I forgot this! The smallest and calmest Christmas celebration I've yet seen, left more room than usual for farther (and maybe deeper?) reaching contemplation. I've enjoyed the solitude this year, but I understand many haven't as much, I hope it's been ok still.
Schradieck is painful -_- Is this the best way to round off an important annual post? Yes. Well, could end with saying that I've started working on BWV1004 Gigue again, lovely energetic piece.
Except there wasn't much chess? Just finished Queen's Gambit, took my time with it since it was a nice watch, and it's been praised left and right. Overall fine, but the last episode was incredibly rushed and the protagonist unlocked her super-power on a whim. Anime battles are more complex. And as is usual, the main topic, the game of chess, felt like a vessel for the real story, with character and envirmontal development, although there was pretty much only character development here. I enjoyed the characters, it was all quite straightforward without crazy twisterinos. Add cool thematic jargon, snazzy clothes and wallpapers, no insight at all into what is going on with the main subject, and that's the recipe we all know and love. Oh right, the protagonist is an intuitive genious, cannot let that be demystified. I wanted to see more chess, and I hate the game, funny.
That is why The Wire is so bloody excellent. It focuses on a huge cast of characters and their dynamics in the world without the fluff. No veneer, no theme, no questing, what might seem to start with cops vs gangsters becomes, uh, everything? Personalities, their lot in life, let time pass and have them mix and match, and we get what we get. Yeah I'm no critic, but honestly The Wire is so difficult to pin down.
It's been a busy fall, in many ways. Vacations are coming up, gonna enjoy my brand new Müsing C3! Right now actually.
EDIT 2020-12-16: I watched some analysis videos of the games in Queen's Gambit. There's quite a lot going on in the depicted games, and seeing other options and the pivotal moves when games were adjourned or turned is really nice. Exactly what I had hoped to know more about while watching the show... What does it mean to play intuitively or aggressively? How do different opponents react? Muh, Russians are machines and it's cool to feel free and live in the moment, that's what it's always about. It's easy for seasoned players to pick out the interesting details that are shown to us in plain sight I suppose, but I don't think some actual explanation about the games to all viewers would have hurt anything. Oh well, there are more important things in the world :p
After that heavy last post, something fun:
Now what shall I fold with all the other paper...
Sir David Attenborough was 93 years old when recording his latest documentary earlier this year. He seems as young and energetic as always. I didn't watch much of his when I was young, but I'm getting the idea as I grow older. A Life on Our Planet feels very current and poignant even though the main narrative is about a rather long process, and I agree with pretty much everything he has to say. It makes me sad how many wouldn't, and maybe even worse how many would, but couldn't allow themselves to change their way of life. I feel like I'm improving, but I'm sure I can do better. Nobody expects an instant handbrake (good old gaming ref), but we should all try bit by bit.
It's become something of a meme with my colleagues how I complain about hot weather in general, when in fact my full statement is that I'm mostly fine relaxing in the shadows with 25 up to almost 40 degrees C which I've experienced a few times in my life, however it's very difficult to perform any physically or mentally streneous activities then. I hear air-cons solve everything, but already before Saitama and his training regimen I decided not to take that route. Actually, the moment I decided to not personally have an AC was when Louis CK said how white people are never happy with the world and must adjust it to their liking. Sure, he's a comedian, and to lots of people nowadays a horrible creature at best, but that doesn't mean his every statement is nonsense (this is a can of worms I probably shouldn't touch, but airing out is better than canning in). I'm doing my best to accept the world as it presents itself, and the facilities I was given to experience it.
There's so much we could do. Some of it good, some of it bad; to the environment, our health, others' health, morally, you name it. With regards to development and progress, some of it helpful, some of it not. Fun and boring overlap them all. I'll try to reduce the bad and unnecessary, and make as much boring into fun as I can. And not everything people want to me to do is necessary, so I need to consider how much I want to be part of that.
To end this post, I'll bring up a famous logical fallacy that is prevalent in this subject that I find very irritating and common among intelligent people. I cannot recall the name of the fallacy right now, but a particular application goes something like this:
"Why should we do anything when China pollutes the worst?"
A version that hits closer to home would be:
"You tell me to exercise more, so why don't you?"
