Alt + Ctrl + 0 Holy Shit! TCNJ’s SFB just aproved CUB’s $125,000 bid for Rihanna. I know they uped the Student Activies Fund but that’s a lot of money. For reference four years ago when I put on my concert for TCNJ it was around $40,000 which was big money in the day but too little to get an artist anyone wanted to see (I had Kevin Little (who? exactly.)).
Even back then there were talks about getting rid of the concert completly since we did not have the money to fund a real one. Clearly there is a new effort to get the job done and it looks like it will suceed.
I’m not a big fan of NPR and This American Life. I find them over produced and oftain about fluff that I don’t care about. Recently they had an episode about the morgage crisis call The Giant Pool of Money that actually worked for thier over produced ways. If you want to know about this mess of money it’s a great hour long show to listen to.
What it costs to sack a worker after 20 years. Spoiler: nothing. Unless you are in some other wealthy country like Zimbabwe.
Somehow I missed that you can now submit your own stories to buzzfeed. Squee!
Tyler Cowen On An Unregulated Capitalist Economy
More and more I find it fascinating how world views can keep your from talking about something in a way that makes sense. It can be so hard to see through your own biases.
Republicans have no good language for discussing recent events. They’re not allowed to say anything that sounds like “showing sympathy for Wall Street,” so they have to find someone else to show sympathy for but they can’t turn to traditional Democratic rhetoric about how an unregulated capitalist economy is failing us.
I Wish Every Band Was On BandCamp
Kind of in love with the idea behind BandCamp. Going to go all the bands I like to join. Myspace has been my default way to find new music and probably also the reason I don’t find as much as I would like to.
Bandcamp Screencast from Ethan Diamond on Vimeo.
From Cringely on the difference betten leadership and management:
Most start-ups are fractal in their nature, especially those that have exciting visions and get everyone on the same page with collective purpose, goals, and objectives. Most investors, however, are bought into the conventional org chart; when the company devolves into top-down, the turnover begins.
Sadly my new stefanhayden@hellokitty.com email does not seem to support POP3 mail forwarding so while gmail will let me email from that address I’ll never check for replies.
James Kotecki on TV Bail Outs
James Kotecki suggests we use government funds to bail out canceled TV shows like Freaks and Geeks and Arrested Development. I couldn’t agree more.
Dev has started a mixtape blog which I fully intend to contribute to. Describing his music taste as eclectic would be an understatement. I look forward to the musical adventures he finds.
43 Folders is Back
I subscribed to 43 Folders what seems like years ago and then got tired of the post volume about ways to organize my organizers. But it seems like the site is making a come back.
This is now a site for people who want to finish things that they care about — but who still occasionally need help, inspiration, and the courage to push all the bullshit off their work table. This is about clearing that space every day, and then using it to do cool stuff that makes you proud.
One of the best things about blogs is how they have a life span. People blog for a reason and over time reasons change and priorities shift. It’s sad when blogs lose focus but the best blogs know how to take a rest and then relaunch with new focus and new ideas. Welcome back Merlin.
Spore: First Thoughts
Spore has finally been released and with a big bang. People on amazon are complaining about DRM and hardcore gamers complain about it being a shallow game while the number of items in the sporepedia has doubled or qudrupled by now.
If anything it’s become clear it will be a couple months before we see what the full impact of spore really has. This is because I belive this is not a game we are used to. Even after following the reporting on spore for years my view of the game has changed.
Spore sets itself up as five seperate games that weave togeather a rich tapestry of the universe. For those who followed the hype these games came across as laughably shallow. But the hype was not even close to the full story and I even think Will Wright has done a bit of a diservice in how he has chariterised the game. In Will’s defence I think he’s been talking about the casual gamer the most, but as a former hardcore gamer I tend to aprotch games differently.
Spore is not five games. It’s one game. The space game. It just happens to not start till after the worlds longest game tutorial. And that’s the disconnect for most people. They are compaining that the tutorial is not a fufilling game. While I can not reember the last time I enjoyed a tutorial so much.
Each of the first four stages is mearly there to train you in a skill. Cell stage teaches you movement and the idea of different levels of interaction at different scales. Creature stage teaches you about the food chain, using the camera and a lot about how to explore. Tribal stage is all about multitasking. And civilation stage is about interacting with other cultures and the idea of trade and spices.
Only after learning all of the can you fully understand what is going on in the space stage, where the game actually starts.