I might miss you Mr, Nielsen

In honour of your achievements in life, I will watch Airplane! later tonight. Because for some uknown reason, I've never actually seen it, at least not as far as I can remember. Me and my wife-to-be frequently on the other hand, enjoy Dracula: Dead and Loving It. Leslie, you will be missed.

What if?

... I wrote a childrens book. That's an idea that occurred to me yesterday. Every now and then we (me and my wife-to-be.. and also our son) have Creativity Days at my mom's place. I can imagine what you might be thinking but it's actually something we all enjoy, some perhaps more than others but fun nonetheless.

This time I had decided to try watercolour painting. If never really been a fan of watercolours, the somewhat slow drying time and my severe lacking technique means it's never something that's stuck with me, even though I've tried it before. Anyways.. but because I've never been into it I thought I would try my hand at it again, yeah I do that with things sometimes, try them, don't like them, try them again later in case things have changed. So after painting some; kind of okay mountains, and ugly tree and shitty grass I tried experimenting around. Basically everything was a bit ugly and not to my standard.

But then I got the idea that I would cut the paper to square sized pieces and I started thinking about making some sort of Greeting cards. Did some of that, some of it sucked monkey-ass, another one actually got kind of nice, which I gave to my mom. I didn't think it was nice enough to keep I suppose. Finally though, I was getting somewhere.. an idea formed in my head and I just went for it.. and painted this...

For some reason, I'm actually not quite sure myself, this little bastard appealed to me. So I decided to paint two more. I haven't scanned them yet, so you'll just have imagine them being equally awesome... even though they're not, this one is actually the best one. This painting in turn inspired the idea of "What if I wrote a children's book"?

Yeah, despite what you might be thinking, I am actually being serious. I not quite sure how the story would play out yet, in fact I don't know the story at all. But if you are interested in pre-ordering, I have managed to make a mock-up of the book in Adobe Photoshop. I really feel like "Yeah, I would really like to write a children's book!" Also the pre-ordering part was totally a joke, I doubt anyone would pre-order an idea, but you have to admit the book looks nice, doesn't it?

Look out for "Gluffen som ingenting visste, men ville veta allt" an autobiographical drama by me in book stores near you.. Nah I'm just joking, obviously, like I already said it's a children's story not an autobiographical drama.

That will be all this time, stay tuned for more scenes from next weeks episode of "I wonder what the 'eff he's gonna write next"...

On next weeks episode of "I wonder what the 'eff he's gonna write next" we witness the thrilling conclusion of I ♥ Herbs, what happened to Basil's home? Is Tarragon really as innocent as he looks? Will Thyme ever find the love she rightfully deserves? Also, we finally get to find out why Lemon Balm left his two wives to look for his parents.

A Small Step for Carlos

Personal Beije message: tl;dr, just look at the shiny pictures.


Yeah, that probably sounds a bit more cryptic than intended.. or was it? Past tense, present tense, I really mix those too much.

Irregardless.. because I wanted to update those who are interested, I am happy to announce that "No I haven't forgotten my board game", it's just been on the back burner for a while. I been focusing a lot on My Fabled Outfit (which I've linked to more than enough), and since I still have a somewhat limited amount of time on my hands, I can't do everything all the time. It's too bad, but alas that's life for you... I suppose.

So my board game, yeah. I'm still working on it, kind of. I haven't done anything for months but it's still a project very dear to my heart. It should be since I've already invested over three years into it, on and off again three years but three years nonetheless. Some friends of mine, me included did get together and played a game not so long ago, two of which had never played it before and that was quite productive. So with that in mind I decided today that I would go through some of the feedback I've gotten and see... really see.. where do I need to improve this? Why does it take so long to play? And the question which spikes my curiosity the most, "How come people think it takes too long to play it, yet they never stop playing it, they just continue for hours and hours at end. What detail am I missing?

I have decided to makes the rules stricter for a lot of, because as of right now I honestly feel that part of the problem is that the rules are too flexible, they're too forgiving, where they shouldn't be. I want the game to be fun, obviously, but the fun stops when a single game lasts over three hours, especially since it's been designed for 90 minutes, and obviously seems to work very well for about 90 minutes too. So, stricter rules in certain places.

