日常生活

By train and by sea

nospam@example.com (Mangek) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 22:55:48 -0700

I'm currently trying to find books and/or movies with stories that revolves around travels either by train or by sea. I own a few books about seafaring (such as the Liveship Traders Trilogy) but I'm wanting more. In my search I stumbled upon a list of 101 Crackerjack Sea Books which will more than likely satisfy the thirst for seafaring stories. Woop. :)

Stories about trains seems to be sparse, however. I'm sure there's an equal list of 101 stories about trains but I haven't found it. People have suggested Agatha Christies 'Murder on the Orient Express' and my brother mentioned The Lady Vanishes by Alfred Hitchcock which I'll look into. Apart from those I haven't really found anything. Well, so far..

The Flower Carrier

nospam@example.com (Mangek) — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:07:01 -0700

I bought a t-shirt with the above design a few weeks back from shirt.woot when it was their "today's woot". I think it's pretty neat. Love the colours. :-]

TeeFury t-shirts and the discoveries

nospam@example.com (Mangek) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 02:26:00 -0700

I bought three shirts in a "Grab Bag" from TeeFury a while back. Grab Bag means that they're randomly picked and I have no idea what print I get until the shirts are delivered to me.

I wasn't expecting awesome tees; my brother has ordered at least two three-shirt Grab Bags in the past and the shirts have all more or less sucked. But they're pretty cheap, only $5 each, so who's complaining, right?

When I unwrapped the parcel I discovered these three shirts. I'm like, wow, they look like bollox. (Seriously, the first thought running through my mind was "what the fuck, man").. But then I took a closer look at the first shirt, and I noticed some numbers written on it; "4, 8, 15, 16... heeeyyyyy!" I noticed more and more of the detail as I realised the motif was that of Lost. A Lost shirt?? Fucking awesome! :D (I'm currently a few episodes into season 5 as I'm typing this).

The next shirt was of a DeLorean and two scruffy looking dudes. It's not awful, really. I mean, the DeLorean is an awesome Back to the Future reference in itself, which made it badass. But then (actually just earlier today, when I found out that TeeFury had updated their gallery and I went to take a look for links to the shirts) I read the description, and it's not only a reference to Back to the Future. The scruffy looking dudes are Desmond and Faraday from Lost!! *Japanese nosebleeding*

And so, the third shirt. It's not as awesome as the other two. In fact, it's not awesome in any way. It's an Avatar-shirt, which is pretty cool - Avatar was awesome - but it's a ripoff of an American football team's logo, which is pretty lame. It won't stop me from wearing the shirt, however. Cheap stuff is good wearin' and I am a bit of a tshirtoholic. ;)

The Grab Bags seems to happen every two months or so and I'll be sure to order three new shirts when the next one comes around. I'm also keeping an eye on the daily shirts they offer, some of the motives are pure awesome. For serious. :-)

The Ruins

nospam@example.com (Mangek) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 00:46:17 -0700

The movie this time and author Scott Smith also wrote the screenplay. It's not half as "scary" as the novel, but it had its moments. The actors are doing an alright job except for the "hysterical" scenes which go a little overboard.

There's a couple of rewrites from the novel. My biggest issue is how character storylines have been swapped around. Pablo is called Dimitri, and he's only in the movie up until they reach the ruins, where in the novel he's around for a lot longer. Mathias is then shifted to take his role, Amy takes Erics role, etc etc.. Feels all weird.

The movie is ok. The novel is king. ;-]

Resident Evil 5, beat'd

nospam@example.com (Mangek) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 09:38:02 -0700

I got the Special Edition Steelbox which contains a bonus DVD with interviews and behind-the-scenes material. The DVD wasn't really worth the extra money, though there were some interresting clips, like when they showed how they recorded the in-game cinematics but it was mostly pretty boring. The box however is really nice compared to the regular 360's keep cases (no 360 logo and all that).

When I first started playing the controls were a little funky. I was used to playing Far Cry 2, and they handle a bit differently, obviously, from having a different perspective and all. (Which i would later find out again when I picked up FC2 again....jikes!).

Knowing the difficulties of previous games, I started playing on the easiest setting, just to get a feel for the game. Sadly with that, the only things I had real problems with were the bosses and mini-bosses. The rest was pretty straight forward.

