I know the articles have been terrible this week, but…Pandas!
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Lions. (Just a great article I found.)
I’ve recently hit up a few more restaurants in New Paltz. I’ve got 6 or 7 left to hit.
Gomen Kudasai is located within the antique store located opposite the middle school and short ways up the road toward the highway. You could be forgiven for not knowing where it is or what it’s called, because until recently the only sign was a small post-in-the-ground flyer that said ‘Japanese Noodle Place’.
The name ‘Gomen Kudasai’ is apparently a colloquial term roughly corresponding to ‘noodles please’. Being the contrarian that I am, I didn’t actually have noodles. I ordered turkey dumplings, which came with a mound of rice, house pickles, a bowl of miso soup, and a salad in a sort of sour vinaigrette. I had a cup of oolong tea to wash it down and finished the meal with Mochi ice cream, a rice based desert that almost looks like a dough mushroom.
The building itself is a bit haphazard, so I wasn’t sure whether to expect overly formal or chaos. Instead, I found the atmosphere quiet, but functional. The service was excellent and the food even better. My oolong tea was appropriatelystrong with a subtle sweetness in the aftertaste. The turkey dumpling were more filling than their ornate arrangement would have suggested. I wasn’t quite sure how to take the desert, there is a rather particular texture to mochi ice cream, but after dutifully trying to cuisine, I wasn’t going to botch the trip with a slice of apple pie.
In relation to a national average, Gomen Kudasai is maybe a bit expensive, but in relation to New Paltz it is actually quite competitive. My meal, with tea and desert, came to $25, which gave me some amount of sticker shock, considering the environment, the food, and presentation it was actually very reasonable. I won’t be making this noodle place a day adventure, but it’s a solid addition to my dinner retinue.
I can’t seem to find a proper link for Main Course. The website goes to their catering business and doesn’t seem to include their current menu. Main Course used to be located next to Subway, which has recently been taken over by the 8th pizza place in town. Main Course’s new location right near The Indian Restaurant is much more inviting.
Entering Main Course, I found myself somewhat confused. There is a counter directly ahead and a spattering of small tables, but no waiters or waitresses to be found. Instead, the counter area is a segmented portion of a larger cooking area where they have their ingredients and dishes in various states of preparation. A cook with full chef regalia frits about making the orders directly as they come in.
In final tally, Main Course has become a sandwich shop, albeit a classy sandwich shop. I had the Northwind which was salad and grilled portabello on a panini with a side salad garnished in a house dressing that I should remember, but don’t. The whole thing came to about $8. More expensive than subway, yes. Excellent price for what you get: definitely. I’ve never had a fairly fancier meal any cheaper. I suppose ditching the waiters paid off…for me, it also saves on the tip.
Ahh, and I think I have the right menu! That’s a great way to end my review.
Both restaurants were phenomenal. At current the remaining list is:
Beso
Harvest Cafe
Mudd Puddle
Picnic Pizza
Hokkaido
New Paltz Tea House
Locust Tree
As mentioned, I work as a network administrator. As part of my duties I also support 66 libraries within a certain five county area. My department, Computer Operations, maintains a number of services for the libraries some of which are free, some of which are charged on a per case basis, and some of which are contracted support for a duration.
A number of issues have come up over the last year in relation to our support mechanism, many of which have posed problems with our overall infrastructure. I’ve come to compile a short list of warnings that seem to apply well beyond the specific contracts in question.
The biggest issue is a lack of clarity and understanding of what the contract actually entails. We periodically have issues regarding whether jobs are in contract or out of contract. The problem is not necessary a lack of technical knowledge on either end, but an ambiguity within the contract itself. Issues cannot be resolved with a close reading because the contract simply leaves the questions unanswered. The contract never should have been written as it is.
Having a process for mediating conflicts and making changes is equally important. Our client libraries will work with us for decades or longer. We need a process of responding to complaints and removing the ambiguities in the contract. Problems will always become apparent if enough time is put to a task, but there must a response when they arise.
Long duration contracts require greater responsibility for the support party. It’s just a statement of truth. When we support a network for a year long contract we are obligated to respond to every issue regardless of what it might be. Further, we become responsible if and when problems arise regardless of whether it was preventable or not. Per item contracts decrease the number of things brought to our door and remove the responsibility from our shoulders. The downside is the clients will never request preventive maintenance. (Similar problem exists within healthcare.)
The last big thing is keeping and giving out documentation. Having a full record of what went on for who and how much it cost is invaluable. Our record-keeping has been splotchy, at best, and the result is that no party has the slightest idea whether a contract has been fulfilled. The organization is so infinitely haphazard that clients have had to ask us whether the work was performed, because we never gave them and they never requested any receipt of work done. Without any accountability on either side, neither the clients nor the providers can improve.
I imagine few organizations have these sorts of issues to the extent that we do. Library systems have their own unique niche within the world, but nevertheless I’ve learned from our problems and…hopefully…someday we’ll get them all solved.
I’ve been terribly remiss in not reviewing Dragon Age: Origins, but I’ve been giving it some time to develop. I haven’t finished yet, but I’ve gotten through most of the story line. I feel content that I’ve seen enough to review it properly.
Is it Baldur’s Gate? No. Is it close? Yeah.
Dragon Age: Origins could be described as Neverwinter Nights with a better story and unshackled from D&D rules. They’ve managed to continue Bioware’s high world-building standards in all the best ways. It has plenty of the usual fantasy tropes, but the world is expansive and fresh. There world is immensely creative and interest in its own right, and quite beautiful as well. The dungeons, in particular, are absolute gorgeous. Dwarven cities, forest ruins, and mountain temples are all portraits, as fun to explore for the architecture as they are for the beast slaying.
Dragon Age isn’t Baldur’s Gate because it’s not quite as large, the character’s not quite as numerous, the story not quite as good, and the lore not quite as deep. It’s close and it’s strong, but it’s not quite there. It’s not Elder Scrolls either. The world has a plotline and the character is obliged to follow it. The world lives as a story, not as a open-society. Still, it’s a damn good story, with interesting character, and a lot of fun opportunities for gameplay.
There’s the usual weak romance side quest. They’ve never been done very well, but they can be amusing. The character building, no longer stuck to D&D rules, is quite fun. I genuinely looked forward to leveling up to see what new skill I would get to play with. It seems a bit shallow at first, but there’s actually a strong depth to the whole system that was surprising. My Dwarven shield-wall works well as the gruff, tough bastard he’s tying to be.
There are six origin stories that start your character off in the world. I’ve played through one of them so far and it was excellent. It was a good length and made my character feel like he was a deeper part of the world. An excellent idea. I fully intend to at least jump into the others and see what the story is.
Also noteworthy is the ‘moral’ choices the game has you make. Almost each of the main quests results in the player being forced to make a decision between two or more ambiguously good options. In a few cases the ‘good’ and the ‘not as good’ options present themselves easily, but there were a few quests where I genuinely had to think about what I wanted to do. It’s rare that the distinction between good and evil has been so shadowed. I was immensely impressed.
My usual complaints remain. The number of areas is too few and they’re too small. I always want more cities and a larger world. My hero is, once again, the grand hero which gets a bit cliche. For once, I’d like the story to concentrate on me helping the big hero…and maybe only emerging late in the game as more than a 2nd stringer. My character’s growth arc is over pretty much by the middle of the story which is a story-telling flaw. Still, the sword bashing doesn’t get old.
I haven’t had a decent RPG to play since the Gothic world ran its course (maybe a new one coming out soon) or the excellent Elder Scrolls 4, which will inevitably have a sequel. Dragon Age is not perfect, but it’s very very solid. I’d call it an A+ effort with an A- execution. I’m not done with it yet, and with five more origin stories to play and a few separate plot decisions to make I’m not sure I will be very soon either.
Batman: The Animated Series
Robert Drake on October 11, 2009 in Hobbies, Reviews, Uncategorized No Comments »Batman: The Animated Series, some of the best television ever made. The stories, the artwork, the music. I’m convinced it was perfect in nearly every way. For years I pined away for the soundtrack to be released. Sometime last year it finally was, although it sadly lacked a few choice themes like The Legend of Gray Ghost (Cameo by Adam West) and Catwoman’s theme. I managed to pick up a copy off of Amazon not to long ago (the original release is sound out, but it can be found.)
For those lacking an immediate copy, allow me to point you here. This is Shirley Walking explaning the Batman theme. Pretty incredible, eh?
I finished the rough draft of The Lonetracker Chronicle just an hour or two ago. Now, there’s plenty left to do. It’s an unedited masterpiece and by that I mean it’s a masterwork of misplaced commas, typoed words, broken continuity, and boring narration. I’m taking a few weeks off to get some reading done, enjoy the summer, maybe visit a few friends and then it’s on to the editing. I feel like I’m only maybe twenty percent done with the whole pen to published process, but I’m past that first big hump. It feels pretty great.
The Lonetracker Chronicle is a science fiction story built around the apocalypse that nearly destroyed humanity in the early 22nd century. Mankind survived and even made it into space, but even two hundred years later the scars of the great apocalypse run deep. For history professor Arrek Borthwait, his own scars run even deeper. Invited to critique a movie depicting the apocalypse, he finds his own past has come around in the person of Sengal Tariff, the movie’s director and an old nemesis.
That’s all I’m going to put out for now. I still need to write out the back blurb text and get together a suitable query latter for when that time comes. For now though, whew! Both very happy and very tired.
A: an oddly capitalized name
B: an obscure military acronym
C: a mnemonic device for remember how to parallel park
D: a website with presentations by experts in the field.
Happens to be D. Big surprise, hardy har har.
I’ve been watching Technology Education Design presentations for a few months now (and somehow missed it before that) and they’re pretty great. The science and technology presentations in particular happen to be interesting and awe-inspiring. From scientists preparing for space voyages to medical professionals talking about disease vectors to electronic artists showing off their crazy creations, there’s plenty of stuff on there.
A world where sword-wielding hackers deliver pizza for the mob, vengeful inuit throw glass-tipped harpoons and drive motorcycles with hydrogen bomb sidecars, extraterritorial franchises have their own consolates scattered across the country, or what remains of it. It’s safe to say life in Snow Crash is usually pretty interesting.
I heard about Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson, back in college. Amongst an innumerable number of computer types: programmers, admins, hackers, web designers etc, the hyper-stylzed life of a computer nerd-ninja had a wide-ranging appeal. I’m still not sure how I managed to avoid reading the book that so thoroughly defined my culture. Still, it remained on my list as a book I wanted to at least peek into.
And I happened to do just that last week. If I had to give a one-liner review it’d be, Neuromancer with healthy side of irreverance. It has all the dismal imagery of a cyberpunk novel: dystopian america, oligarchic tyranny, technology with a slavish tyranny over mankind, but it escapes the gloom with an endless cycle of just-on-the-edge of plausible absurdities. Couriers, called Kouriers, riding computerized skateboards pulled by tow cables, a main character named Hiro Protagonist, robotic dog guards, it hits them all and then some.
It’s a brilliant book and if I didn’t think so I wouldn’t waste my time here. For any science fiction junkies out there it’s definitely worth picking up. Snow Crash is the sort of novel that can’t help but inspire even more stories and makes for a hell of a read from beginning to end.
