A pair of Mandarin Ducks.
See It Sunday 7.10.2012: Pair.
Oct 072012
Oct 042012
Exhibit A: Concise history of interactive fiction in the age of iOS.
Exhibit B: How to turn a Z-Code game into an iOS application. (Or a Glulxe game, with the updated interpreter.)
Oct 032012
scoreboard by vistavision (CC)
Another week, another split. Though exactly the opposite as last week, so both teams are now at .500.
The 2 Minuutin Varoitus- league team won by 74 points, probably the highest victory margin for my teams thus far. The opponent left a lot of points on the bench, and most of the ‘niners team members just kept pulling in points. Philip Rivers bounced back from the Bolts atrocious loss last week, Arian Foster was prolific as usual, and the Cowboys finally discovered the joys of passing game (both Witten and Bryant scored). But the highlighs were the two 20+ sources: Chicago Defense (for the second week in a row) and Roddy White (twin TDs against the Panthers).
The Yahoo game was a lopsided loss (machine-generated recap for those preferring procedurally added wit). Opponent’s main weapons were Roddy White, the Chicago Bears defense and Marshawn Lynch. Even with a respectable repeat performance by Jamaal Charles and a very promising game by Peyton Manning (3 TDs in a victory over the Raiders) the game wasn’t really close as the wide receivers had low-output weekend.
The bye season starts to impact the games in earnest, and as such more waiver wire action is needed (this week’s replacement of Nate Kaeding in the kicker position by Shayne Graham went OK).
Bring on week 5!
Oct 032012
The idea of using an existing social network as a secure transport for arbitrary messages sounds like an April IETF surprise, but Privly is a genuine product now available for multiple browsers and social networks.
Oct 032012
Must be an important alteration to the set list (of Band of Horses gig somewhen in 2009).
Photo Thursday #257: Whatever, like.
Oct 032012
Well, it is possible that a squirrel might fall out that appletree.
Mustaa ja Valkoista #133: Waiting.
Oct 022012
Ticket to Ride expands to Africa in its third map collection.
Haven’t bought any of the collections. I have Switzerland as an independent game, and the Asian board in the iPad game.
The newest entry in the franchise hasn’t escaped controversy before release.
It’s quite expensive (30$) for a single board. And the board doesn’t even cover the whole continent, just the central parts. The cost is partially offset by the fact that the map comes with a new set of cards. And adding a second map would have necessitated a second set of destination cards anyway.
Oct 022012
A night scene from Copenhagen’s Tivoli – with the Chinese Tower and a rollercoaster reflected on a pool’s surface.
Photo Friday 28.9.2012: Reflected.
Oct 022012
How come no-one mentioned Kasper Strömman Design Blog before?
He takes a sarcastic view on Finland and on finnish design. With a daily posting schedule.
Oct 022012
The persistently static green boat in front of the Nokia House has been a source of multiple espionage-related jokes.
The wikipedia article puts such fears to rest, the story is far more innocent (or even more thoroughly disinformed).
Oct 022012
Exhibit A: first purchased fiction book on Kindle: the original Stainless Steel Rat. I couldn’t find the paperback in the house and resorted to an electronic alternative. Thus far the experience has been a pleasant one.
Exhibit B: Neal Stephenson’s Anathem. After giving up on the Quicksilver trilogy halfway down the stretch, this is a trial whether I can still read his output. The slow build-up and the awkwardly twisted vocabulary got off to a poor start, but things are interesting enough to persist. The 900+ pages length is a bit spooky, though.
Oct 012012
Anette Olzon has departed from Nightwish.
This time around there won’t be a two-year break in the action, as the band is in the middle of a world tour. Hence, Floor Jansen has already been sworn in as a substitute lead singer.
I saw Anette on stage only once, and she did put on a good show. Also, Dark Passion Play is one fine record, I stil haven’t grown into Imaginaerum yet.
Oct 012012
This week’s Movie Monday challenge seeks out the best sequels in the land.
I’ve covered two great sequels in previous installments: there are only a few films that have improved on the originals as much as Empire Strikes Back and Godfather II did.
But they are hardly the only sequels that exceeded their originals: both Toy Story followups were better than the first Pixar film, Last Crusade is a better movie than Raiders of the Lost Ark, Dark Knight trumps Batman Begins.
But my choice falls on X-Men 2, a film by the original director, with the same cast and without the need to set up the world in detail. All those conspired to make Bryan Singer’s sequel one of the greatest superhero movies ever (going head to head with the aforementioned Dark Knight would be an even game). The story builds up quickly, and effortlessly weaves multiple plotlines into a coherent whole. New characters are introduced and a classic plotline foreshadowed. And there’s plenty of screentime given to the greatest of X-Men, Wolverine – here Hugh Jackman’s depiction of the character hits all notes and some bonus chords as well.
Too bad the franchise took a hit in its next installments. Only the most recent film, the First Class-prequel comes close to the lofty heights attained by this great sequel.
Movie Monday #62: Favorite Sequels.
Oct 012012
Today’s Fingerpori featured a surprising guest star: Jouko Piho, a quasi-famous “prophet”, whose blog at Uusi Suomi is often too painful to read.
He seems to have taken the strip rather well, after all, it is by no means a mean one. So there’s little danger to have it disappear from the archives (thus far just one strip has been censured).
Oct 012012
A magnificent dessert: apple pie and ice cream, at McCormick & Schmick’s in D.C.
Thursday Challenge 27.9.2012: Fancy.
Oct 012012
The twenty-eight games of the 18th annual Interactive Fiction Competition are now available.
Only one TADS game entered this year, that’s quite a dip.
Oct 012012
From now on, all pictures attached for photography challenge will describe also what is shown in addition to stating which challenge they have been submitted to.
The latter, after all, is pretty much useless as the sole content.
Oct 012012
Oct 012012
Rapture of the Nerds, the recently released Stross/Doctorow-duet is available under CC license.
As a slavering fanboy of both authors, and under a massive backlog, I’m in no hurry to either pick this up as a hardback or read it for free, I’ll just wait for the paperback release.
Oct 012012
No, that’s not a Dawkins reference, just a wise observation by Chuck Klosterman on how fantasy football turns storied athletes into nothing more than sources of numbers.
Oct 012012
According to Movie Monday (and contradicting common knowledge), a “Mary Sue” is a female character in a film, perfect in every which way.
Never thought much of the subject, and a quick trawling of the synapses doesn’t reveal anything extremely memorable.
Hence, I fall back to an old favorite Uma Thurman, as Mia Wallace, in Pulp Fiction. Reckless, beautiful and unique.
Movie Monday #61: My own Mary Sue.
Oct 012012
