We already had one of our Retro session with PC-Engine. The games were Battle Lode Runner, Bomberman '93, World Beach Volley and World Jockey.

Rip won the Battle Lode Runner sessions, I was the Bomber, and our team also won Mortis and Dorden on the beach. I and Rip also spanked our horses the most in World Jockey, both winning one of the two rounds.

At this very moment that I am writing this blog, Mortis is downloading cs_varikko and cs_slummi for Counter-Strike: Source. We'll see if they can beat cs_crackhood!

2nd day update I

CS:S matches have been played. I found a new version of crackhood, cs_crackhouse2 was its name. It had some good new stuff, nevertheless it was a disappointment when compared to crackhood. Also we found two other good maps, de_treehouseattack and cs_sprint-trading. They rocked!

At night we suffered from the thing that two of our four computers weren't in LAN (Steam complained about that, couldn't join LAN servers), meaning that we had to join our server through the internet, that causing some ping problems. We started our 1st Garry's Mod 10 session which didn't go as planned (because of ping and server problems). Also our creativity wasn't on its highest level, so today perhaps there shall be better stuff coming!

^{Professors on a journey (Vehicle made by Rip), Mortis's piece of advice and Some Jeep Chair Boost}

Now we're copying some stuff from one another's computer to Garry's mod, and the gaming of the 2nd day shall start soon.

2nd day update II

Garry's Mod has been delight of our LAN!

^{Rip's delight - Turd cannot be off the count of how delightful Gmod has been!}

We had a huge building session in gm_tropicalwater, which was suitable for water vehicles. All of us made some kind of vehicles except Dord, who familiarized himself with home-made cannons. After the lan one surely can watch Ripatius coming to my and Mort's port with his Land-Water Vehicle at SlowdaysTV.

^{My and Mort's Port Construction Yard. The third screenshot also contains Rip's vehicle on the background.}

^{My huge vehicle meant to be suitable for flying and landing on water ended up by removing accidently the main object.}

After the Gmod session we headed downstairs to have our 2nd Retro Session with PC-Engine games Champion Wrestling, Davis Cup Tennis and Motteke Tamago. The first game ended up as a draw with me and Rip against Mort and Dorden. Davis Cup Tennis was very tight but in the end Dorden and Mortis changed the situation and won with rounds 6-0, 1-6 and 5-7. Motteke Tamago was everyone against everyone game. The purpose was to get as many hatched chickens to one's base as possible. I won 4 of the 6-7 rounds.

More to come!

3rd day update I

After the PC-Engine session it was Left 4 Dead time. We uncorked Valve's new mini-campaign Crash Course, and yes. It wasn't good, even though one wouldn't count bad voice acting along with bad manuscript. A) the new achievements sucked, b) the campaign was amateurish, c) it contained only two maps, d) it glowed the spirit of fast-made campaign. So... Not good!

Then we played some Counter-Strike: Source, which ended up in tears.

And then back to our masterpiece, Garry's Mod! We had a huge cube fight with Dorden on the air, Mortis liked to spawn cars and Ripatius liked to kill everyone. After that session we changed the map and started to construct things. Ripatius tried to make a Walk-Machine, but it needed some straight ground. Mortis and Ripatius expressed their opinions about my vehicle as noting: "A little bit phallic". Dorden was interested in cannons once again. Mortis tried to make a Weld-a-Car which didn't work.

^{Some fighting with huge cubes. Also "a little bit phallic" vehicle under construction by me...}

^{... and Mortis stuck inside (or not).. "Phallic I" ready to rock'n roll off the cliff!}

And then there was some Age of Chivalry of which I tell nothing about.

Meaning: Mortis sends wireless to our server machina Seppo and my MacBook Macrankel. Macrankel shares the network to a modem, which gives the network for me, Ripatius and Dorden. Is this madness? This is cs_crackhood!

Yeah, after that we started playing some CS:S, so the time with the worst game could be quickly over. And what we found? cs_crackhood! Screenshots coming later on!

Today we had some problems with getting Seppo's Simon Zombie Serveri to work in Left 4 Dead, but we got it run smoothly now! We played some custom campaign, though Simo timed out and it ended.

Now when it is food time (19:19), we're atm making KAKA version of famous Pizza Burger. The steak is already ready with Ristorante Hawaii pizzas. Also beacon is hot 'n cooked, so the thing that is left for us to do, is to build the burger! And soon its GNAM GNAM TIEM!

