Monday 16 December 2013

My wife is a better dwarf than I am :(

When my wife and I walked back from the Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug to our car parked in an underground car park, I was struck with a sad realisation. My wife is truly a better dwarf than I am. Dwarves rock! I would choose a dwarf any time of day over a "who-maaan" or gods-forbid an elf. Nonetheless, I have proven time and again that I am no good as one :(

As we have seen in the last two films of the Hobbit and read in countless fantasy books, dwarves will never get lost underground (as a matter of fact, anywhere with a ceiling above them), but above ground they are, in fact, worse than your average city idiot. Orientation by the stars. Nah. But orientation underground in near darkness with a ceiling above their heads. Where is east? That way. No problem-o.

The underground car park, I spoke of, is a veritable maze. I kid you not, it officially only has two levels (or is it three?), but you can go down 5 flights of stairs and still only be at -1. Of course, it has a million and two entrances and we entered through a different one than we left. We came underground and suddenly I was lost. I had no idea where to go. It wasn't that everything looked the same. Quite the opposite, everything looked unfamiliar, wherever I turned!

My wife to the rescue! Quote: "It's easy, just go left there. See those stairs. Down one. Turn right, walk straight for a bit and then to our left will be our car."

I felt like crying that moment.

With sadness, I remembered back to our time in Manchester (UK) together, where we sometimes had to go to the Arndale Center. It is a circular shopping mall with two levels. At no point in that British crystal labyrinth was I ever able to find anything! I think she enjoyed meeting me there, because I would enter at a random entrance and it doesn't matter where, I will find the longest way to the meeting point. Instinctively turning the wrong way was my forté. My wife on the other hand oriented herself by landmarks entirely hidden to me. Benches with a chink in the metal. Shoe shops. The shop with all the women dressed in pink. The list of absuridities goes on and on.

There are many examples like the two above. I am sure, she would have a field day in Glasgow's Waxy O'Connors. However painful it is for me, I must admit to myself. My wife may be as beautiful, graceful and elegant as an elf, but on the inside there pounces the heart of a dwarf in the (seductively pretty). Whereas in mine, ploppers the meager heart of a mere human :(

Saturday 14 December 2013

Circumstantial RPG Writer's Block

Anyone who follows this blog knows by now, that I am playing a The Dark Eye ("Das Schwarze Auge") Role-playing game with a group of friends. To round it all off, I happened to be the GM for the game.

When I started this, I had loads and loads of ideas for telling a story and helping the players to develop their characters and only the twelve higher gods, their countless demi-god children, Rastullah, The Nameless God, the demons of the lesser hells, the archdemons and some god-like giants know what else. Due to my recent long-term unemployment (that has finally come to an end) and my current surroundings, I seem to be unable to muster up the inspiration and enthusiasm to carry on writing on my campaign.

It pisses me off, in fact. I know what needs to be done. I have been doing it successfully for quite some time. It's just that when I sit down to do it, I seem to be unable to connect the dots and fill up the grey areas with life. This came to me so easily only a year ago. Now, whenever I try, I end up thinking about what needs to be done for the new job, insurances, my wifes impending PhD defense, making sure the car is alright etc. etc. you get the picture.

It is just not a good mindset for creating a story in a medieval fantasy setting with magic where the heroes of the story need to rescue an innocent elven child from a catatonic state with the help of a long lost divine artifact that they need to find by following the almost forgotten trail of four noble knights who hid it from the clutches of a mad demon-summoning empress a thousand years ago.

If someone knows a cure to this ailment, I bid them inform me of it. I tried all my previously working recipes. Listening to Power Metal and bard's music, reading fantasy books, hell even playing fantasy RPG videogames doesn't help.

Sunday 8 December 2013

Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

I know, as usual, I am late to the party, but I finally got round to playing Baldur's Gate I: Enhanced Edition. I was skeptical at first. I really was. Why on earth would I buy this game... again?!? Well, it is more than ten years old (1st release 1998, so that makes is now... 15 years at the time of writing). The video game landscape has changed "dramatically" since then. I got it cheap and thought I'd give it a try and I was really amazed by it.

Obviously they increased the resolution to modern standards... which made me aware how small all the maps were, but not only that. All those little annoying bits, that I annoyed me last time round, they ironed out. There is a quick save button! Also, they made a simple "copy Note" button, when reading a note in the game. That way you have them all, and you can easily discard the ones you found. "So" much easier and nicer. In the original, I always ended up using a chest that I knew I would always have access to and dump all the information scrolls into it.

I haven't encountered any of the new characters, but given it would appear that the new ones have a slant towards neutral/evil. Thus, I can finally play an evil party without too many constraints :) Currently, I am enjoying myself greatly and we'll see what else it brings. I heard rumours that now with BG II:EE having come out, they may be working on Planescape: Torment Enhanced Edition. The de facto best role-playing video game ever to be made.

Let's hope, they get that far. I will buy straight away. I just wonder if any new characters can live up to the old ones, which are just the most amazing creatures ever.


Saturday 19 October 2013

Using fear in a pen and paper role-playing game

Wow... it has really been almost 2 months since I last looked at this blog here. As usual the reasons were many, why this has not come to pass. Mostly lack of time and enthusiasm, but also lack of things to write about.

It is a Saturday morning. On Friday, my wife and I fell asleep in front of the TV at round about 8 o'clock in the evening and apart from a brief shuffle from couch to bed at around midnight, I slept all the way through until 7:00 am. 11 hours of sleep that speaks volumes, I needed it, but what to do with this much time now so early on a Saturday. Yep, writing an update in my blog seems like a fine idea.

I initially wanted to write about my experience reading and recording Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, but that is not complete yet, so I will write a bit more about role-playing :) Last weekend, we had a role-playing session after a rather long hiatus (almost a year) and it was awesome!

We are currently in a demon infested area and it opened up some surprising avenues for me. The one I wanted to talk about here is fear. Yes, fear. In role-playing, I think there are two types of fear. The fear of the character, but also the fear of the player for their character.

The latter is an interesting phenomenon, it lets the player act quite unlike what the character would do. Thankfully, I, so far, have shown enough sense to not let the player get into such a situation, but I also know that the players are role players enough to accept the fate of their character if it may come to pass.

There were a couple of close calls, especially with our viking like player character. He plays him just as suicidal as you would expect and it needed some tempering, otherwise there would have been no reason for the character to logically stay with the group... or in fact, the rest of the group wanting to have him around. With the player (a really reasonable fellow who just had a specific idea of the character in mind) we shipped around this problem with some very near death experiences. He was shown that he can't kill everybody, when he got involved in the drug trade of a city without the knowledge of the other players. He was addicted to a weak stimulant, but didn't have the money. In the end the drug bosses made him do their dirty work and when he wanted out he was completely destroyed and left for dead. As a good measure, in case he survived, they made him addicted to one of their worst drugs. It was interesting to watch. The player knew one false move and he would have to make a new character so he was surprisingly tentative throughout the process. Usually playing him very boisterous, loud, arrogant and violent, the viking was suddenly rather more... tame, let's say.
Then he had to go through the drug addiction. That took an entire all-day session (several weeks in playtime). It got the other characters to kind of respect him again, I felt.
Then lastly, he was taken and tried for his crimes. He once diffused a frightened villager mob situation, by throwing an axe into the crowd and killing the baker. That sort of injustice can't stand. As a consequence, he was tried before the sun god (and god of justice) in his holiest of chapels. Everyone expected him to be executed (including the player himself), but strangely the god through his priest decided that instead of execution, he was to guard a fellow citizen for a very extended period of time (thus introducing a new character). This was the final step, that made the character a gods fearing man again and more in-sync with the rest of the group, without really completely overhauling the concept.
I write this as if I planned to do this, but it was more of a work in progress. I just reacted to things that happened.

