Thursday 26 July 2012

Wow! The German "Wahlrecht" is illegal... just Wow!

Just imagine the following lovely scenario. In a year's time, there are national elections in your country, but the law defining the "right to vote" is illegal. Well, the German Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe did just that. It declared the right to vote ("Wahlrecht") a representative of each person of German nationality to not be legal in the eyes of the federal constitution ("Bundesverfassung").

As a German who is able to look at it from afar having lived abroad for most of my adult life, this is hilarious. Without boring you all with the details, it boils down to each political party and coalition which was in power tinkering with the "Wahlrecht" a little bit to emphasise the aspects that helped them in the last election. Finally, after it was found that the right was illegal in 2009, the coalition designed a new right to vote against the will of the opposition, which then went to court. The outcome is as mentioned.

According to various news sites (SPON, FOCUS, Die Sueddeutsche) the judges gave various reasons that I will mention with a personal opinion, but first I have to comment that the complexity (mostly mathematical) of this matter is ridiculous. It turned into a coloss of such unimaginably impenetrable proportions that I think most politicians were just hoping that noone would touch it. Reading those articles made my head spin a little and judging by my academic achievements, I always assumed that I was good at understanding complex issues.

The most bizarre aspects of the legislation is that it is possible that a party with more votes, will have "less" seats in the parliament (?!?). Like, I assume, at least 90% of the German population, I am not so strong in the finer points of these laws and rules. In the news and media, they use certain words that I have never bothered to look up, because I wasn't interested enough. One such thing is an "Überhangmandat" (Overhang seat). This is something that hardly anyone understands in its entirety. The english wikipedia article quotes it as
Overhang seats can arise in elections under the traditional (i.e. as it originated in Germany) mixed member proportional (MMP) system, when a party is entitled to fewer seats as a result of party votes than it has won constituencies.
Now, the government and the opposition have about a year to get the next draft right. Having seen how the Belgians can run their country without having a government for about one and a half years, I am skeptical if there will be such a legislation by the designated date. It remains to be seen.

Wednesday 25 July 2012

One Death is a Tragedy, One Million Deaths is a Statistic.

"On Friday, July 20, 2012, just after midnight, a gunman opened fire during the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in a Century movie theater in Aurora, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others. The gunman, acting alone and dressed in protective clothing, entered the theater and set off tactical grenades, then opened fire with multiple firearms on the theatergoers. The attack was one of the largest mass shootings in terms of number of casualties in United States history. James Eagan Holmes was arrested in connection with the crime."
- excerpt from the Wikipedia entry about Aurora, Colorado.

I heard about the news roughly two days later and I was shocked. Sadly for me, not because of the sheer atrocity of it, but because of the thought that I had. "Oh what? Again?"

After I realised my complete and utter insensitivity to the subject, I started to become angry, mainly because I know nothing will be done and it left me wondering. What does it take for US politics to do something about the weapons laws in that country. Granted, not only the US had shootings, but Europe, too. Nonetheless, the laws are the most lax in US of A. Chances are that they will do nothing and a couple of years later, another one will happen and the world mourns once more (after more research, I have to correct myself from a couple of years later to "a couple of months later")

These killings are senseless and a great majority of them could be prevented if it wasn't for the high percentage of gun nuts in the US who feel great with some cold iron in their hand as a penis substitute (NRA anyone? "From my cold, dead hands" anyone?). As a European, this is complete nuts to me.

When Americans say to me that they have firearms in the house to protect themselves, I find this shortsighted. It is so easy to get guns over there, it is safe to assume that when they have guns, so will the people who want to rob, burgle, whatever you. So, let's say a burglar comes into your house with a gun. You notice him and storm out with your shotgun still half asleep. He finds this a threatening gesture (No shit! I would!) and he's high on adrenaline anyways, so he decides to shoot you and leg it or you shoot him, because you are high on adrenaline. Either way one person ends up gravely injured or dead.

If guns were heavily regulated or banned, people would have maybe knifes or clubs. This could still end deadly or with grievous injury, but the chance is much smaller and if one guy has a gun, the odds are higher, he won't fire it, because the situation is clear who has the upper hand... and the little fact that those stand offs would be rarer occurrences.

Anyhow, back to my main point. Why are US politicians not doing anything?!? I took the liberty of doing some wikipedia and google research. I wanted to see how many school shootings (granted this was not a school shooting, but the man was young and a student, so who's counting) there were since the first one in my memory, which was Columbine, 20.04.1999. But after a surprisingly high amount of hits and this very interesting wikipedia article which summarised all school shootings since the early beginnings, I decided to choose my birth year, 1982 as a start date. I am impressed and also appalled by the sheer volume of information on this topic.

According to that table since 1982 there have been a grand total of 111 (!!!) shooting incidents at US-American schools (European shootings are rarer, but they do occur). A hundred and eleven! This is not counting the shootings by students in cinemas and grocery stores or wherever, never mind gang-related shootings. The trend is more horrible when looking at it by year. In the 80s, there were 9 incidents with 14 mortally wounded victims. The 1990s already have that number rising to 30 incidents and 66 victims (The infamous Columbine shooting falls under that 10 year period). This trend is rising even further according to the statistic from 2000 to 2009 with no less than 50 incidents in the US (there were sadly also several in Europe a total of 12 incidents) and 102 victims. Bear in mind, this is only at schools in the country (!!!). I must admit, I find this number staggering and it leaves me speechless as to the inability of US politicians to take actions. If this carries on and the trend will rise further, we can look at the numbers from 2010 to 2012. According to that, there have been so far 22 incidents with 31 victims. You don't have to be a maths genius to calculate that this number should rise for the period of 2010-2019 to grand total of 73 incidents!!!

