My Favorite Websites

You like websites, don't you? Of course you do, you're on the Internet now reading my blog. Shouldn't you be working? Just kidding, come back! This post is about some of my favorite websites. I've done a post on my favorite websites before, here, but it has been a couple of years though, so I thought I'd put up an updated list today.

I'm always interested in seeing what pages that others visit frequently. I'd also like to share the sites I visit the most too as a way of "spreading the word", so to speak. I still visit most of these sites regularly, but not always directly. I've mentioned Feed Demon before and I still use it quite a bit to keep up with changes on my favorite websites. When I first mentioned the tool, I had about six or seven feeds, but now I'm up to fifty-six. That might sound like a lot, but it's a quick and easy way to keep up with a lot of websites in a short time.

The list here will mostly consist of the sites in my RSS feed, with the exception of:

Twitter - Twitter seems to be the kind of thing you either love or hate. I personally know a couple of people that absolutely love it, but I know a lot of people that absolutely refuse to even look at it. I fall into the love category. I think that it's interesting to have a look into other people's lives and what they choose to share in < 140 characters. There's a bit of celebrity <-> normal person interaction that occurs on Twitter that I like a lot too. I've only had a couple of short interactions with a couple of minor nerdy celebrities, but I've only been on Twitter for a few months now. Twitter is not in my RSS feed since it would probably overload Feed Demon. I normally just keep the Twitter website open or use the iPod/iPhone app.

Bad Astronomer - This is the Discovery blog written by Phil Plait. He's a brilliant astronomer and his posts are witty, smart and often filled with beautiful images of the universe. He does write about non-astronomy topics occasionally as he is a self described skeptic, but those posts are also well written and researched.

Dork Tower Logo

Disalmanac - I stumbled upon Disalmanac in a retweet from someone I follow on Twitter. I'm not sure who, or I would give them credit. I'm not really sure what to say about Disalmanac except for that it's really funny. The blog and Twitter posts are filled with fake facts about a topic. Check it out for a laugh or two.

Dork Tower - This is a web comic put on by John Kovalic, who you might know as the illustrator of the amazingly popular Munchkin card games. I also follow him on Twitter and he's quite funny.

Nerdy Apple Bottom - Right around Halloween this lady's blog went viral when her son wore a Daphne costume for Halloween. Her blog is interesting and I like her viewpoints on bullying and other topics that she's written about on her blog.

WWdN - This is Wil Wheaton's blog. Since he is a personal hero of mine, I follow him on Twitter and read his blog whenever there's a new post. He's quite a good writer and his posts are all very interesting. If you haven't read any of his work (books, short stories, blog), check it out, you'll be glad you did.

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XKCD - This site is a pretty long running web comic. It's often funny, often serious, always interesting.

What are some of your favorite sites? Like I said, I'm always interested in finding more sites to read.

Celebrity Sightings

Stan Lee

Normally, I'm not much of a fan of Hollywood. It seems to me that the film and TV industry is full of large egos, bad attitudes and crappy role models for youngsters. Now, I know that this is a generalization and that there are many stars who stand out as shining beacons of kindness and humility in a sea of condescension and callousness. This post, however isn't about my perception of Hollywood. It's about my short brushes with a few of the people that I've actually run into from this world during my project that was in Los Angeles.

I wanted to wait until that project was over to write this post, and so I have. The project ended, for me at least, a couple of weeks ago and I've moved on to a project based in Seattle. During my travels to LA, I've encountered five celebrities that I recognized. Oddly, though our project was in Woodland Hills (apparently where a lot of stars lived), all of my encounters were at the airport or on airplanes.

My first celebrity encounter was Stan Lee. I saw him when I was sitting at PDX for a layover. He got off of a plane and I was too stunned to even approach him. It was cool seeing such a geek icon up close. I've been a fan of his since I was a kid.

The next was about a month later. A coworker and I were heading home and we saw Henry Rollins (or a guy who looked EXACTLY like him) riding a plane back to MSP from LAX. Several others near us whispered about it, but no one ever spoke to him to ask him, that I heard anyway. My wife and I watched "The Chase" the other day and although he looked a lot older on the plane, I'm sure it was him.

