<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2137/2490994538_d31eb5efe5.jpg?v=0">

This was my first time making banana bread, but man, it turned out great!  Recipe <a href="http://www.toomuchgarlic.com/coconut-bourbon-banana-bread/">here</a> at my new food blog, <a href="http://www.toomuchgarlic.com/">toomuchgarlic.com</a>.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 8PM
At the Happy Ending Music & Reading Series
Readings by: Nathaniel Rich, Salvatore Scibona, and Paul La Farge

And music from KATELL KEINEG!

Happy Ending Bar
302 Broome Street @ Forsyth; 212-334-9676
(B,D to Grand Street or F, J, M, Z to Delancey)

More info: http://amandastern.com/happyending.html

PS: Sorry for the pictures before. This is not a flyer, I'm just a huge Katell Keineg fan.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TinySubversions/~3/290454195/ion08-conference-todd-northcutt-on.html

Todd Northcutt gave a talk at ION yesterday called Seven Cool Things You Can Do With Buddy Lists. Here are my notes from the session; he said that his slides will be posted at poweredbygamespy.com. My comments are in square brackets.

You can increase consumer game play and loyalty to a franchise by keeping gamers engaged while not actively playing.

Fun fact: Call of Duty 4 has no buddy list system for the PC!

Buddy lists are a means, not an end, and a buddy list system is not interesting by itself. Northcutt uses the phrases "connected gaming" to describe games that share stats, replays, and accomplishments but are not necessarily multiplayer or massively multiplayer.

Buddy lists create stickiness. Buddies can make you play games you may not even particularly love [is this a good thing?].

Three things that help stickiness: presence (see what your friends are doing), messaging, and easy invitations to online matches.

Contextual competition: leaderboards are irrelevant by themselves. On a typical leaderboard you are the 4,230th best player out of 846,111 players. If you take a leaderboard and filter it by just your friends on your buddy list, you're now the 2nd best player out of your 12 friends. That's way more powerful.

The non-core users care about stats too! You just have to make them relevant. For example, the default view on Mario Kart Wii is your friend score distribution, and even global stats highlight your friends.

You can use buddy lists to build a better matchmaker. If you can't play with friends you should at least play with people who play LIKE your friends. Perhaps give preference to FoaFs (friend-of-a-friend).

Break down barriers to continue the game experience outside the game itself. Crossmessaging, between platforms (different OSes, console/PC, etc). Let out of game people see that friends are playing to entice them in.

Broadcast messaging enables 1:many communication with all your buddies. If Joe joins game X, ping all his friends that "Joe just joined game x". Or send brags to your friends. Even game devs can communicate as buddies as another way to get messages out to players.

Enable commerce: let players know "your buddy has this cool thing: do you want it too? Click here to buy now!" You can sell full games, expansion packs, user trading, and microcontent this way. [Seems like I'd burn out on all the advertising, though.] Contextual "Buy
Now!" is super powerful.

Create a deeper and more rich social network. Help the game be more about relationships than content. Search for ways to create new relationships between people. Populate buddy lists better, import mail, [do local graph search for common FoaFs]. Provide easy introductions between users that are similar to encourage mingling with people you might not know but might like.

Edwards endorses Obama. SOunds like he went about it all classy-like, too.

"When he made his decision, Edwards didn't even tell many of his former top advisers because he wanted to make sure that he personally talked to Clinton to give her the news,"

i comment often but ive never posted

here is my pit hair :)

so... i bet this girl i'm dating that i can find and/or make vegan lamb chops.
she said if i do, she will go back to being vegan.


i am now on a mission.

i have googled vegan lamb chops and have come up pretty empty handed.

does anyone have a recipe to cook something that would be similar to lamb chops?

http://www.asofterworld.com

I was in the neighborhood, feeling a bit daffy

What better place to ask regarding a Subway Series than my fellow newyorkers? :)

Unfortunately I can't attend the last regular season Subway Series game ever at Yankees stadium. Doh! As such, I have 2 tickets to sell for Sunday's game vs the Mets at 8:05pm. My tickets are in Tier MVP Sec 12, Row H. The two tickets include two passes to the Johnny Walker Pinstripe Pub. I'm asking $120 for the pair. If interested, see my craig's list posting: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/tix/680688974.html. Thanks!

As always, go Yankees!

If only the boyfriend knew what I do all day when he's not home.

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Google Maps streetview of my old house:



Yep, that's my car. Weird, huh?

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/519129#3686961

I'm taking my family out to Grand Sichuan to celebrate my dad's birthday, but I wanted to find a bakery in the immediate area, so I could pick up a cake on the way to the restaurant. I did find a website to the Bay Ridge Bakery, but couldn't find any posts about it on Chowhound. Any positive experiences with this bakery? If not, any alternatives? Thanks!

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/518455#3686915

Sounds like it is trying to stay afloat on its location rather than on food or service....

When key players leave the place, service and food usually suffer and the whole place goes down hill

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/518691#3686875

Interesting that your service experience was so different from ours! We liked our server and didn't get any of the rudeness that is mentioned above. I agree that you can't really judge a restaurant based on a "holiday" meal - but in our case, the restrictions that were put in place due its being V-Day didn't affect our experience (although I wish we could find a time now to go for the regularly priced menu!).

We also liked having a table at the back so we could watch all the goings-on in the open kitchen.

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/519117#3686813

I am heading to the Brooklyn Museum this Sunday and am looking for a great brunch place nearby. Are there any in Prospect Heights?

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/518755#3686802

Be forwarned: noise, children, crowds. If you are in any way bothered by these things then go with care. I personally think the food can be worth it on a good night. Not always.

Yellow Cake Mix & Rainbow Frosting

moar funny pictures

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