http://www.ianbenedict.com "Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist." - George Carlin Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:23:56 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The semester draws to its midpoint and so things start to get really hectic these days. Having a multitude of assignments and tests each week is stressful, but it tends to keep you on your toes. Kendo-wise, practices are going really well this semester. There is an upcoming intercollegiate tournament at ... http://www.ianbenedict.com/2008/10/22/a-personal-update/ MMORPGs are unsurpassed at giving you an overwhelming sense of achievement. Being able to show off your character's pimped out gear and abilities has been one of the draws of this genre, in addition to persistent awards for your achievements. The Xbox 360 has mastered this formula as well with ... http://www.ianbenedict.com/2008/09/29/kongregate-bringing-achievements-to-your-flash-games/ I finally changed that boring theme and upgraded to Wordpress 2.6.2. I've been very busy as of late, with school starting and everything. I will try to update the blog more often now though. http://www.ianbenedict.com/2008/09/16/wordpress-update/ I finally got my invite for the web 2.0 application BrightKite, so here are my initial impressions. BrightKite is very much like Twitter, where you can post little notes to people on your friends list as well as the general public. Its main feature is the ability to also encode 'where' ... http://www.ianbenedict.com/2008/07/31/brightkite-first-impressions/ Just updated my Wordpress to 2.6. For those of you who run Wordpress blogs, I recommend the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plugin. It makes life so much easier. PS. I'm looking into changing my Wordpress theme, so if you know any good themes or theme sites, let me know. http://www.ianbenedict.com/2008/07/15/wordpress-updated-to-26/ I've gotten a bit of time to try out Dropbox and so here's my little review of it. For the uninitiated, Dropbox is a web 2.0 application that lets you sync files between multiple computers quickly and painlessly. It also comes with a nifty web interface to organize your folders and ... http://www.ianbenedict.com/2008/07/09/drop-it-in-the-box/ Wow, it's been almost exactly a month since my last post. Many apologies, but I was/am really busy with work and school. Honest. This past month flew by, with weekdays spent working during the day and sleeping in class at night, to weekends spent doing things like going to a cottage ... http://www.ianbenedict.com/2008/06/25/short-and-sweet/ I haven't really had much of a chance to write anything now with school and work in full force. I did have my Kendo grading a couple of weeks ago. I was granted the rank of 4th kyu (Yay!). This rank is basically one of the beginner ranks in Kendo, so ... http://www.ianbenedict.com/2008/05/26/long-summer/ Alright, so exams are finally over (YAY!), however I start my full-time job next week (....) so there's not that much room for relaxation. As well, I start summer classes the week after next, so I'll probably be even more swamped with work in the summer than the past semester. ... http://www.ianbenedict.com/2008/05/02/lonely-like-root-three/ Exam week has started. My first exam is this Wednesday, with the rest not far behind. Studying is going well, though I'll admit I've had a lot on my mind and therefore the studying isn't as efficient as it could be. As well, I have a Kendo grading coming up ... http://www.ianbenedict.com/2008/04/22/tweet-tweet/