Just saw this on Twitter:

How To Explain Gay Rights To An Idiot
Because a certain segment of the population still connects marriage equality with being able to marry anyone and/or thing you want. It's kind of messed up that this still needs to be explained.

---
Flawless explanation is flawless.

Meet "Bullet", my teeny tiny SSD drive (it's for laptops, really).

( Bullet )

I received it Friday night and still managed to go to swim training and grocery shopping before installing it yesterday morning.
Funny enough, even though there was an adapter for desktop pcs I couldn't find any way to firmly attach the drive inside the computer, so in the end I macgyvered something with green plant wire (see pic above). Seems to hold pretty well.

( Colt's innards during the operation )

"Bullet" improved the overall speed of "Colt" - not as much as I'd dreamed, but enough. For creating animated .gifs it's awesome, as it greatly reduces the time Gimp needs to add layers AND compile them. Will run more tests soon, but for now, have a .gif of Ryan Johnson changing his shirt (courtesy of the latest "Fairly Legal" episode)...

( ryan.gif )

Oh yeah, performance-wise Windows 7 loves the SSD to bits.
( Win7 performance test results )

I'm currently re-installing programs and throwing out old ones from the other hard drive.
Yay, virtual spring cleaning! \o/

Since I started putting together my first animated gif (entry here) I've been fiddling around a bit more. Not everything is going exactly as planned - there was one batch of images that turned into a great gif, and two other batches of the same video were very poor quality. Haven't found the reason yet, but I'm still learning.

Here are a few of my first attempts so far. (Not all of them are online yet - mainly because the new Scrapbook still hates me and nukes all uploads beyond a certain size). If some of them don't move or are too slow it's probably because of the amount of different gifs on the page - just right-click on an individual one and go to "view image".

( gif mania )

The one I'm most proud of is from Eternal Law. Had to store it someplace else for now, due to the infamous Scrapbook problem:



(For the watermark I used Watermark Express, it was on 'Giveaway of the Day' a while ago.)

Oh boy, this month is indeed a RED month (meaning that many shows are going to end within the next two or three weeks, appearing in red on the tv schedule).
astri13 and mareen already posted their review entries and now I finally have time to write mine as well. It's really long this time, there are quite a few interesting shows at the moment - well, in my opinion, at least. (The number in brackets is the last ep I watched.)

