ROUTINE and Leather Temple?!

It's out!

One very influential unreleased game. Seems to have been a tough development, but with great focus and care. Might be my first early buy in a good while, I've had my eyes on this since it was announced.

That was all. An important all. Don't expect any newfound routine höhö.

EDIT 2025-12-05: Wait wat, Carpenter Brut just released a song from his upcoming album too *swoon* Leather Temple. This is some of the most violent emotional whiplash in a single week for me.

EDIT 2025-12-07: Routine is nuts. Graphics are excellent, audio is excellent, the atmosphere is excellent. Scariest horror game I've played, although I don't play horror a whole lot. My only complaints are that the world-building is a little weak and the "Entity" stuff makes little sense outside of the lunar base. I love vague media, and the game does too, so I wish the devs had gone for a more surreal or intangible enemy rather than an unkillable patrolling meatbag. The Type-05's are great, pretty weird design for assistant robots though. Other than that, everything is just gorgeous, absolutely top-notch.

This entry lay dormant since September

It's been a while! 2024, here we go!

I just finished Return to Monkey Island, and it's pretty darn good. Felt a lot, and decided it's time to dump parts of my brain here. I then found this dusty old draft, which I'll get through first:

Mando, Boba, Obi, Ahsoka, all best enjoyed on second order to protect thyself. And not in the intended way, I'm supposing. I recommend EFAP in small doses. Then there's the hidden and tucked away Andor, which is really good. I finally felt some things in a Star Wars setting since the OT. Didn't much like "six years, hah-hah" and "Tungstoid steel" (I cringed into a ball), but that's sci-fi I guess. No darths, no lightsabers, no jedi force push or mind reading (if I remember correctly), just lots of struggling characters that use their noggin' to various extents. Nice

Going through Return to Monkey Island. Grumpy Gamer sure is an international treasure, and Dave Grossman and the team too. Also, Yahtzee, you're not, grow up.

Well that was all I had drafted, I'll continue with the game. Maybe the best in the series? Art style is what it is. I liked it, it's better than all the triple-A bloomy raytraced gurgle. Sharp with smooth and dynamic animations, and the designs fit the personalities for me. Prepare your pitchforks: It looks better than Curse. The music is very soothing. LuChuck's fiery side is a little tame, but overall the voice work is spot on. And the ending. Reminds me of Firewatch, in that one camp hates that kind of ending, the other camp loves it. You don't slay the dragon, you don't get the girl because in this case you're already with her, everything is not wrapped up neatly with bowties, meaning all characters actually live on and are in fact less disposable. Come to think of it, it also reminds me of the final ending of The Wire, and y'all know how much I lurv that. What was expected? Finding the secret, or not, so that there will be more sequels? Sailing into the sunset with Elaine (well that's an alternative ending), with Murray being evil which is sooo cute? Have a party with the cool characters while the others are redeemed or end up on Terror Island? Those final seconds of Guybrush going into his inner self, either enjoying the moment or still dreaming of that other life, was an amazing end. Now, everybody, LEAVE IT AT THAT. Feel a little, think a little.

My favourite part? There were some good jokes, loved the mop tree gag, but no. Standing in the middle of the street, choosing to say "I feel better just talking to you." "Me too." It's weird how the years make a simple exchange like that in a slapstick game mean so much. But the developers knew what they were doing :) Top game.

Oppenheimer... Was ok. I preferred Veritasium's 30 min yt-docu.

Started watching the X Files from the beginning. Wow it's super 90's and the main actors are a lot worse than I remember... But it's still fun, government conspiracies and aliens will never not give.

Oh right, the one Ring has finally been cast into Mount Doom, and there's still enough for a whole book left. Wowee.

Celtic Dueling Violins is slowly getting faster (huhu). So much fun.

Hum, what else. Triangle of Sadness is fun. A few scenes are a bit much. But I'll remember it for a long time, especially the ending with that music.

I'm sure there was a lot more going on, but I try to cover what suits this place the most (: Let's see how long the next one takes.

