On 4th of January I quit smoking. I smoked for 16 & ½ years. More than half of my life. And to tell you the truth, it was good, I really loved smoking. I enjoyed the whole ritual of smoking one cigarette. Every bit of it. I loved the sound of the Zippo opening, the sparkles of the cigarette lighting up. The smoke would go down my throat and right after that the nicotine going up the back of my neck to relax my brain. It was really good. My cousin says that I’m a cigarette junkie. Maybe I am. The main reason I quit is not because concerns for my health but because cigarettes are so damn expensive nowadays.  I am pathetic, I know. I tried to quit about 20 times, for the last 3 years. But never succeeded. And I know why I failed each time. It was because I always left little doors open… like smoke just @ work, just in this moment, just in this room and so on. And before I knew it, I was back on track. This time I did it cold-turkey. No nicotine patches, no back-doors. And it turned out to be one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.

The thing I found to be the hardest is the continuous carving to light up. Many things I’ve done on daily basis were associated with cigarettes. I smoked for so long, there were actions I didn’t know how to do without cigarettes. Like browsing the internet on my laptop. Like feeling happy because I accomplished something and not light up. Like the taste of coffee and beer. And so on. So the carving is really bad. I had some other signs of quitting like sleepless nights and high appetite to fill my mouth. But nothing compares to the carving, that’s there day and night 24/7. I hope it goes away. I really hope. I’m on day 13 and the last week was easier. But day 3 and 5 was a bitch. I felt I’m gonna bang my head against the walls.

To my surprise, I don’t mind if others smoke around me. I don’t even long to light up as I see them smoke. I’m like in 3rd person mode. That doesn’t mean carving is gone. It’s there, but it’s not triggered by seeing others smoke. Before I quit, I read a lot of stuff on the internet, like you’ll feel better, like taste improves after 48 hours of quitting. That, my friends, is a lot of bullshit. You won’t feel any better, your taste won’t improve, nothing positive they say would happen, does happen. Just so you know the truth, before you put the last one out. It’s hard and the thought of lighting up is exhausting. I couldn’t concentrate for at least 4-5 days. And I tried hard.

With cigarettes, gone is a lifestyle. Gone are the beer-washed nights with friends. Gone are the relaxing morning coffees. Gone are the zippo “clink” and the smell of fuel. Gone is the lighting spark. Gone is the “stop for a smoke” street meetings. Of course there is a good side to this: Gone is the smell from the house and your clothes. Gone is the continuous stress of not having at least 5 cigarettes. Gone is the haunting of the No Smoking sign. And so on. Still, I can’t say yet, that I like the new lifestyle 100% more. Maybe it will change with time. One of the things I’m quite happy about though, is that I can’t drink any more beer. I tried to force myself to drink, and I did, but it really sucked – it taste awful without cigarettes. So no more beer. I can’t imagine how they drink beer in movies without smoking. A bunch of losers in my opinion. It’s like having sex with the rubber on. And have you noticed that smoking is making a comeback on the big screen? I didn’t pay so much attention to this until now, but did you notice everybody lights up? I mean in the normal movies, not in the “picture-perfect american life” crap.

I’m gonna be the little devil and tell you this: if you plan on quitting, think again. Maybe someday you’ll be happy you did, but the first hours, days, weeks, months and maybe years will be hard as a muthafucka. And you really don’t give up just the cigarettes, you give up a whole lifestyle. For a boring, snob one. Snob society will look down on you because you light up, but you are cool if you listen to club music and do the stuff that comes with it. I never did that. And never will. I always said nicotine clouds and rivers of beer are better than “synthetic happiness”. But that’s just me.

P.S. I should really change my avatar/about picture on the web. I will do some self-portraits as a “zen monk” tomorrow.

I love metal. I grew up listening to it. It made me calm, it made me open my eyes, it was there in tough times. Yet, some people don’t get it. They say it’s 2010, I should listen to mainstream techno aka house music. The thing is, I listen to house music. From time to time. But I consider it to be souless. It might be good ambiance for junkie trips (which I don’t do, because I like beer a lot better), but it doesn’t carry any message. Nor good, nor bad. It’s as gray as everyday society. And on top of that is plastic. Made on computers from other peoples samples most of the time. No instruments involved. So how is that MUSIC?