Game of Thrones (2.06): Simply the BEST show on television right now, hands down. One gigantic mindfuck. I'm actually looking forward to Mondays, imagine that. Favourite characters: Tyrion and Arya.
Fringe (4.21): Still a fantastic show, and I'm glad it was renewed! The pace had slowed a bit in recent eps, but now it seems to be picking up speed again.
Hawaii 5-0 (2.22): Finally Steve is back! Something was definitely missing when he wasn't around to fight with his spouse Danny.
Sherlock (2.03): Season 2 was brilliant as well, but followed the same pattern as season 1: Strong ep --> okay ep --> strong ep. Can't wait for season 3! (But oohhhhh, they'll only start shooting in "early 2013"...)
Awake (1.10): A newcomer that blew me away. Finally something new and exciting in the police drama universe. No clue how they're going to explain everything, but I'm enjoying the ride a lot. And hey there, BD Wong, thanks for taking a break from Law & Order SVU to become one of Michael Britten's shrinks!
Touch (1.08): Another fresh and exciting newcomer. Fantastic performance by David Mazouz, and overall nice stories. I'm always lol'ing at the fact that the kid keeps sending his dad into dangerous situations without a moment's hesitation.
Supernatural (7.21): What can I say, I still love the boys. Nice plot surrounding Bobby, but now I just hope the whole Leviathan business will be resolved somehow. Hey there, Felicia Day in "The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo", nice performance. So that's where people go...( Spoiler ) You will never be cast as anything but the lady geek you are (and I love you for it).
Missing [2012] (1.09): And yet another newcomer. I liked it from the beginning (Ashley Judd is BADASS), but wasn't sure if it would remain interesting for more than 3 eps, as it looked more like a movie than a tv show story. But all the twists and turns indeed make for great tv, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of 'Missing' as well.
Grimm (1.20): Oh boy. Still the worst example for building up stories on a different culture AND language without knowing either. But the characters (especially Monroe) still save the day.
Eternal Law (1.06): Already axed, after only one season. I agree that some episodes could have been better, but they had an amazing premise AND amazing actors, so there should have been at least one more season to flesh things out. I'll miss all of them dearly, especially Tom and Zak... :'(
Law & Order UK (6.07): It still has the UK spin, but is quickly becoming "one of the others", so to speak. I'll keep watching it, but my initial enthusiasm has disappeared with Ben Daniels and Jamie Bamber (even though there are still Harriet Walter and Freema Agyeman, and the new people are alright as well...but somehow the spark is gone).
Law & Order SVU (13.21): It's ok, it's on, I'm watching. Won't shed too many tears if they cancel it, though.
Criminal Minds (7.21): More Derek Morgan/Penelope Garcia stories, please. Apart from that I still love the family vibe I'm getting from the team, but mostly it's like SVU. Will shed more tears when the show is cancelled, but...well...
Harry's Law (2.20): They should have never moved out of the shoe store...still good stories, but it's been better.
Psych (6.16): Is it me or was the humour in earlier eps better? More Carlton Lassiter would surely help. Or not. IDK, the spark is gone here as well.
The Walking Dead (2.13): Not sure if I like the "new" Rick, but the show certainly keeps me interested.
Misfits (3.08): Meh. Too many people left and Rudy is the most annoying and idiotic character ever. Will give season 4 a try, but it looks rather hopeless atm.
CSI (12.21): It's on, I watch it. But mainly out of habit. The addition of Ted Danson was much better handled than the one of Laurence Fishburne, but now that Willows is gone as well, I'm even less interested than before.
Merlin (4.13): The king is dead, long live the king...short of the whole "sword in the stone" incident it's still a decent show.
House (8.20): Still has nice twists and turns, but the decision to end it here was a good one as well.
Being Human (4.08): Not as strong as in the beginning, and now that everyone has been replaced it doesn't feel like the initial show anymore. But let's see where this is going...
Castle (4.22): Watching out of habit. It's okay, but nothing to write home about.
Doctor Who (7.00): Meh, same here.
Torchwood (4.10): Last season was a bit...tedious. Waiting for the next now.
Eureka (5.03): Nice twist at the beginning of season 5. I'm not "into" it anymore, but it's still watchable.
Skins (6.10): The last season was weaker than the previous ones. Looks like it's losing steam.
Scandal (1.05): Newcomer I was very sceptical about after the first ep. Still not sure if it will be able to succeed, but it has improved (no more "we are Gladiators" crap - do they even know what Gladiators were?) and for now I'm watching.
Fairly Legal (2.08): Entertaining show with quirky characters. Don't expect too much depth, but a fun ride nevertheless.
Terra Nova (1.11): Axed. For good reasons, mind you. I probably would have continued watching, but am not sad it's gone.
Kitchen Nightmares (5.15): Love this show. I only wish they'd leave out the "Revisited" eps, as they're merely a shorter version of the initial episode, with 5 minutes "revisit" time.
ThunderCats (1.20): Still excellent, can't wait for the next ep. Love characters, style and stories.
The Legend of Korra (1.05): AMAZING show. So many awesome characters, plus a tricky political situation. Don't stop! \o/
Young Justice (2.01): Love the character development, didn't like the time jump at the beginning of season 2. Uh, well, wait and see. More Robin stories, please!
The Simpsons (23.20): Okay. Habit.
South Park (16.07): Same.

