Geli's Ramblings

QuotesЯUs (11): Dragon Age

2009-12-03T00:17:48Z

Dialogue from the game I am currently playing. No spoilers. You'll only ever get the exchange if you use pretty much the same party I do, so no reason to avoid.

Upon entering a new, slightly strange room:

Alistair (Tank): Hey, you see those thingies over there on the side of that huge chasm? I bet they're used for something. Maybe I should touch them, or stand on them?

Leliana (Rogue): Alistair, normal people tend to avoid strange looking sections of floor 'thingies', as you say. They tend to be traps...

Delivered perfectly. Anyone considering playing the game - do yourself a favor and go for the English version.

And yes, I do remember the fact that I have a blog. Why dou you ask?

RIP (8): Michael Jackson

2009-06-27T11:57:26Z

August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009

Not the kind of image I usually look for for posts in this category, but I believe it's very expressive.

"I used to dream
I used to glance beyond the stars
Now I don't know where we are
Although I know we've drifted far."
-- Earthsong

RIP indeed.

Good morning, this is your wakeup call!

2009-06-26T00:17:37Z

I'm back. And I am just a tiny bit out of sync with this city. On my way home tonight I missed my station for the first time in years.

Vacation was great. Just a little on the short side...

Fun facts: Madeira is roughly the size of Berlin (794 and 892 km² respectively) while not even having one tenth of the population. Most of which is crowded in a few areas on the coast.

"I'm Off Then" aka "Ich bin dann mal weg"

2009-06-08T19:27:23Z

Vacation time!

Going away time. Travelling time. Hiking time. Reading time. Great time :D

And this is going to be it:

...

Or not. Embedding is not working as it should. Frak. Well, then let's do it the old-fashioned way.

I'm not sure it's all that apparent from the map - but that's a 500 and something metres cliff. And the view ist westwards. Sunset time.

Plus, you know, all the rest of the island.

Be seein' you :)

Belated Introductions

2009-06-06T16:11:57Z

As I've reported before, I got myself a job in December. As I haven't reported so far, I got myself a new computer in January. Guess that shows just how fed up I was with my old one. Here's a clue to why:

Not exactly a beauty anymore. Which, in itself, would be no reason at all, but which also was only one of the symptoms. The poor thing, being almost six years old, also sounded like a helicopter about to take off all the time. Plus, the 3D part of the graphic card was broken. Plus, it was effing slow.

While it was still doing an OK job with most everyday stuff, current games were out of the question, current being used in the very broad sense of the word here. As I said, no hardware support for 3D whatsoever... While I don't actually game that much anymore, there's a world of a difference between can't and won't. Also "not that much" is not exactly the same as "not at all" ;) Most important though, because of the overall crawling attitude, I really wasn't too keen on doing video editing on it anymore either. A whopping 100 GB of hard disk also weren't helping.

It had to be a notebook again as the old one definitely was going to be retired. Still, I'm not actually carrying it around a lot. It's much more of a easily portable desktop PC than a real notebook. And I really dig big screens, especially during vidding. 17" then. And I'd really like to have a decent screen, thank you very much.

After much research I decided on the Studio line from Dell. Owing to my funding, it's kind of in between their rather low key office notebooks and the real powerhouses. It's a very decent in between though: Intel Core 2 Duo P8400, 4 GB of RAM, 350 GB hard disk, a reasonably good graphic card and, behold, a very bright, by now very much loved LED TFT display. A numpad - can't stress that enough... Plus, interfaces for pretty much everything. Including eSATA which is going to become important soon enough :)

As was to be expected, I ended up paying a bit more than I had originally intended. Ah well, I still am very happy with my choice, so it was definitely worth it. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is it:

While I was tempted to get myself a colored lid, that had no chance of winning out against more RAM... Still, it was possible to get an "ornamental" lid without paying extra, so that's what I did:

The beauty arrived and I decided that, this time, I'd not succumb to my inherent laziness and just go with the initial set up. Now it's running on Windows Vista Business 64. VMWare Player is kind enough to provide the rest. (Very short diatribe on Vista - it's still Windows with all its numerous flaws and not that numerous, but rather important, advantages. After turning off most of the unnecessary, resource-hungry gadgets, I've grown rather fond of it. Usability has been notably improved, in my book. Going 64 brings its own sets of problems though.)

Now, how to name it? If I had gone for color and the color had been red, I'd have considered Laura. The lines on the lid made me think Mercator for a while. I finally settled on Mimir though.

Excerpt from Wikipedia:

"Mímir (Old Norse "The rememberer, the wise one") or Mim is a figure in Norse mythology renowned for his knowledge and wisdom who is beheaded during the Æsir-Vanir War. Afterward, the major god Odin carries around Mímir's head and it recites secret knowledge and counsel to him."

As with lots of old mythology, it's a bit on the grim side of things, but I rather dig the 'carrying around for knowledge'-part. Also, should I need more names, I can expand both Norse- and Gods-of-Knowledge-wise.

