A late late summer to ward off autumn

There is something rather special about the less intense colours of the late summer that make way for the bright yellow and red of Autumn. The green of summer is turning into a not quite so green, all the while the beige grass sways in the wind, soothing the mind. While I love nature transforming it is equally sad to see the wind and rain storm in. Soon the leaves will cover the ground and the days will slowly diminish together with the sun light. As a Swedish tradition people turn depressed when our precious daylight abandons us to the winter.

It is with a very yellow and a sunny day that I hope to ward of autumn, at least for now, a few days more. But then winter isn’t so bad… the slush of snow trampled into a greasy grey mass covered in gravel and salt. Minus degrees along the coast isn’t very common but usually there is at least a week or two of proper intense Cold. But hey – that is way off… I am just going to sit here and stare at this picture until Spring.

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Iridium video update

Back in 09 I worked on a game project that we called Iridium, I have posted some info on the portfolio page but the other day my friend created and posted a video showing the project! Big thanks to Mikael for taking the time, check out the text and video after the jump.

http://mikael-butnotonly.blogspot.com/2010/08/iridium.html

Richard

My chocolate theory

It is quite simple, perhaps I should call it a life philosophy – but that is probably overstating it. Imagine a budget (not just based on money but also health, psyche etc.), and for this budget you can buy chocolate. Now as you browser the shop for chocolate there is going to be a range of different prices and tastes, high percentages of cocoa, milk based, coffee tasting, mint, nuts e.t.c. Based on what is available and the price you might reach the conclusion that you can afford chocolate of the midrange quality every weekend. What I have come to understand of myself is that I am the kind of person that would much rather buy the chocolate I prefer the absolute most (think lots of cocoa) but do so at a low frequency based on the budget. That is to say I would much rather eat chocolate I like a lot just one time per month, instead of settling for the less nice chocolate every week.

Simply put it is a quantity vs quality argument.

Another side of this is what I like to think of as a “picking my battles” type of argument. What if I just don’t eat x, then it would be way more easy to just enjoy y. I can live without candy, but I need my freshly pressed fruit juice from time to time. Life deserves a certain balance that is so easy to not respect, everything around us is trying to pull in all directions at once. Finding what works for you is the only way to take control of your direction in life, thus one insight at a time I steer myself towards harmony (I just had to end on a high note…;).

The rest of my life-philosophy I leave for my future best selling self-motivation book scheduled for the year 2100.

*update*

Also check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshmallow_Test – Deferred gratification.

See you then

Richard

In the name of coolness

It is high time it got it done – Classical music in order of how cool the composers name is.

  1. Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky (The Nutcracker)
  2. Frederic Chopin (Funeral March)
  3. Antonio Vivaldi (Four Seasons)
  4. Antonin Dvorak (New world)
  5. Richard Strauss (Space Odyssey)
  6. Richard Wagner (Ride of the Valkyries)
  7. Edvard Grieg (Peer Grynt)
  8. Ludwig van Beethoven (Fur Elise)
  9. Wolfgan Amadeus Mozart (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik)
  10. Johann Sebastian Bach (Ave Maria)
  11. George Fredric Handel (Messiah)
  12. Aram Khachaturian (Sabre Dance)
  13. John Williams (Raiders of the lost Ark theme)

Just no other way one could order such a grand list… the be all end all list of classical composers can be streamed at your request via the Spotify.

Spotify: Classical music in order of how cool the composers name is

Richard

Music monday

Thanks to a friends good suggestion I now have a new tradition – Music monday. The pair of us now exchange a single album every Monday, and for this first one I have taken it on myself to try and write something about my experience.

[Shared with me] Deep Purple In Rock – Anniversary Edition

Spotify –  Deep Purple – Deep Purple In Rock – Anniversary Edition

With three of five people left in the band I recently had the pleasure of seeing the band and their hammond organ powered psychedelic rock live. Just knowing a little of Deep Purple this album does a very good job of covering that. The brilliant intro of Child In Time, the steady drive of Speed king, the psychedelic organ sounds, wailing guitar and a howling Gillian feels unjustifiably familiar. This is not an album that I will be listening to all the time, but it is an album that I will come back too.

