The Blue Talkz...

Dydd Santes Dwynwen Hapus! <3

2012-01-25T11:25:00.001+01:00

Happy St Dwynwen's day to all my Welsh friends and anyone else who celebrates this day. =) <3

[Last year's card also here]

Taiwanese Beef Jerky

2012-01-24T18:21:00.001+01:00

A few days ago, a very nice Taiwanese friend of mine, Lolita, gave me a pack of Taiwanese beef jerky. Something that I had never before tried. =) At the first glance the package contents looked more or less like any other beef jerky I had ever seen before. But after I opened the package and had a taste... well, let's just say it's like nothing I've ever tasted before!! This was probably one of the bigger surprises I've ever had in terms of foreign food taste. =) Well, the Taiwanese jerky is sweet. And I mean really, truly, cake icing kind of sweet. There's also a ton of cinnamon in there, and it's generally softer than common jerky. After the initial surprise slap has worn off, I'm finding myself stealing bits from the package more and more. The taste is so unusual that keeps drawing me back. As you can see, not much of it remains now.... =P

Karoshi by Satori

2012-01-23T19:49:00.001+01:00

YAY there's a new Satori demo, and it is as usual awesome! =) In addition to the usual Satori goodness, there's the soundtrack by Chaser to make things even more interesting. [If you've been reading, you've probably seen posts here about a couple of tracks by Chaser in the past... my favourite being "Petarda" so far!] So, check out the demo's Pouet page here.

Beyond The Fringe

2012-01-21T21:14:00.001+01:00

So is it just me, or does anyone else think that without reading the new "Beyond The Fringe" comics, you basically end up missing out on a lot of important facts? After seeing the latest episode of Fringe, it's looking more clear now that unless all of the comic content is somehow going to show up in the series, anyone not reading the comics will only receive half the story.

The 7 issue comic series 3 of which are already out, covers quite a load of facts that can change one's view of the storyline entirely. Joshua Jackson, who portrays "Peter Bishop" in the series, is apparently writing the comics, and so far he has done an amazing job with them. Out of the 3 sets of Fringe comics that exist up to now, this one is by far the most thrilling to read. The issues are complex, exciting and very well plotted. There are tons of twists and tangles to keep your mind wondering for a good while.

Each issue is divided to 2 sub-issues, where "A" is usually following the main story line and "B" is mostly "what if"s and alternate possibilities. 3A is currently the last issue out, and I can't wait to read the next one.

The History of Love

2012-01-15T03:06:00.001+01:00

Recently I randomly came across one of these quotation ecards that fly around the web, and the quotation somehow got into me enough to do a search and find the book that it came out of. It's called "The History of Love", by Nicole Krauss. I got me the ebook, and the 260 pages took me about a month to read [which is the time in which I usually read about 10 times that amount!]. I suppose you could say I meditated on each page. I think this is one of the greatest non sci-fi books I've ever read. Probably will read it again after some time. =) More info here.

SPYTHRILLER - Nemo

2011-11-21T00:03:00.001+01:00

Can't get enough of this new Spythriller track... and the video is pretty awesome too!

Marvel Point One

2011-11-20T00:52:00.001+01:00

A couple of days ago on the train back from Zürich I finally read the recent Marvel woohoow, a.k.a. "Point One". This 1 shot issue consists of 7 pilot stories for Marvel's upcoming story arcs for 2011, only 1 of which was of particular interest to me. I was very excited when I found out there was going to be something related to "Nova" in there, and well, there was. The "Harbinger" chapter is about Nova... except, this is "A" Nova and not "the" Nova. This is some Nova from some possible alternate reality, with a lower rank than "the" Nova... and there's no reason to believe that this story will somehow bring back our Nova. Also, according to the list at the end of the issue, none of the immediate upcoming arcs actually include Nova, so as of yet we can't even have a solid idea as to where this alt-Nova is going to show up. And that, well, sucks. =P

To be honest [and to repeat what gzillion other people have said already] Marvel is doing a pretty huge injustice to their cosmic arcs and characters in general. They've killed Nova and Starlord, and well, Adam Warlock is nowhere to be found. They also cancelled "Guardians of the Galaxy" altogether which I believe was a huge mistake. So at the current state of things, once "Annihilators : Earthfall" is done, there are no more real cosmic arcs. In addition, it appears that Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning [a.k.a. DnA] have absolutely no idea about what's happening with Nova which is horrible, seeing how they're the authors of the best of Marvel Cosmic. And of course whoever's writing FF, has managed to reset the Kree and Inhumans to their pre-Annihilation status which means all of the brilliant work of DnA and the rest of the authors of "Annihilation" and "Annihilation : Conquest" has simply vanished. So yes, a bloody load of injustice.

Anyhow, if any of you guys know anything more about what's happening with Marvel Cosmic, do let me know!

Google+ Real Name Disaster

2011-11-12T02:58:00.001+01:00

When I first started using Google+, the name on my profile was obviously my nickname which I had always used on my Google account. A nickname which by no means gives me anonymity, seeing that it has been attached to my real name all over the web, and even people in real world very often call me with it. The nickname has been around since my first days of hacker-spaces and various other tech sub-societies and as a result a lot of people would look for me by it, hence my persistence in using it...

When I received the warning message on my account saying that I had to use my real name, despite the bad taste that was left in my mouth, I went ahead and switched to my real name. I figured I was way too busy for the drama that would follow, were I to keep the nickname. That was a bit more than a month ago.

Well, big surprise, the drama came anyway. 2 days later my contacts started telling me that my Google+ profile was no longer accessible, showing a "not found" message. I checked my profile and saw the message on the top of it, saying that my profile was suspended due to my name not being acceptable by their "standards", and was waiting to be reviewed, which would probably take a few days. A week later, my profile was still suspended, I had received no communication from Google, and I had come to realized that my ability to use other Google services was also limited.

That was when I started looking for ways to communicate with whomever was in charge. First thing I noticed, was that there basically are no functional ways for doing that. I tried sending a number of feedbacks which clearly had no effect. Then I landed on the support forums which is apparently where Google intends for you to end up, if you go looking for help/support. Of course what you'll never receive on these forums is help or support. My requests for help were ignored and eventually buried, same as many others. Soon it became clear that a terribly large number of people are on the same boat.

While searching the forums for answers, I came across a few mentions of writing an appeal, using a link that should be somewhere on the suspended profile, but I saw no such link anywhere. Then I found out that the appeal link only shows up once your profile has been reviewed and "really" suspended. My profile seemed to not even qualify for that. So, for the duration of an entire month, my profile was stuck in the proverbial limbo.

By the end of the 3rd week, I was thoroughly inflamed. With everything I had read in other people's complaints, responses and stories, it had become quite obvious what the problem was. My uncommon name and even less common last name didn't look enough like a real name to Google. That's just so deliciously ironic, seeing that a simple Google search would have cleared out my identity. My name's all over the web. I have a couple of domain names and as a result who-is records which happen to tie my Gmail address directly to my name. For Pete's sakes, how difficult would it be to verify my identity?

Doing some more digging, eventually I found a link to the appeal form somewhere and sent a number of appeals through. Then a good friend of mine offered to talk to his contacts in various departments in Google... but what finally did it, was another dear friend talking to her contact in Google+ , and getting my profile released [thanks a lot =) ].

So now, after a month of bloody struggle my account is usable again, and that only because of my friend and her friend. I find many aspects of Google+ quite brilliant, but this experience has been a true disaster, and the whole "real name policy" is looking like serious folly.

As I once wrote in the forums, it was my impression that this was supposed to be a social network for people from everywhere. But these so called policies seem to be shaping the service such that mainly people from North America and certain parts of Europe can use it without trouble. In the past decade Google has slowly taken over the web so that one way or the other you're using some of their services, and now a lot of people who for some reason or the other can't do exactly as almighty Google commands, are in trouble.

There are many people out there who have very good reasons for not using their real names on the web. For instance, just look at the amount of political activity on services like Facebook or Twitter in the past year, by people from the middle east. Well, ban the use of nicknames, and you ban all these people. There goes all that political and humanitarian activity. There goes what was one of the most important contribution of social networks. There goes the platform for freedom of speech.

Of course these are only a part of the reasons people might have, for not wanting to use their real names. Google says that they want people to interact on Google+ the same way they would in the real world. Well, look around you. There are many people who don't use their legal names in their day to day lives. Plus, wake up and smell the coffee, this is the web, it was never supposed to be the real world. Google says that the real name policy is there, so that they can provide users with better service. Sorry, but would it have been benefits for users that you're concerned about and not your own pocket, matters could have been much simpler. Instead of suspending user accounts, you could just warn them of the possible service quality issues, leave them to use whatever names they preferred, and put an end to this grand fiasco. Instead you've bought yourself a great deal of anger....

And then there is of course the small and insignificant problem of those of us who have names that you have not heard before. I even know of people who's accounts have been suspended several times simply because they have uncommon names. So what exactly is it that we're supposed to do? Prove to the almighty gods of social networks that I'm actually called this? Well that would be pretty much the end of both my patience and my interest.

So thanks to my friend, I have my account back which is pretty important for my use of several other Google services, but as to Google+... I don't know. After all of this, I'm no longer certain that I'm all that interested in using the service. For the moment the only reason I'm sticking around is my connections in there. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what will happen next....

Further reading: A similar story, and an interesting article

11/11/11 @ 11:11:11

2011-11-11T11:14:00.001+01:00

That was a few seconds ago here in Switzerland. =D Make the ultimate wish people... this is a memorable moment!

Cheers!

Tintin the Movie! <3

2011-11-05T19:37:00.001+01:00

Ever since the news broke last year that they were creating a Tintin movie, I've hardly been able to wait to see it. On one hand it's a very exciting prospect to see one of my all time favourite books as motion picture, on the other hand there's always the worry that the movie will not do the books justice. It happens very often that the motion picture adaptation of awesome literature ends up being a pretty weak representation of the work they were based upon. So when the movie finally showed up in movie theatres, [and to my sheer delight, about a month earlier in Europe than in North America! =D] I turned my schedule upside down to find the time to go and see it, and last night I finally did. =)

Well, let me just say that this is easily one of the the very best conversions of a book to motion picture that I've EVER seen! Between Steven Spielber's directing, Steven Moffat's screen writing and some of the best actors in the British cinema, this movie is a real work of magic. And then there's of course the visuals... oh... wow! I can't believe how they've managed to bring the characters to life, exactly as I had always imagined them in my mind while reading the books. Everything is completely perfect, from Captain Haddock's nose to Bianca Castafiore's voice.

So, if you're a fan of Tintin, make sure not to miss this movie, and if by some small chance you've never read the Tintin books, still make sure not to miss this movie. Now I can't wait for the next one... I'm pretty sure there is going to be a next one! ;)

Game of Thrones Comics!

2011-10-19T23:23:00.001+02:00

This is something for anyone who enjoys comics, "The Song of Ice and Fire" or both. I just read the first issue of the newly started "Game of Thrones" comics and so far I like what I see. I must say if you've read the books or even if you watch the series, in terms of story line there's basically nothing new in there. But still, the graphics are quite nice and this is generally a great way to visually review everything that's happened so far.

Demodays 2011 + Burnside Odyssey by Satori

2011-09-02T21:28:00.001+02:00

Last weekend Demodays 2011 [aka Buenzli 20] took place in Olten Switzerland, and I was finally, luckily able to attend it. It was an awesome party, and even more awesome was meeting some of the people I had only known by nicknames till then, in person. I also had a chance to meet with the founder of one of my top 2 favourite demogroups, Satori. The weather was quite lovely, the BBQ was great and all in all it was quite a load of fun. I only wish I had taken more photos. But the few that I did take, you can find here.

There was also a good number nice productions this year. The OHP demo compo was as always very cute. In the "interactive" category, someone had come up with a type-writer, auto typing one liners from various scene websites for the duration of the party. In the PC demo category there was a lovely new demo from Satori, and interestingly enough Calodox had a prod after pretty much forever.

The Satori demo, named "Burnside Odyssey" is definitely one of the most awesome demos I've ever seen. It really is a work of wonder, with breath taking visuals and lovely music. Some of those colours and patterns really send me tripping. Seeing that demo on the big screen was quite fantastic. Even though unfortunately due to hardware efficiency issues the demo was running at a pretty much slow motion rate, it still was a marvel to look upon. Below you can see a video of it, but it's best if you check out the exe here.

The one thing that I find somewhat less than fortunate, to be completely honest, is the result of the demo compo. I'm sorry to be saying this, but I find the winning demo completely and utterly dull. To me it looked like a poor remix of scenes from a few previous demos of the same group, dyed with a rather awful layer of gray on top. There were at least 2 demos in the compo that would have deserved the spot quite a bit more... but anyway, it looks to me like the events that followed have caused a bit of a drama... check for yourself here.

