Series

Like I mentioned in previous post, I have to refresh the list of current series that I am watching. Let's see how the week is playing along:

• Monday: Desperate Housewives, Californication
• Tuesday: The Big Bang Theory, Heroes, Prison Break, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Cronicles
• Wednesday: Fringe, Eureka (currently on hold)
• Friday: Time Warp, The Universe
• Saturday: Stargate Atlantis, Star Wars: The Clone Wars
• Sunday: Merlin

That's about it. It's quite a lot but I manage to see them all (for now).
And there are also some other series that I am waiting for, like:

• Battlestar galactica (final season)
  
• Doctor Who
  

WoW - Wrath of The Lich King

Alongside all the things that I am working on, and all the series that I am watching (more about that in the separate post) and all the other things I am keeping myself busy with, I also find a bit of time here and there to spend it in WoW. I have already published a post or two about my little addiction long time ago. And I am starting to realize that it's not really addiction since I am not spending all of my free time in WoW.

Well after more then 6 months of non-playing I have started again. It was only because of the WTOLK (Wrath of The Lich King), another expansion that I have started to play.

I am currently 76 level of 80 and I am enjoying it a lot. The new quests are amazing and I only had a taste of instances. I still won't play a lot, just to get through the content of the game. I'm not really fan of non-stop raiding of PvP play. I am still waiting for the other two Blizzard games (Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2).

Wall-E, Burn-E, Presto

I know it's a while since the long awaited animated movie from Pixar came on screens, but just a while ago it was released on Blu-Ray as well. And that was what I was waiting for. To see this fantastic movie in full detail. I must say I was astonished by all the detail and finesses that one can see in full HD quality.

I know that I don't write short reviewes anymore, but I had to write something about movie as good as this one. Alongside with Wall-E you get Burn-E on the same disc. It's a short movie but so worth watching as well.

The third title, Presto is yet another short animated movie from Pixar. And I must say, one of the funniest ever. Really really worth watching.

Jump from 4200m aka. Sky diving

Our research group, Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Multimedia decided that it is time to put our fears aside and face the free-fall.
And we did it. We decided to go to Vrsar a nice Croatian coastal city. While it was really cold and cloudy in Ljubljana, it was sunny and warm (for this time of year) in Vrsar. We prepared for the jump and then took the airplane up to 4200m where we decided to leave the plane and go down our own way. Off course we did it in tandem with instructor on our backs.
But it was fun. All the 40 to 45 seconds of free fall.
The sky was completly clear and the visibility was amazing.
I want to go again. What a feeling.
Some photos are here, but not from the air, since they did not alow us to take the cameras with us (and it was the only righ thing to do).

König See & Großglöckner strasse

Another post from past.
On our way back from Austria (see previous post), we also stopped in one of most beautiful German resorts that even Hitler wanted for himself - König See. Not that nowadays this is one of more prestige German tourist place, Hitler's followers have build so called Eagle nest for their Fürer there, a nice mansion on top of hill with oversight on the lake and surrounding mountains.

After that we took the Großglöckner road, a mountain high road with nice view at Glöckner group that ends at Franz-Joseph Höhe, where one can see one of Europes largest glacier.

Photos are here.

Salzbug

A post from past.
When I was returning from my exchange in Austria, Hagenberg, we have stopped in Salzburg for few hours. A nice city with lots of tourist attractions, and lots of things to see. Here are some photos.

Giant crystals

I usually don't write about news that I pick up here and there. But this one was extreme. I have never heard of crystals as big as there were found in Mexico this October. They are just amazing.
But why say more, when picture is worth more then 1000 words. Check it out by yourself here.

Johanisberg & Mittlerer Barenkoepf

We were in the mountains once again. And this time we went on two peaks in the Glöckner group. First day we went straight for the first peak, we only stopped at the cottage for so long that we left our backpacks there. First one was Johanisberg (3453m). The weather conditions were not really good, but we were fast. We reached the peak very fast, and it was my first ascend from lowland to more then 3000 in one day, except for flying.
For next day we planned a really long tour, but since the weather forcast was not good, we decided to conquer only a nearby peak - Mittlerer Barenkoepf (3358m). It was a really short tour, but we did the right decition, since it had started to snow during our descent.
Overall it was a nice two day mountain tripp. You can find some photos here.

Xania, Crete - SSMS - Summer School on Multimedia Semantics 2008

When I was still on my exchange in NZ, my mentor send me an e-mail regarding summer school. It was in the beginning of September, and yes that means I was really really lazy, and have put my blog aside for quite a while.

I hope this is about to change and that I will write here more often again. So let's start.
Xania, Crete. A nice coastal city, with beautiful old town and nice beaches in the neighborhood. 8 days. Well, does it sound nice. I think so. The only problem is that there are lectures 5 of those days, in the morning and in the afternoon. So you really do not have much time to go somewhere. We did have some time to hang out with lots of other Phd. students from all over the Europe and elsewhere as well (Indonesia for instance).
Since I didn't have to pay for anything and we also had some nice organised trips it was nice. On top of that I had the whole Saturday just for myself, and it was really really nice. Lying on the beach in the hot late summer sun. What more would you want. Nice sea just 20m away.
On top of that I also had most of the Sunday to walk around in Athens. I was amazed. It is really nice capital. Well for photos, you'll have to go to my gallery here.

The Last Lecture

The same day that I found out about Steve Jobs's speech I also heard about this one. And I have to say this is much much better.

This is not only speech but it is a lecture. And as the title already states it is "the last lecture". The lecturer was very good professor, Randy Pausch, from Carnegie Mellon University. It was his last lecture because he had an incurable cancer and he knew he will die really soon.

He made it very good and I recommend everyone to watch it, at least once. All the thing he says and especially the way he says it is just amazing. If all the lectures were half as good the schooling would never be a problem.

Randy shows how the lectures should be prepared, how one should lecture and why. See it for yourself.

link

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates speeches

Quite a while ago, I have watched two very good speeches from very known persons (almost celebrities). They were speeches from Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to the students at their graduation.