What has this to do with fear? Well, the player really didn't want to stop playing his character, so he always took the way that let the viking live in the end leading to a gfantastic compromise and acceptance of the character in the group.

Now, in the last session, I was inadvertently able to play with the fear of the characters, not necessarily the fear of the players. If any of my players reading this, hopefully they don't lose all respect. It may have appeared as if I planned this, but the effect came about due to my forgetfulness and just going with the flow. But let's start from the beginning.

The heroes (yes in this game we are heroes) were looking for someone in a demon-infested forest. They find the person who broke a leg because a wild boar attacked his horse. The guy had a horse with him and I actually wrote down in my notes: "They find the horse shortly after grazing on a clearing." For good measure, I thought: "What the hell! Let's make this a bit more atmospheric." and I let the horse be found as a carcass entangled in vines that seemed to have choked it to death.

Of course, I chose that moment to let the wild boar with two of his friends attack the group of four players in a frenzy (Split the party up and all). The first two attacks by them were rather devastating to the characters endeavor to survive and as an afterthought I read out loud what the boars are like. I didn't mean to startle the players by saying that it was 250 kilos. In fact, I was as surprised as they were. I just concealed my surprise.

While the players were going through the motions of organising the rather complex fight system, I read through the scene again. Bear in mind, I wrote this more than 2 years ago and 3 rounds in I realized that those vines were supposed to actively hinder them. So I started to weave that information into the game. The look in the players faces was interesting. It went from "Oh this is a hard fight." to "What the...!!!" and then while still playing, the same happened again. Suddenly, the wizard who thought he was safe from the action got hit by a tree branch since I just read what I wrote 2 years ago. That is, I read: "The trees will at intermittent intervals attack a random player".
The effect on the fight was a constant build up of the situation from bad to worse. The players were quite busy with the fighting system, but it dawned on some of them that their characters should really be frightened now, because they are encountering something that they have never seen before and every time they think, it can't get any worse, it heaps on another shovel.

At the end of that fight, most of them were worse for wear and one had a near death experience. What happened next, was something that I had not planned but seemed like a good idea at the time. One player had a new character and we decided that the old one, a hunter/ranger type strong with a bow, would become possessed by the demonic arch enemy of the god of the hunt. I didn't know what to do with him at the time of doing it, but it occurred to me during the session that the characters won't rest until they knew what happened to him. So, I had to show him once more for them to realise that he is not a player character anymore.

So, I let him stand atop a hill, clearly to be seen and shoot an arrow at them and let him miss. All the characters knew his skill with a bow so they knew he wanted to miss. The arrow had a note saying: "The hunt begins...". Again, the players were strangely quiet taken in by the atmosphere but not scared for their character (strangely), but were realising what their characters are experiencing and tried to weave this into a reaction and they all came to the conclusion that this is effing scary.

Finally they had to camp in that forest for one night and that was the final point where I noticed that they all were quite interested in the situation so I did some face to face discussions with each player making him aware that this is an extraordinary situation for their character and what his reactions are. Not necessarily visible to the other characters, but also emotionally. I didn't bother with courage checks or the like as I thought it would take away from the situation if one of the warriors who had been in tense situations like these suddenly pisses his pants in fear due to a badly failed courage check.

All in all, I felt it was a cool experience all round creating some nice atmosphere for the players and letting them explore the less heroic side of their heroes. If any of my players read this, I would be interested how they felt this whole ordeal went along.

Sunday 4 August 2013

"Geschwindigkeit"

Wieder mal reise ich mit der Deutschen Bahn... und wiedermal ist die Reise ereignisreicher als ich es jemals wollte. Ich habe einmal kurz über den Twitter Service der Bahn geredet, diesmal geht es um die Reise selbst. Interessanterweise, wie im Eintrag über Twitter geht es um eine Reise nach Hamburg.

Ich hatte mir eine Weile überlegt, ob ich mal alle meine Erfahrungen mit der Bahn aufschreibe und in einem Buch veröffentliche. Leider ist mir irgendwann aufgefallen, dass sich die Ereignisse immer nur wiederholen. Das ist nicht wirklich gut, wenn ein 50 Seiten Buch 4 Seiten ewig wiederholt.

Ich nehme dies als Vorwand, um meine Geschichte beider Reisen zu erzählen denn sie decken eigentlich so ziemlich alles ab, was man so für einen action-geladenen Thriller braucht, so wie dieser Film mit Keanu Reeves und Sandra Bullock, "Speed",... nur halt... ohne Geschwindigkeit... Es war wirklich alles drinnen: Unangenehmes Schauen auf die Uhr (werden wir es noch schaffen? Wir haben noch 2 Minuten bis die Bomb... sorry der Zug abfährt), viel Rennen (Viiiieeel Rennen), emotionaler, vor Witz strotzender Dialog mit den Bahnangestellten (hierbei "die Handlanger" genannt) und noch vieles mehr. Also stürzen wir uns ins Geschehen. (Auf Grund der Fülle an Material wurde entschlossen zwei Artikel zu machen. Erwarten Sie also gespannt den zweiten Teil der Serie "Geschwindigkeit")

"Geschwindigkeit"


Die Story fängt an mit dem nervenaufreibenden Interface zwischen belgischer und deutscher Bahngesellschaft. Man geht von Leuven nach Lüttich und hat mit der normalen Strecke genau 10 Minuten Umsteigezeit. Was passiert, wenn der belgische Zug Verspätung hat? Man kann sich tolle Dialoge in deutsch, englisch, holländisch oder französisch vorstellen (je nach Angestelltem der einzelnen Gesellschaften):

"Also, Sie wollen von uns die Rückerstattung, weil der Zug der anderen Gesellschaft zu spät in Lüttich ankam? Deshalb konnten Sie unser Angebot nicht wahrnehmen... Ich schlage vor, Sie klären das mit den belgischen Kollegen, die eindeutig Schuld haben."
(deutsche Version)

"Yessss, das iiiist korrrrrekt-e. Unsere öhhhh-e... Sug war verspät-öt, abör Sie benüsen hauptsäschlisch die Süge von die deutsche Kollegön. Wirrrr können Ihnen nischt Geld surück ge-BÖN, weil die grossssse Teil von die Preisss ist von die deutschÖ Kollegön..."
(französische Version)

Der Reisende geht diesem Dilemma aus dem Weg in dem er den Zug eine Stunde früher nimmt. So far, so disastrous. Eine Stunde und zehn Minuten später kommt der ICE von Brüssel nach Frankfurt über Aachen und Köln in Lüttich an. Verdächtigerweise gab es sogar kein Problem mit meiner Reservierung... Hier stimmte etwas nicht. Wenn jetzt noch der Schaffner nett zu mir ist, dann bin ich mir sicher, dass wir in ein US-Gefangenenlager verfrachtet werden. Direkt mit dem Zug... Der Schaffner war nett... der Angstschweiß lief mir schon in Bächen den Rücken herunter als ich dann kurz nach Aachen die "rettende" Durchsage höre.

