Tag Archives: Fun
Wakeboarding
I tried wakeboarding recently… Well, about a month ago, actually. I meant to write about it right away but it slipped through and I only now got around to writing about the awesome experience.
I tried snowboarding before and failed miserably. I tried surfing (in a training pool) and failed miserably. Now, suddenly, I could actually do something very similar and that was a lot of fun. I think I quite like the sport, I would not do it on purpose, like I could go skiing, for example, but being on a beach and seeing the setup…
I think I would go for it. It’s a lot of fun and it is also a heavy exercise. And if I ever get around to actually jumping… Yahoo! You can see how happy I am already with the small and simple exercises :)
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continue reading →John Scalzi, “Old Man’s War”
I happened to come across an interesting title, as it happens to me sometimes, and I did not feel sorry a bit for reading the “Old Man’s War” by Jouh Scalzi. It was so good, I actually went on and read the sequel, “The Ghost Brigades”. Strangely, that did not disappoint me either. The writer is surprisingly good and I was not able to predict the turns of the plot, which makes for a very exciting reading. Well, sometimes you do go “oh, damn, I wish he didn’t do that” but it’s the author’s cruel world and he is the king.
The writing style is very much reminiscent of that of Robert Heinlein, whom I love to read. Author even acknowledges pretty much that Robert Heinlein was an inspiration to him. The last sentence reads “Thank you, Robert A. Heinlein, for debts that have … become obvious.” I have to say John Scalzi lives up to the expectations, albeit being far more cautious and less provocative than Heinlein. All in all, a highly recommended, very entertaining reading in the Sci-Fi genre with plenty of interesting ideas interspersed with action.… -->
continue reading →Being a manager would never have worked anyway…
Ah, now I finally know the reason why I cannot be a manager: a manager is supposed to hire people smarter than himself. That works for most management but where would I get people smarter than me? I am with Dilbert on this one :)
But, as we like to say, there is a grain of joke in every joke :)… -->
continue reading →Horoscopes with an actual basis in fact
Nobel Committee Asks Obama To Return Peace Prize
Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, said today that President Obama “really ought to consider” returning his Nobel Peace Prize Medal immediately, including the “really nice” case it came in.
Jagland, flanked by the other four members of the Committee, said they’d never before asked for the return of a Peace Prize, “even from a damnable war-criminal like Kissinger,” but that the 10% drawdown in US troops in Afghanistan the President announced last week capped a period of “non-Peace-Prize-winner-type behavior” in 2011. “Guantanamo’s still open. There’s bombing Libya. There’s blowing bin Laden away rather than putting him on trial. Now a few US troops go home, but the US will be occupying Afghanistan until 2014 and beyond. Don’t even get me started on Yemen!”
The Committee awarded Obama the coveted prize in 2009 after he made a series of speeches in the first months of his presidency, which convinced the Peace Prize Committee that he was: “creating a new climate of…multilateral diplomacy…an emphasis on the role of the United Nations…of dialogue and negotiations as instruments for resolving international conflicts…and a vision of world free of nuclear arms.”
“Boy oh boy!” added Jagland. “Did we regret that press release!”
But, he revealed the committee members were all “legless drunk” the day they voted, as it was the start of Norway’s annual aquavit-tasting festival. The “totally toasted” members listened over and over to replays of Obama’s Cairo speech, tearing up and drinking shots to the glorious future: a black man leading America and the world into a new era of peace, hope and goodwill. “For a few hours we were all 18 year-old students again at the beautiful, occasionally sunny University of Bergen! Oh, how we cried for joy!”
The chairman said the committee weren’t “going to be pills” about getting the Prize back because they still “basically really liked” Mr. Obama and that sending it back in a plain package by regular mail would be fine if it would save him the embarrassment of a public return. But added Jagland, “things could get nasty” if the committee didn’t see it by the time they announce the new Peace Prize winner in the fall. He and the committee then excused themselves to resume their celebration of Norway’s annual aquavit-tasting festival.
The White House had no comment.… -->
continue reading →Red Panda based Cuteness Scale
The cutest animal in the world is red panda, there is no discussion about that. Some other animals and things may come close but never quite reach the level. We can take the cuteness of one red panda as a basis reference for the standard scale of cuteness.
Then, we can compare other things and animals to the red panda and give them scores relative to the cuteness of the red panda. Let’s say we take a scale from zero to one and we say that zero is basically a neutral rating, not cute but not ugly either. At the same time, the top of the scale will be the red panda with the score of one. Anything else that is at least a bit cute will fall in between.
Red panda is the benchmark of cuteness, so it is rated at 1.0.
Your average cute minion from Despicable Me will rate at about 0.6 or so.
Cats are probably the only animals that are able to come close to red panda in terms of cuteness rating sometimes as high as 0.9 on the red panda scale.
I hereby donate the Red Panda Cuteness Scale to the public domain, free to use and abuse as you see fit, no strings attached. Now, go, go! Rate! Rate! There is not a moment to lose, the cuteness of the world is waiting! :)… -->
continue reading →Guardians of the Galaxy
Yesterday I managed to get into movies for the first time in … oh, years. We watched the “Guardians of the Galaxy” in 3D. Nothing better than an adventure filled heroic movie from Marvel for a Sunday evening. The movie was quite good, actually. I thought they cut some corners and removed a few scenes in a few places but overall it was a load of fun and is totally worth enjoying. And Rocket the raccoon totally rules.
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continue reading →Ferguson: urgent statement by president Obama
The President of the United States issued an urgent statement in relation to the events in Ferguson, Missouri:
“Russia must use its influence on the rebels in Ferguson to the full extent. If Russia fails to affect the rebels in Ferguson in the near future, the United States will immediately prepare a new set of tougher sanctions.”… -->
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