Go Bloomberg!

The NYTimes featured Mayor Bloomberg's stance on the Muslim Center to be built at the 9/11 site. Definitely something that makes me actually feel a modicum of support for the man! The quotes from an earlier speech supporting the center:

"In rushing into those burning buildings, not one of them asked, ‘What God do you pray to?’ ‘What beliefs do you hold?’ ”
...
“We do not honor their lives by denying the very Constitutional rights they died protecting. We honor their lives by defending those rights — and the freedoms that the terrorists attacked.”

Good speech, good principles!

Wonder what it's like to go into business for yourself..

Seems like so many friends have decided to start their own businesses. Of course Jav and HJ are the closest reference points, but quite a few friends are now starting their own things - usually after their bond has ended, strangely enough.

Is there fear? Is it excitement? Do they ever feel tired, jaded and burnt-out? Do entrepreneurs have boundary issues the way priests do?

sigh...

Heavy Rain...

... is proving to be immersive and laden thickly with emotion. The games interface feels very gimmicky, but I suspect the very mundane, basic nature of most interactions with the game world is what causes it to be so immersive in the first place. When even taking out an orange juice to drink takes 3 actions, and when you realise that all your actions are taken in the context of a limited amount of time, then suddenly you consider the consequences of every action even more thoroughly.

We're still very much in the introduction, I'm looking forward to seeing what the game proper will bring.

The importance of taking time to respond..

An edited clip, taken out of context, leads to a woman being accused of racism on national TV and being forced to resign. And all along she was doing the right thing!

I'm glad that she was exonerated - and the family on the other side reached back out and testified on her behalf.

Why didn't the people in charge take time to investigate and then respond?

And are the people who put out the edited clips going to get away with it?

Now reading: Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson

Started reading again, somehow. Book recommended by Glen, and the first two chapters have been pretty interesting.

Sam now has a Facebook page

Please look for him there, under Sam Forest Loo Lim!

The New Abortion Providers

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/magazine/18abortion-t.html?_r=1&hp

Am I a PC?

No, not an existential topic today. PC harddisk is slowly failing - delayed write failures and now I can't even scan my disk for errors, so time to start preparing for the worst. Now to figure out if I should replace it with a Mac or PC.

Advice, anyone?

A footsoldier in the Holy Order

Via Shiyan:

From Dr. Goh’s final speech in office:

“To the New Guards soon joining us, may I say this: Welcome to you. Some of you will discover before long that you have joined a Holy Order that expects total commitment from you. That will be your moment of truth. You will then regard the present condition of the Republic not as a pinnacle of achievement but as a base from which to scale new heights.”

Massively inspired on one level, and on another level it sounds very Star Wars!

Lego and organ donation

I really really like this xkcd comic..
http://xkcd.com/659/

Close your eyes and I'll kiss you
Tomorrow I'll miss you
Remember I'll always be true
And then while I'm away
I'll write home every day
And I'll send all my loving to you

I'll pretend that I'm kissing
The lips I am missing
And hope that my dreams will come true
And then while I'm away
I'll write home every day
And I'll send all my loving to you

All my loving, I will send to you
All my loving, darling I'll be true

- All My Loving, by the Beatles.

I'm a sucker for melancholy musicals - in this case Across the Universe. But to be sure, there was a section midway through the show when the show totally lost the plot. If I hadn't been on an airplane I would have switched it off and done something else...

Blogging has kind of gone soft

Heh... been very busy, plus I think it's easier to do links in facebook. What should I do in this space?

Don't drink if you go red?

Important piece of research... Alcohol may be a cancer risk for people whose faces flush when they drink...

10 Annoying Habits of a Geeky Spouse

Definitely guilty!

I think the one KeY finds most annoying now:

8. Looking up information while a discussion/argument is still in progress - So what are laptops and mobile phones for, if not to resolve disputes or questions wherever you happen to be? Why would anyone get annoyed when you pull out your iPhone in the middle of a discussion about, say, a news story, and a minute later break back into the conversation with the details of the story that everyone else had forgotten? Yeah, it beats me, too, but my wife insists this belongs on the list.

Yup. She hates this!

Resident Evil 5

Great review of the game over at Ars Technica. I played the demo, KeY and I got scared to hell, and I'm looking forward to playing it in live, split-screen co-op late at night with anyone who's game!