Me Wanty.

Just noticed the new Macbook lineup. With an education discount, you can get a Macbook Pro for only $1099! Other than a slight increase in processing power and the aluminum chassis, the low end Macbook Pro doesn't look too different from the Macbook Amateur. Are there other differences?

Best. Tennis. Video game. Ever.

When I first played Wii sports, my favorites of the 5 included sports were bowling and baseball. That's because they had the best controls, controls that made sense for the sport. Bowling mimicked your hand going back and forth and releasing the ball. Baseball was based on timing your swing to hit the ball in various directions, just like real baseball.

The other three sports were not quite as realistic and I've since been waiting for standalone games to do a better job. Tiger Woods 2010 using Wii Motion plus is apparently the closest any game has come to feeling like an actual game of golf (unfortunately I got Tiger Woods '09 last fall and haven't played it enough to warrant scrapping it for the new one just yet). Wii Sports boxing was a mess and I'm looking forward to the game that uses two Wii motion plusses to accurately measure punches.

Wii Sports tennis is perhaps the most disappointing because I was looking forward to it the most. It uses timing of strokes to dictate the direction you hit the ball, like baseball. But unlike baseball, in tennis you are constantly moving your body, repositioning yourself to change your angle on the ball, and the direction (not timing) of your swing dictates where the ball ends up. As a result, this doesn't feel like the real thing, and it's most evident when shots don't go where I mean them to go. One good example is the inability to, when at the net, consistently direct your shot. Because you can't move your player, and direction is based on timing, most of time my net volleys that should be winners either go out of bounds or bounce harmlessly back to my opponent.

Naturally, I was excited to try out one of the tennis games that uses Wii Motion plus for more accurate control. I opted for Grand Slam Tennis because I'm partial to EA Sports over Sega. I don't care about the cartoony look or the somewhat less complete career mode. All I care about is control. And because of how it controls, this is the greatest tennis video game I have ever played. All my strokes go where I mean them to go. Here are two examples: In one instance, I received the ball crosscourt on the left side of the court and lined up for a forehand (with my left hand). I decided I wanted to go for a winner down the left sideline, so instead of stroking across my body left to right, I turned a bit to the left and stroked forward on the left side of my body, similar to the actual tennis stroke. It worked perfectly! In another case, I was at the net and was able to perfectly execute a backhand volley into the corner for the win.

Son of a Who?

So I put this book "Heart-shaped Box" on my to-read list a while ago
because NYT recommended it as a good horror novel.

I finally got around to reading it a couple weeks ago and enjoyed it
immensely. Thrilling page-turner yada yada yada. While reading, I
thought, "this is really good! I should look up this Joe Hill and see
if he's written anything else!"

That's when I discovered Joseph Hillstrom King is the son of Stephen
King. Apparently he uses his middle name so his success is of his own
creation.

And it worked - I liked him before I knew he was the scion of greatness!

Painting!

Here are some before pictures of the wood part of our house. It really needed a new paint job.

Here's how it looks after:

Now you can't immediately tell that half of the house is wood and the other half aluminum siding!