How to become a world champion (the easy way)
Conventional wisdom says that World Champions are men and women of grit. Words like “perseverance” and “determination” get bandied about. Newspaper articles talk about the long, lonely hours of training, the sacrifices made and the hideous cost paid to be the best in the world at your chosen field.
Rubbish. Sure, you can do that, but it doesn’t have to be that way. I became a World Champion yesterday, almost by accident.
Now for an ad break..
I’ve resisted putting advertising on this site.. so far. Not sure that I’d make a fortune (although if anyone I trust cares to educate me otherwise, I’m all ears). Advertising usually brings compromises with it, including the types of ads that will run.
Then via a Twitter discussion this morning, I was reminded of the type of ads I would happily run. Sadly, they don’t make them any more…
How hard can it be to write instructions for a headset?
Further adventures in very strange translations await…
Have I got a bargain for you….
Astonishingly, the cheapest and most expensive games I’ve ever owned — and I’ve owned a lot of games — both arrived at my home within the last week. For the record (only a few people will get this), I’ve paid my own money for both of them; they weren’t industry “freebies”. Such expense — and lack thereof — deserves a review, but this isn’t the kind of stuff I can particularly sell to my regular outlets. So, instead, I’ll pass the savings on to you, and review them right here!
First up, let’s start with the scraping the bottom of the barrel end of the equation, shall we?
Vintage tech and strange Italian stalkers
A weird week so far. On the one hand, I’ve extolled the beauty of 1980s technology in a new column for PC Authority:
Vintage tech: Looking back at the Commodore 64: “Just look at it. Is that not a thing of design beauty? Well, OK, no, not much.It’s brown and… brown. Or in some later revisions, more grey and… grey.”
And at the same time, a random vanity name search led me to discover the oddly named, somewhat gothic and slightly Italian fan group
I LOVE ALEX KIDMAN ♥
all in caps for the emphasis, naturally. Makes a lot of sense to me. I mean, who wouldn’t love Alex Kidman?
People who were emphatically wrong, that’s who.
Sadly, it’s not actually about me (unless I’m living a strange double life even I’m not aware of). It does mean that I now know even more folk called Alex Kidman, though.
Warning: Bad Music Joke Within…
Following the untimely death of Michael Jackson, brothers Tim and Neil Finn raced out to buy his 2CD greatest hits album, but they’ve only been able to listen to it once.
Apparently, HIStory never repeats.
(thangyew, I’ll be here all week. Try the salmon. Please don’t throw tinned tomatoes.)
Did you ever know that you’re my hero?
The strangest things happen to me. As we were pulled up at some traffic lights today, a prototypically heavy set biker dude pulled up beside us on a heavy black Harley Davidson.Big black jacket, that curious Harley-specific black helmet that looks like it’s fallen out of World War One, grizzled white beard. You know the look, or at least should be able to picture it by now.
So far, so normal.. except that the music blaring out as he did so was Bette Midler’s version of “Wind Beneath My Wings”. To be fair, it could have been blaring from the car behind him (do Harleys even have speakers? Would that be legal?), but as odd juxtapositions go, it was a beauty.
For those who want actual updates, about all I can entertain you with is the updated and tweaked version of my bio on my “About Me” page. One of these days I’ll get a headshot for that thing. And then the real stalking can begin…
Do you enjoy what you do? If not, just stop…
(people of a certain age, and I’m sure my brother, will appreciate that lyric. Some days, iTunes serves up some odd tunes is all I can say).
For those who want personal updates: I have more spinal movement today! Huzzah! Sure, I still walk like a zombie and groan like a ninety year old when I do move, but progress is being made.
For those who want professional updates: CNET.com.au published my latest review today:
D-Link DSM-210 10-inch Wireless Internet Photo Frame: “We had no idea Australia only had 10 cities in it, or for that matter that Brisbane was two of them.”
For those who just want something silly: I’m stunned somebody else (with thanks to the lovely Georgina) had to point this one out to me:
