Blip blop bleep

I spent time yesterday playing two games that I would consider difficult.

The first was God of War. (My first PS3 game(s) was, in fact, a set of PS2 games.)

The second was Madden NFL 10, which I'm going to continue to complain about because I've uncovered yet another issue. (Notice that I'm still playing the game.)

Almost every video game has different difficulty settings because some people want to be challenged and other people suck. Variations in difficulty are achieved in a few different ways. One of the most common – in games based on the principle of death – is to increase the relative "health" of the enemies that the player is required to kill. In a way, this process literalizes the "to beat a dead horse" metaphor, which is a pretty appropriate metaphor for many of my attempts at God of War.

But this same principle wouldn't work for Madden. Increasing the "health" of football players would just lead to fewer concussions and not necessarily increase the difficulty. Madden's tack, it seems, is to instead increase the level of bullshit in order to up the challenge. The result is that the opposing team's players make plays that no footballer should ever make.

...

Madden is increasingly difficult to write about as well. It just frustrates me. My hope is to definitively put it to bed with a slew of Christmas games, but the problem is that it's one of the few games I can play with Bryan on a regular basis. But even he was frustrated by the game's difficulty determining devices, so maybe we can finally stop playing this disappointing blip in the Madden franchise dynasty.

Quote of the Week:

"When [Tiger Woods'] career is over, you'll look back on these indiscretions as a minor blip, but the media is making a big deal out of it right now."

-Phil Knight, a man who has a few blips of his own

I will give a shout out.

So I'm trying to ease my way back into consistent bloggery (hence the single blog last week). At some point, I'd like to be at a place where I'm writing three solid blogs per week like I did this past summer. That place may be this upcoming summer, but if I can get that ball rolling now, it'll be easier to manage when it comes upon a greased-up decline.

All that to say: I'm hoping to write two to three short blogs per week until the new year starts, considering of course that two of the three remaining Fridays are relatively important holidays.

At any rate, this blog is about Spencer. Some of you (Ha!) may remember Spencer from his inaugural appearance at this year's Pig Pickin'. He was the Asian one.

Or you may have met Spencer on EBay if you have any interest in Jeff Bagwell baseball cards.

Spencer was one of my most consistent friends during college and is now one of the half dozen or so that I like to keep in touch with. One of the things that this touchiness has revealed is that Spencer has become/is becoming a stand-up comic.

Over the weekend, Spencer sent me the following video that he posted in preparation for his appearance at the NC Comedy Arts Festival:

I'm planning on going to that festival, but this was the first time I was able to see Spencer perform (comedy), and I thought it was pretty good for what he's labeled as his '"formative' era." Easily my favorite joke was the one about slacker PEDs. That reminded me of a blog I've been planning on writing since...well, probably since I've started blogging.

It seems like this would be a good time to write that blog. But, I'm on winter break, so...

Event of the Week:

UNC-W final grades are due today at 2 p.m. Fortunately, I had 118 of my 122 grades submitted by Friday, which allowed me to fully enjoy this weekend's 5^th annual Sherrick Santa Ski. I submitted the other four grades this morning because I was waiting on final essays from those four students. Some of them turned them in.

Blog of the Month

It's been a long time since I've blogged the information superhighway – almost a month – and I apologize. I'll be honest: I've occasionally had the proverbial time but have spent it doing other things, often Modern Warfare 2, which holds all the addictiveness of a quality RPG.

I've also skipped over at least a handful of good blog topics, some of which I might get to in the near future. But, for today, I want to write about my blogging during this semester. Blogging about my own blogging might seem egocentric, and it is, but writing about my own writing is one of my favorite ways to improve as a writer.

But, I'm going to be lazy about it and steal the formatting idea from my most recent entry, "Movember Madness."

So, here are 10 things I learned about my blogging this semester:

1. I blogged less than most of my students. I ultimately set their semester quota at 20 blog entries (a bit shy of what I predicted in "A is for abacus"). In that same period of time, I've only written 12 blogs, which is still more than a handful of my students. Instead of my "of the Week" feature, I could have used an "of the Month" feature and been more accurate.
   
2. Matthew will respond to my blog even if I don't blog for weeks. I'd guess he thinks it motivates me. It'd probably motivate me more if he seriously picked back up his blog. As our annual Thanksgiving night Balderdash showed, Matthew has some interesting things to say.
   
3. Random people continue to find and comment on my blog. One is less than random, since he's a friend of a guy I knew in college – a guy who Adam Lucas says doesn't exist (but he does). The other may not be a person. I don't know; it's a little suspect. So, I guess this thing I learned may not be all that true.
   
4. I rely a lot on litotes (understatement) in my writing. This is something I've either purposefully or accidently copied from Penny Arcade, which is full of it.
   
5. I like to write about my classroom discussions. When I'm not teaching, I write about sports, video games, and TV, but that all seems to take a backseat when I'm captaining the ship of basic studies – BS – English classes.
   
6. I hate but still make fact errors and typos, the most frustrating of which came in the "Honor Roll" entry. But there are others.
   
7. Lists are an easy way to avoid transitions. See.
   
8. Football teams are much more forgiving of football players than I would have imagined. During my blogging this semester, I prematurely concluded the careers of two troubled running backs: LeGarrette Blount and Larry Johnson. Both have since played football again.
   
9. Metaphors.
   
10. Blogging when I'm up-to-date is better. Remember that glorious summer where I tried to blog about current events and subsequently read about current events. I really do think it improved my blogging, but those plans deflated like Balloon Boy's hopes for a reality show when my life busied itself with teaching and such. There may be a glorious winter break (between December 15 and January 6) when I can get back to those habits.
    

Or I may just play more Modern Warfare 2 and try out my new PS3.

Question of the Week:

What do you want for Christmas?

My take: Mostly video games. My wish list isn't very creative this year.