Get Psyched, again

Wait, that's another game. Anyway, I'm a bit bummed out now that I didn't back Psychonauts 2, because what an absolutely amazing game that is. Sequels to legendary games scare me, but Double Fine did it. Overall, the first game is still the pinnacle, but I have almost nothing to complain about with the follow-up. Ehh, what am I saying, I have to nag about something: the ending feels very disconnected from the beginning, the teenagers disappear rather quickly and are replaced by the old geezers, and overall the "sentimental" angle goes on for too long. Everything else is tip top. Both games super highly recommended, even though they are super annoying 3D platformers :p Sound effects and music are my notification sounds now.

Tenet is great. Finally, a good film by Nolan! *hides*

Have slowly gone through Tokyo Vice and just finished the first season. Editing isn't great, I think a few characters are stupid and annoying, and there's too much grown-up hugging. But it has its moments, pretty much exclusively with the Japanese characters.

Why was there so much hoolabaloo about Succession? It was fine and snappy, but did very little for me. I'm not into money and power plays. All I remember from the infamously poppy dialogue is "Hi! Hey! Hi. Wow. You dig dickbutt?" Bah.

The Deadwood film is ok, and compared to the series it's just meh. The dialogue and delivery is so forced and cronge, and imho so is the overall story and new character plots. The series is excellent as it is, even with its abrupt end.

Saw the Boss live! Was never a fan, and imho I'm not a fan of the studio albums, but the show was great fun. The highlights were definitly when "Born in the USA" and "Born to Run" came up back to back, plus his new melancholic acoustic song to round off the evening. Brucey is old, but Brucey rocks, a lot. Psychonauts 2 is orders of magnitude more value for the money though.

I need to fold some stuff, just need to find a free evening to do it. First my own plans, then some super old requests.

I've had some other things bouncing around my head, but they've bounced out I suppose. Until next time, enjoy high summer!

z0ze all the way to egg time

Wow I've been slacking, no good.

2023, another not so interesting number, except when spelled z0ze it reminds me of Soos and that makes me happy.

Let's see, I'm still going slowly through bookie LotR, and so are Frodo and Sam. They just passed Minas Morgul, and although I like the depiction in the films there's something special about reading about it in a book. A sickly light with windows as portals into the darkness. And the ringwraith boss doesn't pose on his dragon, he fronts the troops like a proper boss. I'd love to watch the super duper extended versions.

Since I got HBO Max I've watched quite a few things, with some radical takes. I'll start with something pretty crazy about True Detective that will put me in grave danger: s1 is aesthetically great with great pacing, great acting, great everything filmsy wordsy whatever, but s2, as kooky as it is, is better. Yep, I'm officially a dead man. I will not even explain my take (:

Finished Silicon Valley. It did indeed lose steam and Jarald got too much free reign, and although I didn't like where it went overall the last scene is pretty good. First couple of seasons are solid.

Oh right Dune. So easy to forget :p I'm already a dead man so whatever. Not at all waiting eagerly for the continuation. Fine but meh. The Spicediver edit is better.

The Suicide Squad is pretty much where DC should not go. I see why they do, trying to jazz up their darkness, but I'm getting old and grumpy and they should not do what they're doing.

Paddington was a nice surprise. I always thought it'd be garbage, I liked it a lot.

Batman. What can be said that hasn't been said about the lunatic billionaire that dresses up as a bat and fights crime with his gizmos and fists. Serious notes aside, was fine, nowhere near the Joker though. That, is what DC should do.

Tenet is back! On my to-watch list.

I feel like I'm missing something, but whatever, films and series are not that important in the end. Ah yes, house of the dragonses, HBO has recommended ep 3 or 4 for a couple of months now.

Regarding games, Senua is pretty amazing. Unfortunately the fighting, although starting great, loses steam fast and ends up being a game of patience. I need to cross the bridge at some point, ie I've only played 3-4 hours.

I'm getting more fluent with Gymnopedie 1, but considering I don't have the piano at my usual place it obviously takes a while. Need to pick up my violin more, need more gusto.

Alright enough, gotta work!

