Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Frosty's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
8:25 am	Leuven traffic Left home this morning,  still sleepy. Walking with bike. Got on bike... enter bicycle path with 1 wheel.... to see a woman coming from my left bicycling downhill at breakneck speed! I back up (covering about 1/4th of the path with half of my front wheel), but instead of slightly adjusting to go around me, she  banks sharply to the left, leaves the path entirely, swirves out into the middle of the road (fortunately there was no other traffic this early), screaming her lungs out . After about 20 meters of screaming she stops and starts crying. So I go over to her to make sure she's allright and she begins to scream at me. "Can't you watch where you're going! A child was killed here you know!" My attempts to explain to her that I was in fact standing still and not cycling (since I had just gotten on my bike) fall on deafmans ears. ("You were not standing still!") Fortunately I manage to stay calm through her tirade and politely apologised for upsetting her, but she remained angry and I felt rather shaken afterwards nonetheless. Ah, Leuven traffic... every morning an adventure... Current Mood: intimidated (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, August 15th, 2010
5:02 pm	Schwarzwald vacation report: days 5 and 6 Day 5 As predicted, it rained on thursday. There were two types of rain. Short (but heavy) showers and a rain so slight, you barely felt it as anything more than a slight tickling on your skin. Fortunately as the day progressed, the heavy showers stopped and we did some more hiking. Day 6 This trip's last day of hiking, as well as our trip's last dinner in the Schwarzwald. We saved the best for last, as we went to "cafe Eickler". On fridays they served their famous "Schwarzwald Forel" (trout), which definitely lived up to its name. They also served the best cherry pie of any place we'd been. All in all, if we ever return to the Black Forest, cafe Eickler will be one of the main reasons! Pictures of day 5 and 6 Day 7 This day we went back home. We didnt take many pictures, altho we did have some time to kill in Frankfurt, which we explored a bit. We also spent some time here looking at an impressive exposition of World press photo's. The train ride back was uneventful, if a bit chaotic. Looking out of our window in Kohln, we already felt plans for a future city trip coming up... But that'll have to wait for another time. For now it's good to be back. Leuven greeted us with Marktrock and at home our well-looked-after (thanks Jules/Jan!) kitty anxiously waited for us. Ruri was too happy to see us to even pretend to be upset. Many cuddles followed. Current Mood: relaxed (Comment on this)
4:32 pm	Schwarzwald vacation report: day 4 Day 4 We'd heard it would rain on thursday, so we decided to undertake our largest hiking tour (The Holzmacher tour) on wednesday. The furthest point of the walk was a lake, up north. It was an incredibly enjoyable hike.  At the start there were many benches/brunne, to catch our breath. Then as we got further away from Tonbach, we started finding ourselves on smaller and smaller paths. I think at some point we walked for more than 3 hours without ever seeing anyone else. But there were more than enough signs showing us where to go and we never once felt like we were getting lost. Ofcourse as we got to the point overlooking the lake, suddenly there were other tourists again. There must've been a bigger/straighter road to get there, than our scenic tour. Yet I'm sure we had the better deal, as we discovered some really great places, lovely sights and unparalleled peace and quiet. We came home to our cottage, tired, yet exhilerated. Although every day of our holiday was wonderful in one way or another, this one was probably the best. Pictures of day 4 Current Mood: relaxed (Comment on this)
3:11 pm	Schwarzwald vacation report: days 2 and 3 Picking things up where I left off... Day 2 On sunday we took things relatively easy. We went hiking over one of the easier routes (but with some of our own modifications). At some point the map told us we were near something called "PudelStein" and since we had no clue what a Pudelstein was, we made a small detour. It turns out that the "Pudelstein" was an unusual rock-formation and the source of quite some local superstition. We had our lunch on top of it and headed back home, exploring interesting-looking paths and places along the way. Pictures of day 2 Day 3 The next day we went for something of a city-trip to nearby Freudenstadt. Hurray for free public transportation! Taking the train in the black forest is not unlike a theme-park ride, complete with tunnels, cliffs and breath-taking views. In Freudenstadt, Richard proved himself as a tour-guide, as we explored the city and the galleries of what is supposedly the largest market-place in Germany. Pictures of day 3 Current Mood: relaxed (Comment on this)
