Saturday, May 10, 2008
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Ready to marry, but only if they can find their own homes
There's apparently a TODAY report on this.. sigh..
Friday, May 02, 2008
Sour experience at Easyjet
Just booked a flight to London. It's a bit strange, how Easyjet claims that the fare is everything in, but then afterward there are so many charges... leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. Hold luggage charges, charges for using a credit card (damn I need a Visa Electron), etc etc. Swissair would have been cheaper except that
(a) Swissair had this massive fuel surcharge that was like half the total airfare.
(b) I had the option not to bring hold luggage on Easyjet.
Right. No more easyjet...
I wonder how Easyjet is coping with the cost of fuel. Tomi Ahonen at the Communities Dominate Brands blog has been talking about his budget airline canaries dying...
(a) Swissair had this massive fuel surcharge that was like half the total airfare.
(b) I had the option not to bring hold luggage on Easyjet.
Right. No more easyjet...
I wonder how Easyjet is coping with the cost of fuel. Tomi Ahonen at the Communities Dominate Brands blog has been talking about his budget airline canaries dying...
Thursday, May 01, 2008
A sunny labour day in Geneva
Where I watched enviously as people whizzed by on blades, and in the clouds I saw dogs playing tag and dragons breathing fire...
6 hours to go.
6 hours to go.
Devastated
We lost.
I've always said that life as a Liverpool fan is fraught with anxiety, and this was another one of those days. From 1-0 down, to that beautiful Torres equaliser, then to 3-1 down... After that fateful Champions League final, we believe our team can come back from anything... You think that Reina can surely save the penalty. Then you think that Babel's goal is magnificent... and you hope...
Which sets you up for a devastating, devastating fall.
Damn. We lost...
I've always said that life as a Liverpool fan is fraught with anxiety, and this was another one of those days. From 1-0 down, to that beautiful Torres equaliser, then to 3-1 down... After that fateful Champions League final, we believe our team can come back from anything... You think that Reina can surely save the penalty. Then you think that Babel's goal is magnificent... and you hope...
Which sets you up for a devastating, devastating fall.
Damn. We lost...
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Basketball blues
I haven't touched a basketball, boardgame, guitar, or console in 2 weeks. Damn, my fingers are itchy....
Monday, April 28, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Eneloops
The Simple Dollar just did a cost calculation of rechargeable batteries vs standard AAs, using some new "Eneloops" batteries. I'd seen some adverts for these batteries previously (some advertisement with a spiel about saving the environment through R&D) and was interested. I recall trying to use rechargeables maybe 8 years back, and it was a discouraging experience. The inconvenience of charging, the quick discharge of the batteries, the batteries charge worsening from about the 10th charge onwards...
So it was quite interesting to see his evaluation of these new batteries. I think the newest things to me was the calculated cost of charging the batteries, which comes up to.. just US$0.002. Which is quite amazing.
Of course, his calculation is slightly off. This review of the Eneloops notes that Eneloops contain less charge than other NiMH rechargables, which begs the issue, whether alkaline AAs have an even higher charge. In other words, he may have to replace the Eneloops at a higher rate than his normal usage.
Of course, at less than a cent per recharge, the cost is hardly significant. And the Eneloops really seem to do well in terms of storage charge retention.. Which means
(1) You can throw a bunch of eneloops in a (cold) drawer for emergencies and bring them out to charge occasionally - like once a year.
(2) You can keep a bunch of spare eneloops around when you change batteries and not have to worry about them losing charge in between.
It also means no more sticky spoilt batteries destroying the battery contacts...
Of course, I barely use AAs anymore. The only things I actually use them for now are: (a) Xbox 360 controllers, and in this case I don't think I've replaced the batteries since I got them; (b) clocks at home; (c) guitar tuner.
Anyway - will probably go and check costs when I get home...
So it was quite interesting to see his evaluation of these new batteries. I think the newest things to me was the calculated cost of charging the batteries, which comes up to.. just US$0.002. Which is quite amazing.
Of course, his calculation is slightly off. This review of the Eneloops notes that Eneloops contain less charge than other NiMH rechargables, which begs the issue, whether alkaline AAs have an even higher charge. In other words, he may have to replace the Eneloops at a higher rate than his normal usage.
Of course, at less than a cent per recharge, the cost is hardly significant. And the Eneloops really seem to do well in terms of storage charge retention.. Which means
(1) You can throw a bunch of eneloops in a (cold) drawer for emergencies and bring them out to charge occasionally - like once a year.
(2) You can keep a bunch of spare eneloops around when you change batteries and not have to worry about them losing charge in between.
It also means no more sticky spoilt batteries destroying the battery contacts...
Of course, I barely use AAs anymore. The only things I actually use them for now are: (a) Xbox 360 controllers, and in this case I don't think I've replaced the batteries since I got them; (b) clocks at home; (c) guitar tuner.
