Cthulhu and Other Crazies

Fuck nonwhites?

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 08:11:20 GMT

Foamy the lord and master raises a good point once more, as he is so oft to do. The whole rant was about the stupidity of every nonwhite comedian making fun of white people and their own race. But when a white comedian would try making fun of another race there'd be a public uproar and a whole bunch of bad things would happen.

So why is this exactly? Why is it that the white race has this stuatus of a master race that isn't allowed to behave like a master race. Sure we conquered the world and are thus a master race. Sure we enslaved and tortured a whole bunch of people. But most of them were white and not some other race. And don't anyone dare think the nonwhites haven't commited attrocities against the white because that would be blatant hypocrisy.

The real reason behind all this crap, I think, is simply that the white race is too kind with everyone else. For some reason we have learnt that whenever somebody screams racism we turn around and bend over and allow ourselves to be raped silly.

As Foamy said, either everyone makes fun of everyone or nobody makes fun of nobody.

Reality?

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:27:37 GMT

A few days ago I entered a challenge that asks you to take a photo of, preferably, yourself every day for 365 days. So far it's been going on for more than a year but I've only really been doing it for four. And let me just tell you, I'm having a blast. It's anyone's guess right now, but I might eventually incorporate the challenge into this blog.

Read an interesting article over at slashdot today and have to admit I haven't had time to actually read what the article linked to. Whatever all the scientific mumbo jumbo was actually about ... it would appear that physicists have finally found some actual backing for my personal long standing theory that reality is in the eye of the beholder. Now any time somebody calls bollocks on my behaviour I can shove scientific theorems in their face to shut them up.

Tea

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 06:50:22 GMT

Well this post was supposed to go up last night but I somehow managed to fall asleep watching Sherlock Holmes before the water for tea boiled. Go figure.

Anyway, an interview was filmed with me yesterday and even though it was the first such thing to happen to me, I had quite some fun doing it. It was nothing of the professional sort as was apparent by the whole lack of preparation of both parties and that I somehow wasn't allowed to go into long rambles, which I'd like, but maybe they just weren't eloquent enough. I should really work on my speaking eloquency ... When I get it the interview goes up on youtube of course.

Because I feel like it here is also a panoramic shot of my favourite tea house that feeds me tea nigh on every day.

Nude mountain

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:48:38 GMT

Yesterday the family and I went on a little expedition, you may call it a family trip if you want but I prefer expeditions. It was strangely pleasurable and payed off in full with the two huge steaks I had for lunch. Village restaurants realyl have no feeling for the poor city stomach and how much it can wisely take. But I took it all.

We also wen to see two literaty birth houses, namely France Prešeren and Fran S. Bevk. Both valuable contributors to Slovene literature. What surprised me the most was finalyl getting to know why exactly the black kitchens were made to be black. Apparently by letting the smoke go through the kitchen rathe than straight to the chimney it cooled off and there was less of a chance for fire in the roof.

The following photo links to a photoset on Flickr.

Azone

Wed, 02 May 2007 09:35:20 GMT

On Monday I went to a little place called Prebold in order to see one of the early performances of the band called Azone. I'm told it's the first with this lineup ... after just five rehersals. Good on them I guess.

The band claims their playing was terrible, that it was slow, full of mistakes and downright rotten. But I guess that's for them to know, personally I found it enjoyable and really good. Maybe because I've not heard their playing properly? Who could tell really.

Pwnage?

Tue, 08 May 2007 20:12:46 GMT

Today I watched the new episode of Pure Pwnage. It was the first in the second season of the show and I woudl ahve completely missed knowing of its existance if it weren't for a friendly advertising bulleting on myspace from The Pwnerer himself. Yes, I am in fact such a nerd that I added him as a friend, go figure. Stroke of marketing genious these friendly bulletins.

Anyhow, the episode was quite enjoyable and I have to say I missed the show. It feels much better now, they seem to have gotten some new equipment so the quality is better and Kyle seems to have learned stuff in school because even that part feels better. Or I've just been away from it for too long.

Now what is really condemnable and not very nice of them is that the new episodes cannot be downloaded. They can only be watched as streams in a flash based player which brings a number of bad consequences. One is that the screen saver doesn't automatically turn off as it does when a real player is running. Another is the immense usage of RAM and CPU that simply isn't there with a real player. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing profoundly wrong with that, it's just rather annoying that you have to devote your whole computer to watching a sitcom.

Aussies and kitties

Thu, 10 May 2007 00:00:33 GMT

This is a video of my aussie reading a story, it's kind of funny for some absurd reason.

And this is, mostly because I can, a depiction of an obsessive compulsively clean person.

Holly fuck

Thu, 10 May 2007 21:48:53 GMT

Short blog today because, frankly, I'm too lazy to talk as my back is killing me for some reason ... bloody gym. Anyway, in the small hours of the morning the comic for March has been released into the wild. Only a wee bit late ... just some three months. There also probably will not be another update until at least October.

Battles

Tue, 15 May 2007 07:37:13 GMT

A fierce battle has been fought yesterday. People suffered and people died but most of all many a bomb went off and mortars spewed out their load by the ton. The countryside is forever changed, those villages will never be the same again. Their men are dead, their women pillaged and their houses raped. The populace suffered greatly as the invading armies ravaged the countryside and the poor crops perished in great numbers.

The end result? I passed german.

Extortion

Wed, 16 May 2007 23:25:56 GMT

Why is it that books are sold with huge extortionate prices attached to them? Is there an explanation for this trend at all, I surely wouldn't know. But the gist of the matter is that books published in Slovenia are simply much too expensive for people to even consider buying and then everyone complains that our book market is going down the drain. Duh?