Alternate Realities

2009-06-06T08:34:22Z

On Thursay I was on the tram, crossing Alexanderplatz. It's a rather lively square in the midst of Berlin, so the tram was going rather slowly to begin with. Still, it had to ring a young girl, maybe 16 years old, off the tracks. That happens a lot there, so not really all that noteworthy so far.

However, as the tram was speeding up again (if you want to call it that), I heard some old lady mumble something that sounded a bit like "negro". Very much not the kind of language I'm used to, so I paused for a moment and then decided I must have misheard. But then: "The whole jungle is coming here." Obviously, that old lady turned hag really was spewing that dirt.

To summarize my initial reaction with "yuck" would be just the tiniest bit of an understatement.

Then however, the feeling quickly turned into pity. You see, according to statistics some 14% of Berlin's population are foreigners. Of course, not all of them are "non-white". But then, there are plenty of Germans who aren't either, so let's just go with that number. Since the girl in question was about as dark as, say, Jennifer Beals we'll have to allow a lot of leeway anyway. So, really, that person must perceive herself to live in a rather hostile environment pretty much all the time. I don't suppose people like Obama are going sooth her worries either.

Boy, am I ever glad my world is so much different from hers...

Eureka (10) & BSG(9): Cameo

2009-06-03T23:54:55Z

I just had a little video surfing spree before being off to bed. Stumbled upon the A-Team intro. And, quite literally, laughed out loud at 0:44.

They even included the sound effect... nuts. But it sure is my kind of nuts.

BSG (8): Can you?

2009-05-13T19:20:35Z

Fair warning: This is going to be about BSG's finale. If you haven't seen it yet, be ashamed of yourself and go away. Consider using the saved time to finally catch up with the rest of the world ;)

Also, it's not going to be a review or anything like that. I believe I am far too partial to some aspects of it to do a fair job anyway. It's just some rambling about one particular Rosliny-Adamaish scene. No need to read any further if that's not your cup of tea.

First off, I am a shipper. Not one of those who has the need to pair people off in everything they watch and read, but if some pairing really gets to me, boy am I emotionally invested in them. (From what little "statistical" data I've gathered that particular habit seems to be fairly closely and positively related to the absence of a Y-gene. But I digress.)

My point being: As you just might have gathered before, Adama and Roslin so did get to me.

Their end was everything I expected it to be. Ever since The Hub (at the latest) which aired a good nine months before Daybreak, I expected them to find a home and then for her to die in a quiet scene between just the two of them. In a way those expectations probably diminished the effect - or rather cushioned the blow - quite a bit. So, this final scene didn't get to me quite as much as I had been afraid it would.

However, another scene quietly tip-toed in and - now that it has been a few weeks I feel that I can make the call - is going to be their scene from the finale in my memories. It's the one before they're in the raptor, the one where he christens the planet Earth, the one where he picks her up and carries her. And it's one line in particular:

"Put your arm around me. Can you?"

That's it. That second part, that tiny two-word sentence is the one line that came to my mind again and again afterwards, even before rewatching anything. When it wouldn't go away I started thinking about why exactly it had touched me like that.

Maybe, just maybe, it's because - if memory serves right - that second part is the first time he truly acknowledges out loud what's going to happen. She has done so long ago, he's the one who refuses to let go. But in these scenes he, finally, is doing everything he can to just make things easier on her. No expectations, no strings attached. It very nicely mirrors her vision on board the basestar earlier on, where she dies and he tells her to go and rest now.

Along this line of thought and in response to something a friend of mine said - namely that he should have hurried up a bit with that ring part - I believe he may just have waited with putting his ring on her finger, in a vain attempt of not letting her know just how much this was going to destroy him. Also, as I've said before, that scene means I do feel I was right. Again, spirit of the law here :)

So much for that. Maybe now that I've written about it it's finally going to leave me alone. That kind of thing has worked before.

BSG (7): Battlestar Galactica @ FedCon XVIII

2009-05-04T21:26:14Z

What can I say? Every single one of those guys - Edward James Olmos, Michael Hogan, James Callis, Richard Hatch, Mark Sheppard - rocked. Big time.

Random Thoughts on why that is...

On Sunday night I talked to a friend who has only seen the mini series and even she has noticed that, somehow, they're different. So far, all of them - and that includes Mary McDonnell, Jamie Bamber, Nicki Clyne, Leah Cairns and Michelle Forbes from last year's con - gave the very distinct impression that BSG was not just another show for them. That they cared deeply for it. And that those same feelings extended to their fans. You ask them a question about some scene, they know what you're talking about. Don't get me wrong. There are actors like that on many shows. But never before have I gotten that feeling from so many people on the same show.

Why the frak is that?

