Michel.Evanchik.Net

update the table

I’ve been spending way too much time lately playing Buggle at the Casual Collective website.  It’s essentially a competitive chain-reaction game.

It takes a couple of tries to get the hang of it, but once you do, you’ll find it an entertaining diversion.  It’s sort of like combative Tetris,  jujitsu Tic-Tac-Toe, or Connect Four mixed with Laser Tag.

Just get a free account and try it.

I want some new toys.

I want a Nokia N800 Internet tablet, because it fits in my pocket, and so that I can conveniently surf the web anywhere in the house, or when I go out and there is a Wifi connection nearby.  I prefer the Nokia N800 to the new Ipod Touch because the Nokia is more configurable, extensible, and has a better screen.  Also, it can run Flash and Java, which is important to me.  All these points were well explained in a comparative review posted on another blog.

I want a 15″ Macbook Pro, because I am typing this on my wife’s Macbook, away from my desk and on the bed, and it is a darned nice computer.

I want a One Laptop per Child (OLPC) notebook computer, because it’s small (luggably small, but not pocketable) and durable and can have it’s power hand-generated.  I couldn’t give two farts for the poor kids it is meant to benefit, but I’m considering getting a couple for my kids too, because the thing looks like it can take a beating.  OLPC will be selling them to the general public to finance giving them to the poor, and I’m going to be sorely tempted to pick up a few, even doing so incidentally helps the wretched.

For clarity’s sake, this blog posting is most emphatically not a lobbying attempt to persuade my wife what to get me for my birthday (October 15th, mark your calendars!), because however much I love toys, I love saving money more.  Spending money, particularly money I don’t have, on expenses that can be avoided, causes me actual physical pain.

So the Macbook is definitely out, but perhaps the Nokia Internet tablet and the OLPC are doable.  I’ll just cut down on the takeout meals for a few months.

I should be writing about the debate I moderated last night, about the erudite debatrices, about the fascinating conversations I had afterwards. But instead I am digesting a delicious veal parmigiana sandwich and wasting my time with the latest Tower Defense (TD) game.

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I got turned on to a very good web game called “Castle Wars“. The game is a computerized version Mille Bornes, but with castles and catapults. It is a lot of fun, and uses the fundamental economic principle of diminishing returns to great effect.

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The old joke about buying insurance is that you hope it is wasted money. The wise man prepares for disaster, but is relieved to avert it. Yet the wise man is also human, and therefore prone to the the irrationalities essential to the human mind. When faced with uncertainty, man is relieved to find his preparations necessary, and disappointed when his prescience is faulty and the disaster never comes and his efforts are wasted. This is the Paradox of Expected Disaster.

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