Browsing my blog - typing test

Haven't thought much about my blog lately. Though today I browsed it and came across the typing test. The website is updated and looks quite nice..

I re-took the test. Although my words per minute increased from 79 to 82 I dropped in the overall standing. Fun fact: top ranked WPM is 170! His/her fingers are flying accross the keyboard.

Visit the Typing Test and try!

With the smart phones becoming a larger part of our written communication tools a would a smart phone enabled typing test be fun?

What I read on reader

Trends on Google Reader, who checks them? I did recently and in doing so was pleasantly surprised. I found out that since September 27, 2007 I read close to 12.000 items.


Who do I read most? This is also provided in a neat schedule that can be filtered based on various indicators. Topping the charts in the last 30 days are Massively, TAGN, Bio Break, Tobold and Hardcore Casual.


What you is difficult to interpret reading behavior, apart from the %Read column. For example I hardly read the full article of Massively. Partly due to the fact these are snippets to attract attention. More so because a lot of the topics interest me less. Why do I keep Massively? It gives me a nice overview what is going on in Games land. Bio Break is a bit high on the chart then I would normally place it. I expect this is due to my current interest in RIFT information.

An odd duck in the Trend is Productive Flourishing. This is part of my Food for Thought category of Blogs that I read out of personal interest in the topics and professional development where I go through a batch every odd week. Another blog I follow on this category is People Skills Decoded.

So what does your Trend look like?

Paul the Psychic Octopus had it ...

Out of a total of 64 matches played Paul the Psychic Octopus has predicted 64 out of 64 (or 100 %) of the matches correctly. The parakeets was wrong.

In the semi-finals the German Octopus predicted Spain to beat Germany. And they did!

Proof on Youtube, start at 00.07 for Octopus sweeping in for the Victory!

For the final match Paul the Psychic Octopus predicted Spain to win. Is he the almighty match predicting Oracle of the Universe?

Sadly the final was won by Spain resulting from poor performance of the biased referee team led by the british Webb. Regardless, congrats to Spain.

My Extended 10/01/10 CUBE (October 1, 2010)

This project was born after accidently reading up on a local initiative this week when subscribing for my local M11 pre-release draft tournament. Apparently, The Cube is a draft format with the best cards around as 1 offs. As I am somewhat of a collector in nature and want to have at least 1 copy of each card in a set this is perfect for me (These are of course neatly stored in separate 3x3pocket card holders !). Besides that a CUBE is re-usable whenever you want, no need to buy boosters! A "boxed" off-the-shelf and ready-to-play game. And the best of it.. you can design it yourself!

So I started googling for further info to get the design rolling. Below are the first design choices for my CUBE.

Size

Objective is to get an 8 player Cube going, which requires at minimum 360 cards. So initial objective is to get it to 400 cards – 50 each color, 50 artifacts, 50 multicolor, 50 lands (the 8 “colors”).

Sets

I chose to start with the Extended sets as of October 1, 2010 as I started playing Magic again when M10 came around. Besides that I own a (net decked) Jund and love all the Alara cycle Multicolor cards (both art and what they bring to the table). Then I also wanted some additional variety and thus expanded to the extended format. I am a long way there for each set starting at M10, with M10, ZEN, WWK and M11 mostly complete and only ROE lagging behind. Everything before will come out of need from the CUBE (if I don’t have them from my Esper Artifact and Jund deck). This should allow me to get most cards through trade and doesn’t include unattainable or expensive cards like the power 9. However, I won’t shun from creating proxies to get the CUBE ready for play testing.
Thus sets included are:

• Lorwyn
• Morningtide
• Shadowmoor
• Eventide
• Shards of Alara
• Conflux
• Alara Reborn
• Magic 2010
• Zendikar
• Worldwake
• Rise of the Eldrazi
• Magic 2011 (effective July 16, 2010)
• Scars of Mirrodin (effective October 1, 2010)

Sets will be added as and when they come out.