Media dump

Had a flu, was difficult to focus on work, so I consumed some media. Some time ago I watched the first episode of Rings of Power with some friends. My initial impression was it was boring, vapid, and an excuse for random people to make something for a rabid fan-base. Pointless, esp. considering the quality of the original lore and the Jackson trilogy. So rather than watching any more I've relied on EFAP to fill me in. How, seriously how, can series like this keep getting made? The money, the material, the talents, and the best they can cobble together is this? I'm fed up with GoT for various reasons, but the dragon show seems to have been ok. Oh right, one good thing came of this atrocity, I started reading the books again. Merry and Pippin just met Treebeard. So cute.

Finally played Mirror's Edge. Wow, what a curse-fest that was. Kinda pretty, the music was great. The plot, the Battlefield control feel, the fighting, the "BAM didn't see that coming, did you?! Reload!" sequences, made me so incredibly, amazingly angry. Maybe wasn't healthy, I was supposed to relax to recover from my flu. Fortunately it only took 5h to beat and I won't look back, but I'll put on the OST at some point, I'm sure.

Then I found two short puzzlers in my weird library: Puzzle Agent 2 and Gorogoa. Pretty sure I've written about Puzzle Agent 1 earlier, funny little mystery with simple self-contained puzzles scattered throughout. This installment continues and resolves the mystery. If you like some silly with a fun story, recommended. Gorogoa is something very different, reminds me of the experimental games in the glorious 90s. Interesting, felt a bit inconsistent sometimes as to the available actions. Imho the best parts were some of the poignant parts of the story, immediately sentimental somehow.

Will go to work tomorrow to pick something up, but probably won't work close to other people. I feel fine, but I'd rather not risk anybody's Christmas vacation, plus there's more diseases ravaging our society out there... I'm lucky to have such a remote-able job. Ait, time to read a little!

New book

Rather than turning a new page I've turned to a new book. It's so nice to not work in a cave every day, although I cannot say I like the office yet since I'm still looking for an apartment... I have the office key at least. Trudging through a stack of papers, I feel so rusty.

Been holding off on saying anything about a 1.5 year old hobby: piano playing! As usual I spent a lot of time digging, in this case probably for more than half a year, looking for an alternative to the violin. I really love the trumpet and like the idea of using my lungs to produce sound, but it's so loud and gross with all the spit. I had a full trumpet setup in the basket in an online shop and hovered the buy-button, but changed my mind. So, went for a white Roland FP30X + DP10 instead, great kit. It has a less "dreamy" sound than what's offered by other brands and I prefer it that way. I somehow felt all demos resembled real piano recordings more than the others that sounded a lot more repetitive and synthesised. Supposedly the action is more accurate too, but I know nothing. Each to their own! My solution is to not care about the gear any more and just play! Did a lot of exercises and very simple songs in the beginning (job + lots of hobbies...), but this summer I learnt all of Minuet and finally went from 20% to 95% of Gymnopedie 1, my first milestone. Next will probably be Arabesque (it's better than Clair de Lune *hides*). Violin-wise I need to open up Sevcik 1 and torture myself, looking forward to that.

Regarding other GAS (no, not the natural kind, topic too flammable (I am (not) sorry)), I suddenly got curious about noise-cancelling true wireless earbuds *sigh*. Fortunately I'm happy with my el cheapo Logi m185, I'll prolly keep that for a long time, although I should have tried the model with the silent buttons. No I shouldn't have, forget!

I quit Netflix, for now. Hardly used it since I left Germany. Will get a cheap mobile contract instead, seems ubiquitous in Sweden with all the cool apps and networking.

Enough of this, gonna continue reading papers, my eyes are not burning yet -_-

EDIT 2022-10-10:Wait what, the game Routine is back?! 8D

Autumn peers through the key-hole

The new job is progressing, but it's not a straight line for the higher-ups. I sometimes feel like I get too much work-wise, but I suppose I've always paid back with decent work. People keep telling me to worry less... But I need to get an apartment fast :p

The move btw, oh wow, that was not fun. I hope I won't do that too often in the future. Some things are still not 100% resolved, but seem to be possible to do from abroad.

Stranger Things 4 was fine. The series will never reach season 1 quality again. To expand the story and wrap things up, everything happened because of a bad boy. Rather meh. Dare to be mystical. Some great moments, pleasant arcs, very pretty, with an overall simple plot. I'm sure I'll enjoy the last sprint to the end. But I've seen something else over the course of spring that I've enjoyed really, really a lot.

