buttonmashing

Mashing buttons since 1984

Asides

Gamerzines

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I got an email recently about Gamerzines, “next generation magazines for next-gen gamers.” Looked like something I might like, so I took a look at the 360 Gamerzine and was very impressed. I liked how they use Acrobat for a full-screen layout of their mag. It’s extremely well produced with great content. They’ve also got people writing for them that I’ve enjoyed in the past. The embedded videos were a nice touch.

After reading through the e-magazine, I wondered, “Why not just do this as a website instead of a PDF?” The tools to create them should be roughly the same, so why this format? They answer in their About Us page:

People love magazines; we love magazines. We wanted to produce something different to what is already on offer online, something that more closely resembles the experience of a printed magazine, together with the multimedia benefits of emedia.

While I’ve never seen videos in my print magazines, I was very impressed with Gamerzines. Check them out and decide for yourself.

Light posting week

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I’ll be out of town the rest of this week, so there won’t be a lot of posting going on until I return. In the meantime, the Carnival is still on track for tomorrow, so make sure you’ve submitted your entry or get it in ASAP!

Once I get back, I should have spent the better part of a week with a pile of half-played DS games, so I should finally get around to a more in-depth discussion about games like Age of Empires, Contact, Elite Beat Agents and others. I’m even thinking of resurrecting my Animal Crossing town, after the horrible demise my last town met.

So to recap: Make sure you check out the Carnival of Gamers at Jason’s place tomorrow, get some serious gaming in over the weekend and we’ll discuss more next week.

Site Updates

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We’re currently experiencing some issues here while I try to upgrade to WordPress 2.1. I did something that has broken something, somewhere. I’ve made a bunch of changes to things all at once, which was probably a huge mistake, but I’ll be messing with the site for a bit. It will probably look screwy for a bit, but please bear with us.

Update: Yup, I broke something. I was reactivating my plugins after a successful upgrade to 2.1, then something got borked when I tried to activate, then deactivate the Widgets plug-in. The fit hit the shan and somehow everything got hosed. I rolledback to 2.0.3 and restored my backup (always back up, kids!) but I’m still seeing things I don’t like. Hopefully I’ll figure out how to fix my screw ups. Again, your patience is appreciated!

I’m going back under the hood. Wish me luck.

Update 2: Well, it looks like I’ve managed to at least get almost everything back to normal. The only problem I’m having is that my static pages, like the Carnival HQ page, was not restored from my backup. Not sure if that’s normal or not, but the data for each individual page is still in the database, it’s just sitting there, not populating the pages on the site. It’s not a show-stopper, as I can just copy and paste them into new pages, but it’s still a hassle. I spent a bunch of time writing a whole new “About Me” page right before the update and now it’s gone. Gone, I tell ya! Nevertheless, it’s late, so I’m going to restore the pages and my sidebar modules real fast and then head to bed.

Update 3: Okay, I think I’ve got everything fixed and back to normal. What a pain! Anyway, I actually had some real site updates before I decided to upgrade to WP 2.1, so let me tell you about those.

First off, I joined the site “MyBlogLog” which is hard to explain exactly what it is, but I liked the little sidebar thingy that will show when other members of MyBlogLog visit my site. It also provides some rudimentary site statistics, but nothing fancy. Anyway, if you’re a MyBlogLog member, you already know all this. If you’re not a member, but you have a blog or are just intersted in checking it out, here’s the “community page” for buttonmashing.com. Feel free to join.

I also, finally, updated my “About” page to actually have some content in there. I figured that after two-and-a-half years of running the site I probably should have a real About page. So there it is. Check it out!

The unboxing of the Samsung

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I’ve finally uploaded pictures of the unboxing of my new 50″ Samsung DLP HDTV. (For those interested, here’s a link to my TV on Samsung’s website) In all honesty, my pictures don’t really do justice to this TV. It is, quite simply, a beautiful thing that can not be captured by a camera and distilled into bits and bytes. It needs to be experienced. But since I can’t have you all over, pictures will have to do.

