Seeing that I have some sort of weird fetish about doing double blinded experiments, I did a test on 4 brands of orange juice from the store across the road.

At first I was planning to do this experiment like I usually do them, but during the start of testing something weird happened.

In the first test one of the juices got a score of 6 (1-10) but in the subsequent tests got 2.5 and 3. The reason for this is “The orange juice deviation”, a law of nature that states that “If you drink two different types of orange juice in a short time span, the second one will taste fucking weird”.

I tried rinsing with water between each test, but that did not help, so I had to do the testing another way to avoid interference between the different samples.

So to avoid the taste testing being influenced by the previous one, I drank 24 cups of orange juice over the course of 3 days with a minimum of 30 minute delay between tests. Thanks to my GF Stacy for helping with the blinding (she suspected it was all a ploy to make her get me juice).

TEST 2 DATA SET
1	lerum		6
2	sunniva		6.5
3	first price	7
4	sunniva		8
5	first price	6.5
6	first price	6.5
7	first price	7.5
8	eldorado	5.5
9	sunniva		7.5
10	first price	7.5
11	lerum		7
12	first price	7
13	lerum		6.5
14	sunniva		7
15	lerum		8
16	eldorado	6.5
17	lerum		8
18	sunniva		8
19	eldorado	6
20	lerum		6
21	lerum		7
22	eldorado	7
23	sunniva		8
24	sunniva		7.5

Test 1 – drinking 4 glasses of randomized juice.

Test 2 – drinking 1 glass of random juice.

So what’s the conclusion?

I’ve always been buying the Eldorado juice, however I clearly think Sunniva is the best (highest score in both tests). however the 1 Liter pack of Sunniva is almost twice the cost of the 2 Liter pack of First Price which is a very cheap brand. Despite that First Price did came in second and who doesn’t love a juice with a small standard deviation?

After that I got a lifetime subscription for Star Trek Online, which kinda turned me off MMO’s altogether :)

I’ve been playing a couple of the SWTOR beta weekends and got early access 6 days before release, and I’ve made it to level 30 so far (think there are around 10-20 lvl 50′s on my server (Scepter of Ragnos)).

And so far I must say… SWTOR is fucking awesome!

Riding a shuttle between two areas of the map

If you just gave me the game and let me play the first 10 levels (Starting planet), I would be 99% sure the game was made by Bioware. Unlike for example WOW where you just accept quest, go kill/collect and return, the quests in SWTOR are really amazing. The quest chains make up wonderful stories in classic Bioware style (Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR, Dragon Age), and you can very often choose different ways to do the quest. The NPC voice acting also adds to your total immersion in the stories.

The class quest, which is a long quest line that follows your character between level 1 and 50, is absolutely brilliant, I’m playing as a Bounty Hunter and the story is comparable to a really good single player RPG. Also the companion system is great, and you get a really close connection to your characters, much more so than in KOTOR / Mass Effect.

Me and my kickass companion Mako

So far I can only judge the lvl 1-30 part of the bounty hunter class quest, but I’ve heard the other classes (which have totally different class quests) are equally good. So I’ll probably be making alts just to play the story lines.

The instances I’ve been in so far are all good, like the quests you can also affect how the instance unfolds by choosing dark side / light side.

I’m playing as a Bounty Hunter Bodyguard (healer), and the healing mechanic is really good, each time you use a healing ability you gain heat and you need to keep your heat level low and not overheat to be able to heal. This means you can heal forever if you manage your heat properly, but dealing with big damage spikes is a bit hectic (but very doable).

The graphics are really nice, although some people complain it’s too cartoony (mostly WOW fanboys it seems, which is ironic beyond belief). I’m glad the graphics is not realistic (skyrim, age of conan), I don’t think that would be a good look for this game.

I'm trying to be a ruthless bounty hunter, but Mako with her big puppy eyes makes it hard at times

So far I haven’t experienced a single disconnect (saw 2 lag spikes during 1 beta weekend, that lasted about 5 seconds), so for me the launch has been close to perfect. I came across 1 bug in a class quest, but the forum had a workaround.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what the end game is like.

To sum it all up in one sentence, “I’ve played many MMO’s, but I would say this is the first MMORPG I’ve played”

I pre-ordered SWTOR (Star Wars The Old Republic) on Origin in July, and today I had to get the product code for it so I could continue playing.