"Meine lieben Fahrgäste auf Grund einer technischen Störung müssen wir leider außerplanmäßig in Düren halten. Wir bitten alle Fahrgäste dort in einen eigens bereitgestellten Zug  zu wechseln."

Jetzt war ich wieder in gewohntem Gebiet. Kann ja nicht sein, dass das alles glatt läuft! Die alte Kamelle von der technischen Störung. Da ich das schon so in 50% meiner Zugreisen von Belgien nach Deutschland erlebt habe, weiß ich, dass diese "technische" Störung gar nichts mit dem Zug zu tun hat. Der von Köln kommende Zug, der über die Grenze will, darf nur nicht auf Grund bestimmter belgischer Normen auf belgischen Gleisen nicht verkehren. Das lustige ist, dass dieses bekannte Problem seit gefühlt drei Jahren existiert. Eigentlich müsste das schon im Fahrplan festgelegt werden, dieser Stopp.

Das tolle an dem ICE international ist ja, dass die Ansagen nicht nur in deutsch, sondern eben auch in holländisch, französisch und englisch angesagt werden, was zur Folge hat, dass man schon längst am Zielbahnhof ist, bis der Schaffner fertig ist mit den Durchsagen. Die andere Folge ist für mich von etwas lustiger Natur. Ich spreche eben diese vier Sprachen gut genug, um mich auszudrücken und zu verstehen. Wenn ich es mir so recht überlege, fragt mich eigentlich jede Zugfahrt mindestens eine Person, was denn gerade gesagt wurde, denn die Aussprache der Schaffner ist etwas... ausbaufähig. So auch diesmal wieder kam ein Franzose/Wallone zu mir und der altbekannte Dialog fing an.

Er: "Parlez-vous francais?"
Ich: "Oui, un peu."
Er: "Qu'est qu'il a dit?"

Düren ist übrigens ein super Umsteigebahnhof. Keine Überdachung, nicht mal ein Raucherhäuschen (Nein, nicht Raucherhäschen... ihr denkt immer nur an das eine). Da ich auch immer in der Gruppe bin, die auf den anderen Zug wartet und es generell entweder regnet, schneit oder bei gefühlten -78°C windet, wird der dürener Bahnhof für immer einen festen Platz in meinem Herzen haben.

Ok, nach einer gefühlten Ewigkeit kommt dann auch endlich der andere Zug an. Zwischen der breiten Masse an perplex dreinblickenden Passagieren sieht man immermal wieder die genervten Blicke der regelmäßigen Gäste in der ICE international Erlebnisbahn (ein unvorhersehbares Vergnügen für die ganze Familie), die einfach nur dieses Ringelpitz mit Anfassen hinter sich bringen wollen.
Während ich so vor mich her warte, schaue ich immer mal wieder auf die Uhr. Das komfortable Umsteigepolster von ungefähr 50 Minuten, schmilzt dahin wie Eiscreme, die einem dicken Mann beim Sonnen auf den Bauch gefallen ist. Wird es reichen? Die Spannung geht ins Unermessliche... Ich versuche cool mein Buch weiterzulesen, aber jede Minute zählt und dann ist es geschehen, wir kommen in Köln an und ich habe genau 1 Minute, um meinen Anschlusszug nach Hamburg zu erreichen...

Leider will mir das keiner glauben, anders kann ich mir nicht erklären, wie mir mit gefühlt voller Absicht Rollkoffer zwischen die Füße geworfen werden und sich drehende Frauen ihre Handtaschen benutzen, um meine zugegeben unansehnliche Angstfratze zu rearrangieren. Einmal dachte ich gar, dass mir ein Pudel zwischen die Beine rennen will... für den Kick oder so.

Trotzdem schaffe ich es gerade so herein. Ich finde einen Sitzplatz. Der hat auch eine Steckdose (ihr erinnert euch an den Eintrag über die Vorstöße der Bahn bei Twitter?), jedoch werde ich sofort von dem mir gegenüber sitzenden Bodybuilder angelabert. Schade auch, 4 Stunden Zugfahrt und das Gespräch kommt jetzt schon. Ich verdrehe schon geistig die Augen, aber was dann folgen sollte, habe ich so noch nie erlebt.

Ohne es zu wissen, war dieses Wochenende wohl "Schlagermove" in Hamburg und was macht klein Nebelhom? Richtig. Er findet einen Waggon, der vollgestopft ist mit Leuten, die da hinwollen. Außer Abba habe ich leider keine Band erkannt, aber wen stört's. Der Bodybuilder stellte sich als sehr amüsanter und schlagfertiger Gesprächspartner heraus. Die vier Mädels daneben als gutes Quelle von lustig verwirrten Dialogen und natürlich gab es auch eine Frau, die sich über die Lautstärke der Musik, den konsumierten Alkohol und die zu lauten Gespräche immer beschwert.
Diese Melange ergibt, wie ich jetzt weiß, das perfekte Gemisch, um eine ausgelassene Stimmung zu erzeugen (außer für die Person, die sich beschwert natürlich). Ich brauchte diesen Laptop gar nicht. Einfach zurücklehnen und genießen. Ich hätte einen Notizblock mitnehmen müssen. Da kamen mehr dumme Sprüche, wirre Dialoge und Situationskomik zu Stande als ich mir jemals hätte träumen können. Jede Erklärung würde der eigentlichen Begebenheit nicht gerecht werden. Deswegen versuche ich es erst gar nicht und überlasse es dem vorstellungsreichen Leser... Da störten mich nicht mal die standardmäßigen 30 Minuten Verspätung, die wir bei Ankunft mittlerweile hatten ;)

Somit war meine sehr ereignisreiche Reise nach Hamburg beendet. Ich hoffe "Geschwindigkeit" war genau die Story, die ihr erwartet habt... Bald kommt das Folge-Feature :)


Saturday 27 July 2013

Rock and Metal's heyday: the 80s

As the second part of my music reminiscence session (find the first one about ballads here), I chose a time that I hardly remember as I was not born or too young, but in my opinion spawned some of the best music the planet has ever seen. Of course, I am talking about the 80s. For various strange reasons, musically I even like that era of pop music with its overuse of synthesizers. Let's call it my pet peeve.
But back to the good stuff. 80s metal is awesome, the stuff they wore not so much. One striking feature that they all wore (all the way to the early 90s, by the way) apart from jeans or leather is bright white trainers. I kid you not, I will try and find the original video clips of the songs and you can see for yourself. Of course, Lemmy from Motörhead is an exception... he had white cowboy boots.

