Category: Entertainment
THOR’S DAY RANT: It’s Effin BAD Science!
Written by Troglodad
Thursday, 12 August 2010 14:43
3 Comments

There's this new show on the G4 channel, and I'm going to have to go all Phil Plait on it's ass for a moment.

The show is called "It's Effin Science" and it's been advertised very widely on my satellite service provider, Dish Network. They try and give it a Mythbusters look, with "cool", "hip" sciencey nerds blowing things up, etc. My kids and I love Mythbusters, so I finally watched part of an episode the other Effin night.

Awful. So awful, in fact, I am compelled to warn people that watching this show will actually reduce your intelligence.

First off, one of the science nerds "built" spy glasses with a mini digital camera in them, recording to a mini SDCard. Oh, so cool…

And I can get one for under $50 at www.meritline.com. They've had these devices for several years now. www.thinkgeek.com carries them too…

Next up, a science nerd built a radio control car with a pan and tilt camera that wirelessly transmits to the base station. He used it to patrol a house to find the other science nerd, who was hiding under a bed. Wow. How exciting. Not exciting enough for me to go to Target and buy a pre-made car like this, though.

Oh, and when I say built, I'm not talking about an Adam Savage-like sequence where science nerds injure themselves welding or make clever jokes while scavenging parts. I mean they presented an item to the camera and claimed to have built it.

But the final Effin' straw for me came between segments, when they asked viewers what would kill you first in a vacuum: Cold, Radiation or explosive decompression? Their answer was explosive decompression. Yeah, maybe on Star Trek. Or Futurama.

What would actually kill you is your lungs rupturing- and this is assuming you jumped out the hatch, holding your breath. Human bodies WOULD NOT explode in a vacuum. Don't believe me?

The only redeeming thing that Effin' Science has going for it is that one of the nerds is Chad Zdenek, from G4′s Human Wrecking Balls. I don't like Chad, but seeing him reminds me of the awesomeness of Human Wrecking Balls. Good memories there.

My final spin on Effin Science?

Effin avoid it.

 
Sorry, but I AM better than you…
Written by Troglodad
Friday, 09 July 2010 08:57
1 Comment

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,"-Declaration of Independance, Contental Congress, July 4, 1776

" The legs of the lame are not equal: so is a parable in the mouth of fools." -Proverbs 26:7

So which is it? Are we all equals, or aren't we?

On the one hand, the United States was founded on the principle that all men were created equal. On the other, God tells us that some are not equal to others. So which is it?

I say we aren't equal- and that it isn't a bad thing. I say that I am in fact better than a crackhead or a murderer or a rapist serving time in prison. After all, I'm not in prison, I haven't done drugs, murdered or raped anyone. At the other end of the spectrum, I'm better at reaching for things off the top of the refrigerator than my wife, or anyone under 6 feet tall. Simply because I'm taller.

Better is a fact of life, yet people seem to get really upset about it.

I was watching Ghost Hunters Academy this week, and I was quite heartened by contestant Eric Baldino's remarks after he lost the contest to contest Adam Berry. He wasn't upset at all. He thought that Adam did a better job, and he (Eric) knew he had done the best he could. That's sportsmanship. That's something we should be teaching our children.

Instead, my kid often comes home from school telling me about being taught that no one is better than anyone else. The liberals like to proclaim that as well, handing out our tax money to deadbeats that won't even try to get a job. They refuse to accept the fact that people can be better than others. They stigamtize "better".

There's nothing wrong with someone being better than you. What's important is that you try your best. Like Mr. Baldino.

I'm better at getting things off tall shelves than my wife. And given her gun-phobia, I'm a better marksman than her. I'm also better at eating steak. But she has a better singing voice than me. And she surely dances better than me (not that I ever dance). The point is, why do so many people feel compelled to bring down the accomplishments of others? Why is it such a big deal that someone is better than you?

As parents, we should want our kids to be better than us. I'm thrilled when my daughter does better than me at a video game. Or that she's a better artist than me. I take pride in her accomplishment, despite the fact I have absolutely nothing to with it- it's something she has done entirely on her own.

Fanatics enjoy the abilities of professional atheletes, who are of course better than they are at playing sports. Politicians always like to throw around that they are better than their opponents. So why do we teach children that they are equals? Why do we try and convince men and women they are equal?

God (not Darwin) created us all equal, but he also gave us different gifts, and we make different choices that make us better than others in some respects.

While I know I'm overall a better person than a murderer serving time, I have very little doubt that there isn't something they're better at than me- like maybe playing basketball, lifting weights or fashioning weapons out of toothbrushes. But like Mr. Baldino, I should be a good sport- whether I'm better, or my opponent is. Better is a fact of life. We should all take pride in accomplishment- whether it's ours, or someone else's.

So kudos to you Mr. Baldino, for being a good "loser". And kudos to Adam Berry for being a gracious winner and not rubbing it in anyone's face. Unlike so many reality shows, Ghost Hunters Academy has set a positive example many of us would do well to investigate.