Maybe it's because all of them get to do their part within those great stories. Stories, that without any doubt aren't without flaws, some of them quite serious. But stories nevertheless that always are deeply human, thought-provoking and one hell of an emotional rollercoaster. Whatever problems BSG's writing may have (I really do understand everyone who's been disappointed by the very apparent lack of foreplanning and its consequences), the character scenes aren't it. Actors, for obvious reasons, love that, quite possibly more so than thoroughly planned out arcs. I'm pretty sure the same goes for the extensive use of all kinds of shades of grey for the characters that BSG is so very fond of. Plus, and here we get back to the first sentence of this paragraph, whatever small parts they may have to play, they're all part of the big story. BSG - with very few exceptions - doesn't do one off episodes that feature one character and are forgotten by next week. Characters like Racetrack may not get much screentime but whatever time they do get is part of the story, not just an aside.

Compare that to parts like Robert Beltran's Chakotay, just to take one (not so random) example. Can you really expect him to swell with pride for the work he did on that show? There's been some debate on that topic in the fandom, but I'm definitely with the people answering 'no' to that.

Last but not least, most of BSG's cast still is very new to conventions. In a sense they - including such heavy hitters as Olmos, who was only doing his third con ever - are even greener in that regard than people from new Star Trek shows are when they start out. The latter are already part of this big, decade old franchise, even if they only got hired yesterday. People on BSG aren't, they're the new kids on the block. Guess it helps with not perceiving an event as routine. (And yes, there's the old show. But that's so not the same situation as with Star Trek.)

On to actually talking about FedCon itself

Be aware that this is only going to be fairly random stuff. I know, I know - what else is new? ;)

James Callis (aka Gaius Baltar) was only there on Friday night and Saturday so I didn't get to see much of him. He seems to be a very sweet guy though, who has thought a lot about his part on the show. But then, they all have - see above...

My favorite bit of trivia to take away from his panel was about one of Baltar's dream sequences right after he escaped from New Caprica with the Cylons. That dream involves Roslin, Adama, Tigh and Head Six, the former three anxious to declare him absolutely innocent on everything that happened during his presidency. Roslin then kisses him and he wakes up. According to Callis the script called out for her to shoot him at first, but he thought that was being far too conventional. So he suggested the kiss. Sneaky bastard ;)

Richard Hatch (aka Tom Zarek) - all around nice guy.

He talked about his character's motivation quite a bit. I don't remember all of it, but I think the gist of it was, that he wasn't completely happy with his final actions or rather the way they were shown. Too much bad guy, not enough explanation for his actions. My feelings exactly. Which also is why I may remember that wrong, I'll have to check the DVD when it's out.

Also, if anyone else was curious about that - the leather jacket he was wearing was not the one Zarek wore on the show. He owns that one too though.

During the Olmos-Hogan-Hatch panel on Sunday, Olmos was asked for his thoughts on when exactly Adama fell in love with Roslin (when she was dying, and a bit before she did) at which point Hatch chimed in with: "Well, I fell in love with Mary..." Get in line ;)

Apparently, he's also involved with Eve Online in some way, he promoted that quite a bit. Which I didn't mind as I actually buy him playing the game.

Mark Sheppard (aka Romo Lampkin) - as Batch so aptly put it: is there any show this guy hasn't been on? He's got tons to talk about, he talks openly and he happens to be a SciFi fan himself. Which, strangely enough, opens up about a gazillion topics to talk about.

His more or less serious attempts to avoid spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen S4 of Galactica yet, were hilarious even though probably not really all that helpful. It's not as if people unhear things just because he wildly flails around his arms gesturing to put your fingers in your ears after something came up. (Absolutely no complaint whatsoever btw. - IMO it's more than just a bit optimistic to go to those talks and expect not to be spoilered...) He took great delight in stressing his proper title.

He already was a huge fan when he came on the show, which first happened in the episode after the one where Kara dies, i.e. 3x18 The Son Also Rises. When he got on the set he had seen everything that had aired so far (up to 3x07), but of course had no idea what else they had been shooting. And somehow people seemed to be a tad depressed. Enter Eddie Olmos handing him a stack of DVDs containing the episodes up to that point. Cut to Mark Sheppard sitting in a Chinese restaurant, staring at his iPod, crying like a baby. The next time he was on set Eddie came right up to him, put on a huge smile and asked (imagine Mark doing an imitation here...): "Isn't it great?!"

And yes, he was nervous. Especially since he only just shown up - and then got all of these really long scenes right away. So, everyone shows up to see who this new guy is and what he's doing. The first scene he did is the one that also introduces Lampkin in the show, when Roslin hires him as Baltar's attorney. He's got this big audience already and Eddie thinks it'd be cool if Adama seated himself in a chair behind Romo to stare holes into his back. (And what a very nice back it is, isn't it Ms You Know Who You Are?)

Also, about that same scene, Romo originally had a two minute speech there about fear and what it does the men an so on... which was cut. But which explains why Roslin looks at him the way she does before she says "Well, it's so comforting to know that you're not afraid."

