Hot Shit Of The Week - Eggnog Glug Glug 2009 Edition

In between weekend parties I've been scouring the internets hard to find some really good stuff for this week. It takes a lot of deliberation to find just the right hot shit, and I'm still trying to find the right tone and voice for the feature. For the most part Hot Shit Of the Week stays on the up and up. It is here to show the best, not snipe the worse. Old School Hot Shit will be an occasional separate single post, probably mid-week. It is naturally snarky feature so Hot Shit Of the Week will be more positive from now on.

First Up: Google Reader

I am convinced that one day Google is going to turn evil, and while it is entirely possible that day has already come you can't fault a company for having good products, especially when those good products are buck naked free.

When it comes to technology, some people will say there are enthusiasts and luddites. I tend to think it isn't that simple. The choice of when to adopt any new technology isn't a yes-or-no-one-size-fits-all question. You can be way ahead of the curve, but a lot of the time that means you'll spend far too much time dealing with the early adopter's growing pains. RSS is one of those technologies where I was certain it was going to take root eventually, but didn't adopt until it had already gone main stream. I've used a number of RSS solutions, but Google Reader is the best compromise of features and simplicity I have found. It makes a great solution alone, or in combination with a good desktop application.

One of the things that was always a pain in desktop RSS applicaitons was keeping a collection of subscriptions in sync cross multiple computers. The better clients had export/import features, but with Google Reader that isn't neccesary. You can manage your subscriptions centrally and there is only one feed to configure on each client no matter where you go. The sharing and starring is also a really nice feature. Combined with some other hot tools I'll be talking about in future weeks, Google Reader is what makes Hot Shit possible. I can star something I find and then when I'm ready to complie a list of Hot Shit it's right there.

Next Up: Cute Overload

Who doesn't love good clean humor? Now maybe I'm just getting old, but I can't help but wince a little with the moden movement in humor. Sure rude, irreverant, and even sacrelegious gags are funny now and again but some where around 1997 things got a little out of hand and over a decade later they are just getting worse.

One breath of fresh air amidst all these fart and Jesus jokes is Cute Overload. It's like Breaking Bad News With Baby Animals, without the bad news. Every day cute images come flooding in, some of which are also quite humorous. I can't say that they have ever made me ROTFL, but often a chuckle or smile. I'll take a guilt free chuckle over a cheap Lolercopter any day.

Moving Along: Bento!

Why should the Japanese have all the fun? If I did New Years resolutions, mine would be to make my lunch more often. I don't (do resolutions), but really do hope that in the future I do (make my lunch).

Not that I'd have time to be this creative with my lunch, pretty much ever, but the bento artist at Anna The Red's Bento Factory is a truely genious source of inspriation. You always have to wonder how edible some of the creations are. Some are totaly convincing.. others you just have to wonder what some of the detials are made of.

I'd also feel bad while eating it...really bad...as I ate the whole thing. I think the phrase, "Nom Nom Nom." is fitting.

Finally: Web Designer Depot

Now normally I don't go for sites like this and it is definately special interest, but I found this site through a friend on Google Reader and it is a good mix of web design showcase, web industry tips, and just generally interesting links.

The down side to Web Designer Depot is they tend to post very LONG articles. Sometimes they break things with their ginormity.

The semi-eclectic feel of this blog is great. It has a focus, but switches things up a bit each week. There is something to be said from following a formula, but I think we can all learn from a good directed sense of aventure in writing.

Hot Shit Of The Week - So it is December Now 2009 Edition

With November, NaNoWriMo, and a heck of a lot of Turkey out of the way it is time to look towards the holiday season. While you're busy running around present shopping, or dealing with the other nuts out there present shopping please keep in mind that studies have shown materialism results in very poor satisfaction and quality of life. What does to lead to satisfaction? Research shows activities that generate life experiences are a significant contributor to feelings of satisfaction. That is what Hot Shit Of the Week is about, helping you find things that will help you create positive life experiences on a shoe string budget.

