We’re moving in to our new house in a couple weeks, work is bopping, and I’m also now keeping on top of two other blogs – one for 360PR and the other for the New England Games and Interactive Entertainment SIG.

So, Dan and I are going on a bit of a hiatus for the next few weeks. Once we get settled in (and get the Internet up and running in the new digs), we’ll be back at it!

Thanks to the PR team working with Scott Langteau for this entertaining list of warning signs for the Sofa Boy Syndrome.

Scott Langteau is a veteran of the game development industry (Medal of Honor, co-founder of Spark Unlimited) and recently released this children’s book titled, which tells the tale of a videogame obsessed kid. What a great concept for a children’s book – teaching kids to balance their gaming time with other activities – and the illustrations in the book look so cute. There’s been a lot of buzz about the the book over the past few weeks and Amazon.com is actually currently “out of stock”. 

Maybe Scott will come up with a book for videogame obsessed adults next. They’re out there!

While Dick’s drawings were magical, they don’t even come close to the scale and awesomeness of Julian Beever’s sidewalk art. This stuff is incredible!

(Thanks for the email, Craig!)

Instead, what does Beacon Hill do in difficult economic times? They go back, time and time and time again, to their own bottomless ATM (the Acquiescent Taxpayers of Massachusetts). They’re like some kind of rabid monster – “must get more revenue, need more revenue, can’t lose any revenue!!” As if raising revenue is the only option for dealing with budget shortfalls.

This morning we learn that *at the same time Beacon Hill is already getting $11 Billion from the Porkosaurus Rex stimulus bill* Governor Patrick is going to jack-up the gas tax by 19 cents per gallon (nearly doubling the state’s gas tax). God forbid the Governor actually trim some of the grotesque fat that oozes from every door jamb in the State House. Why don’t we just hand them our entire paycheck, and then they can give us a weekly allowance? Oh, and now we know why the Governor proposed a 50 cent gas tax last week – it’s the oldest political trick in the book: threaten a 50 cent tax, and then when everyone gets outraged, drop it to 19 cents…suddenly the ignorant masses think they’re getting a bargain. All this from a Governor who ran on promises of property tax relief – what an absolute joke!

And you know the saddest part? We aren’t going to do anything about it. The majority of voters in this state are spineless lemmings. Every November they go into the voting booth and check D-D-D-D-D-D, all the way down the page. Here’s the bottom line: if you voted for this Governor, if you voted ‘No’ on Question 1, if you continue to vote for all these incumbent Democrats, then you have no leg to stand on and ought to keep your mouth shut about this gas tax. Your votes already sent a clear message to Beacon Hill: “Keep doing what you’re doing, it’s fine with me.”

I will say, it is a really good workout, and I definitely need the exercise. With the way I’ve been going lately, my boobs are probably gettin’ to be bigger than half the chicks in there. I don’t know…I guess I’d go back for another class – the music was pretty good.

I was always so fond of the Where’s Waldo series of books as a kid! I could sit for hours gazing at the hilarious illustrations and endlessly searching for Waldo in his striped sweater and his clan of elusive pals, like Wilma and the Wizard.

Entertainment Rights, the company behind Waldo, kicked off a marketing/online campaign for his birthday with the launch of FindWaldo.com and a handful of other initiatives including an online photo contest for fans, a Where’s Waldo Wiki, the launch of Waldo on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, among other social media platforms.

At FindWaldo.com you can even search some of the classic Where’s Waldo scenarios, like the beach, and you can create your own avatar. It is not an exact match (I look a little pale), but here’s mine:

Fun stuff!

1. Honky Tonk Heroes – A great story by Jimmy Patterson about the life of Waylon Jennings, and the “outlaw” movement forged by Waylon and Willie that “changed the course of country music and redefined everything about it from how it was made to where it was played.”

2. The Local Scene – The newest House of Blues is set to open in Boston next weekend at the Landsdowne street address formerly occupied by the Avalon & Axis nightclubs. The new HoB will include a 2,400 capacity music hall, a restaurant, and a VIP lounge. The opening will mark a return to New England for the music chain, which first opened doors in Boston’s Harvard Square in 1992 and remained there until it closed in 2003. They plan to do about 300 shows a year.