Anyway - will probably go and check costs when I get home...
Saturday, April 26, 2008
3 days in a row of good weather!
The weather's finally turning. 3 days in a row of good weather here in Geneva, today it's so nice I can leave the window open and it still feels fine.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Sword of the Stranger
Just watched Sword of the Stranger, apparently was released in Japan in Sep 07. Well, it's swords, so I'm interested, yeah, but it's also by BONES, which produced Wolf''s Rain, Scrapped Princess, and Fullmetal Alchemist.
Period swordfighting, like Champloo and Kenshin, but totally totally different from the two. Well, obviously it's a movie, but its style is totally different from either of those movies, because it's totally totally serious - kind of like the Kenshin prequel. Anyway, storyline is quite straightforward, tale of redemption kind of stuff, feels actually like a Chinese swordfighting movie, actually, down to the melancholic ending, and the overwhelming preference for flute music. And the fighting scenes tend towards realism, none of the characters have special powers and everybody's kind of mortal - including the main character. Love the way they have like three ranks of fighters - Grade 3 nameless dudes who are just there to die and make the rest look good, Grade 2 chaps with names, and weapons to distinguish themselves from each other, and the two Grade 1 guys who are like pre-ordained to meet. Only bad thing was the Chinese, it's probably more enjoyable if you don't understand Chinese so you can't understand what that group of bad guys are saying.
Oh, and I really love the "where's my sword?" bit. (I need to steal someone's screencap of that scene) Dark humour, yes, but... lol, that's the only humour I found in the whole thing. Oh, and maybe the sarcasm about the hostage situation...
A review.
Period swordfighting, like Champloo and Kenshin, but totally totally different from the two. Well, obviously it's a movie, but its style is totally different from either of those movies, because it's totally totally serious - kind of like the Kenshin prequel. Anyway, storyline is quite straightforward, tale of redemption kind of stuff, feels actually like a Chinese swordfighting movie, actually, down to the melancholic ending, and the overwhelming preference for flute music. And the fighting scenes tend towards realism, none of the characters have special powers and everybody's kind of mortal - including the main character. Love the way they have like three ranks of fighters - Grade 3 nameless dudes who are just there to die and make the rest look good, Grade 2 chaps with names, and weapons to distinguish themselves from each other, and the two Grade 1 guys who are like pre-ordained to meet. Only bad thing was the Chinese, it's probably more enjoyable if you don't understand Chinese so you can't understand what that group of bad guys are saying.
Oh, and I really love the "where's my sword?" bit. (I need to steal someone's screencap of that scene) Dark humour, yes, but... lol, that's the only humour I found in the whole thing. Oh, and maybe the sarcasm about the hostage situation...
A review.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
La Vida Robot
This is a pretty inspirational and cool real-life story... robots, neighbourhood school kids vs MIT kids, inspirational teachers, etc. It's got everything.
Intelligence-enhancing drugs?!
Eh, if you've played Fallout 2 you remember Mentats... Well Wired ran an article about various kinds of intelligence-enhancing drug regimens which readers were actually using.
Crazy stuff... I'm not so much put off by the idea, it sounds great to be more focused and productive, just that I wouldn't want to risk my health for it. I just wonder how delusional some of these people are about the results they actually get - like those who say they get more done in an hour than in their normal workday, and I cannot imagine how that can be.. unless your normal output is darn low... Still that's more possible in creative industries I guess. and the idea is ... intriguing.
I'm more interested in the feature on improving memory... More on that later.
Crazy stuff... I'm not so much put off by the idea, it sounds great to be more focused and productive, just that I wouldn't want to risk my health for it. I just wonder how delusional some of these people are about the results they actually get - like those who say they get more done in an hour than in their normal workday, and I cannot imagine how that can be.. unless your normal output is darn low... Still that's more possible in creative industries I guess. and the idea is ... intriguing.
I'm more interested in the feature on improving memory... More on that later.
Full Metal Alchemist
There's something to be said about reading manga versus watching anime. I started out as an anime watcher, and loved my Scryed, FMP, FMA, and of course, Makoto Shinkai's stuff. For the longest time, I preferred anime to manga.
But now, reading FMA instead of watching it, I'm finding that I actually connect better with the story. I'd heard a lot of talk that the anime corrupted the story pretty badly, but it goes beyond that. I'm at chapter 9 now, and finding that reading the manga actually helps me to connect better with the characters. When we see Armstrong crying to hear Alphonse's account, well, I'm just like - yeah, I feel a bit like that too!
But now, reading FMA instead of watching it, I'm finding that I actually connect better with the story. I'd heard a lot of talk that the anime corrupted the story pretty badly, but it goes beyond that. I'm at chapter 9 now, and finding that reading the manga actually helps me to connect better with the characters. When we see Armstrong crying to hear Alphonse's account, well, I'm just like - yeah, I feel a bit like that too!
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