The moment has arrived

Hit the jump for the rest of the pictures:
[Read more…] about The unboxing of the Samsung

No January Carnival

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I know this is no way to start off the new year, but with my busy holiday schedule, I never lined up a January host. So the Carnival will be taking a break this month. If you’ve previously volunteered to host a carnival, I’ll be contacting with you shortly. If you’re interested in hosting a carnival, drop me a line. You can use the Contact page to do so.

Keep an eye on the Carnival HQ page for updated information.

You don’t know me!

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I love blog-memes, even though they’re almost universally hated. I’ve been tagged by Michael with one, asking for “Five Things” you probably don’t know about me. This was actually harder than it would seem. I’m a pretty reserved guy and don’t really talk much about myself. Anyway, on with the self-deprecation:

1. I cried during Schindler’s List. I can count the number of times I’ve cried in the past 15 years on one hand. I’m not a very emotional guy, especially about something like a movie, but Schindler’s List struck me to the core. I was 18 at the time and it really moved me.

2. I still collect baseball (and football and basketball) cards. I used to collect cards as a kid and I never really stopped. I have thousands of them. I’m not as dedicated as I used to be, but any time I’m at the grocery store and there’s a box of cards in the rack of my aisle, I’ll grab a couple packs and throw them in the cart.

3. I’m a huge Erasure fan. I like all sorts of music, but there’s something about synthesized Euro-pop that does it for me. My wife calls it “girlie music.” So be it. “Chains of Love” is secretly one of my favorite songs.

4. I once ate 28 cups of yogurt in less than an hour. When I was living in Spain, we had contest we called “the Yogurt Challenge.” You had to eat 24 cups of yogurt in 45 minutes without, uhm, visiting the bathroom, for another 15. I did all 24 of my yogurts, plus 4 that my buddy couldn’t finish. I held it down, too. I couldn’t eat yogurt for months, but I had the Yogurt Challenge record. Kobayashi has nothing on me!

5. I’m afraid of needles. Yep, I’m the big tough guy who is afraid of an itty-bitty prick. I hate getting shots and hate having my blood drawn even more. Thing is, I have to watch it go in. I can’t help myself. I can’t look away. I have to see it happen even though I’m dreading it the whole time. I can’t take it.

So that’s a little about me. That was actually a lot of fun. And now the best part, I get to tag a few people. I’m tagging the Monkey, Nat, Josh and Brinstar. You know, if you guys don’t hate blog memes and stuff.

Kicked in the junk

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Not like this:

Like this:

My new Samsung has arrived!!

How is getting a new TV like getting kicked in the junk? When it shows up mere hours before you’re getting ready to head home for the holidays. And you were planning on being gone for eight days.

Crap! Looks like I’ll be cutting our visit a few hours short next Saturday so I can get home in time to pick up my new TV stand. I’m thinking about picking this one up.

More pictures to follow. Like most everyone else, I’ll be pretty busy with the holidays, but I’m hoping to find some time to get a little blogging in. Nevertheless, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Holidays.

Christmas wishes (for me)

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It’s that time of year again — my yearly plea to the Jolly Ol’ Elf. My Holiday Wish List. I actually don’t want a lot this year, just a few more games to play on my 360 and DS. There are a bunch of DS games I wouldn’t mind playing, I just don’t think I have time to get to more than a couple. So here’s what I’m hoping I find under the tree next week:

Viva PinataElite Beat Agents Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
Viva Pinata – This game has always intrigued me. The premise sounds like fun and it would definitely give me something to satisfy the obsessive-compulsive part of my brain. I am a huge fan of Animal Crossing, and while I know that this isn’t exactly Animal Crossing, it has some similarities. The biggest similarity being that it’s a game I could play with the kids around. I’m usually waiting for them to head to bed before I can fire up Dead Rising, so it’d be nice to play something that they’d like and I’d enjoy. The bright colors and beautiful scenery would definitely hold their attention.

Tiger Woods 2007 – It’s been a long time since I’ve played more than a few minutes of a golf game and I was quite impressed with the TW2007 demo, so I’m ready to give this the full game treatment. Since I won’t be getting a Wii anytime soon, Tiger Woods should fill the hole in my gaming library that was set aside for Wii Sports.

