Favorite Video Games

I'm not doing much on Askville any more - to tell you the truth, this bronchitis is killing me, so I'm not doing much of anything - but here's a question I couldn't resist answering.

Favorite video games
( Read more... )

Favorite Video Games

I'm not doing much on Askville any more - to tell you the truth, this bronchitis is killing me, so I'm not doing much of anything - but here's a question I couldn't resist answering.

Favorite video games
( Read more... )

Odds and Ends

I don't know if LJ is dying or if it's just the holiday, but it's awfully quiet around here! I don't feel like writing much myself. I'm feeling lousy in all sorts of ways.

But I guess I'd better do some updates.

- Sebastian got the Nutshell Kids book collection in his stocking. They're four tiny little books by Maurice Sendak, and were all turned into songs by Carole King for the Really Rosie TV special. Sebastian has been reading the books every night...it has been a really special time for us.

- I've managed to make flossing a regular part of Sebastian's evening routine. It should be a big help to him for the rest of his life.

- I picked up a card reader for $14 at BJs yesterday. You see, when I bought my computer I saved a few bucks by eliminating the card reader; I didn't really know what it was, and it sounded useless. But my camera needs to be powered on in order to transfer pictures from the SD card to the computer, and the process is very clunky; Windows doesn't interact well with my camera.

The connection often fails - not the actual wire, it's more like the camera goes into sleep mode and the computer forgets it existed - and even when it works, the transfer speed is really slow. It took nearly an hour to empty the 2GB chip!

What really pushed me over the brink was my attempt to show photos and video from our Disney trip to our families. Both of our families came over (on different days), and I tried various ways to get the pictures to display on our TV. A DVD simply failed. A data CD gave the message that the photos were an incompatible size. It was really frustrating!

Since we'd recently gotten a new router and hooked it up to the Wii, I downloaded their new Photo Channel 1.1 - it was free. It was also rather promising, and I was excited to see that you could use it to show photos and videos from an SD card. Once again there were problems, though. I discovered to my horror that Windows wouldn't allow me to copy pictures TO the camera. It was a one-way connection!

Our families aren't likely to visit again for a long time, but nonetheless I went and picked up a card reader. It let me throw about 30 photos and 30 videos on the SD card quickly and easily - it's SO good when technology works well. I put the card in the Wii, and was amazed at the results.

You can view individual photos and videos, edit them, turn them into puzzles, zoom in, etc. etc. You can also play videos backwards - and we all just about died of laughter watching Sebastian shoot up a water slide.

It was the slide show feature that was most impressive, though. It has a lot of options for control, but the default settings produced a simply lovely show. Photos and videos were shown in the order they were taken; the photos were displayed in various ways, zooming slowly in or out or across, with some really lovely and effective music playing as a soundtrack. Videos were intercut with the photos beautifully. Nintendo did a really great job, I must say!

Odds and Ends

I don't know if LJ is dying or if it's just the holiday, but it's awfully quiet around here! I don't feel like writing much myself. I'm feeling lousy in all sorts of ways.

But I guess I'd better do some updates.

- Sebastian got the Nutshell Kids book collection in his stocking. They're four tiny little books by Maurice Sendak, and were all turned into songs by Carole King for the Really Rosie TV special. Sebastian has been reading the books every night...it has been a really special time for us.

- I've managed to make flossing a regular part of Sebastian's evening routine. It should be a big help to him for the rest of his life.

- I picked up a card reader for $14 at BJs yesterday. You see, when I bought my computer I saved a few bucks by eliminating the card reader; I didn't really know what it was, and it sounded useless. But my camera needs to be powered on in order to transfer pictures from the SD card to the computer, and the process is very clunky; Windows doesn't interact well with my camera.

The connection often fails - not the actual wire, it's more like the camera goes into sleep mode and the computer forgets it existed - and even when it works, the transfer speed is really slow. It took nearly an hour to empty the 2GB chip!

What really pushed me over the brink was my attempt to show photos and video from our Disney trip to our families. Both of our families came over (on different days), and I tried various ways to get the pictures to display on our TV. A DVD simply failed. A data CD gave the message that the photos were an incompatible size. It was really frustrating!

