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I just bought Need for Speed: Shift for PC. Or should I say Need for Speed: Shit? No, I shouldn’t. Cause while it has loads of problems, it has some very cool features. It’s quickly become the game I love to hate.

The ugly:

• You cannot exit the test lap. That wouldn’t be so bad, except this is generally when you get your controllers set up. Be nice to be able to make changes.
• Speaking of making changes, almost every graphics settings requires a restart, and some common modes aren’t available (e.g. 1366×768). This game is from 2009. Civilization 4 could enumerate modes and change resolution without restarting, and that is from 2005. Also, switching from my large screen to my laptop screen, which requires a lower resolution, CRASHES the program on startup.

The good:

• Drivers have levels, much like in an RPG.
• The distinction between aggression and precision is a major theme. There are elements of Burnout-type games in here.
• The visible racing line that turns yellow or red if you are going too fast for an upcoming corner is a great learning tool.

Elvis Stojko said that without risk, figure skating is not a sport. I appreciate that definition, but my definition of a sport is a bit more rigorous.

In my strange little world, I define a sport as a physical activity in which there are two or more participants, and play exhibits interaction between the opponents. The activity must also require considerable athleticism. A sport cannot be judged.

Some sports that fit this definition are:

• hockey
• basketball
• rugby
• water polo
• tennis
• baseball
• football
• tug-of-war

Non-judged activities that require athleticism but do not exhibit interaction:

• luge
• downhill skiing

Non-judged activities that exhibit interaction but do not require high levels of athleticism

• auto racing
• curling
• croquet

Non-judged physical activities that require modest athleticism and do not exhibit interaction:

• golf
• archery
• skeet shooting

Judged activities that require athleticism and exhibit interaction:

• judo
• boxing

Then there are judged activities that require athleticism but do not exhibit interaction:

• figure skating
• gymnastics

And finally, judged activities that do not require significant athleticism and do not exhibit interaction:

• equestrian show jumping

You could argue that some of these should be re-categorized. Curling takes considerable balance, and how many times do you see big fat guys playing baseball?

An astute reader would notice I missed a category: judged activities that exhibit interaction and do not require much athleticism. The best I can come up with is fencing, but it doesn’t fully fit that category.

I can no longer listen to a song unless it gets scrobbled to my last.fm profile. I’ve been addicted since March 2006, and I’m closing on the 50,000 plays mark. Scrobbling the iPod has been challenging. It works in concert with iTunes, sorta. But lately it has been more and more flaky and therefore more and more hands-on. I’ve had to manually re-play songs with mute turned on so they get scrobbled properly. Not fun.

I switched to a complete manual process for scrobbling the iPod, which meant that I had to: clear play counts in iTunes, plug in the iPod, sort my library by play count, create a playlist with songs from the synced play list and play it overnight on mute.

Right.

Fortunately I found a solution: ShareTunes for the iPod. It is a music player that scrobbles. You can use it alone, although its music-picking tools are weak, or you can fire up your regular music player, set it going, then switch to ShareTunes so songs get scrobbled. The current version has few options, but it is still a young app. It will improve. I hope. Best 99 cents I ever spent.

Here are some more informations: http://www.sweetinsanity.org/sharetunes/

Yesterday, I disconnected my Commodore 64. It is now sitting in pieces on the floor of my ‘office’, and I don’t think I’m even going to try to eBay any of it. It’s bound for the garbage. I am also tossing my Super Nintendo, although if my sister doesn’t take it, it will go on eBay, since it is probably worth more and is cheaper to ship. The C64 was taking up too much space for something I hardly used. I’ll be taking a closer look at the emulator world. (I’m keeping a handful of my favourite games for posterity.)

The C64 was a great little machine for its time, and I will miss it, but I’ve long outgrown it. Maybe next week I’ll throw out my collection of Garbage Pail Kids stickers.

Excuse me while I remove this massive chunk of onion that got lodged in my tear duct.

