Rich Garner

Recently, a good friend asked me if my son could participate with their child in an upcoming video game tournament. What caught me off guard was that  this friend is usually opposed to kids playing video games. I was eager to look into registration for my son knowing that he would be thrilled to participate with his friend.

Then I found out what game was being played: Marvel VS Capcom 3.

I love Marvel VS Capcom. The graphics are great, the gameplay is intense, the moves are amazing.  As much as I would love to blindly enter him into the tournament and just assume the organizers know what they are doing, I cannot. As a parent I MUST research any game to which my boys are exposed. And I am sad to say Marvel VS Capcom 3 failed my “family-friendly test. ” Read the rest of this entry »

My interest was peaked around 1994 when I saw the movie Rising Sun. An edgy young cop and a culturally wise investigator team up to solve a crime in high-tech Japan. In one scene, a computer expert shows the two characters how security footage could easily be graphically manipulated with the right tools… one of which was a slick new type of interface called a graphics tablet. The expert gracefully move her pen over the grey rectangle and with a few strokes, created a very cool effect on screen. I was in love! Read the rest of this entry »

If you know me, or you have read this blog a few times before, you know I am a PC gamer to the core. One of my favorite type of games are role playing games. I love taking on the role of a power warrior or disgruntled marine and lending my services to the poor mistreated citizens of a dangerous land. But just like those exciting adventures, my life consists of several side quests which ultimately only serve to aid me or distract me from my primary quest.

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I came to a very humbling realization recently: I don’t know as much as I used to. Yes, I’m getting old and yes, I might be suffering from a mild case of “where-the-heck-is-this-train-going-itis,” but it’s still a difficult concept to fully accept. I am no longer the go-to-guy for everything computers. Read the rest of this entry »

If you follow me or my wife on Facebook, or have seen the VERY few comments on Twitter, you might have realized that I had a brush with death Tuesday night which paralyzed half of my body and nearly killed me. So I wanted to give you the full details and let you decide how to respond to this story… Read the rest of this entry »

Ok. Christmas gifts! What did you get?

Me? Oh, I got some candy from my boys, some shirts from my mom, some money from my dad… and from my wife a nice little brown book that may be the single greatest gift any web geek could receive!
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As is custom at this time of year, I wanted to share some cheap and easy online gift ideas to make your Christmas shopping season a little more sane. If you know me, or have met me online, you’ll probably already know that I am a hardcore geek at heart. I own Transformers toys that I bought when I was an adult, I watch the entire The Lord of the Rings Special Edition Trilogy at least once a year, I know every line to every episode of Futurama and I can even speak a little Klingon (although the translation is a bit foul).

So it stands to reason that I have collected a few of my favorite gifts to give any geek in your life. To make thing even easier, these are ALL gift certificates that can be purchased, and redeemed, online. (And YES, I do realize that I shared some of the same gift ideas last year. But you know if it works, why change it?)
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For the first episode of the Social Media Club for Virginia Beach… PODCAST!, I was able to sit down with Francina Harrison A.K.A.: The Career Engineer. Francina has worked for over 12 years with career seekers and changers as well as business owners and employers to connect the right people to the right jobs. She explains how today’s economic situation demands that job hunters and business owners adopt a strategy focused on social media.

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It’s that time of year again. When I pull down the classic PC games that gave me chills years ago, slap up the cheesy decorations, and lay down to watch some good movies designed to make my wife grab me by the arm. We’ve all seen the classic; Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare… but there’s a bunch of great film frights to be had from titles you probably never gave a second thought about. (I’ve linked them to their pages on Netflix.) Read the rest of this entry »

I never really had an overweight issue, but there was one weight loss program that I could not stop thinking of: Susan Powter’s low-calorie, high-volume eating. It was an infomercial in the early 90′s that had this thin woman showing off her new body with pictures of her overweight self plastered behind her. The concept was not only catchy, it seemed to be effective. There is something to be said about a low-high mentality especially in online marketing which is currently overrun with advertisers and informed customers.
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