While Steve was invited to Stanford (where he studied for really short time) and Bill was invited to Harvard (where he also studied for really short time). It is funny to know that they both are actually dropouts and never really finished their studies. But they are both successfully now and have as much money as one can have.

Even thou they never finished their studies they still know how to survive in today's world and they gave some really great pointers to all new graduates.

Worth watching.

Steve Jobs's speech

Bill Gates's speech (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Lost Worlds

If you happen to have too much time and you enjoy watching documentaries, this is a really good documentary series. As the title already tells us it's about lost worlds.

And both words "lost" and "worlds" have a broad meaning here. Yes most parts are about some lost civilizations or nations, but there are also parts that show us what happened in some specific time era in some places. For instance World War II Bunkers, Nuclear stations and more.

It is really fun to watch and you learn some new facts about ancient as well as near history.

Watch it. IMDB link.

Report from Austria

It was a while ago since I came back form the second part of my exchange in Austria.

As I already said I was there with two other Slovenians and since all the classes were already finished they arranged some other things for us to do.

Our coordinator organized several workshops for us: Motion capture and tracking, Adobe AIR technology and Z-Brush workshop. It was a really good experience to get in touch with people that know a lot in particular area of expertise.

We also took a challenge of writing a plug-in for Maya. A purpose of the plug-in is to import 2D tracked data. That plug-in should help with faster workflow in getting motion captured data to the final model in Maya. This was my first plug-in for Maya, and first Maya programing also. The good thing is that Maya now "understands" Python and that I was able to use it for my purpose since python is really not a hard language to learn.

That a short report from two weeks staying in Hagenberg.

Mauthausen

Another short trip to a nearby city. This time to one of the historically important city of Mauthausen. This city is important because of concentration camp that was held here during second world war.
Today it is there for reminder what should never happen again. There are monument from all the countries from which there were people in this concentration camp. There is also exhibition that is describing what was happening in all the concentration camps, how many people was there in the camps and where the camps were.
I am also connected to this camp somehow, since my great grand father was there for some time.

Ceske Budejovice

During my exchange in Austria we didn't have much to do one Sunday and that was the reason for us (two Slovenians I've met there) to pay a visit to a neighbor Czech city of Ceske Budejovice. It was only 1 hour 15 minutes drive away from Hagenberg and it was worth getting there for few hours.
One can see mayor difference when you get from Austria to Czech Republic. There are lots of adds for Night Clubs just 50 meters from the border. Once we reached the city we payed a visit to city center. The center is very well preserved and nice. We didn't remember right away that they don't have Euro in Czech Republic yet.
In Czech Republic the prostitution is legalized and that is one of the reasons why there are many Austrian and German tourists there. There are also many "markets" near the road where you can get cheap 3rd class things.
It was a nice trip and we spend a nice afternoon there. You can also see some pictures here.

Zeitgeist

I don't know what was the real reason for not watching this really good movie before. But I have watched it now.

This documentary is about origin of Christan religion and how American banks took over the world. It also shows how this is connected to all the wars of the 20th century.

It is a good conspiracy theory documentary that shoes how the money took control of everything that is happening in the world around us and how it can trigger really horrible events. The movie is telling the story of why the world wars were started in the first place and why all the American wars all over the world were started just to put more money in few people's pockets.

Zeitgeist is free documentary that you can watch on-line on google.video with subtitles in many languages. Or you can legally download it over P2P network. You can get more information on movie's official home page.

It is up to you if you believe what is said in the movie or not, but the story does explain everything quite good. However you can make a good story containing many facts that still sound believable.

In Austria

And here I am.
For more then a week now I got into the living in a small town of Hagenberg im Mühlkreis, near Linz. The town only has about 2000 people and more then half of those are students at the Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences.

There are two more Slovenians here on the second part of Leonardo program. As it turned out I am not working on the project homepage. They prepared some special workshops and presentations for us and gave us an option of using their equipment. And that is a good deal. They have a lot of hi-tech equipment worth thousands of euros.

A really good is motion capture system. The real one. Just like one of those that are used in film industry more and more recently. And we have a chance of using it. For the price I must say I expected lot more. I'll write more at some later time, when I am done using it.

So far I must say I am enjoying my staying here since there is something new to discover almost every day. And I really like that a lot.

I will write more once I finish my exchange here and get back to Slovenia.

Diablo III

One of my favorite games was surely Diablo II. And ever since I stopped playing it I wanted a bit more from it. I wanted the story to go on, I wanted more arcade RPG gameplay, I wanted more incredible cinematic videos and finally I wanted more Diablo.

Diablo II was an awesome game, with the expansion set was even more awesome, and that was the reason that I always felt a need of next part.

And just a little more then a week ago (28. June) Blizzard suprised me and anounced the third part of ghotic saga. They gave out lots of information about what the game will look like, what the background story will be like and how the gameplay will be like.

I read the whole site the moment I get a chance and I was really setisfied with all the effort that they are putting in makeing the game.

But not just Diablo III; Blizzard is known to put lots of efforts in creating all of their games. Just look at the World of Warcraft and few months back anounced Starcraft II.

This is the way to produce unforgettable experiences and to put the right amount of right content into each and every game that you put on market.

Can't wait to buy my own Diablo III and start playing it.

Homology

One of my courses in first semester of postgraduate study was called Geometrical Homology. It is a mathematical course that tries to connect mathematicians and computer scientists.

Part of assignment was also to implement algorithms that are described in chapter 7 of the following book:

Zomorodian, A. J., Ablowitz, M. J., Davis, S. H., Hinch, E. J.,
Iserles, A., Ockendon, J., and Olver, P. J. 2005 Topology for Computing
(Cambridge Monographs on Applied and Computational Mathematics).
Cambridge University Press.

You can find all other details if you get the source with README from SVN repository.

We did it in Java and we decided to publish our results.

We presented our work at seminar (link).

The algorithms were programmed in Java 1.6. You can get sources from public SVN repository:
svn co http://svn.andrej.com/homology/

The algorithms were developed by Marko Toplak, Damjan Glad and me with a lot of help and supervision of our mentors Andrej Bauer and Neža Mramor Costa.

http://tyroneohia.com/

A friend of mine from New Zealand started his blog some time ago. It's basically his portfolio page that shows his work.
You can find it here.

