Web-Comics

There is a multitude of web-comics that are crappy, and a few that are actually good.  There are three that I read on a daily (or whenever they update) basis.  Web-comics are one of my favorite ways to kill time inbetween experiments.

PhD – also known as “Piled Higher and Deeper”.  This title is refering to the play on abbreviations that is commonly used by graduate students to describe their increasing knowledge gained from increasing degrees.  BS = Bull Sh*t.  MS = More Sh*t.  PhD = Piled higher and Deeper.  As indicated by the title, it is a comic about PhD students at Stanford University (or any university).  I enjoy this comic because it hits a little too close to home at times.  I reccomend going to the new to Phd section and reading the top 20 comics first.

xkcd - This is a comic that is heavy into math and computer science.  Many times have I asked Jack to explain why a particular strip is funny.  Where would I ever learn about Hidden Markov Models?!?  Every now and then there is a comic about science in general; those make up for all the ones I don’t understand.  I reccomend hitting random comic for the most enjoyment.

SinFest - This is a comic that is constantly making fun of the right and left wing of politics and religion.  Every now and then, it is lightened up by a comic about a cat and dog that live together.  Most of the strips in this site are long sequences that go for many days before the whole story is finished.  I reccomend starting from the beginning and going from there.

Viva Pinata: Viva Diversión

Viva Pinata is a family game for the XBOX 360. While it looks like it was created for children, it is strangely addicting. You entice pinatas to live in your garden, romance them to make more pinata, and accept challenges to gain happy candy.  This game was one of the original launch titles for the 360.

Currently in the game I am still trying to get a Roario and a Dragonache (the secret pinata).  I have most of the achievements in the game, but I am having difficulty getting the ones where you use an ex-sour pinata to distract Dastardos (the helper that kills your sick pinata).  One of my favorite in game tricks is to grow chili peppers to get money.  You plant the seed as close together in groups of 3, then fertilize them with the any-color fertilizer.  Because they are planted so close together you can fertilize 3 for the price of 1!  A planting of 27 chilies will net you about 10,000!  I am determined to get all of the achievements in this game!  I am at 3100-ish GP now.

I am looking forward to the Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise game that will be coming out 9/1/08.  There is supposed to be a co-op mode where 2 people control 2  cursors.  Jack and I are looking forward to being able to play this game together.

Lost Odyssey Obsession

I am back from my month long hiatus! Some of that is due to finishing up the semester, but a large part of the absence is due to video games. Yes, I admit it, I played video games for weeks at a time. Since I played games so much, I figured I should write a mini-review of the ones that I played and enjoyed and why. As the title of this post indicates, Lost Odyssey is my favorite, followed by Rockband, Mass Effect, and Oblivion. (I was only playing my XBOX 360 during this break)

Lost Odyssey – This is a “traditional Eastern RPG”, whatever that means. My understanding is that means that the fighting is turn-based, with random battles popping up with no warning and a long and emotionally involved story line. I like this game because of the turn based fighting, but the random battles can be annoying (esp when you get 3 and you are about 5 seconds from leaving an area and you need to save cause you are about to die). The graphics are very nice, and the character costumes, while not something you would really wear in a fight, at least follow the rules of gravity (this natural force has been lacking in FF women’s clothing). There are these dream sequences that are supposed to be a big emotional development part of the story, but I just skip them because they are not well written and very boring. The bosses are not too hard, if you figure out their weaknesses, but if you are the run in and start fighting type . . . good luck! This game is 4 discs in length (which is pretty astounding) and I am just starting disc 4 with over 45 hours of game time logged. If you liked Final Fantasy 12, you will probably like this.

Rockband – This is probably the best game I have ever played! It ranks as second place only because you need friends to play with you to really enjoy this game. You can play as either the singer, guitarist, or drummer of a rockband in solo mode, but if you have 3 more people to play with you, your band can have a singer, guitarist, bassist, and drummer. Way more fun! What makes this game different from Guitar Hero and Karaoke revolution (other than having drums) is the massive amount of song downloads. Every week there are at least 3 new songs to download and every month a whole new album! With that kind of variety, anyone can find a song they like (if you are willing to spend the points). I am partial to the vocals and the drums in this game. I usually stick with the vocals though, cause I am not afraid to sing in front of people and the drums are REALLY hard! I am working on finishing the game on vocals on Hard and Jack and I are doing the band world tour as guitarist and singer respectively. This past weekend, I brought the game to my parent’s house and we played Rockband with my bro for about 26 hours over 2 days. It was awesome! If you liked Guitar Hero or Karaoke Revolution, you will like this game!

