and now… merry Xmas from me too… :-)
okay, short and fast some lines. I want to wish you all – in fact I mean you few – who read my blog, a very special Christmas. After the Cthulhu-Thing here my personal wishes.
okay okay, nothing special, but I like those kobolds – plus: the kobold reminds me of the monsters who will visit us this christmas eve for dinner (I am talking about my own and my wife’s family *eg*) and who will eat up our complete pantry. Nevertheless it will be another fine and funny eve: same procedure than every year, I guess… well, I can’t await the presents I’ll get… 
Well, I hope you all have fun, a full belly and lots of presents too… see you soon!
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- Location: The Kobold’s Den (Home)
- Mood: still searching for Xmas-mood
- TV-Show: Desperate Housewives Season 2 – the last two episodes
- Music: The Killers – Xmas Song: A Great Big Sled… (really great)!
Cthulhu Christmas…. Fhtagn!
(click for bigger version)
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- Location: The Kobold’s Den (Home)
- Mood: a little bit shoggy (got a cold I guess)
- TV-Show: Desperate Cthulu’s
- Music: The Cthulu’s – Satan Claus and his Shoggoth’s are coming…
The Killers Xmas Song… Fantastic!
Well, everybody knows how much I like “The Killers” and their music. Good for me, they are not quiet, even though they are touring the world. Last week they presented there first-ever Christmas song and though it sounds a bit unusual for a xmas song, it is still very very good.
You can listen and watch the video on their website. The Link is: TheKillersMusic.com
If the link doens’t function right, just go to www.thekillersmusic.com and then under Music you will find the videos.
Have Fun listen to it and watch the funny video clip.
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- Location: The Kobold’s Den (Home)
- Mood: a little bit ill (got a cold I guess)
- TV-Show: Desperate Housewives Season 2
- Music: The Killers – A Great Big Sled
Santa is coming… soon :-)
- Aye, it is time again… Santa Clause is near. In fact in germany Santa should be here today, since he always arrives a little bit earlier here in Germany (no wonder, he has to travel all the way to USA from here, and that takes a while on sledge *g*).
- Well, 6th of december means nothing more, I guess, than getting tons of chocolate, marzipans and nuts… yum yum… very tasty *rubbingmybelly*
What’s new here? Well, nothing special I guess. Okay, last monday we finally signed the sales contract for the condominium at the notary. I told you about this in my last entry.
Now I am sitting here suffering, beacuse I have to watch this damned documentation about the soccer world cup 2006 here in germany. Arrrrgggghhh, by the GREAT OLD ONES, by Cthulhu itself, I HATE SOCCER….
Hmmm, speaking about Cthulhu and the Great Old Ones: I finally began reading the “Hexer von Salem” series written by the famous german author Wolfgang Hohlbein. The series definetely isn’t new, but I have been told, that it is a really good series, especially if one likes H.P. Lovecraft and Cthulhu stories. I can tell, I like them, no I love them and I must admit that I am really deep into this first collectors book of the “Hexer” Saga (sorry I don’t know what the english title is like).
okay enough for now: FHTAGN!!!! 
- Location: The Kobold’s Den (Home)
- Mood: tired but happy
- TV-Show: notthing to mention (this damn shit soccer docu I told you about in my entry above)
- Music: nothing now…
My home is my castle…
… yes yes yes, the last weeks were wuite hazardous here at our rented home but now we finally got the covenant for the mortgage from our bank for buying the condominium, which my older sister offered us, since she and her husband bought a house. The apartment is wonderful: ground level, about 95 squaremeters big, a huge garden a the backside only for us, well it’s just: GREAT!!! We are really happy and we can’t await next march, when we’re moving in.
But now we have some things to do. Choosing the colors for the walls, some decorations, some new funritures and so on. All the crap, which comes when you move house (or apartment). Fortunately we just have to carry our stuff three levels downstairs – a real good thing on my old bones
Okay, that’s enough for now. I will try to post into the blog more often now the worst is over… bye for now.
- Location: The Kobold’s Den (Home)
- Mood: really happy
- TV-Show: The Hades Effect
- Music: TheKillers – Sam’s Town Album (what else? *g*)
What RPG Player (Not Character) Type Are You?
You scored as Storyteller. The Storyteller is in it for the plot: the sense of mystery and the fun of participating in a narrative that has the satisfying arc of a good book or movie. He enjoys interacting with well-defined NPCs, even preferring antagonists who have genuine motivations and personality to mere monsters. To the Storyteller, the greatest reward of the game is participating in a compelling story with interesting and unpredictable plot threads, in which his actions and those of his fellow characters determine the resolution.With apologies to Robin Laws.
What RPG Player (Not Character) Type Are You? |
The Killers – Live in Cologne @ E-Werk
Sunday, november, 5th 2006
Back again… sorry for posting this late but I am quite busy at the moment and I really don’t have that much time available for caring about this blog. But here I am… back again.
Well, the title says everything. “The Killers” Live in Cologne at the E-Werk. I came to the music of these four Las Vegasian more or less by accident, when I’ve heard one of their most famous songs (Somebody told me) on the wedding of our close friends Steffi and Holger. After that I fastly bought their debut album, which was the actual one at this time, and I have never regretted this buy.