Why does it matter what the other person does? Why not do good; yay if others join in, and you simply gained if they don't. Sure, if you look at numbers, you can present a narrative where improving the situation in China would be more effective than working on Sweden. But it does not follow that nothing would improve if Sweden did better, it's just laziness, convenience, and ignorance if Sweden doesn't. Now that we can be so well aware, so well connected, have so much knowledge and information so very close to us, the well developed and strong groups should strive for doing good, and the tools found on the way can be shared with others.
Or if you wish, there's a naive rebuke I really dislike myself, in where one could say that if we don't do anything we're just as bad. Don't use that on your kids, think better of them.
I was in need of more nutrients for my C40, and at the same time I decided to order a little origami material:
Had one amazing violin session three weeks ago, could've played that in public. It was the only time though.
Learning Japanese is so much work, gotta keep it up. Looking at old photos from Japan keeps my motivation alive.
Tried to make a banana cake today, smells nice, will try it at work tomorrow. Yolo.
Most terse post?
Fun time over, time to work- erm, to have more fun?
Planned to buy something for a friend of mine since he drove to and from Stockholm so that we could hang out with even more friends! Rather small group though, we didn't take any crazy risks given the current situation in the world. All very responsible. Then suddenly the online shop which had the something just up and vanished, strange. Of course, when I don't know what to buy for people, my go-to gift is some paper that I fold a couple of times. He has a few figures already from when we shared a flat at university, but he didn't have a Tomoko Fuse modular thing, so I made this (my mother joined in for some of the folding):
Cannot wait to play the violin here, but gonna wait until the shop downstairs is closed... I'd like to be a considerate tenant.
Enough, let's have an evening.
Traveling in these times is very much like before, I was expecting more hassle at the airport. I don't know about other flights, but people just wouldn't keep the distance at the gate no matter how much the staff begged everybody, even though they decided to board three groups at once... What were they expecting. Oh well, what can one do, I decided to stay back since I was anyhow on the first row so I should really get on late. Yay, business class, the food which I shouldn't get in these times was really underwhelming and that was about it. To continue on the previous thread, I never understood why people cram themselves into the plane, I'd rather stay out of the plane as much as possible which I'm sure I've said in an earlier post. Also, boarding order is a very complex problem that tends to be done best in random order, except in Japan and maybe some similar places. Groups such as families/relatives first, then window seats, then middle, then aisle; the problem is this approach puts some faith in the majority of the passengers which in practice one unfortunately cannot do according to numerous tests :/ Anyway, generalizing and mentioning emergent behaviour in people is considered unethical and immoral so I better stop.
Went to the forest today to look for mushrooms, found a few, but my parents found "a lot". Bit dry even with all the rain that supposedly has been falling here. Later I went for a bikeride in Alandsryd, there was an MTB SM there some years ago and I finally tried what was left of the trail. Fun, I've missed MTB:ing. The trail started and stopped intermittently though, so it was difficult to keep going.
So, every paragraph is related to the title in several ways, and here are two more topics: go in Japanese is five, and I've been studying some Japanese recently, currently memorizing the radicals for kanji and some basic characters. All the readings, ugh. Plus, after the MTB tour, the scales at home flipped between 55.4 and 55.6 kg, so that's maybn 55.5 kg? Tada. Being fat might be annoying and carry some stigma, but losing weight without noticing is scary as hell. My tummy hurt so much after lunch, I made the mistake to tell my mother :p
I better continue being lazy at home...
Title alludes to nothing.
No mandatory quarantine in Germany for travelers from Sweden any longer, yay, finally I can take vacation. Business ticket was cheaper than economy one way, so I'll have a crack at that. Biz was actually less expensive the other way, but then economy was even cheaper. I shouldn't get used to extravagant luxury anyhow, it's not my calling.
Why haven't I been making kefir earlier... In Sweden one buys it in 1L nicely disposable cartons just like milk. I've only been able to find kefir in smallish plastic cups or yoghurt in 1L plastic buckets here in Germany, so I stayed clear. Well, buy kefir once, keep a couple of spoons of it at the end, add milk, let stand warm for a day, and poof, 1 L of kefir. Life is too easy sometimes. I should bring one type I like from home.