Unfortunately, politicians will do no such thing and regulate fire arms even further or ban them outright. They are more interested in talking about evil video games and other triggers. Why don't take away their tools! It's the tools that kill not the playing of video games nor listening to satanic heavy metal/rock nor any other artistic outlet. As it stands, I think this will make the above calculation sadly soon a reality and every time after about 6 months, those who were unaffected by the tragedy, will live to Stalin's famous quote:
"One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic."
As we slowly add another shooting to the list of shootings...

Saturday 23 June 2012

Codeacademy: I never thought I would fall for that trick

Been starting with the CodeAcademy recently to learn javascript in a less than pressured way. I always had the issue that I needed to learn coding the hard and time intensive way, i.e. practice, practice, googling the solution and more practice.

I read about the CodeAcademy and was actually just curious and to learn Javascript, because it is useful. The bastards got me hooked. I always fancied myself a man capable of independent thought, but all that "Congratulations! You earned a new badge!" got me as droolingly addicted like all those other muppets out there. Ah well, fellow muppets, I am now another member. Just wait until I managed to attach the strings to my wrists, ankles, back and head...


Sunday 20 May 2012

Then and Now - Or how I like listening to older people

I've watched an interview with Bryan Cranston (lead actor of Breaking Bad) on the David Letterman Show (check out the video below) and something struck me. He was talking about the time he took with his brother in search of his vocation by riding a motorcylce through the US and only stopping when they needed cash. Once or twice he makes a comment like "Bear in mind this was in the 70s, so finding a job was fairly easy".



Now, I am one of those folks, who likes listening to the stories of people who grew up in a different era. I remember the time, I spoke with a friend of a friend of my brother's (yeah, I know, it is a bit convoluted) who lived in Northern Ireland during the IRA's heyday selling photocopiers to companies, because every time a bomb went off, the shockwave would shatter the glass of windows and the like in the area. These damages were payed for by the government and so all companies were fairly eager to buy them. Even if that story was not true (not sure, why it shouldn't be), it is still a fun story from a different time.

But back to my point, I have a bit of a romantic streak when I like to do something like breaking out and go somewhere where progress isn't as advanced but don't have the guts for really taking the step. I remembered wondering if times were really that different in the 70s, when I watched "The Motorcycle Diaries" (check trailer below), but I figured, then, that it is different, because that's South America. Well, judging by the interview above, it was different in the westernised world, too. 


Most people take all these stories with a pinch of salt thinking "another old fool ranting about the good old days", but I am starting to wonder if the young people of today are a bit more pressured into completing their apprenticeships, studies or whatever they are currently doing (I still call myself young, but that's probably just my opinion ;D). I still remember my University studies and they were happy and careless. I enjoyed them and the people I met and the studies I did, greatly affected the way, I approach situations. When I look at the students after the Bologna Process, there already is a stiff difference. They seem to have less time to do more and it feels to me as if they are herded through their student life just to get finished. Only to go on and find a job and live a streamlined life.

This brings me back to one specific point that Bryan Cranston mentioned. It was easier to find jobs in the 70s. My mother told me the same stories, when she tried to find a student job. I told my wife this and the people in their environment from that time all said the same. There were more jobs than people, willing to work, around apparently. I currently am myself in the job hunt, too, and I always assumed that I did fairly well in the career skills department, but I am finding myself in extreme difficulties actually finding a bleeping job. So it would seem that those old ranting fellas are right and it is harder to find a job nowadays.

I am not sure this constant development towards efficiency is a good thing. Efficiency is very good and I am mostly all in favour, but it should not hamper the personal development of the individual. My life has been everything, but straight forward and I am, for the most part, glad that it turned out that way. I was, however, unlike other people, able to combine my detours with things that can be written on a CV. Judging by the fact, that those flower-power loving 60s and 70s hippies (I jest, of course) actually formed their future, my and your present, I really wonder what the western world will look like in, say, another 20 years, with peeps like me being able to form their future. People that were already formed into efficient problem solving, out-of-the-box-thinking, maximised worker bees...

Wednesday 9 May 2012

I can live without the 3D-cinema experience

I just came home from watching the movie "The Avengers" (Check out the trailer below). I was really looking forward to the movie and it definitely delivered. Good all round evening cinema, I would say.


But there is one thing, that is occurring recently, that really puts me off going to the cinema: 3D-movies. They really do not add anything extra for me. I like watching a movie in a row that is fairly close to the silver screen, so that my entire vision is filled up by the screen. Frankly, if I do that in a 3D-movie, I feel like puking. I remember, by some random accident, my wife and I watched Avatar from a front row seat (yep, that's right; row "one"). While I thought, I felt rubbish and dizzy, I then looked over to my wife and believe you me, she looked like death warmed up and about to share her evening meal with the rest of the audience via regurgitatory means.

Additionally, where I am currently at, a 3D movie is in fact about €4 more expensive than a normal movie. Personally, I find that a bit steep. I still reminisce about my student times in the UK, where I could go and watch a movie for £3. Currently, because I am not a student anymore and most movies are in 3D, I pay a whopping €11,50 for a movie. I am sorry, but that is just not on.

What makes the entire thing even worse is, that I sometimes get the feeling that there are hardly any 3D effects. Avengers had some, but if I am honest, I could have happily lived without them. Sometimes, one of Iron Man's rays went the audience's direction and the big fight scene at the end (if anyone thinks I just spoilt the movie by saying there is a big fight at the end of it, is officially a moron) had some effects, but nothing major. When I watched Alice in Wonderland, I actually felt cheated out of four euros, simply because I saw Johnny Depp do something once in 3Dish. The rest was just a normal frickin' film! It drives me bonkers!

