Åiken's Stereotypical Live Journal

The floor here will kill you. Try to avoid it.

2008-06-30T08:08:05Z

http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/29/glados-gps-voice-pack-just-wants-to-help-you-find-your-way-to-t/

I don't need a GPS system, but this makes me want one.

FALSE ALARM

2008-06-06T16:36:45Z

Turns out this is actually quite boring and mediocre no one click here okay.

Dreamtime!

2008-05-30T08:34:48Z

Had a dream last night that I was playing some sort of masquerade-esque sci-fi LARP with my NZ posse - there was me, Dan, Andy, Jarrod, Callum, Chris, and probably some other people. What really amused me was that me, Andy and Jarrod had all based our characters on Avon from Blake's 7. So we were all talking to each other in terrible, over the-top sentences and trying to out do each other with cold cynicism. I actually cracked up laughing later in the dream as I remembered it, and I was grinning this morning when I woke up. I guess I'm slightly homesick? Either that or I need to dress in [fabulous costumes and roam the galaxy being awesome.

Come with us through the gates of hell

2008-05-24T09:11:07Z

I've been helping Fred with his massive Something Awful thread about mutated and mangled animals fighting each other in brutal pit fights.

Last night, we ended it, with a video I spent EIGHT HOURS editing.

I encourage everyone to read the thread (it's huge but you don't have anything better to do, surely), then watch the video. Or at least watch the video.

EIGHT HOURS.

And it goes a little something like THIS

2008-05-21T10:29:39Z

In the trail of fire I'll burn before you bury me.

2008-05-19T20:59:00Z

The Pendulum gig was FUCKING AMAZING as I thought it would be. There's already clips from the gig on YouTube, but they don't really capture the atmosphere. Or how fucking hot it was.

Jes has gone back to the US for a couple of weeks to Boogie it up, so there's noone to really drag me away from the computer. But if I do venture outside, perhaps it would be to live in Aquatic Libertarian ~~nightmare~~ paradise. A man is entitled to the sweat of his own brow you know (I wonder if they'll have a giant statue of Ron Paul at the door?)

Completed Genestealer Patriarch

2008-05-07T09:55:15Z

"If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing"

Horrific Supernatural News, Everyone!

2008-05-04T22:31:52Z

Cosmonauts are go

2008-04-25T08:41:14Z

Russia is fast becoming my favorite go-to country for space awesomeness. Unlike all those other countries with their "unammed rovers" and "sub-orbital hops", our eastern Comrades are sending monkeys to mars and proposing orbital construction plants

Hell yeah, Russia. HELL YEAH.

Follow up

2008-04-14T07:52:23Z

SIGN (Seen on the corner of Greater Scotland Yard and Whitehall)

Fatal Collision

Thursday

27th of March

8:20 am

Guess the motorcyclist didn't make it.

Fun fun fun, with the Sun Sun Sun

2008-04-12T18:55:12Z

Today we made Cynotypes!

Not pictured, the lovely splash of blue across my hands where the UV-reactive chemicals spashed.

Oh New Zealand...

2008-04-07T13:39:29Z

...even your crimes are hillariously rubbish.

"The police spokesman said the suspect was arrested "for assault with a weapon, namely the hedgehog."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7334233.stm

Meanwhile, in London.

2008-03-27T08:56:42Z

I think I saw a corpse today, lying glassy-eyed on Whitehall, Nelson peering down at him from his column, as curious as the rest of us. The road had been blocked off but my fellow cyclists and I could dismount and wheel our bikes along the footpath, trying not to stare as a policeman beat with practiced measure on the chest of the young motorcyclist.

Of Pirates and Vikings

2008-03-15T11:36:59Z

The first supporting act was a ferocious Scottish Pirate Metal band by the name of Alestorm.

There were guys wearing chainmail in the mosh pit. This didn't put us off, it just made things more interesting.

Jo's friends are awesome. Kai, Martha and.. the other one who I can't remember the name of. Sorry The Other One!

And finally.. TURISAS. You can't really fault a metal band with an accordian player, a violinist, a viking attitude and a cover of Bony M's Rasputin (James, go looking for it if you don't have it already). And the Battle Metal finale was supremely kickass.

That's my arm by the way.