Inheritance Cycle

2011-08-24T21:25:00.001+02:00

Much faster than I myself anticipated I would, I just finished reading the 3rd volume in the "Inheritance Cycle" by Christopher Paolini. Mind you, this is why I love eReaders... I read the 3 volumes, each between 700 to 800 page, in a matter of about 2 month while I've only had the time to do this kind of pleasure reading while waiting for public transit and such situations. The eReader gives you the ability to use every spare moment as such. Anyhow...

The first volume, titled Eragon, I found a tad bit boring. The story went forward a bit too slow for my liking, and it was lacking some depth. The second volume, Eldest, was more interesting. Just a bit more. The third volume, Brisingr, is most certainly the best of the 3. It's a lot more exciting, the plot finally finds its real direction and depth, there's much better character development and altogether it's fun to read. The only problem is that [although the 3rd book was released September 2008] the 4th and final volume won't be out until November this year. I have no idea why there's been such a huge time gap between the release dates of each volume of the series. So the 3rd volume ends at a terrible cliff-hanger, and now wait till the next one happens.... =P

The Inheritance Cycle in general isn't one of my favourites in the genre so far, to be completely honest. However, it's still one of the better ones, and worth a read if you have the time. I guess the main issue that I don't enjoy about it, is the lack of originality. Influence from Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and many other big names in the genre is too obvious, it pretty much slaps you in the face.

I also have to mention that the movie that was based mainly on the first volume, Eragon, doesn't really do the books any justice. Inheritance Cycle may not be the most amazing work of literature, but it's a 100 times better than that trash of a movie they've made out of it, which doesn't even visually resemble the descriptions in the text.

Of course my general view of the series may very well change [possibly improve] depending on how the last volume will turn out. If it ends up being as "good" as has been promised, maybe it'll find it's place among my favourites. ;) So I guess I'll just have to wait till November to find out....

Meanwhile though, I just started the first volume of "The Song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin. Yes, the same series that they're basing the TV series "Game of Thrones" upon. The same one with so far 5 [and to be in total 7] volumes, each between 900 to 1000 pages. =D Huge undertaking, but I think I'm going to thoroughly enjoy this....

Goodbye Jack....

2011-08-17T01:53:00.001+02:00

Earlier tonight, I received an email from the wife of a very dear, very special friend, Jack D. Logan, informing us [his friends] that Jack has passed away. I'm still in shock. I thought he was pretty much through his health problems and well on his way to recovery... I have no idea how this happened. All I know is that I'm sad, and shocked, and cold, and..... *sob*

My heartfelt condolences go to his family and friends, and everyone who was lucky enough to know him.

On a bit of a personal direction... Gosh, this thread of me losing friends has to stop. 2011 has been gloomy in this way thus far... first a childhood friend of mine passed away, almost at the same time someone I thought of as a friend turned out to be anything but, then another friend passed away and now this..... *sight*.... =(

Jack will be sorely missed. I will most of all miss the music he shared with me....

A little dedication to Jack:

Aarau

2011-08-14T22:27:00.001+02:00

Continuing tonight's share of sorting through pictures, I've finally uploaded a few pictures of Aarau and around the new flat we just moved to. It's very few for now, but I'll add more pictures soon. Pictures from inside the flat will of course happen once I've actually managed to unpack, which is proving quite challenging with the amount of busy I currently am. =P Here's the album.

So far I'm completely loving Aarau. The city has parts like Toronto and parts like Solothurn. The flat is in a high-rise building some minutes away from the more "metropole" looking center of the city, and believe it or not right in the middle of a jungle/park area. Right on the north of our building block the serious green starts, and the river is about 2 minutes away on foot. It's a very unusual setting altogether. =)

View Larger Map

Pictures of the August 1st Celebrations

2011-08-14T21:35:00.001+02:00

So it took a tad long for me to sort through the load of photos me and Genox took from the Swiss National Day [1st of August] fireworks. But it's finally done, and you can check out a selection here in this album.

It was a quite a lovely day, starting with a good load of BBQ and ending with possibly the most exquisite fire works I've ever seen up close. And I'm not putting that lightly. We were on the top of a heal in Niederwil, so that we had a good view to all the surrounding houses and farms. It seems like the people of Switzerland make it very much their personal business [and not necessarily a government responsibility, as it is often the case in Canada for instance] to make the 1st of August celebrations as shiny as possible. Basically, every single house in the vicinity had their own fireworks, some of which were really really amazing. So imagine standing on a top of heal, in the middle of a circle of fireworks, quite a few of which put the Y2K fireworks to shame. Huge colourful glow raining on you from all directions. You try to catch everything with your eyes... and more than a few times I came very close to falling down backwards... It was completely insane and truly awesome.

Seizure by SinQ

2011-08-08T11:58:00.001+02:00

Wow, SinQ's new track just took my breath away! I've been listening to this non-stop since morning... check it out, and if you like it make sure to visit his FB page here for more.

Seizure by SinQ

ASD - Spin

2011-08-08T00:36:00.001+02:00

Don't ask me how this happened but here comes a 2nd new ASD demo in less than a month. And honestly I like this one even better than the previous. "Spin" was just released at Assembly 2011, and so not surprisingly won 1st place. =) This is certainly one of my favourites ASD demos. Download the exe here.

I am spinning out of control
Drinking my dark side on a moon patrol
Dropping an anchor on a concrete floor
The links are dragging me out of the door

Can I close my eyes and see?
Can I disappear and be?
Can I play the absentee,
In this cage I built for me?

Can I stand up where I fell?
Can I spiral in my shell?
Can I cast a binding spell,
On this winding road to hell?

I am spinning against the wall
Grabbing on corners when I feel so small
Give into impulse as I drop the ball
Breaking the habits I cannot recall

Can I close my eyes and see?
Can I disappear and be?
Can I play the absentee,
In this cage I built for me?

Can I stand up where I fell?
Can I spiral in my shell?
Can I cast a binding spell,
On this winding road to hell?

I am spinning and the world is still
Pointing the finger on the things I feel
You find me exhausted and crawling uphill
To colourful nightmares against my will

Can I close my eyes and see?
Can I disappear and be?
Can I play the absentee,
In this cage I built for me?

Can I stand up where I fell?
Can I spiral in my shell?
Can I cast a binding spell,
On this winding road to hell?

Can I burn my wings and fly?
Can I justify a lie?
Can I turn my back and cry?
Can I be there when I die?

ASD - The Butterfly Effect

2011-07-27T01:04:00.001+02:00

TaaDaaaaaaaa! From ASD's magic vault, comes out yet another work of wonder! =) Check it out and enjoy! As always I suggest you download the executable from here. Below the video you can see the lyrics to the soundtrack, which by the way I find quite brilliant.

Who would you rather kiss
on the very first date if you had to chose?
How big a bet you'd make
on your very first game if you couldn't lose?
What would you rather wear
on the very first dance with the one you like?
And how would you really sing
on a difficult song with a broken mike?

Small decisions,
life incisions,
big in retrospect
Bracing gently,
consequently,
the butterfly effect.

Where would you rather go
on your very last June that you spent apart?
What would you leave behind
on your very last smile before you depart?
Who would you rather kiss
on your very last chance of another start?
And how would you rise again
on a difficult slope with a broken heart?

Small decisions,
life incisions
big in retrospect.
Scopeless seeding,
always feeding,
the butterfly effect.

Silver Surfer: In Thy Name

2011-07-18T01:27:00.001+02:00

Just finished reading "Silver Surfer: In Thy Name". A 4 volume comic series published during 2008. Totally loved it. Really really enjoyed the cynical theme of the story, very much reminding me of today's global politics. Totally recommended to anyone into Silver Surfer or superhero comics in general.

Bones & Castle

2011-06-24T18:17:00.001+02:00

I just feel like mentioning this, because recently I was talking to a couple of friends about it... ;)

Bones and Castle are both TV series that I like and I watch [whenever I get a chance, which usually means so many episodes at once...]. But seriously, how can anyone not see that Castle is totally a Bones rip off?

I've been a fan of Bones since it first showed up in 2005. I find the series to be a very interesting one, and generally not brainless entertainment. The story lines are complex and sophisticated. Also full of interesting scientific facts, and I can even see a touch of sci-fi in there rather often. I do consider myself a fan of the series and I try to catch all the episodes even if it means late night marathons.

Castle on the other hand... well... let me see how to put this. Castle seems to have borrowed much of Bones' structural elements. The cop and the novelist, the touch of romance, the adventurer and the conservative, the single parent... and many more details of Bones can be seen in Castle. But of course all of that does not in any way mean that Castle's story lines are EVER as interesting as Bones'. Castle is a very usual mystery/crime/cop TV series. It's rather entertaining and often enjoyable to watch, but I watch it for smiles only, and I don't find any thrill what-so-ever in it's plots. So all in all I don't think I'd really call myself a fan of the series, and I don't mind missing episodes here and there.

So yes, that's how I compare the 2. I sort of like Castle but I very much see it as a rather weak Bones rip-off.

Oh, and I must say that I'm so looking forwards to seeing Bones season 7. The way season 6 ended was pretty insane... ;)

Silver Surfer 2011

2011-06-23T01:09:00.001+02:00

And I just finished reading the last issue of Silver Surfer 2011, 5 issue comics. As it is often the case with Silver Surfer, it was poetic, painful, sad and pretty impressive. So yes, if you're a Silver Surfer fan in general, chances are you're going to enjoy this quite a bit. Oh, and don't forget to check out the recent 4 issue "Annihilators". That one's also pretty cool.

Also on my current reading list: The 2011 "Mighty Thor" mini-series, as well as "The Thanos Imperative" which unfortunately I never got a chance to read before. And yes, you're not imagining things, there is a pattern here. It's all story arcs featuring the Silver Surfer. What can I say, I'm obviously a fan. =P

60 Seconds On The W3

2011-06-22T19:09:00.001+02:00

What happens on the world wide web in 60 seconds...

[Click to see the full size version]

End of "Angel: After The Fall"

2011-05-23T17:28:00.001+02:00

Back when the Angel TV series got cancelled, the fans of the series [including myself] were pretty disappointed. But not long after that IDW publishing and Joss Whedon came together, and in 2007 the first episode of "Angel: After The Fall" comic series was released. Since then I've been following the comics quite eagerly. In some ways I found them even more entertaining the the TV series were... so yes, you could call me a big fan. The series also had a lot of very cool spin-offs and side stories, my favourite of which was probably the "Illyria: Haunted" series.

Now, after about 5 years of pure awesomeness, the series is over. Last night I read the very last episode of the After The Fall story line, and tonight [if I can somehow manage the time!] I'm going to read the end to "Spike", which is the very last spin-off of the series. So yes, no more After The Fall. That doesn't make me a very happy girl. =/

I should say that I'm certainly not disappointed. The After The Fall series had a great story line, and a pretty fitting end. Unlike the TV series ending, with the comic series you get that feeling of closure. Everything has been truly well explained and concluded. But still, I can't help but wish that there was more! =P

Mind you, this isn't the end of Angel comics altogether. The publishing rights are being passed on to [or more like back to] Dark Horse Comics, and they obviously have their own plans for it. In about a couple of months, Dark Horse is realising an "Angel Omnibus" containing whatever they published during the time the TV series was still running [before the fall era!]. After that, as far as I can see, they're starting an "Angel and Faith" mini series, which apparently takes place after the events of the Buffy Season 8 comics [Dark Horse's].

I haven't read the Buffy Season 8 comics yet, but I'm hoping to manage that sooner or later. And I'm looking forwards to Dark Horse's Angel series. On the cons side, Faith was never one of my favourite characters at all... so... meh. But oh well, I guess I can only wait and see how that'll turn out.

On a bit of a different direction... in the entire After The Fall series, I found only 1 serious inconsistency, which is pretty interesting seeing how the episodes were written by so many different people. I sort of have a problem with the whole James turned Myresto Mor scenario. Anybody else find that weird? The James character was supposedly an angel for so long in the series, long enough to come across other angels as well as various representatives of the Powers That Be. So how did he suddenly turn out to be some sort of an evil demi-god? I mean, wouldn't other angels or even more importantly the big parents notice that he's just not one of the family?

I think I read somewhere that perhaps in a try to smoothen the situation, it was said that the Cordelia that came to Angel's help as he was dying, was not really Cordelia. But I think we all know that it was Cordelia. And heck, she wasn't the only one who would technically have easily been able to recognize James as a non-angel. But anyway... I try to think of Myresto as a new character altogether... and the plot was great enough to pretty much hide that little inconsistency.

I just hope that in the new Dark Horse Angel appearances, there's going to be room for Illyria and Spike, since they really are bloody fantastic characters and my favourites in the series. I also would really like to see what Connor may do with his new found powers, but I'm afraid we may never know, if the Dark Horse writers try to not make any references to the ATF series. That would be a huge disappointment, so I'm hoping they're not going to completely ignore everything that happened in ATF.

Anyway... enough comic talk... time to get back to studying... =P

Stargate Universe.... CANCELLED???

2011-05-07T18:39:00.001+02:00

Ok is this strange, unbelievable, unfortunate, disastrous and all in all extremely bad. I realize it's old news which due to being extremely busy I found out about now, but anyhow I'm enraged.