The other day I had this discussion again with a friend of mine, for the 1000th time, and as I was fueled by too much Heineken, I put on the Still Reigning DVD of Slayer where the “fake” blood rains on them, just to see his face. And it was the same old cheap talk again, that they just growl and I should grow up (read: be a junkie and a trendwhore). The difference between these kind of people and me is that I CAN listen to other kinds of music too, and I do listen… To what’s worth listening. Sometimes I listen to Bob Marley. Sometimes I listen to Morcheeba. Yet, some other times to Iron Maiden. Sometimes I listen to jazz. Sometimes to metal. Sometimes to downtempo. It depends on how I feel at the moment. But no, MTV generation doesn’t accept that. You don’t fit the pattern. You suck, you are old and clueless and crazy. Fact is, I don’t care. I heard these things said to my face before. And it was not while discussing music. And I was right back then, too.

So, to sum it up, I am sorry for you, narrow-minded fucks. Wonder what’s the next trend you jump on is. Fagots.

P.S. I wrote this post on the iPod Touch. sic!

P.S. 2: After you watched the video … the same drummer was drumming for John Zorn too on the 99 and 00 LP’s. Just so you get the picture. Oh, you don’t know who John Zorn is… Now, you see what I am talking about?

Update: It might be that I’m not the only one annoyed with senseless re-tweeting – so Twitter introduced a new way of re-tweeting. With you push the re-tweet button, and it’s all done on your part – no more RT no more character-fitting in the original post. The other good thing is, and this is what I wanted to mention the most – is that NOW you have the option to go to the spammers (mindless retweeter’s) page and choose not to receive his re-tweets. Yes, DuChebags, your retweets down the drain. Thanks, Twitter.

My iPod Touch 3G

Truth is, I always wanted an iPod. From the day it came out (and then when I saw it live @fazsoo back in 2003, I think). I’m an audiophile. I love music. I always wanted a digital audio player with memory. Never had one. And I always thought, the greatest MP3 player is an iPod. I always tested other MP3 players too, but none of them seemed to cut it for me. The problem with the iPod was that it was (is) expensive. Knowing that it’s expensive, I never really bothered to check out it’s new features and models and stuff, because an MP3 player is just an MP3 player, it’s not something you can’t live without and I have more important things to do with the money I earn. On top of that, I already have a hobby that’s pretty expensive too – photography. So iPod Touch and iPhone remained just some marketing words in my mind, a “thing that I will GET one day”, but I never really looked their features up.

But this summer, I had the chance to play with two of my friend’s iPhones and I really liked it. It was just what I thought it would be. But the thing IS too damn expensive, and I already have a phone that I love, the Nokia E50. And then sometime last month, while laying on the couch, chilling out – my mind was wandering – wouldn’t it be great to have a device, that you can use for Twitter and Flickr and Yahoo right there from the couch, without the need to carry the Thinkpad around the house. And wouldn’t it be great to have a device that has wireless, so wherever you are, you just need a Hot Spot and you can check mail, tweet or whatever. Yes I know, you can do that with MobileInternet, but the thing is, this is Romania, and they charge an arm and a leg for that, so it’s not a viable solution.

So, as I was lying there, staring at the dark, the thought just hit me – you should check out the features of the iPod Touch, it may have wireless too and it shouldn’t be so expensive as the iPhone. And I just did that. Then I learned that the new 3G series Touches were just launched this September and that the 8gig Touch is marketed under 200$. Well, with a little effort I can afford that, I thought. And the next morning I checked the price at our store (the firm I work for is an Apple reseller, well sort of), and yes I could get some discount of the price. And I ordered one. And boy, I’m happy that I did.

After two weeks, the thing showed up (Apple Romania’s sales department sucks ballz). I was happy as a little child on Christmas day. Maybe more. And the thing is, I still am. I don’t know about you, but I own stuff, that makes me happy over and over, day by day, simply by touching it. This is one of those things.

Because I bought the “cheepoo” version, it came with: a dock adapter, an USB charger cable, the cheapest headphones from Apple, a QuickStar Guide, 2 Apple stickers and a really nice packing. The only thing I mind about all this is the USB charger cable, because it forces me to have a laptop/computer ON and plugged in, while it charges, and a full charge is about 4 hours. This is inconvenient, so I’m gonna have to look for a wall charger, with USB.