I found (and still find) it very hard to choose just a couple of songs representing the music that I listened to*.  Metallica alone had at least a dozen songs from that time, spanning several albums that I could mention. I settled for excluding songs that I will most likely mention in a different category (such as the German Powermetal Bands). This time, a couple of hits entered the favorites, too (unbelievable, I know). I have to, however, disappoint all the Glam Rock and Hair Metal fans. I was never into it and I find nothing manly about dressing as a woman. I listened to Twisted Sister very occasionally, but that genre never appealed to me.

Anyhow, enough waffling, let's hit it off. I'll start with a man that was partially responsible for the development of metal, good ole Ozzy Osbourne! This was after he left Black Sabbath to follow his own projects. Embarrassingly, I associate this song most with GTA and the Vice City series, as I heard it on V-ROCK. Still a fantastic song and the video shows an Ozzy that is not yet marked by his drug overuse. Fantastic track!

"Bark at the Moon" from the Album "Bark at the Moon"

I'll best carry on with Metallica's "Master of Puppets" Album. The monumental album written in 1985. This album is epic. I could have also mentioned a track from "Kill Em All", "Ride the Lightning" or "...And Justice For All" each with iconic tracks that I listened, but personally "Master of Puppets" was an album I actively listened to for days on end. The sheer aggression in James Hetfield's voice, the driving rhythm guitar and drums with Cliff Burton's virtuoso bass playing (the last recording before his tragic death), it all fascinated me and I couldn't stop listening to it. I find the opening track to be a splendid representation of the whole album.

"Battery" from the album "Master of Puppets"

How could I write such a list without the mighty Motörhead. The most prominent representative of the 'Heavy Metal Umlaut' (Mötley Crüe being another notable member). Strangely, I hardly ever listened to them at home, but during my time studying in Glasgow and Manchester, they toured pretty much every year and I saw them at least once a year, but usually more often as they also were at the festivals I went to. Live there is so much energy in the room (well on Open Air Festivals in the field, I guess). It's already a miracle that Lemmy is still alive, that chain smoking, coke snorting son of a gun. An idol and someone to look up to? Hardly. A remarkable human being? No doubt!
Of course, I chose "Ace of Spades" as it is the song that defines them best. Here the video with the original band with Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister, "Fast" Eddie Clarke and Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor. Enjoy!

"Ace of Spades" from the album "Ace of Spades"

Now to a man that I admired quite a bit: Ronnie James Dio. What a voice, he had. He was known for being a cornerstone of the Heavy Metal scene ever since he sang for Rainbow. They say, he was the first person to sing about fantasy themes (thus sparking the Powermetal movement; I will always be thankful to him for that) in the Song "Stargazer". Apparently he was popular among fans and fellow artists alike. His appearance in the film "The Pick of Destiny", that was born from the joke song "Dio" by Tenacious D is a great example of that.
I listened to the song 'Holy Diver' for the first time in the car of my older brother (6 years my senior) who usually is a big Hip Hop aficionado (something I forgive him for introducing me to Dio). It shows everything that is awesome about this style of music. A voice that just takes you out of your seat and great melodies (both keyboard and guitars). Ronnie James Dio was a true pioneer of the music and until his death in 2010 at 67 years of age, he defined and inspired Heavy Metal music as it is today. Dio, I salute you.

"Holy Diver" from the album "Holy Diver"

Already four songs and so many more to go! I only just realised "how much" I was influenced by the music from that period! Incredible!
The following band, Savatage, is one of those bands where I only ever listened to very specific songs. I had the pleasure of being able to watch them at the Wacken Open Air before they split up for good. The gig was fantastic and pretty much a Best Of of their songs up to that date. I still remember Jon Oliva's quote after an error in the keyboard intro to the first encore, "Edge of Thorns". Calm as daisies, he mumbled into the mike: "Man, thirty thousand people watching and I f*#! up."
By that time (W:O:A 2002), the tragic death of the founding member and lead guitarist, Criss Oliva (he was killed in a car accident caused by a drunk driver in Oct. 1993), already happened and arguably the band's creative zentith had passed. Afterwards, brother Jon Oliva, the other founding member, formed Jon Oliva's Pain and the focus shifted to that band and to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
The song "Hall of the Mountain King" from the same album is a great track, showboating all of what made Savatage a great band. There were other songs, I could have mentioned, but these were written in the early 90s, so I opted for this one.

"Hall of the Mountain King" from the album "Hall of the Mountain King"

Ah, Iron Maiden. There isn't really much to be said about them. I add them here, because many of their best tracks were written in the 80s, but admittedly I will cheat here slightly. I chose Fear of the Dark as the song. It is easily my favourite Iron Maiden Song, but it actually came out in 1992. I could have chosen songs from "The Number of the Beast", "Powerslave", "Piece of Mind" or "Somewhere in Time", but I feel that "Fear of the Dark" still fits into this category and its just such a honking great tune. Maybe, I shall write a piece about the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and will mention it there again ;)
I must say here, I am also very impressed by Bruce Dickinson. The man is just so busy. In his freetime, he used to "work" as a trained airline pilot and he is/was quite regularly on British television in shows such "Nevermind the Buzzcocks". He makes it look like the day has more than 24 hours. Just impressive.

"Fear of the Dark" from the album "Fear of the Dark"

How could I have a list of 80s metal songs without including at least one of Manowar's songs. Despite all their rather fake, macho-antics (mostly by band leader Joey DeMaio... nnaise) that I found deterring ever since, I dunno, since I am 16 or so, their music remains pillar of my musical education. I listened to almost all their albums up and down for hours on end. I could have chosen a song from "Battle Hymns", "Hail to England", "Sign of the Hammer", the monumental "Kings of Metal" or "Fighting the World", they all would deservedly be in that list. It was hard, but I settled for the title track of "Sign of the Hammer" (I chose a lot of title tracks, I noticed...) as it is not as well-known nowadays and showcases Eric "Scream Evil" Adam's great voice and the band's unique song writing.

"Sign of the Hammer" from the album "Sign of the Hammer"

Ok, last song and how can I finish it off without mentioning Judas Priest? This band's history makes me smile. Due to Rob Halford's leather and studs attire, the band influenced what fans of the genre would wear for years to come. I find this one of music history's cruel but funny jokes. It was portrayed as very manly to wear this sort of clothes, while listening to metal. Unbeknownst, to his fans, however, Rob Halford wore it, because he is a homosexual man (he came out of the closet shortly before the millenium) and among that scene, it was a well-known way of dressing. Thus, a "homosexual" man defined how to dress very manly to show one's "heterosexuality". I really hope, I am not the only one who finds this hilarious.

