Are you coming to the Toga Party?

On August 22nd 16 people will be looking for a missing Secret Agent and the secret papers he carries with him. It's a real life role playing game.

As you all know I'm a huge fan of all things Fringe, X-Files and other suspense stuff (also with a pinch of humor, like Chuck) and wouldn't trade in my MMORPG's for a lot of money (especially now, that I'm finally in outland with my priest)

Now a bunch of brilliant people came up with the idea to use smart phones and other gadgetry to make their own mainstream LARP.
Do I really need to say it? I'm over the moon about it. If I were Mary Murphy I'd scream really loud and have them all on a hot tamale train to somewhere.

I'm not sure how the 16 poeple will get picked and who choses them, but I sincerely hope to take part in all the fun.

Wish me luck!
Yours truly,
@AgentPorter

Finally, a feminist Magazine

This week a new magazine lauched - Missy Magazine. As far as I know it's a German production that is targeted at Austrian, Swiss and German audiences. It tries to fill a gaping hole in a market consisting only of "boys" magazines about Cars, Computers and the like and "Girl" Magazines about how to apply make-up and be pretty for your boyfriend.
Sometimes (like on a plane or a much more private place) these are ok. Occasionally, I enjoy all those pamper-yourself beauty tips but usually I'm pissed off by heteronormativity and general ignorance of women with other interests than boyfriends and how to make him happy.
Missy Magazine seems to be a somewhat feminist project that recognises women of all colors, shapes and sizes and attempts to make the reader feel good about themselves afterward - and they succeed. After I had read the publication cover to cover I felt good about myself and energized to accomplish something - anything.
I really hope that keeps happening every time I'll read it...

A long and painful end...

Since yesterday I started and finished Secret Files, I thought about finishing up with some other games that I've started a while ago, too.
Tomb Raider: Anniversary is one of them. I started playing that a couple of days after christmas 07 and I only finished today.
I have played from time to time and always enjoyed it but then my focus scattered and I played other things instead. It happens.
This morning I thought to myself, "I only have two and a half levels left, I'll quickly finish them up." - WRONG!
There is nothing quick with Lara Croft. Even with the help of a wonderfully detailed walkthrough I wasn't proceeding as fast as I would've wanted to. But it's a Saturday, so it didn't matter.

The second to last boss battle was a slight appetizer of what was going to come in the end. My fingers started to feel a little uneasy but I thought I was almost done, why stop now.

In the end I had to play a couple of hours more, because I just couldn't beat the last enemy. It's not that I constantly died and had to restart - no, I just needed the 90 minutes (it felt like 4 hrs) to finally kill the enemy. If my fingers felt a little weak after the second to last boss, imagine how they feel right now (Not complaining, just saying).
I have no idea why it took me so long because the concept wasn't that difficult: enrage, get a clear shot, damage - repeat until dead. But somehow my fingers were too tired already and any slug could've outrun my usually fast reaction. But patience was rewarded and I killed the damn thing and saved the world again :)

PS: watch the trailer for the new Lara Croft adventure - I love it!


I'll be back tomorrow with news which game rendered my fingers immobile this time...

Excess Friday - how I saved the world in 7 hrs

I got myself (not saying how) the new Deep Silver game, Secret Files Puritas Cordis. It's the sequel to Secret Files Tunguska and it's a point and click adventure where you have to solve riddles. And no, it's not that easy.
Last time, I had thought that I had played excessively by playing it through in a couple of days with doing other things in between, but still being through quite fast. I blamed it on the full walkthrough I had at hand...

So this time around I played 7.3 hrs - yes, you guessed right - nonstop. I only stopped to eat and pee. Don't get me wrong it's not that great a game, I just couldn't stop. I wanted to solve that riddle and then the next and then it was a change of scenery and of course I have to know what happens. I only consulted the walkthrough 3 times and I'm quite proud of myself for that...
Spoler Alert: In the end the world was saved and the heroine and her ex/again bf are alive and well.

I wish you guys a great weekend. Spend your time wisely!

How to procrastinate at work

Here's to all the folks out there with jobs they don't like...

Try creating your own Middleman!!

Here's my Middleman (psst, it's a wallpaper)

randomness # 3592: just checking in

after finding myself busy but unfulfilled I got myself an idea for a new project. Actually, it was brought to me by Austrias main TV station, so thanks - I guess. (btw: Thanks to LG for the hint with NBC, but it's for US residents only, and I've not yet learned to fake my IP)
I really don't want to talk about what it is before it all is up and running (I'm superstituous that way) but it's gonna be very cool if it works out.
It'll be a lot of work though and I have to force myself taking it slow and not forget about getting myself a job to pay for it all. I hate priorities.
The problem is if I take things slow then I start getting lazy and do completely differnt things althogether, like playing games or procrastinating in other ways.
So I'm off being productive now...which means going to the store for food :)