Some more non-BSG bits and pieces:

He urged us to watch Leverage.

He is definitely not fond of his work on Bionic Woman, the non-fondness relating to both the work itself and the working conditions. "They didn't spend money on anything worthwhile. Like decent food. Or scripts." (All quotes are actually paraphrased.) He thinks he got his scene with Katee Sackhoff near the end of BSG to make up for that particular shared experience.

And, on Voyager: "I made good friends with Jeri Ryan. Which meant the other one didn't talk to me at all."

Michael Hogan (aka Saul Tigh) looks at least a decade younger when he's not being grumpy. Which is exactly what I told him during the autograph session. To which he answered: "And when I'm not being drunk! ... Today I'm just hung-over." Really, he's actually a very nice, funny, relaxed man, very much not the way we know Tigh. He was kind enough to do grumpy Tigh voice a few times during the panels though, he even did "It's in the frakking ship!!", a line I just happen to love, mainly because of the way he delivers it. At that point the tech guys had the brilliant idea to start playing "All Along the Watchtower" to which he reacted by asking: "You're all hearing this, right?!" No, of course we didn't ;)

I particularly liked what Eddie Olmos told us - that Michael just refused to be a Cylon. "To this day he will tell you that he's not. So, don't tell him something like 'You're the best Cylon ever!', he won't like that." Which, of course, is exactly how he played the character and why he's my personal favorite out of the Final Four. This cylon-shmylon attitude just totally fits the character.

Edward Jame Olmos (aka William Adama). Wow. He impressed the hell out of me. I'm not the only one either, he's currently topping the "Your favorite Guest at FedCon XVIII."-survey, which is quite unusual for one of the big names. Most of them, even the really nice ones, are just too distant to win against the "small" ones mingling with the fans, or against crazy nuts like John Billingsley. He wasn't. He was warm, obviously totally in awe of the show, gave interesting talks and didn't just sign autographs, but write small novels.

The fact that I actually got to talk (as in, really talk, not just some equivalent of "have a nice time" or "great to have you here", probably the most common autograph session lines) to him a bit, didn't hurt either.

He tried really hard to avoid spoilers for season 4 (they all did, most of the time - which, in all honesty, frustrated me quite a bit. C'mon guys, I'm not here to enjoy the scenery, I want to hear your thoughts on the show). When he talked about the finale that netted us the following gem (if you have any sense of story-telling whatsoever, you can read this even if you haven't seen it - it's so not what I'd call a surprise) - anyway, he's talking about the final scene he and Mary McDonnell (Roslin) did. Apparently that one was quite hard to do. It was 3 am and "Mary couldn't move because ... of the situation that we were in." Subtle, man, subtle ;) I've heard about that scene from other people and apparently Mary kept screwing things up because she kept crying even though she really wasn't supposed to do so. Awww...

Olmos and Hogan also had a great scene when they were asked to impersonate each other's characters. Which resulted in Olmos lolling his head, snoring - and Hogan doing a very bad impression of someone bawling his eyes out. Yes, it was so funny I got a tiny fit of laughter. And yes, that was when I got aimed at with the floodlight to ask my question. Great timing that.

I also totally loved his appearance at the closing ceremonies. He got out, very grumpy face, and very unenthusiastically said something like: "I hate all of this. I had a horrible weekend. You are all terrible. I'm only doing this for the money. This is why I only sign my initials."

(It's surprisingly hard to shoot a decent photo of a photo btw...)

I like to believe he actually noticed my Starbuck dogtag and chose the cat line based on this. We all need our little delusions.

He then thanked all of us for the great weekend and particularly mentioned that he had actually been able to walk throught the bar, just like that. Which he can't normally do, especially not with people being drunk.

Last but not least - same as last year - it is one hell of a treat to have a whole, very big room full of people yell "So say we all." :D

And - that's what Hogan told us - it's actually thanks to Eddie that the phrase got used that way. The original script for the miniseries (in that pep talk about Earth Adama gives to his crew, actually the first scene they were shooting) only had him say it once, and then for the main characters (the ones with a script that is, not the extras) to echo it. But Olmos said it again, louder. And they were a bit confused about where he was going with it, but did the same. And again. And again. Some fifteen times, or so, Till he had even the extras join in. Love the story, love the scene, love Eddie, love the show. Absolutely and totally loved BSG@FedCon :)

Yes!!

2009-04-30T00:14:39Z

As I've mentioned in the comments of this blog, I did - rather late - decide on doing a music video for this year's FedCon after all. After endless hassles (I so hate having to deal with technical mumbo jumbos when all I really wanna do is get going...) it's done. Batch and I are going to leave for Bonn around 10 tomorrow morning, so plenty of time to spare, really ;)

It's BSG, btw. Here is to broadening my creative horizon. Once I've put it on Youtube, I'll let you know.