Okay, now this is cool

2008-03-11T11:57:12Z

Project Constant Peg

"For more than a decade, until just before the November 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, a secret Air Force aggressor unit flew Soviet MiGs in more than 15,000 sorties against US Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps pilots."

Battle! Metal!

2008-03-10T10:23:58Z

So.. uh... it seems that I'm going to see Turisas on Thursday.

ALSO: Sea Slug inspires brain implant. "This ability to morph could help build therapeutic devices to be implanted into the brains of patients who suffer from Parkinson's disease, stroke or spinal cord injuries.".

Coming next from BBC World, "Wealthy Industrialist to build Undersea Utopia".

Your dose of links - Weirdness of the Deep edition

2008-02-29T11:41:17Z

The Armored Snail - "Waren said that when he first examined the sea snail, the animal's magnetized scales kept sticking to his forceps. He guessed that an iron mineral was involved."
The "Slowdown" sound - From the same ocean that bought you The Bloop.
Tongue Eating Parasite - "As the parasite grows, less and less blood reaches the tongue, and eventually the organ atrophies from lack of blood"

Post Apocalyptic Party Photos

2008-02-17T13:18:18Z

So how good was the Robot Opressors vs Human Resistance Fighters party?

Pretty damn good.

Insufficient Update

2008-01-04T15:06:55Z

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED FROM THE NEW YEAR'S PARTY AT DEAN'S HOUSE

- I can limbo when I'm drunk.
- The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air theme is AWESOME
- People are quite excited about Fred's robotastic welcome home party.

ALSO: We have a new (temporary) flatmate, his name is Richard, he's 28, he's here till February.

You can almost hear the air-raid siren

2007-12-23T16:32:19Z

Santacon!

2007-12-15T23:51:24Z

Ho ho ho!

HELL YEAH

2007-11-28T17:45:17Z

NASA outlines manned Mars vision

"The US space agency envisages despatching a "minimal" crew on a 30-month round trip to the Red Planet in a 400,000kg (880,000lb) spacecraft."

Yes. Yes yes yes. Please let this end up becoming reality. I want people on Mars in my lifetime.

Dreamtime

2007-11-28T09:27:46Z

Just before I fell asleep last night I had an incredibly vivid dream about walking down a street in London. It was Christmas and I was with some friends (not sure who exactly). I looked up, and I could actually see STARS! (light pollution usually blocks out all but the brightest). It wasn't all that an impressive panorama, but they were still there, and sparkling strangely, flashing red every so often. I was incredibly excited/happy by this fact, and kept pointing it out and asking "why are they sparkling?". And then we saw some metors, breif streaks of light across the sky. And then I woke up, still feeling happy about the universe.

I can't remember all of the details of the dream I had just before waking, but it involved being on a pirate ship, then being forced to land at an airport(?) in the US. Oh, and then my bag was searched and they found the big bag of weed I was apparantly trying to smuggle in (see, we were on a pirate ship, so they wouldn't search us OF COURSE). And then arguing with the customs guy that a) I wasn't even supposed to be here, we were heading for the UK, and b) I would now miss my connecting flight. I think it actually worked, I recall him not only getting me another flight, but upgrading me to business class. And also Jes saw my pack being searched and had enough time to dump her own contraband. So.. uh.. yah?

Your linkorama

2007-11-26T14:19:26Z

Pulp Muppets

Tattoos of SCIENCE

A new DAN DARE comic!

ADDITIONAL:

Exoskeletons are AWESOME

More like Tanks Shiving

2007-11-23T15:53:08Z

Jes's annual Thanksgiving feast was truly excellent, with everyone involved gorging themselves on fine Southern cooking until they couldn't move and had to be rolled out the door like Violet Beauregarde after she got to the dessert bit of the gum. On the down side I am ill with a horrible sinus cold that kept me off work on Wednesday. Like a fool I went back to work yesterday, which gave the virus enough time to stage a counter attack that floored me last night after the meal. It's not a pleasant sensation to wake up every 10 minutes with your face stuffed full of mucus and a miscellaneous Flight of the Conchords song stuck in your head (it seemed to alternate between Robots and Business Time mainly). So off work again today and trying to recover, and also deal with millions of dirty dishes left behind after our communal prayer to excess consumption.

If I can drag myself out though, El mentioned that there's the Erotica expo on this weekend, and Jes seems keen.