Strange Dreams and Careers

I had the oddest dream last night.

For some reason two of us had been chosen to do something with the Mythbusters.  It was fun -- I forget what the project was, but it went well, and they knew from how the episode went that I had a solid science/technical background.  After the main stuff was done, we were sitting around talking, just the cast and the two one-time guests (I forget about the other guest), and their question for me was

"Ok, cover your eyes.  Why does your stuff get implemented (cuz you know it does)?" -- basically, why do your designs/ideas get used.

Moment of honesty -- "Well, they don't, really.  I'm a systems engineer.  I spend most of my time mucking about with requirements."

Tori, kind of laughing, "Wait -- you spend your time ..." and something about typing and copying text and so forth.

"Yeah, pretty much."

*sigh*  That was pretty much the end of day, anyway, but still vaguely depressing, considering that I used to have actual technical skills, when I was a lab rat in grad school.

Of course, it's not like 'lab rat' is a job description for anyone except the guy who writes 50 Model Rocket Projects for the Evil Genius.

Questions about video games. . .

So, I just played through the demo of Bulletstorm.  It was (absolutely-not-kid-safe) fun, in much the same way that Duke Nukem 3D was, back in the day.

The single-player campaign is supposed to be 6-8 hours long -- not very much at all for $60.  The multiplayer looks like fun, but not the kind of thing that I'd spend a lot of time playing.

If I get it now, I get the single-player, and am guaranteed multiplayer matchups, at least for a while.  If I wait a while, I can get the game for a lot less, especially given the number of other FPS titles gearing up for release, but the odds of finding online play are a lot lower.  This really bit me with Monday Night Combat -- it's fun, but finding a co-op game usually means bringing a book to the XBox and reading for half-an-hour or so while waiting.  For a major game, like Call of Duty:  Modern Warfare 2, it's not a big deal -- there were still a couple of hundred thousand people online last weekend.  Bulletstorm -- not that kind of triple-A title.

How do you figure how much a game is worth, and when to buy it?

Firsties!

Ok, so now I have one of those blog thingies. . . .


What kind of mischief can I use it to get into.