Random Update Content

The world has just changed.

2011-07-23T04:17:00.003+02:00

Yesterday, Norway experienced the worst attack since WW2. Maybe ever, with at least 87 confirmed deaths at the moment I'm writing this. 80 of these where at a youth Labour party summer conference. 80 politically enganged youths, the hope of tomorrow have been slain at what was supposed to be a happy and good event; probably what was supposed to be the highlight of their summer.

What should we do now? How should we react to this news? How are we supposed to understand the scale of this tragedy? I don't know. But I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to keep on living my life, going to work and not changing my habits or opinions. Because if I do change, they win. And I won't let them win, I'll keep voting, keep living in a democracy and keep on doing everything I'm used to. I'm not going to go around being scared or afraid. I'm not going to close myself in and isolate my interactions with others. I might actually change in the other direction, and make an effort to be more open. To smile and be welcoming to strangers. And so, I'll win. And if we all pull together in Oslo, in Norway and in the world at large we can do this. We can win, by not letting the fear we might feel dictate our actions or attitudes.

Today I was sleeping late, because I'm working nights. I woke up with my alarm at around 15:00, and stayed in bed for a while. Then I heard a blast, and i got up and looked out the window. I saw a cloud of smoke over the center of Oslo. And so I kept up with the news all the day, but I chose to go to work this night. I chose to go to work at one of the places that is a possible target for attack. This was before we knew how large the numbers of casualties was. But even knowing that, I'll go to work tomorrow. Because my spirit is not broken, and I won't let them win.

Conflict; avoidence, management and resolution...Some general thoughts.

2011-02-14T00:18:00.010+01:00

There has been talk recently in various social circles (both real and virtual) about drama and conflict. Having had some experience and training in handling and resolving conflicts I thought I'd make some general thoughts about the subject. Also, update for blog, hooray ;)

First, I like to split conflict into three levels; avoidance, management and resolution. They represent the various levels of conflict we encounter in life and how advanced the conflict has become. For this post, I'll only handle the first two levels, since this is where it's easier to generalize about conflicts (and it's getting late and I want this posted before bed :p). I'll add a new post at a later date about conflict resolution if I find there is any interest for it, or if I just feel like I need to finish it for myself.

One short disclaimer; all of the below assume that we are dealing with reasonable and relatively mature people. Most of this stuff won't work on 4chan for instance, or on people that are looking for trouble and have made up their minds that trouble is you. This ain't a guide to avoid conflict, it's just some general tips to maybe avoid some of it and maybe keeping Drama down to a manageable level in your social and virtual communities :)

Avoidance:

Avoidance is just what it says on the box; avoiding conflict. The easiest way to avoid conflict is to never leave your room, pay all your bills on time and avoid all social contact. But since that isn't really a feasible way to live your life (virtual or physical) some steps need to be taken to avoid or at least lessen the number, of conflicts we get into.

One way to avoid conflict is to identify it ahead of time and then choose a different path that leads away from the source of conflict.
For example; you're walking along the sidewalk in a big city and spot a group of (what appears in your mind as) troublemakers. The easiest way to avoid getting into a situation that might be uncomfortable here is simply to go another way, or cross the street. It's simple, and it's also effective. Very few people will start following you across the street just to bother you, and if they do they probably have something more sinister in mind than making your day a bit more uncomfortable. One thing to bear in mind here is that choosing a different path or crossing the road should not appear to be a direct result of sensing the people you want to avoid.
This route also works in virtual life; if you see a poster or forumthread that you get upset about, from an obvious troll or just something that you expect will lead into an argument; just leave it alone. This might be hard, because it might be something that offends you or something that you feel strongly the need to defend. But in knowing that you can end up in a conflict, you have the option of not getting involved. So take a few minutes, think about if you rally want to get aggravated over this issue, and only then reply.

Management:

Ok, so you've gotten into some sort of conflict. A confrontation of some sort, maybe it's with another member of your online community or maybe a stranger on the street that you bumped into by accident. First things first; don't panic! This is still manageable, and the first thing to do is lower, or at least not increase, the level of conflict. There are several ways to do this, some are more suitable in some situations than others. The important thing to remember is that every situation is different, and what works for you one time might not work for you another time. Becuase of the vast array of tactics and situations that you might encounter here, I'll try to lay out some general tips on things that might be helpful to keep in mind.

1. Keep it local. By this I mean that you should try to keep the conflict from escalating into something that's bigger than the already involved parties. This is why security and police are taught to separate the lead figure in a group from the others, it creates a private space where you can have a conversation without either having to prove something for anyone else.
Example: If you have a problem with a person in your social circle, or maybe at work try to solve the issues at the lowest possible level. Speak to the person involved and try to explain what the issue is. You'd be surprised how often this works, and it just might be that the problem that you're having isn't something the person is even aware of doing. This way, with no others involved, the conflict stays private, and no one has anything to prove to others watching.

For virtual communities the same principle applies; keep it private between the ones involved. There is no faster way to resentment and Drama (with the capital letter) than making a big fuss over it in a public setting. Sharing issues with a whole community that does not involve the whole community is a good way to get someone defensive and so increase the level of conflict experienced. A private message to the parties involved might be a much better solution, and since it's private you avoid creating a situation where the involved parties feel attacked and thus feel they need to defend themselves.

2. Apologize. Yes, this works. Even if it's not your fault, if it's not a big thing just say sorry. It solves many issues, and it's conflict dampening. Hell, even if you're in a situation where you can't back down (such as a bouncer or doing control of tickets on public transport) apologizing can make a big difference. It does not have to be a sincere from the bottom of your heart thing, but just the words "I'm sorry" can be enough to keep things contained to a level where it is manageable and where one can hold a civil conversation.

3. Somewhat related to point 2 about apologizing and something that also touches into the third category of conflict (resolution), explaining your position can be a big help in keeping something from blowing up. Normal, reasonable people are often willing to concede points if explained from another viewpoint. But, this does mean that you have to be able to explain the situation in a way that makes it understandable to the other involved parties. Making sure that your explanation does not involve assumptions that are logical in your mind will go a long way to making yourself understood.

4. In the same vein you should try to understand what the other person means when he/she says something. Maybe the conflict revolves around a simple misunderstanding, or maybe there is some deeper fundamental difference than can not be reconciled by simple discussion. If you come to a point where the conflict is based on arguments that can not be reconciled it is time to move on. This is important, since it requires a clear head and the ability to concede an argument or conflict. If you can't get anywhere, then just walk away from it and explain that this is what you are doing because you see no way to agree. In short, be the bigger man/woman.

2011-01-17T17:46:00.004+01:00

There has been no mention of, well anything really, on this blog for quite some time. So, as a small penance I'll do a short blog of my most anticipated games of 2011. At least for the ones I remember (in no particular order) :p

First up, Batman Arkham city:

I begin with a sequel, and hopefully it will be a worthy successor to Batman: Arkham Asylum. The first one was more or less the best game of 2009, and with the same developer and more room to explore this sequel should prove to be one of this years top games. The latest trailer also promises intrigue and action. This is one of my must have games this year, and if offered in a limited edition I'll get one. (Will add embedded trailer at a later time.)

Second one this year is Gears of War 3:

This is also a sequel, and is strangely it's a game series that I didn't like the first time I tried it. I found gears to be boring, the controls to be sort of weird and the action to be hard to follow. But I gave it a second try with my friend and the entire thing changed it's dynamics. As a co-op game it was truly brilliant, and the second one kept the formulae and added more stuff. So the hope is for the third game in the series keeps all the things that made the first two games fun for co-op and makes a brilliant experience.

Dawn of War 2: Retribution:

I liked dow2 and it's focus on small unit tactics. With the inclusion of the imperial guard and a inquisition themed campaign? Sign me up please!

Warhammer 40000: Space Marine:

It's a brawler game where you play a space marine and utilising an array of diverse weapons to kill the enemies of the Imperium. From the trailers it looks good, the art direction is straight out of Games Workshop and it looks like the action sequences will be high adrenaline affairs. But if it lives up to it's potential, that remains to be seen.

Small sample for now, I might add more later. But for a "beginning to blog again" thing, it's good enough :p

Scott Pilgrim vs The world.

2010-10-04T23:54:00.001+02:00

This is the single most awesome thing I have ever seen.

My life will from now on be grey and mostly meaningless.

WATCH IT!

10 bad things I would rather do than wash down an appartment

2010-06-05T18:41:00.002+02:00

1. Hold a speech in front of a large assembly.

2. Have the flu.

3. Put together a complete room of furniture from ikea.

4. Stand around on a stone floor for 6 hours doing nothing.

5. Wait in a car queue.

6. Mow the lawn (I'm allergic to pollen).

7. Move furniture.

8. Be shot at.

9. Getting a superficial stabwound.

10. Be in a low speed car-crash.

The Thor movie, and why it's going to baffle you...

2010-02-16T15:17:00.004+01:00

So, they've started filming for 2011's marvel movie Thor. Playing Thor is the guy who played George Kirk in the new Star Trek movie. While initially sceptical, the guy's 191 cm so at least he's big enough. Lets just hope they don't do something silly like make him American with short brown hair. You know, like they did with Constantine...

I hvae nothing to say about the guy they've cast as Loki,other than to say that he sort of looks the part.

Now, here is my big gripe; They've cast Idris Elba as Heimdall. Now, nothing wrong about Idris Elba, I loved him as Stringer Bell in the wire. But has anyone noticed he's black? I mean, it's kinda obvious. And he's slated to play a norse god. Trick qustion: What was there very little of in Scandinavia during the time the norse sagas were written? Black people, that's the answer. I wonder how the hell they'll explain that one? Something is very wrong here...So this will be a very baffling movie I'm, suspecting. Almost as baffling as who Stringer Bell really was. To paraphrase Det. McNulty from "the wire" "I've been following this guy for the last four years, and now I realise I have no idea who he was."

So yes, I'm waiting for some reasonable explanation for why there suddenly is a black norse god in the marvel universe. Of course, they could go one further and digitally make Idris a white norse god...In which case I'll start crying inside, and start wondering when the producers at marvel studios started doing enough drugs to make that seem like a good idea....

Signs you might be depressed

2010-02-13T18:26:00.002+01:00

A quick guide:

1. You go out and buy stuff you don't really need, using money you shouldn't really use.

2. You ask yourself the question "have I eaten today?" several times, and the answer each time is "fuck it."

3. You decide to sever lines of communication with the world, only to realise that it's a pointless exercise since no-one actually contacts you in the first place.

4, The days plans consist of "spending time until you can go to sleep without fucking up your sleep cycle."

I'll add more signs as they come to me...

Twelve hours and counting...

2009-10-11T20:20:00.002+02:00

So, long time no blogs again. Not really that surprising I guess, this is random update content after all :p

As I'm writing this, I'm about twelve and a half hours away from my first exam while attending the university. Am I ready? Not even close. Still, I'm not panicking or getting very worried. One of the reasons is that I'm pretty sure that I'm as prepared as I can get by this time. I could of course have been better at reading what I was supposed to read earlier, but at this point it's a moot point. The second, and more important, reason is that I've had a good weekend with nice company. So I'm relaxed and not too worried. It might all go to shit during the short exam tomorrow, but I'm prepared to deal with that if it happens. It's not as if my entire academic career depends on me finishing this one exam.

Not really much to say here, just making sure I remember that this blog exists really.

As it so happens, I'm intimatley familiar with the Asylum...

2009-08-29T02:41:00.003+02:00

The wait is over, Arkham Asylum is here :D And me having actually finished it is a good thing, as it might free up some time to actually read for my lectures...

That being said, this is such an epic game I almost don't know what to say about it. First of all I should say (before the spoiler warning comes on) that if you haven't decided if you want the game or not, GET IT! It is an amazingly cool game, even if you're not a Batman fan. Combat is simple, somewhat intuitive and works quickly. And the aspect of being a silent predator stalking victims from the rafters is just way cooler than most anything I've seen in a game.