Mass Effect – This game is one that I only picked up for a few hours during my break. I like this game because it has a great storyline with multiple different paths that can be taken. The fighting is real-time and you only control a team of 3. The AI on this game has been great to work with (I hardly ever end up cursing at the other members of my team) and the target help is a life-saver. I have already finished this game on “casual” level and am working on “hard” difficulty. Unfortunately, I played this game under Jack’s gamer-tag, so now I am playing it from the beginning again on my tag. I want those achievements! If you liked Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, you will like this.

Oblivion – Technically, the full name of this game is Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. It is the fourth game in the Elder Scrolls series and by far the best of them all. It is a highly detailed RPG with real time fighting that you see before you encounter. It sounds like the standard hack and slash where you pick up your sword and magic and go and kill some rats/spiders/zombies, but it is far more than that. The character classes are much more detailed that a normal RPG and there are guild that can be joined. I have spent about 10x more time moving up in the guilds that I have on the main storyline. My favorite guild to be a part of is the Dark Brotherhood, a guild of assassins. They have the best equipment and the most interesting quests. I actually use the guide a lot in this game, simply because there are so many locations and so many people it gets really frustrating to try and find a specific one. The NPC characters have schedules that they follow, which differ by what day that it is and they interact with each other fairly well.  If you liked Morrowind, you will like this game.

I hope that you have enjoyed my quick summary of my summer vacation games.  My goal this summer is to get 10,000 GP by the end of August.  I started in the beginning of May with only 800 GP and I am now up to 1535 GP.  Lets see how close I can get to my goal with the sever limitation of no FPS, Racing, or Sports games (I can’t stand them).

Birdstone Winery

Driving out to Fresno, CA by way of Highway 99-South, you drive through a little town called Madera.  This town has an abundance of wineries for such a small population; and while some are “ehhhh”, there are a few stellar examples of uniqe, small batch wines.  One of these such wineries is Birdstone Winery.  It is off Avenue 9 (most of the exits in Madera are Avenue Some-#) almost all the way to Highway 41.  There is one small wine trail sign near the turn for the winery, but make sure to bring a map and watch the streets you drive by.

This winery produces mostly red wines, with a very nice Chardonnay for those wimps who cannot take a good red.  Their bottles are mostly under $20, which makes this our favorite stop for everyday and gifting wine.  Jack and I are still debating on which wine we like the best, but our three favorites are: Sangiovese, Barbera, and Tempranillo.  Last time we were there we got to meet the owner/winemaker and do a barrel tasting of a Cabernet Sauvignon.  My first barrel tasting, YAY!  They also have a worker there named Matt, who was very nice.  He also “forgot” where we were in the tasting list and had to start us over again.  Three times!  If you happen to go there, ask for the story about the Red Headed Step Child Chardonnay; it is a great story even if the wine is all sold out.

Sangiovese – This is a lighter red wine, as the afficiandos already know, but unlike most Sangio’s that you buy at BevMo, this one has flavor.  It is not watered down at all, and has a nice and light finish for how much flavor is on the tongue.  This is our favorite Sangio that we have ever tasted, and we prove that by buying a couple bottles each time we go there.  Those couple of bottles are usually gone within a week.

Barbera – This is the first time that we tasted a Barbera, and we liked it.  It reminded me alot of a good Pinot Noir on the body and finish, but a blended Grenache on the lightness of the overall taste.  It did not leave a chalky feeling on my tongue; this surprised me when it tastes so heavy.  I could not drink this wine everyday, Jack can, but it would go great with a rich pasta or a red meat.

Tempranillo – I was hesitant to try this wine because I have been dissatisfied with them in the past, but this one was a nice middle ground between the Sangio and the Barbera.  If I didn’t know better, I would think it was a blend of the two.  Lighter yet stronger, it was a very nice wine.

