Mmm... flavors.

Click for the original article.

Does Coke even offer 100 flavors? I think part of the feasibility study for this would be to determine how many combinations of "Cherry" + "Vanilla" + "Lime" + "Cola" that people will be able to swill down w/o gagging.

But, don't get me wrong. I'm all for more choice! Thanks for the heads up, Eric.

1. Don't blink.
2. Count the shadows.
3. Tell the nanogenes the truth.

Do these things and perhaps everyone will live.

Steven Moffat has written some of the best Doctor Who episodes from the recent seasons (since the series regenerated in 2005). You can get this list by picking through Steven Moffat's Wikipedia entry, but here they are, just the same:

1. The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances (2005)
2. The Girl in the Fireplace (2006)
3. Blink (2007)
4. Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead (2008)

These are not the only good episodes, mind. I'm watching the 2008 season as it comes out, and I was pleased with Midnight, which was the latest episode just after the Moffat ones this year. It had a very creepy, Twilight Zone feel to it. Hopefully Russell T. Davies will have good stuff for the end of the year, since it looks like he's going to be finishing things off. Here's the episodes/serials list.

I often have trouble finding that on Wikipedia because I forget that they're "serials" rather than "episodes." Likely a British thing. Also, how does one become known as Russell T. Davies? Why the T?

Ok, I'm a geek, but I looked it up. From Russell T. Davies' Wikipedia entry:

...deciding that his abilities lay in production rather than presenting.[3] It was around this point that he began adding the "T" to his name on credits, in order to distinguish himself from the well-known radio presenter Russell Davies.

So, there you go. Of course, it was because of the radio presenter. Since you've read this far, you might also find it interesting that Stephen Moffat will be replacing Russell T. after 2009. That'll be interesting, but I just want to say that although I've enjoyed Moffat's episodes (serials) and look forward to more, Davies has written some excellent shows as well, and how can he not be revered as the man who brought back Doctor Who, regardless of how you feel about Torchwood? Russell T. Davies is the only Russell Davies in my book.

Anyway, heroes all.

Qdoba's doing a local contest to find the ultimate qdoba fan in our area. Which is not to say that Qdoba isn't doing this all over the country--who knows? Now, by empirical evidence that fan is apparently Travis, given the $1000+ he has spent on Qdoba, using his Qcard stats as reference. However, I believe the fan with the best art wins, so we all have a chance.

Anyway, grand prize is $500 of QFood and second prize (10 of them) is 10 free entrees. For entering, you get free chips and queso. So, I'm entering. I thought up some haikus on the way home and while Emily was watching Dancing with the Stars. I'm sharing them with you in hopes that you will write some Qdoba-inspired poetry as well. Here goes. Ah, and if I win hundreds in QCash, I'm sure these gems will no longer belong to me and I'll have to take them down. So, best to enjoy them while they last.

naked ground sirloin
small chips and salsa roja
my Qdoba feast

beige plastic qcard
iloveqdoba.com
double points tuesday

the three cheese queso
redundant redundante
Qdoba bueno

salsa, cheese, sour cream
three cheese queso. please, kind sir
more guacamole

qdoba survey
asks me about the restrooms
i never go there

qdoba survey
employees make eye contact
ten thousand dollars

Here's one I did not send to them, but also makes me chuckle. You know, inside. Anyone who gets Qdoba e-mail will get this, I think.

oh, hot taco bar
i do not know you firsthand
why so much q-spam?

So, the Half-Life anthology arrived yesterday. That makes the order-to-receive time to have been about 7-8 days. Not too bad, considering the shipping was free USPS and the game was $5 less than you can get it anywhere else.

I played a bit last night and enjoyed the near decade old-ness of parts of it. The biggest technology stumbling block for me was the limited character models in the game. Because they only have 4-5 scientist types, they're duplicated all over the place, though you can tell two of them are supposed to be Dr. Kleiner and Eli Vance. I guess what feels awkward is just that these primary characters are being used to fill in the members of the crowd as well, something that doesn't happen in Half-Life 2. The generic "resistance soldier 1" face is recycled, but that feels more acceptable. That sort of thing even happens in the theatre, where a bit player might fill multiple small roles.