Cards
Basicly, the most powerful from each color, while supporting a variety of types and archtypes (e.g. UW(B) Control, R/B aggro, Jund, Rock, G/x Ramp etc.). The Cube should be a well functioning draft set. When building I’ll keep curve in mind. To help me I use various internet sources as the site of Tom Lapille (playmagicwith.tomlapille.com). Base distribution creatures vs spells will be 50/50 for the 5 base colors with exception of blue and green, which will be split approximately 40/60 and 60/40 respectively. Minor variations may occur in the design process.

Start building
I start with some known CUBE list on the net and identify the cards applicable to my set limitation. From there I sort them in colors, split by creatures and spells (exception is multicolor, which will be split by mana combinations). Reference is Tom’s Cube Design Handoff Document and the Ultimate Cube resource thread on MTG Salvation.
Cube lists to start with scrutinizing are:

• 2009 CUBE power ranking by the MTGS community
• Tap into the Cube of Thom Krone
• BennyDJazz modern Cube
• Cube drafting by Evan
• The GMU Cube of Happy Gilmore

Users and using the Extended (10.01.10) CUBE
It’s always good to know who the intended users will be, right?! To be fair with you this is mostly me. I don't have any close friends that play MTG. If I play it is either with my brother or at drafts (release or weeknights afairs)

At this point I have not been able to convince him to join this new project. Actually, he isn’t all that excited about playing it! So I have to build this the most appealing CUBE for him to so that at a minimum he will love playing it with me. Target is to get him to beg me to bring the CUBE along whenever I visit him.

Once I have something more to report on you can expect an update!

PBS.org - BP Oil Spill

Couple of feeds from pbs on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Gets you thinking if you didn't get the wake up call before.

How much spill is OK?

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

BP Twitter feed..

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

Lost Generation found

Update: Amsterdam garden

Almost a year ago I showed our venture of local grass cultivation in our backyard. Little over a year ago I was happy to share that the terrass was finished. Yesterday and today the weather accros Europe is faboulous so I took some snapshots. Presto an update.

A welcoming bench to relax behind the palm tree:

The terrasse to enjoy breakfast in the sun and find shade at noon:

To be honest I am not a big fan of BBQs, but I do love sharing a meal. My girlfriend likes both though. I guess with summer finally showing itself a compromise wil soon be reached.

Getting back in the sadle - Words of Wisdom

I started a path decided upon some time ago, but am faltering. I realise I am in need of strenght and wisdowm, some down to earth truths. I often start my own mental search with some of my favorite (active and non-active) blogs to inspire me and gets my thinking process going and "inner-self feelers" warmed up. In search of my source to get back in the saddle and on the road I tell myself that:

I will not wait for other peoples reminders to take make a step. The only perception that is truly important is the on I have of myself. I am decisive. I take initiative. I think and get my feelings right. I honestly ask myself difficult questions and answer them truthfully. Revealing my inner-self will ultimitaly result in a life better lived and enjoyed. Then when decided I do it and do it now.

Labor and hard work finishes the path taken.

This may remind you of the story about the tortoise and the rabbit. This story tell us that the tortoise won because he had a goal and stuck with it, he was steadfast and believed in himself. The rabbit, although fast, lost because he was unfocussed and was an arrogant prick at it. He was careless and underestimated his opponent based on prejudice and misconception.

Some good thoughts on the meaning of the story beside the obvious can be found here. Besides teamwork and the power of knowing ones own and other competencies I am reminded by it that when you fail you may learn. From learning you becomes richer and can refocus and take another step.


A note to the unknown readers of this obscure blog. The shared experience and knowledge of everyone around us can be very powerful. If you read this and feel you can contribute, then I ask you to take a step and share.

