February 16, 2008

Boy, koi, joy

If you’ve been hanging around my place for very long you know that shopping is not my favorite thing to do. I work out of my car and travel all over the island, pretty much on my own schedule, so I generally keep my home supplied with necessities by making little stops during my workday. That was the case recently when I found myself with time on my hands between inspections. I watch a lot of cooking shows and am always fascinated by some of the obscure and exotic ingredients they use. I’ve wanted to try cooking with truffles, but they’re too expensive, so when one of the shows mentioned that truffle butter was richly flavored and affordable I decided I had to have some. The only place I knew of that might carry it was Williams Sonoma, which happens to have a shop at Ala Moana Shopping Center, halfway between my two inspection sites. My mission was to get in, find out if I could get truffle butter and get out. I shoved my camera into my purse (because you never know) and hiked through the mall, making a mental note that I should take a picture of the koi pond on my out. No truffle butter, but I bought an expensive, tiny bottle of truffle oil.

There’s one thing about shopping that I do enjoy. I get my kid-fix when I’m in the mall or the grocery store. A lot of mom’s of preschoolers seem to like getting their shopping done between naps and lunch and such, which means the stores are full of kids when I’m shopping. Some folks might not like having to dodge around all of the strollers and short people, but I like to flirt with every little one I pass. I didn’t get the chance with this little guy because his attention was riveted elsewhere. His mom and I had a brief conversation about his cuteness and how kids love fish and water and sometimes want mom’s to leave the bathroom faucets running so they can splash and make a mess. I’m pretty sure her son never knew I was there, so fascinated was he by the koi. I carried my precious bottle of oil to the car and went on my way, not minding at all that my brief mission had been somewhat extended. I wish I’d thought to ask his mom if she wanted me to email the picture to her.

Technorati Tags: boys, fish, Hawaii, koi, photo, shopping, water

February 15, 2008

Four Foods on Friday #17

It’s Friday and I haven’t posted my answers yet to the Four Foods on Friday questions. Oops! Couple of too-busy days in a row and I get totally out of step. My answers are below and there’s still time for you to participate if you hurry!

#1. What’s your favorite potato chip?

Well, it’s not a potato chip. I love corn chips, especially with a good, spicey-cheesy dip!

#2. Do you use butter, margarine, both or neither?

Both! I really love butter, but too much is not a good thing, so I use margarine for some things.

#3. What’s your favorite mixed alcoholic (or virgin) drink?

I don’t do any alcohol or mixed drinks anymore. I drink coffee, tea, water, sometimes a little juice … and that’s it!

#4. What’s your favorite vegetable and how do you prepare it?

I probably have a hundred ways to prepare potatoes and I’m constantly finding or making up new ones. I’ve been experimenting lately with the cute little imported potatoes that are so often featured on Top Chef, Iron Chef and other cooking shows. I really like New Potatoes, too. My latest made-up recipe: Cut new potatoes into bite-sized bits. Place them in a zip-lock bag and sprinkle lightly with olive oil. Add salt, pepper and a generous amount of minced garlic. Zip the bag and tumble the potatoes around until the ingredients are evenly distributed. Spread in a single layer in a baking pan and bake for about 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven, turning once about half-way through. The small amount of olive oil is enough to make the seasoning cling and give the potatoes a crispy shell without overloading on fats.

Val will do a synopsis of all of the Four Foods on Friday posts later today and give all of the participants a little linky-love, so hustle on over to her place if you want to be included!

Technorati Tags: food, memes, recipes

February 14, 2008

Share Some Good Stuff

Sometimes we get so overwhelmed with the bad news that we forget that there are good things going on around us all the time. We can’t change the headlines, but we can seek out that which is good, that which is uplifting, that which shines with a positive radiance - the good stuff. Here are some recent feel-great stories:

Laughin over at The Queen of Pith scoured local news sources and discovered two heartwarming stories. Welcome aboard, Laughin!

Regular contributor Val, who blogs at I Know EVERYTHING - Just Ask My Hubby posted a story about a teen with a warm heart who braved the cold for a good cause.

Our Corrin, who is practically a newlywed herself, had to share a Gallery of Kisses for Valentines Day over at Oh Hey!

I’m almost as excited about a teacher’s Valentine math as I am about a triumphant beagle - or maybe it’s the other way around!

