Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Best free timesuck ever.
The Universe Sandbox takes just a couple of minutes to download and install, and then you are God. Give the Moon Saturn’s rings and see what happens to ’em. Give the Earth the mass of the Sun and see what happens to the solar system (I was shocked to see Mars getting ejected from the solar system within a few days’ time). Create your own solar system. Learn first-hand the basics of orbital mechanics.
And it’s free.
This reminded me a bit of an old simulation game, Sim Earth, that I played back in the early nineties. You could control many different parameters of early Earth, then let time scroll forward to see if life would or would not develop. Or (if I recall correctly) you could start with present-day Earth, monkey with the variables, and see how long it took to turn our world into a sterile ball of mud. Fun! The graphics sucked by modern standards, so I’ve often wished someone would take the bother to update it.
Universe Sandbox, for that matter, does not have the most amazing graphics . . . inasmuch as the universe is a drop-dead gorgeous place, so it would have been cool to capture that angle. Still, what do you expect for free? And you do get to play God, after all.
What I’ve been doing: working. Sleeping. And playing World of Warcraft all over again.
I’ve reinvented myself as a noob. There was a time when I wasn’t a WoW noob, but I’m definitely one now. Yesterday, I found a very kind and long-suffering Level 70 shaman to take me through Shadowfang Keep. I should have just followed along, staying out of his way and sucking up loot, but no. I had to help. And I got myself killed, and THEN I forgot that this shaman could have resurrected me, but I forgot that too. And when I finally got back to the dungeon, I got lost and he had to come back and lead me through all over again.
He was more than gentlemanly through the whole thing, but I felt like such a doofus. It made me remember why I like soloing so much.
D.
