An astronomy picture a day...

Does something-something-something-else-that-rhymes-with "day."

Quiet days, these last ones, not too exciting either but hey. I'm not complaining, I like quiet.

I did come across something very interesting today though. A website called Astronomy Picture of the Day. As you may have guessed, it features a different picture of our universe every day, accompanied by commentary by an astronomer.

I find pictures of different planets, solar systems and even galaxies to be quite fascinating. It's always a good reminder to know that we live in a practically infinite universe, where our little blue planet is but less than a drop in the proverbial ocean.

Yes, there's just something about the universe, and pictures related to it. Sometimes I actually find them scary, be it a picture of a supernova or a picture of a lonely planet. I'm not sure why, but pictures of a single planet, with only perpetual darkness around it is just... terrifying to me.

Some others are simply majestic. Especially Nebulas, and the myriads of colors that make them up. I guess supernovas are also majestic. In a terrifying way. And then there's always the Hubble Ultra Deep Field.

Speaking of Nebulas, the Carina Nebula might be on to us, despite it being 8,000 light years away.


I know we earthlings aren't the best of kinds, but that's just rude, man. It's not polite to give the finger like that to people you don't know. *pouts*

Highly inappropriate

But I lol'd.

So, like

Two toothpicks are walking down the street. Right across the street there's a pin walking the opposite way.

One toothpick turns to the other and goes, "Dude, check it out, it's Robocop!"

(Haven't had anything remotely interesting to say lately, so a horribad joke sounded like decent filler material.)

Some good news

Hey, it's late and I've been traveling, so I forgot to mention these on the previous post. Plus they're good news so they'd feel out of place in the previous post of random negativity.

First piece of news isn't really that new, but it's awesome nonetheless. Nobody has a clue yet if A Dance With Dragons is coming out this year (thought it'd be ace if it did, I could use something to read while in the army), buuuuuuut! There's a new sample chapter up at George R.R. Martin's website, and it's a...

*drumroll*

Jon Snow chapter! I tend to avoid sample chapters as they're spoilerish in nature, but Jon Snow is one of my favorite characters, and I certainly don't regret reading through that chapter, as it's well, sublime. Do want.

The second, and more unexpected, news of the day came from Ron Gilbert's blog. Gilbert, the creator of the first two Monkey Island games for you heathens out there, is working on an episodic RPG-Adventure game called "DeathSpank: Episode One: Orphans of Justice." It goes without saying that this is excellent news. Gilbert is one of the few original game creators out there. Between his new game, Tim Schaefer's new game and Street Fighter 4, 2008 looks like an amazing year for gaming. Read more about DeathSpank here.

There and Back Again

I may have a few more kilos and fewer hair than I used to, but I'm back in Athens. Karditsa, my hometown, felt like London lately, or perhaps even Silent Hill with all that damn fog going around night and day. The cold wasn't very welcoming, either.

Seems like I'm back just on time, as the Daily Show and the Colbert Report re-appeared after a long hiatus, although they're still missing their writers. I've only seen one TDS episode so far, but I thought it was still as funny as usual.

I can't wait to see what they'll have to say about the New Hampshire primary results, which saw Hilary clinching the win with a small 3% difference, and McCaine winning the Republican primary, despite most people writing him off already. Moreover, Bill Clinton called Obama's campaign the "Biggest Fairy Tale I've ever seen!" Ouch. Looks like the kid gloves are off. /cliché.

I'm not sure why I'm keeping such a close eye on the primaries. $10 say that if I were American I'd probably wouldn't give a shit about them and probably wouldn't even vote either. Don't tell anyone, but I only decided to vote on the Greek election about two hours before the deadline.

What I'd really like to know is what the HELL are Darth Vader and Yoda doing in Soulcalibur 4. I mean, WHAT?! Spawn and Link in Soul Calibur 2 at least made a little bit of sense from a purely marketing point of view, and could even perhaps convince people buy more than just one version of the game. Spawn still was a friggin' weird idea to which I had objected back then as well, but his creator, Todd McFarlane, or rather his company, was creating Soul Calibur action figures back then. So go figure.

