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With about two years delay the probably most anticipated 3d-shooter is finally realeased: Halflife 2! ...And after another three days of downloading 3,5gb of game-data through Valve’s fantastic “error-try-later” Steam-service it also arrived at my computer. There are probably better game-reviewers than me, so I’ll keep it short: Wonderful graphics even on my ol’ Athlon1800 (+ Radeon9600XT), stunning physics (even the swings on a playground work as expected!). But whats most important: The gameplay is probably the best ever: Smart opponents, challenging and very diversified missions and great realistic atmosphere. Especially the last point is very important to me: At one point in the game I was like “eeeh, you damn guards, don’t disturb me watching this sunset” lol (see Screenshot). I’m half through at the moment, and thats exactly the point where I normally dump games – I’ve never made it to the big-boss-endgame of DeusEx 2, Doom 3, FarCry because somehow I lose interest after a while. Well, HL2 proves to be different, as I can’t wait for my next adventure as “Morgan Freeman”.

I’ve just watched MTV’s “Roomraiders” on telly, a dating-show where the candidates are judged by the condition and contents of their rooms. The thought popped up “What would they find in my room?” Well, a huge amount of technical gadgets, computer-literature, clothes lying around everywhere – thats about it. It’s not that I don’t listen to music, watch good films, collect family-photos – but everything is stored digitally in my Powerbook, invisible for any observer. I entrust an increasing part of my cultural identity to machines, which is very dangerous in times of harddrive-crashes, viruses, EMPs (ok, perhaps in some years g*). What info will my grandchilds have about me? I think it’s time to order some reprints of those fancy digital gallerys… On a global basis I suppose this century will be some kind of new “middle-ages” concerning cultural inheritage – we can’t handle the information-overkill on a daily basis, and we’re far away from storing it in a persistent readable format for the “after-world”. I would like to know how long these lines will exist – probably until the next big Typo3-disaster *g So long…

First snow in mid-November! :D Winter is here – and I’m on my way buying the third “Christstollen”-Cake for this year g

Speaking of my WG-life: I’m was so damn lucky to get this room! Currently I’m bloggin this from my window-ledge with my wireless Powerbook, watching a beautyful clear sunset. At last germany isn’t this bad, in contrast to study in some strange countries with:

• 2000$-WGs (greets to Andi/Hawaii)
• Elektrotechnik-Studies (greets to Seb&Corny/Spain)
• Spiders and snakes (greets to Eva&Sepp/Australia)

:)))

Just returning from a WG-meeting with my flatmates – one of the rare occasions where all six inhabitants of this house are in one place. Well, at least five – our newest member, Bertrand, was missing (unentschuldigt! g*). Apart from this meetings, we pracise a system of hearsay and notes – especially this week the whole house was cluttered with about ten notes about noisy door-banging, shopping-lists etc. My favorite one was a observation-map to define where all those fck*ng maggots (Maden) are coming from in the kitchen. That somehow gives you an impression of the chaos when six half-grown-ups live together ;)

...says Kerstin! She’s one of the few persons from school I actually stayed in contact with, mostly due to the fact that she’s as Instant-Messaging-addicted as my geeky self. Check out her blog at Livejournal, she’s a lovely person and has a very entertaining, right-into-the-face style of writing. OK, back to the bad-english-accusations: If I had a comment-system (something which is definetly on my long-term-todo-list) I would ask my readers…but lacking one, i just say: Yeah Kerstin, and your site is so…errrm…YELLOW! ;D

Somehow I’ve lost the “weekend-feeling”. What used to be a time of relaxation, friends and fun is now a strange mixture of work and too-much-time-on-myself. This thursday (note: our weekend officially starts thursdays g) I didn’t go out with Xaver and some others to finish a deadline-dreading website instead. OK, no problem. But somehow I’ve even got a bad concience hanging out with TV and junk-food on a saturday, because there’s so much to do even at the beginning of this semester – I don’t wanna imagine how it’s end will like. Maybe it’s just workaholic, but I think it has other reasons as well – work is a good distraction from other (maybe more important) things. As you see, I’ve got enough time to produce pointless and too thoughtful blog-entries, so don’t worry (yet) ;).

Although the U.S.-Elections are not decided yet, the notion of “Four more Years” of war and lies with George W. Bush gives me a very sad feeling. My first reaction was to compile a playlist that expresses this. I’ve done the same thing shortly after the WTC-attacks. The Songs are (like the rest of my music-collection) a patchwork through centuries and genres:

• R.E.M. – It’s The End Of The World Well, not quite – but it’s irony seems very fitting. I head this track a lot after the WTC-attacks.
• Blur – Coffee&TV “I’ve seen so much I’m goin’ blind and i’m braindead virtually”.
• Pixies – Where is my mind Especially as a soundtrack to the final scene in “Fight Club” this seems very fitting.
• Neil Young – Keep on Rocking in the free world America as we like it: critical and patriotic. Just re-discovered that one today.
• Led Zeppelin – Tangerine Does not really fit in here, but somehow it reminds me of the whole Vietnam-resistance and the mentality connected to it.
• Linkin Park – Breakin The Habit Something that most Americans definetly need to do.
• Presidents of the USA – Video killed the Radio Star Could also be called “Corporate News-Channels killed Journalism”.
• Farin Urlaub – Lieber Staat “Danke dass du mich regierst” – satirical view on the german government.
• The Streets – The Irony Of It All Very witty discussion on political issues (in UK, but nevertheless)
• Thomas D – Gebet an den Planet Great when you’re desperate and dissappointed about idiots reigning our world.
• Trevor Rabin – Theme from Armageddon Somehow this track always makes me feel patriotic, which is not an easy thing for Germans! I’m aware of the fact that it’s connected to a very “american” film ;)
• Marilyn Manson – The Golden Age of Grotesque One of the last thinking american patriots – and nobody gets it.
• Blumentopf – Das schönste Gefühl “An diesem Tag hat mich das System gefickt – leider hat es sich danach nie wieder bei mir gemeldet”