Shotguns, accidents and I an invitation for... you!

Could I have chosen a more confusing title? Probably.

Work has taken up a lot of my time lately... but in a good way. A lot of good things are happening every day and we are moving forward with quite nice results so far. Working with Johan, Louise and Andy makes me think about the old days with Pelle, Johan, Håkan and Fredrik at P.com. Every day has a few laughs, a few wtf's and new philosophical thoughts on life around lunch time.


Pull!!

13/25 hits. Next time I'll probably do 1/50... :( 

Last weekend I was invited by Phil to join him and his colleagues from the Gibraltar Port to shoot some Clay Pigeons. Only having one (bad) experience previously, being 12 and only hitting 1/10, my hopes wasn't that high... but hey(!), it's something new to do!

There where 5 stations, each with a sound funnel who register when you say "pull"... or cough something similar to that. You shoot 1-2 shots at each Pigeon and then switch station (game balance ftw). Costs £18 for two boxes of ammo and that lasts for about an hour, if not more.

Personal Invitation: If you want to come with us, let me know and I'll write you down on the list. The plan is to go next weekend, but I will have to get back to you on the date/time (will update it here).


Sure, let the guy fûckin' bleed to death on the street, you tw@ts...

Last week a friend of mine was in an accident here in Gib. Some idiot rammed him from behind when riding his scooter. Of course, the guy/girl shoots off (hit and run a la carte!), but then, when lying there in his own blood and gore the other cars carefully try to go aaaaround him. Don't want to get your tiers dirty, you know. People were walking past this poor fellow, looking at him... and walking away. No one even cared to ask how he was and if he was okay. People didn't give a shit.

Luckily, my friend was fine, just lost a bit of blood, skin and belief in the people of Gibraltar.

Now what do I think about people who live here? Well, have a guess...

What makes a Friend?

NOTE: I'm drunk atm, and I am always a bit too philosophical about life and all that when I'm in that condition...

I've been thinking lately about a few things. Friends that say they wanna meet up and do something and then never get back to you, friends that not contact you for a long time and kind of fade away a bit... then friends that live nearby that you hang out with and stay in contact with quite often.

What is the difference? Who is the real friend?


People who care about you

Even if a friend tell you "we should do something someday!" and not really get back to you on that, or doesn't keep in touch very good, it doesn't always mean that they are not really caring or are not really your friends. I think that if you really consider someone a friend and you know the feeling is mutual, that stuff is okay.

When things really matter, you truly see who is your friend and who is not. You'r brother dies or you lose your job - they are there, no matter what. You feel like shit and give them a call, they listen. That's what it's all about.

I think many people take too drastic decisions about who their friends are. Think a bit further before you make up your mind. It is worth it.


People who care only about themselves

Who is not your friend? That is easy. People that only talk to you when it is something about them that they need to talk about. They never ask how you are, what you have been doing (at least not sincerely) or if you need help/support with anything. They simply want attention and pity.

To these people I say: Fuck off, I am not your friend. Suck someone else's blood, you leech. I can't be bothered with you stealing my time.


I'm pretty sure about who my friends are. Are you?

Baby Skurt: GET OUT!

I think we are all thinking that very same thought right now. We ordered a damn baby god damnit! Johan did his part, now it is time for Trine to let the bun out of the oven. I have been dreaming about their baby getting born like 3-4 nights now. It is making me mad!


Furniture distractions

Right now I have some furniture delivered to take my mind off things (I have no idea why I get so emotionally involved in these things, so don't ask me). The sofa, tv table, bed, cloth hanger thingy and chairs are in place. Today we are going to finish the dinner table and tomorrow the wardrobe.

Right now, in the middle of everything, things are looking like this (CHAOS!):

My little Princess was not too happy about me sharing this photo, though :P

Star Wars: The Old Republic update!

It's been a while since the last update, so here we go...

My Jedi Sentinel guy, Yokee, has finally passed level 25 and can thereby get a drivers license... although it will cost me. Yokee's lust for love has driven him down a dark path. Cowards and other pathetic beings are starting to really annoy him. Well, at least he got his Datacron hunt up to speed, something positive to cling on to. Every time he opens a new Datacron he feels stronger, wiser and much more powerful. Rumor has it that there is one ultimate Datacron somewhere. If only he could find it.

Unless his smuggler cousin Moto finds it first, that is! Although Moto isn't as fanatic about Datacrons and power as Yokee, but he does like the sound of credits entering his account. Maybe this Relic that Yokee sent him will help him earn some credits. Credits always comes first... but not even credits can fill the void of his lovely jewel: The Century Magpie (his ship, duh!).

Yokee has joined "The Revenant" guild on the Progenitor Server. There are some awesome people in there.

Games: Taking Advantage of Problems

I've been thinking about problems quite a bit lately. There is always problems everywhere and people are always whining about them. Sometimes you solve the problem, sometimes you can't. But, have you ever thought about taking advantage of the problem?

In this post I will give you an idea of what I'm taking about. After you've read the post, think for yourself if any of your current problems can be taken advantage of to your benefit.


Help! People are misusing my product to make $!