But Darth Vader and Yoda? Sweet zombie Jesus. I hope that Inigo Montoya and Zorro will appear in SC5. Now that'd be something to wait for.

Nearing the end

Of the year, that is. This will be the last post on this blog for the year 2007. I've finished packing my stuff, and I'll be leaving for my hometown in approximately 7 hours. I'll have my laptop with me, but no access to them Internets, so there won't be any real updates for the next ten days or so.

I had initially thought of doing a "Year in Recap" sort of thing, but eh. Everybody does that anyway, and my own effort wouldn't really add anything special. I can however make a quick mention of my favorite "things" of the year.

Music: Magic - Bruce Springsteen
Movie: The Bourne Ultimatum
Videogame: Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: And Justice For All
Book: Harry Po... hah, as if! Didn't really read any books that came out in '07. Had I finished the Greek novel "Του φιδιού το Γάλα" ("The Snake's Milk" or something along those lines) already, that would have been my choice.
TV Show: House M.D.
Comic book: Thor

One year ago this day, I was thinking that 2006 was a decent, but seriously uneventful year. Well, 2007 was anything but uneventful... And that means that lots of bad happened along with the good. This condition has a name, you may be familiar with it. It's called "Life."

2007 was certainly a bad year for my country, Greece. But that goes beyond the point of this post. I might get back to it in '08.

Regrets for '07? Not managing to finish the A Song of Ice and Fire series, which I started all the way back in late January '07 with A Game of Thrones, as I'm still 600 pages away from finishing A Feast for Crows. Unless I go on a total reading binge in the remaining two days, which has happened in the past. Also, never managing to finish those damn articles for this blog, I hope I'll get back to them eventually.

Things to look forward to in '08? Lots. Metal Gear Solid 4, the Dark Knight, new Indiana Jones and X-Files movies, A Dance With Dragons (fingers crossed) to name just a few. Hopefully a live gig here or there too. Shame I won't get to enjoy most of those as I'll be stuck cleaning toilets and sweeping yards in the army. Such glorious times to come!

Ah, but this is no time to whine. No matter how forced it may seem at times, 'tis the season to be jolly. Smile ya bastards, it's free.

Have a happy new year.

One last...

YouTube link for the year. Mainly because I want to have 20 posts for the month, but also because since this blog is more or less a repository of things I like, I felt like it belonged here.

It's a collection of art inspired by the series A Song of Ice and Fire, scrolled through with the 300 and Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks playing in the background. I would have preferred a more suitable soundtrack, but it does its job.

Obvious spoiler warnings apply to those who haven't read the books, but I truly believe that if you haven't read the books, you won't really enjoy this video either. Not all the artwork is of the same level, but a great part of it is nothing short of stunning. That image from the Red Wedding however, while brilliant... I could have done without it. I still haven't gotten over that one.

Because I said I would

Even thought it's been more than a month since I did. I did remember about it yesterday though, since these are the last days of the year and you tend to go on full "The Year in Retrospect" mode.

What am I talking about? The last few minutes of Veronica Mars, my favorite TV show of recent years. Many people hated the series finale (it was only designed as a season finale, after all) but for me it works wonderfully. It's a sad ending, but VM was never the most cheerful of shows to begin with, and it fits with the Noir-atmosphere of Season 1.

Nothing but spoilers from here on.

From the first moments of the series you get introduced to the main themes; life and loss go hand-to-hand, the people will love will eventually let you down, and yet you still cling to them regardless of that. Not because it's all instinct, but because we choose to do so.

All these ideas are so beautifully put together in the following scene. Veronica has let her dad down and vice-versa, and the future is mainly uncertain, except for the fact that Keith is not going to be re-elected. What happens from there on is not as important, as we now know that Veronica's bond with her father, one of -if not- the defining aspects of the show, is as strong as ever. Nothing else is writ on stone, anything is possible. After all, it even rains in California sometimes...