Now the SPOILER WARNING

Gothams favourite hero return the most insane and homicidal villain to Arkham. Said villain escapes and sets a trap and puts into motion large and complex plot involving mutations huge plants and more than a few escaped supervillains. In the middle, is Batman. Did I mention an army of escaped convicts running around doing the Jokers bidding? No? Well, I just did...All of this amounts to one hell of a game, and it's even better because it's a Batman game. And then theres the challenges that the riddler set for you. Him being a cryptic and delusional little shit, solving them quickly becomes a favourite hobby. And I have to say, after finding all the 240 different riddles, trophies, interviews and ciphers I felt good...Really good! It's probably the only time I've actually gone hunting for secrets in any game, and it's all because of the small invention called a map. Now, some would say that it's cheating, or at least too easy. Me, I liked it. It meant I could actually find all the small things without getting too frustrated, or not bothering. So good work there, now If only other games with tons of collectibles could manage to incorporate a map with a general fix on the collectibles. Even better was the audio that plays after solving the last challenge, just plain epic :)

Boss fights become kinda important in a game based on a superhero. And there's certainly no shortage of Batman villains to fight here. Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, the Joker (well duh), scarecrow, killer croc and fucking Bane. That and mutated henchmen make the different boss fights interesting and very different from eachother. Combing through the sewers with killer croc on the loose is a very tense experience, and if you don't have a batarang ready you're going down...Of course, Poison Ivy and her gigantic flower makes for it's own terror.

/SPOILER

So yeah, this game was well worth both the wait and the money...Now, I guess all that's left is to start over again...Hard becons, but I'm exepcting a long hard road t finish the game on that mode...

Hollywood fucked my childhood yesterday...

2009-08-16T10:05:00.005+02:00

So, yeah...I saw G.I. Joe yesterday. First of all, if you don't know what G.I. Joe is, it's a toy line from the 80's that had comics by Marvel (as did most other Hasbro toys from the time it feels like). Anyway, concept is quite simple: A team of the best international soldiers form super-elite military branch unattached to any specific country. Simple, right? You get lots of interesting characters from all over the world, real best of the best type stuff. And the comics had them all being special in some ways, with varied weapons and solutions to problems. What they didn't have was hydraulic power suits, in effect making the G.I Joe's into starship troopers (going with he original, could just as easily have said space marines). Meaning that instead of having having a huge black guy carrying around a fucking Browning .50, we get the same guy driving a van around Paris giving out orders...And lets not forget the entire *spoiler warning* love trumps nanobot programming thing...W T F? And I wish I made that shit up, I really do...Now, this is pretty much me speculating on random memories from 15 odd years back, but I really don't think the Baroness was a brainwashed automaton. In fact I very much doubt it. Besides, her costume appeared to have sparkly black stones on it. In short, my mind was raped by this truly horrible film, and once more hollywood has managed to fuck my childhood (ok, transformers was good)...What's next hollywood? Make the carebears into psychotic killers? Wait, that would actually be awesome...And then we could have my little pony directed by Quentin Tarantino, or John Carpenter...

I also hate drunk people with a passion, especially fucking stupid drunk guys only looking for an excuse for a fight...Bring back personal arms, that's my motto...

Life's small changes

2009-08-12T21:32:00.003+02:00

So, I've officially entered the world of academic studies. More precisely social anthropology. And currently, before the actual studies start, it seems to be a very interesting choice. The few lectures I've had so far, to introduce the new students to the subject matter have been very interesting. So I'm quite happy for the time being. Of course, that might change after I get my nose deeper into the subjects at hand. But I'll take that challenge as it turns up. For now, things are good.

Now if only Batman: Arkham Asylum would turn up somewhat quicker, everything would be even better....

The call of the sixshooter

2009-07-16T18:59:00.003+02:00

So I bought myself a new game yesterday. Call of Juares: bound in blood, the prequel to Call of Juarez (mentioned by Artoth here). Finished it earlier today (at least one part) and I'm pleasantly surprised. From the trailers of the game I was expecting a story driven game of wild west action. And that was indeed what I got, but on a scale I wasn't expecting. The story, in short, is about three brothers who are driven from their farm by union forces and set about a life of gunslinging and treasure hunting. More or less...I won't go into the story here, just going to say that it keeps the game going and I found it interesting.

The action parts of the game are quite well paced (somewhat challenging from time to time, or maybe I just suck) and fun. There are a few odd bugs with movement, and controlling horses are annoying (or I might just be too used to the epic way in which mount and blade handles riding). But the shooting works well, and that's the most important thing. There is also a rather stunning variety of weapons available (including a pistol I'd never heard of before) and the ones I've tested have shown that they have both pro's and cons compared to each other. Of course, the inclusion of the derringer in single player might be seen as an odd choice. Haven't tried it, so it might have some merit? Another thing about the action that need to be mentioned is the cover system. It has been pointed out in various reviews of the game that the cover system for CoJ:BiB is new and works nearly flawlessly. In essence you just go near a corner and the character takes cover automaticly. To exit cover all you have to do is move away from the corner. And to peek around the corner you just move the right thumbstick (on the 360, what you do on the pc is none of my concern :p). And, while it's not flawless and at times takes some practice, it does indeed work. I've found it quite useful in online matches, and I'll be using it much more when I return to the single player for my second run through (this time playing Ray, as opposed to Thomas).

So to sum it up, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a good game, and a very nice western game. It's a genre that is all but overlooked, and it's a shame. But later this year we get Red Dead redemption from Rockstar Games, and yes I am looking forward to it :)

Dr. Steam, or how I came to love digital distribution.

2009-07-10T01:01:00.008+02:00

The last week has pretty much been filled with gaming. More directly I've been on a rampage of the steam market. Now, I first have to say that I've been sceptical to digital distribution. I prefer having a physical product I can touch and show. I've had forays into digital distributions before, more to the point I bought Vanguard: saga of heroes because I couldn't wait for it to get to stores. And of course xbox live arcade. I've been a user of steam for only a few months, starting with Dawn of War 2, which required it (it also required you to log onto windows live, which I REALLY HATED). Empire: total war also used steam, but I seem to remember it not being as weird as with DoW2. But, as things have progressed, I've been checking out the steam marketplace a few times a month for new demos. This resulted in finding the Trine demo I blogged about last time. And that in turn led to the (somewhat expensive) plethora of games I currently own from digital distribution.

First there was Trine itself, which I mentioned last time. I bought it the second it was released (or more directly, I pre-purchased it) and I haven't regretted it. It's a bit short (I think, not sure if I'm on the last level but it sure feels like it), but it's very fun. The story and such is somewhat strange and not that engrossing, but the puzzle and physics elements make up for it. Put simply, It's fun and not too hard (ok, last level is hard meaning I haven't actually finished it).

Second up there is mount and blade. I remember hearing about it on a forum I used to frequent sometime last year, when it was still in beta. And to be honest, it didn't sound all that fun. But I saw a demo on steam and thought "ah, what the hell". Crap, I should never have tried that demo. So, the premise of mount and blade? It's a medieval simulator. It sounds stupid, I know. There is no story to find anywhere in the "vanilla" game (more on the vanilla comment later), You play an adventurer and travel around on the world working for various lords or you can do some banditry or you can do trading. There is no way end of the game that I have discerned other than "amass enough wealth and land to retire in comfort". So why has this game swallowed at least two days of my life and still going strong? Simple: it's amazingly fun to slaughter people from horseback! They have actually made a system where mounted combat works, and where armor and blocking with weapons are functioning. I've never seen this is in a game before, and I'm actually quite impressed. The graphics aren't high end the AI is probably not too good (you can change it, currently I'm only playing with the stupid AI, so not entirely sure) and there are some interesting object bugs. But all in all it's fun leading your army from horseback, firing bows and then leaning down to hack at the other army with swords. Of course the true genius is that the developers have nurtured an extensive mod community. The one I'm currently playing "the eagle and the cross" has no story either (just the standard do what you want from the vanlla game), but it adds firearms and changes the factions and the soldiers. And it's even more fun! Black powder weapons rock, they're horribly inaccurate but very powerful. Like they where in the beginning. So yeah, mount and blade really is quite a good game, and I think that there are some really good mods out there. And quite frankly, it stole my life. Crap, I needed that.

Now, here is where things really went off the rails. Somewhat literally. I was starting up steam one day, rather innocently, when I saw a new steam store update. It said huge 2K game pack 53,99€. So I went in, not realizing what was about to happen. Lo and behold, it was a sale. And not one of those silly 10% off deals either (actually it was 10% off as well, but that's not the point). This was 20 games for 54 euros, retail price for each one individually: 227,80€. Yeah sure, lots of crap...wait, is that BIOSHOCK*!?! And civilization 4? And both expansions plus civ4: colonization? Railroad tycoon 3? And railroad tycoon 2? And Sid Meiers pirates and railroads? What's this on the end of the list? ALL THE FUCKING X-COM GAMES?!? Including the good ones, ufo defense and terror from the deep? So yeah, I bought it...Brought out my mastercard and order the shit out of the pack. So in addition to slaughtering people from horseback I've been building railroads, colonizing a new continent and failing to defend earth from ufo's. The day's do not have enough hours for all this. So curse you 2K, curse you for your better than God deals!

So yeah, gaming galore these days...And nostalgia. Now if only someone could make a new transport tycoon, and make it work just as well as railroad tycoon 3 (except of course, having it work properly on vista). And this is also how I came to love digital distribution.

*Note: I already own Bioshock for the 360, but the rest of the games in the pack was still worth it. And now I can play bioshock on the computer if I feel like it. Not that it's going to happen, bioshock creeps me out enough as it is...

Short small game update

2009-07-01T11:29:00.002+02:00

So, back on the topic of gaming for a short post. Earlier this week (or late last week, I forget) Battlefield Heroes was released. It's a free to play third person multiplayer shooter, in a cartoon style. Free? I hear you say. Yes, free. Signing up is free, it's free to play it and it's free to download. It's funded by ads and micropayments, but according to the developers you won't be able to buy stuff that makes you better at the game. So, how is it? Fun, in short. The cartoon style makes it less serious than the usual brand of shooters. It's fairly standard battlefield gameplay, it has three classes of players using the usual archetypes of heavy gunner, sniper/assassin and soldier. They've also added a balancing mechanic I haven't seen before (although first person shooters isn't really my cup of tea), reducing bullet damage depending on the range of the weapon. Example: You have a machine gun that has a long range. When you get closer to the guy yoou're shooting at, your shots do less damage. A brilliant and simple mechanic to balance weapons. And since you can buy different weapons (or at least weapons with different rate of fire and range) you have a tactical choice in what type of weapon you will be using. So, yeah, it's fun. And it's free, so it won't cost anything just to test it out.

Second today, I'd like to talk shortly about the Trine demo on steam (and in writing those words, I felt an urgent need to run through it again). Trine is a platform puzzler reminiscent of prince of persia and lost vikings. You have three characters (a wizard, a thief and a knight) that have had their souls merged and must now find a way to undo this. Also saving the kingdom from undead etc. Ok, the plot appears to be a somewhat standard fantasy plot. But the gameplay is not. Using the three characters special abilities to solve different puzzles and fights is both fun and challenging at times. And between the wizards ability to levitate items and create boxes (I know, weird), the thief's grappling hook and bow and the knights sword and shield the opportunities for unique problem solving is present. So, if you have steam, check it out. You won't be disappointed.

The problems of computers

2009-06-22T23:36:00.002+02:00

I had a very bad computer day today...Well, ok, not *very* bad, but bad enough. My main computer, an ubuntu linux box, stopped receiving the internet. After the regular turn off and on the router and such I had to conclude that the problem was more serious. So I turned on the xbox and downloaded the prototype trailer (and yes, it looks exellent). So, internet is not down. After checking some more computers (the advantage to being a geek, you always have access to several computers) I find that the only computer with trouble is my linux box. So what was I doing that screwed up my internet? Changing settings? Downloading porn? Insalling suspicious software? Nope, I was reading wikipedia, the episode entries on how I met your mother for trivia. And all my other tabs in the browser was also fairly innocous. Yeah, wikipedia broke my internet...Or not. Several hours later it started working again. Lesson? Always have several computers!