Since he's a good designer and artist I think it's worth a look. He has some really good things there and I'm sure there is a lot more to come.

Keep up the good work Tyrone.

to Austria I go

Like I mentioned in one of the previous posts I have to get to second part of my exchange in Austria next week. This will be a short exchange (2 weeks only) and I'll probably work on EUNZ
This is home site for the exchange project that I was on. And we have to make the site more current and add some new content.
I'll see how will all end. I think I'll have good time up there for this 2 weeks. And I also think I'll make my German a bit better again, sice I used to know quite a lot of German.

Wish me luck. home site.

Waiting on Airport and back home again

I didn't have lot of luck on my way back home from Hong Kong. When I arrived to Hong Kong International airport I already found out that my flight will be delayed. And yes it was delayed, for 6 hours. And that was enough for me to miss my flight from London to Zagreb.

We landed in London just few minutes before my plane should take off. But I missed it. Air New Zealand sent me to hotel with buffet dinner, bad and breakfast and they book new flight for me next day. And that was it. When I arrived to the airport again next day I realised that that was it for real. They only reserved new ticket for me, but they did not pay it. And they reserved 800€ ticket for me. I tried to get in touch with them to find out if thete is any slution, but there was no way I could get in contact with them before the middday and that is why I looked for new ticket, cheaper then the one they offered me.
The cheapest one I could find was 500€. And yes, I had to pay aditional 500€ just to get from London back home. Ridicolus!!!

But what can I do. I'll make sure that next time all my tickets will be connected so I won't have any additiona expences. It was expensive school thou.

But I'm home. And that is what metteres. I started my job again and since I'll be here only for a week I don't really have to do much. The real work will start when I return from my second prat of Exchange. But more about that in some later posts.

Classes in NZ

I will write something about the results of my study down under in New Zealand.

Computer Illustration:

First assignment was to produce three illustrations in no matter what medium. I chose Photoshop and my themes were Wizard, Necromancer and Mountains. I have bigger image (A4 size) of wizzard, so if you want it just send me an e-mail.


Second assignment was to create character and bring to the class. Later on we had to make the combined illustration from some of the characters.


Maya:

My project for Maya class was to create a WoW (World of Warcraft) character as good as I can in 3 months time, while learning Maya software almost from scratch. I was very setisfied with my reults. I have bigger images (A3 size), so if you want them just send me an e-mail.



Animation:

In animation class we had two projects. First was called Spring, where we could make any kind of animation connected to this word. The second project was 10seconds. The goal of second project was to create exactly 10 seconds long animation. I also entered the 11second club competition with my second project. I didn't really expect much, because my main focus was on lipsync, while other mostly made whole body animations.
Here is the link to 11second club homepage.

Spring:

10 seconds:

ARS 2008

Adventurerace Slovenia 2008 is finished.

more about the race you can find on the official page and live page.
This year there was one major difference from previous years. There were two categories one for teams with 2 members (Rover) and one for teams with 4 members (Explorer). The live support went quite smooth and the race it self went smooth as well. The track was a little bit too long.

Official sites:
http://www.adventurerace.si
http://live.adventurerace.si
You can also chech the photos in the gallery here.

Hong Kong

As on my way to New Zealand I did a short stop on my way back as well.
I stopped in Hong Kong for two days to make some sightseeing. I can say it was very worth it. Hong Kong city is very different from Dubai. While there are almost no people in Dubai, there are always lots in Hong Kong. The city is very alive and that is a good feeling. It is also not as "fancy" as Dubai. You can find really bad parts of city somewhere and very clean and modern in other parts.
That gives a city a distinctive feeling. While everything in Dubai is still is still under construction, you can see very nice completed parts of city in HK.
They also have many different types of public transportation. MTR (Subway), buses (double deckers), trams, taxis and ferries. I've tried many of them.
There is also a light show every evening at the bay, where the high business buildings are flashing in different colors. The show is on for about 10 minutes and it's fun to watch.

The nicest part of HK at night is Mong Kok. All the neon signs are lighting the street so it's almost as bright as during the day. The feeling of night market full of useless junk. The feeling is what counts.

One of more beautiful parts of HK is peak. The view up there is amazing. Especially at night when everything is lighted and all the lights are on. You can find some of most expensive apartments up there. They don't really look that nice from outside, but I believe that the view is what counts.

Apart of heat and humidity, HK was really nice experience. And if you do have some time you should definitely stop there sometime.

You can find some photos from Hong Kong here.

Prism stones

Last weekend we went out for a walk with two of tutors from WSD. We were looking for a very rare phenomena that happens only in two places in the world. At least that's what thay told us.

The strangely shaped stones are shaped like prisms, because of the wind erosion. The strange combination of sand beach, wind and stones are reasons for their creation.

You can see them in the album here.

DesignSchoolNewZealand

Abou a week ago one of the tutors here at Wanganui School of Design started student blog.
It's called DesignSchoolNewZealand and you can find it at this link.
There will be published different things from and for students of WSD.

Thnx Tanya for that :)

Looking through the telescope

For the first time, I had a chance to look through the magical device - telescope. And I must say I was really amazed. Last Friday I went to observatory here in Wanganui since they have public open days every Friday.
I was also lucky that the sky was clear and that there were two biggest planets up that night. We had a chance to see Saturn and Jupiter with few of their moons. I saw planets that close for the first time (except from photos). I was in trance.
After we've seen the gassy giants we turned the telescope to some other points in the sky. First was the globular cluster. A group of several hundred thousand stars just outside our milky way.
After that we took out the smaller telescope and checked several other things. One was twin star of Alpha Centaur, we also checked several open clusters and one nebula.

It was indescribable. I'll go back if the weather will be clear. And I'll put down some more facts about the telescope itself

South Island Report

Finally after weeks of putting it aside, doing other more important stuff for school, I've found time to write report from south island. Here it is and it's not short.
And with the report goes the photos as well, they were on for long now, but here is the link.