Let's do a little examplifying shall we. I was recently forced into buying a local book called Pimlico by Dekleva. All fine and well, it was after all for a very important grade. But what's this? The poor paperback 161 page thing cost me what? 14,56€? What the hell, why? No idea. But I do know that a book ordered from America, with included shipping a bookstore add-on, local book tax, a world best seller from a well established author, in paperback, cost me a mere 7€. It was Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice if you want to know.

Why does this difference exist when that's clearly lewd. A book that was published by a publisher in my own bloody city cost twice as more than a book published half the world away. Is there no justice, no sense of reality, or are we as a nation simply stupid for even being willing to pay so much for a fucking book?

Je Suis Jalouse

Thu, 17 May 2007 23:29:26 GMT

Found this extremely cool video through Brass Goggles. Not sure what lures me more to it, the lovably quaint style or the pleasurable flow of the song. You can find a version with English subtitles here.

Doggy?

Sat, 19 May 2007 08:50:27 GMT

Much cannot be said of this impressively huge doggy. The monster is apparently the biggest, or rather the most voluminous, dog in the world according to the Guinnes book of records. The thing is also supposed to have growth capabilities for the next two years.

LIcense

Tue, 22 May 2007 21:30:51 GMT

Open source software is a very interesting thing and I love partaining in it beacuse it's quite simply free experience and learning to become better at what I do. A wonderful deal. It is very understandable that big corporations and some others aren't for open source adn are in fact very much against it. One has to agree, the job of youth is to rebel and the job of the big and powerful is to prevent rebellion.

Having an open source project or two myself I was beginning to look into the licensing part of it. There are obvious problems with GPL as it is a viral license in that it spreads and spreads much like herpes. Every time a project kisses another they instantly both have herpes.

However there are many instances in my own use of my own projects where I directly violate GPL due to deals struck with clients in order to be paid for my work. I am after all developing something for a well defined client according to their specifications and needs. Even though I am allowed to eventually release this into the wild they do not want me to do so immediatelly.

Projects are very difficult to develop when everything has to be buitl from the ground up, so I have some building blocks ready. Due to my own inexperience these are GPL'd and thus potentially dangerous. So far I have gone against the license in order to avoid too much danger, but this is wrong. What is there to do other than find another license you might ask? See, the problem is there are many licenses and all almost completely nonunderstandable to me because they're filled with lawyer garble beyond my comprehension.

The answer is thus to create my own license to fit my needs, but to do this I need someone to put it in lawyer speak. Those somethings cost a lot of money. Therein lies the problem.

Memnoch the Devil

Sat, 26 May 2007 17:23:06 GMT

In Memnoch the Devil Anne Rice comes at us again with her usual skill of storytelling and interesting events. The book is filled with unexpected twists and turns on the iminent road to disaster, which, for a fifth book in a series, is rather commendable. There are of course many little quirks and less surprising twists any fan of The Vampire Chronicles should know, but the book is probably acceptable even to a fresh mind.

Lestat is again being his usual self and begins the book with being overly stressed out about something, claiming his life is in peril and being an overall pantsy. Granted it was the Devil who was chasing him, but for a vampire Lestat handles the whole affair rather girly while still bravely. Come to think, he really is an awesome character.

The story itself was better than expected after the staleness of The Tale of the Body Thief, which was very similar to the earlier books. Memrnoch was a nice refreshing venture into more misterious aspects of life and death. The overall message of the book is something I cannot quite agree with. Rice was aiming at the fact that whatever a person does they inevitable help God in whatever his plans are and to me this is just a tad too biblical.

Not saying there is anything wrong with religion, but one would expect better of a book about vampires and their relation to the devil.

17. Maj

Mon, 28 May 2007 22:56:55 GMT

Some interesting things have happened today, but they are not what this blog is about, oh no, those are being saved for later. In their stead I give you a gonzo tale of Saturday night.

Roaring down the highway, speakers blasting music in my ears as speeds far above the speed limit I thought to myself: „If I actually find the place it will be a miracle!“

A quick swerve and some stop lights later I wedged the car between a red battered one and a blue unbattered one, leaving half of it out in the open because there was simply no room. I had found the place. Without taking a wrong turn and most surprisingly without calling for additional directions. For once the guy's directions were sufficient. A miracle in itself.

Dusk was upon us as the armies of the night invaded the sky and the poor chap was pushed into full blown depression. The square in the wall was shining light on me and muffled sounds of distant music came from within. Down the stairs I went thinking that, oh god, it's already started and I was late.

Finding the right door to open once down there was a true escapade. Doors everywhere you looked, some opened, some closed, most locked. Finally I choose the right one and step into the dark muck of the club.

The music I had heard was not coming from the band the evening revolved around. Oh no. It was just speakers bigger than myself and five people sitting on an old sofa full of smoke buds and beer. What's this I shouted! But nobody gave notice.

I tried mingling for a bit. The task was difficult, there wasn't enough beer involved in their systems' makeup just yet. The mingling would have to wait. So I resorted to discovering just what the club was comprised of. Apparently the most significant part of the club were pipes and cables and things I would never understand. But they were there regardless.

The stage was a small one, filled with cables and guitars and amps and dials and buttons and odd things only a drunk person could use. I was not allowed. The band would have to get up there in its drunken stupor and do their thing. Nobody else knew how.

Except maybe for the Zooland band members who came to see the show. Perhaps.

A sit on the sofa is offered. „Yes, yes, fine very well, I will sit with you“

„So when's the show then?“ I ask the person next to me who is none other than the guy's girlfriend I've heard so much about but never actually met. That rotten bastard. Hiding a treasure such as this.

„Well they need to have the sound check and then the drinks and you know. About ... a lot later than right now“

„Good god!“ I thought, „I've descended into the snake pit of perversion and fun. What am I to do until then!“

But nobody heard my plea anymore. Did I even say it out loud?

