R.I.P. Aeris

No drama this time, just old age.  This was one of the first birds I got, before I even met Victoria

Down to two budgies for the time being. It’s somewhat quieter in the house right now, but the two remaining birds are big talkers. And we’ve been talking about starting to “staff back up” after the Superbowl.

Blog Fu

My blog fu is weak these days, as Gunnar would say. There’s actually several topics that I want to write about, like Gears of War 2 (which I finished a couple of weeks ago), Resistance 2 and The Reader. I started working on BBelief2008 again and, with a couple of month’s perspective, realized what a monster that level is. I just haven’t found the time and energy to post. Part of the reason is that I changed my work routine. I’m not taking my laptop to the office anymore and strictly use my work computer for…well, work stuff. So there’s no time to scribble down things during a lunch break, for example. It makes for a more concentrated and efficient work experience without distractions, but often results in me not wanting to touch another computer when I get home in the evening. I usually opt for doing something with Victoria (or turning on the PS3 or 360) instead. It certainly demonstrates how little I really need the internet during the day. Checking CNN.com or your personal email once is informative. 20 times per day not so.

I figure I’ll get back to regular posting soon, just need to shake off the lethargy. In the meantime, I’d like to give a few shoutouts:

• To Victoria, who just gained another year of wisdom and beauty.
• To Grant and Virginia, who decided to get married.
• To Gaurav and Summer, who did get married last years and who are now expecting a baby.
• To Kerstin and Olli, who had a baby
• To my brother Guido and his fiancee Sarah, who (almost) set their wedding date for this summer.

Gonna be a busy year! I guess I should get ready… And post about it when things come to pass.

Silent Reviews

American Idol San Francisco – Kind of…
American IdolLouisville – Yes
Deja Vu (screenplay) – Yes
Obama Inauguration – Yes

Silent Reviews

American Idol Phoenix – Yes
American Idol Kansas City – Yes
Ravens/Steelers game – No (judged by entertainment value)
Cardinals/Eagles game – Kind of… (Eagles comeback started making things interesting)

Feed Hiccup

The WordPress 2.7 upgrade introduced some RSS hiccups, causing http://www.worch.com/feed to not reliably forward to my Feedburner page anymore. Hopefully, those problems should now be resolved. If you’re already subscribed to the page, please take a second to check if that subscription actually does point to http://feeds.feedburner.com/worch. If not, please let me know in the comments. Thanks!

Monthly Hike: Bald Mountain

New year, so I think it’s time for a new monthly feature. Victoria and I used to go hiking all the time, but had fallen off the wagon a bit in recent years. In 2009, we want to do more “hardcore hiking” again. We started yesterday, with a hike up Bald Mountain at Sugarloaf Ridge, one of Sonoma’s prime state parks. We had hiked there before, but we’d never gone all the way into the park and taken the trip up Bald Mountain. We went without expectations, got much more than we’d bargained for, but found a trail that was totally worth the effort.

Although only 2729 feet high, Bald Mountain affords amazing views of the surroundings when you get to the top. Mt Tam, Mt Diablo, Napa, Sonoma, Marin, San Francisco, Angel Island and the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge are all visible. You can even see the snowy silhouette of Pyramid Peak, 10,000 feet high and 129 miles away in the Sierras. Getting to the summit takes a bit of stamina: the 2700 foot ascend stretches across (only) 2.8 miles and has some steep sections. The way back down (via the Gray Pines trail) might be even trickier, because loose rubble turns even steeper sections into a serious balance challenge. We had a lot of fun and the weather was beautiful (74 degrees in January!). The only downside was that we didn’t bring a real camera, so all of the following photos are low-res iPhone pictures.

Lily Allen’s New Single

Lily Allen doesn’t mince words in her latest single, “Fuck You Very Much”. Her song about small-minded people, bigots and opponents of gay rights is sure to offend some circles. I think it’s brilliant.

Silent Reviews

Titans/Ravens game – Yes (judged by entertainment value)
Giants/Eagles game – Kind of… (judged by entertainment value)
Steelers/Chargers game – No (judged by entertainment value)
That new Subway “$5 foot-long” commercial – No
Golden Globes – Yes

The Greatest Character Name Ever

There’s two types of character names in games and movies: the ordinary ones that you just pull out of a hat, without ever giving them much thought. And then there’s the names you agonize over for extended periods of time because you really want them to say something about the character. Ideally on a subconscious level, to add that extra little bit of punch. Ancient writer wisdom holds that, to create a good character name, you mix one part ordinary, and one part unique: John McClaine. Indiana Jones. Luke Skywalker. Some writers try to be too clever with that formula, giving rise to names like “Max Payne”. (Hit me over the head, I might not get the hidden meaning!)
But hey, there’s many opinions on what constitutes the perfect character name. As far I’m concerned, the discussion is over. The perfect name already exists, and it’s on American TV right now: it’s 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon.

[Read more]

Impressions From Germany, Part 3

Germany is experiencing a rather convincing cold spell at the moment and my brother sent me these images, which I found too cool not to share. These were taken in Straelen, home of Bofrost. Bofrost is the world’s biggest distributor of frozen foods. Now you know why