[Shared with my friend] Laura Marling – I Speak because I can

Spotify – Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can

Myspace – http://www.myspace.com/lauramarling

The Mercury prize nominee (UK yearly best of album) Laura has me caught in her spell. Her soft tunes and wonderful voice has charmed me. As this was my choice for this music monday I am not going to further motivate it.

–

Another good monday tradition that is related to this is the oh so well kept @MonaFims MusicMonday! Spotify playlist that I highly recommend. As the playlist name implies it is updated every Monday and has been spot on for me so far – @MonaFims – Musicmonday! (updated each monday) (also follow @MonaFims on twitter)

Hopefully there will be more music goodness next week

Richard

Storsjö Yran 2010

A week off, traveling north, long hours on the train and reaching my second favourite city of Sweden – Östersund. With the best of company and three days of music I have had a grand vacation. Between meeting new friends, hearing a lot of familiar and a little new music it is with such such such nostalgia that I already look back on my week. How could it end, why is there not more…

During the week I had the chance to see 16 bands in total, several of them however I only caught half or less of. The Majority (all but two) of those are Swedish. The genres are surprisingly well spread across the board, ranging from hard rock to indie pop.

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

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Three days of live music

As the playlist for the three festival days has been finalised I set to work on picking out a preleminary list of mucisians I want to see.

THRUSDAY – This is a day of Rock, kicking of with Sparanzanza, followed by Avatar and Europe at midnight. Odd one out for the day is the Swedish pop artists Nejra. In case I get time or change my mind Oskar Linnros, Ingenting and Shout out louds provide background noise having overlapping playtimes.

FRIDAY – Friday is a mix of pop – folk, rock and electro. Evening starts with Melissa Horn, followed by Astrid Madberg, Johnossi, Sara Blasko, Kent and Familjen. A pretty intense evening of music ending around 2am (close to six hours in total). In case it is too much the most important are Melssia, Kent and Familjen.

SATURDAY – Ending this long weekend of music is Dream Evil, Elliot Murphy, Lars Winnerbäck, Hoffmaestro & Chraa, Teddybears and Motorpsycho. With the most important being Teddybears, Hoffmaestro and Winnerbäck.

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Marvin in action

I have been meaning to post some videos forever, and today I finally got one uploaded. Going to be posting videos for both a Direction controller demo and the “get out of my way” demo from the sandbox when I find a good way to capture them.

For now enjoy watching Marvin super imposed  on top of me stepping out of the way of my friend.

*update*

Uploading more stuff so thought id add them here directly. This is a number of step animations:

Richard

Yran 2010

Currently looking forward to my annual trip up north to Östersund in the middle of Sweden, and the location of Storsjö yran. It is a city festival that I have been attending for the last four years (making this my fifth visit come late July). As per tradition I have also studied the bands (leaving only a few surprises) to find where to best spend my time.
After my analysis I have sorted out 59.15% of the 71 bands looked at that I wouldn’t mind seeing during the three days (that equals 42, why does that number sound familiar ;).

Of these 22.54% (16) are rated by me as 4’s and 5’s, or bands I really really want to see (6 of those are 5’s).

So far only the breakdown per day is available on yran.se (no times), so I can’t yet optimize my viewing by each day based on my ratings.

Of the 4’s and 5’s 25% are indie pop, 19% are indie rock and 13% are electronic.

Ordered by how much I want to see them.
  1. Hoffmaestro & Chraa (Ska)
  2. Melisaa Horn (Folk pop)
  3. Teddybears (Electronic)
  4. Familjen (Electronic)
  5. Kent (Indie rock)
  6. Lars Winnerbäck (Rock)
  7. Marit Bergman (Indie pop)
  8. Johnossi (Indie rock)
  9. Elliot Murphy (Folk rock)
  10. The Bear Quartet (Indie rock)
  11. Markus Krunegård (Indie pop)
  12. Anna von Hausswolff (Indie)
  13. Oskar Linnros (Indie pop)
  14. Nejra (Indie pop)
  15. Motorpsycho (Psychedelic)
  16. Sparzanza (Hard rock)

Richard