Suddenly I realised I was walking around again in a bored stupor. How'd this happen, wasn't I just sitting in a very comfortable position on a comfortable sofa being comfortable? Why did I get up?

Out of nowhere the guy shows up, looks at me, suggest we go to the backstage.

„What? Backstage? Sure sure, yes of course, why not, let's go, let's go! What are you waiting for!“

But he wasn't, he was already almost there. I followed.

The sofa here was even more comfortable. One of those old springy kinds that just enwraps you in a very frightening way when you sit on it. But you yelp out ecstatically about its comforts. Soon enough we were babbling away about events occuring a few nights ago, or was it a week. The guy spent that time in a very drunken state not remembering any of it.

Promises have been made on my part never to speak of what happened that day, in that backstage for that matter, never. Why would? We were probably fornicating and that is simply not something you tell everyone about. Especially if you're both very straight and very normal.

Normal! HA!

Out of nowhere his girlfriend shows up. Was that her on the phone a few moments earlier while I was still babbling away things I wasn't supposed to? Did she hear? Were we sweaty? I couldn't resist the temptation any longer. She had to be asked!

„How long does it take to do those fancy shoelace artwork thingies?“

„What?“

„The shoes woman! The shoes! God damn it, your shoes!“

„About five minutes“

„No way,“ I though, „she lies! Everyone with the checkerboard shoelaces does. They all do I tell you, everyone! It takes me more than five minutes to tie my bloody boots and you're telling me this? No way I'll ever believe any of you. Bloody nimble fingered people“

I'm touching the light bulb, covered with something red, on the wall. I'd noticed it a few moments earlier. It was simply something that had to be touched!

On the sofa again I was offered free drinks by that very same girl person. Do I want a drink? Yes, sure of course, I could go for a drink, my mouth is the bloody Sahara by now. What? Choices? No, I don't care, just something nonalcoholy, I am driving you know. Flavours? What the hell are you on about? Just bring me something, I don't care.

And suddenly I was alone on that comfortable sofa making me feel comfortable and petrifiedly sunk. Oh fuck, the band's starting! I calmly raced out of the backstage, across the stage, nicked my hat back from the guy and positioned myself in the crowd of twenty.

A-Zone, or aZone or Azone or whatever it is they spell their bloody, not yet officialised, name, I will never learn this, were at it again. Sound screaming out of the huge speakers I was leaning on and the lead shouting into the mic. It was ecstasy. Perhaps not quite the type of ecstasy you get from seeing Big Foot Mama live, but definitely the sense of „This band is going places, if only they play it just right.“

I've known the band ever since their beginnings as Untitled and they've grown. Missing some of the old hits I dearly loved I was blasted with their song Ti, or is it Ti!, who could tell. The rhythm of that one is still ringing in my ears and it's not just because it's the only one they did twice.

At first the applauds were mellow and luke warm, but they grew starker and starker as the people got drunker and drunker. Not sure how you can get so much drunker in a little more than an hour, but it might just be the band and the people warming up to them.

17. Maj, or May if we're being terribly Englishy and refusing our language the right even to be forming this story, what the hell, why am I doing this? Am I not patriotic? Bloody hell, and so much written already. No, cannot be fucked to redo all this in the one and only really good language.

Where were we? Ah yes, that song, a hugely awesome rock balade, is awesome. No doubt about it, definitely the most bestest in the repertoir. The lyrics are completely something I will never be able to memorise, but to hell with that, it's an awesome song.

And just like that the show was over and I craving for more. Fascist bastards. And that's a real insult too, they're pro communism. Being left high and dry I was seeking a leaf to hold on to. Everyone is grouping up quickly, I must do something about this or they will all become unavailable.

There he is. The guy. No, not even notice me will you. Suddenly he's in front of me. Time has passed?

„Were you good? You're asking me if you were good?“ I thought, but being cool about it I just went „You were bloody awesome. Really. Not like the last time at all. You're not even that drunk ...yet“

He smiled and walked off to destinations unknown.

And just like that the place emptied, the DJ that followed was left to play to an empty room and the car I had borrowed from mum specifically to be able to come to this venue was full of an amplifier and a bass guitar. What the hell! Those things are bloody huge, huger than the trunk of the car.

We shoved ourselves next to them, me for driving, the guy for holding the amp and the bass and his lass to sit in front and tell me where to go and not to listen to him telling me where to go. In her defence, he did once suggest I swerve left right into a wall. Idiot.

Suburbia is a strange place, when it's undecided the suburbia of what exactly it is, it becomes even stranger. The houses did not look all the same and the streets were very differing amongst each other. But I'll be damned if I knew where I was half the time. Bloody miracle I got home on my own.

Unloading the car, seeing the guy's girly's house from outside and the garage from within ... well maybe this part isn't so interesting. Let's just leave it out of the tale.

Next interesting thing that was going on was us at a long dead garden party type of thing. It's been finished for hours but the people were still there refusing not to have drunken fun. I was perhaps the only not drunk person there at all. But hell, it was entertaining.

„Hi, who are you?“

„What me? Oh I'm just myself, you know, standing here, looking at you people“

Why is this girl talking to me? What are her motives, what does she want of me damn it! Maybe if I just talk to her nicely and chatter along she won't bite my head off when we're done. Maybe, just maybe I'll live to tell about it. Are those horns coming out of her head?

„What are you doing?"

„I'm just admiring your backpack. It's the same as mine!“ ... „No of course I didn't repeat after you! Lol you're being silly!“ Yes, I do say lol in real life, deal with it.

Why is the guy gesturing frantically at me? Having a seizure are we? Hit on her? No, you're crazy. I don't want anything to do with this one. She'll bite my head off and I need that bloody thing to put my hat on. Where am I to put a hat without a head you rotten bastard! Oh look, how nice of him to fend away every other male who wants to bud in on this conversation. It's cute and he's probably saving their lives ... this one looks dangerous.