under a spell

Since last Friday I'm officially between jobs. It's a scary place to be, I have to admit.
1.) I get fidgety if I don't have anything to do. Anything being something that brings in money.
2.) I never know what to do with myself after I took care of everything that I never get around to doing,..
3.) I have already cleaned the apartment top to bottom and I took 3 days to do it...who needs to hurry?
4.) I'm playing Spellforce (Platinum Ed.) for a week now and I can't seem to stop. I wanna do quest after quest and succeed. If only I was better, it wouldn't take me so long. I never thought I'd fall for an RPG. (Maybe I'll manage to take a picture of my kick-ass avatar)
Other than that I donwloaded a vintage game I played back in the 90ies. It's called the planner and it's about a guy taking a job as the head of a transportation service company. It's fun, but only if you have played it as a kid I guess...It's pixel-shit mixed with sentimental value...and I don't even know if they even ever made an english version...

I'll try to find something more interesting to blog about now...or maybe go playing again...

Dr. Horrible v Cpt. Hammer

I love myself some Buffy and Angel and I've always liked Firefly way too much and basically everything else Joss Whedon ever touched.
I might not be as bad as my gf, who by the way was introduced to Joss Whedon by ME!

Now there's Dr. Horrible's sing-along blog and act I is online and free to watch. Acts II and III will follow in the next few days and everything will be online until July 20th, so please be quick to watch it - it's fantastic.

Google it or click on the banner above and spend 13 minutes in the Whedonverse...

let's play cops and robbers

My boss called me Tuesday evening to ask me which day of the week the 28th was, because he was without his calender. When I told him it was a Saturday I heard him swear for the first time. I thought it was strange to be upset about this but was wise enough not to ask.
Yesterday, I was minding my own business in my little corner room office, he called me up ten minutes before I left to let me know that he was talking about July and not June and had forgot to mention that and that he would need me that day for a bit longer than my usual office hours and if it would be possible for me to make no plans for that day. I was impressed by him thinking that far into the future (he's usually not planning further than 10 minutes, that's what he has me for) that I said yes without knowing what he really needs. I had an idea what it might be, because a case that we've been working on fitted nicely into that pattern. I was so wrong.
I can't really go into detail because it's highly classified information (wow, doesn't that sound cool?) but he needs me to play the resident Mary Poppins for some people.
I was fighting hard to keep my face straight. I'm not the nurturing type, that's a fact. But I don't know how I could make anyone believe that I was. Plus I may need to get myself a British accent. I obviously wasn't doing a good job at conceiling my amusement because he asked me if I thought his plan sucked. I honestly told him that it was a brilliant plan but that it wasn't so brilliant to make me a nanny. There's quite a bit of money in it for me, though. And I really don't know anyone better for the job itself, if it weren't for the nanny part.

Bottom line: if any one of you has any hints and tips on how to appear like a nanny for two kids age 15 and 17, feel free to fire away and let me know. The kids will of course know that I'm not the nanny, but some other people really need to believe that I am.

LifeBall 2008

I kinda always wanted to see how it is. The atmosphere, the people and so on. But at the same time i never wanted to have to go through the process of selecting some sort of costume and make-up,...

I don't like the cult they create around their bodies. Also i'm always very intrigued by it.

Tickets cost about € 150 so it was out of the question anyway. So this year gf thought she needed to go because of work and i was less than thrilled of the thought of my unfit body half naked at a high society event. Almost a week later now i've grown accustomed to the thought of attending and seeing the likes of sharon stone, rose mcGowan and alan cumming there. I even had some ideas for make-up (yes, me bad lesbian. Me know how to apply make-up in emergencies) and clothes and really had begun to look forward to spending an evening with a bunch of crazies.

Now, gf tells me that she very likely will get no tickets anymore...



---

Sent via cell phone.

Remote as can be

This is the remote place i mentioned. sorry, i haven't found the function on my phone where i turn the picture...

Hiatus intermission #1

I just wandered about in what must be the most remote part of this town (if you're without a car, like me). It's beautiful though, green and a lot of good wine growing (sadly it wasn't grape stealing season).

Why i even went there? Well, i hunted a snake board a while ago and now i went to pick it up from the previous owner.

I used to own one in my mid-teen years and was doing ok but because there is no place to skate in the whole of austria i gave my board away. With the reemergence of skateboards i kind of started to miss my old board.

I promise to keep you up to date on all the fun and pain ahead!
Too bad i still have to finish the last term paper ever (which i hate because the topic is boring me to death.

slow motion

gf went to Hungary until Monday and has left me and the bunnies home alone with nothing to do but miss her...ok, it's not true that I don't have anything to do but I kinda feel that way.

So I thought I'd call up S, my best friend and it happened that I really reached her (which hardly ever happens) and we talked all afternoon. she doesn't live in vienna and we send e-mails more or less regularly, we talk occasionally and we haven't seen each other in three (!) years. I love these long talks about all and nothing, where afterwards I don't even know anymore what we talked about, it was just nice hearing her voice and knowing she's ok.

