The weather

So that shit Groundhog predicted more Winter, he neglected to mention
that we'd be getting some Spring first. It is in the fifties right now,
but tomorrow will be 65 and Wednesday will have some warm Februrary
showers.

I am mostly excited by the prospect of tomorrow's entertainment. A
friend from work is heading to Cleveland and then to the Air Force so we
are having a gathering of the cool at Mongolian BBQ around 1PM.

It is going to be hipper than a scarf/man-purse ensemble.

After that we are going to Bodega for the best beer in the city. Here
is a list I will be choosing from:

Westmalle Trappist Dubbel
Chimay Red
Rochefort Trappistes 8
Orval Trappist
Nogne O Imperial Stout
Hitachino Nest XH
Gulden Draak
Baird Angry Boy
Achel 8 Blond Trappist

Also, Conway's Irish Ale from Great Lakes Brewery is in season so, that
means it is a joyous and sad time of year.

The Forcast

The Forcast is capitalized for a reason (and has nothing to do with the
weather), it is the name of the Forwards Compatible podcast.

Recorded on Friday it'll be up between tonight and Tuesday morning.
It'll be on iTunes this week.

The show was sort of a dry run and you can tell it is our first. I know
personally I was a bit jittery and I promise to get less annoying as we
do more.

Dustin Rodgers and Louie Lantos were great as the representatives of
their nations on the podcast, and I think we compliment each other
well.

Look out for us each week as we discuss upcoming topics on
ForwardsCompatible.com. Contact us at staff@Forwardscompatible.com

My Girlfriend is a gamer

For her birthday she really wanted a DS. On Black Friday 2007 she went
out and bought her own Wii. Now, she wants her own 360. My girlfriend
plays games.

She isn't obsessed to the point where she would write about them like I
do, but she does enjoy playing them.

Her favorite game is Zelda for the NES, but since we have been dating I
have shown her games like Super Metroid and Metroid Prime which she has
played through all on her own, even though she screams something fierce
when she sees an actual Metroid.

It takes her time to get the hang of some things, like the space jump in
Super Metroid. She always threatens to quit playing, but always comes
out of it and ends up mastering anything that was giving her a hard
time.

Her frustration tolerance is adorably low, and she would stab the shit
out of these games if they had a heart. It is scary and cute.

Right now we are having an issue with Guitar Hero. She played it at her
sister's and really wanted it. But then after I played it (on hard and
some expert) and showed her the guy doing "Though the Fire and the
Flames" perfect on expert. Now she doesn't want to play anymore. She
thinks she'll never be able to play on hard so "what is the point" she
argues.

This is a problem for gaming and it always has been. Rarely in other
mediums is being hard a selling point. At the same time, I accept that
I'll never do a song on perfect on expert. Games have scalable
difficulty and she shouldn't view the existence of higher difficulties
as an insult to her skills.

Back to the fun stuff, I can't wait to get her playing Zelda: A Link to
the Past. She has never played a Zelda game beyond the NES games (she
hated Adventures of Link).

It is a lot of fun for me to introduce her to games. It gets me
thinking about maybe showing my kid the history of all things nerdy one
day.

Bits and Bytes

- There were several dumpsters on fire on OSU campus... because it is a
Monday.

- I currently smell like French fries.

- I can't wait to get my new laptop! Hopefully around my Birthday!

- I will be drinking delicious beer tomorrow, check the picture for a
reference image.

- this is another blog written from my phone.

I hope you enjoyed this blog, which was inspired by caffeine