Since I am also one of those people with less than stellar eyesight, I have to rely on glasses. Contacts never worked out for me, which isn't a problem... in a 3D cinema, this is a different story. Having one pair of glasses on is fine, two pairs on the other hand, is plain silly. Until my first 3D movie, I never thought that running out of "nose space" would be an issue. As a laboratory chemist who has to wear additional safety specs in the lab, I know what I am talking about and these far too large, wanna-be futuristic looking 3D goggles are just a hassle.

All in all, I can really say that I can understand why true cinema is going downhill. the 3D technology has been around for a while, but never caught on in Europe. Now trying it again, I have to admit to myself, that it pushed me out of the cinema. I used to love going to the movies. It was one of those things that I would do on my own and I would go home, wholeheartedly satisfied. With the advent of 3D-cinema this unfortunately changed, because the higher production costs (or whatever causes the excessive increase in ticket price) are making cinemas come up with strange ways to get more money out of the viewers pockets. Where I am at, they always (yes always, not only in very long movies) take a half-time break, "to give us the chance to go to the toilet". More like the chance to buy half a litre of coke for what feels like 5 euros... I am getting carried away and so I shall stop here with this ;)

At the end of this, all I can say is. Avengers: fantastic movie. 3D-cinema: fantastically overrated, overpriced and just not worth it. Bring back old movie cinema and old prices.

Sunday 29 April 2012

A Theory about the Cases in the TV show "Castle"

I recently started watching the popular contemporary television show "Castle". For those who don't know it.


It started off, because I enjoyed Nathan Fillion (the main actor) in his previous stint in Firefly and a friend of mine suggested watching Castle instead, after Firefly was viciously cut far too early by those faint of heart always profit oriented brutes from the FOX network.


Anyhow, after I borrowed the first three seasons on DVD from a store and had in each case 3 days to watch them... Well, let's just say that was a lot of Rick Castle for once, but it was enjoyable. One thing I came to notice, though, was that after the first half of Season 2, I was able to guess who the murderer was and in some cases even the motive. I am wondering whether this is the trick to the majority of written murder-mystery cases.

The general layout of a typical one episode murder case in Castle goes a little bit like this:

First scene, some innocent person/people happen(s) to come across a body in a strange place (if it is a woman, she screams...). They arrive on the scene and there is one strange detail that is first confusing them, then has a random explanation and the answer leads them to the right place. A good example for that is Episode 4 of Season 3 called "Punked", where the body was found naked down to his underwear, but the wallet was found in a trash bin nearby. Later it was found that a homeless guy took the clothes (Simple explanation that had no connection to the murder), but the clothes were actually a costume depicting a gentleman from the Victorian era, leading them eventually to their murderer.

I must say that, because I just watched Episodes 1-8 of Season 3, these are most fresh in my mind and will most likely be all the examples there are ;).

The next part is the crucial bit where they stake out the case. Almost invariably at some point during these first 15 to 20 minutes the murderer will have his entrance. But in all cases, his relationship to the victim will not be clear and he/she is entirely innocent looking. Examples for this are many and it is hard for me to explain why I knew this. An example that sticks out most freshly in mind is in Episode 2 of Season 3, "He's Dead, She's Dead", where they spoke with a mother and her daughter who had an appointment with the psychic shortly before she got killed. They "remember" a very angry man about to enter right after they left who happened to be a mobster who lost big on real estate because of the psychic. Usually I notice these characters, because they send the investigation on a new, invariably trail that will lead them back on track through several old 1966 Batman-esque deduction skills.


But obviously you don't know that it is a false trail, but they tend to be very eager to please the investigators' questions. Honorable mentions go to Beckett's old mentor in Episode 3 "Under the Gun". There I knew when he took a picture with Beckett just in front of their murder investigation board (And thus getting inside information). And the last, very obvious one, where I even got the motive sort of right was Episode 5 "Anatomy of a Murder". I knew it was the brother of the well-known hardcore evil gangster who got old and had a heart attack, but survived and fell in love with his young but hot, now murdered cardiac surgeon. That is another very strange little thing. It is never the obvious crook. There are always some characters with a history of illegal activities, but they tend not to be the murderer, at best an accomplice (Otherwise it would be boring).

In a last vain attempt at explaining how I know that these people are the murderers, here are some criteria: They are never the obvious choice. You always meet them in the first third of the episode. They generally send the investigation in a different direction and sometimes even give them a suspect with a history of illegal activity or a puppet shadowing their crimes or taking the fall.

Having said that, one fun Castle episode would be when they have a body turning up, then the evidence lead them to a guy who has a very strange alibi. Next scene, Lt. Esposito comes to Castle and Beckett and "instead" of saying: "Your guy <name>... His alibi checks out, he really was <his alibi>", he should say "You know, your guy <name>. I wish he really at least tried to come up with a better alibi. Not only is his alibi contradicted by twelve different people, he was also caught on camera by one of the parking lot surveillance cameras committing the murder and then he waved at the camera..."

Then the remaining 20 minutes of the episode you either see them just fool around playing Paintball with Beckett destroying them all at it, or they just do nothing apart from cracking very bad, but funny jokes all the time. To top it all off, the parts where Castle interacts with his family, his far too adult darling daughter will fuck up majorly and Castle really has to tell her off and ground her for a year or so. That girl is the least credible character in the series...

But enough of that. If you find any holes in my theory, let me know.

Friday 13 April 2012

RPG Music'N'SFX - Docstrings are honking useful!!!