2:56 pm	Schwarzwald vacation report: day 1 Whew! Back from a week-long holiday in the Black Forest in Germany, where we did some heavy relaxing. Ok, so we did some more things than that. For one thing, the area around the village where we were staying, Tonbach, is known as "Hiking Heaven"  and for good reason. Go check out google maps. Go ahead, I'll wait. (We didn't stay in Hotel Waldlust, but our vacation-house was near there). Now scroll up. See all that forest to the north of Tonbach? That's where we've been hiking. But let me start at the beginning with: Day 1 We arrived early on Baiersbronn station and made the mistake of walking to our vacation home, with all our luggage. We took a "shortcut" over the mountains, which meant we were pretty much exhausted once we arrived. Upon arrival our incredibly hospitable landlord presented us with loads of refreshing drinks and our "tourist pass". Which meant free public transportation throughout the Schwarzwald for the duration of our stay. We also found there was a bus stop, around three minutes away. Basically we'd been doing the equivalent of climbing a mountain, to find out there was a perfectly good road on the other side. Fortunately now we could dump our luggage and enjoy the wonderful place we'd arrived in. We'd arrived relatively early, because we'd been notified there was going to be some sort of local festival in town today. As it turned out, it was the "Tonbachbeleuchtung". The traditional "Festival of lights", occurring once every two years. Tonbach is a tiny, tiny town, probably housing more tourists than inhabitants. But for this festival, lots of people showed up, from all over. The inhabitants, hotels and restaurants all decorated their houses with lights and the fields and rivers were filled with candles in various shapes. There was music and ofcourse really cheap and really tasty "beer und bratwurst". I discovered my new favorite drink "Apfelschorle". To top it off, there were fireworks in the evening. I tried to make pictures, but I don't think they did the experience much justice (my camera is simply not made for making pictures in the dark). Check them out here: Day 1 pictures. Current Mood: relaxed (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
2:52 am	The End Welcome to my epic review of the Lost-finale! I’ve thought a long time about whether or not I should post this. First off, it is loooong. Far longer than I anticipated when I started writing. Second, it is something I wrote not too long after watching the finale. I could not stop shaking. I could not concentrate on anything else. Writing this was a way for me to unwind. It was before I'd read any other reviews. Just my raw thoughts/ramblings. (With some small edits afterwards). I’m not sure if it makes for good reading for anyone but me. So yeah..  ( Continue at your own risk... ) Current Mood: rejuvenated (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
8:28 am	Catfight! Ruri's been going outside quite happily for a few weeks now. Ofcourse with going outside comes the need to defend her territory from other cats. Fortunately the only other cat she met until yesterday was the one we dubbed "Snowkitty" (since we caught her this winter, playing with the snow). Snowkitty is mostly pacifistic, calm and playful and definitely not about to make trouble with Ruri. So when Ruri started hissing at her, she calmly retreated, as if wondering what all the fuzz was about. Unfortunately yesterday Ruri met the cat we've dubbed "zombie-cat". A large red male cat with dim fur and a strange, almost lethargic demeanor. He seems to be a stray, street-hardened and non-social cat. I'd been a bit worried about Ruri running into him, not in the least since he doesn't seem to be quite healthy.  So yesterday; after a terrified mewling from outside just in time to see Zombie-cat run away. Ruri was hiding in the bushes, nestled as far in as she possibly could and growled whenever she heard/saw anything (including us) move. Hoping she'd calm down, we gave it 15 minutes. By then she'd only managed to crawl into the bushes even farther and continued to growl almost non-stop. The behavior of a wounded cat. Half an hour later with no improvement, we decided it had been enough and tried to approach her. She startled before we could even touch her and ran away. I use "ran" in the broadest sense of the word as she was slow and clearly limping. Eventually we managed to herd her inside. Although we're unable to see any clear wounds on her, she's still limping a day later. She doesn't like to put weight on her right front paw. Hopefully she'll show some improvements soon. She's not going outside again until she's better! Current Mood: worried (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 29th, 2010
