life of yet another weirdo

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:15:05 GMT

I'm currently trying to kick myself out of hiding from everything, including myself. (This is easily done. All you need is something distracting, for example tvtropes.org and enough reading material.)

I'm trying to get back into drawing, because I owe stuff, and just general blah and disappointment with myself. Won't get better if I do nothing at all.

I also think I'm rambling.

At least I got something productive done recently, namely swapping winter and summer clothes from storage to wardrobe. Also helped my mother a bit with relocating books and stuff. We're finally getting a bit of new furniture for the sitting room, replacing the sideboard with a wall unit.

Microfiction: Plenty

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:56:35 GMT

Sometimes, survival was a struggle against nature. Finding shelter from the elements as well as food was essential.
Sometimes, the elements were all on your side, and food was there for the taking.
Nico wondered if it counted as person-against-nature or person-against self when she just could not stomach fruit that called out “Eat me! I’m ripe and juicy!” from its trees.
It was one reason why she disliked places that seemed taken right out of fairy tales.

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:50:14 GMT

The Projektpraktikum which I entered after the signup date is dominated by women, at a rate of two in three, which is very unusual for computer science.

That is, of the five people (me included) who wanted to take part originally, one said they'd drop out, one just didn't show up, and the rest is two women and one man. (Not counting the instructor)...

Review: Making Money

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:48:49 GMT

So, recently I finished re-reading Making Money, the 36th Discworld novel, by Terry Pratchett. I have read all of them, some of them more often than I can remember.

I’m a bit sad that in my mind the best part of Making Money is that the list of Discworld books on the first pages includes those for younger readers as part of the main series, rather than on a separate list. People going “they are children’s books, so they’re not Discworld book” were a kind of pet peeve of mine, while this novel just fell flat, to the point that I took a break to re-read a 50 volume manga series between chapters.

There were a few bits of impressive or funny descriptions, sure, and I did finish it, and maybe it’ll grow on me if I re-read it more often. For now at least, it just doesn’t click.

Mr Bent’s sermon-rants about gold at the start put me off, and the idea (suggested on the backcover an by Moist von Lipwig in the text) that he might be a vampire does not gel from the start, considering that that would be the first vampire not admitting to being one in how long? The entire series?
Gladys, the golem with a crush on her boss, the abrasive Adora Belle Dearhart, Moist’s old associate with the denture troubles, the Leonardo-with-a-narrower-specialisation, the generic slightly mad scientist and interchangable Igor, the utterly pathetic bad guy Cosmo… No-one in this book caught my sympathy or interest, which is sad.

As to Moist, in Going Postal his crazy stunts to revolutionise the mail system were fun to read. In Making Money, the things like breaking into his own office at the start make sense as something to show he doesn’t deal well with routine, but, well, compared to his last book, his later actions seem rather boring, at least if you already have a basic idea of how money works despite not being backed by gold.

What comes to my mind when comparing those two books is how mundane Making Money is. Paper money is something we all are used to. There were some bits of description that tried to create a sense of wonder about how a penny would “turn into different things” depending on what it was exchanged for, but for me it just didn’t work. Money is something practical and lacks the “magic” and personal touch of the written word that, in form of letters, drove Going Postal.
Superficially, the cabinet and the golems added some magic to Making Money, but it seemed rather tacked on rather than integrated into the story.

In summary, Making Money seemed to me mostly like a mix of “let’s write about how money works” and “let’s modernise Ankh-Morpork” with story sprinkled on top, rather than the (admittedly very high) quality of storytelling that I love so about other books in the series.

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

Microfiction: Human Affairs

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:57:40 GMT

Tarci and Reena had been as close as sisters, but things had changed. It had started slow, but once it had been known that Tarci was pregnant, Reena started avoiding her. It was hurtful and confusing, but since wondering did not help, Tarci waited for an opportunity when they were alone, and asked.

“Why won’t you talk to me anymore?”

Reena averted her eyes. “I’m sorry, I…” She shook her head. Tarci trembled. She was afraid of them domehow drifting apart entirely, but her old friend reached out and held her hands. “I was afraid of telling you something, of hurting you. That’s why I avoided you.”

“I’m worried now, so you might as well tell.”

