RSS

Category Archives: Rambling

Netflix is out in Norway!

Netflix_logo.svg

Netflix was recently released in Norway, and I’ve been watching lots of TV shows in the background while surfing and doing other stuff on the computer (even while playing games!) Although there was an article in the Norwegian newspaper criticizing the terms of use for Netflix, stating that you’re not allowed to sue them or so, I’m not too worried. Maybe I’m not paranoid enough…

The other most common complaint I see from other users is that it does not have the newest seasons of the popular TV shows. However, there are lots of somewhat older shows that I haven’t watched yet, so watching them should keep me occupied for quite a while. I might also subscribe to HBO Nordic once that service is available in Norway, though I guess the only show there I really am following is Game of Thrones.

All in all, I am pretty happy with Netflix so far, and will probably keep the subscription after the free month is over!

Since my last blog post I haven’t done much travelling, except I went on a cottage trip with my family.

cottage_trip_2012

It was cozy and relaxing, though somewhat boring, wasn’t so much to do there. They did have a sauna and an outdoors whirlpool, but the whirlpool wasn’t really that impressive, and the sauna was very small and strangely designed. Instead of having two sets of benches shaped like “stairs”, one of the benches was placed directly above the other, like a bunk bed… I tried to lie on top, but it felt uncomfortable because it felt like if I was careless when climbing down, I’d slip and fall on top of the sauna oven.

I tried taking 3D photos again on this trip with the 3DS, and the photos and videos does work nicely on my 3D computer monitor. But the quality is absolutely horrendous! I’m thinking of buying an actual 3D camera. Unfortunately they never got all that popular, so there aren’t any new models. Well I guess an old model is okay as long as I can find someone selling it…

Although I’ve not been travelling much, Anna and Jun Wen came to visit one weekend, so we walked around Oslo and had dinner together. Kakee also visited. It occurs to me that I forgot take any photos with them again! I always forget to take photos when visiting or being visited by friends, I almost don’t have any new photos of me with any of my friends. Sucks. My friends might have some photos, but I also forget to ask them about it. *sigh* Well just to add a photo, here’s one from a dinner I had with Kakee at T.G.I. Friday’s in Oslo:

553537_10151864475650288_2116413846_n
Jack Daniel’s Sampler: shrimp, chicken strips and pork ribs. Edited with Color Splash FX.

We had something called the Iron Game at A.L.I.V.E., where we were running around a shopping center doing tasks to get points. It was quite fun! Although somewhat embarrassing. My team didn’t win, but got a good second place.

I have been trying to play through the games I’ve got and not buy new ones, the last two months I finished Crysis 2 (didn’t like it as much as the first one, though playing in 3D was neat), Assassin’s Creed 2 (great game! Started playing on Brotherhood too now.), Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy (bought it mostly because it was cheap, kind of fun to play through Final Fantasy songs, but don’t really feel all that compelled to keep playing after playing the “final boss”), Zelda: The Minish Cap (one of the free games I got because I bought the 3DS early. Tried to get 100% completion on it, but apparently I missed the light arrows…), ICO & Shadow of the Colossus (really liked these two games, even though the graphics do seem somewhat dated. PS3 3D worked on my 3D monitor!), and I finally beat Another World on my phone (turns out the reason I got stuck is because I tried to go somewhere before I had finished everything I was supposed to do in an earlier area) and Battleheart (turns out the boss I got stuck at was the final boss! Managed to take it down after grinding a bit more).

spaz

Currently I’m unreasonably addicted to Space Pirates and Zombies that I got off Humble Bunde 6. (The current Humble Bundle is actually for some e-books and comics, in case you’re interested. Still three days left as of now.)

SPAZ is an indie space shoot’em-up RPG, where you start out with access to only really weak space ships. To get access to more ship designs you need to destroy certain amounts of that ship type. Each ship type have different “equipment slots” allowing you to equip different kinds of weapons and upgrades. There’s a slot type that can only be used for cannon/beam type weapons, one for launcher/rockets and one for bombs/mines, for example. You can buy weapon and upgrade designs from space stations, once you’ve bought a design you can use it as many times as you want. As you gain levels you can upgrade different stats (research) like cannon, launcher, armor, shields, and these stats are also important because certain weapon/upgrade designs require higher levels of that stat to equip. (Hence the reason I call it a RPG, even though their website never uses that term.) And you can have 2 – 4 different space ships in play at the same time (depending on how far you’ve gotten in the story).

Admittedly, the graphics are decent but not ground-breaking, the music and missions are quite repetitive, and the story is hardly particularly unique or deep. I guess what I like about the game is how I can customize each space ship, and trying to get new (and bigger) ship designs from other enemies. It feels great whenever you get a new ship and can try it out!

Oh also there are “zombies” in this game that can take over your ship if you’re not careful. Kinda annoying when that happens. And since we’re talking about zombies: I’ve been watching “The Walking Dead” on Netflix. Unfortunately Netflix in Norway only has the first season (only six episodes? Whyyyyy??)