I haven't done much (any?) origami lately, but I challenge myself from time to time, because it's still very relaxing. I need some external motivation these days, too bad. So, I was invited to a 4th of Juli celebration and I made this for the occasion:
I didn't have time to treat it with methylcellulose so the body and legs ended up rather flimsy and wild, and the wings came out at the wrong height. I saw this model many years ago (Eagle v.2 by Nguyen Hung Cuong) and I've wanted to try it for a long time, so that's that one.
Bourree and Gigue are now mostly in my memory, so I'm working on them without having to stare at a book. I'm getting rather used to the E major scale, it doesn't take a complete paradigm shift in my mind to change to it any more. Some scales still help. Adagio is something else though, so many more techniques to get in place. I almost, almost cheated and went for bars 132..209 in the Chaconne, but I may not touch that yet, I'm not worthy. Adagio first, then...
EDIT 2020-07-18 00:42: Oh right, I started to watch Dark after a recommendation. I heard some time ago that someone else in the physics community had to stop watching because it was too wrong on certain touchy topics. Well, yeah, save for some really boring films/series that will always be the case for someone. So, I went in with an open mind, and imho somewhere between Stranger Things and Dark would be the perfect show of this kind. I liked the slick flow and production of Stranger Things season 1, but I prefer the more personal perspective in Dark, although many of the characters are a bit thin. Worst is the pacing and structure, they're a little weird. Great to see more of this stuff, and glad to see it's popular. And even though the writers seem to have foregone physics consultants, it's a lot better than Big Bang Theory which does get the physics right, however everything else in that show is hot steaming poo poo. Finally, I'm also glad to have learnt that the yt film reviewers I like are not over the moon with Blade Runner 2049, because outside of its technical implementations it doesn't have much. I wonder how long that 24 hour podcast will take me (yeah, I listen to the long men, blessed by the Don himself).
Heard yesterday about somebody who recently came from Sweden to visit Germany, and that person had to fill in and sign an official document at the airport: 14 days quarantine. That's why I cannot really go unless I find a test before I return here, but I don't want to rely on "unless", not this time of year. Germany is scared of people coming from Sweden, for good reason. Nonchalant crowd-loving Swedes make it difficult for the rest of us to see our families :/ Only this other person had a trick up their sleeve: not staying in quarantine. Oh wow, I got upset when I was told. Fortunately there's a lot of people who care and show respect to offset the rats, I know of people coming from "hot zones" doing the right thing. I don't get angry easily, but this really does it. If I ever meet that selfish prick I'll say what I think.
So what is the right thing to do? Come on, don't be a self-centric child and use your head. We don't have 14-days quarantine or face masks because the Illuminati wants it.
Ordered and am currently going through a Probierpaket of three light roasted coffees, very fresh and aromatic. Every now and then it's nice to have a fuller cup still, I might have to order another such medium package.
Adagio is really tricky. I wonder how I managed to play through it the first 2 times I tried it, I can't even finish a couple of seconds of it now. With better understanding comes more caution and sensitivity I suppose, annoying.
Oh right, finally, the topic of the title. Just watched Space Force and I quite enjoyed it. Not amazing, but I would like more. Apparently the reviews are mixed, where pro industry reviewers think it's bad and the plebs think it's ok. The main reasons it's considered bad is supposedly that it poorly reflects (regurgitates?) the current state of top US politics, that the jokes are all misses, and that Naird is not psychotic enough for Carell. The first is in the news all the time (news > "TV" show for that, let TV explore so many other things we could have, also if you want satire you go to the UK), jokes are so very subjective (I laughed at a comfortable rate, not every 10 s but I also don't want that), and do people physically express weird behaviour even close to as much as Naird does or should snazzy pro reviewers lay off some binging of extreme displays of outrageous media to have a normal sense of the world again? Oh wait, I just said that they should be more normal, that's probably irony. Btw, bit risky to make the Chinese the villains, I wonder if that could have had any impact at all on the ratings... Hah, just kidding around... From Russia to China, I wonder who will be next. It's more of an honor than anything else though, isn't it?
Back to enjoying the summer heat, yay.
