Research yields results!

Remember my research gig I mentioned last month? I came on at the end of a very long project, and its report just got released to the media. The NYT ran the story, which was a welcome development. Their take on the report is a good one, and presents the findings in a nice short-and-sweet style. It's a pretty short read, so check it out.

What's next? Gaming research! 

Home sweet home

To home I come! I've gotten a couple of emails asking about my travel schedule for the holiday season, so here it is:

Dec. 12-18: Texas. Arlington, with a short trip to visit my brother.
Dec. 19-26: London! I wanted to travel somewhere, didn't want to leave Mom at home alone, and we've wanted to do a destination Christmas for a while [since that doesn't involve trees, ornaments, lights and consumerism]. So we're taking Mom on the Beatles pilgrimage she's always wanted. It'll be cold, yes, but just think of seeing Abbey Road! Totally worth the travel, the bad food, and the inevitable jetlag.
Dec. 26-Jan. 2: Texas. Arlington again, with a short trip to Austin to celebrate the new year.

Will you be around? I'd love to see you! Whether it's an old-school gaming/debate/cars talk at Starbucks or a one-on-one dinner, or just maaaaybe a night out in Dallas, you can count me in.

Cheap sportscar for sale!

What: 2004 Mazda RX-8

69,000 miles
I'm the third owner

What it's got: 
  • 230hp 1.3L rotary engine
  • 6-speed manual transmission
  • Two-tone (black/tan) leather seats and doors
  • Bose stereo with 6CD
  • Xenon headlights
  • Driver's power seat
  • Power sunroof/moonroof with tilt/slide
  • Keyless entry
  • Power windows
  • Dual front airbags
  • Traction control / stability management control
What's wrong with it: Mechanically: nothing at all; it's been perfectly reliable. I've added less than 2 quarts of oil to it ever. Otherwise, not much! Dings on doors. A/C dials are wonky [a common RX-8 issue] but it blows hot and cold air.

Price: $12,000. Blue book value is just under $14,000. This car needs to go while I'm home in December, so I'm selling cheap.
Why I'm selling: Gotta pay for grad school!
Bonus: If you're a friend and you find my buyer, I'll give you a $250 finder's fee.

This is the only picture I have for now, sorry amigos. Contact me if you want the VIN or want to take a drive in December.

Buy a fun car! Send a guy to school!

Research!

I landed a pretty sweet gig on campus. My program has an office called the Global Information Industry Center, which does research on IT stuff for a lot of companies including corporate sponsors like IBM and Cisco. 

I joined that team this week, and I made myself useful already by proofreading a final report that's going out to press in the next couple of weeks. Once it's out, I'll link the finished product. It's basically a census of all the "information" that's floating around out there, whether digitally or in print or on TV.

From here on, I'll probably be focusing my research on gaming issues, which should be a lot of fun while building some valuable experience at the same time. The plans are really preliminary, but I might be looking into systems like OnLive to see if they're really feasible. In theory, I'll be starting a research blog, which will be boring and dry but might be interesting to the gamers among us.

I've always been driven by solving problems in gaming. I tried to do it as a writer and wasn't very effective, but when big companies are pouring money into your work, they tend to listen. I'm pretty psyched for the chance to really try to actually solve some problems.