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Uru: Ages Beyond Myst
This afternoon, I again spend some hour trying to make Uru: Ages Beyond Myst
work on lixia, but it simply kept
on crashing. I do not know whether it is the graphic card, the sound card or even
the RW-drive. In the evening, I got the idea to try to install it on
ester and that worked. Of course,
the graphic quality is lower, but it is still okay to play the game. Sometimes it
shows some anomalities, but that is okay to me. I have decided to keep
a logbook of playing this game.
Real-time view of the solar eclips
Around ten o'clock, I saw the first signs of the solar eclips on my computer screen.
Behind me is a window, and the sun shines through some holes in the blinds. I have
put a post-it note with a pin-hole before one of these holes that shines on my screen.
So, I have a real-time view of the solar eclips on my computer screen.
Around eleven, the spot had moved off my screen. But we found another hole to look
at the sun. It was a little darker outside, but it was not very impressive.
Losing with 33 points
This evening, I went to play Go. I played against
Ton and got a six stone advantage. I did not play very well, because I lost
with 33 points. Then we watched Marcel and Vincent analyze their game and
them starting another game, where Marcel explained about what are good moves
and bad moves. He explained to us, that it is especially important to prevent
yourself from becoming enclosed. When he gives some comments, it all seems
so simple, but yet, I am afraid that the reality is far more complicated.
Ton and I biked home together till the city center, were we both went our
own way.
Celebration
Today, it is 12 years ago that we got married.
I suggested that we would have a lunch in the city. While biking there, I picked
up three chestnuts near my old office.
Li-Xia and I met around 20 past 12,
in front of bookshop "De Slegte". Than we
walked went to Camel and ordered the same as last time,
shoarma, falafel, and some salad. We enjoyed our lunch, and then walked around a
little and looked through some shops. When I had to go back to my office, I said:
"The party is over again". When I arrived in the office, I put the chestnuts on
my desk. Later, I realized that they were of the type that turn brown very soon.
And indeed, before the end of the afternoon some brown spots appeared.
(follow-up)
General relativity as alternative for Dark matter
On Slashdot I read about the CERN newsletter that reports that a
new paper by F.I. Cooperstock and
S. Tieu has demonstrated that one of the prime observational justifications for
the existence of dark matter can be explained without any dark matter at all, by a
proper use of general relativity! It should be noted that the claim is refuted by
the article Singular disk of matter
in the Cooperstock and Tieu galaxy model.
I biked home without coat on because it was around 20 degrees Celsius. Which is
rahter warm for the time of the year.
Very quiet
This evening, Annabel and I went to the university
to play Go. When we arrived there was nobody, but we
were early. Annabel discovered the exposition of
Peter Geerts with his musical instruments, and she asked me to have a look. I
remembered having seens some of these instruments many years ago. When we
returned Rudi and Marcel had arrived. We waited sometime, but nobody showed up.
Rudi and Marcel started a game, and I decided to watch them. When they were
finished, I played a quick game against Rudi and Annabel played against Marcel.
I resigned the game, when I suddenly realized that a large group was dead. If
this group had not died, I would have made a nice score. We analyzed the game a
little. Although I lost, it was still an interesting game. Afterwards, we all
went back to have a look at the musical instruments, and Annabel and I played
with a kind mechanism consisting of three spirographs with bars connected to a
triangle, drawing very interesting curves.
Bowling
Today, Annabel became eleven. In the afternoon she
had her birthday party. Five girls from her class came. We gave them something
to drink and some cake. Then I took them with the bus to Bowling Enschede. We arrived there shortly after four. The children were
given something to drink and Annabel got her presents. Then they looked around.
We got lane number 6. Before I was there, the girls already had started entering
their names in the computer. Annabel was the first on the list and immediately
took the lead, and never lost it. She won with 95 points. The lowest was 61
points. Then they were served some french fries and some snack. It was around
a quarter to seven that we left. When we came outside, we noticed that four divers
were at the bottom of the diving dome, which is at the enterance of the bowling
center. The girls looked through the windows and waved to the divers. Then we
walked back to the bus stop, where I discovered, I had left the video camera
back at the bowling place. I ran back and forth to collect it. It was around
a quarter to eight that we arrived home. Two mothers were already waiting. The
girls soon left on bike, with the two mothers and Annabel and I riding with them.