I'm fairly certain the music theme from the scene where the Mars family has dinner is the same as in the scene where Veronica first talks to the viewers about her mother, in the very first episode of season 1. A very nice reference, if so.

Obama's "Our Moment is Now" Speech

I may not be American, but I take special interest in American politics, if perhaps only so that I'll be up to date with Jon Stewart's jokes.

In any case, I've been trying to follow Barack Obama's campaign closely, as I feel there's something different about the guy. Being European, I'm mostly interested in his foreign policies and on that respect he's not that different from what we Europeans have come to expect from a would-be American president. Still, his domestic policies do seem to be rather different, on paper at least.

His "Our Moment is Now" speech which I'll link to below is definitely powerful, and I liked how he avoided pointing too many fingers at the rest of the candidates (something all too common in Greek politics) and rather called the people for unity. Naturally, nobody's that idealistic and you should never, ever trust a word a politician says, but you never know. He might actually do a good job if he's elected.



(This post is seriously lacking. I'd re-write it but I'm too stuffed with food to do such a thing.)

AHHHHHHH! (Street Fighter 4)

I already had several updates planned for tonight, since as of today I'll be away for Holidays and won't update for a while.

But then I found out about the new in-game Street Fighter 4 videos that were released yesterday (hey, I'm slow) and well, my priorities had to change.

Some people complain about the art direction of this game. I want some of what they're smoking. Don't expect any other sort of critique from me, I'm as biased as a fanboy can be when it comes to Street Fighter. I grew up with the damn genre, screw you and your objectivism.

Video #1:


Street Fighter IV `Hadoken` HD (WMV)

Find the second video here.

Re-Domination

I like subtle humor, especially irony, as much as the next guy. Humor doesn't have to be lolololroflmao funny in order to work. Hell, if somebody put a gun to my head and asked me to choose, I'd probably choose subtle humor over say, a fart joke. Not that I'd appreciate being threatened by a gun and being asked such inane questions, mind you.

At any rate, despite any personal preferences, there's times when ridiculous, over-the-top, obnoxious humor works so damn well. Take for example the Powerthirst video, which I posted in September. It's utterly silly, but I find it hilarious.

All of the above is just an elaborate way of saying that I found out that there's a Powerthirst 2 video out, and my justification on why I like it.

"If God gives you lemons, YOU FIND A NEW GOD."

And subtlety be damned. No, not the rogue talent tree in WoW, I can't live without Dirty Tricks.

You buy Doovdé?

I wasn't familiar with the Fonejacker, but apparently he's something of a phenomenon on the Internets. I generally find pranks a bit retarded, and not always that funny, but there's something in this Doovdé thing.

I might be reading way too much into this, but I find that the following video is a wonderful satire of a certain aspect of today's societies. This obsession with technology and related abbreviations is really getting out of hand. And while I understand the bit about technology, why is it that it's necessary all of a sudden to memorize myriads of acronyms that might mean a billion different things, depending on the context? And why is it that someone is considered an idiot for not knowing said acronyms?

It doesn't affect my generation that much, and definitely not the one following mine, but people like 30 years ago barely had a TV and/or a radio in their house while growing up, especially in countries like Greece. How are they supposed to learn all these things? What's even better is that in most cases, even the people laughing at others when they don't know how to pronounce "DVD" don't really know what the acronyms actually mean, they just memorize them. For example, do you know what "NTSC" stands for? I do, but my mind has endless capacity for useless information.

Anyway, it's exactly these reasons why I find this "Jerk" video so damn funny. Watch it and make up your mind for yourselves:

Alizée is back

This isn't exactly news, as her new album has been around for a while. But it makes for a nice Christmas-present story, plus I needed a filler post for today.

She's as stunning as ever, and I still like her music, for some strange, unexplained reason.



If you don't know who she is, I pity you.

A Christmas Carol

This is a bit late, but I had a few drinks earlier and then I was dragged into a heroic Mechanar run (that being a dungeon in WoW. Yes, I played WoW on Christmas day. I am doomed). On the bright side, I'm three badges away from my Ninja boots.