First Up: Print and Play Games

Board games are fun, and while a thoroughly tested and professional produced game can be great there is something to be said about free. Board game geek has a great collection of downloadable "print and play" games. They range from simple to involved, and players can simply use black and white print outs on cheap paper stock for some of these games. Others require a little more time investment. Any of the games using cards work better if placed in a plastic card sleeve (you can get hundreds of these sleeves for less than a couple of bucks from some merchants) and enforce with a playing card, or some other thick paper stock.

The boards might require glue, and for the more die-hard fans a color print out is nice. The nice thing about this return to home-made gaming is that players can put as little or as much investment into their playing sets as they want. Long live the days of house rules and creativity.

Next Up: Know Your Meme

I get told a lot by friends and coworkers that follow me on Twitter or that I'm connected to on Facebook that they often have no clue what the hell I am talking about. Sometimes it is just because I'm being random. Other times it is because I'm talking about something technical. More often than not however I'm talking in a totaly different language that looks like English, but isn't.

It's Inglish, the language spoken by leets all over the world that know a lot more about what is going on than most of you sorry people. Unfortunately there are no books on learning Inglish, it is a living and very fast moving language. Some sites like "urban dictionary" and "encyclopedia dramatica" are a good way to brush up on your Inglish but they are not for the faint of heart. Fortunately there is now a work safe site with quality controlled content to help you get ahead in life: Know Your Meme.

Now, I will say that no single web site is going to get you well versed in Inglish. You'd have to read the whole Internet to do that, and there are some pretty damned scary places out there. You can however significantly improve your cool factor, no caps lock required, and this is one site that will help you do that without permanently scarring your retinas.

And Before I Forget: Old School Shit - Fun

I have to say that things were starting to look bleak back in 2008. It was a horrible year for the economy, but it was an even worse year for gaming. 2009 has started looking up a bit. Still a lot of games with high-profiles  have had one critical flaw: they lack fun.

Graphics are important, I'm not going to lie and pretend I don't totally spaz out when I see an awesome looking game. Graphics and sound play a very important role in keeping players engaged in a game. They are important. What is more important however is a sense of novelty and fun, and that can only be maintained if you properly apply challenge. With game companies laying staff off left and right, and the utter crap that has infested the game industry in the past few years one really has to wonder: "are these companies really getting rid of and hiring the right people?"

The differentiation of games by challenge level has become a bit of a theme in 2009, the most blatant example of which was Demon's Souls which touted a ridiculous difficulty level. A lot of other casual games, with either low challenge levels or a variety of challenge options have surged. It isn't enough for gamers to be fragmented by genre, they now apparently need to be divided by factors like time investment and willingness to hit their head against a wall.

The key factor here is enjoyment. Even my spouse, who really isn't a gamer, will play Farmville, Cafe World, and now Island Paradise for hours on end. Game makers are finding new ways to bring in non-gamers. That is great. I suspect we will see more of the same for years to come. NC Soft has a very exciting looking MMO in the works, Squeenix is working on their next big MMO, and pretty much every genre of game is making a come back as developers rediscover new avenues for old niches. The lines are blurring, this is an exciting time.

The biggest thing that I can't stress enough is stick to your guns when it comes to games. If it isn't fun, don't be suckered by anything else. Try games out before you buy them  if you're not absolutely sure it'll be worth it. Don't reward game companies for delivering a polished turd unless that is what you really wanted.

Finally: Pattern Cooler

One of the nice things about slacking off (about posting to this blog anyway) for a whole month is that it gave me time to generate a nice backlog of links to work from. Some of the sites, especially ones that are aggregation of hot shit, cause my anti-virus software to be not too happy. Instead of sharing those directly I may start generating my own resources, but that is a project that goes a bit beyond simple blogging. Don't get me wrong, blogger is nice and all, but it isn't really the best tool for heavy duty finesse.

This week's final resource is one that didn't make my virus protection throw a fit, and it is a neat little resource for generating background images: Pattern Cooler. You can choose from a wide variety of starting patterns (166 currently) and alter the colors, alter the colors and zoom, and then generate your own custom background. Not as cool as being able to use desktop image applications to generate your own background, but some of the designs are neat none-the-less.