I've decided to really revise the documentations of my code today, mainly due to the fact that there hardly is any ;). Also when I haven't had the time for awhile to look into this little project of mine, I didn't have a clue what kinda things I sometimes did and why.

So then I figured, if I want to do it, I may as well do it according to the official guidelines. Said it and whipped out those badboy PEP 257 - Docstring Conventions. Apart from being pretty vague, they are actually quite good </sarcasm>.

I have to be honest, though, doing them at first was as boring as writing can get. Very repetitive and uninspiring, but then I noticed something. An 'A-Ha'-effect if you wish. I noticed an error in my code. A minor one due to sloppiness, but nonetheless an error and I would have not caught it, if it wasn't for writing those bloody docstrings! Then I noticed potential problems in my code or inconsistencies, simply because I went back over it again, because I wanted to document my code.

What I want to say is that these darned docstrings aren't just useful for other people, but for me, too1 It already saved me some hassle, that would have bitten me in the a** about two weeks down the line. I like it, it allows for preventing minor flaws and helps me seeing potential errors and exceptions, which I can then prevent by putting in appropriate fail saves.

In conclusion, I have to say, docstrings are honking useful!

Saturday 7 April 2012

When gaming gets stressful

So, I was playing my old PlayStation 2 yesterday, because I am still not through all my games and I always avoided GTA: San Andreas. Mostly because I cannot identify with that HipHop culture, in general, and the main character, in particular. But finally I get round to it and I am at the point where I was able to fight for territories.

This was becoming a rather stressful affair if you ask me. It didn't help that I was dating Denise Richards at the same time. At some point, it really was hilarious. So I took her out for a date and afterwards I go to get some more territories. It just so happened that I started getting into a fight with some Ballas boys, when my cell phone rings and Denise demands some attention (Women! I tell y'all, it's no fun :D). So I stop that petty gang war business to get together with that one, when it just comes to pass that some other gang is challenging my territory.

At this point, I got a twitch on my left eye and was having those funny Al Bundy-esque thoughts constantly cussing under my breath "Goddamit woman! What are you bringing me into!"

:D It was funny how stressful it was for me :D

Saturday 31 March 2012

DSA: Frauen in Aventurien

Als ich heute meiner Frau von der regeltechnischen Gleichberechtigung der Frau in Aventurien erzählte, sind mir urplötzlich ein paar recht eigenartige Gedanken gekommen, die ich gerne mit jemanden teilen wollte.

Ich ging immer der Annahme nach, dass die Autoren des Schwarzen Auges der Einfachheit halber keinen expliziten Unterschied von Mann und Frau in den Eigenschaften gemacht haben (Mann KK und KO +1 und für die Frauen? Schwierig, schwierig und regeltechnisch unfair).

Daraus hat sich aber so ein wenig auch entwickelt, dass Frauen in den meisten Kulturen (Orks mal ausgenommen) gleichgestellt sind. Bei Thorwalern prügeln sich Mann und Weib immer um zu entscheiden, wer auf Kaperfahrt darf und wer bei den Kindern bleibt. Ich finde diese Ideen hervorragend und als ich von den Ferdoker Lanzerinnen in diesem einen DSA Schundroman gelesen habe (wie hieß der noch... Der Scharlatan?) fand ich das alles noch viel toller. Jedoch...

Von einem biologischen Standpunkt aus, heißt das dann, dass der Hormonhaushalt einer Frau im Grunde genommen gleich ist, wie der eines Mannes? Da dies ja eine Fantasiewelt ist und die Rasse Mensch an die unsere angelehnt ist, kann man "meistens" davon ausgehen, dass es sich gleich verhält. Der Magen wird also wohl eher nicht in der Achillesferse zu finden sein und das Hirn mit hoher Wahrscheinlichkeit nicht am linken Ellbogen.

Man darf aber nicht die Fakten des Spieles außer Acht lassen. Frauen sind genauso stark wie Männer. In der echten Welt, sind Männer auf Grund des Hormonunterschiedes generell kräftiger gebaut und ihre Muskeln wachsen schneller als bei Frauen. Dies ist ja offensichtlich nicht der Fall.

Kann man jetzt davon ausgehen, dass Frauen bis auf ihre Brüste genauso leicht Muskeln und Definition aufbauen können wie Männer? Somit auch eindeutig männlichere Gesichtszüge haben? Will heißen prominenter Gesichtsknochen, weil dickere Knochen etc. Evtl. wechselt ihr Hormonhaushalt erst zu der einer typischen Frau, sobald sie schwanger sind.

Ich finde diese Frage sehr lustig, weil sie irgendwie mein Weltbild zerstört. Denn ein höherer Testosteronspiegel heißt auch mehr Aggression. Somit besteht die aventurische Welt nur aus Mannweibern, die sich genauso zünftig prügeln wie jeder daher gelaufene Alrik (unter der Annahme, dass "nur" das Verhältnis der Hormone anders ist). Die Situation in der ein verweichlichtes Männchen eine kräftige Frau darum bittet seinen Koffer zu tragen und diese galant und Gentlewoman-like darum kümmert in der Hoffnung auf ein bisschen Geschlechtsverkehr ist dann auch nicht so abwegig.

Oder eine Gruppe von Weibern, die nach einer Sauftour soweit jenseits von gut und böse sind und nur noch einen flach legen wollen. Ich bin mir nur nicht sicher, auf was sie da starren. Männer starren im volltrunkenen Zustand bekanntlich nur auf die Brüste. Große Titten. Check. Dünner als ich. Check. Wenn du sie küssen willst, rennt sie nicht weg. Check. You got yourself a one-night-stand. Bei Männern nenne ich es gern den Spermablick. Der Blick, der dir sagt, dass außer grundlegenden motorischen Funktionen da oben im Stübchen nichts mehr vor sich geht.