...with a nice combo of dog snack and peanut butter. In a ridiculously big trap, because there were either tiny ones I wasn't sure would be sufficient or the big rat traps. Haven't heard the "snap" sound yet, but don't really expect it before this or next night at any rate. The little critter had enough seeds in there to party with ten more of its kind, let alone to stuff itself senseless for hours, it can't be hungry again. Although I've read that peanut butter makes them crazy.

Anyway... *goes back into predator mode*

I WAS going to tell you about the fabulous evening I had...but then I came home, dropped into my desk chair, put my feet on the desk, whipped out the 3DS to kill the final end boss in Streetpass Quest II...and while doing it suddenly a MOUSE runs past my bookshelf into the kitchen.

A fucking MOUSE!

I followed it, of course (after gaping like an idiot for about 20 seconds) and found that it must be hiding behind some bags of clay pebbles in a tiny space between wall and cupboard. Last year I'd bought some bird seeds I'd barely used at all - the bag was gnawed through and half of its content spilled without me realizing.
Since I wasn't going to run after the mouse all night I took the bird seed bag out, put it in the sink and closed the kitchen door. There's plenty of seeds left on the floor to keep my house guest happy for this night. (Either it's already munching away or my imagination is playing tricks on me.)

Anyway, tomorrow, after the heating meter guy was here, I'll go to a hardware store and get a trap (a live catch trap, of course).
Will inform you about my success (or failure) with it later on...

Last night I ordered my first SSD, a 240GB Corsair Force 3 Series 2.5" (6.4cm) SATA 6Gb/s MLC asynchron (CSSD-F240GB3-BK).
It's wolfapocalymon's fault: he, Kohjiroh and I were chatting about pc equipment the other day and wolfapocalymon just couldn't shut up about the SSD he'd bought 6 months ago. His tales brought tears to our eyes and made our mouths water like nothing else.

So yeah, yesterday I surfed around and found an offer I couldn't refuse.



You can probably guess how I'll spend my next weekend...apart from eating cheap noodles and tomato sauce the sixth time in a row, lol. \o/

As you may have heard (news entry here), Scrapbook is being overhauled at the moment. Which is a nice thing, really, as the old one wasn't working for lots of people, and even though it was working for me it's been having weird layout issues with XColibur for months.

The moment I heard there was going to be a beta test, I joined up, hoping to be able to help by pointing out bugs and suggesting necessary features. The community was/is lj_pics_beta, entry here. Lots of people commented, some got replies, but not a lot. I was expecting the Developers to ask us to test certain features once they were ready, but it never happened. The entry about the launch took me completely by surprise as the new Scrapbook seemed to be far from ready. But I signed up to be "moved" to the new Scrapbook, as tons of other people did, and it happened quite quickly. A Russian confirmation email arrived to tell me that the move was over for me. That's unfortunately where the problems started.

First the new Scrapbook wasn't working at all with XColibur, which I commented on in the same thread. The problem was fixed the next day.

However, the links that were supposed to be merely switched and should still display the correct image were broken in some cases (ironically even in my initial beta testing bug reports).
Both of my mood themes were left with less than half of their pictures, others had disappeared from entries, comments and my journal's sidebar. As far as I can see the images are still there (in the new Scrapbook galleries), but the links don't work anymore.

Other people complained about this and other problems, mainly the lack of sorting features as for reasons beyond my comprehension tags are completely gone and there are no more sub folders, every gallery is at top level. Plus all the images in each gallery aren't in chronological order anymore, but mixed up randomly.
manonon tried to keep everyone updated here and has since written this really useful summary of the whole clusterfuck, with links to the various resolved and unresolved issues.

After leaving comments about my own problems in the official news entry I opened a support request regarding an additional error I'd run into and was asked by astronewt to also add everything else to that request, which I did.