Day 1:
Wanganui - Wellington
Our journey started in the morning from student flats in Wanganui. We turned our car in direction of Wellington and start driving. The weather was nice and the roads weren't too full either.
Just few kilometers before Wellington we've seen the sign for a car museum and stopped there to check it out. As it turned out it was well wort it. The car collection was so big, nice and well preserved. They had cars from beginning on. And not only cars they had bikes and motorcycles as well.
After two amazing hours we hit the road again. We came in Wellington in the afternoon and first checked where our ferry for south island is leaving from.
After we found the place we went in the center of city and payed a visit to city museum and private gallery. We walked along few roads in the center and decided to go to botanical gardens that were just on the hill in the city. We spent few hours there to walk several trail and stopped at interesting spots.
We still had some more hours to spent before our ferry departure. And we went to cinema to check what they are rolling.
After the movies we went to the beach and finally ended at ferry terminal where we waited until 2am for boarding.

Day 2:
Picton - Kaikoura
After a nice sleep on the ferry we started our way on the south island. From Picton, where the ferry came in, we went in direction of south. We still didn't get enough sleep and that was the reason that after few kilometers of drive we stopped for a short rest (2 hours). After we were awake again we continued our journey. We stopped at the salt works at Lake Grassmere for a while. Soon after that we the road hit the coast. The views were amazing.
In the afternoon we came to the end of first days traveling in Kaikoura. Since there were still several hours before the sunset we went for a walk along beach to get to the seal colony. The walkway was great and led us from cliffs to low beach. And yes we also encountered seals there. After the walk we planned to pick a tent somewhere around, but sadly weather was getting worse and it started to rain. So we searched for a hostel and found one. We cooked our meal and went to bed.

Day 3:
Kaikoura - Christchurch - Banks peninsula - Christchurch
Our destination for this day was Christchurch and Banks peninsula. That meant a lot of kilometers of driving and so we started early in the morning. We continued on coastal road for several more kilometers and finally turned inland. The scenery completely changed. The grassy hills were just amazingly beautiful.
In the early afternoon we came to Christchurch and found our hotel there. We were staying in the middle of the town in a 4 star hotel with buffet breakfast.
After we checked-in we continued our journey to Banks peninsula to the south-east of Christchurch. The scenery there was again amazing. We did two short walks on the peninsula and returned to city late in the evening. We still didn't have enough and so we went out to see how the city looks at night.

Day 4:
Christchurch
After a really great breakfast we started the sightseeing in the city. We walked through the center. We payed a visit to the art gallery and city museum. The museum was really nice, especially the kids area. They had collections of birds, fishes, arctic expeditions, early settlement things and more. After museum we went to park. A really big park in the middle of the city and in that park we went in the botanical gardens, where they had closed environments of rain-forest, desert and few other environments. They also had nice collection of meat eating plants and cactus.
After that we went to HitLab, where they had demonstrations of all the things that they were currently working on. It was amazing. They are researching cutting edge technologies of augmented and virtual reality. You can find more on their website (here).
After we went back to our hotel we went for an American (Wisconsin) burger and back to hotel. There was again long drive waiting for us next day.

Day 5:
Christchurch - Mt. Cook Village
In the morning there was quite a lot of traffic in the city and it took us a while before we came out of the city. We started our trip to the heart of south island and so we went inland to the southwest of Christchurch. At first we had bad weather with rain. But we were nearing our destination and came to the really nice places the weather started to get better and better. We passed Lake Tekapo and stopped at the Mt. John observatory near there. The center of NZ astronomical observations. After few more kilometers we reached the biggest lake in NZ, Lake Pukaki. And that was the first time we've seen it - the highest mountain in NZ, Mt. Cook - Aoraki. We drove along it and onwards to the Mount Cook Village. That was close to mountain.
After we finished our lunch and picked the tent in the camp, we went for a walk for a short walk on a track nearby. It was amazing. The mountains around were so beautiful. After we came back I stayed outside for another hour laying on soft grass, enjoying a nice view at the stars.

Day 6:
Mt. Cook Village - Dunedin
The night was really cold and windy. The wind got worse and worse. And we woke up in windy morning with few snowflakes falling down on us. After we had breakfast in a cooking shelter we went for a short walk to one of the other tracks in the area. As every day there was long way to go this day also. We drove past Pukaki lake again, enjoying it's gorgeous color and size. We were heading for the east coast again and we were passing really nice landscape on our way. Somewhere along the road we stopped to take a look at very old Maori drawings on walls.
We passed several more lakes, all of them really beautiful. After several kilometers along the coast we stopped again to see very famoues stones: Moeraki Bolders (Kaihinaki). These are spherical stones that grow under surface. The see was washing the land away and that is how they got exposed.
We continued our path south and hit Dunedin soon. We didn't stopped and were continuing our drive to the nearby Otago peninsula. We went to Albatross colony shelter, the only albatross nesting area on mainland in the world. The weather was getting worse and we stopped at private backpackers place which as run by very nice old man. After the dinner we went out for a walk to see seals or penguins, but unfortunately we didn't encounter any. But I did manage to lose my glasses. We went out later to search for them but without luck. Later on we went for a chat with owner and he told us many stories that he lived through.

Day 7:
Dunedin - Milford Sound
After a really nice sleep on Otago peninsula we went to search for my glasses again, and this time we were more lucky. I got them back. We also found out that there was first snow of the year in the nearby hills. After search and rescue mission we went to Dunedin and stopped for a short time to check our e-mail account and get some news from the world. This day we had the longest part in front of us. Our goal was to get all over from east coast to the west coast in Fjordland.
We only stopped for a short time in Gore to get more food for our journey. After that we were driving for hours and hours. We encountered now on one of the passes. The first encounter with Fjordland was in Monapouri next to the lake with same name. And it was just B.E.A.utiful. Few kilometers later we stopped in Te Anau to get some warm clothing like gloves and hats. Te Anau is next to big Lake Te Anau that is surrounded wit hills and mountains. So nice. It was already getting dark and we still had lots of kilometers in front of us. So we filled out tank with gas and went on. The night caught us on the way. and we had amazing view at the sky full of stars and moon. And on top of that there were mountains all around us. It's just indescribable. We came to Milford sound at 10pm and got ourselves a room at backpackers. After a good dinner we went to the Milford sound (fjord) itself and walked a short path there. We also went to a really nice waterfall, where we wouldn't be able to in day.
Full of excitement and pleasure we went back to backpacker and took a well deserved sleep.