We're also planning to have a little barbecue at night, around 2 AM local time. I'm looking forward to it.

Many games to come, many pieces of burger to come, many stories to come! And if Mortis gets it working, also Lancam will serve you.

Update:

Because editing my post didn't work at all, I shall edit the post by posting a comment!

The mythos beast from the history, Famous Pizza Burger has been tamed by four chosen warriors by the allmighty, all-dancing KAKA! Pictures from this battle that lasted for hours, can be found by clicking this link. The "leftovers" were later at night barbecued out in the wilderness.

Because of this grand victory, we celebrated it by dancing on the roof of No Mercy Hospital. Even though Ripatius was lost in the madness of Death that came Aboard (SlowdaysTV shooter sacrificied his life because of this very footage), we managed to also get Gold Medal in Hospital Olympics (winning jump only visible in HD-version).

More to come, more battles to win!

After the weekend we'll begin cleaning the appartment (or we'll hire people who does it for us, we haven't decided on that yet) and have that ready asap so we can leave that chapter behind us.

Overall i think it's gone good, we've had our ups and downs of course but that's only natural, the result is splendid and we're very happy about  the result. I'll of course show lots of photos when we've collected ourselves a bit. I hope to be able to produce a proper album out of it to share and keep for ourselves as well.

Now to look forward on having a bigass garden to care about x) Not looking forward to tending that, anyone up for some summer work? ;-)

At the moment we're scanning all stores for tiles and man, all i can say is that i don't look forward to doing the same with wallpapers x-|. It'll be good once it's over with :), we've already decided bathtub, fireplace, planned the electricity/wireing (not to mention all the stuff regarding the wedding which is July 11th!!) so we're well under way. But what time it takes, phew! We even managed to do some wireing ourselves which was fun cause we don't get to do much else inside. Don't know if i've metioned the date for completion which is the 24th of April. So it's getting close!

On another note, we're feeling the recession at work (both mine and Ann's) which is totally scary, i hope there's a light in the end of the tunnel. We managed to build the house in the worst time possible, but o'well it's our luck :P I'm going to Denmark once again too, for a workshop for Trelleborg Wheel Systems, it's only a day but it's fun to get out some.

It has been another full year for us Kakaists, and it's perfectly astonishing to think how the Kakalog recently met its 1337th reporting day. We'll be celebrating the holidays in and out of the channel, so if you can, please drop by to talk to all us about your holiday plans and shenanigans!

Now there's a whole lot of detailplanning to be decided on. So much fun :)

Some pictures here: http://www.slowdays.org/files/?dir=pictures/smeagol/house/, I'll keep uploading stuff there so keep an eye out.

But still the gig was perhaps the best where I have ever been, though I must say I haven't been in many. But still. The light show was quite impressive, Jónsi's voice, charisma, and the way he played his guitar with the cello bow was something one won't forget for a while, even though I didn't see it very well! Here's the setlist:

01. Takk...
02. Svefn-g-Englar
03. Glósóli
04. Ný Batterí
05. Fljótavik
06. Við spilum endalaust
07. Hoppípolla
08. Með Blóðnasir
09. Festival
10. Svo Hljótt
11. Heysátan
12. Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur
13. Sæglópur
14. Hafsól
15. Gobbledigook

1st encore. Popplagið
2nd encore. All Alright

The song choices then. I was much satisfied with them. Svefn-g-englar, Ný Batterí, Glósoli, Sæglópur and many others are big favourites of mine. One song I would have wanted to hear, was Hjartað Hamast, but one can't get everything one wants! Gobbledigook from the new með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust album (released on June) was awesome live. The first times I listened to it I didn't like it so much, but slowly I have started to like it more and more.
At first I concentrated on knowing the songs they played, and on chatting with my friend about which song they are playing, but after Ný Batterí I stopped that nonsense, and started to jam around. The music was absolutely brilliant to listen to and I just couldn't stop my foot bamming the floor, my head swinging smoothly and my hands drumming on my legs in the rhythm of the songs. I can't disagree with the fact that Sigur Rós is with no doubt my favourite band.

The band played long, and we got two encores. The first one was Popplagið (The pop song), also known as Untitled #8. During the song, the lights were something, brilliant. The feeling was high. And I must say, there were no epilepsy warning during the song! (As there perhaps should have been!)

The second encore came after a 2-3 minute of handclapping and shouting. The song, All Alright, is an Icelandic lullaby and Jónsi explained the song choice by the fact that we all were quite tired at the time. After I got back home, I also heard Jónsi had actually struggled few times with his voice during the show.