The disturbing sights of Oslo

2009-06-17T12:08:00.002+02:00

This is an art installation at the national museum. I'm uncomfortably reminded of the movie "teeth" and legends of vagina dentata...

*edit* Read about the movie at Artoth's blog

It's geektastic!

2009-06-13T13:36:00.005+02:00

So I bought myself a new phone earlier this week (hence my experiments with alternate blogging methods). It's a HTC Magic with android OS. And I'm in love with it. It has everything I've liked about previous phones I've owned (including threaded sms) and so much more. Technical details are boring, and irrelevant in any case, so I won't bring them up. But damn is it lovely. Yeah, I could have liked it better in black, but it's such a small price to pay. It has all the regular functions you expect of a phone of course, sms, mms, camera, internet and it also has wifi which makes it so much easier to use internet and related applications (not to mention cheaper).

Now, the main thing I like about it is it's speed. After two years of windows mobile on my (by now) ancient palm treo 750 it's really noticeable how fast everything works on the magic. Some of it probably has to do with increased computing power, but I also think it has a lot to do with the android OS. Android is google's open source mobile phone OS based of linux. And as such (being a linux user, and more than a little bit geeky) this was my main draw toward the phone. Linux is faster, no question about it, and so I expected the magic to be fast. What I didn't expect was that it could jump between applications all day without any noticeable slowdown. On the palm, after a few days of heavy use it became noticeably slower to use and I had to go to the device manage to stop a few programs. On the magic, after 4 days of intensive use, opening every application that was installed and downloading many new ones there is no slowdown. So yeah, I'm happy with that.

And there I touched on the main advantage for the magic (and android in general). The android market is a (slightly hard to navigate) place to find whatever functionality, game or application you might need. I haven't had my phone for a week yet, and already I've found and downloaded several applications that I find useful and expand the functionality of the phone. Currently I've fund a travel guide wiki, some very nice games, a notepad and several widgets that I find useful (like the widgets that turn on and off wifi, bluetooth and sound).

Of course it's not all good, there are some minor faults. The camera is not as good as it could have been, so pictures turn out dark. It's actually impossible to take proper pictures inside my apartment without turning on every light. And I've had some mixed success with the gps as well, but I'll reserve judgement until I've tested it properly. The biggest gripe however is the lifetime of the battery. I've had the phone for 4 days, and I've charged it 4 times. It's annoying, and I really expected it to last more than a day. It's not a critical issue, for the simple reason that you can charge it from a USB port.

So in total I'm very happy with it. I still need to get a bit more familiar with it for me to really get to see if I love it or if I'm just awestruck. But as it stands right now, it's an epic phone that I really don't regret spending way too much money on ;)

New test.

2009-06-12T18:57:00.001+02:00

Testing blogging by email this time...oh, and cat again!

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2009-06-12T18:38:00.001+02:00

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Just testing blogging from the phone. Does it actually work? Also: Cat!

Terminator salvation, or why Christian Bale apparently is Jesus...

2009-06-07T09:29:00.003+02:00

SO, watched Terminator Salvation last night. Quick heads up, SPOILERS ahead. It was an ok action flick, nothing to write home about really. Except for some interesting holes in logic, plot and just plain old common sense. Where to start?

First, lets address the resistance movement itself. They are apparently capable of keeping a largeish fleet of ground attack aircraft, helicopters and even a nuclear sub-marine running flawlessly. All in a post apocalyptic wasteland. Never mind that keeping a ground attack fighter operational requires hours of work and spare parts from experienced flight mechanics. And they also have supplies of fuel, ammunition and pilots to be able to have planes on patrol. Wow, good thing skynet is such a nice and cuddly enemy that it didn't try to wipe out the human race with nukes. Oh wait, it did! Does anyone else see a problem with this?

Second, lest discuss skynet. This is a self aware supercomputer with production facilities, control of a nuclear arsenal and no need for humans. How can it miss finding an air force base (with hangars and a runway) in operation distance from it's main base? Seriously? It was a military computer, so it would stand to think that it could indeed find a military installation in the desert? But no, apparently hunting down single humans is more important to skynet, that and "harvesting" humans. Now comes the big question. Skynet tried to kill all humans, and that's the point of the war...WHY DOES IT CAPTURE HUMANS? Now, I could understand if it was a plot point to trap John Connor (Christian Bale, I'll get back to him) but from the movie it appears that this has been happening for some time. Hell, Skynet even made flying machines to transport them, with "harvester bots" to capture humans. So, why does skynet need humans?

Third. Yes, John Connor is supposed to ba a messiah character of sorts. But did we have to give him magical powers over the laws of physics and probability? Lets list his miracles:

1. Surviving a helicopter crash, CAUSED BY A NUKE! Yes, apparently John Connor is radiation proof. That has to be handy in a nuclear wasteland. Oh wait, there are apparently no fallout from these nukes, since not one person mentions it. One possible explanation is that the big bomb that crashed connors helicopter was not a nuke. But then, why show a mushroom cloud and not explain that it's not a nuke? And lets not mention the fact that the radio in the helicopter worked after the nuke, EMP is such a nasty word, isn't it?

2. Being able to avoid the bad effects of a second nuclear explosion when in a helicopter and stabbed through the chest. Yes, he saves the day, with the help of friendly neighbourhood terminator infiltrationbot. So, what does he do? He makes a makeshift nuclear weapon out of power cores for several teminators. Please note, he does describe them as nuclear. He does this by either overloading the power cores with a wire, attached to an explosive(!?!) or by causing an explosion that sets off the power cores. Now, considering that he's been shooting high explosive rounds into one of these terminators earlier this proves that he obviously has powers to control the probability and causality of physics. And then, the big one, he decides to trigger the nuclear explosion. Where do I hear you ask? In a safe zone some few kilometers away? Oh, but of course not. He triggers it, while in a helicopter, RIGHT ABOVE THE FUCKING EXPLOSION! Yes, apparently helicopters CAN outrun blastwaves and (that nasty word again) EMP. So why didn't the first helicopter survive? Probably because John Connor wasn't prepared for a nuclear explosion and didn't activate his probability bending powers. And once again, no radiation sickness or anything of the sort.

So yes, John Connor is Jesus. Of curse, since Christian Bale is playing the part, we should have expected nothing less, since his acting is usually on the brink of the divine (fine, I'm stretching it to fit the title!).

Fourth, an last. Unless medical technology has evolved by leaps and bounds (and there is absolutely no hint or evidence of this) John Connor can even shape probability and causality when he's sedated. It's either that or he had a heart transplant while awake. What am I referring to? His heart transplant from the (oh so noble) flesh terminator at the end of the movie. In the desert, under a canopy attached to a helicopter, with no walls and a single doctor (his wife). Maybe not ideal for a heart transplant? Hmmmm?

This is what I noticed on one sitting, last night in the cinema. I can only shudder to imagine what repeated viewings might uncover...Fine, it's an ok action film, as long as you leave your sense of inquiry, and actually all higher brain functions, outside the cinema.

Star Trek and Coraline, or why I suddenly love cinemas!

2009-05-15T20:25:00.002+02:00

So yes...cinemas this week was quite good. No, I'm lying...It was epic! First up was Star Trek, which was quite good for me because I'm not a trekkie. I found the story to be interesting, and the characters were cool. I loved the action sequences, and they made sense in the plot (not always the case with American action flicks). They even made an effort to justify any differences from the original series, which I found to be a nice effort. I did have one gripe though...Casting Zachary Quinto as Spock was a mistake. Every time I saw him "bastard!" ran through my head, because of his role in Heroes. His image and portrayal of the evil Sylar has stuck by me, to such a degree that I now can't see him without that character going through my head. So that kinda ruined that for me, but other than that it was great :)

But the main event was Coraline. I saw the 3D version of it, complete with 3D-glasses and all...And it was probably the most amazing thing ever! The 3D effects really helped with the immersion and was just amazing to look at! And the story and imaging was very faithful to the book. So I'm a big Neil Gaiman fan, and I loved what they did with the movie. So all respect to Henry Selick and his crew, for an amazing movie. And I really have nothing more to add, except this: SEE IT! NOW! And in 3D if you have any way to do it whatsoever! You won't regret it, ever!

Short, but too the point at least :)

Placeholder,or an "I'm not dead" post

2009-05-13T01:39:00.003+02:00

Yeah, just really a post to say I'll probably post more very soon...I seem to have found a sorta stride in blogging, so I'll try to do it more frequently. And on a larger number of topics...Next one is going to be about movies again though, since I just saw Star Trek, and I'm going to see Coraline later in the week...

I have one thing that's on my mind though. Downloadable content, why do I keep buying it? Or more correctly, is it worth it? Admittedly, for Fallout 3, I have to say that it is...It's gotten my back into the game, and actually made me finish the game proper with the last expansion "Broken Steel". And upping the level cap to 30 has been a nice touch...But now when I level, There's really no perks I want any more...A conundrum...That being said, I also bought the latest Fable 2 DLC "into the future". I haven't tried it yet, but I suspect that it's not really going to add much more to it, like "Knothole island" it'll be an amusing diversion for a few hours and then I'll put the game back in the shelf again. I can't say I remember some DLC that made me go "hell yes! This is what we're talking about", it might have been out there, but mostly it's only small stuff, usually map packs and such. And I don't always actually play them either, which is a damn shame, since it means I missed out on the Mass Effect pack. But I just can't get excited about that game any more, I just don't have that kind of energy for it. Don't get me wrong, it's still epic, and probably one of the best games out there, it's just that I don't feel the need to replay it as much.

I really didn't go into this post with a point in mind, and I don't have one really. Next time: Coraline and Star Trek!

Speculating about comic book movies...

2009-05-01T12:02:00.007+02:00

So, saw X-men origins: Wolverine yesterday. And I don't really know where to start...*Warning: spoilers about characters ahead* Now, for being a DC fan at heart, I do have some knowledge of the Marvel universe and I just don't know where to start picking at this scab of a film. Lets start with the thing that annoyed me, that had nothing to do with the license. Just how many times can you get away with the main character walking towards the camera, explosions or some other dramatic effect in the background? It kinda reminded me of the moment in spider-man 3, where spider-man jumps in front of an American flag and pauses for just half a second before continuing to save people. Wolverine felt like that moment for half the movie, only without the blatant patriotism (because, lets face it...Wolverine is Canadian). Then there the posing of characters. Now, while I realise that it is important to have scenes where a team is shown in full, it might be a good idea to not have them pose heroicly while doing so. And what happened to the budget for special effect for this movie? In the age when we can have living actors convincingly interact with giant fucking transforming robots, can't we get some digital effects that aren't blatantly digital in a large hollywood production? I lost count (ok, I couldn't be bothered to count) of the times when you could see that a digital effect was in fact a digital effect. It felt kinda like watching a movie with digital effect pre 2000 or so. Back then it was cool, but I kinda expect to not be able to find green-screen effects in a movie with a large budget these days.

