RubixsQube

Griddle, if your buddy is interested in getting a PhD with his English degree, I'd recommend maybe not doing that, since the job market for english/lit/comp lit people is far, far worse than the STEM academic job market. It's a damn nightmare. I tend to think that people with English degrees should work for cool non-profits, especially ones like 826 that focus on writing. I got an interview last week for a job working on the science for one of the James Webb Space Telescope instruments (NIRCam), and while it's highly unlikely that I'll get the job, it was neat to be considered. I hate this job search! I hate not knowing where I'll be next year!

I did a simple scan through the papers he links from his research group, and I'm sad that I didn't see the words "PS3" or "Playstation 3" anywhere

As a Dartmouth researcher in black hole astronomy, I may have to be the nerd corrections officer and say that the scientist who strapped the PS3s together for black hole research is Dr. Gaurav Khanna, a computational astrophysicist at UMass Dartmouth, which is a way different place from Dartmouth, a state over. You can read more about the project here. As part of his research, he's modeling gravitational waves that come from recoiling, merging supermassive black holes, which is like, the end state of a project I've been looking at which explores galaxy mergers with active and non-active central supermassive black holes. MOST IMPORTANTLY, check out the pictures of the linked PS3s from their early system: but of course, now it's grown beyond that:

Wait did anyone else see this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GRK-f3KntU#t=3239 The warpless SMB3 run is neat, but at the end, once the game has been finished, there's a three to four minute bonus that's fucking insane.

Well, we shake hands and smile and we are confident that our opinions are just opinions! And that's ok! And the world will still keep on spinning!

Crystal Skull is garbage. Shia LaBeouf is obnoxious, Harrison Ford and Karen Allen are real bad at pretending to be characters that were vibrant in the past, it's overly long and all of the CGI makes it look clean and boring, and the story ends with a big dumb alien spaceship. Dumb dumb dumb. Temple of Doom is real hokey, but it's far better than Crystal Skull. For personal reasons, I'm a Last Crusade guy over Raiders, but I think that the bulk of this was my obsession with the LucasArts graphic adventure, and it's wonderful little grail diary. BUT. I read this article (warning, it's from aintitcoolnews, so expect a lot of eye rolling on the part of the reader) about Temple of Doom and it changed my view on the film towards the better. The thesis is that Temple is a prequel that examines Indy's change from fortune hunter to wise cracking archaeologist. This would eventually be sort-of undermined by River Phoenix at the beginning of Last Crusade, but it's still an interesting way to watch the film.

They just ran the Yoshi's Island Any% Race, which was actually pretty competitive throughout. If you've never watched any Yoshi's Island speedrunning, it's insanely technical, and only partially reliant on glitches. Mostly you just have to be pretty great at the game. Yoshi's Island runs at 60 FPS, and so when a technique requires an exact frame to execute it, that means the user has to press during that 1/60th of a second window. Last year's 100% run at AGDQ 2014 was my favorite part of the whole event. This is pretty fun stuff!

I like to think that Patrick Klepek being at Kotaku will be similar to how Tim Rogers (ostensibly) writes for them. I couldn't care less for how they pay the bills, really, with dumb articles about cosplay or old "news" reports from other sites. I just want a platform for the people I care about to get paid to write about video games. Patrick Klepek has a great voice, and cares about what I care about, and while I think it's sad that he left Giant Bomb (as now that website has zero content that I care about), it'll be great that he's paid to write anywhere.

Oh shit I am like, away forever and ever and ever for christmas and new years and a big conference, so I won't be back in town until like, January 10th. I'll ask a roommate, but I'm confident that the tiny town package delivery went smoothly. Sorry, it's a little annoying! I am looking forward to opening it, well into 2015.

He's working for kotaku now! This is exciting!

gah 2014 was a mediocre year I want 2015 to be better I am in a hallway locked out of an apartment hoping for a great 2015. Year of the PS3, providing that this console opens my best friend's apartment door.

Also, I'm in San Francisco for this New Year's Eve. Saying goodbye to 2014 in the City of Thumbs.

In the episode description, do you mean Medium? Or is there really a Matter magazine? Edit: I googled things like an adult person, and you do mean Matter and I'm a mega dope H a p p y N e w Y e a r

That really sucks Roderick. As someone who moved from a sunny climate to a super snowy climate in the last few years, driving in a snowstorm makes me more terrified than anything. I got into a minor accident when my car lost control on snow/ice while driving last year, and it's still with me. I'm glad you and your girlfriend are ok, though.

My level 40 Samus is far far too good at fighting me specifically. If I don't make mistakes, and have some luck on my side, I can beat her, but otherwise, the amiibo training process mostly seems to have created a monster who is super amazing at dodging my attacks. I can't get off hits on her, especially as Zero Suit Samus, my main. I've even trained her with items on and she's pretty deadly with a baseball bat. Or, even worse, when a smash ball comes flying in. For Christmas I completed my Nintendo Franchises I Care A Lot About Mini Set and received Link, Mario, and Fox McCloud. They're all handsome little figures, and I shudder to think how a high powered Fox AI would do against me. (Also, I only trained "alongside" Samus for a bit, then we trained head to head, and she raced through the levels. I do hope she doesn't carry any resentment.)

(I'm glad you liked it, blambo! Sorry it's a little out of nowhere)

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S I D L E T H U M B S here is a mid-century modern / Palm Springs inspired gingerbread house my dad and I made today: All of it is edible, except the little car and the plastic trees, which are placeholders, since tomorrow we'll decorate the base there.

I'm an astronomer. My brother has a DVM, and so my parents only use my PhD as a way of bragging out their kids, but otherwise, if I ever push on a door marked pull, they are very, very quick to bring it up. "You have a PhD? Dr. Kevin?"

Growing up I thought that getting my PhD would make me feel like a cool accomplished person but it mostly makes me realize that 1) the world is terrifying, 2) I am unprepared for actual human labor, 3) nobody is actually going to call me doctor anyway, except people, sometimes, sarcastically. The job market doesn't get better, since it's ostensibly a meritocracy, but it's actually/definitely not. Before you decide to go onto the PhD, think about why you want a PhD. I can't do anything in my field without one, but if I ever leave the field (and believe me, that may be coming sooner rather than labor) it won't be worth a huge amount. It's a cool sheet of paper, though.

S E N T as of this morning, via USPS. Here's hoping it gets there soon! I'm sorry, Secret Santee, for being late!

In the academic world, it's worse! I have to include a cover letter, a CV, a succinct essay about my research accomplishments and future goals, and then I have to goad three people into writing letters of recommendation for me. On top of that, for fellowships, you have to write an entire different essay outlining a research project that you would do if given the fellowship. For academic teaching positions, you'll also have to write a teaching statement. Each job gets around 200ish applicants, and while half of them are crap, the other 100 are pretty strong, and in the end, it's a wonder anyone gets any job at all. I'm on the job market now, and January and February are just going to suck as I get a tidal wave of rejections. And because postdocs are much cheaper than professorships, I'll probably have to repeat this whole song and dance in two to three more years. It's the worst! Why am I still in academia!

My gift will go out by the end of the week! I'm sorry! It's going to be pretty goofy, but TOTALLY COOL / I WISH I HAD IT FOR MYSELF

Oh shit I think that someone important in our collective lives may have gotten engaged.

Ha! Engineering. So practical. So ugly.

tegan, I want you to write about what you liked about Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, and what problems are fixed from the previous games in the series. I was trying to engage in a conversation about the game on the first page, since I did not enjoy the game as much as you did, but you did not respond.