If you are wondering . . .

Yes, I am still playing WoW.

Yes, Sunday Driving (more like morning drive) has returned.

Yes, I am looking forward to the Island DLC for Burnout Paradise.

No, I don't comment on other rumors or speculation.

Yes, I am interviewing places.

No, I am not sorry I rarely turn on my 360 as much as I used to.

Yes, I agree. Racquetball is the best court sport ever. Take that Squash!

Yes, I did.

Out of all the bleakness of a retreating investment market, the dead-cat bounce is easily my favorite anaology. . .

Sure there is that initial, damaging fall, but the body has yet to come to a stop. The picture (above) is doubly amusing since the artist portrays the cat about to go over a cliff to new lows.

I would laugh more if it weren't so depressing in its reality.

Yet another reason why I hate cats.

I would love to embed some videos for you, but those days seem to be over.

This video is a little bit of awesome that I discovered after following some links from some of my facebook contacts.

After some soul-searching, I am pretty sure I am going to retire to New Zealand and be a sheep herder so I can do something like this during the mid-year. South Island FTW! Thank Badger for the link.

This week will be a hoot with GDC in full effect in San Francisco and a new character coming to our D&D campaign.

I've always been used to being an outlier. I was an only child from an early age, I was the only male in my family for a while, and my favorite game of 2008 was Castle Crashers. I loved that game so much I even joined the Facebook group late last year. Recently I came to find out that group is now the official fangroup and is being supported by The Behemoth. As part of that support, The Behemoth has been giving out complimentary codes for The King DLC. I redeemed my code and played as The King and as his unmasked generic knight. In addition to the new characters, there are also new weapons, new animal orbs, and more reasons for me to revisit the greatest game of 2008.

If you liked Castle Crashers better than that other game with the [insert your opinion here] ending, be sure to visit this page and vote. I am still recovering from the awesome Xbox Live Arcade year. Seriously, I have to choose between Rez HD, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Castle Crashers, A Kingdom for Keflings, and Galaga Legions. Those were all awesome games and (for me) beat out anything else* released during the same period.

The worst thing to happen to my economic idealism was to go to business school. How ironic that every time I graduate from a university it is at the brink of a severe economic downturn (the first time was in the early days of the Dot-com collapse).

If you aren't clear on the current state of the economic meltdown, I trust you to check out Bozanimal's excellent series on the subject. While every industrialized nation on the face of the Earth has been trying to rectify the problem. Unfortunately, the country most responsible for this mess seems to have the least comprehension of the consequences of its actions.

Today's economic and political leaders seem to be unable to resuscitate the economic activity to which we have become accustomed.

Behold the levels of historical borrowing in comparison to today's leveraged debt. Money borrowed (or debt) from the Federal Reserve is sometimes necessary to jumpstart normal banking and economic activity. But what if Obama's soothsayers and financial magicians are incapable of bringing back the prosperity of indulgent consumption that has traditionally driven the US (and global) economy? What of all this borrowing and investment? Is the party over? Who is the more foolish; the people who lived excessively, borrowing against the future or the people who invested wisely only to see their savings evaporate thanks to the foolishness of others? In 1996, Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan posited the following question, "But how do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions as they have in Japan over the past decade?"

The problem he alludes to with Japan was an evaporation of half of the equity in the stock exchange over a one-year period and a disasterous collapse of confidence in the market. That sounds a great deal like what we see today in the US. When speculation rallied US assets in the 90s, and then again in the early part of this decade, it was easy for investors to buy in at high asset prices (if they were even investing at all) only to watch an arguably inflated value evaporate over a similar one-year period. Today's trading just about brings us back to the point when Greenspan asked if we knew the full consequences of speculation. As reported from the major news sources of the country, The Dow (one of the principal market measures of US corporate and economic strength) has fallen below 7,000.