So, lets get down to the nice little geek complaints. First of; Gambit. How hard is it to find an actor that can actually manage a thick New Orleans accent? Gambit is a fucking Creole, grew up in the french quarter. How about the guy playing Bill LeMontagne in criminal minds? He does it, and he looks the part...Did anyone ask him? While on the subject of Gambit, they did represent his abilities quite nicely...for all of 10 seconds.
Next complaint is really about almost everyone in this movie. Since when does every mutant have some god awful super agility, speed and strength? I felt like everyone was capable of doing a butterfly kick through a wall in this movie, even the ones that had abilities that really has nothing to do with actual hand to hand fighting, like Zero. He is in effect Bullseye, but he also has super jumping and speed...He jumps into a helicopter in flight for fucks sake! Give me a break. And while I know Gambit is an athletic character, does he really have the ability to wall climb? Or for putting two pieces of metal through a brick wall and using them to climb with only upper body strength? Didn't get that memo bub...
Deadpool was...disappointing to say the least. Reducing the "merc with the mouth" to a super flesh robot with no mouth and the abilities of half a dozen mutants? Now, in his original incarnation earlier in the movie, at least he had the mouth even if his favoured weapons where two katanas that he used to deflect bullets *sigh*. Now, I can support his agility and such (not that familiar with deadpool, but he does score above human in those respects) but does he really have to turn into frankensteins mutant?
On the positive side, Wolverine was done quite well along with Sabretooth (cheesy animal four legged jumping notwithstanding).
*spoilers end*

So, with that out of the way, I started thinking about the casting of recent (and future) comic book movies. Lets break it down:

Batman: Christian Bale own the Bruce Wayne/Batman role hands down. Gary Oldman is a very good comissioner Gordon and the late Heath Ledger made an epic Joker. I really liked the take on Two-face, and I think it's a shame he won't be coming back, since I think he would be an interesting villain. So, where to next? Catwoman would be nice, and also fit into the more realistic vision of the batman begins universe. But who could play her (aka: what actress would we like to dress up in skin tight leather that can also act?)? There has been rumours about Johnny Depp as the riddler, something I wouldn't be averse to. Mister Depp has been type cast into some very esoteric roles the last years, ignoring the fact that he is a very versatile and skilled actor. In the end, we'll see what they come up with for the dark knight, but in any case I have faith.

Avengers: Yeah, the avengers. Two are already cast with the perfect actors. Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury are really the perfect choices here. While Ed Norton did an OK job as Bruce Banner, I do feel that a the character of Bruce Banner needs a more "bookish" actor. Someone like Michael Shanks (Dr. Daniel Jackson of Stargate sg1) would have a good look for this. Further, captain America is a though nut to crack. You'd need someone with the physical build and that "all American look". I'd consider Scott Foley (of the Unit) in the role. He has the military look, and with a little bleach might be a good match. The real big problem is Thor, a large imposing blonde Norse god. Now, if only Dennis Haysbert was white and blonde (I'd cast Dennis Haysbert as anything if he could remotely fit it), or if we could have Thor as a black man. On a more serious note, Viggo Mortensen or Sean Bean both have the chiselled jawline to pull it off. Maybe we could have Black Panther in an avengers movie, and so find a good role for Dennis Haysbert?

Hellblazer: Isn't it time we get a real movie about our favourite British Magi? I'd propose Hugh Laurie for the role, simply because we know he can be scathingly sarcastic, he's British and he can look like he's live a hard life on the edge of the real world and the supernatural one. Any better ideas?

Rant over *phew*

As it turns out, I'm not dead yet

2009-04-14T13:53:00.006+02:00

Who'd know? I'm just very, very tired of most everything. But then again, considering the last few months I guess that makes sense. So, where to start? First of all, I'm unemployed. Mostly because of useless bosses and unfortunate misunderstandings. So, I'm receiving money from the government (yay, that took no time at all!). Thankfully, I earned enough money last year I get paid enough to live in relative comfort. I even have money left from my severance package, so I'm surviving. The downside is that finding a new job in this financial climate is not easy...Even less when you don't have a good reference from your boss (the aforementioned useless one). So I spend my days doing jack and squat. Which is surprisingly tiresome. Mostly I can't even be bothered to read, watch anything or even game.

But it does give me time to think, and find interesting or useless information on the web. So, without further ado, random musings and stuff I've picked up on in the last few months.

The Secret World: You ever thought that there is more to the world than what you see? That there are dark mysteries waiting to be discovered in the myths and legends of ancient cultures? That some secret order is in control of our governments and media? Welcome to the secret world. Dark days are coming and evil bubbles beneath the surface. But don't worry, there are more of us waiting to help you discover and uncover the secrets.

Empire: total war: Yeah, it's good...And after taking over most of the world with Sweden I think I'll set my sights on some more world domination. Where did I put the number to that politician friend of mine (mutters).

Dawn of War 2: Warhammer 40k, space marines, squad based tactics and loot based upgrades. Yeah, I love it...

Twitter: Huh, 140 character messages with famous people I like and respect doing them...How amusing. Especially when some of them answer back :)

Spring: One word: Barbecue!

That pretty much sums up my not deadness...Back to obscurity I guess. (Yes there are more reasons to my tiredness, but not important and I'm not willing to share them atm.)

Hear the thunder of the guns, and other sundry items on the list

2008-11-01T03:18:00.009+01:00

Sometimes, life throws a curveball the size of fucking Europe. My last blog entry is pretty much moot at this point I guess. Infatuation over, AA guns did their job well. Nice shooting guys. Now, this would normally leave me in shit alley with my self pity and bad mood. But no, not this time. I managed to get through it without any serious problems. But then the curveball came out of nowhere and hit me square in the chest. Simply put, I met someone else by random and we hit it off almost immediately. Now since the plan from both of us was pretty much to meet for a drink as friends, neither one having any romantic notions, this was...A surprise. But the good kind. Now, it's not without it's complications (when is it ever) but at least for now things are good. I recently learned from a very good fantasy series I'm reading an expression, that sort of covers this situation; "wide eyed stupid."

Now, enough with the emo crap! Hopefully this is the last emo bullshit from me for some time. Well, in a row anyway, since the blog itself has very rare updates....Know what? Nevermind, let me just get to the point. I will soon be returning to night shifts hopefully. Question is if it's going to be as good as it was before...Short answer: no. But I'll see if I can survive it.

And now to the important stuff: Games, books and such. I haven't said anything about this for a long time, so it might be time for an update. So without further blabbering about, the games:

First off, Fallout 3. Many people have voiced opinions on it, and I'll just add my own voice to the choir. It's oblivion with guns and coat of grey paint. In all fairness, it's not an entirely accurate description. But the fact that it's based on the oblivion engine shines through quite clearly. I miss the isometric perspective, but I realize that it's heyday is over. What I do have a problem with is the useless 3rd person option. Please note that I own it for the 360, so dunno if it's the same for the pc version. But the game is almost unplayable in 3rd person, the camera looms way to close to the character. Over the shoulder has worked well for years now, see gears of war, GRAW and Army of Two. And 3rd person has been around for even longer, like Tomb Raider or Assassins creed. Why mess it up? And of course V.A.T.S. While I like it, and use it as often as I can, I have to agree that combining turn based and real-time combat in the same game is fairly silly. The action point system is just stupid, since it doesn't matter anyway. Use the action points, score some hits, and then just real time shoot the baddies until dead. Now, it usually makes the job easier (mostly because I do VATS in close range) but it's still a poor attempt to please the fans of the turn based system...Then again, watching slow motion critical hits never really stops amusing.

Next up is Fable 2. Don't really have that much to say to this one. It's more of the same as the first one, which I loved. It's now slightly less annoying to wander around towns (people don't cheer as much). Unless of course you've done something stupid and gotten townsfolk to fall in love with you. The extremely not-so-subtle hints they throw at you really gets on my nerves sometimes. Also, they've added guns of the flintlock and wheel-lock era. I love those :) Magic system I find to be somewhat cumbersome, and as a result I don't really use it much. I mostly shoot things, repeatedly. Haven't finished the game yet...Thing have come up, in real life and then fallout came out. But it amused me for a while, so I'll probably pick it back up at some point. Of course, I said the same with most all the games I haven't finished...

Too Human deserves a mention, for no other reason than that it amused me when it came out. And plugged into my diablo craving. Yes, people don't like the camera system and find the fighting system to be a dastardly devious diabolical drink of dung. I agree partly with the lack of camera control, but I kinda like the fighting system. Secondly people hate the unskippable valkyrie scenes when you die. Yeah, they are annoying...But, it gives me enough time to run to the fridge and get something to drink. And the game itself is seriously deadly at some points. Almost as bad as CoD4 inside the tv station (anyone that's played it know what I'm talking about). But all in all, a fun enough game.

Last for games this time is the penny-arcade games. Or the full title: on the rain-slick precipice of darkness (episode 1 and 2). I love them, since they combine JRPG elements with adventure games and have a cool story with lots of humorous details stuck in. If you haven't tested them, do...They're worth it :)

I mentioned earlier a fantasy book series I've recently started reading. It's "The malazan book of the fallen" by Steven Erikson. It's dark, brutal and very, very, very good. It changes focus and characters for every book, but it keep plotlines running from earlier books and explains things. And I'm on book 5 atm and it still feels focused, even though it adds new characters and plotlines every book. Kinda like what wheel of time would have been like, it it didn't degenerate into political plots to shame a conspiracy nut. And descriptions of grass. So, read it and thank me later. Oh yeah, it's not really for the faint of heart since it's very brutal. But it does have lighter moments of humor, and a cast of the most manly and toughest characters this side of manowar.

Love is in the air, so someone get the fucking AA guns already...

2008-10-26T07:21:00.005+01:00

Hmmm, yeah. Once more I'm going emo and shit. Fucking A huh? Last time I tagged something with emotions, I was on a high. This time I'm on a middle...Meaning it ain't good, but at least I'm, not sucking at life. Ok, I do suck at life, but at least I don't suck as hard as last time. So as to the title...It's a lie, or more directly, a modification of the truth...I'm not in love as such, and love isn't really in the air so to speak. But considering that I'm going through a patch where my sleep cycle is opposite how I work, I think I'm entitled to just a tiny bit of bitterness...But when considering one of the reasons my sleep cycle is borked, I'm not complaining too loudly, it sort of makes it bittersweet. If anyone is following me thus far, congratulations, yer insane...

So, more to the point, why do I want the AA guns pointed at the sky to shoot at love? Truth is, I don't really...But I'm hoping their presence will persuade it to hold off for a bit. Why is this I hear you ask (great, now I'm hearing voices)? Simply put, I've become infatuated with a girl. Someone I'm unlikely to meet for months yet (damned geography). Now, while most people would probably think that this is cute and so on, It's a feeling I generally hate. Most of all because it usually means me pining and not getting anything done about it whatsoever. Well, this time however another leap of faith on my part has seen me admitting my interest to the poor girl. How I came to taking this leap of faith was by being a sneaky git and asking her opinion on the subject...Surprisingly, nothing changed. Subjects of conversation changed slightly, but not in a bad way. And because of geography and other factors, I'm in a situation that's not very good for me. I have a burning desire to meet this girl and see what happens, but I'm unable to do so for reasons that are unimportant. Now what are my options here? This has been going around my head for several days, more or less...And I'm not really seeing a solution I'm anything like happy with.

Oh well, at least I'm not keeping my thoughts to myself and slowly spiraling towards a bad period. Keeping an open mind and not expecting anything is what's most important at this point...And having a bit of patience...I'm fucked, ain't I?

In unrelated news, my work problems are more or less over..New place that will be unchanged for the conceivable future...If it just didn't mean my night shifts got shafted!

Sick, and bloody whining...

2008-09-05T00:30:00.005+02:00

I'm sick, and been sick for the entire week. Missing work sucks, both since I actually like my work and that being sick sucks horses balls. My body is working against me, my brain doesn't fit inside my my head and I get tired from rising from bed. I can't play games, because it's too tiresome and I spend an inordinate amount of time in bed. And not doing fun stuff either...Mostly twisting and turning and my head refusing to shut off.

And during all this I found that the thing I miss most about having a GF is having someone you can whine too and that can take care of you. Someone who can make sure you get enough fluid for instance...Somewhat important I've found, especially when I found myself in bed for over half the day. Yes, I feel sorry for myself, and I'm not ashamed of it. I'm a man, a hedonist and something of a narcissist. I whine and complain when I'm sick, and mostly it's because I'm really having a horrible time.

