Milktini Merch

Postcards, T-Shirts, Magnets and much more ... are now available on CafePress!

P.S.: Oh, and I have decided to drop the compulsion to get the word "Life" into each and every title here :P

Milky Life

Life ... Sign?

Over one year after having said this: "However I might post more 2nd Life related stuff here in the future.", I don't think that's actually going to happen any time soon ...
Especially since I have another blog now dedicated to Second Life: Mechatiki Research!
See you there ...

Real Life - what's that?

In Second Life, when you click someone's profile, there's a tab titled "1st Life". Some people actually write something about their real life in there (I give a link to the SHIFZ webpage where you can find more than you want to know).
But in surprisingly many profiles I keep finding statements like "2nd life has become my 1st life" or "I don't have a 1st life anymore" ... and I have to admit I spend enough time inworld to feel caught red-handed reading those entries.
Not that there had been too many outdor activities to cut down on. And actually I read this article about some research suggesting spending time in virtual worlds has positive effects on peeps with chronic pains - so there's no bad conscience involved when I spend hours re-arranging prims on my virtual land.

But it has somewhat noticeably reduced my blogging activities, here as well as on SHIFZ-blog.
However I might post more 2nd Life related stuff here in the future.
Have a good day.

Life is a LOLhamster

Today local paper DerStandard reported about the ig Nobel prizes being awarded - among others to a research project showing jet-lagged hamsters could be helped with viagra.
And of course they had to run this silly pic I couldn't help LOLifying!

Life in a Parallel Universe

Parallel Universes do exist.
And in one of them Stephen Colbert is a pipe smoker!

Second. Life.

Over the course of the summer I got myself a Second Life - under the pretense of building SHIFZ and ROBOEXOTICA offices in the virtual world I spent many hours exploring the metaverse ...
There's a lot to say about SL itself, and there's already a number of blogs entirely dedicated to doing that (SL Herald, SL Insider to name only two of them).
I will mention only one aspect here, which has helped me save a lot of cyber money (and therefore some real hard currency) in my land purchases (*) - Camping.
That's what a way of earning money in-world by spending time on someone's land and thereby improving their traffic numbers is called. Camping comes in the form of benches you sit on, pads you dance on, towels you sunbathe on etc., even gallows on which the campers hang about.
After one or two weeks I bought a script that allowed me to stay online when AFK (Away From Keyboard) in order not to be automatically logged out for inactivity after a half hour - which made camping conveniently possible when I was concentrating on something else or over night as my PC is on 24/7 anyway. One or two weeks later I found the first anti-idle script for free, others were to follow and I started reselling those for a fraction of the price I bought my first one for in a rented space.
Shortly there-after I found out all those scripts are just totally super-fluous, as there is a hard to access feature that allows you to turn the auto-"Away" off.
I'm not aware of this being documented anywhere - I only accidentally found out about this non-trick after a video-tutorial on the official SL-blog in which access to a handful of hidden settings is disclosed.
The info how to get to this specific setting can be found at these coordinates (if you have SL installed on your computer the link will let you teleport directly) on MechaTiki Space, my land in part paid for by camping.

Follow this link to sign up for an SL-account.

(*) ... AND monthly payments, as the Linden-Dollar is convertible to US$ and can be used for payments to Linden Labs or cashed out into PayPal.
Monthly payments in that case would be
1. Premium membership fee, for the right to own land without a realty firm in between you and Linden Labs.
2. The monthly tier for the land you own.

Happy Happy Life

Whoah! I've got Ben&Jerry's!!

My freezer is stacked with delicious ice-creams which arrived perfectly freezy this morning - still plenty of the dry ice in the parcel was left after less than 48 hours since it's departure from Duisburg, Germany.

Nevermind that a pint costs me almost $10,- ... the fact I can have Ben&Jerrys at all makes a world of a difference.
No one interesed in investing in a Vienna franchise?? Schoenbrunn castle would be a cool location (and I could walk there from my place).

Link: Food from Home - The International Store, Duisburg.

Life More Bearable

OMG! Ben&Jerry's for lowly Austrians (B&Js not available in stores here - and this sad list of countries with shops is depressing to read: Aruba - Belgium ...)!

I just ordered ten cans of deleeeshous creams o' ice ... Chocolate Therapy, Half Baked And Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ... alas still no Americone Dream or Dublin Mudslide (but I have some Bailey's in my kitchen, he!) from a german shop and hope they pack enough dry ice to last the trip!!1!

Thanks to the Internets and especially the guys from google, life in Austria might be getting a little more bearable.