Annabel felt that this party was much more fun than the last time, when she
was allowed to invite her whole class because she did not have a birthday party
for some years.
When they had left, Annabel installed Sims 2 on our computer and started playing
it. Besides Sims 2 she also got a pair of soft inline scates as a birthday gift
from us.
Family visiting
Today, my sister and my brother-in-law came to visit us with their two sons.
It's the same sister with which Annabel went on a holiday this summer. I had
bought some Grolsh beer for my brother-in-law, because he loves to drink some
beer. He was quite happy about it. I also showed them Myst: Exile and Uru.
I borrowed Myst: Exile to my sister after she played it a little on the computer.
At the moment, Li-Xia has no intentions on finishing her game anyway. While
showing some parts of Uru, I also made a discovery. See description in
the logbook.
Childhood Growth Utility Programs
This evening, I used the Childhood Growth Utility Programs to estimate the adult height of
Annabel. She weighs about 36 kilo. Her lenght
is 145.4 cm and her sitting height is 74.2 cm. That resulted in an
estimated adult height of 167.7 cm. Which is somewhere in the middle of
our heights. Of course, it is just an estimate and it could be wrong by
as much as 10 cm.
Memento
This evening, when I was Uru,
I suddenly realized that the movie Memento was on television. It already had started, so I missed
the first twenty minutes. I guess that he shot Teddy, or something like
that. A very smart movie, but maybe not very realistic. Afterwards, I
watched some other movie, but the strange thing was that I was still
watching it like, I was watching Memento. I stayed in the Memento mode
of thinking. Wierd.
Falling down the stairs
This afternoon, Andy fell down the stairs. It
was around four o'clock when Li-Xia announced he had to drink something.
He said he wanted to drink upstairs and started to go upstairs. Lately,
he often goes up and down the stairs all by himself. When Li-Xia was
heating his food, she suddenly hear him fall down. She found him sitting
at the foot of the stairs with his head facing down. He did not cry. But
also did not want to be touched. Li-Xia asked whether he had any pain. His
face was quite dark. She carried him to the car seat that he uses at home
and gave him something to drink. Then he started to cry. She phoned our
G.P. and was told to bring him. The G.P. could not find anything wrong.
We were asked to check him every two hours during the night.
Twekkelerzoom
This evening, Annabel and I biked to the
University. The sky was clear and the temperature was about 13 degrees
Celsius. We decided to bike along the Twekkelerzoom, a byclicle path
along the railroad. It has no streetlights. We encountered several
people without lights on their bike.
When we arrived, only Martijn was there. We first looked at the
musical instruments. Someone had put in an another pen in the kind
of spirograph and it had made some nice drawings. I played against
Rudi who play against Taco simutanously. I got nine stones at the
start and lost with 32 points. Not really bad. Marcel said I could
have won if I would have attacked Rudi more. After about 20 moves,
I had a quite strong position, but then allowed him to make small
groups everwhere, while I did not make any points. In a certain way
I felt quite relaxed playing against Rudi. Because he was also playing
against Taco, I did not feel a very strong pressure to play quick, and
several times I took ample time to consider my next move. Annabel played
against Martijn and lost with 55 points. Martijn told me, she simply
gave up a Ko-fight, when she encountered with it. Annabel and I, looked
at the musical instruments, and I watched the second game between
Rudi and Taco a little. Then Annabel started complaining that we should
go home. She has a holiday this week, so she can stay up later. We biked
the same road home.
Wallace and Gormit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Today, Li-Xia, Annabel,
and I went to the movie
Wallace and Gormit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. One of the reasons
why we went is because it was the last weekend that we could use our
reduced price tickets. And also because Andy is away this weekend.
I did not find it a very good movie. Of course, it is very clever how they
made it. I had to laugh about some of the small jokes, but that is all. I
did not hear much laughter during the movie anyway, but now there were not
many people in the room. It seemed mostly kids with their (grand)parents.
It the past weeks the weather has been extremely warm. For today the
temperature was the highest every measured on this day of the year.
This is all caused by a warm flow of air from the France and Spain,
caused by depressions on the atlantic ocean in combination with a
high pressure field in the center of Europe. On of these depressions
is the remnant of Wilma.
This months interesting links
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Monday, October 3, 2005