Expanding the oath of hippocrates - TF2 style

Double fun today. A new update for Team Fortress 2. One new map and new achievements for the medic. Even more fun, gaining achievements unlocks new weapons for the medic. Uber.

Link to the new medic achievements

Link to the new map and medic weapons

Queens Day - the photos

Today is Queens Day here in the Netherlands so me and my girlfriend went out to celebrate. I made pictures and one of them was a picture of this adorable girl dressed up as a farmer girl. You can view the rest on Flickr.

Link

Japanese Gadgets - me wantz it

Over at Makezine a interesting article featuring all kinds of cool gadgets out of Japan. Apparently this is already volume 12 in a ongoing series.

I especially like the frog can crusher.

Link

The good, the bad, and the truly ugly

I like to know who visits my blogs. I will be honest and admit that it gives me a rush to know people viewed and actually read what I wrote. However I also use it for practical purpose so that I know what people liked to read, always know what your audience wants.

Well the good news is that today for the first time someone actually stumbled upon this blog by searching on google. From Singapore nonetheless, go Singapore.

The bad news is though that I can also see what that girl or guy, although I am almost convinced it is a bloke, was looking for on google. It was bad.

The truly ugly thing is that the exact phrase that was used, is... 'tania's blowjob assistant'

I used these three words in the Virgins for net-neutrality post and apparently you can now find me on google using that phrase.

I am so proud that google indexed me with the phrase 'blowjob assistant'.

Nifty poster for "Evil Dead: the Musical"

Best poster ever! To bad this musical is only in Toronto, but if Evil Dead: the Musical ever comes to Europe I will be on that front row.

( via Boing Boing )

Net Neutrality and a rather unorthodox way of defending it.

The internets have been in a kind of turmoil ever since the new CEO of Virgin, Neil Berkett, said in a interview that according to him net neutrality is bogus. Simply put net neutrality means that a provider does not discriminate between the websites and internetcompanies that pay them and those that do not. However Virgin suggested that they ought to discriminate; putting the websites that pay them on the fast lane, faster content loading, and those that do not pay Virgin on the slow lane, slower content loading and thus less user comfort.

Now this is rather serious as it would effectively mean that Virgin would decide for you which websites are easily accesible and which are not. Not surprisingly this has caused a lot of protest and already a movement that defends net-neutrality started and is growing as we speak.
So far nothing out of the ordinary. Here you have your average protest site, with some nice although a bit amatuerish protest-video's on it. The message is clear and they show how you can contribute by posting your own protest-video or putting their banner on your website. The only thing out of the ordinary is the rather, ahum, prominent insight the video-hostess shows on camera. But hey, it is 2008 we are no longer cavemen who stop functioning the moment we see only a hint of a boobie.

However after searching a bit more about net neutrality I came across what is probably the most unorthodox way of defending net neutrality. Our video-hostess returns and this time she 'promises' to make a man out of every virgin that is willing to defend net-neutrality.
Clearly this is a joke, the video-hostess who goes by the name of Tania Derveaux is a Belgian political activist and a few years ago she promised to give 40.000 blow'jobs' if people would vote for her during the elections. She kept her word and to everyone who voted for her a video was sent with Tania's blowjob assistant, a japanese actress, who simulated giving oral stimulation.

Now I have mixed feelings about this whole 'get the virgins support' action. On the one hand it is kind of funny. Personally I don't think it is really that funny but I applaud the effort to combat greedy Virgin CEO's in a lighthearted manner. Plus it does gets the attention of people, especially the 18+ plus virgin kind of people.
But on the other hand I wonder if these kind of jokes do not do more harm then good for the cause. It's hard to take a protest movement serious when one of its figureheads is willing to trade sex for support, even when it is meant as a joke. And it might also push away the people that would otherwise have supported you. The whole degrading of women issue I leave to the feminists, I want to stay as far away from that discussion as possible.

I wonder. I just hope it won't bite the pro net neutrality in the behind.

Gimmie's Discussion of the week: does the suit makes the Iron Man?

Usually when I hang around with friends at some stage the conversation transforms into a debate about stuff only people with mildly nerdy inclinations could argue about. So to preserve these discussions for later generations I decided to make it a weekly thing on Gimmie Blogs here.

Every week I'll post a question for you guys to discuss about in the comments. Questions can be about almost anything, it can range from politics to the deeper question of who was first: the egg, or the gnome?

And feel free to e-mail me with your own suggestions.

Our first discussion topic arised last night in the guildchat of my World of Warcraft guild. The excellent movie Iron Man is due to hit the cinema's so peeps were talking about the man in the iron suit. Things were pleasantly peaceful until somehow the discussion arose if Iron Man is still Iron Man if he does not wear the suit. Basically there were two sides: the first argued that the suit makes the Iron Man, so without his suit he is just a ordinary man, a rich one but ordinary nonetheless.

The other side claimed that it was not only the suit but also his personality that makes Iron Man the, well, man of iron. Yes his suit gives him his powers, but it is the man and his drive for doing good things that makes the superhero Iron Man. If say another person would wear the suit you would just have a bloke in a hightech combat suit, not Iron Man.

