http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda_(series)
Somehow he got inspired for the game partially by watching his children play in Kyoto’s forests, partially by exploring the forest..
now, 20 years later, children are inspired by Zelda and go exploring the forest dressed up as Link.
fantastic, how a whole generation turns and the ones that live in fantasy become the ones that create fantasy in others.
It’s incredibly beautiful in Amsterdam at the moment. Everything is getting a fresh green colour, the sun is shing brightly and warm, what a beautiful day to get your mother and spend it in the city with her while your husband stays at home and watches the small one. Oh well. ;)
To be honest, I am sitting here, reading the newspaper and science fiction, I don’t mind at all. After the last weeks I appreciate some silent moments where I can just idle and “unstress” myself.
This weekend will be > 20 degree, lots of sun, monday is “Koninginnendag” – the queen’s birthday, tuesday is labour day, it looks like we are going to spend a long weekend and a lot of time with the small guy :)
Other people perceive spring in a different way:
The peasants in the villages round Amsterdam are putting cow shit on the fields to nourish their fresh crop.
The neighbours thought it’s cool to barbecue on the balcony on the 11th floor, smoking us on the 13th.
The sewage pipe system of our building did not survive the sudden activity of its users and decided to burst.
As I write this, it smells of cow shit, human piss and barbecue. Lovely!
Vincent only produces small amounts of production (on both ends) but they add to the sensation.
Plus: 6th May i’m going to turn 30 and my parents are coming over, too.
It can only get worse, eh? ;)
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html
this is a nice tutorial how search engines work and that shows that there is a world beyond Google :P
Nevertheless, Google is doing a good job in trying to become the one and only, many people do not even know that there is something else (or they even think that google IS the internet.)
Google apps loaded on your domain are cool, by the way.
be sure to check google.com/a – that is definitely the end of hotmail.
I wish I had registered a domain back then when there were domain names available :(
Since recently I am experimenting with google apps, sharing calendars, contacts and mail and I seriously think about migrating – the concept of not having to delete mail anymore, just to archive it and to have web-based applications that can collaborea
I don’t sleep much, I get stressed by crying babies, I miss surfing the
www. But I am the happiest man on earth.
the small guy is now more than 2 weeks old and successfully took Siepke’s position as the “center of attention” of the house :)
He also managed to eliminate all my other hobbies, passions and even my night sleep. I am always tired :P
Next thing he will eliminate is the positive balance on my checkings account, I fear ;)
I am trying to get into a “normal” rhythm again after all this.. going to work helps a lot, so do my colleagues. But I really don’t know anymore where is up and where is down.. all seems distorted and shifted.. things that were important all of a sudden are irrelevant and my life all of a sudden is circling around other things. Well, one thing to be precise – and I don’t think that’s so bad :)
There were some “issues” that made the whole thing a little unpleasant, for example he kepy falling asleep while eating, effectively not eating enough.
Last week Anna “discovered” that his skin is still a little yellow. (that’s pretty tricky having yellow/orange walls and bedsheets) – while being at the consultation office (where we have to go now every now and then and get his “progress” reported…)
For the moment, Anna’s mother is helping a lot, giving me time to get back to work and into my rhythm and helping Anna to focus on Vincent, he really needs lots of attention.
Wired magazine has written an article about the “Top 10 Most Influential Amiga Games”
Despite being absolutely true, seeing the pictures of this Computer made my eyes watery..
End of the 80s, beginning of the 90s was the time this computer ruled the (digital) world.
I remember the endless hours of either roaming the telephone system (there was no WWW, yet) or gaming in a world of fantasy.
Games back then had no photorealistic 3D-Animations, no crazy surround sounds, no cinematic effects and movie-transitions… but they had one thing that most today’s games miss: Fantasy!
The designers of these “early” games loved what they did, creating wonderful worlds of fantasy and boy, they had ideas! With 256 colours and 2D graphics they created a colourful world of “Sprites” that probably are a major reason for my love for Anime and colourful things :)
No repetitve killing and wonderfully animated death-sequences but a plot that really “sucks” you in and takes you on a journey into a different world.
It’s a pity this machine died.. I still don’t know why.