So, I'm whining. And I'm doing it because I'm a man. Now most women say we're wimps and such when we get sick. We become helpless, and do nothing but whining. But here's the thing. We do become quite helpless, since sickness effects us differently, not necessarily physiologically, but psychologically. It might be a throwback to neanderthal thinking, but it's there. All men are alpha dogs in their own minds...And as such, when we get sick it's like some upstart omega wolf kicking your arse. It's totally humiliating and it breaks our fragile psyche...So ther you have it...My excuse, and I'm sticking to it!

Yeah, sometimes things are too good to last...

2008-08-22T01:33:00.002+02:00

The title really says it all I guess...Good mood gone, like a bunny during an orbital strike...It's not unexpected, but it's still not pleasant. And since there's no help to get from people I know, no matter how much they want to make themselves feel better (methinks thou dost protest too much!). Some things people talk to me about actually make me worse so I had a brilliant idea. I went incommunicado. No phone and no msn means I don't have to talk to ppl. I'll keep it as long as I feel like it, which could mean several days. Life without real time communication, here I am...

Back to normal, meaning gaming, intarwebs and other random shit!

2008-08-03T00:17:00.006+02:00

So, with that emo crap behind me, lets get back to the important things in life (no, not sex...at least not right now). Games, funny shit and stuff that makes you smile. Or scares the shit out of you.

So, first up: Gaming. This fall looks like it'll be a fine one for gamers, with sequels to some very exciting franchises. Most importantly; gears of war and fallout. Now, I know Artoth (of random rants fame, go read!) has said some nice words about our sessions of gears. And we're really looking forward to continuing the story this fall :D Fallout, while I'm not a huge fan of bethesda studios, the E3 trailers seem to show promise. I'm also looking forward to fable 2, mostly because I loved the first one even though it drove my then GF insane.

I'll do like the late great George Carlin and not do transitinal material. Have you seen http://www.drhorrible.com? No? Go watch, you will not regret it. And if you don't, you deserve an atomic wedgie...

Now, my two readers (yes, doubled my visitors, I RULE!) have already said most of what I feel about the dark knight, and much more eloquently I might add. Go read their blogs, links are on the top right. I just have to add that, while the joker was most excellent, Two-face was truly a belivable character and I loved the portrayal and story. He will always come in the shadow of Heath Ledgers performance as the psychotic and almost perfect portrayal of the joker, but for what it's worth, Aaron Eckhart was an excellent choice for the part and pulled it off beautifully. And Christian Bale *IS* batman. And Bruce Wayne. Is there nothing that man cannot do?

On a similar note, the Iron Man movie was great. Robert Downey Jr. made Tony Stark, and the movie in itself was great. And we got Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, what more can we want?

Lastly, a random thought: Daniel Craig would make a good John Constantine if DC/Vertigo ever decided to make a proper movie of Hellblazer. Just beef him down abit and put him in a trenchcoat and he's the spitting image of the magus.

I might be mistaken....

2008-08-01T15:52:00.003+02:00

Since my last blog entry, I'm reminded of the ent saying (from LoTR)"don't be hasty". Apparently, the gods laugh at me and felt like pulling a fast one. By this I mean, very simply, I don't suck at life after all. Oh sure, it's not easy, but at least I've managed to figure out a number of things with my own mind. And honestly? I don't think life has been better for quite some time. Now my vacation is ending, and I've got to get back to the hard realities of finding out where I'm going to work from now on. I'm not particularly worried, since I know I've got a job, just not sure where yet.

So, what has brought on this change? Mostly through establishing boundaries to friends, knowing where I stand with the women on my life. It required a pretty big leap of faith for me, but I landed and felt better for it. And right now? Life is good, I'm filled with confidence and capable of doing things I haven't been able to do in quite some time, if ever. It required a certain string of events, and a new friend to help me find my center. I lucked out, there's no other word for it. And I'm grateful for it.

More of my vacation, I'm the king of irony. I love preparing for a LARP, but I hate LARPing. Go figure...

I'm not very good at this "life" thing

2008-07-12T02:53:00.005+02:00

Yeah, an update...this thing is called random update content for a reason. Updates appear randomly, and not very often. Whats new? Found and moved into a new apartment, and I'm mostly unpacked. I've got internet coming in next week, so I'll get back to normal. I'll probably start ranting about wi-fi sometime soon, since I'm too lazy to drag cables along the ceiling or floor to where I need my router to be. But I'm mostly good and up to scratch with everything else, including my book, comics and game consoles. Not completely true, I still need a new wireless sensor bar for the wii.

And now, something completely different (20 geek points for getting that). Not sure if I've blogged about it, but the reason for moving was that me and my GF broke up. We're still friends (good thing, or else I wouldn't have someone to watch my cat while I'm on vacation). The old apartment was way to expensive for me to pay for alone, so...As I was looking for a new apartment, I went into a dark place, mostly out of desperation. I spent six weeks looking for a new place, and only succeeded a week before I actually had to move. With help from good friends I managed to get myself moved to the new place in 3 days (I have a lot of crap).

But I've also discovered something else about myself these last few weeks. I'm an unwilling masochist. I get myself into the worst emotional problems, with no intention and no control. And this is despite an urge to control mostly everything that affects me directly. I've gotten myself into a bind as of now, and because of my need for control, I have no way of extracting myself for some time yet. Simply put: It sucks, and I can't do shit about it. In addition I'm tired after working extra shifts to cover for my vacation that's coming up. This does not help things, it only makes me more vulnerable to bad moods. So yeah, I suck at this life thing, along with the blogging and quite a few other things. But at least I'm good at my job...For all that's worth.

Moving hassles

2008-05-22T17:03:00.004+02:00

Moving, it's such a fscking hassle! And not only the packing and getting stuff actually moved. It's the hunt for a new place to live, the endless phone calls and the emails that never get answered. I still have more than a month left on my current lease, so I'm good for now. But my biggest gripe is this: Why do so many people hate animals? I mean, what's the big fucking deal? Most of the places that let refuse animals, even a cat.

If I get my own place to let, I'll refuse plants. I hate plants, and so I'll refuse my tenants to keep plants. That'll probably make the news!

And with time, the meek shall inherit the earth!

2008-02-17T03:13:00.004+01:00

But until then, the bastards rule supreme! And who are the meek? Well, in this case it's the open source or free software community...I'm sorry, this post has just been hijacked by something completely different. In search of a video I was going link to (it's a fscking movie, so no embed) I came across this:

Wow...Once more...WOW! In case you don't know about who Jack Thompson is, you might want to read the wikipedia article on him. Go on, I'll wait for you. Now, with some background you can perhaps appreciate what an enormous fuckup this guy is. So, as a serious (not pro, but I take my gaming seriously) gamer I am offended by Jack Thompson's ideas and statements. I've been playing videogames since I was 10 years old or even longer. That equals the better part of 15 years. I've never killed anyone, never stabbed anyone and I've only once been in a fight. And ask any friend of mine, but I'm most likely one of the biggest bastards you're likely to meet as far as personality goes (oh look, tie in with original topic). So when I'm able to spend my teenage years playing games like counter-strike, doom and grand theft auto with a miserable existence and not go bonkers and kill my school how is it video games are at fault? I'll tell you. They're not. The real fault always lies with the person shooting, and it's mostly psychological or psychiatric.

Blaming a video game is like blaming the army for every ex-soldier that kills someone after they've finished. After all, the army trained them to do it, so they must be at fault. Why not ban the army? (and yes, I know about combat vets having breakdowns and killing loved ones and such, I'll get back to that point a little later). It's the war against violence in movies all over again, but this time fought with more propaganda, and less knowledge. There have been a number of studies on the subject with disparate conclusions, with most pointing towards no link (Jonathan L. Freedman. Media Violence and Its Effect on Aggression: Assessing the Scientific Evidence (University of Toronto Press, 2002)). And the news coverage of violent video games is typically one-sided and shallow (source from American Sociological Association). Now, with all that research out of the way, I lost my rage and indignation. Anyway, with Jack Thompson, the answer is apparently very clear, video games (or murder simulators as he calls them) are at fault. Note, this is before the first press conference is held, so no details about the shooter was even known at the point! I like how the interviewer cuts him off at the end, when he goes on a tangent about his book. Unfortunately we probably haven't seen the last of Jack, or his ilk. Just remember folks, information is the key whenever people criticize you playing your favorite games. Unless you think it's more fun to scare the idiots away by scowling at them :D

P.S: Yeah, I know US combat veterans have a disturbingly high rate of murdering when they finish their tours. I believe that it has nothing to do with their training, and everything to do with their jobs and experiences in combat zones. After all, we don't see the same thing with personnel with o combat experience. Combat veterans are a neglected people, and there should be more focus on them after they return home.

Next time: My original post, containing free software, communism, boobies, sex, drugs and rock'n roll! (or not, we'll see where it takes me)

Back on topic

2008-01-03T12:45:00.000+01:00

So, in spite of my anger at certain events in december that pertained to the security companies and their work in Norway I declined from blogging about it. Mostly because I didn't see the point, and I expressed myself in other forums. Just saying.

Now, back on topic of my favorite hobby: GAMING! Yes, one more braindead and completely uninteresting blog about my current projects. My lack of blogs might be attributed to the fact that the fall of gaming came about, as portrayed in my prophecy (way back in october). I've bought 6 games since october, I think. And since most of them have been quite awesome, I really haven't had much time to do anything but play and then dream of playing when I'm not actually playing. My 360 has been running hard since november and I've loved most every minute of it. I picked up most of my list on release day (exception being guitar hero 3, because I was out of cash) often being the first person in the shop. I also scored collectors editions of Mass effect and Assassins creed. most awesome. Currently Altaïr is standing vigilant watch over my apartment from his perch on my speaker. He has been joined by Big Daddy from Bioshock, after I found a collectors edition of the game in a shop in Skien. The game deserves it's own section, so I'll come back to it. Call of Duty 4 had me by the balls from the opening and until I finished the game, a feat that took a little over 5 hours. Yes, it's short but it's damned good. The story leaves you reeling, and then begging for more. And, of course there is the multiplayer, which is fast paced, and addicting. I've logged no few hours on it, and every time it's epic.

Mass effect, a game that gives alot, and then suddenly keeps on giving even more! I love this game, the story is epic in scope, and very well delivered. Side quests are interesting, exploring is amusing (for a time at least but I'll come back to it.) and combat works well. The voice acting is top notch, and it really draws you into the story. I know some reviewers have cited bugs, but I haven't seen any that have ruined my game. Considering that I've logged over 60 hours on 3 characters, I feel that I've seen much of what the game has to offer. I do have one complaint though. It's too short, as in the main story has too little to it. Sure, it's at least 12-15 hours, but it *feels* short. Its only like 4 missions, hell I accidentally finished the game on my first play through. And i you wonder how one accidentally finishes a game...It's because I'm awesome :D

Bioshock, the spiritual sequel to system shock 2. And I must admit, it is. It's not as scary, and not claustrophobic (and considering that it's underwater in a decomposing city, it should be) but it has alot of the atmosphere that made system shock 2 an epic game. Luckily, it has more ammunition and no weapon deterioration. But the concept is indeed familiar. And having the screen go dark and then suddenly being surrounded by enemies is not a good feeling. And alot of the recordings you find around rapture are truly creepy. In short, an amazing game and well worth the money I paid for it (collectors edition was not cheap). Now, if I could just find the time to finish it...

Assassins creed was a fun game. I mean, what's not fun in jumping on people from rooftops and killing them with a hidden blade? Come on! We all want to kill someone from time to time, and assassins creed makes it look cool. The free running is also great fun, finding a route to the tallest buildings really is an achievement (maybe not as much as finding the correct route to the top of agency tower in crackdown, but still) worth doing again and again. But, that is the big problem of the game. you do everything again and again. I love the animations for the fighting (except the placement of the small blade, wtf is up with that?), but they still get slightly stale after awhile (could be because I spent 10 minutes in constant combat for an achievement). Then again, how stale can the pure brutal nature of the killing animations get? But the investigations before the assassinations do get stale. I'm currently in the last group of killings, and I'm starting to feel like I've done everything before. That's probably the reason I haven't prioritized playing it for over a month (that and the pure awesome nature of mass effect, cod4 and bioshock).