Ever since the start of SGU, this is my 4th post about the series. Previously, I wrote this, this, and this one. If you've read those, you probably have an idea as to how I was feeling about the series up to about October of last year. To me, it was a bit of a fail. The first season and beginning of the 2nd season of SGU involved too much soap opera and too little sci-fi for my taste. I kept watching the show, hoping it would finally pick up at some point...

Well guess what, it DID pick up! From the middle of 2nd season, we started seeing much more action. The plot got a lot more interesting, character development started to finally happen, and we started seeing actual sci-fi in there. Improvements kept coming at a high speed, and finally a couple of weeks ago I found myself saying to my boyfriend "hey, SGU is actually getting extremely good now, I can't wait for the next episode!", to which he enthusiastically agreed.

Now, 2 weeks later, and I read that the moment the show got good, it also got cancelled. And if you start looking at the big picture, and the collection of things that made the path to the show getting cancelled... it really looks VERY ugly.

First, SyFy rescheduled the show from Friday nights to Tuesday nights, because apparently Friday nights had to be kept for the most sci-fi, the most brilliant, the most imaginative show out there. It's called WWE Smackdown. Yeah, it' BLOODY WRESTLEING! What the bloody hell does that have to do with science and fiction, I have no bleeding clue!

On the other hand, lets be honest here, the sci-fi genre [specially what you may call hard-core sci-fi] has never really been the most popular genre with the main stream. Rescheduling of the shows like this together with lack of interest from masses, results in the show having low viewer stats at the time it's first aired. Of course no one cares that many fans record the show to watch when they can due to busy schedules, or that many of us don't even live in North America so we have to watch the show through other channels.

And now for mentioning the obvious... low viewer stats, low DVD sales and basically not enough money being made out of a TV series, means no love from money hungry networks like SyFy who ONLY cares about the profit. So, who cares that this is the successor spin off to one of the most successful, most loved, most amazing series in the history of sci-fi that we're talking about right? And who cares that it still has a lot to offer? And who cares about all the people who have spent years creating all this? The main stream prefers to watch some guys smack each other to pieces [theatrically of course] or some girls chew each other's necks over an ex, so the so called blighted SyFy channel decides to give them exactly that.

Sad fact is that the SyFy channel has no longer anything to do with science fiction. I saw that coming, when they changed the name from Sci-Fi to SyFy, supposedly to explore other possibilities. This is what they meant by it. Just look at the show list for the channel, and you'll see that by killing off SGU, they just removed the last serious science fiction series that they had from the network's list of programs. That's it. SyFy, is officially no longer a science fiction channel.

To add to the disaster pile, it turns out that the untimely cancellation of SGU, also has put a permanent stop to the production of the Stargate Atlantis movie, and any other movies from the Stargate franchise that we may have been hoping for.

A quick look around the web, has made it clear to me how utterly upset, angry and frustrated the fans of the show [not a small number] are. And how hard they're all trying to save the show. I honestly can't say that I'm keeping any hopes up... but who knows, I'm going to join every campaign I come across and sign any petition I can. Maybe something will come out of it after all...

And here's what you should be checking out:

An article from Joseph Mallozzi's website, answering some questions about the show and it's cancellation

A Facebook page called Save Stargate Universe

And since the list of information, support, campaign and petition pages is growing daily, I have created a Verse page where I [or anyone else interested] will be collecting relevant info and links. Check it out!

Monstra Kosa by Satori

2011-04-29T18:33:00.001+02:00

And of course here's the new fabulous Satori demo, which totally made my week. I must say this was specially a breath of fresh air seeing that out of about a good 30 or so [recent] demos that I watched in the past week, this was one of the very few [about 3!] that I actually enjoyed.

As it is the usual case with Satori, this is demo is quite a mental trip. One unusual side effect was that the first time I saw it, after I finished watching the demo I noticed that my heart beat had risen quite a bit. Part of that might be due to the unusual and very effective soundtrack. Check it out! =) Of course it's best if you download the real time from here and watch that. ;)

Robot Video + "Fear" by µ-Ziq

2011-04-29T17:31:00.001+02:00

A friend of mine with an awesome taste in both music and visuals just shared this piece of perfection on my Facebook wall. =) The clip totally blew my mind, mainly due to the brilliant effect of the right combination of audio and visuals. The track is called "Fear" by µ-Ziq. I completely love it. This is the fist time I hear the name of this musician, and now I'm surely going to get my hands on his albums.

The video, seems to be a part of the process of building a robot that can simulate emotional responses among other things. I have a feeling that I've come across this team's work before... I have to dig it out of my archives. It's pretty fascinating work.

No More E.S. Posthumus... =((((

2011-04-25T19:40:00.001+02:00

I have no idea how I didn't already know about this. It's horrible... bad bad bad bad news for the world of music. =((( No more E.S. Posthumus... that's a real pain. Franz Vonlichten of E.S. Posthumus passed away last May. Today I was looking to see if there's any new albums from them, and I landed on this note written by Helmut Vonlichten, announcing the passing of his brother. =""(( It does not mention what happened though...

Gosh... it's not as if good music is easy [heck, or even possible!!] to come by nowadays. E.S. Posthumus was a real gem, and definitely one of my favourite bands of the current era. I really love their music so much... *sigh*... what a talent... *siiiiigh*... this is a real tragedy... *snifff*....

Now I only hope that at some point we will hear something new from Helmut Vonlichten.... *sigh*.....

Fray

2011-04-10T00:56:00.001+02:00

As most of you probably already know, I read a lot of comic books. Specially at times that I'm mentally busier than usual, I have a tendency of taking comic breaks in between things that means reading even more comics... Anyway.... Recently I've been devouring loads of BuffyVerse comics, mainly related to Angel and the gang, and I've officially finished all the [so far published] Angel + spin offs issues.

So then I started looking into other BuffyVerse material and accidentally I came across this 8 issue set by the name "Fray". Now, I just finished reading the last issue of Fray, and I wish to God there was more! =P

Created by Joss Whedon and set in the BuffyVerse, "Fray" is a mix of sci-fi and slayer stories. In a rather pessimistic view of a future world, when vampires and demons and slayers have long been forgotten, "Melaka Fray" is the fist slayer to be called after so many years. She has no knowledge of the past and no connection to her heritage, and she suddenly finds herself in the middle of a war that she knows nothing about....

It turns out that Fray is actually coming back in the rather recently published Buffy season 8 comics, which I have not read yet. So, I guess that's where I'm going next! Oh, and if you're into either comics, sci-fi, Joss Whedon stuff or vampire stories, you should totally check this out! =)

Airport Pain

2011-04-09T20:44:00.001+02:00

Oh my GOD! This is sooooooo true! Thanks a lot René for this... I can't agree more with it! =P

[Also: Now imagine that in my case I often have 2 notebooks and a number of other electronic pieces that need to come out.... yeah... phuunn...]

Comic Vine: How not to run a community website

2011-03-29T21:06:00.001+02:00

Last week when I was searching for information on one of the latest "Angel" comics issues, I came across the website called Comic Vine for what was not the first time. I figured since I keep bumping into the website, I may as well join and see if will do the job of "Last.fm for comics" for me.

So I joined Comic Vine and after using it for a few days, just as I was beginning to like the system [and considering becoming a paid member and inviting friends], I happened to come across a wiki page about a comic book that I had just read. The page was missing the "Plot Summery" section, so I figured I may as well be helpful and add the few lines. Now, for anyone who may not know... these type of plot summaries are like movie trailers. You see the same standard synopses on Wikipedia, Amazon, and many other websites related to comic books or books in general. And that's why you see the Wikipedia plot summaries [and many other pieces of info, for that matter] on pretty much every wiki page on Comic Vine. Also, lets keep in mind that the content on Wikipedia, according to the Wikipedia terms of use, are under the Creative Commons licence and free to re-distribute.

Anyhow.. I took the plot summery from Wikipedia, and added it to the wiki page on Comic Vine, and I did this for 2 issues of the same comic series. What happened next was somewhat unbelievable. I received a message from one of the administrators of the website, giving me what they were referring to as a "First and final warning", for PLAGIARISM!!! Oh, and to make things even more fun, the other one of the 2 summaries I had submitted at the same time and from the same source, was approved!!!

Well... you can probably imagine that as someone who's active in the research field as well as academia, I know only too well the definition of the word plagiarism, and you can also guess how much I don't appreciate being wrongly accused of it. I added a standard piece of information, a tag-line if you will, from a public domain source, to a wiki in a website which more than anything is a database of information regarding collections of work created by other people to start with. Information that is by definition not a property of Comic Vine, and is quite visibly coming from sources all over the web. I didn't claim to have created the book, the tag-line or anything else for that matter. My name is not printed under there, I'm not even breaking any copy-rights, and I'm most certainly neither getting paid nor marked for that work. All I did was sharing a public trailer. So, how in the heaven's name did they come up with plagiarism?!

That of course was the question I sent back to the moderator who had given me the warning. And that was the start of a rather pointless and circular conversation. The kind you usually get with the tech support of Rogers Inc. First I got a couple of 1 line responses without any form of a clear point, the sort that is designed to get rid of you as fast as possible. Then there was some very fuzzy explanation saying that the whole plagiarism issue may or may not [?] apply to the plot summery, but it does to some other [?] parts of the website. So the person in charge is not even certain as to where to apply a supposed rule of an ambiguous nature, but I do end up being insulted either way. After all I'm only a user, who cares about my respect anyway right? [Anybody else having Twine flash-backs? Well, we all know how that one ended..] Then I received a link, to a forum post by a moderator, saying "Don't Plagiarize"!! Well, 2 problems here:

1- Yes generally plagiarism is bad. It's one of those things you morally don't go about doing. So all good and fine with the article, but what does that have to do with my situation? Where is the plagiarism in what I did? Of course if someone writes a piece of literature somewhere on this website consisting of information from other sources, without citing, and taking full credit for themselves, then yes you have a case of plagiarism. But what does that have to with editing a wiki page on a service like this? How could you possibly commit plagiarism on what is, as I mentioned, a database of publicly available information on other people's creations?

2- If you're going to refer me to your website rules, should they not be a part of your Terms of Use? I mean, isn't that the whole point of a bleeding Terms of Use page? So does that mean, the random words of your moderators are the rule books of the website, and that I should be reading through every single forum post, to find out what your team of site-Gods would like me to do on your website? Well I'm sorry, but that is not happening. Some of us have a life outside of comic books.

So then, after a whole load of explaining myself, quoting website ToU and demanding a proper response from anyone who can, I received an - oh wow - more than one line response, explaining very politely how that's just the way it is, and letting me know that the reason I've been granted all the friendly unhelpfulness is that the person on the other side of the line is "very tired". At that point I really controlled myself not to write back "Do you want to compare schedules? Life? Usual amount of work?" So, I have been insulted, accused of something I haven't done, been responded to as if I was a proper idiot, have had my time wasted, and you tell me you are tired. How awesome is that?

That was the end of it. I really wasn't interested in continuing the conversation that would only have bought me more insult. And obviously I have lost all interest in using the service itself. I spoke with a couple of my comic enthusiast friends who let me know that they were already aware that the administration of the service in question suffers a bit of a God/celebrity complex, and I should have just asked them first. [Yes, perfect! =P] I've also been directed to another website for comics that is apparently run by a "nicer" crowd. We'll see how that goes. ;) I'm also very much interested in more suggestions on the topic and opinions in general... so ... comment away! =)

Update I

Xander has made an interesting point in the comments that a lot of people seem to be referring to, so I'm adding it here. It's somewhat dark, but it seems true.

"This god complex that you're mentioning, I'm thinking it has deeper roots into certain types of communities. It's not just something about this specific website. That's my opinion. What I'm trying to say is, unfortunately if you look into communities that are built around similar interests like comics or gaming (as you were saying earlier), you will always find too many people who suffer this sort of god complex. They make up a personality based on how awesome they are known to be in the community and live by that personality. Getting lost in the characters of comics or games, forgetting entirely that there are people out there, real people, who are making a difference in the real world. The actual super heroes.
The real ugly comes when one of these community superstars finds it fit to insult and dismiss one of those people who is making a difference in the real world. This seems to me like one of those times. Sorry love, but really, you should just ignore folks like that."

@Xander: Well, I most certainly don't see myself as anything like a superhero [ =)) ] but I do see your point, and I'm afraid I'm quite familiar with what you're pointing out here. I've had so many people tell me that they joined the "ABC" community or game or this or that just to have a simple good time, and they've ended up having to deal with something of a religious cult instead. "The air of elitism" as Char puts it, is something that I personally have a hard time dealing with.

I don't know if what happened here was exactly that... but it's not so unlikely since a good deal of attitude could easily be felt there.

Update II

Well, I must say that it was very nice to read from Comic Vine [refer to the comments] and it's good to see that they're paying attention. As I wrote in the comments, I'm not all that certain that my problem was only with a single administrator. I mean surely it would have been nice to have dealt with someone more interested in helping out, but if for instance what I did [or anything of the sort] really is considered plagiarism according to the regulations of that community, then my problem is more with the system rather than the person representing it. If words change definition and regulations become a full semester study, then I simply can't afford the time. This whole thing was supposed to be for recreational purposes to start with.....