First thing you have to do, after unboxing is to connect it to a computer that has iTunes on it. To tell you the truth, I was a little nervous about this, because I would normally like to not depend on a piece of software for a separate device. And my cousin dtbsz, who also owns an older iPod Classic, didn’t help with his opinions like “Apple are communists, Steve the dictator with iTunes and syncing, you will hate that, yadda yadda yadda”. Well, clicking around in iTunes proved me, that there is nothing to worry about. I like the software and I don’t consider it obtrusive. The interface may look crowded at first, but after using it a little I find it logical and simple. I don’t mind it shows up, when I plug my iPod in – there is a setting which disables all this. And you can also disable all kinds of syncing too.

The iTunes interface

So, as the iTouch was charging, I started to gather some music in iTunes, and organize it. BTW, it can be a really nice media catalog software too – it has all the features you might need, MP3 taging, album art, lyrics and so on, and somehow the features of the iPod like cover flow and lyric display, makes you care more about your music collection. On the other hand, almost every device you buy nowadays, has a property software associated with it – like ActiveSync of Microsoft, PC Suite (and recently Ovi) of Nokia and so on. So I really don’t mind using iTunes.

The iPod is basically a music player. I mean, that is it’s main purpose. And listening to music it’s one hell-of-an experience on it. Browsing through your collection is not only a visual eyecandy but a really great experience. Seeing all the album art and info, and the ease and speed of finding the wanted song is amazing. You can feel that this is a feature designed by music lovers for music lovers. And I don’t think anyone else can do better. Yes, my Nokia, can also play music. But it’s a pain in the ass, to create a playlist, and browsing through music is a gruesome task. The only thing easier is to simply drop the files on your memory card. But that’s about it. Then you have to break your fingers to play a goddam song. Well, this is not the case with the iPod Touch.

Cover flow

Because of my job, I get to run around the county a couple of times a week. The company car doesn’t even have a radio, so having my music with me, is a great thing. In my own car, I have an OEM CC player only. I never wanted to change it, because it integrates so good with the dashboard. Now, I bought a Kensington LiquidFM – so on longer journeys I can plug my iPod in – and get rid of the cassettes from the car. Yeah. The cool thing about the LiquidFM is that it also charges my iPod, so I don’t run out of juice, if I’m, say, in a remote place and I don’t have my Thinkpad with me. And the price I got it for was a real bargain – about 12 €!!!

Besides music, the iPod can do a LOT of other things. I know, I said it’s a music player, but it’s really a pocket computer. It is really nice to have the internet in your pocket. It has all the apps you would need from a handheld device in 2009, by default. It has mail, browser, calendar, clock, weather, notes, contacts and so on. But when it comes to shine it’s when you hit the AppStore. Which for some weird reason, in Romania has a lot of the apps missing. So I ended up creating an USA account. Thumbs down for Romania, again… bleah. Fucking morons.

So, as I was saying, the AppStore is a great thing. It really unlocks your iTouch and gives it unlimited usage possibilities. And, just to be clear, I didn’t and won’t Jailbreak my device. Because with tens of thousand apps in the store, with many of them free, I don’t see the point in it.

I will share some thoughts about the apps I really love. First the defaults:

Contacts – I use it for having all the details of friends and people I know in one place – One thing I don’t like about the Calendar app, is that it doesn’t show the Birthday reminder of friends, even if I complete it in Contacts. Other than that, once you add someone in the Contact list, it becomes available throughout the device, for example in the mail app. This is very handy.

Clock – I really like the Alarm feature. It’s not like I don’t have another 10 alarm devices in the house. But the one in the Touch, is the most stylish. I’m a sucker for Cricket sound

Mail – Google and Yahoo integration for me. Works great. It also knows Exchange and other popular mail providers. Messages can be read offline, and also written offline, and those get sent at the first detected internet connection. Without user intervention. Which I think is great.

Convert – This little app by taptaptap is really handy, it can convert whatever you would need and it even has a simple calculator.

Twitterrific – This little app by Iconfactory is a gem. On top of that it’s free. The only social networking service I use regularly is Twitter. And it’s the great experience with this app.

Yahoo Messenger – really nice interface for the Touch by Yahoo – You should make the main client this beautiful too! Emoticons and sending pics and links is easy as a snap of your fingers. Thanks.

Facebook – I don’t use FB. Though many of my relatives and friends do, so I have the client installed, to check them out once in a while. And the client is a lot more organized and logical then the main site. Thumbs up.

Wordpress – Yes, I can approve comments, and even write a post from the client. It rules.

Free RSS – I read many interesting people’s blogs, but I’m simply having a hard time keeping up with them. So this little app is handy because it downloads the posts while online, and stores info in the device, so I can read while in a traffic jam or on the toilet .

