Just read Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink” on the planeride home. I loved The Tipping Point, but I’d heard mixed things about Blink. While I think there are a lot of valid criticisms to be made about the book, I loved it. Gladwell has a distinctively accessible, anecdotal style of writing, and he talks about things that I simply don’t think much about, but have a lot of effect on my life.

Blink is basically about the “gut” reaction, and makes a case that “gut” reactions access a different style of mental computing that at times can harness more power than a careful analytical approach to understanding a situation. I think the basic thing that sat with me was that people of varying expertise have gut reactions of varying validity, and that you can “train” these gut-level reactions, and isolate them from phenomena that cause you to make bad gut-level reactions.

I dunno that one can train their gut reactions, other than that with increased expertise in a field, your ability to make those judgements improve. But the book did sort of put my personal thought process, at least as it relates to game design, into a framework where I can actually think about it in a *better* way, so that’s good.

For me, I’ll often play a game and have a very visceral reaction to it almost instantly. I can tell you whether a game feels polished, or “good” and I’m rarely wrong *within my own biases*. That is, I hated FFX 20 minutes after I started playing it. After the opening scenes, and the game settled into the meat of its gameplay, I almost instantly realized I didn’t like it – that there was something terribly wrong with the gameplay, and the content. It took me another 25 hours of *playing* the game to be able to point my fingers at what was specifically wrong.

That instinct, and the ability to understand what that gut reaction is pointing to is getting much, much better, though. I can often tell what’s wrong with a game in less than five hours of playtime, and put into words what that gut reaction pointed at. And that – the ability to put the problems into words, and attack them head-on – is one of the harder bits that Gladwell discusses in Blink. He refers to the gut reactions as inside a locked box, and that only in areas of expertise can people start to point at the roots of those reactions.

That is to say, I’ve achieved a level of expertise as it relates to game design.

What’s weird, though, is that both my mother and I have what I would have previously described as an “innate” ability to find the thing in a group of things that *costs* the most. Not necessarily the *best* thing, but almost invariably, the thing that’s the most expensive. Now, that’s just an unfortunate correlation, since it means I like expensive shit – but I guess it means that we’re both picking up on some sort of physical cue – texture, design, whatever – but because I’m not actually an expert on the subject, I have *no idea* what those cues are. The extent of this thing is that I can simply point to something that costs a lot. Talk about a lame skill to have. 😀

Anyway – it’s a good read, IMO – more that it simply gives you an additional framework to think about stuff, and that’s rarely a bad thing. Now that I’ve read it, I’d love to hear what others thought about it in more detail. Anyone?

Man. I need a vacation from my vacation.

Had a great week, though – started out in Toronto, where my cousin picked us up, took us back to his place to drop off our stuff, have a quick nap, then headed out to Niagara Falls. Place has gone all Atlantic City, but there’s really nothing that can diminish the sheer *majesty* of the falls. Great stuff. Then trucked up to Ottawa for the first family reunion in 25 years. So, yeah – Ei-Nyung met the whole North American Helava clan, which was cool.

Played a lot of Trivial Pursuit with the cuz and the wife. Good stuff. The original edition of Trivial Pursuit is surprisingly relevant. Lessee. After hanging out with the family (and swearing it won’t be another 25 years before the next reunion), we headed back to Toronto, then caught a plane to NYC. We’d been to NYC not long ago, so we figured we’d have plenty of time to see some new stuff. Not really.

Ate at Gordon Ramsay at the London the first night with some friends, which was great – the friends more than the food, though the food was no laughing matter. I think I am getting to the stage where French-inspired “fine dining”‘s charm is wearing thin. That is, we’ve now had dinners at three or four restaurants of similar caliber, and frankly, the difference between Manresa, Ramsay, and the French Laundry is more in the service than the food, and I don’t really care as much about service as I do the food. Not to say that I don’t enjoy eating a fantastic meal, just that the novelty has worn off, and sans novelty, the value of the food is greatly diminished.

Spent next two days going to a taping of the Daily Show (the episode with Richard Gere) (I’d recommend doing it once, but it’s probably not necessary to do twice), and meeting a bunch of Ei-Nyung’s relatives and hanging out with friends who had come in from out of town, including Roopa, which was really cool. Some of the folks we tried to get in touch with were outta town, or busy, which turned out to be good, because by Saturday, I was so wiped out, I couldn’t really do much.

Ended up going to the Home Depot with the pops to pick up some drywall for their kitchen, which is currently bare walls, then spent three hours cooking three racks of baby back ribs for dinner, which was fun. Turned out alright.

