Averbuch.NET

This blog is no longer in use. All future posts are at:


(Posting one more time since some people were confused).

<This post is cross-posted between my old blog at Windows Live Spaces, and my new one, at Averbuch.net>

With my transition to Averbuch.net, a few key settings will need to be updated on your end, depending on how you follow my postings.

1. If you just visit the web site: Change your bookmarks to point to http://averbuch.net
2. If you follow the RSS feed: Change (or add) http://averbuch.net/feed/ to your RSS reader
3. If you like receiving email when I post, click here to signup.
4. If you read my postings on Facebook, I already updated the link, so you have nothing to change here.

Please contact me if you have any questions about changing over or something doesn't work for you.

NOTE: I will no longer be posting at http://averbuch.spaces.live.com again; all new postings will go to http://averbuch.net only.

<This post is cross-posted between my old blog at Windows Live Spaces, and my new one, at Averbuch.net>

I've been thinking about moving off of Spaces for a while, for a couple of reasons:

1. More flexibility in hosting (i.e. stats tracking, plugins, etc...)
2. A lot more theme choices
3. I wanted to host fully on my domain name, http://averbuch.net, rather than just having it as a redirect.
4. Microsoft locks down a bunch of functionality in the name of security, but this significantly impacts my ability to explore and play with various technologies.
5. I wanted a server to do some exploration with Ruby on Rails.

During the President's Day holiday yesterday, I spent time exploring various hosting options, and ended up setting up a plan at http://hostingrails.com, which had the price I was looking for (including coupons), along with providing Ruby access, WordPress, ssh/shell access, and a bunch of other exploratory needs.

I've got the new site up, so I am going to switch everything over there; you'll just need to switch over once, but don't be surprised if I change the look and feel a bit over time as I explore various options and plugins.

My next post will describe how to get setup on the new server.

In a previous post, I mentioned ordering an historic photo of our house. (along with, of course, my posts on sketch drawings of the place.)

We finally got in the photograph of our house, from back in 1938 (and yes, it's got for-sale signs in the window - it sold for 800 bucks that year. Quite a bargain!)

It's amazing how similar they look (click for larger views)

1938

2008

And yes, that tree got much much taller, so for the angular view, it's pretty dominating right now. In addition, notice the deck that wraps around the house that was put in during the 1980s.

Greg mentioned us playing Careers this weekend, which has become Joelle and I's favorite board game of choice recently.

Basically, we both had played a bunch growing up, and were looking for a copy at a couple of board game stores nearby. Turns out, they no longer make it, so before we turned to EBay, we realized that Joelle's mother still had a 1958 edition in her linen closet; on her last trip out, she brought it over.

It's amazing the difference in the world view of 1958; the careers people strive for are:

• Politics
• Hollywood
• Uranium Prospecting
• Moon Expedition (including being able to be the first man on the moon)
• Big Business
• Farming

But, having read the Wikipedia article on the game, it's clear that the game only continued to get even more sexist over time; what were they thinking with this "For girls" version?:

The "careers" available to players of the game have changed over 50 years of new editions, reflecting changes in popular perceptions. For example, "Farming" became "Ecology" and "Uranium Prospecting" became "Computer Programming". In 1990 Parker released a new version "Careers for Girls", featuring careers such as "School Teacher", "Fashion Designer" and "Super Mom". The strategy aspects of the game were also greatly simplified. This is discussed in the BoardGameGeek discussion thread,"most condescending game ever".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Careers_%28board_game%29

Even more so when you read some of the strategy differences detailed in the first post in the BoardGameGeek thread:

So, like, in the original Careers, there are these "Experience" cards you can get. To use them, you play them instead of rolling the die. This lets you
control what space you go to instead of going to a random space, and adds a substantial amount of strategy to the game.
Well, they removed those in "Careers for Girls". Apparently girls can't handle strategy in games.
Also, in the original game, you got to decide on a secret distribution; this meant that everyone had their own customized goal, and it's not as easy to tell who is closer to winning.
Well, they removed that in "Careers for Girls." Apparently all girls should share the same goals.
Oh, and there are the actual careers. First off, there
are six instead of eight. Apparently girls don't have
as many career choices. Of the surviving careers:
"Politics" has become "Fashion Designer", because girls
shouldn't go into politics.
"The Arts" has become "Rock Star". I guess girls don't know what "The Arts" mean.
One of the careers is called "Animal Doctor".
Apparently girls wouldn't know the word "veternarian".
Oh, and "Astronaut" is now called "Super Mom"!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/33357

While our version does have it's sexist moments, (get a pretty secretary, gain happiness points, for example), they do try and be a bit ungendered - for example, the square where you can marry a prince is written as prince(ss). Apparently, we were more evolved as a people in 1958 than in 1990. Who knew?