Strossburi

Visited a friend of mine, previous co-worker, who currently resides in Strasbourg. It's funny how that is just 20 mil away from here (mil is a lovely unit from Sweden, look it up). Spent most of my time awake outside of Strasbourg in fact, we went on a 17 km hiking trip from Obernai to Barr. I was wondering in the beginning why we'd cross the Vosges to go to a bar, but polite as I am I figured the others knew what they were planning. The Rhine valley was enveloped in mist and made for some nice pix, 'cause it happened:

Rounded off the hike with some traditional choucroute which is one of the best meals I've had for some time. It's also great to have hospitable friends in places like France who provide me with computers problem to solve.

Syberia III this year?! How did I not hear about this until now... Although they're far from my favorite point-and-clickers, the ending in Syberia II was a little rushed and I'd hate to let that be the definite ending.

There's also a batch of new Model F keyboards underway, just a bit too expensive considering I'll have to pay import fees and taxes on top. Oh well, my HHKB is serving me very well. But brand new crisp buckling springs *ugh*... One day.

Actually pretty tired from the long hike, so I'll end this post with a nice quote from Ben Kernighan:
"Everyone knows that debugging is twice as hard as writing a program in the first place. So if you're as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?"

The 306th prime number

We'll have to wait another 10 years for another prime year. Oh my I almost forgot, Happy new Year! Otherwise to me it's a rather unremarkable number, maybe Ramanujan could have said something good about it.

So, lots of near doomsday articles about 2016 in the news. I must say I've had worse not too long ago, so 2016 wasn't so bad. Evil, darkness, and the apocalypse sells though. Sorry, I meant "generates clicks". Gotta keep up. Social media provided a lot of top 10 best things for 2016 which contained a lot of amazing things that people did and accomplished, check them out.

This is a terrible new year's entry. Hmm. I'll keep hammering my violin while I'll check that my mother gives time to her new concert flute so we can have a little duet for the next year. Maybe by then I've found something for my dad so we can have a trio, and then my brother's family and eventually... Actually, one step at a time.

I have some ideas for what to do this year, I really need to break out of some habits/ways of life. Maybe I should buy something nice for myself to start the year, the last thing was my violin 2 years ago (not counting the lovely weekend in St Petersburg in September).

My nephews drained my energy for today so I must recharge, takes about 8 hours. Actually 9 hours at my parents' place, I sleep too much here. So, again, let's all make it a year to be proud of! Remember, time only goes fast if you forget all the things you have done. Don't push, but even more importantly don't loiter. Good night!

EDIT: I almost forgot, one of the highlights was Meshuggah's Bleed in Japanese karaoke. How am I gonna beat that this year...

EDIT 2016-01-02: Two things that I became really fed up with during last year (and just happened to me now) are the stupid mandatory cookie questions, and the PLEASE SUBSCRIBE NOW on-site pop-ups. The first is stupid because the site can use cookies whatever button you click anyway until someone gives a sh!t and complains but of course everybody just screams and then forgets and won't bother checking, and the second just makes me insta-alt-left that particular site. Great way to lose boring people with a mission like me (I take my browsing seriously). Maybe that's the plan. The web is irritating and slow these days and the browsers have to support all the trash which in turn makes them slow. From time to time, the lynx browser is pretty nice.

On the flip-side, I found 70-80% holiday discounts on a bunch of puzzle/exploration games! Gonna wrack me brains.

EDIT 2016-01-18: Some things I completely forgot which made 2016 amazing: The Violent Sleep of Reason which I pour through my earbuds at work quite often, and the final release of Grim Dawn. Happy co-op backer! Didn't check for my name in the credits yet. Can't type up too much here, I should start a new entry at some point.