 
HOW MICROSOFT RUINED MY FATHER’S DAY WEEKEND
Written by Troglodad
Sunday, 21 June 2009 03:01
1 Comment

I’m not a lucky guy. It’s a fact I have come to grudgingly accept. I like to console myself by thinking that statistically speaking, there have to be people like me, with a constant run of minor, annoying bad luck, just like there have to be people with constant good luck.

Take for example, my Xbox 360. No, really. Take it. I can’t use it anymore. It doesn’t work.

That has me quite mad.

I got my Xbox in March 2007. In 2006, I had lucked into a gig writing freelance articles for a local newspaper. Opinion pieces- like I do here. The best part was I was getting paid for these articles. And, being the good dad that I am, I thought that this extra money would be great to spend on my kids.

Seven articles later, the paper folded. Now for me, this wasn’t that big a deal. I had a regular day job. It could have been worse- I could have been one of those folks that lost their primary means of income. But my luck doesn’t work like that.

Anyways, I had $250 burning a hole in my pocket. And my oldest wanted an Xbox 360- having been sold by all Microsoft’s effective advertising. So, I decided what the heck, and spent my writing money, plus a little of my regular check and got us an Xbox.

It was great fun.

In fact, not only did my daughter enjoy playing her games, I soon became hooked myself. No more sitting at my PC, gaming in an uncomfortable posture, hunched over a desk. Nope, now I was able to recline in luxurious comfort on the couch. Better still, I discovered that with an Xbox I was able to virtually hang out with my friends, without having to leave home. XboxLive, Microsoft’s online gaming service, allows users miles apart to connect via headset and play games together.

In no time, several of my friends and I had formed a little group of gaming dads. We could stay up late, talking trash and enjoying games, but still be home to help change diapers, give baths or any of the other many duties required of dads.

Moreover, I found that gaming was a great stress relief from work. Have a bad day? Crank up the Xbox and play a nice First Person Shooter game. What could be more therapeutic than shooting digital terrorists, or rampaging e-zombies?

However, in the midst of all this electronic fun, I learned that Xbox has a little problem. The Red Ring of Death. This is the gamers’ term for a condition caused by a manufacturing defect rampant in about 1/3 of all Xboxes. A defect that causes your Xbox to overheat and not work anymore.

At first, I was fully expecting to get the RRoD. My luck is always getting me defective electronics when I purchase them. I am repeatedly having to take things back and get them replaced. Very annoying.

However, Microsoft, seeing their market drying up, offered an impressive 3 year extended warranty, free, for the RRoD. Xbox overheats (for the RRoD) just send it in a get it replaced, free of charge. They even mailed you a box and covered the shipping price. Awesome.

For several of my friends, who had purchases the first Xbox 360s out, this worked out really well. Their Xboxes died and they got newer, improved Xboxes. See, Microsoft is always improving the Xbox; adding more memory, putting in cooler-running chips, and even adding an HDMI output.

Once I learned that my pals were getting better Xboxes than they started with, I knew I would never get the RRoD.

And I was right. My Xbox has chugged along, used maybe 20 hours a week, for two and a half years. It’s become my primary hobby. My wife and kids get me games and even extra accessories- like a wireless controller- when shopping for gifts. And this was to be my third Father’s Day weekend, where all I wanted to do was kick back on the couch and enjoy some air conditioned video gaming. I even got a new game, solely for this weekend.

Then my Xbox died last night.

No, it wasn’t the RRoD. That would be too easy. Nope, the graphics chip(s) have died. I get sound, and a super-distorted picture. Something that isn’t covered by the extended warranty.

If I currently had an extra $99, I suppose I could send this sucker off and have it “repaired”; which really means I’d get a refurbished console that someone else sent in with a RRoD. Meaning my “new” console would crap out within a few months and I’d have to send it back. This vicious cycle of exchanging Xboxes can go on for months. One of my friends had to send his back four times before he got a winner.

Yeah, I could send my Xbox off, and wait 4 to 6 weeks for a refurbished return. But what about this weekend? What about my new game- my self-picked Father’s Day present?

Nope, no gaming for me. I get to look at all my games, neatly shelved with my DVDs, and my controllers and extra accessories. I get to listen to my kids pout that the Xbox is down. My friend’s kid suggested that I just go out and buy a new one. If only the world worked like that. At 12, he just doesn’t grasp budgets. We live by a budget. And we’ve been saving our money to buy a pool for the kids for this summer- a small one yes, but big enough that you have to save for it.

I suppose I could be selfish, and tell the kids they aren’t getting their pool. But that wouldn’t be me.

And really, why should I even be in this situation? You’d think that a device meant to be played for hours on end, that Microsoft claims has a “10 year life expectancy” would last longer than 2 ½ years.

I guess in the end, this has taught me a valuable lesson- never recommend ANY Microsoft product.