 harvest moon: friends of mineral town
posted by Christopher on 2.29.2004 - 1:45 pm
"a farming simulator? how fun can that be?"
well.. a lot, actually. for me, a lot of what makes this game good is how complete it is. there are so many different ways you can go through the game, so many different things you can do that it's immersive. don't want to plant crops? that's ok, you can raise cattle, chickens or sheep and make stuff from eggs, milk or wool. you can mine... you can do a bit of all of that. you can choose how social you want to be.. which girl to go after to marry you... you can race your horse, go all home-depot on your house, or lots of other things i don't even know about yet. and i'm not sure, but it looks like you can play forever... no time limit or anything. the sheer amount of game design involved is mind-boggling - i can't even imagine what the gamecube version is like.
the artwork and visual design is also amazingly diverse - each crop grows in several stages, and they all look different. the townsfolk all look very different and have unique personalities.
it's also embarrasingly cute.
the best part of the whole deal for me is that i play it with my girlfriend. it's a lot more fun when you can discuss what you want to do w/ someone else. she's also as into it as i am (if not moreso), which goes a long way toward keeping a relationship going in real life and still be able to play video games :)
i was really skeptical about this game, but it's pretty quickly climbed into my top 10 list of gameboy games. if you have a bunch of time you're looking to get rid of, and a gameboy advance (or sp), i'd seriously recommend this one. check it out
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 One other horrible job interview tale --
posted by Dante on 3.5.2004 - 12:08 pm
The one anecdote that was almost universal in my early attempts to find work wasn't chronicled in this strip, but it happened with such frequency that it bears telling.
I was a chemistry major during undergraduate, and went on to do computing. Despite having plenty of related experience, almost every interviewer I spoke with would see the chemistry degree and their eyes would get this comic sparkle. They would ask, "so you know how to make bombs?" I am sure this was some kind of conspiratorial tone-perhaps trying a joke on for size. I never fell for the bait; my answer (which is true) was, "Yes." Needless to say, this made some interviewers somewhat uncomfortable.
I don't know what undergraduate chemistry is like at most institutions around the country, but my professors actually taught us chemistry. And any good teacher will tell you that the key to teaching is finding engaging topics. For instance; one day in organic chemistry as most of the class is starting to zone out and lost interest in a complex synthesis path on the board the professor would alert us to the truth, "those of you paying attention will realize that adding one more nitro- group will make this TNT, let's do that now." Suddenly pens were flashing across paper as people frantically caught up. That was common. Other compounds in my synthesis notes included caffeine, LSD, and nitroglycerin. Anything to keep it interesting.
I might not use my chemistry degree in my professional life, but that doesn't mean I forgot all of it. Those lessons really stick with a person.
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