What is more important for Judas Priest's music, however, is their constant will to experiment. Driven by Glenn Tipton's and K. K. Downing's guitar work rounded off by Halford's impressive vocal achievements, the band re-invented itself many times over and survived many a changing musical environment and always came out on top.
Admittedly, I mostly listened to the album Painkiller, where every song was a killer, but since it came out in 1990, I decided to go with one of their classics, to stick with the theme (One exception is ok, but two is really pushing it)

"Breaking the Law" from the album "British Steel"

This concludes my selection of the 80s metal scene. Unfortunately, I didn't show as many white trainers as I hoped, but trust me, they were part of it. I would like to, hereby, also give honorary mentions to bands such as Slayer, Megadeth and Alice Cooper who I've listened to, as well, but they never really were strong influences. I mostly listened to them, because friends listened to it at their place. So that doesn't really count. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did compiling it...

*For those who don't know the origin of these articles. It's not about the most influential songs of that era, but the bands that I listened for a long time.

Saturday 20 July 2013

I hate writing GUIs

Honestly, I hate it. Every time, I come across it, I end up getting to a point where I want to shoot myself. I had this moment today yet again. This time in the context with trying to write a very simple extension for Firefox. I mentioned before that I am an open-source contributor for the Mozilla Foundation, so for those one or two people who read this blog, it may come as no surprise that I also try to write other stuff for them, as well.

The Graphical User Interface (GUI) for Mozilla is created using a specific type of XML (Extensible Mark-up Language) called XUL (XML User Interface Language) and the logic is done using JavaScript. Maybe it is, because I am not interested in design and have no mind for, but everytime I try to do a GUI, I get bored and so disinterested, it is not even funny anymore. I am so much more interested in writing the actual logic. The stuff that does things.

GUI writing is repetitive and because there is so much of it, it takes ages to get into it. I get frustrated, because I know what I want to achieve and then about an hour or two later, I finally manage to get something implemented that somehow resembles what I want. I say "somehow resembles", but it is never in the exact right place or is somehow "off". It is a source of constant aggravation to me.

That's where WYSIWG Editors come in handy. Unfortunately, in this case, there aren't many decent and well maintained XUL Editors out there. I found that XUL Gear did not work on my PC, so I settled for XULExplorer. It's decent, but obvious that it is a one man effort.

Ok, enough whingeing about it. Back to it. If I ever get this finishes, I will write about it.

Thursday 18 July 2013

Metal Ballads: Personal Favorites

As my last post left me in a bit of a gloomy mood about the subject of Metal music, I shall start these posts off with metal ballads. I will try to not mention the absolutely obvious ones. In this case, you will not find Nothing Else Matters here, for example. If you wanna hear it, go listen to it elsewhere. It is really hard to condense this and I may end up adding stuff later in a moment of "WTF!!! How could I forget about this one?!?"

I'll start with one of my absolute favorites by Bruce Dickinson, that he wrote for his solo career that he started during his hiatus from Iron Maiden.

"Navigate the Seas of the Sun" from the album "Tyranny of Souls"



The next one, I want to mention here, because it was a very courageous attempt and, in my humble opinion, the result is stunning. Kreator, one part of the German Thrash Metal triumvirate (Sodom and Destruction being the other two) attempted to slow down a bit for their album Endorama. When Mille and his companions hammered this one out, I felt it is one of their best albums to date, but many of the die-hard fans were understandably taken aback a little. Many may not call this song a ballad, but if you know any other songs by Kreator, you may agree with me ;)

"Chosen Few" from the album "Endorama"



This next song holds a special place in my heart, as it is "my wife's and my" song. We played it at our wedding ceremony and whenever I listen to it, it makes me smile. Sadly, after Criss Oliva's untimely death, Savatage didn't exist for much longer and Jon Oliva does his own thing now. I didn't know this at the time, but I was fortunate enough to see them live once at the Wacken Open Air Festival in 2002. My very first festival.

"Believe" from the album  "Believe"



Everyone who knows me, won't be surprised to find this one in this compilation. "The Bard's Song - In the Forest" by Blind Guardian is another special song to me. During my time in Scotland at school, everytime after a vacation when it was time to pack the bags, some people would play "Leaving on Jetplane" by John Denver, but not me. For some reason the melancholic chorus and the lyrics felt right during that time.

Tomorrow will take us away
Far from home
No one will ever know our names
But the bards' songs will remain

"Bard's Song - In the Forest" originally from the album "Somewhere Far Beyond"


This one is another unlikely ballad. Written by the Melodic Death Metal pioneers from Gothenburg, At the Gates. I encountered this band fairly late, but given the sheer brutality of their other songs such as "Nausea", this instrumental caught me unawares. It is also impossible to play on guitar, by the way. Close your eyes and enjoy.

"Into the Dead Sky" from the album "Slaughter of Souls"



Whatever people may think of their antics, Manowar (or better Joey deMaio) know(s) how to write a good metal ballad. This one is an instant classic. No questions about it. Unfortunately, the much awaited moment I saw them live for the first time, left me as a non-fan. I was completely underwhelmed. This will, however, never take away from the quality of many of their songs. I chose this one instead of "Heart of Steel", as most people in Europe don't seem to know this one all too well. Apparently it became a hit in the US after 9/11...

"Courage" from the album "Louder Than Hell"


Another melodic death metal legend, In Flames. I loved many of their albums and their music was my step into melodic death from Gothenburg, Sweden. Awesome, awesome band. All the more surprising to find such a song on one of their albums. Many bands have one ballad per album, but you'd be hard-pressed to find another one here.

"Dawn of a New Day" from the album "Reroute to Remain"


My first and only song sung in German is, how else could it be, Rammstein. Yes, they also wrote a ballad. Apart from being pretty much the only Industrial Metal Band that I like musically, I really appreciate Till Lindemann's lyrics, too. The way he finds double entendres within the German language and the way he constructs his lyrics are befitting a master wordsmith. My hat's off to the man.

"Ohne Dich" from the album "Reise, Reise"



We're nearing the end of my selection and for a change, I wanted to put in a classic rock ballad. The Canadian Thrash Metal band Annihilator (yes, I know the names are a little funny) around Jeff Waters came up with this. I chose this as a representative as I have always had the feeling that US American Heavy Metal with a classic Rocker Hardass theme is what people see as typical Heavy Metal. Oh how wrong they are. Anyhow, without further ado from the guys that also wrote the brilliant song "Alison Hell"

"Phoenix Rising" from the album "Set the World on Fire"



I was looking for a good ballad to close out this small selection. I chose the band HammerFall as it is one of the few ones that to this day, I enjoy seeing live and they are also fantastic writers of ballads. "Glory to the Brave" is from their first album and I appreciate the raw emotion of it. It is not as clean as the productions in following albums. Like the entire first album, this song is fantastic and I don't get tired of listening to it. Enjoy.

"Glory to the Brave" from the album "Hammerfall"


This concludes my little selection. Honorable mentions go to Manowar's "Heart of Steel", Helloween's "Keeper of the Seven Keys" and "If I could Fly", Tiamat's "Carry your Cross" and Iced Earth's "When the Eagle Cries".

I hope anyone who read this and listened, enjoyed it as much as I did compiling the selection. I could go on for awhile on this topic, so it was an easy and enjoyable start. Depending on my mood, I shall carry on with a specific genre fitting my state of mind at the time. Ciao for now and good night!