Another interesting item of note is that I got all intrigued that I saw a picture of a baby in Freeman's locker in Black Mesa, and started speculating on plot lines, until a few moments ago when I found that the Gordon Freeman article on Wikipedia states that it was created as an easter egg from the level designer. Doh. Poor choice to muck with something so central to a character in a game that does its character development only through the actions/environment within game.

Anyway, enjoyable so far. Let's hope the Large Hadron Collider doesn't end up producing a similar resonance cascade.

So, the Unreal Tournament 3 demo is out. Interesting (to me) observations:

1. No translocator
   
   It's been replaced by this hoverboard thing. For quick forward travel, I don't have a huge problem with this. For vertical travel, this pretty much sucks. On the custom maps it's important to be able to get yourself higher than you can with simple jumping. The translocator was key to this. Anyway, I'm not too worried because I'm sure it'll be modded back in by the community.
2. VCTF built in
   
   (Well, duh.) This seemed like an obvious choice. Vehicle deathmatch is also a fun novelty that they could have added for 20 minutes of amusement. Perhaps they have, actually. The demo includes a dark walker in deathmatch.
3. Rocket launcher can throw grenades again
   
   The rocket launcher has two alt-fire modes. You can spiral your rockets or toss them like grenades as you could in Unreal Tournament (with no numbers after it). Interesting feature. Not sure that I care a whole lot.
4. Minigun gone, stinger back
   
   The returned stinger gun has a warm up time on the normal fire that makes it less useful in my book. But, the alt-fire is nice. I'd keep it in my shortlist of weapons for that.
5. Bio-rifle seems less crappy
   
   I'm enjoying the bio-rifle much more than I did in the 2000 series. Perhaps it shoots farther. Perhaps the sludge just looks cooler. I don't know.
6. No onslaught, no double domination, no assault, no bombing run
   
   Only Travis and the three other guys who played Bombing Run more than once are sad about that last one. I don't think anyone played domination, so that's no loss. It sounds like Onslaught and Assault have been combined into "Unreal Warfare" which will range over maps "potentially as big as three Onslaught maps." (Read as "HUGE.") This is not in the demo. I'm quoting from the Wikipedia article, which you could probably just go read instead of this, but you'd miss out on my subjective commentary.
7. Sniper rifle shoots tracer beam
   
   When you fire the sniper rifle it has the same delay that the 2000 series rifle did, and it also shoots a tracer beam leading everyone back to your favorite camping spot. I'm sure this will be removed by a weapon mod shortly.
8. Adrenaline gone
   
   The adrenaline mechanic has been removed, and appears to have been replaced by special powerups you can pick up that give you the same abilities: berserk (2x fire speed), invisibility, etc. Whenever I played UT it seemed like adrenaline always turned into a trick that the regular players knew and the noobs did not--not much of a skill thing. Granted, hiding special powerups on a map is basically the same thing and requires even more specialized knowledge, but it feels less gimmicky.
9. New vehicles
   
   These are detailed on the wikipedia article, and all seem enjoyable, from what I've seen. The demo includes a dark walker in the Heat Ray map, which is fun to mess with. I had trouble using the alt-fire on the impact hammer to disable it. I thought you were supposed to be able to do that, but perhaps I just can't see the results.
10. Jumping - not as high?
    
    Jumping seems toned down, which makes me sad. That was a big part of the feel of UT--hopping up fairly high and across wide gaps. Double jump also seems crippled.
11. Game speed
    
    Overall, it felt slower to me. This could be limitations of my computer and the resolutions I was running, but it didn't feel like the fast run-shoot-die-respawn-repeat from the 2000 series and before. As I say, it could be me. I'll have to experiment with it more.
12. Still fun
    
    Whatever I may grouse about, it is still a fun game. I can't wait for the map editor to get out there and let the community go crazy. The community makes UT a great game. The more game makers that realize this and package and release the tools that they use to build their levels, the better their games will be. I just wish I personally had the time to spend in their crazy complex editor.

Many thanks to Jason for downloading and sharing the demo! UT3 demo lunches will have to come soon.