I'm really looking forward to seeing all of you who are going to be at FedCon. So long...

Eternal Vigilance

2009-04-12T18:03:20Z

I spent most of the last few days in my parents' garden. Which, considering the very nice weather and my recent lack of reading, was very nice indeed.

As always I was amazed at the fact that all you need is a tiny oasis like this to meet not only birds, but lizards, frogs, toads and newts. There's one frog that seems to have taken up permanent residence at the pond. Every single time a plane crosses it starts croaking. We're guessing it's trying to chase them away. Quite successfully too - so far not one of them has dared landing. Helicopters, however, do not seem to be considered a threat. Strange that.

The One That Just Had To Go Without A Clever Title

2009-04-08T22:09:32Z

I trust you all remember Brokeback Babylon?

Last FedCon, almost a year ago, it was played before Peter Jurasik (Londo that is, I've been told there are people who only know the characters' names *g*) got on stage for his panel. Which made him comment on it. Thanks to Starstuff I now can give you (and me, for that matter) the exact quote instead of my somewhat incoherent summary:

"There are many, many reasons why I wish Andreas Katsulas was alive, but that is one of them. He would love that, that’s so funny. I’ve seen that before, it’s great, isn’t it? Brokeback Babylon. I wish he was here."

Now, just so you know, I dig any and all feedback I'm getting. The audience you get is one of the things that are so great about the internet. Also, applause (not to mention laughter) from a live audience is quite nice, too. But feedback like that from someone I made something about? And not just anyone, but Jurasik? Saying that Katsulas, of all people, would have liked it? Doesn't get better than that.

Thanks again to trulla and robse (and whoever else may have been there without me knowing) for screaming in time to stop Marc from forgetting about it!

Beauty. In the Light.

2009-04-07T20:21:25Z

I so wish I'd have had a camera with my on my way home today.

Thanks to both the very nice spring weather we're having and daylight saving time I finally get to ride my bike in sunlight again. Some time around seven I was approaching the Frankfurter Tor (de) heading westwards. When I had to stop at some traffic lights, the sun shone right through the glass part on the top of the left tower. It looked just like a lighthouse. With the sky around it already starting to turn orange, it was amazingly beautiful. Of course, the photo below can't hope to even begin to get across the impression. Well, at least I did get to appreciate it :)

RIP (7): Andy Hallett

2009-04-02T12:32:38Z

Note to self: if you neglect posting long enough, sooner or later your reentry is going to be something like this :(

August 4, 1975 – March 29, 2009

While I have yet to watch Angel I did meet Andy at a convention. Appearantly he died because of a tooth infection leading to chronic heart disease some five years ago.

"Life's a bitch and then you die."

BSG (6): Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2

2009-01-27T00:44:46Z

I just finished rewatching Galactica's first season. Which is awesome, even more so than I remembered. Granted it is not as planned out as B5, but the characters are just amazing. And that cliffhanger still is one of the best I've ever seen. And don't even get me started on the score...

Also, if the last thing you've seen before that was what's out of S4 yet, especially 4x12, especially that final scene - the whole thing tends to veer off a bit to the funny side of things every now and then, inspite of all the tension. Yes, I do appreciate irony :)

QuotesЯUs (10)

2009-01-20T22:02:13Z

From the already praised Fahrenheit 451, one of many:

It's not books you need, it's some of the things that once were in books. [...] The same infinite detail and awareness could also be projected through the radios and televisors, but are not. No, no, it's not books at all you're looking for! Take it where you can find it, in old phonograph records, old motion pictures, and in old friends; look for it in nature and look for it in yourself. Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.

Well, stitching the patches of the universe toghether is plenty of magic if you ask me...

Portable Magic (9)

2009-01-20T20:32:59Z

Anne Rice: Interview With The Vampire

I have never seen the movie, so I was completely clueless as to what to expect. I liked it a lot, especially the dark mood. I will check out some of the other books of the series, I'm pretty sure of that.

(Wikipedia)

Neal Stephenson: Cryptonomicon

When someone on my reading list tells me his updating frequency is going to suffer because he's busy reading some author's latest book, that author's just begging to be checked out. So I did, and I'm glad I have.

I absolutely love Stephenson's use of language and narrative technique. I love his sense humor and I especially dig his quirky, nerdy digressions. His vocabulary is pretty outstanding, too. The story itself got a little too conventional for my liking, especially near the end, but I still enjoyed myself a lot. He's another one I'll come back to, probably a lot sooner than Rice, too.