In any case, it was Christmas today. A lot of people are ranting about how commercialized it all is, how the only point of these celebrations is to get you to spent money and how it's all useless and all that. Well, I find that it's only useless and meaningless if you spent your money on shit you can neither afford nor really need. Yes, the use of the word "shit" really is needed here. However, there's nothing wrong with buying a little gift that's gonna make you a little happier than usual (*hint hint, nudge nudge* Buy me Guitar Hero 3 please.)

Which brings me to the other thing; people complaining about being forced to be happy over the holiday season. I do agree that you're practically forced to be "cheerful and merry" over this time of year, but let's face it: Being happy is much more fun than being all glum. I see the holiday season as an excuse to forget about the things that bring me down on a daily basis, and try to be a little less gloomy than usual. That's all there is to it.

Don't forget, you might get on some people's nerves by being happy, but at least you won't bore them silly, which will be the case when you're being all depressive.

On a related matter, one of the movies I loved as a kid and tried to watch on every single year was Mickey's Christmas Carol. I was a huge fan of Disney movies and comics as a kid, but this one was special to me. I was pleasantly surprised when I found it on YouTube earlier this week. I'm not quite sure how long it will remain there, but for now I'm just going to watch the movie, reminisce about the past and try not to be gloomy. It ain't that hard, you should try it too.

Watch part one here:



The rest can be found here: Part Two, Part Three, Part Four.

Merry (belated) friggin' Christmas people.

The Page 69 Test

Things have kinda been messy for the past week. This meant that my mood was too horrible for me to do anything else than stay in front of my PC and listen to music/play WoW all day, but look on the bright side: My character has epixx purpleness now.

The situation I was in is sorta better now, though not yet solved. On the real bright side of things, it means I may have to finally leave Greece. Definitely no bad thing.

And since I'm whining, I'd like to say this: Reading through the post I made exactly one year, at this time there was Die Hard on TV. This year, there's a guy with a bad English accent butchering Sinatra songs. God hates us!

*ahem*

Anyway, I did pick up a few things worth noting these days, for example, ever heard of the Page 69 Test? It's an idea put forth by literary critic and media theorist Marshall McLuhan. The gist of it is, if you read through page 69 of a random book and you like it, you'll end up liking the book itself and we should buy it. I guess he chose 69 because it's such a catchy number, not to mention that the plot will have probably started rolling by then. There's also a blog dedicated to this theory.

I'm not too sure about this, as for example when it comes to the first part of the Song of Ice and Fire series, A Game of Thrones, 150 pages seem to be the magic number for most people. Usually no-one is impressed until that point, but when you reach page 150 it becomes too hard to put the book down. In my case, it took me like two months to read through the first 150 pages, and after that I read 150 more in one day. True story.

Still, it's an interesting theory, and worth looking into it. I'll do the test on American Gods and some other of my favorite books.

And speaking of the ASoIaF series, I came across a hilarious video combining both the series and the famous Leeroy Jenkins WoW fan-made character and video. In order to understand what's going on you have to be really familiar with both the ASoIaF series and the Leeroy video, and as such it has a limited target group, but I thought it was hilarious so that's all that matters. Here's the video itself:

13

And in case you missed it...

Led Zeppelin reunited (sans John Bonham of course, who passed away in 1980) for just one concert, exactly one week ago. I was really bummed I wasn't there, but so were most others. I don't think there was a concert place big enough to hold all the Led Zeppelin fans that wanted to attend this concert.

At any rate, if you belong in that category, and even if you don't, here's Stairway to Heaven, taken straight from that gig. Not the same as being there, but it's the next best thing. Don't expect any comments on the quality of the concert, it's a fracking Led Zeppelin reunion, it's awesome by definition.



(My English -and Greek- is so broken these days, I blame the lack of sleep.)

Why So Serious?