Have you checked the back pages of your local paper lately? Do yourself a favor and make it a point to find the good news that never gets the bold headlines. Pick a news source anywhere in the world or something great you’ve found on the web. Better yet, share a heart-warming first-person moment that made you smile. Did your youngest just bake a cake without parental interference? Did the smelly guy on the bus finally get a clue and clean up his act? Maybe your neighbor’s nut tree is hanging over your back fence and giving you all the free pecans you could ever want. Those little day-to-day moments that make us smile are the stuff of a happy life and worthy of sharing. Here’s your chance to recognize them for what they are and spread a little sunshine in the process. Make sure you send me a link when you’re moved to blog about something good going on. I’ll hook you up the next time we Share Some Good Stuff and then we can all feel a little better about what this world is coming to!

Technorati Tags: good news, current events, local stories, meme

Creative teaching

Have you ever had occasion to interview any high school grads for a job opening? It’s been a few years since I’ve done it, but the results were dismal. Most of the applicants were barely literate and none of them knew how to properly fill out an application form. I know that a few of them were planning on going college and it’s likely that some of them got in. We’ve lowered our standards to the lowest common denominator instead of expecting our schools to challenge students and encourage them to grow and stretch. Many of our best teachers have walked away in frustration at the systems that wouldn’t let them teach or the pay levels that kept them living near poverty levels. There are still great teachers and excellent schools out there, but the days are gone when both were expected to meet those superlatives. I’m excited today about a teacher who raises the bar for his peers.

Cory Bennett doesn’t just teach. He inspires and challenges his eighth-grade algebra students at Ilima Intermediate School. He does it by making math fun and showing his students how it connects to their lives. His Valentine’s Day projects take his creative approach to an even higher level. Who knew that math could quantify and define your love? Ah, Mr. Bennet did!

Kudos to Cory Bennet for doing it right, and congratulations to all of the students lucky enough to get assigned to Mr. Bennet’s classes. Your enthusiasm shows and will serve you well as you continue your education and move on to whatever follows. Keep that flame burning!

Photo credit: Craig T. Kojima, Honolulu Star Bulletin

Technorati Tags: education, exceptional teachers, Hawaii education

The Nightshift Code - hidden object game

I actually played The Nightshift Code about a month ago. The site I found it on only allowed thirty minutes of play on their free demo download and I was making notes and grabbing screenshots as I played. When my time ran out I didn’t feel like I had enough info for a review so I let it pass. Now it’s in wider distribution and I’ve had the chance to play it again tonight. It’s a fun game and introduces a few innovations to the hidden object game genre.

The stage is set with a graphic comic-style story. Mike’s father is missing. A sinister visitor to the museum where he works convinces Mike that he can rescue his dad by following a series of clues. The opening chapter of the story is quite long and each phase of the game is followed by more installments. This is my least favorite feature of the game, but perhaps would not have bothered me if I had been playing the full version. Having only a time-limited demo available, I was watching the clock and clicked rapidly through the storyboards.

The art is sharp, clear and skillfully drawn. Some of the hidden objects are tough to find, but all are fairly rendered and can be found. It’s what we expect from these games and a huge relief after my experience with The Count of Monte Cristo. Scenes are used repeatedly, so you’ll already know where some items are when a scene reappears with a new list of objects to search for.

One of the fun features of The Nightshift Code requires the player to work two scenes to find all of the items on a single list. This doesn’t occur with every level - I had only one shot at it during my free demo. You won’t know which items can be found on which screen, but can switch freely back and forth until your list is cleared. I found all of the objects on a list that accompanied the office scene and was duplicated in a kitchen. Locating an object on one screen eliminates it from the list of objects for both scenes.

Now here’s something fun and different. The objects are hidden on a map instead of in a room or scattered around a landscape. Using the magnifier to seach, you’ll find that the map is surprisingly “busy” with objects that are not obvious at all without the tool. Innovations like this keep gameplay fresh and challenging. I hope we’ll see more such surprises in future games.

I like The Nightshift Code, but I’m not sure I’ll buy the full version. Multiple visits to the same scenes with the same objects in the same places result in a lowered level of challenge as the game progresses. I played at Big Fish Games, where my Game Club membership would allow me to purchase the game for $6.99, but I think I’ll probably use my game credits for something that will still engage me the second and third times I play. Download the free demo, give it a whirl and let me know what you think.

You can read all of my hidden object game reviews by clicking on games in the drop-down category menu in my left sidebar.

Technorati Tags: Big Fish Games, games, hidden object games, The Nightshift Code

February 13, 2008

Footprints on the Moon

Footprints on the Moon is my friend Jennifer’s personal blog. She writes with a natural, conversational voice, so it feels like sitting down with a friend and catching up with her life each time I visit. We actually do visit with each other a lot. She and I both participate in Self Portrait Sundays most weeks and, of course, she plays Tuesday Teasers. She’s been my winner twice recently, so I’ll be reviewing one of her other blogs soon (I’m thinking her cooking blog.)