Now that I see these games.. Where is ELITE? Where is “The Secret of Monkey Island” ???
What about Dune2 – the father of Command&Conquer… Turrican? Pirates! ???
Oh, how many hours I spent with these…
Well, probably it can’t all fit into a Top 10 ;)
Here are new photos of the small guy!
We decided to make some kind of “blog” where we put pictures and stories about Vincent.. not sure yet, where and how but we will start here:
http://blueeyedcreature.net/blueeyedcreature/Vincent.html
Enjoy! :)
Anna+Andreas+Vincent
I got myself new toys (finally!) :)
I got a “compensation payment” from my previous employer, unexpected, that is. And such money needs to be spend immediately :P
The Nokia N800 “Internet tablet” – basically a 800×480 touchscreen that runs linux ;)
Well, it’s a bit more than that. The screen is just amazing, featuring 220 DPI (!) displaying virtually any PDF or website without having to zoom.
WPA2 WLAN encryption, (unfortunately, there is no VPN client, yet.. but as the OS is Debian-based, it can be only a matter of time till someone ports vpnc to it’s developer platform, Maemo).
(I am waiting for Skype (with video) and a good PIM, then this device is perfect!!!)
If there is no WLAN access, it connects through my mobile phone, using bluetooth.
I can listen to AAC+ music streams (like SomaFM) on it, read my email, well… it does almost anything I want ;)
Once I have trained the handwriting recognition, I can also skip the iPhone-style on-screen thumb-keyboard (basically a neat idea, but so slooow…)
Also: I got myself a Nokia E60 “business” cellphone, which has no camera but amazing PIM and document/internet functions and VoIP over WLAN capabilities! So whenever I am at home it switches from “cell phone” to VoIP, how cool is that? ;)
And finally… Now I can sync with my iCal and address book again..
I like its “retro” look a lot, now that people buy phones by colour and ringtone-variety, I buy a phone that looks old but at a close look has fantastic functions.
A N95 or N73 would also have been interesting but I realized that VoIP and long battery life is way more important than having a multimedia computer with you. (besides, that’s what I have the n800 for) :P
One device that does everything somehow.. well.. I tried that with the C500 “smartphone” (which is understatement, it runs windows mobile) :P and I decided I don’t want a smartphone anymore. I will wait till voice recogniton is better and people have PADDs everywhere.
Hey, wait! There is a “PADD” skin, look here
Continue reading
I could look at this guy for hours.. so small and yet so human.
the way he stretches, yawns and does baby-things.. I am still high, I guess.
I went to work today again, for the first time in ages (it was only a week but it felt like ages to me) and met all my colleagues being happy and cheering at me. I almost got emotional :P
To “get into it” again, I took place in a conference call and the teammeeting, handing out “beschuit met muisjes” to everyone :)
Tomorrow at eight I will “start over” as a dad.. I hope that working will get me in a rhythm again. (which I completely lost the last days)
Tomorrow we can pick up the perambulator (nice word for a stroller, huh? ;) ) that we ordered 2 months ago.. then finally Vincent will get his first trip outside :D
got to sleep now, otherwise the small guy won’t let us sleep.
How shall I start?
It’s been three days since I have had the time to sit behind this laptop and type something. I’ll just state the obvious (although I hate that usually.. ) :P
On 4th of April, at 16:01 CET, our son Vincent was born!
He is lying in our bed at the moment, enjoying late lunch (or early dinner?) from his mother. I am so happy! No, WE are happy!!! :)
He and Anna are still recovering from the delivery, which was not really “easy” (but what is an easy delivery, anyway?) and the small guy is in need for a lot of sleep.
We are enjoying a beautiful easter weekend together and a woman from the social care is looking for us every day for three hours. (a very useful institution, we think.. they show you how to hold a baby properly, how to check for this and that, how to warm the bed.. etc..)
For the rest, we are both still high on emotions, people brought flowers, our families went crazy in Bavaria and in Bulgaria, everything is as good as it can get. :)
I’ll put some photos here so I don’t have to send them around by email all the time which consumes bandwidth and takes ages… enjoy!
phew.. more later.. other things are important now ;)