SWTOR appears under my games, but for some reason it says it’s unreleased when it was released 2 days ago (Also notice the goddamn BF3 beta game that I could find no way to remove from “my games”).

I click the info button and it says I purchased it on July 28th, and gives me a product code.

But the product code is not working, and says it’s already been used. And after 30 minutes with EA live chat support they say I haven’t ordered it, despite being able to say why it shows up under my games and gives me a registration code.

So now I have to go to the mall tomorrow and get a physical copy of the game. I could probably have ordered it on origin, but then I would end up having 2 battlefield games (1 not working) and 2 swtor games (1 not working) under “my games”. Also the downloadable game is 15$ MORE expensive than the on in the store.

Fuck you Origin!

TAM is a yearly conference about science and skepticism, and has lots of panels and talks by scientists and the “big stars” from the skeptical community (those tend to overlap).

Day -1 (The trip)
Traveling from Norway to the west coast of the US is a major pain in the ass. I got on the airplane early as shit, having only about 2-3 hours of sleep, and only carrying my plastic grocery bag containing 2 tshirts, 1 boxer and 1 pair of socks, as well as my camera and charger (I decided to travel light). The aircraft rolls out from the gate, but something strange is happening. After a couple of minutes the captain announces that the computer system is refusing to start one of the engines, and they have to reboot the aircraft.. So everything is switched off, but rebooting the computer system of the airplane takes a long time as it has to do lots of tests and configurations at startup. After about 30 minutes the computer decides to start both engines and from there the flight to Amsterdam went quickly (about 2 hours), then I had to wait at the airport in Amsterdam for 4 hours. Not that I did mind, it’s a really nice airport, and I could listen to my favorite podcast for the whole time.

Traveling light

The flight from Amsterdam to New York went much better(quicker) than expected, never been on such a huge plane before and I’m sooo glad I paid the 10% extra to get economy extra seating (only 1 seat next to you, and more room for arms and legs). Can’t really remember much of the flight, except the vegetarian meal was excellent and the desert awesome (go KLM!). Spent the entire flight using the in-flight entertainment system, Think I watched ‘Battle Los Angeles’, ‘Ant Bully’ and some tv shows (Curb your enthusiasm, Seinfeld, and a few others).

However when I landed at JFK, the so far pleasant trip took a turn for the worse. I had done the whole ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) thing, so I expected to just walk trough the immigration area. So I stood in line for 1 hour, just to find out I had to do the paper version as well (which is just asking for exactly the same information again).. Back to the end of the line and wait for another hour. I make it through immigration, but for some reason the guy just stared at my passport without blinking for at least 45 seconds, and was starting to freak me out a little.

Now I’m trying to find my flight, but of course it’s not listed on the board. I go to the Delta place and after them trying to send me to another terminal, they finally locate the flight (apparently there was some mix up of the flight number between KLM and Delta) and I have to run trough the airport and literally get on the plane in the last minute. On the plane I get flabbergasted by some people from the Norwegian skeptical society that I somewhat know from online.

Flight to Las Vegas is like 5 hours and I was half asleep the entire trip. I land around midnight and take a taxi to South Point hotel and casino, where the conference is taking place. I make my way up to the room, set my alarm clock and go to sleep faster than you could say ‘snapple’.

This bed was a sight for sore eyes that had been traveling for 28 hours

Day 0 – July 13th.
My first day in the new world, I’m up at 6 am (2 hours before my alarm goes off), tired confused and looking out into the desert trough my hotel window.

It's the wild west, and I didn't bring a gun or a hat

I go downstairs and quickly gets something to eat from the hotel gift shop before I head into town:

Traditional american breakfast

I take a taxi into town to get some supplies (I came bringing only 1 carry on). So with a long shopping list I headed to the place where the american dream turns true: Walmart.

However right across the road from Walmart I found “The Gun store”, so I got to play with some weapons (AK47 and MP5) that it would be hard to get to try in Norway without joining the army.

Skinhead with beard and foreign accent rents AK-47

Certified Nazi Zombie killer

After shooting zombies, I bought lots of stuff at Walmart (luggage case, netbook, boxers, socks, tshirts, shirts and a couple of shorts, toothbrush, shower gel, deodorant, sunblock + food and snacks).

Can haz loot!

I have no idea what happened from noon to midnight, by looking at the photos from that time it appears I just went back to the hotel and did nothing (damn you sleep deprivation + jet lag).

