Why can't technology just get along?

Dearest readers, I have a gripe.

No no, not a grape, a gripe. Source.

It's a candid one, one that tosses aside worldly problems, one that ignores the greater issues. Its focus is intent and fierce, and in order for it to be understood it must have full attention.

It dives into a specific sort of problem, one that has currently overridden my mind. Let it be known that I do gripe over much larger and more important things, but in this moment I have a one track mind.

Why isn't there an official Google Drive, formerly Google Docs, application for the iPad?

Oh there are plenty of paid ones, to be sure. Plenty of $4.99 situations that offer what Google could offer for free. These slaps in the face run rampant in the App store. What's worse is that any applications that are free that offer a Google Docs service don't let you edit the documents, only view them.

What use is that?!

Noooo, not five dollars!! 

Now it is true that I could simply use Google Drive from DiigoBrowser, but I've realized that the lack of a Google Drive app isn't really what's making me irritable.

It's this Apple 'pushing out other brands' thing.

I feel like this is a battle against Microsoft, but Google has been pulled into the mix! The App store has other official Google offerings, but it is extremely limited. Is Apple really aiming for an eventual technological monopoly? Do they want to edge out Google? I was under the impression that healthy competition was a good thing.

Exceedingly limited selection compared to my Nexus S! 

There's a good chance that I don't understand something in this mix. Or perhaps I understand it and I simply don't like it.

Yeah, that's more like it. I don't like it. Boo.

OK, gripe over. If anyone has more information or input about this situation then I'd really like to hear it! I have very little real information about this subject. Who doesn't love learning opportunities?

-MJ

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200 posts! *party horn*

Hello and a very happy Wednesday to you all! Today marks my 200th post here at A Bit of Geek, and I am just so pleased about that.

I love this website. I am dedicated to it, I think about it a lot, and I'm regularly pondering over ways to improve it. I'm always so happy when a post that I've written has struck a chord with readers; to see comments and views on an article that I've put a lot of effort into is such an immense payoff.

It's a pleasure to cruise the internet and find things that interest not only me, but things that I believe will interest you and the masses at large (if they choose to wander my way!). It's becoming increasingly important to me to provide more original content as well. The largest implementation of this, so far, has been my A Bit of Geek videos. I also showcased the Spriggan Mask, and I'm looking to do a lot more of that.

I hope that you all will stick around for another 200 posts and beyond, because there is a lot of exciting stuff in the works. I wish I could share it all, but that would spoil the surprise! You can know this much: expect more videos, more reviews, and a lot of fan dedication.

If there's anything you'd like to see here, please let me know! My ears, eyes, and mailbox are always open.

Also, if I may make a small request in honor of this most momentous occasion: if you like the content that I'm posting, then feel free to give it a +1 on Google, or a 'like' on Facebook, or a honk on ClownGeeks (I made that last one up. I think...)

My point is, in addition to it meaning a lot to me, those little 'likes', +1s, etc. really help me to stand out on the great, wide internet.

Your support means the world to me!

-MJ

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Classroom MMOs to aid learning!

Who all has heard of Class Realm? It's a great Kickstarter project (that's awaiting full monetary backing) to build an MMO style game to put in classrooms. Just replace "quests" with "lesson plans"!

From the Class Realm Kickstarter page.

You can get the full rundown over here, but I'll put in a few key points:

- lesson plans created by teachers
- custom characters for students
- login privileges for parents to monitor their children's work
- XP distributed by teachers
- computer, tablet, and phone functionality plans

I am all for this! Considering the number of high school, junior high, and even elementary school students that have smart phones, tablets or their own computers, this is a feasible plan. Research has shown that the reward incentives present in games is the largest factor to the success of a game. More simply: rewards keep people playing. Think Farmville, specifically, but also World of Warcraft.

Tons of reward ribbons, plus tiers of ribbons. It's an unending cycle! Source.

In addition, learning is always a lot more fun when it feels like a game. (Mad Libs, anyone?) I recall the vocabulary portion of the day in Kindergarten: Word Muncher for those old fashioned DOS based computers; moving that little green guy around the screen to find other words that rhymed with "kite", priceless!

But back to my original point.

Class Realm is hoping to revolutionize the way students learn and interact while in school. If you like the program, it's super easy to donate to the cause in hopes of its success. I know many sources like to blame television and video games for a decrease in kids attention, and I certainly haven't done any of my own research, but if that's the case then why hasn't someone incorporated games sooner?