Gravity Falls. At least season 1, just finished it a few days ago. I knew absolutely nothing about it, someone close introduced it to me without spoilers. Even the theme song is dynamite. Amazing stuff, why can't there be more of this kind of visual entertainment? Watch it! I'm so glad I still have one more full season with proper closure, and no sequels, prequels, midquels, or whatever garbage that greedos squeeze out (and get paid for so it continues :/).

Saw the Atomium from a plane, that brought back some memories. We should build some "silly" monuments from time to time, it's very invigorating.

Working my way through Dune and Anna Karenina. I watched one of the fan re-edits of the unholy Lynch version of Dune just before starting the book (one day I'll see the Villeneuve version), and it sure is a kooky film, but the atmosphere and music are great. The book oscillates between being too simplistic while explaining the thoughts of main characters, to building a really great universe. Overall I'm enjoying it most of the time, but some parts I trudge through. Anna Karenina is certainly the better crafted work, but I'm getting overloaded by the fancy clothes and carnal desires. I'm also enjoying it, but in very different ways :)

Been looking at barefoot shoes in the last few months. I've been thinking for some years how uncomfortable and stupid many shoes, and how too extreme the Vibram 5-finger shoes are, then suddenly the more normal-looking alternatives popped up in a yt video (ooh I can learn things from there?!). Didn't pull the trigger yet, went from Vivo, to Merrell, to I don't remember the rest, to Freet, let's see if I dare to. Funny side-note, some very old sandals from Japan turned out to be Merrells with a Vibram sole. Sometimes, just sometimes, the world is small.

Right, I played violin on a beach! A rather stony one, with loud waves to mask the horror that I summon with my instrument. Recommended!

There's more rattling around inside my cage of dreams and fading memories, but some things I need to keep to myself ;)

EDIT 2022-08-26: For some reason I decided to keep Karate Kid in the background while doing some other things, and was wondering "why are the pupils taking off and putting on their bags before joining the crowd in school"? Oh wait... I cannot put words on my thoughts, it's just so bleak. How can anything justify that? Oh well, just needed that off my chest, I think there was a mention of this in my last post. Another thought, half a year of war and those news are creeping further and further down the papers. Gotta focus, but not forget.

Crazy spring

Who could've thunk Covid would fizzle out and things would still be pretty bad?

Well, on a global scale anyway, with conflicts, insane inflation, a resurgence of anti gun violence which is somehow also fizzling out already in the newspapers, the surprise surge of travelers after covid etc.

Oh well, I'm almost out of this place for something new, some light! I'm so fed up and tired I only feel the excitement sometimes, but it's sufficient. So many things to take care of though, ugh. Around 40 days of leave from last year + this year up until the end of August, neat, almost 2 months of paid leave :D

Somehow Stranger Things 4 passed me by, I heard about it somewhere in the background noise of an experimental campaign, I should give it a whirl. Oh right, work-related stuff. Two experiments went ok this time, although we're still far from any kind of pleasant or "pretty" operations. Joined a guided tour of the new Targethalle at FAIR afterwards. Cute, big shiny hall with many puddles of water, will be great.

I cannot really think of much that I'll miss after I've left. I thought maybe the beer, but I didn't have much at all lately. Maybe some of the artificial vistas, the many criss-crossing forest paths are quite convenient for small trips, but I prefer the wildy wildy of Sweden. The relatively inexpensive restaurants with pretty decent food, at least compared to regular Swedish restaurants, I might miss those.

Only took 3 months, and now maybe another 3, will be busy moving and figuring out what to do with lots of time on my hands :) (I have some nice travel plans already though!)

Hmm... 2022...

Didn't do the annual intro post. Then suddenly we have another worst year ever. Coinkidonk?

I won't discuss the obvious topic, because there's better fora for that, and I personally cannot add anything helpful. And regarding fora vs forums, the former is only used by pretentious horrible people according to comments on various English grammar sites, so fits me perfectly.

Looked up the properties of the number 2022, and it is incredibly mundane. What a contrast.