Im Generellen könnte man wirklich jede klassische Situation mit den bekannten Geschlechterrollen vertauschen und somit komplett ins Lächerliche ziehen. Ich könnte diesen Gedankengang solange weiter spinnen, bis ich zu einem Punkt komme, an dem die Welt an sich nicht mehr existieren kann (Wenn alle nur geil auf Prügeln sind, wer kümmert sich dann mit Zuneigung, um die Kinder?).

Was so eine kleine Entscheidung am Anfang für tolle Stilblüten nach sich ziehen kann :-D .

Sunday 11 March 2012

The perfect fart

If you are a man, who grew up in a standard neighbourhood these sentences may sound familiar to you: loud and proud, silent but violent (variation: silent but deadly), smell my wrath... the list goes on.

Yes, we are talking about farting. We had a another 13+ hour session of roleplaying yesterday and it was good. But I shall not talk about this. What I will talk about is why I almost felt sorry for the train passengers who sat next to me for two hours plus, after I indulged into the following items of consumption:

Beer, Chili, Chips, Beer, Snacks, Energy drink and some Beer followed by some Chili and before that I had some dairy stuffs in the morning.

I think this is the perfect combination. The Chili supplies the beans for propulsion fuel and spices give bouquet. Beer helps to make a homogeneous melange and adds the finer notes of the smell for the connoisseur. The Energy Drink rounds the mixing process off and increases bowel movement for faster output. The fatty and salty snacks are like engine oil to increase output rate and last but not least, for those with the pre-disposition to an afterburner (lactose intolerance), may indulge in the dairy products.

The next day, I enjoyed the worst piece of anal cough one has ever heard. They were both loud as to be shouted out into the world with pride as well as slightly moist on exit as to suggest a dangerous bouquet (shortly after verified by nose-driven analysis). As I mentioned, I had a long train journey afterwards, and I almost felt sorry for my neighbouring passengers. I didn't in the end, because they will realise that they witnessed a master's craftsmanship.

I was pleased...

P.S. I wish I could give you a test sample, but PCs may have a come a long way, but senses of smell are not among them yet...

Sunday 4 March 2012

My Opinion on the Republican Presidential Elections

So the Super Tuesday is nearing where all the wanna be Republican presidents can gain a majority of delegates for their presidential campaign (wikipedia tells me it is 410 this year). Soon it will be known who will challenge Barack Obama in the next US elections.

Although, I am European and it doesn't affect me in any way, whatsoever, I see this presidential campaign with mixed feelings. The coverage on the news pages, I frequent, were fairly in depth (check out spiegel.de and bbc.co.uk), so I have a pretty good overview over the main events and blunders..., I think.

Although, in my humble opinion, there is no politician who isn't a backstabbing, double-crossing, untrustworthy sack of crap, it has to be said, that already the elections for the Republican Candidate take the mickey. What does it take to become the "candidate" (Note: not the president) for the presidential elections? It isn't anymore about finding the best candidate in the US. In their overzealous, righteous bullshittery, the media and the people who organise the campaigns have created a system, in which the guy who can conceal and lie about his flaws and misconduct best, while shitting and pissing on the other candidates, wins.

I have to reiterate here, that I am actually very much against the American political landscape (especially the one that affects me, a foreigner). I find the fact, that they take finger-prints at airports and treating travellers like criminals is degrading foreigners' dignity and I wanna see what US businessmen would do, if they are treated the same way on arrival to Europe. The outcry and the call for human rights and equal treatment would be ridiculous.

However, in this case, I think the pressure build up and the constant scrutiny of US media is just not right. I always assumed the best candidate for the job is also the most competent. How does one define competence in this case? Is it managerial skills? Knowledge of politics around the globe? Diplomatic ability? Once you are elected, all these skills are indispensible.

To me, however, it seems to be something entirely different once it comes to the road to the presidency. It is about being a role-model to everyone. Now, this sentence may sound very idealistic. "You have to be a role-model." In fact, I think, the one thing a leader of a nation does not have to be, is an effing role-model. Politics is a dirty business and you need to be able to take a sucker punch or two and dish one out when the occasion calls for it, while at the same time, if it suits you, you have to be best friends with the person who just almost sucker punched you into retirement. Opportunistic is an adjective that I would need to give a good president (or any successful politician), ruthless, greedy and a very mild onset of megalomania are some others. Usually, these are negative aspects, but in this case, I think they are essential in order to hold your own (and in a sense your country's own) when in negotations in order to get as much profit out of it as possible.

Unfortunately, to the general public, this is unfathomable and unspeakable. The result is a hypocrite. A man who condemns all the things that he does himself just to become president. The offshoot are media who become overly personal and highlight a candidate's private life more so than his competencies. How else is it possible that they open a debate with questions about the candidate Newt Gingrich's private life? Yes, what he has supposedly done to his ex-wife is despiccable, but it has nothing to do with his political competencies. If he is a backstabbing son-of-a-bitch, all the better. He does the dirty work shoveling shit, while he preserves the glorious and pure and clean Christian lives of the standard, middle-class US citizen who in turn is then disgusted if bad details about someone's life comes to the surface (while in many cases they are just as bad, only on a smaller scale). So in this case, I like his answer to the question.