I'm not saying Greespan was prescient, but he asked the right question. Many people were ready to stone Peter Schiff ten years later for suggesting there may be negative fallout, but it is somewhat amusing to see he has been vindicated, despite nobody listening to his voice of warning about US financial investments. Greenspan made a mistake, the seeds of failure were sown in the Clinton years, the Bush administration only delayed the inevitable by ratcheting up a call for consumption, and the Obama administration really only seems to care about either short-term solutions or rewarding the private contributors who donated him into office. If our own foibles have brought us to this point, I can only wonder what will happen when debt-soaked, possibly starving foreign banks decide they want to repatriate the US dollars they have been sitting on. What will happen when the dollar dives during hyperinflation (thanks to all of the borrowing we are doing today) and once high-grade investments offer little more interest to investors than a shelf full of Big Rigs Over the Road Racing? The good news is you still own whatever you invested in (assuming the company has not entirely collapsed). The other good news is there is a possibilitythat asset could increase in value. The bad news is the best years may be behind us.

We have seen some of the fattest years on record, and frequently I hear questions along the liines of how long will the years of famine last before our day of deliverance? Some liken these days to that of the Roman Empire just before the conquerers came. Personally, I doubt anybody in this current administration has a clue (since they can't even pay their own taxes), but I hope one day the people of America will learn how to wisely cover their money and properly manage their asse[t]s. I should probably get to that myself.

Hey all!

I figured I'd take a break from my glut of life and Warcraft (those are two different things) for some self-reflection. First, I gotta say "Wahooo!" over the public unveiling of Lost Planet 2. The original was one of my favorite games of 2007. Based on the end of theoriginal, I can see how the diversity of environments has come to pass. I loved Lost Planet's multiplayer quite a bit. I particularly enjoyed playing against honorable, respectful, and cagey overseas opponents. Hopefully when you aren't trudging through snow you will move at a pace faster than "plodding." I am very excited and optimistic about this title, but I doubt it will be coming out in 2009. . . but I could be wrong.

During my recent WoW binges I've had the occaison to continue to associate with Bethany, Justin, James Yu, Stanley Lin, and others from my time at GameSpot. During one of our guild chats, I found out James Yu, Senior Hardware Editor, has departed. He will be missed, but I hope he is on to brighter prospects in the hardware industry. He is a talented professional and a very amiable individual. He lent one of the best keyboards in the office to me and provided some great pointers on TF2. Godspeed, James!

For those of you outside the Bay Area, this weekend is Wondercon. It is San Francisco's answer to the unmatched San Diego Comic Convention. Sure it is put on by the same parent organization, but anything is a pale imitation of Comic-Con. Since I won't be hitting San Diego this year, the family is making the trip up to the City for Wondercon. It should be a great opportunity to meet, greet, and hobnob with individuals from many different industries, whilst taking in the local cosplay. My wife suggested we all dress up, but she didn't like the costume Ideas I had for her.

While she was away yesterday, my son and I had some bonding time playing Rock Band 2. Sure it was me singing and him sleeping, but he did clap at one point during my rendition of "Hungry Like the Wolf". It was as epic as my long distance nose wipe this morning. Who knew I could wipe my daughter's nose from ten feet away with a cloth? I didn't until this morning. Now I am off to wipe smug looks off of monster faces.

I am trying to decide what the biggest event of the week was. My wife and I were really excited about the return of LOST, but were disappointed. I'm not talking about abandoning the series disappointed, but only slightly entertained by what we saw. They are now trying too hard. There's good stuff there, but. . .

Colbert's coverage of the inauguration and the first days of President Barack Hussain Obama in the oval office were amusing. Seriously, this last week, was just kind of meh all around. Perhaps I feel that way because I have been mostly head's down in my consulting work and other job-related activities. Both have been going well, but taking a lot of time.

Last week, on the other hand had quite the body count. Ricardo Montalban, Patrick McGoohan, and other notable celebs returned to their Maker. Ricardo "These-are-my-real-pecs" Montalban was best known to the world as the master of Fantasy Island. To the nerdcore he was the poetry spitting mastermind of galactic domination KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! Patrick "I-am-not-a-number-I-am-a-free-man" McGoohan was the legend behind The Prisoner, the best television show ever to grace the airwaves. . . ever. As has been observed by Badger, "It's the gutsiest show I've ever watched. Behind all the espionage, the paranoia, the double-crossing, the show was about having the guts to define yourself on your own terms. Who you are is nobody's business but your own."