11:53 am	A dream in the desert So yeah, all my good intentions of writing more about games... and my last LJ entry has been posted ages ago. What happened? The answer is simple: ATITD happened. A Tale In The Desert technically qualifies as an mmo and we all know what those do to your gaming time. That's not to say I haven't been playing other games. Dragon age and Final Fantasy XIII have both been occupying a lot of my attention. But I haven't finished either yet (Altho I'm practically done with DA). I might write about them when I'm done. But for now I'll tell you about the only MMO I couldn't stay away from after I quit the first time. A game that looks like it came out of the 90's and has all the user-friendly-ness of a cactus (which incidentally grow all over its game world). A game that is best played listening to audio-books as it doesn't have any sound to speak off and the gameplay can be horendously slow. Why, despite all of this, do I still love this game? I'll try to explain by example. I've been living in Queen's retreat for a while now. I remember it as a vibrant place, full of people, houses, life. This is a new Shard though. A new game-server. And the population has shifted to other places. Queen's retreat is nearly abandoned. I started out when there were two others living here. Now one of them has been gone longer than I remember and from talks with the other I've gleaned she's moving to Paris, so she will be offline for a while too. Now it's just me, living at the edge of civilization. But I don't mind. Queen's retreat is mine. Everything I build stands as proof that I was here. Every day I work these lands, look after my camels and create buildings and artworks, is one that changes this region, even if only in small ways. One of the advantages of living in a remote are, is having your pick of a place to settle. There's not too many rules to ATITD and no combat or PVP, but one source of player conflict is often claims on land. For example, certain buildings cause pollution. It can be a nasty surprise to come home one day and find someone has discovered an iron vein underneath your compound and has decided to build a mine right next to it. Too much pollution and you can forget about growing flax or harvesting wood. No such problems in Queen's Retreat though. More than enough space for anyone. No crowding or contests over rare ore veins or clay patches. I made my home not too far from the Nile, and next to a small lake with a fountain. This fountain is an anomaly. A leftover relic from a different time. Pretty much everything in the game is build by players, but sometimes there are small easter eggs like this. Leftovers from other shards, other tales. I discovered the fountain after much exploration and as soon as I saw it, I knew: this would be my home. It had everything I needed. Trees for wood, clay, sand, water, even the occasional wild herbs sprouting up. Idyllic was the word and it was good. It was also located close to the center of the region. Any new players settling here would likely not be too far away. A good neighbor is worth quite a lot, as even though I enjoy my hermit existence, some things in this game are much easier when you can do them together. I'm not all alone. On occasion a traveler will pass by. Surprised to find me living in such a remote region. They're Cicada-hunters. A game that's popular in Egypt involves the hiding of Cicada's. It's called the "test of the singing cicada".  These creatures make a typical noise, audible for quite some distance. The longer your cicada's stay hidden from other players, the more points you earn. Conversely, discovering cicada's that have been hidden for a long time, nets you a nice amount of points. A region as remote as Queen's retreat is an ideal candidate for hiding cicada's. And I've been using it to my advantage. A short trip into the desert generally earns me enough points to get near the top of the list. The people with the most points get a point in their "speed" stat, allowing them to move around faster. After they gain speed, their cicada points are reset and they have to search anew, giving other players the chance to compete. Currently my speed is at 2 and I have barely been looking. I finally managed to hide my own cicada's too, the other day and can now look forward to a steady influx of points as I doubt anyone will find them in the untouched lands I placed them. In fact I discovered some rare resources