So does the suit makes the Iron Man, or is it something that comes from within that makes this superhero iron? Discuss!

Bizarre

Now this is a rather bizarre story. I wonder why no one just stood still for a moment to realize it was a false alarm. If the police is going to pull out every time someone calls about a bloke with a camera they will have severe problem with getting other things done, say catching criminals?

The Typing Race

Now this is a excellent way to learn to type with speed. It's fun, you can compete against other people and as a bonus you get to read snippets from books and movies that might interest you.

I wonder how this would work in a school environment.

Edit: My average wpm is 55.

A post about nothing

Usually I start the day by checking my mail and then have a quick look over at Boing Boing to look for anything interesting. Usually it has a bit of interesting news, websites that are worth a visit and yet another book to add to my ever increasing 'to read' list.

However this morning something peculiar happened. Between the post about new stuff and the latest gadgets suddenly out of nowhere a post called 'Untitled 1' appeared.
Besides the rather enigmatic title this post was empty. No text, no picture, nothing.

And yet people are swarming to it like moths to a light bulb. Comments are posted by the second. Last count was 256 comments, while on average a post gets around 50.
Bizarre how 'nothing' on the right location can draw so many people.

Or as one commenter said: 'It's like when a kid gets a really big, fancy present, he/she usually most enjoys playing with the empty box.'

How do you mean, there is a octopus on my date?

Ever since Blizzard introduced the Draenei as a playeable race in World of Warcraft, I wondered if not more then a few on the Blizzard staff have a kind of aliensex fetish. They knew already what players were doing with night elves in Goldshire, the equivalent of the Red Light District in Azeroth, so surely they must have foreseen the whole range of perversions that would open up by adding aliens with tentacles to the game.

Speaking about tentacles, John Scalzi one of my favorite SF writers made one of his short stories available on his blog, for free! The story revolves around the question how a romantical date with aliens would be like. I had a big smile while I read the story and some of the aliens Scalzi comes up with are hilarious.

The story is free, but if you like it you can always make a donation. Half of it goes to charity, so do your bid for humanity and donate in the name of alien sexuality.

link

Amnesty Waterboarding Ad

Amnesty is launching a new ad that shows a man being subjected to waterboarding, a interrogation technique currently used by the U.S. government whereby terrorist suspects have water forced down their throat simulating drowning.
Pretty shocking footage and this is just a few seconds with a actor in a controlled environment, imagine how it must be in reality.

The thing is though, besides the obvious wrongness of employing torture, why do people think you actually get useful intelligence out of it? Most people will tell everything you want to hear after only a few minutes of waterboarding. Even Dubya would probably admit he masterminded the 9-11 attacks if he got a few gulps of waterboarding.

Oh well, I am pretty sure that whichever candidate wins, Barack, Clinton or Mcain, the use of torture will be put to an end, hopefully.

Link to Amnesty Ad, not suitable for young children.

Funky milk

Never knew milk could be so much fun with just a little bit of extra.

(via Boing Boing)

Queens day

In exactly one week the orange fever will hit my country, the netherlands, again. Every year on the 30th of April the whole of Netherland dresses up in orange clothes, wigs, makeup and then proceeds to party the whole day long; drinking large amounts of beer and singing ever increasing offtune ' Oranje boven, leve de koningin'. ( It translates into ' Orange above all, long live the queen', it sounds better in dutch )


30th of April is Queensday in the Netherlands. On that day we celebrate the birthday of our queen and also the fact that we still have a royal house. It's amazing how many germans and french always come to celebrate as well; not so happy now that you discarded your kaiser&king, eh?

Queensday is a day full of traditions. For example on this day people are allowed to sell their old stuff on the street, usually resulting in parents trying to get rid of all the old and unused toys of their children. While in Amsterdam a kind of booze filled orgy erupts with loads of concerts throughout the city, it is tradition that our Queen visits a town and takes a tour of the place. ( it gets even more exciting in a few more sentences )

Now you have to realize that in the Netherlands there are only a few big cities so this usually means that our Queen visits a very small place, a village, every year. This of course is a big thing for a small village, so usually when a place is bestowed with such a honor they make damn well sure they have the event well organized. The Queen arrives and is welcomed by the local mayor who proceeds to show her all the exciting stuff that happens in his town: the local soccer club, little children that sing a song for the queen and the ever present game of 'Koekhappen'. ( Koekhappen is a game where a little cookie is hanged from a string in the air, the goal is trying to eat it without using your hands. It is for this reason our Queen always brings her sons with her so she doesn't have to do that )

And that's basically Queensday. Yes it's corny, but for some reason Queensday is always a day in the Netherlands when everyone is happy and having a great time.

Oh yes, the reason why I started blabbering about Queensday is this commercial I saw last night. Two things you need to know: 1) Our Queen is famous for wearing rather large and extravagant hats; 2) The term ' even apeldoorn bellen' is used in the Netherlands when you need to call your insurance because something very bad happened.