Fare City – My favorite game so far. Controlling it fits the Touch, and the game experience is great, especially the jazzy soundtrack. Another game I have a lot of fun with is DoneDrinking.

Stanza – e-book reader. You can find literally tons of books for free online. I never thought reading on a handheld can be this good. Ligia’s favorite so far, along with Hangman Free by Optime Software.

So, as you can see, the limit is the sky on how you can use your iPod Touch.

Browsing on the Touch with Safari is another charming experience, tabbed browsing and all that. With more and more sites in mobile format (that’s why my new personal site, will have a mobile format too) and the double finger zoom feature on normal sites, I didn’t feel that it was a pain to read any webpage I visited. The user experience is great, concerning this is a handheld device, and that is mostly because of the great touchscreen.

Another thing I was nervous about with the Touch was typing. I had the chance to use dtbsz’s Nokia N97 QWERTY keyboard and that was great. So I didn’t know what the Touch would be. But after about 15 minutes using the iPod’s keyboard, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Because of the Touch’s sensitivity is really easy to type fast after you get used to it. Characters are at hand, even Hungarian or any other language’s special characters. You just hold the similar character and the specials pop up. Really easy. An annoying thing is/was that depending on what Dictionary you choose, it tries to correct your typing. This is inconvenient, because I mostly type in Hungarian, and the Touch doesn’t have a Hungarian Dictionary yet (WHY on Earth not???) so it corrects my typing the wrong way sometime. But I left the dictionary on, because it learns the words you are typing, so in the feature it’s really easy to type your words. Selecting, cuting and copying text is just as easy, you just have to hold your finger on the text you want to edit, and it gives you the options. Nice.

Battery life, it’s a little worst than I expected. But that may be because I had this thing for a week or so and whenever I have a spare moment I fiddle with it. In time, when I will use it “normally”, I’m sure battery life will last more than 1,5-2 days ;). My findings so far, are that downloading and installing apps is a battery killer, along with 3D gaming. But as an MP3 player it has great battery life, listening to music hardly consumes any considerable amount of battery, and I’m sure the advertised 36 hours of music listening is real, based on my findings so far. Wi-Fi alone doesn’t seem to eat beyond expectations and what I observed was that it turns the Wi-Fi off automatically if you put it to sleep and you don’t have apps that require internet connection (like online radio or fetch mail).

So all in all, I don’t regret for a moment that I choose this device over others. Yes it doesn’t have Flash yet, and yes you have to use iTunes to get stuff on it, but the touching experience and the whole eyecandy thing makes it worth every cent. Considering the 199$ price tag, I don’t really see what can your other choices be in this league.

1. Everything works: Everything works on a PC too. I don’t know where you got the idea that it doesn’t. If it doesn’t it’s because you are so damn stupid. Sorry but that’s the truth.
   

   Lenovo Thinkpad X300

2. They are sexy: Yes, this is true, the design and OS GUI is beautiful. But my Thinkpad ain’t shit either. Nor is my PC in a Chieftec case. Trendwhores.
3. They are fast: What? They are fast? I worked on Mac and they sucked for double the price a normal PC. And if they are so fast and so great why the fuck did they decide to use cheapshit crappy PC hardware like the Intel Processor? Fuck off hypocrites. BTW you only need 128 MB of RAM to run XP. This doesn’t mean it will work tho’.
4. OSX The best OS: Nope. The best OS is Windows XP. XP is fast and stable. It might not be as easy to use for the dumb, but it’s stable and fast. And it does what it’s supposed to.
5. Stability – no more blue screens: I haven’t had a blue screen since Windows98. And for me at least BSOD was pretty rare back then to. And you know why? Because I RTFM, that’s why. I’m not trying to force the OS do something it wasn’t designed to. Oh, BTW, I don’t reinstall the OS either as many stupid Windows users do, only when I upgrade my motherboard. So I have a WinXp system installed for 3-4 years or so, without it slowing down or getting full of garbage. Because I learnt to use the fucking thing, that’s why.
6. Viruses. What’s that?: Viruses are widespread on the PC because of it’s popularity and because users are plain stupid. And if Mac would have the same popularity (which it doesn’t) it would be the same on the Mac too. Stupid user = a lot of viruses. Of, and you might also wanna read >this<.
7. Spotlight: If you would keep your shit organized like most of normal people do, you wouldn’t need spotlight. But I’m sure you ask your mom for your panties too.
8. Backups – Time Machine: What a glamorous name for a simple thing. Backups with external HDD, WOW, only on Mac. What a great new tekmology. Get a life. We have system restore on PC too, but i consider it a waste of space. You should regularly back up important stuff but not the entire system.
9. Ease of Use: Ahm… yes. The same old shit again. It’s about reading the fucking manual. It’s that simple. Learn to use it. Any OS. Even linux. It’s not about anything else. Windows XP installs in 15 minutes too (Win7 even faster, I tested on VM), and with the drivers, an hour maybe. Oh, you don’t need drivers. Of course you don’t because Jobs decides what hardware you have, not you. And if you want to upgrade something, either you can’t or it’s gonna leave you bankrupt for 2 months.
10. Installing and Uninstalling: Biggups for Mac on this. But does it delete your shortcuts and shit too?
11. Amazing Bundled Software: “With bundled software on Mac, you can do much more” Like what?
12. Run both Windows and Mac: “You can’t do that on your PC, can you?” No, at the moment I can’t, only with some hacks, but we gonna get there too. Just wait.
13. Effortless wireless: WTF does that mean? You mean you set up a wireless connection, without knowing what you are doing? Wouldn’t be easier to just scream out of your window “Hey everybody, come and get my stuff, I’m using wireless, but I have no clue what it is… “
14. Create PDF’s for free: Oh my God, wow. You can create PDF for free on a PC too. You don’t need expensive software and all that neither. Just use PDFCreator or something similar.