EVE Online - Planetary Production Chains

EVE Online will soon introduce Planetary Interaction (PI). PI is new game element that allows players to extract resources from planets (before players could "only" extract resources from Asteroid belts). From the planets resources you can manufacture processed materials. These processed materials can in turn be used to manufacture refined commodities. Next in line in the production chain are specialized and advanced commodities. Each additional manufacturing level or Tiers requires more harvested resources and commodities. Of course each tier also requires more and more time from the player. To be efficient and have the least waste a player needs to set-up a smart Production Chain on his/her planets. Various other choices have to be made to become a planet-bound captain of industry. Interested? Read more here.

I did so too and thereafter read more player produced materials and ultimately started experimenting with PIs options myself. One needs to be prepared before sailing out, right? So I wanted to try and set up a specicific production chain that would require several different planet types. Next to that requirement I wanted to have a go at a product that is likely required in more than one marketable commodity. My eye fel on Data Chips. Data Chips are used for the production of Broadcaset Nodes, which are required for Player Owned Stations (POS). POS are used by every selfrespecting corporation and alliance in this game. This is because a POS is an E-penis....and besides that a strategic "landmarks" in territorial warefare and a private floating labratory in space. A bit like the ISS.
Data Chips are also used for Nanite Repair Paste, which can be used to repair damaged equipment (modules) on the spaceships in this game. As people in this game like to shoot at things with their spaceships, preferably with as much damage as possible, they will overload their weapon modules. These will in turn need to be repaired with paste. They like shooting at POSs even more, which the owners will want to defend. More shooting and blowing up bits and bytes will ensue. Good for the manufacturing tycoons of the game don't you think so too!?

So after a couple of hours figuring out how PI will work (the rules of engagement) I wasted some more time messing around on the new powerpoint version I had not used before. This is the end result.


Final production stage on a Temperate planet. Here the other resources and commodities from the Ice and Lava planets are combined to produce the Tier 3 Data Chips:


Producing Tier 2 refined commodity on an Ice planet:


Obtaining required Tier 1 processed materials on a Lava planet:



POS Fuels are another commodity I expect will be in demand. The commodities that are used as POS fuel are:

• T1 Oxygen (G/I/S)
• T2 Coolent (O/T/G/B/I/S)
• T2 Enriched Uranium (L/P/B/I)
• T3 Robotics (L/G/P/B/I/S)

With just a Storm and Plasma planet anyone should be able to produce the fuel. If they can extract the required raw materials.

I present to you my POS Fuels Production Chain Schematics:






If you find them useful feel free to leave a passing comment or donate ISK to ingame character Malenfer.

Fly save!


Edit: minor update, the individual planets in the chain show Refined Commodities that can be produced and monatized without using Processed Materials required for the Data Chips production chain.
Edit2: I combined the two seperate posts on the topic into one.

Typing Speed Test

Update for a second attempt 2 days later.. were in the first attempt I had 3 mistakes. Couldn't let that go ofcourse.

"You reached 318 points, so you achieved position 8231 of 152919 on the ranking list"

You type 422 characters per minute
You have 79 correct words and
you have 0 wrong words

79 words

Typing Test

First attempt... "You reached 305 points, so you achieved position 1544 of 24753 on the ranking list".


75 words

Typing Test

Frogs by Productive Flourishing

Another excellent post by Productive Flourishing. Subscribe to their RSS feed.

Mark Twain: “If you know you have to swallow a frog, swallow it first thing in the morning. If there are two frogs, swallow the big one first.”

It does make so much sense. In your day to day dealings there are many "distractions" to forget the frogs.

Enjoy the read.

Amsterdam grass

Local cultivation of grass!

Gifts for the newborn

Worried about what to get for a friends newborn? No worries. Recent first hand experience has shown that a colorful item wrapped in lots of crunchy paper already does the trick.

Little bear have fun!

Productivity

Well worth the read. I stumbled on this jewel during my daily procrastination session at work.

Beyond Productivity series by Charlie Gilkey.

Terrass finished: ready for BBQ

The terrass is finished. This sunday my girlfriend and I finished the last section. We're ready for a BBQ now... waiting for a nice sunny day has commenced.

Thanks mum, dad, uncle and aunt! Without you're help it wouldn't be done for a while yet.