My decision now is to not publish this article for the moment, and stick around quietly and see how things develop with Comic Vine. Meanwhile, I will be giving a try to other suggested services as well, and thanks for all your comments and suggestions.

Blinky!

2011-03-25T14:32:00.001+01:00

Oh my God I don't like this... I don't like this... I don't like this one bit! =P Arrrrrrrrgh... I don't like this!!! I do however still find it very much worth watching, specially with the nice concept robot and everything... but I DO NOT LIKE THIS! xP

A short film about a helper robot who doesn't prove as helpful as the advertisement claims. Written and directed by Ruairi Robinson.

Happy Persian New Year! =)

2011-03-20T01:36:00.001+01:00

Happy Norooz everyone! =) Tomorrow night is the beginning of year 2570 [1390] of the Persian solar calendar. Winter is officially over, and Monday is the first day of spring, even though Zürich was freezing cold today. =P So make sure to have as much sweets and cookies as you can in the next few days, visit your friends and family and pass around some gifts. ;)

My 7sin is pretty much ready, even though some of the items are impossible to get around here due to the lack of a Persian community of any sort. My mom sent me most of what I couldn't find here from Toronto. But I wasn't able to get my hands on Samanoo at the end so we're going to make some chocolate cream and imagine it's Samanoo. =P

I have to admit though, I have all sorts of mixed feelings right now. The "situation" in Iran has made it very difficult for many people over there to celebrate anything, and I feel the weight of that inside of me.... and of course my mom's not where I am this year, which really totally sucks. But I'm trying to make the best out of a ... well... very complicated situation, and hope for the best in 2570.

Fasnacht 2011

2011-03-18T19:32:00.001+01:00

Oh, right, I forgot to mention.... the pictures and movies from Fasnacht 2011 parades are online! You can check them out here. =)

I was at the venue both in Biberist and Solothurn this year, so there's photos and videos from both. It was quite a lot of fun being there, and I'm still collecting confetti from my clothing, shoes and the flat's floor. =P As you may notice in a couple of Solothurn videos / pics, I was given a bit of an up close and personal confetti shower so when I got home, I was looking like a very colourful clown of some sort, specially since confetti has a way of sticking and staying in my curly hair. =P

A few examples:

Not a vegetarian, not planning on ever becoming one...

2011-03-10T17:43:00.001+01:00

I have to start this by saying that I'm not trying to "bash" vegetarians or vegetarianism. I'm not an anti-veg, and I don't have a problem with vegetarians or vegans for that matter. Generally I'm a kind of person who believes that every human being is entitled to their own opinions and beliefs, and I respect people's way of life, regardless of how different from mine they may be. I have to insist on all of the above, because I don't want to cause any misunderstandings.

I don't know how exactly this started, but I'm currently feeling exceedingly tired and annoyed, as a result of a collection of encounters that I have had with vegetarian people during the past couple of years. When did vegetarianism turn into a religion? And why is it that a very large percentage of the people who turn veg, see it fit to try to either convert you, or act as if you're somehow unholy?

I read the labels on the food products I buy [or anything else for that matter] quite carefully. I pay close attention to my diet, nutritional balance, and needs of my body. I do sports and I exercise every day, sometimes heavily. Generally I pay attention to my health and fitness. Apparently, this somehow makes me the perfect target. First I am "invited" to take the "next step", then comes the bickering and well, if you know anything about me you probably know that I don't react too well to someone trying to poke at me using arguments that they can't properly and logically defend. And yes, I'm afraid most of the times the discussion comes to an uncomfortable halt once you bring the medical and nutritional facts to the tables. Facts that unfortunately most of these terrifyingly passionate vegies didn't think to read through before they chose vegetarianism not only for themselves, but for the rest of us as well.

But before we get to the actual health facts, I also have to make a mention of another questionable reasoning the religious vegies usually bring up [very often when all else seems to fail], and that's the whole animal cruelty discussion. Well, I don't wear Merino wool or fur or anything of the sort. I don't eat in McDonald's or any of the similar chains. I think what these corporations do to animals is indeed criminal. But is that in any way the same as what humans have traditionally been doing for millenniums now?

When the Native Americans hunted a buffalo, they killed it as quickly and painlessly as possible. They did so for their survival, and they used pretty much every part of the animal for a purpose, so that nothing went to waste. Like them, I believe in nature, and in it's rules and balance. In the cycle of nature there are billions of examples of bigger living organisms feeding off of smaller ones. I don't see anything wrong with that. To me, that's as correct and natural as it gets. However, unfortunately us human beings have turned into the only animals who kill other living beings just for the heck of it, or torture other living beings for our own profit, and I truly despise that. But how does it make any sense to say that use of meat or other animal products in the traditional sense is also "animal cruelty"??! "Meat is murder"? Really? If that's the case then I suppose mother nature is the biggest murderer of all eh?

So now let's get back to the health and nutrition side of things. I'm not going to try to explain the medical facts myself seeing that I don't have a degree in any of the related fields, but instead I have decided to create a reference list below, from a number of quite well written articles on the web that explain everything.

Of course I have to add a few notes of commons sense as well. In general what a person's body needs and what keeps them healthy is to a good extent depending on the person's body type, age, sex, life style, form and amount of activities and many other details. To recommend a diet [more like a life style in this case] to someone without taking account all the variables of their life, is generally a very bad idea. I for instance have a somewhat above the average amount of physical and mental activity per cycle, and I hardly ever sleep. The following articles will give you an idea as to how it would be an extremely bad idea for someone like me to become a vegetarian.

Also, if your diet used to consist of so much meat that you may have expired from Gout, your new vegetarian diets is most certainly much healthier. If you pay a good deal of attention to your vegetarian diet and make sure to include replacements for what you don't eat, you can certainly have a more healthy diet than most people in this world. But again, that doesn't mean that vegetarianism can be healthy for everyone and in fact, very often it is not, specially since it becomes a severe pain to create a "real" healthy vegetarian diet, which is something that many vegetarians don't seem to realize.

The list of articles and references below is something that I'm compiling [with help from friends] so that from now on I can just forward people with "suggestions" to it, instead of having to say/type it all again each time. I have gone through the articles that I'm listing, with a couple of doctor friends, to make certain of their validity. If you'd like to add anything to this article or the links list, either log onto Verse and do so, or contact me. Enjoy reading! ;)

[I have posted this article and the actual links list on this Verse page. This way anyone else interested can edit and contribute, so that we can have a more complete reference in time.]

LEGO Digital Designer

2011-02-24T19:30:00.001+01:00

Here's something that's been eating up a lot of my time lately. LEGO Digital Designer is an application by LEGO, which you can use to virtually build whatever you like, using all the LEGO pieces ever made. Yes, huge collection of pieces. That itself is something that made me a very very happy girl. But the fun doesn't end there. Once you're done building, you can actually order what you just built! Isn't that fabulous? =D

So here you can download the app. Enjoy the addiction! ;D

Lisa Miskovsky - Still Alive

2011-02-21T18:46:00.001+01:00

Love this song, and of course the lyrics... <3

You have changed
I have changed
Just like you
Just like you

For how long
For how long
Must I wait
I know there's something wrong

Your concrete heart isn't beating
And you tried to
Make it come alive

No shadows
Just red lights
Now I'm here to rescue you

Oh I'm still alive
I'm still alive
I can't apologise no

So silent
No violence
But inside my head
So loud and clear

You're screaming
You're screaming
Cover up with a smile I've learned to fear

Just sunshine
And blue sky
That's just how it goes
For living here

Come fire
Come fire
Let it burn and love come racing through

Oh I'm still alive
I'm still alive
I can't apologise no

Learn to lose
Learn to win
Turn my face against the wind

I will move fast
I will move slow
Take me where I have to go

Oh I'm still alive
I'm still alive
I can't apologise no.....

Quote

2011-02-18T16:38:00.001+01:00

"It requires a certain intelligence to love..."

A quote from the book I'm currently reading and enjoying quite a bit. "Mrs. Carddock" by W. Somerset Maugham.

Meh!

2011-02-15T16:30:00.001+01:00

So this morning my mom flew back to Toronto. And I'm still very much struggling with the rather large collection of 'full immigration / starting your life from scratch on a different side of the globe' issues. Oh, and back in my birth country people are rioting again, and the government is shooting at them again. And I'm still very much not over the heartbreak I experienced due to the loss of a friend recently. And I already miss my mom.... ="(

To anyone who ever asked me what could possibly sink my spirits down, well, there you go.

Liza of Lambeth

2011-02-13T19:41:00.001+01:00

Just finished reading "Liza of Lambeth", the very first novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Interesting tone and mood, insightful dark scenario, and well, quite painful to read. All in all, not quite recommended for everyone.

Microsoft Sho

2011-02-10T15:31:00.001+01:00

As of last week, Microsoft Sho [the .NET Playground for Data] is publicly available for download. Check it out.

"Sho is an interactive environment for data analysis and scientific computing that lets you seamlessly connect scripts (in IronPython) with compiled code (in .NET) to enable fast and flexible prototyping. The environment includes powerful and efficient libraries for linear algebra as well as data visualization that can be used from any .NET language, as well as a feature-rich interactive shell for rapid development. Sho is available under the following license."

I've been trying it out a bit, and skimming through the book. I think there's a possibility that I just may like this thing better than R. There's also a rather interesting Channel 9 video on the topic. Here it is:

Lady of Shalott

2011-02-03T17:06:00.001+01:00

Loreena McKennitt's version of Alfred Lord Tennyson's "Lady of Shalott" is my favourite so far. The story of Lady of Shalott has always been one of my favourite Arthurian myths, and I think Loreena McKennitt's voice and style of music goes perfectly with the general feel of the story.

On either side of the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the Wold and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road run by
To many-towered Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The Island of Shalott.

Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Thro' the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four grey walls, and four grey towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle embowers
The Lady of Shalott.

Only reapers, reaping early,
In among the bearded barley
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
Down to Tower'd Camelot;
And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers "Tis the Fairy
The Lady of Shalott."

There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.

She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.

And moving through a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear.
There she sees the highway near
Winding down to Camelot;
And sometimes thro' the mirror blue
The Knights come riding two and two.
She hath no loyal knight and true,
The Lady of Shalott.

But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often thro' the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot;
Or when the moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed.
"I am half sick of shadows," said
The Lady of Shalott.

A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,
He rode between the barley sheaves,
The sun came dazzling thro' the leaves,
And flamed upon the brazen greaves
Of bold Sir Lancelot.
A red-cross knight for ever kneel'd
To a lady in his shield,
That sparkled on the yellow field,
Beside remote Shalott.

His broad clear brow in sunlight glow'd;
On burnish'd hooves his war-horse trode;
From underneath his helmet flow'd
His coal-black curls as on he rode,
As he rode down to Camelot.
From the bank and from the river
He flashed into the crystal mirror,
"Tirra lirra" by the river
Sang Sir Lancelot.

She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces thro' the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look'd down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
"The Curse is come upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott.

And down the river's dim expanse
Like some bold seer in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance--
With a glassy countenance
did she look to Camelot.
And at the closing of the day
She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.

Heard a carold, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darkened wholly,
Turn'd to tower'd Camelot.
For ere she reach'd upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady of Shalott.

Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery,
A gleaming shape she floated by,
Dead-pale between the houses high,
Silent into Camelot.
Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and burger, lord and dame,
And round the prow they read her name,
The Lady of Shalott.

Who is this? And what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they crossed themselves for fear,
All the knights at Camelot;
But Lancelot mused a little space
He said, "She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott....

Loreena McKennitt - Dante's Prayer

2011-02-01T16:12:00.001+01:00

When the dark wood fell before me
And all the paths were overgrown
When the priests of pride say there is no other way
I tilled the sorrows of stone

I did not believe because I could not see
Though you came to me in the night
When the dawn seemed forever lost
You showed me your love in the light of the stars

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me

Then the mountain rose before me
By the deep well of desire
From the fountain of forgiveness
Beyond the ice and the fire

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me

Though we share this humble path, alone
How fragile is the heart
Oh give these clay feet wings to fly
To touch the face of the stars

Breathe life into this feeble heart
Lift this mortal veil of fear
Take these crumbled hopes, etched with tears
We'll rise above these earthly cares

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me...
Please remember me...
Please remember me...

Nokia Morph [Concept]

2011-01-30T19:59:00.001+01:00

Holy cows! A friend just shared this video on my wall on Facebook. I realize it's just concept and a lot of things happen in "just concept" these days, but this is sooo bleeding impressive!

Morph is a new concept design by Nokia, that supposedly will revolutionize mobile devices using a whole load of nano-tech. Read more about it here.

Xplore EP by Moonove

2011-01-26T16:00:00.001+01:00

I've been listening to this a lot in the past few weeks and totally love it. 5 awesome ambient tracks, by the French musician Moonove. Check it out!

