Star Wars: Damage Control

I said I wouldn't pay for it, but I did... The things I do to cultivate my friendships.

So, better than I thought. Some character moments actually made an impact this time, but it's very much yet-another-cookie-cutter party. The most obvious arch in the film is how much fan criticism over TLJ was addressed, I really would prefer the title "Damage Control". Begs the question; what will the TLJ yay-sayers say about the toxic disgusting OT fan-base now that the new film catered to them? There's also a sense of there being nothing outside of what you see, just like in Super 8 that I watched yesterday, just a jumbled mess. If anything, this one might be the best of the new unholy trinity, but as the saying goes, that statement ain't worth much.

Here's how I'd summarize this new trolology:
- TFA = ANH, FX and numbers squared, characters square rooted, boring paint job, just watch ANH instead.
- TLJ = TESB + ROTJ/2, "kill the past", did new stuff, mostly indoctrinating rubbish, just watch TESB instead.
- TROS = ROTJ/2, tried to fix TLJ:s mistakes, do its own thing, reshape the original end, all in one film, just watch ROTJ instead.
I.e. I'll keep re-watching the OT thank you very much :) Too bad Disney's making so much from this, and I participated, ugh...

Ordered a white Kobo Libra last night, and I'm collecting free epub:s of what are considered all-time great works to "start out" with. I'll probably cancel my Netflix account early the coming year and just read instead. Somehow, the idea of having Netflix at hand is more enticing to me than actually using it, cannot say I got much out of the junk I've watched :p Let's see what junky books I'll read...

EDIT 2019-12-28: For a while I heard Rango was at most an ok film. Then I started hearing it was pretty good. It is pretty good. My faith in "new" films has been restored :p

So, EFAP has an almost 12h long review on Damage Control, and I'm enjoying and agreeing with a lot of it. I should just listen to those guys (with ads) and stop paying for trashy films.

God Jul 2019!

I'm really 33 min too late to post this. But, some parts of the world celebrate the 25th, so I should be fine, I'm only bending the rules a little bit.

God Jul! A few days of discounts and then it's a wonderful new year! See you there.

Dan före dopparedan

Iiiih, so close! The childish excitement is not that tangible any more though, mainly looking forward to seeing my family opening their gifts.

The same time my parents picked me up, their kitchen tap started leaking just a little. It's some 30 years old, so we decided to replace the thing, and I tried to understand the vague descriptions of what to put where. Building a physics experiment is a bit different from plumbing, and the stakes are actually a lot higher at home. In the end I found the small pieces we needed, my dad and I paid with half our backs (wasn't that bad) and some cut thumbs to get rid of the old copper pipes in the old tap, and we now have a brand new Swedish made tap, packed with amazing features such as ceramic smooth closing, adjustable pipe limits, cold start, and more! Was a fun way to start the holidays, felt really nice when it was done.

Was at a party at the University the evening before I went home, I was thinking one beer should be enough. Ended up being involved in a drinking game record time, and I cleaned and packed at 2-3 in the night, went to bed at ~4, had an alarm for 6:30 in the morning, and had a relaxing trip all the way to the plane (unlike unprepared idiots who have to take shortcuts). Fortunately I don't get too affected the day after most of the time ("most of the time"...), but I've been thinking for some time that I should find some new friends who don't drink so much :D That's one good reason why I keep in touch with my friends in Sweden. It's nice to have holidays away from the indulgent continent for a bit.

Just had my first practice session on the old student violin from my childhood, intonation was all over the place because no violin is the same, but my mother told me I should start playing for others anyhow. Well, I'm getting there, I guess, but not quite yet! It has to be perfect :p Finally I noticed that my violin is in fact a lot nicer than the old one, so I'm at least that comfortable playing nowadays.

Thinking about a Kobo Libra (come on mellandagsrea, gimme!) and canceling Netflix, it was fun in the beginning but I haven't used it much recently. Could spend my time better reading books... What usually stopped me was I really don't like holding heavy unruly books and they take so much space. Tech ftw.

So people know now I'll take the week before the next beam time off. Let's see how that goes... Excited but also a bit worried...