A few months later I saw John Cho and his family get off of a flight from Detroit. No one else seemed to notice who he was. I was tempted to shout out "Sulu" or "Harold", but I refrained.

Then, a few months later several coworkers and I saw Danny Trejo on a flight from MSP to LAX. He must have been promoting one of his movies in Minneapolis as he was wearing a hat with the movie logo and had a bag with the logo as well. He's a lot shorter in person than I thought he would be, but still looks very intimidating.

The very next week I sat directly behind Wilmer Valderrama in first class going from MSP to LAX. The two of us actually spoke and all I remember about it was that I handed him his bag from the storage bin and told him that my daughter was a fan of Handy Manny. He smiled and said, "Thanks."

Henry Rollins

There are a few celebrities that, if I saw them, I would totally geek out and rush to say hi. If I'd had the presence of mind, I would have so done that when I saw Stan Lee. Otherwise, I think that they are just people too and unless they're purposely inviting people over to say hi, they have a right to being left alone just like everyone else.

A coworker of mine met John DeLancie on a flight from LAX to MSP and got his picture taken with him. I was jealous of that and definitely would have gotten my picture taken too if I'd been on that flight.


Have you ever met any celebrities? Were they cool with you coming up an saying hi?

Favorite Websites

I haven't posted in quite a while. My wife and I have welcomed our son into the world and now that it's been over two months since he's come, I feel ready to renew my interest in continuing this blog. I'd like to apologize for my absence and I hope that it doesn't detract from any enjoyment anyone has had from reading my blog.
As my first back to blogging post, I thought that I'd give a quick rundown of some of my favorite websites that I regularly visit.

Geek Dad Blog - A Wired blog that I found that talks a lot about being a geek and being a parent (they have a lot of female contributors, regardless of the name). A lot of the posts I find really interesting and many are direct corollaries with my own life as a geekparent.

Hipster Please - Hipsterplease is a website I found after I subscribed to the GeekDad podcast. Every other GeekDad podcast episode is dedicated to geeky music. This website is the blog for one of the contributors of the GeekDad hiptrax podcast episodes. It shares a lot about music and most of it is geeky music.

Lego365 - I recently ran into this photo blog and I find that it's full of awesomeness. I looked at every photo in one single sitting because I couldn't wait to see all of them. I just wish that the writer of this blog would continue his work past 365 days.

Facebook - Yes, I like Facebook. I enjoy keeping in contact with friends from all over the world and follow their lives by glancing at what they are willing to share on their facebook pages. While it's true that many people can be truly annoying with constant updates, unending comments on everything, etc.; I still find it a rewarding and fun website.

Kongregate - This is a site dedicated to hosting flash games. It's also a major time sink for me at times. Many games have acheivements attached to them and each user can collect these badges and earn points to gain levels. While levels don't do anything for you, it's really a competitive thing for me. I like going into one of the chat rooms (you can chat while playing) and being the highest level user in the room (I'm level 40 currently, almost 41).

Woot - Kids Woot - Shirt Woot - Woot is really awesome if you're looking for a good deal on random stuff. They sell a new item every day until the end of the day, or it sells out. You do have to watch out though because some of the items are labelled "Refurbished". I haven't bought any of those, but I almost did when I saw a Quad-core computer for $399.

Dr. Horrible - This is the most awesome musical that has or ever will be made. You can watch it for free on hulu, but I paid for it on iTunes because I wanted to support the idea of independent online studios like what Joss Whedon was trying to do when he came up with this.

Penny Arcade - If you haven't heard of Penny Arcade, then I feel sorry for you. Just kidding. It's a web comic that's been going for over a decade and is full of win. Read some of them and you'll be hooked. In my humble opinion, it's the best web comic I've ever read.

So, those are the sites that I like. Feel free to leave a comment listing some of your favorite websites.
Favorite song of the moment - RickRoll + Mario by I Fight Dragons. Awesome live song with some chiptunes thrown in.

My Top 10 Games of All Time

As my first post I've decided to give you all a top ten list of my all-time favorite video games/game franchises. Let me know what you think of this list and what your favorites are.