Day 8:
Milford Sound - Somewhere south of Queenstown
As every morning we put some food in out bodies and start adventuring. First stop was Miford sound. Completely different then at night and still amazing. We started our way inland again. First we stopped at some really nice dawns that created amazing things out of rocks. Wild structures. We stopped for another short walk with magnificent view at glacier in the mountains. Few more kilometers back inland we stopped again. This time for a longer walk. We went for several hour walk on one of the trails to Key Summit. It was breath taking. So nice, that we just couldn't stop and went one for few more hours then we planned. And it was much worth it. The scenery was so amazing, the colors so beautiful. So many greens, so beautiful.
After we returned from out walk we still had long way in front of us. We stopped at another dawns and Mirror lake. And then continued our way back inland. We were driving till late in the evening. And stopped to take some pictures of amazing night sky. We settled at one of the resting stops in the middle of nowhere. We cooked dinner, picked the tent and slept till morning.

Day 9:
Somewhere south of Queenstown - Queenstown - Franz Josef Village
After breakfast we went to Queenstown, walked around a bit. It's a really tourist city. We stop at cybercafe for hour and bought something for eat. After that we were on road again. This time to northwest to get to the West coast. The landscape was amazing. We also passed lakes Wanaka and Hawea and started to ascent to Haast Pass. The weather was getting worse again. But it cleared when we reached the West coast in Haast. Again the landscape was so beautifull.
We had cloudy weather with few showers till we reached our destination. But before that, we stopped at Fox glacier and enjoyed the view from far. In the evening we came to Franz Josef Village and settled in hostel there.

Day 10:
Franz Josef Village - Greymouth
After everyday morning routine we drove to the Franz Josef Glacier and went on the walk from there. It was about hour one way to reach the face of the glacier and it was well worth it. While there were many kindergartens (groups of tourists with a guide) that were actually going in the glacier we didn't go that far. We didn't have the right equipment. And guided tour were just too expensive.
I would never take such responsibility on myself. The walking on glacier is just to dangerous even if you are expert you have to be very careful. We did see the glacier from close, we even touched it. And we also went on a viewing track, so we had a nice overview on the glacier. It's amazing.
The special thing about this glaciers (Fox & Franz Josef) is that they are coming down to very low altitudes, almost as far as 300 m above the sea.
After glacier experience we had lots of kilometers of road ahead of us. Next stop was Hokitika, a greenstone hometown. First we walked along the beach and looked for some greenstone there. As we later found out we didn't found any. After the beach walk we went to center and payed a visit to few greenstone shops there. In some of them they are even showing how they work the stones to get the nice outcomes. The process is called carving. After a small lunch we continued to our final destination for the day. And that was Greymouth the home of New Zealand's most known beer: Monteiths.
After the dinner we went to tour in the brewery. It's quite small brewery and they don't really produce that much beer. They have 6 sorts of beer and at the end of the tour we had chance to taste them all.
My best is Radler.
That was the a nice end of the day for all of us.

Day 11:
Greymouth - Collingwood
Again there was long way in front of us. We had to go all the way to the north most point of south island. Our first stop on the way was seal colony at Cape Foulwind near Westport. Seals were resting at the coast and some young ones were running around exploring the neighborhood.
From there we continued our way inland to the Nelson region. We reached the north coast at Motueka and continued to west. We stopped at the pass and took a short walking path to the viewing spot. Again we were stunned of beauty that we saw and it was again completely different that we saw earlier. Several more kilometers and we reached the Collingwood in the early evening. We stayed in nice hostel Somerset. After the dinner we went out to beach and through the village itself. It's a really small village with about 250 people. The tide was out, far out and we had a chance to walk far into the area which is under water for half the time.
I slept in the 3rd flour of bunk bed, very very high above the ground.

Day 12:
Collingwood - Picton
This was last day of our south island adventure. We started with visiting the north most point of island. There is an arch there and it looks nice. After that we went on a short walk to a nearby hill to check the view. From the hilltop we were able to see the Farewell Spit as well as well as inland of Nelson region and the city of Collingwood. After the ascent we went for Farewell spit. It's a sand peninsula of 21 km of length and you can only get to the end with organised tours that were too expensive for us. We took the cheaper tour. We went into Farewell Spit for two kilometers on foot, we crossed it and then returned on the outer beach. And man that was exciting. At first it all looked just like an ordinary sand coast but soon all started to change. The vegetation was getting rarer and rarer, until at some point there was only sand left. That was where we crossed the dune to reach the other side of spit. On our way across I found some fresh watter and it was drinkable. The outer coast was even more extreme. You were able to see hoe each wave left new layer of sand on the coast.
It was amazing.
We were fortunate to have a really nice day and it felt almost like walking in desert.
After we returned from spit we still had to go all the way to Picton. And that's why we didn't made any stops but one for the gass.
We reached Picton at 9pm and stayed in hostel there. The weird thing about that hostel was that almost all the people there were German and so you could mostly hear just Gearman language everywhere.

Day 13:
Picton - Wanganui
In the morning of our return day we went on ferry and again witnessed a miracle. When our ferry was going out from south island it had to go along the Queen Charlotte Sound. The morning colors and rays in the deep waters of Sound were amazing. We even saw few dolphins that were swimming next to ferry for a short time. The only problem was that it was really cold and windy. But I stayed on deck anyway.
When we reached the ocean the waves were really high and weather was getting worse. I went back in for the rest of our drive.
Just before noon we reached Wellington and weather was much better there. The only part of our travel was the road back to Wanganui. After few hours of drive we were back home. And another adventure was behind us.

Going south

Yes. The time has come for the mighty adventurers to head south. We have been waiting for this time to come for some time now. And now, when the date of the departure is coming very near, we have to do some final preparation, so that party will travel safely and won't get lost on the way in the mysterious land that awaits them.

The departure time is tomorrow (13th) in the morning hours.