Watched Arcane while working on things, was good. Some nice moments, and even though it was nicely made, it had a tangible aura of cookie-cutter. Difficult to explain. It made some maybe bold choices considering media nowadays, but they were all exactly what one would expect. Nothing great, but good, especially for something based on a game, tends to be very silly. Also started with Archive 81 for something random and different that I hadn't heard about before. Had an interesting premise, then suddenly demon faces show up on TV:s and everything goes supernatural, and I clocked out, that's just too stupid. It has the same problem as little girls or singing kids in horror films, how are they a threat?

My mind's overloaded from work again, so not sure what else to say, just, good luck to us all. Once in a while I should allow myself to end on a dark note :p

A white Christmas, finally

After many many years, we finally have a white Christmas here in southern Sweden, neat! At ~ -15 C, it's sometimes even colder than Kiruna up north at ~ -10 C, funny.

But not everybody celebrates Christmas, I still get work-related messages :p I don't mind working at strange times, but I don't like how so many don't and I need to make up for that somehow. Many names on large experiments, and in the end a minority straps in and pushes. Not the dream, but someone's gotta do it. It's taking a toll on my health, I seriously need to change this... Taking it easy at home now though!

Hope y'all had a crackly crazy Christmas!

EDIT 2021-12-28: Don't Look Up is absolute trash. Uh, what is up with those IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes scores?! ... Idiocracy was great fun when I was younger and it lost its charm with time, but it's still a lot better. Even Red Notice was more entertaining, and believe it or not, less stupid. Alright, back to some work... I thought I was supposed to have vacation -_-

Origalorian

Origami is great for Christmas decorations, just takes a lot of work:

30 red papers, 60 green, Tomoko Fuse of course. Will have to choose a nice place for it, I shouldn't hide it in my little office.

Finally got around to watching some of the Mandalorian. As my favorite "reviewers" say, it's ok. Not terrible, not great, very TV showy although well put together. Worst thing is that Gus Fring is in it, urg. Close second is that Mandough had to take his helmet off, but it was part of the robot arc so not the worst. Best thing, hmm, not as obvious, probably that it's not as bad as the sequels, if a sentence like that makes any sense. Yet another thing that shouldn't really be under the Star Wars label. I still won't pay the rat myself. Oh wait, I mean Disney. Btw how many things does Favreau do?

Turned out Larsen Tzigane is not for me. I thought I'd like soft strings, but they feel mushy and the supposedly complex spectum makes the sound somehow less sparkly. They're not bad, however I like the good old Dominant + Gold E better. I'll try the cheap Pirastro Tonica (discount Dominant, nice) next, but I'll play the Tziganes 'til their natural demise. Been thinking about trying some rosins too, but what I should actually do is just play more and stop thinking.

Almost Christmas!

Seriously kanelbullar

I need to make some for work. This weekend. No excuses.

So I had a few days at CERN in the end. Was, eh, funny. Apparently experiments and beam times are equally chaotic almost everywhere I go... It's a great place, was nice to see my supervisors from yesteryear, but I'd prefer having more time there. Had to figure out most FOOT things on my own at GSI in the end, the detectors kinda run together now very much like the gang in Mad Max 2. I hope I get a micro break from it now that it's gone to Jülich, I really would like some quality me time the next few days. One intense day of work for a bunch of other things, then weekend. Oh dear violin I miss you so.

Made pumpkin pie with someone else, I've wanted to do that for many years and it finally happened! The spices remind me of ginger bread, was a nice autumn sweet. I need to do something with the remaining half before it rots, which it probably already started doing by now. I need to get out of this wheel.

My biorhythm has gone even deeper down the mud, but tonight is the night I go to bed before midnight. Really. Ok here I go.

No kanelbullar!

Oh no. I forgot about the beautiful Swedish cinnamon roll day, the 4th of October. Hmm, gotta find time one evening this week to make some. I haven't been cooking or baking anything "nice" for a very long time, only upheld the basics. Started looking around a little lately, I should learn more simple things to expand my miniscule repertoire.

Looks like I'll spend a week at CERN to figure out ALPIDE and FOOT, and then another 2-3 weeks at JINR for more short-range correlations. That's almost too much traveling, and those two places require more preprations than I'd like. Anyway, I'll do my best to enjoy it.