EDIT 2020-06-29: Forgot about the most astounding life-style change for me since many years; during the last two weeks I go to bed between 23 and midnight and wake up between 6 and 7. Feels nice, but I still work until just as late. Some people might think I'm a little clever, but I'm really not.
Ignoring all the obvious real-life topics, because there's enough coverage of varying quality of them and I don't have any better insight, I finally watched They Live. Fun, pretty good, not amazing, it's like a futuristic simpler version of Hypernormalisation.
Comandante C40 is really expensive, but it really is a lot nicer than my old Porlex. Years of pining with a toyish tool makes me appreciate the real deal a lot. To be fair, the Porlex is really good, but it does feel cheaper and the grind is notably worse. I'd recommend it over the C40 for a beginner, it's probably enough for most, and it handles the arch nemesis of coffee grinderers, static, better than the C40. Red-listed trees and various other arguments made me choose the bamboo version, I hope I didn't mess that up. Also bought a funny little scale, the Tanita KD320, which can measure in 0.1g steps immediately from 0g. First thing I did was to try to weigh the plastic wrapper in which the batteries came in, 0.4g. I didn't find any other kitchen scale that can do that, not even the lovely g&g scales, although they have better precision all the way up to 3kg (depending on the model, but I shant complicate tings). The Tanita looks like a piece of kitchen equipment from my childhood too, I had to have it. Oh crap, They Live, I see it now!
Been playing around with Vulkan again, it gets easier after simply accepting some of the initial torrents of code plus making building blocks of common features. Extending shader features and textures etc was easy after the initial steps. Reminds me of a second job tho...
Had a few amazing violin sessions where 1006 Bourrée and Gigue sounded divine, quite a few more not so nice sessions :p The kind of up-hill battle that one wants to fight.
Just met Strider. The Libra is really much more convenient than a printed book, I be a happy blind consumer.
Let's see what happens in the near future, I'd like to see my home land again one day...
I have to write something about this.
So, I've been having a fishing line out for a game called Firewatch ever since I saw Ron Gilbert twittering his interest in the game way back. Looked nice, I like story and character driven media. Then I heard about the polarizing views on its length and an unsatisfying ending and so I decided to wait until it got cheap. Well, today it got really cheap, and I thought I could at least install and play it over the weekend. In the end I couldn't put it down until it was over, and I have to write something down to let off some good steam.
I'd say it's one of the best of its kind, and a very good example of some of the strengths of games compared to books, music, and films. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but here I go again: books are great for driving a story while our own minds paint landscapes between and inside characters, music I cannot really describe in a good way (goes deeper somehow?), and films join the two and present to us a much more tangible version that we wouldn't imagine ourselves but that is very easy to digest. Games can go the extra mile of putting us on the spot in the moment, and let the player control much of the flow of time and where to be, and in some cases choices. As I've grown older I've started to appreciate choices that have no technical long term effects in a game, before I thought they were stupid and pointless. The connection between the player and the two main characters in Firewatch is more than I've ever felt before. The time in the forest did some strange stuff to me too, but the intro was rather forced and alien to me, I'm guessing a fixed intro would have worked better. Some of the tools were a bit cumbersome and broke the flow of things, but it wasn't too bad. I'll remember the paths, places, mornings, and conversations for a very long time.
The ending. The beautiful ending. I can see why people don't like it, it's so real. No fireworks (well, the setting and environment were very powerful), just a reminder. But if it didn't break your heart just a little bit, you don't have one. If you want a fairy tale ending, don't play this. If you want a luke warm ending, maybe play this. If you're ready for feels, play this. Still not as heavy as Spoorloos, my goodness that ending almost killed me.
If I knew it would be this good, I would have bought it for more money. And now I'll need to watch some otters to cheer up and then go to bed :)
My life didn't change very much since the "incident" has slowly progressed engulfed most of the world, however it is lonely at work from time to time. One great way to combat that is to exercise my nerdy hobbies, and one reoccurring is keyboarding. I never quite liked my Let's Split, I like things simple and small, and it was larger than I thought plus I don't really like split keyboards I suppose.