I have never read a self-published book before. There are so many out there, and with the lack of editorial vetting, you don’t know what you’re going to get.

But this one is a good one. It’s called Mercury Falls by Rob Kroese. If you liked The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy at all, you’ll notice it’s written in a similar style, but about angels and demons. It’s very well written and very funny. I picked up the cheap Kindle version first, and then bought a paper copy.

You can tell how well off someone is by their answer to this question: “where does your clothes go when you’re not wearing it?”

The Super Rich: “I have no idea. My butler takes care of that.”

The Rich: “In the gold-plated oak wardrobe, of course.”

The Middle-Class: “In the dresser/bureau.”

The Poor: “In the Ritz crackers crate.”

The Super-Poor: “I’m never not wearing all my clothes.”

Happiness is not static. And it is not related to where you are in life, what you have, or who you know. You can call that something else. ‘Success’ maybe.

Happiness is directional, and trends. People tend to be happier when they perceive things to be going in the right direction in their life, and unhappy when things are going against them.

Take for example, this guy. Tell me he’s not the happiest dude on the planet right now. Yet he has virtually nothing. No career, no family, few possessions I expect. But things are definitely looking up!

And now consider a hypothetical situation. Let’s say Bill Gates lost his fortune and was left with a net worth of a million bucks (and a negative or zero cash flow). He’d be pretty upset, yet he would still have a whole hell of a lot more than me, and probably you too if you’re reading my blog. (I don’t have many millionaire fans.)

This could make an interesting topic for a novel.

I’ve never done a top 10 list of songs for a whole decade, but here’s the first one. I look forward to doing another in 10 years’ time, and to seeing how these tunes hold up. They are picked from the top-3 singles for each year since 2000.

10. The Ting Tings -That’s Not My Name (2008)

This is a catchy tune from just last year - a cute little pop song.

9. The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist (2002)

Is Dexter ill today? This weird, weird, weird song with endless samples comes together perfectly.

8. Sinead O’Connor - Jealous (2000)

I’m not a big Sinead fan, but every now and again she makes a great song. This is easily my fave of hers.

7. Rilo Kiley - Portions For Foxes (2005)

I have no idea what this song is about but I think it’s about how we’re all just going to be eaten eventually by wild animals.

6. Delerium with Matthew Sweet - Daylight (2001)

I have not heard a more perfectly constructed pop song.

5. Joss Stone - Super Duper Love (Are You Diggin’ One Me?) Pt. 1 (2004)

I only recently discovered that this song is a cover. Still good though.

4. Ida Maria - I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked (2009)

This is the only Norwegian hit on my list, probably ever.

3. Metric - Help I’m Alive (2009)

I love the double drum beat in this song.

2. Weezer - Hash Pipe (2001)

Mmm mmm drugs!

1. Brandi Carlile - The Story (2008)

I wish her new album was half as good as the one this song came from.

Here they are! Songs of the year:

5. K’Naan - I Come Prepared
4. Tegan & Sara - Hell
3. Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson - Relator
2. Ida Maria - I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked
1. Metric - Help I’m Alive

Last.fm keeps track of my most-listened-to artists, but when a musician plays or sings with multiple acts, that data isn’t tracked. Here is what I put together based on my last.fm data:

Top 15 Musicians (since March 2006) including number of plays

1. Tegan & Sara - 1180
2. Corin Tucker (Sleater Kinney, Cadallaca) - 1012
3. Pete Yorn (Scarlett Johansson) - 778
4. Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley) - 723
5. Snow Patrol - 720
6. John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers) - 656
7. Juliana Hatfield (Juliana Hatfield Trio, Blake Babies) - 655
8. Pixies - 653
9. Brandi Carlile - 623
10. Matthew Sweet (Susanna Hoffs) - 590
11. Susanna Hoffs (Matthew Sweet, The Bangles) - 571
12. Queensryche - 542
13. Black Keys - 512
14. Weird Al Yankovic - 485
15. Electric Six - 462