I saw an abomination a few days ago.
It was a Macbook Air.
Not that it's a Macbook, not even because it's the way-too-slimmed-down version on it. It was because the owner (a nitwit to be honest) installed Windows7 on it.
No, he did not install Win7 via a virtual machine. Win7 is since the installment his main operating system. I'll let this sink in for a minute.
I can accept that he (the owner of the laptop(I can't even call it a Macbook anymore)) is using Apple hardware because he can afford it and thinks it's superior, and I can accept that he thought Win7 is the OS he can cope with best and fits his requirements, but those 2 things are not meant to ever be together in one laptop.
I can imagine that the guy who got the assignment of installing Win7 as the main OS on that Macbook felt like he had to do a hellish task, because someone who's capable of doing such things should know what monster it will become.
Not that it ran badly, no, it started up like any newly bought laptop would do. It's just the moment someone told him to bringing up the context menu he started wondering how to accomplish such a thing without a mouse.
You see, Apple has a few was to accomplish this where Windows has right-click. You could for example press "ctrl" and click at the same time. It would've worked, but Win7 doesn't recognize this. Windows on the other hand has the open-context-menu-button on the right of the space bar, but sadly Macbooks lack that kind of feature.
This, combined with the fact that the poor owner doesn't really understand computers at all made me feel like I've seen an act of defiance to all the good that is in this world.
It was such a horrible thing that I wanted to share this so you would know to avoid this kind of things.
-ThOR
PS: I may have exaggerated with my feeling over a simple right-click function, but please, for the sake of all that is good, remember that 2 good things together may become much worse that they were good.
26 November 2012
13 November 2012
Angels
I've talked earlier about spirit, souls and bodies, and somehow I believe in angels. How could i possibly connect that as they are more than just material creatures and still manage to exist somehow on the material plane (you can call it the "dimension" of matter).
Well, inspiration for my view on angels come from the "His Dark Materials"-trilogy by Philip Pullman.
If you think they are all sexless and winged, then they are. If you think they are all child Putti like many baroque painters imagined them to be, then they are. There are many ways to perceive angels because they are immaterial, our minds give them an appearance.
What that appearance is is not important to them, but they still need some place in the world to occupy, otherwise they would not exist.
Believing or not believing doesn't matter. If your mind cannot give they an appearance they'll be just a voice if they need to transfer a message to you, or a bright light if they need to show you something or whatever you more can imagine, as that's what limits your mind from seeing them.
Why would they need to be seen, why would they need to contact us, why do they exist?
Those are big questions we can't even answer for ourselves, but important is that they with their knowledge and their existence in this world can transfer messages from forces even greater than ours.
So why?
God knows why, and we can only guess.
There's one angel that I find interesting. This idea is not exactly from the above-mentioned trilogy, although a slightly inspired. Death.
Yes, Death too is an angel.
Maybe a bit of rephrasing is necessary: Your own death is an angel.
There are many stories about people meeting their Death. Greek mythology had Thanatos, we have the Grim Reaper (not necessary cloaked skeleton with a scythe) and there are many more personifications to be found on wikipedia and seeing most of them predicts an untimely death, sometimes even creating a "self-fulfilling prophecy" (man sees his Death-vision, runs from it and because he ran he dies/passes away/causes a lethal accident/dies of a stroke).
A few interesting examples are the Japanese "Shinigami" (very close to the western Grim Reaper they represent a horrible creature, not necessarily a skeleton (not even humanoid) and haunt people dealing with death or who are about to die), the "Doppelgänger" (an unexisting twin who is often just seen by the person he's impersonating, sometimes by more, puzzling all of them, sometimes no more but a shadow of the person), known deceased friends (calling to join them in death) and many more.
Reason for so many "visions" of death?
They are angels.
They bring the message of "You're going to die" or "Remember you're mortal" which are basically the same.
Don't get me wrong, they don't kill people, they just tend to be present at those moments. And again, they rely on the mind of the person to be perceived. Some may be accompanied constantly by their Death, others may never see it. Or they may see one after they passed away to guide them to wherever they go after this life.
