Just got back from a fantastic week of vacation with a lovely bunch of bloggers: Martine, Ed, Patrick, Michel (and S, the charming and now renowned Milliner of ShakyLegs fame). Just the right mix of rain and shine led to just the right mix of active and vegging time at our seaside retreat. It was a week of lovely drives by the sea (bloggers are good chauffeurs), crisp September air, hiking, sailing, trivia games (bloggers are smart), video games (but bloggers allow themselves to be stupid on occasion), Shiraz, great meals (bloggers are awesome yet unpretentious cooks), engaging conversation, a crazy sky full of stars, and the easy company of wonderful friends. I felt blessed to be of their number (incidentally, bloggers are great masseuses).

A favorite highlight among many: taking Martine, Ed and Patrick on a hike which I remembered as “not really that challenging”. Of course, this was almost ten years ago when I was into rock climbing, and it turned out to be in fact the most difficult that Acadia National Park had to offer, a near-vertical 1000-foot climb over just a quarter of a mile! (No ropes!) Although we were, in the end anyway, happy to have met the challenge head-on, there were some moments where I thought some of my best friends might never speak to me again. But by the end of the day everyone had once more found their happy thoughts.

After all, bloggers are good sports, too.

UPDATE: Here is Patrick’s account of our little adventure, and here is Martine’s.

Nintendo has revealed the controller for its upcoming Revolution console. It’s different. It’s one-handed. It has sensors that detect its position and orientation.

…you could slash an in-game sword by actually swinging the controller from side to side, turn a race car just by twisting your wrist, or aim your gun in a shooter by pointing the controller where you want to fire.

I like the idea that the new features (i.e. sensors) can allow game design to go in new directions, but I’m not sure the new directions are going to be all that desirable/revolutionary. It’s not like other sensor-based gaming input devices (like the eye-toy) have taken off and revolutionized game design, have they?

I don’t like the fact that they’ve reduced the number of buttons even further, even though with this one-handed design you can only use one thumb on them anyway. Plus, you may think this is an exagerration, but I actually think that using only one hand to control the game will make it a much less immersive experience.

I feel like once again Nintendo is panicking, unable to compete with XBOX and PlayStation on the same grounds of sheer power. Instead they are resorting to gimmicks like they did on the DS. The DS is a handheld gaming device with two screens, the bottom one of which is touch sensitive (hey, I write for non-gamers, ok?). Problem is, it’s really hard to design a game that takes advantage of the two screens, because you can really only look at one at a time. Sure, you can put a map or HUD elements (like points and meters) on the second screen, but this doesn’t exactly add much to the gameplay, does it? As for the touchscreen, well… you can’t touch it AND use the buttons to control the game at the same time.

No, I’m not sure this will fly… In fact, it’s only when I ask myself, “well, what do you do with your other hand?” that new ideas for game design come to mind.

A few days before he left for Vietnam, the ex and I went shopping together. While we were at the pharmacy making him a first-aid kit for Southeast Asia, he said, “OH! you know what really sucks!!?”

Me: What?
T: Well, actually, it’s a little delicate…
Me: What?
T: They’ve discontinued…
Me: Oh, yeah. I know. Lifestyles Discs condoms.
T: YES! Exactly!
Me: I know. That’s so stupid.

Lifestyles Discs condoms were great because they didn’t come in the little pouch like all the others do. They came individually in a package that was easy to open, and made it obvious which way to “orient” them. (Allo Maman!)

T: I have no goddamned idea why they would stop making those. They were so perfect!
Me: I’m told they feel a lot better to guys than anything else, too! Plus, so easy to open.
T: It’s not that, it was getting the right orientation, every time! This is the dumbest thing a company ever did.
Me: You should write them a letter.
T: I think I will. Anyway if I see any, I’m buying them all.
Me: He he, one advantage of spinsterdom is that I still have two full packages of them. Guess I really have to save them now!
T: Haha, seriously! Only to be used with the, um, discworthy?

Last night at the blog meet, 25 (yes, I counted, 25) bloggers are standing at the window of the bar, watching a drug bust go down, cheering whenever anything new happens (like the K9 unit showing up).

André yells, “RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU’RE BLOGGING THIS!”, and 25 hands go up all at once.

This is just what the title says.

Via the ever-charming Thomas (who, despite all the cutesy rebel X-wing stuff, still works for the Empire).

A dog’s IQ is inversely related to the number of times you can pretend to throw the ball, and have her fall for it and run all the way down the hall before realizing she’s been duped. Again.