High School Musical, R&J, Bikes, Books, Imodium - Uncle Orson Reviews Everything:

If it is ever to be practical to ride bikes to work — which would benefit everyone — employers need to provide bike racks that are in plain view of well-trafficked areas.At first, all it would take is a single automobile parking place with a bike rack in it — you could park six or seven bikes there. As bicycle commuting caught on, they might need to add more. But when you consider that each bicycle represents a car that won’t be seeking a parking place, it’s a no-lose proposition.

You’d think employers would want to get on this bandwagon: Employees who bicycle to work are going to be physically healthier and therefore will save you money on health insurance. Instead, they tend to look at you as if you’re crazy.

Uru Live to from the dead: Revival boosts spirits at Cyan Worlds:

Spokane company Cyan Worlds announced Tuesday its groundbreaking game, Uru Live, will return from the dead and become available online by year’s end.

Cyan Worlds CEO Rand Miller said the game, meant to be introduced in 2003 but never launched online, will become part of the GameTap Network, a game portal operated by Turner Broadcasting System.

[...]

“Uru Live was ahead of its time, and now that technology has caught up with this visionary game, GameTap and Cyan are teaming up to bring it into the bold new world of broadband entertainment,” GameTap General Manager Stuart Snyder said in a press release.

After Ubisoft shut down the first version of Uru Live, Miller was forced in September 2005 to lay off about 40 Cyan workers. He said that decision was the most difficult one of his career.

Within a month, however, Turner Broadcasting had contacted Cyan to discuss a renewed commitment to the game, said Miller.

CNET: Online game rising from the dead:

Many online games have crashed and burned, but the situation with Uru is unusual in that it was the “Uru Live” community that convinced GameTap the game was worth getting behind.

That’s because the community has stayed alive and active in the two years since “Uru Live” died, mainly through an unsupported freeware program called “Until Uru” that Cyan made available to anyone who wanted to host versions of it on their own servers.

[...]

“What I found was that these players had already established a deep connection to the whole series of (’Myst’ and ‘Uru’) games,” Pearce said. “But they’d been playing the games pretty much in isolation (prior to ‘Uru Live’). So when they came together online, they really bonded very rapidly and intensely. And when the game closed, people were just heartbroken.”

Related Links:

• Official Uru Live web site (with news and FAQ)
• Digg story

Things I did:

• Cooked pepperoni and scrambled eggs on toast (eaten as a sandwich)
• Cleaned various areas of the house and continued unpacking
• Watched the sunset

Things I learned:

• Watching the sunset is fun.
• Watching the people watching the sunset can be even more fun.
• Most people who watched the sunset did not watch for very long.

Things to think about:

• Are we really that busy that we can’t stop for thirty minutes?
• How do people prioritize their day? What is more important than a sunset? What is less important?

I just concluded this semester with two hours of sand volleyball. It was lots of fun, especially when we lost a few members and went three-on-three. In between volleys, watching the sun set across the lake added a nice touch to the event.
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Big thanks go to everyone who has provided encouragement, study help, and food this week. It really made Finals Week much more bearable!
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WalkAmerica went very well this year: The weather was awesome and I raised $43.
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I’m looking forward to this summer, but I’m going to miss hanging out with all of the college kids here. There’s also a trip to Spokane, Washington planned for Mysterium. The scary part is that this summer will be my last summer vacation (pending I graduate next year). I’m caught in an interesting mix of still being young, but slightly older now too.

What goals do you have for this summer?

Listening to a City of Blinding Lights by U2.

As always,

posts on this blog = 1/(amount of things I am doing)

But here’s one thing worth blogging: Sponsor my walk in WalkAmerica this weekend.

(Via Tweek)

Google engineers had some fun creating their logo out of LEGO bricks. I’m a huge fan of LEGO, but I’m even more impressed with the bead penguin (shown above) that Sarah Hildreth made for me. There’s even been penguinized pumpkins! All of this promotion is awesome, but I start to get concerned when my suitemates in the dorm start to mix brands. American Idol and Myst should not mix into Myst Idol.

Many readers of this blog are Myst fans. In many cases, the first time we met each other was in D’ni, via an online game called Uru Live. If you remember Uru Live, or are new to it, I wanted to pass along that Cyan has created a server for us to meet together again.

Right now it’s just a great gathering place to chat and explore. But if many are interested, it might convince the Powers That Be to fund Cyan to bring new content and story to Uru.