I haven't heard from gf yet (except that she arrived safely) and that worries me a bit, but I decided to believe everything's good.

the amazing thing is that S really is sort of my best friend (the relationship is hard to describe and not easy to understand for anyone who is not her or me, so I'll call it best friends) and gf hasn't even met her yet. we try for a year or so by now, but it hasn't happened yet. S decided that she's gonna come visit as soon as she has the money. She hates Vienna but she will come. and this time I kinda have the feeling that it really will happen.

I'm also a bit afraid of what will happen when gf meets S. Will they claw each others' eyes out, will the room freeze, will everything be nice and smooth? I admit it makes me nervous, because I can't control what will happen. I can't know or influence the outcome of a situation I want to be perfect so bad, it freaks me out...

I guess, I really need to learn how to let go and go with the situation, relax and stop controlling everything/one around me...

how come good ideas never come when the time is right?

everytime I should do something important like write two papers in four weeks, study for an exam during the same four weeks and do two presentation in exactly the same four weeks, I get creative. Stuff just comes out of nowhere and hits me. I have this idea and wouldn't it be so cool to actually do that? and I have the next idea and so an so forth and every single one of them seems so much more interesting than what I actually have to do. and the closer the deadline comes the more ideas I have and the more panic my face is stricken with...I hate these kind of things. when I have time on my hand this absolutely never happens...

finger trauma and a cruise to the loo

on thurstday I traumatised one joint of my right ring finger. it is now closely associated with a splint and I can't really type, which is crap considering I have an office job, where most of my time I have to type stuff.
but it's only gonna last for 4 weeks, said the doctor who doesn't have to type for his moneyl.
I wn't correct this postl I think itäs funnier this way.

let me tell you about our night out yesterday. it was this cocktail bar where we never would go to but a friend of gf had his b-day party there and there was this other lebian couple thereäö I had ondly noticed them when loppking fpr an empty chair to steal away foprm anopther table.
a couple of hours later there was - as alwoays - a queue in front of the ladies roopm and one of the fellow lesbians, waiting in front of me. she starts talking to me about how I like the bar and what not and being a polite person I engage in a conversation with the stranger...shouldn't have because a couple of seconds later when it was her turn to pee she kept talking to me through the door of her staöl. I couplöd have survived that but after she was doene she kept talking to me when she actually could've left after washing her handslö! I only wanted to pee, for G's sake! The whole thing was the sorry attempt of flirting which I now knopw because her last words befpre she vanished through the door were: "Actually, we kinda like you too." (duh!) then within the same second the bathroom door slammed shut and I was left behind wondering what that ws all about. when I returned to my seat and passed the table where this other couplpe had been sitting, they were gone. They had left within 30 sec after failing to chat me upl.
Welcpome to kindergarden!

olympic revolution

McC had this little questionnaire on her blog today. When I tried to answer the second question for myself I found I couldn't decide which olympic winter sport I wanted to choose.

then a couple of minutes later I opened our fridge and it hit me - no not the cold. there was red bull in the fridge and I thought that this is what I wanted to do.
of course it's not officially olympic or anything, but who says that the olympics can't be revolutionised?

new things

while surfing the net I came across a blog fueled by a very cool idea.
jen from new york started doing new things on the day she turned 29 and will do new things every day until she turns 30. that's the plan.
She blogs about what she's done right here and with that made ME do a completely new thing too. Thanks jen!
I read her blog from January through November. I've never read a whole blog before, so that's a definitely a new thing. Also it is very inspiring for people who like to have new ideas of fun things to do and have no problem with a little bit of procrastination.

I'll probably try something new of my own soon...very inspiring.

d&d international game day

apparently today was the international dungeons and dragons game day.
gf and I found a place to go and went.
we've never played before but it was quite fun...
only, I was a halfling, my only purpose being to hack someones toes of or wait for the big guys to finish off the enemies...

remind me next time to get myself a character that is not half-good at everything...(note: "half-good" not "half-bad"...that's a positive view on role playing!)

lego me

I saw gf creating a lego person on this website and being an old lego pro, I wanted to do that too.
So I went ahead and made a "me in 10 years" lego person.
I'm giving in to the fact that my hair will always look like I'm wearing a brown pot and also the choice of book came with the limited amount of backgrounds...
I have added it to my flickr since blogger wouldn't let me up load it to here...

so sorry.

edit: here's another one

last saturday

last saturday gf f with a visit to the worlds' oldest zoo. our zoo. the viennese zoo.
as a kid I used to go a lot and it was pretty cool. they have done a lot and are still doing to give these animals a good home. and one might say about wild animals in captivity, but they take good care of them.
so we had a very nice and relaxing day and I was overjoyed to have day off from life. thanks to gf for that. she even brought food and tea - very delicious.

of course we took pictures and I've uploaded them to my flickr...