Recently in Great Stuff Category

From time to time, you get your money's worth. I got my money's worth and then some with Dragon Age: Origins.

Dragon Age: Origins

It took me about six months and over 130 hours of playtime but I finally finished the game in June.

I have played Bioware games before: I tried Baldur's Gate but dont remember finishing. I played KOTOR, got bored and did not finish. I tried Neverwinter Nights, twice, before I eventually finished it. I did enjoy Mass Effect on the Xbox 360 but overall I like the idea of a Bioware game more than the actual games. Until now.

I did not hear a lot of publicity about this game before it was released, but once I started playing I was hooked. I loved this game. The graphics on the PC were great. The story was great. The characters were great. The voice acting was great. I never ran into a single crash or bug or obvious graphical problem. And the content was there. It kept going on and on and on.

DA:O did exactly what I want from a game: Strong narrative that takes me on an adventure. I will have memories of this game for a long time. By the end, I thought back at the beginning, before I had heard of a darkspawn or grey warden, and was amazed with how much stuff I did.

I survived the massacre that killed my family.

I survived the first battle with the Darkspawn.

I freed a prisoner sentenced to death.

I met a demon and bargained with it.

I rescued the Mage's tower.

I went to the Fade, the first original magic idea I have read in years.

I saved the elves from werewolves.

I saved the dwarves from each other.

I brought a golem back to life and found the golem maker.

I went to prison and got out again.

I killed a lot of darkspawn, a few revenants, and a few dragons.

Like I said, what an adventure.

I played the game as a human noble rogue. My constant companions were Alistair and Wynne. I rotated my 4th slot between my dog, Shale, and Oghren (who I didnt like much). I hated Morrigan and didnt see much point to the others.

Only a few small negatives marred the experience. Inventory was a pain and being limited was annoying to a completionist like myself. I never figured out or used the AI tactics-thing for my characters, which meant a LOT of pause-ordering.

And towards the end, I kept thinking about Oblivion and wishing I was playing an FPS instead of a group-based game. (Where is the next one, Bethesda?)

DA:O is clearly one of the best games in years. If you are looking for a lot of game for a little money, this is a good choice.

This weekend I played the final mission and finished Bioshock.

One of the reasons I play games is their ability to take me to a new place in my imagination. Bioshock's story and execution were so excellent, it totally brought me to another world.

Which is probably why I had to take two long, extended breaks from the game before I finished it. As I wrote about this time last year, the world of Rapture is just too disturbing to experience for very long. The first time that has ever happened to me in a game.

There have been other games that I felt were so disturbing I just didnt want to play them. In this case, the story was so well written, the world so lovingly created, I had nightmares but I still wanted to know what would happen. There was at least one big twist in the story and I kept waiting to see what would happen next.

I wont spoil any of the story for you other than to say it is much more mature than 99% of the other games out there. If you play one first person adventure, it should be Bioshock. Hands-down one of the best games ever made.

I bought the game on Steam and played it on Windows XP, Vista and ultimately Windows 7. No technical problems at all for me and it looks fantastic on a nice PC.

No matter what platform you game on, you should experience Rapture for yourself.

In business school, we talked a lot about the "razor and razor-blade model". We also joked about the razor wars - one blade, to two blades, to three blades, to four blades...

I have a full beard and grew up with 2-blades. But shaving was not a perfect experience for me. I have a tough beard on my cheeks but a tender neck which often breaks out in a rash. When you are a kid, you dream of shaving but the reality of shaving pretty much sucks.

My grandfather used to shave with a single-blade. Do you remember those old razors where the blade was this paper-thin piece of metal that came in a little metal box and you would switch the blades every so often? When I heard that those razors actually irritate the skin less than the modern multi-blade models so I got curious.

For Christmas in 2006 I asked for an old-school razor and received one as a gift. (Thanks, Mom :)

After 6 months of using it, I can say that I'm done with the razor wars. The old-school single blade razor is by far the best shave I have ever had and I am happily sticking with it. No more $15 blade refills for me.

Steppin' Razor

The first few shaves were a bit unnerving. This is a real razor blade! The kind you normally keep in a tool box in the basement not the bathroom. Moreover it feels TOTALLY different from the disposables. After the first few harrowing shaves, it took about a month before I got used to the new system. Since that trial period, I have grown quite fond of the single-blade and have no plans to switch back.

My main issue with the old razor was razor burn. I almost never get irritated skin with this new single blade so that was a big win.

Another issue with double-blades was that they got clogged up. Long before the blades got dull, they would get full of whiskers and the blades would bend. Once bent, the new blade angle would totally irritate. This was an even bigger problem if i didnt shave for a few days (as in every week).

I am happy to say that this problem is moot with the single blade. Whether I shave once a day or once a week, the single blade cuts the same and never plugs up. In fact, I much prefer taking a longer period between shaves because it makes my whiskers easier to cut. Even shaving once a week with a thick beard is a breeze now (as long as you soften your beard in a hot shower first).

An added bonus is that the razor cuts body hair easily - something men in their late 30's and 40's might (discretely) appreciate.