I got back home by night train, slept for 3 or 4 hours, and went to school. I was surprised that I wasn't even a bit tired at school, though the next day, I was deadly tired.

And for the end, some news about the show:
Plaza.fi
Iltalehti.fi

As you might imagine there's been alot in the works regarding building of the house. The plan is still on for next summer (i hope :D), and recently we got the builder's/building permit which tells us that we are allowed to build the house we want at the location we want which feels so fricken good. Didn't cost too much either which was a pleasant surprice (the permit that is). Now we're really crunching the details with the kitchen, bathrooms and so on. Didn't think that windows would be such an issue, so damn difficult to get it right :P. We're getting there though! The kitchen took it's time but it started feeling totally right when we moved it to the other end of the room. That reminds me, i got to share the planning with you (note that the kitchen isn't in proportion):
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We've been at the location as well cutting down trees, chopping wood and burning branches, lots left to do! Good thing i got a chainsaw (Manlyness +2). Here's how it looks atm:
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Been watching lots of anime recently, some good some not so good :P. I can recommend some even! .hack//SIGN was way different from what i expected, and in a good way. It's very much about gamers and where the world is heading. The best part is that it doesn't get too corny with all the IT talk which you sometimes get when seeing similiar shows. Also enjoyed it's prequels/sequels but they felt a bit like you needed to have played the game before. Hitsuji no Uta is another anime i've seen which was surpricingly good, for all you vampire movies/shows sceptics/lovers, very simple art but the story is very interesting and keeps your eyes peeled. On lighter notes (yet not close to Sailor Moonish), Aishiteruze Baby, about a little child getting abandoned by her mother and taken care of by her cousin.

Got my KAKA shirt a while back too! Wore it for the first time last week going to work and i must say it was a very weird feeling. Didn't think of it first but when i got outside and walked on the train platform i started thinking. "What if people misinterpret the message", i started feeling really uneasy :D. It might just be me but "Hail" is so connected with "Hail Hitler" and i got the crasiest ideas x). However i wore it proudly and people looked strangely at me during the rest of the day and i hoped it was for the Kaka part :P.

You all probably know by now - having been subjected to my sad smilies at #kaka - that I have been losing data and struggling with my external Western Digital My Book Premium Edition drive for the past week (months, actually - the drive has been troublesome for a good while now, but never before this strongly). I don't think I can be blamed for exaggerating if I claim to have tried every possible combination in terms of utilizing various setups of USB--FireWire--Crossover and Macintosh OS X--Windows XP

I went so far as to install experimental NTFS support on the MacBook Pro. I tried all the tools in the boo... www. After three long days and nights of struggling to transfer whatever files on the drive I became disillusioned, grey-haired and altogether defeated. Risto graciously offered support with whatever ideas he had (and, in the meantime, actually managed to fix a software issue we had been having with the Amiga CD32/PC combo, by replacing the serial driver with a faster one... apparently the driver files had corrupted at some point.Typically, I had spent days trying to find a fault with hardware - mostly on Zezwe, too )

So just as I was finally going to quit and send off the bloody thing back to where it came from, we decided we would give the drive one more shot, this time with Risto's computer, "Fartbox". We waltz downstairs, we plug in the drive, attempt to copy some random files... and bits and bytes start trickling in!

In the words of one Nickster, "Le gasp!"

All we could do is shake our heads in disbelief as on my computer, the symptoms were incredible! CHKDSK would freeze, Western Digital's own tool would say "Too many bad sectors" and quit, TestDisk would claim the partition was corrupited and the MFT altogether missing, and every single back-up tool would fail at one point or another.

Oh! I forgot to tell you, this all started when I first started getting the dreaded and elusive "Delayed Write Failed" error... Microsoft seems to be just as dumbfounded by this terrible error as we users are. Anyway! We badly needed a break so we drove over to the local fast food joint. Sadly, as we got back, we discovered the hard drive had finally failed with Fartbox too. That's where we started thinking overheating. At no point in time had we considered the existence of a mechanical fault, but it really does seem that this particular drive gets incredibly unstable after some use... I'm very, very relieved that I was annoyed enough to use WD's RMA service and get myself a replacement.

After three days of sorting the issue out, I now pretty much have everything covered, but no matter how I look at this I do feel like I've just lost way more than the three days (and the 120gb of lossless audio I accidentally destroyed) I've put into trying to recover the files