I like to play games.  No, I am not talking about hopscotch, jump-rope, pin the tail on the donkey, and certainly not psychological games to mess with people.  I am talking about video games.  It has always been a hobby of mine for at least the last 30 years.  I remember back in 1982 when we bought the Atari 800 that had a full keyboard and a lid that you lifted up to plug in cartridges for games.  When we bought the 5.25″ disc drive for the computer (for around $800!) that was the height of technology and we could now buy all sorts of other games!

The process of buying games and downloading them has come a long way in 30 years.  Now there are many, many ways for you to purchase games if you enjoy them.  You can get games on your phone, on your i-pad, your gaming console, etc.  You can walk into a store and buy them or, even better – you can download them.

And that is where Steam comes into play (no pun intended).  Steam started out to be copy protection for a very popular game created by a company named Valve (get it – Valve…Steam…?)   Very soon after release, they offered the ability to digitally download games.  At first it was just their own games, and then after a short while they offered many games from other game makers.

They are now the largest and most popular digital download platform with an estimated 70% of a 4 billion dollar a year digital download business worldwide.  As of the writing of this blog entry I could not find an exact total of games that they offer, but on the front page of their site they say they have 2,569 games under $10.00 and 1,576 games under $5.00.  Just those numbers alone show that they have a lot to choose from.

They offer the most current games from big game developers as well as small “indie” games that are made by one or two people.  In my opinion, they are very democratic about what games they offer on their site.

They also routinely have huge sales on top games.  During Christmas and New Years for instance, they often had top selling games for anywhere from 50% to 75% off.  That is a big discount!

Not into games…?  Well, they just recently added a section for software where they offer a variety of programs that range from personal budget programs to game development software.  Just last month Amanda wrote a recommendation for Camera Bag 2 and mentioned that it is offered on Steam.

You should check it out and see what they offer.  Everyone enjoys a good game now and then.  I know there was a time a few years back when my whole family was practically addicted to a game called Bookworm, and I have to say without a doubt … it was time well wasted!

Remember, the title of this blog section is “Random Stuff We Like” so I am going with the “randomosity” (a word I think I made up) of that title with this entry…

I like history.  Always have.  I think that history is so important in how it helps us to understand who we are, how we got where we are, and even help us with planning our future.  Not to sound cliched, but we can (and should) learn so much from history.

One of the great side benefits of traveling and taking photos of places and architecture is that you get to explore, and many of the places you explore are of some historical interest. Walking up the well worn stone steps of the Acropolis in Athens for instance, it takes very little imagination to hear the voices and sounds of the people who did exactly what you are doing, thousands of years ago.

Unfortunately, I think we all suffered through history the way it was presented in school, be that grade school or university, or both.  It was presented as a bunch of names and dates that we were forced to memorize and these things had seemingly no real connection to our lives today.  They were often events that happened in far away places and long ago and had no real “human” quality to them, no way to relate to those people and events.

That is why it is so exciting when you find an author who tells history in a way that not only allows you to relate to the the events and the people who play a role in those events, but makes you feel like you are there.

Erik Larson is one such author.  I have read several of his books and have enjoyed his telling of the events in each of those books.  The one I have read lately (just finished it today) and have enjoyed the most, is called Isaac’s Storm.  It is the story of the hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas on September 8, 1900.

The way the story is told, the pace, his style, the bits of information he includes almost as asides that help to flesh out the time period and the people in it, is wonderful.  All history should be presented this way.

The book, of course, can be found in your local bookstore or online and will not disappoint you in the way it pulls you into the story of the deadliest hurricane in history.  That makes it a perfect entry for “random stuff we like…”

Enjoy.

This section of the blog is, of course, for random things that we happen to like that generally have something to do with what it is we do and are interested in.  Last week I was in a bookstore in a mall in Dubai (Yes, Dubai – we get to travel as part of our jobs!) and I came across this book.  It is titled, “How to be an Explorer of the World” by Keri Smith.

I was instantly struck with how similar it is to our philosophy on seeing the world and how exciting it can be when you do in fact stop to look at the world around you.  It is filled with all sorts of “experiments” and exercises for you to work on each day.  Each of them is designed to give you a new perspective and appreciation for the world around you.  You will watch people, touch things, draw things, map things out, collect things, taste things. listen to things, etc. all in an ongoing exploration of the world that is right at your finger tips every day.

I have included a photo of the cover of the book and I am sure you can find it in your local bookstore, or on Amazon.

Sure – one of the great benefits of what we do for a living is that we get to travel to far away and exotic locations.  That, of course, gives you a great perspective on the world at large, but it also gives you a new appreciation for the world around where you call home…

So, take my word for it and pick up the book and get out there and explore!  You will not be disappointed.

So, the other night I was taking a break from my real life responsibilities and decided to play a game on my PC.  This is a hobby of mine and I have found is the best way for me to  escape the real world and be distracted for a while.

I was playing Medal of Honor, which, for those of you that do not know, is what is called a “first person shooter.”  That means that the game world is seen from the perspective of your character with the currently equipped weapon in the lower center of the screen.  The idea is that it feels like you are there, in person, in the game world.  As a result of this mechanic, the developers of games like this have gotten very good at creating worlds with ever increasing realism.  The more realistic the world of the game, the more you are drawn into it. (Take a look at some of the screenshots on the site and you will see what I mean.  Not too bad for a game that is two years old…)

In Medal of Honor, you play an elite soldier as part of a small team that has a fairly straight forward mission.  Rescue a hostage.  Find and kill the main bad guy.  Find a bomb and defuse it, etc.  This particular mission was at night in a village in Afghanistan in what is basically reflective of current events and the war there.  Again, the game world is very realistic.  This realism serves to heighten the tension.

In the first mission I am in an alley at night with soft moon light coming down from above, dim, warm interior lighting coming from a few shuttered windows and open doors, and many dark corners and places for the enemy to hide .  There are voices of the militia we are there to “neutralize” everywhere.  Gunfire, small explosions, and flashes of light down and around corners is constant.

I am completely into the game.  My other three team members are calling out “tangos” on roof tops and at locations identified by positions on a clock with frightening efficiency and regularity.  We are a well oiled machine and the “tangos” are falling left and right.

About 15 minutes into the game and reality starts to creep in.  I notice a particularly good rusty metal texture on an old car.  Then I notice the pock-marked stone walls and the variety and quality of those textures.  Being a 3D modeler myself and having worked on a video game before, I find that I am no longer focused on the “mission”, but, have instead wandered down an alley to look at more textures.  “Look at the detail on those old wood doors!  Look at those tires.  Nice.  Hey – that looks just like one of our concrete textures.  Nice aging on that…”

Suddenly, I hear the sound of dull thuds as my screen shudders a bit, wobbles, then turns blurry and drops to the ground and to the side all the while as a red color like clotted blood appears around the edges and spreads to the center.

I am dead.  I got more interested in looking at the textures than spotting bad guys.

Textures can get you killed…

Photoshop and many other image-editing software have preset filters that allow you to quickly and easily take an image and alter it in a way that makes it more visually appealing or artistic.  Here is an example of a photo I took of a house:

Then, in the second image, you can see what it looks like after I spent less than 5 minutes in Photoshop, applying a filter, adjusting the saturation of the color, adjusting the contrast, and then cropping it to the size I wanted, to make the composition of the image more interesting.

It’s easy and fun – try it some time…