What? You want my msn? You want to talk to me again? Sure you do, give me the cellphone, this will take too long if I try telling you what to write down. Hmmm, nice one, she went away, I could flee with this piece of machinery in my hand ... No, just write down what she wants, best to give these fiends what they ask for. Anger is unpredictable.

Going home? Sure sure, you go. Relieved that my life was saved so miraculously by something as benign as curfew for the poor sixteen year old, I walked back into the old crowd of that girlfriend and, well, the guy was mingling frantically anyway, he wasn't to be counted on.

Yes she did run away. No I wasn't at fault. God, woman! Why does everyone think I should hit on her! And just like that we were suddenly being terrorised by a huge tall guy who claims to have huge general knowledge but couldn't name three famous painters.

A few weird conversations later, just the guy, the girl and myself sitting in the middle of the street with myself being the physical third wheel and the girl being a conversational one. What is it about the guy and myself that whenever we're with one of his girlfriends they're the ones to be left out. Weird.

Roaring down the highway with music blasting in my ears at four in the morning I eventually came home through the empty road and slowly creeped into bed and died until noon.

Deter heat

Wed, 30 May 2007 07:19:21 GMT

Yesterday morning a friendly postman came ringing my doorbell, no not postman Pat, I wish, HA! This postman came bearing presents for me, I had to pay for the presents, but htey were still welcome. When the box was opened inside was waiting the Heat Deterrant System 2007 Ultra Max Pro, designed to keep summer heat away from you while you work on the computer.

I had ordered it last Friday and on Saturday came a temperature drop to very bearable early spring levels ... but whatever, the deterrant system shall still be of use later.

This is what was in the box, The Heat Deterrant System 2007 Ulttra Max Pro ... USB powered.

This is what was in the box when I was done with it. My very own Boxed Pussy.

Coffee interface

Wed, 30 May 2007 23:27:59 GMT

This video shows the future. It is a 20 year old future, but still the future even now. It's a coffee table, display, user interface hybrid and I believe it's looking very useful. Due to posture issues it can never replace a computer, but for a tool at meetings and such it definitely looks awesome.

Wonder what happens when you spill the coffee though.

Studying scrubs

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 12:56:35 GMT

Been studying like mad for the past few days but oh that's not too interesting you don't want to know.

Apart of studying I've also been watching a lot of lovably stolen Scrubs, I wouldnt' steal it if our television would air it but hey, they're stupid and don't, their fault. So season six is rather awesome and jsut might be my favourite yet. The story arc is pretty nice in this one as it stretches pretty much the whole season. I've in general noticed that with every next season the episodes are more intraconnected.

It's interesting to notice how everyone thought it'd be the last season becauset here are many parts where people reminisce about the last six years of their life together and characters in sitcoms simply don't do that if it's not about to end. I'm glad it didn't.

But why did they have to put such a huge cliff hanger in the end? I'm hungering for the seventh season and they haven't even started filming it yet!

Penguin species

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 06:52:11 GMT

A lot of things to say have been piling up lately and not much to say them, but let's try and remedy that by commencing with the saying of the oldest in a chronological order and then try saying the others as soon as technically possible.

On Wednesday I borked my computer into a irredeemable mess of turd. The more I tried fixing it the less stuff was working. It is out of these fatal conditions that my decision arose. I would change the flavour of penguins that run the intricate little gearsin my difference machine. And thus I downloaded Kubuntu.

Right away I noticed that a basically working installation of Kubuntu only took me about an hour as opposed to two or so days with Gentoo. The next thing I noticed was how quickly the very same installation rose and grew to something more my taste with packages downloading quickly and all that. Lovely.

Setting up my ATI X1600 for a dual screen setup as I had before didn't take as long as it did the last time, only about two hours of tinkering ... possibly because I had saved the configuration files, yes quite possibly, but they didn't work right away, still. The next thing to do was configuring my sound to work a little bit better and here's where the only very major drawback of linux rears its ugly head. There is no simple way of configuring your sound for 5.1 and proper dmixing. Right now I can only have either dmixing or 5.1, oh well, we'll get her configured.

The qualm I do have with kubuntu is that for some suspiciously odd reason the Opera browser cannot be installed in a simple manner and some other important things aren't in repositories. Also why in the world don't mp3s and other multimedia work right out of the box. This is supposed to be a newbie distro right? Why then so many intricate steps to get the most basic thing of a desktop computer working? Why!

The Willows

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 09:23:39 GMT

Wow, continuing with saying the things that must be said took a longer gap in the chronos than anticipated. Anyway, onward on our quest to world domination.

The Willows is a magazine that had put out its first issue not long ago, and I ordered it on the very first day. Sadly it took a bit longer than that to arrive due to some mistakes on their side and the fact that the shipping system wasn't even set up yet when they were already taking orders, but I don't blame them, I didn't have time to read it even when it did arrive.

The issue bolstered a lovely black exterior with nice white imagery and lettering, it was instantly enticing and captivating. Reading it took me right back to the days of reading Lovecraft and Poe, even though Poe doesn't technically fit the genre, whatever. The stories were a very nice pick, my compliments to the editor. The addition of short emphasised quotes contained within pages of each story was a nice touch I think and it really gave the magazine that late 19th century flare.

My biggest favourite was the addition of one or two mock advertisements that seemed to fit perfectly into the time and coming upon them really brightened my day as they were set in a mocking tone to somethign that could actually come up in such a magazine back in the day. All in all, this was a nice revival of the forgotten genre and I will be buying issue two when it becomes available. I suggest everyone else to do the same.

