Lavonardo

This week’s photo thursday challenge subject is a flower.

My take on the subject is the attached image, an unknown blooming tree from southern California. The tree was covered in these stalkless bright red flowers, a sharp contrast against the blue sky and emerald grass. The tree was visited by two hummingbirds, but their size, speed and darting movements guaranteed that the tiny birds were not successfully captured on a photograph.

(As usual, the full-size photograph is available by clicking the attached image.)

Played two games of Arkham Horror (supplemented with the first expansion Curse of the Dark Pharaoh) today. And the combined score of the two games was 1-1, a draw.

Originally planned on playing just a single game, but got so readily trounced by Cthulhu in the first game (lost on account of having seven open gates on board without us having sealed a single one), just had to try our hand on a second game.

Indeed sucked big time on the first one - didn’t do anything wrong, but fought against a stacked deck, and ended up losing big time (no investigators lost, just very slow progress on the Arkham streets). The final battle commenced much sooner than expected, and we hardly made a dent in the skin of the R’Lyeh Sleeper.

Used the same characters in the second game, against Yig, and while a handsome victory (six gates sealed), it was far from a clear-cut game. The expansion’s Mythos-cards broke the progress several times, and recomposing forces was twice much more a matter of luck than skill (clever anticipation cannot be claimed to be the cause, since there was hardly any strategy for long stretches).

Next time: a two board game, with Dunwich Horror added for extra rugosity and squamousness.

Delta Green is back after a long long hiatus.

Back as a properly published game. Dennis Detwiller has worked wonders with the ransom model during the last year, and now the game is back with a one-two punch.

The original book is finally reprinted, though sadly the content has not been updated since the original printing (apart from adding d20-based mechanics), the conspiracy-riddled world contains no details of a post-911 scheme. (This is based on a very brief and cursory look in Compleat Strategist in New York, so the new and improved data might be there, just carefully camouflaged).

The main event of this spring, however, is the long-awaited release of the three Eyes Only books in a much-expanded edition. The trio of books was originally available directly from Pagan Publishing only - and in the days of pretty much nonexistent web stores, really hard to obtain outside the united states. Got the last two books from a friend who visited Gencon back in the day, and have been looking for the first on eBay. Though, with prices regularly crossing the $100 mark, haven’t been sorely tempted. Now, with a reworked edition, with doubled page count from the originals. There’s simply no excuse not to buy this book. Even with the horrible shipping costs. The initial printing is limited to 1000 copies, half of which have now been sold in ten days.

Rather strong a show for conspiracy/cthulhu mix-up, which was judged to be dead in the water years ago.

No less than two new guitar hero games have been announced.

Sadly, like the Tomb Raider’s tenth year anniversary game, one of the pair will not make it anywhere else but PS2. But hopefully the tracks from the Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s will make it to the xbox 360 as downloadable content. After all, a game that features Dio and Skid Row as the source cannot be all bad. And while there are no utterly unmissable tracks (like the Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight in the second installment), Asia’s Heat of the Moment comes pretty close…

Guitar Hero III will be the first game developed by Neversoft instead of Harmonix. Look and feel is the same, but the list of tracks approaches teh awesom already with the first announcements: Living Color, Alice Cooper (still from the glory years: School’s Out) and Beastie Boys’ Sabotage to top it off.

Haven’t come close to finishing respectably either of the first two installments - the promise of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird as the final encore song in the second game is good goal, though. The last two difficulty ratings seem to be built for people with much much faster fingers and a functional sense of rhythm…

Watched David Fincher’s Zodiac today. It’s not a film in the same category as the rollicking masterpieces Seven and Fight Club, but a very good movie nonetheless.

Its attitude is close to documentary, playing out the investigation of Bay Area’s most notorious serial killer from the limited perspectives of the protagonists. This is indeed not an action packed thriller, but a meticulous police procedural lovingly set in the sixties/seventies turn.

