Homeward countdown is on!!

    I was a bit distressed not to be able to get thru to chat with Mom yesterday. Reibo texted me that everything was OK, but I've gotten used to talking to her before I go in to work in lieu of actually being there for her. She needs to make as much progress as possible, as the social services and physical therapy folks told us, it's unpredictable when the insurance might say GTFO. We're continuing to pray for her to recover her strength...
    I might be altering my technique for driving back home on my last day. Last week's drive was difficult. I didn't take enough caffeine, and it was something of a struggle the last third or so of the trip. I'm going to try a caffeine dose right before taking off. If that doesn't work, I'll nap for an hour before leaving, just to be safe.
    One of my side issues from work has been foot pain. I have wide feet (and 'beast feet', at that, to quote my bro Matt64), and even buying 4E size shoes doesn't seem to help. As anyone with this problem knows, shoe size varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. One company's medium is actually narrow, and so forth. At the athletic footware store, I tried on a size 13 4E, and it strangled my toes... My Pop suggested I go to JC Penny's, of all places, and I scoffingly agreed. At Penny's, I found a pair of standard width Converse sneakers that were actually wider than the 4Es I was wearing and the ones I'd tried on that day. I test-drove them at work last night, and they still gave me a bit of a toe-squeeze. This AM, looking at the pontoon-size sneakers, I had a brainstorm: Skip the bottom row of eyelets. I relaced the Connies and, Voila! no more toe squeeze. I'm wearing them again tonight. If they're as comfortable for walking/standing (which is mostly what my work is about) as they are for just sitting on my ass, my problem is solved. One fewer small misery in life is nothing to sneeze at.

    Today's featured Modern Warfare 2 video is a Hardcore TDM match with commentary by thecampingtree. I'm not so sure I like the commentary, but there are so few vids of HC TDM, that beggars can't be choosers. The second vid is 360Cinema's Top 10 of the weapon attachment we love to hate: the noob tube. (I wonder if the next generation of soldiers will drop older nicknames like 'thumper' for the grenade launcher in favor of the CoD pejorative term, 'noob tube'.) Today also happens to be the 65th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, so some related historical links have been added to the main blog. Moving on...

 

• Call of Duty: Black Ops first look: MovieMatics. 
• Call of Duty DLC and StarCraft II pad Activision bottom line slightly in stagnant video game market.
• Bobby Kotick loses sexual harassment lawsuit.

• How Medal of Honor stacks up to Call of Duty.
• Medal of Honor expectations low, says Play.tm.
• Homefront features 'violence with consequence'.
• Red Dead Redemption 'Legends and Killers' DLC gameplay preview. 
• Inside Xbox 360 Kinect and why it's the future of Microsoft. An awkward, flailing future...
• Kinect lag can be eliminated, says developer. Yup. Don't use Kinect, simple as that. 
• Games are 10% of time spent on the interwebs.

• Kingston releases water cooled memory. That's what I like a few centimeters from my 1000 watt power supply - water.
• The recovery disc ripoff.
• Blackberry Torch review from Engadget.
• Why jailbreak your iPhone?
• Unlock for iPhone 4 available.
• Saudi Arabia bans Blackberries citing security concerns, excess of liberty
• Jeff Goldblum leaves Law and Order: Criminal Intent.
• Eleven life lessons from True Blood. 
• ListFied's Ten Facts about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• Aging A-bomb survivors want Obama visit.
• US delegation will not offer apology at Hiroshima commemoration.