I invite everyone new and old to Uru to check it out.
http://plasma.cyanworlds.com/news.xml

If you’re not sure how to get involved, just e-mail me. It’s free to play, but if you don’t have Uru yet you’ll have to pick up a copy. It’s only $10 at most places. If you need an invite to create a D’mala login, please let me know.

We need to show Cyan and its possible investors that we love D’ni. Let’s get everyone in the Cavern this weekend. I invite all explorers to hang out all weekend long (and the many weekends to come) in Ae’gura and the various neighborhoods in D’mala. Let’s make the Cavern floors shake with our footsteps and the Cavern walls sing with our voices. To D’ni!

Thanks!

(Digg)

There are a lot of good books, movies, and games. A few of them are great. I’ve been trying to figure out what components elevate a story to greatness; The next three or four blog posts will discuss this.

There are a lot of characters I like to spend time with (by reading their stories or interacting with in games). A few of them I can see myself as. I become a part of these characters, and they become part of an awesome story. Let’s take a look at some examples:

• Uru Live: I remember one of the DRC Restoration Engineers complaining in his journal about the numerous puzzles he encounters. Puzzles, and reading journals, are expected in Myst games. But as soon as you start thinking these places are real, this is exactly how I would react. What are these puzzles doing here? This is the game poking a bit of fun at itself, but it’s also so much more. It transforms it from a game into an alternate reality. I could be a member of the DRC because they react as I would. On the contrary, my enjoyment of Myst V was dampened because I didn’t connect with Yeesha or Esher.
• Serenity/Firefly: When I first starting watching Firefly, I didn’t like many of Serenity’s crew. But as I continued to watch, I started to realize that I didn’t like them because they weren’t “all good” or “all bad.” They, just like real people, changed over time. In the dorm, I’ve grown a lot this past semester. I’ve established a core group of friends here. We’ve sort of become a crew. Although we’re not space pirates, we still struggle with classes and adventures.
• Harry Potter: When the first Harry Potter book came out, I read part of it but wasn’t too interested. Since then, some movies have come out and I’ve moved into college. My environment now is similar to Hogwarts. This, along with seeing the characters in the film, allowed me to more easily connect with them. Instead of being this foreign magical world, I can now make connections between my college and Hogwarts.
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: This book is unique because I enjoy all of its characters; Normally there is at least one character in a story I don’t enjoy reading about. Similarly to Myst, this is a fantastic story that somehow seems grounded in fact and completely believable.

The best part about having characters you can identify with is that you can apply the lessons they learn to your own life. This makes a story not only entertaining, but beneficial and practical.

As a reader, what characters can you see yourself as?
As an author, how can you create characters that people can connect with?

Katie Postma, long-time Myst fan and former Myst Worlds Community Manager, made an excellent post on The Lysts. It’s exactly why, although I enjoy playing World of Warcraft, I feel there is something missing. I have no effect on the world. Here’s her post, which I’ve reposted with her permission:

[Uru] was new, innovative, and as an MMO had tremendous potential to do and be more than anything previously offered or offered for many years to come. [...] WoW is a great example of what Uru Live would not be nor would ever WANT to be. And I would love both, for different reasons. I like watching movies about other countries at home on TV. But sometimes, I want to GO TO the country, and HAVE my own adventure.

To me, WoW is like watching a movie about something… looks cool, gets the adrenaline going, and you can feel like you “know” a place. But it’s a fantasy, a representation of a place far, far away perhaps. Real people acting out scenarios scripted for us for fun. Uru was far more. It was real. Uru WAS US. We were Uru.

Whether or not you got to participate in a conversation with Phil or Sharper… you KNEW about it. It had happened to a friend, a neighbour… a fellow explorer. The consequences were immediate even if you were away that day. Even if you were on the surface for an extended time, you were affected. I was deeply affected by what was happening in Uru every day, and I was hugely sorrowful when it was removed from my life.

That last paragraph is the key. In World of Warcaft, it’s great that everyone can experience the accomplishment of killing the big head boss. But he comes back the very next day! Even if I didn’t get to kill the boss myself, maybe my friends did or got to see part of it. Then word would spread and experiences would be shared just as they are in real life.

I was lucky enough to talk to Victor Laxman in Uru. I argued with Douglas Sharper on his hunting. I was there when he broke into the Pub. It was amazing to have real discussions with these people. I hope to talk to them again soon.