Happy St Dwynwen's Day!

2011-01-25T12:58:00.001+01:00

Dydd Santes Dwynwen Hapus! =) To all my Welsh friends and anyone else who likes celebrating it. <3

P.S.: Yes I personally celebrate the St Dwynwen's day instead of the Valentine's day. But I don't mind celebrating the V-Day with friends either. =P

Medium Series Finale!

2011-01-23T01:06:00.001+01:00

Tonight I watched the very last episode of the TV series Medium, without actually knowing that the series has been cancelled and this actually is the series finale. And after finally finding it out... well, I'm not too happy.

Medium was one of my favourite sci-fi series for a long while, and I always felt that felt that it was such a shame, that the series never received the attention and credit it deserved. Perhaps the main reason is that Medium was not out of the box enough for serious sci-fi fans, and not soap-opera enough for the mainstream, resulting in the series being completely underrated.

So the show finally got cancelled which in my opinion was too early and yet not completely unexpected. But after 7 seasons, I must say I was expecting quite a bit more for a finale. I mean I actually liked the plot for the finale quite a lot, and I enjoyed watching it. But I was constantly expecting Allison to wake up from the first layer of the dream, realizing that Joe hadn't actually gone to the trip yet. And I most certainly did not want this as finale. The series ending with the death of a main character, and with bunch of flash forwards? And they didn't even make it a 2 hour episode!!

So yes, altogether I'm rather disappointed. Regardless of what genre the series could or could not be categorized under, I always enjoyed it and I think there was still quite a bit more to tell. So I guess now I can only hope that someone with pick up the story line and continue it as comic books, the way Joss Whedon did with Angel comics for instance. I get the feeling Medium could actually make quite an interesting set of comic books.... hmmmmmm.... I guess we'll see......

Various Secret Continents by Aleksi Eeben

2011-01-13T16:30:00.001+01:00

Due to the recent collection of hurricanes in my life, both the happy and the sad ones, I hadn't even found the chance to sit down and listen to the new albums from some of my favourite musicians with any form of an actual focus. Well, today I finally did! Starting with the new album by Aleksi Eeben, called "Various Secret Continents".

I had listened to single tracks from this album as they were being released, and was very much looking forwards to listening to the outcome as a whole. And the whole is indeed pretty awesome! I like every "Salamander" in there ;) , but if I were to choose a favourite, it would definitely be the "Sun Salamander". That track is just... beautiful, I love the melody! I also very much like the "Continental Salamander", and the bonus track "The Grand Rules" is also very interesting. But again, if you're checking out the album, which you most certainly should, make sure to listen to all the Salamanders from beginning to the end, in order to experience the full effect. =)

Also, do not forget to read the story of Salamanders here. It's extremely neat! =) You can download the album from the same page as well. I only wish that the album was available as a CD too! Would have loved to have the story in a CD booklet. =)

1/11/11

2011-01-11T21:42:00.000+01:00

And by the way, hope you all had a great 1/11/11. =)

Firefox 4.0 Beta, And tweaks for using your old add-ons

2011-01-11T19:03:00.001+01:00

I've been using the new Firefox 4.0 Beta for about a week now and I LUV IT, certainly enough to make a mention here! =P New features are awesome... tabs appearing in Win7 taskbar as if they were separate windows is great, the new way add-ons and extensions are handled and organized is fantastic, new look is quite pretty and a whole load of other new features are great as well. I also like the few new extensions that I've seen so far, that work with the new abilities of FF. The retractable add-ons bar for instance is quite handy.

I've always been a huge fan of FF's customizability, and now there's even more of that to be happy about. I also like many of the technical upgrade and oh, don't forget the WebGL support. Aaaand the private browsing feature is pretty interesting too. You can check out the full features list here.

The only issue right now is that once you switch to the beta, 90% of your current add-ons will stop working because their version is not compatible with the new Firefix. The thing is, many of these add-ons can technically handle the FF beta, and only get disabled due to the version check. So you have 2 options:

Disable the add-on compatibility check. To do that, go to "about:config" on FF, create a new boolean variable, call it "extensions.checkCompatibility.4.0b" and set it's value to false. This works, but I DO NOT recommend it. Because this will suddenly enable all your old add-ons, some of which are sure to not work properly on the new FF. As a result all sorts of bugs and malfunctions will start showing up on your new FF. So... kind of a bad idea.
Tweak specific add-ons to work with the new FF. This way, as soon as one of these add-ons starts giving your new FF hick-ups, your going to know it and get rid of the add-on. To do that, you'll have to download the add-on first which you can do by right clicking on the download/install link of the add-on, even though you'll see a "not compatible" sign on it. Then rename file extension from ".xpi" to ".zip", and extract the "install.rdf" file out of the package. Open up the rdf file and find "em:maxVersion" in it, and change it's value from whatever it is to " 4.*". Return the new version of the file to the package, change the extension back to ".xpi" and drop it into FF so that it'll get installed.

I hope that helps someone. The 2nd one is what I've done to most of my extensions, and everything works like a charm so far. Really looking forwards to the final release now!

Fortunate Post Mess-up!

2011-01-07T17:26:00.001+01:00

For the first and hopefully last time in my life, I'm actually glad and relieved about the apparent postal incident that has resulted in me not receiving a certain package. *breathe*

Go figure.

Loss and Silence [But I'm Still Alive!]

2011-01-03T13:29:00.001+01:00

I know, I've been quiet lately. I know you folks have been expecting to hear/read quite a bit more about how things are developing here. Well, truth is I recently lost someone of weight in my life under rather strange circumstances. As a result, I've fallen back a bit from all forms of online communications, while I'm trying to deal with this. But I'm still here and I do read all that you write.

This is quite difficult, I'm completely heart-broken and to all honesty it couldn't have come at a more complicated point in my life. Nonetheless, I'll get past it soon. I'll survive... always do.

P.S.: As far as music therapy goes, I came across this track a few days ago quite accidentally on MTV DE. And I totally fell in love with the band.

Happy 2011!

2011-01-01T11:04:00.001+01:00

So the new year has started with a collection of happy and sad events. The biggest happy one of course is that I took the last step forward and I'm now settled in Switzerland, and hopefully we will not have to worry about any more back and forth flights. And now I have to start a lot of things from scratch.... ah well, all is good. =)

I wish you all a great 2011, and hope you had a lovely new year's eve. I had a pretty fun one, with Oliv, my mom, and Kolja. =) There will be pictures....

Cheers!

Modelling, and Modelling!

2010-12-13T16:10:00.001+01:00

A couple of weeks ago, I had an offer to do some modelling for a pretty well known Italian fashion brand. The offer came to me through an Italian musician/artist friend of mine who is active in that field, and in touch with the founder of that brand. I told my friend that I was very flattered [which I really, truly am, believe me! =)], but working in that specific field is just not an interest of mine, and really not in harmony with my life style and fields of activity and work that I'm interested and involved in.

So my friend relayed my response to his friend [a lady working for the brand], and then came the real surprise. A few days ago my friend told me that his friend had said that she was wondering why I had said no to the offer, since she had seen my profile on Facebook [oh, yeah!] and I had listed "modelling" as one of my interests. Apparently she was very curious as to whether I have an offer from some other brand or agency that I somehow found more interesting. =P

Well, as you can imagine I had very big round eyes when I read my friend's message saying all that. I knew that unless I was suffering from multiple personalities disorder, I couldn't have possibly listed "modeling" as an interest of mine, and to all honestly I don't think my friend believed that I had done so either. =P So then I ended up doing some digging in my own Facebook profile, and guess what... I discovered that I did in fact have the keyword "modeling" in there. Quite a few times too actually. Page names such as "Modeling the World" and "NLP Modeling" and numerous others with the "modeling" keyword most certainly are listed in my interests. =P Except of course, [well here comes the funny], those are all about _SCIENTIFIC MODELLING_!!! D'UH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's the moral of my story, and my advice to all the recruiters out there: Make sure your target model is interested in the same kind of modelling as you are. =P And when you see something with the word modelling in it on someone's FB profile, CLICK ON IT, you'll see it may or may not have anything to do with your kind of modelling. And yes, there are, in fact, OTHER KINDS OF MODELLING in this world! =PP

We're still having a good laugh over this so thank you..... ;))))

People who have inspired me...

2010-12-06T16:43:00.001+01:00

A while ago I was asked this question on Formspring: "Which people inspire(d) you? (name a few if there are too many) Explain how they inspired you." I ended up writing a pretty lengthy answer to it... and I was planning on turning it into a blog post, but hadn't gotten around to doing so yet. Interestingly enough though, I've been receiving the same question from various people in different contexts all over the place, so I guess it's best to write it down here and refer everyone to it. So, below is the answer to the question, and here is a link to the original question.

---

Hmm. This is an interesting question with a pretty huge answer. =) Yes, there are indeed too many people who inspire me. It may be that I get inspired easily, by many things, ranging from very simple to very sophisticated. It could be a single sentence that someone says, or the simplest act, and what I get out of it could be massive.

Ok, lets name a few, more or less randomly and off the top of my head.

- My mom. Mahroo Araeenejad. =) She's the strongest person I know, with a pretty much unbreakable spirit. She's the power house, the one to rely on. And not just for me, for everyone around her. She has a heart bigger than this universe and a soul purer than sunshine. She inspires me in more ways than I can count.

- My uncle. Dr. Mehdi Ghalibafian, also known as "the father of Iranian concrete science". His wisdom, his dedication, his courage, his knowledge, his resourcefulness, his intelligence, his fantastic sense of humor, his kindness and his amazing personality will always be a source of inspiration to me.

- Isaac Asimov. His books, specially the robot series, were among my main reasons for getting interested in robotics, AI and futuristic technology as a child, and later on choosing that as my main field of study and research.

- Frank Herbert. The author of the Dune series. His books are life changing. Food for mind and soul.

- The Little Prince. The adorable fictional character of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's legendary book of the same name. This book is like a road guide to life for me.

- Mike Oldfield. His music speaks to me, very often saying that not even the sky is a limit.

- Albert Einstein. I don't think I need to explain this one. ;)

- Thomas Edison. The God of "if at first you don't succeed, try try try again".

- My friend TanTan. She has many many amazing qualities, but something about her that really inspires me is how truly fantastic a friend she is. I mean really, there's being friends and then there's being her.... <3

- Vincent van Gogh. Hard to explain. There's something I see / feel in his paintings that is very difficult to put into words, but it's quite inspiring. I read his biography as a kid and it had a great effect on me somehow.

This list could go on forever. Really, for EVER. It would include friends, musicians, scientists, engineers, writers, artists [and certain demoscene artists / musicians / coders would have their special place!]. But time is limited, and as I said, this is just a few, off the top of my head. This turned into an essay. Perhaps I'm going to make it into a blog post. And add it to Verse, so I can add people to it in time. Thanks for the idea. =)

Cheers!

Mike Oldfield - To France

2010-11-10T23:51:00.001+01:00

Couple of days ago someone called me "Queen of exceptions". For some reason it reminded me of this song that I've always loved...

Taking on water,
Sailing a restless sea
From a memory,
A fantasy.
The wind carries
Into white water,
Far from the islands.
Don't you know you're
Never going to get to France.
Mary, Queen of Chance, will they find you?
Never going to get to France.
Could a new romance ever bind you?
Walking on foreign ground,
Like a shadow,
Roaming in far off
Territory.
Over your shoulder,
Stories unfold, you're
Searching for sanctuary.
You know you're
Never going to get to France...
I see a picture
By the lamp's flicker.
Isn't it strange how
Dreams fade and shimmer?
Never going to get to France...
I see a picture
By the lamp's flicker.
Isn't it strange how
Dreams fade and shimmer?
Never going to get to France...
Never going to get to France.
Never going to...
Never going to get to France.
Never going to...
Never going to get to France.
Never going to...

Spammers On Verse

2010-11-07T22:16:00.001+01:00

It was really "interesting" today, when I ended up having to do a bit of an analysis on certain footsteps on my website visitor tracking tools to find out that it's been in fact people, human beings, who have attacked Verse with stupid commercial posts and some other nonsensical twaddle. Oh, and guess what, some of them even went ahead and posted links on Twitter, to the garbage they had posted to Verse. Here's a couple of examples [it might be a bot posting the stuff to Twitter though, of that I'm not certain...]:

http://twitter.com/#!/julie86smith/statuses/1207024033464320

http://twitter.com/#!/lutushia/statuses/1298952494260224

Of course the links in the posts now direct to deleted pages... I deleted the contributions of all these users from Verse, and reported them to Twitter. I also made a rather big change to Verse's registration system today. I've changed the code so that it's no longer possible to simply register an account and start using Verse. New users now have to request for an account, and then one of the admins would have to review their request and permit the account to be created, before the user can use Verse. This isn't all that conventional for a wiki system... but oh well, people have to misuse absolutely everything, and you end up having to deal with it.

