I'm going to the city this saturday to listen to this pirate rock band in a heavy rock place called The Rock, and I'm greatly looking forward to it.

I'll be bringin' me grogg and me eyepatch along ARRRRGH!

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Frightens Me

Yes it does indeed... but it's not the idea of the creepy oppressive atmosphere that I so loved in the first three S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games.
"Wait, three? aren't you talking about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 here?"
Yes I am, I know it makes no real sense, just bare with me here.

No... what really scares me about this is that they announce that this new game will be programmed over a new in-house programmed multi-platform engine.
"Why's that so bad? Doesn't that just mean they'll be able to make the game work on game consoles too, and not just the PC?"
Exactly, and that's precisely what they're going to do. No company wastes money and time developing a game engine that works for multiple platforms without using it, that would just be silly.

"So... isn't this a good thing?"
No... no it isn't.
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games have so far been some of the most complex and detailed first person shooter games I've even heard of. And all the really great community made modifications for the games have made them even more complex and more detailed.
This is one of the reasons these games have gained such a solid fan-base on the PC platform. No console controller could ever hope to let you wield the same amount of commands over a game as a keyboard and mouse.

Another thing that has made the first 3 games in the series so popular is the aforementioned atmosphere. You really feel like you are in a world of strange scientific anomalies and alien dangers. The immersion factor of these games is through the roof.
If they change the control scheme to cater to the twelve button+two joystick console controllers, they will have to change the entire feel of the game as well and it will become yet another "invincible-regenerating-gun-toting-space-marine-shooter" a la Gears of War, Killzone and Halo... and we really don't need more of those.

I really don't have anything against consoles or the games they can play, but I don't want every successful PC game series to be consolified.
They did it to Modern Warfare 2, they're doing it to Crysis and now they'll probably do it to my favorite ever PC game series S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

A Little Morning Revelation

This morning while riding the train to school I just realized why so many webdesigners dislike the idea of software that makes it really easy to make websites.
It's not really that they lack all the extra functions of the full-fledged Adobe Creative Suite line of software or other similar lines.
It's that these easy to use programs allow virtually anyone to start making websites that look professional to the untrained eyes of the masses. This in turn allows companies that would otherwise have hired a professional web-designer or graphic designer to make their logos, websites, signs, et al to just make a logo or website contest, effectively harnessing the power of all these amateurs... all for the price of a promised approximately 50-100 bucks and a little publicity to the one out of hundreds they choose from.
This leaves a couple hundred of the prospective designers unpaid and pretty much unappreciated, while one has essentially given away his or her hours upon hours of work for a pittance.
All the while, this isn't exactly doing wonders for the design industry, as it greatly depreciates the overall value of good design work.
I understand that not all companies in the world have multi million dollar budgets and should still be able to get web-sites and logo designed for them, but these contests are just not the way to go. Pretty much every-one should have some sort of contact with people who know web- or graphic design. May it be a friend, family member, friend of a friend, family member of a colleague... somewhere in your circle of acquaintances is bound to be someone with at least a little education and some experience in these fields.
Look over this person's works so far and decide whether to hire him/her or not and then discuss payment with the person you choose for the job.

Bookstores, a Love-story...

I love bookstores. I don't even consider a town worth being in if there is no bookstore.
It's because I love paper. I love the smell of new paper, and the smooth feeling of it. I love the selection of things I can use with that paper... pencils, pens, erasers, sharpeners, scissors, glue, paint, rulers, paper-clips, stencils, all of it...
But mostly I love the idea of a clean, new and completely unused notebook/sketchbook and the potential it holds. The idea that a clean page can potentially show anything you want it to with a little work.
That idea actually runs so deep within me that I often can't get myself to leave used pages in otherwise unused notebooks or sketchbooks, I have to tear those pages out, lest I limit the countless possibilities for how to use the rest of the book.
I love paper so much that when I found out I was to start education as a web-designer, I immediately set out to buy a block of huge sheets of graph paper, a brand new hardback notebook, a 24 piece set of graphic pencils and a portfolio case for all of it to fit in. Even though it's actually much easier for me to work with software only.
I would just hate it if I didn't have the possibility to work with paper, not have that tactile feeling of the graphite or ball-point moving over that grainy-smooth surface as my hand tries to keep up with my head.

So yeah, I love bookstores and that may make me a bit weird, but I can live with that.

Friis out...

It's been a while...