Along with the new razor, I stopped using shaving cream. Instead of buying a $4 can every month, I bought a single brick of expensive, imported shaving soap. The soap was not easy to find but it works great. And I have used maybe a quarter of the bar in half a year -- rather economical.

The one downside is that this blade will cut you. I dont think I had ever bled with my 2-blade but that happens now. For me the main problem is my prominent adams-apple (Thanks, god!). This razor is very hard to shave an irregular shape like that and I occasionally pull out the 2-blade just for this operation.

So next time you are annoyed with your multi-blade performance (or the huge expense), check out your grandfather's old razor. Sometimes new is not the same thing as better.

"Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (DVD-ROM)"

The last single player RPG that I really enjoyed was Fallout. That was YEARS ago. I played Neverwinter Nights, but I kind of had to force myself to finish.

As I have written before, I find solo PC games like RPG's kind of depressing. After a while I start to wonder why I dont have any friends to play with and I start to feel guilty and anti-social. After Everquest, I just dont want to play this kind of game alone anymore.

Until now.

"The Fifth Discipline : The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization" by Peter M. Senge

In terms of personal growth and seeing the world more accurately, "The Fifth Discipline" is one of the best books that I have ever read. It had a huge impact on me back in the early 1990's and although I cannot remember all five "disciplines", I did internalize a lot of it. :)

"System Shock 2" by Electronic Arts

I recently read that people are installing a mod to update the textures and replaying this game. That reminded me that this is one of my favorite games of yester-yore. I heard there was a sequel coming soon - one can hope its just as good.

"Operation Flashpoint" by Codemasters

A bit long in the tooth now, but this was one of my favorite games. Im looking forward to their next installment.

"Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money--That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!" by Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon L. Lechter

"Cashflow Quadrant: Rich Dad's Guide to Financial Freedom" by Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon L. Lechter

It has been a few years since I read these books (really they are one book, split in two to double the sales revenue). Even so, I credit these two books with fundamentally changing the way I think about money, about my career, and about investing.

I believe that American's are generally ignorant when it comes to money and investing. You cannot even have a discussion with most people because their are so full of misinformation and so emotional about it, they arent open to change. Our schools do a woeful job of educating people about money even though our economic system requires a great deal of financial acumen to prosper. (The cynic in me says that this state exists for exactly this outcome: a few winners supported by a lot of losers.)

If you want to succeed in a capitalistic society, you NEED to understand capital and investing. If you believe that your house is your "best investment", then you are one of these misinformed people and you would do well to be proactive about it ASAP.

"Sid Meier's Civilization IV"

Civ4 ties with DoD:S for best game of 2005. Definitely the best of the Civilization games which go waaay back to my college days and the Amiga computer.

When you buy the game, go straight to the end of the manual and read the letter from the producer. It is a good history of the game development as well as a great overview of what they changed and why. This game was a total rewrite and it shows. Often games just add fancy eye-candy graphics and the gameplay sucks - this team reworked the graphics and the gameplay. Even more impressive was their openness to aftermarket mods and their use of open standards like XML and Python.

If you are looking for a way to lose weekends building an empire, look no further. Civ4 is a must have for any PC gamer.

"The Geography of Thought : How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why" by Richard Nisbett

This book is one of the best books that I have read in business school. The book itself has nothing to do with business and everything to do with people, but since business IS people, there is a connection.

Not everyone in class liked the book as much as I did but I found it to be a fantastic explanation for why and how Easterners and Westerners think. As a China watcher, I know enough to know that I just dont understand the Chinese. This book gave me some real insight into the reasons. Needless to say, East and West both have internally consistent but dramatically different views about how the World works.

As the next generations will truly be global generations, I highly recommend this book for just about anyone. It will help you on your cross-cultural teams at work and it will help you make sense of the global political systems.

"Day of Defeat: Source" by Windows

What makes a great game? Sometimes it is novel gameplay. Sometimes it is just something "fun". But a really great game is one you come back to night after night after night.

In terms of hours spent, DoD is my favorite game of all time. In terms of enjoyment per dollar, DoD is like a singularity :) Unlike Everquest, it takes almost no money to enjoy DoD for months on end.

I thought the original DoD was fantastic but the sequel based on the Half-Life2 engine came out at Thanksgiving 2005 and it is even better. There is no story here, just instant and total online multiplayer action. You can play for 20 minutes or 8 hours at a stretch. If you like realism and teamwork in your FPS games, DoD:S cant be beat.

Whether you buy it at Amazon or as a download, BUY IT. Developers of such great products deserve the money!(And if you do buy it, you can shoot me as Silver9 on the 1st CPB server. Im not a member but I usually play there.)

"Dyson DC 14 Upright Vacuum" by Dyson

After buying a Dyson a few years ago, I began to LOVE to vacuum the house! It may seem strange but I get a real pleasure from seeing all the carpet fibers, hair and tiny dust particles that this amazing machine sucks out of our carpets.

This vacuum cleaner is expensive but worth every penny. And be sure to read the company history - the fact that the inventor couldn't get anyone to make it because it didnt sell vacuum bags also makes it a good cause.

When people actually do build a better mousetrap, we should support them.