I hate that there's no communication from the people in charge of the new Scrapbook. Why did they remove tags and sub folders, didn't they think users would go bonkers over that?
Especially since there is absolutely no way to find anything if you have more than 20 or 30 images. It's crazy.
You get the feeling the new Scrapbook is being developed by people who never used the old one (or any program of that kind, for that matter). I really hope the outcry of the people who already migrated will not fall on deaf ears...

It's time for the annual plant entry again, 11 days later than last year. As usual I'll take a picture every weekend to document the growth of my balcony plants. This entry will become picture heavy and is probably of no interest to anyone but myself.

( Balcony Plants - timetable 2012 in pictures )

A colleague convinced me to pledge $15 to the new Shadowrun game yesterday (have never played any of the former editions, but it looks interesting indeed. Only 21 hours to go!), and just now I saw that a remake of Leisure Suit Larry is on Kickstarter too (4 days to go), so another $15 will be going to that worthy cause.

Seriously, I have NO PROBLEM to keep shopping for games that interest me @ Kickstarter.

Originally posted by sesmo at Blog Post: Letter to a Daughter

After being directed to this tutorial on creating animated gifs, I spent most of today figuring out how to do it.
My first home-made gif was going to be based on my favourite scene from the latest Awake episode. That meant adding text as well, so eventually I stumbled over this video - and together with these two guides, VLC, GIMP and some determination I created my first animated gif:




*is so proud*

You know, I have no idea why this popped up in my head today (probably Grimm-related), but when I was about 10 or so I used to read my dad's old childhood books, and one of them was "Fury", a novel based on the tv show of the 50s. (The German version, of course.) One of the characters was a farm helper who came from a different part of the US than the story was set in. When confronted by an old farm hand about his "weird accent" the new character started saying "well" a lot, which caused everyone to blink in amazement and tell him how great he was at switching to their own way of talking.

And even as a kid I kept wondering what kind of dialect would require only this one word to be added to every one of your sentences to make people believe you're from that area (and cause *that* kind of amazement, too)...

You know, ever since I visited London for the first time I was wondering how this monster of an underground transit system was working.
Now Channel 4 released a documentary about The Tube.

A very interesting and informative stroll through the various stations, behind-the-scenes access, interviews with staff, from train drivers and station personnel to construction workers and management - and travellers, too: business people, tourists, party-goers, the lot. If you already know and like BBC documentaries, you'll love this one as well.

My new vegetarian cookbook ("for students", hehe) is quite cool, but unfortunately I seem to be incapable of getting the same result I see in the pictures.

( Their picture of millet burgers )

( My picture of the final product )

(At least the stuff tasted quite nice with chives dip.)

This should be on the MUST-SEE list for game devs! And movie producers. And...just about anybody, really:

Edit: And for some reason it won't embed on LJ. Here's the link.

Remember this one? I love it to bits:

A colleague just sent me a link to this trailer. I wish the movie was already out, it looks hilarious. ^^

Loveless, jobless and possibly terminally ill, Frank has had enough of the downward spiral of America. With nothing left to lose, Frank takes his gun and decides to off the stupidest, cruelest and most repellent members of society with an unusual accomplice: 16-year-old Roxy, who shares his sense of rage and disenfranchisement. From stand-up comedian and director Bobcat Goldthwait comes a scathing and hilarious attack on all that is sacred in the United States of America.

Last week mirroroflian sent me the link to a site with comics and stories about the "tribulations of software testing". It's called The Trenches, and even though some of the experiences described there sound like an exaggeration I'm pretty sure they aren't. I've been working in the video game industry for 9 years now (QA all the way) and if the laws in my country weren't as strict as they are, I'm certain a lot of the shit people write about would happen here as well.



One of my favourite stories on the site is of course this one with a good ending for the Tester(s):
Sometimes the Good Guys Win (09/06/2011 - Anonymous):

We had been working 80+ hour weeks for over a month on one of the largest videogame franchises in existence. I actually liked the long hours and overtime, and since our division was the multiplayer component of the title, it was fun to work with other people. I had written a bug where a player who had been killed by a specific weapon, after his armor had popped, had his death cam actually become the 1st person vision of the enemy who did the deed.