Party came up with a plan how they will travel in the unknown land of south. Here you can see their plan in the unknown land.
In this last day we must purchase the food and drink, and pack everything together so that the departure will be when it should be.

It will be long.

Party plans to return on 25th.

It will be hard.

There are more then 3.000 km just on south to do.

It will be unforgettable.

There will be much to see.

Wish them luck and bare with them on their journey in the south.

More will be written upon their return from "THE SOUTH"...

Road Trip #2

I was really lazy last week and I didn't write any post. But anyway. here is the first one to break the silence.

On the easter weekend we had 5 days off, so we planed a longer road trip on the north island.

Day 1.
We had to do some starting millage. On our way up we went around the Mount Ruapehu, the highest mountain on the north island. We went past it on the east side on the so called "Desert road". Later some of the local people told us that there is a training area for NZ army there. And that they were shooting the great battle of Lord oft The Rings there.
Our first stop was Lake Taupo. Its a grat lake with really nice landscape around there. We made a short stop in city of Taupo. Its nice beach there but we didn't have time to stop there for a swim.
Just few miles to the north of Taupo we stopped at Hakka falls. This are really big rapids wit the fall at the end. The water is so wild there.
The second thing there, just few minutes away was "Craters of the Moon". This is a park with 45 min walk where you can see what thermal ground means. There was smoke coming out from small pitches and cracks in the ground everywhere. And there was hot mud lake there as well.
Next stop on our final destination of the 1st day was hot stream that was running through the forrest several kilometers to the north. We first went there to check it out. And then put our swimsuits on and get into it. It was really hot spring in the middle of the forest (at least 40ºC if not more). We were in there just for few minutes.
After that we went to city of Rotorua. A really stinky place. But the smell was there because of all the thermal smoke at that area. We had a hard time finding the place to sleep and finally found it in Korean youth hostel. It was not very tidy but we lived.

Day 2.
On the second day we paid a visit to the beautiful lakes around the Rotorua in the morning and had breakfast at one of those lakes (Green lake, Blue lake, Lake Tarawera). We found out that there were really great terraces close to those lake before 19th century, when eruption of nearby volcano put them to rest in depths of one of the lakes. The volcano also buried one village in that area.
Our next stop was Watakane. We hoped that we could see the White island from there (an active volcano island), but it was too far from the shore to see it. We passed several lakes on our way to Wakatane. We bought tent there, and reserved the place to sleep in Tauronga. We got a space by the YHA. From Watakane to Tauronga we took the coastal road and stopped on the way for a swim. The beach was really beautiful and the waves were really gigantic. It was a white sand beach.
When we came to Tauronga, we cooked the dinner and went out on the Jazz festival that was on on the Easter weekend. The center of the city was full of life and it was really nice. After the concert was over we went through the center where all the clubs were filled with young drunk people. The feeling was amazing. So many people at one place. We didn't join them thou.

Day 3.
We started in the morning wit a tour through th Tauronga and neighbor city Mt. Manganui. The cities are sticking together and you can't really tell where one ends and the other begins. mt. Manganui got its name by the mountain (its a small hill actually) that stands up at the coastal ridge. It's quite prestigious city with fancy building and hotels and a really nice coast.
After that we continued our was in direction of Auckland. We took the Pacific Coast Highway and paid a visit to Coromandel peninsula. Its a really nice hilly peninsula that stretches out of the north island. The landscape there is just amazing. We went through few tourist cities on our way up, and they looked quite prestigious. We reached our most north point this day in city of Kuaotunu. The coast there is amazing. From cliffs to sand beach full of shells. There were shells all over the coast there and it was amazing. We continued our way to the city of Coromandel. The weather gave up on us and it started to rain when we got there, so we didn't see much of the attractions there. But we did see some of its really nice landscape. The views there were amazing.
We continud our way along the Coastal Highway with plenty of nice views. We reached the Auckland in the evening and were happy that we booked our rooms day before at International YHA. This hostel wasn't as nice as the one in Tauronga but it did the job.
After the dinner we went out to explore the city at night. The city has 1.2 million people but it covers large area so the population isn't concentrated as in cities in Europe. There are still some high building in the center. We went to coast, where all the life should be (according to the guy at information center). There were several nice restaurants but all the clubs were closed because it was Easter Sunday. We went to the highest building in the south hemisphere - the Sky Tower. And the view at night was amazing. All the lights of the city were spreading as far as the eye could see.

Day 4.
After we woke up we started our tour around the Auckland. First we went to the art gallery that was really close to our YHA. We were lucky since there was no entrance fee on that Monday. Only half of the gallery was opened because the main part was being renovated. After that we went for a walk to the Museum, but turned around and get the car, since it started to rain.
The museum was fantastic. You can see so many things there that you just can't believe. This was one of the best museums that I've been to.
After we finished with the museum we looked for an aquarium for more than half an hour. We were on the right street but we just couldn't find it. We gave up and started our travel back to the south.
Next stop was Hamilton. We found out that there are nice gardens there and so we went there. And yes, they were really nice There were all kinds of gardens from all over the world there. From Japanese Zen garden to Chinese garden, English garden, Modern American garden, Italian renaissance garden, and more. There was a big park around the complex, but we didn't have time to see it.
We continued out way to Waitomo caves. We reached the caves late in the evening. We had a dinner and after that we went for a night walk in the land of "glow worms". And it was amazing. The walk takes around 45 minutes and you can see lots of blue glowing worms right next to the track. It's beautiful.
When we came back we put the tent up and slept till the morning.

Day 5.
In the morning we went to one of the caves there "Ruakuri caves". It was a nice experience. On our way through the cave we met the group on their dark water adventure. The cave was amazing.
When we got back from the caves we did the same walk that we did the night before. And we saw many more things and went to the natural tunnel that we missed at night.
After that we started our return. It took us many hours of drive to gat back to Wanganui. The landscape was nice all the time. It was amazing.

You can see the photos from out trip in my gallery here.

No more movies spam

Yes, I have decided.
I will not post my movie reviews on this blog anymore. If the movies won't be really really great and worth it.