Got home today, hung out with the dog, bought some new shoes (the Merrils that I’d had for ages were really shot), and then watched Ninja Warrior. I’m beat. To work tomorrow, which will be fun, then to the airport to pick up Ei-Nyung, then home via something other than the 80-580 interchange, which no longer exists. How odd.

All in all, a great week with beloved family, good friends, and new relatives-in-law. Couldn’t ask for much more, other than a couple weeks to recuperate.

Currently halfway through a trip. Toronto/Ottawa/Niagara Falls were AWESOME. New York has been shaping up really great so far, but hectic as hell. Went to a taping of the Daily Show, ate at the London, hung out with all sorts of people so far. Two more days to go, but damn – I’m traveled out. Crazy stuff.

So, Ei-Nyung was watching American Idol, and one of the contestants sang a song called “Jesus Take the Wheel” – I’d never heard it before. It’s a Carrie Underwood song, though written by some other random people. Apparently, it’s quite acclaimed, was nominated for a number of awards – maybe it won a few, I don’t know. Here’s the lyrics:

Jesus, Take the Wheel
(James/Lindsey/Sampson)

She was drivin’ last friday on her way to cincinnati
On a snow white Christmas Eve
Goin’ home to see her Momma and her Daddy
With her baby in a back seat
Fifty miles to go and she was runnin’ low
On faith and gasoline
It’d been a long hard year

She had a lot on her mind and she didn’t pay attention
She was goin’ way too fast
Before she knew it she was spinnin on thin black sheet of glass
She saw both their lives flash before her eyes
She didn’t even have time to cry
She was so scared, she threw her hands up in the air

…
Okay, I’ve just gotta break in there. I know this is meant as a metaphor, but let’s just take a look at this so far. On an icy road in winter, this woman was speeding. She gets herself in a terrible situation, having put both her and her child in grave danger, and she throws her hands up in the air? Really? She doesn’t say, try to steer out of the skid, or at least hold on to the wheel so that if the tires did grip something, she could actually *respond* to the situation? Not really engendering any sympathy at this point.

(Chorus)
Jesus take the wheel
Take it from my hands
‘Cause I can’t do this on my own
I’m letting go
So give me one more chance
Save me from this road I’m on
Jesus take the wheel

What? So, you’re letting go? You’re just gonna do nothing? And this is supposed to be admirable? WTF?

It was still getting colder when she made it to the shoulder and that car came to a stop
She cried when she saw that baby in the back seat sleepin’ like a rock
For the first time in a long time she bowed her head to pray
She said I’m sorry for the way
I’ve been livin’ my life
I know I’ve got to change
So from now on tonight

Oh! So… that’s good, I guess. You’re going to take charge of your life. You managed to survive, through not fault of your own, but it’s been an epiphany, and you’ll begin to take responsibility for your actions, and work to make things better. Great!

Jesus take the wheel
Take it from my hands
‘Cause I can’t do this on my own
I’m letting go
So give me one more chance
Save me from this road I’m on
Oh Jesus take the wheel

Oh Im letting go
So give me one more chance
Save me from this road I’m on
From this road I’m on
Jesus take the wheel
Oh take it take it from me
Oooooooooohhh

OH HOLY MOTHER FUCK! What is WRONG with you?!?! So, you’re going to do what? You were gonna make some sort of change, but you’re going to make that change by… what? Abdicating your personal responsibility? Not taking charge of anything on your own? Doing … nothing? This is, in every respect, just a despicable, awful song. I’ve rarely heard more insipid lyrics, and I doubt if I’ve *EVER* heard a song with a worse message. I’ve literally only heard this once, and I hate it with every fiber of my being.

And it’s not a religious versus non-religious thing. I don’t *care* that it’s a song with a religious theme. What I care about is that the theme is SO GOD DAMNED STUPID.

Gah!

The Nintendo Wii’s been pretty interesting so far – very up and down. Hands down the biggest success on the system is Wii Sports. For what it is, it’s absolutely perfect – a collection of extremely accessible, enjoyable, simple games that are designed to be enjoyed by newcomers, and the hardcore alike. Newcomers are entranced by how accessible the controls are – how they’re similar to movements they’re used to, while the hardcore enjoys the simple novelty of it all.

The game’s tuned to be almost instantly rewarding, which I’m sure shortens its lifespan for hardcore gamers, but the best thing about it is that total newbs can instantly feel that positive surge of success. My mom, for instance, who’s probably never played a videogame for more than four or five seconds, played Wii Tennis for a few complete games and made a Mii. Astonishing. Revolutionary, without question.

