Episode 3: Unemployment

The Official Ikeagamer Podcast Episode 3 should be up this afternoon on iTunes and on gcast so feel free to stream or download. It's currently being down sampled so may take a little bit of time to show up on the site. Here are the show notes for your reading pleasure while you wait for the show to upload. New website URL: www.ikeagamer.com If you guys found me through blogger, it should now redirect you to the new address. Both will continue to work since I'm still hosting it with blogger (I can't afford my own server :P) iPhone 3G quick impressions: Pros: Cost is low if you sign a contract, function and form meshes very well, well thought out design and interface, official apps support through iTunes, location service integration Cons: Battery life (oh god is it bad!), 3G spotty network reception, apps are only 1/2 ready (more like beta), mobile calendar doesn't allow for invites or acceptance unless with exchange, no cut and paste, no good RSS reader with offline mode Job Update: I started my new job, which was a step up from my last one, 2.5 weeks ago and this past Monday, I find out that I was completely lied to about it and in fact it really wasn't a step up at all. The pay was better but it certainly wasn't worth the sacrifice of giving up my tenure and hard work I put into my career since they really wanted me to take a backseat to someone that wasn't even formally educated or trained. Long story so feel free to listen but to sum it up, I'm unemployed and not sure if I want to go back to my old position or move on to something else. Ethics on the Internet: Denis Dyack did a really awesome lecture on the 1Up Yours July 3, 2008 podcast. I urge you all to give it a download and listen to some of the points this guy brings up. It's certainly brain stimulating that's for sure. He touches on some very real points of how the "net" has the false feeling of anonymity to it, leading its patrons into a series of consequence free actions. Give it a listen and make sure you click the links at the bottom of the page to see some of the books he mentioned. I've already ordered a few of them and am quite excited to start reading (I don't get any sponsorship from Amazon so this is purely my own bias) Listener Mail: New segment I'm creatively calling listener mail! The blog has been up for a few months now and the podcast is into its 3 episode. I'm quite excited that there are actually people that listen to me ramble and visit this blog and on top of that, they write in! Totally geeking out here! So a popular question that I'm asked is: Why is this called Ikeagamer? A few reasons, and first is because I find Ikea furniture and the company to be one that's to the point, trim the fat, right down to the meat and bones. I identify with that philosophy in my gaming life. I don't have a ton of time to play games but I still really like to, so the time that I do have, I spend only on quality products or products that gets me into the "relaxed" mode quickest. So, in a nutshell, that's the Ikeagamer philosophy. Why do you do a gaming blog when you don't even play much games? This is sort of a loaded question. But if you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I don't devote a lot of time to gaming but it doesn't mean that I don't keep up with the news and updates in the industry. It's still something that highly interests me and gets me excited. I do have lots of opinions about the issue and Ikeagamer isn't just about gaming either. This blog is basically about anything that pops into my life/head so all is fair game! Enjoy Episode 3, look for a new cast next week or the following one.

Where's the F***ing Tree??

Merry Christmas everyone! Yeah, okay. I'll skip the pleasentries since I'm not a big fan of Christmas or, more accurately, what it's become today. I'm sure you've all heard the rants of other like minded individuals so I won't bore you. But rather I will explain my cyber absence since October. So my last few rants have been mainly about work so I'll continue the tradition: I quit my old job. Wait for it....And I got the same job, just at a different company. Remember that episode of Friends where Chandler quits his old job and then gets a new one, only having it be the same thing? Well, I'm doing the same thing but just getting more perks. Which is not to say that it's a bad thing, but it's not totally different. But I'm really looking forward to this year's Christmas time. It's going to be my first Christmas where I don't actually have to work! What are my plans? I plan on hitting level 50 in World of Warcraft, that's what! With the new experience patch active, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. /crosses fingers With the new job and trying to make a good impression, it's going to be tough to post. Well, it's not like I'm getting lots now anyway but I'll keep it short for now. I'm still planning on posting up those reviews I said I would, look for those before the year's end!