Disclaimer: I do not have a taser, I will not buy one and I will surely never ever try it out on myself.

I got a feeling that this story from jDounts is a true one, funny one but a bit sad. Short story: A guy buys a taser for his wife and while reading the instructions gets to the conclusion that a 1 second burst will hurt, but he finds out that it is not possible to taser yourself for just ONE second :-)

Two small bits from it that made me laugh out loud:

I’m pretty sure Hulk Hogan ran in through the side door, picked me up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over and over again.

Oh and there was a cat involved also:

The cat was standing over me making meowing sounds I had never heard before, licking my face, undoubtedly thinking to herself, ‘Do it again, stupid, do it again!’

Head over to jDounts Jokes to read the whole thing. Take care and happy tasering yourself (NOT).

More than a month now without any postings, is that bad or really bad? I think it is pretty bad and not what I have had in mind (or On My Mind). Oh, and no, it is not a side effect of the blood donation I wrote about last time :-)

Due to changes in my work I have put aside all time for that (more info about that might follow) but enough is enough, there must be time for blogging also.

So I will be starting up slowly again and I have following planned for the next few days:

• Movie: Cloverfield
• Books: His Darkest Materials
• Games: Super Mario Galaxy, Super Paper Mario
• Games: PC game, will first be mentioned when released
• Consoles: PS3 (yes, I have one now)
• Gadgets: iPod touch (yes, I also got one of them)
• Blogging: EntreCard (and what I think about it)
• Blogging: One special ‘photo blog’
• Blogging: I will from time to time mention some of the other blogs that I enjoy reading

The order above might not be the order that I will be blogging about the different subjects.

So what can I say except: I’m back

It is just crazy what I do to loose weight, even went to donate blood today to loose a bit. No, just kidding of course.

They actually called me yesterday at the blood donation center in Basel to ask if I could pass by, they needed my blood type (blood group). My blood is of type O negative which is not that common (See Wikipedia).

This is of course not first time for me but to my shock I realized that I didn’t go since mid August. This got to change now. I’m not donating blood the easy way but in a way where they filter the blood and just take the red blood cells; the rest is pumped into me again. This takes a bit longer and they get more of what they can use. (I’m sure there is a fancy name for this procedure). Seems it is just called “Double red” if you check the Wikipedia for blood donation (See here).

I was at the machine for just 25 min but for some reason it felt like 15 minutes only; all went very smooth. They do a good work on making people comfortable there. It would be bad if people had a bad experience and then don’t show up again. So I could have a drink while it all took place, next time I will ask for Gin and Tonic :) and afterwards a sandwich, coffee and a piece of chocolate. After the lunch I drove home feeling fine. But, I have to admit it, I was proud of myself and decided I needed a reward, so I went shopping and here is what I got:

Sure, this is not good for the diet but damn those M&M’s tasted well.

They ‘only’ got 360ml of the red blood cells but had to filter around 1060ml to get it.

I have to wait another 6 month before I can go again (double time due to the double red system) and I will sure go again. Everybody who can go should really go if you ask me; sure people who are afraid of needles should not go. I always find it interesting when they insert the cannula into the vein and see how the blood runs out; call me a freak if you like.

Another good thing about doing a blood donation is of course that they check the values for the ‘things’ in the blood and measure blood pressure. I’m happy to say all my values are good.

In some cases they do find traces or get bad value; cause can be inflammation or in some cases cancer. This should NOT scare people away as any problems might be found earlier this way than if the person just waited.

So if you are one of the persons who keep saying: I really should go. (Hello to my sister). Then how about calling the local blood donation right away and get started. It can never hurt but instead it might save peoples life.

I just came across following headline “Xbox 360 to win next-gen console race?” over at GameIndustry.biz and no I’m not writing this to pick on them but it was just the very last case of generation mess I saw. I notice this issue many times before.

So it is about Xbox 360 and winning the next generation console race. EXCUSE ME but Xbox 360 is NOT next-gen and don’t get me wrong neither is PS3 or Nintendo Wii. They are CURRENT generation of consoles. Let us have a look:

Previous generation

• Nintendo: Game Cube
• Sony: PlayStation 2
• Microsoft: Xbox

Current generation

• Nintendo: Wii
• Sony: PLAYSTATION 3
• Microsoft: Xbox 360

Next generation

• Let us wait and see what they will announce in the future.

