Geek in Heels - Page 146

Jun 10, 2010 • In Sports, Web

Interactive World Cup Schedule

This one’s for my husband, who will undoubtedly turn me into a World Cup Widow for the next month…

Marca has a nifty (and beautifully-designed) interactive World Cup schedule so that you can be sure to never miss a match.

Mouseover a date, a team, a group/stage, or cities/stadiums to get the details you need.

Via FlowingData.

Rock Band 3 Keyboard Revealed!

J and I love the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games. My preferred instrument is the drums, while J likes to rock it out on the guitar — on expert mode, no less.

We always joke about how years down the road, J will turn into Randy Marsh (my favorite South Park character), and so I can soooo see him re-enacting this scene in 10 years:

When we first heard about the new Rock Band 3 and how it will incorporate a new instrument — the keyboard — we were definitely intrigued. Will it be a keytar? Will it just be an arrangement of cheap plastic buttons that resemble a keyboard? Or will it actually be a full-sized keyboard?

Today, our questions were answered, as USAToday revealed the new Rock Band 3 keyboard:

According to Engadget,

The keyboard spans two octaves of for-serious white and blacks, but there’s a row of colored labels above those keys. How narrowly you’re required to hit the “real” key corresponding to the note in the song is based on what difficulty level you choose — on the easier levels you just have to smash into the correctly colored neighborhood.

You can see the keyboard in action here:

While I’m glad that the new instrument is basically a miniature keyboard, I’m not sure how I feel about the way it’s played. Being a pianist, I would feel like I’m learning a whole new instrument…nevermind the fact that I believe just pressing a random key in the correct color category seems like cheating.

Are there any other pianists out there who agree with my reasoning?

I have heard that guitarists have trouble playing the Rock Band and Guitar Hero guitars for the same reason. However, J plays the guitar and he had no trouble picking up the gameplay — he’s so good that he actually scares me sometimes! So perhaps I’ll be lucky in learning the new Rock Band keyboard quickly too.

Rock Band 3 will be released this holiday season. I can’t wait!

The N States of America

What happens to the number of stars on Old Glory when a new state joins the union? Well, a federal law requires that the number of stars must equal the number of states. But the greater question remains: where would we put the new star?

Fear not, for mathematician Skip Garibaldi has created a computer program to figure out the most geometric — and aesthetically pleasing — layouts for the stars should this happen:

Enter the number of states, from one to a hundred, to see the best star patterns according to Garibaldi’s program.

Now we know what the new flag would look like if Puerto Rico becomes a state!

Via Slate.

A Picture Guaranteed to Make You Smile

If your day looks as rainy and dreary like mine, hopefully this teacup piglet wearing bright red rainboots will cheer you up…

Via Dalimunthe.

Harry Potter Grows Old

You know the last scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? A glimpse into the happy future that Harry was able to provide for him and his friends?

Well, I guess they’ve started to film that scene because I’ve got pictures of what Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco will look like!

I personally cannot wait until the first part of Deathly Hallows is released in November. While the movies have never been as good as the books, they have most certainly gotten better with each installment. I feel that the last movie, in particular, deviated just enough from the book to keep the movie interesting while staying true to the spirit of the novel.

Harry Potter FTW! If only J.K. Rowling would create a spin-off series…

Via Funky Downtown.

Censoring Comments

Yesterday, reader Ashley asked in a comment:

Do you have a problem with negative comments? I haven’t noticed any, but you probably delete them.

I am lucky that most of the people who choose to comment here are polite and courteous, if not overly supportive. However, I do get the nasty comment here and there and I must admit that it stings.

That being said, I have NEVER deleted a comment (aside from spam).

Even the ones that have called me names, attacked me for my personal and/or religious beliefs, or were just plain unwarranted.

I do not want the visitors to this blog to feel like they’re being censored. Sure, I may get upset and I will most likely write a rebuttal, but that is the essence of opening up your heart and soul to the internet, no?

I cannot promise that my stance will not change once the baby is born. I may delete overly hurtful comments that are directed at my children (if I get any — knock on wood), only because I feel they should not be punished for their mother’s ramblings. But I am still undecided on this issue and we’ll see when the time comes. Who knows? I might just copy Dooce and create a “Monetizing the Hate” page.

How do other bloggers deal with negative comments? Do you delete them? Fight back? Ignore them?

The Shortest Possible Game of Monopoly (And How J Took All Joy Out of the Game)

I used to love the boardgame Monopoly. I really did. My friends and I would play well into the night, and whenever a game looked like it would last longer than our tuckered-out bodies, we would take a picture of the board (so that no one would be tempted to cheat), grab our colorful paper money and head off to bed…only to return to it bright and early the next morning, exactly where we had left off.

Then I met J.

One of my favorite stand-up comics, Russell Peters, says that Chinese people are impossible to do business with because they are some of the cheapest people on the planet and are never willing to give you a bargain.

Well, my husband is Chinese, and nowhere is this stereotype more apparent than when he plays Monopoly.

“I’ll trade you my Mediterranean Ave for your Park Place,” he likes to say.

We don’t play Monopoly quite as much anymore, but
J and I still have four versions of the game in our home.

Although everyone cusses him out for being a cheap bastard, he somehow manages to get his way and is usually left the victor in a no holds barred, merciless game.