Eggspectation

2010-11-05T23:57:00.001+01:00

And by the way, if you're ever in downtown Toronto and feeling hungry, make sure you check out the Eggspectation restaurant. Well actually they seem to have locations all over North America and India. Hmm. =P I loved the contents of the picture below...

Update: Ok... ok... seems like I have to explain a little something here. Why o why have I developed such a crush on this hamburger. =P Well, because it was SO INCREDIBLY YUMMY! I think it mainly has to do with the fact that it wasn't salty. I mean, by default hamburgers taste slightly salty due to several of the ingredients. But this hamburger.. not salty at all, and hey, it wasn't really greasy either! And I must say, the fries were also to die for. I don't eat out very often and I also don't eat all that much red meat, but I'd welcome one of those any time! =D

Update 2: Yes, NO! I'm not against red meat at all, I just don't eat it all that much. I prefer fish meat instead... but I do try to fit a bit of red meat in my meals every now and then. And I'm definitely not a vegetarian or vegan. Why? I just don't believe in it. I believe it balance, and flow of nature. I also believe in real, actual science. But I'm not going to get any more into that.

Oh... and I have this acute urge to mention, I bloody hate McDonalds. For all they do to humans and animals at the same time.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

2010-11-04T20:26:00.001+01:00

Wow... I just saw an article with the first set of detailed information and pictures related to the upcoming Tintin movie! Looks like it's going to be awesome! =D Apparently this is going to be the movie version of the "Secret of the Unicorn", which is one of my favourite Tintin adventures and the first one I ever read! =) I just can't wait to see the movie...

"With live action you’re going to have actors pretending to be Captain Haddock and Tintin,” says Peter Jackson. “You’d be casting people to look like them. It’s not really going to feel like the Tintin Hergé drew. It’s going to be somewhat different. With CGI we can bring Hergé’s world to life, keep the stylised caricatured faces, keep everything looking like Hergé’s artwork, but make it photo-real."

Check out the full article here!

Genox - Hourglass

2010-11-04T01:46:00.001+01:00

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the long wait is finally over! After years and years and more years of waiting for Genox's highly anticipated new album, it's finally here! =D Genox's new album called "Hourglass" has just been released on the Enough Records netlabel, and you can click here to see the album information and download it.

Seeing how I'm obviously considered pretty biased, I probably should leave you to make up your own mind about the album... but I can't help mentioning that I think every single track of this album is totally and completely special, and has it's own unique character.

Of course I'm going to post the album to Verse shortly. Also, make sure you check out Genox's new Facebook page here. =)

Happy 10th Birthday ASIMO! =)

2010-11-03T02:00:00.001+01:00

October 29th is a very special day. It's ASIMO's birthday! Yes, ASIMO turned 10 years old a few days ago! Below is an awesome video by Honda, showing a timeline of the development of ASIMO.

It's hard to believe that ASIMO has been around for 10 years already! In the first 7-8 years, the improvements and new capabilities that were added to ASIMO were rather frequent and pretty impressive. However I'm afraid that I haven't read anything on the ASIMO website in the past couple of years to really WOW me! And now with some serious competitors [like NASA's R2], I think ASIMO has some catching up to do! So happy birthday ASIMO, and whatever you're doing, hurry it up! =P

You can read about ASIMO's birthday here, and here's a story released by Honda about development of ASIMO.

Pocket Watch <3 <3

2010-11-03T00:28:00.001+01:00

Me loves watches. Me really really really loves old style pocket watches. Here's my beloved mechanical skeleton pocket watch. =)

It's PERSIAN, learn about it before you use it!

2010-10-27T07:31:00.001+02:00

Let me start this by bringing an example. I'm not Chinese, Korean or Japanese. I've never been to either one of the countries. I've had my share of superficial contact with the languages and the cultures, but just that. I've never made any serious attempts at learning either one of these languages. And yet, if you write in all three on a piece of paper and show it to me, I can tell you which is which. I think most of you probably could... it's 2010 after all. It's the age of information, and with a tiniest bit of interest or curiosity, and 10 minutes [or possibly much less] of free time, you can gain yourself a general knowledge of just about anything.

So, why is it that the movie/TV producers of the current era seem to have so much trouble gathering a very general idea of what the Persian language is, and what it's supposed to look like, before using it in their productions in the most messed up way they could possibly manage? How difficult is it to get a correct and real piece of text to use?

I was recently watching the latest episode of Chuck, in which the heroes of the story are supposedly stuck in an underground bunker in Iran, and the mistakes that were made in this episode regarding the Persian [aka Farsi] language made me think of a rather lengthy list of similar mistakes in other motion picture productions. So, here I'm going to write up a a few tips / common follies that you could pay attention to, if you're going to use Farsi in your production...

1 - Persian is not Arabic or Ordoo. [Well Duh!] Even though these languages have a similar font and some shared words, they're completely separate languages. Just like English, German, Italian and Spanish are not the same language. So if you have people stuck in a bunker in Iran, please make sure that the stuff written on the walls is in Persian, NOT ARABIC! That includes you, Chuck producers! =P

2 - The Persian font has capital letters and small letters. Every word consists of small letters that can stick together in most cases, and capital letters that come at the very end of the word, separating the word from the next one in the sentence. You can't just throw a bunch of disconnected capital letters sticking back to back in a line and call it Persian text. I've seen so many examples of this exact mistake recently, what's up with that? One example would be this German movie I recently watched, called "Auch Lügen will gelernt sein". A friend of mine sent me this movie as a part of my German practice homework package. Orrrrr maybe it was just because René Steinke is in it... ehm... *cough* *cough* ;) Either way, the DVD came with a warning attached. Apparently my very much German friend who's never had anything to do with Persian [except for the existence of me] could actually tell that there was something severely wrong with that supposed Persian text used in the movie. So how come the producers of the movie can't figure as much? =P Come on!

3 - Persian is written from.... here it comes ...... RIGHT TO LEFT! Yes, most people give me such a surprised look the first time I tell them that.... I rather enjoy it! =)) =P So, if you have a piece of paper with a bunch of Persian stuff written on it and you want to make sure it's the real deal, make sure the empty spaces at the end of the lines are on the LEFT SIDE, not the right side. That includes you, German folks mentioned above! =P

4 - Iran and Iraq are NOT the same country, and they do NOT use the same language! Iraqi people speak Arabic! Iranians speak Farsi! This is also one very common mistake. A rather horrible recent example was the Lost TV series season 6 premiere, where the Iraqi character Sayid had an Iranian passport. Well not everyone can tell that a passport is Iranian just by looking at it, but as a producer you should at least be able to figure out that the writings on the passport are in PERSIAN, not Arabic. I wrote an article and included a picture here.

5 - Persians are a not very small population who have been scattered around the world due to obvious unfortunate reasons. There are Persian communities in most major cities in North America and Europe. There are also lots and lots of online Persian communities, forums and websites. So what I'm trying to say is, finding someone with a proper knowledge of Farsi, is the easiest thing to do. If you want to use Farsi in your production, just get one of us to write you up something proper, rather than throwing a load of letters on a page and calling it Farsi.

Well, this is what I can think of for now. Hope someone finds it useful! =)

P.S.: The above picture is not exactly your example of a normal everyday Persian writing obviously. ;) It's the art of Persian calligraphy, which I'm currently practicing.

Paul the Octopus has passed away! =(

2010-10-27T00:30:00.001+02:00

Oh nooooooo! My favourite sea creature has just passed away! =(( I wanted to adopt him! Awwwwwwhhhh.... too bad!

"Management and staff at the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre were devastated to discover that oracle octopus Paul, who achieved global renown during the recent World Cup, had passed away overnight. "Paul amazed the world by correctly predicting the winners of all Germany's World Cup clashes, and then of the final," said Sea Life Centre Manager Stefan Porwoll."

Fuss story here: What's New :: Birmingham :: SEA LIFE

Ability to 'see' advances artificial intelligence

2010-10-20T03:47:00.001+02:00

Pretty cool article I found on MS research today. Check out the awesome AI receptionist avatar!

"Eric Horvitz, a distinguished scientist at Microsoft Research, has an equally distinguished receptionist. After eight years of working with him, she's developed a feel for his habits and routines. She can predict how long his meetings are likely to last, knows when he can't be interrupted and senses when he'll be running late. Not bad for an avatar."

Article here: Ability to 'see' advances artificial intelligence

"The Hobbit" + David Tennat = WOOOOOOHOOOOOOWWWW! =D <3 <3

2010-10-18T22:10:00.001+02:00

OH MY GOD! Really? Seriously? Could that possibly happen? That would be just beautiful! =D

Since late last night I've been reading here and there around the web about how David Tennant has been approached for a role in the upcoming 2 part Hobbit movies! Apparently so far this is just an offer and no one knows for sure if it's actually going to happen, but if it does... my oh my! Awesomeness to the max! =D

For anyone who may not be familiar with David Tennant, he is the actor playing the role of the 10th Doctor, in the British sci-fi series Doctor Who. I'm a pretty big fan of Doctor Who in general, and well, the 10th Doctor is most certainly my favourite incarnation of The Doctor so far. ;) Davit Tennant is an amazing actor, and if he goes on to play a role in The Hobbit, that alone will be a reason for me to see the movie on the opening day.

Another great actor who has been offered a role is Martin Freeman, who recently played the role of John Watson in the British TV series "Sherlock". Apparently he will be playing the role of Bilbo Baggins.

When I heard that the "The Hobbit" is going into production phase soon, I was very excited. I've always said that the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies are an extra simplified version of the books, and that they miss a ton of important facts and side stories and a whole lot of depth in comparison to the books. However, that's only natural. There's just no way to put a Tolkien book into a movie exactly as it is, due to the incredible amount of details in his books. With all of that in mind, I believe that the LOTR movies where quite fantastic from many different aspects [well, Duh! ;)], and I'm now very much looking forwards to seeing "The Hobbit".

You can read more about the possible cast of "The Hobbit" here.

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole ... <3

2010-10-16T20:52:00.001+02:00

I wonder why I'm not hearing more noise about this movie. Has anyone seen it yet? I'm beginning to worry that this movie may just not be receiving the attention it bloody well deserves!

A few days ago we went to see the first part of the Legend of the Guardians. Well, to be more precise I took my mom to see it, due to her affection for owls. =D [For anyone who may not know, the relationship between my mom and owls is something like the one between me and the colour blue! ;) ]. And of course being a real fantasy genre enthusiast, I totally had to see it too. [In 3D, obviously! =P]

Turns out, this is one of the cutest movies I've ever seen! Owls are beautiful animals, and I'm glad someone finally did something right with that! The characters of the movie are positively adorable! <3 <3 There's tons of beautiful scenery, and the plot is quite a nice one too, if not terribly sophisticated. I'm definitely a fan, and will certainly go to see the next parts when they're made. =)

SGU Fail...

2010-10-14T21:00:00.001+02:00

Late last night I watched the latest episode of Stargate Universe, as I didn't want to wait any longer to find out about the "object" that was coming towards them. I figured things may finally get more interesting.

At the end of the episode I was cursing myself for not having spent that time to watch something that I would have actually enjoyed instead, specially since I have very little time these days.... Don't get me wrong, the whole "other ship with aliens on board" thing was pretty interesting, but I'm beginning to feel that the series' main characters are SOOO annoying, that they're over-shadowing any interesting events in the plot. I'm sorry to say, but not a single one of them seem to be capable of doing anything other than being horribly annoying all the time. As much as it pains me to say, SGU has turned into a soap opera featuring a large group of complete idiots!

Their military leader is a brainless arrogant dictator. Their supposed "brains" guy is an idiotic self centered arrogant b*****d. The entire series is the struggle of these 2, and the rest of the characters are so interesting and important that they could as well cease to exist.

Stargate used to be about a group of people each of whom where important in their own way. Each evolving to something better during the series, while dealing with interesting SCI-FI challenges [not soap opera ones!]. I understand that SGU is supposed to be "different", but so far this difference has been nothing but a severe failure. And by the way, I'm not the only one to say that. Every serious sci-fi fan that I've talked to so far, says the same thing.

If things keep going this way, I will quite possibly stop watching SGU altogether. =(

Google Instant!

2010-09-08T19:49:00.001+02:00

I think Bing just fell behind in the search engine wars, big time! Today I gave Google Instant a try. Love it. That's the way to go! Given the recent changes in the Google image search and all the new options, and now this... I think Google is back to being my favourite again! =D

Frederik Behr - Glass Marble

2010-09-02T03:40:00.001+02:00

Another Kahvi Collective release has found it's way to my favourites. =) I came across the album "Glass Marble" by Frederik Behr last week, and I've been listening to it quite a lot. [Makes a nice mix with 4mat's "Decades" somehow!] The very first track called "Alleyways" is my favourite. Check it out!

4mat - Decades

2010-08-30T02:43:00.001+02:00

... on a loop! =D

Few days ago I finally received my copy of 4mat's new album called "Decades" from Amazon. Yes, physical copy! =)

For the past so many [I don't even know exactly how long] years I've been enjoying 4mat's music, so when I found out that for the first time he's releasing physical copies of his album, I figured I absolutely had to have one. =) Amazon.ca doesn't carry the CD, so as usual it was back to the .com, hence the long wait.

