Pirates everywhere!

The girls and I gave Andrea the Pirates’ Cove board game for Christmas, and it’s turned out to be great fun. In the first game, we teamed up to go up against the Flying Dutchman, with cannons that “heal” every firing volley, and we managed to sink her! Wren loves the Pirates of the Carribean movies, and she continued the theme on her birthday – everyone came dressed up as a pirate! We burned the edges of the invitations, the sign on the door (“Beware There Be Pirates!”), and everything else we could think of. We served rum (ok, it was really lemonade). I made a treasure map that had the girls running around the house, and included a Piratey Perplexor Puzzle (say that three times fast). And a couple days later, on the actual day of her birthday, she got another pirate board game, Dead Man’s Treasure, which is “easy to learn but difficult to master”, and the Pirates of the Carribean game for the Wii, so we could swashbuckle all day long – it uses a fun linear cinematic style of play. ARRRR!

Sam likes Rock Band 2 (but NOT Guitar Hero)

I’ve known my buddy Sam since high school, but haven’t seen him for years – he went to Cali to produce video games years ago. But now he’s moved to town! He’s working on “serious” games – currently one that help kids with cancer remember to take their medication. Cool stuff.

He’s downtown and drives out to RTP to work, I’m in suburbia and drive downtown to work, so we’re crossing paths. But we’re trying to get together on Wednesday evenings at his place. This week he bought a second guitar and we played a few hours of Rock Band 2, which was long enough to get the hang of the medium setting pretty well. The vocals on hard are easy, too. Sammy had bad dealings with Activision (he’s got lots of awesome gaming industry stories), so it’s Rock Band, not Guitar Hero, punk!

2008 Olympics US Women’s Soccer

U.S. Women’s soccer was my choice Olympic event. I watched every moment as the team went for the gold, it was fantastic all the way there. Solid teamwork, with some great individual performances too – and it was hard work the whole way! The final game was full of incredible saves from US goalkeeper Hope Solo, as Brazil’s star striker Marta came on strong with beautiful jaw-dropping footwork. The US team seemed to have possession for most of the game, and never once slowed down, even though they fell back fast enough to triple-team Marta on most plays. Whoop!

CLICK ON THE TEAM NAME TO WATCH THE FINISHED GAMES! I don’t know how long these will be around, catch them soon! :>

Results
Date and time vs. score
Aug 6 19:45pm Norway 0-2
Aug 9 17:00pm Japan 1-0
Aug 12 19:45pm New Zealand 4-0
Quarterfinals: US v Canada, Brazil v Norway, Sweden v Germany, China v Japan
Aug 15 18:00 Canada 2-1 in OT
Semifinals: US v Japan, Brazil v Germany
Aug 18 Japan 4-2
Aug 21 Brazil 1-0 in OT

Live 2008 Olympics coverage

I can’t seem to find much Olympics coverage on TV. NBC apparently has the exclusive broadcast rights in the US. They’re showing a few hours a night, mostly previously recorded. 1000 cable channels, loaded with junk, and they can’t take over 3 or 4 to give at least some tiny modicum of coverage?

UPDATE: I’ve found lots of information at http://www.nbcolympics.com. You just have to dig in a little bit. I have just shed a tear watching the U.S. women’s soccer team score against New Zealand in the FIRST MINUTE. A long shot from Heather O’Reilly while the keeper was snoozing. Absolutely beautiful.

Check my next post for women’s soccer info.

So… all these ugly “workarounds” are no longer necessary:

  • http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Watch_the_Olympics_Online
  • http://www.sportizo.com/sports/olympics/
  • http://www.mightyfootball.com/category/beijing-olympic-2008-football/
  • http://techblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/08/how-to-watch-the-olympics-live.html
  • http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/08/viewers-eager-t.html

UPDATE 2018: There’s a great story on becoming an Olympic athlete, on Jen Reviews.

Keep an eye on Craig Venter

I’m spending a little time on a side project involving blogs and their RSS feeds. I’ve posted before (in 2005!) about unplugging from the endless evil RSS feeds of the hyperactive interwebs, and I stepped too close again and got sucked back in…

Some of the interesting fodder I’ve dug up on this last trip (with a tip of the hat to Andrea for finding a related Newsweek article)…

The interwebs is DEEP these days… :P …now give me my life back!