There are many different perspectives we can look at this, but I choose the Design & Business perspective for some unknown reason.

Problem: People are farming in-game gold and selling it outside of the game, illegally. There is even an industry for this. Players gets pissed off, abused and many even leaves because this problem grows. You lose revenue.

Reaction: Spontaneously you would just take the aggressive approach to this and just ultra-ban any kind of illegal activity, but if you want to play smart you need to look closer at the problem. What are we not seeing here?

Why is this illegal business model working? Because people want easy ways of getting in-game money. They want a short cut. They enjoy a short cut - it makes them a happier player (even if it some times actually ruins the experience for the player).

So what can you really do? Obviously the need exists and there is a proven market for it. This is actually quite simple: Get into the market, compete with these illegal businesses and make it not/less worth while to buy illegal coins.

Example: EVE-Online was quick to find a smart solution: The introduced PLEX - an ingame pilot license that grants the user, when using it, 30 days of game time. This PLEX was created because a player bought it with real money, from the developer, and received the in-game virtual item. The player could now either use it himself or simply sell it for in-game money to other players to the highest bidding. Actually, there is even an entire market section for the PLEX right now. It is working great, the illegal activites has been reduced and the company is even earning more money now than before they had the PLEX... OR the illegal farming problem. 

Wicked, huh?


Here is delonewolf (damn Frenchie :P) from Youtube that explains a bit about the impact of PLEX in EVE-Online:

How you will die in Gibraltar...

Living in Gibraltar is a death trap. In this post I will reveal some things that probably could get people fired. Simply because they are practically being the cause of future deaths.

I know that what I am about to write is a bit offensive and could really piss some people off, but please do try to put yourself in my situation and think for yourself: "Is this really okay?".

Here is two stories of how you could die and one is actually about when I almost died here. Take your time and read it.


In case of fire

I have now collected enough stories to properly, without exaggerating, tell you the story of how fire or smoke will kill you in Gibraltar.

In Kings Warf as well as Waterport Place, for instance, there is a fire alarm that sometimes goes off 3-6 times a week for over a month at a time. No firemen ever comes though, since everyone kind of knows it is not for real. But that is not the worst part. People don't respect the fire alarm anymore. Now let me go on to the second story...

In EuroTowers, just 2 days ago, there was a fire alarm in the middle of the night. Automatically all hallway doors shut, as it should, and a signal was sent out to the local firemen (and this is the local firemen of a very small town). My mate, who lives in the same building (because I can't be bothered by the alarms anymore) told me that when he tried to get out, the emergency exits were locked and there was no way to get them open. They had to take the normal stairs and on the way open all the hallway doors in order to get out. Then, after 20 minutes, the firemen arrives. They calmly walks around scratching their heads and finally decides to randomly pick a block to enter... the wrong one of course. After a bit of convincing they finally found the right building to enter.

Now guys and girls. Imagine if this was the real thing. First of all, only a small percentage will bother to leave there homes. Then, if they do, they can't get out from the exits that might save their life. Then, 20 minutes of fire expansion (watch the clip at the bottom to see how fast fire spreads) the firemen finally arrive. But there is no need to rush, the fire can wait... right? So while you are dying upstairs the firemen calmly wander around until the find the right door to enter.

If you survive this scenario, you are either very lucky, skilled or simply invincible. If you are a cripple, old, pregnant or a child however... you are DEAD! See you on the other side!

Now, boss of fire guys, if you read this I really hope that you invest in people that have brains. These guys are clearly less smart than our local monkeys or simply want to watch innocent people burn to ashes. The Gibraltarian incompetence never seize to amaze me.


The day when I almost died (for real)

Construction workers (or welders) of Gibraltar is also not really of the highest quality, just like the guys at the tax office, at the bank or any similar place. Don't get me wrong, there is surely lots of qualified people here as well and this is probably the fact of many places around the world.

Anyway, did I tell you about when I almost got a brick in my head a few months ago? It is totally true and I can tell you that if I was standing one meter to the left, I can guarantee you that I wouldn't be sitting here blogging right now.

The new buildings in-between Kings Warf and Euro Towers was finally finished... or at least that's what we thought. Thing were still falling off the roof, you see. When I was walking to Morrisons, I took the new and really nice short cut through this area. When passing by a newly built Bus Stop something suddenly BANGS down on the bus stop, bouncing of it and onto the street... right in the middle of me and two people passing by on a scooter. They stopped and we were looking at each other for a few seconds with faces white as... bird shit(?), before we decided to say WTF and then move on.

Incompetence almost killed me that day.

The fact that many children are playing around this building makes me really nervous and the fact that I have experienced so much incompetence since I got here (my first one was the Rental Agency "Find a Property" that moved me into the wrong apartment and gave out peoples keys like they were freebies).


To finish off I must balance this post out with some positive things. I do love to live in Gibraltar and it has many good sides, nice people and very smart companies. I have had some of the best years of my life here, but even so, when it comes to safety I think that I would probably not want to raise a kid here. I like my offspring to have a decent chance of survival. I'm sorry, but Gibraltar cannot provide this.