Are you addicted to BlogShares yet? This guy seems to be really into it. (I'm saving up to buy some of his, though, once the valuation comes back down a bit...)

As investors of daveGruska.com know, we've had an exciting few weeks. We have gone from a share price of $1.31 to a split-adjusted $257.07 in a matter of days. As CEO of my blog, I would like to personally extend my gratitude to all of my shareholders, especially the ones who stuck with me during the rough times, as I changed from .text to dasBlog. I promise to try my best to continue to increase shareholder value.

[ daveGruska.com ]

I was going to participate in this British Study, but I quickly lost interest and played some cartoony fighting games on the Nintendo. (Which certainly beat being social)

Apparently anything is news these days:

Reuters - The average one-way commute in the United States is just over 26 minutes, but the longest commute takes three hours, the government said on Monday.

[ Yahoo! News - Oddly Enough ]

This comes from a survey of 1,000 people. That's it, just 1,000. I'm not even sure that is statistically valid. It might suffice for a good guess at the average, but certainly not for determining the longest (or shortest) commute.

There is a fair share of pre-teen humor to be found, but not enough of it is targeted toward pixel-based video games of yesteryear, and even less communicated through Flash. Video Game Director's Cuts aims to fill that void.

Warning: the humor is very juvenile, and some of their shorts depict lovable console heroes in compromising positions, and even in harms way. Props to GameNow for bringing this to my attention.

It's not much, but I think that this is a positive statistic:

The latest figures from Japan show the GameCube marginally outselling the PlayStation 2 thanks to the release of Namco's RPG Tales of Symphonia - while Xbox sales have once again fallen behind the PSone.
[gameindustry.biz]

Just today I was talking to Bull about Jerry's new PS2, and couldn't believe the pains that Jerry has to go through to use a 3rd party double-size memory card for it. The PS2 appears to be inferior to the GameCube in so many ways, how does it keep out performing the GameCube?

For some reason this sounds appealing to me.

But I doubt that they'll have McCrepes Citron...

Update(Dec. 2, 2003): McCafe opens in Mountain View, CA

Today I went to Corner Bakery for lunch. They had a sign displaying the witticism:

Stressed is Desserts Spelled Backwards.

Now think of how much easier a language would be to learn if it all worked this way, if opposites were spelled backwards, or causes and effects, or conditions and cures. No more wondering how to combat Evil, you just Live. No more wondering what to take for a headache, just grab some ehcadaeh. And so on.

Of course many, many people will need to relearn the language, and no one else will think it's a good idea, and it will fail just as the metric system did (though I've heard they still use it somewhere), and we'll all end up speaking Esperanto.

Or just pretending? MexiJew points out some good tips to help you land the job you really want. I'm not sure that I agree with the thank you letter, they always seem pretty empty to me, but I have seen other decision makers respond to them.

In addition to his tips, I'd add:

• Keep your resume short. If your experience isn't in the same field and it's ten years old, it's not going to make much of a difference.
• Know how to use Word if you submit your resume as a Word Doc. If you can't layout the page correctly without getting red squiggles under each sentence, know that I'll see those same squiggles when I pull up your resume in my word.
• Don't apply if you're greatly over qualified. Many of my coworkers seem surprised at this one, but I don't want to spend weeks or even months hiring and training you, just for you to get bored and look for a new job, leaving me with another vacancy. I also don't want to pay for experience that I'm not going to use.
• If the job is in IT, don't fax in your resume, it make you look archaic or lacking the skills to submit your information electronically.
• And language skills are very important, so Word spell and grammar check aside, get a human to proof it as well, if not two or three.

If you are lucky enough to get past this first step, and you get a phone interview or even an office interview, here's a few things that you shouldn't do:

• Miss the phone call. It doesn't look professional.
• Ask the interviewer "Which company was this again?" followed up with "I've applied at so many, I can't tell them apart". Or anything in that vein.
• If asked why you applied for the job at their company, don't reply "I need work" or "I'm getting desperate", or "I can't remember", none will get you the job, even if it's the truth.
• Although a follow up call or thank you letter is appreciated, stalking, hounding, etc. is a sure way to lose a job that you almost had, so limit the calls to check on the job, and don't try to oversell yourself either, it makes you look cheap.

Apparently daveGruska decided that .Text didn't deliver on its promises, and he's trying out dasBlog.

N8 (of Spork fame) says that he heard that Charlie's Angels and Barbarian both suck.

Anyone have any info to the contrary?

Generally this makes them a rental first game, but neither one of these are on my must buy real soon list, so if they drop to $10 or so, and other people have given them good reviews, I might still pick them up.

I don't expect much from Charlie's Angles, but first glimpses of Barbarian looked like it could be good.

As for what I've played lately:

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem which I haven't played too much of, because it's a wee bit scary. Can't play it with Iman around, and once she's in bed I don't need to be hearing eerie noises out of the dolby 5.1 speakers

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour is quality, but it seems like I never feel I have enough time to play a full 18 holes. Hopefully I'll get back to it soon.

Vexx makes me feel a bit oogy, so I expect that the frame rate is kinda slow. The game seems to be a decent enough platformer, if only it didn't give me the queasies.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow was first rate up until the last drop. I've actually started playing it through a second time, but due to the "super item" that I'm allowed to keep from the first game (the "chaos ring"), even hard mode isn't much of a challenge.

And I love it.

John Bliss suggested that I find out if there is a "scent free" version of my beloved Corn Hustkers Lotion and I come to find out it's made by Pfizer, through their subsideary Warner-Labert.

But then, I ask, why has the label not really changed in 50 years or so? Or has the label been designed that way to fool me into thinking it's an age-old cure developed by the grandmother of some Iowa Corn Husker?

Any-which-way, it doesn't seem like it comes in different flavors, so he'll just have to get over his brain's association with its odor.

The Brothers Chaps
Bonus footage of the Homestar creators interview from G4TV

STREAMING: Windows Media - HI - LO

Yet another editorial regarding the evil of EULAs, and this time it's my Dad's.

It's got to make you wonder if one of these things could ever hold up in court.