More cards.. Not a lot, but a couple of new cards. Modifying some of the cards that already are. And also, I've decided to scrap three cards altogether, I liked them, but most people seemed confused by their existence and had severe difficulties even grasping the concept of having a difference between "a turn" and "a dice roll". So it's been scrapped now, you can stop worrying, I know you have been lots of sleepless nights because of this. *Sarcasm*

I also started to update the board itself, made a sketch, started painting (digitally) the different "places of interest", than I lost interest in doing that, ironic? In other words all I managed to do to the board itself is that I made sure it's perfectly symmetrical, as far as game mechanics are concerned at least. It's probably for the best since a friend I have offered to do some concepts for a game board. I'm actually more eager to see what he comes up with than anything I can think of at the moment.

I am quite excited to see some of the new cards in action, right now I'm calling them "Triple Threat" and "No Thank You". As soon as I have some rough concepts for them, I will try to remember to post about it.

Now I feel like I've written enough, I can only imagine the agony of having to read all of this. If you've made it this far I must congratulate you on having a surprisingly large amount of time to kill per day. Congratulations!.. and also, you should go now, bye.

I'll be clever tomorrow

I can't think of anything remotely clever to blog about today. We'll see if I can come up with anything tomorrow instead.

Fable III [a kind of review]

I suppose this was inevitable, at some point I would have to say what I think about Fable III. As you might (or not) guessed by earlier posts I'm a bit of a fan, or at least used to be. Right now I'm a bit torn, because although I do like Fable III, it took me a while.

The first hour or two I was not pleased with what I saw, or should I say touched. Actually what I saw was quite nice, sure Lionhead went a little overboard with Bloom-effects, it feels like I'm too stupid to squint when I'm looking straight into the sun. And the characters are much more detailed than they were in Fable II. I never liked the villagers in Fable II because they always looked, how should I say this nicely, butt-fuckingly-ugly.. Yeah, that outta do it. But in Fable III they are much more pleasant to look at, meaning I no-longer feel the strong urge to stab myself in the eyes every time I have to talk to someone. Sure the cut scenes are way nicer, but then again they usually are so I can forgive you for that.

But back to what I touched...and how I wasn't pleased with it... Lionhead, seriously? I actually believed you when you said you wanted me to feel more emotionally attached and all that with the new touch system. But alas, you failed almost entirely with it. When it works the way it's obviously intended it's really quite nice. There's nothing quite like having a stroll with your loved one and holding hands but when my loved one always seems to hang a bit behind me like I'm walking too fast and she (or he) just can't be bothered to tell me to "go slower douche bag", the level of immersion quickly fades away and I'm left with the feeling that for Fable IV you should really give me the option to carry my loved one instead. At least that way I wouldn't have be annoyed every time they get stuck in a tree or an oddly shaped rock and let go of me like I have leprosy only to seconds later running quickly to catch up to me in a pathetic attempt to say, "I'm sorry I let go earlier, I totally do love you despite your leprosy and I won't happen again." But it will.

And to interact with a villager I end up watching more "fade to black" -screens than anything else, why is that Lionhead Studios? I would really like to know.

My dog is dumber than a.. well a dog I suppose.

Weapon types have been scaled down to a bare minimum and my selection of clothing has been limited to a level where it feels like the next step would be; "This is what you wore when you were born, deal with it". Doesn't Lionhead know that I easily spent hours in Fable II just nitpicking over which shade of red my bandanna should be.

And my butler keeps nagging me about that there's new crap in the Sanctuary Shop, oh rly? There wasn't last time I looked and since I didn't buy the crap that was there in the first place, I'm obviously not interested in buying it.


So with this in mind. Did/do I like Fable III?


The answers actually a short, yes, yes I do. The world is bright and colourful and it's people is incredible charming, in a genre where most developers seem to think RPG means "Defeat the greatest evil the world has ever seen". The quests range from the so serious "Find my missing child" to the ridiculous "Fart on people because you wants to". (No I don't actually know if the second quest is a real one, but I sure hope so). The combat feels appropriately challenging even though it's a bit of a button-mash-fest.

Despite several flaws, I like Fable III and I will give it 3.5. But I do sincerely hope that if Lionhead Studios continues the Fable legacy, that they stop changing things just for the sake of changing things. As for their Title Update, I hope they will some of the more severe glitches Fable III has.

Sometimes you might miss a good idea because you're so busy changing it.

Respawned!