When the game’s control allows the player to harness movements that they use in other activities, the Wii is a tremendous success. The player feels like they’re leveraging existing knowledge, and the connection between reality and the virtual world is blurred enough that nongamers can immerse themselves in the process without thinking about it. It is, quite simply, magical.

The problem is, Wii Sports is the ONLY game in the entire lineup that captures that magic.

Rayman Raving Rabbids, the game that I was looking forward to the most, has absolutely inspired character design, but the minigames are so hit or miss that I find it equal parts entertaining and hair-pullingly frustrating. Sonic and the Secret Rings just doesn’t feel like a complete game. It feels like an incoherent mishmash of mini-levels, and the menu structure utterly destroys any hope of a cohesive narrative arc and feel to the game. The controls are okay, but at times completely unintuitive, and often less responsive than the game would require. Still the best console Sonic game in years, but that’s not saying a whole lot.

SSX Blur deserves a paragraph on its own because the controls are completely bonkers. They feel like they must have been designed by a strung-out drummer. The control movements require you to coordinate movements between your left thumb and your left wrist, your right wrist, and your right thumb. While the Wii controls can, at times, be intuitive and simple, this is such a convoluted, complicated control scheme that I honestly don’t want to play the game. And I LOVE the franchise. I’m hoping after vacation, I’ll be able to give it another shot, but I’m not even going to try to pick it up again when I know I’ll be gone for a week, ’cause I’ll just have to re-learn the controls again. I wonder if this is what nongamers feel like when they pick up a controller to play Halo? I have absolutely no doubt that no “newbie” player will ever even come close to understanding SSX’s control scheme without literally hours of practice.

Zelda… Ah, Zelda. Such a disappointment. The game itself? Zelda, pure and simple. Buy it for the Gamecube. The widescreen mode is a mess, because they didn’t alter the viewing frustrum to match the aspect ratio of the screen. As a result, instead of looking like a wider window into a world, it looks like you’re looking through a fisheye lens. Rotate around, and watch the distortion towards the edges of the screen. The other problem is almost complete lack of camera control outside of first-person mode. It feels like a leap back to 1997. The biggest mistakes are the sword controls. The Wiimote is nominally the “sword” to the player. Waggling the Wiimote from side to side initiates a slash motion on screen. Cool, right? You want to stab? Oh. Hold Z to target something, then press A. Simple, right? Wait, wasn’t the Wiimote supposed to be like a sword? What happened there? What about jump-attacks? Hold Z to target, press forward on the analog stick, and hit A. Seems strangely similar to the other combination. Why? Because the Wiimote *isn’t* the sword. It’s a really trivial, pointless controller mapping that makes the whole battle system make no sense at all.

And that’s not the worst part. The absolute, number one worst thing ever about Zelda, and I’m really, really surprised I never read it anywhere in a review, is that so long as your Wiimote is pointing at the screen, there’s a little blue ball with wings that indicates where you’re pointing. And whenever it moves, it makes a sound. Which means if your hands aren’t rock-steady, it’s constantly “swish”ing at you. Or, if you say, “fuck that,” and point away from the screen, the stupid blue ball sits there, half on, half off screen, obstructing some part of the screen for NO GOD DAMNED REASON.

Buy Zelda on the Gamecube. It’ll be played at the aspect ratio it was designed for, with the controller that it was designed for. Instead of playing Zelda with completely fucked up, nonsensical garbage for controls, you can play it in a way that actually makes sense, and is more or less pleasant.

Every single reviewer – every SINGLE ONE who said that Zelda was a superior experience on the Wii is a complete idiot, and should be fired. There’s just no excuse.

So, that’s the Wii. One bright, shining moment of genius, and a whole bucketload of complete garbage.

So, I’ve been watching a lot of Ninja Warrior. It’s a show that’s being imported on G4 from Japan, where its original name is Sasuke. If you’re new to the whole “interwebs” thing, and haven’t yet clicked the link it’s basically a four-stage obstacle course of absolute ludicrousness. In the 10 years that the show’s been running (18 iterations of the more-or-less biannual competition), only two people have ever cleared all four stages.

It’s absolutely incredible to watch. The first stage, you think, “Yeah, on a good day, with a couple weeks of training… I could probably do that.” The second stage is more, “Hm. Might take a couple months, but yeah, I suppose I might conceivably be able to handle that, too.” For me, that’s where it ends. The third stage, even if I trained for years, I’m not sure I could handle, and the fourth, though easily the simplest… the time limit is just absurd.

