Geeky Fanboy: February 2007 Archives

Things I Desperately Wish Women Would Say to Me on First Dates. I don't think Kate's ever actually said any of those things (except, thankfully, the last one), but there HAVE been quite a few super-geeky bits of conversation over the last year. :)

Seven Things I Learned from World of Warcraft (Go to http://johnaugust.com/?p=718 to read it -- I'm killing the link because the trackback spammers are coming back here.)

1. Kill injured monsters first In Warcraft: When facing multiple bad guys, the temptation is to go after the one who's hitting you hardest. This is often a mistake. That injured razorback, the one who is running away? He'll be back in 15 seconds, likely with other baddies in tow. So take a few clicks to kill him now. Once he's dead, you can focus completely on the guy who's smacking you.

The real world may not have druids and paladins, but it's chock full of monsters. They're called "term papers" and "errands" and "mysterious car problems." At any given moment, there may be one monster that looms larger than all of the others, who clearly needs to be attacked. But before you do, look around for injured monsters -- the half-finished tasks that probably need only a few more minutes to complete. If you don't deal with them now, they'll be a constant distraction, and may eventually come back stronger.

This "injured monster theory" is why I try to return every phone call the day I receive it, and respond to every email within 24 hours. If a warning light comes on in my car, I go to the mechanic that day. Whenever I find myself thinking, "I need to remember to..." then I know I've failed. I don't need to remember. I need to do. I need to finish.

There's more I could write about this, but honestly? I need to train up my Revision skill, grinding on adverbs in Hidden Things.

How do you know that the cast of Hellboy really enjoyed working as those characters? When they ALL get back together to make two Hellboy animated features... before starting work on the next live-action feature.

Weird bit of trivia that came out of this: the guy that physically plays Abe Sapien in Hellboy (Doug Jones) was also Pan in Pan's Labyrinth and will be playing the Silver Surfer in the next Fantastic Four movie.