They say that pride is a sin but I'm not a Christian so perhaps this post will still be ok. In that case, could I mention that there are estimates that skate. outsold Tony Hawk nearly 2 to 1?

While Activision made boatloads of money this holiday season, Variety also had this to report:

"The only significant underperformer was the latest Tony Hawk skateboarding game. Activision is in the midst of major revamp of the franchise as sales slowed amid competition from EA's new title skate."

A "major revamp"? Interesting.

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As some of you know, I've been getting e-mails on a rarely used account that are intended for someone else. Tonight, I e-mailed the intended recipient and told him the situation. I've also given him instructions on how to fix the problem, should the cause be the reason I'm theorizing it is.

He is really missing out on some great forwarded e-mail jokes.

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UPDATE: With hits coming from Sunnyvale, Concord, and Los Angeles, I'm pretty sure either Dr. Fedkiw himself or at least people who know him have read this.

With a world of over six billion people there are some amazing individuals who exist on this planet. I would like to point out one of those individuals. Dr. Ron Fedkiw is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University in California. He has a PhD in applied mathematics from UCLA. So just let's examine that right there. Dr. Fedkiw has a doctorate from a good school in an area that's pretty rigourous and challenging. So we already know he's a pretty smart guy. He also teaches and does his research at Stanford, a school that's well-respected. Not only that, he's an Associate Professor, not an Assistant, meaning he's done enough quality research and published enough papers to merit the increased status. I'm almost certain he's tenured as well.

So is that all there is to Dr. Fedkiw? Nope. He's considered an expert in the field of computer graphics specifically relating to the modeling of natural phenomena such water, smoke, and other complex physical interactions. He is a consultant to Industrial Light and Magic, the legendary special effects house that George Lucas started. His movie credits include the last Terminator movie and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Feel free to look at all the video clips on his departmental web site to get an understanding of his work. This fireball is a favourite of mine. Keep in mind that animation is not done by hand, it's all calculated using mathematics. His list of published papers is lengthy and any academic would love to be that productive.

So smart guy, expert in his field, ILM collaborator, is that it? Nope. Days from now Dr. Fedkiw will be awarded a Scientific and Technical Academy Award for his work in feature films. Yes, that's right, the man is going to get an Oscar.

So we're done right? No man can be that smart, publish that many papers, win an Oscar and still got stuff to be proud of right? Right? Wrong again! Dr. Fedkiw was a competitive weightlifter in his earlier days. By his own admission, he states he bench pressed a personal best of 555 lbs. Holy! Just look at what he used to look like in his younger days. Does that look like a professor of computer science?

Surely one man could have nothing else to be thankful for right? Smart, respected, Oscar winner, there cannot be anything else we could be impressed by, correct? Wrong again! Dr. Fedkiw married an NFL cheerleader. He is a computer scientist who married an NFL cheerleader. Read that sentence again. How many times has that been fact in the history of the world? Together with his wife, Dr. Fedkiw have two adorable daughters. So after a day of teaching students and making pretty pictures for geeks, he goes home to a loving family.

So that's it for real. I know nothing more about that man. He probably has some more impressive credentials but he just hasn't made them public yet.

I know you can define success in life in many different ways but gosh darn it, Dr. Fedkiw has done a lot of things right.

Geez, I hope he doesn't find this post through Google or something.

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I've been told I'm pretty good with using the Internet as a search tool and that's a skill I take pride in. Tonight, I'm kinda stumped, though perhaps I should try harder than a five-minute Google search.

In any case, can ya help me? Why do baked goods like muffins and glazed doughnuts get "wet" when they're stored in a container or a bag? You know what I'm talking about. If not, try this at home (preferably without parental supervision). Go to your local doughnut or muffin purveyor and purchase a glazed doughnut and/or a muffin, possibly of the blueberry variety. Get a fresh baked specimen if possible. Take said baked specimen and store it in a closed paper or plastic bag. It doesn't have to be airtight, so feel free to keep a mouse in there too.

After about a day or possibly less, check up on your baked good. Depending on the exchange rate in your country, the muffin top and/or the entire doughnut surface should look like it's wet with a sheen of something. I've noticed this for years and I'm inclined to think the baked good is drawing water from the air. I've actually seen this since I worked in a science lab in high school. We had a chemical solid that had to be kept airtight in a container because it would get wet when contacting the air. It would draw moisture from the air. There's a formal name for that property but I forgot it.

Anyways, I hesitate to attribute that same property to a doughnut since that would be kinda scary. My best and latest guess is that the sugar in the baked good is somehow reacting with the air and breaking something down in the dough to make the surface appear wet.

Random guesses aside, does anyone know the real story behind my wet muffin?

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If you're not familiar with the Xbox Live service, it's Microsoft's online component for their Xbox 360 console. It's what allows people to play games online on the 360.

I first signed up for the service in early 2007. One of the neat things about Xbox Live is how voice communication is universally integrated into the service. Nearly every single game allows you to chat with the people you're playing online with. While this is great, it is also the source of my greatest frustration with Xbox Live.

I soon found out that listening to other players meant listening to young teenagers and pre-teens who think calling someone a homosexual is an insult. Not far behind those comments were the racial ones. They weren't directly at me necessarily but just hearing idiots like that made me angry. You can mute people but it's a chore to do, when all you want to do is just play the game. At times, I just didn't even plug the headset in but you lose that crucial communication element that's sometimes required for some online games.

After a while, I just stopped playing online all together, preferring to play only the single player portion of games. I would play online if I knew it'd be with just friends I knew but that's rare.

It was with great intrepidation that this weekend I started playing Burnout Paradise online, with the headset plugged in. To my great surprise, it was a pleasant experience. People were cordial, helpful, and on good behaviour. There was hardly all hostility at all, in fact, I can't remember any actually. Perhaps it was the nature of online in Paradise. For the most part, online gameplay is cooperative-based in Paradise and it benefits everyone to be helpful. In any case, the six hours I spent online this weekend was a lot of fun.

While I have hope, the cynical side of me thinks this was an isolated case. Perhaps, I would think differently had I been playing Halo 3.

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