Woo Hoo!

This is the ONLY time I have taken a web quiz. So, this means that I am half Supergirl? Which half?

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 80% Spider-Man 80% Green Lantern 70% Robin 62% The Flash 60% Hulk 60% Supergirl 52% Iron Man 50% Wonder Woman 47% Catwoman 35% Batman 35%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

LibraryThing Rocks!

I have been using LibraryThing with my job and really liked the ease of use. We used it to display new books on our Library blog.

I have been wanting to create a catalog of all of my Disney, Star Wars and other favorite books for several months. I signed up for an account (which had to be the easiest registration ever) and started entering the ISBN's right away. Since a few of my books were only sold at Disney theme parks, they did not have an ISBN or other identifying mark (like a publication date). I was able to enter 60 titles last night and it took me about an hour. That was in between changing a diaper, eating supper and keeping the boys from getting toys everywhere.

I am still exploring the power of LibraryThing. I added a widget to the left hand column of this blog that will display random titles from the books that I have entered. I can tell it to only show books with certain tags (or keywords) or by specific authors.

I hope to start entering my Star Wars titles next.

Speaking of Disney....

Oh, wait. You mean you weren't talking about Disney World? That must have been me!

We just got back from a 6 day trip to Walt Disney World. We stayed at the Polynesian Resort and had a really good time. This was a different trip for me for a few reasons.

1. Both boys were able to ride most attractions.
2. Both boys knew about Disney and had some expectations.
3. This was the first trip since 2000 without my parents.

I also wanted to make good memories for the boys. Give them a few bright spots to hold onto and remember. Make them want to go back to Disney World.

We did the opposite of most of my previous trips. We slept late, avoided the big rides and just let the boys lead us around.

We had a few expectations for the trip. We were assuming that the weather would be nice. We thought that the parks would not be as crowded as summer months. We thought the Christmas decorations would be amazing.

Well, the weather was overcast and kind of gray. The parks were more crowded than usual, but we still had short waits. There didn't seem to be much Christmas spirit anywhere. There was plenty of Christmas music being piped all over the parks and the resorts, but the decorations weren't as stunning.

One of our highlights was actually being in the Family Fun Day Parade. We were asked by a Year of a million Dreams castmember as we made our way to the Magic Carpets of Aladdin ride at about 9:45 at the Magic Kingdom. Here are some pictures of it:

www.flickr.com

Connery really enjoyed it. It was pretty cool to walk down Main St. USA at the Magic Kingdom with a brass band playing 76 Trombones right behind you. A lot of people were watching us as we walked on by. It really was a great experience.

Welcome to the Social (Gaming, that is)

Anyone that knows me, knows my passions. I do wear them on my sleeve. Just take a look at my sidebar. In no particular order: libraries, video games, music, reading and Disney Theme Parks.

I have been a video game player since my parents brought home a pong console in the mid to late 70's. It also played jai lai and hockey. We didn't care. We were mesmerized by the glowing white bars and the bouncing square.

We didn't get an Atari 2600 until summer of 1983. My parents were always late adopters. Hours and hours of playing Combat with my brother. We could never agree, though, on whether the three bi-planes were better or the large jet.

Then came Mario. The NES. The Nintendo Entertainment System. (Wow. I can't wait to get my hands on a Wii.) Well, since then, there has always been a Nintendo console wherever I lived. I loved the Zelda series. Anything with an action/RPG gameplay. Yes, there is a Gamecube in the play room.

Even though Nintendo revolutionized the gaming industry, I wasn't a semi-hardcore gamer until I played Halo. You may have heard of it. It was the killer app for the Xbox. It was the first game I ever beat. The first game I ever played all the way through with my son. And my introduction to social gaming. We called them Halo Nights. Or LAN parties. We would get 3 or 4 Xbox's, a couple of projectors, a router and at least 12 friends. Drinking, cursing, yelling, lasagna and plenty of male bonding ensued. Hang 'Em High, Blood Gulch...you name it...we played it.

Halo is a first person shooter (fps), which means that you see the guns on the screen and you have an aiming reticule. You basically run and gun. Shoot. Try to take out the enemy first. With the Halo Nights, we would play Team Slayer (two teams try to get as many kills as possible), Team Deathmatch (similar concept) and Capture the Flag. Great fun.

Halo 2 took the Halo Night online. You could go online and play against friends and strangers. You had a headset and mic, so you could talk to your fellow players. It was great. But it wasn't the same. It was difficult to create a party and go online with your friends. I could have up to three friends come over and we could all go online, but you were dumped into an unranked match (meaning you were either playing against noobs or pros).

That all changed on Emergence Day.

I have an Xbox 360. It is incredible. So far, there has not been a Halo for the Xbox 360. No real killer app. Until Gears of War. There has been incredible hype about this game.

I played it. Thought it was ok. Harder than Halo. this title is a third person shooter. You actually see your character on the screen. In Halo, you run and gun. Just go. Like a tank. occasionally, you would have to stop, so your shield would regenerate...but mostly you would run. In Gears, you actually stop and pop. You have to hide. You need cover. You won't survive otherwise.

Well, back on target...

With Gears, two people can play co-op on the same Xbox 360. Just like Halo. What is different is that you can play Gears in co-op mode through Xbox Live (internet). I was introduced to this by a friend. it is hard to explain how amazing this is. I can be in the middle of a game, notice that my friend comes online and invite him to play with me. Sounds simple, but it is revolutionary.

He lives about 30 miles away. I have another friend that is about two hours away. We use the headsets, we plan strategy...we play the game. Just like we were in the same room.

Is it social gaming? Sure. We talk about the game, what is going on in life...just like a phone conversation. We just happen to be saving the planet at the same time. Or at least we think so.

That is always what has made gaming fun. playing with friends. Saving the world with friends...

How Cool is That?

I was messin' around on Flickr and saw this new "addition" to their services.

So, needless to say, I clicked on it.

It does show the most popular cameras used on Flickr--by number of photos submitted. You can click on specific brand or camera. It will show you different types of pictures taken by that camera. Gives you an idea of whether the camera fits you or not. I found my model of camera and then did a search for polynesian and disney. I wanted to see pictures of my favorite resort at Disney World taken with my camera.

While you're browsing Flickr, you can see what type of camera took the picture. Look at the Additonal Information area. Not every picutre has camera information. Some images were scanned or sent in by a cell phone camera.

You can click on the link for the camera. It takes you to a page that shows the camera (and of course--a link to buy the camera through Yahoo!), some specs and pictures that have been taken by the camera.

Thought this might be helpful and fun. Especially when thinking about buying that new digital camera for Christmas.

But then, none of my pictures look as good as the ones highlighted on Flickr.