1/31/12

Pictures from the Dream Theater Concert







No, I have no idea why I'm pointing.




I finally got to see Dream Theater when they visited Oslo the 26th Jan!
I've been saying for years that I wanted to see them live, and when a couple of friends of mine decided to take the trip from Hammerfest to Oslo to see them, I decided it was time for me to join in.

It was awesoooome.

Setlist according to Setlist.fm
Bridges in the Sky
6:00
Build me up, Break me down
Surrounded
The Root of all Evil
(Mangini showing off - Drum solo)
A Fortune in Lies
Outcry
The Silent Man
Beneath the Surface
On the Back of Angels
War inside my head
The Test that Stumped them all
The Spirit Carries on
Breaking all Illusions
And finally Encore gave us Pull Me Under.

Although Im not entirely sure about this list.. Im pretty sure we got Home from Scenes of a Memory in there somewhere? Or maybe I was intoxicated. Maybe both. Quite possibly.

Right now on the games front...


Right now I've got sucked into Terraria. There's something about these graphics and mundane tasks that are so relaxing for the mind.

People usually choose their music dependent on moods. I do the same with games. If I want to just relax a bit, Ill fire up Terraria, or another Adventure-game. I play adventure-games when Im in the same mood as I would be to pick up a book and read. Relaxed, focused. At ease. I'd listen to Opeth's Windowpane-album and drink Lady Gray Tea with a spoonfull of honey.

Terraria is (as you probably know) created in a charming 2D that brings your mind back a good decade... But it still feels fresh.
Which is where the next thing on my current list comes in:

The Longest Journey (1999, Funcom)
I recently downloaded it on my Eee-Slate to play, and its working swell (despite some problems making it work with my stylus at first). This little gem is guaranteed the best thing to have ever come out of Norway's largest game-factory Funcom. Oh Ragnar, why can't you recreate this feeling? It was so genuine, the characters were marvelous, the story was great.

I won't say that games like those don't get made anymore, because honestly if you're one of those people who make such claims, you're suffering from one of two possible reasons:
1) You're overly sentimental to old games or
2) You're not playing a large enough scope of games.

But still, I too am sentimental over old games. And this gem is worth another play-through. Steam, 10 Euros.

By the way, did you know that The Longest Journey predicted Twitter?


1/28/12

The Result (Hogwarts in Gingerbread)












DIY Hogwarts in Gingerbread

I know I'm late doing this but anyway...
Our gingerbreadhouse-projects have gone from little lavvu's to gingerbread-robots. It's come to that point where people are waiting to see what becomes of our project at Christmas-time, and this year was no different. So we figured we'd WOW them.

So we set out to make Hogwarts, from Harry Potter. Its a huge project, and one that certainly have some challenges to it; the biggest one being the Hogwarts Tower, that is the trademark Hogwarts building. Its huge. And round. And we'd have to make it in gingerbread, because we're not on Cake Boss and we don't use non-edible parts.

Day 1: Made our own blueprint and template for the buildings. Lots of studying the photos, discussing the looks and the easiest way to do things (and the prettiest) some
mathematical equations... As my mom said it; "If you're still friends after this, I'm impressed". Turns out we're a pretty impressive lot! Jerry and Lise in picture.


Day 2: Cut out the pieces. Yeah. It took a day and "some kilos" of gingerbread-dough. Which
thankfully my mom have perfected through the
years! We left them to cool off in the hallway, where we kept the hallway-window open. I was so paranoid that some hungry crows would come peck at them, but thankfully they left us alone.
Of course the pieces for the different houses are sorted on each their paper. All the long "sticks" are the towers, in varying sizes.

Day 3: Assembly time! Now this is usually where we laugh, cry and hate ourselves and each other. But it went well. It was a very long day though, I think we worked on it for about 10 hours. Jerry got the daunting task of making the peak of the Hogwarts Tower which is too big for a Ice cream-cone to fit on. But it has to be edible (even if we'd never actually eat it), else its cheating. Solution? Ice cream-cone + marshmallows and Rice Crispies, glued together with melted sugar. We then coated all the rooftops with Marzipan colored to fit the Hogwarts roofs Green-blueish color.

