As it says.

What it is that I have been up to.

I have been helping make a video game! You can play it on LightApprentice.com.

Wii Light - kinda pointless, but not stupid

I often lose faith in my fellow video game enthusiasts. Mostly because of ignorant and generally imagination-bereft articles and anticle comments found on gaming websites.
This strikes both nerves.


From what I can gather, Wii Light was basically to be a game controlled improvement to the Ambilight technology incorporated in Philips televisions over the better half of the past decade;

The idea is that the dominant colors from whatever is on the screen are sprayed across the wall, to give the illusion that the media world is extended to the rest of your living room.

Where the Wii device one-ups Philips is in the array lights; When programmed for the Wii, these could follow along with sword slashes, they could indicated your health, signal the direction from which you are attacked, and display colors meant to contrast the on-screen visuals rather than simply compliment them.
It could serve to free up a bit of screen real-estate, while at the same time creating a more immersive environment.

It is a largely superfluous idea, but a neat one none the less.

iPad 2, eh?

...oh dang, I really need three!

I know, I know, I'm a grumpy old man for disliking Apple products. But seriously. Check this crap out.
I know it's filled with all the latest doodads, but aside from the cheapest iPad 2 going for over $150 more than the parts it is made from (which is fine, it's how profits are made,) they have the nerve to let those who actually intend to use it for their music pay an extra $200 for the additional 48GB of flash memory storage.

Despite this not being the most expensive component by a long shot.

Of course, what counts is that it is a MEASURABLE component. To the consumer. And one that does not inflict on the capabilities of device. You could live without, but it is blatantly obvious why you wouldn't want to. It is a bit like the Starter version of Windows 7 not allowing you to change the desktop image.
Why would Microsoft do this? Certainly not becaues it is a difficult or expensive feature to include. Rather, its absense is highly noticable to the casual user. They might get bothered into upgrading just because of that.

Yuppies, snobs, and also a lot of people I don't need to insult will pay for the big iPad 2. Because, let's be real, they NEED it. Right? And they can afford it, so why shouldn't they?
I realize it is excellent marketing. But it is also EXACTELY the kind of thing that makes me stroll in a big half-circle around Apple.

I don't want my electronics treated the same way as food products in the supermarket, where the cheap stuff often comes out of the same machine as the expensive stuff, the difference being that you pay for a the flashy, familiar logo, on that practical, easy-to-reseal packaging.

You pay for convenience. Convenience, and one other thing;

Like many others today, Apple has the people consume vast amounts of largely unnecessary electronics, made from a long list of increasingly rarer minerals.
And people feel good about it, because either they feel smugly superior getting the best deal when buying the cheap versions, or they feel smugly superior in their wealth and productivity buying the expensive ones.


Smug superiority, of course, being the only thing in the world that sells better than sex.



UPDATE: Solid state memory is more expensive than I remembered! I found this. The thing you really (might get bothered into thinking you) need, is also the one you will pay the most for. Namely the 3G compatibility, the chips enabling which suffer from more than a 600% mark-up when put inside the iPad. Convenient!

Famous Last Tweets

This list will be countinuously updated. There will be a book.


"I am not the target audience for Twitter."
by Pameleen - Dec 1, 2010

FGM and MGM (not the mgm with the lion)

So, I'm getting topical again,

After reading a somewhat elaborate and rather upset blog entry about FGM (female genital mutilation) in Africa and the middle east, I went on to read more about the customs concerning male circumcision around the world. Now, I know the gruesomeness of the two can hardly be compared, but hear me out.

Being from Denmark, I remain uncircumcised, and so does around 95% of the population. Not so in many other countries I am aware, and as I read about Japan, I came across this list of blurbs, and one in particular, from what I assume to be a woman:

"I remember reading a sexual manual published in Taiwan, which was translated from the Japanese, in which a medical professor in Tokyo quoted a figure of about 1/3 of Japanese men need to get circumcised as adults because they've got phimosis. In the same book circumcision was also recommended for curing premature ejaculation, otherwise the glans would be too sensitive; failing that they said you should keep the skin permanently retracted to achieve the same effect.
I must say that I agree 100% as covered glans tends to be painfully sensitive and I don't see how one can have sex with that. A lot of the anti-circ rhetoric about sensitivity is based more on theory rather than reality as I believe most of them have never had a foreskin in their lives.

So although not very many Japanese man are circumcised you're unlikely to see a Japanese penis with the glans covered. What a pity the same isn't true of European men!"

What a pity indeed!

First up, sensitive bits are a good thing. I have no clue whether circumcised penises are intrisically more attractive to women, but there exists no solid evidence that it should be sexually more desirable for the man.

Unlike most japanese, my foreskin covers my glans entirely (the shorter average foreskins are the reason for frequent occurrance of phimosis,) and never have I heard before that the sensitivity of a covered glans should cause unpleasantries during sex, or be the reason for premature ejaculation, which, I am rather sure of, is also a prevalent issue in the US, where more than 90% of the male population is circumcised.

The advice of keeping your foreskin permanently retracted to reduce sensitivity seems very counterproductive to me. Sensitive bits touching is what makes sex pleasurable. Nobody advices women to take measures for reducing the feeling in their clitoris or vagina.