Next up is the garden for which we are deciding whether to do it entirely ourselves or have it done (we will likely end up somewhere in the middle). It is a black wasteland now, and really really deserves some attention.

Any ideas for a garden of 6x10 with a small cabana in the backleft corner are welcome. The objective is to have an easy to maintain garden (not many green fingers in our household) with some grass (mowing the lawn is not a problem). We are thinking of using flagstones to create a path from the house to the cabana. No other concrete ideas yet on our side.

WAR NDA dropped

The floodgates are open! Be ready to check out the big WAR bloggers for BETA information. Tobold starts of with a generous question to the public on what the most pressing topics are. My advice is to keep an eye out for his blog. This would also be a good time to set up a reader. I use Google reader, but any other would do.

Tobold's MMORPG Blog: WAR NDA is lifted - Any questions?

NDA is now officially lifted. Expect an explosion of WAR related articles all over the MMO blogosphere. I have a lot to say about that game, but I'll take it slow, there are still over 4 weeks until release to fill with posts. But if you have any questions or suggestions what you think I should be writing about first, feel free to ask in the comment section of this post.

Other recommended blogger sites are: Keen and Graev, Waaagh Blog. Special mention goes to Warhammer Alliance, which has been my favorite forum since I found out WAR was in development.

To all; have fun reading all the news and impressions of fellow gamers in the next month.

Massively Pre-NDA look at the Elves of WAR

While many WAR Beta bloggers are waiting for the NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) to drop to be able to hit the fans with juicy information on the upcoming WAR game. It is the game site Massively which has the scoop on pre-NDA information, being allowed to write about BETA information while others are not yet allowed. Reactions to the lasting NDA differ from blogger to blogger.

Syp over at Waaagh Blog goes as far as "treathening" Mythic with hostage actions! Keen over at KeenandGraev is preparing for the NDA drop and is gathering footage on WAR BETA in amounts and quality that will us take a sicky. Tobold remains his calm self (?), although from the increase in WAR topics and responses in comments it is crystal clear also he is awaiting the "go" from Mythic.

All things considered I wonder whether the Massively exclusive is part of the reason the NDA has not yet been lifted by Mythic. What other reasons can there be? Join me in musing other reasons besides boosting Massively's site traffic?


For those interested in reading the pieces written by Kyle Horner and Dan O'Halloran at Massively read on. Kyle and Dan released a number short articles on several of the playable Elf classes in WAR. The articles give an idea of the first few levels of the character, what abilities they have and how they can be used.

• Archmage - Alliance Healer - mirror of Shaman
  
• White Lion - Alliance DPS - melee pet class
• Witch Elf - Horde DPS - roguish dual wielder - level 6 - 10
• Sorceress - Horde DPS - caster class
• Swordmaster - Alliance Tank - melee class
  

Myself, well I am still in doubt between the pure Dark Elf caster (Sorcerer) or one of the Healer-casters (Archmage/Shaman). Regardless of the final choice I'll take my time discovering the game once released in about 1 month.

Travel destinations - Switzerland

Travel destinations continued with our travel to Switzerland.

March 2006 - Switzerland, visiting a friend:

Travel destinations - Groningen

Continuing the travel destination series with The Netherlands.

September 2005 - Netherlands, visting Groningen:

Travel destinations

I was browsing my pictures to clean up my harddrive a little. I stumbled upon a treasure trove; Parties, friends, travel destinations and more. That gave me the idea to immortalise some of the travel destinations my girlfriend and I have visited. From time to time i'll add these as regulars to the blog.

First up is one of our most memorable trips we enjoyed quite early in our relationship. We travelled via Hong Kong to end up in New Zealand.

November 2005 - Hong Kong, stop-over:

We had a couple of hours before our connecting flight and decided to check out Hong Kong by day. HK was the first Asian city that I visited that inhabits millions of people. It felt as if HK dwarves cities like London and Paris.

