My friend Shawn and I celebrated Howardpalooza 2009 yesterday with our annual kayak trip down the James River.

Named after the town of Howardsville, VA, Howardpalooza, is an experience everyone should take in at least once in their lifetime.

You can see photos from our trip on Flickr

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It’s good to change your perspective—to explore the shadows.

After dinner tonight, Ayn raided a drawer full of old silverware and proceeded to put it on the table. To you and me, it looks like a mass of cheap stainless steel.

Then she’d climb under the table, lie on her back and “ooh” and “ahh” and point at things. I can’t say exactly what she sees in the shadows from below but I do know she’s fascinated.

I love watching my children play.

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Will companies like OnLive force gaming rig and console builder to rethink their business? Or just beat OnLive to the punch with digital downloads.

OnLive is set to offer a set top box that streams HD games in real time over the Internet. You’ll pay a subscription fee to play but as long as you’re within 1000 miles of the server farm and an connection with 5 Mbps down to attain HD 720p visual quality, you’re all set.

What’s unknown at this point is the system cost and the subscription fee amount—but it’s still an amazing feat.

Read more: http://www.pcworld.com/article/161852/onlive_will_it_beat_xbox_360_ps3_and_wii_at_their_own_game.html

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I have 4 new friends on Twitter and if you’re a fan of L4D, you should follow them too.

Twitter bots are usually annoying at best but Tom Armitage at infovore.org has managed to change that game with the release of Twit 4 Dead.

He’s created four bots that actually talk to each other.

Enter @louis_l4d, @zoey_l4d, @bill_l4d and @francis_l4d.

That’s right. They’re named for the characters in Left 4 Dead.

Pills over here!
I hear a witch. Lights off!
Hold still. I’m healing you.
Stay close, people.
WITCH!!

How awesome is that?

Now if Tom could just get the Infected set up with Twitter accounts and have the horde follow everyone.

HERE THEY COME!!!

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At lunch today, I was browsing a few financial forums looking for some info related to some stock I own (Activision, ATVID) and ran across this quote:

“My portfolio pwn’s yours u noob”

You gotta’ love it when gaming lingo crosses over into the financial sector. Next thing you know, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will be busting out quotes like “I’m in UR $entral bank adjusting UR ratez”.

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Will someone please tell video game publishers that WWII ended 63 years ago? It’s time to move on.

I dropped EA’s Medal of Honor: Airborne into the Xbox 360 over the weekend and couldn’t be bothered to play beyond a couple of levels. The entire game seems tired.

The only innovative ideas it brings to the genre are the ability to control your descent from the airplane and more of a sandbox style of mission objectives—meaning you can choose the order of your objectives based on where you drop. Other than that, there’s nothing new here.

The game offers the same objective-based story line as every other WWII shooter that came before it—enter the fray with your unhelpful, AI-controlled teammates, kill a seemingly infinite number of Nazis, blow a few things up, rinse and repeat. If that’s your thing, this game is like an old pair of shoes—comfortable and easy going. You’ll love it.

If you’re looking for something with a little more style and substance though, don’t bother with Medal of Honor: Airborne.

Call of Duty 4, Rainbow Six Vegas, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, and Battlefield: Bad Company bring so much more to the game including better story lines, innovative game play, much smarter AI for your team (especially in Rainbow Six Vegas 2), and in the case of Battlefield: Bad Company, some much needed humor.

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Looks like I’ve got a busy weekend ahead of me. Doing some recon, a little demolition, maybe some looting. Oh yeah.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/b/badcompany/
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/b/badcompany/liveweekend/

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