Musical standstill at a certain age?

Why do many people reach a musical standstill once they have a certain age? They don't even listen to new albums by bands they like, anymore. Just listen to their old albums. I have made this observation on many occasions. Friends and acquaintances who consistently explore new bands within a certain genre of music are in my experience the exception rather than the rule.

Like it was for many, when I was younger, music was not only the skillful creation and arrangement of sounds created by tools who are made for this specific purpose carried through space by the vibrations passed from molecule to molecule through collisions in the gas mixture that we humans consider air, it was more of an image. I was (and I guess to a lesser extent I still am) heavily into Heavy Metal and its many children, cousins and nieces. I did not only enjoy the music, but liked hanging out with the people who listened to the same music as the majority had a similar outlook on life. Nowadays, I still listen to the music, I listened to back then, but I do not look for new bands or albums (or rarely). Thus I am now exactly a part of those people that I mentioned at the beginning.

I wondered why that is and after some considerations I think I can now pretty accurately say why that is.

When I first got into Heavy Metal through bands such as Manowar or Metallica all those years back (I think I was 11 or 12 and couldn't even speak English), I was instantly hooked. I then started to get all those CDs and started to read a popular Metal magazine called the MetalHammer. Because of them I was always pretty up to date and soon other bands similar to Metallica and Manowar followed. HammerFall, Savatage, Blind Guardian, Dio, Iron Maiden, Rage (not Rage Against the Machine, they would come later) the list goes on.

After awhile I heard the pattern and when I listen to new bands from that genre, I would think: "Ah, they're trying to sound like band xyz." But instead of listening to them then, I would listen to band xyz instead, since I know their songs and I have their albums. It took awhile, but I eventually got... not bored by it, but I wanted to hear more. That is when I diverged and tried all types of Metal and trust me there are many. Just check out this small clip from the Documentary "Metal - A Headbanger's Journey"



It helped that I went Metal Festivals by now and I lived in big cities (Glasgow, Manchester), where many bands stopped by on tour, so I randomly saw new bands presenting their stuff and I got exposed to even more. Power Metal, Speed Metal, Thrash Metal, Death Metal, Black Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Gothenburg scene, Medieval, Folk Metal (or was that Pagan Metal?), Hardcore, Grindcore, Deathcore, God-knows-what-core... maybe even Satan-knows-what-core.

But over the years it was always similar to the pattern I explained above. So at some point, I wouldn't find anything really new in Heavy Metal and I would, lo and behold, listen to different music genres.

I have a fairly open mind, but even that reaches its limits. I adore Irish/Scottish Folk music, Punk is pretty much restricted to almost worshipping Bad Religion and especially Greg Graffin's lyrics, I like generic Rock (R.E.M., Springsteen), Electronic music can be cool, Country is... funny, classic is soothing, few Reggae songs, but I can't stand Jazz, Soul, HipHop and most of what is coming out of the Radio and those casting shows (it just sounds interchangeable to me).

I am, however, now at a point that when I listen to music, I instantly recognise a pattern and very seldom I would encounter a music style that is new to me. The worst part now is that I do not even enjoy going to concerts as much. There was one particular incident that I recall vividly. I used to adore a band named In Flames. They toured regularly and I would see them live and checked out their new album asap. After my move to Belgium, they happened to be in Brussels, where I now live. I wasn't up to date anymore on what was going on (I missed two albums as they sounded the same to me), but thought I shall go along, just to listen to the old stuff. Well, they almost played exclusively their new songs (the ones I feel sound all the same) and I was then the old geezer who just stood there bored and then was the only one who sang along to the three songs that noone else ever heard of. It was a sobering experience (after 6 pints that is quite a feat).

As a consequence of all this, I do not listen to music as much anymore. I cannot listen to the same music all the time, so it has a lower priority now and I do other things. Usually those other things require concentration (programming and the like) and listening to music then is actually disturbing. This was unthinkable only a couple of years ago!

An off-shoot of this is, that I have now reached the point I mentioned at the beginning that I reached a musical standstill. It is sad to me, because listening to Metal and going to festivals and concerts was such an important thing to me back then. As a last effort to stem the tide, I will use my next few blog entries to post select YouTube clips of Metal songs that are amazing to listen to. If the enthusiasm lasts, I may try to categorise it somehow... maybe by genre (80s Heavy/Speed Metal, Ballads, Melodic Death Metal-Gothenburg scene).

To finish this rather bleak blog entry off on a kind of high note, I shall leave you with the involuntarily funny interview of Norwegian Black Metal Legend, Gaahl from Gorgoroth.


Encrypting your online communication - A reaction to Prism and the NSA

I previously talked about my helpless anger regarding Prism, the NSA, the arrogance of the US' government and my mistrust of my government's activity's with regard to this affair. I have observed an interesting reaction to the situation. The German online newspaper I like reading, Spiegel Online (or short SPON) is now giving guidelines on how to encrypt your e-mails, so that it is less easy for the secret services of this world to follow your every communication.

I think it is great, that a newspaper with such a long reach (most read German online newspaper) is giving guidelines on how to encrypt your mails. A feat that most "normal" users would find daunting and confusing.

The problem is, though, that for this to work, one would need to give a decryption key to the recipient of the mails (no you can't send it by normal mail, that would defeat the point). Being the sceptic that I eternally am, I highly doubt that the general population will ever get to the point where this is the norm.
The majority of people will not do it. If it is due to lacking know-how or plain laziness is up for discussion here. I am sure that if I started to encrypt my mails right now, I can only think of very few of my contacts that would follow through with this. In fact, many of my "computer-literate" friends wouldn't bother with it at all. For pretty much either my reasons or laziness. I'm almost so certain, I would bet on it.

I am tempted to start a survey on this topic and ask friends... If anyone reads this, I would be very interested, so please do add a comment at the bottom.

Saturday 13 July 2013

RPG Video Games as a couple activity (Final Fantasy XII)

I am currently doing something, I would have never thought I would enjoy. Watching "someone else" play a video game.
First off, you may have noticed, I love video games. Now I have less time to play them but nonetheless, I love playing them. Especially role-playing games of all kinds... but it's usually me who does the video gaming.

I am currently watching my wife play Final Fantasy XII... and it's a lot of fun. I would have never thought it. It became an activity together. I always wanted to make her understand why I like playing PlayStation or PC games, so I suggested that she played a game I don't know yet and I'd watch. I never thought she'd go for it and here we are 5 hours into the game in the Nalbina Dungeons with Vaan, Balthier and Fran.

I am mostly amazed by the fact that she has problems that I never even considered problems. Orientation and the use of the various kinds of maps is one such category. She can wander aimlessly in certain areas for hours not finding the target of her troubles. Killing the Rogue Tomato was an undertaking that had me in stitches, because the thing always run away and when she followed, she got lost :D

All in all it's a hilarious activity with me having an advisory position on my wife's "Final Fantasy staff".

Let's hope, we'll manage to beat the game before a more, long-lasting fun activity tickles our fancy...


