Call me

My friend T contacted me today with a very important message: Skype software is out for Mac.
Relax, don't panic if you don't know what Skype is.
Skype is very similar to MSN Messenger and similar instant messaging systems, with one very particular difference: it's voice messaging. And it works.
You can call other Skype users for free. All you need is the software, a microphone and a speaker connected to your computer. It's amazing.
So, what are you waiting for? Download Skype, it's free, and call me. Email me for my username or put down a comment here and I'll get back to you.
Download Skype

Monday

Last week of Mrs Rasmussen's holidays. The summer is definitely fading away. Our apples and plums in the garden are slowly becoming red and ripe. We have been invaded by wasps this summer, who have feasted on our fruit, but the chilly weather seems to have killed most of them now.
I finally got myself together and brought my rear bicycle wheel to the bike mechanic. Remember, the bike was stolen and damaged a very long time ago. It turned out that I need a completely new wheel, and from Thursday I will be up and cycling again on my Cannondale.

XJ220

Just thought I'd mention that the garage next door had a special guest yesterday. Mrs Rasmussen and I were driving up Spylaw Street when a huge, black monster filled the street. It wasn't a Ferrari or a Lamborghini, and when it passed, it said "Jaguar" on its rear.
I had to find out which Jaguar it was, and a bit of Googling found that it was a Jaguar XJ220, put into production in 1991 as the world's fastest production car. 275 were built, but they were so expensive that they were very hard to sell.
It may not look of much on pictures, but in real life, on the street, wau.
Underneath its rear window lies a 3.5 litres V6 twin turbo with 542 bhp that can blast the XJ220 to 125 mph (nearly 190 kmh) in less than 12 seconds.
Sorry 'bout that. Matthias thought it was cool too.

Masked & Anonymous

This must be one of the weirdest films in recent history. Possibly also one of the least known. I certainly didn't know it existed until I saw it playing on the screen in our local video shop. What strikes you mostly, apart from Bob Dylan's dazzling music, is the quality and number of actors in it, most of them making fun of themselves and their previous roles. Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Jessica Lange, Bruce Dern, Val Kilmer, Chris Penn, Christian Slater, Mickey Rourke, Ed Harris, Giovanni Ribisi and many more, including Dylan himself in a major role.
This is bizarre, strange and hugely entertaining most of the time. Some scenes does not make any sense whatsoever, neither in relation to the very hidden plot, nor as standalone scenes, but they do give the whole experience an unsettling quality.
In a way it is a dark, dark version of USA gone even more wrong than it has at the present time. In another way it seems like a Bob Dylan song suddenly sprung to life. The dialogue, man, the dialogue, there are some effed-up lines around, man, I tell you. A couple of examples:

"These animals can't learn anything from mankind. Man doesn't have a thing to teach 'em. Human kind disgusts me so much with their atom bombs, and blow dryers, and automobiles."

"What about, er, Hendrix? Remember...remember Hendrix at Woodstock? I'm just curious, you weren't there, were ya? You weren't at Woodstock. You weren't there with Hendrix. Why? Where were ya?"

"Do you know what really, really gets my goat, though? We always talk about race this, race that, ethnic this, ethnic that. I mean, when you come right down to it, there's really only two races: workers and bosses."

And finally, this little treat between Tom Friend (Jeff Bridges) and his girlfriend (Penelope Cruz):

Friend:
"What about the Vietnam war, huh? You ever hear of that? What if I told you it was lost in the whore houses of Saigon, instead of on the battlefield?"
Girlfriend:
"How do you know that?"
Friend (long sigh):
"Never reveal your sources."
Masked and Anonymous

The London collection

Have you ever wondered how many ice creams you can cram into your freezer without having to eat the boxes of pasta already in there? The answer is somewhere around 80. We tried.
The experiment occurred, albeit involuntarily, during our recent stay in London. One evening when we were carrying our take-way food to the Clapham Commons, a number of younger people in a van jumped on us and asked if we wanted free ice creams. Well, okay, thanks, we'll have four. Boxes. Apparently they were leftovers from a promotion scheme and would have to be thrown out if nobody wanted them. The rumour about free ice cream in the street travelled faster than light, and we saw kids run faster than you would believe they could.
Anyway, here are a couple of pictures, courtesy of N, from London.
Mats, Sofie and R waiting at the London Eye
Sofie and N in the London Eye
Mats and R in the London Eye
Houses of Parliament, from above
Mrs Rasmussen and Sofie in the flat
Picture of Per inspired by Munch's The Scream

Festival reviews

I am about half-way through my Book Festival review schedule, and today it's Alex Garland. That's my excuse for still not having put anything up from our trip to London in July. The pictures are here, I just haven't had time to do it. Be patient.
The kids are back to school, and Matthias seems to be enjoying high school. They grow up so fast, don't they?
Book Festival 2004 Reviews

Bourne supremely good

The whole family went to see The Bourne Supremacy yesterday. We saw The Bourne Identity on DVD earlier this summer, and were all surprised how good that in fact was.
The Bourne Supremacy was brilliant. Matthias thought the first film was better, Mrs Ramussen and Sofie liked the new one, and I was somewhat in between. There were very good things about The Bourne Supremacy, but for my taste the shaky camera and jump cutting in all scenes, action or not, was used a bit too much. Great entertainment, though, all in all.

18 years

Mrs Rasmussen, then Miss, and I met each other on this day in 1986. Think about that.

Games Festival

I was covering Edinburgh International Games Festival for a Danish magazine last week. It was two days with lectures and debates about everything connected to the videogames industry. This year, as last year, Sony was able to present a new exiting product. Last year it was the brilliant EyeToy, a game interface so simple your grandmother can use it after 30 seconds. This year the hit was the karaoke game Singstar, where you can sing into wireless mics and compete against friends - or enemies. Singstar totally clicked with the audience, and the woman with the idea behind it, Paulina Bozak from Sony's studios in Soho, was awarded the BAFTA Interactive New Talent Award.
The most fascinating new game gadget was a British controller for PS2 called GameTrak. It's basically an infrared controller that makes it possible to control your game with your hands, a stick, a sword or whatever. And it works in 3D - we saw it in function with a combat game, and there is a golf game under way.
Gametrak
Singstar (sorry: Flash site)

Die Macher

That's German. It means "the creators" or "the doers" or something. And it's the name of a German boardgame about elections and politics. Sofie, Matthias and I are playing it for the second time. Matthias won the last time, and he is already in front having won the regional elections in Bayern.
Die Macher is a complicated but brilliant game by Karl-Heinz Schmiel. It takes a while to get into, but it plays beautifully and with long strategies possible.
Sofie plays the Green Party, Mats is the Conservatives and I am PDS, the remnants of the old Communist Party in the former DDR.

L just left

L, not L who came with S a couple of weeks ago but L, have been staying with us for a week, enjoying the warmest weather yet this year in Scotland. This morning I drove her to the airport at the ungodly hour of 5am. That's the good news, because L has to wait 12 hours in Stanstead before the next plane takes her the rest of the way home to Denmark. L armed herself with the world's biggest packed lunch, fruit, drinking water and free text messages. Send us one when you get home, L!
I promised a report from our London-trip, but I am still waiting for some images from down south, so it has to wait a bit more.

Back in E

We're back in Big E after a splendid, very very warm, week in London. More on that story later. Here it's of course raining and cold compared to London's 27 degrees.