BLOG by zaiss

After my last headphone debacle, I decided that I definitely had to find some headphones that could at least stay in my ear. I stumbled upon some reasonably cheap (somewhere between $10 - $20) headphones at the University Center at CMU:

These headphones were actually highly desirable for many reasons:

1. The clips make sure that they don’t fall out of my ears.
2. They’re comfortable.
3. The clips double as something that I can gnaw on to satiate my oral fixation without destroying the cords.
4. There’s a slider on the headphones so you can cinch the separate wires together, avoiding entanglement (which rocks).
5. They’re black with random silver detailing, which I like.

But five months after my purchase, they’re dead. No noise coming out of either ear. Completely kaput. And I just think that’s ridiculous! Laura has had the same headphones for longer, and hers still work. Am I doing something wrong? I haven’t been chewing on the wires (at least, not as often). Maybe I’m pulling them too tightly when I cinch the wires together? Or maybe wrapping them around my iPod isn’t good for them?

So readers, give me your advice. Do I need to get fancy headphones that I can’t chew on? Wireless, perhaps! Or was this a fluke, and should I just get another pair from the University Center? Or maybe I should just be banned from headphones all together as a bad patron.

Sarah’s cat Earl and I play this game where I bounce him off the window screen. Sarah’s always worried that one day Earl will just go flying through that screen and out her 8th floor apartment.

Well, you don’t have to worry anymore.

In South Carolina, some cat named Piper was chilling up in a tree for eight days before a branch broke beneath her and she fell 80 feet - and survived. There’s a video in that article. You should watch it. It’s amazing.

Spring Break is just finishing, and I already find myself procrastinating. Videos about muffins tend to help. Watch this one about the Muffin Tree.

I generally try to avoid political commentary on my blog, but a friend of the family sent along a cool anecdote involving a recent gay marriage debate, and I thought I would share it.

Vince would always say that he had a phobia of Billy Mays - you know, the guy from the Oxy Clean commercials? It seemed odd to have a phobia of people, but over time, I’ve come to recognize that I have a severe phobia of the woman in the Honey Bunches of Oats commercials.

Can you blame me?

As I was leaving the bank today, I wasn’t really paying attention, so I stepped into the street a bit early (I had a green light, but not a walk symbol). After taking a couple of steps, I realized the error and started to turn around. But it was too late - the crowd of people on the sidewalk had taken my cue and started crossing the road. I was swept into traffic.

Really, I guess there’s strength in numbers. A car likely won’t turn into me if there are other people around me. Still, I found it shocking how easily people will defer to another person’s actions, especially when crossing the road. If it’s safe enough for them, it must be safe enough for me!

I’ve mentioned some of my odd quirks before, but another one that seems to be pretty unique is the fact that I balance my checkbook. Most of the people I talk to don’t do it, and only a few of them secretly think it would be worth their while if they could find the time.

I balance my checkbook in a physical transaction register, which I pick up from the bank. When I fill one up, I get a new one from the bank. This didn’t strike me as odd at all until I went to the bank today and asked for a new register. After checking the drawers at her station, the attendant said, “Give me just a moment to find one.” She then proceeded to talk to the other attendants and check upwards of 30 drawers in the area. Finally she came back to me and said “I’ll have to go talk to someone on the floor to get one.”

Ten minutes later, I had a new transaction register. Suddenly I realized - this must not be a very common request at all. For that matter, what is a masters student in HCI doing using pen and paper to keep track of transactions? Of all the errors that I’ve “found” over the 7 years of diligent record keeping, all but one of them have been errors of calculation or mistyping into the computer’s calculator.

I think it’s time I joined the 21st century and started balancing my checkbook using the computer. I hear Quicken is good (my mom swears by it). Any other recommendations out there? Preferably from people who actually balance their checkbooks.

Spring Break is upon us, and in Game Design, we’ve just finished our Adventure game. I think it’s cool that our professor is so in tune with the Game Design community - he recognizes the need for people to participate in paper-and-pencil adventure games (dare I say… role playing) because it’s what a lot of the senior game designers grew up with. If you don’t have experience in this medium, you won’t have credibility with these people.

Anyway, Jenn posted a brief reflection about her adventure game, and so I thought I would post a brief reflection about how I felt my adventure game played out.

Here it is (mov).

Sorry in advance that the file is so large. Its 16MB, so if you aren’t on a high speed connection… just trust that it was funny and you’ll be the only one not laughing.

For those times when you’re feeling particularly psychotic…

The summer before my sophomore year in high school, I went to debate camp for a few weeks. When I came back, my coach asked if I’d enjoyed my time. I replied, “It was great. I learned how to spin my pen.” “I hope you didn’t pay that much money just to learn that.”

But really, so what if I did? Spinning your pen is cool. And now there’s a Google video showcasing people doing just that. I can do the flip-the-pen-over-your-thumb move (shown in the video a few times), but apparently pen flipping has evolved since I last twirled my pen mid-debate. I’ve got some practicing to do!