Tomorrow! Gifts have been bought, so no need to be a nice kid any more (jk, be nice).

A big day

Remember the old Magic Eye pictures? They were a big thing when I was young, and they've been popping up here and there due to various 80s and 90s nostalgia. I never understood them, but had a go today.

And there it was, "I *heart* you" floating in mid-air!

I tried picture after picture, half of them were sharks, but also sightseeing views or exciting sports moments. Of course my mind started wandering and I had a try with animated gifs, then videos on youtube. One point on my bucket list done :D

Work-wise there's just too many things, but we'll have a group outing to Sinsheim tomorrow, so I should be in bed now...

Knock knock

Joker is an excellent film, but I also understand the critique surrounding it. Probably not the best thing to watch if you're not sure what's going on with yourself. In this part of the world I'd say nearly everybody sees only the negative progression, which says more about the environment that the critics live in than the film itself, and that might even be one of the main points behind it? Taxi Driver is better overall, but the Joker might be the best prequel/origin-story film I've seen so far. Looking forward to seeing it again in a year or so when I can watch it at home.

It's a good thing the delivery time for a Nakaya is so long, that put me off for now. I already have a lovely 3776 that I should work harder with.

Getting close to beam time again! Let's see if people can figure out what we want to test and what goes where until very soon...

EDIT 2019-10-27: After the latest Spider Man film, people had another go at comparing the main three: Raimi, Sony, and, uhm, is is called the MCU? Anyway, as a kid I always thought the Raimi versions were cheesy, but I've heard some very solid arguments recently why Spider Man 2 is really good. And whaddaya know, after having grown up a bit, I agree that it's the best Spider Man ever was. I'm currently enjoying a nice post-watching state. The MCU versions are fun, but most MCU characters seem to me to feel their emotions way too fast or entirely dodge them with jokes. "2 seconds to gaze and contemplate, and then I gots to go and save the world! After that I'll have to go to the laundromat." I cannot get into that rhythm, it not only trivializes the super hero antics (Spider Man 2 had a lovely moment on the train), it gives me personally no time to understand what's going on with the characters. I mostly like Iron Man 1 and Captain America 1 because they take some time off a tight schedule. I also started my 4th or 5th viewing of The Wire some weeks ago, and, uh, yeah, king vs pawn.

On a similar note, after having seen the final Star Wars trailer, I decided I really won't watch it. Not just not pay for it, I just don't want to see it. And the recent Terminator film seems like a waste as well. Oh right, I haven't watched Terminator 1 and 2 in a good while, I'll have to look into that.

Foraging

Went out with co-workers to pick mushrooms yesterday. It's been many years since the last time I did that with my family. Funny how the parasol mushroom is regarded highly in Sweden, but down here it grows like weeds. Tried it today, was alright. The porcini is a lot nicer, found a few of those plus some of its bolete cousins. After the adventure in the woods we gathered at one couple's place and had dinner, drinks, and chatted for 11 hours straight until the first bus in the morning... It was a great day + evening, but the next day was tough. Cleaned the mushrooms today which is really boring, but boy is it worth it. I need to make sure I actually use the dried up mushrooms, I tend to keep things like that for too long.

BWV1001 Adagio is not as hard as I thought, and it's one of my favs. Next on my list!

EDIT: 2019-10-05: Made cinnamon rolls with co-workers this afternoon, they're really great straight out of the oven. Somehow we binged s1 of Silicon Valley too, I forgot how great that series is, and how wrong so many jokes are. Good stuff. Together with the IT crowd they are the only two nerdy series I really like.

Industry standard

I've picked up my violin a lot more often lately and finally got fed up with the dull G string, Corelli Crystal is famously dull and before I buy my next violin I should try to replace them. Finally bought the Ernie Balls of the violin string world, Dominant G-D-A + Pirastro Gold E, with a loop since I have the fancy fine tuner for that. Let's hope today is a good violining day so I'll make good use of them, although Dominants need a few days to break in. Went back to BWV1004 Gigue, coming back to a piece after a while really shows the progress, so I need to play more!

That origami project stalled... The paper is out on the table but I haven't found the energy for it. One day.