Reena sighed deeply. “It is not really my place to – yes, I will tell you, let me finish. It’s not my place to tell you what to do with your life, but, your love… Oh, how can I say this. When I look at him, the spindliness, the long, narrow face, the bright eyes, the way he moves quickly when he moves, but not at all when he stand still… He’s just so weird. Beautiful, but beautiful like a waterbird, not a man.” She must have noticed that it gave Tarci a little sting, and went on, “He’s nice enough to talk to, mostly, and I’m sure you know your mind, and I wish both, all of you happiness.” With a shrug she ended, “I just don’t understand how you could bed an elf.”

This conversation was weird indeed. As the awkward pause caused by Tarci’s attempt to figure out if she was angry grew too long, Reena muttered, “Not my concern, I said.”

Tarci smiled crookedly. “At least we’re talking again.”

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:25:41 GMT

An article about sexism in a particular job that, funnily enough, leaves as main impression in my mind, "Comedy sucks". It's the last paragraph,

But I have a dream—that one day a late-night writers’ room will be filled with poop jokes and fart jokes and jerking-off-to-Angelina-Jolie’s-face-on-a-magazine jokes, and everyone will laugh, including men and women of all creeds and colors.

Microfiction: Illumination

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:06:57 GMT

Because it was better than thinking of anything else she might complain about regarding being trapped in an abandoned mine with a collapsed entrance, Nico said, “You know what I hate most about this? Not being able to see a thing.”

Her companion did not answer, but there was a brittle little crackling noise, and a faintly glowing, angular object between their thumb and forefinger.

“Oh, thanks. What is that?”

“A piece of my soul.”

“And it… glows.”

“Temporarily. It will last a few hours.”

“Um. And that’s no problem, ripping a bit off your soul?”

Her companion seemed as confused at the question as she was at the whole thing, but after a moment answered, “It will grow back.”

“OK, then.”

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

Microfiction: Chilling Effect

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:49:41 GMT

His first impression was that of being hungover. Headache, nausea, and a marked gap in his memories… He was cold an in an awkward position, so he tried to fix that and discovered the handcuffs. As he tried to orient himself, he found that he lay on uneven ground, rocks and pebbles, slick with moisture. The staticky sound he had thought were part of the headaches actually came from outside his head. He was in a dimly lit half-dome, dark rock in his back, arced, white walls that seemed to be moving slightly in themselves in front, as well as another huddled figure who seemed to be watching him. He got a vague impression of a teenage girl in too big men’s clothes, barefoot.

Pushing himself up a little, awkwardly, he croacked, “What… Where?”

“About ten metres downriver from the start of the rapids,” came the reply, matter-of-factly.

It took him a few seconds until he fully understood she meant on the ground of the river. When the realisation hit him, it brought with it some shreds of the day before. There had been a metahuman emergence, some elemental cluster, and things had gone terribly wrong when trying to make contact, and –

“I shot you.” He remembered her face when she was hit. Should have been dead. Then her body had turned to water and, carried by momentum, splattered all over him.

“Yes.” Her cold tone peeled away away some of his shock. He understood an unspoken “you should keep that in mind” in the pause following. “You can make up for that. Tell me where my friends are now.”

He did not even know.

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

20th-21st October: Practise being spontaneous

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:49:32 GMT

So yesterday (more or less) my father invited me to take advantage of the group ticket he and two or three other people were getting for the train to go on a shopping trip in Cologne tomodas. So I went, thinking it'd be the usual tromping through bookshops bit.

For a change, I went to the zoo.

It's pretty different from the one in Neuwied. For one thing, it is pretty flat. For another thing, there is far more room, far more species, and all that. Sometimes it's a bit frustrating, when the honking big moat means you can only see the animals in a particular enclosure from Really Far Away, but, eh, 's fun. The parts were without any apparent reason the view was obstructed by

They had capybaras and a tapir and giraffes and elephants and a tiger walked past the little bit of glass wall and tried to sniff the people watching him through it while I was watching and whee!
There were ring-tailed mongoose, which I had never heard of before and which kinda looked like a cross between a weasle and a red panda to me.

There was a flight demonstration. Started with two harris hawks which had been fed a bit too well and therefore took quite a while to be persuaded to go back inside, rather than sitting in a tree, or getting in a fight with another bird of prey through the mesh-ceiling of its enclosure-thing. The saker falcon that followed did a pretty smooth performance.
The next bird did another few extra rounds, and ended up sitting in a tree and staying there, too. I really hadn't expected a kookaburra. XD
They topped off the falconry show with a scarlet macaw. Lovely weirdness.