Guitar hero 3 is, much as surmised, very similar to guitar hero 2. This is NOT a bad thing. The graphics are better, and the song list is better designed. And it's harder, and I mean alot harder. Hell, easy has actually thrown me a curveball of epic proportions. And it's not "through the fire and flames" by dragonforce. It's slayers "raining blood", I can't for the life of me get past 3 stars on it. I curse Kerry King and his amazing manliness (and the secretly worship him for his guitar godness). It's a fun game that doesn't take much time to enjoy. Perfect for a few minutes of downtime before work. And the les paul is an epic instrument. Wireless goodness, and nice design.

Lastly, I bought the witcher for the PC. And I almost returned it, because of it's more or less shoddy programming. I spent nearly 8 hours just getting the damn thing to work. All because the graphics and memory coding isn't fully optimized for windows vista. The mods on the unofficial tech help forum might be blaming nvidia and microsoft for the problems, but who are they kidding? And an elitist attitude from people with tech skills is just annoying. I've done computer games for the last 12 years, and I've never had to adjust my virtual memory to be able to play a game. So when they say that if you want things to work out of the box, computer gaming isn't or you...Fuck off! I'll agree that computer gaming is more complicated, and requires some maintenance. Downloading drivers and removing crap programs is normal. But a game that can't be played properly without adjusting virtual memory is just wrong, not to mention irresponsible, they're called advanced setting for a reason. And a game that claims "HD gaming" but requires some of the best graphics cards to run in 1024x768 resolution. Blame nvidia and microsoft all you want, but the programming is just badly optimized. It runs, if a bit slowly...And of course, it only runs in 1024x768 in windowed mode. All that being said, damn if it's not a good game. Story is interesitng, and the quests are fun. Combat is a breeze, and healing is hard. This is gaming at it's best, with focus on adult (repeat, adult) storylines and the often brutal nature of life. Good going, even if the game isn't running properly, it's playable. And I've encountered very few in-game bugs. In a game of this size and scope, that's commendable. hopefully, I'll have time to finish it one day soon. And there better be a sequel in the works...

Self-defense, and gun control as it applies to Norway

2007-12-13T00:01:00.000+01:00

Yes, I don't post often and when I do it's mostly just crap. But I'll give a more serious note this time, on a topic that has many differing opinions, guns. More specifically self-defense, security, concealed carry and access to firearms.

I live in a country with strict gun control. The authorities require all weapons to be registered, and to apply for a firearm requires a completed training course. Even so, we have many firearms in our homes. Hunting is a popular past-time here, and so we have rifles and shotguns in the thousands. And hunters usually have several weapons each. Handguns are less popular, but still represented. So, with all these weapons they must be used for criminal acts with semi regular frequency, right? Actually, no. But, I'm not here to argue specifics, because that would require me to dig up source material (and I can't be buggered right now). No, I'll just argue principles as I see them. Feel free to tell me what a hero/bastard I am in the comments.

First, there is a broad assumption that more guns lead to more gun related crimes. Which is correct. At the same time, it's also wrong. Access to a gun makes it viable as an option for violent heat of the moment reactions. But, if it's not accessible (locked in a gun safe, like it should be) it can't be readily used. More accessible weapons are more likely to be used in any case, like kitchen knives or bottles. But for more deliberate acts of crime more guns does not mean more gun related crime. There has been an increase in shooting incidents in Norway the last few years. Shooting in suburbs, armed robberies against banks and so on. Things are starting to look bad. But of all the reported shootings, very few involve legal guns, purchased legally and stored legally. Most involve weapons that have been stolen, or smuggled into the country. This is a fact that will not change even if laws regulating guns become less strict. A stolen or smuggled handgun is more likely to be used in a crime, for the simple reason that it's harder to trace back to the user. I believe that illegal weapons are cheaper as well.

But, what about us legal citizens? The process of obtaining a firearm is actually quite easy. Take a security course or hunters test, send application to the police district outlining your intended use and they decide if you get to buy a firearm or not. If it's a heavy caliber pistol, you also have to be an active member of a shooting range for six months. Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of a firearm registered with the police. It's legal and you can have hours of fun at the shooting range or hunting in the hunting season. At home you have to follow the rules for storage of firearms, but otherwise everything is golden.

Now, what happens if you want a firearm for self-defense? Sorry, not an option. The laws say that firearms are for sporting/hunting only. Self-defense in Norway is, for all sakes and purposes, a joke. It's non existent, according to the law. You should let the police do all your dirty work, and while waiting for them you should run or stand around and get killed. O.K, that might be a rather crude overstatement, but the essence is true. The only thing you are allowed to do in self.defense is to retaliate, with proportionate force with the illegal attack! What this means in practice is that if someone punches you in the gut, you are allowed to punch him in the gut with the same amount of force. Which gets you nowhere. By it's very nature, self-defense needs to be more powerful than the initial illegal attack, or it's just a matter of who can take more pain before passing out. You are not allowed to use anything to defend yourself, unless this is proportionate. he pulls a knife on you, you can use a knife back. Of course, being a law abiding citizen, you have no knife, since it's illegal to carry a knife in a public place without just cause. And so on. So, in the event of a home invasion (a rare event in Norway, but not unheard of) are you allowed to use your legal firearm to defend yourself? Yes, but only if your life is directly threatened. If some brave/stupid burglar breaks in and you threaten him with a firearm, ha can just walk out of your house with your silverware without you being able to do a thing, because if you shoot him, you are committing a crime. And the state loves nothing more than to stick to the rules.

Scenario: Person A is out on the town. Person B picks a fight with A and throws a punch. Now, A has one of three options.
1) He runs away
2) He fights back and ends the fight with superior force
3) He fights back with the same amount of force B uses (aka a punch back)

Now options 1 and 3 are the legal options here, and number 3 can in fact go both ways depending on what techniques A know and uses. A preferred method of solving the situation is using option 2. Brutality will win every fight it enters, and it's whats thought to soldiers around the world. But in self-defense here in Norway, it's useless, because it ends up hurting the one defending himself. As an example, if A defends himself by breaking an arm, or knocking B unconscious, he has successfully defended himself from an illegal attack, and stopped more from occurring. But it might very well lead to A being charged and sentenced for violence, because it was not proportionate to the attack. Of course, there are tons of grey areas in the law, and in the human factor involved with interpretation. And I'm not actually and expert in this, but I do have some knowledge.

Why does this matter? Mostly it doesn't. But it is worrisome that so many individuals go free from performing random acts of violence in the weekends. It is worrisome that shootings are becoming more frequent. It is worrisome that shootings are no longer confined to desolate areas or open spaces with no witnesses. And mostly it is worrisome that the police does not have the resources to deal with this. There is no easy solution to the problems, but the most effective one from a political standpoint is to give more resources to the police. And this is indeed a very favorable solution, because everyone wins. If we know the police are nearby, all we have to do is shout for help when that attacker comes after us. More resources should mean more crimes solved, and hopefully more less crimes in the future. However, the problem comes with the allocation of the resources that are given.

A second option, and one that has little favor to both politicians and police is more security guards. While that sounds good to the general public, and to business owners, it's not a real viable option. Mostly because security business is governed by a law that restricts their operation and personnel, without granting any rights to the guards whatsoever. And in practice it restricts the guards options, for the simple reason that they are more visible and police and prosecutors set higher standards to them than to Joe average. Security officers in Norway have no rights above the average citizen, but the public expects them to handle any situation that occurs, including breaking up fights. They are often required to handle criminals like shoplifters, with no option to use force other than that of an average citizen. We have unarmed police in Norway, they only carry pepper spray and a baton for everyday service. Security officers are not allowed to carry any of those things, and batons are also considered weapons and are illegal for anyone other than police to possess. There is an opening in the laws for security personnel to carry any weapon if the police find that the service requires it, but in effect it's never used. So, if security officers is to be a viable option for the safety of the public, they require more options to perform those services.

The third option, and this one I've never actually heard discussed, is to change the laws surrounding self-defense and maybe allow concealed carry of firearms. This is perhaps the most drastic measure, and it does seem like a rather medieval solution. In effect, the government washes its hands of the need to protect it's citizens, and gives a free hand for them to protect themselves. In essence, let the problem solve itself. With current gun-control laws here as an example, allowing concealed carry could be done with the same model. In addition to the requirements for obtaining a firearm, one would have to take a training course in the correct use of a concealed weapon, and pass it. A recertification system could also serve as a safeguard to insure that the ones allowed to concealed carry knew the responsibility they had. The main problem with this option is the very essence of it. The idea that citizens have to rely on themselves for protection from illegal attacks. It's the first step on a slippery slope that leads to lawlessness and vigilantism.

A combination of these options might be in the best interests of society. While the general public requires the protection of the police, the security professionals would have an easier job if they had more legal rights to respond to threats against their own and others safety with necessary force. And while it might feel safer to have a concealed weapon, the real question is if society is safer with you having it? Because in the end, that's what matters the most.

Water over my head

2007-10-28T02:05:00.000+01:00

No, I'm not drowning. Sorry to disappoint ppl. But I have had several small setbacks recently. First of all, Army of Two has been pushed back into next year, which sent me into a small crisis. But I'll get back to that later methinks. Last month I joined a gym, which at the time was a good idea. It's cheap enough that it's no big expense, it set up a personalized training program for free and the machines are quite modern and nice. Now, in the rough month I've been a member, I've been there twice. Me being a lazy bastard has ofc something to do with that. Another thing is that the studio is around 45 minutes away. When my entire training program takes around 50 minutes to complete, I'm suddenly using an hour and a half to travel to do a 50 minute training. Not the most motivating factor. Kinda like traveling for 3 hours to see your girlfriend, and find her sleeping with another man (no, this hasn't happened). Luckily, the chain that the gym is part of is re-opening a studio closer to me. But this isn't until spring. Times like these I really wish I had a car...

I've also set myself a goal to learn how to speak Czech. Why? Well, I like the Czech republic and I think the language is interesting. But holy crap! I've forgotten what shit languages are. And in addition, Czech also has a number of extra symbols over their letters to signify different pronunciations. This might end up on a shelf with some of my other hobbies, a flash of infatuation and then partly forgotten when the flash passes. The gods knows I have enough hobby crap lying around to prove my point. But, I'll try to make this last a while. At least it'll get me something to do at nights at work.

So, AoT is pushed back. What does this mean to me, and why bring it up? Well, it means I have one less game to buy this fall. And that opens up my wallet to another game, now doesn't it? And to the ones that think it means I can save some money...Piss off, I live for hedonism! So, after careful deliberation (finding several cool movies on the internet) I decided to try Halo 3. What drew me to the game wasn't the story and the single player experience (of which I don't get the story and find the single player game play to be...Less than favorable) it was the multi player. And more specifically it was the cool environment and the theater option. So, I buy it (rather cheaply as luck will have it) and I start it up. I go into the single player mode to get to grips with controls and game play. This game is...Not nice to new players. It has no tutorial option, no real recount of story and just drops you into action like a soviet farmer in Stalingrad! So, I play through two levels before deciding that enough is enough. I jump out and go to the multi player menu. Only to find the matching system does not work. At all! It has no way of setting up matches privately either. no way of joining servers outside of matchmaking. And matchmaking takes place on a server that my xbox can't access for some inexplicable reason. Now, being a good gamer and consumer, I hop unto the internet to see if I can find some help on the forums. My thinking is that maybe the server is down for maintenance or something. I drag through several forums, with no mention of servers being down. So, I ask on the forums. !2 hours later and 7 replies I'm still not getting my multi player on. None of the tips I received was of any help whatsoever. I even sat down and fiddled with the settings on my routers to see if they blocked the traffic. No luck there either. So, currently I have a very annoying paper weight. Come Monday I'm getting something worthwhile. Maybe orange box, or something for the Wii. I can probably get good value for halo 3, and if I find something nice in the used section, I might actually get out of this with minimal loss. Here's to hoping! And luckily there's only two weeks until Call of Duty 4. At least i know that works!