Decadeds Cover. And my current desktop wallpaper.

For the past few days I've been looping the album, sometimes on it's own and sometimes mixed with various Kahvi releases. And I just can't get enough of it! As the album name suggests, the compilation is such that it really gives you the feeling of listening to the essence of 4mat's evolving music during the past decades. And as I expected, the tracks are just fabulous! So if you're a fan of chiptunes, electronic music or generally great music, you're sure to enjoy this.

If you haven't already, go get yourself the album. Now. Preferably physical copy. ;)

Decades CD on Amazon.com

Decades on Bandcamp

Decades on iTunes

Boilerplate!

2010-08-26T00:51:00.001+02:00

I guess for anyone who's into both robots and J.J. Abrams, this is definitely big news. And it's not all that new, so I don't even know how I didn't know about it already! =P A good friend of mine just sent me the link to an article, about J.J. Abrams latest movie project, called "Boilerplate".

Supposedly, this movie is based on a graphic novel which is the story of world's first robot, and his adventures along side some interesting characters and mixing with certain historical events. Here's the article, check it out!

So now I'm very much looking forwards to seeing the movie. =) I think it will probably turn out to be pretty darn fantastic! Can't wait... can't wait.... =D

Inception

2010-08-23T23:54:00.001+02:00

Yes, I HAVE seen Inception! =D I just didn't want to write about it because given the sophisticated plot of this movie, it's so easy to cause spoilers, and it would be an unforgivable crime to do that to such incredibly brilliant scenario.

A couple of weeks ago [thanks to xo's persistence! ;) ] we went to see Inception, and the only thing I'm going to tell you about it is that it's one of the most ingenious, unique movies that I have ever seen. I have every intention of getting me the Blu-ray once it's out, as this movie is worth watching numerous times.

I'd also like to mention that if you enjoyed the Matrix trilogy, chances are you'll enjoy inception too. In a way, I see Inception as Matrix inverse. ;)

Oh, and here's the proof I did go to see it... =))

Praan [Stream of Life]

2010-08-18T23:01:00.001+02:00

I would imagine most of you have already heard this song since it was composed for the 2008 "Where the hell is Matt" clip. But I also think that the clip's sheer amusement, causes the music not to shine as much as it might, if you're listening to it with closed eyes. So yes, I recently re-discovered "Praan" by "Garry Schyman", featuring the beautiful voice of "Palbasha Siddique". The music takes my breath away, and the lyrics that are in fact from a poem by "Rabindranath Tagore", are truly divine.

Lyrics & Translation:

Praan [Bangali]

Bhulbona ar shohojete
Shei praan e mon uthbe mete
Mrittu majhe dhaka ache
je ontohin praan

Bojre tomar baje bashi
She ki shohoj gaan
Shei shurete jagbo ami

Shei jhor jeno shoi anonde
Chittobinar taare
Shotto-shundu dosh digonto
Nachao je jhonkare!

Bojre tomar baje bashi
She ki shohoj gaan
Shei shurete jagbo ami

Stream of Life [English]

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

Satori :: Koiban

2010-08-13T04:31:00.001+02:00

Time for another ASM2010 favourite! =) I was previously informed that Satori was going to have a new demo for ASM, and I was waiting in anticipation to see it. When finally the demo showed up on the ASM TV stream, me and a bunch of friend, as expected, went "Whooohooohooow.... haaaaaaa..... aaaaaaaa.... woooooooo .... wooooohooooooooowwwwww .... hoooooo ..... waaaaaaaaa...." =D

I'm not going to say anything more. In fact I can't, even if I want to. It's completely impossible to describe something like this in words. So if you haven't had a chance to see this super fantastic awesome demo yet, here it is. Check it out! =)

Happiness is Around the Bend

2010-08-08T22:27:00.001+02:00

Oh yes, it certainly is! =)

It's been yet another silent period due to my extreme lack of time, and what better reason to break this silence than to... well, LETS TALK ASD! =D The new ASD demo by the name "Happiness is Around the Bend" was released yesterday at the Assembly 2010 demo party. And early this morning I got the happy news that the demo has in fact won 1st place! =D YAAAAAAAAAAY!

I've been experiencing a bit of a mental struggle over which one of the ASD demos is my favourite, and it's a tie between Life Force and Happiness. I finally decided to leave it at that. It's just a tie. I can't like either one of the 2 more than the other, and that's just the way it's going to be. =D Where Life Force made my heart explode out of my chest and brought tears to my eyes, Happiness made me jump around and throw my fists in the air. On one hand I think the 2 demos are too different to be able to make a comparison, on the other hand they're too connected to make a comparison! It's like they're the 2 sides of the same coin... So, watch the new demo and decide for yourself.

Oh, and... ehmmm.... well.... I just have got to say this since Soren mentioned something to me... [fair warning: brash opinionated remark following], in case you've been reading Pouet threads... don't let certain comments about the music bias your opinion. aMUSiC and Leviathan have done an otherworldly beautiful job with the music. Big Kudos to them both. <3 <3 =)

Of course there were a few more demos in ASM this year that really took my breath away. I will post about them next.....

Toronto Quake. Yes. Really.

2010-07-08T23:00:00.001+02:00

Well this is somewhat funny. It's been 2 weeks since a 5.5 magnitude [5.0 according to some sources] quake shook Toronto and a number of other cities, and I'm still receiving messages saying things like "Oh... uh... wait... what? But I thought you were joking!! Since when does it quake in Toronto?". Or "OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD are you alive? Are you ok? I just figured out that there REALLY was a pretty serious quake in Toronto!!!!". =P

Yes. There really was a quake in Toronto on June 23rd. Neither me, nor any of those major news agencies that wrote about it, made the whole 5.5 magnitude of it up. I was at home at the time of the quake, having lunch, or trying to. As I'm sure you all already know, I live on the 23rd [top] floor of a not terribly new building, and I can assure you that you wouldn't possibly doubt the reality of the quake, would you have been here with me, enjoying the very very real swings of this giant rollercoaster. ;) And even if that wouldn't convince you, I'm sure when stuff on the walls and shelves started dropping down on your head, you'd be sold.

I could hear the walls cracking and see small particles coming off the ceiling. I was about to move the coffee table to the balcony... My neighbours were completely freaked. Shouting, screaming, crying.... High-rise buildings are still being inspected for structural damage. Apparently the quake shook Toronto, Quebec [worst damage apparently], and parts of the USA. This wasn't the 1st quake I've experienced in my life, but it was the 1st in Canada and it was definitely one of the scarier ones. But anyway, I'm alive! =P

P.S.: Yes, if it would have come down to it, I would have jumped off the balcony.

World Cup Goodies! =)

2010-07-05T18:33:00.001+02:00

Here's a couple of really nice wallpapers that a good German friend of mine recently sent me. Like them so much, decided to share! Thanks René! =)

Love this! Made it my WLM theme too! =D <3 <3

I don't think I need to tell you which team we're cheering for! ;)

World Cup 2010, So Far!

2010-06-20T00:35:00.001+02:00

Here it is again, not being able to get any work done [at least in any decent manner!], due to "The Beautiful Game" being OOON. Gosh I luv the World Cup. =D It seems like everyone loses a big piece of their logic and sanity, and give themselves away to the frenzy that takes over the entire globe for an unfortunately not very long period of time. Everyone's talking about the same thing... everyone's screaming... everyone's cheering... everyone's looking for ways to get out of work/class to watch the games. =D So here's my confession, that even when I'm working / studying, I have the games running on my notebook / iPAQ screen, and at least half of my mind is there. And I'm not ashamed to say that I feel that so far, it's been worth it. =P I mean look at this... the year of miracles so far! I'm totally loving it! =D And here's my favourite games so far. [Oh ummm... yes, please keep in mind that this is the football opinions of a fencer, so don't ever make the terrible mistake of taking them seriously. ;D]

- The Switzerland - Spain match. God I loved that! =D Switzerland simply managed to create a miracle. They came to the field with a certain game plan, and they did a perfect job executing it. Spain made the mistake of not taking Switzerland seriously, and they paid for it. And hey, it looks to me like Switzerland quite possibly has the best goal keeper in the world at the moment. ;)

- The Germany - Australia match. Wow, this was a beautiful game, specially on the German side. I've always liked the German team, but this is the first time I REALLY REALLY liked them! Everyone says Germany plays too calculated and too boring. Well, in this game Germany was anything but boring. They were a ball of fire, and even though Australia also played very well, but they simply couldn't do anything against the kind of game Germans were playing! [Makes it even a bigger shame that Germany messed up their 2nd game... =/]

- The France - Mexico game. Go Mexico! Surprise surprise! They managed to beat France 2-0! =D Loved Mexico's performance and hope to see them keeping it up!

I also have to mention that I was extremely disappointed at Italy's performance in the game against Paraguay. They simply didn't play. =P I hope they're going to do a MUCH better job tomorrow. Another disappointment was of course Germany's 2nd game against Serbia. I don't know how or why this happened, but they seemed like they were extremely nervous the entire time and losing 1 player really left a hole in their wall. Ah well, I hope they can fixe whatever's wrong for the next game. =P

On another note, is it just me thinking this or is something severely wrong with at least half of the referees of this world cup?? I mean, red card for the South African goal keeper? Or the USA goal that was dismissed for no reason? Or another unjustified red card to the German player? There seem to be too many questionable decisions being made at this world cup. Anybody has any ideas why??

Lord Of Ultima

2010-06-11T22:03:00.001+02:00

For about a month now, I've been playing this online multiplayer game called Lord of Ultima. And I think I really like it, so I'm going to recommend it for any of you who like me, 1 - Like games, 2 - Like to play with your friends, 3 - Like civilization style games, 4 - Hardly ever find the time to play anything at all. =)

Lord of Ultima is a strategy / civilization style game that's fully browser based, and runs quite smoothly on most any browser / system. So it requires no installation of any kind. You sign up for an account, choose a server, and start building cities and armies. You can choose to go to war with other players, or focus on building your empire. You can invite your friends to join in an alliance with you, and you can support each other. And the nicest part of all of this from the point of view of someone like me, is that it "can" take very small amount of time to play. Even though people do get obsessed and spend hours just staring at their monitors as stuff get built [or so I'm told], but that's not something you have to do. ;) Personally I play this game for 30 seconds each time, in between working or studying... and just that.

I currently play on Server 6 EU, where me and friends have an alliance called Ariadne. If you're by any chance tempted to join the game and play with us, you can check out a brief profile of our alliance @ Ariadne.Aasemoon.com. Feel free to drop me a line if you like to join. =)

Robin Hood

2010-06-03T00:55:00.001+02:00

Today a friend said to me "you should really see the Robin Hood movie, it's right up your alley!". And I said, "oh it totally is, and I've already seen it!". And he said "but... but... but... but... but there's nothing about it on your bloooooooooggggg!!!!". Well, you can imagine the utter SHAME I felt at that moment! =P Oh my GOD, how did I manage to not write anything about my all time favourite version of Robin Hood?? So let me fix that now...

Yes, a couple of weeks a go we went to see Robin Hood. And I'm glad that despite a few discouraging comments that I heard / read about the movie here and there, I did go to see it. I have to say I don't understand what's not to like! In fact I enjoyed watching the movie IMMENSELY! =) The small but important modifications made to the plot felt like they were exactly what Robin Hood always needed to turn into a most interesting story. Since I know many of you haven't seen it yet, I'm not going to say much more... but I just have to say that everything about this movie was very impressive. The cast were the best possible, and the the whole mood and feel of the movie really worked for me. So don't listen to anyone who says otherwise.... and go see the movie for yourself. =)

ByeBye Lost!

2010-05-30T22:46:00.001+02:00

Hmmmmmm. Nope. I'm not very happy. =/

Lost was one of my favourite series. Aside from the fact that I'm going to miss it, I also feel that it didn't quite... well.... finish! And I think the main reasons I feel this way is because the season finale did not do such a fine job of closing the circle. It simply wasn't enough. I was expecting something much more fascinating! I get the feeling that the story got sooo big, that the producers sort of lost control of the complexity of it and as a result they just cut things off. So many unanswered questions, so much unfinished business!

Also, it seems like a lot of people aren't quite sure about what happened. For instance, there's a common confusion about whether the characters of the story were dead the entire time. Nope, they weren't! Everything that happened actually did happen... The after death "limbo" universe which was introduced in season 6, is the only part of the story line in which they're dead, as Christian Sheppard clarifies. Also, I'm as much disappointed as everyone else that they didn't bring back Michael and Walt into the story, but hey, it makes sense! I mean Walt didn't exactly spend so much time with the team for him to show up in their made up universe, and Kevin... well Kevin would not be able to "move on". He killed a couple of people, and turned into some sort of a stuck spirit on the island.