Okay, why are you here? Didn't you hear that the first trailer for The Dark Knight has come out? Go watch it now!

Back already? Alright, let me tell you why I liked it that much then. First of all, I'm not even going to try and hide the fact that I'm a huge fan of the Batman Begins movie. In fact, I'm a total nerd for it. But a lot of people were worried about the decision of Christopher Nolan, director of that film to cast Heath Ledger as the Joker, Batman's iconic adversary. That's the same Heath Ledger that was in Brokeback Mountain, yes. If there were any moronic jokes you'd like to make, now would be the time.

Anyway, I never doubted Ledger's talent as an actor, so I always believed he could pull it off. This trailer has proved me right . And the Joker was what was going to make or break this movie from the beginning. The reason? It's a character that's so difficult to portray for what he is, a sociopath and a murderer, with no reservations about... anything, really. Yet he's been presented as a simple clown with a penchant for killing all too many times, essentially more amusing (in a sick way, but still) than frightening. But the real Joker is exactly that, frightening.

He's frightening in a way that few (comic book or otherwise) villains can be. Not because he's physically imposing, he's pretty much an average Joe in that department, and in a physical fight Batman would wipe the floor with him. Nor is he really that intelligent. I mean, he is pretty damn smart, but Batman is still smarter than him, heck I doubt anyone is smarter than Batman.

No, what makes the Joker frightening, and such an excellent villain for the control-freak Batman, is the fact that he's a total nutjob of a killer. He'd kill anyone without one shred of remorse, he never feels fear about anything, he is completely amoral and chaotic and simply does not care. About anything. He's so removed from what our usual definition of a person is, that it's simply unnatural, yet still in a plausible way. And unnatural things are always scary, after all. He is almost the polar opposite of Batman, who has his own strong personal moral code, likes to have complete control over everything and go into any fight after a long and careful period of planning and preparing.

To make a gross generalization here, if Batman is supposed to be the personification of Fear (as so successfully presented in the Batman Begins movie) -then the Joker is the personification of Insanity.

And then there's the laugh... Oh gods, that laugh. Even though I'm a fan of Ledger, I was amazed that this usually low-key guy was able of pulling off that demented, hyena-like laugh that is guaranteed to send a shiver down your spine.

I know it's just a trailer, but given the quality of the first movie and Nolan's successful movie record so far, the quality of the Joker's portrayal was the major concern for most people. And if anything, the trailer has shown that it's a successful one. Just pay attention to the scenes where the Joker is licking his lips while Maggie Gylenhaal (so glad to see her replace Katie Holmes) or the scene where he sticks the upper part of his body outside of a police car. Especially that last scene, he seems so serene and carefree, almost like a child, while maintaining a rather sick expression on his face. All that while presumably trying to escape the police. Flawless.

I'm probably going to be in the army by the time the movie comes out, but what can you do? If worse comes to worst, I'll spend a few days in the army jail for bailing out of the camp. Hurr.

DivX Pro 6 for free

Since the previous post of this day was about some really bad news, here's some good news for a change.

For an apparently limited time ("holiday download" is what they are calling it) you can get the DivX 6 Pro bundle for the bargain price of... not a single penny.

With it, you get the DivX codec, file converter, video player and web player (ie. what Stage6 is using.) I'm not the biggest fan of DivX, but it's hard to argue against that price, really.

My guess is that this offer won't be around for much longer, Christmas would be a good bet, so if you're interested in getting a copy just click here.

This can't be life V.2

Terry Pratchett, the famous author of the Discworld series, is reported to be suffering by Alzheimer's.

Pratchett, 59, arguably one of the funniest people in the world/universe comment on his situation was the following:

"I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think."

This has only added to my respect for the man. I first came across his Discworld universe in the eponymous adventure game that came out in 1994, followed by a few Discworld novels and Bad Omens, which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman (and which I've shamelessly stolen from you, Tom.)

Alzheimer's disease is such an unfair situation to go through, both for the person and the ones near him or her. My best wishes to you and your family Mr. Pratchett.