Weren't the only psittacidae in free flight, though; there were some feral rose-ringed parakeets, too.

I love watching the wild animals that visit zoos uninvited.

Random things of possible interest

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:48:31 GMT

Dark Roasted Blend mentions in a post about British Pub Signs:

The Pig and Whistle’s origin is obscure, but it could be a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon “piggin wassail” which means “good health”.

One fun part is that there is a German expression of surprise, “Ich glaub mein Schwein pfeift”, which translates to “I think my pig’s whistling”. As far I could could find out from a quick web search, it dates back to the 1970s or possibly 1960. Variations on the “I think” theme include

“…mich knutscht ein Elch” (”..a moose is smooching me”)
“… mein Hamster bohnert” (”…my hamster’s waxing the floor”)
“…mein Hund spielt Halma” (”…my dog’s playing Halma”)

I hadn’t encountered the last two before.

Links to share:
15th century “typo demon”

Lucky shot: Photo of an “exploding” meteorite
Astronomical Quilts

Madly Awesome Paper Craft
…and cardboard-craft (Some is like 3d graffiti!

Pretty new spider discovered
‘nother article with ‘nother photo

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

Microfiction: Writing on the Wall

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:16:33 GMT

A short time after entering the recently abandoned complex, Nico stopped in front of a lever. Whatever mechanism it belonged to must have been under the floor.

When she didn’t say anything, only glared at a sign sloppily taped up at the wall next to it as if it offended her, Daaren asked, “What’s the matter?”

“Says ‘Do not pull lever’.”

“Ah.” He understood the dilemma, and why it bothered her quite a bit.

“They could at least have mentioned what would happen if it was.”

“Would that make deciding if it was a trick easier?” he asked doubtfully.

She snorted. “No, but I could just pretend I believed it.” After another moment of consideration, she shook her head. “Oh, it’s stupid. Let’s just get on with it.”

“Right.”

After they had left it behind, she still couldn’t let it go. “I bet it does nothing, and they put it there just to mess with my head.”

Now, that idea would have been easy to test. So… “It seems to work.”

The gentle mocking tone apparently got through to her, pulling the tension out of her along with the irritation. “I’d better pay attention, eh?”

“Right.”

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

Mixed Visuals

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:20:22 GMT

Once upon a time in Gürbetal, Switzerland, there was a car parts dealer who after finishing cannibalising old cars parked them on his property. This happened from the 1930s to the 1970. A lot of the cars are still there.

Official website (German)
Forest of Sleeping Cars flickr sets by elessar_ch
Album on mth-fotografie.ch

Steampunk webcomic find: 2D Goggles – The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage. Some rule of cool and/or funny revisionist history in which Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace didn’t only design a working computer in theory, but it actually got built.
Updating schedule is “a batch of pages whenever I have them”; so far there are the “origin” chapter plus two episodes, and a bit of smallstuff. Lots of links to the creator’s research material in the author’s notes, just the right thing for some types of geeks. </p>

Deep Sky Colors
Astronomical photography.
Wired.com had a step-by-step example of the photo postwork which I found very interesting.</p>

Graffiti Taxonomy: Paris
A study of different versions of letters in graffiti tags.</p>

Villafane Studion pumpkin carvings
Pretty impressive, particularly the Predator.</p>

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

Overdue Gallery update

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:29:13 GMT

First, have a comic page:

I wonder if I can make that (”anything sequential art”) a regular thing, like with the microfiction. I really wish I could loosen up and not get lost in details too much.

Then, have some other stuff:

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

Microfiction: Mantle and Sword

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:50:12 GMT

Penyo was the greatest duellist of his time; there was no blade more nimble. Leaving dozens of opponents dead or worse, humiliated, did have its risks, of course. Revenge did not always involve honourable methods, and even the best blade can’t protect against every ambuscade.

As the hand gripping the sword slowly started cooling, Penyo wondered who would pick him up next. He hoped the human in question would look good in a cloak and a hat with feathers in it.

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:54:31 GMT

When I went to fetch the car from the dealership I noticed that the weather was mild, and walking was a nice change from sitting at the computer, so I went for another walk once the car was home again. I collected a handful of beechnuts, and I SAW A FISHIE! :D
There's a little (as in "I could hop across to the other side if there wasn't a house standing right there") stream running through our village, and when I crossed it I heard a little splash, so I went back and crouched so I could look a bit under the bridge, and after a short while the fish came out again. Probably a brown trout.