I think I get a lot of pleasure out of watching the show because it’s full of people doing things that frankly, on the surface, look almost impossible, and doing them in rapid succession. It’s just crazy. And the thing that really caps it off is that the people are really doing it because they really *want* to do it. The financial benefits of completing the course are minimal (~$17K) compared to most “gameshows” in the US. Maybe there’s notoriety, or some sponsorship involved, but it’s not a bunch of millionaires playing ball. These people have jobs, and do this for fun. That’s how it should be, IMO.

So, that’s motivating. Watching people really do crazy-assed things makes me want to be at least minimally capable of similar feats. I’m in no shape right now to do such things, and I’ve largely “fallen off the horse” since winning the competition with Klay. But the last week, I re-signed up for the Y (through work, which pays for it), went swimming, did pushups and squats one morning, and this evening, got back from a run – the first time I’ve run outdoors, quite possibly, since I used to run with my roommate in college. Recently, I’ve also very sporadically gone mountain biking with Alan, though that’s not regular enough to be called any sort of exercise “routine.”

Still, it feels *good* to be doing stuff. It’s quite easy to forget, given how sedentary my work generally is, because the inertia of a sedentary lifestyle is hard to overcome. But I definitely feel better when I get a little exercise.

The funny thing is that there are a couple people on Ninja Warrior that have been doing this for years. The regulars have shared this goal, and participated for *years* together. The camaraderie that comes from working towards a shared goal comes across on-screen. It’s strange – one of the things that Simon Cowell always tries to make a point of, on American Idol, is that whenever some contestant says, “Oh, we all love each other, and we all want each other to do well,” is that they *don’t*. There’s only one winner, and if you want to win, you don’t want *them* to win. The great thing about Sasuke is that I think everyone wants each other to win. Sure, they know it’s not likely to happen, given the difficulty, but it really feels like they’re genuinely cheering each other on.

That’s how I felt when I was competing in high school – either swimming, or triathlons, with my close friends. We tended not to compete in the same events, which was great, because it didn’t make winning an exclusive event, but even where there was overlap, we knew a winner today could be second tomorrow, and it kept us motivated, and willing to really push ourselves to the limit of what we were capable of at the time. I miss that feeling, honestly, and I’m not really sure where one finds that as an adult, with a job and a family.

Devotion to anything takes time. I’m devoted to my wife, and to a much lesser extent, I’m devoted to my job. (and Mobius) There’s probably not a lot of time left to squeeze in something else, though who knows? I waste a lot of time most days playing random games, or doing other stupid stuff. Writing blog posts and the like. 🙂

I hope one day that that sense of camaraderie and shared vision can come from work. That, clearly, would be ideal – where a bunch of friends work towards a common goal, and when we succeed, we all win together. Hell – it’s even shaping up that my closest friends all have relatively compatible talents. One day, we’ll be able to marshall those talents into something extraordinary. I know it’ll happen. It’s just a matter of time.

A friend of mine just started a blog, and the first entry there reminded me of something I’d been thinking about that was also brought up on another friend’s LJ.

Why is it that productivity is measured in how constantly you’re submerged in the act of “doing stuff”? In some respect, if all the people you have working for you are doing stuff, then the only *way* that people think is the way that they think when they’re constantly bombarded with stuff to do.

While I have a lot of great ideas, and do a lot of productive work in that environment, the *best* ideas I have are the ones that I have while I’m walking my dog, or lying in the bathtub, staring at the ceiling, not intentionally thinking about anything in particular. These are the moments where I’m thinking like a person who’s not doing stuff, and it’s a period where I think my brain simply operates differently.

It’s like, while I’m thinking consciously, I’m mentally playing Tetris. There’s more organization in my thought process – it’s about efficiency, and attacking a problem methodically. When I’m “idling” it’s like playing pick-up sticks. I think about whatever stick is easiest to pick up at the time. Maybe it’s a thought about something I want to write about. Maybe it’s something at work – but it’s always something that’s risen to the top of the mental pile on its own.

Why is it that in a person’s professional life, there’s so little focus on this type of thinking? I’ll often try to replicate this, resting my feet on the desk, sitting back in the chair with the keyboard on my lap. I’ll close my eyes, and just try to write whatever comes to mind. This is often where I’ll get the idea that pulls everything together, or find a different tack to take on a problem I’ve been working on. But it *looks* completely lazy – it looks like I’m half asleep, and sometimes, yeah, I’ll drift off into a quick snooze, simply because what I’m *trying* to do is *relax* – and relaxation’s basically only one step away from sleep.

