I made a deal with Chandler a while back. We would push eachother to make a post once a week. Well I did not succeed this time :S

It has been almost 2 years that I have been to Brasil with my brother. I have good memories of that trip. One of the best memories were me and my brother sitting down at the beach, with a nice beer like the topic and the pictures shows. Plans were to go on holiday to the alps this year. Sadly it was not possible for me to go on the last moment.  Fortunately my brother still lives in Olinda.  So I will be visiting him from September 29th to October 6th! I am looking forward to it.

So I want along with this hype. With a friend I went to see The Dark Knight. Before the movie I was under the impression that the role of The Joker was played by Heath Ledger was just a bit too glorified. Instead of introducing a clown, Nolan (the director) made the Joker just a horrible  maniac. A role brilliantly played by the late Ledger. But also a Harvey Two-Face although his role as a bad guy is pretty small impressed me. Aaron Eckhart played him well, but also the visual effects of his evil face were just horrifying.

Bale as Batman was good, but not as good in my opinion as the villains. I just do not like the low voice he is using when he is Batman.

Two other things that I did not like:  Contains spoilers!

1. The “death” of commissioner Gordon was .. erm… not needed and vague. Did he wear a bullit proof vest or something?
2. A different actress (Maggie Gyllenhaal) that played Rachel was a shame. I preferred  Katie Holmes or just do not use Rachel in the movie at all.

All in all, it will definitely be in my DVD collection when it comes out. Best movie I saw in the cinema in ages.

As a nerd there are some books that should be read. Otherwise you are not a nerd. I finished Lord of the Rings a couple of years ago. (Yes while the film was in the cinema..). Another author I still had to read besides Tolkien was Isaac Asimov. So I finally got around to read The Complete Robot.

This book contains short stories about robots and specifically the three laws of robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Each story was very well told, pointing out how a robot can function with these laws. Resulting in some weird situations which are completely logical when you apply the three laws. It also tells about the fear of having these robots among us on earth. Some stories are completely stand alone. Others are part of a long chain of stories with a handful characters returning from time to time like the robotpsychologist Susan Calvin (from a young woman to legend who has been dead for centuries) and some others.

All in all a very fun read.

My brothers birthday was in April. My family bought him a course for advanced bikers. In a nutshell this course teaches bikers who have their license for a while some new pointers. Things they did not know or things they should have known but forgot. Being the nice brother who definitely needs some training I went along.

Last Saturday was the big day. Er.. well wet day. It was pouring out of the sky when we woke up :S We went to the driving school and met with our instructor and the third student. Well the rain stopped while we were having a coffee and watched a powerpoint presentation of what kind of accidents can happen to a biker and how it is best to avoid them.  Also he told us about position on the road in different cases, for example when you approach a curve or when you pass a big truck.

Next thing we did was going to an empty parking lot, and did some excersizes like braking, making u-turns, braking and other excersizes to train our driving skills. After a nice lunch we went on the road. By turn one of us was the front driver. Our task was to watch the biker in front of you closely and make remarks about his driving style. The instructor was driving at the back keeping an eye on us all.  He made us stop at certain dangerous crossing. Tellings how they are best handled.

I have now a second certificate. I already had one for a advanced  driving course for cars. All in all very useful to do a course like this. It makes it a bit safer on the road for a biker. It was a very fun they, too bad my own bike was not tuned properly. I had to restart my bike from time to time.