Day 4: Decorating! Usually we have 1-2 units to decorate, so decoration usually becomes spectacular, if I may say so myself. I was a bit worried we'd be bored and sloppy at the end of this, but we were all so invested in the project that we managed to keep it together. In spite of some problems with the piping.
Admission: We did use ONE non-edible part. A Porcelain Button my mom had lying that had a clock printed on it. We thought it fit beautifully on the clock tower.

Day 5: Making of the Figurines. Gumpaste.

Day 6: Making it all come together! Making sure the light-fixtures fit. Icing the whole board that we used as support to make it look like snow. (Cotton's too main-stream, man!)

The result...? Next blogpost, please!

1/17/12

Corsair Vengeance k90

I got my new mechanical keyboard, the Corsair Vengeance K90. Here's my thoughts on it.

First of all, it just darn right looks sweet. The Brushed Aluminium looks sweet, and it feels sturdy and nice, not plasticy. But its still pretty light, which is kind of a suprisingly big deal when you, like me, often end up with the keyboard on the lap during long gaming sessions. Here's one thing I'm not used to though, the G-buttons. While I am a MMO gamer I've never felt the need for the Macro-buttons, so the added space on the side makes it a bit weird to balance it on the lap; but it's just something to get used to really.

Another thing to just get used to is actual typing. I bought the mechanical keyboard actually for that very reason, I wanted the Cherry MX Red switches so it'd be better for my silly fingers to type long articles and interviews (or blogposts for that matter..) like I do now and again. While the mechanical keyboards are great for gaming, that was actually second in priority for me. If it had been first priority, I'd look for Cherry MX Black or Browns.

However what I found when I started using it was that it felt weird typing on, but friggin fantastic to game on. You notice it so quickly. And if you don't feel it right away, the F-buttons are "regular" Rubber-domes, so clicking the mechanical vs the rubber domes, you really feel how much easier and comfortable the mechanical ones are.

The fact that its a bit strange typing on is probably just something I need to adapt to. The idea is that you're not supposed to push the buttons all the way down for the keystrokes to register, making the muscular movement much less. However since you're kind of stuck in a pattern when it comes to typing, its weird to re-do your habit all of a sudden. So that's something I'm still getting used to. While admittedly I do really enjoy the less stress when I really do go in for not pressing it all the way down, its taking me forever to type that way so I tend to jump back into my old habits.

For gaming though its a whole different ordeal. I jumped in Skyrim as soon as I got the keyboard, and it just feels really good to just gently push W to run, or resting my thumb on Alt to sprint. Here I really do feel the changes positively right off the bat.

The back-light is wonderful, I like that it's graded -and that its got its own button to switch the grades by. Its a nice cool blue that really lights up the beautiful brushed aluminium.
I love the Windows-Lock button, that's something I've missed on my last keyboard. The wrist-rest have a nice textured feel to it, the only minus is that its curving a bit too much downward, which makes my small hands wrist curve more then necessary in order to type on the rather tall keystrokes. I doubt this is a problem for the manly mans with normal to larger sized hands though. Its a problem I tend to run into quite often with my puny, pitiful hold.

There's also a USB port in the back of the keyboard so I don't have to crawl under the table to plug in my External HD or camera, which is great. Not that it's filthy under there or anything. Nooo...

There's a couple of things I'm missing after having switched from my old Logitech Wave to this, like the Calculator-button, which was great considering how bad at math I am. I've been using ergonomic curved or half-curved keyboards for years now, and going back to a "normal" one is something I notice quite fast in my wrists.
I'd also like the ability to change color of the back-light, but that's pure vanity. The blue is quite stylish as is.

Overall its a great keyboard! It doesn't feel the most ergonomically correct for me, but it might change when I learn to type properly on it. The benefits of the Cherry MX Red's might outweigh the problems with the "normal" design and the wrist-rest. The features on it are great, it feels very proper and I'd certainly recommend it.