I often think immortal people are in constant company of their own Death angel. These immortals would have to find a way to live with their Death, even though they can't experience it. They can hate them and try to run away from them, or they could accept them and see them as an old friend.
Speaking of immortals, there is this Dorian Grey, a guy who sold his soul for immortality and transferring his aging to a portrait of himself. In some way this portrait also could've been seen as an angel of death, as it reminds Dorian of every year that has passed without him aging and keeping every wound that was inflicted to him.
This lasted until Dorian Grey couldn't bear to look at it anymore and put a knife into the portraits heart and so killing himself.
I have no idea what I will do if I ever see my own Death. Now I think I could live with it, but I'm afraid that may not be the case when the moment actually comes. Anyways, I'll write some more until that moment comes, so I'll see you next time.
-ThOR
Well, inspiration for my view on angels come from the "His Dark Materials"-trilogy by Philip Pullman.
Angels are ancient and immortal beings whose true form is composed of intelligence and feeling, since they are structures of Dust.Angels are creatures with a spirit, a soul and a body, but their body is an abstract something. They don't consist of material, so their form is not fixed. They appear to us as we think they should appear, we see them as we expect them to be seen.
If you think they are all sexless and winged, then they are. If you think they are all child Putti like many baroque painters imagined them to be, then they are. There are many ways to perceive angels because they are immaterial, our minds give them an appearance.
What that appearance is is not important to them, but they still need some place in the world to occupy, otherwise they would not exist.
Believing or not believing doesn't matter. If your mind cannot give they an appearance they'll be just a voice if they need to transfer a message to you, or a bright light if they need to show you something or whatever you more can imagine, as that's what limits your mind from seeing them.
Why would they need to be seen, why would they need to contact us, why do they exist?
Those are big questions we can't even answer for ourselves, but important is that they with their knowledge and their existence in this world can transfer messages from forces even greater than ours.
So why?
God knows why, and we can only guess.
There's one angel that I find interesting. This idea is not exactly from the above-mentioned trilogy, although a slightly inspired. Death.
Yes, Death too is an angel.
Maybe a bit of rephrasing is necessary: Your own death is an angel.
There are many stories about people meeting their Death. Greek mythology had Thanatos, we have the Grim Reaper (not necessary cloaked skeleton with a scythe) and there are many more personifications to be found on wikipedia and seeing most of them predicts an untimely death, sometimes even creating a "self-fulfilling prophecy" (man sees his Death-vision, runs from it and because he ran he dies/passes away/causes a lethal accident/dies of a stroke).
A few interesting examples are the Japanese "Shinigami" (very close to the western Grim Reaper they represent a horrible creature, not necessarily a skeleton (not even humanoid) and haunt people dealing with death or who are about to die), the "Doppelgänger" (an unexisting twin who is often just seen by the person he's impersonating, sometimes by more, puzzling all of them, sometimes no more but a shadow of the person), known deceased friends (calling to join them in death) and many more.
Reason for so many "visions" of death?
They are angels.
They bring the message of "You're going to die" or "Remember you're mortal" which are basically the same.
Don't get me wrong, they don't kill people, they just tend to be present at those moments. And again, they rely on the mind of the person to be perceived. Some may be accompanied constantly by their Death, others may never see it. Or they may see one after they passed away to guide them to wherever they go after this life.
I often think immortal people are in constant company of their own Death angel. These immortals would have to find a way to live with their Death, even though they can't experience it. They can hate them and try to run away from them, or they could accept them and see them as an old friend.
Speaking of immortals, there is this Dorian Grey, a guy who sold his soul for immortality and transferring his aging to a portrait of himself. In some way this portrait also could've been seen as an angel of death, as it reminds Dorian of every year that has passed without him aging and keeping every wound that was inflicted to him.
This lasted until Dorian Grey couldn't bear to look at it anymore and put a knife into the portraits heart and so killing himself.
I have no idea what I will do if I ever see my own Death. Now I think I could live with it, but I'm afraid that may not be the case when the moment actually comes. Anyways, I'll write some more until that moment comes, so I'll see you next time.
-ThOR
18 October 2012
Creating a Texturepack: Part 1, Planks
"Why wouldn't I create a Minecraft texture pack?" I thought, faintly remembering my previous attempt that didn't get farther than cobblestone and planks...