Thanks to an awesome stranger from the xbmc community, Fiinix Design is back! I'm ridiculously happy about this despite the fact that it feels a bit unreal in a way. I had to update some include references but everything should be working just fine if you find anything that doesn't please let me know.

The new adress is
www.fiinixdesign.eu

And for the friendly individual who so kindly has provided me with hosting.

Now that's what I call a Happy Me-Day!
(Originally referred to as Father's Day)

Garden of Eden

I was going to write a long complicated post about a lot of different things, including vague references to the Garden of Eden. But I took me a lot longer to Adobe Photoshop the picture than I had anticipated.

So instead of my usual long rants (yeah I know, it's a shame..) I'm pretty much just going to post the picture, you'll laugh at my futile attempt of humor and/or Adobe Photoshop skills, we'll both have a good time and you'll press the like button next to the title. I mean, let's face it, you totally wants to, don't you? Take notice of the extra awesome-ness that is the fact that this is my first post ever, to include a partial picture of my wife-to-be. She's the one with the attached hamster, because let's face it... but even in the Garden of Eden, there are hamsters 'a lurking.

In Loving Memory of Ted Bear

In loving memory of Ted Bear. You will be missed. In honour of your untimely (like we didn't see that coming) death in hereby declare this post to you. May your ingenious advice help anyone of us survive the wilderness in case of sudden "airplane meets albatross with poor eyesight" -scenario.

We will always remember to look for the bacon tree.

The Feast of Winter Solstice

My wife-to-be and by the extension that is "ooh, I also wanna" we're planning on having Christmas Feast. She's always hated Christmas and well within her rights to do so, I think, but maybe not as much anymore. There's always been numerous reasons for her hatred but none so true as the fact that Christmas has always been ruined by other people, and it's still very much that way. I won't go into details as to exactly why but I've always accepted her dislike secretly hoping that maybe, just maybe, if we could create new traditions and just ignore other peoples need for theirs... then maybe, she would like it more. Not theirs, but ours.

Well, as it turns out, she's "discovered" what she would like her Christmases to be like. I say "discovered" with fluffy bunny ears because I'm not sure if that's the appropriate word for it. But I digress.

In my mind it would look a little something like this.

I'm really excited about it too, a lot (not alot) because of the fact that I actually kinda like Christmas.. yes I said, I like Christmas. Not everything about Christmas obviously, but there's a lot things about it that I enjoy. For instance the Advent wreath lighting up an otherwise dark and gloomy winter is something I've always enjoyed. So it makes me very happy that my wife-to-be is excited to celebrate something that I hope to call our kind of Christmas.

But I know what kind of Feast she wants, and on a serious note, it sounds really awesome so I'm just as eager about it. Besides I'm also going to get a flamboyant vest, so hell yeah!..

...

I think I'm the first person ever to include the words flamboyant vest and hell yeah in the same sentence.

The Feast we're going to have is probably going to be more like this. Which I'm fine with, in fact I'm equally eager about it. Since things that I like about Christmas can still be included and as long as I get my flamboyant vest I'm cool.

And a huge codpiece wouldn't hurt either.

Pumpkin, Fable III, MacGyver & Inspiration

It's sometimes difficult to blog, because I feel like blogging but I don't reeeee'ally know what to blog about. Sure I can always come up with things to say but most of it lack importance, or so I feel. So because of this I have decides to never blog again...

..awkward silence..

Nah, I'm just kidding, I might have very long breaks occasionally and only blog a couple of times in a month but I always bounce back and then suddenly blog three times in the same day (like yesterday..)

The reason for the title this time actually makes sense, all of the things mentioned in the title will be featured in this post.. starting... now!

Our Halloween pumpkin is starting to look.. well.. more creepy than when it was fresh. Unfortunately it's also starting to smell a bit funky so I don't think it will last much longer. But I'm glad I took a picture of it before it goes in the trash.

My Limited Collector's Edition Fable III, it's really nice looking, albeit I'm still a little frumpy that the Limited Collector's Edition Fable II got so badly nerfed that almost none of the things "promised" appeared in it. But at least my Fable III LCE has got stuff. And to top it of, I got a surprise gift yesterday from the friend I went for a coffee with. I hope he doesn't mind that it's included in the post/img. In the picture you might notice a man-bag and leather cup+dice... Yeah those.. They aren't included in the LCE, I got them from him. So thanks, it's very appreciated.