Musafia Luxury Classic Dart looks amazing... Gotta git gewd. And gotta fix my biorhythm, it's in the gutter :p

Two little vacations

Had two vacations this summer, because more is more. The whole deal had to be orchestrated a bit between the experiment, my passport running out, and two vaccinations, of which the second is only "valid" after 14 days. Got a one-way business ticket again, nice. The passport office in my hometown was fully booked, so had to travel for 2 h to Hultsfred. Nice people there, was a pleasant change from German service hospitality :p Which is not all bad, but the Swedish vibe is for sure different. Took it very easy in Sweden, leafed through Sakurai again, nice for a relaxing holiday...

The second vacation went the other way, to warmer latitudes. More than two weeks went by without touching a computer, seriously. I hiked a lot and did some other outdoors activities in beautiful places, met some new very nice people, had excellent food. Was a great experience, and today on my first day at work, other people said I haven't been this relaxed and happy since I arrived at GSI. Probably even longer than that. I feel it too, no headache like I've had for many, many mornings starting already late last year. I also need better routines for many things in life, like staying away from the computer more...

I need to put more time into my violin playing! When it's good, it feels great. Vibrato is taking so long to learn, but I'm getting there. I still know what I want to play.

So many things playing in my head now, I don't know what else to jot down this time... Let's say I have some new strength and motivation, and insights in my future :)

EDIT 2021-09-01: Oh no I forgot, RIP Sean Lock, the best quiz show comedian. Way too soon :(

Halfway invincible

First shot of Comirnaty taken care of, last week. Now I gotta wait another 5 weeks or get Covid and I'll be immortal. Regarding side-effects, it was fine in the beginning with small pains around the injection area. That disappeared and now my hand has gotten a little weak and I have a stiff neck on the left side. Not great, but overall I can do the same things as always (just need to be careful while carrying full large pots with one hand, which is anyhow not a great idea...), and there are many worse stories.

It's been a long and arduous series of experiments, and it's been difficult to accomplish much else. Went on a hike in the Rhön, and on a little boat trip on the Rhein which was very inspiring. Very little energy, focus, and time for violin, origami, or other hobbies that require large chunks of my abilities. Summer vacation will be extra nice this time around...

Bernardel rosin is for sure much, much nicer than Hill Dark, I should just throw away the latter one and forget about it.

Speaking of forgetting things, I watched the Hateful Eight, apparently again. I didn't remember having seen the whole thing, I just recognized short parts and remained confused throughout. That film is mottled with short great sequences while the rest and overall arch are so forgettable. I need to remember not to watch it again :p Oh right, I for some sick reason decided to watch the remake of Ghost in the Shell. Oof. Ugh. Why. Well, somehow not as forgettable as the Hateful Eight, but as unforgettable as tripping into dog poo, I would imagine. My goodness why did I watch this garbage, when I could just watch the original, or a fly stuck inside a glass for 2h.

A week and a half until vacation back home, wohoo!

Been a while

So much weirdness at work the last few months... Not something I intend to write up, but certain things will be tricky at work going forward, for the first time ever I'll need to think twice about my actions. One of the difficult things did lead to a massive improvement, so yay, but it didn't come cheap. Other than that, well, I really don't want to say anything about the experiments either, there's no point doing that here, I'll know my own opinions forever ;) Three experiments down, one more to go in a few weeks and then it's time for other campaigns.

I recently found Steven Wilson on one of my journeys through the yt recommended lists. I really liked the cover art for "The Raven That Refused to Shut Up" or something like that and clicked because I like danger, huehue. The album started fun, I read the comments of course, and noticed that they weren't just "I love Steven Wilsooon!" (pop ref) or "I love prooog!" (no ref), there was something in the comments that made me try a little harder. I'm sure I've mentioned before I've needed a few listens to appreciate my favorite albums, and this was the same. Excellent stuff. Continued with "Hand. Cannot. Erase." whose title song is so very different to what I normally listen to but it's great, and "12 Things I Regret" from "The Future Bites" is also great. Check him out, beautiful music.