Elite Beat Agents – If you’ve been reading this site over the past couple of months, it will come as no surprise that I love Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, the Japanese rythm game on the DS. I have spent a ton of time tapping little targets to such awesome songs as Guts Da Ze!! and Kokoro Odoru and have enjoyed every minute of it. The thought of playing an “American” version of it, complete with stories I can actually follow, makes me very excited.

A nice Surround Sound System – Now that I’ve got a big TV on the way, I need a sound system to compliment it. I’d love to get my hands on my dad’s old Bose system, but that may not happen. So I’d be happy with any decent surround sound system. Any suggestions?

So that’s my spartan list. Not very huge, but hey, I’m easy to please. What’s on your wish list?

What’s in a name?

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I decided to boot up Guild Wars last night to take a look around, see what had changed in the months since I last played. After downloading a metric ton of updates, I finally made it to the character screen, where Vigor Mortis was waiting to head back into the fray. I paused for a moment, proud of my clever name. “Vigor Mortis” is my necromancer. Necromancers deal with death, corpses and the reanimation of said corpses. Rigor mortis is when a dead body becomes stiff, due to chemical reactions in the muscles. Vigor, on the otherhand, evokes thoughts of strength and well being. The melding of the two, Vigor Mortis, is a sly play on words that I am quite fond of. I am evoking the black arts to give the dead “new life.” Vigor, if you will.

It got me thinking, what’s in a name? More specifically, why do we use the nicknames we use? As I was thinking of a name for my first ship in EVE, I blogged that the hardest part of playing a video game (particularly an MMORPG) is coming up with a character name. It has to be catchy, clever, and something that won’t embarass you. I eventually settled on the name “Broken Butterfly” for my ship. Again, I was proud of yet another clever name. The Broken Butterfly is my favorite weapon from Resident Evil 4, the .45 revolver that packed quite a wallop. Yet the butterfly is a nimble creature. So my ship, nimble yet potent, was aptly named.

I’ve been thinking lately of other names (handles) I’ve used. Back in my BBS days, I went by the handle “The Hitman.” A kid I played football with was already nicknamed “The Hitman” on the team, so I was “The Hitman” in cyber-space. Whenever I played BBS doors (the equivalent of an online text-based game) like Barren Realms Elite or Trade Wars 2002, I used titles from Metallica songs (I was going through a huge Metallica phase). My kingdoms in BRE were always called “Dyers Eve” and my guy in TW2002 was called the Phantom Lord and his ships were always “Ride the Lightning.”

Later, when I started running around with guys on the MSN Gaming Zone, playing Age of Empires, I was going by the moniker of “Tonester”. My buddy Bob was “Bobster_0” so why not go with the theme? Later, at his cousin’s house, during a round of AoE LAN gaming, I saw his cousin’s name — “I aint yer Pa”. I inquired of the origin of the name (it’s from a Clint Eastwood movie) and I really liked it. For a long time, I was “I aint yer Pa” in most of my games. My whole Diablo 2 phase was a string of “I aint yer…” names. My sorceress was “I aint yer Granny.” My Amazon, “I aint yer Sis” and of course my Whirlwinding Barbarian, “I aint yer Pa.”

I guess I was in a naming funk for a while. Funny thing is, after a couple of years, I went back to I aint yer Pa for my Xbox Live account name and have been happy with it ever since. It’s original (even if I wasn’t the originator), it is memorable, and it always evokes a laugh. You may not remember playing a round of Halo 2 with M4st3r_Ch1eF but you’ll remember the dude named “I aint yer Pa”.

I’d like to hear about the names you guys are fond of. What are some of the stories behind names you’ve used? I’m sure some aren’t as thoughtful as others but I know there’s some good ones out there. I’ve been on Xbox Live long enough to see a hundred different people work “420” into their name, so I know originality isn’t something that’s really common or respected in the online gaming community, but I know a lot of people are thoughtful and have thoughtful character names.

I’d love to hear some of the stories behind them.