I was flipping through the book that I need for a course this semester. Anthoni Diller - Z: An introduction to formal methods, 2nd edition. And as I reached page 49, I have read the outmost interesting approach ever. The definition of love, apparently.



Seriously, how is this definition not awesome? I just wished S⇔T were true for me.

From black to white within two days. The impossible, we pursue it.

Aktuelle Stimmung: indescribable

Today's news shorts:

• Apparently I was spotted at some weird Matrix Reloaded sort of party. At least that's what evidence suggest. My stance is: if I'm looking bad on a picture, it wasn't me.
• Lea came around. It was a nice encounter, but it would have been nicer if the pizza place wasn't closed. But hey, at least Mexican food is made of awesomesauce as well.
• In other news, I've got a bunch of new World of Darkness supplements. With the exception of Armory Reloaded (what's with the "reloaded" in every other thing I mention today?) nothing I really got sucked up in immediately. The other stack of books I've received includes: Dancers in the Dusk and Immortals.
• I'm printing "Buy Moxie!" t-shirts for my Werewolf troupe. Don't ask. It's an insider I'm to blame for. I was thinking about using a picture of a big bad werewolf[tm] wielding a can of good ol' Moxie, but heck, I couldn't find a real artist, and photoshopping it just isn't the same.
• I've ordered a Nintendo Wii for the office telling management to suck it up and seize the opportunity to train their golfing skills.
• I've cancelled my trip to Cologne. Well, technically it isn't cancelling, I haven't booked anything yet anyway.
• LINQ is made of win. It is a great help in my current not so much work related projects.

A little quiz, just because I can, filled out by yours truely.

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Manny
2. Manuel
3. Mani

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
1. Manny
2. Schmafusel
3. Shmavuselyr

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. my ankles
2. my waist
3. my knuckles

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON’T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. my fingers
2. my knees
3. my back

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1. Austrian
2. more Austrian
3. an approx. 0.001% influence from the Slovenian subculture in Carinthia post WW2

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. speeds over 150 km/h
2. electricity (yes, it does, unless I know it's confined)
3. rapid uncontrolled change

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. coffee
2. cigarettes
3. my computer

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING NOW:
1. loose worn jeans
2. green wool socks
3. black boxers

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
1. autonomy
2. independency
3. respect

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:
1. I actually wanted to study applied physics.
2. I like to travel.
3. I was in the army.

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE PREFERRED SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1. small boobs
2. approx. my general size
3. style of gestures (well, it's at least partly physical)

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. finding an obsure problem and developing an even more obsure method to solve it on the computer either using brute force, keen mathematics or general optimization algorithms (which is actually a combination of the former two).
2. role playing.
3. team centric e-sports.

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. sleep
2. stay awake
3. sleep

THREE CAREERS YOU’RE CONSIDERING/YOU’VE CONSIDERED:
1. physics R&D
2. teaching
3. computer science / computational linguistics scientist

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1.
2.
3.

THREE NAMES YOU LIKE:
1. Hans-Peter
2. Lennard
3. Douglas

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. random scientific accomplishments
2. design and build a freaking huge Lego model
3. write a novel

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A GIRL:
1. I don't like to drink beer
2. Indecisive shopping attitude in some areas
3. I like shiny things

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A BOY:
1. I am messy.
2. I have a freaking degree in Computer Science
3. I hate housekeeping

In other news, I eff-ing love the sound and typography of the word hijack. Awesome, isn't it?

Hijack!,
M.

Hey there folks.

No worries, I haven't forsaken this blog... yet. I just got used to the much more convenient way of propagating little events in my life on my facebook... thing; my computer and role playing games commentary on the other hand has been published on a different blog (it just seemed to fit there).

Anywho. I'm a Bachelor of Science now. However, the first person to address me by my title gets a "Gesundheit!" for a response. It just sounds plainly awkward in German (Bakkalaureus der technischen Wissenschaften - go ahead and say it ten times in a row, if you can).