Tuesday 9 July 2013

The long term effects of the outrage over the NSA, Prism, Tempora scandals

I am currently forcing myself to write this. "Why?", you may ask. Simply, because it matters to me. As moot and untelling as the message of this article may be, I want to voice my opinion about the subject of the privacy scandal, espionage, Prism, the NSA and whatever else there is to say about it. The Brits were exposed for something similar right afterwards with Tempora. Sadly, I have no illusions that the Germans have a similar organisation.
The media has been full of it of late ever since Edward Snowden made us aware of the scandal. Just run the keywords "Prism" and "NSA" through your favourite search engine and you will find plenty of material.

I, personally, think that the man has balls to do this and should for all intents and purposes be declared a modern day hero. I am no lawyer or in any way well versed in these matters, but what the NSA has done must violate several laws and/or human rights of citizens in the Western World.
Unfortunately for him, I don't think it will matter in the long run. I have long lost any faith in the people supposedly trying to protect me. As a German citizen, I am already overwhelmed that our chancelloress even addressed the issue. And then that was that.

This is the harrowing conclusion, I have to draw yet again. I am apathetic to all these events. One scandal after the other. Everytime we find out more about how the government or the industry tries to take away our privacy, monitors our every move, decides, what is best for us... and I sadly stopped caring. It has been shown again and again. No matter what we do, the effect is minimal. It will happen anyways, slowly but surely.

We have a vote to democracy and we can "threaten" with not voting for the people in power. So what? The political parties are all the same and their inofficial credo is "Stay in power! For as long as we possibly can!" So we essentially just exchange one egomaniac for another. Once the deed is done outside of our country all bets are off anyway. Have you recently seen a Western political figure being tried in Den Haag? Without saying names, certain politicians should defend themselves for starting a war under false pretences that ultimately proved to be wrong.

Take again the Edward Snowden case. He has done something big. He exposed one of the governmental organs of the self-proclaimed stalwart of democracy and righteousness as a violator of two fundamental human rights (the right to privacy and the right to freedom of expression). One would expect that he would be protected by the Western World's judicial system for this...
Well, in actual effect, he first had to hide in Hong Kong, a part of China. Now they are really renowned for respecting the Human Rights... not. Now he is ogling with stays in Russia, Ecuador or Venezuela. Several other "stalwarts" of democracy.

What did I say earlier? Oh yes, no matter what you do, the effect is minimal. I haven't seen an obvious change in the way things are handled now. Everyone's up and arms, but it will die down, everything will go back to normal, and the governments will go back to spying again. The thought fills me with so much joy, that I will probably go and drown myself in booze. Good night.

Thursday 13 June 2013

Deutsche Bahn auf Twitter

Manchmal frage ich mich, ob die Deutsche Bahn, [Sarkasmus]eines meiner Lieblingsunternehmen[/Sarkasmus], den Sinn hinter Kommunikation mit den Kunden versteht oder einfach nur andere Dienstleistungsunternehmen nachäfft. Frei nach dem Sinne: Was die machen, ist für uns bestimmt auch nicht schlecht.

Ich werde demnächst mit einem IC von Köln nach Hamburg fahren. Vier Stunden insgesamt also. Das ist eine sehr lange Zeit, um nichts zu tun. Wenn ich den neuen ICE nehme, hat man natürlich serienmäßig einen Stecker zwischen zwei Sitzen, bei einem IC war ich mir aber nicht mehr so sicher.

Nach längerer und vergeblicher Internetsuche nach Informationen über diesen spezifischen Zug, biss ich dann in den leicht säuerlich angefaulten Apfel und meldete mich bei Twitter an, um mir die Zeit und das Geld beim Verharren in der Bahntelefonkundendienstwarteschleife* zu sparen und weil ich mich nicht wieder bei Facebook anmelden wollte.

Also meldete ich mich bei Twitter an, wurde Follower von irgendwelchen Sachen, nur um zum Ende der Konfiguration zu kommen und brauchte ca. 5 Minuten, um herauszufinden, wie Twitter eigentlich funktioniert. Dann konnte ich endlich meinen "tweet" abgeben.

Haben der IC 2410 und IC 2417 von Köln nach Flensburg Steckdosen? Danke.

So far, so good. Jetzt war ich gespannt, was passierte und siehe da, innerhalb von ca. 10 Minuten bekam ich auch eine Antwort. Ich dachte mir: "Hut ab! Chapeau! Chapeau! Da haben sie endlich mal etwas Nützliches, um mit den Kunden zu kommunizieren." Leider zu früh gefreut.

@Nebelhom Mindestens an den Tischplätzen sind Steckdosen. Bitte fragen Sie das Zugpersonal, ob es noch mehr davon gibt. /d

So gut diese Idee des Twitter Services auch ist, ist diese Antwort recht nutzlos. Davon abgesehen, dass ich schon weiß, dass an Tischen Steckdosen sind im IC (was das Personal nicht wissen kann), gibt mir diese Antwort das Gefühl als wüssten sie es nicht besser als ich. Somit bin ich genauso schlau wie vorher.

Was ich mir wohl erhofft hatte, war eine informiertere Meinung. Man könnte denken, das Bahnpersonal sollte Informationen über einzelne Abteile des Zuges parat haben. So etwas wie, "an allen Tischen jeweils zwei und jede 6 Reihe hat eine Steckdose", wäre ideal gewesen. So bin ich mir immer noch unsicher, ob ich denn eine Steckdose auf meiner Reise ergattern kann, weil ich keinen Schimmer habe, wie viele dort denn genau zu finden sind.

Und schon bin ich wieder bei meinem alten Gefühl, dass mich immer beschleicht, wenn ich mit der Bahn fahre. Dieses warme, unwohle Gefühl in der Magengrube, das mich zu Fragen verleitet wie: "Wird die Verspätung diesmal weniger als 30 Minuten sein?" "Übertreffen sie diesmal ihren eigenen Rekord von 3 Std. Verspätung?" "Welchen Grund gibt es diesmal, dass ich meine Reservierung nicht wahrnehmen kann?" und zu guter Letzt eine neue Frage "Werde ich in der Lage sein, in diesem Zug eine Steckdose zu bekommen?"...


* Dafür liebe ich die deutsche Sprache. Man kann einfach Wörter erfinden und jeder weiss, was gemeint ist :)

Sunday 2 June 2013

Why is the public opinion of female beauty so far away from reality?

Recently, the local media have been full with news about the local reality "Find your next great, amazing top model"-show. So much, in fact, that I shall spew my little piece to this ordeal.

Personally, I wish they would stop that altogether. I do not know about the shows themselves, but I assume they are pretty much like any other casting show. From what my wife tells me, a charity counteracting cruelty to animals should get active there.
What comes out of that format, however, makes me worry about my and coming generations of young women. Essentially, they advocate an obscene thinness bordering on anorexia that puts many girls under pressure of becoming that body ideal.