Being in the middle of discovering the many possibilities of Tekkit and dreaming of steampunk I thought I could create a texture pack combining those 2 elements... No idea if I'll ever get this actually going.
In my enthusiasm I almost started changing every texture in the game to my heart's desire, but then I remembered something: it is quite some work.
So I had to make some decisions. First of all I would start with Vanilla Minecraft, changing only the original textures. I would also go for a 32x32 resolution (double the original 16x16) to have a bit more space to mess around with.
For the style I would like to have something steampunkish, but a subtle one. Not just placing a gear on every other block, that would just look stupid.
I also want it to be functional, meaning if you play regular Minecraft you will know what you're looking. I've seen packs that change stuff around (for example wool no longer being wool, but some decorative block) and that's not what I want.
Other than that I want to combine mechanical and magical elements, but not too much.
Once I've finished doing a vanilla pack I'll add Tekkit stuff, starting with Redpower (to have most worldtextures under my control and changing tungsten so I would stop confusing it for coal). So basically my aim is having a texture pack that is made steampunk by using it with Tekkit.
But first vanilla.
Where to start?
I always wanted to change the plank texture, as no plank ever runs on forever and is that straight. So there I have my first block to work on.
So that's where I started.
I eyedroppered the darkest color on the original planks texture, used that to draw some lines, divided that into planks, placed nails in, played around with the L of the Lab color picker and added a bit more texture.
Further was easy: copy the texture 4 times, use with different Level-layers, make the jungle wood more orange (I hate them being pinkish) and paste them in the terrain.png.
That was easy I thought.
Well, it turns out it's not that easy. I had some alignment issues to fix after the "pasting into terrain.png", because in older versions of this picture I had strips of the old texture running from top to bottom, meaning I had mispasted something. But for some reason I insist on having the entire pack unpacked in a projects folder with some template files sitting a folder above it. So every time I have to change something I have to open both terrain.png as the template files, paste the correct texture into the correct place, save both, zip the pack folder, cut and place the .zip into the correct folder and hope I didn't mess up somewhere.
After having done this a few times I started looking for ways to automate this. I downloaded 7zip for commandline zipping, learned some batch programming syntax, did some test runs, noticed 7zip likes to save a folder in a zip folder, so I have to give it every subfolder and every file one level below the level I want zipped (if you have messed around with it you'll understand) and after some time I came to this code:
I know I didn't have to make everything a direct path, but I wanted to be sure it worked. And it does so stfu.
So now I only need to run this .bat file to have my entire folder packed and moved to the correct place.
Next will be stones, but that will be for another time.
-ThOR
PS: if you figure you want to use this code don't forget
Being in the middle of discovering the many possibilities of Tekkit and dreaming of steampunk I thought I could create a texture pack combining those 2 elements... No idea if I'll ever get this actually going.
In my enthusiasm I almost started changing every texture in the game to my heart's desire, but then I remembered something: it is quite some work.
So I had to make some decisions. First of all I would start with Vanilla Minecraft, changing only the original textures. I would also go for a 32x32 resolution (double the original 16x16) to have a bit more space to mess around with.
For the style I would like to have something steampunkish, but a subtle one. Not just placing a gear on every other block, that would just look stupid.
I also want it to be functional, meaning if you play regular Minecraft you will know what you're looking. I've seen packs that change stuff around (for example wool no longer being wool, but some decorative block) and that's not what I want.
Other than that I want to combine mechanical and magical elements, but not too much.
Once I've finished doing a vanilla pack I'll add Tekkit stuff, starting with Redpower (to have most worldtextures under my control and changing tungsten so I would stop confusing it for coal). So basically my aim is having a texture pack that is made steampunk by using it with Tekkit.
But first vanilla.
Where to start?
I always wanted to change the plank texture, as no plank ever runs on forever and is that straight. So there I have my first block to work on.
 |
| Wood planks: normal, pine, jungle and birch planks. |
So that's where I started.
I eyedroppered the darkest color on the original planks texture, used that to draw some lines, divided that into planks, placed nails in, played around with the L of the Lab color picker and added a bit more texture.
