Ch-ch-ch-changes

Turn and face the strange changes suckers! Actually, there may not be any changes, but there may be major changes. I’m being forced from my currently free hosting plan into a paid (albeit very inexpensive) plan with the same provider. I’ll actually have loads more storage and bandwidth available, both of which will probably never be fully utilized due to the underwhelming nature of this blog.

My question to you, faithful reader, is should I take this opportunity to rename the site? I’ve been toying with the idea for a while as I’ve never truly been satisfied with “artificallyimportant.” I could just let sleeping dogs lie, but I’ve got another domain available to me with the purchase of this new hosting plan. I’m also planning on switching the blog over to WordPress soon which would result in a slight redesign of the site. I couldn’t think of a better time to rebrand than now. What do you kids think? Any objections? Any inspired ideas for the new site address?

Also, let’s here it for cheese! Am I right?!

I’d love to hear from anyone and everyone, and that includes the (supposedly) hundreds of viewers that visit here daily and never comment. Who are you mysterious interlopers anyway?

Twilight Princess made me do it!

The productive pace around the Coker residence has slowed to a crawl lately with a new game system in the house (or hiz-ouse if you like). Much to my dismay/delight Zelda has been eating every spare moment I’ve had in the last week. As almost every review on the web and in print states, the game is a masterpiece. I can’t be much more than a quarter of the way through and it’s already the best thing I’ve played in recent memory.

The game play is classic Zelda fare but with many new elements added, so it feels like another logical step forward for the franchise. I’m never disappointed with a Zelda console title, but this one is stellar even among other Zelda games. The story, environments, character design, music, it all comes together so seamlessly that it’s impossible to avoid getting wrapped up in this world. I’m already a little bit sad with the thought of finishing the game, but luckily for me, that probably won’t happen for quite some time.

So please excuse my lack of bloggyness in the coming weeks. I’m trying to cram as much selfishness as I can into the days preceding our son’s birth. As soon as “Branden Lite” arrives I’ll have to put down the shiny white remote for a bit. I promise to not to forget you guys in the interim.

- Geek Squad

Wii were freezing

So, not only did I decide (or re-decide) to get a Wii at launch, but I decided to totally geek out and actually camp over night at Target to get my hands on the console. Mark was up for the adventure too, so luckily I had someone to share the experience with. The short version of the story is that the camping sucked and the system rocks. I slept on the sidewalk in a sleeping bag in 30 degree weather, and somehow I was still able to smile when I opened that box the next morning. In fact I’ve been smiling ever since, and that pretty much sums up why I love Nintendo.

PS3 continues to bring out the best in humanity!

Looks like Sony is getting some horrible press with their latest system launch. Of course I’m told that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, so perhaps this will work in their favor. Then again, I’m not sure how it can work in their favor if they don’t actually have any systems to sell. Among my favorites:

• Best Buy smash and grab (although the victim didn’t even have a PS3)
• Crowds rush Best Buy in River Park, CA nearly resulting in a riot
• Armed gunmen rob GameStop of their PS3 stock
• Nine months pregnant, woman ignores contractions for a chance to nab PS3
• Stampedes, shootings, fights, muggings, robberies the PS3’s got it all!

Heck, just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, turns out convicted rapists are lurking in the PS3 lines!

Meanwhile, even mainstream media is starting to see the PS3 for the overpriced, over-hyped, grill-sized door stop that it really is. Headlines like “Sony’s Playstation 3 is Not Worth the Hype,” and “PlayStation 3 can’t hide its flaws” are becoming more and more common. Will the Sony hype machine be able to spin all this press into something positive to carry them through the holiday season? Will they even have units to ship to take advantage of said spin? Will the market continue to bear $1000-$3000 mark-ups on eBay? Me thinks yes, no and yes, but somehow Sony fans will emerge on the other side still thinking that they did the right thing.

Guldhen Boods: Malaysian Style

This guy wins everything as far as I’m concerned.

Nightmare tyme!

Get your amazed on.

Happy birthday Miyamoto-san!

Today is Shigeru Miyamoto’s 55th birthday. If you don’t know who Miyamoto is, then you probably don’t love video games. He’s the enigmatic creator of the Donkey Kong, Mario, and Zelda franchises (among others). Whether you’re a Nintendo fanboy, detractor, or just fall somewhere in between, you have to admit that Miyamoto is one of the most talented and successful game designers ever. If you’ve ever played a video game, chances are you’ve played one that owes at least something in part to this guy. So happy birthday Shiggy!

PS3=$9000?

You gotta be kidding me. Any hope that I had left for humanity just flew out the window when I saw this. 9,000 bones for a PS3? Why am I not in line for this thing right now?! Oh, I remember why; Best Buy told me not to.

People still use Internet Explorer?

I took the time today to look over my web stats for this blog (something I rarely do), and I noticed an alarming statistic regarding my readers. Well, it’s really only alarming in relation to all of the tangential information I throw up here on a weekly basis, but still, “alarming” sounded more exciting.

I noticed that a good chunk of you (about 15%) are still using Internet Explorer for your browser. Presumably you have some logical reason for doing this, but I’ve been unable to come up with any logical reason why anyone would still choose this browser over Firefox. With the recently released version 2, there are even more reasons to switch over.

There are plenty of sites out there that extol the virtues of Firefox, so I’ll leave that to them, but here are a few of my reasons for choosing it over IE:

Open source
Open source software is just better for everyone involved. More eyes on the code make for a much more stable and extensible application.

Tabbed Browsing
Yeah, IE 7 finally has it, but it took how many years for Microsoft to see that users need this feature. A browser without tabs is like a sandwich without miracle whip (unless you don’t like Miracle Whip, in which case you should substitute your favorite condiment)

Standards compliant
If you’ve ever tried to get a web page to look good on every browser for every platform, then you know how badly Microsoft screwed the pooch on this one.

Modern Downloads manager
And by modern, I mean you can do more than just cancel a download. I can just hear Gob Bluth now, c’mon!

Etcetera
Security is leaps and bounds above IE, thousands of free, useful plugins for extending functionality, better pop-up blocking, speed and responsiveness, the list goes on and on.

I’m not just picking on Windows users here either. Most Mac users never make it out of Safari country. Safari is a decent browser and I gave it every chance to win me over, but I eventually dumped it from my home machines in favor of Firefox, and I haven’t looked back since.

Alright, I’m done geeking out now. I promise to get back to more useless information in my next post.

- Branden “Hot Tub” Coker

Goodbye Tokyo

I finally completed the last photoset of my photos from Tokyo. These are from day six which was our last full day. Most of the photos were taken at the Meiji-Jingu shrine near Harajuku. The shrine is the largest in Tokyo and sits in the middle of 175 acres of forest near the heart of the city. It’s really a surreal feeling to walk into a forest in the middle of a modern metropolis.

Tak also treated us to sushi later that evening back in Shinjuku. The day was truly bittersweet. We saw some of of the most beautiful sights that day, but we carried the burden of knowing that our time there was ending.