Another clean slate

It's that time again. New PoE league, i.e. a clean slate with characters and items together with friends who live far, far away. And what do you know, got a Tabula Rasa on the first day :D Good easy life. Oh right, it forced the integrated graphics so I had to go for 1024x768 the whole evening, I hope that's fixed today. Oh, the nvidia thingamajig didn't know anything about the 64-bit version of PoE and thought Intel will be sufficient.

Family members have had some surgeries in the last few years, feels a bit strange to be so far away when those things happen. Why is everything so far away for me? :p

Things were a bit passive at work and the collaboration meetings were rather pointless. Two of us started sending some e-mails and it seems like things are moving, although we had to keep asking and listening to know. Could be a coincidence, but in any case there's no point complaining and having wonderful ideas of a utopic work life like most people do if one does not poke and irritate the people who need to spring into action. Always offer a hand when you poke and people will be fine, don't tell them "do this and that and now it's off my table".

Well that's it, need to do Saturday chores now.

EDIT 2019-09-08: So, got another Tabula Rasa. Gave it to the guy in the group who plays a ranger and dies all the time :) Seriously though, 2 of them during the first 3 days of the new league? Nuts.

Craaaazy

Just back home after a dose of Meshuggah live in the beautifully named Schlachthof in Wiesbaden. They really are fantastic live and their light show is a spectacle. I seem to have some brain cells left, so yay.

Only took a year, but I finally bought a leather strap like I said I would, and two nato straps. Will take photos later.

BWV1006 really is improving, seeing that is the best motivator. I try some others now and then, but Bourrée and Gigue are good, short, and easy enough.

All the physical work at the concert today wore me out, and my neck will be stiff like a board tomorrow, gonna go to sleep...

Aaand break over (also the moon!)

Another summer holiday done. Didn't figure out my future yet... But played quite a bit of violin and studied some, strange how one can pick up very fundamental ideas about subjects I've known for over a decade, that's why one has to keep reading. Went on a few road-trips with the family and spent some evenings with friends. After one evening of Secret Hitler where I managed to get elected chancellor as Hitler, close to midnight we ended up playing padel/paddle with a soft soccer ball and my brand new Portuguese leather shoes, not ideal. Weird sentence that.

What else is new... Signed up for Spotify at long last, a friend sent me a link to "Everybody" that I'll listen to one day. And today I decided I've delved sufficiently deep into the real invisible global network, so why not sign up for Netflix and start watching Stranger Things? Finally! This show is THREE years old and I've wanted to see it for most of that time. I'm so silly. Perfect for David Harbour, he always drew the short straw in the films I saw him in, but he's doing a good job here.

Oh yeah, there was a wedding for a friend of mine, shouldn't forget that. Started a bit slow since I knew very few people there, but it usually picks up after a while. Was dragged onto the dance floor twice and managed not to severely injure anybody while flailing around, so I feel like I did a good job.

The idea now for my evenings is to keep studying and play the violin, doing mainly Bourée and Gigue of BWV1006 nowadays. I'll figure it "all" out one day...

One more episode of Stranger Things and then I'll go to bed for my first working day after the vacation!

EDIT 2019-07-19: Stranger Things is amazing! I really have to stop watching and get to bed...

EDIT 2019-07-20: Poor Will, he has to endure so much. Also, big moon landing anniversary! I'll have a lot of cheese, that's the most moon-like thing I can think of. And lastly, a newspaper asked in a quiz when the original Lion King came out. Oooooh-hoo, a lot of us know about the original, don't we Disney? Tactics is the real justice in this world.

EDIT 2019-07-23: So, three seasons of steady decline. Each season ends very well, but the main plot of each gets dumber and dumber. I don't have as many complaints as most other critics, but it's really getting too goofy. Also, way too many sound effects. Still not as bad a tumble as the new Star Warses, so I'll keep watching.

At long last a break

Finally back in Sweden for a bit, really need that after not having had a proper break since the preparations for the experiments started early this year, and the weather is a lot better than the German furnace that I escaped. My co-workers keep saying I can't handle the heat, but none of them biked 8 km to work in that temperature like I did, plus another 10+ km for chores on the way home. I like punishing myself, what can I say :p It's also nice to be back in a recognizable setting after the rather strange learning experiences I had this spring, gotta nerd myself back in shape. About half of what I brought back was food-related, but I managed to fit in some clothes too...