Further was easy: copy the texture 4 times, use with different Level-layers, make the jungle wood more orange (I hate them being pinkish) and paste them in the terrain.png.
That was easy I thought.
Well, it turns out it's not that easy. I had some alignment issues to fix after the "pasting into terrain.png", because in older versions of this picture I had strips of the old texture running from top to bottom, meaning I had mispasted something. But for some reason I insist on having the entire pack unpacked in a projects folder with some template files sitting a folder above it. So every time I have to change something I have to open both terrain.png as the template files, paste the correct texture into the correct place, save both, zip the pack folder, cut and place the .zip into the correct folder and hope I didn't mess up somewhere.
After having done this a few times I started looking for ways to automate this. I downloaded 7zip for commandline zipping, learned some batch programming syntax, did some test runs, noticed 7zip likes to save a folder in a zip folder, so I have to give it every subfolder and every file one level below the level I want zipped (if you have messed around with it you'll understand) and after some time I came to this code:
REM delete the original fileDEL %AppData%\.techniclauncher\tekkit\texturepacks\ThORVanilla.zip
REM run 7zip and pack a new .zip fileH:\Projects\Minecraft\TexturePacks\ThORVanilla\achievement" "H:\Projects\Minecraft\TexturePacks\ThORVanilla\armor" "H:\Projects\Minecraft\TexturePacks\ThORVanilla\art" "H:\Projects\Minecraft\TexturePacks\ThORVanilla\environment" "H:\Projects\Minecraft\TexturePacks\ThORVanilla\font" "H:\Projects\Minecraft\TexturePacks\ThORVanilla\gui" "H:\Projects\Minecraft\TexturePacks\ThORVanilla\item" "H:\Projects\Minecraft\TexturePacks\ThORVanilla\misc" "H:\Projects\Minecraft\TexturePacks\ThORVanilla\mob" "H:\Projects\Minecraft\TexturePacks\ThORVanilla\terrain" "H:\Projects\Minecraft\TexturePacks\ThORVanilla\title" "H:\Projects\Minecraft\TexturePacks\ThORVanilla\font.txt" "H:\Projects\Minecraft\TexturePacks\ThORVanilla\pack.png" "H:\Projects\Minecraft\TexturePacks\ThORVanilla\pack.txt" "H:\Projects\Minecraft\TexturePacks\ThORVanilla\particles.png" "H:\Projects\Minecraft\TexturePacks\ThORVanilla\terrain.png" REM Move the new file to the texturepacks folder
MOVE H:\Projects\Minecraft\TexturePacks\ThORVanilla.zip %AppData%\.techniclauncher\tekkit\texturepacks\ThORVanilla.zip REM wait "some time" before closing in case there is an error message
PING -n 9000 ECHO OFFI know I didn't have to make everything a direct path, but I wanted to be sure it worked. And it does so stfu.
So now I only need to run this .bat file to have my entire folder packed and moved to the correct place.
Next will be stones, but that will be for another time.
-ThOR
PS: if you figure you want to use this code don't forget
07 October 2012
Damn you Brent Weeks!
I'm very sorry if the title may provoke, but it's exactly what I thought while reading the Night Angel Trilogy by mentioned author. He has a very interesting imagination, one that sometimes is very close to mine (A black stuff that can adapt to the bearers wishes? An old master training a young fellow? Magic that uses some form of energy and has to be replenished after use? Magical energy that can be stored somewhere for other magicians to use? Get out of my head! (but not really)).
Don't get me started on the characters. A prophet who's losing his mind because of his ability, a dangerous organization that has more power than the king actually has, with a leader no one knows about... it's too much to spoil it all before you read it.
Seriously, read it if you're even slightly into fantasy. Magic, but not too much, fighting, assassins (even if it's wrong to call them that) that (depending on their preferences) leave pools of blood or no trace at all ("That's why assassins have targets. Wetboys have deaders. Why do we call them deaders? Because when we take a contract, the rest of their short lives is a formality." - Durzo Blint), a hated king and a loved successor, a Godking, a godess, conspiracies, magical artifacts some forgot they existed, Night Angels and more to keep you reading to the last letter.