Although, I can't possibly neglect my appreciation for games such as Mario Teaches Typing and Math Blasters, but those weren't exactly immersive. If my homework hub had been an online game where I could play with friends, classmates, and earn the digital equivalent of tons of Gold Stars, I think I may have worked harder on assignments.

ALL the gold stars! Source.

What do you all think of this? Would you even want your elementary school child to have a smart phone or a tablet? Would you be interested in monitoring their progress online? Would you support their homework existing in a gaming realm? I'd really love to see this pan out!

-MJ

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Would you like a fully automated life?

So I read this article about a practice perfect city in New Mexico. It sounds pretty cool, all perfect streets with self-driving cars and what-not. A city where water turns on, toilets flush, and technology communicates device to device, all without human interference.

This almost sounds like The Jetsons! Who else is fond of the moving platforms in airports? They really speed up all of that pesky walking we have to do. Why aren't all sidewalks like this?

Oh, right, it's because people are lazy and just stand there. Source.

But seriously, I think this perfect town is cool. It opens the door to the question that I always have regarding technological advancement: how will it work in conjunction with our current city structure? 

It's not feasible to tear down and reconstruct whole towns and cities, is it? And what about the Old World, the amazing first-person account of life before the modern age over in Europe? It would be an absolute travesty to demolish the cobblestone streets in order to make way for a self-driving car. 

Meanwhile there are plenty of these throughout the US, so feel free to demolish.

I'm joking. Kind of. Source.

I don't imagine anyone over there would take any issue with improved water pipes. Everyone can use fresher, more delicious water. Also, too many people forget to flush the toilet, so I believe that is a no-brainer.

Back to those self-driving cars!

Sounds to me like the cars need to just be incredibly smart. It looks like Google has things under control though, considering that they just approved the first automated vehicle in Nevada.

The self-driving car situation is pretty exciting to me. I mean, it would really make road trips a lot shorter, right? Just drive until you're tired, make sure your GPS is set, and then take a little snooze! I guess Google doesn't intend for the automated aspect to replace drivers though, simply help them. But I know the car can drive on its own.

Given the funds, I would totally be first in line for a Google car! Especially since it's an apparatus that would work with any car, well, then I get to keep my currently awesome car and add more functionality. 

Strap this bad boy to my car and I'll never side-swipe another telephone poll again.

What? I was sixteen, give me a break! Source.

This sounds like an exciting win to me.

Are you excited?

-MJ

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I'm back, and I missed you!

My brain feels all spongy and my fingers are flopping all over this keyboard. You’d think that using technology would be like riding a bike, but after two and a half weeks I’m feeling very out of touch. The first few days were great: open space, no technology, and freedom. 

Pretty, but completely unhelpful in terms of technological wonderings.

Then I started to wonder what everyone else in the world was doing. Had anyone posted new cat pictures to Instagram? Was I missing any exciting updates in the video game world? How many new Doctor Who gifs had appeared on Tumblr?

The open night sky and brightly burning stars couldn’t answer these questions. Instead, I learned the answers to a whole new set of questions that I didn’t realize I had.

-I learned that bees won’t investigate empty soda cans on overcast days or cloudy days, but on sunny ones a whole swarm will appear. Just so you know, they really do hate smoke and will fairly promptly leave an area once said area is filled with campfire smoke.

-I learned that a rattlesnake can totally look like a discarded bungee cord. And in conjunction with this, I learned that I am completely OK with running over bungee cords. No, I didn’t run over the snake, but I totally almost did since I thought it was a bungee cord, and we've already established that I don't mind running those things over.

Hyper zoomed in, for proof reasons!

-I finally figured out how to pee in the wilderness without ruining my pants. This is something I’ve been working on for about eighteen years.

-I learned that running (or rather, wildly scrambling away) from a bee while on a decline of boulders is easily in the top ten stupid ways to die. I sat for a long time afterward and had a serious conversation with myself about the pain of a bee sting versus falling down a hill of giant rocks.

Pro tip: falling down this will not be better than a bee sting.

-I learned that not all oasises (oasi?) have water. That was disappointing. 

-I learned that road runners are teeny, tiny birds. They are fast though!

-I learned that every single thing in the desert is out to kill us. Did you know that some cacti even jump at innocent passers-by? Lock up your children and pets, people.

 These may look pretty, but they will mess you up. Go talk to some scientists about 

this enormous static electricity problem, and then get back to me.

Also? This looks incredibly painful.

-I learned that even while in the desert, I’ll still find a tree to run into while drunk. The only tree at the campsite, mind you.

