Went outside, saw cool thing

I went outside the other day (shocker, I know) and I saw this cool thing twirling around .
It's a vertical Wind turbine! Now, allow me to geek out over it . This is why that is so cool:
Unlike horizontal wind turbines, they don't have to be turned into the wind to work at maximum efficiency, because they are always turned into the wind. They're also smaller, cheaper, quieter and can be built closer to the ground which makes the locations you can put them more versatile; just imagine a canyon or an area in the city where buildings funnel the wind along a certain path lined with those things. You could have parks and avenues that instead of being lined by trees are lined by wind turbines. A technophile's dream .
Of course, there are also disadvantages but who wants to know about those (If you do: Wikipedia), disadvantages are never as exciting .

On another note, have this picture of my ghetto tea pot warmer :


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currently listening: Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man
currently watching: Patton
current weather condition: Way to hot

M0vie Monday #2 - Welt am Draht

Title: Welt am Draht (World on a Wire, 1973)
Genre: Science Fiction
Directed by: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Written by: Daniel F. Galouye

World on a Wire! This isn't only a good movie, but also a great drinking game . When a character turns dramatically to the camera, drink.
(I do not endorse excessive drinking, yadda yadda, moderation etc.)

What it's about
A program that is basically a hyperrealistic version of the Sims, with each Sim being a fully developed AI, is run on a supercomputer. None of these Sims know that their world is just a simulation.
Vollmer, the technical director finds out some incredible thing and tells it to a dude, who then prompty disappears without anyone even remembering the guy. (Also Vollmer dies and the protagonist, Stiller,
 takes his place)
Stuff happens and metaphysics ensues.

Why I think it's so great
Though the setting didn't age too well (early seventies retro-futurism is really adorable now ), the story certainly did; and boy is it a good one. It's been done, yes, perhaps (probably) better, but I enjoy the way it's done here. With a runtime of 205 minutes it has plenty of time to pace the story and let the plot unfold without taking away from the characters (unless they're oh so mysterious *cough* Eva *cough* ).

Should you watch it?
This is a recommendation Series. I don't know why I even ask this question . Get alcohol and weird friends. Do the drinking game. They do less of the dramatic chipmunk style turns in the second part, so you'll have time to recover before it ends .
Hardcore variant: drink for every mirror. ...no, actually don't. I think you might die. There's lots of mirrors. This might make a good game too, if you aren't into drinking: try to find the camera man being reflected. He is visible on occasion (no peeking on imdb!).
The mirrors are actually a cool way to make the viewer question reality an disorient him. That too, is pretty dope.

And then?
I mentioned it's basically a story as old as time, or well, computers. So have some more computery scifi: Alphaville (1965), Tron (1982), Ghost in the Shell (1989), eXistenZ (1999), The Matrix (1999)And of course the 1999 movie The Thirteenth Floor, which was also based on the novel Simulacron-3.

Available on
Hulu

Links 0n Tuesday #1 - DYE Fantasy

Let's start this series off with creeping everyone out who ever considered even reading this blog.
I present to you: DYE Fantasy

I'm sorry. So very sorry. And also giggling silently in the back .

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currently listening: Fiddler's Green - Victor and his Demons
currently watching: -
current weather condition: cloudy

M0vie Monday #1 - Les Maîtres du Temps

Title: Les Maîtres du Temps (Time Masters, 1982)
Genre: Science Fiction Animation
Directed by: René Laloux
Written by: Jean Giraud (Moebius)

This is the first movie monday, where every week I'll recommend a thing!
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Let me get this out of the way first: I love this movie . I absolutely do. It is wonderful and fascinating and beautiful and why aren't you watching it already?
...however, it might not be fair if I didn't also mention that I found it incredibly boring the first time I watched it ... but then again, once I watched it, I immediately watched it again. So there's that.

What it's about
So, this kid, Piel, is stuck on the planet Perdide with huge man-eating hornets. This isn't the best of situations to be in but his dying father managed to make him hide in a forest with a radio transmitter. At the other end of this transmitter is Jaffar, the guy who made it his mission to get to the planet to save the kid before he gets himself killed. On the way Jaffar and his crew consisting of the greedy prince in exile Matton, his motherly sister Belle, and later this chill old dude named Silbad, who is totally chill, get into several situations in which adventure ensues.

Why I think it's so great
Perhaps I'm wearing nostalgia goggles here, as I first watched it when I was really young, but I will say that it is simply wonderful .
This movie is just packed with one wonderful thing after another. The movie's just 79 minutes long but with the wealth of creatvie ideas in it, it could've easily filled a whole series... and maybe it should have, as there's basically zero character development and the basic plot doesn't steer far from the premise, up until almost the ending. Which is even more wonderful. Great ending. Great design. Just greatness in general. It's all pretty dope, really .

Should you watch it?
Yes. Watch it all the way through, then watch it again.

And then?
René Laloux also made La planète sauvage (Fantastic Planet, 1973) and Gandahar (Light Years, 1987). If you liked this movie, you'll most likely enjoy those, too.
Moebius is famous for his wonderfully surreal science fiction comic books such as Arzach. He also did the production design on the movie Fifth Element (1997) with Jean-Claude Mézières.
For contrast try Heavy Metal (1981), another science fiction animation. Also I find the flying creatures in Heavy Metal vaguely reminiscent of the one in Arzach .

Available on 
no streaming service seems to have it yet, but people have put it on youtube, so do with that what you will

A n0tion on firsts and beginnings

This is the first post on this blog.
It isn't though. The first post was a test post I made to see what the layout looked like on posts.

This is my first blog.
It isn't though. My first blog I set up in 2005 to chronicle my life as an 11 year old. I kept it updated for 6 years before I quit.

This fall will be my first semester at university.
It won't be though. I started last year and failed.

This is the first time in my life I live with a person who is neither of my parents.
It isn't though. I've lived 3 months with roommates whom I saw twice during my stay there.

Having moved here was the first great new chapter in my life.
It wasn't though. I've moved to the philippines when I was twelve and stayed there for four years.

This is a post about how firsts aren't beginnings. Beginnings are things we attach meaning to, then call them new.
So here's to new beginnings; may this blog last me another 6 years at least  

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currently listening: Kemuri - Rainbow
currently watching: This is the end
current weather condition: rainy

This is 0nly a test

Hello W0rld