1. Baldur's Gate
I loved this series. The games finally represented (to me) a good representation of D&D (in one of the more popular worlds) in a video game. I'd played some games labeled D&D before and since and none has captured my attention as this one did. Throughout the game I was in awe of the graphics (decent for the time period) and the gameplay. I also was impressed with how well the gameplay followed the rules of the AD&D books (of which I had come to know quite well). The expansions to each of the games were great and expanded the stories and gameplay.



2. Civilization 3
This game was my favorite of the Civ series. I've played each of them, including the expansions and Alpha Centauri. This one, in my opinion, is the best of them all. I like the gameplay and how easy it is to create your own worlds and scenarios using the map editor. I still have this game installed on my computer after all these years and I still play it from time to time. The expansions for this game did nothing but enhance the gameplay and variety of games.







3. Starcraft
Even though the graphics are fake 3d, this game rocks. I also still have this game installed and my friends and I always play at least once when we get together for LAN parties. The map editor is not great, but still good enough to build maps with. Scenarios and other types of maps require a lot of precision and record keeping to keep it all straight. I tried creating a D&D style adventure using the map editor (I'd seen others do the same thing), but the triggers never seemed to fire correctly for me. The expansion was good, though not great. I didn't like any of the added units with the exception of Dark Templar.





4. Super Mario
Now, I haven't played every single game with Mario in it, but every one that I have played I have enjoyed. This item is mostly concerned with games like SMB3, Super Mario Land, Super Mario World, etc. I recently bought Super Mario 3 and Super Mario Land for the virtual console on my Wii and replayed them both in their entirety. I also have Super Paper Mario, which I played through as well, and I think that it is another great game. It diverges a bit from the side-scrolling of the originals, but it does so in an ingenious and inventive manner.






5. World of Warcraft
While I don't play WoW anymore, this game captured my attention for over two years. I (at one time or another) have played every class (with the exception of Death Knights, I don't have WotLK) and most of the races (I had no interest in playing a human). I stopped playing because grinding everyday for cash seemed pointless and WotLK was still months away. I think that at the time I had intended to buy WotLK, but I haven't gotten around to it and although I miss playing sometimes, I enjoy the time I spend with my family and other games much more.






6. Mario Kart
I felt that this series deserved its own spot separate from Super Mario games. I really, really enjoyed the first one on the SNES even though I never owned that system myself. I had the occassion to play on the N64 and Gamecube, but it wasn't until I got it for the Wii that my love for this game really shined through. I played it through each of the categories (50cc, 100cc, etc.) and I still play it to finish unlocking all of the characters and vehicles. This game is great multiplayer and a lot of fun single-player as well.


7. Hearts of Iron 2
A friend of mine at work suggested this game to me. The graphics are bland and 2d, but the gameplay more than makes up for this drawback. Another plus to this game is its easily modded. You can go on the developer's forums and download mods that others have created, or it's rather simple to include your own events, rename units, leaders, etc. I've played as each of the major powers and several minor powers (Sweden and Bulgaria to name two). It's a lot of fun for strategy and history buffs, but I also like it for the alternate history aspect of the game. Like, what if Sweden joined the Axis? Or, Italy never joined the Axis? Some of the games I've played have been very historically accurate, but most are wildly inaccurate, because that's how I like to play.



8. Oregon Trail
This was one of my favorite games as an elementary school kid. I always looked forward to computer lab day so that I could continue my Oregon Trail game. I played countless times and while I didn't always win, it was always a lot of fun.






9. Red Alert
This was my first real-time strategy game that I owned and is still one of my favorites of all time. The game play was great and the graphics were pretty good for the time period. Also, since I am an alternate history buff, I enjoyed the story behind the game. I've played most of the other C&C titles and none of them captured my attention like Red Alert did.








10. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Another game that I liked a LOT even though I never owned an SNES. This game will definitely be my next virtual console purchase for the Wii. The reason I liked this game so much was the graphics and gameplay were very good for the time and the story was pretty good too. I also like the idea of a dark world that is diametrically opposed to the "light" one and I have used this idea a couple of times in D&D campaigns that I've run because of this game.



Honorable mentions:
Masters of Orion 2 & 3, Diablo 1 & 2, Warcraft 3, Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars Battlefront, Grand Theft Auto (franchise), Legend of the Dragoon, Gran Turismo 2

Disclaimer: All pics came from Wikipedia, I have no ownership or rights to them, nor do I want any.