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:45:11 GMT

If I could change one thing about myself (and timetravel/changing the past was not an option) it would be the way my memory works, more precisely, the way it catalogues "bad" things carefully to throw them up as soon as anything vaguely associated presents itself, leading to me wasting time wallowing in rage and self-pity.

On a vaguely related note, I'm rather glad to see that Kaylee of Firefly liking frilly girly stuff doesn't bother me (It doesn't make her forget tech stuff suddenly, after all. :P)

On a I think completely unrelated note: I like chatting, but I'm not good at initiating, because a) I'm worried I get on the other party's nerves and b) I have trouble coming up with a topic to chat about. But, well, if you want to start talking to me, generally speaking, I don't mind. (I'm ankewehner on AIM and anke.wehner on google talk)

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:07:05 GMT

Took the car to the shop, cleaned my room, wrote an email to the insurance guy regarding the health insurance, and wrangled computer problems. That is all.

I don't WANT to get a friggin cold, but I'm not sure it'll care. It's just past 19:00, but I think I'll head bedwards, anyway.

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:11:00 GMT

Today so far I went shopping for groceries, and getting an appointment for the regular checkup for the car. Then I went shopping for new RAM for my computer, got lunch for myself into the oven, and installed the new RAM.

I bought 2 wafers with 2 GB each, and now my computer has 3007 MB RAM. I'm used to the whole 1000 MB to the GB stuff, but I think something is wrong there, and I have no idea how to fix it. But, hey, the computer still runs, and a bit better than before, too.

I had lunch, and a break, and now I'll go clean the car, because its checkup will be tomorrow.

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:27:46 GMT

I have something I have to get off my chest.

Teenage boys are not babies.

Teenage girls are not dummies/pacifiers.

If a guy has a bad temper and gets violent when he loses it, it's HIS job to get a grip of himself, if neccessary with professional help. It's not his (potential) girlfriend's job to stick to him no matter what because her presence "calms him" so he doesn't lose his temper quite that often.

This brought to you by me reading the first volumes of Fruits Basket, yet another story telling girls that when a guy hurts them, they should stay near him to magically change him. Disgusting drivel.

Microfiction: Fangs don’t help

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:48:04 GMT

She had killed five of the mob, but just too many had come together against her, leaving flight as the only option. Through the ruin, barely more than foundation walls – only when on the far side another crowd waited she realised how well prepared a trap it had been.

The humans waited. A search of the area revealed nothing helpful, just a low ring wall, and a few – very few – stones scattered in the grass. All they had to do was keep her out in the open until sunrise, and the sky already grew brighter. She had a trick that would let her make use of the shadows for longer, and maybe, just maybe she’d get out of this.

By mid-morning some braves started searching the ruin, armed with flails and axes. One of them spotted the cat skulking in the shrinking shadows. She could see him thinking nothing of it for a moment, then glaring back at her with suspicion. When they tried to chase her into the sun, she hissed and spat, but eventually a kick landed. She hit the ground running, warmth on her fur, and very surprised she didn’t burst into flame. The few of those still waiting outside that thought to try and stop her she dodged easily, and ran as fast and far as she could, leaving more confusion behind.

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:04:43 GMT

Monday we went through the pantry and threw out an embarrassing amount of hazelnuts, almonds and stuff that was way past its sell-by date. I also did trace and ink the art trade image, but left it to dry rather overnight than trying to colour.

Still smeared a little bit when I did. Meh. It doesn't show much, though, and I don't think it's visible in the scan at all.
Most of Tuesday was taken up with preparations, though; first a shopping trip, then helping my mother cook and bake for yesterday.

Wednesday had some more preparations, and then guests. I spent most of the time with the children, who were drawing and stuff.
One of the cakes was a bit of a failure, but the soup was very good. Surprisingly my one cousin on the maternal side of the family showed up. It was a very nice afternoon, even if I find crowds exhausting.

Today I helped cleaning up more remnants of yesterday, set up the next round of mrcaex*, and drew a little something. I also tried to keep warm to avoid getting a real cold.