that are spread over the game world when it's first created near my cicada cage. Proof that I was the first to go there since the start of this shard, as anyone passing by would surely have taken these. There's something exciting about being the first to go somewhere. Even if it's only in a game. Yesterday I ventured outside of my oasis to travel to one of the more populated areas. Amidst dozens of houses, build all over the place it truly felt like a "trip to the big city". My destination was a "Shrine of conflict". Something Queen's retreat doesn't have yet as it requires quite a lot of resources and manpower to build one and I consider it easier to simply travel to one elsewhere. This shrine was the entry point to one of ATITD's tournaments. Basically you compete against other players in simple games. It makes for a nice distraction from the usual tasks and there's the opportunity to win rare and valuable prizes. The game was "telepathy" or "tug of war". It was easy to learn as the rules were incredibly simple, but surprisingly deep and intense to play. I came away as being in the "top 14". My reward was some sheet glass. Not one of the more sensational prizes, but well worth my time. Sheet glass can be tricky and labour-intensive to make yourself. Hopefully I'll be able to save enough to build a greenhouse at my oasis one day. Having one or more greenhouses will simplify some of the tasks I do by hand now. And with that my settlement will grow. Even if only a little. Ah, the dreams of a settler in Egypt. More dreams, next time. Current Mood: accomplished (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
1:39 pm	Wijnpers Well, it's official. We've got the job! Thanks everyone for your advice. It's really appreciated. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, December 21st, 2009
10:43 pm	Help! Well, deadline to decide if we want the job is coming up fast. And I’m stuck as can be. I’m in desperate need of some advice. For those of you who are not up-to-date, here’s the short version: Through an internal job-offer, I got the opportunity to work as a groundskeeper at the Wijnpers school in central leuven. The job will run alongside our normal jobs and basically means opening and closing the school and doing some other small tasks, like checking for signs of vandalism/keeping an eye on fire-safety etc. In exchange we get to live on the schoolgrounds in a very nice house (and central in Leuven) with all expenses (gas/electricity) paid. The reasons to take it are obvious, but let me list them: Richard is enthusiastic and supportive, which is very important for me. Obviously this is a 2-person job/decision. Very nice house (3 bedrooms and huge kitchen) in central Leuven. Saves expenses and our financial situation isn’t too great, so it’d be a big relief. Huge area for Ruri to run around it (it’s an agricultural school, so many fields/natury bits around it). Something totally different and adventurous! Reasons I’m hesitant: We’d have to move between Christmas and new year. I HATE moving with a passion. I hate rushed/forced moving even more. The thought alone is depressing me. The grounds are HUGE. Simply walking across them and opening all the buildings will take 30 minutes, doing our daily inspection will take at least an hour. School opens at 7:00. So I’d have to get up 1 and a half hour earlier than I’m used to. Getting up before 7:00 is a sin as far as I’m concerned. I hate it, I’m bad at it and it makes me grumpy for the rest of the day. I guess I’ll adjust, but at the moment it’s an obstacle. The school closes at 16:30, which is fine by me. We can do the rounds then. But unfortunately there’s evening school every weekday. This ends at 21:30. So we would not be able to go anywhere later than 21:30 on weekdays. If friends come over to roleplay on friday, we’d have to do it at our place and have to take a fairly large break around that time. On the other hand, Saturdays (our chosen free day) and Sundays (only school till 12:00 then) would be fine. Aside from evening school there’s dance-classes in the evenings (I’m not sure which ones), which might mess up our schedule even more. We’d have to be on standby all the time as our phone line is the schools phone-line after normal business hours. No clue how often this will be used. I'm worried about this really messing up our independance/flexibility. On the one hand I am thinking I shouldn't do this if it (already) causes me this much stress. On the other hand it feels like throwing away a great opportunity simply because I'm scared of change/having a bad case of winter-depression. If we don’t want to do this, we really should mention something tomorrow/wednesday at the latest. I am completely torn, so any advice/opinions are very, very, very welcome! Current Mood: uncomfortable (22 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