Fincher has coached great performances from the three lead actors: from Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. this is pretty much to be expected, but Mark Ruffalo as the obsessed cop puts out the best show I’ve seen from him. The few female roles are pretty much token across the board, acted well, but small enough to fade into the background.

The format is indeed very much of a documentary - on a few occasions (such as Gyllenhaal’s solo investigation towards the end) the director lets out his drive for thrill, but for almost the whole film the pace is slow.

Stylewise it’s well-executed as well - Fincher’s liking of San Francisco was established back in the Game, and well-honed shots of the city abound. The music selection ranges from classical music to period pieces (including Donovan’s Hurdy Gurdy Man against the backdrop of the rolling credits).

So, definitely a good movie and heavily recommended - just don’t go in expecting to be thrilled and twisted like in a conventional Fincher movie.

Saw Placebo in the old Helsinki ice hockey arena today.

Saw them play from the highest nosebleed section of the whole hall - row fourteen in the middle, not very far from the roof at all.

Following a sleepless night, stifled warm air and a wall to lean against I had trouble staying focused. Despite reports to the contrary: I did not fall asleep, was just resting my eyelids a little. Falling asleep might have led to literally falling, as the rows are organized very steep.

My Placebo-fu is not very strong - and not having listened to their newest album I missed quite a few songs (discovering a set list is left as an exercise to the reader). Though they did occasionally play hits from throughout their ten+ year discography.

The hall was not sold out officially, but it was pretty packed. And the lines to the toilets, as mr. Srpnt notes were indeed impressively long.

Missed the warm-up band totally (no idea even who it was), and gave the shirts a wide berth as well - at 25-30€ and not very exciting design, they just didn’t appeal enough to justify the cash outlay.

Figured I’d take a look at the inevitable pirate shirt salesmen following the concert, but the roadies supplementing their income were nowhere to be seen. And the cause for such dereliction of duty was simple: a rainstorm. Or a thunderstorm, to be exact. Quite an impressive one for the first of the season.

The band played on the loud side. Wore plugs as has been the case for the last decade or thereabouts, so didn’t really mind (apart from the lack of clarity). Noted that my right ear was completely locked up after the show. Hasn’t happened before - and time to seek out proper help if the condition doesn’t wear off by itself.

Seems that my DVR managed to not record a single television show during the last three weeks.

Obviously, there are no logs to explain the omissions, just an utter absence of episodes of Heroes, Shield and 24.

Bugger on the double, obviously - but profuse swearing only helps so much.

Canal+ will likely re-broadcast Heroes and Shield already this summer, and picking up the events of 24 ought to be doable at the show’s dedicated wiki

I’ll cure this with the best of what the britain’s greatest angst-ers have to offer.

Two weeks in twenty-odd lines (just like the entry on the Aussie trip):

• Flights: 5.
• Flight miles: >10000 (though not all of them in Star)
• Hotels: 3.
• Biggest moment of awe: “Dude, that’s a hummingbird right there”.
• Gadgets bought: 0 (though got a memory card reader as a gift).
• Pandas (proper black/white ones) seen: 0 (missed San Diego Zoo).
• Utterly scary taxi rides: 1 (in Boston, didn’t understand anything the speeding driver was saying).
• Cran-apple juice consumed: 1.89 liters.
• T-shirts bought: 4 (+ 2 received as gifts).
• New countries visited: 1 (Mexico).
• New states visited: 1 (New Hampshire).
• “Song and Lyrics”-movie seen: Twice.
• Geocaches found: 9.
• New state quarters picked up: 2 (Florida & North Dakota).
• New boroughs visited in New York: 2 (Bronx and Brooklyn).
• Photographs taken: 489 + about two dozen with the phone.
• Citypass tickets used: Four of five.
• Damage to credit card: Physical. I so need to call Amex about a replacement.

Whoah, Microsoft has released a very good version of Klaus Teuber’s classic boardgame Settlers of Catan as a Xbox Live Arcade Game.

