Monday... Bummer...

    So, another socializing misfire yesterday; due to scheduling problems, I wasn't able to meet up with my real life contact yesterday. I woke up particularly optimistic, too, since it was a beautiful, crisp Autumn day. Real life intruded, however, and we weren't able to meet up. No one's fault (and it unquestionably was my fault last time), and I felt OK with it - at first. After a short while, I got majorly depressed with the whole situation - the online match-making, the inability to hook up with someone I really have a liking for, ad nauseum. After some shopping and a bite to eat with Reibo, I fell fast asleep and I slept straight through my alarm at 6PM, waking up again around 11PM.

    I did wind up going online for some Witching Hour Black Ops, tho. I played the single player campaign on the Xbox till I got stuck (predictably at a flying level). I dared some multiplayer, too. It was, unfortunately, without Best Bud Matt at that late hour, tho. I started out playing against the bots for some Free-for All. I played Free-for-All against real humans (or at least some Timmies), managing to get a second place finish once. The spawns in Black Ops are just abominable. (And things on the Black Ops PC side are just as bad, too.) Time after time, I got mowed down from behind right after spawning.

      Just before I went to sleep, I joined in some Team Death Match games, but I went profoundly negative. My XIM360 wound up locking up when I moved it around, making me into a freebie standing target for half one game, too, which didn't exactly improve my mood. Moving on...

• Gamers Hell: Call of Duty: Black Ops guide/walkthrough.
• Yahoo Games: Call of Duty: Black Ops online tips.
• Tech Comparison on EuroGamer: Call of Duty: Black Ops PC.
• Op-Ed: Black Ops and the Military Entertainment Complex.

• Microsoft surrenders on Kinect Linux hack.
• But Microsoft isn't surrendering on everything: Kinect camera could be used to record data for advertisers. 
• PC's Best Free Games.
• The 9 most sexualized female characters in gaming.

• Nanowire battery could hold 10x the charge of a current lithium-ion battery.
• Nanofiber materials repel water droplets before they have a chance to form ice.
• 'Greediness gene' may explain why diets fail.
• Exercise has strong but short-lived effect on depression.