Tag: english

Funny

September 29, 2010
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It’s always funny when people call me Vale when we meet. For the reason, this name started as my online alias. Not as if i minded being called Vale, i made this name, so i like it. It’s just… strange, when i think about it.

Especially when people ask me how it’s supposed to be pronounced, and i have to admit that i don’t know. “Vale” if looked on as an english word is the same as “vale”, synonymous to valley, and from that point of view should be pronounced as such. But on the other hand, if looking at the evolution of this name, it comes from the tolkienianish “valerauko”, and should be pronounced as such.

Actually, originally it wasn’t meant to be pronounced at all. I used it online, and online means typing for most of the time. But of course i was in contact with real life friends online too, so it wasn’t long before some started calling me Vale offline as well. Some said it this way, some said it the other way. The funniest was my short-time university roommate who pronounced it as Wall-E.

Say it however you want, probably i’ll get it.

The hardest part

September 19, 2010
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I’ve started and stopped and restarted and restopped rewriting my blog engine a bunch of times already. Pretty much as soon as i put this one online, i realised it has way too many faults. But i was, to put it simply, lazy to actually finish any other (not as if this one was complete and finished, it has the basicest of basic functionality, and that’s it).

And i can say, every time i develop website code, the hardest part is templating. How to separate content, representation and scripting. I don’t like having unrelated tags and stuff in my raw writings (especially since i got my new keyboard, with which if i use the hungarian layout, it’s a pain in the ass to type < and >) and i don’t like putting php in my template files either.

What remains is either using search-and-replace on a lame formatting language i make up for this purpose, but it usually ends up just as complicated as if i used php. I do know a good solution, and that’s xslt. I would’ve trusted that if Blizzard used user-side XSLT on the StarCraft 2 website (well, the previous one at least) it’s supported enough, and it seems it is on desktop browsers, but not so much on mobiles. And i myself have a phone with a quite picky browser (NetFront), yet intend to use my blog from that. (Though i still have to figure out how would i input hungarian accented characters with a japanese phone…)

The problem is, server-side xslt seems to have performance issues. Although i haven’t tested it (yet), everywhere i read how slow php’s xslt transformations are. And though that would most probably mean a few hundredth of a second, i’d rather check it before writing an implementation. An implementation, which would make my developing life loads easier, by the way.

If you have any data on php xslt speeds i’d really appreciate it.

Okinawa, day two

September 17, 2010
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Not really separated from day one, but since unlike me the world around started a new day, i count it as such as well. I looked for a place to stay as i realised that i seriously needed some sleep. Not much luck. Using my phone’s net i managed to find a relatively cheap place hidden somewhere in the labyrinths of the tiny alleys of Naha, and i was looking at a streetmap at a crossing when a helpful japanese asked if he could help. He could.

I made it to the place, but it was like five in the morning, so of course i couldn’t check in.

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Starbucks Anniversary blend

September 17, 2010
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First impression: “what the heck, is there pipe tobacco in this thing?” Because as i opened the package, beside the (judging by the smell) dark roasted coffee aroma came a sweet scent that i can only associate with pipe tobacco. I like it. The fresh brew doesn’t have any special scent to it, not until you are about to drink it, because then something sweet and bold appears out of nowhere.

And of course, the packaging does not lie when it has “extra bold” written on it. Indeed, it is well roasted, dark and if it wasn’t a drink i’d say crunchy. But it’s also smooth, which would make a really nice, almost poetic confusion there. The point is, it’s a nice coffee. Multi-layered taste and dark boldness, just how i like it.

Okinawa, here i come

September 17, 2010
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… and two hours later i did close my door behind me and left for Okinawa, without forgetting anything–or if i did forget something, i forgot forgetting it. I parked my bicycle in front of the post office nearest to the station, where i was sure it wouldn’t be towed away, bought the usual entry ticket for the train, and got on the first express train towards Himeji (that’s where pretty much all the express trains are going from here in the direction of the Kansai cities).