I had a look around for a new digital camera, but I may be putting that off for a few months yet. RAM, on the other hand... I'm planning to go shopping for bigger replacement (either 2 or 4 GB, I have 1 now) on Monday.

What I kinda forgot is the writing. Eh, let's see which of the ideas floating around in my head can be pinned down.

* I even managed to post the signup thread as well as last round's submission into the community first try, rather than my own journal. (Something about the "Post" link automatically posting to my journal, instead of the community I'm looking at, confuses me.)

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:13:09 GMT

hellmutt wrote a twitfic.
I sketched a thing.

Eir reaction: "Oh dear, high concentrations of adorable!"

I submitted it to doodurls, where it ended up in the extras.
Reaction of the person doing the submitting: "probably my worst nightmare"

Fun times. XD

I also have a pencil sketch for this month's mrcaex, planning to ink and at least start colouring tomorrow.

The thing with wings

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:49:33 GMT

Dragon wings tend to be more or less bat-based, but photos of bats in flight tend to be rarer than ones of birds in flight, making studies a bit more difficult.

For birds I recommend the deviantart account of Cheryl Moore, where you can find a great number of photos of birds in flight – most of them white birds, meaning there is no pattern on the feathers distracting from the shape.

As for bats, during the last week some photos of bats drinking from a pond in flight went through the bits of blogosphere I watch. Looking up Kim Taylor brought up Warren Photographic, which has more (albeit smaller) photos of bats in flight.

On Deviantart I found one compact tutorial on bat wings by cactusart.

The wing tutorial by Kandice Zimbleman-Wang may be a bit weird on the formatting and spelling side, but content-wise I find it very helpful.

For the sake of completeness and comparison, you could look at pterosaurs wings, too. (What intersts me more after a bit of poking around wikipedia are the various head shapes, though. Fascinating.)

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:50:33 GMT

Our neighbours have something going with a more or less miraculous multiplication of cockatiels. They used to have four. One got away. They got a new fourth one, which turned out to be female. She laid two clutches of eggs which, since the neighbours didn't fancy getting any more 'tiels, were pierced with a needle. Two of those are now named Pepe and Knirps and started flying around the aviary this week.
Yesterday one bird sat on top of the aviary, but after initial panic it was deternimed that there were still six inside, and noting that its colour was rather different, apparently it's one that got away elsewhere and turned up there because it heard the other 'tiels.
It took some work, but eventually we managed to lure it into the aviary without any of the half dozen inside getting out. So now they have seven, at least for a while.
I've heard the new one/visitor might be female, judging from how one of the known guys is flirting. Incidentally, the guy in question is the father of the two youngsters, and still pre-digesting birdseed for them...
Watching a cockatiel fly all around the area was pretty weird; their silhouette is different from all local birds I can think of.

Anyway, other things I did this week were various shopping trips, both for groceries and for fun, and cleaning my room as well as others. The next shopping trip will include stuff for my birthday supper on Thursday.

I'm really happy with the table moved from the centre of the room to in front of the window, even if it makes opening the window a bit awkward. There's free room! I can walk from the door to under my bed without having to dodge anything, and if I want to dance like a moron, I can just do it. :D

Oh, and for feeding my craving for videos lately, I got the first two seasons of Buff off amazon.de. I hadn't seen that before; the bits I watched when it was on TV were from later seasons, meaning I'm 12 years behind on series. :P
It's fun, anyway. I think my favourite scene so far is near the end of season 2... Spike and Buffy's mother rather awkwardly being silent at each other, until Mrs Summers asks "Have me met before?" and Spike answers "You attacked me with an axe once". (Or something like that; I watched the German dubbed version first; my listening comprehension definitely lags far behind my reading comprehension in English.)

Microfiction: Travelogue

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:11:56 GMT

Denise never had taken to reading, much to her father’s chargrin. His claims that books were magic that could take you anywhere did nit impressed her, and she only read fiction when she could not avoid it.
When she inherited her father’s estate, she did not know what to do with the books, but the smell of paper and dust awoke nostalgia, accompanied by curiosity. She unlocked the one bookcase with doors and ran a finger tentatively over the spines, cracked leather with gold lettering on most. She pulled out a small volume, opened it in a patch of sunlight, and started reading.
When she suddenly stood in ankle-deep snow, wind cutting through her summer shirt, she realised the “magic” part had not been a figure of speech.

Originally published at ankewehner.de. You can comment here or there.