So, the plan is to figure out what I want to do with myself, play more violin, continue on the origami dragon puzzle, have a go at fixing a dishwasher, and possibly play around with some simple coding ideas. I should pretend to be a sack of potatoes every now and then too.

Enough of this, time for my first vacation sleep, the sky is still bright up here in the North :)

Slap some cyberpunk on it

I always liked CD Projekt Red, good old GOG. I could never get into The Witcher (didn't play it for long, tried for a few minutes, uninstalled :p ), and although I looove sci-fi I cannot quite enjoy the Cyberpunk 2077 trailers. Looks like the standard gameplay shine fest which means it won't need the theme for the plot. GTA with new wallpaper and lots of piercing? Maybe it'll be great, I'll try to be optimistic. As for positive things, the tech and fan service is on point! Also, Deus Ex (the first one), good stuff.

Mauler and his gang are great, with a pinch of salt as always. Supposedly controversial content, but I learn more from them than other reviewers I've watched so far. It's great to see people who put a lot of thought and time (looking forward to the full 10+ hrs series on TFA) into figuring things out. Plus even though they go straight to the point about what's done which some take the wrong way, they wish for things to improve.

So I did it, I found an inexpensive way to get the SKX009J1. The SARB035 looks amazing in photos and in real life, but the SKX looks much better in real life than it does in photos or videos. If you're on the fence, get one.

And another thing I did, I started the huge origami project! Doing small parts with printer paper to figure out some important parts before I ravage the real paper, tricky stuff...

Cannot edit too much

Been back for a day. It was intense 1.5 weeks of work, but we managed a few evenings out. Didn't leave Wako which was sad, but there's excellent food everywhere in Japan, if one has an open mind. But we did it, we got the whole thing running! Let's see how many e-mails we get about it the next few weeks... Mayhaps we have to go back :D Mm, fermented seaweed otoushi, no matter how strange people think it is, it has a cleaner flavour and is in every way better than dairy, but I understand... More for me.

Watched three films on the way back; Grindelwald, Replicas, and Bohemian Rhapsody. Nothing too surprising, the first was boring as I expected and I stopped it at some point realizing it was about to kind of end, the next was a little bit better than I thought although I wish they had fleshed things out a bit (like the family radio silence and the last robot), and the last was very nice, but seriously how far can you take something like that? I really liked how The Show Must Go On started playing as we approached the airport. Leaving Japan is always a little sad, so was a strangely poignant moment.

Big meeting the coming week and I have a presentation rather early. Means I gotta work a bit tomorrow, bah :p But also means I can relax throughout most of it, yay :)

Scratched my snxs75, that will be a memory for life...

EDIT 2019-05-24: I don't remember what kind of clicking frenzy lead me to this point, but I've been absolutely swept away by Seiko Grand Quartz 48*/99* and King Seiko 5626 vintage watches. And they can be found for not a whole lot of money. I also had a look at the (in?)famous 45* series with its 10 Hz, but it stutters too much and requires way too much service. Besides, as long as Spring Drive exists, I would never buy a >8 Hz watch (ahh, Spring Drive, one day...). Any device in my possession that can have a wallpaper has now been updated ;) The pros for the quartz is that Seiko lead the way and it's simply the superior way to make a watch, the only con is that even though they are incredibly pretty the 5626 looks much better. The pro for the King is its near perfect looks, the con is that it is a much more fragile and frankly stupid watch. I suppose I'll have yet another period of agonizing back-and-forthing while reading every thread and article I can find 10 times over, and one day I'll have both... I've already been eyeing a 4843-8041 in absolute mint condition which was sold rather quickly (hurt a bit), but although gold plating looks nice at first it will eventually flake and then it's over. A solid case with dings and scratches will always be prettier. Same with humans! Sorry, too banal.

Just one more time...

