Electron Hut: Kyle Bedell’s Blog

One of my sister  Micaela’s journal posts really got me thinking (my emphasis in bold):

It’s so sad that nowadays we have to screen our internet lives in fear that respectable, reputable people might be insulted or think less of us because of them. I don’t care if my college, my employer, or even my Grandma can see photos of me on Facebook or read my user info. I don’t care if one of my friends stumbles upon my Deviantart account or that old Inuyasha fan fiction I wrote in 7th grade. My internet history is very telling to who I am as a person and how I have grown, and if I need to screen that.. then there’s something wrong with the way I live my life.

I think she has an excellent point; anyone who posts in a LiveJournal, has a Facebook or MySpace page, or countless other sites is almost writing an autobiography of themselves. An eternal archive of their stories, achievements, pastimes, and projects. Just a few examples:

• The first website I ever made in January of 1999
• Back in the early days of Palm OS, my friend Alex and I used to write little PIM apps and ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ type games. I guess they’re still floating around
• All of my angsty high school years in one compact LiveJournal
• Our old virtual UO/tabletop D&D group’s site

I’m feeling all nostalgic now…anyone else care to share some of their early internet works?

When I think about the phrase morning commute, I have mixed feelings. I think back to when I had to travel in to Boston via the Franklin Line commuter rail. My trip was the entire length of the line, about an hour and fifteen minutes, not including the 20 minute car ride to the station from my hometown. At first, I looked at the time as being wasted. After all, who wants to sit on the train and in the car for 3 hours a day to get to and from work?

Eventually, it dawned on me that commuting by train was actually a blessing in disguise. I didn’t have to worry about getting off along the line and I wasn’t driving the train, so those 3 hours were basically free for me to do whatever I wanted. Over the course of that summer in 2007, I read 15 novels and finished 4 Nintendo DS titles using my train time. I had found an island in a sea of cars, some relative peace and freedom from obligation as long as my commute was in progress.

Now I live 5 minutes from work, barely long enough to finish a song on the radio before I pull in to the parking lot. While a part of me really enjoys getting to and from work so quickly (more time to spend at home!), I sometimes miss the ability to just sit back in a seat and zone out. At home, you can be distracted by all sort of things. In a train car, you’re effectively stuck until you reach your destination (and might as well make the best of it)!

Do you have an island in a sea of cars?

I’m a huge fan of Valve Software’s Team Fortress 2. Its unique, Incredibles-like art style, varied class selection, and continued updates keep me coming back month after month. I think what draws me to the title, unlike other FPSes like Call of Duty and Counter-Strike, is the face that it doesn’t take itself seriously. Win or lose, I still have fun every round that I play. The only problem with the game is that it requires a fairly decent computer to run. My desktop is a powerhouse, so it runs just fine there. However, even on my (former) Macbook Pro with a dedicated graphics chip, TF2’s performance left something to be desired. My current Lenovo X200 doesn’t really stand a chance with its integrated Intel graphics.

What’s a Team Fortress 2 lover to do?

Imagine my delight when I stumbled apon a 2D fan “demake” called Gang Garrison 2. It preserves most of the class features and maps present in TF2 (albeit renamed; the Heavy is the “Overweight,” the Pyro is the “Firebug,” you get the idea) in glorious 8-bit graphics. It even boasts internet and LAN multiplayer, with some basic hosting/lobby features built right in. I can see it being extremely entertaining with the after-hours crowds at work. The only thing it’s missing is the ability to customize the controls, as I would really prefer to remap the Jump key to the spacebar instead of “W.”

If you’re looking to give a multiplayer 2D platformer/shooter, give Gang Garrison 2 a try. It’s free!

I like to try and convince people to think about matters in different ways, to see the other side of things whenever they present a thought or opinion. Katt will tell you that this quickly becomes tiresome (mostly because I play devil’s advocate even though I might agree with her). I believe that the more knowledge we have about an issue, the better-equipped we are to come up with a working solution. It can be very easy to just dismiss another side of a story or argument simply because you don’t agree with it.

Remember, the next time you’re in an argument or discussing an issue with someone, try looking at it through the lens of the opposite side. You might be surprised at what you see.