Friday, December 30, 2011

Tag! You’re it!

 

Tag, you’re it! Here are the rules: Each tagged person must post ten things about themselves. You have to choose and tag ten people. Go to their blogs and tell them you tagged them. No tag backs.

1) I don’t have any tattoos.  I’d love one, but I can’t decide what I’d want to keep forever.
2) TRON (original 1982) defined my love of computers and my career with them.
3) My alter-ego online is a female avatar named Roenik.
4) My favourite colour is sky blue.
5) I love video games and video game culture.
6) I’ve mapped out my family tree up to 1588.
7) I still don’t own a cell phone.
8) I have mild social anxiety, yet I teach adults for a living, hah!
9) For some unknown reason, libraries and bookstores make me gassy.
10) I’ve never been drunk in my life.  Ever.  First of all I don’t drink and can’t stand beer.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Movember support!

 

Showing my support in Second Life!

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My workplace is participating too, check them out Smile

Friday, November 18, 2011

10 years


November 15, 2001.
Walking out of the Compucentre store at St-Laurent shopping mall, a shiny day one XBOX under my arm, the other holding a bag with extra controllers, with copies of HALO and Fuzion Frenzy.  $800 less in my account.  Whew.
xbox
After hooking it up and booting it we got right into the games.  First few minutes of Halo actually had me going “meh” another FPS.  It was only until the Silent Cartographer that the depth of the game materialized to me.
dash1
My daughter and I played Fuzion Frenzy together.  A lot.  She loved it, and I loved the time we spent together with it.
My stack of Official XBOX Magazine kept getting higher every month, with demos and videos showing off the power of this box.
A year later I’m beta testing XBOX Live.  I had played online before over modems (Ultima Online, for one) but never over broadband and with voice.  Playing MotoGP with 5 or so other people and hearing them all scream and laugh as we all faceplant at the first turn was pure gold.  I was sold.
My cousins and I starting meeting online regularly for sessions of Hockey or Halo 2.  One of them was in posted in Belgium and we could catch up every weekend with voice while playing.  Good times.
Ten years later I’m now beta testing the 360’s upcoming dashboard update.  It will be way more social, way more interactive.  I look forward to what the next ten years will bring.

Thanks to the XBOX team for sticking with it, when the world and the odds were against you early on.  It’s a great service.  I use it every day.

Monday, November 14, 2011

With time…

There are things you only realize with time, as experience, age, change of pace and a different point of view settle in your life.

Presently at 40, I am (finally) learning about myself again.  At a younger age, my energies were often spent trying to "fit in”, even though most of my free time was spent in a basement with a Commodore 64 until university/college.  This desire to fit in, these energies spent worrying about whether or not I will “make it” are now spent enjoying the things I now realize I enjoy and don’t have to apologize for it.
I enjoy the music I enjoy, I like the things I like.  That’s who I am.  I don’t need to pretend to like something to fit in or to get someone’s attention.  Some figure this out early on, some later.  I’m slow, so here I am.  There’s a feeling of “settling in your comfortable shoes” and relaxing while living.

Has the shadow finally passed?

I’m looking forward to my 40s.
Snapshot_095

-Roe

Friday, September 30, 2011

I was there back in 1997, loading up my shiny beta disk for this thing called UO...Ultima Online.  A new concept for a graphical game where players from all over the world could play together at the same time, see each other, fight each other, trade in virtual items, etc.

The entire world was going to be dynamic.  If people killed too many sheep, the dragons would then come to town and start eating people, etc.

My new v92 modem warmed up and it was my first step into a world that would change the direction of my life.  UO, then SWG, then Second Life, where I met my future wife (real life).

UO celebrates its 14th birthday this week. Hail to the King.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

New mouse from Microsoft Design

Check out Microsoft's new mouse.  I was jonesing for a new Arc mouse, but might try this one to see if it suits my work habits.  I'm the kind of user that has an inordinate amount of windows open at one time (Visual Studio, IE with 9 tabs on average, tweetdeck, mail, etc)

-Roe

Friday, June 24, 2011

A glimpse of the future of healthcare, MS style.

I love the proliferation of MS surfaces here.  And that digital wallet is kickass.

Ideas are coming to me a mile a minute :)

Monday, June 20, 2011

Picture fun

Go here and try putting a few good pictures of yourself, family, avatars or whatever strikes your fancy.

Here's a few of mine:


Saturday, June 18, 2011

Very cool app by Intel

Check out this app which aggregates your Facebook info and presents it as a museum walkthrough.
Impressive :)

Museum of Me

Monday, June 13, 2011

I could think of many other sites more deserving...

Bethesda is the next victim in this series of attacks.  Sony, Valve, many others.

Hey hackers, why not concert your prodigious efforts towards the Republican party?  Or the various nut jobs running religious groups?

Friday, June 10, 2011

Got Klout?

Want to know influential (or influenced) you are on the intertron?

Checkout klout, an aggregator for your online activities, tied in with Facebook, twitter, linked-in, and so on.

You'll be given a score on various attributes.


Peace!

Friday, March 4, 2011

How to eat a Family donut

Here's a breakdown on the technique to eat a Family donut:

Get yourself to a Malbeuf Xmas Family reunion.  Spot the goods:







Pick up one of the heavenly cakes, and slice it horizontaly across.  Very important.




Once sliced, carefuly pour the sweet sauce all over the pastry.




Close it, and NOM!

Pass it on, this tradition will remain alive through the ages.


Future of web games

3D games in your browser by 2013.

That is all.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Project Gotham Racing, 2D shooters, James Bond...hours of fun.

Goodbye Bizzare Creations (raises glass)  May all you guys/gals find satisfying jobs after today.



Farewell Bizarre…it’s been an absolute pleasure! from Eamon Urtone on Vimeo.