I must say I read it all and absorbed a bit of his ideas (like it happens with most stuff I read) and I'm very glad he left out a part that I would've made important if I would write a similar story: spirituality.
You know what's even better? The writer still lives and still is writing. There may pop up some more books that I'll devour with a lot of joy...
Enjoy reading!
-ThOR
Don't get me started on the characters. A prophet who's losing his mind because of his ability, a dangerous organization that has more power than the king actually has, with a leader no one knows about... it's too much to spoil it all before you read it.
Seriously, read it if you're even slightly into fantasy. Magic, but not too much, fighting, assassins (even if it's wrong to call them that) that (depending on their preferences) leave pools of blood or no trace at all ("That's why assassins have targets. Wetboys have deaders. Why do we call them deaders? Because when we take a contract, the rest of their short lives is a formality." - Durzo Blint), a hated king and a loved successor, a Godking, a godess, conspiracies, magical artifacts some forgot they existed, Night Angels and more to keep you reading to the last letter.
I must say I read it all and absorbed a bit of his ideas (like it happens with most stuff I read) and I'm very glad he left out a part that I would've made important if I would write a similar story: spirituality.
You know what's even better? The writer still lives and still is writing. There may pop up some more books that I'll devour with a lot of joy...
Enjoy reading!
-ThOR
06 October 2012
The Hunger Games and more...
We all know those people.
Those people that have bought the all the Lord of the Rings movies from the moment they were to be bought. Not once, but at least twice as the 12 disc special extended edition (with at least 2 hours of extra footage) just HAD to be bought.
The same people that watched all the Twilight movies at least twice in the cinema (waste of money I'd say), that went to the re-screening on the Titanic movie, that have the complete collection of Harry Potter (both movie and books)...
One of those people is a very good friend of mine and is living in the room next to me.
And he bought the "Hunger Games" DVD...
I didn't want to download it and borrowed it from them. I tried downloading it, but there are more fakes and bad cams than there is a good version of it. Easier to borrow it from a friend than to trust Mister Anon to provide something you don't really want all that much.
So I watched it and I must say I'm not impressed. Even reading the book (a few months ago) was kinda m'eh. Actually the book spoiled it for me. If I'd have read the book after the movie the general impression would've been better.
The reason for this is the writing style. It was too easy to read because the book didn't do anything else but telling the story, telling stuff that's important to the story.
Isn't that what a book's supposed to do?
Not really. A book should also create an atmosphere in another way than by the stuff that happens to the main character.
An example: Currently I'm reading "The Dragon Keeper" of the "Rain Wild Chronicles" by Robin Hobb. Between every chapter there's an intermission where you can read the correspondence between 2 pigeon keepers which gives a broader view on the ruined city after the war that ended in one of the previous trilogies. Concerns about released slaves mixing with the uptown Traderfamilies, concerns about inexplicable illnesses that appear and whatnot.
Next to all that you have dragons that have no idea what happened to them, humans that slowly turn into reptile people, a lost civilization no-one really cares about except for the awesome stuff they left behind, pirates, knights in the north, some angry asshole-nation a bit south of that, and a giant world filled with confusion and mishaps...
Really, I'm not all that into "the Hunger Games", obviously. It could've been so much more if it weren't so easy and accessible (the main reason why it caught on and got itself a movie...)
There are so many more books that could be translated to the Big Screen with ease. The Night Angel trilogy for example (more on that in a later post) or the Left Hand of God. Those are interesting books and may result in some nice series or movies...
But yeah, I've written quite a lot, maybe it's time to call it a day and have you guys read it...
-ThOR
Those people that have bought the all the Lord of the Rings movies from the moment they were to be bought. Not once, but at least twice as the 12 disc special extended edition (with at least 2 hours of extra footage) just HAD to be bought.
The same people that watched all the Twilight movies at least twice in the cinema (waste of money I'd say), that went to the re-screening on the Titanic movie, that have the complete collection of Harry Potter (both movie and books)...
One of those people is a very good friend of mine and is living in the room next to me.
And he bought the "Hunger Games" DVD...