Yeah, it certainly has...
Well since my last post I've done more things than I can even remember so let's just start off with some of the ones I do.
I've been on summer holiday to my favorite city in France, where I got myself a tan and a nice new hand-made steer hide hat among many other things.
As you can probably guess, I can't go to France without having a bit of a foodgasm, so I'll just admit right away that I did go to my favorite restaurant there and got my favorite menu.



The entrée was a so-called salade gourmande, and the slice of pasty looking stuff you can see on top of it is foie gras (a specially prepared kind of goose liver).
The main course is called a faux filét au sauce roquefort, which has pretty much been one of my all time top 5 favorite dishes. The rich taste of the garlic roasted potato slices with the roquefort sauce is just pure distilled awesomeness.
For dessert I chose a lemon meringue pie which you can see I couldn't actually wait to sample until after I'd taken the picture.



The other desserts around the table were an île flottante, which is sweetened and beaten egg-whites floating in vanilla creme with caramelised sugar on top as well as a tarte tatin which is a local recipe for apple pie.
The grey-haired man also taking pictures of his food is my dad, so I guess the passion runs in my blood.

If anyone is interested, the restaurant in question is the Saint Germain in the city of Tours, which in turn is in the Loire Valley. I can definitely reccomend this place for anyone interested in seeing the France outside Paris without wanting to leave behind the luxuries of a larger city.

In other news, I'll be starting my education in webdesign and other sorts of multimedia production this coming monday, and I'm extremely excited.
I've already made one website for my mothers small business selling yarn and having a sort of weekly knitting club. If you'd like to see it, I have to warn you that it is in Danish however, and that as this was my first website ever, it was a bit of a learning process for me.
Anyways, it's right here:
www.js-strik.dk

I'm working on a site of my own which will be up either this week or next week, featuring a forum and whichever other neat things I learn to do as I learn them.
The main purpose of my own website will be as a sort of combined testing-ground and project portfolio, as I try to become a professional webdesigner.

Alright I think that's all for now...
Friis out...

A Night Out...

This weekend (friday afternoon) I went to Copenhagen to spend a night out with my best friend and his buddy.

I got to my friend's hometown (Vanloese) at about 5pm and met up with him at the train station, we then proceeded to the local convenience store to shop a bit for dinner.

My friend had some kind of Hungarian tapas-like dried meat that we sliced up thin, and I suggested we make a salad of fresh spinach and mango with a dressing made of honey and chili.

It all tasted great and we drank rakia mixed up with honey (to make it tolerable) with it all.

After eating dinner, we went back to the convenience store to get some yoghurt for dessert.

All in all a nice relaxing dinner, followed by a nice relaxing time spent on these following links:

http://www.rainymood.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMnrl0tmd3k

(Thank you 4chan /b/ for showing me the awesomeness of these two places)

When the darkness fell upon the city... so did we (rakia is pretty strong... hence the falling).

We met up with my friend's buddy outside a place called Soeren's Tavern, and went in together. We drank some beers and played some dice games and then we somehow made the stupid decision to continue on to the so-called Discotheque IN which is basically THE place for all the Danish douchebags and douchebagettes. It cost 30 dollars to get in and another 8 dollars to use the wardrobe... per person! We managed to stomach the horrible music and self-tanned chests shown through low cut, tight fit t-shirts for almost two hours in an attempt to make the 30 dollar entrance fee including free beer worth it... we failed.

After that, the night took a turn for the better as we continued on to a place called The Dubliner which had live bands playing some sort of celtic folk rock type of music.

At about 4:30 am we all went back to where we'd be sleeping for the rest of the morning.

Saturday, around lunchtime I took the train back to my hometown of Haslev, spending the time on the train curing my hangover in the manliest way I could think of... leftover dried meat and AC/DC.

When I got home, my sister was having guests over that she knew from college, and we all had fun watching movies and eating burritoes and candy.

Sunday I didn't really do much except cook one of my best dinners yet: Greek style baked eggplants with onions, garlic, lemon skin and feta/cheddar cheese.

That's about it... not quite up to my preferred standard for a blogpost, but I felt like I had to write something after such an eventful weekend.

Friis out...

I Call Bullshit!

Have you ever been in a discussion with someone and someone used the following as an argument: "You can't compare those two things."?

If it was someone other than you using that argument, did you think to yourself that it was a bullshit argument? If you were the one using it, did you realize you were just saying that because you didn't actually have any valid arguments?

I realized this tonight during a discussion with my mom and dad about nightmares caused by daily worries... the discussion isn't really important, my mom's argument however is.