Sure there are also ‘older generations’ with Nintendo 64, PSone, SNES, Dreamcast and many more.

When PS3 and Xbox 360 was announced they became Next-Gen then they got released and therefore must be current generation of consoles.

Oh, and who is going to win the current generation race; who knows. My guess is that they will all 3 be winners, one way or another.

Anyway this is just my opinion on this. I’m sure not all will agree.

2008-01-13: Updated: Thanks to the comment from Rach who made me look into the real title of the book. I mentioned earlier that it was change from Northern Lights into The Golden Compass when it became a movie. This I found out is not correct, I went to the authors website (Philip Pullman) and interesting enough, the page for His Darkest Materials does list the first book as “Northern Lights” but when it was released in the US it was under the name “The Golden Compass”.

This is not a review nor does it contain any spoilers.

The Golden Compass (IMDb) (Trailers)

Amazon.com	Amazon.co.uk	Amazon.de

I wanted to see The Golden Compass ever since I saw the very first trailer and I finally got around to watch it yesterday. I had already read the book in December 2007 and have now realized that that was a bad idea. Don’t get me wrong, the movie is good, some might even say great but the book is just so much beyond the movie.

One thing to keep in mind is that the book was rewritten/changed so it fits better to the big screen. This is also reflected in the name change from “Northern Lights” to “The Golden Compass” so maybe it is unfair to expect the movie to follow the book 100%.

This happens to most books that make it to the cinema; even Lord of The Rings had changes but none that I found disturbing. In Golden Compass it sometimes feels a bit like that things just happens without any explanation which is way better described in the book. It even ended earlier than in the book but maybe this makes sense when considering the next 2 movies.

The movie lasts 113 minutes so this would also be a reason that parts weren’t included. Maybe there will be a special Directors Cut on DVD. About getting the movie on DVD, I will consider it, also so the kids can get a chance to watch it but they are too young to understand it now.

So in case you are considering to watching movie then I recommend you do so; BUT do it before you read the book.

Time for me to order the other books and get them read before the movie continues. Oh, yeah, I’m doing the same mistake again but waiting for the movie is just out of the question for me.

Happy New Year

Guess it is a bit late but since this is the first post in 2008 I would like to take the chance and wish the readers of my blog a Happy New Year.

I hope the people who set New Year resolutions and goals for 2008 didn’t give up yet. I’m still sticking with mine but the year just started.

Changes

Let me go over the small changes that I did recently. People who come here regular (you do, right?) might have noticed the changes already; but let me sum it all up: Continue Reading »

Update: Thanks to Henrik for noticing that the title of the blog entry was ‘….2007′ and not ‘…2008′ as it should be.. Shame on me.

I was never much into New Year resolutions, often they sounded as bad excuses for delaying something you already could get started with, such as “In 2008 I’m going to stop smoking” (This was just an example, I never ever smoked). Why wait until 2008, when you can start NOW. Anyway, I want to setup some goals for myself in 2008 and why not share them with you. This also puts some pressure on me.

Sure many of these can be taken as New Year resolutions as nothing stops me moving forward with the goals NOW. I do believe it is important to have goals for the future, as long as they are realistic, so if I say ‘Goal for 2008 is to get into space’ then I will probably have to disappoint myself (So I will wait with that till 2009).

Goals for 2008

Continue Reading »

I just saw following Prison Vs Work jokes over at jDonuts and just had to mention it.

To mention just one of them:

IN PRISON…you must deal with sadistic wardens.
AT WORK…they are called managers

The jokes are all a bit too true and that’s a bit scary but I will at any time choose work over prison.

Head over to the jDonuts Jokes for more good fun.

I have often been wondering why monitors are like they are; why don’t they make square monitors.

Let’s have a look at previous/current monitors and why I think that wide screen monitors often are no good.

There does exist monitors with other resolutions than the below mentioned once, specially if you look at the notebooks, but the once below are the most common desktop monitor.
Continue Reading »

Oh no, don’t turn the computer off now, do read this first.

Lot’s of people don’t turn their computers off when they are finished with them; either at home or at their work place. This is just something I don’t understand.

I’m pretty sure they turn their TV, Radio and lights off (in most cases), so why do they leave their PC on? Continue Reading »