(Wikipedia)

That's it for 2008, some 80 books in total. Not quite the 100 I originally aimed for (GTA's to blame...), but quite decent nevertheless, I believe. On for 2009 then:

Alan Weisman: Die Welt ohne uns (The World Without Us)

What would happen if mankind were to vanish all of a sudden? How would Earth recover, how long would it take... not really an uplifting experience and not because of the premise either. Boy, we really are good at creating long term problems *sigh*

(Wikipedia)

Susan Kay: Das Phantom (Phantom)

The book expands on the original, Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera, and aims to make Eric (the Phantom) a more complex character by telling his backstory. It was very much recommended in an online board, and I did like it. Still, I couldn't quite understand the raving reviews at Amazon and the like, which is probably to blame on me failing to read the original first... well, that's bound to happen every once in a while when you prefer just plunging into books instead of doing some research first. Leroux's also on that list of mine now, no harm done :)

(Wikipedia)

Jason Lutes: Berlin. Steinerne Stadt (Berlin. City of Stones)

The first part of a trilogy of graphic novels set in the final, turbulent years of the Weimar Republic. Very political, very personal all the same - very much recommended.

(Wikipedia on the author)

Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451

Wow!

One of the most amazing books I have read in a long time. It totally blew me away. Most people probably know that it's about a dystopian society where books have been outlawed and are being burnt - that's what I knew.

It is so much more though. It's a thrilling tale, the journey of a character and it contains some wonderful philosophical tangents regarding books, society, people, truth, fear... you name it. The book was first published in 1953, which is both amazing and terrifying as a lot of it rings so very true with what's going on right now. At the same time, it manages to spread optimism even in the face of one of the more gruesome ending's I've read.

The 50 year anniversary edition I read contains an afterword and a coda by as well as an interview with Bradbury, born at different points during those 50 years and reflecting on certain aspects of the book and what has happened since then - a truly great addition.

Can't recommend it enough!!

(Wikipedia)

J.K. Rowling: Die Märchen von Beedle dem Barden (The Tales of Beedle the Bard)

Far too short, but still very enjoyable, especially because of "Dumbledore's" annotations. Very nice addition to the Potterverse. Plus, it's for charity. (Btw. I absolutely loved Rowling's way of saying thank you with the handmade editions...)

(Wikipedia)

Current read is Dan Ariely: Denken hilft zwar, nützt aber nichts (Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions).

Eureka (9): WhatTheFont?!

2008-12-23T12:47:25Z

I just did some fiddling in Photoshop to make a gift coupon for Christmas. (It's not as lame as it sounds. In fact, I think it's pretty darn cool. But, thanks to Murphy, if I spill, this is going to be the one time the receiver is going to read this blog. Ergo, spilling has been suspended until further notice.)

Anyway, I wanted to match a given font, so I needed to identify it first. I already knew there was a site that asked you questions about a font and then tried to find out which one it was: Identifont. However, while looking for it, I found another one. And this one lets you load up an image and then identifies the font: WhatTheFont?!. No guarantee as to the reliability, but the one I tried worked like a charm. Sweet.

Eureka (8): LIFE photo archive

2008-12-23T10:58:02Z

"Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today." Hosted by Google.

I could easily spend hours there... Found via the ever great USA Erklärt. Thanks :)

Sitrep (7)

2008-12-23T10:52:47Z

I'm home for Christmas. And I am determined to enjoy every minute of it.

Contrary to what my second to last entry said, my new job wasn't actually ahead but pretty much upon me. The day after I made that entry I got a call: "Um, could you get to work sooner. There's this thing we need to get done..." - "Sure, how about tomorrow?" - "Really?! That would be just great!" So, I turned up, got shown around a bit and then sent right to work. And pulled 45 hours in 7.5 days. Which, for someone who hasn't been working for quite a while and also tends to need eight to ten hours sleep a night, turned out to be quite a change... Even though that work almost got obliterated within a few minutes, everything turned out well in the end. We'll get to see whether we did good enough some time in February or March. And, just now, I've discovered I have been paid already. Which is a very good thing indeed as I've already spent some of that money during Christmas shopping.

Now, what else to do with my newly discovered riches?

I have finally ordered my ticket for next year's FedCon. Everything's gonna be OK, I get to be there :D

Also, I'm currently weighing my need for a new notebook against my need to go on vacation. It's really not so much the 'not working' part that makes the latter for me, but the going somewhere part. And I haven't had that in more than two years. Which, for me, is breathtakingly long. So, I'm kinda in favor of just tormenting my current notebook some more and go to Corsica to do the GR 20 first. It's supposed to be the most beautiful long range hiking trail in Europe. Appearantly, since the last time I was considering this, the situation concerning provisions on the way has much improved. If you avoid the main season - which you should do anyway because of the heat - it's also quite feasible to not take a tent. Also, the trail is perfectly waymarked - given my less than stellar sense of orientation that's quite important. As there are quite a few people there at any given time (in context of mountain trails, that is) I was actually thinking of just doing this one on my own. Turns out my mother would like to go with me. Which would be really nice. Anyway, I've already bought a guide, we'll work that one through during the holidays and then we'll see. If it's a go - whether with or without my mom - I'll have to do some training till June.

