Declaration of Revocation by John Cleese
Very, very funny.

My dream job used to be "game developer", till I had an interview at a game company and realized they regularly expected 60-80 hour weeks at pretty low pay.
Well, here's my new dream job (seriously): "casual game developer". Enjoy. :)

OK, this is the most incredible optical illusion I've ever seen (and I've surfed quite a few optical illusion sites...), right here, the third one (the first two are kind of standard fare). That is just plain wrong. There is just no way my brain can be THAT off...uh...right?

Millionaire Potential

Anyone feel like getting ticked off? Follow this link - a guy called up a TV preacher and had him send him a "Miracle Packet".
Seriously, only look at the stuff if you're ready to get ticked off and angry (if you're a Christian, otherwise it's probably just funny).

Some poetry, anyone? This song has been going through my mind after reading Romans 10 today: "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen."

And
-Waterdeep, Album: "Sink or Swim"

I am haunted by my love for comparison
My fascination with a single common theme
And I am hounded by the fear that I might be losing it
Slipping from reality into dream

When my mind is muddled by the way it seems to work
I start looking for just one connecting Force
Someone to assure me we that didn't lose the war today
That the battle's General's still riding on his horse

In the mornings when I pray, I've often come to You with dreams
Little bits of power that I can't comprehend
And sometimes I can keep my eyes unclosed for long enough
To see the blowing of a distant steady Wind

The distance doesn't take too long for You to cover it
And when You reach me, You just blow these things apart
You clear the crowd that's gathered 'round the crisis of my soul
And whisper to my suffocating heart

Chorus:
And is the juice of the joints of the motion of life
And is the love that is between God and his beautiful wife
And has two hands and two feet and a long, lovely side
And rose three days after he was crucified

So You're the Force of gravity that I feel pulling at my feet
You're the Fuel at the center of the sun
And, it's your Ghost that fills the atmosphere with what we need to breathe
And, everything I've ever wondered, You're the one

Both my hands are stained with blood
And both my lips are stained with tears
From when I kissed the widow of the man I killed
And, yet You're asking me to swallow Your forgiveness here today
You say the bond required for my pardon's been fulfilled

Well, news from my good friend Mike Caron (also known as the one and only Rad Man) - he's engaged! For those of you who know him, here's his blog.
BTW, that blog goes back WAAAY far, even to the day of the "Rad Pad", where I live in an apartment with him, Dave Foote, and Zakcq and Jessica Lockrem. :)

What's also cool is that I met the girl he's engaged to a few years back - she was on the very first Rock Berlin team to check Berlin out, back in 2000. She was really nice back then, and Mike says she's even cooler now, so that's good. :)

Anyways, congratulations to Mike! Prepare yourself for a whole new wonderful world with a whole new set of problems. :)

Hi - I'm officially switching to GMail starting today, no question about it whatsoever.
Check this out to see why it rocks.
Anyone who would like an invitation, ask me, as soon as I'm getting some, I'll be dishing them out left and right. ;)
Also, check out Google Talk while you're at it.

Oh, one extra cool thing about GMail which you don't see in that tour - no one will notice I've switched except for you wonderful in-the-know blog readers, 'cause I'll still be sending as "from:" my rockberlin.de address, and having my rockberlin address as my "reply-to:" address, just forwarding all those emails to my GMail address. Anyways, there ya go!

BTW, from the same author as that last article:
Loads of statistics which you'll never see in a Michael Moore movie NOR ever read in a Focus on the Family article: Enjoy.

What would you say: Is violence among youth becoming more common, or less common?

I'll bet you thought "more common" - I mean hey, with all those horrible violent computer games causing things like Columbine (*cough*)...

Well, check this out:

“Escalating violent crime?” The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics’ September 2004 National Crime Victimization Survey reports that “violent victimization rates” are now at “their lowest point recorded since the inception of the NCVS in 1973.”

“Escalating youth violence?” FBI Uniform Crime Reports show that in the past decade, youth violent crime arrests dropped 40 percent, led by a staggering 66 percent drop in murder. Over the past 30 years, children and teens are the only age groups to show a decline in violence arrest rates. Murder by teens is lower now than in any year since 1965.

Read the whole article here.

OK, this has "absolutely, totally and in all other ways" (bonus points for anyone who knows which movie that is) got to be the coolest thing I've seen in months:

A keyboard in which each key has its own display - so at any time, using open source software, you can cause it to display a different language, or controls for the game you're playing, or whatever!
Check it out to see what I'm talking about.
It's supposed to come out in 2006, and should cost "less than a good mobile phone" - so...what, 200€? 100€? I have GOT to get me one of these. :)

Well, I finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince a week or so ago. In my opinion, the best book of the series, well worth a read or even two.

Here are a few musings of mine on the seventh book, and about you-know-who-number-1 killing you-know-who-number-2 and whether you-know-who-number-1 is really evil and you-know-who-number-2 is really dead. :)
Simple highlight the following to read it:
OK, Snape kills Dumbledore - well, here's the deal.
1. Remember that Dumbledore is basically Mr. Phoenix - meaning that him coming back in book seven is totally plausible and probable. He's too much like Gandalf to not come back. ;)
2. Snape kills him as a result of his Unbreakable Vow from Chapter 2 - I think it is very possible that Dumbledore knew about this, and that he and Snape set the whole thing up so that a) Draco didn't kill him; b) Snape now has Voldemort's complete trust; c) Voldemort thinks Dumbledore is dead. Remember that Dumbledore knew Death Eaters were coming up the tower and did not "Accio" his wand even though he easily could have, also that he froze Harry so that Harry wouldn't defend him. It was clearly a voluntary death.
3. Snape does not kill Harry at the end even though he could - in fact, he saves Harry, and also teaches him a few things on the side!
So...I think Snape is a bitter person, but I also think he isn't "evil" in the sense that he is against Voldemort - probably wants revenge.
Well, there we go. :) My musings on Potter and the HBP.