We decided to take a tour into the city and split off once we got fed up. We got fed up pretty quickly. Demands of the tour-guide to "take picture" and "take picture now!" repeated mulitple times when we passed anything that she deemed picture worthy. It got tiring fast.

Once broken free of the herd we decided to go to higher grounds. One of the more impressive sights was the spectacular views. The by walk bridge connected towers lead to parks all spread over the inner city, something I had not seen before. In the business area a most peculier sight were the hundreds of women sitting on the floor, playing games, giving and receiving pedi/manicures, chatting or just eating . I later found out that Sunday is the day off for the mostly Philippino nannies working in HK.

December 2005 - New Zealand, being amazed:

Cruising

Skydiving

We started off on the north Island. I had prepared a tight schedule (in Excel ;p) that would bring us in three weeks from the Auckland on the Norht Island to Christchurch on the South Island and back to Auckland for the return trip. The weather was quite good, so we visited many places. We were not afraid for even the most touristic location (Hot Water Beach anyone?!) Brave souls we were. From there we moved to Taupo. Here we would meet with friends who migrated to NZ. They had some crazy stuff planned for us. Skydiving, Tangairo Crossing with views of Mount Ngauruhoe (aka as Orodruin or Mount Doom) and Kajacking was on the program.

Preperation

Helicopter drop off

The Kajacking was a great experience. Our friends had arranged to fly us to the Mohaka river in a mountanous area by helicopter. We were dropped on a stony riverbed. It would be a two day easy trip with a minimal amount of rapids. We would spend one night on the riverbank, so we had packed tents, sleaping bags and food in dry bags, which were rigged on the boats. It should have been an easy trip for all of us. It just didn't turn out like that. It was cold, rainy and the water was wild. We could somehow not find out where we were on the map. All orientation points we were expecting were not there. Approaching the end of the afternoon some of us were in danger of hypothermia. We had to stop and find a shelter warm up and stay the night. Luckily we found a fishermans house on a riverbed. There we were welcomed by a local fisherman, a hunter (aka John Darlington "the great white hunter", who gave his insulated socks to my girlfriend) and the wife of another fisherman who could return at any moment. They helped us with our gear, drying of cloth and given warm drinks and fresh fish (with kiwi!). Thanks again all, and a special thanks to John.

That evening we found out that the helicopter pilot had dropped us too high up in the mountains, at that moment we were not even close to the intended starting piont of our trip. We decided to end the trip and go for another pickup point he next day. However, our adventure didn't end there. Maybe a story for a next time if you'd like it.

Fresh fish with Kiwi

Sulfer lakes

After saying goodbye to our friends in Taupo (who now live in Wellington with a baby on the way! - congrats). We moved south towards Wellington to take a boat from there to Picton. In Picton we met with a friend from Europe, lets call him Mao, who was traveling in Australia and NZ. The three of us travelled further in a relaxed pace to enjoy a roadtrip from Picton to Nelson to visit the Abel Tasman National Park. From there we followed the west coast and moved south towards the glaciers.

Old MacDonald's farm

View on Fox

The glaciers were an awe inspiring sight. We shot many beautifull pictures there. Above you see our view on the glaciers. After the glaciers we moved further south to Milford Sound. Here we had our second dolphin sight (our first was at Mount Maunganui) on a 1 day cruise. My girlfriend was in the water when they were sighted. I saw the fins coming out of the water in a distance.. the sight remembered me of other fish. I checked my Lonely to see whether those swam in these waters. Nope.. phew. With camera ready I tried to take some nice shots from the boat. However, just seconds after the sighting the entire boat jumped in the water to "swim" with them. Ofcourse this scared the dolphins off... The evening the three of us spent playing a good game of Cluedo with another cruising couple.

Dolphins

Scenery

At Christchurch we had our last dinner together. We would fly back to Europe via Auckland, Mao would stay a bit longer. Our last money was spent on a fancy Hotel in the center of Auckland, where we recounted our adventures in Middle Earth.. eurhm New Zealand.