It didn’t repro if you simply started without shields and didn’t repro in any other instance. We tested every variation of steps possible and determined it was this very specific situation that the bug would occur. Our thoroughness was not only due to doing our job well, but also because the last thing you want is to look stupid by bothering a Dev with a bug that didn’t exist.

I wrote up immaculate, step-by-step instructions with a warning that it doesn’t work if you try to cut corners.
We send it up the flagpole, and the bug comes back the next day as “No repro.” We investigated the bug again, and confirmed its existence and sent it back up. We even waited a few builds to see if they fixed it. Nope. We send the bug back AGAIN with a step-by-step video.

( The next morning, the bug comes back as “No Repro. We all know testers are glorified monkeys banging on controllers. )

Wow! I didn't expect to get the result already today: Joachim Gauck has been officially nominated to become Germany's new president.
It is a "nomination", but the election process itself is merely a formality at this point, as all political parties - except for Die Linke - want him. So Merkel changed her mind after all - her decision surprised me, but I don't think it will hurt her in any way. Hell, the guy she chose last time is being investigated by the D. A. and even that didn't result in people blaming her, so what's a little flip-flopping?

Merkel zur Nominierung von Joachim Gauck zum neuen Bundespräsidenten


I'm excited they chose Gauck - he may of course turn out to be a dud, but maybe the third person is the charm.

Note to self: Yes, the new tea ("Kusmi Tea Detox") you've found tastes wonderful, a perfect mix of herbs and lemon. But please, next time remember that it's green tea and it says "stimulating effect" on the label, so don't brew a pot at five o'clock in the afternoon if you aren't actually planning on playing Assassin's Creed Revelations all night like a squirrel on acid...

For the first time ever a German president may step down because of criminal investigations. The prosecution already applied for his immunity to be revoked and it's expected that the motion will be granted by the end of the month.

In about 20 minutes, at 11:00, Wulff is going to make a statement. I guess he'll write history, even though it's certainly not the kind of history he planned to write when he got his job...

Edit 1: A live ticker can be found here.
Edit 2: A live stream can be found here.
Edit 3: Okay, it's true and he's finally gone. And the vultures are already jumping at the presidency.
Edit 4: Possible successors, according to Die Zeit and other publications: Klaus Töpfer, Norbert Lammert, Thomas de Mazière, Wolfgang Thierse, Frank Walter Steinmeier, Gesine Schwan, Margot Käßmann, Joachim Gauck (Gauck is unwanted by Merkel, it seems, and of course by Die Linke, but he's still my personal favourite.)
Edit 5: More names (by SPON): Wolfgang Schäuble, Ursula von der Leyen (if she's getting the job, I'm emigrating to Australia)

I wasn't a big fan, but liked her music.

Rest in peace, Whitney Houston...

Last episode of the season sees the boys hugging and smearing motor oil all over each other (see video). XD

And yay @ Richard for breaking the 4th wall twice in the ep with just the right level of creepiness!
I'm so gonna buy the Eternal Law DVDs when they come out next week.



This is the first time in AGES that I went to AO3 to find fanfiction about a show again.
And felt the urge to make macros. ( Proof )

This is probably the BEST thing that has happened for adventure gaming in YEARS!
(Thank you, calliste, for bringing it to my attention.)



Tim Schafer (Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango): "One of my favourite types of games to make are adventure games. But these days it seems adventure games are almost a bit of a lost art form. They exist in our dreams, our memories and...in Germany." [Hell, YES, he said GERMANY! \o/]

They asked for $400.000: $300.000 for making the game and $100.000 for the documentary. They were fully funded just after 8 hours later and the money keeps pouring in! Suck on THAT, industry that keeps telling us no one wants to play adventure games anymore!

If you're an old school adventure player as well, drop by their project page on Kickstarter and get involved!
(Man, do I wish for Day of the Tentacle 2!)