So after that weakly dramatic intro, let's continue where the previous post left off:
Specs, again:
My thoughts, which might even be considered a review:
I don't see the point with going with 40% keyboards, just go straight for 30% and experience utopia. It's much nicer than my enormous Let's Split. Both need layers anyhow, even my 60% HHKB Pro 2 has an Fn key. One day I'll file down the pins on the Pro Micro, find shorter M2 brass stand-offs, possibly sunk-head screws and thinner rubber feet, but that's my only complaint. It's also perfect for introducing my thumbs in my typing for moar.
The Kailh Box Pink switches are glorious compared to the Cherry switches I've tried. Personally I could do with slightly lighter springs, but they cannot sell a strength for every taste, that's just silly. Very solid and smooth, and the crisp clicking is wonderful.
The keycaps are lovely, and a perfect match with the green PCBs. They look like candies and I want to eat them. That's good.
Now honestly, the initial reason for green PCBs, Kailh Box Pink rather than Jade, and the Pineapple keycaps, was that they were pretty much the only options available at the time in Europe... Turned out to be the perfect combination, I'm so fortunate :D
Still working on the layout and layers, another few weeks of headache and trial and error... Couldn't be better.
Well, what can one say...
Be considerate to others (i.e. make sacrifices to not go out and don't hoard like a retard), don't put yourself above others (anybody can get ill, everybody can spread), and just try to understand how anything spreads (forget cool catch phrases like "exponential growth", just think about the mechanics of how things spread). Shouldn't this be considered reasonable advice, or common sense? Is this what the news tell us, or do they keep rattling on about empty store shelves and how slow western governments are? Fakking keck.
I never noticed the toilet paper apocalypse, since I don't use much. Later pasta, rice, flour, and eventually even lentils (when we get desperate...) were gone in the supermarkets. The corner shop in the village I live in has everything still, seems like people there are more reasonable.
I started cancelling my private travel plans to safe locations in the world already back in early February, meanwhile others went to and returned from hot zones for adventure vacations and fell ill. *sigh* Of course, in crazy international hubs like airports nothing can be considered safe, which is why I didn't go. Business trips, that's where things get a bit more complicated...
So sick of hearing about it from people who know little, so I should stop writing myself :p Very quiet at work, that's the last I'll say.
Gherkin keyboard kit! But what key switches... It's tearing me apart, all the modern ones are so cheap and supposedly rather bad compared to the good old Japanese Alps.
It's almost summer here some days, I even go outside from time to time when the sun is out.
EDIT 2020-03-21: Online streaming must be seeing a surge these days... Green Book was really nice. Got a bit too buttery at parts and gave in to some common dramatic film tropes ("stop the car!" followed by meaningful insight in the rain, meh), so it's not a masterpiece but was a lovely watch. Reminded me of how keeping an open mind, listening, and exposure can really make a difference. There's quite a bit more in there than just social injustice. I was working on something while it started, decided after a bit to leave that and just focus on the film. Oh I forgot, the compositing when he played the piano was pretty horrible, all my years of graphics programming ruined it for me...
Finally ordered stuff for the Gherkin, went for Kailh Box Pink switches and MDA Pineapple PBT keycaps. It hurts to pay, but I keep hearing "money is worth nothing when you're dead" and "0 deepz when you're dead". Was leaning heavily into Cherry browns for a long time, but after some deep delving on yt I changed my mind on some MX clones. Cherry has ended up being too comfortable, and they can afford it. After all, I considered browns first simply from prejudice to be honest. Kailh seems to be have been doing some pretty good stuff in the last few years, at least after some very motivated people got in touch with them. Let's see, there will for sure be photos soon!
Having a week off work, not reading e-mails and having my phone on "do not disturb" so I reply to people only when I feel like it. Lovely idea. Somehow people are fine with me behaving like this, I keep a few slow conversations and have been invited for dinner tomorrow. I know some nice people for sure. Was hoping to do some soul searching for my future, but it doesn't seem to bloom out. I might take a bike ride deep into the forest (the forests here aren't as deep as in Sweden though, so I need to plan ahead) one day and just let my mind travel.
Just watched Porco Rosso since Netflix brought in a small set of the Ghibli films recently, it's the one that I lost on the way somehow. They're all in a league of their own, I'm in such a warm wonderful mood right now. Just like the SW OT, 2001, Blade Runner etc. If only the industry could stop remaking and sequeling and prequeling so we can see good original stuff again. Oh right, I forgot about Joker, that was nice. It's never that simple in the end.