We're back! Just had a lovely dinner in the RIKEN canteen, and afterwards I bought a mochi cake, some classic Amanoya rice crackers, a bottle of Calpis, and a Cup Noodles for breakfast tomorrow. That's of course not the reason we're here, we'll set up the readout for a neutron detector here with GSI equipment, in only 10 days. But we can't only do that...

This also means I saw some newish films on the plane, in order: The Mule, Aquaman, and Mortal Engines. Nothing great, but better than trying to fall asleep. The first was rather simple, the second was pretty much a normal superhero film, and the last was weird but I got through it. The description of predator cities devouring settlements was a lot more interesting than the film itself, but oh well.

I had a déja vu when I saw the black hole photo that was in the news all over the world. A week or so later I found out about the student who created the picture and she had a TED talk that I watched two years ago about exactly that project. So many things to remember these days. Went on a physics updating spree after that.

Ah yes, the D.R. Harris shaving soap is amazing, everything else I tried so far don't stand a chance. The scent is still as lovely as when I took my first whiff.

Better go to sleep after several horribly unsuccessful attempts on the plane...

EDIT 2019-05-09: While on the subject of Japan, in a round-about way, look up Curvature Blindness illusion. This is on par with the Checker Shadow illusion.

EDIT 2019-05-11: Oh wait what, Aquaman is considered amazing and all critics are slammed? It was a modern romp, and that's all it was. Isn't it funny how so many people like to seriously and vigorously (impulsively attack other opinions...) ponder and discuss warfare and politics (no scratch that, it's a superhero film, come on) between creatures from Atlantis and surface dwellers? I would have liked to have seen it at home to hear the soundtrack better, but I probably won't watch it again :p And now I better hide. Time for Japanese breakfast!

ENDGAME

So, how do I do this without spoilers... Well, it was pretty good, a great end to it all. Some annoying habits here and there, and of course since it's the last one the ending was drawn out forever and gave me a near fatal Hollywood sugary overdose. Sometimes they just don't understand what the audience already feel and keep hammering. But I had fun. Still cannot believe the midnight preview is two days earlier in Europe than the US. I was about to write something about Captain Marvel's role in the film, but that would have been spoily. That whole topic is odd though, good intentions taken too far in all camps.

Now that this is over, it seems like our movie nights will continue with Star Wars first. Some say that Marvel is the Star Wars for the current generation, and I can kind of see that, however there are many more cinematic highlights in Star Wars. I cannot think of a really good one in the Marvel films right now. Hulk smashing Loki in the ground vs Luke in the final duel against his father? Myeeeeah... Maybe, maybe something in Endgame that I cannot describe, but it was so simple and obvious. No, Star Wars is still at the top.

Well that was it, time to sleep (4 in the morning now, ugh) so I can work a little tomorrow.

Campaign finished

Three experiments done! There are a few big question at work nobody wants to tackle head-on before the upcoming experiments can run, let's see how that works out. Although I might not see any of it, that's another thing we'll have to see how it works out...

As per my post-experiment tradition, I ordered a few small things that I'm enjoying quite a lot: DR Harris Arlington shaving soap and after-shave milk. I had a hard time deciding between Arlington and Windsor before placing the order (and I'm way too cheap to get both), I couldn't conjure up the smells in my head only from review descriptions. Well, now that I have the Arlington, supposedly smelling mainly of citrus and fern, I'd say it smells like someone sprayed citrus onto a flower bouquet, while still feeling very much like a perfume. Yeah, I'm not a pro when it comes to understanding scents... I was a bit surprised when I took my first whiff of it, but it didn't take long until I realized this is really great stuff. The soap lather sure lived up to its glowing reviews, the few soaps and creams I've tried before do not stand a chance (Edwin Jagger and The Art Of Shaving soaps, plus Taylor Of Old Bond Street cream). I have even less experience with after-shave, but the milk feels great, doesn't stick around for way long, and gives that lingering flower bouquet scent. Honestly, I find this type of topic to be rather silly when I read about it, but man were these things nice to try out.

My smartphone battery is about to blow up, I should get rid of it. I dug out my old non-smartphone, turns out that has died too. I realized it's pretty nice not having a phone, as long as I don't step on the soap in the shower. I never played games on mine, and I was irritated at myself for looking things up online that I really didn't need. I'll get a cheap one for calling and messaging, just so people can pester me since it's so difficult nowadays to plan or just decide to do something at a specific time and place. Says me who cannot organize anything...

