ck's weblog: life, studied

I've been given a stringing machine as an early birthday present which has enabled me to experiment a little further in finding the best way to string my racquets. There is a wide variety of string available, and the internet is full of strongly opposed opinions as to which is best.

I've taken to using a hybrid of two strings: one of the softer co-polyester strings in the mains and a multifilament synthetic gut in the crosses. So far, that seems to provide the best of both worlds. I get the comfort and feel of a multifilament along with the power and spin of a co-poly:

I outfitted one of Julia's racquets with a similar combination:

She'll have to hit with it to figure out if it's a better fit for her than the control string in her other racquet, but the hybrid has a big cosmetic edge, and sometimes that's important.

Flock (PC) let me down. I was excited by the concept -- it's a game where you're an alien trying to herd sheep (and later other animals) into your craft for an unknown purpose. It's cute, it's clever, and it's completely impossible to play. The problem probably doesn't exist on consoles where a joypad is used for UFO navigation, but the PC version tried to use the mouse in a way that simply doesn't work.

I did enjoy Wheelman (PS3). The plot seemed inconsistent, but any confusion about why I was doing something or why my employers weren't trying to kill me was overshadowed by the driving portion of the game. It felt very much like someone (let's call him "Vin") played some Grand Theft Auto games, made a list of the aspects of the game that he liked and disliked, and asked his own video game studio to make something better. Wheelman is indeed something better. The standard tedium is largely removed (players aren't required to drive across town from their save point just to begin a mission) and new abilities are added that ratchet up the fun. It has some rough edges, but the overall experience is well on the positive side.

Much like its predecessor, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was better than I expected. It's simply Michael Bay doing what he's best at, and there's something to be said for sticking to your strengths.

I've been working on our FY10 Sun hardware maintenance contract since November and it's finally coming to fruition. We're switching vendors, service levels, and the scope of which machines are covered. Put together, all that will provide us with better service than we've gotten in the past at 25.4% the cost of our FY09 contract.

While none of that six-figure savings is going to make it into my salary, it may save us from having to cut necessary expenditures if the State's budget proves unkind.

I was finally able to get my hands on some "kosher for Passover" Coke this year:

It's made with cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup because during Passover, leaveners (including corn, and somewhat oddly, its non-leavening derivatives) are forbidden. I'm not a stickler for Jewish customs, but I do look forward to the chance every year to buy a product I like better than the corn-syrup-sweetened Coke.

Pepsi, for different reasons, is testing the waters. In a limited-time run, they've released "throwback" versions of Pepsi-Cola and Mountain Dew, both made without high-fructose corn syrup:

Our local Pepsi bottler isn't taking part in the promotion, but my sister was good enough to get me some North-Carolinian soda during her last week as a Duke student. I prefer each of them to their modern counterparts, unsurprisingly. I just hope they stick around for the long term.