all pimped out I went to the reception and danced the night away.  Today my feet hate me.  So the question is, why the hell did I do it?  Well, my friend Scott is coming back from Germany in late October.  He and I decided that we were going to hike some trails when he gets back.  We've already picked out this one in Saugatuck.  It looks like it should be promising and a bit more adventurous than the Kal-Haven.  Of the pics I took in South Haven, here are some of the better ones:  Port At Sunset, South Haven Port, Lighthouse Pier.

Update:  A few more notes specific to the trail.  The first mile of the trial (starting in South Haven) was actually paved.  It looks like they're building some houses along the first part of the trail there.  Once you get beyond the first mile, the trail becomes crushed limestone (with all those lovely little rocks that find their way into your shoes).  You go through a covered bridge and over a river very close to the end fo that first mile.  From there out, you're either going through the woods or passing by farmland on both side.  Nothing too exciting here.  At one point about 5 miles in you pass a facility for the growing / milking / killing of cows.  As it's only about 50 feet from the trail and has exhaust fans sucking air from the facility and blowing right out at the trail, it really smells.  All in all, nothing really exciting so far on this trail.  Next time I think I'll start from the Kalamazoo side and hopefully bring better shoes and more water.  I didn't pass any other hikers on the trail but did pass quite a few bikers.  I'm guessing the hikers weren't present because the trail isn't really a loop and it's quite long if you were to go down it and back (and it's boring as hell).

About 2 months ago (July 18th to be specific) I had a dire need to stay awake long past the time when I would normally go to sleep.  The situation was this:

1. 1.  Work during the day
2. 2.  Go see Batman: The Dark Knight at 3:30 am in iMax the night of the opening.
3. 3.  Get to the airport to fly to DC at 7 am or so.

Now, sure, I could have just caught some sleep in between working and going to see the movie at the awful time of 3:30, however, that just didn't sound like much fun.  For that reason, I decided to dive into the world of energy drinks.  Now I'd had my fair share of Whoop Ass, Red Bull, Jolt, etc in the past.  But I'd never tried out Monster before.  So with that in mind, while scouring the shelves of the local gas station, I set my sights upon Monster.  As this was the beginning of my affair with Monster, I went with the original Monster (or the green can if you prefer).  It was tasty, got me kind of pumped up, and kept me awake....for awhile.  While I did end up turning to other sources to stay awake, I knew that that night wasn't going to be my last encounter with the green monster.  As it turns out I didn't really get Monster much over the next month or so due to my consistent Mountain Dew.  However, when it came time to drive back from Phoenix, I knew I'd be pounding the energy drinks again (I'll have to write about my fun 31 hour straight drive back sometime).  So once again I was drinking the Monster.  Flash forward about a month and I've been getting a Monster about three or four times a week.  Until recently, I was just doing the original green monster.  Last week though, I decided to try out the blue Lo-Carb Monster.  While the original Monster has about 100 calories per service (or 200 per 16 oz can), the lo-carb only has 10 (or 20 per 16-oz can).  Obviously it also has lower carbs per serving (about 1/9th as much).  Considering my recent diet and working out kick, replacing the green original with the Lo-Carb couldn't work better.  In addition, I think the taste of the lo-carb may actually be better than the original.  They both have very similar tastes but I think the decrease in amount of sugar gives the lo-carb a little less of a bite.  All in all, if you like Monster, or if you like energy drinks in general, I would highly suggest giving the Lo-Carb brand a shot.

Recently a friend pointed out the Pirate English option in Facebook to me.  In order to turn on Pirate English, login to facebook.  Then go to Settings in the top right.  Choose Language (the far right tab).  You can then use the drop down to choose English (Pirate).  I can only assume this was silently introduced for International Talk Like a Pirate Day (which we were so blessed to have on a Friday this year, Ramen).  I did not find out about it until just yesterday, 3 days after the holy pirate day.  Now instead of viewing your "friends" you can check out "me hearties".  Instead of checking your "inbox" you can take a look into your "Bottle o'messages".  Instead of "poking" you can "skewer" your mates.  Instead of "Events" you can attend "Grog Fests."  That little list is just the beginning of the unbelieveable greatness that is Pirate English.  I only wish there was  Pirate Filter that could be applied to everything.  Perhaps I'll convince someone to write a Firefox plugin that will convert every web page.  Perhaps next year for ITLPD Google could make a translator to translate everything into Pirate Speak (Note to Google, if you do this, I won't take credit, I'll just be a very happy capt'n).  I strongly encourage you to go checkout Pirate Facebook as soon as you can mateys.

After a very long (about a month) hiatus I'm back.  Somewhere around a few months ago, I decided to write my own blog engine.  This went well for about a month and then when I finally had it where I could actually post I got lazy.  After a month and a half of not posting anything, I realized it just wasn't going to happen.  So I fished around a bit and at the suggestion of Keith I took a look at Graffiti.  Graffiti is a Content Management System (CMS) or as they refer to it Content Made Simple.  Using it, everything is content or something to that effect.  At any rate, set up is pretty easy (even on the somewhat notoriously tricky GoDaddy Servers) and it's very configurable.  So to most of you thats just a long way of saying I'm back and will be blogging more.  I always hoped I'd put more tech stuff up here but I'm just not sure it's going to happen.  I'm in a position now at work where I probably do more things that could be blogged, but it will take actual motivation so who knows if it'll happen or not.