I really need to go get a haircut. My hair is long and untamed and it's annoying the crap out of me. So yeah I'm comparing my hair to MacGyver's and I stand by my comparison. I feel like I have the ugliest mullet in the history of mullets. If there was an award for Fugglet (Fucking Ugly Mullet) of the Year.. Let's call it FOTY... I think I could/should be nominated..

I almost wish Tommix1 would steal this and nominate his choice for this years FOTY.

And lastly, as a tangent to Fable III.. I'm thinking about sculpting a Hobbe, seeing as Fable II LCE should have included a Hobbe it only makes sense that I would just make one myself. This is one of the reference pictures I have chosen as inspiration for the sculpture. I don't actually know if I'll ever make it, but one (I) can always hope I find the time and inspiration for it.

And done. Now go away.

Furious Avians

Don't get me wrong.. I love the Android platform (platonic love of course). But games for Android have always been a bit, how should I put this... ugly.. yeah, that's the word, despite some games having excellent mechanics and smooth gameplay such as Gem Miner.. most of the games suffer from what I sometimes think of as the open-source curse.. Yupp, feel free to quote me.. again, don't get me wrong, open-source is awesome and in anything developers should be kuded (my make-believe verb of "kudos") for giving away their blood sweat and tears, asking nothing (usually) in return. But where open-source developers often have enormous amounts of technical expertise they often lack in the graphical area. Like Gem Miner... I have that game, it's a really good game, but I can help but think that it's not a very pretty game.

Cue Rovio, a Finnish developer even, and their Furious Avians more commonly known as Angry Birds. A game that not only has excellent mechanics and 98% smooth gameplay (sometimes it lags) but it also has beautiful graphics. Not Crysis beautiful obviously but the visuals of Angry Birds work extremely well with the theme of the game.
So kudos Rovio for giving us Android users an (albeit ad-enabled) free version.

I've played through all the levels already, haven't managed to get every golden egg quite yet and I'm considering if I should try to get three stars in every level just for bragging rights. A part of me wishes there would be a reset button (without uninstalling) so I could start over unlocking the levels. Nonetheless it was a good three weeks of casually playing it at lunch & smoke breaks.

All and all, it's a very casual yet occasionally relentlessly difficult game.
Should you buy it for iPhone? You should.
Download it for Android? Absolutely!
Hope for other platforms such as PSP and Windows Phone 7? One can always hope.

So it's with these parting words I'll leave you for now; "The red birds sucks, but it gets better!"

Breakfast for Champions

With the lack of better things to do/blog about, I have now sunk to the level of "Here's what I ate for breakfast". Yes it's sad, and yes no one really cares (well at least I wouldn't).. but alas, here we are. I can't come up with anything else to blog about, so here's what I ate for breakfast. Obviously I had to give it the Adobe Photoshop treatment, with hopes of making it less boring. But regardless of how you bend it, it's still a picture of my breakfast and son.

Yay, Croissant's and coffee... oh how I do enjoy a sugary sweet breakfast ready to send me spiraling into an early type II diabetes. Well, obviously hopefully not, but one has to be aware of the risks when one eats this type of breakfast. And one should never refer to one as "one", it's a standard coping mechanism for externalizing a behavior for which the person is at least partially aware of the possible consequences. So dear readers, let's do that again.

[ ‹‹ ]

...Well obviously hopefully not, but I have to be aware of the risks when I eat this type of breakfast...

[ › ]

There we go, much better. Anyways, I don't have much else to say, didn't have much in the first place. I'm currently torn between playing Fable III or Minecraft (not at this exact second though as I'm having a boons in the morning). I'm having a break in my Fabled Outfit [1],[2] & [3] (until I get the fabric for the boots). I'm thinking about calling a friend whom I haven't seen in a while, he called me last weekend but I was unavailable for coffee at the time. I'm also dying to see the next Fringe episode.

That'll be all. [ ▪ ]

Legend:
[ ‹‹ ] rewind
[ › ] play
[ ▪ ] stop

Stay tuned for more interface buttons.. maybe..

REM-5-NOV

Remember

My gift to you on this glorious day. A bit of Adobe Photoshop, minimalist style. There's a designer who does movie posters in minimalist style, but I can not for the life of me to remember (yes, I sense the irony) his name. If anyone can, please let me know.


EDIT: Yeah, technically 34 minutes late, but it's the thought that counts and also I started making the poster before 00:00 and also my socks are dirty.. excuses excuses..