Quick Hits

Quick hits

- I've been thinking of changing up the look of my blog to a more modern template. On the plus side, it'd probably be a template that blogger supports for all their latest features (like the RSS reader that a bunch of my friends want me to enable), on the minus side... this current look is something I feel some nostalgia about, having kept it for most of the last 3 years.

- Lots of people have been commenting on this Wall Street Journal article starring my high school alma mater (Monta Vista) and rival (Lynbrook), and how the last ten years has seen an Asian-American invasion into the schools that is actually driving out non-Asians, specifically white folks ("the new white flight"). At first I was thinking of writing a long treatise on my own experience, but instead I'll just say that a lot of the article did in fact sound familiar, such as competing with other 2nd-generation students who were pushed by their parents to take classes and private lessons over the summer to get "ready" for the school year. The interesting thing about going to Cal was that in terms of student makeup in my major, it was pretty much a similar academic environment.

- Random nostalgia link: remember Contra for the NES? This article covers almost every level in pretty darn good detail, and the screenshots sure take me back. Quite possibly my favorite game of all time. I remember playing it on the "Asian NES" the last time I visited Taiwan - that console was red and white, and the cartridges were half the size of the American ones. I still recall being annoyed to no end by the spikey stompers in the second-to-last level.

- This article does a pretty good job of describing why I don't think live actors will be replaced by computer-generated characters any time soon. In short, it's because of some theory developed by a Japanese roboticist saying that at some point, our expectations will influence our enjoyment in such a way as to change us from positive thinkers to nitpickers. In gaming, this is illustrated by the fact that when graphics and sound were more primitive, we appreciated little moments of realism, but once things became close-to-lifelike, we become repulsed by the uncanny inhumanness of the object. This can probably be credited with why a cartoonish CG movie such as the "Incredibles" can be such a hit, but a movie with lifelike representations such as "Final Fantasy" can flop.

- Currently reading: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 3rd book in the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis. I began re-reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in anticipation of the December movie, and just kept reading... the books are actually a lot better than I remember from the first time I went through them. I do have more perspective now on Lewis' writing style, so that's probably contributed to the enjoyment.

- Recent CD purchases: "With Abandon" (Chasing Furies), "White Flag" (Shaun Groves), "Hymned" (Bart Millard), and "The Drunkard's Prayer" (Over the Rhine).

The Simple Geek You answered 69% of the questions as a geek truly would.

You don't seem to sway in either direction, however you still seem to have some latent geek attributes within you. Maybe you're interested in computers but not a gamer? Maybe you've got geek hobbies but none of the awkward social tendencies. You may be slightly geekier than you thought and in denial! The simple geek usually has various quirks that friends may make fun of, but in general can be considered a fairly normal person. Your geek attributes make you less likely to conform to society. The popular kids don't hate you but the geeks don't either, so it's a respectable demographic. In a nutshell, you answered enough questions with geek tendencies and enough questions without geek tendencies that it's difficult to pinpoint your exact alignment.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 32% on geekness

Link: The True Geek Test written by ambientred on Ok Cupid