Now with the release of their second CD called “Sam’s Town” the Killers finally came to germany for some concerts. Luckily I reacted fast to buy the tickets since the concerts were sold out lightning fast. And so we went out last Sunday to see “The Killers” live and I can only say – it was extremely awesome.
There was a band which played first for heating up the audience, but I forgot their name. They weren’t bad, but I wouldn’t say they were really good either. Not bad, not great, but okay. And the sound was bad too at this time and I feared that the sound of the headliner would be bad too.
But as soon as frontman Brandon Flowers, drummer Ronnie Vanucci, guitarist Dave Keuning and the bassist Mark Stoermer, came on the scene, I was told and shown better.
The sound was great, fantastic, and marvellous and the band started with some of their best and powerful songs. Unusual as they are, they first played two of their greatest hits just at the beginning – “When you were young” and “Somebody told me”.
But instead of calming down, the four professional musicians pressed more and more powerful songs out of their instruments. After just three songs the hall was quaking and shaking and all the people in it were dancing and sang along loudly. The Killers had the audience in their grip and they never loosened it until the end of the show.
Frontman Brandon did a great job. He is a very charismatic guy and he is able to express the songs not only with speech, but with his mimics and gestures too. A great entertainer, nothing more nothing less!
But also the other band members are absolute professional musicians and handsome with their instruments. I really like the style and the experience drummer Vanucci (what a wonder), puts in his play and how close he plays together with bassist Mark – almost like symbionts, while Dave adds his melodious guitar plays to this rhythm and bass section.
Remarkable about this is, that hearing The Killers live is absolutely like listento them on a CD, but much louder and even more powerful. It is often a fact that the voice of the singer in a band sounds different live (and often not so good) as on the studio album, but in case of this band this isn’t the fact. Voice and the sounds are original the same as on the CD, even the trumpets and Hammond organ sounds are there (thanks to frontman Brandon and a black shadowed figure who is sitting in the back of the stage and plays keyboards and synthesizers).
All in all a really great band in it’s whole!
But… not only the music and the sound were good, but also the show itself was very stylish. While my wife and I still argue about the thing, if the show was more like a Las Vegas Show (my opinion) or some kind of weird carnival show (her opinion), the set up and the look of the stage was awesome, just as the light show was. The Killers just used light in a broad variations and that was a good thing, since it matched their music style perfect. No explosions or pyros and such stuff but lights, spots and beams – and that was a good decision.
Summarizing this, “The Killers – Live in Cologne” was a really marvellous and fantastic happening and a great show. The Killers have no need to hide from the mega-acts out there. They definitely have their very own and special potential, just like Brandon sings in “Somebody told me”. We are eager to see them again in the future. Until then we have to listen to the excellent CD’s. I am sure that the future will be glorious for The Killers…
Here are some videos from the concert on youtube.com:
Enterlude + When you were young
Read my mind
Bling
Mr. Brightside
Jenny was a friend of mine
Exitlude
- Location: The Kobold’s Den (Home)
- Mood: frustrated
- TV-Show: Smallville Season 4
- Music: TheKillers – Sam’s Town (what else? *g*)
Trick or Treat!
Hehehehehe (madly fading laughter), it is time again. HALLOWEEN 2006 is there and even it is not so traditionally in Germany, we come to celebrate this hype in the last years too. Unfortunately we missed to get our legendary Halloween-Party running this year again. It’s the second time, we know that , but we promise to make it better next year. For this year we are attending to a scary party at one of our friends this eve. Unfortunately one of the biggest cemetaries in our town isn’t that far away from the party. Hope the zombies and ghosts have their own party there and that they won’t run out of beer and cola… hope we won’t either… *eg*
okay, I am up to some heavy issues lately, which need to have my full attention. I will keep you in touch. In the meanwhile, enjoy Halloween (or not if you don’t like it) and stay smart.
Ah and yes, for everyone who doesn’t know: there is the possibility to leave a comment on each blog entry here. You will find a little “link” at the bottom right in every blog entry. Just tell me what you think about my blog. I love constructional criticism (grrrrr)
- Location: The Kobold’s Den (Home)
- Mood: more than busy andin scary mood
- Music: Smallville Season 3
What’s up next…
Well, the Spiel this year has definetely gone past now. I am relaxed, but I have much things to do. The last days I worked on some projects I l have laid beside for a while. One of those projects had to do with doing some little redesign on the DnD-Gate.de which was necessary though there will be some new features coming up in the near future. Here is just a sneak peek at the over-worked design I’ve done so far.
Then I am again deep into painting miniatures. I got some good ones on the game fair and now they are waiting to be painted. Especially the bases I got from a company called Microartstudio. The guys are from poland and they do a really good jobon creating excellent and unique bases. I also bought some miniatures from Warmachine (Privateer Press), Freebooter Miniatures and Fenryll, which all have really cool series with formidable crafted miniatures.