That, and from now on I shall be known as Manny, car owner. That's right. I've got a car. Well, okay, I already had my trust-worthy old Jetta since around late 2003. This car, however, is new. Like, new new. Fresh out of the factory. Not driven or used by anyone (save for transportation from Romania to wherever the heck I live). Heck, it's so new, I'm everything but looking forward to the first thousand or so kilometers (cars need much love at that time because their engine isn't quite attuned yet; or so I was told). That means: not driving the way I am used to drive: highest gear, highway. I'll probably have to switch back and forth between the highway and the scenic route on my way to work for a few weeks.
It's a necessary evil though, and I'm sure I'll show my new car some BDSM once it hits 1000 kilometers. Oh yeah, I'm going to be a naughty boy, and I will spank it hard.

Sorry, where was I? I got wrapped up in a fantasy of mine.

Lemme see. New car, check. Bachelor, check. Near-zero post frequency explained, check. Oh. Right. I also got a GPS. Not noteworthy, yes, but it may help should I ever decide to leave my turf and drive to, I don't know, Vienna. Though that will probably not happen until mid to late Q2.

So long,
M.

Been there, done it, bought the t-shirt did my bachelor degree. Hopefully more entries soon. Busy now. Gotta go. kthxbye.

In other, more important news, my scientific achievements brought me this close to my bachelor degree in computer science. Or to put it in other terms: I've almost finished my first academic degree.

Who's your daddy?!

-M.

I've spent quite some time recently playing the Left 4 Dead demo with some folks on my Steam friends list - mostly people I play Team Fortress 2 with on occasion. L4D in a nutshell: "It's the zombie apocalypse *gasp* – bring friends!" It's one of the games that combines three decent things that actually make it a neverending source of fun and tense moments.

For one, there's artifical intelligence, and I'm not talking about the intelligence of all those countless zombies that leap towards you, no, it's the so-called AI Director (which frankly abbreviates to AID). It hates players. It's sadistic. And whenever it catches you with pants down, it will end you. It's an AI that is not in the game, it's the AI that controls the game flow. It dictates when what is happening, when several dozen zombies jump out of nowhere and rush straight towards you. It's like an evil storyteller, and you've pissed him off by eating his cookies. Survival horror ensues. No exceptions.

Secondly, there's cinematic stuff that underlines drama and horror throughout the game. It's the little things. Characters exchanging oneliners when they're helping each other out, Zoey mourning over Bill's recent incapacitation, the desaturated field of vision when you got knocked out too often... ahhh, fun times. And the film grain, of course, and theme and mood of the setting. It's like your very own interactive horror flick.

And the third thing is the coop mode with my player base. With friends like these, who needs enemies? Seriously. I begin to remember people and their style of gameplay and even though I barely know them, in the heat of battle I get to know them. Sounds crazy, but it fits the shoe. And it fits Seraph's line in Matrix: Reloaded, "You do not truly know someone until you fight them" Or in this case, at it may be, until you fight with them, as in shoulder by shoulder. BurtonBell for instance is quite a trigger-happy person. I can't name a session where he hasn't put a bullet or two through his friends by accident. It becomes quite hilarious sometimes, especially when he accidently hits people even if there's no tango to be seen anywhere. And then there's Moe; in the first level there's a car with an alarm that you should avoid lest you want to wake yet another horde of zombies. Thanks, Moe, for jumping on the car each and every time.

But truth be told, I wouldn't want it any other way. It ensues several dialogs that are typical for our sessions. "Awww Moe, not that again!" (and you can hear maniac laughter via voice chat), "Burton, why the hell did you shoot me? There isn't even anyone around!" (but he'd kindly excuse himself).

With friends like these... who needs enemies?

Anyway. Left 4 Dead will be released in less than a day (Nov 18th 12:01am EST), and thanks to digital distribution I'll get it the very second it unlocks worldwide.

It's so on.

Earlier this week I decided to transfer 20 EUR to my betting account at betfair. The status quo so far is 95 EUR and a few cents. So it's almost fivefold of what I put into it. Though I guess I'll make a stop to my betting habit rather sooner than later, I don't want to stress my luck that far.

In other news, I helped my girlfriend a bit to get settled into her new home in Klagenfurt. Though only a bit, because I was mostly suffering from sleep deprivation and I had to attend a lecture at the campus.

Well, that's it so far. I got to bail now.