Something that bugged me was the lack of challenging pussles. That's what I really liked about the older instalments, that you have to look for clues and use your wits to get by. Here, the most challenging pussle is to find a lever for your partner and tell her to get ready to use it, while you go look for a lever of your own. Piece of cake.

Ammunition isn't really an issue when playing on the easiest setting. At least not when you play with an AI controlled Sheva. I played through the game with a friend and I could swear we used up more ammo. I'm thinking Sheva preserves ammo better than any of us did. ;D

Wearing socks with sandals is OK!

nospam@example.com (Mangek) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:25:42 -0700

source: /b/

Reading Scott Smiths 'Ruinerna'

nospam@example.com (Mangek) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 02:24:00 -0700

If you want to be picky the original title is Ruins.

I bought this book the other week. I picked it up mostly because the cover looked interresting -- seriously, it's fricken awesome -- and when I read how it made Stephen King "scream in horror" I figured it couldn't be a bad buy.

I've read a little over 90 pages so far and what I've read has been pretty good. The characters are pretty interesting and the setting in Mexico believably hot.

I can't say I'm ready to start screaming anytime soon, though. I'm not very easily frightened, especially not by books, but I'll be sure to note if I so much as whimper... ;-]

Magic: The Gathering

nospam@example.com (Mangek) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:46:00 -0700

My brothers and I started playing Magic: The Gathering some 8-9 years ago and it was great fun. The problem we had was we didn't fully understand all the rules which made the game a little tough to play at times.

On top of that we made up some house-rules which led to ridiculous armies being produced and we completely disregarded that there are no official rules on playing more than two teams; playing with 3 or 4 people, all against each other, makes for some silly combat indeed. We played for a good while, but eventually strayed away from Magic. I think the biggest reason was not knowing the rules well enough.

Now, we've recently started playing again. Both with our old cards and a bunch of
new ones; I bought a Magic 2011 Fat Pack that came with some rather nicely dangerous cards and my brother have been raiding auctions for vast amounts of cheap cards. We've built a bunch of different decks in various colours and strengths that we randomly pick and play one another. Every now and then a friend joins in to play and we team up for "epic" 2 vs 2 battles.

I also bought the game Duels of the Planes- walkers for the Xbox360 which has helped immensely with sorting out the rules for us as well as explaining a lot of the cards abillities. Not to mention that it's fun and super-easy to play it while sitting relaxed in a couch in front of the tv. :-]

Litter Kwitter

nospam@example.com (Mangek) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:22:00 -0700

I'm getting sick of the somewhat messy litterbox in the house and wanted to see if it was possible to get our cats Millan and Tussen to use the toilet instead. My brother let me borrow his Litter Kwitter kit and I set it up on Sunday.

Both cats were a bit hesitant to use it at first, but eventually came around. We're still in "phase one" with the red disk, but I've moved the base up on the toilet. Will probably let them get used to jumping up for a week or so before swapping the disks. So far so good. :-]

Edit: Not so good after all. They've been reluctant to go number two on the base when it's up is on the toilet, making this "quest for a litter-free house" harder than I initially thought and hoped for. :-/

Edit2: It's suggested to put something next to the toilet that the cats can jump on for easier access. I set a box on the side and wrote some instructions for the cats to read when on their way to do their business. Hopefully it'll be clear enough. :-]

Edit3 -- 22/7: Ya things didn't turn out all that great and I think it has to do with there being more than one cat; they make a mess faster than we can clean up. Which sucks, because a) it would have been way more hygienic than using a litterbox, b) it would have made our lives so much easier (not by that much I suppose, but still, cleaning a litterbox isn't awesome!) and c) because pottytrained cats would have totally ruled.

It's a shame, but for now, they'll get their box back... *waves fist*

To finish what one started

nospam@example.com (Mangek) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:23:13 -0700

I suck at finishing games. I really do. For instance, I bought Super Paper Mario just shortly after it was released back in -07 and I loved it, but for some reason I stopped playing after only a few hours into the game. Now whenever I try to pick up from where I left off I have no clue what to do, or how, and usually end up turning it off again.

