Podcasts I Like: Dial A Stranger

About the same time I found Ask. Mr. Biggs, I found another great podcast that compliments the typical radio show idea.

Dial A Stranger, as the name suggests, is a podcast where the hosts, Zachary and Mercedes, asks strangers that have submitted their phone numbers questions given by strangers on the website. The concept sounds a bit iffy, but the phone calls give you a strange insight into the life of strangers. Somehow they’re all fine with talking about the innate details of their life, and it’s very compelling to listen to. Even if someone has a boring life, it doesn’t take long until another person gets called with a new question

Speaking of questions, it’s also interesting to listen just to hear the questions being asked. I imagine they’ve gotten a lot of questions over the past 14 months, and so they’ve picked out some outstanding ones. I’d give some of them away, but I think you should just go listen to the podcast yourself and see what you think.

Basketball Uniforms

Tonight, I watched Purdue beat Michigan State pretty handily, 72-54. The game also gave people their first chance to see the new uniforms in action that were unveiled yesterday. While I’m nowhere near the level of the Uni Watch blog, I’d have to say that the uniforms looked pretty good. They seem a lot whiter than the old uniforms (perhaps a bit less black trim), and featured a lot baggier shorts than what I’m used to seeing on them. (At times, the fabric seemed to flow together and look almost dress-like.)

I definitely look forward to seeing the black jerseys in action next week at Michigan. In the photos I’ve seen, they really stand out to the eye, especially between the lettering and the multi-colored collar. I also look forward to seeing what the gold jerseys look like when they get released; hopefully they look as awesome as the ones.

Books, books, and, yes, more books…

Earlier today I went out and was doing some shopping. I stopped by both Best Buy and the nearby Barnes & Noble, but found myself wishing for the cheaper prices found online. I think Amazon has given me a dislike for paying MSRP for items that I don’t necessarily need right away. These places are good for browsing, but I don’t know that I’ll really buy from them unless I have a dire urge or a really good coupon.

While I was out and about, I decided to take a detour to one of the local Half Price Books. I had meant to go to one, but never found the reason to do so until today. After visiting there, I wish I had discovered that reason before. I loved the selection of books I found there, and most of them were in remarkably good quality for used books. (I compare that to my experiences at library book sales where books range from good to pretty darn poor.) In addition, I found a lot of books that I’m not sure I would find at other places, and I paid good prices for them. For instance, I had seen a copy of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude at B&N as part of a Buy 2, Get 1 Free sale. I would have paid about $10 for that copy, but I found it on sale at Half-Price for a buck.

They also offer a service where they purchase media (books, DVDs, software, etc.) from you. I’m sure I could send in a lot of my excess books there, but I don’t think that I’d get a whole lot of money for my books. Besides, I’d much rather give them to the library so they can use the funds to support their programming. Ultimately, too, I also can’t find a place where I can get a better deal for books than at those book sales; whether it be 25 cents for trade paperbacks or a bag of books for $8, they definitely provide a way to fill up my bookshelves. If only I had more bookshelves and more time to get through the books I have…

Podcasts I Love: Ask Mr. Biggs

Last summer I decided to start listening to podcasts. I’m not sure what triggered me to do it, but I suspect it had to do with me getting a Mac and using iTunes a lot.

Over the course of the last few months, I’ve started listening to a lot of different podcasts, and I’ve found a few that really stick out to me. After reading Wil Wheaton’s list of podcasts that he loves this week, I feel inspired to list off a few of my favorite ones.

I’m not sure where I came across Ask Mr. Biggs, but once I listened to an episode, I knew I had to follow the podcast and listen to the whole archive (currently 22 episodes). The show’s main premise is of a local call-in show hosted by Mr. Biggs, owner of a local bar called Whizzbangs. During the show, Biggs and his co-host Roger try to answer questions from callers or emailers. However, these are no ordinary callers. They’re actually chopped-up edited calls from actual radio shows. Let’s just say that people can be made to say a whole lot of things that they never actually meant, and Mr. Biggs / Roger milk them for all its worth.

What makes the podcast really shine, though, is the overall interaction between Roger and Mr. Biggs. There’s been a few shows that they’ve taken maybe one or two calls, and spent the rest of the time talking about something completely ridiculous, such as a new movie being filmed at Whizzbangs, or the station’s management attempting to renegotiate the contract. I had to stop listening to the show at work because I couldn’t stop myself laughing maniacially while listening… I’m sure my cubicle mates appreciated it.

Go, try it out. I’m sure you’ll be entertained by the show.

Link

Games I Like: Platformers

Earlier today, I spent a few hours playing some Super Paper Mario on my Wii. I’ve put in about 20 hours of work in the game, and I know I have at least 10 more trying to go through and collect things in the game before even beginning to wrap it up by finishing the last world.

This is just another platformer that I’ve played over the years. I’m not sure what attracts me to that game style. It might just be the relative simplicity of them, as there’s a lot less options than you find in a RPG or RTS game. Most platformers are relatively forgiving to the users’ mistakes, although this wasn’t quite the case on the early Mario games. To this day, I’ve never beat any of the first 3 SMB games, let alone The Lost Levels.

Most platformers also have a high level of replayability. I’ve played the beginning levels of the original SMB I don’t know how many times. I think I just want to try to master the level so I can keep moving on with more lives, which will hopefully let me beat the game later on.

While I definitely appreciate the games with a great storyline, it’s not necessary in these types of games, so long as the controls are good and I can have fun playing it. Most platformers are that way for me.