Be seeing you.

The 10-day World of WarCraft trial has come to an end. I am imposing a mandatory moratorium on my WoW playing for the time being. In the few days I've been playing, I got two characters to the 20-level max and a third one to 13. The game is definitely best played with other people. solo'ing is just no fun. With brothers in law wading back into school and others caught up in continued employment, finding people to play with is a bit scarce. Next week I will be playing more. After my four week vacation, I can return to the daily grind.

Remember Ravi Drums from the E3 2008 Niintendo press conference?

[video=6194232]

Whilst visiting my family tonight, I discovered the latest thing that Ravi Drums has been doing. Yup, a candid camera knock-off with Howie Mandel. Yet another reason I still don't watch television, except perhaps some Colbert binges.

Thanks for everybody who posted comments about my ongoing investigation into the wonders to behold in The World of WarCraft. I am right on the cusp of Level 20. In fact, by the time you read this, I will already be level 20. I am not going to lie; Proudmoore at low levels is lonely. Despite a bunch of us hitting LFG for Deadmines, I couldn't seem to get into a group for a chance to raid.

After a long day of no raiding options, I messaged a friend of mine some of you may know. I asked if she knew anybody who might be willing or interested in running Deadmines with me. This person said she'd join up. Well, not only did she she join up, she solo'd the dungeon. She cut a swath of destruction through hundreds of enemies then would come back to save me from that one that was about to get me. I watched groups of minions blow up in magical discharges, henchmen get their faces melted by ennervating beams, and large, mechanical bosses brought low by one woman.

My level 19 Warrior was on clean-up duty. My responsibility was to loot bodies and take booty in what can only be described as a fantastic dungeon. It was marvelous to watch and lucritive in the end. Since I have auto-loot turned on, every time I opened an enemy inventory, all the contents transferred to my inventory. This made it difficult to leave those glasses of millk for the caster. Nevertheless, we made it through and this morning I have been trying to figure out what to do with all of my loot. I'm definitely keeping the rolling pin. In that one run, I got no less than five blue items.

I just can't use them all. Despite seven days of trial left, I am starting to think about maybe, possibly . . . perhaps dropping a few dollars for the classic box. After all, I am not buying the expansions or anything. I'd just like to get a better ROI on all this loot I am hauling in and the auction house seems to be the place to get it.

Thanks Bethany for a great run through Deadmines. We should do that agin some time when I can be of assistance.

The ONLY reason I am writing this is because I am currently waiting to get into WoW. This is the first time being on a full server has sucked. I had hoped to play with some other GS associates once I had gotten through the early levels, but it doesn't look like that will pan out in the next 7 days.

Playing on a trial account is fun, but limited. i can't create groups, whisper to people, or do some other things that would make the experience optimal, but that is why I have started to consider maybe buying my way into 30 days.

<_<

I am having an absolute blast running around the areas. I finished every quest available in the Night Elf starting island, ventured down to the Barrens, hit Ironforge, Stormwind, and many other Alliance hotspots. I have solo'd some dungeons, run some quests using only unarmed attacks, and even had my first guild invite. Really, what is not to like?

Perhaps it is due to my trial account status, but the queue for getting in is really bothering me. I joined the queue at 60-something. I am now at . . . 293, which is down from the high-water mark of 360-something. The estimated time to join may make more sense to those with priority entry status (read: subscribers). For me, it has become a game of its own. When I was 238th in line, I ranged from an 8 minute join time to facing a predicted wait time of over three hours. in real time, I have been amusing myself for three hours, since I logged off to make some updates and check to see if others wanted to join for some collaborative escapades.

In retrospect, that may have been a poor decision. Stupid stripped-down trial. I love you and I hate you.