Jennifer is a strong-willed and opinionated working gal. She’s front desk receptionist/security for a large firm. If she had her way (and didn’t need her job) she’d kick a little butt and take a few names. Since she can’t do that, she’s opted instead to share an Open Letter to All Employees that anyone who’s ever worked a front desk will appreciate. Having done so in a past life, I’d love to have had her way with words back in those days:

1. Having a degree does not make you smart. Nor does it entitle you to anything. It simply makes you more educated.
2. The receptionist is not your personal secretary. If the company did not see fit to supply you with a secretary, this is likely because you are not important enough. You get to make your own phone calls, and pages, and I will not do them for you. This is especially true if YOU are someone else’s secretary. Doing your job is not in my job description.

Read the whole list. It just gets better and better. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll know exactly who you’d love to send it to!

When she’s not at work Jennifer diplays her girly-girl side. Cats and babies play a big role in her life. She’s got a super-soft spot for her nephew Killian. He’s over-the-top adorable, just had his first birthday and makes frequent guest appearances on his auntie’s blog. He’s been training her so she’ll be a great mom when she has kids of her own. She’s still looking for the man who will play a vital role in that scenario, but her life is so full and busy she probably doesn’t have much time for him these days. She’ll make time for you if you go visit her, though. Make sure you leave her a comment when you get there. Tell her skeet sent you and she might let you look under her bed.

Technorati Tags: bloggers, blogs, women bloggers, working woman

The Count of Monte Cristo - new hidden object game

I played The Count of Monte Cristo last night. I have to say that it was, overall, a disappointing experience. Based on the classic Alexander Dumas novel of the same name, the game follows his story by requiring the player to help Edmond Dantes track down the betrayers who had him wrongfully imprisoned. There is no “skip” feature for the opening pages which set the scene. They fan by so quickly that you may not be able to finish reading each one before it’s gone, but there are so many of them that you’ll probably begin to wonder if you’re ever going to get to play the game.

While lovely to look at, the artwork does not serve the purpose of the game. Many of the images are rendered in a dark and muddy fashion with inadequate attention to detail. See those amorphous blobs on the steps above and below the skull near the lower right corner? What are those things? I’ve even tried expanding my screenshots to full size in my photo viewer and still can’t tell, though it’s obvious that each is supposed to be “something.” It’s all good and well to be clever with placement of the hidden objects and to use color, light and shadow to make them difficult to find, but making them completely unidentifiable is just wrong. There are a multitude of such indistinct blobs throughout the game.

The game creators also break another cardinal rule of fair play. The above screenshot is the first search page you’ll be presented with. On the steps at the left is a bottle (seen in full size, it bears a skull and crossbones emblem - a bottle of poison.) Clicking on it will not strike a bottle from your search list. Perhaps the creators consider it a flagon or a flask or something else. Sure looks like a bottle to me. Such confusion occurs throughout the game as you try to select the specific items you’re searching for amongst other items that fit the same description.

The first minigame was equally frustrating. The task is to assemble the pieces into a map. Pieces can be turned to the proper orientation by using your space bar. Well, that’s the theory. I wasted a lot of time before that function finally worked for me. Notice that, once again, there’s no opt out or skip button. You must complete the minigame before you can move on, so the malfunction sucked a good chunk of time out of my hour of free play.

Hints are available to highlight items you’re having trouble locating. Unfortunately, they get used up pretty quickly due to the inadequacies described above. You’ll eventually be taken to a dark screen where you can use a spotlight to search for gems with which to buy more hints. I had just opened that screen when my time ran out, so I can’t give you a screenshot. Oh, yeah - another thing. The clock does not stop if you minimize the game screen to open another - say your photo editor so you can save screenshots for a review. All of the games I’ve previously played automatically paused when another page was opened. I was about three quarters of the way through my hour before a pop-up appeared telling me to click on the clock to pause this game.

The Count of Monte Cristo is currently an exclusive from SpinTop Gamesnow in wide distribution. You can get it from Big Fish Games for just $6.99 if you’re a Game Club member. I won’t be doing a directbuy of this one anytime soon. If you play games to relax you won’t either. If you’re into anxiety and frustration - go for it. Download it for a free one-hour demo and decide for yourself.

You can read all of my hidden object game reviews by clicking on games in the drop-down category menu in my left sidebar.