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Charts 2

September 16, 2010
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There are plenty of post and pass on memes out there, but i usually quietly stay out of them. But now i’ve been asked to post fifteen music albums i’ll probably always remember. Fifteen.

  • The Gathering – if_then_else
  • Gojira – From Mars to Sirius
  • Macskanadrág – Modern Szerenád
  • Pain of Salvation – Be
  • Sentenced – The Funeral Album
  • Rammstein – Reise, Reise
  • Opeth – The Roundhouse Tapes
  • The Toy Dolls – our last album?
  • Ленинград – Хлеб
  • Amorf Ördögök – Molylepke Minibár
  • Iron Maiden – Dance of Death
  • Blind Guardian – Nightfall in Middle-Earth
  • Helloween – Master of Rings
  • In Flames – Reroute to Remain
  • Dream Theater – Systematic Chaos

I guess this is fifteen. Nothing surprising, is there? And it took less than fifteen minutes to compile. Though i’m not sure i’ll agree with this my own list just tomorrow. Or an hour from now. Nevertheless.

Also, i’m not passing the game on. Do it if you want. Fifteen albums “that will stay with you forever”, in less than fifteen minutes.

Charts 1

September 16, 2010
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But before i begin my eternal long chain of posts on my past three weeks, i felt like posting a last.fm milestone list here. Seeing Sesam’s is what poked me to post mine. It can’t fetch my oldest plays (before the 10000th), so these are the prime-thousand-th plays from that point. Here you go.

This with 85094 plays right now, and as far as i can tell the only song appearing twice on the 1000th-milestones chart more than once is Opeth’s Reverie/Harlequin Forest (twice). Yeah, i do love that song.

Also interesting is that back in 2008 it took a month or so to get 1000 plays, while nowadays i get that in less than a week.

I’m off

August 25, 2010
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In two hours i’ll close my door behind me and not come back for a week. (This not counting the cases of returning from the 20m range of the dorm realising i forgot something.) Until then, i try to rid my room of anything that would end up rotten and smelly in this one week (not much, mostly trash only) and decide what to pack and what not. So far the only thing sure is my sleeping bag (bought yesterday), a towel, and my toothbrush.

Also it seems that i won’t write about all that stuff i watched lately anytime soon (to all i listed earlier, i since then watched Hyakko too). I’m not nerd enough to bring my laptop with me (not to mention it’d pretty much double my luggage), so there won’t be any blogging in the coming one week. Maybe if i feel like it i’ll occasionally plurk. I’ll try making photos, though i only have my phone for that purpose.

Hell, it’s about time.

Sherlock

August 20, 2010
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I’ve heard about this new british series remake of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary stories of the legendary (consultant) detective, Sherlock Holmes. I loved the novels, so i decided to give it a try. It’s great.

It’s set in the current London, although in a world where Sherlock Holmes, Dr Watson and Inspector Lestrade are not famous figures from a crime novel but real people of pretty much the same life as their literary counterparts. The story of the three episodes are loosely based on the original novels, of course adapted to the modern world with smartphones, snipers, memory sticks and stuff. And of course Dr Watson isn’t writing short novels about their adventures, he’s blogging about them.

The scenery is London, for most of the time. Whenever the sky is visible, it and everything near the horizon are blurred. The occasional writings on screen (text messages, thoughts etc) remind me very much of Hustle. One more similarity is that the music of the opening sequence is… strange. I don’t really like it. The only other problem with the series is that it’s only three episodes. After i watched the third today, i started looking for the fourth, but apparently there’s none. Whaaat?!

I want more!

Lyrics

August 18, 2010
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These are on my mind (and my player) lately.

They wanna keep us down
But they can’t last
When we get up we’re gonna kick your ass

Van Canto – Kings of Metal (Manowar cover)

The clans are marching ‘gainst the law
Bagpipers play the tunes of war
Death or glory I will find
Rebellion on my mind

Van Canto – Rebellion (Grave Digger cover)

I left my baby and it feels so bad
Guess my race is run
She’s the best girl that I ever had

The Clash – I fought the law
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