The computerized version is indeed well put together, game flows fast, and the potentially problematic user interface in the essential trading presents no extra boundaries.

The articficial intelligence puts up a decent fight, but seems to be no match to a grizzled veteran (at least below Hard). Haven’t yet tested the waters on the multiplayer game.

Great value for money - bring on Carcassonne (slated for a june release) and Alhambra. As well as a long line of adapted expansions for them…

Finally managed to attach the photos from the trip, a couple of highlights:

• A brave pigeon attempting to hide the view from empire state building.
• Running tapir, climbing tree kangaroo.
• A tight neppis race on the Atlantic coastline.
• San Diego oddities (including a fortune teller and bulbous cacti).

Got fed up for the umpteenth time with the increasingly malfunctioning 6680 yesterday.

Its skill in missing calls and delivering SMSes very late (occasionally they need to be pulled from the server by sending a bogus message), clearly it’s not worth maintaining such a misbegotten gadget.

So, after noting that the newest phones are available in the internal purchase system, went ahead and ordered a n95. It may not be perfect (especially in its GPS-service), but it can hardly be any worse than what I have now. The color schemes available were rather lame: sand (self-explanatory) and deep plum. Yes, deep plum. Which seems to be nothing more than an euphemism for purple.

Dave Mustaine is angry again.

And there was much rejoicing.

Megadeth’s new album has been spinning in my cd player. A lot. And it’s time to give serious consideration whether to go see them in Tampere in two weeks.

This week’s fiver continues where it left off last week (regarding magazines) and then carries on about green matters.

1. What do you do with your old magazines? Give ‘em away, keep them, take to the cottage to be read in the loo?
Keep them or recycle them.

2. Do you have a bio-garbage can? And if you do, does it get used?
I don’t have one.

3. Do you recycle all that you can? And why?
Not all that I can. But a lot gets recycled. Clothes, paper, cans, glass, …

4. Do green values affect what you buy and do?
Occasionally. But usually they do not get inbetween me and a good deal.

5. Did you watch incovenient truth off the telly last week? And if you did, what’s your opinion? If you didn’t, why not?
Nope. Excused on account of being in the states last week.

As challenged by Mr. Ylitalo, here’s my take on the oddly topical birthday meme…

Search for your birthday in wikipedia, and pick three events, births and deaths that occurred on that day, and do note whether the day is a holiday anywhere in the world. The challenge two of your buddies to do the very same thing.

23.5.

Events
1618 - The Second Defenestration of Prague precipitates the Thirty Years’ War.
1934 - American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed by police and killed in Black Lake, Louisiana.
2003 - The euro exceeds its initial trading value as it hits $1.18 for the first time since its introduction in 1999.

Births
1707 - Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist (d. 1778).
1934 - Robert Moog, American inventor (d. 2005).
1972 - Rubens Barrichello, Brazilian formula 1 driver.

Deaths
1701 - Captain Kidd, Scottish pirate (b. 1645).
1945 - Heinrich Himmler, Nazi official (b. 1900).
1992 - Giovanni Falcone, Italian judge (b. 1939).

Holidays
There’s a grand total of three things observed: Declaration of the Báb for the Bahá’í Faith, the World Turtle Day and Day of Disunity for the Discordians.

Four liturgical feast days occur: Saint Desiderius, Saint Euphrosyne of Polotsk, Hegumena of the Monastery of the Holy Saviour (1173), Saint Guibert of Gemblours and Saint Montana.

Challenges
Well, let’s let mr. Srpnt and Mane enlighten us what happens on their birthday (apart from eating way too much cake).

This week’s photo thursday challenge subject is harbour.

My take on the subject is the attached image, a view of tye New York harbour, through the bridge’s cabling.

(As usual, the full-size photograph is available by clicking the attached image.)

his week’s photo thursday challenge is the One, the first birthday of the challenge.