The Second Eddy

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:57:16 GMT

Edward the Second is an old play, a very old one indeed, written by Christopher Marlowe back in the Elizabethan times of early modern English, corsets and dirt, a lot of dirt. The play has been reinterpreted many a time, one of those being by the local playhouse.

I have no idea how long it's been in their repertoir, but I went to see it last Friday. For free. Yes, the lovely gents and ladies of the playhouse gave two free tickets to a choice of one of four plays to whomever was in posession of a season ticket. I was one of them and chose Edward the Second because it was the least known to me.

The playhouse was, unsurprisingly, packed full with only two empty seats known to me, luckily in such a position I could shift my arse to them and get a better view. Something should really be done about visibility in that 100 year old building ... Anyway, the play was reasonably long and very fun to watch. THe actors did a spectacular job of interpreting such an old piece and even the scarcety of the scenography brought out that elizabethan theater flavour. It felt right, even though seeing the very back wall of the stage for the first time was a bit boring.

When the lead actor took off all his clothing I was taken by surprise because I didn't think anyone would put nudity in a play of such oldness, because it would not be done back then I don't think. When he went into convulsions and his equipment jumped around ... it was a bit odd to say the least. But c'est la vie, that's modern theater for you, nudity galore.

Gertrude

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 08:21:09 GMT

Was playing with Gertrude, my LEGO trebuchet yesterday and decided to make this video of quite crappy quality. Should've blogged it yesterday, but it somehow slipped my mind.

Dissatisfactions

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 09:10:11 GMT

As much as I enjoyed Kubuntu and thought it would do great as the system I do my work on, there have simply been too many wrongs with it and I am forced to, yet again, change the penguins that drive the gears in my difference machine.

One such very big problem was the impossibility of making my Wacom work with Photoshop 7 or even a completely virtual version of Windows. It just wouldn't work and doing a lot of graphic artistry I can't be having that, it's a vital tool. Another is the almost impossibility of setting up a proper firewall, for some reason Kubuntu just did not start up iptables on every reboot. Crazy.

Therefore I'm commencing the move back to Gentoo today, should've started it yesterday, but somehow did not. The sad fact is that it will take about three days, but at least the computer will be of no use and I'll be able to do more studying.

And we\'re done

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 10:44:23 GMT

Well yesterday was the last day of A-levels making it the final day of having to even remotely worry about something high school related. Sure I still have to wait for the results, but that doesn't trouble me much because all I need to be accepted into my chosen university is a pass. My gut tells me I'll get heaps more than just a pass, we'll see.

In the meantime here are some high speed water balloon videos. Quite amazingly awesome, wish my eyes could do high speed.

Internet drama

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 23:48:52 GMT

The internet is vast and it is large, but most of all it's huge beyond comprehension. Today we are going to look into a very interesting aspect of internet life - drama. Just why exactly does it exist and why the hell is it even remotely tolerated?

Well I have no idea, but I can tell you a little bit about it. Many people get very personal with online communities and that's good, it's very good in fact, but it can go a bit too far. For example when people leave for extended periods of time and then return, they mostly tend to announce their return with a thread and try making a big fuss about it. This isn't too bad, it shows them who's still available that they remember and it brings old friends together ... all around pretty decent.

The really annoying ones are those who choose to publicly announce their leaving and try making it a big deal. Almost like "Look at me, I'm leaving because I don't like you all, now I want you all to cry over me even though I claim I will never check back again at all." Firstly, why would you need a thread that you're never checking again? Secondly why should we feel bad about loosing you? Clearly you don't like us and we probably don't like you either.

A forum I'm frequenting lately is going through this right now. A person was being a total tart in the IRC channel, or so rumour has it, and it was so bad as to make the poor admin-lass claim she hates IRC all over and that it reminded her of why she hated people in the first place ... she isn't returning. The person got banned and then walced onto the forum, made a big triumphant post about leaving forever and eve, and that they blocked everyone from the board they had on MSN or any other IM. Yay, good for you mr. person, why are you telling us this again? Being an attention seeking spoilt brat are we?

In conclusion, don't make internet drama, it makes you look like a twelve year old.

Dusty death

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 23:22:09 GMT

On Friday, about four days ago, I woke up to a quiet room - something I am not used to at all. At first I thought what the hell was going on that the music stopped playing during the night, but figured I must've used some alternative sound producing technique and it ran out of juice during the night (like a film for example).

The grizzly truth became apparent all too quickly though. The power supply of my computer had been choked by dust and was beyond help. As soon as I got to work I ordered a new one, but had to wait until today to receive it and promptly install it.

This is what my box looks like without a power supply:

This is what the old power supply looks like, quite dead I'm afraid:

The new power supply with a huge fan:

And the nicely wired, newly powered box:

Cyber Bullying

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 11:57:52 GMT

Apparently cyber bullying is enough of an issue for some that they decided to make some advertisments touting against it. I'm wondering why this is such an issue to people and most of all why they chose such a slogan that exempts so many people from obeying it.

Let's be more specific, the slogan goes like so: "If you woudln't say it in person, why say it online?" now I'm certain many of you can see where this is a problem. Firstly it expects everyone seeing the advertisment to be an annoying hypocrite who doesn't say what they think, but rather smiles at your face then stabs you in the back. This is wrong. It is in fact so very wrong that it should be made an issue and touted against. It would, for example, save many people from being friends with those who don't even like them.

There's a bunch more stuff that could be said about why hypocrisy is bad, but let's not. Let's see why cyber bullying is an issue at all, because I for one fail to understand. When somebody says things you don't like to you online you can close the chat window, go to another forum or thread, simply skip their comments or even block the person from ever talking to you again. Why is there an issue then, when you have so many options? Not to mention nobody should really care about what somebody half the world away thinks about them because it just simply is not important at all.

