<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1579651267/qid=1022863375/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-3040373-0335061">Ultimate dining?</A>

Hey! It's only a 10 1/2 hour drive from my house to the French Laundry Restaurant, in Yountville, California! Then I can pay $120 per person to savor the Chef's Tasting Menu, which seems to be the choice Jason Kottke and his mate made. All I need to do is anticipate the next time I'm going to be near Sacramento or San Francisco and call in a reservation -- two months in advance. The food had better be good.

Ready To Operate

I think I mentioned this, but my friend at work, Burr, is a rather fastidious and methodical person, and wears latex gloves to change the oil in his truck. No oil stains on his hands, that way. And now, he's let me have two pairs, freeing me from having to buy a box full just for the ones I need. Now Tom and I can do our frontlight kits without getting finger oils on the light guides. Cool deal.

Biology Lesson

It's only that I'm too lazy to really go to town in Photoshop, or I'd have labelled all the major features of the eukaryotic cell illustrated in the birthday cake which Kelly and Jean made to celebrate Jean and my birthday. As it is, you'll just have to enjoy the pictures, starting with the banner, which links to the gallery of two picture.

Photoshopping

The other present I got was from Jean. It was the Photoshop 6 Wow! Book. As you recall, I rated one other book I'd looked at higher, but a bird in the hand is worth two in the wish list .

So as planned, I'll work my way through the book at a snail's pace, and probably complete it in about a year. That's why I wanted to look at them from the library first. Why pay $50 for a book that you wanna use for a year, only to discover it's unworkable? So the Wow! book has a ginchy layout, but I think I can work around it to save $50 buying another...

Afterburner Frontlight

W00t! Ma new frontlight is here! As Jean and I celebrate our birthdays together on her birthdate, this constitutes one of two presents I got yesterday. I opened the box, checking that it wasn't just full of bubble wrap, but I don't want to get fingerprints all over everything. I'll hang on to it in it's packaging until I can get around to either borrowing Tom's Dremel tool, or arranging to go over to his place to have a 'kit fest'.

MUDs, MMORPGs and Me

Kottke discussed a presentation at ETech which introduced the notion that there are four broad personality types associated with on-line gaming, especially MMORPGs. In turn, this talk was apparently based on Players Who Suit MUDs (pun intended, I'm sure) by Richard A. Bartle:

So, labelling the four player types abstracted, we get: achievers, explorers, socialisers and killers. An easy way to remember these is to consider suits in a conventional pack of cards: achievers are Diamonds (they're always seeking treasure); explorers are Spades (they dig around for information); socialisers are Hearts (they empathise with other players); killers are Clubs (they hit people with them).

Now my lifestyle just doesn't lend itself to playing MMORPGs. Everquest and the like derive their main benefit from the ability of players to link up with each other online and engage in cooperative quests. Sort of like AD&D online. But years ago I played AD&D, and nowadays I play console RPGs, and I have to categorize myself as a Spade. Make of that what you will.

Seriously, the thing I value most about Final Fantasy X is not the battles, but the expanding world, and the storyline that is revealed by moving through it. Even Resident Evil's main attraction to me is the movement through the mansion, finding bits and pieces of the puzzles, not the endless shotgun blasts at zombie after zombie. Of course, RE and it's ilk are cool just for the fusion of game genres (now old hat) that results in the label 'survival horror'.

P.S. - Still talking about good old PSOne Resident Evil here. I haven't sprung for the Gamecube yet. But if I do, it'll be 90% for this remake, and 10% for Pikmin.

Attack of the Memorial Day

Jean took Kelly to the mall this morning, for some mother-daughter fun. This includes shopping for summer clothes and looking at toys. I decided it would be intrusive of me to come along, so instead I went to the theatre and watched Attack of the Clones. [WARNING: Smart-alecky spoilers ahoy!]

Generally, I'd say that it rates very highly for the complexity of the effects and of the back story. The sometimes subtle indicators of plots and counterplots was actually pretty fun. Am I the only one, or does it seem obvious that Darth Sidious didn't seriously believe that Django Fett would succeed in killing Senator Amidala? I think he just cranked the peril up a notch to throw Padme and Anakin together, knowing that it would put a monkey wrench in Anakin's already twisted Jedi training.

The movie was worth seeing for lots of reasons, but I'd have to continue in my belief that any of the first three movies outranks these latest two. There's less spontaneity, less of a sense of genuine fun, than in any of the first three (and yes, I include Empire Strikes Back in that list).

Still, I've always been pretty good at taking each movie in the series on its own merits, and had no problem finding enjoyment in The Phantom Menace despite Jar-Jar Binks. Attack of the Clones is no exception. This movie is major eye candy, more than you can shake a cornea at. I'd love to see this at one of the digital theatres, but no way am I gonna drive to Seattle to see it at the Cinerama. All in all, I found many things enjoyable, even when they might have had a potential for bringing the movie down:

• That whole Batman and Robin thing going on between Obi-wan and Anakin early in the movie (at least the Robin who hit puberty and started giving Batman major headaches, finally leaving to become Nightwing) ... Obin-wan: "I feel it too!" (dashes into the bedroom with light sabre drawn). He might as well have shouted "to the Batcave!"



• The night life of downtown Coruscant.



• Anakin's whole stalker love story, especially the fact that it was limited to brief segments of the movie, scattered here and there. They could have compressed this even more and it wouldn't have been any more confusing when Padme actually fell for him!



• Giant dairy ticks!



• 90% Jar-Jar free.



• A missed moment: I really wanted Christopher Lee to direct the insectoid Geonosis aliens to attack the Jedi by shouting "fly, monkeys, fly!"



• Christopher Lee on a Vespa space scooter is proof of the Dark Side.



• Houdini Amidala. Not a speck of cereal!



• Superball Yoda. Now with more Super Happy Funball action!