I didn't want to download it and borrowed it from them. I tried downloading it, but there are more fakes and bad cams than there is a good version of it. Easier to borrow it from a friend than to trust Mister Anon to provide something you don't really want all that much.
So I watched it and I must say I'm not impressed. Even reading the book (a few months ago) was kinda m'eh. Actually the book spoiled it for me. If I'd have read the book after the movie the general impression would've been better.
The reason for this is the writing style. It was too easy to read because the book didn't do anything else but telling the story, telling stuff that's important to the story.
Isn't that what a book's supposed to do?
Not really. A book should also create an atmosphere in another way than by the stuff that happens to the main character.
An example: Currently I'm reading "The Dragon Keeper" of the "Rain Wild Chronicles" by Robin Hobb. Between every chapter there's an intermission where you can read the correspondence between 2 pigeon keepers which gives a broader view on the ruined city after the war that ended in one of the previous trilogies. Concerns about released slaves mixing with the uptown Traderfamilies, concerns about inexplicable illnesses that appear and whatnot.
Next to all that you have dragons that have no idea what happened to them, humans that slowly turn into reptile people, a lost civilization no-one really cares about except for the awesome stuff they left behind, pirates, knights in the north, some angry asshole-nation a bit south of that, and a giant world filled with confusion and mishaps...
Really, I'm not all that into "the Hunger Games", obviously. It could've been so much more if it weren't so easy and accessible (the main reason why it caught on and got itself a movie...)
There are so many more books that could be translated to the Big Screen with ease. The Night Angel trilogy for example (more on that in a later post) or the Left Hand of God. Those are interesting books and may result in some nice series or movies...
But yeah, I've written quite a lot, maybe it's time to call it a day and have you guys read it...
-ThOR
15 August 2012
Deverry
Yeah, so recently I finished the Deverry Cycle...
It took me 15 books to get to the end. But yeah, it's finished now.
What do I think of it?
Well, it's quite the read, although it takes a while before a storyline is finished.... It's a hell to get to the end of a story that took a few centuries to finish, certainly if you take into account several rebirths with some people surviving for some of those centuries. every book ends with a big battle (which sometimes is a bit unnecessary) and some story lines took way too long to finish...
Honestly this is only for those who would take the time to read all 15 book one after another...
The magic is quite interesting, but it didn't really change any views I have on this matter.
If you want it better you should read the Robin Hobb, Realm of the Elderlings series, where every 3 books can be read as a separate whole.
Sure, the story goes on in every book, but the story ends with every few books.
The only problem I have with it is that it's an on-going series, while you can read until "latest released" you'll have to wait until the next one is finished and released. I'm waiting for the "The Rain Wilds Chronicles" to end so I can read them from beginning to end.
Anyways, that's all I can write at the moment. If I have enough time I'll change some things, but now I'm writing this it a slightly tipsied state (2 "La Chouffe", 2 cognacs, 2 Filliers Gins and a Dürüm) this post may seem a bit out of my usual writing style.
Thank you anyway for reading.
-ThOR
It took me 15 books to get to the end. But yeah, it's finished now.
What do I think of it?
Well, it's quite the read, although it takes a while before a storyline is finished.... It's a hell to get to the end of a story that took a few centuries to finish, certainly if you take into account several rebirths with some people surviving for some of those centuries. every book ends with a big battle (which sometimes is a bit unnecessary) and some story lines took way too long to finish...
Honestly this is only for those who would take the time to read all 15 book one after another...
The magic is quite interesting, but it didn't really change any views I have on this matter.
If you want it better you should read the Robin Hobb, Realm of the Elderlings series, where every 3 books can be read as a separate whole.
Sure, the story goes on in every book, but the story ends with every few books.
The only problem I have with it is that it's an on-going series, while you can read until "latest released" you'll have to wait until the next one is finished and released. I'm waiting for the "The Rain Wilds Chronicles" to end so I can read them from beginning to end.
Anyways, that's all I can write at the moment. If I have enough time I'll change some things, but now I'm writing this it a slightly tipsied state (2 "La Chouffe", 2 cognacs, 2 Filliers Gins and a Dürüm) this post may seem a bit out of my usual writing style.
Thank you anyway for reading.
-ThOR
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