Insecure Life

For sure they make you take your shoes off twice on your flight from San Francisco to Vienna, transferring at London's awful, awful Heathrow airport ... but if you forget a lighter and a nail-file in your carry-on luggage none of their scans will reveal that.
I had been loking for the file for roughly over a week - except in the front-most compartment with the vertical zip, which I still find it strange I put it in!
Actually I had thought to myself once when I was looking for it in the rucksack "Ha, maybe they'll find it at the airport, that would be one good thing about the security frenzy at airports."

On another note the suitcase with Cockbot One in it, which went missing on the journey back to Vienna turned up and will be delivered to my house this evening.
Phew!

Americano Life

One more week in SF, which has become significantly sunnier and warmer compared with the week before last.
Time to treat myself to another round of Burger 'n' Shake at St. Francis Fountain - now I'm sitting across in the sugarlump coffee lounge, which provides free WiFi and a fine Americano coffee (double Espresso with extra water/steam, same as Vienniese "Verlaengerter").

After this one and the previous ones I had for breakfast, which I picked up from the Parkbench Cafe I should be coffeinated enough for some transport action to be done - build-up for RoboGames has startet!

Doppelganger Life

My SF host David likes to dress like a LOLcat some of the time, the rest of the time he and Simone are getting busier and busier towards the upcoming RoboGames (see also SHIFZ-blog).

Bruhaha Life

OMG - still LMAO ...

After the meet-up at Lucky 13, J. was so kind to sneak Ch. and me into a private party on Mission, for which neither Ch. nor I qualified dress-code-wise, having us pose as a gay couple at the entrance (which didn't save us from paying the cover-charge of 25$$) ...
So far so good ... we enjoyed a nice time on the smoking patio (those f**king American perverts don't smoke indoors anymore!) before we exposed ourselves to our host - a Scott Something - as a fake gay couple and got ourselves complimented out.
Bummer.
Just after having watched a lesbian couple get it on!
Still wondering if I should be glad or sorry that Chris and I never got anything sexual going?!

Anyway, while I had a feeling of understanding for the guy, who just didn't want us non-gay, non-kinky-clothed people around, when leaving the "sex-party" I just
couldn't stop pitying him for his narrow views on ... his pick of guests, I guess.

Those Americans sure get serious when it's about fun!!1!
However Chris and I got the chance to get closer to each other in a non-gay or gay or whatever undefined way on this trip - and I sure regret I have to let him go back to Austria this Monday!

Did I mention there were no drinks served, and we had to bum white wine from kind ladies??

Dildonic Life

monochrom's Johannes was caught checking out the 7-motor artificial vagina, disguised as a bowling pin, which Kyle Machulis had presented along with other tele-dildonic gadgets at Wednesday's DorkbotSF meeting at Porn Palace.
Kyle demonstrated the synchronisation of the device's motors to the movements in a porn movie - after marking a spot on an actress's body, the actress's movements were mapped and converted into cyber-pussy action.
Johannes is reported to have found it "Wunderbar."

Cliché Life

St. Francis on 24th St., Mission District, San Francisco, is so cliché it's already cool again.
Taken for lunch by David Calkins, Chris and I enjoyed the atmosphere of a 50s American Diner at it's best.
Previously the "Burger & Shake" classic American meal never made much sense to me - but after having one of St. Francis' burgers along with one of their deliciously old-fashioned ice-cream milkshakes, I perfectly understand the concept!
This one is definitely worth going back.

Pacific Life

Having arrived in San Francisco yesterday for Maker Faire and RoboGames, I was a bit surprised how much the Pacific Ocean cools down things here - had to buy a warm jacket today before anything else!
Otherwise SF is as awesome as I remember it, not that we would have seen that much of it yet, but you get a good feel of the flair here in Mission District, where Chris and I are lodged at Mr. Robotics and Missy SuicideBots' house.
(Photo of downtown skyline taken behind the house)

Life Letting Go

My 3-6 is gone. After more than a year of root-canal treatments it was considered hopeless and possibly fractured and being pulled.
And it didn't go without putting up a fight too. The use of a scalpel was unavoidable.
So - haha, Mr. 3-6 troublemaker, mothafu*ka, who's laughing now!

Space Life Invading

... video that recreates an exciting game of Space Invaders in stop motion, using people sitting in theater-seats as pixels.
(via)

Overclocked Life

Overclocked by Sheepfilms - Found on Neatorama.

Life on Drugs

Nancy and Ronald Reagan have a surprising message for us - coming straight from the year 1988 ...
Just say Yes! ... After about 5 minutes of talking about Nancy's pot-use and the merits of crack cocaine Ronald has another revelation: "And there's one more thing - Nancy and I are hooked on heroin."

(via)

Chillin' Life

A low-tech and aesthetically pleasing solution for the slow-drinking Martini-lover's chilling problem comes in form of SwankMartini's Chillin' glasses.

