(This is the sixth post in my 21-entry daily series: 21 Days of Blogging)

If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, Of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?

- Albert Einstein

My home (and now only) office is a 10' x 10' room on the second floor of my home.  It has a small closet where I store my games, office supplies, and miscellaneous items.

One wall is lined with bookshelves (made about 1.5 years ago in my workshop) and a Steelcase filing cabinet where I keep all my records, drafts of writing and idea, plus various other miscellaneous papers.

The other side of the office is dominated by a 6-foot wide sit/stand desk supporting my primary workstation, an MBP laptop, dual-screens, and miscellaneous other items.  Also on this side of my office is a self-build computer cabinet with cooling vents that can be connected to the window during the summer to vent hot air out of the office.

Sometimes I wish for a larger office, but it is sufficient and holds all the materials I need.  Also, it isn't a cubicle or an open lab station (like my last job) and that makes is awesome.

Easter Egg Notes

Yes, if you look closely at the above photos you may notice a few things, such as:

• Framed Map from Ultima V - As you now know, this is one of my favorite games.  I managed to get ahold of a well preserved boxed copy some years ago and decided to mount and frame the map.  You know, those where the days.  Sure, the game cost about $50 back then, but you got good stuff in the box: Fabric map, a coin, a beautifully illustrated and designed manual, etc.  Nowadays, most of my games are electronically delivered and those that are not merely come with a box and a DVD.  Boring!
• A bag with "Ben Garney" written on it? - Hey Ben!  I still have those books for you.  Let's do lunch some time and I promise I'll bring them this time. 
• Something Missing in "My other other office" photo - Yes, I did remove something rather large from the area above my right arm and head.  Can you tell I cloned in all those trees, stones, and bricks?  Maybe I should get a side job editing supermodel pictures to give them those unrealistic figures and perfect skin...or not.
• More?  You tell me.

(This is the fifth post in my 21-entry daily series: 21 Days of Blogging)

Even though there are a number of RPGs on my favorite games list, I don't really recall that many favorite items.  I guess when I play RPGs, story, quests, and puzzles are more interesting to me than specific items.  That said, I can name at least a few items from non-RPGs:

• Favorite Weapons
• Tribes 2: Spinfusor - In truth, I was useless with this weapon except at close range.  However the distinctive sound and action of this disc firing weapon made it one of my favorites anyways.

• Fallout 1 & 2: "Rockwell CZ53 personal minigun" - This wasn't the most powerful weapon in Fallout, but it was up there for damage and great for fighting big parties.  Additionally, the animations associated with this weapon were (if disturbing) always satisfying.  You didn't just kill the bad guys, you demolished them.

• Non-Weapons
• Unreal Tournament GOTY: Translocator - This item can actually be used as  a weapon, but its primary purpose is movement.  With this 'gun' you shoot a disk across a short to middling distance and the press the alt-fire key to teleport to the current location of the disk.  This powerful game item allows you to access any location you can shoot the disk to.  If you're skilled you can even stair step up to a location which can't be reached on a single teleport jump.  However, you retain all of your momentum when teleporting.  So, teleporting upward too many times usual equates to a splattered squishy death when you finally land.

• Enchanted Realms / Wizard Wars: Castle Bottle - I don't have an official name for this item.  It is an item that I implemented in the Enchanted Realms MUD many years ago.  It was based on a magical item described in the book "Wizard War (Chronicles of an Age of Darkness 1)" by Hugh Cook.  The item itself is an indestructible bottle with  two magical rings on the rim.  If you place one of these rings on your finger and twist it, you are instantly teleported to a castle.  The castle is linked to the bottle and is designed to be impenetrable and inescapable.  You can use the castle to store loot and food, as well as a place to rest or recover from battle.  Twisting the ring a second time teleports you back to the current location of the bottle.  This feature made it great for solving puzzles.  i.e. Drop the bottle to the bottom of a otherwise unsurvivable fall or toss it through the grates of a locked room, then twist the ring twice and poof you have bypassed an obstacle.  The object is further made useful by the fact that there are two rings, so two users can make use of the bottle in tandem.  This made for an interesting number of interactions and puzzle solutions.

I'm sure if I strained my brain, I could come up with a few more, but I'm afraid that I'm over-busy today and need to get rolling on some game work.

(This is the fourth post in my 21-entry daily series: 21 Days of Blogging)

A short survival guide to life in Wasteland
1. Buy an AK-97 assault rifle.
2. If there's someone hanging around your neighborhood you don't know, shoot him.

- Desert Rangers Outpost (Wastland Fan Site)

Today's topic is a trip down gaming memory lane.  Most gamers, if you ask them, can probably produce a short list of lifetime favorite games.  However, if you dig deeper and ask why these games deserve a special place in their hearts, most will probably have trouble elucidating.  So, bear with me as I do my best do dig back into my own game playing history.  I will do my best to explain why I have warm and fuzzy feelings for certain games from my past.