10:38 pm	moviegoinggoodness For those of you not on Facebook (anyone left?) we're going to see Avatar (the James Cameron movie, not the Last Airbender) this monday at 20:15 at Kinepolis. So I guess we're buying tickets at 20:00 at the latest. Want to come along? :) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 6th, 2009
7:27 pm	Silent Hill 2 Review Inspired by several “scary Halloween game” articles, I chose to delve into a horror game that seemed to be near the top of everyone’s list: Silent Hill 2. And although I don’t often write about games anymore (something I’m intending to change, but that’s another topic) Silent Hill 2 left enough of an impression for me to want to say a few words about it. Let me get the bad stuff out of the way first. This is by no means a perfect game. The gameplay can be a bit linear, involving a lot of backtracking and key-collecting. The game is  a bit old and although the graphics are still fine, they are starting to show their wear. The port to PC (this is the version I played) is, as is often the case with console to pc ports, not too great. There are no mouse controls and the keyboard controls feel sluggish and unintuitive at times. The camera angles are often stuck in a way to intentionally obscure your vision, but just as often you do have to manually adjust the camera in order to see ahead of you. Also: bugs. If you’re unlucky it might take some work to get your pc version running without glitches. Fortunately the game ran mostly fine for me. One movie was skipped for some reason and I had a few occasions where the sound entered some sort of loop and I had to reset the game, but other than that I had no problems. Now the good stuff, which is fortunately also the important stuff: Story and atmosphere. As Yahtzee pointed out in his review, the atmosphere in this game is amazing(ly depressing). Wandering through Silent Hill invokes feelings of loneliness and loss unlike any other game I know. The story revolves around James Sunderland. He’s received a letter from his wife: “In my restless dreams, I see that town. Silent Hill. You promised you'd take me there again someday. But you never did. Well I'm alone there now... In our 'special place'... Waiting for you.” And so he’s traveled to Silent Hill, wondering all the while which “special place” she’s referring too (be more specific, woman!). Only problem is: His wife died 3 years ago! All too soon it becomes clear that James is a protagonist who doesn’t have too much regard for his own life, as even warnings of the many strange happenings in the town do nothing to deter him. Here is a man who has nothing left to lose. As usual in Silent Hill games, the town is filled with a thick fog and truly disturbing creatures wander the streets. This is no Resident evil, however. Most of the creatures are easily avoided and combat takes a backseat to careful exploration and puzzle-solving. As you progress through the game, things become more and more surrealistic. More and more it seems as if you’re truly descending (sometimes quite literally) into the nightmarish mind of a truly disturbed individual. Everything is drenched in symbolism. This is true for the locations James visits, but also for the monsters which you slowly come to suspect might be nothing more than demons created by James' own mind. Unlike most horror stories that focus on cults, hauntings and resurrecting ancient demons, Silent Hill 2 takes its themes of loss, guilt and lust, and explores them to almost uncomfortable levels. There are some horrific images in this game, and I can safely say it's earned its mature-game rating. I was hesitant to try this game, as it’s a bit older and a console port of a genre I don’t usually play, but I’m really glad I did. It’s by no means perfect, but I definitely enjoyed the experience. Should you be hesitant to try it due to the gameplay issues, I can fully recommend watching the “Let’s play” by Lordvega, to be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgRaZFp6uWE There, another game gone from my “game-classic, must play” list. Now I'm all ready for Dragon's Age! Current Mood: impressed (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
7:04 pm	Droomkronieken Got to love having a camera. It allowed me make a gazillion pictures of the Changeling midsummer-night's Larp session. If you played, or are just curious, here they are Needless to say: we had fun! Current Mood: cheerful (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 12th, 2009