If you’re ever thinking about camping in the desert, just don’t. It is a harsh, unrelenting environment. You’ll be on sand covered granite, there will be no cover from the sun. Your nose? It will burn! If you incur a wound and use a band aid, you’ll end up with a weird tan line. 

Kind of like I ran out of band aids, so I put a slug on it.

While romping about in Joshua Tree I discovered the origins for Voldemort's face.

"Skull Rock"? More like "Voldemort Nose"

I'm so clever.

Also, how long has it been since you’ve gone five days without a shower? I have to say that this camping trip was a first for me and wow, people get shockingly filthy after five days with no shower. I ended up clipping off my nails to try and keep the dirt out from under them (I can't stand dirty fingernails), but it didn’t help. I ended up with a tan, but after I finally bathed it turned out that I wasn’t quite as tan as I initially thought. How gross is that?

For good measure, here's a coyote!

And lastly, proof that I was actually out in the desert.

Now that I'm home and have regular access to showering facilities, which after camping don't seem as dirty as I remember, I'm really happy to be back to my website and scouring the internet for data to share with you all!

Thanks for your patience while I was on vacation, and I hope that my throw-back posts were of sufficient entertainment value :D

-MJ

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Completing New Super Mario Bros. Wii was an enormous triumph.

This is the last post for my strangely long vacation. Please tell me that I didn't lose readers in the mean time. You all mean so much to me! Don't leave!! I really love this post for today, just so you know. Have you read it before? It's all about playing New Super Mario Bros for the Wii!


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August 2011

Our house of many mushrooms.

11:59 AM  MIRANDA EUBANKS  NO COMMENTS

Before I left for Washington in the middle of June, Andrew and I were on a steady schedule of playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii and/or watching an episode of True Blood every night before we went to bed. I quite enjoyed this seeing as it was fun and fulfilling and best of all he and I are excellent cooperative players at Mario.

With all of the insane hopping, jumping, flying, floating and stomping that goes on in a multiplayer side scroller, it is unfortunately easy to accidentally take all of the items out of the classic question mark block, or to bump into your co-pilot and send them screaming into a pit of lava. Some even call it 'marriage poison'.

It would appear that some relationship duos don't play quite as

harmoniously as Andrew and I do. I consider us very lucky!

When I first brought up playing Mario together, he had some reservations. Apparently he wasn't terribly well versed in the Mario universe while he was growing up, and as a result felt that he possessed inadequate experience to be able to play alongside me, Mario lover extraordinaire* since age five.

I quelled this concern, stating I didn't care how good or bad he was and that I simply wanted us to play together. I am sorely lacking in the co-op/multiplayer gaming department, seeing as I rarely had anyone to play with. I have a sister who greatly enjoyed gaming when she was younger (and does now again many years later) but that's really another subject. The point here is that when I have had a multiplayer game (that was co-op!) I always enjoyed the experience and I wished that I had more. So anyway, he finally agreed to play with me.

It has been a truly fantastic experience to play alongside him and watch him improve. He started out like anyone else did as a new player; uncertain, overly-cautious and accident prone. It was like watching myself so many years ago, and it was great. I've never been present for someone's first experience with Mario (other than my own, of course). I recall my sister being great at Mario and I repeatedly died, feeling forever like an extremely poor player. Andrew is now really quite skilled!

Currently, I am very pleased to say, we are at Bowser's castle at the end of the game! This is insanely thrilling to me because, and don't judge me here, I've never been able to finish any of the traditional side-scrolling Mario games! I know I know, it's absolutely shameful! And it certainly isn't for lack of trying. I have played Mario and Mario 3 so many times, but my goodness are they difficult. The original one I've warped to World 8 with all the tanks and just, no. No no no. As for Mario 3 I always always always get stuck on World 5 in the clouds. I simply cannot get past the cloud portion. Someday I would love to complete them both.

To my delight, the cloud levels in New Super Mario Bros. Wii are

actually extremely fun! I wonder what the creatures are called...

The level designs are absolutely superb. It's very much a 'just right' situation for me. The worlds follow the classic pattern of grass, sand, ocean/ice, etc. It is completely nostalgic while being very new at the same time. The presence of Blooper swimming dangerously in the ocean thrills me to no end and I personally believe that he doesn't have a strong enough showing in the series. 

One aspect of gaming that I've never quite indulged in is the secrets/side quests. I'm not sure if I've just never noticed them before, or if I didn't care, or if I thought the main story was too time-consuming or what. I've become aware, however, that I am missing out on a huge portion of the great gaming experience! To my good fortune, Andrew is very into secrets and side quests. This has made it a very easy transition. 