Bonny Doon Vineyards

In the beginning of April, Jack and I went wine tasting at Bonny Doon Vineyards in Santa Cruz.  When I say “in Santa Cruz”, I mean only in SC by a techicality.  It is really far up in the SC mountains, which is a beautiful drive.  Bonny Doon is known for its non-standard wines and creative wine labels.  If we could be members at another winery, this would be our pick.

The tasting room was very busy the Friday that we went up there.  Luckily, our attendant was only dealing with us and another couple.  The other couple were wine club members and they were just finishing up their tasing and deciding what to purchase when we began at the top of the list.  The attendant gave most of her attention to the other couple at first, and I don’t blame her because they were making a large purchase, but I was releved when they finally left and I could ask questions about the wine.  I liked just about every wine that we tasted, and Jack actually enjoyed a white wine!

2006 Ca’ del Sol Albarino – I have never tasted an Albarino before, but it is now on my list of white wines that I really like, and Jack likes too.  I found it to be a light and refreshing white wine, lighter than a Chardonnay but still with more flavor than a Pinot Grigo or a Sauvignion Blanc.  If you are wondering what the hell is on the label, as I was, here is the golden moment of enlightenment.  It is a sensitive crystalization of the wine.  They take a drop of the wine, let it crystalize and then take a picture of it.  Isn’t that neat? (Science can be art too!)

2003 Le Cigare Volant – This was a red blend that I found very enjoyable and fast drinking.  ::grin::  This is a Rhone style blend of : 35% mourvèdre, 32% syrah, 26% grenache, and 7% cinsault.  It has flavours of raspberry dominating, with spice and pepper as a close second.  It has a slightly dry finish and a lingering taste on the palate that would go greate with a cigar.  The last time that the made a blend of this type was in 1995, and it was great from the start and aged beautifully.  They are expecting this wine to just keep getting better over the next 15 years, and I am looking forward to it.

Did you just hit on me?

No, actually you didn’t.  I was reading PopSci and found a very interesting article that I think all men and women should know about.  It was the portion of the feature artice Science Confirms the Obvious: Men Mistake Female Friendliness for Sexual Interest.  While reading this I thought, Hmmm, nothing new here, but I was wrong.

In this article, it displayed that men wrongly interpret general friendliness as sexual advances 12% of the time while women only do that 8.7% of the time.  I thought that men did that alot more than women, but the percentages are actually not that far off of each other.  Granted, this study was done on college age heterosexual men, and anyone who has been around men of that age know that they over-sexualize EVERYTHING!

The part of this experiment that I found interesting was that men in general interpreted the body language of women wrong, not just over-sexing everything.  Sometimes they even thought that a come-on was just freindliness; I doubt that that happened often.  This explains why guys can never tell when women are pissed at them.  Finally, one of life’s mysteries is explained!

Now, let me be perfectly clear here: I do not think that it is the fault of men that they cannot interpret female body language properly.  I think it is the responsibility of men and women together to make an effort to learn and teach, respectively, the finer aspects of female body language.  So women, train your men, it for the benefit of humanity!  And men, study up if you don’t want to be embarassed or get your head bit off!

The God Gene?

  I hope that I am not the only person that finds this idea completely ludicrous.  Not only would you never be able to scientifically prove that a gene is related to faith, there are many ancient religions that do not believe in a higher power.  And furthermore, if you believe in many deities, do you have multiple copies of this gene?  The fact that a gene leads us to believe in a higher power is the interpretation that most of my peers have taken on this subject, but with a little reading I found that their interpretation was inaccurate.

The “god gene” is actually thought to simply cause what is thought of as a religious revelation/experience.  The gene is called VMAT2, and is expressly stated that it does not cause a belief in god.  It does not even cause a “religious” revelation, but simple a set of feelings that is commonly interpreted as being spiritual.