She claimed that the the worries over responsibilities over things/money/information and such could not be compared to worries over responsibilities over lives (as in you risk life/death situations if you fail in your responsibilities).

While I understand how she feels, I still got royally annoyed that she used that argument... why?

Because it's the same damned bullshit I hear coming out every time the console wars rears it's ugly head in a forum... every time people fight over which movie/game/band/artist/restaurant/car/toilet seat is best... it is a staple in every flame war across the globe... it is your argument when you don't really have an argument.

The very definition of the word "comparison", suggests that you could in fact compare anything to anything else, because a comparison is simply pointing out similarities and/or differences between two or more things.

New York city is bigger than a chicken's egg... that's a completely valid if pointless comparison.

The chicken's egg came out of a chicken's rear end, New York city did not... that's another one.

Have you ever seen someone try to explain how you can't compare two things to each other by comparing those two things to each other? I have... and the sheer stupidity of it blows my mind.

So to everyone out there who does this on a regular basis... I call your bullshit argument, and I hope everyone around you starts doing the same... for I believe that once this stupidity stops, the world will have become a slightly better place to live in.

Friis out...

Clash of The Titans

I just went with my little sister to the movie theater in Copenhagen to see Clash of The Titans in 3d. I'm going to give it thumbs up, it's a neat and tidy action movie based on Greek mythology, and seems to lend quite a bit from the feel of 300, while not breaking it's rating.

What I most noticed is probably mostly from my being Danish... I noticed that Mads Mikkelsen has significantly improved his ability to mask his Danish accent when speaking English... you can still hear it once in a while when he slips up and loosens up his speech a bit too much. However it's not nearly as bad as back in his King Arthur knight/Casino Royale Bond villain days.

I won't tell much more than this from fear of giving out spoilers of Perseus killing Medusa by using a polished shield as a mirro... oops...

Anyways think of Clash of The Titans as a sort of mix between Pirates of The Caribbean and 300, however you may think of something like that.

Bottom line is I recommend it.

During this trip I tried something completely new to me... Kentucky Fried Chicken...

In Denmark, to my knowledge, we only have one KFC, and that one is in Copenhagen. I don't often come to Copenhagen and usually don't eat fast food when I do.

Today however, my sister and I felt like getting something quick and greasy after watching Clash of The Titans, and I had never in my life tried KFC before (despite having actually been in the US for 2 weeks).

Keeping in mind that this is fast food I will actually give KFC two thumbs up.

I hope I'm not like that when I'm drunk...

I almost got raped last night... luckily for me the would be offender was a 5'2” drunk as hell lady in her 40's-50's who wouldn't even have been standing if I hadn't helped her up and out of the snowdrift she was laying in... so fighting her off was only slightly less simple than letting go of her.

It all happened when I was walking home from my parents' place after the second day of helping my dad upgrade his computer to Windows 7. I had just gotten across the town square and behind the local bodega when I saw her laying there on the sidewalk.

I looked at her for a few moments before I figured it couldn't hurt to help the lady up. She was pretty obviously of Greenlandic descent and reeked of beer. After she had gotten up she held on to my hand and started spewing nonsense with barely understandable phrases strewn in there for good measure.

She started telling me about a cousin of hers, that she was looking for and I asked her who her cousin was, to which she answered something along the lines of Susanna Olson Rasmusson which didn't make much sense on account of the two different last names.

I then asked her where I could find this cousin of hers, to which she replied something about her cousin living with a car/ufo repairman (yes... a u.f.o. repairman, I had her repeat that a few times just to be sure).

She then told me that I was either the ufo repairman or her cousin (not quite sure at that point... she was starting to talk too fast to make out individual words), then she told me not to hit her a few times and then she tried to kiss me... I did not let her.

After that situation had blown over, she said that she'd pay me a 1000 kroners (approximately 200 dollars) to find the ufo-repairman... either that or that she had to pay a 1000 kroners to the ufo-repairman.

When I tried to ask her again where I could find her cousin she told me she wouldn't tell me, or that she didn't know... her consonants left a lot of room for interpretation.

So I got her off of me so I could walk away and call the police, thinking maybe they could find a place for her to sleep it off without her freezing to death.

While talking with the much more eloquent lady at Naestved police station I met my second would be rapist of the night... yes... while I talked with the lady on the phone an orange cat started vigorously humping my left leg while I vigorously tried to ignore it... in hindsight, it might have just been trying to keep warm, anyways it was gone by the time I got off the phone.

While I was on the phone another group of people had apparently helped the drunk lady into the local bodega (now why didn't I think of that? (sarcasm)).