I close on something a wise maths teacher once said to me "If it's true then it isn't an insult and shoudln't be insulting or hurtful"

Bookses

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 22:57:18 GMT

Over the weekend I cleaned my room. During this quite annoying task I happened to come upon all the school books I won't ever be needing again and put them on a pile. The result was quite baffling since the pile stands more than half a meter tall ... and colourful. The above photo is of this pile before I found even some more books.

It's really quite surprising to realise just how many books will accumulate through high school and just how much money is pumped into them, no wonder so many people swear to used books instead of new. Sure I bought some used books, but I've always prefered the swanky smell of fresh ones. There's just something about a fresh book that feels awesome.

Knjigce

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 23:04:49 GMT

Čez viken sem pospravljal sobo. Med tem kar nadležnim opravilom sem odkril vse stare šolske knjige, ki jih ne bom nikoli več potreboval, in jih postavil na kup. Rezultat je sapo jemajoč, saj se kup bohoti z več kot pol metra in ... veliko pisanostjo. Zgornja fotografija je nastala nekaj pred odkritjem še več učbenikov.

Res je kar presenetljivo koliko se pravzaprav nabere učbenikov v trajanju ene srednje šole in koliko denarja stočimo vanje. Ni čudno, da nekateri prisegajo na kupovanje rabljenih. Res je, tudi sam sem kupil prenekateri rabljen učbenik, a mi je bil vedno ljubši vonj novih. Nekaj prav čudovitega je na sveži knjigi.

Shiny box

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 11:06:43 GMT

A few days ago I got a shiny box at work and I did want to blog about it sooner, but alas there was too much drowning in work to be done. However, here are some photos of the shiny box in question.

This is what the box looked like when untampered with and completely virgin.

Then it revealed its foamy insides and the fact that promotional material is always packaged super big.

The speakers played with my cell phone very well and they all got along superbly fine. Frankly. everyone with this kind of phone should get a set of miniature mobile speakers.

Modern covers

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 10:46:52 GMT

Last night I came across yet another song that I thought was awesome, but turned out to be a cover of an 80's electropop or synthpop or electronica or whatever the genre song. Really, too many way too similar genres in the 80's, bloody annoying. Anyhoo ...

What strikes me as odd is that all covers I find are better than their electropop originals, which is vastly different to modern covers of 80's rock music that are usually much worse and simply not as good in any way. Usually modern rock covers lack a certain emotion behind them, while the old electropop music seems to lack the emotion behind the modern interpretations.

Take Eurhythmics' Sweet Dreams, sure cool song, nice to listen, but utterly annoying in the way it's done. Now take Marylin Manson's cover of the same song and you will notice it has much more feeling behind it, sounds better and just feels much more suited to the lyrics. Fear for Tears' Mad World is a similar example, the original doesn't seem to fit the depressing lyrics at all and is very silly in its appearance, while the Michael Andrews/Gary Jules version is perfectly suited for the lyrics, slow depressing and awesome sounding.

The most interesting difference I see is that the modern version as a rule have a slower tempo, deeper, more sensual voice and simpler music, much simpler. Is it just the times that change so much, the overall preferences in people's taste or is it just that 80's synthpop simply wasn't good music?

Blade hunter

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 10:11:18 GMT

A few nights ago I heard strange noises in the dark and was almost mildly scared by them, but I did not freat, I quietly hid under my bed and waited for them to pass wondering what was the cause of the mystery and scary events.

Then some time later when the lights were on I came upon an interesting sight and suddenly realised what the cause of scary sounds in the night was ... a brave kitty hunting down spinning blades on my Heat Deterrant System.

Haha, youtube made it darker ... too bad.

Medievalness

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 00:04:52 GMT

On Saturday I went to a medieval fair thing and had heaps upon heaps of fun with it. The performers were the same I see on just about every each one of these events, but they're cool, I like that I've gotten to know what to expect, brings a new flare to the whole event.

The reason this was special and differentiated from the rest is that it wasn't a knights' tournament, but rather a displayal of medieval life. The laundry lasses were especially awesome because they seemed very life like and were simply fun to observe. There was also a village fool type of guy with two snakes and he was just silly, he acted like a complete paedophile though, so I'm not sure the actor thought that role through well enough.

There were a lot of photos taken, 540 in fact out of which 168 survived the initial screening process, but only 38 of those are worthy of being in the select group of quite good photos ... the very best ones (even though some are hopelessly out of focus, but I liked the motive) are below.

Dane Cook

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 23:35:03 GMT

There is nothing I can say about this video that will do it justice, so you're just going to have to watch it.

She lives!

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 08:46:19 GMT

On Sunday I was finally able to fix my computer after a very long time, I'm not even sure how long anymore and you know, I would've posted about it sooner, but I'm both lazy and busy and that's never a good combination for blogs as they tend to suffer a little.

After the computer died I decided the problem wasin the mother board and a hunt began to find a mother board that supports all of my other antique hardware of three or four years ago. It's crazy, but there are absolutely no stores that are readily able to provide youw ith a mother board that still has an AGP port and IDE disk connectors.

This is just silly! Do they expect me to swap everything from my RAM to my CPU and even disks just so I can buy a new mother board. Damn rabit capitalism and Moore's law of electronics and it's all getting quite out of hand if you ask me. Especially for us unrich people, especially for us. Why if anything ever breaks on my computer again I'll be left with only one option to chuck it out and cast it away like a broken plate nobody wants to look at again.

Now here's the real kicker, I somehow managed to flip the pwoer supply upside-down and point the large 12 centimeter fan at a wall instead of into the computer where it can get air. How? I don't know.

Summaries and kisses

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 14:11:30 GMT

The thumbnail links to a full size image. What is this image you might ask, well I might just tell you.