Simply put, the gene is involved in the breakdown of monoamines, a class of neurotransmitters which contribute to an individuals emotional sensitivity. The loose interpretation is that monoamines correlate with a personality trait called self-transcendence. Composed of three sub-sets, self-transcendence is composed of “self-forgetfulness” (as in the tendency to become totally absorbed in some activity, such as reading); “transpersonal identification” (a feeling of connectedness to a larger universe); and “mysticism” (an openness to believe things not literally provable, such as ESP). Put them all together, and you come as close as science can to measuring what it feels like to be spiritual. This allows us to have the kind of experience described as religious ecstasy. -Wikipedia

When you take this into account, it seems entirely possible that this gene could exist.  That brings up the question then, if it does exist, what evolutionary purpose does it serve?  It is a positive or negative selector? Or is it simply residual from a time before written word?  My thought is that it is residual from before we had written or spoken word.  To have a sense of being one with everything, or a spiritual feeling, would help primitive humans to form cohesive groups for survival.  I personally am curious to see if other primates have this gene.  If they do, I can see some people going nuts and trying to convert the monkey to their brand of self-centered religion.  That would be something to see.

Calera Wine Co.

The same day that we went tasting at Pietra Santa Winery, we also stopped at Calera Wine Co.  This winery is located a little further down Cienega Road and has a very utilitarian look to it; the tasting room is in a warehouse.  We arrived there at about 4pm and the couple that arrived before us were just leaving, so in contrast to the crowd at Pietra Santa, we had the tasting to ourselves.  The tasting room attendant was very knowledgeable about the wine, the history of the vineyard, and very friendly.  They make mostly Pinot Noir at this winery, but they have a few Viognier, Chardonnay and one dessert Viognier.  There are 2 wines that I remember as being exceptional; both are Pinot Noir, which this winery has become famous for.

2004 Selleck Vineyard Pinot Noir and the 2004 Mills Vineyard Pinot Noir were both very similar in taste to an untrained Pinot palate like mine.  These Pinots are not your typical California variety, these are more similar to the ones that you would get from Burgundy.  I thought that the Mills Vineyard one was a little fuller in body that the Selleck Vineyard, but both had a lighter flavor and a clean and slightly dry finish.  They did not taste watery, as some Pinots do.  We picked up a bottle of the Mills Vineyard Pinot Noir, and I will be going back to this winery to get some  more of their wonderful wine in my “cellar”.

Just Fake It

I just wanted to share with everyone my favorite song.  This is one of those songs that I can listen to over and over again for hours!  I am going to see them in concert at the Warfield in April; I am super-excited!

 This song has such a nice groove to it, and the message is hilarious.  If you didn’t know, Seether is a band from South Africa and they recently released a new album, Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces.

Pietra Santa Winery

 

After re-visiting Leal Vineyards to introduce Robert to their wonderful selection of red wines, we drove down Cienega Road to Pietra Santa Winery.  You turn off of Cienega and travel down a wide road with vines on either side until you reach a building that could be and old church or mission.  This winery, like Leal, has huge wooden doors.  You enter in the winery and see racks of barrels; then walk up a small staircase to the actual tasting room.  The tasting room is in one of the lower floors of the belltower, and has 2 balconies that you can enjoy the view and wine from.  The tasting room was verybusy when we went, so busy that we had to elbow our way to the counter.  I would like to visit again when there were fewer people; I did not get to ask any questions about the wine because they were so busy.  That made my experience of the wine limited and not as enjoyable as it could have been.  We did taste about 8 different wines, 2 kinds of chocolate truffles, and 3 different olive oils.

2001 Pietra Santa Dolcetto - This was my second favorite wine that I tasted.  It was a lighter red wine, with medium body and a clean finish.  It did not give a dry lingering taste on the tongue, which I really appreciated.  I could see drinking this wine with many different foods, or just enjoying it by itself.  So we got a bottle!

Pietra Santa Vache Red Blend (Signature Collection) – This was my favorite wine that I had at Pietra Santa.  Normally, they do not have it available for tasting, but they were offering three of their Signature Collection wines for tasting that day.  This was a heavier red blend than I normally like, but it was very smooth for how heavy it was.  Unfortunately, it was above our budget for that day, so we will have to buy it some other time.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil – They had some very nice olive oil for tasting also.  The extra virgin was my husband’s favorite; I liked all of them.  The olive oil tasting was so popular, that we only got to taste it with breadcrumbs!

Because of the crowd at the tasting room, I felt that I did not experience the wines as fully as I would have liked.  Another thing I noticed about the Pietra Santa tasting room crowd is that we were the youngest people there by far, and received a few looks from other patrons for it.  Even though the environment was less that I would have liked, the wine was good.  I want to go back and give them another try, probably on a weekday though.