And, YES, Hurley could be in the limbo even though he wasn't dead when the series was finished. Because he would eventually die, right? And there's no real concept of time in the limbo universe. As you may have noticed he said to Ben "you were a great number 2". So it could be that they were number 1 and number 2 for thousands of years before they died and went to the limbo. But eventually, they would show up.

I guess what was most disappointing for me about the finale, was that I was hoping for a completely different ending for the "Man in Black". I mean come to think of it, when he was alive, he was a much better person than Jacob. He was intelligent, courageous and in fact much more honest and interested in the facts than Jacob. But he was betrayed... by pretty much everyone. Can you blame him for turning into some vengeful spirit thang? Jacob was the real b****d in all of this. Unfair ending for the "Man in Black".... how reality like!

Anyhow, I think that so many questions about the nature of the island and other things remained unanswered... and as I said, I don't find limbo a very convincing ending for such an amazing story. I wonder if the series writers might do something like Joss Whedon did with Buffy... continuing the story as comic books. Well, I don't really think that's going to happen... but it would be nice to have Lost comics, eh? ;)

Pacman, 30th Anniversary!

2010-05-22T00:00:00.001+02:00

Happy anniversary Pacman, and thanks for all the fun! =D I have to say, I totally love Google's interactive Pacman doodle. Way to go, very cute! =) I also like this embeddable flash Pacman.... =P

Check out the official Pacman 30th anniversary website here.

Enough Dubs 2

2010-05-12T01:00:00.001+02:00

This has to have a blog post. =) I've been listening to this album for the past couple of days more or less non-stop... and I love it. Very nice collection of "bass-driven sounds from all over the world". Totally recommended. Check it out! =)

Love Story :: Oscar Nominated Russian Short Film

2010-05-11T19:07:00.001+02:00

This, I came across last week, on the FB items of one of my favourite musicians. It's a lovely short film, with a beautiful message. I've been showing it to everyone so I decided I may as well post it here. =)

Virginia Tech's Humanoid Robot :: CHARLI

2010-05-06T00:51:00.001+02:00

I just saw this on IEEE Spectrum. It's a nice one, see for yourself!

"Dennis Hong, a professor of mechanical engineering and director of Virginia Tech's Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory, or RoMeLa, has created robots with the most unusual shapes and sizes -- from strange multi-legged robots to amoeba-like robots with no legs at all. Now he's unveiling a new robot with a more conventional shape: a full-sized humanoid robot called CHARLI, or Cognitive Humanoid Autonomous Robot with Learning Intelligence. The robot is 5-foot tall (1.52 meter), untethered and autonomous, capable of walking and gesturing. But its biggest innovation is that it does not use rotational joints."

The Nordic Fellows Comics

2010-04-25T16:13:00.001+02:00

Last week, a Swedish friend of mine who is well aware of exactly how culture-curious I am, did me the huge favour of directing me to the deviantART gallery of a brilliant Danish comic artist. This artist has created a fictional character for each Scandinavian country, through which she depicts the popular stereotypical characteristics of the people and the culture of each of these countries. It's of course quite satirical, and extremely funny.

In the past few days I've been going through this artist's gallery, reading through all her comic strips, and I've had a great deal of laugh doing so. I highly recommend that you do the same. Here's a more sophisticated version of her main characters:

From left to right: Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway.

Don't you just love the look on Sweden's face? =)) And apparently Finland's character has quite a fan-club [and I totally want his hat!].=D Iceland has a parachute, that makes me jealous. Norway has cute hair and a huge fish. =)) Somehow the first thing I did, was sharing this with a Danish friend [xo] who's apparently been sharing it with just about everyone in Scandinavia.... =D

Robot Park In Switzerland! =D

2010-04-25T00:08:00.001+02:00

Oh wow, would you look at this? Yesterday I came across the coolest news here in this article. Apparently the first robotic amusement park of Europe is being built in Neuchatel [I've actually been there! ;)]. Check out the article for more info.

So you can imagine how excited I was to read about this. I feel like a million box... I'm actually going to be there! =D I now have to go see where I can find more information about this. This is absolutely AWESOME, WOOOOOHOOOOOOOWWW! =D

Liked The "Ask Me" Idea So.....

2010-04-24T02:10:00.001+02:00

So I decided to create myself an "Ask Box" too [or whatever you like to call it! ;)]. Simple, ask me anything you like and I'll answer it if I can. =) If you have an account on the website, you can choose to include your user info, or just ask anonymously. Otherwise, it's basically anonymous unless you decide to include a name. Oh and apparently it's also possible to add / follow people. So, here's mine!

27

2010-04-21T18:24:00.001+02:00

Yesterday, I turned 27. =) I like the fact that the number has a 7 in it, which has always been lucky for me. ;) I guess it makes sense, given that this is most probably going to be the year of big changes. As in, _HUGE_Migrating Around The Globe_, sort of changes. Which I'm of course looking forwards to. We had a nice little party with friends, after which we went out to a Greek restaurant where I had one of my favourite dishes: Grilled Octopus. Ok, I know that maybe hard to believe for some, but Octopus really is VERY yummy, and I totally love it. =D I even took a picture for proof. [Yet again!]

I would like to thank all my friends for the very nice birthday wishes, cards, eCards and.... Thanks you so much, it means a whole lot to me. =)

My Perfect Drawing Tool :: Stylo Sharpie!!!

2010-04-19T10:53:00.001+02:00

A while ago I mentioned something about looking for the perfect pen to draw with. Something that would work for my crazy doodles. Today a good friend asked me if I had managed to find what I was looking for. Well, actually I did! =) I tried a rather large range of similar pens to find what I would be comfortable with, and interesting enough, it turns out the perfect drawing pen is in fact a Stylo Sharpie Pen! =D

I'm a pretty big fan of the whole family of Sharpie markers. But I didn't even know that Sharpie had these Stylo pens. Apparently they're new. =) They have very fine tips, smooth waterproof ink, and of course they come in this very pretty sky blue which is just perfect! =D

I also tried out a similar sort of pen produced by Pentel. That was also quite cool, but somehow the Sharpie managed to win me. I think it's the colour! ;)

Here's a photo of my new friend:

And here's more info.

Current Listening :: Aleksi Eeben - Little Man Entered a Big Village

2010-04-10T01:48:00.001+02:00

My latest musical discovery has been more of a re-discovery.

4AM in the morning of April 1st, for a rather long list of reasons I was still awake and trust me, this time around I was in fact quite tired. So I thought I'd relax to some nice music for a bit before the day officially started. I was about to serve myself up some Mike Oldfield [I had "Amarok" in mind!] when incidentally I noticed the news of a new release on the Kahvi Collective page. The EP called "Little Man Entered a Big Village", is the latest by the Finnish electronic musician Aleksi Eeben. This was interesting news, seeing how I hadn't listened to anything from this artist in a reeeeeally long while! A very long time ago I had come across a number of truly great tracks by the same artist under the alias "Heatbeat", but since then somehow [unlike me, I know! =P] I had in fact lost track.

So, well, I downloaded the EP and began listening. It started with my head resting on the pile of papers on my desk. Then came the feeling of blood rushing into my brain.. then I found myself sitting straight and totally conscious... Then, of course, came the track "Linen & Linseed", and I have to admit I'm glad none of you could actually see me at that point. Messy hair, googly eyes, mildly head banging to the track, in my PJs, 4AM in the morning. =D Needless to say I luuuuuuuvvvvvv the EP and even more so this track.

Of course then I went ahead and downloaded the artist's entire set of available albums off of Bandcamp in FLAC [YAAAAAAAY yes it's all available in FLAC]. And if you want to get your hands on what I've been loooooping in the past week, you can do the same HERE. Oh, and I really do mean looping. To say that I've gone completely nutz over "Linen & Linseed" would be an understatement. Check out my Last.fm profile if you don't believe me. =D So, well, I really do suggest you check this out. =)

Music @ Breakpoint 2010

2010-04-08T05:21:00.001+02:00

Is it just me, or was the general quality of the music released at Breakpoint this year way above average? The streaming music compo included a great deal of awesome tracks, and many of the demos released in all categories featured superb soundtracks. So for someone with a serious case of [good] music addiction such as yours truly, this was a good chance to fuel up. =)

Here I'm just going to mention a few of my favourites, but really, I think you should just check out everything that was released. ;)

When the streaming music compo finished, my first thought was - "so much great music, how can anyone win this?". Well, apparently someone did, and well deserved too: Check out Disrupt, fantastic DnB track by Puryx, the Danish demoscene/electronic musician. This guy produces a lot of great music, some of which is currently available on his Last.fm page.

Petarda by Chaser/Elude, and Sooner or Later by Little Birchard are also tracks that you should definitely check out. The entire collection of music released at Breakpoint 2010 can be downloaded from here.

As mentioned in my previous post, Vokawardoai by satori has a pretty awesome soundtrack... yeah I think I've gone on enough about that already. ;) Then of course there's Agenda Circling Forth by Fairlight & CNCD. Beautiful soundtrack, to go with the marvellous visuals.

In the 4K intro category, Retrospection by FRequency & Trolls In The Shadows is certainly one of the prettiest 4Kz that I've ever seen, with a really cool and upbeat soundtrack. I liked the soundtrack so much that I requested for a separate music file, and the guys in charge were kind enough to provide it. The soundtrack can be downloaded here, and below is the video.

ASD - Rupture Wins Scene.org Awards!

2010-04-06T19:22:00.001+02:00

On other fantastic news from the past few days [and there really is so much to say!], ASD's Rupture won Scene.org awards in 3 categories: best demo, best direction and of course public choice. =) Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! =D

The awards ceremony was held on the 2nd day of Breakpoint 2010. This makes me wonder, since Breakpoint is going away, where is the scene.org awards ceremony going to be held from now on? Hmmm! Anyhow, I give you Rupture [as usual, I suggest you see the actual demo instead of the video]:

Breakpoint 2010 :: SATORIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!! =D

2010-04-06T04:19:00.001+02:00

Oh my God.... I know I'm about to sound like a bloody fan girl, but honestly I could care even less. =)) I'm usually pretty excited + energetic + happy + LOUD about the things that I'm truly enthusiastic about, and that's just the way it is. And I like it this way, as it brings me success... anyway....

I luuuuuuuvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv Satori's demos. So much that I actually check their Pouet page every month or so just to see if they have anything new, even though they hadn't released anything since 2007. They were one of the very first groups I came to know, and they're among my top 3 favourite demo groups of all time, and I have a LOT of favourites so... you get the picture. =)

I was beginning to lose hope of seeing new demos from Satori since they hadn't released anything in such a long while. And that would have been such a shame. So you can imagine the depth of my WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW when I saw their name pop up on my screen today, as I was watching the demo compo on Breakpoint TV. =) And oh wow, they SO did not disappoint! The demo is a true artistic masterpiece.

What's interesting is that the Satori demos are like NO other demos. What I mean is, many of the really nice demos that I have seen, have certain elements in common. I'm not saying they look in any way the same, but they have some very basic similarities in their effects, design and direction. But Satori's demos never have anything in common with anything else out there. They stand out completely, and the totally rule. Same was the case with their BP release. And hey, this one happens to be even better than their own previous demos. All I can say now is that I hope they don't stop.....

Below is the video recording of the demo. But I suggest you download the actual demo to enjoy the full experience of it.

Last.fm Musical Compatibility??!

2010-04-03T18:50:00.001+02:00

So what just happened to that? I've noticed that since about 2 weeks ago, suddenly Last.fm has decided to show very low compatibility between me and people who listen to a lot of the same as me... people who used to have near 100% compatibility with me. I think they've managed to break something. =P And yes I sort of care because it's a good way of discovering music I may like. This service truly is on a downward spiral... meh.

Round VAIO!

2010-04-02T00:12:00.001+02:00

Whoa! To say that I'm impressed would be a total understatement! Sony just hit us with one of the biggest design surprises of the decade. This limited edition VAIO is in fact, well, ROUND!

I have to admit, even though I recently bought myself a pretty amazing VAIO, I'm still quite seriously tempted to purchase one of these. Check it out!

Hubo Robot!

2010-03-30T20:32:00.001+02:00

Here's another serious competitor for ASIMO. I just came across this article on IEEE Spectrum and was pretty amazed by how natural some of this robot's moves are. And it actually looks pretty neat too! The wrist + finger movements / control impressed me the most.

Norooz, 2569 [1389]

2010-03-20T02:14:00.001+01:00

Norooz.... it's here again. =) Time goes by fast, doesn't it? Well, I have to admit, it's been a very interesting year. A lot of interesting events happened this year, in many various contexts and directions. And from what I see right now, the coming year is probably going to be even more adventurous. Some crazy things are in the making, lets just say that for now. ;)

Tomorrow at 1:35 PM Toronto time, 6:35 PM Zurich time, and 9:05 PM Tehran time, the Persian year 2569 [1389] starts. Happy Norooz everyone, and wish you all a fantastic new year. =)

Rust Mirror

2010-03-17T01:55:00.001+01:00

Oh my world... it this amazing or what? Superb work of art created by "Daniel Rozin", an artist who's art responds to the people viewing the art. More info here. Thanks to this guy for the link.