In conversation with Dickolas (Non-random quotes from the last hour, provided with context)

Steve:

The Wii has a LOT of low-rated games

me:

you don't have to buy them, you know

me:

it's okay if you don't

What's Wang This Week

I don't know how I got so neglectful of this blog. It doesn't seem right, given that this blog is about the most notable thing I've ever done.

The second most notable thing I've ever done is score over 16,000,000 points on Tetris Tournament. I did that about a month ago, and I've barely played since. I felt, at that point, like I'd proved my point. I also upgraded my laptop to OS X 10.5, partially because I hoped it would speed up my computer, but also partially because then I could run Quinn, which I'd heard described as the best Tetris client ever (although they can't say that themselves as the Tetris people brought down the hammer of litigation).

After this success, I relented to peer pressure and agreed to give a talk in the Statistics Student Seminar about Tetris. Here was my abstract:

"All work and no play make Jack a dull boy", as they say, and perish the thought that grad students are dull. A pleasant diversion can take many forms; one of the most common is the almighty video game. Recently a wave of interest around one particular game has swept through the department: that elegant evergreen, Tetris.

However, the frustration of a bad game of Tetris often leads one to play again, and again, and again, until you achieve what you consider to be a "good" game. In my talk I will discuss and demonstrate general strategies and give some tips to make your game more consistent and improve your scoring, hopefully cutting down on the wasted time of a second (and third) game.

Time-permitting, I will discuss some results about a couple of subproblems of Tetris, including the proof that it isn't possible to play a single game of Tetris forever. This will be followed by a demonstration; in this demonstration I will discuss the relatively new "infinite rotation" rule and how it affects gameplay. I will also field questions about strategy and offer the insights of a Tetris player formerly ranked 20th in the world*.

* assuming Facebook rankings are world rankings.

You'd be surprised how much there is to say about Tetris.

Last week Jowen's friend Albert and Albert's friend Alpha passed through town and they stayed with me. We did the customary trips to Sizzler and In-N-Out, and they in return gave me food. They also invited me along to visit the Googleplex on Saturday, which was pretty awesome. Notably, they both beat Jowen in visiting me here. They were great guests and as such I'm happy to call them both my friends too. Awww.

This weekend is the Bacon and/or Chocolate Experiment of '07. I ordered a turducken from a local butcher, but I realized that we had the wrong date (he and I both thought American Thanksgiving was next week), so I called on Saturday to confirm. Turns out he didn't have my name written down at all, although this could have been because he couldn't make out my last name over the phone and was looking under "Leanne" or "Liane". Maybe I should call back and make sure he didn't write my first name down as "Rachel" this time.

I booked my flight to Vancouver for December 17. Book your calendars. This is no thanks to Adam, whose assholery had me planning to fly with him to Sea-Tac to save money until he found out -- after an Air Canada sale had ended, mind you -- that he had to stay right until the end of exam period because he has to help grade an exam. Fortunately, there were still ridiculously good fares available after he let me know, so he's off my shit list for the time being. Adam: what a douche.

I also finished Metroid Prime 3 in the last month. While it was good, I can't help but feel like my time would have been better spent playing Mario 64 before Mario Galaxy came out. Actually my time would have been even better spent eating more brown rice, which is cheaper and also nourishing.

What Was Wang This Month

Yeah, so I didn't write much the last four weeks. Sue me.

I was on holidays. Hooray for holidays! I spent much time with friends and family. I did some stuff. I hunted for a Wii. I bought a Wii. I lost at poker, and rather miserably, I might add. I drove to the airport all by myself for the first time. I also learned not to park at the airport for several hours if you can avoid it.

I experienced the strange weather in the Lower Mainland first-hand. I had heard about the damage at Stanley Park from the hurricane-force winds, but I wasn't expecting to see that many trees broken and blown down in my hometown Port Coquitlam. It was weird to look out at a field of trees and see 30% of them in pieces. I was sitting in the living room playing Zelda during a windstorm when I looked across the street and noticed that the tree in the yard was at a rather precarious 20 degree angle from upright. A few minutes later I looked back and noticed that it was at an even more precarious 30 degree angle from upright. This raised some concern, but then I just kept playing Zelda.

Wii = good. Wii hunting = bad. Incidentally, if any of my friends in Berkeley are reading this, if you see any Wiimotes and nunchuks on sale at normal price ($40 and $20 each), please buy one of each on the spot and I will pay you back. Think of it as helping me help you. I am looking for two Wiimotes and three nunchuks. (Incidentally, I just noticed that the URL for that post is "fucking-wii.html".)

My first day of Wii hunting was particularly frustrating, as not only did I fail to find one, I also failed to find a jar of Vegemite at Superstore which I fully expected to have Vegemite in the imported foods aisle, given that they have Tim Tams. I realized what a terrible shopper I am that day, as I failed first to find something that everybody wants, and then I failed to find something that nobody wants. Fortunately, thanks to Allan I now have a jar of Vegemite direct from Australia, and I can now say that I prefer it over the Marmite I bought at Save-On-Foods at home. My breakfast was 6 Vegemite (open-faced) sandwiches. That reminds me, I should go drink some water.

