Light and Optics

My 2011 in Review

Dan — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 11:55:53 +0000

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,700 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 45 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

The Big 10K, Baby!

Dan — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:24:42 +0000

Yes, a gaming milestone is reached! Last night I hit 10.000 gamerpoints when playing Forza Motorsport 4. I thought I’d try out rivals mode, just for fun. Since I’m not the most skilled Forza driver out there, but far from the worst, I thought it’d take some serious effort beating an opponent.

I was wrong. After the first race, the “Rivals Shootout” achievement popped. I went on trying the other modes and strangely enough beat every rival, even in drifting! I can’t drift to save my life, let alone beat an opponent. Lady Luck favored me and I earned “Born Competitor” after a while. Two achievements I thought to be very difficult and time-consuming were bagged. ‘Twas a good night.

See you on the race tracks!

Title Update 2.0

Dan — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 21:51:59 +0000

For those of you gaming on the Xbox 360 console, the post title can’t be unfamiliar. When a game gets updated, a title update is downloaded. These updates contain bug fixes, new achievements and what not. Improvements on the game basically.

I recently picked up the Assassin’s Creed games again. Brotherhood in particular to finish the Da Vinci Disappearance DLC. How I’ve missed those games…

The last chapter of Ezio’s story, AC Revelations, will be released in November and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into it. In preparation, I’ve redeemed Uplay points and gotten a new, explorable area called the Auditore family crypt and a new, playable assassin character for multiplayer, the Hellequin (on the right, borrowed from the AC Wikia).

That’s it for now. Oh, and you won’t see me coming. You’ll just feel the cold blade ‘tween your shoulder blades…

Deus Ex

Dan — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 08:38:09 +0000

So, yes… I’ve entered the dark, Blade Runner-esque world of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. And I like it a lot. A lot of it is in the details. For example, a couple of officers at the Detroit police station are discussing “this old movie about a cop who gets all shot up and rebuilt using machine parts”. Hmm, a cyborg cop in Detroit… Who might that be? Robocop, of course! If that wasn’t enough, guess what one of the officers name is. Alex Murphy. It really put a smile on my face.

Just a Quick Post

Dan — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:43:26 +0000

Yes, I’ve been terrible at updating this year. Sorry. I guess it’s lost a bit of the charm. Might update more frequently from now on, might not.

Anyway, what’s new? I’ve found my way back into the beer camp again. After sampling the Scottish Innis & Gunn I was hooked. I love both the original and the rum cask. Another British beer I’ve come to like, by “accident” too, is the Hobgoblin ale by Wychwood.

So, after a terrible morning and a tad better day I decided to pick up a few bottles of the aforementioned beers. Almost always open to try new beers, I found a “smoky porter” called just that, “Rökporter” by the Nils Oscar Company. It lives up to its name for sure. Smells and tastes smoky along with dried fruit and other nice things. I encourage you to try it when you can.

Links:
Nils Oscar Company
Innis & Gunn
Wychwood

The force…

Dan — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:38:25 +0000

Some of you know I drive a 2004 Volvo S60, but I’m a Star Wars fan, and this Volkswagen commercial is just too cool to miss. Enjoy! *whistling The Imperial March*

Wednesday update

Dan — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 13:48:59 +0000

I thought I’d share the WordPress stats in the post below with you. In part because I haven’t posted anything in a while and in part to brag a bit.

In all honesty I haven’t had much to write about. I’ve been too tired in the evenings to do anything else than watch TV or a movie or play on my Xbox. Forza Motorsport 3 and Halo: Reach mostly. I’m thinking of buying Fable III, but that’ll have to wait until it’s cheaper. Besides, I’ve got much of Fable II to play though. And a couple of other games…

Over and out for now.

2010 in review

Dan — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 12:26:09 +0000

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,900 times in 2010. That’s about 9 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 30 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 464 posts. There were 23 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 751kb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was December 7th with 38 views. The most popular post that day was The cataclysm cometh!.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were ifreestores.com, en.wordpress.com, icreditcard.biz, insurancestores.info, and azana24x7.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for guild wars mac, guild wars on mac, guild wars for mac, wow cataclysm, and cataclysm.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

The cataclysm cometh! August 2010

Guild Wars on Mac? August 2009
2 comments

Cataclysm! August 2009

Death on the rise! February 2010
5 comments

New Summer Clothing July 2009
2 comments

Forza!

Dan — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 19:24:26 +0000

Two “new” worlds are opening up on the Xbox: racing and multiplayer gaming in general. I bought Forza Motorsport 3 – Ultimate Collection and a 14 month pre-paid Xbox Live Gold membership today. The Live Gold enables multiplayer and online gaming in general. Playing Halo: Reach or Forza 3 with friends (or against other, unknown players for that matter) will be fun. I hope. Either way, it’ll be cool to try the Bugatti Veyron or Koenigsegg CCX out, if only virtually.

Ready… Set… Burn rubber!

A new year, a new try…

Dan — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:08:40 +0000

Yes, I’ve been terrible at this. I’ll be the first to admit it. Almost five months since the last post. Has to be some kind of world record… (And ‘tween us, I had forgotten the password.)

A short update then: Work is… as work always is. Luckily I have a little less than a week’s worth of vacation left. I’ve been gaming quite a bit on the Xbox 360 and I’ve added a couple of games to that shelf. A grand total of 12 retail and four arcade games. WoW: Cataclysm progress is well. I hit the level cap of 85 a couple of days ago and am now working on the new archaeology skill. It’s fun! Speaking of WoW, I’ve added the Wildstorm comic books to my collection and also a series 6 figurine of Sylvanas Wildrunner. It and another figurine, a night elf huntress, adorn my desktop as we speak.

On the liquid side of things, some new whiskies has found a home here. I really need a separate piece of furniture for all bottles. Speaking of which, I attended the Öl- och Whiskymässan fair this fall. Tasted a lot of excellent whiskies, amongst them a 1955 Glenlivet. A special moment to say the least. Also found a beer I actually enjoyed: Innis & Gunn. Oak aged beer, a bit sweeter with hints of toffee and vanilla. It sits very well with me.

What else is new..? Don’t remember everything. Ask.