ice cream making and ranting

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Cake Games

I don't really know the rules, but here's an exciting use of cake in gaming (not to mention marshmallow peeps)

Settlers of Catan

I'm still open for suggestions on how to use the castle cake in a game.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Beloit Mindset List 2012

Well, they're at it again. Here's the newest list to come from Beloit College. And, I have to say. After all of my previous hate, this one isn't so bad. Did I just finally become accustomed to the stupidity? Maybe. But I think they're also making a better list. This one is more things that existed or didn't exist in a person's lifetime if he was born in 1990. It's not so much of "they can't possibly know or think this" it more objective facts.

So kudos Beloit, for finally having a decent person making the list. But all your points were lost when you made a page that can't be copied and pasted. Thank goodness for source code.

Here are a few to make you feel old:

We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten"

McDonald’s and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries

There has always been Pearl Jam.

Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.

Students always had Goosebumps.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Olympic Nonsense

This seems to be the first olympics that I've ever paid attention to. You'd think it'd be more interesting when I was younger, but apparently I've never watched before. Because, it seems, that every freaking sport is a surprise to me.

Last week I was shocked, and delighted to see that synchronized diving was an event. I had no idea you could synch that. Swimming, sure. But diving? Amazing.

And, who knew about women's softball? Not me.

But really, the big shock to me was today's 90 minute event of the women's 20K racewalk. Seriously? walking? Not even real walking. Mostly some kind of crazy waddle. What makes it a walk? These rules:

The first dictates that the athlete's back toe cannot leave the ground until the heel of the front foot has touched. Violation of this rule is known as loss of contact. The second rule requires that the supporting leg must straighten from the point of contact with the ground and remain straightened until the body passes over it. These rules are judged by the human eye, which creates controversy at today's high speeds.

Most olympic athletes are graceful at their sport. They have some kind of skill that is generally appealing. Unless you're really into ducks, I can't see how you'd find this sport attractive. It looks terrible for your knees, and even terribler if you had middle school kids around who would definitely mock you. I generally don't have much respect for marathon runners. It seems like a stupid skill to have, and is really terrible for your body. But 20k walking is way, way stupider.

If you don't believe me, check out the men's 50k on the 22nd.

And a shout out to Rakia Al Gassra for defying all odds, and being one of the first women to represent Bahrain. She was in Athens. And I saw her tonight, racing in her long pants, long sleeves and hoodie. A bold move, when the other women runners wear practically nothing.

Seriously, this olympics thing is just weird.