So with all that over with I finished my trip home and took a bath before making myself a snack, writing this and going to bed.

What's your favorite ”right-before-bed-snack”?

Sofrigginhyperrightnow!

Gah! I just drank two liters of Red Bull in as many hours, which apparently puts me in some sort of quantum state between hyper awake and some sort of buzzy dreamy state... everyone I talk to seems to be talking in slow motion, so to keep myself from getting bored I'll just start updating my blog... seems like this might be a good time for it.
I got back from a weekend foray in Helsinor where I lived with my grandparents while I was supposed to teach an older lady how to use her brand new computer. Regrettably, she had fallen and hit her head the day before the first lessons was to be, so she had a nasty headache that prevented her from concentrating all weekend and thus cancelled the lessons... at least she did come by and hand me a check for my troubles getting back and forth between there and my home town in public transportation in the blizzards we've been having lately.
I just recently got my hands on X3: Terran Conflict and am trying to figure out all the little changes that have been implemented since X3: Reunion. So far the biggest changes I've found are the new factories, ships and the apparent lack of a bulletin board system on the stations.
After a bit of looking around I found out that there is no more bulletin boards because they've been replaced by the ability to do jobs for people via the comms system in stead. This does make me a little sad since I really liked the bulletin boards for all the fluff info about the universe that was in it. I thorougly enjoyed writing references from newsarticles on bulletin boards into my character's journal entries back when I played X3: Reunion.
Anyways... I think I'm coming back down from my taurine and caffeine high, since everything stopped being in slow motion a bit ago.

Friis out...

It's D'n'DEEEEEEE! Fightin' with the legend o' yore!

Hi all!
I've finally started up a D&D 3.5 campaign where I game master for my best friend, his little brother his little sister and her boyfriend. They're all completely new to pen and paper roleplaying games, aside from that one time I tried to get a New World of Darkness game going with mostly the same group (which sadly failed, mostly because of me being new to GM'ing).
I started them off with a simple and short dungeon crawl module called "A Dark and Stormy Knight", just to get them a little used to throwing dice, and knowing wich dice to throw in which situations.
The game went pretty well and all players had a good time killing and looting hobgoblins, rats and a spider... even if that last one almost killed off the party's Bard.
The Bard is played by my best friend's sister while my friend himself plays a Sorcerer. His little brother is playing a Dwarven Barbarian while the sister's boyfriend plays a Human Fighter.
What was funny about this session was that by far the most hit point damage and kills came from the Sorcerer's Hawk familiar and the Barbarian's guard dog animal companion.
I'm also teaching each player a prayer to their character's god for good fortune, during which they will kneel before the gaming group's mascot (a Big Daddy figurine), place their dice in front of the mascot and repeat their individual prayers after me. Besides that bit of crazyness we also already have our first in-joke about falling down a shaft when rolling a one every once in a while... fear the shaft... fear the shaft indeed.

Next up I'll have them play through a strongly modified version of the module called "The Ettin's Riddle". I want the next couple of games to be more skill oriented than combat oriented, so I'll let the players have their characters set up shop with the loot they got in the first adventure in the small town that the adventure will happen in. I'll have a festival going on in the town soon after the characters arrive to help flesh out the world and it's backstory and give the party's Bard and Sorcerer a chance to shine and help the party's reputation in the town they'll be using as their home base. I'll be working on the general feel of the town as well as some interesting NPC's, to help the players grow attached to the town. And by the end of the festival, when the players have found a place to stay, I'll spring the main adventure on them.

I almost can't wait for the next game session.
Friis out...

Long Time No Posts

Wow! It sure has been a while since my first post here... Well I've finished my CCENT and CCNA exams, and I did pretty well on my final report on computer building and hardware... 20 to 25 pages is a lot to write in a report if it's your first real report by the way.
Currently I'm searching for jobs and placements as either IT-support or as a Network Technician/Admin. Not much out there besides telemarketing though, and I'd hate to become one of those. Listening to that disco/techno music all day long, ringing a bell every time I make a sale so the others can applaud me... that's just not me.
Just during the last two days of my school time I got the "Train Signal" training material for CCENT and CCNA, so now I'm looking through those to sort of consolidate what I think I've learned from Cisco's own training material (which sucks to put it mildly).
This weekend I'll be spending in Helsingoer which is sort of far from my home, but at least I'll be making some money teaching some nice elderly lady how to use her computer. I'm not quite sure yet at what level I'll need to start off with her yet, but I've been spending much of the week preparing for the most likely cases.