3. Best New Album this Year (so far) – Speaking of the House of Blues, The Derek Trucks Band is set to play there on April 2. Derek Trucks released their latest album, Already Free, in January and I can’t say enough good things about it. There isn’t a note too many, nor one you could do without. From top to bottom, it’s a wholesome blend of soulful, bluesy, southern-rock infused good music. For the uninitiated, Derek Trucks is Allman Brothers progeny and one of the best guitarists alive today. For the initiated, don’t expect something similar to their last album, Songlines– this album is a departure from the jazz and world music influences on that album.

4. Sadness – Billy Powell, the only keyboardist Lynyrd Skynyrd ever had, passed away on January 28^th. “He was one of the best piano keyboardists, rock ‘n’ roll keyboardists, of our lifetime,” said Ross Schilling, the band’s manager. Hank Williams Jr. said: “I will truly miss Billy. We have all lost one of our best rowdy friends.” I like to think Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph all greeted him with “We’ve been waiting on you, welcome to the band.” R.I.P

5. Awesomeness – Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash

I saw this photo on Neatorama.com and think Cookie Monster makes the cutest cupcake ever! 

Here’s a round-up of some of the better pieces I’ve seen on this (click links to read full articles):

– Wall Street Journal. “By our estimate only $90 billion out of $825 billion, or about 12 cents of every $1, is for something that can plausibly be considered a growth stimulus.”

“This is supposed to be a new era of bipartisanship, but this bill was written based on the wish list of every living — or dead — Democratic interest group. As Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it, “We won the election. We wrote the bill.” So they did.”

– Centrist columnist David Brooks. “In a fateful decision, Democratic leaders merged the temporary stimulus measure with their permanent domestic agenda – including big increases for Pell Grants, alternative energy subsidies and health and entitlement spending. The resulting package is part temporary and part permanent, part timely and part untimely, part targeted and part untargeted.”

– Here’s a full page ad that ran in the NY Times wherein hundreds of economists, including Nobel laureates and other prominent scholars, have signed a statement disagreeing with the concept that massive government spending is needed to stimulate the economy.

– Thomas Sowell (among the most respected economists in the world).– “Using long, drawn-out processes to put money into circulation to meet an emergency is like mailing a letter to the fire department to tell them that your house is on fire.”

“In the name of protecting the taxpayers’ investment, they are buying the power to tell General Motors how to make cars, banks how to bank and, before it is all over with, all sorts of other people how to do the work they specialize in, and for which members of Congress have no competence, much less expertise.”

– Jim Pethokoukis from U.S. News and World Report points to 10 demonstrable reasons why these ideas won’t work.

– For something a bit more fun, see my post from a couple weeks ago.

– Dan Mitchell from the Cato Institute explains it in this video:

It is no surprise to me that video games are on the list. Video games actually saw a 14% increase in sales in 2008 (according to the Electronic Entertainment Design and Research Group). Games are a way for people to escape and have fun, so when you’ve just lost your job or your house, what better way to forget about those things for an hour than playing a game.

So, how else are we spending our meager moolah? Personal care (shaving cream, hairspray, etc.), other technology (smart phones and netbooks), gym memberships, movie tickets, restaurants, car maintenance, toy building sets (huh?) and dress casual shoes (shoes that can be worn at work and on the weekends).

P.S. – I’ve been involved with the New England Games and Interactive Entertainment Special Interest Group (MIT Enterprise Forum) since the fall and our next event is on March 3rd. The panel will actually discuss how the video game industry is being impacted by the economy. I’m looking forward to it.

Lovin’ me some LeVar Burton

You’ve probably already heardabout the US Airways plane that took off from Laguardia airport in New York City earlier today and crashed into the Hudson River after colliding with a flock of geese (yes, a flock of geese).

