Luda and I got to talking on netops today about the new Mario Kart after I sent him a comic about the randomness of items.

(12:16 PM) Me: http://digitalunrestcomic.com/index.php?date=2008-04-28

(12:17 PM) Luda: sigh…it’s true sometimes unfortunately

(12:17 PM) Luda: i’m not sure what they can do exactly as the powerups are fun to use and even with their help i still can’t win races

(12:19 PM) Me: I think computers shouldn’t get them as often

(12:19 PM) Me: and first place shouldn’t be pummeled into the ground repeatedly

(12:19 PM) Luda: well i agree computers shouldn’t get as much

(12:20 PM) Me: first place just seems heavily targeted

(12:20 PM) Luda: and they could probably modify some of the more powerful stuff to just target anyone in front of you

(12:20 PM) Luda: or not give that stuff out so often

(12:20 PM) Me: sounds good

(12:21 PM) Luda: but honestly, i got raped in 9th or 5th place on several occasions too, since i can’t really relate to 1st place punishment

(12:21 PM) Me: I guess it was pretty ridiculous how far ahead of the pack you could get in previous versions and they’re trying to keep it interesting for the whole race

(12:21 PM) Me: 1st place punishment is more evident in single player grand prix mode

(12:21 PM) Luda: yeah without any special powerups, i have no doubt you 3 would lap me

(12:22 PM) Me: I’ll open up a wide gap in the first two laps and around the start of lap 3 I’ll get hit by a pow block followed by blue shell topped with lightning bolt

(12:23 PM) Me: and the pack will be a second behind me again

(12:24 PM) Me: maybe the secret to grand prix is keeping the gap within a range so you’re too far to be hit with regular shells but close enough that the heavy artillery isn’t used

(12:24 PM) Luda: yeah i could see that being a strategy

(12:24 PM) Luda: i use to find mario kart less frustrating than smash in the past versions, but now the opposite is true. i don’t win at smash much still, but im having more fun with it

(12:25 PM) Me: maybe we should plan with wavebirds next time

(12:25 PM) Me: *play

(12:26 PM) Luda: you mean you and jim for smash?

(12:27 PM) Me: that too

(12:27 PM) Luda: okay i wasn’t sure

(12:28 PM) Luda: definitely no to you guys in smash

(12:28 PM) Luda: for mario kart, i don’t think it would help me that much as i am just plain bad at keeping vehicles on a track in any race game

(12:28 PM) Luda: which is probably why the death by level is so much more frustrating to me

(12:29 PM) Me: yeah

(12:29 PM) Me: you were doing better than I thought you would with the steering

(12:29 PM) Luda: i also noticed that they made driving off the road, like on grass, much more of a slowdown penalty than in previous versions…another challenge added for me

(12:29 PM) Me: I struggled with that quite a bit at first

(12:29 PM) Luda: yeah, i transitioned the steering okay and was mostly just left with my usual racing skill

(12:30 PM) Me: yeah, it seemed like off road was death

(12:30 PM) Me: that is a category for karts, some are better at off road than others

(12:31 PM) Me: mine has that maxed out but it’s still a stiff penalty

(12:31 PM) Luda: oh interesting…perhaps i should choose one of those to help offset my unintentional offroading

(12:31 PM) Me: maybe

(12:31 PM) Luda: hmm

(12:31 PM) Me: I haven’t tried many to compare

(12:31 PM) Luda: i notice, since i spend a lot of time in grass, how much faster people were passing me when i was only in it for like a sec.

(12:32 PM) Me: I feel like I’m crawling unless I’m using a boost of some kind

(12:32 PM) Me: on road or off

(12:34 PM) Luda: yeah

(12:37 PM) Me: As far as battle, it’s really confusing with huge levels made for 12 players instead of 4 and it’s hard to find people. I like that you can come back though

(12:38 PM) Luda: agreed on those points

(12:38 PM) Luda: although i think the balloons are kinda pointless, as i said. it seems like you come back pretty damn quick to me

(12:38 PM) Luda: i still miss the bomb though

(12:38 PM) Me: yeah

(12:39 PM) Me: hehe

(12:39 PM) Luda: and the coin version is a cool idea, but it suffers the same 1st place rape problem…there are too many things that cause you to lose too many coins

(12:39 PM) Luda: considering the record was like 12 for us, having a level obstacle take away 5 upon contact is pretty harsh

(12:40 PM) Luda: 2 mins of collecting…0.5 sec. of mistake

(12:41 PM) Luda: i’d prefer it be divided into 2 distinct games. One item that is fought for and dropped a lot or just plain collecting without much penalty that way i don’t feel like i’ve lost so much

(12:42 PM) Me: like the shine game on gamecube

(12:42 PM) Luda: right that was okay with me because it wasn’t such an investment lost…you were just going around attacking people which is fun by itself and if you happened to get the item then bonus

(12:45 PM) Me: interesting that you actually did well at the coin collecting

(12:45 PM) Me:

(12:45 PM) Luda: yeah

(12:45 PM) Luda: i think it was my strategy was not aggressive

(12:45 PM) Luda: i decided that since you lost coins when hit, i would try hard to not get hit

(12:46 PM) Luda: so i would drive around the perimeter edge of levels or areas that didn’t have people. i would kinda drop in grab a few coins and then run back to a safe area. i don’t think i used an item or attacked anyone the whole time

(12:46 PM) Me: yeah, that sucks

(12:47 PM) Me: …like a fox!

(12:47 PM) Luda: like in the sand level i was around the tip top away from the quicksand and would pick off the coins right next to the cactus by driving up to it very slow and no one seemed to bother me

(12:47 PM) Luda: hehe

I just want to pat myself on the back here for installing two bike lifts this weekend all by myself. I can park my car in the garage again!

installing bike lifts, +2 manliness. riding a bike: -3 manliness

It’s good to know big sites like the NYTimes still write their sites by hand for the most part. And use wordpress! (via BoingBoing)

*shudder*…frontpage…*shudder*

Custom Archives/Categories Widget

I’ve managed to get Luda’s favorite theme to work with widgets except for a few kinks. I can’t get dropdown lists to display right unless they’re encapsulated inside a div or ul. So I took the opportunity to experiment with creating a simple plug-in to add my own custom archives and categories widgets. I doubt anyone else will find it useful but I figured I’d add a post about it so I can have a URI for it.

It’s Francie’s 25th birthday!  Her parents and I chipped in and got her a new bike.  Here’s some pretty pictures of her with it and my flower bed in the background as I promised earlier this week.  

The old blog’s going through some changes. Some of you may have noticed this with the new title, while others might have noticed that their preferred theme is missing. I had to update wordpress the other day since my install got hacked by a spammer and google told me to shape up. While I was at it I decided the blog was getting stale and needs a refresh. I’m going to try to update some of the old themes to work with the new features, but I can’t promise anything. Any requests for themes you’d like me to try to patch? Any thoughts on the new title?

php is basically spaghetti code

Seems to be an environmentally friendly theme going on in my life recently.  I’ve been researching bikes after riding Jim’s to work a couple times.  I think it’ll work out nice to ride there in the morning although the ride back will be a bit more work and quite sweaty on warmer days.  Still, saving gas money every day and getting exercise while I’m at it makes a lot of sense to me.

Also I planted some bushes last night to replace the ones that died in my flower bed.  I’ll have pictures up tomorrow.  It looks really nice with the trees and francie’s flowers blooming and the edging I put up to hold the mulch in.

Oh wie liebe ich mein Fahrrad…