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Competition: Imagine a 'Pestschleuder'

A friend of mine just used the German word "Pestschleuder". "Pest" means, well, pest: plague, disease. "Schleuder" means "sling", "slingshot", but a a salad spinner is also called a "Salatschleuder".

I liked the word (I tend to like certain German words), and imagined... something... when I read it. Something that had nothing to do with its real meaning. My girlfriend imagined something completely different.

So here's a little competition: imagine what a Pestschleuder looks like and describe it here in a comment. On Sunday, April 5th Andrea and I will judge the entries. The prize is honor plus something not yet determined - it depends on who and where you are ;). It's really supposed to be fun thing to do. At least I had fun imagining my Pestschleuder.

Soviet Unterzoegersdorf 2

It is very rare that I say yes when someone asks me to publish a press release, but in this case I had to do it, because the people behind it are cool, it's from Austria and it sounds great. So voilá!

//////// /////// SOVIET UNTERZOEGERSDORF ////// ///// SECTOR II //// /// The Adventure Game // /

An adventure marches on!

/ // /// http://www.monochrom.at/suz-game/ // /

Soviet Unterzoegersdorf (pronounced «oon-taa-tsee-gars-doorf») is the last existing client republic of the USSR. The soviet enclave maintains no diplomatic relationship with the surrounding so-called "Republic of Austria" or with the capitalist fortress "European Union". The downfall of the people's motherland -- the Soviet Union -- in the early 1990s had a devastating effect on the country's intra-economic situation. External reactionary forces threatened the last remaining proletarian paradise. Party secretary Wladislav Gomulka has been kidnapped and is being held in US-Oberzoegersdorf. We must save comrade Gomulka! Because communism isn't an opinion. It's a promise.

/ // Special Non Player Guest Characters: / Jello Biafra, Bruce Sterling, Cory Doctorow, Emmanuel Goldstein, Mitch Altman, Bre Pettis, David 'DaddyD' Dempsey, Kyle Machulis, MC Frontalot, Eddie Codel, Irina Slutsky, Christian 'plomlompom' Heller, Jason Scott Sadofsky, Hans Bernhard, Robert Stachel (maschek) -- and many more.

/ // Voice Acting by: / Jevgeni Beliaikin, Sergey Teterin, Mikhail A. Crest, Daria Prawda, Bre Pettis -- and many more.

/ // Soundtrack features: / The Fat Man/George Alistair Sanger, Q-Burns Abstract Message, Zoe Keating, Neil Landstrumm, Jonathan Mann aka GameJew, Blockwerk, The Extra Action Marching Band, The Lazy, antivolk - Torsun feat. classless Kulla, Jan Klesse & Felix Knoke (left), Savant Trigger, Rioteer, MC Orgelmueller, Magic Jordan, Schaua, Horace, The Vladivostoks, Limpopo, Eric Skiff, Prometheus X, Kertal (feat. sunsetfactory), Bolschewistische Kurkapelle Schwarz-Rot, Farmer's Market, Attention, Cosmonauts!, Woodn Earf, Trishes, Krach the Robot, Prosperity Denied, Arteom Denissov, Dan Oberbauer aka DJ Chronos, LFO DEMON -- and more.

/ // Operating systems: / Available for Windows, Linux and OSX! And many thanks to the fabulous comrades at CodeWeavers (http://www.codeweavers.com) for Linux/OSX versions. And also bloshevik geetings to the folks at Silver Server (http://www.sil.at) for bandwith sponsoring.

/ // /// http://www.monochrom.at/suz-game/ // /

/ // For IBM PC and Non-Compatible /// //// A true tour-de-red-force ///// ////// Russian with English or German subtitles ///// //// Appealing graphical game interface /// // Creative Commons License /

Other projects: http://monochrom.at/english

My observations on Watchmen (the movie)

You know, for what it's worth.

  • It's one of those movies where if I hadn't seen it, I'd have wondered if it was any good. Now I know.
  • I was constantly comparing it to the comic in my head, and therefore didn't get as far into the movie as perhaps I could have. I had the same problem the first time I saw Lord of the Rings. However, unlike Lord of the Rings, I don't think I will be seeing this movie again.
  • The dramatic engine sputtered out somewhere around two thirds of the movie, and it became empty spectacle. I no longer cared about character or plot.
  • The opening credits explaining the history of the superheroes was cool. The over-use of topical music was not. At times, I felt like I was watching Forrest Gump.
  • I had trouble buying the central plot element in the book, but Moore had more than enough time to sell it to me. In the movie? Not a chance. Even though I can see the clues, I just don't buy it.
  • The movie both pleases and screws the fans of the comic. It replicated iconic scenes and iconic lines, but they just don't work. Rorschach's "You quit", early on, just fell flat for me. Same with a lot of Comedian lines.
  • The violence was needlessly increased and glorified, but hey, at least we see some cock in a Hollywood movie. But I guess U.S. audiences couldn't deal with an uncircumcised Doctor Manhattan.
  • The entire element of questioning superheroes is gone. To add insult to injury, the glorification of violence makes a mockery of that whole aspect of the comic. And that's what made Watchmen so revolutionary compared to other superhero comics at the time: it had human, fallible superheroes, in a real world that didn't really need them.
  • In general, it had the problems of a very long story condensed to three hours. (Bonus meta-joke: Doc Manhattan screaming "Leave me alone!", immediately followed by a 15 minute intermission.)

Having said all that: It's about as good as I expected it could be.

Now I can read what Harvey thinks of it.

Bookmarks for March 1st through March 3rd

These are my links for March 1st through March 3rd:

Bookmarks for February 23rd through February 27th

These are my links for February 23rd through February 27th:

Bookmarks for February 20th through February 22nd

These are my links for February 20th through February 22nd: