Good ol' times...

Went shopping today. Nothing so mundane as clothes or food, I went looking for some new computer equipment. Figured that doing foto processing with the mouse is rather tedious work, so a graph tablet might ease that job a bit. So I surfed the web for a bit until I knew what exactly I was looking for and then went to town to go and get it.

First stop: Media Markt. Checked all the aisles, but no luck. No graph tablets on sale. Asked a helpful member of the staff, but no luck. No graph tablets. "At the moment" - yeah right, as if you ever had one.

So I hung my head and made my way back to the exit, when I walked along the shelves where they store all the computer games. And then I saw it...

(I would insert some spherical music now, along with a choir of angels going aaahhhh-aahhhhhahhhhahhh, maybe even with a spotlight to emphasize what I saw, but I don't think that works in a blog, so you just need to imagine that now.)

So. Again. And then I saw it... the computer enthusiasts dream... timeless design, outstanding functionality and the big red ball on top... the mother of all joysticks.

The Competition Pro.

THE most used (and sometimes abused) computer peripheral of my youth, sitting there on the shelf, just waiting for me to pick it up and take it home. Which I did, of course.

Oh, and if you are wondering now what on earth I want to do with a joystick, now that almost all games are played with keyboard and/or mouse, I might add that in this particular joystick they have added a more or less complete C64 computer along with 30 games. Including computer game milestones Summer/Winter/World/California Games, Uridium, Jumpman Junior, Paradroid and (get a load of this) --- Impossible Mission!!!

So sorry Lara, but you have to do without me for a while.

It's done!

My very own X-Files collection!

Flying Franky

Little Hint

The previous riddle is not about finding the correct answer. It's about where to put it...

Who wants to be a millionaire?

Okokok, I exaggerated to get your attention. I'm not giving away a million. Not even turkish lira. But at least you can learn something from the following riddle:

What do you need to do to turn Benjy into a squealy fire siren?

New exercise

This post is not about cats but about me. You may stop reading now if you're not interested.

I booked my summer vacation last Tuesday. 3 weeks and a few days (including travel time) in Peru, Bolivia and Chile. I was advised that this can be quite exhausting, what with all the walking in great heights and different climate and stuff, and a certain physical fitness is an excellent prerequisite for such a journey. So I figured I might as well start to work on that now, grabbed my bike and spent one and a half hour roaming the countryside. Which was, apart from being a bit exhausting in the end, quite some fun, and I ended up in the foresty area of the Wurmtal, where I followed some horse trails (riding seems to be popular there). And I suddenly realized that it can actually be fun to speed down some unsecured trails in the forest, although it's a bit difficult on my touring bike with not-so-broad-and-well-profiled tires. But that's all I have, don't own a mountain bike suitable for that kind of biking.

Yet.

Wet Pussies

Frankie is becoming more daring again. Seems he forgot about the not-into-the-bedroom policy, cause when I opened the door this morning he was in there faster than I could grab him. So I ran after him, picked him up by the neck fur, carried him into the bathroom, turned on the shower and showed him the flowing water. Had to let him go quite quickly though, because I think he tried to squeeze his body out of the fur I was holding to get away. Of course I didn't really get him wet, mind you.

Funny thing was that we went through the whole procedure twice. And he still tries to get to the debroom door before me to take a peek in.

But the real fun started when I took a shower later. Picture me standing in the shower (you may leave out the details if you wish), minding my own business. Now picture me looking down and seeing Frankie, walking along the rim of the tub to the bottles of soap standing at the wall. Now wait a few seconds.

Ok, now you may picture Frankie realizing that it's raining cats and dogs (so to speak) and he's getting completely drenched. Well, I leave the scrambling and scratching and squealing and running to your imagination. Funny sight though, really. I managed to stop him right outside the bathroom before he could mop up the whole apartment and locked him in with myself and Benjy, so he had time to clean himself up while I was continuing to clean myself up.

Fighting the beast

Recently Benjy was harrasing the poor toy pirates which have established their camp in the corner next to my TV. Luckily the fearless men managed to hold off the terrible beast and save their treasures.