Archiv der Kategorie Off Topic

This Blog is Moving

Hello my dear readers,due to the fact that my current hoster is unable and unwilling to allow the installation of blog-themes, plug-ins etc. that he has not officially approved of, this blog is moving.

Please update your RSS feeds and bookmarks.

The new blog (including all articles) can be found there:

Daily Steampunk (the saga continues)

The blog here will no longer be updated.

This Steampunk is a SEO

Hello my dear comment-spammers. I would like to make one thing absolutely clear:

Apart from being a blogger and having published in the sectors of Steampunk/Dieselpunk and the Cthulhu Mythos, I also happen to have a day job. I work in online marketing and my job title is Online Marketing Manger (SEO). I am versed in a range of  online marketing techniques including SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and I know about backlink-blog-spam.

So do us all a favor and cut it out. Each and every comment on this blog gets moderated and I know blog spam when I see it. Don’t waste your time and mine, trying to spam here.

Thanks!

Think Green…

An image that really sums up a few things about responsibility, sustainability and bright ideas:

Think Green - Probier Bio

お誕生日おめでとうございます福澤様!

Slightly off-topic, but only slightly.

Today in 1835 Fukuzawa Yukichi (福澤 諭吉) was born. He is one of the most influential people of the Meiji period and is regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern Japan.

Since I hold him in high regard and the Meiji period coincides with the lifetime of Jules Verne, Queen Victoria and Kaiser Friedrich III, it is only fitting to include this Japanese notable on my blog.

Yukichi Fukuzawa

Together we are a storm

My friend cdk07 made this video. Let it speak for itself:

    Iranians, our hearts and minds go out to you. You are not alone!

The big project

There is a certain chance that I will not update this blog as often in the foreseeable future as I did the last few weeks. I have decided to turn the First Expedition of LZ-X1 Württemberg into a short story, maybe even a novella. I can not say, how much progress I have made, because I do not know how long the tale will be in the end. Could be anywhere between 30 and 200 pages I guess.

This is my biggest steampunk related project yet. Let us see what becomes of it.
Here is a tiny sneak-peek, Captain von Kober’s first impression of the LZ-X1 Württemberg (this passage may have changed by the time I turn it into a PDF for free download):

She was beautiful. The hull, more than 130 meters long, gleamed and sparkled silvery in the morning sun. She was of a sleeker design than other Zeppelins of comparable size, giving her a more streamlined look. The gondola, too, appeared far less bulky and almost fragile. The whole craft conveyed an impression of graceful speed given shape.

There was something else I wanted to say…

Ah yes: Happy Yithmas everybody!

Yithmas

Post-Halloween Horror

Well,

OK, “Well” is definitely the wrong word to start this entry but it is a nice filler after all. Yesterday I went to see Die Päpstin a.k.a. Pope Joan.

In one word: Disgustingly bad. This movie actually replaced Resident Evil II on my list of Worst Film I Ever Payed To See. Even the occasional battle scenes and the marriage-stopping Viking raid does nothing to improve this audio-visual abomination.

The movie is a string of folklore-knowledge about the Middle Ages, seasoned with unconvincing characters (the acting is OK but the characters portrayed all hail from the distant end of the propability curve), mixed with bad clichés and a Pope Joan with truely miraculous powers to top it all: Joan is a gifted healer and manages to spot pregnancy by taste. Yes, she is able to taste hormone levels. Propably the first and only human since the dawn of our species to be able to do so. This actually qualifies her as a mutant worthy of joining the X-Men.

And never mind the democratic process regarding who gets to elect the Pope, the dresses shown and the people encountered in Rome. Who ever produced this movie (I refuse to look up who it was) deserves the price for inept producer of 2009.

Thank you very much! I just wasted 9 € on a movie which made my brain hurt.

Nothing steampunk…

This has nothing to do with Steampunk at all. I just watched this video and in the process nearly died laughing, so I thought I share it with you.

A little bit about my background: I worked as a banker from late 1993 to November 1996. The worst years of my life. I know how many bankers think (many kind of do not) and what both have to commedians have to say is so true:

On Barrack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize

This commentary by Cenk Uygur of TYT sums it up quite neatly:

Heroes, Part II

Continuing on the hero theme:

News just in:

Barrack Hussein Obama is this year’s recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Price for Obama

Well, I guess this is one clear signal to his predecessor and it is one well deserved award. I sincerely hope a few people in the US now get the message and stop bashing non-gun-toting policies. There is another way, it is called reason (yes, Sean Hannity, a thing like reason actually exists).

Keep up the good work, Mr. President.