Found a little "lake" in the middle of the forest close to GSI last Sunday, it was pretty with the sun shining gently through the clouds. Might seem a silly thing to report here, for some reason I wanted to have it here.

So tired, mostly because of work. I'm sure more happened since last time, but the three things above were really the important bits. Now it's def. spring, car drivers are starting to drive crazily and carelessly, the Wixhausen hanami was nice, and life goes on, let's see which way we all choose to follow this time :)

EDIT 2021-05-08: How could I call myself a nerd without having watched Star Trek? So I started with TOS just recently. It's dated for sure, but it's relatively clever stuff, even the pilot without the mythical Shatner got me hooked. Voyager was a really silly version that tainted my taste, it's too bad I started with that on TV as a kid. I'll probably go for TOS, TNG, and DSN, in that order, and skip everything else. Let's shatter the final frontier!

Sibelius duet

Stayed up for the entire Sibelius stream by Twosetviolin! I was nervous at first, but then it was clear quite early on that they had kept to the 40 hours routine... Great stuff, great fun! I should join more live online concerts. More than anything though, I gotta practice myself...

About to start on some origami pangolin scales. Some 200 or so re-ordering folds, I need to find the time to lose myself in that.

I also don't understand why some people complain about FFP2 masks, they're a lot nicer with their stiffer structure so they don't plaster your face. Do your cardio to have strong lungs and you'll be fine, force that air through.

It's 4:34, I require sleep.

EDIT 2021-01-30: Blade Runner 2049 returned to Netflix, I've wanted to have a 2nd go at it for a while. Why is such a vapid film so highly praised? I love sci-fi and the original Blade Runner was amazing. In this new-fangled thing, the opening already puts me off, the world feels so very different from the original yet the film insists on reproducing devices and sounds, it does the obvious follow-up story with birthed replicants (the one thing I liked about "Arrival" was its original take, too bad it was so silly), the "antagonist" Herr Wallace-san is like cartoon Ren, Joi is some symbolism about the tech safe zones/prisons we make ourselves or whatever, and it's all just banal and meh. I cannot care about what anybody in the film feels or dreams of. I'll finish it because a couple of times the film gets it just right for half a minute and gives you that sense of mysterious warmth (good cosmic horror?) that the original did, even though the world was cold and wet. Terrible insight from me, but I just don't like it so I'm not gonna spend any more time explaining why not, and who cares anyway :p It's shit out of ten, Tucker & Dale vs Evil has more depth.

EDIT 2010-02-10: That score at the end of my last edit was a bit harsh, but I stand by it. Watched Sunshine a few days ago, a film I've wanted to see for a good while, but for some reason I didn't think it would be this good. It's one of those highly praised but unsuccessful films that gather a devout following, but leave many untouched unfortunately. Now, ignoring a wild explanation for the dying sun, too much artifical gravity (I only thought of this towards the end, I should hand back my Ph.D.), and a silly ending act (the "extra" should've been an error to seed paranoia, then this film would have been 10/10), this is absolutely stupenduous sci-fi. "Kaneda, what do you see?!" That scene will stay with me forever, like no scene in Blade Runner 2047 will. The main focus in sci-fi for me is not hi-tech, lazer blasterz, or the next obvious step. To me, in simple terms, fantasy is about a different reality to act in, drama is about people in societies or communities, thriller is about lurking danger, and sci-fi is about the limits of our perception. Just think about the word combo "science fiction", and what has made great science. This is why Arrival was interesting except the main subject turned out to be a single mother-daughter relationship (nothing bad with that, it's just so small for sci-fi) and the sci-fi part was the ride, and Annihilation had a nice mysterious premise except everything in there was or became stupid, but Sunshine... Oh Sunshine, most of it is super solid, among my top sci-fi:s now. It's like if Event Horizon was great.

Zozi

zozi ~= susy -> finally evidence for super symmetry this year? Let's hope!

As for 2020, hum not much to say is there? Shows how well the previous "happy new year" worked :p

I don't do resolutions, not sure what I've written about that before, but we should all keep looking above the horizon and aim there. The angle shouldn't be too steep, but it should be upwards!

Yule 2020

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.

So much chess

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