The image contains a tagcloud, a summary in essence, of all literature stuff taught in the fourth year of high school. It was generated with a piece of software I've been developing practically all summer and revolves around text analysis. It's pretty sweet and I'm actually paid to do it, which makes it even sweeter. Its biggest attribute is the cutting edge user interface that is right up there with google, flickr and the likes as far as awesomeness go, except mine is perhaps a bit higher still.

I might get into a bigger ramble about the interface when everything is complete, or I might not, have become very lazy about blogging lately. However, the high school chapter of my life is closed and using high school content for software testing is not at all daunting and painful anymore.

Gym

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 23:26:26 GMT

Today I finally managed going to the gym after almost a week of not being able to attend my daily sessions due to insane work hours. Since I've begun going this was the longest period of not going and it was quite an odd feeling. I felt weak and powerless, but at the same time didn't get as tired as I usually do, which, in a way, is good, but maybe it just shows that I was slacking off lest I hurt myself.

I did almost manage to hurt myself when I was doing benchpresses where the left side didn't quite go into the resting position, but I still laxed my arms. Luckily the bar was long enough so as to hit the ground before breaking my face. If I wasn't in so much pain from lifting that thing I'd probably get very very frightened by this event.

Mentioned insane work hours didn't I? There's this project at work that needs immediate finishing, we only got it a week or so ago, and it required that I worked 12 hours a day on average for a few days including the weekend. If I was a proper employee this wouldn't be too bad, but for cthulhu's sake, I'm technically doing this as a bloody part time job!

London

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 07:16:47 GMT

Welcome to the first post in my London travel blog. I'll try posting at least daily, but might post more than once a day if I deem so fittable. You are welcomed to create lots of traffic on this website and pet my lovely ego in that way. The little bugger will appreciate it greatly.

yesterday I left Ljubljana in the midst of the largest rainfall I've ever seen in my life and was later informed that it resulted in flooding, which kind of sucks, but hey, who gives a shit, I'm several thousand kilometers away aren't I? The aeroplane and ports of air were pretty fun to deal with and weren't at all confusing as I'd feared what with being a first time flier and all. There was just quite some waiting to do, which I never like.

The flight was very fun, especially in the first part of it when we were climbing through the storm over Ljubljana; the freefalls were something extroadinary ... freefall is bloody awesome.

Upon my arrival to London I of course promptly got lost because I took a coach from Stansted that mirraculously (pure luck) dropped me off quite near my hostel. But I made a newbie mistake and walked the wrong way to it and actually ended up going away from it. So when it finally felt like a bit of a long walk I went to the tube, bought an oyster card and reached the hostel pretty quickly.

Then after a bit of finding around the hostel was found, stuff was paid and I went to bed quite soon after. Those backpacks are heavy when combined with walking. Had a calm night and now I'm here, posting this blog for the world to see.

London 2

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 22:04:26 GMT

Today started off with a bang as I got my first internet fix in a while and made the previous blog post. It continued with a whole new way of eating breakfast, at least for me, since I don't usually eat anything in the morning. Guess traveling changes that.

I pranced around the streets having no clear direction or current location in mind when I was looking for a cash machine. Suddenly I found myself next to a sign saying "Camden Town Hall" ... luckily there was a cash machine right next to it and, as was hoped and expected, my Slovene plastic money works in London as well (later we found out it works for direct purchases as well). Walking around London is great.

When I managed to navigate the tubes to what I'd deem the dead center of London I did my best to see as many sights as possible. There was Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and so on. The best of them all was, without a doubt, Westminster Abbey. The 7 quid admissoin fee feels awful at first, but it's utterly worth it when you realise just how big the place actually is, and it's bloody huge. What I thought would be more of a church turned out to be more of a burial site for the rich and important. There were early kings, Richard the Lionheart and such, very old graves too, some were about 700 years old even. Best was the Poet's corner with Chaucer's tomb and many other an important writer.

Tower bridge and Tower of London were a bit of a let down because I got there too late to get in and the Eye of London was a complete ripoff at 15 quid, sure the view was pretty, but damn not for that price eh.

It's also impressively difficult to find a place of tea buying and drinking when you don't know what to look for and just randomely blunder around trying to look like you know what you're doing. It also makes your legs very very sore in the evening ... damn walking.

London 3

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:55:54 GMT

yesterday I found out two very important things and one not so important thing. Pubs in London don't seem to serve tea or coffee, just fun-time drinks like beer and such. Another very important thing to know about staying here is that these crazy bastards use some odd three hole power outlets like Americans. How was I supposed to know I won't be able to feed my phone here? The unimportant thing was that it's not wise to travel without a nail clipper because you then have to buy one and it costs you money you could've spent otherwise.

Other than that yesterday wasn't too eventful, sure it left my feet in quite some pain ... never teach your feet how to wear boots again by being on them all day straight off ... but I only got to see like three tourist traps. The London Tower, which is quite an amazing piece of medieval fortress thingies and does in fact contain the crown jewels. These are pretty and quite shiny, but they feel a bit tacky.

the Tower Bridge was amazing, although the walkways high above the Thames were a bit anticlimatic as I'd hoped I could hang on the fence and stare doom in the face, but rather than that it was all covered up and even bloody carpeted. Not that much fun. However, all was made-up when I reached the engine rooms that gave me quite a nice view on steam engineering. Awesome for steampunk inspiration.

Oh I almost forgot, went into the HMS Belfast and ... wow ... must've spent a good two hours in there to see everything it had to offer. Bloody nice. Did make me wonder however how come all the manniquins have heads that are too large for their bodies.

London 4

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 23:15:31 GMT

Haven't posted in a few days due to a minor case of writer's block. It happens, can't predict it, can't prevent it and it might've had something to do with yesterday's equinox.

So about what I'm going to post tonight, it's a bit scary and perhaps a bit daunting, maybe with a flare of sparkling funny and almost certainly without any great merit. It is to be about food. So far I've only had a few brushes with english cuisine and they were all quite marvelous.