Day 1 (June 14th) – First day of TAM
Fuck me, it’s 05:00 and I’m awake! I tried going back to sleep, but instead I ended up going out and taking pictures of the area around the hotel while waiting for the convention to start.

Las Vegas sunset	Desert! I am in you!	Flowers are purdy
Red and shiny car being all red and shiny	South Point hotel and casino	More desert, now with hills in background
A random building	yaaay,a crosswalk! this is awesome	South Point hotel and casio from the front side

Registration opened at 7:30, I got my badge and wandered around waiting for the first workshop. The workshop was about examining UFO photos, and faking UFO photos without using photoshop. After that I attended a workshop called “Investigating monster mysteries” which was about cryptozoology (Bigfoot, Loch Ness monster, etc..)

After that I had lunch and I think I went up for a nap. I woke up in time for ‘The Rebecca Watson Game Show and Variety Hour’, which was really funny. After that I went straight to bed.

Day 2 (June 15th)  – Second day
Yesterday was kind of a slow TAM day, no panels, just the workshops.

This day however started with what I think was the highlight of TAM, a live recording of the podcast The Skeptics Guide to the Universe. This was followed by the official opening remarks by James Randi himself.

The SGU crew

Following that was an awesome panel with James Randi, Richard Wiseman, Phil Plait, Joe Nickell and Michael Shermer

Panel about skepticism on TV

After that I wandered around a bit, got some lunch,visited the vendor booths and got myself a couple of pet Trilobites

at 14:00 I was back in the main hall for a series of great panels/lectures.

A skeptical look at aliens by Biologist PZ Myers.

A panel with Astronomer Pamela Gay from Astronomy cast

This was followed by an extremely awesome panel about our future in space, with Neil Degrasse Tyson, Pamela Gay, Bill Nye (the science guy), and Lawrence Krauss with Phil Plait as a moderator.

This was immediately followed by Neil Degrasse Tyson’s keynote speech which was in lack of a better word, EPIC!.

I went to the Skeptics guide to the universe dinner at 18:00, and actually ate some real food. After that I was going to take a quick nap before the ‘Penn Jillette’s Rock & Roll, Doughnut and Bacon Party’, but dozed off and missed it

Day 3 (June 16th)  – Third day
This day there weren’t that many panels that I had to go to, so from I woke up at 7 (seriously, is jetlag supposed to last this long?) I headed into downtown and walked the strip and took lots of photos:

A hotel/casino with a rollercoaster, never got around to trying it	A casino/hotel that's a fucking castle!	Walking up the strip
Caesars palace! If this was Fallout 3 New Vegas I would go in there and kill everyone	Looks vaguely familiar	Yay, I got to see the Eifel tower without going to Paris
A place for the statistically illiterate	I rode the monorail! But saw no cat

I made it back to South Point and TAM just in time for the second half of the Skeptics Guide Live podcast event.

Steve, Evan, Jay, Rebecca and Bob

This was followed by the second Keynote speaker, Richard Dawkins. Again, the word Epic! comes to mind.

Day 4 (June 14th) – Final day
Day 4 had a few panels I wanted to see, but I had to make a flight to Los Angeles at noon, so left the hotel pretty early.

I’ll write about my LA trip in a while and put a link to it >>> HERE <<<

Just 2 more months…

5 of the faces above where identified as My girlfriend, and 1 as me..

I of course was the Japanese girl But at least I’m kinda dating Nathan Fillion

with AEB the camera takes 3 pictures instead of one, where one is underexposed and the other overexposed.

You can then join these pictures to create a HDR (High Dynamic Range) image using special software (I’m using Photomatix Pro 4) or photoshop.

With 3 picture with different exposures, you don’t loose details that you would normally loose by taking just 1 normal picture. I took a test picture outside my window:

With this exposure that captures the neighbors house fine the detail of the sky, the patio roof and my SHRUBBERIES are lost

Combining 3 pictures however brings out these details:

I know the HDR effect on this image is a bit overdone :p

The downside is that you must keep the camera relatively steady, so a tripod is very useful. Think I’ll try and take a few real pictures soon, not just boring pictures out the dirty window =)

Here is a picture I took around midnight, looking for the lunar eclipse (which was too low, only about 5 degrees above horizon, so it was blocked by a stupid mountain)