7:16 pm	Super fast linky update So, I haven't updated in a while (except for attempting to plan seeing the Startrek movie). What else have I been up to? Well:  We visited Vienna! Pictures are here. We played tourists in the city, seeing the sights and also played board games with Namy and his friends. Special thanks to Richards parents for buying us a camera. Now we can make pictures of interesting buildings when we go on vacation and of Ruri, the rest of the year. Talking about board games, the BSG board game is really fun! And there's an expansion on the way for increased fun-potential. :) Aside from board games and computer games (ATITD still rocks!) we haven't actually been roleplaying as the exams are upon us and we finished our Exalted campaign. New games will start in a few weeks though. My one exam "inleiding tot de wijsbegeerte" (studying for fun, really) is done, but Richard still has two more to go. In the meantime I've added another useless skill that's good for cocktail parties (too bad I don't drink cocktails) to my resume: talking about famous philosophers. I must say I actually enjoyed learning about them. :) Current Mood: okay (5 Comments |Comment on this)
3:16 pm	Startrek: The final confrontation Hi all! Going to give it one more try! Who wants to come to Startrek?  Designated place: Kinepolis Leuven. Designated day: Sunday 14/6 Designated time 16:30 (movie starts at 16:45). It's a bit of an annoying time, but it's also the ONLY time the movie still plays. Richard and me have by now seen it in Vienna and can vouch for it being a fun movie (even if you dont usually like Startrek). Current Mood: energetic (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 24th, 2009
11:47 am	Startrek problem Got a problem with the movie tonight. Kinepolis sneakily went and changed their schedule behind my back! The movie is no longer playing at 19:45. Instead it's playing at 16:45 (too early) and 22:30 (too late). So I'm afraid I have to cancel. Really sorry about the misunderstanding. :( Current Mood: uncomfortable (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 16th, 2009
1:17 am	Another season of Lost over and done with. Only one more to go. I know I'll miss it when it's gone. Seeing how I'm probably the only person left on the planet actually still in love with Lost, I won't write too much about it here. Especially since there are wonderful blogs out there, like the one of Doc Jenssen, whose recaps and theories are a must-read for anyone still watching the show. I really like his thoughts on the season-finale: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1550612_20245769_20278837,00.html He might not be 100% right, but I do think he's on to something with his theories regarding Jacob's visits and what we might see happen next season. It would be an interesting direction for the show and I could see it leading towards a wholly satisfactory ending. Whether he's right or not, I'm sure we're in for quite a ride... next year. Next year... that's so far away! There'd better be some good shows in the meantime. I might try watching Dollhouse. Anyone got other suggestions? It seems I have a year to kill... Current Mood: creative (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
7:47 pm	Brainwash Brainwash in Leuven is usually a great place to get a haircut. No appointments, fair rates (same cost for men and women) and fairly friendly staff. Brainwash in Leuven is not a good place to go to on a thursday when they're understaffed. The very friendly, but stressed out barber totally didnt understand that I wanted blonde and red stripes in my hair, as usual.  He thought I wanted blonde stripes, then have them painted over with red, resulting in this: Figured I should share this picture, before I decide to wash my hair a gazillion times. ;) Current Mood: weird (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 9th, 2009
2:39 pm	Startrek? Who wants to come see the Startrek movie? I'd suggest going sunday may 24th, movie of 19:45. Not too late, since most people have to work the next day. Here's the trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/startrek/startrek_trailer2_large.html Current Mood: curious (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
5:03 pm	Vice guide to North Korea I've always been somewhat fascinated by North Korea. Mostly because no-one really seems to know anything about it. What's going on in that strange, strange country? Strange, strange things according to this documentary: http://www.vbs.tv/shows.php?show=1442318652 If you have as much as a passing interest in North Korea,I can fully recommend checking it out. (Note: there's a "skip ad" button at the top left of the movie screen, which you'll be grateful for since there are 14 - 5 minute episodes, with an add in front of each one). Current Mood: weird (4 Comments |Comment on this)