Let’s see, all kinds of things to talk about, a few fun stories and some updates.
I ended up sitting outside with some friends one night last week, talking late into the evening, and we had dried hibiscus flowers. It was a very odd texture, they were a bit chewy and stringy, and I thought they looked like small crowns, or maybe flames from a fire. Not something I would eat again, but I’m glad I tried them.
We had the A/C on the other day, and it was freezing! Granted, it was freakishly hot and humid outside, but I ended up having to turn it down, and then eventually off. I did however get a package, which is the first one of the summer that I’ve gotten. Since I’m the one who sorts all the mail, it’s always kind of depressing seeing all the packages coming in for other people (and massive amounts of things to sell), but it comes with the territory I suppose. Anyway, one of my old camp directors used to always get me little dollar store toys to keep me entertained in the office, and he packed up a huge box and sent it to me. It was filled with silly putty, a Frisbee, foam disk guns, silly string and a ton more, it was very exciting. Sadly, I’ve been too busy to open them up and play with them, but I’m hoping that soon I’ll be able to.
Also last week, we were able to figure out how to get a conference call between three or more people going. Granted, we were testing it on the three phones in the main office, but it was still cool nonetheless to get it working. Now I’m kind of hoping we need to use it in the future!
A few random news stories: Trampoline boots are a reality, GearLive had an article about these large boots with “personal trampolines” attached to them, allowing the user to bounce anywhere. Sounds cool, but also dangerous!
Sony announced a $100 price drop in the PS3 and Microsoft announced a new 80 gig and a Halo-themed Xbox 360, all to very little excitement and fanfare. E3 was very toned down and spaced out this year, but sounded like fun nonetheless, Nintendo announced its Wii Balance Board and Zapper. I’m still waiting for Wii Music and the diving game, and of course, the release of Smash Bros. Brawl, announced for sometime in early December (I forget the exact date at the moment).
Speaking of Nintendo, they have a cool new service available at the Seattle Mariners stadium (the team is apparently owned by Nintendo): if you have your DS and pay a fee, you have access to their fan network, showing you replays only shown on TV, statistics, trivia games and allowing you to order food and drinks from your seat and have it delivered. I don’t really enjoy baseball that much, but I know a few people who do and I know they would love this (mostly for the replays and the quick access to statistics), hopefully it is something that could be expanded to other stadiums and sports.
I had mentioned in an earlier post that Ragnarok was coming to the DS as an MMORPG, well apparently, new details have surfaced, and that isn’t really the case. It will be a single person game with some online features. Oh well, not that I was interested, it just got my attention because a friend used to play the game on the PC.
The new seven wonders of the world were announced (on 7/7/07), and sadly, Neuschwanstein (probably spelled that wrong…) Castle was not one of them. It was my favorite and I was sad to see that it didn’t win, but I understand. If I remember correctly the pyramids were the only repeat from the seven wonders of the ancient world, and nothing from the
The pope is making headlines again, he re-released a document which he wrote in 2000, although I’m not really sure why it was released again, possibly to add more validity to it with the title of pope attached, or maybe just as a reiteration. But either way, it comes across as extremely offensive to the rest of Christianity. The document basically stresses Rahner’s “Anonymous Christian” theme, but as “Anonymous Catholics.” What also baffles my mind is how someone can bluntly say that a specific denomination (or all but a few in this case) does not offer a “salvivic path,” but gets people close enough to Catholicism to provide that salvation, but still encourage open dialogue. Seems a bit two faced to me, and downright offensive when you read the text, but I know that it can be read in other ways, so I try to stay open to those interpretations (of the interpretation of the council).
This goes back to camp a bit, but it is so strange sometimes to take a step back and realize how dependant we all are on the Internet and e-mail. I get so many questions about cell phone coverage, access to e-mail and wireless internet, that sometimes I think we should just open up a computer lab. And it’s kind of sad to realize that so many people can’t even spend a week with their son without feeling like they are getting hopelessly behind at work or missing something important in their e-mail.
Well, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out very soon, and I’m planning on putting up a special post with some of the theories and some of my predictions. I don’t really expect any of them to be correct, but I’d like to at least discuss it a bit. Ok, I think that’s it for now. I’m planning on hiking the Courage Trail this weekend and taking some pictures so I’ll have a bunch to put up when I get home from the summer, so look for that as well! Have a great one!
