[rolleyes]
I must be ripe and ready for old age, because there are a lot of new things I hate, not for any rational reason, but just because they're new!

Take those fancy multi-media keyboards. Why the hell do you need MORE buttons on your keyboard? What kind of marketing scam is that? Buttons to open My Documents? What kind of rube needs a button to open My Documents?

Well, apparently, I do.

Like an idiot, I spilled water on my keyboard. It was so trashed that no matter how long I dried it out, the buttons still malfunctioned badly. So I had to go get a new one. Of course, the only ergo keyboard I could get on short notice was one of those damn multimedia keyboards!

So I got one.

You know what's funny? Being able to control the volume of streaming music or talk radio in under a second is VERY convenient. Especially when the radio station I listen to kept reporting about a human finger ending up in a serving of Wendy's chili. (There are just some things in life I don't need to know.)

I even press the button to bring up My Documents.[razz]

But what I really want to know is how I'm supposed to grow old and crotchedy when they keep making useful stuff!


Straylight Update: Muy, muy slow this week. I'm jamming to make the milestone for the 50% update for my Visual C++ book.

Floated the survival part of the "Go Anywhere Gameplay" idea in Game Design. It involves 3 character options that play 3 ways:

• Pure Human - For the player who wants a sim future life
  
  
  
  • Health & Energy decline 1 pt every game hour (gone in 3 real hours)
    
  • Morale falls 1 pt every game day (gone in roughly 3 real days)
    
  
  
• Cyborg - For the hardcore blast 'em up gamer
  
  
  
  • Fixed health
    
  • Energy recharges (like Fatigue in Morrowind) & can be upgraded
    
  • Morale - Same as human (you're a brain in box)
    
  
  
• Cybrid - Part man, part machine; roll your own gameplay by adding implants that may or may not have to be managed.
  

Declining health is repaired by eating. Color can be added to the game by creating different effects and costs of food (protein paste vs. Tasty Wheat?). Sleep should have similar strategic considerations. If you hate this stuff, though, you can play cybrid or cyborg.

I'm also working on a personality tech tree, which should affect life events that you draw to you in the game.

I was infected for a very short time with the idea of what it would take to model a futuristic Earth. Ran headfirst into a stone wall a few times to cure myself. Gigs of textures and GPS data. Yeah. I'm much better now.

More later... back to the grind...