Between jaw-clenching, hand-cramping, eye-twitching sessions of the later levels that brought me dangerously close to screaming, we've been going back to previous worlds and collecting the star coins that are hiding in each level. It eases the tension of the more difficult stages and allows us to continue playing and keep having fun! Good on Nintendo for that feature. Of course the star coins are actually used for unlocking helpful hint content, but they keep me playing even when I'm feeling fed up so I'm happy for their existence. 

I can't wait to complete the final battle. What we've seen of it so far has been nothing short of epic. Nintendo pulled out all the stops to make it an enjoyable and exciting experience, even including some hyper satisfying throw-backs to the original final Mario-Bowser battle. The presence of real-time destructible environments really piqued Andrew's involvement levels and, quite frankly, made me feel 100% panicked and frantic.

I don't do well in the event of being chased by something that takes up half of the 

screen. I keep dying from jumping erratically. I wouldn't recommend this tactic.

Hopefully next week I'll have some screenshots of my own and an accompanying 'Success!' post to inform you all that we've finally finished the game. And to anyone that owns a Wii and hasn't played it yet, I strongly urge you to pick up a copy! It's so much fun but really does require patience and understanding, especially when your co-player butt-bounces you into oblivion right next to the flagpole. You have to accept that that sort of thing is just going to happen.

-MJ

*I kid. I love Mario very much but I'm definitely not an extraordinary player :)

(Comic strip from Penny Arcade, cloud stage image taken from Nintendo's NSMB website and final Bowser screenshot borrowed with love from Gamespot)

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An unending love for Harry Potter.

This is one of my favorite entries. It's sappy, it doesn't have any pictures, and I wish that more people had seen it. Harry Potter was and is a huge part of my life. I love it. So much.


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July 15th, 2011

The Story That Lives

3:49 AM  MIRANDA EUBANKS  3 COMMENTS

Harry Potter.

Book releases. Movie premieres. Friends, chats, dressing up. Speculation, anticipation, discussion. Age thirteen to twenty-five.

I've been up at 4am to line up at 6am to get bracelets to be first in line for midnight book releases. I know well staying up into the next day, reading frantically with a group of fellow Potter fans. Gasping, crying, laughing; eating up every word and remaining famished for the next installment. Waking up early and staring out my bedroom window waiting for the mail to deliver the newest book. Intriguing to remember a time when I couldn't attend a midnight release and I was at the mercy of the post office.

I've spent a total of twenty-five hours in theatres just waiting for midnight to roll around. Starting with the fourth release I have arrived at 7pm, plopping myself down with company and entertainment, anxious to be first in line, a dedicated fan, and to get a good seat in the theatre.

Each release has seen many things. Goblet of Fire spurred my highest ever test score in a biology class; I spent my five hours of waiting in the theatre studying. Order of the Phoenix involved intense discussions with my Grandmother, while Half-Blood Prince saw lengthy video game sessions in the hallways. Deathly Hallows part 1 included adamant talk about the pros and cons of a two part release, and July 14th 2011 left me silent, nervous and patient.

Through Deathly Hallows part 2 I played with my wand the entire time. Twirling, rolling, touching the detailing with my fingertips. I fidgeted and shifted, flipping it end over end. While waiting in line in the hallway I spun my time-turner restlessly, separating the layers and rotating the hourglass over and over again. It was hot in the theatre, so many people at rapt attention, hearts and bodies overflowing with emotion and tears; I kept my Gryffindor scarf on, checking it frequently to make sure it was straight.

Before I left the house for this final venture, I unbuckled and re-buckled the clasps on my Harry Potter leather bag, repeatedly checking that my wand was safe against my usual assembly of wallet and phone. I carried it carefully, admiring the Hogwarts Crest inset on the front. It's the nicest bag that I own.

I remember dressing up for the Deathly Hallows book release; I donned scarf, wand and time-turner, as well as a white shirt/dark skirt uniform. I recall the excitement and dread mingled together, the looming sense of something huge and important coming to a close as I milled around the bookstore with friends. And then suddenly it was midnight. I had the book. I was driving home. All of that waiting and I had the final book. It was like that at Deathly Hallows part 2: sudden, wonderful, startling in its peculiar yet incomplete finality. Even though it is finished it will never be over. It's a strange feeling.

All of this time. Memories, friends I've shared with, time I've waited, speculation and fan fiction that I've read; concluded but not done. I left the theatre feeling full but not satisfied. Or perhaps satisfied but not full. A respectable close. Magnificent and carefully done. I am pleased. And yet I have room for more. I will always have room for more Harry Potter.

-MJ

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