While we're at it. Let's go look at some of the other candidates. Let's look at Mitt Romney. Yes, the country is in recession and poverty is high, but is it false to admit that you are a millionaire? Is it false to say that your wife drives a couple of cadillacs? It isn't the best way to rub it in, when a large chunk of your potential voters does not have the ability to even look at a bunch of cadillacs. But again, it is perceived that it is bad to be rich and that you ahve to apologise for it. A rich guy tends to be a successful guy. A maker, as they say. Success comes in various shapes, but it generally is not a bad thing. Maybe, he is good at creating successful companies, ergo places to work and a boost to the economy and thus bringing the country out of recession. I wouldn't condemn him for admitting to having a lot of money or for having a bunch of cars at home. The media witch hunt over the amount of tax he pays a year is ludicrous. If the tax loop holes exist, then it is legal to use them. I am sure, you would if you were aware of them. Change legislation if you don't like them. Bottom line is, it is extremely unlikely that a presidential candidate will ever come out of the working or the middle class. These guys are all well-off financially. So why is one guy getting crucified for being richER than the others?



Next one, I have recently read about. Rick Santorum. Now before this goes into a biased rant that has nothing to do with the topic, let me say, that I am strongly against any monotheistic religion of any kind, may it be Christianity, Islam, Jewish or any other that I forgot to mention (I can't say anything about polytheistic ones like Hinduism, because I don't know enough about it). So any slight against fundamental Christians has to be excused. But (the big but) why on earth is religion a big topic in politics?!? Why should we care, that he thinks it is better to have children after marriage than before? He does it all to gain the votes of the very devout Christians, but it really takes more to run a state than to preach celibacy until marriage and twisting the ten holy commandments into obscurity so that they fit your bidding. Personally speaking, religion should not be a factor in ANY political election. Once you introduce religion, it is very hard to take sides. Hardly anyone has the luxury of being born to completely non-religious parents. My parents are very liberal, but they still have the catholic label. Introducing religion into elections is simply fishing for votes. That's all there is to it. However, once you are president, you will not only have to deal with one religion that gave you the votes, you have to deal with all of them. And just remember, your great American nation said that all are created equal, bro. Now you are up shit creek, because the other religious fanatics will stir up shit and they will not believe you, because you are from the other side. So, I think, in a perfect world, Santorum shouldn't even be a candidate. Everything he has going for himself is christian, conservative mumbojumbo. He has not shown to be competent, just... devout and a little bit homophobic. This is, however, also a great witch hunt example by the media. They throw random quotes at him and make him say things, he may not want to say. In this case, I am kinda glad. But that is just a personal opinion, because I don't like the man much. I really hope, it didn't show in the paragraph.


My last specimen, that is a bit of a counterpart to the ones above is good ole Rick Perry. Now, in his case, I guess that he lost his following, is justified, because he was not able to give one of his main political changes (see below for not remembering the Ministry of Energy and the 'Oops'-moment). I cannot and I also don't want to imagine the pressure that the people exposed to, but this is the counter example to competent. Presentation is a big part of almost any well-paid job and you need to have this nailed. He failed, like so many other people in a job interview (me included in several instances) and as a consequence he did not get the job.



Conclusively, what I am probably trying to say with this rant is, that I am a big fan of getting the right guy for the job. Currently, I don't feel that the credentials needed for a presidential campaign are necessarily the right credentials for BEING president. You may end up with a guy who is awesome at winning the campaign but not at being the president or someone who is just a puppet of the industry (Iwillnotsayanynameswhatsoever).

Of course, ideally, what you wanna have, is a guy (or girl) that is a good citizen and a person to look up to who doesn't do anything wrong. A knight in shining armour kinda guy who rides into peril to rescue the damsel in distress. But let's be honest, when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan was there a damsel to be rescued? In turn, what damsel did the Americans rescue when they invaded Afghanistan some time later? I say it again, you don't need a role-model. All you need is a knowledgeable, diplomatic hipocrite who will look at every opportunity that presents itself to further the chances of its nation in order for the small man to go about his business and live a relatively peaceful life.

The media shines such a big light on the people that are candidating and nothing is sacred anymore. I would find it an intrusion into my private life, if an employer asks me in an interview to tell him what my sexual practices are or my religion, while in a presidential campaign this is common ground. I think, the people should get real and get away from this televised inquisition.


Tuesday 28 February 2012

A kingdom for a sarcasm tag...

I have noticed a lot lately that these days people write in chats and forums the way they speak in every day life. First and foremost, to myself, who was tortured... sorry... "classically educated" until I wrote everything correctly (within a minimal margin of error) both in English and in German, this is plain horrible.

I will not go into the details why I find it cringeable when native speakers do not see the difference between there and they're or when I need 5 minutes to wrestle the hidden meaning from a three line forum post. I will go into something, that has been holding me back quite a bit. Namely, the fact, that it is impossible to use different intonations, which would make, for example, the difference between a serious and a sarcastic statement.

I admit it, I love sarcasm and irony. It is said that "sarcasm is the lowest form of wit." But quite frankly, I had the feeling that, so far the people I have met who said this, didn't really know how to use it or didn't understand it. Sarcasm when used correctly (same as irony), can make someone, who has been spouting utter nonsense, aware of his mishap without having to potentially humiliate him in front of others. In the same vein, it can be one of the best retorts ever. I am a very sarcastic person and I enjoy it. It makes me smile. For example, one of the main characters in the Guy Ritchie film Snatch, Turkish, is a sarcastic bastard and I love that movie for his quotes alone. The rest is just the cream on top :D

Anyhow, back to the point. In forums and chats, it cannot be used, because you would have to highlight it somehow. I would very much favour a forum, where you could use intonation tags. Using a different font (switch from Times to Arial) or something like that, I don't care what, but it would be awesome. True, part of the sarcastic appeal is, that it remains hidden to some, but c'mon a slimmed down version is better than nothing :).