And no, J never gives me any preferential treatment for being the love of his life. As the spineless twit who always has to play the nice guy, I’m usually one of the first to go bankrupt and lose the game.

He calls it tough love. I call it ruthless assault on a timid creature.

I no longer enjoy Monopoly as much. Yes, my husband has taken the joy out of a favorite childhood game and he fully acknowledges that fact. However, he still loves to play, and I’m sure he would get a kick out of the following…

Recently, a group of college students have taken it upon themselves to figure out the SHORTEST THEORETICAL game of Monopoly. And they’ve boiled it down to a 4-turn (2 per player), 9 roll (including doubles) game:

Player 1, Turn 1:

Roll: 6-6, Lands on: Electric Company
Action: None, Doubles therefore roll again

Roll: 6-6, Lands on: Illinois Avenue
Action: None, Doubles therefore roll again

Roll: 4-5, Lands on: Community Chest “Bank error in your favor, Collect $200″
Action: Collects $200 (now has $1700)

Player 2, Turn 1:

Roll: 2-2, Lands on: Income Tax
Action: Pay $200 (now has $1300), Doubles therefore rolls again

Roll: 5-6, Lands on: Pennsylvania Rail Road
Action: None

Player 1, Turn 2:

Roll: 2-2, Lands on: Park Place
Action: Purchase ($350, now has $1350), Doubles therefore rolls again

Roll: 1-1, Lands on: Boardwalk
Action: Purchase ($400, now has $950), Doubles therefore rolls again

Roll: 3-1, Lands on Baltic Avenue
Action: Collect $200 for passing GO (now has $1150), Purchase 3 houses for Boardwalk, 2 for Park Place ($1000, now has $150)

Player 2, Turn 2:

Roll: 3-4, Lands on: Chance, “Advance to Boardwalk”
Action: Advance to Boardwalk, Rent is $1400, only has $1300 = Bankrupt

GAME OVER

The entire game can be played in as little as 21 seconds, and you can see proof of it in the video below:

I wonder if this theory can be scientifically proven…

Via haha.nu.

Have Mercy!

Since I had so much fun talking about a teenage crush yesterday, I thought I would start today on another one: Uncle Jesse from Full House.

Notice I said “Uncle Jesse,” not “John Stamos.” It’s because I have a habit of falling for characters as opposed to the actors who portray them. (Hence my tendency to fall for animated characters as well. Hello, Gambit from X-Men and Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid!) And while I’m pretty sure that John Stamos is a typical celebrity, Uncle Jesse was a rebel with a heart of gold — a wild biker who gave up his bachelor life to help raise three little girls.

And who can forget Uncle Jesse serenading Becky on their wedding day?

I remember daydreaming about my own wedding as I watched this episode, imagining my future husband surprise-serenading me on my wedding day just as Uncle Jesse did for Becky. Obviously, that didn’t happen because J is about the most un-romantic guy I know. (It’s okay, because he has tons of chances to serenade me in the future. HINT, HINT.)

Why the sudden walk down Full House memory lane? Because I just learned that John Stamos will be joining Glee next season! He will be playing Emma’s new boyfriend which should create some interesting tension (and I’m crossing my fingers for a sing-off) between him and Mr. Schu.

Did anyone else love Full House as much as me? Anyone else have a crush on Uncle Jesse?

P.S. — Just how awesome was last night’s season finale of Glee? It was predictable (including the outcome of the regionals), but I still sat there with a goofy grin on my face the entire time, tearing up at all the appropriate moments.

WTF is HTML5? [Infographic]

We all know that Apple is not a fan of Flash and is in full support of HTML5 replacing the ubiquitous multimedia platform.

(Although I’m not a big fan of Flash myself, I don’t get Apple’s argument against Flash for not being “open” when their products are some of the most closed, proprietary out there. But that’s just me.)

Well, just what the heck is HTML5 and what’s so great about it? Being a web developer, I feel like I have been reading and studying up on HTML5 for decades. And while I can take hours writing a post to try to explain it to you, I found something better: a kickass infographic.

Via TheBlogIsMine.

P.S. — Don’t you just love infographics? I love how they’re THE trendy element on the web today. And if you’re truly a fan of visual data representation like myself, check out The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide to the World’s Most Consequential Trivia by David Mccandless. J got it for me for Christmas, and I love it!

Tourists vs Locals

I have never been one to do “tourist-y” activities, even when I am at a locale I have been dying to visit.

I’m pretty sure that my aversion to tourist-y activities comes from the combination of the fear of being mistaken for a stereotypical Japanese tourist (because apparently, all Asians look alike) and being around annoying tourists in NYC.

Now, a map is available for people like me who prefer to stay in areas that are less likely to be congested with tourists:

Created by neo-cartographer Eric Fischer, the Tourist vs Locals map is based on the frequency of photos taken over certain time periods.

The blue areas represent photos taken by people who have taken pictures in the same city over a period of month or more. The red spots are photos taken in the city for less than a month, and yellow spots are unknowns.

The best news is that Fischer has created maps of major cities across the globe. Take a look at his Locals and Tourists Photo Set on Flickr to see if he has your city mapped out as well!

Via Gothamist.