 

Posted by on 2012-10-20 in Rambling

Comments Off on Netflix is out in Norway!

Camps and stuff

In July and first half of August I’ve been busy with training week, summer camp, and hanging out with people after summer camp, so I have barely even had time to play on my new computer.

Training week was all right, I decided that I didn’t want to try small group leading or teaching anymore, so I kinda tried listening a bit to the worship teaching. But since I don’t actually do any worship stuff I usually just had lots of free time. During this week I also managed to get 9 hour sleep every day, making me less sleepy during the day. So I might need to get 9 hours of sleep every day! It’s really hard to get that much sleep on normal days though…

2012-06-29 15.21.55
The biggest job I got during training week was stapling the booklets.

During summer camp I no longer was able to sleep 9 hours, so I got more and more tired throughout the week. It didn’t help that we had wait for the car to go to another location for sleeping. Though I usually didn’t go to bed right away after getting back either, since I ended up trying to be a little social with the other guys staying at that location.

2012-07-09 22.49.54
My sleeping corner was cozy at least!

The “topic” for the young adults this year was the Sermon on the Mount. Pastor Enoch went through that bible passage throughout the week, explaining the topics in each part and how to apply it to our lives. It was interesting and he did give some new ideas that I hadn’t thought of before when reading those passages.

After camp, besides going back to work, I hung out with pastor Ivy and Glen a few times, with another pastor family from Hong Kong for a few days, then went to Malmö one weekend for a surprise party for Heavy, Peki, Aloysious and Monica, then hung out with Macklin from Boston (who had come to visit Oslo for a few weeks), and also Anna and MJ came to visit for a weekend. We also had one (or two) dinner parties the last weekend before Macklin left. So it’s been quite eventful! I have barely had enough time to do any house work…

2012-08-19 17.32.08

I was invited to a few other events too, but I had to skip those since I really needed the break. This week I’ve at least managed to do some tidying in the house. Finally got my new computer connected to the TV in the living room, since the laptop I used there isn’t powerful enough to play full-HD movies. Got my chair replaced (for free!) by IKEA, so now it should not randomly sink while I’m sitting. Still have a super long todo-list though… Still, spent most of today playing Assassin’s Creed 2 since I felt like I needed to relax. I guess I’ll see if I will try to do more stuff on the todo-list tomorrow or if I want to spend more of tomorrow on relaxing and playing games.

 

Posted by on 2012-08-25 in Rambling

Comments Off on Camps and stuff

Tags:

Briefly in Stavanger

Went to Stavanger last weekend to visit Anna and MJ and John. Anna took me shopping for new clothes, and gave me some fashion tips. Will see if I remember it the next time I bother going to buy new clothes. Need to find a girl to help me buy clothes when in Oslo. Or maybe Sweden is better? Hmm…

Johan MJ

Also I asked her to pick a perfume for me, although I’m going to buy it later since it’s quite expensive. Either on tax-free or try to buy it online. Need to start using perfume once in a while to cloak my stinkyness, although according to her I need to shower before using perfume, and that I’d have to use a deodorant for that instead. I do still have various bottles of deo sprays at home, though I almost always forget to use them. Ah, just remembered to put the deo in my room so it might be easier for me to remember to use it when changing my clothes.

Got the first batch of the free downloadable games for my 3DS by the way. The most interesting ones would be Zelda, Zelda II and Metroid, never beaten any of those games. Old Nintendo games are difficult! No real hint on where you’re supposed to go, no in-game maps, and no abundance of checkpoints to save you from redoing lots of stuff when you do. In any case, I still haven’t gotten myself to give up trying to find all the Gold Skulltulas in Ocarina of Time 3DS Master Quest, so I’m still playing it.

The last two days I got a leave from work to go to an IT exhibition. I got a bunch of USB memory sticks and other stash, lots of brochures, signed up for tons of spam to try and win an iPad (and other prizes, though I didn’t win anything at all), got free yummy popcorn, and listened to a few seminaries (which was mostly advertisements for various companies’ products). The coolest/most useful stuff I got was a buff (scarf thing), and even more awesome: a pair of gloves which works on touchscreens! Not the type with cut-off fingers, but with actual textile which works on the screen. And rubber dots on the palm side, to prevent your smart-phone from slipping off your glove. Seems to be quite good quality for a free gift. Almost makes up for not winning an iPad 2.

IMG_20110914_193534

Got to test a bunch of phones and Android tablets. Kinda want the HTC Evo 3D, the screen has a better resolution than the 3DS and the cameras can take higher resolution 3D photos, plus 3D video! Which will be a blast to watch once I get an excuse to buy a 3D TV. I’ll see if any phones comes out that I want more, otherwise I just might get this phone some time to replace my Acer Liquid with a partially broken screen.

 

Posted by on 2011-09-14 in Rambling

Comments Off on Briefly in Stavanger

Tags: , ,