Open studios

This and last weekend were the Open studio weekends in Wanganui, when all the art studios in the city open their doors for anyone to visit.

As far I went in Green Bench studio where Julian and his wife are settled in.
She is a graphics designer and he is a computer scientist that took the art with it. He had an exhibition on reusing old things. Especially computers and all stuff connected to them. One of his projects is called geekosystem. He uses paper shredder to shred all computer manuals and create soil from them. He mixed the shredded manuals with the coffee beens and watter and planted some seeds in there.
He also had workshop on how to reuse old computer parts. and some people made nice artworks from old transistors, chips and other stuff. I made myself a working radio station in the box.
It was really nice experience to handle the hardware. I havend done much of that even thou that I'm a computer scientist myself.

Here are some pictures of my FM radio station.

Road Trip #1

Yes there was the first road trip for us a weekend before Easter. I was lazy and didn't write anything about it for quite a time. And now time has come to put some words here about it.
For our first road trip we choose Mount Taranaki. The second highest mountain on New Zealands north island.
It's a very mighty mountain in the middle of flat landscape all around. The mountain is a dead volcano. It is proud and overlooks the great landscape around it.
The area around the mountain is National park and is really nice covered in very colorful forest.
Our at begun at around 900m above the sea level. And took us all the to the peak at 2518m.
Only two of us managed to summit. It took us 8h and some more minutes to get from our car to top and back again. We'll have to get into better shape for future summits.
But this was only first day of our trip. We concluded the trip in New Plymouth where we fell asleep as soon as we got our beds.
On the next day we looked arroud the New Plymouth, payed a visit to art gallery and one of the parks. After the New Plymouth we went on te Highway 45 that goes on the west coast around mount Taranaki. On our way back we also visited the Dawson Falls. They were really nice.
Late in the evening we concluded our first road trip back in Wanganui.

You can see some pictures in my gallery here.

A car

Yes. We did it. We (my 2 flatmate's and me) bought ourselves a car.
It's an 92 Ford Laser. It has small engine so the gas consumption shouldn't be high. And that is great.
It cost us 1.700 NZ dollars, so it wasn't expensive. Now we'll be able to get around to some nice places we wanted to go.
Maybe we'll do the first trip this weekend.
Anyway here is the picture of it at night. I'll put one in a daylight up soon too.

The beach - 2nd time around

We went to the beach again last Sunday. The weather was not that good but we still tried out the water. We went to the other beach this time around to see the cliffs.
They were quite nice, but the beach was not so nice. There were quite a lot trashes there.
We went back to the beach where we were last time and ran into the ocean. It was cold and the waves were high, the current was strong also. We weren't in for a long time.
On our way back we stopped at botanical park, where there were many plants thet can be found in New Zealand and elsewhere in the world.
You can see the pictures of our trip here.

Study in New Zealand

I have chosen three classes here:

• Computer Illustration (3 credit points)
  Is a class where I will try to learn to draw. For the first part of the class we have to do 3 illustrations with any medium. I have chosen the Photoshop and Wacom tablet as my medium for this first assignment. I have also chosen the theme I'll be working on.
  I will try to create a wizard in different circumstances (spell casting, summoning, channeling).
• Animation (3 credit points)
  In this class we are learning the basic of animation. We did the stop motion here. For our assignment we have to do a short animation. It can be as short as 6 seconds, but it has to follow the basic principles of the animation.
• Maya (9 credit points)
  In this class we are learning how to 3D model. We are working on Maya.
  My project here will be to create the 3D model of Blood elf female mage from World of Wordcraft.

All the classes are very good, but they take a lot off time to get the things done. I enjoy them.

Playing with toys

Yes it's true. That is what we are doing in our school. We are playing wit toys.
At animation class we had to bring toy character for our stop motion animation practice. I had no toys with me, so I had to buy some new ones. And I bought Lego's Bionicles. Two small robots that I could use for my stop motion practice.
So what is stop motion?
Some of you might remember the well known stop motion movie "Nightmare before Christmas". This is type of movie where you have to create frame by frame with help of miniature scene and characters. You have to get each and every shot for the complete animation.
I did three short movies. The first one is not for the public, because it's too bad, but here are other two movies put together.
You can find the video on youtube (here)
We only had 3 hours to learn the principles of stop motion and create some test videos. I'm quite pleased with my output. If we would have more time we could create so much more :)
It's fun doing it at first, but after a while you get really bored.

Swimming in the ocean

Yes. I did it again. It was quite a while since I have last swim in the sea, and even longer since I have swim in the ocean. I did it in Portugal few years back.
And I did it again here. The waves in the ocean are so much bigger. You just can't believe it.
On Saturday we (flatmates and me) went to a beach a little to the north of Wanganui (10 min car ride). And we went to a beach. It was a nice fine dark send beach. The weather was not extremely hot, but it was really nice. The water was quite cold, but when you jumped, it wasn't that bad.
As I already said the waves were fantastic. We were passing the rugby ball in the water.
The current was quite strong and the tide went out quite fast, leaving behind even more fine dark send.
I hope we'll repeat it someday.

First week in school

Well. It's over (I mean the first week), so I should probably write something about it.
The school here is quite different then in Slovenia. For instance. The main goal of your study here in NZ is to create something that will help you get a job. So if you want to get a job in animation field your product should be good animation that you could show as your portfolio when you are applying for a job.
This is way different then in Slovenia. The goal there is for you to reach certain degree of knowledge when you get out of the school.
Both types of education are good by they differ quite a lot. The NZ system is much more competitive and forces you not to disclose everything that you have done by now.
However people are still happy to share knowledge of how did they achieve something,
It is really relaxed school and everyone is very kind.
We already have some assignments that we have to do this week. The school doesn't force to do much, you only have to do as much as it's necessary to pass. Every additional work is up to you. But students here are very hardworking and they want to do as much work as they can. Well, most of them at least.
This is probably because the fees here are not cheep. And if you pay for your education (it is still free in Slovenia) you will want to get out as much as you can.

Walk around the Wanganui

Today we (two American roomies and me) walked across the city of Wanganui. On our way we went through several parks, a reserve, to the beach and back through the city to our flats.