One of the best miniature I got this year, was actually a present from my ProFantasy-booth “boss” Ralf. It is a “Tauren Hunter” for the “World of Warcraft Boardgame” which is made of bronze. Woooah, the Tauren is a really impressive one, though all these special edition bronze minaitures for WoWBg are pretty good made. Also I think the bronze look is nice, it lacks colors and I decided to paint this miniature in some pretty colors, soon.
I surely will post some pictures as soon as I got some miniatures ready, so you can have a look.
What’s up more?
Well, this evening we will go out for having arabian style dinner with some of our best friends. It was a birthday present from us to Angela, my best friends wife and we are looking forward to this eve. I surely will eat nothing until dinner
Okay I have to do some stuff now.
See ya…
- Location: The Kobold’s Den (Home)
- Mood: busy
- Music: Smallville Season 2
Spiel 2006 – Afterwords
The “Spiel 2006” in Essen is over now and I must admit it was another great experience for me. Similar to the last six years most of the time I helped Ralf from ProFantasy Software at the company’s booth and it was again a time of fun. I enjoyed seeing Ralf and Thorsten, as well talking an joking with them, again.
But this year was a year of highlights since luckily a online friend of mine, Alex Otterlei from AO Music and his friend and helping hand Karel came over from Belgium this year to have their own booth on the “Spiel”. Funny thing is they got the booth right next to our booth, so I had plenty of conversations with Alex and Karel – the latter really talked me into trying Star Wars Galaxies soon. On Saturday and Sunday Alex had a special guest: Rhianna Pratchett, the daughter of the famous author Terry Pratchett and all three had dinner in the Wolperding with us at Saturday eve. All three are really friendly and wonderful persons and I am really happy to have met them. Thank you for that, and thank you Alex and Rhianna for the wonderful CD and book, as well as the funny signing of it.
I must admit, there was another highlight; a real celestial one for me.
Larry Elmore, famous fantasy artist for a long, long time now, was attending to the game fair this year again. Mr. Elmore is one of my favourite artists since the original release of the Dragonlance Chronicles way back in the 80’s for which he drew the artwork. Larry’s artwork really showed what I saw in my own imagination, when I read the Dragonlance and because of this his work has a special place in my heart since this time. No wonder I was excited to see him on the “Spiel” again – excited as I have been always, when Larry came around to the “Spiel”.
Unfortunately Mr. Elmore didn’t do any personal sketches the last years. He stopped this some years ago and unluckily as I am, I never got a personal and unique illustration from him, since I missed the chance.
But this time I made my bet without my wonderful wife, who knows how much I honour the artwork of Larry. So she decided to ask him – behind my back – if he could do a sketch for me, since I am such a big and long time fan of his work. And what can I say: Larry did a sketch for me, though his translator (and the owner of the booth Larry attended to) wanted to interfere. Larry drawed me a sketch of an elf maiden and signed it personally for me.
Surely, when my wife Nicole came back to me, gave me the sketch and told me the story, I not only lost my capability to speak for some moments, but also I was near to tears. I just went over to Larry and thanked him personally about it and told him that I will be thankful forever. The illustration will get a place of honor not only in our apartment, but also in my heart – as well as Larry, too.
Thank you for this, Mr. Larry Elmore.
These were the two big events this year, but there were other people I am really glad about meeting them this year again. Next to the usual suspects, who housed themselves in our living room like a clan of kobolds – Tzelzix, Anne, Speren, Grey, Namo, Eoghan and Del – I was really happy to see my hated friend Mirko (Scurlock) and his beloved girlfriend Kerstin (Severina) again, who came down here to the Ruhrgebiet again, too.
I also was happy to see Funny-as-always-Holger (from F&S), Björn (from Hasbro) and Eva Widermann again and have a talk or two with them. I really enjoyed meeting Janet Sunjic (from Lausch Verlag) for the first time, since she is a really nice and friendly person plus Lausch does really excellent audiobooks. I will have to listen to their newest works “Drizzt 2” and “Schwarze Sonne 2” these days to write some reviews. I enjoyed meeting some other people, too, for example the people from Erdenstern and my contacts at Heidelberger Spieleverlag (Heiko) and Panini Comics (Steffen). Unfortunately Ed from Midnight Syndicate didn’t attend to the “Spiel” this year, though I had a short talk with his brother Brian, who told me that Ed was staying at home. I hope Ed is doing fine and will be there next year.
Then there were the users from the “DnD-Gate” and the “The Gate” (WoW guild) who came around and I really enjoyed meeting them too, though I didn’t had the time to talk to everyone for long. I remember talking to Quel’Thalas, Berandor, Arne, TexMex, Nailom, Lich, Ariadne, Shaz’Nahrad, Revas, Sword of Cyric, Alaak, Alatariel and a lot more. Sorry, I can’t remember everyone, my mind is getting old, but I know you were there.
Well, I think that is enough for this time. Be sure to check out some of the pictures I put online in the DnD-Gate gallery. You will find them if you click here..
By for now.
- Location: The Kobold’s Den (Home)
- Mood: freshed
- Music: Die Schwarze Sonne 2 an audiobook from LAUSCH