I also got sick, which cost me my voice for a few days. Actually it might have been fine but two Fridays ago instead of sleeping in and recovering all day I got up at 7:30AM to take my mom to work during the first snowfall of my holiday so I would have the car, with which I went to the mall to (futilely) hunt the elusive Wii, and then drove to the airport to see off my good friend and former roommate Brad to New Zealand (not this Brad), where he has a permanent job. This did my throat no favours, but at least I did finally get some respect from Derek for my Mario Kart skills when I managed to transfer them to an actual car and kept us from getting crashed into by an idiot driver who decided that turning into full-speed traffic at a non-intersection would be a good idea. (It was great, I slammed on the brakes, corrected the car's skidding on the slushy roads, pounded on the horn, and shook my fist at the driver all in one fluid motion. I did forget to look in the rearview as I slammed on the brakes though, which would have been bonus points. Kids, always scan the rearview every 5 seconds to keep an eye on traffic behind you.) However, my throat also cost me the opportunity to go spend the next day with Adam and a friend of his who was visiting Vancouver from Berkeley and is, reportedly, a girl.

I saw Body Worlds 3 at Science World with the LUGs and Rachel. Apparently it's a hot ticket. Who knew? I'm used to just showing up to Science World whenever I damn well feel like it. Anyway, it was interesting, morbid, disturbing, and raised some ethical questions, so I guess I got my money's worth.

When I got back to Berkeley I saw that my copy of Sloan's "Never Hear The End Of It" had come while I was away. I looked in the package and lo and behold, I got an autographed case! Turns out I was one of the first 100 people in the US to pre-order the album, so now I have all four Sloaners' autographs! Hooray for Yep-Roc! Hooray for Sloan! Hooray for autographs!

Okay I'm gonna go play Zelda now.

Current Music: The Decemberists - O Valencia!

This fucking thing

I don't know why I allowed myself to compromise my highly-principled "I'm not going to camp out for a Wii" stance. Probably, I suppose, because before Christmas I was always leaving it in someone else's hands as to whether or not I got a Wii, whilst now the burden has fallen to me. I did not camp out, I'm proud to say; on the other hand, I did get up early yesterday (7:30AM, which is still defenceable (it's a word, look it up) and I think quite reasonable) and invested the better part of the morning trying to track one down. Alas, now I'm in it this deep, and I am a much poorer person for it, as I am incredibly frustrated about making no progress.

Here, chronologically, are the most frustrating moments of my Wii hunt so far.

1. Believing there to be none available, and also expecting the next availability to be on the 29th when Best Buy and Future Shop received shipments, on the 27th I made no efforts to track down a Wii. Only at 3:30PM did I see a post on the Wii/PS3 availability forum I've been tracking saying that Toys 'R' Us, Walmart, and Zellers had all received shipments that day. By this time, of course, it was too late. This missed opportunity gave me the taste for blood, so to speak, and I doubled and redoubled my Wii efforts.



2. Believing that Zellers, Walmart, and Toys 'R' Us were not going to get any in for at least a week, and knowing that Future Shop and Best Buy were going to have them on the 29th, I aimed to get there first thing in the morning. On the evening of the 28th, I saw two people camping outside Best Buy, so I decided to try my luck with one of the seemingly random shipments that Future Shop might receive. I got there at 9AM, only to be told that there were none. I moseyed over to EB, having also heard rumours of shipments coming in that day, and was 4th in line, waited for the better part of an hour before they opened, before we were all told -- by a very close childhood friend who manages the store, no less -- that they didn't have any. He also explained to me that post-Christmas, Nintendo was doing their own shipping rather than delivering them via courier, and that shipments could go to any vendor at any time. As a result, availability is completely random. I decided that it wasn't worth waiting around all day for that kind of thing, so I made one last look at Superstore and went home.



3. Later, Divyesh told me that while I was waiting in the mall, Toys 'R' Us got a shipment. This meant that Toys 'R' Us got two shipments in three days while EB got zero. I realized then that they weren't kidding when they said "completely random".



4. Realizing that this was no more than folly, I did something else for a couple of hours. When I came back to check my e-mail, I found out that about 5 minutes after I started doing that something else, 100 Wiis became available on futureshop.ca. (They were gone.)



5. Then, Jowen's friend, who doesn't want it as much as I do, managed to track one down in Vancouver, in the middle of the morning. I was nonplussed.



6. Then, today I found out that the Future Shop that I got to before it opened at 9AM got a shipment of 30 Wiis at 2PM.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that I'm frustrated. I promised myself that I was above this, and that no piece of consumer electronics was worth this kind of hassle. In my defence, I had heard that Wiis wouldn't be readily in stock until late January, by which time I'd be in school, and I would really have liked to have one for the next two weeks of my holiday. Now, though, it seems like there will be many more available next week, making this whole search even stupider.

I wonder if the reason they aren't more available by now is because too many people were throwing their controllers and breaking the wrist strap (along with furniture), so Nintendo had to halt the production until all the old wrist straps were replaced with the newer ones which are built to withstand being thrown by idiots.

I need to stop thinking about this for a few days. Also, if you see me, please do not say "Future Shop", "Best Buy", "Toys 'R' Us", or "Wii", thanks in advance.

(Thanks too to Galen and Vince for the tips. Despite the futility of my search, your help is appreciated.)

Current Music: Steely Dan - Do It Again

Good niiws and bad niiws

First the bad news: I didn't get a Nintendo Wii for Christmas.

The good news: I got the money to buy a Wii for Christmas. Now there's no debate about whether or not I should buy a Wii -- no, my parents told me to buy one, so I have to.

Bad news: Of course, they're completely unavailable, otherwise I'd already have one.

Good news: You can help me.

Since it's in everyone's best interest for me to get a Nintendo Wii sooner rather than later, I ask for your help in tracking one down for me. This site and this site seem to have all the hot Wii tips, and here's Future Shop and Best Buy too. If you see one available in the Lower Mainland, let me know via e-mail, IM, or phone. I'll be on it like a fat man on a donut.

Oh, and Merry Christmas.

Current Music: Jeff Tweedy - How To Fight Loneliness