Technorati Tags: Big Fish Games, games, hidden object games, SpinTop Games, The Count of Monte Cristo

Uno is Numero Uno!

Uno the beagle took top honors at the 2008 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, becoming the first beagle ever to take Best in Show. That bit of information shocked me, because beagles have been one of the most popular breeds in the US for a very long time. I guess the criteria for selecting a pet are quite different from the criteria for selecting a champion. Like my scampy little Lance, Uno apparently loves being the center of attention:

“With fans calling out his name and clapping, he soaked in the cheers as he paraded around the ring, the cheers becoming more thunderous with every step. And when he made his final stop in front of Jones, Uno went to town, baying over and over.”

That refers to his behavior before judge J. Donald Jones, who made the final call for Best in Show. It’s typical beagle behavior. The working beagles I used to be partnered with behaved with professional dignity while on the job, but once their business day was over they all loved to play with puppy-like abandon. You just can’t be in the same room with these guys for long without laughing at their antics.

I told Lance about this great honor bestowed on his breed. He was impressed.

Photo credits
Top: Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Center: Peter Kramer/Associated Press

Technorati Tags: beagles, champion dogs, Lance, Uno the beagle, Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

February 12, 2008

Blogging with Cents

More and more bloggers are earning part or all of their income these days by monetizing their blogs. I do a little of it here with sponsored posts and contextual links, but those are by no means the only methods you can use to turn your blog into a valid income-producer. There are many marketing firms, affiliate programs and advertising opportunities available, but that also means there are a multitude of ways you can go wrong. Lori takes blog marketing seriously and has a blog that can help you sort through the dross and find the good stuff. Blogging with Cents is less than a year old but has already developed into a great resource, whether you’re a novice or someone with a bit of experience.

Affiliate marketing is one of the more common ways to make money with your blog and can be very lucrative. It can also be a very frustrating experience if you hook up with the wrong programs. Lori has just launched an affiliate marketing series with an explanation of what affiliate marketing is, how the various sub-types work and how they can help you make money. I’m looking forward to future installments of this series that will go into more detail and give us the benefit of her experiences. She also has some experience dealing directly with advertisers and has shared the basics to help you get started with that.

The first step to monetizing your blog is creating a site that advertisers believe will offer them some value. Lori routinely posts blogging tips that will help you get your blog ready for the big time. Take a look around her site while you’re there. You’ll see some of her marketing programs in her sidebar and find a wealth of additional information by delving into her category menu. She’s a pretty friendly gal, so don’t be afraid to ask questions in the comment field for any given post. She won’t bite - she wants to make sure you get the most out of her articles. If you’re looking for more comprehensive help, you can even hire Lori as your blog marketing coach to make sure you get off to a great start. Why stumble around in the dark when someone has gone before you and turned the lights on? Check out Blogging with Cents and you’ll see what I mean.

Technorati Tags: blog marketing, blog monetization, blogging for income, reviews

Tuesday Teaser photo verification

I was feeling pretty rushed last night when I put together my Tuesday Teaser post for the week. A friend and I watched several hours of The Tudors, then sat and chatted for a while. Before I knew it it was midnight. I didn’t have a puzzle prepared and I was a little distracted by concerns that a late bedtime would make it difficult for me to keep a very early appointment this morning. I’d been toying with the idea of using something from my game collection for the puzzle, but I should have thought the idea through before staging my photo. Had I been more “on the ball” I might have selected something a little more obscure, or perhaps a less recognizable piece fo the game I chose. I’m thinking now that I didn’t give you much of a challenge, since almost all of you immediately recognized the Monopoly logo, lol!

Congratulations to Jennifer who once again beat you all to the punch. Y’all are going to have to start setting your alarms each Monday evening if you want to get a look at the puzzles before she solves them. Jennifer has won a review of her blog and an entry into the monthly drawing for a $10.00 gift card. Mahalo to all of you who played. I’m working on a little variation that I hope will put the challenge back into Tuesday Teasers, so make sure you come back next week to check it out!

Since there was a question raised as to which version of Monopoly I own, you get a bonus photo this week. It’s the Deluxe Edition, produced in 1995 to celebrate the 60th Anniversery of the classic Parker Brothers game. Sadly, mine has never been played. The golden tokens and wooden houses and hotels remain pristine in their little plastic bags, unspoiled by human hands. I bought it around the time my son moved to the mainland and have yet to find a worthy substitute for my favorite opponent.

Technorati Tags: contest, contest winner, games, Monopoly, photo contest, puzzle