I just signed up with their affiliate-program so click through and buy a dozen to earn me some credit so I can get myself some - I suffer from the slow-sippin-syndrome badly.

Durable Life

The front side of this vintage bamboo tablet used to show an exotic (Chinese) landscape with houses and there was a block of Chinese characters which in my infant imagination more than 30 years ago used to form the shape of an English doubledecker-bus.
Unlike the print on the back side it has suffered from repeated washing though - so I have a hard time re-imagining that landscape ... but the mere fact the tablet itself withstood over 30 years of use amazes me.

Tiki Farm Life

Cross-breeding Tiki and Science (Fiction) culture - does that ring any bell?
These "Robotikis" - Tron the Beachcobmer and Radar Vic are beautiful reminders of a modern global cocktail culture.

From the product page at Tiki Farm: "Our Marquesan Space Invader comes at you in Intergalactic Green and is ready for Blast-Off! Radar Vic & Tron the Beachcomber are designed by one of the Tiki movements most talented artists, my pal Scott Sheidly"

(via)

Student Life

Among the stuff my grandmother handed down to me when I was a teenager, that belonged to my grandfather was this set of a Schnaps-bottle and shot-glasses. It was apparently part of his student fraternity paraphernalia as the little skulls rest on books on which's spine the slogan "Gaudeamus Igitur" is inscribed, the title of a song in ancient Latin that used to be (is?) popular among the members of student fraternities.
(I remember the first line from my Latin-lessons in school: Gaudeamus igitur, iuvenestum sumus - Let's enjoy ourselves as long as we are young!)

When I moved out of my parent's home 1990 I left it there (unlike this tobacco-jar), which I'm rather glad about - I'm sure every piece would have been broken twice by now.

Life in other Dimensions

This animation, published as an illustration of the first chapter of the book on superstring theory Imagining the Tenth Dimension shows how to imagine the tenth dimension, walking you all the way from dimension 0, the point:

Nice!

(via)

Life Viewed From Orbit

Don't those Tikritians have other worries than erecting space art?
This face of a duckie was found on an island in Tigris river in Tikrit, Iraq.

If you have Google Earth installed just right-click and open THIS.
If you want to check out what it looks like on the ground go to lat=34.6078411731, lon=43.690757344.

(thx poetina)

Celeb Life

Two professional bloggers I had the pleasure to meet through my roboexotic activities are listed in Forbes's The Web Celeb 25: CoryDoctorow and Violet Blue.
Now ... is that a good thing?
Oh yes! Forbes is obvy a quality publication, having run an article on ROBOEXOTICA 2006 on their webpage. Congrats Violet, Cory!

Oh, and they say ZeFrank's real name is Hosea Frank.

(via Laughing Squid)

Live is Tough

And only the toughest duckies survive.
It was more than clear that zefrank wouldn't let this brave duckie pass unmentioned - sure enough it headlines monday's show with a dedicated "duckie in the freezer"-intro:

(duckie in the freezer story originally spotted on boingboing)

Sticky Life

I had stickers printed of my successful art print Ceci N'est pas Une Pipe - anybody want any?
I'll send one to you inside Europe for €2 including shipping, 50ct for every additional sticker. (US: double the amount for $$)
Just drop me a mail at magnus[AT]shifz.org ...

Update: Yay - the above photo is linked to from an update to Boingboing's post on a current Los Angeles County Museum of Art Magritte-inspired exhibit ...

Metric Life

Hehehehehehehe!
Quoting robots.net: "The only areas left not using the metric system are Burma, Liberia, and the US."
And that's not "the only areas on earth" but includes the moon, as "NASA and 13 other space agencies from around the world have come to an agreement that the Moon will use the standard metric system of measurement."

Hopefully this will prevent future moon citizens from having to worry "about trying to fit a 15 millimeter nut onto a 5/8 inch bolt."

Life Is Making

Make:blog thinks these pieces of Marbelized Latex with Embedded Magnets look cool ...
Thanks a lot! :)

Started using oblong and round forms to pour latex and embedding neodymium (rare earth) magnets a few days ago (after working on a series of latex bugs based on spoon forms), which gives pretty cool fridge magnets.
Still experimenting with different magnets and multi-magnet set-ups; using latex of different colors keeps the process interesting!

Life Does End - Still!

Robert Anton Wilson is dead after suffering declining health for an elongatd period of time.
As an author RAW introduced me to amazing philosophies and woke my interest in a lot of things, among them longevity/immortality.
Unlike his pal Timothy Leary, Wilson is not reported to have his head frozen for cryogenic storage.

Thanks for the inspiration, Bob. Hail Discordia Forever.

(via boingboing)