Thursday 2 February 2012

WYSIWYG: A new start with wxFormBuilder

Warning, this is just a short update...

I have been absent for a while and I apologise, real life is keeping me rather busy, I must admit. Regarding things relevant to this blog, I have been busy transferring my GUI design to a new WYSIWG editor in order to have results that are more like what I was hoping to achieve. I used XRCed or wxGlade before, but I have not been content with them. The project XRCed has been inactive since a long time, so it was time to move on and something about wxGlade I just don't like. It is, in my opinion, a bit unwieldy and I find myself trying to incorporate widgets that aren't available in it.

As a consequence, I have been looking for an alternative, which came in the form of wxFormBuilder. It looks like a nice project and the design borrows heavily from Microsoft's Visual Express, which is not always a bad thing. As such, I have been busy, unlearning some of the things, I got used to and gotten to grips with peculiarities of the other. So far, very pleased with it. Unfortunately, there isn't a particularly good tutorial out there, which means, I will ned a little longer. At the off-chance, I may be able to write one once I have become more proficient with it.

Anyhow, so long, folks and thanks for all the fish.

Sunday 29 January 2012

Helden auf kluge Weise verstärken

Wir hatten eine etwas längere Pause in meiner Rollenspielgruppe in der ich mir Gedanken gemacht habe über mögliche Verbesserung der Helden durch Gegenstände. Es ist ein relativ sensitives Thema in jeder Gruppe. In manchen mehr als in anderen, aber wenn man dem einen Helden einen tollen Gegenstand gibt, dann wollen die anderen Helden natürlich auch einen. Sie mögen es vielleicht nicht zugeben, aber jeder Spieler will einen tollen Charakter haben, der alles viel besser kann als die anderen... und wenn da nun ein anderer Held etwas tolles hat, sieht man sich natürlich seinem Ziel um einiges weiter entfernt als man denkt.

Aus diesem Grund bin ich wirklich am Überlegen, was man da machen kann. Nicht jeder Held kann etwas mit einer tollen magischen Waffe anfangen, denn nicht jeder Held ist ein Kämpfer. Was ist mit den Dieben, Magiern und Geweihten... Naja ok, Magier und Geweihte sind einfach, aber die Charaktere mit den eher sozialen Fähigkeiten sind wirklich nicht besonders einfach zu beschenken. Dadurch das Aventurien noch obendrein ein low-magic setting ist, wird der Sachverhalt keinesfalls einfacher. In Dungeons & Dragons war die Sache immer sehr einfach. Da gibt es sogar ein Buch mit Richtlinien. Ab Level X eine Waffe+Y, ab Level Z eine Waffe+A usw. usw.

DSA funktioniert einfach nicht so. Ich habe das Gefühl, dass ich als Spielleiter viel mehr gedankliche Vorbereitung hineinstecken muss und mir partout immer tolle Sachen ausdenken muss, die in stimmig in die Welt passen und dann auch noch irgendeinen Nutzen haben ohne jetzt unbedingt magisch zu sein. Auf die Dauer kann recht anstrengend sein. Hesinde sei Dank sind mir während des Schreibens ein paar Ideen gekommen, welches derische Hügelzwergenwerk ich in die Hände der Helden fallen lassen kann. Da jedoch die Gefahr besteht, dass einige meiner Spieler diesen Blog lesen, werde ich mal nichts weiteres verraten.

Sunday 15 January 2012

My personal comedy favourites

During the writing of the last blog entry, I started wondering what makes good comedy for me. To be honest, I find this hard, because I like many different types and I tried to categorise, which is in most cases impossible because every comedian is different, and this will ultimately lead to a plain compilation of my favourite comedians with some inane and uninspired writing in between... And at that point, I realised that a compilation of my favourite comedians is maybe not such a bad thing.

Eloquence (and no swearing)

To start off this little compilation, I best start with very eloquent comedians. I am quite a fan of the comedians who tell funny stories without having to swear. The best examples are probably Bill Bailey and Jerry Seinfeld. Not one single time, I have heard either of them use swear words in their stand up. It's just not necessary. The games they play with the English language is just fantastic. As an example I will give an excerpt of Bill Bailey's Part Troll.


Taking every day life as their inspiration

This one may tie in with the one mentioned above, but doesn't have to necessarily. Taking regular every day occurrences or things you come across (like TV programs) as inspiration is in my eyes fantastic. The more I watch comedians who do this well, the more I catch myself doing it. The German comedian Michael Mittermeier once described the elevator lift as a "humourless zone". Every conversation ceases when entering. It sometimes even feels like some are holding their breath... You know what, it is true. So painfully true. I've watched a group of three guys laughing heartily and gasping for air out of hilarity. The moment they enter the elevator, the funny gene seems to have left them completely.

Two perfect examples here. A part of Jerry Seinfeld's routine talking about airports. This one ties in quite nicely with being eloquent and not insulting. The second is the already mentioned German comedian Michael Mittermeier in a compilation about his experiences with Austrians.



British humour

Now this one maybe due to my extended ten year stint in the UK, but I think the British have the best sense of humour in the entire world. Their ability to really take the piss out of themselves in any aspect of life coupled with the ability to insult you in such inventive and eloquent fashion with the perfect feel for a punch line is legendary. To showcase this, I chose the two comedy series, I came into contact with first and which stayed with me for such a long time; Blackadder and Fawlty Towers.

John Cleese's Fawlty Towers was my direct icebreaker in any chat with a new British acquaintance. Saying: "Hi! I'm Johannes. I'm German... Don't mention the war." made every person relax. The comedy is just so well-known over there.