My Favorite Games and Best Gaming Memories Chronologically

Eliza - First Played 1979
I'm not sure that this program actually qualifies as a game, but I am including it for the following reasons:

• This program/game awoke in me the thought that computers really could be more than tools.  In fact they could be clever simulacrums of humans.
• Playing with the source code of this instance of Eliza introduced me to the BASIC programming language and the 8088 PC.
• This the first game I ever modded.  I don't think the Library where the program was located appreciated my changes, but I hope someone got a laugh. 

Zork 1 - First Played in 1980
This most definitely qualifies as a game and a deep one at that.  Although this was entirely a text-only game, I was immersed and enthralled completely.  I remember spending hours and hours trying new combinations of verbs and attempting to map out the different locations in the game.

West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.

Might & Magic I: Secret of the Inner Sanctum - First Played in 1987

This was the first CRPG which I really enjoyed playing.  The game world was big enough and tough enough to be interesting.  Balanced against the difficulty of the levels/areas was the fact that leveling up really made a difference to party skill and ability progression.  Lastly, encounters never failed to be interesting, although on occasion the sheer number of enemies seemed a bit unbalanced.

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny - First Played in 1988
A lot of people will say that they liked Ultima IV more than V, but I experienced this game first so it sticks with me as my favorite chapter of the Ultima Saga.  Things I liked about this game, hmm.. let me think:

• Massive Play Area - If you added up all of the playable areas, including surface, subsurface, and inside buildings, the playable and explorable areas were huge.  I'm sure it wouldn't have taken long to explore these areas if you never hand an encounter.  However, it is worth noting that many areas could not be accessed without  specific items or interactions,  and some areas were only accessible at certain times.
• Interesting Story - Some may disagree, but I liked the idea of taking a regular schmo and inserting him into a fantasy adventure where he has to play the hero (or perhaps a villain?)
• Ability To Cheat - Really?  Yes, I did enjoy the fact that I could cheat on this game.  This was the first game that I hex edited to get more gold, equipment, etc.  I didn't enjoy the cheating so much as the challenge of figuring out the save format and then editing it.  It's more of a geeky programmer thing than a game play thing, but still this is one of my fond memories of the game.

Wasteland - First Played in 1989
Before you ask, yes this was yet another game that I cheated at.  Sigh.. I know its terrible, but hey I enjoyed figuring out the underpinnings of a games save and load system.  Taking advantage of that knowledge was just one step further down the path.  Call it testing a theory, or honing my skills.

What about the game itself?  I would easily rank this as the best game of the decade (1980..1990).   It had all of these things going for it:

• Cool premise - For whatever reason, I'm a freak for post-apocalyptic settings.
• Great dialogue and descriptions - The players and the NPCs all had interesting talking bits and personal details.  I enjoyed exploring and talking just as much as fighting.
• Great items and weapons - I never did settle on my favorite weapons in this game, but I really enjoyed experimenting with and seeking out new ones.
• Lots'o Skills - This game had a huge number of skills and things you could train PCs in.  Some of these skills were of no use (which really sucked), but this was outweighed by that fact that the majority of skills were useful and furthermore, leveling them up made appreciable differences in game interactions and battle outcomes.

Enchanted Realms MUD - First Played in 1992
I talked about this game yesterday.  This game is important because it was my first multi-player game.  Also, it is the first game where I was able to heavily modify the game world and then to share those changes.

Trials Arena Entrance.
This is the entrance to the trials arena. You must pass the arena to
enter Wizard's Isle. The entrance in narrow and ends in a blood
red field to the north. The field is suspended between two golden
posts.
> north

As your skin touches the red field you sense that it
might be a better if you waited until you are more
experienced. You withdraw with a shudder and the
sure belief that you have just saved yourself from a
very nasty demise.

- Entrance to Wizards Isle Arena (Level 9 are not allowed entry)

Fallout 1 & 2 - First Played in 1997
Best death animations in a game ever. What more do I have to say.

I work from home now and one of the things I enjoy doing  between tasks is watching our birds.  I say our birds, because we do our best to feed, water, and shelter wild birds in our yard.  I would estimate that we put out about 200-300 pounds of  bird food annually in two feeders and a third open frame bird house/feeding platform (I build a new one each year).
Typically the birds are happy and safe, munching away on shelled sunflower seeds.  Also, we get a wide variety of birds, including:

The last bird is magnificent and a rare visitor.  Unfortunately, he isn't a seed eater and on each occasion he comes to eat one of our other guests.  Today we had a hawk once again and my wife was fast enough to get him on camera.  He managed to catch a finch and made a meal of the poor little guy right on this years feeding platform.  Sigh... I never intended it as a place to eat finches.  Oh well, I guess it is just all part of the natural order of things.