Reuters has a good photo slideshow of the rescue efforts. Less professional looking than the Reuters pix, the above photo was taken by Janis Krums, some guy from Sarasota, FL, who now has close to 2,000 followers on Twitter.com. I guess he was standing on a commuter ferry when he took the photo. Daniel Terdiman of CNET.com blogged about the Twitter application that Janis used to get the photo out on the web, TwitPic, which actually crashed (pun intended) after thousands of people tried to view the photo overloading the site’s servers.

In addition to the photo, check out this video from CNN – an interview with one of the passengers (passenger 22A, to be exact). These reporters are all over him! Also, I think I hear him say “it was cool” at the :49 mark. Seriously?

Thank goodness no people were hurt, but I wonder how many geese casualties there were? Poor guys – probably didn’t even see it coming (although…planes are rather large and loud). Survival of the fittest, I guess.

Economic drought has stifled the flow of goods and services all across the land. Something must be done to revive it. You – the wise journeyman – have set out find the way to Prosperity, the great land of economic goodness. You’ve journeyed for many moons and many miles, and now, you’ve reached a treacherous, tantalizing fork in the road.

A sign at the fork seems to offer a clue: “Both roads add $800 billion to the deficit, but only one leads to Prosperity. If you want to find the way, remember that for every promise, there is a price to pay.”

Choose your adventure…if you dare…

The Imperial Road

No Promises

Apple just announced some significant changes for iTunes’ pricing and DRM protection policy. Here are the highlights:

• The majority of songs will drop to 69 cents beginning in April, while the biggest hits and newest songs will go for $1.29. Others that are moderately popular will remain at 99 cents.
• Beginning this week, Sony, Universal and Warner will join EMI in selling music through iTunes without digital rights management software, or D.R.M., which controls the copying and use of digital files.
• With the copying restrictions removed, people will be able to freely shift the songs they buy on iTunes among computers, phones and other digital devices.
• And, customers will be able to pay a one-time fee to strip copying restrictions from music they have already bought on iTunes, at 30 cents a song or 30 percent of the album price.

Finally – in the music industry’s latest attempt prevent further slowing of digital music sales – we will get to own the music we buy free and clear.

A skier at Colorado’s ritzy Vail resort was left dangling upside down and pantsless from a chairlift last Thursday.

The poor guy was stuck for 15 minutes before they backed up the lift so they could dislodge him. It appears that the chairlift’s fold-down seat was somehow not in the lowered position, which caused the man to partially fall through the resulting gap. His right ski got jammed in the ascending chairlift, and that kept him upended since his boot never dislodged from its binding.

Continuing the Seinfeld reference…It’s salacious, outrageous, hilarious, litigious.

More photos taken by fellow skiers (it’s a miracle they could hold their cameras steady while laughing their asses off) and the full report are at The Smoking Gun. Definitely an early favorite for picture of the year.

• Middle-school student gets his head stuck in a chair (check out the photo on BuzzFeed.com) – Boys will be boys, I guess. This moment will most likely rank as one of the most embarrassing for this kid, but will also be a story that he’ll laugh about with friends for years to come.
• 10 ways social media improved lives in 2008 (check out the post at TheSocialPath.com)– Social media such as blogs, micromedia sites like Twitter, and social networks like Facebook, are often used to benefit charities and other great causes. David Griner compiled 10 ways social media has been used to improve lives in 2008  including the example of The Domestic Diva , a blogger who through the help of other bloggers spread the word about her daughter’s need for a kidney transplant. Just this week her daughter underwent the life-saving transplant. Unbelievable.
• The joy of video games on Christmas morning – Kids go crazy for Wii (check out the videos at Kotaku.com) – These videos of kids opening their Nintendo Wiis on Christmas morning are great. Slightly annoying, but great. The first kid is INSANE!
• Video games meet conquering, dominating, and annihilating needs of men (check out the news post on CNET) – A study from Stanford has proved that video games “stimulate the parts of men that so many other activities just cannot reach: the need to conquer, stomp on, dominate, crush, destroy, maim, annihilate, and turn to ashes and dust.” Makes sense.
• Photos worth a peek (check out the most viewed photos of 2008 on NationalGeographic.com) – Not necessarily the most beautiful photos I’ve seen, but this slideshow features some eye-catching and interesting images, for sure.