Strangely enough, the most popular comedy has something to do with one of the two World Wars with Germany. Wonder why that is. Interesting side note, will you recognise a young dr. House (Hugh Laurie) in the Blackadder video.



Swearing and political correctness

Now I said often time before, that I like eloquent humour without swearing, but then again political UnCorrectness is also awesome. Boring swearing is one thing, but taking it so far that it is funny again, is quite the other thing :D


Random rants

This is by far my favourite type of comedy. why? I don't know. Maybe it brings me furthest away from the toils of real, serious life. A mental break so to speak. It is an interesting exercise to take an every day occurence and spin it so much out of proportion and remove it so far from reality that at the end of it the sentences maybe grammatically sound, but the content is just utter nonsense.
This one features Bill Bailey yet again, because he is a master at these :D



German Humour

Contrary to popular opinion, the Germans do have some good comedians. Given the field in itself is quite varied, I will just give my favourite.

Friday 6 January 2012

DSA SteamPunk

Ich hatte heute einen Thread im DSA4 Forum angefangen, um mal nachzufragen, wie der technologische Fortschritt und Mode etc. zur Zeit von Bosparans Fall war (wen's interessiert...), dabei bin ich auf eine viel interessantere Gedankenspielerei gekommen, die ich dann etwas weitergesponnen habe.

Die Anfangsidee kam von dem Fakt, dass das aventurische Horasreich der italienischen Renaissance nachempfunden ist. also viele kleine Stadtstaaten, Intrigen zu Hofe usw., jedoch kommt damit auch der technologische Fortschritt. Es gibt zum Beispiel schon den maraskanischen Buchdruck und andere irdische Erfindungen.

Die Frage darauf war, ob sich der technologische Fortschritt genauso linear vollzieht, wie auf der Erde, also quasi ein viktorianisches Zeitalter (nach der guten, alten Queen Victoria). Daraus ergibt sich zwangslaeufig im Kontext mit Rollenspiel das Thema SteamPunk, daher auch die Idee "DSA SteamPunk".

Dieses Thema wurde anscheinend schonmal im DSA4 Forum diskutiert (Link zum Thread), jedoch fand ich die Ideen etwas zu... ein-dimensional. Ich fand, da wurde einfach die SteamPunk Schablone auf Aventurien gelegt und geschaut, was man uebernehmen kann. Zu Beispiel verkamen die goettlichen Kulte zu Wunderbringern ohne jeglichen Einfluss.

Wenn man sich die Entwicklung der realen Welt anschaut, dann wurden die polytheistischen Glaubenswelten doch weitestgehend abgeschafft, weil alle Domaenen nach und nach durch Wissenschaft erklaert werden konnten (Ein Gott des Wassers war nicht mehr noetig, weil man mit genuegend Physik und Chemie Wissen verstand, warum Eis friert), will heissen Wissenschaft hat mehr oder minder den Polytheismus wegrationalisiert... und das geht in Aventurien so eben halt nicht, weil es eindeutig bewiesen ist, dass die Goetter existieren und manche Wunder doch recht pompoes sind und eindeutig den Glaeubigen daran erinnern, dass die Existenz der Goetter nie in Frage gestellt werden sollte.

Als solches koennte ich mir sehr gut vorstellen, dass die Kulte einfach mit der Zeit gehen. Ingerimm oder Hesinde Geweihte koennten dann unter Umstaenden die vollen Technokraten sein, die ihren Glauben durch Fortschritt ausdruecken. Geweihte des Efferds und der Rondra koennten unter Umstaenden im Wetterdienst kooperieren, um eine sichere Zeppelinfahrt vorherzusagen.

Was ich damit sagen will, ist, dass ein aventurisches SteamPunk Setting unglaublich mehr koennte als ein Abklatsch von viktorianischer Zeit + andere Rassen + Magie. Die gesamte Gesellschaft koennte sich anders entwickelt haben, allein basierend auf der Glaubenswelt. Denn mit dem wissenschaftlichen Fortschritt kam die langsame Entmachtung der Kirche im westlichen Europa und somit die Welt, wie wir sie heute kennen.

In Aventurien wird die Kirche ziemlich sicher nie komplett ihre starke Rolle verlieren, nur anders interpretieren, da die Goetter ja quasi selbst Mitspracherecht in ihrer Entwicklung besitzen. Somit kann man sich unter Umstaenden sogar eine Art diktatorische, praiotische Herrschaftsform vorstellen, die einem totalitaerischem Staat sehr aehnlich bis gleichkommt, jedoch einfach nur streng dem Kult des Praios folgt. Wer kann sich nicht streng praiosglaeubige Disziplinartruppen vorstellen, die mit Elektro-Schlagstock auf die unzufriedenen Massen eindreschen?

Was ich wohl damit sagen will, ist dass ein SteamPunk Setting in Aventurien eine herrliche Sache waere, um einem polytheistisches Glaubenssystem in ein modernes Gewand zu setzen und zu sehen, was dabei herauskommt.

Wednesday 4 January 2012

New Year's Resolution 2012

Don't we all have them? Well, mine is actually in conjunction with my partner's. We've just noticed towards the backend of 2011 (roughly from September onwards), that our freetime weekends kept filling up at an alarming rate. Sometimes we had 2 months worth of weekends already planned out with no down time at home. The effect was rather horrible. We weren't enjoying the things we did, which in essence were meant to be enjoyable :(. So as a New Year's resolution we chose to leave at least two weekends free per month. Maybe I'll tell you in a year's time, how that worked out for us...