Lastly...Is there anything more annoying than buying something, finding it's broken and then taking it back to the shop only to discover they no longer have any left?

Long time, no blog

2007-10-02T01:44:00.000+02:00

I know it's been more than a month since my last update. not that anyone actually reads this shit anyway (and yes Freddy, you don't count since i comment in your blog you are obligated). But, lets pretend for a brief moment, shall we?

I got into the call of duty 4 multi player beta on the 360. And tbh, it was really good. I'm not usually into fps games on consoles, but this one seems to be worth it. And it drove me into the arms of xbox live multi player. So much so that I've actually considered buying halo 3, a game I have no interest in whatsoever. And since it's a month until the first of my 5 fall games comes out, I'm more than a little desperate for new electronic stimuli. I have a few games that are awesome, but nothing that I haven't beaten or that has fallen under my interest level atm. Guitar hero 2 still has me in it's grips, but not being able to get past medium difficulty is somewhat annoying. Blue dragon was religiously played for about a week, and then suddenly fell below my radar. Some months ago I decided to replay both graw games, but it fell through as well. I've picked up a few games for my laptop in the last few months, but they have mostly held my interest at work for only a few nights. Dawn of war: dark crusade I played online for a short time with a friend, and nwn 2 I got a bit through the official campaign and downloaded a few modules. But I never started any of them. World in conflict proved to be fun, and it's still fun online from time to time.

So, to the list of my five holy grails of gaming this fall. These games are the ones I have a desire to buy the day they come out. I need to remember to pre-order these games...

5. Guitar hero 3: I love guitar hero 2, even if I can't get beyond medium difficulty. And a wireless guitar means that I can finally have some multi player goodness in my living room. ROCK ON! And there is a track by in flames, meaning it's an obligatory purchase.

4. Call of duty 4: modern combat: I've already mentioned it's sweet multi player portion, so I'm hoping the single player part will prove just as good. And from current previews, that seems to be the case. The only reason it's not higher is that the top three games might prove to be epic beyond all proportion.

3. Assassin's creed: It's parkour in the holy land during the third crusade! With swords and daggers! If I'd been asked earlier this year what my most anticipated game was, I'd have answered this one without question. But as it is, recent previews and videos have shed some doubt on the combat system. And in a recent video interview, Jade Redmond (cool producer, and hot chick) mentions that throwing daggers are the main ranged weapon of the. And that they are "one shot, one kill". Bah, what is it with video games and using throwing daggers as real ranged weapons? In a game with such accuracy in portraying the cities, one would hope to have some degree of thought fro proper use of weapons. If you could use them for a realistic purpose, like slowing down pursuers, it would have made this game all the more epic.

2. Army of two: Now this game rocks. A co-op game, it promises great things for me and Freddy. And even if he can't make it, previews says the AI is pretty sharp. And the banter between the two main characters set the tone for a game I might end up loving.
Customizable weapons also add to it, and the fact that you can add three attachments to a gun makes it all the better. No more choosing between things that makes no sense to choose between. Too many games makes me choose between under barrel grenade launchers and optics. Now I get both, and much more besides!

1. Mass effect: It's from Bioware, nuff said really. The company that brought us Baldurs gate, nwn and KOTOR. This game is going to be a truly next gen experience. The videos show the graphics to be sharp, voice acting seems to be very good, and combat seems to be seamless and easy to control. And you can pull a gun on people during conversations. Jack Bauer in space indeed :D!

Some games are coming this fall that didn't make my list over the holy grails, and chief among them is rock band. But, with my vocal chords comparing to a tuck pig, and a rhythm sense like a drunken sailor...You get the drift. I'll end up getting it, but it's not on my current list of games. Maybe if they promise albums by in flames, opeth or katatonia. Another is Clive Barker's Jericho. I hated undying, not because it was a bad game, but it scared me half to death. And I'm guessing jericho will do the same, so I'm not getting it. I'm paranoid enough as it is, thank you very much.

My gods, this will be an expensive fall...

Geek alert! Gaming ahoy mate!

2007-08-15T12:13:00.001+02:00

So, it's been awhile now. I went to the LARP and had fun. I'm still processing the entire thing, although I can say that it did give a taste for more. I made some mistakes beforehand, that I won't do next time. Like bringing too much food and so on. But, it was very tiresome, so I left one day before it was over, so I could survive the next week at work. And even then my body punished me, heh.

360 is back, finally. I've missed it these past 2 months. Luckily no important games have come out in the meantime so I haven't really missed anything. Thank the gods for lean gaming summers :) But, this autumn looks to be a killer for my wallet. First up is Blue Dragon and Stranglehold. I've tested demos of both, and they both hold up pretty smooth. But, given the choice I'll go for Blue Dragon first and pick up Stranglehold next time there's a gap between interesting games. In the end of October there is Mass effect and guitar hero 3, both of which will find their way into my den. And a few weeks later the gem of the season: Assassin's creed! Now, recently I've started to long for Mass Effect with almost the same lusting I have for assassin's creed because of new videos and gameplay trailers. Mass effect looks sweet, as in you'll die of sugar shock sweet. But, it's a long way to go before October, *sigh* But, luckily, they don't come out the same week or my head would explode. In the event that mass effect gets pushed back (not unlikely considering Biowares dedication to bug fixing) I've already made contingency plans. I'll just have a friend buy one of the games and isolate myself from the internet and game shops until I finish with it. Of course, that doesn't touch on the subject of which game to buy...I'll prolly flip a coin, or have my friend choose it for me so I don't actually let myself know that both games are out...

Haveing recently bought myself a laptop, I've also been rummaging bargain bins around Oslo to find nice games that are graphically challenging. And of course fun :) In the process I found a few gems that have escaped my notice. I've already mentioned civ 4 and company of heroes in my last entry (you are reading continually, right?) but I recently picked up neverwinter nights 2. And by gods! How did this ever get under my radar? It's graphically on the high end of the scale, but the gameplay is great. And the story is surprisingly good....Ok, I shouldn't be surprised. Obsidian made it, and they also made KOTOR 2 which was in one word; brilliant! But nwn2 is very excellent. Been playing it almost nonstop since I bought it (the advantage of working nights, hehe). Once I finish it, I might even start it again with a second character, just to try other paths. And then, I still have c&c3, company of heroes and civ4 to occupy me when I work. It's all good. And when I'm home, 360 will take care of me :D

Protect the chief!

2007-07-30T12:11:00.000+02:00

So, LARP is coming up and I'm pretty excited. And terrified. After all, this is my first LARP and I'm afraid I'll do a few errors. Or more than a few, I'm not always the sharpest knife in the drawer (but I usually own it ;) ). But, I did myself a few favors in front of this thing. Firstly I chose a somewhat non-complicated role, one that can evolve as my confidence increases. Secondly I've equipped myself well with gear. Vine skins, swords and sword holders and pouches helps hide the fact that I don't know what I'm doing. Basic psychology, well equipped with gear means you are experienced. Think back, and consider a hobby you've had that you've met new people in. now think of your initial reaction when you met those people. You automatically thought the guy with the über equipment was someone that knew it all and was experienced. Haha! Psychology FTW!

In other news, I bought a laptop. It has vista on it. Vista is cool, because it's shiny. And everyone knows geeks are attracted to shiny stuff! But seriously, it's a good OS. I've only used it for a week or so, but I've used it for both games (some new and some old ones) and watching dvds and it works well. I've started playing overlord, which is cool, and fun :) Spent a few nights playing civ4, which surprised me and I also bought a game called company of heroes, based on the same engine as Dawn of War. It was quite cool, if not quite what I had in mind. I thought it was a game about the ww2 with fixed squads and platoons you controlled. Instead it's a resource game with base building. But at least it makes more sense in a ww2 game than a warhammer 40k game. But the game that has occupied me mostly this last week has been VtM: Bloodlines. It was surprisingly good, and now I actually have a computer capable of running it without 5 minute load screens. I'm running it unpatched though, so it's very buggy, but I'm surviving. Going to play through before I patch it, since that might corrupt my save game.

Still no sign of my stationary computer or my 360. Damn I hate sending things in for repairs!

The 360 blues

2007-07-13T16:35:00.000+02:00

May inferno claim whoever designed the 360 with flaws! My 360 returned the other day, and all was well. It returned to me just before I was to travel to town and deliver my computer to the shop. So I was quite happy, and when I returned home from delivering my comp I sat down to test it. All was well, and I proceeded to download some demos. Among them overlord, which I will return to at a future date (probably when I get my 360 back and I buy it), and tenchu Z. Tenchu was....well, somewhat crap. I take it back, it was just plain bad. Overlord on the other hand was fun :D I mean, how do you not like a game where you get to roast hobbits in wheat fields!

But danger was on the horizon! I went to work, and had a good time watching dvds (deadwood season 3 I think) and came back home. After a nominal amount of sleep (yeah, sometimes working nights is shit) I get the message from my GF....The xbox won't start and it's showing 3 red lights...AKA the RROD! After calling support, I will receive a compensation which will be a camera (I could choose from several stock items, like controllers and a few launch titles). But, this REALLY ruined my week. My replacement 360 lasted less than 24 hours...ARGH!!!!!!!!!

W i i t !

2007-07-06T13:40:00.001+02:00

Yeah, I bought a wii. Bonus geek points if you got that from the title, and another one if you already know how I feel about it. I like it...a lot. Not quite as much as my 360 (which is still in germany on repairs *sigh*), but it's a nice little machine. The motion sensor was quite the nightmare TBH. With me using a projector I have all my console and a/v equipment in the back of the room. Since the wii requires a motion sensor to be installed near the screen...Yeah. Lots of cables now go over my roof. And since it's a concrete roof, just hammering in some nails with cable holders was right out. SO, double sided tape was the rescue...or so I thought. But no such luck, the tape wasn't strong enough to hold the damn cable. So it fell down, time and again! So I tried taping it in place with masking tape, to try and hide the tape on the ceiling. But the damn thing fell down again! duct tape to the rescue! It looks like shit, but at least it's stays in place!

Now, the wii itself is a nice little thing. It's quite small, it has a nice white design and the menu is very no nonsense. The controls are somewhat jumpy thought, but it might have something to do with the nature of IR tech. For games, yeah, it more or less rules. I only have wii sports, which works wonders, except bowling. For some reason, bowling strays to the left, no matter what I do. But, I just compensate, and it's all good :) And then there is Zelda.

Legend of Zelda: Twilight princess kicks ass. It's fun, funny and somewhat challenging. The controls are quite simple, while being effective. And the story, well....Evil comes and takes over world, our hero is a decedent or reincarnation of the great hero of hyrule. Pretty standard stuff, but who cares when it's done with style and it's fun! I haven't gotten far in the game, but so far it's all good. And I think it's probably going to become better with lots of hidden stuff for later discovery (same as all zelda games really).

Can't comment on online feature of the wii yet, since it requires a wireless internet access and I'm a pure cable guy. Looks like I have to bite the bullet now though. I really want to get some of the old nes games I think is available from the wii shop. I really HATE wireless access! Only wireless I like is mobile phones, remotes for tv and such, and same frequency wireless controllers (like wireless phones and game controllers). And I really hate wireless networking, so I can see lots of hate in the near future for me. *sigh*

Lastly, the Transformers movie. IT ROCKS! Seriously, it kicks ass like Jack Bauer interrogates terrorists! The CGI effects are extremely well done, and does not come off as cheap or obvious. There really is nothing that ruined the suspension of disbelief in the movie. It flowed quite well as well, with lots and lots of action sequences broken by periods of exposition. And nothing really breaks the flow, even the times of comedy. And the action sequences are big, brutal and chaotic. Just how I like 'em :D Well worth the cinema money, best cinema money I spent so far this year. And I've seen 300 and hot fuzz :) All in all...GO SEE IT, spend cinema money so they make a sequel!

