A Wandering Eyre

Unshelved frequently gives nods to nerds. Today, with my daily dose of Unshelved, I also received some lovely sketches. One of them shows Tamara in her Jayne hat. Cunning indeed.

–Jane, it’s a girl’s name

I have heard about BarCamp before and I always thought it would be cool to go to one. A BarCamp is an unconference for geeks. You show up and are required to participate in some way: present on a topic, be on a panel, or bring your wifi router and power strip. You are required to share what you know with others and geek out all day, then go geek out on the world.

Can you think of anything else more fun? No. The answer is no, you can not think of anything else more fun. The problem I have now is choosing which geeky shirt do I wear?

On August 25th, BarCamp is going to be in Houston. I have already signed up and offered to give a talk. Mr. Rochester will be off with the boys for the weekend, celebrating the impending nuptials of a friend. I was going to closet myself at home to write, but I think this is worthy of changing my plans.

–Jane, anyone want to join us?

Mr. Rochester sent me an article from Gamespot while I was gone about Campbell County Public Library (last time I tried their website was down) in Kentucky that has started adding family friendly video games to their collection. He was surprised that this is a new concept. It does seem like the logical step, but that does not mean libraries are quick to make it.

What a great way to preview a game before buying it. I check out hardbacks from the library to see if I like it before purchasing my own copy, especially if it is an author that is new to me or that I am not head over heels for.

I know that the public library a worked for a few years ago did not have video games. Does anyone know of any systems that have a robust collection of games?

–Jane, maybe she could move there

Something funny to make up for the previous post which may have caused your brain to smash itself against the walls of your office - a YouTube Star Wars video. It does contain language, but it has been beeped out.

I have two groups that I am moderating in Five Weeks. They are both eager and have a lot of ideas. During our weekly chats, it is nice to see them answering each other’s questions, brainstorming ideas, and supporting each other in their struggles to get traction in their workplaces for social software. Sometimes, I feel like I hardly have to do any moderating at all, except of course when we get off on topics like the Wonder Twins, Captain Planet, and silly YouTube videos. It is all part of the learning process.

–Jane, “What the hell is the aluminum falcon?”

Mr, Rochester and I have recently held many conversations about Macs. Many of them are spurred by the recent Apple commercials and some of them are due to the fact that many of my friends have Macs.

You see, dear readers, I live in a PC household. I have nothing against Macs and see their uses, but as a gamer, I like PCs. Mr. R, on the other hand, holds a hatred for Macs that I believe could only be eclipsed by his hatred towards the Dave Mathews Band. It is a virulent sort of hatred.

Aaron McKenna, at Gear Digest, has an interesting take on the PC v Mac phenomenon, but it is the link inside the article that amused me. He links to a Guardian Unlimited article whose author, Charlie Brooker, hates Macs with a passion that rivals Mr. Rochester’s. The entire article is worth the read, but when Brooker mentioned the game that has annoyed me most in my life, I knew he was a kindred soul.

Myst, the most pompous and boring videogame of all time, a plodding, dismal “adventure” in which you wandered around solving tedious puzzles in a rubbish magic kingdom apparently modelled on pretentious album covers, originated on the Mac in 1993. That same year, the first shoot-’em-up game, Doom, was released on the PC. This tells you all you will ever need to know about the Mac’s relationship with “fun”.

–Jane, amused by it all

This is my last post before I pack up and leave Seattle. It was fun.

From Slashdot, wouldn’t you love to live in a hobbit hole?

–Jane, shove the last things in the suitcase and go

***Warning: Spoilers for Eragon and Eldest ahead. You have been warned!***

Mr. Rochester recently finished reading the first two books of the Inheritance Trilogy and he remarked how much they mirror Star Wars and LoTR.

Below is a guest posting by Mr. R which lays out the similarities of the original Star Wars and Eragon & Co. The comparisons do give away plot points of the books so please stop reading if spoilers make you cry.

Episode IV: A New Hope – vs. – Book 1: Eragon

Ben Kenobi – vs. – Brom
Old man with mysterious background takes up quiet residence within a farming town and we find out in the second installment that he is keeping an eye on the son of his best friend turned enemy.

Luke Skywalker – vs. – Eragon
Simple, young, farm boy barely out of adolescence who has no knowledge of his parents and has been raised by his uncle and aunt. Something the evil empire wants falls into his backyard and, when the empire comes looking for it and can’t find it, they kill his uncle and burn his home to the ground. The boy then leaves his home and follows the mysterious man through the empire as the old man trains him in the ways of a mysterious power.

The mentor dies. Boy meets up with loner who plays by own rules (Han Solo – Murtagh). The boy saves the princess (Arya) who had been captured by the empire. Boy joins the rebel forces. Boy is involved in huge battle in which he gives the killing blow that decides the outcome of the battle.

Episode V: Empire Strikes Back – vs. – Book 2: Eldest

Yoda – vs. – Oromis

Boy journeys to hidden place where an old teacher exists unbeknown to the empire.

Side story about a “sibling” and their struggle to escape the empire while the rebellion tries to regroup. In the end, the boy battles with another of his kind who reveals to the boy that his unknown father was the man who betrayed the old order and helped the emperor gain control.

The second in command, the right-hand man and the executor for the empire, turns out to be a blood relative of the boy. The boy is wanted captured alive to take before the Emperor but is allowed to escape the clutches of the second-in-command.

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi – vs. – Book 3: ???

Farm boy and “sibling” work together to recover the “sibling’s” loved one.
Defeat the empire.
Teacher dies?
Turn the second in command to the good side?

–Mr. Rochester, now do you see why I married him?

Posted with permission

A fellow librarian, who is fabulous and teaches Engineering classes, shared this story today:

I had an exercise for Engineering students to look at engineering handbooks (like Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers as an example).

I mentioned half-jokingly that they should ask a relative who has terrible taste in gift-giving to get them one for graduation.

One student raised her hand and said “I already put one on my bridal registry.”

–Jane, once asked for Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations for Christmas (and got it!)

Only a former English major would get sidetracked while teaching an MLA citation and paper formatting class because someone asked about the use of colons with block quotes. I digressed for a couple minutes on the minutia of semi-colons and colons, then caught myself when I realized that the punctuation fun was only occurring in my mind.

–Jane, le sigh

Alison put a link on one of my comments that I felt should be moved to the top, because really shouldn’t everyone have one of these? The comment she left was attached to this post.

If you go back and read the post, even clicking on the explanatory links, and you just do not get it, well then you obviously have a cool factor way higher thine mine. I assure you, this is not a hard feat, so stop patting yourself on the back.

–Jane, =geek