In my tastes for women, I would call myself a typical guy and aside from the random outliers that always exist (in "both" directions), most of my friends are typical guys. When talking about topics related to this one, not a single one of them finds these women attractive. Not one (!?!). Amusing phrases such as "This looks horrible! Do you reckon it's contagious?" or "Ah well, this one won't survive the next winter." are far more common comments than straight out admiration for their great body. Quoting another friend of mine: "I find it hard to believe that men find this attractive. Only fashion designers must do as they have hundreds of walking, animated coat hangers at their disposal who carry something around they care about. Their clothes." (I disarmed that quote a little. There were a couple more curses and insults in there)

All these borderline comments aside, I worry about the message that these shows send to women. I can't imagine the pressure they have daily to conform to a body ideal achieved by women who hunger themselves to something that is medically most likely unhealthy and who are then for the magazine covers photoshopped to an even smaller size. How can young, impressionable women get down to this size, when even the professionals need digital help to get to such a shape? Ever since that "little faux-pas" with Demi Moore's cover page, we all know that Photoshop is an integral part of photographs in magazines.

I won't go into the medical effects. Only suffice it to say that Barbie, another one of those apparent men's wet dreams if real, would apparently be unable to stand. She would just fall flat on her face every time she tried to stand up.

I just wish that women would take the opinions of the people around them (not necessarily their parents) a little more serious. That way they would save themselves a lot of unnecessary hunger-filled dreams and get a little bit more quality out of their lives while still meeting Mr. Right.

Friday 31 May 2013

Learning French

I've been learning French for quite some time now and I have come to a point where a typical French course doesn't really bring me any further. Yes, I can study and pass the tests, but about a month later I will have forgotten the majority of the vocabulary again and the grammar will not come as easily as I thought it would.

I'm trying various things to improve this rather sad affair with a plethora of approaches. If someone else has got any other good ideas, please feel free to use the commentary section below.

Currently, to improve my ability to talk about my specialist field (i.e. chemistry), I have been 1) reading French chemical literature (if you do not have access to it, it is rather hard to come by I am afraid) 2) Reading chemistry articles in English and explain to the world in general what is going on in the article... in French. 3) Practise presentations that I have given at some point in my life, but in French.

So far this is going well, as I learn topic-related vocabulary all the time, because I have to. With general broad French that is a problem, because I do not feel the need to look up words. If I talk about a general topic to myself, I tend to go around in circles only using the words I know without learning anything new. The problem here is that they are not new topics that I think of and I have re-visited them on occasion before.

The solution I came up with so far, is 1) read French novels and newspapers. This is for passive understanding. Unfortunately, the passive vocabulary does not readily enter my active one. As a consequence there is 2) reading articles and newspapers in English or German and again tell myself, what has been happening in these articles. In addition, there is 3) finding topics that will come up again and again, such as talking about my CV in an interview or describing one's personality and write the answers out in English. Once that is done, I do not translate word for word, but note down the words that I don't know and remember them. Afterwards, I talk about the topics I prepared.

Improving listening comprehension is the easiest one. My wife and I own several DVD box sets of TV series. Many of them have a French audio channel et voilà, practising listening comprehension has become easier.

As a consequence, I speak, listen or read French almost every single minute on my own and I get the feeling that it is improving, although I must say it is quite a lot of effort. Of course, there is also the chance to go to places where they speak French, but unfortunately these chances are few and far in between. At best, I find them to be add-ons to the core rather than a part of it, which is a pity as a language is supposed to be spoken in an interactive setting. My experience with other foreign languages has taught me, however, that speaking it in such a situation comes with confidence. I guess all I am currently doing is boosting my confidence, so that I am ready once a "real" situation rolls round.

Tuesday 28 May 2013

Becoming a Reader

Well written novels are a joy to read. What I recently found out is, that well written novels are a joy to read "out loud", as well. But let's start at the beginning.

My wife suffers from travelling sickness, i.e. whenever she is in a moving vehicle as a passenger for a certain while and in her case can see outside, she starts to feel queasy in the stomach and may even be sick. How long this takes depends on the circumstances. Generally, jerky driving style and crowdedness catalyse the process, one might say. The strongest catalyst of them all, however, is reading or watching something, like a film or so. Thus, she is condemned to just stand there and wait while wondering when she will be sick.

Making matters worse, she has to take the bus on several mornings per week to get to work... in rush hour. The procedure is always the same. Bus is never on time. One generally arrives when three or four should have been there already. Consequence many people, traffic jams, you get the idea. Obviously this is not very pleasant as you might imagine.

So I had an idea. You probably have guessed it by now. I own a headset, there are several recording programs out there. Some free of charge. My mp3 player is hardly in use nowadays. Therefore, I decided to record myself while reading a book out loud and put it on the mp3 player for her to listen to.

I started out with a short book that she liked, Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis". When I read this book, I was not used to recording myself and I was quite shy in the process. The result is a very monotonous drone of my voice. Maybe it also had something to do with the fact that I didn't like the book much, I don't know.

As the second book, I chose Terry Pratchett's "Mort" and now that I have gone past the weirdness of hearing my own voice recorded, I am really starting to enjoy it. Anyone who knows the book can now try to imagine the voice he would give Death. I think after another couple of sessions, I will need to change my vocal chords ;). The Klatchians fell victim to my bad Indian accent as I have no Arab one in my repertoire.
My main problem at the moment still is to a) remember what voice I have given to characters that do not appear often and b) find the right tone of voice. Very often it happens that I say something with a booming voice only to follow it up with a  "mumbled Mort."

She loves it, though, so I can still improve my little charade. It's fun while it lasts. I wonder what other books I will read for her... 

Friday 24 May 2013

Contributing to Mozilla

I guess, it's time now to talk about an activity that I have been doing for quite some time. Since almost a year, I am a contributor to Mozilla's Automated Testing Team. I've been learning all this stuff about Python programming, but I didn't find a real way to use it properly. Anyone who followed my blog (I doubt there is such a person as I am not actively promoting it) will know that I had a couple of semi-useless projects on the go, but these all died down for one reason or another.

In the end, I became aware that Mozilla is an Open Source project and aside from the core developers who are employed full-time, anyone is invited to join. I was quite sceptical at first, but once I figured out how to use IRC, I was ready to go (Now it feels odd to think that at one point I didn't know how to ;) ).

For anyone who is willing to improve his skills and is not afraid to be thrown in at the deep end, it is a truly awesome experience! From day one, I was welcomed and everyone had a lot of patience. There are a lot of online resources and when you're completely stuck, you can always go and speak to someone on the IRC channels. I first made my way through Bugs Ahoy! until I figured out how to use Bugzilla and at some point, I was shoved towards various sites on Github to help out on there.

Because it is such a big project not only entailing Firefox and Thunderbird, but several other aspects, as well, there is quite a variety of programming languages being used such as JavaScript, Python, HTML/CSS, Java, or C++. So if you really want to learn something new, there is a lot of opportunities to practice it within the community, as well.

All in all, I am glad I took the step and got involved. There is no pressure and everyone can contribute as much or as little as they want. I am quite proud to say that I have contributed quite a few lines of code to mozdownload and I had a blast doing it!