I can go on and on. All your reasoning is bullshit. All you do is brag about your expensive computers, because you feel the urge to do so after you’ve spent so much money on them. I like Mac too, but I hate their anti-PC campaign. What Jobs and Gates have to sort out, it’s not my problem, and Jobs’s cause is not the mac users concern either. They just make it so, who knows why.

If Mac wasn’t so damn expensive, I would probably buy one. I just can’t stand this new MAC-LOVER wannabies, who after they got their first Mac from daddy, go online posting shit like that (after they previously owned PCs and probably they still do).  So go fuckyourselves. There, you have my two cents on the topic.

Edit: I read something on the topic and I can’t resist to quote:

I think I couldn’t get used to the one button mouse either… wtf is that?!?! I want to right click!! I want to use all the capabilities of a Logitech G5 mouse. No! Mac users are (they like to think they are) ‘cooler‘, mac users are ‘diffrent‘ (~limited).

Edit2: Oh, and I remembered a thing about the Mac, which I have to admit, I envy. A high percent of Mac users have teaste and they are creative. That doesen’t mean every PC hater kid with a Mac at hand (read: trendwhore) is an artist, but a high percentage has more artistic tallent then the average PC user. Just look at the OS customizations they do… You’ll get the picture. Biggups for them. But maybe it’s just because Mac was/is the choice of publishers, designers and artists in general. I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure, this kind of users don’t waste their time bashing the PC on forums and blogs. They have better things to do.

- quit smoking – I don’t wanna die. I love smoking, but I love things around me better. I have to quit. And it eat’s up my money on top of that;

- make a clear plan on how to feature myself on the internet – delete old sites, centralize all the stuff in one place;

- force myself to make time for evolving (webdesign and photography) – on schedule, because otherways I’m too tired / lazy?

- make money with something I like doing – I think this is the most important.

These are just a few things I want from 2009. I hope it will be a year of change for me (us) and maybe even if I will have the same “official” job next year, I will be doing stuff that I LIKE, and making money out of it.

So, what are your plans? Have you thought about it?

So try to make your Christmas what it is … a celebration, of Christ, of family, of friends, of whatever you want. But don’t let it be “just another day”. Merry Christmas to you!

A little nostalgia?

Well, now it’s 2008 and nothing changed. I mean, nothing about the experience of playing this game. It just got a thousand times better. Yes, I’m talking about Grand Theft Auto IV and you as Niko Bellic. But wait… this wasn’t my first impression.

I read at least a dozen reviews about the game when it came out for console. And then I was eager to see it on PC. And the day came on 6th of December. I was so curios, I read another dozen reviews and discussions, this time about the PC version -  and to my surprise people would say that it sucked. It sucked because textures weren’t converted as they should’ve been, because it didn’t run well even on high end systems because of bugs, that it wasn’t playable. So I had reserves when I loaded up the game the first time. And surprise… surprise the people were right. I was disappointed – the game looks like shit on my system and I can’t even change the resolution above 1024×768 because of some cap in the game that reads my hardware and automatically sets the cap. If you are wondering my system is an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz, 2 GB of RAM, 8600 GT 256 MB. Some may say it’s not much, but every other game I play these days (Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Prince of Persia, Crysis) looks spectacular and works pretty well on this system, with the resolution set to 1280×1024. But not GTA IV. It simply looks like crap. I can’t change from Low texture settings and the Render Quality is capped at Medium. Watch the video below, you’ll know exactly what I mean and how I’ve felt.

