blog.zgraggen.name  All-day insanity or I have a blog too!

As I mentioned before, I love to play flash games which demand mental work. Therefore I will write about another cool flash game which I played through. It is called Portal: The Flash Version.

Interesting about this one is that it has a big brother from Valve (The producer of Half-Life). It is also called Portal and it has the same game idea as the flash version. The only difference it is in 3D with the Half-Life graphic engine (like an ego shooter).

The goal of this game is to reach the exit of each level. But to reach there are some obstacles to master.
But before I start explaining all the details watch the trailer.

btw: I am really thinking about buying the big brother!

Yesterday, I went to the movies to watch 21 (imdb, official site). The story is about a genius boy who needs money to get into the Harvard med school. To gain the required 300′000$ he joins then a group of card counters who play black jack in Las Vegas.
This movie is based on a true story. But as I see it the film makers took only the basic idea and changed every thing else

What I really liked about this film where the unexpected twists which made it enthralling to watch. And I really liked the discussion in the class room where the teacher and the genius talk metaphorical but both know that they mean each other.

Sorry, for the German title ones more but this book is only available in German. It is written by Konrad Von Allem. And it describes his adventure the Gigathlon 2007. The first half of the book is a journal from the his preparation and training the second half is from the Gigathlon itself and the experiences he made including the reports from his supporters.

I will not go into de details here except for one thing: In the last half year of preparation Konrad swam 350km, cycled 8000km, biked 1200km, run 2000km, and made 800km by inline. This numbers are absolutely overwhelming.

As a short reminder for the not so sportive people who read my blog: The Gigathlon 2007 was a seven day competition with five disciplines (running, biking, cycling, swimming, inline skating) every day with the categories single, couple and team of five. Konrad Von Allem started as single wehreas I started in a team of five.

I recommend this book to every Gigathlet. Reading this book brings back nice memories and can help in the preparation for a future Gigathlon.

After reading the The Pursuit of Unhappiness I discovered that Paul Watzlawick has written a Guide to America?
Not before long I will go to this country myself so why not broaden my horizon a little.

The book itself is relatively old, it was first published in 1987 and in 2002 the sixth renewed edition was released. Even though I think it hasn’t lost its actuality. But to be absolutely sure I should judge this book after my stay in America.
Anyway, I would like to say a few things about this book:
First of all this book is not an all you need to know guide. It just shows certain differences between Europeans and Americans. For example that our first floor is the second floor and that Americans start finger counting with the forefinger. Moreover he also gives insight to the American way of life which might help my getting used to their habits more easily.

Although I can not give a final validation on the book I still would recommend it to people who plan to go to America.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the author recommends taking a prescription for the glasses with you. Because in the USA you can not get new glasses at the optician without a recipe from an oculist. Even though with an recipe from an European optician you will get glasses =)

Another very cool flash game I played through is called Chronotron. The basic idea is that you have a robot and must fetch the “skip” token which allows you to continue to the next level. To reach this goal you need to use the time pod which can be used to travel back in time to the start of the level. It is a little difficult to explain => try it out and have fun

Thanks to Rico for the tip!