We made more then 20 km and were walking for about 5 hours. It was nice tripp even thou the wind was blowing really fast.

Here are some photos from our walk.

I'm in New Zealand

Finally. I hve some time to write something about my coming to New Zealand.
Now that I'm here almost for a week I can write some things about my new home.

I'm living here in international student flats that are situated near old Universal College of Learning (UCOL) Campus. I have my own room but I share Two bathrooms, kitchen and livingroom with 5 more international students. The flats are not really new, neither are they well preserved, but they do the trick.

Wanganui School of Desugn (WSD) is part of UCOL. The whole UCOL is moving to a new campus and will be united after ager of living in separation. We are moving there in April.


We start school at Monday, yes in two days. I'll mostly learn Maya. I also took classes of animation, and computer illustration.

Dubai

On my way to New Zealand I wanted to see some other parts of the world too. Since New Zealand is right on the other side of the Earth from Slovenia, I had more choices. I took this one, Dubai.
Right now I'm in Dubai and I must say I like it so far. The costs are about the same as in Slovenia some cheaper and some more expensive. The one thing I don't like so far about it is that they don't have as many pedestrian paths as there should be. Even thou it's winter, the sun is still strong here. I am already red like tomato.
Here are the first photos from Dubai.
I am staying here for another day and I hope I'll make some good tomorow too.

New Zealand student exchange

I always wanted to go on student exchange, but the exchange Universities that were available for exchange at our faculty were not interesting for me. They were all in Europe, mostly in German speaking countries.
But then I spotted that our faculty is also participating a program LEONARDO that was started with idea of exchanging the European and New Zealand students. And I liked it.
Happily I took the last train to get to the exchange program and here I am now, on my way to New Zealand.

Aliens Vs Predator Requiem

Another from the series of AvP. This one shows what would happen if aliens would start spreading on Earth and even Predators were not good enough to get rid of them,

Hitman

Have you heard of game with the same name? Well this is the movie filmed from the same story base.
I didn't expect much from it, but after I watched it I must say it was worth watching it.
The movie is about a special payed assassins that are raised for the job from their birth. And one of them (47) is especially good at completing jobs. And this is his story.

Bee Movie

Another great animated movie. And what is great about it is that the main voice is borrowed from Jerry Seinfield.
It's very funny and entertaining.

The Elizabeth The Golden Age

Another history movie, this one from middle ages, about the British Queen Elizabeth. It is a great history movie.

Winter adventure 2008

We (Adventurerace.si) organised first winter adventure race in Slovenia. And even thou that we were short of snow we did it. The track was 50km long and was between 900 and 2000m. It is part of out City adventure Cup that includes 3 other City Adventure races (Ljubljana, Velenje, Maribor).

The Last Legion

A history movie about the Romans and the lost legion that was "lost" in Britain. It's a great movie that shows one possibility how did the Romans resist the attach of Goths.

Home of The Brave

The movie shows how difficult is the war for all the soldiers that are in it and how hard is it to get back to the normal living when they come back from it.
It shows why wars shouldn't exist.

Skiing in Val Thorens

As in last two years we took an extended family week of skiing. For past two years we were in Arabba (Italy), but this year we tried something new. We went to Val Thorenes (France).
It is a beautiful place in Western Alps, a ski industry center. The town is build only for ski tourism at altitude around 2400m. Sadly we didn't have the same luck as in last two years, but I liked it anyway. The best thing is that there is many possibilities where to ski. The slopes are not as well prepared as in Italy but you can ski outside on fresh snow, and that feeling is just great.
I will put some photos in my album soon.

New year in Piran

This new year I was with my girlfriend in Piran. An old city at Slovenian coast. It was great and the city is beautiful. You can see the photos in my album here.

Darwinova nevarna ideja in druge zgodbe o vesoljih, ljudeh in molekulah (Darwin's dangerous idea and other stories about Universes, people and molecul

A great book by Sašo Dolenc. The book is collection of his articles about science that he published in past several years.
It's good, but sadly it's only available in Slovenian language.

Waitress

A story about a waitress in a small American town that makes one hell of a pies. She makes pies that good that everyone likes them and she makes new and new kind of pies for every occasion that she finds her self in.
She is married to a very jellos husband that she doesn't love. She is secretly saving the money to run away from him and never return. Her dream is to won a pie contest in nearby town, but her husband doesn't let her to compete.
Because it's a American story it has a happy ending.

I Am Legend

It's a really great movie. It presents the story of what could have happened if something went wrong with some cures that mankind is producing. I will not say anything more. You just have to see it.

Die weisse Massai

One of very popular movie few years back. but I did not watch it until now. It is a true story about the Swiss girl who fell in love with Massai. She was in Africa with her boyfriend and there she met her love. She didn't return with boyfriend but stayed in Africa and she was looking for man that she wanted.
She did not know what she will do when she meets him. When she found him she went with him to his village and lived there for a time. But she just didn't fit in. She tried to connect her past life, being a shop owner, to help the people in Africa. But it didn't go as planned. She had a child with the Massai.
At some time she realized that this is not life for her, and she returned with her child to Swiss, and never returned.

Triglav 2007

For several years now we are going on the highest mountain in Slovenia around the Christmas to bring the "flame of peace" to the highest mountain of the country.
We did it again this year and I am always excited. The first part is easy walk for several hours until we rich the Cottage of Kredarica. Our goal next morning was the summit. And we did it. What was special about this year was that we've been so fast that the sun didn't come out yet. We saw the sunrise on our descent. It was beautiful. You can see the photos in my album here.

Sex And Death

A comedy about a special man and woman that are connected in the way that even they don't know could be true and they do not know that they are connected.
About 100 men gets a letter with a date. They don't know who is it from or what is the date about. They only know the date and each man is explaining it in his own way.
But the truth is that on that day they will all die. But the special man mentioned at beginning got the list with about the same number of women and dates. As he soon finds out this dates were the dates on witch he will have sex with them. The list is very exact.
The problem is that he is about to marry, but has doubts. The list is reason for canceling the wedding.
At the end we find out that a killer of all the men was a woman that was seeking the right man. And that was the man with the list.