Last but not least, happy holidays to everyone. Or just happy days, if you're not the Christmas type :)

RIP (6): Majel Barrett

2008-12-19T17:04:59Z

February 23, 1932 - December 18, 2008

From what little I've heard and read about her she must have been pretty amazing. I didn't even know she was sick and was still hoping to meet her at a convention once. Since Lady Morella has already been covered, I'll quote Lwaxana Troi, one of my favorite recurring characters on ST:

"Every one of us has a thousand different kinds of... of little people inside of us. And some of them want to get out and be wild, and some want to be sad or happy or inventive or... or even just go dancing. That's why we all have so many different urges at different times. And all those different little people inside of us... we must never be afraid to take them with us, wherever we go."
- ST:TNG, Cost of Living

God, I do hate that category...

Job ahead!

2008-12-08T23:53:59Z

That is, if nothing goes wrong anymore. They said I'd get the details within the week. It's just a student parttime job, but they're looking to hire someone for real if said someone manages to actually finish their studies. So, yay for me. That is, if nothing goes wrong anymore. So, keep your fingers crossed, will ya?

Portable Magic (8)

2008-12-08T11:14:23Z

Books again. It's been a while, so there are a few. My speed has greatly decreased though, thanks to the awesomeness of GTA IV.

Stefan Heym: Die Architekten (The Architects)

Very much an average book. Nothing much to say about it except that I found the characters to be too full of stereotypes for my liking.

Bryan K. Vaughan: Y - The Last Man

Batch has been recommending this comic book series for ages. Rightly so. Yes, there were some storyline weeknesses near the end, but that's really not what this series is all about. The characters are great (355's my favorite), so are the "deeper questions". Very much recommended. If you wanna know more, I strongly urge you to check it out at Batch's Blog. Those entries are German though.

(Batch's Blog, Wikipedia)

J.R.R. Tolkien:
The Silmarillion
The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings

I've been meaning to read those again for years, the last (and only) time I had read them being in 2000. And was it ever worth it! Those books were even better than I remembered them to be. And I really did have good memories.

Given that I know the movies pretty much by heart, this also proved to be a very enlightning experience regarding book-movie-transformations. Yes, there are changes, there are a lot of them. There always will be, especially with books of this scope. Still, apart from a few exceptions, the movies manage to capture the essence of the books amazingly well. What really is remarkable is how much of it is so very close to the book, right down to lines of dialogue. Sometimes they are presented in different context, but still work. Need to see the movies again now :)

Last but not least, I still am completely awed by the Silmarillion, there is no other way to put this. So much story, so much background, so much depth - wow.

(Wikipedia on The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings)

Eduard Augustin, Philipp von Keisenberg, Christian Zaschke: Ein Mann, ein Buch (i.e. A Man, A Book)

A bestseller in Germany, this book aims to teach everything a man needs to know. Since I happen to live with one of them, I did not want to be at a disadvantage and read it, too ;)

Michael Chabon: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

Great!

My first book of Chabon, but definitely not the last one. It's an Alternate Universe story, in that it has a Jewish state in Alaska that was founded during the Nazi era (not totally unfounded btw). Since it was just a 'loan', it will be given back to the US in a few weeks (the events take place in 2008). None of the inhabitants know whether they will be allowed to remain in the US afterwards, resulting in a very special mood throughout the book. Ah yes, since so many Jews fled to Alaska instead of Palestine, Israel lost its war of independence in 1948. Meaning, there is no Israel.

Mostly, it's a detective story. But it's also so much more. Plus, I love Chabon's writing style. It's hard to describe. Let's just say that IMDb states there's going to be a movie mady by the Coens in 2010. Let's also add that I believe they're perfect. I'm really looking forward to this.

I'm just going to quote Wikipedia for awards: "The Yiddish Policemen's Union won the Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Locus Award for Best SF Novel, the Hugo Award for Best Novel, and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History for Best Novel. It was shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel."

I so need to get a hold of more of his books!

(Wikipedia)

Dava Sobel: Längengrad (Longitude. The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time)

I had never thought of the fact that it's really easy to calulate latitude, but - for a long time - was near impossible to do so for longitude. And of course, not knowing where you are can lead to all sorts of nasty things to happen. Like missing your only source of potable water... Which is why a prize of 20.000 £, the equivalent of 3.5 million Euro, was offered by the British Parliament for the solution of this problem.

If you know the date and observe the sun, calculating how far north or south you are is pretty straightforward. To do so for East-West is far more difficult. It boils down to this - you need a clock. An accurate one. That keeps being accurate even if you take it somewhere hot, humid, stormy, ... Also, it should be portable, otherwise - not that useful after all. The guy who finally achieved all of this was called John Harrison, a self-taught clockmaker.

In any case, that was the solution that worked out in the end, but the book also tells of other proposals being made. Some are fun, some are absurd, some are creative but unworkable - all are interesting. So's the book as a whole. Next time I get to London, I need to go and see at least one of these clocks!

Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt: Monsieur Ibrahim und die Blumen des Koran (Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran / M. Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran)

Far too short for my liking. But still very much worth it.

(Wikipedia)

Dean Wesley Smith: Captain Proton: Defender of the Earth

Oh my. I bought this one for Robert Duncan McNeill to sign a few years back and finally wanted to read it, too. As expected, it's so bad it's fun again. That's the whole point of Captain Proton after all. However, it also proved to be so bad I couldn't stomach all of it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to return though, I just need some time off first.

Lian Hearn: Tales of the Otori
Across the Nightingale Floor
Grass for His Pillow
Brilliance of the Moon

The trilogy now gone pentalogy is set in a fictional world based on feudal Japan. Which means it's really fascinating in many parts, but also pretty repulsive in others. I'm just not one for ritualized language, taking your life for honor and women being ... somewhat less than men. Still, it makes for a very intersting world, and the books are well written as well. Even though I wasn't overly fond of the end of the original trilogy (far too clean and simple), I still believe those books to be well above average and will check out the other two. No Tolkien though.

(Wikipedia)

Terry Pratchett: Mort

I've read a few Pratchett's a few years ago, all of them in German, which is discouraged by most of his fans. This was my first English novel. It's nice, really nice, but so far I am not really 'sucked in'. I'm going to keep my eyes open for more anyway.

(Wikipedia)

Rana Dasgupta: Die geschenkte Nacht (Tokyo Cancelled)

The first book in a very long time I haven't finished. (Proton doesn't count, that one is meant to be unbearable.)

Far too esoteric for my tastes. There's all this weird stuff happening. And I can't seem to recognize the rules behind it. I mean, there's weird stuff in the Lord of the Rings too, but there are rules. They're different from ours, but they're consistent. Here, weird stuff just happens for the heck of it. And when I say weird, I mean weird...

I might give it another try later on - it would be easy to do so because there are different tales, so it doesn't really matter if you can't remember much - but I'm not sure.

(Wikipedia)

Ernle Bradford: Reisen mit Odysseus (Ulysses Found)

The book is one of many attempts to place the Odyssey geograhically. Whether or not the author is right, really isn't the point. In any case, I learnt a lot about Ulysses, the Mediterranean, the Odyssey and sailing.

Anne Rice: Interview With The Vampire

My current read. I'm enjoying it a lot.

(Wikipedia)

What I said...

2008-11-27T10:39:48Z

... only in much fewer words:

(from graphjam, via reddit, via WWdN)

Thanks :D

Prop 8

2008-11-05T06:38:04Z

I wrote the following the day after the US election a few hours after I had learned Prop 8 was going to pass. I wanted to revise it before posting, but then I felt like just not thinking about it anymore. Which is why I am only posting this now:

I'm not going to lie - when I first learned Prop 8 was going to pass I was angry. I was asking myself all the pointless questions that have been raised over and over again:

Why is it so damn hard to see that your religious freedom does not include dictating rules to anyone else? That you are free to do and don't do whatever you please so long as it does not intrude upon other people's rights? That right and wrong in matters as basic as these is not something to be decided by a majority vote? That your marriage is made worthful by the amount of work and passion you and your spouse invest into it, not anybody else's commitment? All of those are no-brainers to me, and I really, really do not get why they aren't to everyone.

But in the final analysis all of those don't matter. In the final analysis it's all about one simple thing, one sentiment most people would probably call a platitude: Love is never wrong.

You see, I'm much more of an "all of us" than a "them and us" person in general. That doesn't make me naive, I am fully aware of the fact that there are people who have a world view that's totally different from mine. Right now, however, I don't just logically know about this, I really feel the 'them'. It's a them I cannot hope to ever understand. What's worse - I really don't feel like I even want to.

I was deeply impressed by Obama's speech last night. The parts that most moved me were all about bridging the divides between us, about working together, about the ways we're alike instead of the million things that separate us. "Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection." Obama was right, so was Lincoln before him. I truly do believe it to be a universal truth.

Still, if you cannot find it in your hearts to tolerate, accept and respect the most basic and most positive of all human emotions, then I am sorry, but I really and in all honesty do not see where our common ground is supposed to be. I do not expect you to understand, I do not expect you to approve, not like, not promote, not even care. I just expect you to mind your own business and leave me - and everyone else who happens to love someone you cannot understand them loving - alone. And yes, 'leaving alone' does include not making laws treating said someones differently than the rest of the populace.

So, right now, I am not angry. I'm frustrated and intensely disappointed because that uncalled for 'them' feeling takes pretty much everything I expected to feel at Obama's victory out of it for me. I'm sure it will pass eventually because deep down I am an optimistic person - I don't think the world would even be bearable if I wasn't - and believe that sooner or later things are going to work out. But right now? Those thoughts are deep down indeed.

Thanks a bunch.

In case you're wondering, I do feel better by now. I'm still mad though.