Since we'd recently gotten a new router and hooked it up to the Wii, I downloaded their new Photo Channel 1.1 - it was free. It was also rather promising, and I was excited to see that you could use it to show photos and videos from an SD card. Once again there were problems, though. I discovered to my horror that Windows wouldn't allow me to copy pictures TO the camera. It was a one-way connection!

Our families aren't likely to visit again for a long time, but nonetheless I went and picked up a card reader. It let me throw about 30 photos and 30 videos on the SD card quickly and easily - it's SO good when technology works well. I put the card in the Wii, and was amazed at the results.

You can view individual photos and videos, edit them, turn them into puzzles, zoom in, etc. etc. You can also play videos backwards - and we all just about died of laughter watching Sebastian shoot up a water slide.

It was the slide show feature that was most impressive, though. It has a lot of options for control, but the default settings produced a simply lovely show. Photos and videos were shown in the order they were taken; the photos were displayed in various ways, zooming slowly in or out or across, with some really lovely and effective music playing as a soundtrack. Videos were intercut with the photos beautifully. Nintendo did a really great job, I must say!

Italian Toast

I think Italian toast is one of those regional Rhode Island things. To tell you the truth, even around here, only one place makes really good Italian toast.

But we don't get to go there often, so I thought I'd take a shot at making some myself. The result was surprisingly good. It's too simple to be called a recipe, but here's how I did it.

I had several long loaves of Italian bread that were just going to waste. So I took one and cut it on a long diagonal. Then I cut it in half, sandwich-style, and buttered the cut sides. I heated up a frying pan and put the bread in, buttered side down. As the bread grilled, I pressed down on it hard with the spatula.

When the bread was nice and toasted, I flipped it and grilled the back, non-buttered side for a little while. Just for the heck of it, I pressed it flat again. The result was surprisingly...flat.

It was also really, really delicious.

Italian Toast

I think Italian toast is one of those regional Rhode Island things. To tell you the truth, even around here, only one place makes really good Italian toast.

But we don't get to go there often, so I thought I'd take a shot at making some myself. The result was surprisingly good. It's too simple to be called a recipe, but here's how I did it.

I had several long loaves of Italian bread that were just going to waste. So I took one and cut it on a long diagonal. Then I cut it in half, sandwich-style, and buttered the cut sides. I heated up a frying pan and put the bread in, buttered side down. As the bread grilled, I pressed down on it hard with the spatula.

When the bread was nice and toasted, I flipped it and grilled the back, non-buttered side for a little while. Just for the heck of it, I pressed it flat again. The result was surprisingly...flat.

It was also really, really delicious.

DS

A comment from Askville about DS games:

My son got one a month ago. We got my wife one for Christmas. I'm the only one in my family who doesn't have one.

Super Mario 64 is a great game, if you like that sort of thing. I'm also really looking forward to trying The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass, which is a sequel to the superb The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on the GameCube/Wii. Both of those games are essentially RPG/adventure games, but they're beautifully done.

But the game that has REALLY hooked every adult so far is Margot's Word Brain. ( Read more... )

DS

A comment from Askville about DS games:

My son got one a month ago. We got my wife one for Christmas. I'm the only one in my family who doesn't have one.

Super Mario 64 is a great game, if you like that sort of thing. I'm also really looking forward to trying The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass, which is a sequel to the superb The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on the GameCube/Wii. Both of those games are essentially RPG/adventure games, but they're beautifully done.

But the game that has REALLY hooked every adult so far is Margot's Word Brain. ( Read more... )

New Year's?

Is anyone doing anything for New Year's? We've basically done nothing every New Year's Eve since Sebastian was born; in fact, we've mostly slept through it.

I kind of hate that. When I was a kid, we used to spend every New Year's Eve with another family; it was a nice tradition. I'd like to hang out with SOMEONE this year, if possible. Any ideas? Anyone?

New Year's?

Is anyone doing anything for New Year's? We've basically done nothing every New Year's Eve since Sebastian was born; in fact, we've mostly slept through it.

I kind of hate that. When I was a kid, we used to spend every New Year's Eve with another family; it was a nice tradition. I'd like to hang out with SOMEONE this year, if possible. Any ideas? Anyone?

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