My take on the subject is the attached image, a view of the Manhattan skyline through the Brooklyn Bridge cabling, with Empire State Building covered in the very middle of the bridge itself. It’s hardly representative of the challenge as a whole, but a nice picture nonetheless (haven’t got any of a birthday cake to spare).

(As usual, the full-size photograph is available by clicking the attached image.)

A year older, hardly a year wiser.

Pretty much par for the course.

Managed to stay awake till midnight yesterday, and enjoyed a very deep sleep.

That’s what 30+ hours flat staying awake with some extra adrenalin thrown in for good measure does.

No crises at work. Had a surprisingly productive day. Productive when compared to similar post-travel days, not in general.

Attaching of photographs to the recent entries won’t happen today, I feel mr. Morpheus starting to blow his pale sands in my direction already…

Home sweet home.

Didn’t sleep a single wink. Didn’t even catnap.

For many reasons, which combined to make this flight one to remember.

First: the travelling companions. The black-clad folks of a distinctly hebrew extraction indeed turned out to be uncommon company. Nothing bad, just odd. I’ve had much worse company on a plane (drunken bulgarians, hyper-talkative french guys, babies with a surgically inserted air raid siren), but not odder. The guys kept to themselves pretty much (apart from an elderly gentleman seated across from me who almost succeeded in tripping up a stewardess twice).

Second: the weather. Somewhere south of greenland and iceland the plane hit a turbulentious area. Turbulent enough to warrant the captain to call the cabin crew to their seats. The ride was definitely bumpy for some two hours, but not too bad - no flying objects were present in the cabin at any time, and the few dips were shallow. But the progress was bumpy enough to keep most passengers from falling asleep.

Third: sudden onset of airsickness. Not mine, though the Amoeba from Tijuana still seems to persist. Of other passengers. And of the kind that needs attention from stewardesses and application of extra oxygen (and probably doctors being called in to see what’s going on).

Combination of the three above sure made the JFK-FRA leg a much livelier one than usual.

In comparison the second leg to Helsinki was just plain boring.

This probably qualifies as one of the oddest turns for the better.

The Pod Hotel bell captain obviously was onto something this morning when he smugly asked whether I needed a car to get to the airport in the afternoon. In a city fulled with yellow cabs I figured there’d be no need to tie myself to a set pickup time.

Little did I know. Come half past three, and there’s not a cab in sight on the fifty-first.

Figured I’d bide my time with the twin suitcases for a credible while before moving onto the second avenue round the corner (and a bit).

Noted that two women, obviously from the hotel, were stuck with their luggage as well. Idled for a while before asking them for how long they’d been waiting. A while enough for them to address me. In finnish. (Strange thing #1, for those keeping the score at home).

Turns out that there was no black magic involved, they’d just picked my name off a suitcase tag. And their car was late, very late - and naturally, if it’d be big enough I’d be allowed to ride with them to the airport (we turned out to be on the same flight over to Frankfurt). Decided to find out whether the car was indeed large enough to accommodate all three of us. It was. It sure was. It was a stretch limousine, proudly equipped with all kinds of bling inside. But sadly there was no Cristal in the fridge. (Odd event #2).

Road to JFK was bristling with cars, and the limo took its good time using some odd shortcuts to optimize the route. But got to the airport without any incidents, and in very decent time. And the shared ride, ended up being much cheaper than a taxi ride. Pleasant surprise indeed.

Security formalities were on the extensive side, but the lines flowed rather fast, and ended up beyond the checkpoint early enough to have a leisurely dinner before the flight.

After walking to the vicinity of the gate, noted that there’s a lot of very sombre looking lean gentlemen in black suits and hats… It’d appear that a third of the plane will be settled by orthodox jews. All of whom are packing amazing amounts of gear. So it’ll likely be a struggle to get enough room in the overhead bins. (Peculiar coincidence #3).

So yeah, as an executive summary - not bad for two afternoon hours: I ended up hitching a ride in a stretch limo from two countrywomen, and then forced to mingle with people whose idea of a good time is probably geometrically different from mine.