From their Kickstarter page: "For anyone interested in the inner workings of the game industry, either professionally or as a fan, this project will be a landmark in exploring the art of development. For people that just love great games, this is an opportunity to help bring one to fruition."

Found this again in a pile of saved documents.
It's still hilarious, even after all these years...

The Expurgation of Maniac Mansion for the Nintendo Entertainment System

AHAHAHA, my second post about Eternal Law, directly after the first. Just saw the 5th episode and IT'S THE FUCKING SLASHIEST SERIES ON TV RIGHT NOW...y'know, just in case you're interested in this kind of stuff... ^^
Here's a little non-spoilery scene for you I cut out and uploaded to YT myself. Because I'm just so in love with this show:


Zak defends Tom...back at home they talk.

I would have uploaded even more, but the others were way too spoilery.
Now go watch. No excuses.

Grimm: A couple of weeks back someone (probably mareen, I don't remember) recommended one of the new fairy tale shows, Once upon a Time. I took the wrong path and ended up watching Grimm. Even though you have your regular white detective dude running around solving cases, it's pretty fun for two reasons:
1. Monroe, his pilates-loving werewolf watchmaker pal and 2. The "German" words and phrases used in the show.

I certainly would have dropped the series quickly if the scenes with Monroe weren't always so hilarious - and the names of the fairy tale monsters didn't have me in stitches constantly. Brace yourselves, because there is an online dictionary, Grimm "German" - English. It's fantastic, if you speak both languages.

Examples:
Schneetmacher: A Grimm creature to avoid. German: Coldhearted, evil creature. Sounds like a Dutch version of "snowmaker" to me...
Mauzhertz: Mouse creature. German: Mouse heart. PFFFRRRRRR...
Hexenbiest: Ghoul creature. German: Witch bitch. (SERIOUSLY?! LOOOOL!)
Lausenschlange: Snake creature. German: Lousy snake. I...can't...Ahahahaha...
Reinigen: Rat creature. German: Pure rat. STOP! HAVE MERCY! AHAHAHAHAHAHA...

---

Eternal Law: Angels can be lawyers...sorry, barristers? This one was a surprise. It's not the best law show on the market (and it doesn't try to be), but the 'modern angel' spin is quite intriguing. Plus, I simply love each of the main characters, especially Zak and Tom. They both have wonderful scenes with each other, and with fallen angel Richard. An all around enjoyable show about heavenly intervention and free will. The series is filmed in York and the breathtaking Cathedral featured as a backdrop quite often is York Minster.

This creamy soup was on my menu a few days ago.



( Easy beyond belief?...well... )

So... remember when I said I could actually get used to going to the pool once a week for a work-out?

On Tuesday afternoon I felt so bad, I was thinking of going home early, getting some sleep and going to the pool afterwards. Except I didn't - I stuck it out in the office until the evening, grabbed some Chinese food on the way home, ate it and fell asleep on my couch at 18:30. Around 22:00 I dragged myself to my bed and slept through until the next morning.
So no Aqua Fitness that day (and they only book this pool on Tuesdays).

But miraculously I was determined enough to at least get my one work-out per week and checked out the other sports club offers. Futsal sounded like fun and was at a decent time (Fridays, 20:00-22:00), and since I used to like playing footie myself I decided to go there instead.
Then, on Wednesday after work I bumped my knee in the bus and could hardly walk at all the next day. It still hurts, so no Futsal for me right now.

This morning I was desperate enough to check out the exact location of the other pool the sports club offers courses in. It's a bit out of town, but can be reached by public transport. Didn't want to go there at all as the other one is much closer, but there you go. Fate wants me to break my resolution (in week 2, no less), so the old stubborness kicks in. They have Aqua-Jogging and Aquarobic at this other pool, so that's what I'll check out tonight.

If I don't get run over by a bus on the way there or something...