But… the other day I had some more free time and I gave it another shot. And low and behold, it got me. With all the crappy settings and all that I was having GREAT FUN. And the further I played the further my jaw dropped to the ground.  The game looks OK even at low settings, once you concentrate on the game / story and you forget about your 1024 and Low settings. All the good things I read about how detailed the city life was in Liberty City IS true – and I might add, to me it’s a hundred times better. I’ve done maybe 15% of the main story up until now – but I’m already addicted. Just a few things I’ve found marvelous in the game:

It has about 20 radio stations, among which I think everybody can find something that suits his taste +  the PC version even has the Independence Radio station – your own MP3 folder to listen.

a lot has changed since GTA I ... visually

You can actually have a social life. You can make friends and can call them to hang out with, play some “games in the game”, like pool or darts; can get drunk as hell (and then you and your friend talk some serious shit and driving is a real challenge). You can go watch a cabaret for example and you actually go into the theater and there is a show for you – stand-up comedy or whatever. And this far I haven’t seen the same show twice – so bigups for the developers. And that’s true for the TV too. I found myself actually watching TV in a videogame to my entertainment. My favorite in-game friend this far, is Little Jacob. He likes Bob Marley and ganja. So if you switch to TuffGong radio station while he’s in the car… he says “I feel this, mAn.” and he even talks some sense like “sometimes you have to lay back and chill, get away from everyday life”. Funny, huh?

Of course, you can have “lady friends” too – a whore or a girlfriend – your choice. The girlfriend you have to take out and entertain (games or a restaurant, just as your friends) and if you’re lucky enough you even get to “drink a coffee” at her place. In some parts of the city though, you can find pleasure for money too – and this time Rockstar got it right – you pick up the whore, drive to some quiet place and then choose the services you want – and unlike in previous GTA’s, in GTA IV you get to see the action. Yes. Not the vulgar way, but enough to get the idea. Bigups again.

For the internet addicted, there is e-mail and browser in the game. You get e-mails from friends, you can search for your soul-mate and you can even buy ringtones for your in-game phone in this virtual “cloud”. Very detailed, very cool.

The game is filled of course with a lot of cars – that’s what GTA is about in the end, right? The bad news is, you can crash really bad, you get thrown out on the windshield and you can die :). The cop car has a computer through which you can access the police database, so you basically can find any crook or criminal you’re looking for. Driving around is a little bit tricky tho’ because the camera won’t move as it should around corners, so you have to get used to control the camera with your mouse – thumbs down this time.

I had this moment when I couldn’t resist to cry out loud “WOW”. This happened when I “executed” one of the first bosses in the game, Vladimir. It was a really cool visual experience. So brutal and raw, like I’ve never seen in a video-game before.

merry christas - GTA style

Day and night cycles, weather changes, surrounding world reaction and all that you expect from a game in 2008 is all there too. Everything happens almost as in reality, so it’s very easy to loose yourself during the game and get into character. And you can play for hours and never know how time in real life passes – and this my friends is the sign of really good design, extremely detailed and carefully thought-out game; not so common in our days (see NFS Undercover).

This is what I think of the new GTA in a nutshell. To sum it up, GTA IV is a great game. I just love to play it, no matter what I do in the living-breathing city of Liberty. The visual experience might not be so great on my system, but the game itself kicks f_kin’ ass. Everybody MUST at least give it a try. I highly recommend it as a great way of breaking out of the mundane. I’m sure I didn’t see half the game has to offer yet – but as this may be true, I already know that this is another of my all-time favorite games. For the nostalgic and for old times sake, here’s a tip – Rockstar made GTA II available on their site, a few years ago, go to the Rockstar Classics site to get your copy.

Happy GTA-ing.

Hetfield style...

Since two weeks or so,  I started growing a beard. And ever since, as I meet with a friend or relative, they feel the urge to pop the inevitable question:

Are you trying to grow a beard?

Aw for fuck’s sake man. Of course I am. What does it look like to you? Isn’t it obvious? It looks like I ran out of shaving foam or what?