Hills of Hayward

I’ve been looking for ways to unwind after work these last couple of nights, and have enjoyed these high quality web flash games. These are some of the best examples of interactive flash entertainment on the web.

I hope you enjoyed these games as much as I have, and please suggest any other games you have found to be remarkable in the comments!

Maybe you can’t consider this one a game… more like a walk in a modern art museum with interactive exhibits. Try Wildcard.jp.org.

Test your structural engineering intuition with a game that makes Jenga look like child’s play. Try Top Figures.

Do you like Myst? Imagine you are a little elf trying to save your world from destruction. Beautifully rendered cute little puzzles in Samarost 1. And the sequel Samarost 2 is even better. Try Polyphonic Spree if you want more of this genre.

Have an itchy trigger finger? Blast the heads off of waves and waves of zombies with weapon upgrades. Search for other survivors to help you stay alive in The Last Stand.

Looking for a strategy game? Try Vector TD where you need to buy, position, and upgrade different types of cannons to prevent hordes of viruses from overrunning your position. Think or die.

If you are looking for something more mindless but compelling, try Cosmic Crush. Navigate only with your arrow keys as a piece of planetary debris bent on dominating the universe using your own gravity.

Leave it to the Japanese to come up with this elegant game. The goal is to push a ball into a certain part of the screen… sounds easy until you try it in Oshidama. (ignore the Japanese text, you don’t need it to play)

Christine’s childhood friend Mandy came to visit us this Thanksgiving weekend. As usual, we went had two entire Peking Ducks in Palo Alto for Thanksgiving dinner with Anders.

The next day we went hiking in Mount Tamalpais to work off some of what we ate. We hiked for maybe 5 miles while taking in the amazing panoramic views of the sunset as we gazed south towards San Francisco. Click for larger versions of the pictures.

It was pretty exciting as we raced back to the car as the sun faded into the horizon.  The last fifteen minutes of our hike back was in total darkness, except for the bright full moon above us that illuminated the path.

We then headed into the city by checking out the Christmas Trees at Union Square. It was the Macy’s tree versus Nieman Marcus… Nieman Marcus wins by TKO.

The night ended with a 3D Imax Beowulf movie. We rated it two thumbs up!

We took a brief trip to Vancouver with good friends Peter, Lucy, and their two children this last weekend. The vacation was almost ruined even before setting foot on a plane.

Our flight was to depart at 6:30 am in the morning. We left home at 4:50 AM expecting no traffic, and we arrived at San Jose Airport at 5:20 am.

Plenty of time… so we thought.

5:20 am - Our flight was booked through American Airlines, and our ride from the long term parking to Terminal A was uneventful. Once we arrived at Terminal A, I told Christine to just carry the baby out in his car seat, and I will take care of our 4 pieces of luggage.

5:30 am - In the middle of taking our luggage out of the bus, Christine tried to come over and help me, and I scolded her that the baby always comes first, and not to leave him unattended.

This was when the bus chose to leave with my final piece of luggage still on the rack…

5:35 am - We decided that Christine will try to check-in with the luggage we do have, and I enlisted the help of another bus to radio and track down my luggage at Terminal C.

5:40 am - I was able find my luggage at Terminal C, and boarded an inter-terminal bus back to Terminal A. Christine then calls me to tell me that although our ticket was American Airlines, the flight itself was Alaska Air at Terminal C.

5:45 am - I hastily jump off the inter-terminal bus and race into Terminal C to check-in. Christine also races to find a bus from Terminal A to Terminal C.

5:50 am - Once I got to the Alaska Air ticket counter, the manager made one last call for all passengers for my flight. Having no choice but to try to check-in although Christine and Anders were not here, I approached the ticketing agent. He was a great guy and immediately issued boarding passes for all of us. We were the last people to make that flight.

6:15 am - Made it past security and boarded the flight… so close to disaster. Anders slept through the whole thing. Christine tells me that she will dictate when we arrive at the airport in the future.

I filled out the paperwork yesterday. I am no longer a member of the Democratic Party. I can no longer support a party that caters to big business at the expense of the majority. The Democrats are a gutless version of the ruthless GOP. At least the GOP doesn’t even pretend to represent the average American anymore. Their utter contempt for non-wealthy Americans is evident with everything they do and say. The Democrats contempt is hidden behind cowardice…We are looking more and more like Germany in the 1930’s and the majority of Americans are merely sleepwalking into the abyss.

— Fed Up, Brooklyn

————-

Although, I am not as extreme as this writer, I can understand his sentiment. Inaction or inability to make the hard decisions and draw clear boundaries make the Democratic party just as guilty of this country’s decline.

Although the Republicans continue to point to our “strong” economy… the following graph is the decline of the US Dollar versus the Canadian Dollar from 2002-2007.

So, back in 2002… $1 USD = $1.6 CAD. Now in 2007, $1 USD = $0.95 CAD. Yes this means the Canadian dollar is now worth more than the US dollar.

We took little Anders out to the restaurant for the first time last night. We were thinking to go to Vietnamese but settled for the pizza place on Hayward hill at the end. It’s a college-student-friendly environment with sports played on multiple TV’s and a few arcades. Yeah, you guessed right!

We were thinking it’s noisier there so it’s okay even if he cries.

Surprisingly, he was well behaved - slept though the whole time with only a little bit crying due to a high-pitched little girl next to him. We were happy with the result and may try a “real restaurant” next Sunday. The real test would be the Vancouver trip in two weeks. I’ll let you know how it goes.