Still, I don’t know how to reconcile this with the fact that I’m really hard on coworkers I perceive as “lazy”. But I think that has more to do with output, and their value to me than the perception of laziness or a casual attitude towards work. I don’t mind a casual attitude, as long as it results in astonishing ideas and incredible work. I guess, actually, that maybe that’s the distinction between the coworkers I tolerate, and those I get along well with as friends.

Maybe not just co-workers, but people in general.

Well, had today off, which was sort of weird, and mostly unexpected. So, I thought I’d do a whole bunch of stuff, from bringing the car to the shop (the idle’s a little weird on the Civic) to weeding the front yard. Ended up cooking all day. Prepped stuff for a lasagna I’m gonna assemble tomorrow (roasted squash, made the ragu – ~2hrs), made Chicken & Mushrooms for dinner (~40 minutes), and baked a cake from this recipe, which I can’t necessarily recommend.

The lasagna’s from Jamie Oliver’s “Simple Lasagna” recipe, which I’ve made a couple times before. It’s relatively simple, but it’s quite time consuming, even if you use a pressure cooker. I just made the ragu in a pot, and cooked it in the oven, since I had the time. I also roasted the butternut squash, since that takes a good long while. Tomorrow, assembly and cook time should be less than an hour, which makes it doable for a weeknight dinner.

The Chicken and Mushrooms is pretty simple – marinate some chicken cut into bite-sized pieces, and a bunch of white button mushrooms in a bottle of random cheap-assed supermarket Italian dressing for a couple hours. Cook up some white rice. Take out all the chicken, then cook it ’till done. Then slice up and cook all the mushrooms. Let the sugar from the dressing caramelize on the ‘shrooms and the chicken, giving it a nice glossy brown color. Take a spoonful of rice, and some of the chicken & mushrooms, and eat. This was, I think, the first meal we ever cooked together, and the two non-Ei-Nyung people I associate it with are Joe, who came up with the recipe, and Dylan, who spent one evening in the kitchen with us when we were making it. Good, nostalgic food.

The cake… well, it’s the first cake I’ve made in … maybe ever? I don’t know. I used to make cheesecakes, but was trying for something different, and for some reason, this recipe caught my eye. Seemed like each step was doable, and the ingredients looked good, and tasty. I don’t know what the final result’s supposed to be like, but the cake I ended up with was very reminiscent of a shortcake in texture. Tasty enough, I suppose, but not really what I was looking for, and I’d guess probably not what you’re looking for either.

Educational, I suppose, and sort of a fun way to spend a day off. Oh – I cleaned out the fridge, as well. It’s *incredible* how much redundancy we have in there. Five jars of pickles? Four of preserves? Four separate jars of sun-dried tomatoes? Come ON. I did some consolidation, a lot of throwing out, and created a bunch of space, at least enough for all the crap I ended up cooking today.

Good times.

Also: If you get G4, WATCH NINJA WARRIOR. It’s an obstacle course show, which is called “Sasuke” in Japan. They’ve brought it over subtitled, and it’s incredibly fun to watch. We ended up watching it for about 2 hours last night, and I could have watched another three or four episodes.

Here’s what I want. I want a plugin for Firefox or something that will unify my blog and all of my posts in all mediums throughout the internet. I also want it to then put all those posts into a context that readers can quickly and easily understand.

Ideally, what it would do is allow me to take a post from a messageboard, click on it and “Add to Blog” – then, on the blog, the initial post would appear. If a person didn’t have all the context to understand the particular post, they could click on it, and it would open the thread the post belonged to. If there were multiple re-postings, instead of adding it as a new post, it would “pop” the old post to the top of the blog, but update it so the “highlighted” post was the most recent one. Whether the old location for the entry would contain a link, or the older version of the post is up to the reader of this post to decide.

This would happen for *everything* that I wanted to just grab, and pull over to the blog. Livejournal comments, comments from other people’s blogs, messageboard posts, Amazon reviews – whatever.

It’d be interesting to see how you could basically take a long conversation that occurs over multiple peoples’ blogs, and essentially concatenate them into a messageboard. The total RSS aggregate of all the people’s blogs you read would more or less turn into a messageboard that was customized by *your* input, and the various conversations you were having throughout the intarwebs.

I bet there’s already something that does this. And if there isn’t, there should be. It basically takes the moderation and administration (huge pains in the butt for public boards), and puts them into the end-user’s hands, in a very distributed fashion.