Made a new sourdough starter, goes quick. Bought lots of cheese and pizza toppings, so I'll try sourdough pizza. I should make some sauerkraut too, I've collected a few large glass jars.
Finished the Hobbit last week, not sure what to think. Not as silly as the films which was nice, and I thought the descriptive language was a little vague even though I've heard people think it's too much. I painted some nice views in my head while reading it, that were quite different from the films. But, I didn't learn much about the characters, that bit felt a bit rushed. Again, one must consider that it's a children's book. So, it was nice, not great. I'm currently reading a small book called Omon Ra, lent to me by a co-worker. Russians call it satire, I initially felt it's my stereotypical perception of Russia after having visited the place a few times. The tone is definitely satirical however. Only half-way through and the plan is clear by now, but I have no idea how it's gonna play out, so I should get back to reading it!
We got the full Inky Kraken set for our boat in Sea of Thieves! Taking a break with Deep Rock Galactic right now, the music is so nice. All the mining made me think of 7DTD, I made some proper Moria caves under our bases a couple of times, maybe we'll try that too.
Another two days off, then weekend, then commissioning run and experiment. Four more days to sleep ;)
EDIT 2020-02-08: Omon Ra finished. The ending makes about 50/50 sense, if one takes the whole book into account. I see what the author aimed for, but it's a strange feeling to end on for me. Overall a fun thing to read, if one can stomach some darkness. In contrast, there's a few moments in Black Lagoon that I've been watching recently that's a lot deeper, stuck between all the annoying anime tropes. Perhaps I should actually read some manga, I never tried. Anyways guys (super niche meme), I've acquired a taste for reading, it's like a gentle cleansing workout for the mind, so I'll just keep going at it!
Got woefully ill around the new year, been bed-ridden for a couple of days, even had to re-book my flight down the continent. Things are a lot better today, though I should care that I don't make anything dumb. Two friends with wives came my insignificant hometown for a visit, and I missed them both because I was ill. Drat.
Loving the Kobo Libra, and because I'm odd I took a white one even though everybody else told me to pick black. I thought the white would attract less smudges and white specks of dust. Still I was worried about how much a white bezel would affect my concentration while reading (I'm a pretty bad reader tbh, very little practice...), and it turns out I don't think about it one bit when engrossed. Phew, just need to find good books. Ploughed through the first Sherlock Holmes book, I found it for tree in the Kobo store. Reminded me of how superior the Jeremy Brett version was to all others, and how much better books are overall, the emotional payoff is a lot more meaningful. Then I started with the Hobbit, and truth be told it's a little disappointing. Not sure what I expected, but here's hoping the ring series is really better. Btw I finally know what's hiding in JRR. And on top of that I have some ~20 classical books (all in the public domain!) considered among the best ever, that'll be tough and inspiring. After that I'll consider getting a library card.
Nothing new except for that. Oh right, I forgot, happy 2020! Let's see what Wikipedia has to say about the number 2020... Perfect vision, thanks for reminding me of my rubbish eyes... Hmm, seems to be an exceptionally unremarkable number mathematically, so we'll just have to make it a cool year by other means!
EDIT a little later: A certain person's 250th birthday! Completely forgot... Also, Hobbit isn't really bad, it's better fantasy than any game in the genre (Dark Souls comes close, but it's so dark :p ), and I knew it's supposed to be suitable for children, but constant flashbacks to the films are really annoying. Shouldn't fault the book for that. Let's see, over half-way through!
EDIT even later: Coco started well, Pixar is pretty good with that. Then they have their usual slightly sugary first act which is always annoying, and the plot was not too hard to disentangle (although I never do that, it was just too clear this time). Then the film became really great for the second half. Best Pixar film in a long while. Could be due to some sentimental values from the great Grim Fandango... Still, personally I feel that the surreal emotional world in the best Japanese animated films is in a higher league, I'm still trying to figure out what it is. It's somehow akin to books, whereas Western media slams the emotion buttons at the right times. In any case, it's nice to feel.