Another example is LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias, the sequel to LostWinds (which I wrote a little about here). The game is awesome in almost every aspect but I simply can't sit down and just relax and play the game.

Sadly, this holds true for a lot of games I own.. :-|

Fuck you, movie companies

nospam@example.com (Mangek) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 01:20:00 -0700

Movies are great, right? I mean, when you get to watch the actual movie.. The graph isn't 100% accurate, but most movies follow this very pattern.

The most laughable part is the FBI-warnings. What. The. Fuck? I guess it's not enough that I paid for the movie? No sir, not at all, please spoonfeed me your propaganda.

And trailers and such crap? Sure, it's fine, I don't mind trailers, I've found several new movies to watch via trailers. That's what trailers are for, after all. But for the love of fuck, stick them with the extras, not as a fucking pre-movie must-see.

Fuck you, movie companies. Fuck you up your stupid asses.

Lost

nospam@example.com (Mangek) — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 21:06:52 -0700

The final episode of Lost aired some two weeks ago so I figured I may as well brush up on the show. I've seen parts of the first season when they first aired it but I don't really remember anything so I borrowed it of my brother and so far I've covered 18 episodes. Tomorrow I'm borrowing seasons 2, 3 (and maybe 4) from a friend. I'm really enjoying the show so far -- I think I've gotten a little...lost.. :]

Edit, June 12th: Yeah, lost indeed. I just got off watching episode 9 of the second season. I'm totally hooked! :]

My desires...

nospam@example.com (Mangek) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:31:25 -0700

My current phone (a Sony Ericsson w910i) is behaving like a whore. And not the good kind. It's rebooting itself now and then and some alarms that are set fail to ring.. PITA. :-[

I've been looking for a phone with Android for a while, and just days ago I laid my eyes on HTC Desire. I want...no - desire it! Nao! *drool* :-]

Update: So I was looking at buying it from the company I currently call with, but waited like a day too long -- they ran out of stock. And they seem to have done so all over Sweden.. :-/

Update2: I got it last thursday. All I can say is; WOW. :D

Mega Man 10

nospam@example.com (Mangek) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 14:01:47 -0700

When Mega Man 9 was released I was thrilled. I love the Mega Man games, especially the first games for the Nes. Mega Man 9 is hella hard though, and I have yet to beat more than one boss! o___o;

Mega Man 10 comes with the option to select an easier difficulty. Extra platforms are added to help the player along and some enemies have been swapped out or removed completely. That makes my life so much easier. In fact, a little too easy; it didn't take me very long to play through the game. But it has made me confident that I can play through on the normal difficulty this time around. :-]

Morning routines

nospam@example.com (Mangek) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:51:52 -0700

My workday starts at 7am. On a good day I usually crawl out of bed around 6am, sometimes a little bit earlier, sometimes a little bit later (oops!). The last few weeks my days have started one hour later but I'm still trying to get up and get ready at about the same time as before.

To get me going I've started watching anime while preparing breakfast/lunch for work. I asked a friend for some suggestions on shows and he mentioned Kimi Ni Todoke and Eden of the East. Mornings are awesome again. :3

I fucking watched Fucking Åmål...again

nospam@example.com (Mangek) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 12:08:09 -0700

I'm not gonna lie. I've watched Fucking Åmål over 40 times since its release, back in 1998. I know - I'm a sad, sad individual. But hey, it's a really good movie. The last years as a teenager I (along with a friend of mine) had an obsessive, unhealthy, crush on Elin. We saw the movie at least once every day for a good while there. Drove my family nuts. :D

I watched it again yesterday, together with my brothers and a friend (different from the friend mentioned above). I came to the conclusion that I still absolutely love Fucking Åmål. Very much so. :3

I've had it...

nospam@example.com (Mangek) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 12:27:09 -0800

...with the mother fucking snow on this mother fucking.... Seriously, ffffffuuuuuu...

I'm not much for snow these days. I don't think it looks all that great on the ground and it's a bitch to drive in. Not to mention the agony when we have to clear the damn driveway every fucking time it falls. And last night we had plenty...

They say we won't get any snow below Stockholm in a few years, due to global warming. I stand with open arms, welcoming those warmer days. Fuck.