This entry begins the first of many, multi-purpose review/analysis entries.
Sports: A lot of my focus on sports will be with the Colorado Rockies, as that is my favorite Baseball team, and Baseball is my favorite sport. I’ll also do some brief analysis on various other major issues within sports, and likely cover other local teams(Broncos, Buffs, Nuggets, Avs) when their seasons role around.
Yesterday was a make up game with the Rockies playing the Phillies. The Rockies lost 12-11 in a crazy game that included the Rocks having three 4-run leads, and the Phillies had a nine run inning. Unfortunately the Rockies fell back to 6.5 out of the wildcard with this loss, and it’s going to take somewhat of a miracle for them to make the playoffs this year(even moreso than 2007). In any case it’s been a good season, and it’s really unfortunate that our pitching wasn’t consistent and our hitting was terrible on the road. I hope for a comeback, but more than that I just want it to be close down the stretch.
Books:
The 4-Hour Workweek
This is my ‘fun’ read, but I wouldn’t really call this book ‘fun’… The first few chapters try to convince you that you aren’t excited, and that you never will be doing what society dictates as normal. So, maybe you should find a really efficient way to do some work to make enough money to do whatever it is you want to do. In all honesty, so far there is nothing in this book that changes my thought process. I’ve spent the majority of my life being in a position of responsibility, and for the first time since…. maybe middle school I finally have time to do what I want to do, and am going to do it. I find it sad, and probably completely accurate that the majority of people are bored in their jobs, and really despise what they do on a day to day basis. Anyways, hopefully this book becomes a bit less depressing and proves some usefulness to me as I continue to read it.
Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid
This is my ‘thick’ read. In this book, Hofstadter tries to equate a famous artist, mathematician, and musician by referring to closed-loops. It is very mathy, and does a great job describing tough material in two ways, a story and an essay of sorts. So far this book has proved a good read, and hopefully without being to distracted by what is going on this weekend, I’ll get a few more chapters read out of it, and will reference one of the stories in Monday’s blog.
Huckleberry Finn
This is my ‘classic’ read. I know, who hasn’t read this book… apparently me. Anyways, so far I really enjoy it, and I think I’ll find a lot of similarities to the adventuring in the book to my own childhood, fantasizing things that aren’t happening, hanging out with friends while adventuring the world, etc. I did note that it is clear that Twain is suffering when he wrote this book (likely the loss of his daughter) as he describes mourning in an all-to descriptive light early on in the book. Expect more about this book on Monday as well.
Video Games:
As my Xbox360 died on me this last week, after a good 4+ years I might add, I will be mainly posting reviews and analysis of PC/DS/PS3 games. When I get my new 360 in November(the 250gb kinect bundle), I will review some older stuff.
Yes, Blizzard, I love you… sooo very much. Even though I’m not the biggest StarCraft fan, I am a huge Blizzard fan. The philosophy of not releasing a game until it is done is quite effective for them, and frustrating as hell for me. I look forward to playing Diablo 3 at Blizzcon this year, and would really like a beta key for that game. I’ve beeng chugging away through SC2′s campaign and have been playing a few multiplayer games in the gold league. Honestly, with a bit more time, I don’t think I’d have any trouble moving up to Platinum. The story in SC2, is amazing. After each mission there are 2 in-game cut scenes and occasionally there are major cut scenes thrown in. The characters are dynamic, humorous, and attractive. I look forward to finishing the last few missions of the campaign and giving a full review here.
That’s it for today, expect the other three categories to be covered later this week, Tech, Music, and Philosophy.
bliNk
Hofstadter spends a lot of energy describing closed loops and recursion in detail in the first couple hundred pages using alternating stories and technical sections. The most recent story was about a meta-genie, and involved some very interesting concepts. I’ll go into more detail on this one in the philosophy section later this week, but this book is a great way to start my day, and is a nice change of pace from most technical stuff I have been reading.