"covered glans tends to be painfully sensitive and I don't see how one can have sex with that.

After reading about FGM and the various baseless reasons for its practice, this stood out to me as some of the most uninformed and ignorant drivel I had read in a while. Slightly less so than what follows right after;

"A lot of the anti-circ rhetoric about sensitivity is based more on theory rather than reality as I believe most of them have never had a foreskin in their lives.

You believe, eh?

These kinds of misconceptions need to be weeded out from the realm of casual facts, so that we can finally stop snipping off the tip of our little gentlemen's little gentlemen for the simple custom of it.

Food and stuff [WEEK 7]

MONDAY
Salami baguette, 3 apples and an orange for breakfast.

Lunch was a "Kreuzburger" with fries and a litchi "Bionade".

I has 3 cups of coffee at the studio.

Dinner was a durum kebab


TUESDAY
An apple and two oranges, plus a cup of coffee for breakfast.

yet another cup of coffee.

Lunch was Turkish chili-con-carne w/ two bread rolls.

I was not hungry late ron, but did eat some m&m's.


WEDNESSAY
Salami baguette and coffe for breakfst.

A cheese-crusted pasta dish for lunch accompanied by a Coke.

Kebab on the go for dinner, and 3 glasses of wine at a flat I visited (but didn't get.)


THURSDAY
Had a "farmersnack" and coffe for breakfast.

Lunch was salami-pizza, and 2cups of coffee.

Dinner was ½ grilled chicken with fries and a Schwipp-Schwapp (cola and orange soda mixed, it rules)


FRIDAY
Two apples and an orange for break, dazu coffee.

I ate a KitKat and some gummibears at my desk.

I had falafel and Fanta for lunch, and an enormous apple.

For dinner I did a "köfteburger", a kind of long meat patty in a baguette.

Went to K17 for the "Berlin Mosh-pit" and had 4 dark beers and a pilsner.

On my way home, I ate a salami-cheese baguette... and a chili-dog.


SATURDAY
During the day, I consumed two large apples, an orange, and a KitKat Chunky.

I then walked along the remaining bit of the Berlin Wall, and looked at all the cool paintings on it, eventually arriving at Ostbahnhof, where I looked at books and ate:

Noodles with deep-fried chicken and sweet chili, and drank a Mezzo Mix (another coke and orange mix, not as good as the other)


SUNDAY
I got up late, and had a falafel and a ginger+orange Bionade at the place across the street from the hostel. It's a good place.

A bit further up the street I had lunch: Chicken noodles with chili and soy. And 50cl coke.

I is what I eats [WEEK 6]

I'm keeping tabs on everything I eat while in Germany. For health related reasons. When drinks are not listed, I'm having water.
___

Monday - Feb 7th

in Viborg:
Oatmeal porridge.
Chicken Bacon sandwich

in Aarhus:
McDonald's cheeseburger.

On the train:
Three slices of home-baked pizza.
And apple, a pear, 50cl orange soda, half a bag of gummies.

Upon arriving in Berlin:
Chocolate croissant (in order to get change for the S-bahn)
___

Tuesday - Feb 8

Continental breakfast at the hostel.
Two white breadrolls, 1sc cheese, butter, strawberry jam, hazelnut/chokolate spread. 1gl apple juice.

Lunch with company guys.
German-Turkish gullasch w/ white potatoes and a bit of salad. 25cl Coke.

3 cups of coffee in office.

Dinner at Thai place.
Spicy glass noodles salad w/ chicken. 1btl Thai beer.

Night snack: Ritter SPORT w/ strawbeery joghurt
___

Wednesday - Feb 9th

Breakfast on the go: "mini-döner" w/ red onion and garlic.

Lunch with the guys. Indian lamb dish w/ rice and a mango lassi.

2 cups of coffee in the office.

Dinner - double Bounty bar, dark chokolate (wasn't hungry).
___

Thursday - Feb 10th

Breakfast in office: 2 fresh baked chokolate croissants and 1 cup of coffee.

Lunch in meeting room with the team. Small take-out salami pizza.

2 cups of coffee.

Dinner on the go; 1 butterbread roll of ground beef, 1 falafel w/ salad, 50cl orange soda.
___

Friday - Feb 11th

Breakfast was 3 chokolate croissants and a cup of coffee.

For lunch, a green curry with chicken, also a 33cl coke.

Dinner was another excellent falafel.
___

Saturday - Feb 12th

Got up late. Lunch consisted of 1 KitKat Chunky, 1 cheeseburger, 1 50cl coke.

breakmeal: 2 pfannkuchen (berliners)

Dinner was a large plate of chili french fries w/ a Bavarian beer.

While at the bar with the others: 1 pfannkuche, 3 beers (1 Beck's, 1 ???, 1 Franziskaner)
___

Sunday - Feb 13th

Got of late and hung around my room. Ate a cream caramel chokolate bar, and a Kit-Kat chunky.

For dinner I had an Indian spicy chicken dish w/ rice and a mango lassi. Sat around in the restaurant and drew, and had a cola.

___