Zapped

2007-06-29T17:24:00.000+02:00

Wow. I must say that the old proverb "when it rains, it pours" is quite correct. Firstly, I have not only one computer on the fritz, but both of them are atm. This is not good, since my xbox is still in Germany for repairs. AKA= no games for me! *sob* But I've recruited a friend to help me bring the stationary comp in for repairs, so that should be done within the next week. I'll still have to schlep it back from the shop though :(

Other than that, things are going quite well. I've signed up for a LARP in August, and things are somewhat progressing. But it's proving to be somewhat expensive, me being the lazy and incompetent bugger that I am. I bought latex sword (somewhat standard fare for LARP), and currently looking for sheaths for them. I've bought vine skins, which is an incredibly cool way to drink water (yes, I am a geek...The "dictionary of geekness" didn't tip you off?). Getting help with a costume, and I'm eternally grateful top the person helping me with that. Now all I really need is a role to play, and things will have progress quite nicely. My GF made a leather headband to keep the hair out of my eyes, which is practical when you're a long haired slob like myself. And I've already plans for what I'll be bringing to eat. So now all I'm lacking is some pouches and stuff to carry thing in and I'm all set, w00t!

And since I've stared working again, money is as per usual flying out the window. I can almost literally see the cash flying out the window. Good thing I have cats to catch flying stuff! But dvds is a favorite pastime for anyone working nights with too little to do. I recently bought "the unit", "american dad", "the hogfather" and quite a few others tbh. Yes, vacation pay is a lovely thing :D The unit (the unit wikipedia entry) was a very good series about a covert special forces team and their families. And right up the alley for me and my Ghost recon: advanced warfighter love. The hogfather is a sky one adaptation of a Terry Pratchett book (wikipedia entry on Terry Pratchett), and it's incredibly well done. My only real criticism is that nobby nobbs looks too human. He's supposed to look like....well, not terribly human. He does carry a note from the Patrician that says he is a human, against appearances, and the character should look the part. But, it's a minor point in the grand scheme of things.

After the storm, Prague reflections

2007-06-20T16:33:00.000+02:00

So, gotten home now, and it feels good. Cats are happy to be home as well, so all is well. I have had time to make some small reflections on my recent vacation. First of all, I hate traveling...Plane, train or bus I hate it. It's boring, and often cramped. And you can't go anywhere, just sit in your chair and wait...Baaargh! Second thing is that I love having dinner made for me, and even better when I get to choose what's for dinner. This is great, even if I have to pay for it, it's worth it. Too bad eating out in Norway is horribly expensive and the food is mediocre unless you pay a fortune.

Now, a few tips for good things in Prague, top 5 lists!

Top 5 places to eat:

5. Red, Hot and Blues
Nice place for breakfast or a small lunch, or for the evening music.
4. Bohemian bagel
Good place for breakfast with cheap and large meals. Warning, they have huge pancakes!
3. Pizza Colosseum
Amazing pizza and nice surroundings. Worth it, and have emmenthal on your pizza.
2. Buffalo Bills
Good place for american food, like spare ribs.
1. Crazy cow
This place has great steaks, and large ones. In addition it's on the cheap side.

Top 5 sightseeing/museum

5. Sea world
Somewhat small, but with a good collection of fish, including moray, barracuda and sharks.
4. Prague castle
For the architecture, and the arms exhibitions in golden lane. A souvenir shop sells swords!
3. The sex machine museum
Everything you wanted and didn't want to know about sex machines, including piercings!
2. The museum of medieval torture
Interested in human nature, visit and find out what that humans can do to each other.
1. Prague zoo
Yes, I'm biased towards cute animals, and big cats. Be aware that it's HUGE, and quite nice.

Top 5 places to go shopping

5. Nosferatu
Goth/metal clothing shop. Stocks alot of cool stuff, but its not always very cheap.
4. Palac Flora
Big shopping mall, with "hip" clothing and other shops, but plus for ecco and a knife shop.
3. zbrane brymovna
They have a big collection of cold steel knives, and for alot cheaper than in norway.
2. No name tattoo
Ok, tattooing is not technically shopping, but these guys are very good and cheap.
1. For the knight Chrisopher
Nice arms/armor shop near old town square. Most weapons are for live action fighting.

And comments or questions, just ask in comments, heh.

BTW: Crazy cow really was an amazing place. Go there to eat, and try the steak...400g steaks are the way to go!

Travel blog Prague act 2

2007-06-18T12:37:00.000+02:00

First off; Red hot and blues still does amazing breakfast! And in the weekends they have the breakfast menu as brunch, meaning it's valid until around 4 in the afternoon.

Now, we have spent alot of time walking. This is bad for your feet. As a result I have sore feet. I also have a sore back because of my new tattoo. This makes me sorta grumpy, but I'm in Prague so that cancels it out. But when I get back home, grumpiness will ensue. The reason for all the walking is a few things. First off, we spent a day at the zoo. Zoo's are fun, because they have animals. Animals are fun, especially cats. And even more so, big cats. Like lions, and tigers. They rock. I took alot of pictures, over 200 so I might display a few of them. But the Prague zoo is big, very big...and it has lots of roads to walk...Tired feet!

Another day we walked to see the national technical museum, only to find it was closed for renovations. so we shrugged, and walked to the sea world, only to find we'd been there before. Kinda bummer of a trip, but the sea world still had moray, barracuda and sharks (yes Arthoth, I'll write "warning sharks" in any album containing pictures of sharks) so not a total waste of time.

On sunday we visited the Prague castle to look at swords and such in the Golden lane. We found that there was an exhibition of art on military craft running at the time, so I visited that. It had a large collection of military equipment, including firearms from all eras of the firearm and many corners of the world. This included north african matchlocks, and Japanese teppo. But in conjunction with this exhibition there was a demonstration of dueling techniques! This was cool, demonstrating the use of several different sword types, and different styles. It included saber/cutlass, spear, rapier and main gauche, cloak fighting. The performers were quite capable, but the entire performance was a bit over/choreographed. Still, very cool demonstration.

Today is our last day here, and we're visiting the torture museum. Muahahahaha, ideas for roleplaying....or maybe those obnoxious kids I se everywhere!

Travel blog Prague act 1

2007-06-15T15:04:00.000+02:00

First few days passed here. Bought sandals from ecco, which involved traveling for abit to find the right size. I also found knives, at extremely low prices. And I'm talking S&W, Colt, SOG and Cold Steel knives along with cheap Mtech ones. My GF got hounded into buying...I take that back she got hounded into me buying some pillows with microbeads. Think bean bag for your head, one with a massager. It was her b-day present, so she's happy. They were comfortable, so no worries...And prolly good for the train and flight :)

The food here is quite wonderful, mostly. We haven't been here too long yet, and mostly stayed with the restaurants we knew. But some do require mentioning:

- Fridays is still fridays, but with better mozerella sticks, and slightly worse loaded potato skins.

- Red hot and Blues is best visited for breakfast (if memory serves, I'll update once we've gotten up early enough to get breakfast there) or the music. The food is good, but not the best on offer in prague.

- Pizza colosseum on Wenesclas square offered up a quite a big surprise. We sought it for it's pizza pies and maybe a calzone, only to find none where on the menu! The chef had apparently changed it not long ago, so it was a let down to find no pies anywhere in sight. As promised by my guidebook (Timeout) it was hard to find, but we the entrance inside a small shopping centre on the square. But if you do find it, it has a very nice interior, and friendly staff. As I mentioned, we (or more directly I) sought it for pizza pies which had been eradicated. But all was not lost, they did great pasta and pizza. And the dessert menu was to kill for. Cinnamon ice cream, an amazing idea! w00t!

- Cream and dream. This ice cream shop apparently makes it's own ice cream in the back. And it shows in the taste. It's off to the west of the old town square a few roads, we just walked around and found it by accident on our first day. And when we went looking for it, and found we'd already been there, I was...puzzled. Still, if you go there and find it....Eat the chocolate ice cream! Seriously, you'll thank me and praise me as a god.

I've tried the sausage here and it's still very good. Word to the wise, don't eat them hard. Chew lightly, because they make them coarse and some bits of the pig you might not recognize, but that are hard may find it's way into your mouth. But nothing short of a total collapse of my cardio vascular system will prevent me from eating another. But my cholesterol level is good, so fat chance!

Get it? Fat chance? Now that's a double entandre!

Summertime and all is well

2007-06-10T18:14:00.000+02:00

Booya!

Summer is here, and vacation has come. So I'm chilling in the shade (too damn hot in the sun) and relaxing. A pool is in the house, even if it's too cold for my tastes. I think pools should hold a temp of at least 34 degrees celsius. But my efforts to convince the staff (aka my father) have proven fruitless. Apparently the pool is there to "cool off" and it will not work in that respect if the temp is over 30 degrees. Drat, foiled again!

Leaving for Prague early in the morning on tuesday, in which I employ the age old nerd tactic for getting up early...Don't go to bed! Yes, I'm a true nerd in this respect. If it involves gettng up before 5 am, or even 6 am, I'll forego sleep under most circumstances.

Now for nerd news. My xbox 360 went kablooey a few weeks ago, and I had to phone microsoft support. Now, this being microsoft, I expected the conversation to go along these lines: "Microsoft support, how have you damaged our property?" But, much to my surprise, it was a very nice phone call. It went more along these lines; "Microsoft support, do you want a fluffy pillow while you wait for us to fix your xbox? We'll have DHL deliver it to you." Now, they didn't actually say that, but they did get DHL to collect my 360 and send it to Germany for repairs. This surprised me no end, and even more when DHL actually arrived (some days later than they said the would, but no mind). The bill for delivery (microsoft pays this mind) was for $73 or so...The listed value of the xbox on the freight bill was $130. And this was delivery to Germany, it'll cost as muc to get it back. Damn, I have to admit that microsoft knows how to treat their xbox customers well. Never had to call windows support, but if it's half as good, I might consider buying vista full price instead of waiting until I buy a new comp.

But being without my xbox (I've heard ppl complain that microsoft didn't give me a rental. but come on! It's a damn game system, not a car or cell phone) does hamper my gaming abit. More specificly, it hampers my guitar hero time...I'm about to go into some real abstinance symptoms. And it doesn't help seeing my brother play, or listening to music that's on guitar hero. Come to think of it, I might be taking some small amount of pleasure torturing myself. Damn my sub-conscious sadist!

And this just in from the news: Free bird kicks ass!

Assassin's Creed

2007-05-23T23:02:00.000+02:00

Watch this trailer:

Seen it? Ok, stop drooling. Seriously, stop drooling. Yes, I know it looks awesome. And it has no current release date, which makes me sad inside. I'll go get another drink now, since I'm sad inside...

First entry

2007-05-23T17:45:00.001+02:00

W00t! New blog, new opportunities. So, what shall we write about in this blog? The entire human history of suffering, pain and death? Maybe light comedy of the custard pie variety? Or perhaps deep drama akin to Shakesphere? Nah...Lets keep it simple. It shall be about games, crazy stuff, news and anything else that falls into my head. If and when I decide to write that is (or I remember, whatever comes first)!

Firs, an introduction. I live in Oslo, Norway with 3 cats and my GF. I work as a security proffesional for a large security company and I'm an avid gamer. Not quite as avid as I was before I got a GF, 3 cats and a steady job, but such is the price to pay.

My current gaming interests is mostly Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Guitar Hero 2 for Xbox 360. Other than that, I play a little Warhammer Fantasy RPG and a little Warhammer 40k and I've recently starteed on a path that will lead me into the world of Call of Cthulhu CCG.

Taht's it for this time, Random updates will occur, at random intervals. So long!