Gim out.

Graffiti art

Oh this is funny. I like graffiti when someone actually knows how to do it, plus this one makes you think about the ever increasing use of surveillance.

( via Bruce Schneier)

Diary of a zombielover

I love zombies. I mean I really love zombies. Not in the necrophiliac penetration of the bum way, but if there would be one thing you could wake me up for in the middle of the night its zombies.

Unfortunate most things that are about zombies are just plain brainless pulp. This means that most of the time I find a movie or book that has to do with zombies, it's usually the biggest crap on earth. Even porn has a better storyline then some of the zombieflics out there.

Luckily these last years have seen a steady increase in quality zombie products. World War Z is one of my favorite books, Shaun of the Dead and the remake of Dawn of the Dead were quality and every monday I get my zombie fix from this lovely webcomic.

But still everyone of these gems all pay tribute to the one man who is truly the godfather of the zombiegenre: George A. Romero.

Night of the Living Dead and the original Dawn of the Dead are one of my favorites and it has always saddened me that I would never see a Romero movie where it belongs: on the big screen. ( No, I did not go see Land of the Dead in the cinema because it was utter crap and Romero unworthy. I blame the studio not the godfather )

However Romero luckily returned to his independent roots and revived his Dead series with Diaries of the Dead. Unfortunate since it is a indie movie this means it will almost go straight to DVD and I was afraid I would never get to see it on the big screen. Imagine my elavated jumps of joy when I discovered that Diaries of the Dead would be screened during the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival. So last friday I bought myself a ticket and finally went to see zombies the way they are supposed to be viewed: enlarged and with dolby surround.

I can honestly say that Diaries is one of the better of Romero's movies, maybe even his best one. Diaries rebooted the whole universe so it starts at the beginning, making a new fresh start. Well as fresh as a movie that revolves around walking, rotting and smelly corpses can be.

The story revolves around a group of students and their professor making a little horror movie of their own. However when zombies begin to appear everywhere the group decides to flee and the young moviemaker decides to document their flight.

The whole movie you view through the eyes of the characters themselves, almost as if you were there. This considerable adds to the fear factor because you feel as if you are jumped by the undead instead of some geezer on the screen. Although there are some scare moments, there are not a lot of them. What Diaries does is creating a tense feeling you have the whole time your watching. Yes your safe now, but only for the time being. The next zombie is always just around the corner.

Funny enough Diaries is also one of the more funnier Romero movies, there are a few jokes in the movie that will make you laugh aloud, especially the part with the Amish.

It does not mean however, that Diaries is perfect. The actors are not really that good and some of the lines are just plain annoying. Also the social commentary what always made the other Dead movies so great really doesn't work in this one. Yes you have bit about the big tv networks contorting the truth but for the rest you basically follow a group that tries to survive.

In the end Diaries is a great movie and even if you don't love zombies the way I do, you will still like this one. Now I just have to get by on the pulp before the next Romero.

First

They say that on average each day 70.000 new blogs are created. Two thoughts come to me. The first: wow that is a lot of a blogs. The second: why on earth would I want to start my own blog if there is already more then a life's worth of reading blogs on the net?
Frankly I don't know. I guess the thought of writing just appeals to me and considering till date I have not yet completed a literary masterpiece or got asked to write a column for a renowned newspaper, blogging seems the best way to write and have people read it to.

Right reason for blogging, check. What's second, oh yes: what the heck I'm I going to write about?
Now, now, don't be afraid I won't bore you with the personal details of my life. No blogs about discovering that eating Chili in the evening leads to some interesting results in the toilet bowl the next morning. ( I fear that at this moment, somewhere, someone devoted a website of detailing, archiving and visualizing the peculiarities of his or her crap )
So that leaves things that are actually interesting. Hmmm, yes, interesting. I guess that would cover interesting things I run into on the web and in real life. Oh and don't forget my cat, cats are always interesting. The fact I don't have a cat yet is a minor inconvenience. I've always wanted a cat, but alas my current appartment is just to small for one. That does not however mean I can't already imagine the peculiarities and adventures of my future cat. I'm still discussing with my girlfriend if we are going to call him Biggie or Fatty; it's going to be one big, fat, red cat.

And oh yes, history. Especially the rather peculiar tales of history that make fascinating material for blog posts. Did you know for instance, the White House is called white, because the English burned it in 1814 and afterwards they used white paint to cover the scorch marks?

So that's probably how my blog is going to be. Random interesting stuff with the occasional tidbit of history and ramblings about a imaginary cat.
Things to blog about, checked.

And of course when I am almost done with my first post I realize I forget something very important: I forget to introduce myself.
The name is Gimeor, Gim or Gimmie for friends. No, my parents were not tree-hugging hippies that they gave me such a name, because it is not my real name. It's the name I've used for years now on the web and as such it has become a kind of second name for me. It only felt natural to use that name to sign my posts with.

Introduced myself, check.

Gim out.