Started picking up the violin a bit more after the experiments. It feels so great when it all just clicks. With practice it'll click more often :)

Let's see if I can finish The Night Of The Rabbit before tomorrow, fun with adventure and puzzle solving on the holiday! First day of it...
EDIT some hours later: Beginning to middle was really cute and cozy, middle was serious and great, the ending acts were odd, the last sequence was nice, maybe a wee bit too much talking. And now I feel the void of having finished a story with lovely characters. "It was nice visiting you!" I also did the 1,000 clicks. One day I'll play the title melody on the violin :) Alright, time for bed, and another day.

EDIT 2019-04-20: Completely forgot I saw the last Star Wars trailer a little while back. Was just reminded of it. And now I've forgotten again.

Boing boing

Because it's spring! Funs with puns. The weather turned around very quickly last week, I should get out again and see some more sun.

We broke the 40 kHz barrier, quite a difference from 12 kHz. 8 us event acceptance dead-time between a pair of events, so we should be able to get a lot out of the terrible micro structure of the beam, readout dead-time is still at ~21 us.

Will go once more to Riken in May. Collecting and documenting things that we need to bring is quite tedious, but not so bad for another "free" trip! Unnngh, the food, cannot wait!

And while on the subject of Japan, I watched Mob Psycho 100 again, learnt very recently that season 2 has been out for some time. Great show, with values I like that somehow clash with what I hear from many people. Makes me happy. Might be time to refresh some Ghibli memories.

Feel a bit stuck with the violin progress, I need to try something new. I should open up another book, that tends to help to rekindle my fascination. And pick up my guitars from time to time, would be a waste to let go of all of that.

Oh right, it's still sunny outside, gonna go catch some of it. Jaa ne!

Phase-0 is here

Commissioning and first experiment done, potentially the first FAIR phase-0 experiments! One month of work and we'll have one more! Can't wait to destroy my daily rhythm again.

Preparations were relatively good this time around, I think we're slowly turning things around. Things break left and right all the time (I'm still puzzled why people think it's weird that things suddenly break), to varying degrees, whatever can be ready should be made ready.

And tomorrow I need to get up early for the annual medical inspection, a nice perk for radiation workers. I'll sleep during the work week :p

I'll have time to play violin today, wohoo!

Zoig!

Happy New Year! Sweden is now officially one of the most violent places in Europe.

I feel just like at home! Funny on the one hand how this was stated in the news with no build-up, but everybody who expressed concerns about it during the last few years were branded. The risk of a re-election is also pretty scary, especially after these news.

Anyhow, let's escape the real world for a bit. Well, actually, not even film magic let's us do that any longer. I was looking forward to the final Star Wars event (if only it would be the last) before Christmas, and then I figured they take two years to make. Slightly disappointed, I watched VII on TV some days ago and started thinking about the Star Wars Universe (SWU), again. Let's see, the new trilogy makes me quite upset actually, even more than the prequel trilogy does. Wait-wait-wait, the prequels still provide for buckets of cringe, don't get me wrong, but the new ones are straight up evil. They are mainly machines to propel narratives outside of the SWU, because I learnt nothing new about the SWU. Except the fantastic stories from IV mean little to nothing. All the discussions after the releases show the real narrative that some people want to push. Whoever determined why and how to make this new trilogy rode the fan base hype wave to get going, but then vilified many of them when criticized. A lot of unrelated famouses joined the literal and metaphorical pointing of fingers, and as usual we're ugly, fat, sad, and hate certain people. All we want is amazing blazing adventures in space with myths and legends, wishing we were there, running shoulder to shoulder with the hard struggling heroes, helping them blast the bad empire to bits! That's it. It's really that simple. I'll watch the last attempt next year because my friends will, but that's it, I'm done with them. OOPS, I meant this year.

Fortunately, one can always watch the old trilogy and relive the real magic over and over, forever 8D

McGrumps showed up for a bit up there, but I rounded him off with starry eyes. Ahh, binary sunset! *playing the music in my head*