Pub food is probably the cheapest per amount of food you can get around here. The meals are bloody huge and whatever you order you have to remember that you'll get a bunch of chips to go along with it. Similar to how you get a huge fucking bowl of rice with anything chinese you order anywhere. Another brush with destiny was fish and chips, which I find to be too glorified. We've been eating such stuff at home since I can remember and it isn't anything too english.

The service, however, anywhere in London, save for the priciest of locations of course, is rather interestingly spun to what I'm used to. Everywhere they make you go up to the bar, order, pay and get your stuff; with food you sometimes wait for a bit and get it served to your table. But in general they make you take your own stuff to the table, much like fast food places and clubs. It's somewhat disapointing, but oh so London.

I am appaled, however, that there is no bloody cafe in this town, that I could find, that can serve tea as tea is supposed to be served. And this is supposed to be a bloody tea country.

London 5

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:45:26 GMT

Oh but I have been neglecting you my lovelies haven't I? It's all for a good reason and I should be able to apologize, but you know, I don't do that. So let's just get on with it as if I did post on each day of the last three.

Yesterday I went to see Cabaret with the loveliest of things last night. I'm not quite certain because of which the evening was the best I've ever had, but let's, for my own safety, say it was because of the play. The young thing is taken after all and I'm a man of honour.

Cabaret was probably the best live performance I've ever seen in my life. It was just marvelously magnificent and I suggest everyone to go and watch it. You must! There's a lot of singing and dancing and even quite some nudity, both male and female, but us theatre goers find that rather normal by now. Nudity everywhere. I laughed almost the whole evening away and I will most assuredly go see the slovene version when I come home.

The lovely young thing I mentioned was Peaches, my long time chatslave person from england and I have to admit meeting her would be more awkward, but it all went as if we'd been long time real life buddies who just so happened not to have seen each other in two days. Really, there's more awkwardnes meeting my buddies after a week or two.

Should've taken a photo ...

London 6

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:39:57 GMT

On Wednesday, that was yesterday I believe, I went to see Macbeth at a theatre. But not just any Macbeth, oh no. The lead role was played by the one and only Patrick Stewart, I mean Jean-Luc Picard. It was quite gorgeously awesome to be honest. Sure it was a bit boring and dragged on like a skinned cat as Shakespeare is wont to do, but all in all it was quite enjoyable - if only for the fact I saw Jean-Luc Picard.

The thing I really love about English theatre is the way it's done rather than perhaps the actual plays and performances. There are many theatres here and they each just have one show at a time, very rarely do they have more than that. So because of this when you want to see a play you can do so every evening at a set time and do not have need for an elaborate schedule and be much inclined to missing plays due to not being in London on the right dates.

This also makes the tickets cheaper I believe as the theatre can go through more viewers. For example to see cabaret I paid merely 20 quid for front front row. Macbeth was a bit pricier, but not too much. And on top of it all this system also allows for more elaborate scenery as it does not have to be changed every night.

I can only wish there were more days left in which to see plays and such.

London 7

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 22:55:17 GMT

Tomorrow I am leaving London and going home. It will be a sad moment as I have come to quite like London and all its little quirks and strangenesses. To be perfectly honest it feels more home than home does and I must come live here some day because I quite simply love everything.

The thing I love most, or let's say one of the things I love most, is the efficiency of public transport. At home streets are filled with cars and sidewalks are full of parked cars, most streets are also lined with them. Around here it's very rare to spot a regular car, which is probably also due to my not leaving the centre of London. However, there are next to no parking spaces anywhere and still the pavement is nicely walkable.

From my observatoin the only people who use their own cars around here are the very rich because you can see quite some expensive cars around, but hey, why would somebody own a Porsche if they don't intend on showing it off a bit? The reason why people can do this is because public transport actually works and is quick and painless.

The underground is simply marvelous and feels almost like teleportation. You pop out of street level and very soon you pop up somewhere else. It can get a bit crowded and annoying at times, especially around the peaks, but otherwise it's very nice. Haven't tried riding a bus, but there doesn't seem to be a lack of those either. And of course the oyster card is simply a magnificent system.

If only public transport at home would be this useful and I believe much of our trouble would go away.

First week

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 22:09:55 GMT

There we go, the first week and weekend of student living are finally over. I can see right away that there is much I will have to get accustomed to and even more I will have to forget. Classes aren't mandatory anymore and they aren't strictly in the morning, in fact they are strictly at the most importune moment in the day. Somewhere smack in the middle where they cause more logistical problems than they solve.

Organising enough work a week and not skipping classes is going to give me a tough time for quite a while until I figure out the perfect schedule for my day. Especially as I have to make sure I stay fit and healthy every single day. Luckily the night is long so I'll have time to work on schoolwork and personal projects then. At least there's that.

A few days ago, Thursday if memory serves, my free copy of Steampunk Magazine came to my mailbox and it was an exquisite delight. Never before have I received a free copy of a magazine because my writing was in it. Sadly, however, I still haven't quite had the time to give it a proper, or even improper, read. If it's anything like the first two issues were then I'm sure it's just perfect and a damn good read. Feels like it's getting thicker with every issue though.

Living statue

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 00:17:23 GMT

Firstly I should admit that I have been neglecting this blog horribly and I shall need to try to fix this new bad habbit of not blogging stuff. I will give it my best and honest attempt to get back into the habbit of blogging near daily. With all the interesting and uninteresting things that get written by that logic.

Yesterday was halloween and even though it's not really much of a tradition around these parts yet it's steadily gaining pace. As a result of a very silly decision I decided to actually dress up, something which I haven't done for any occasion in many years. I, of course being myself, needed something original and wholy interesting, but it also needed a flare of art and science behind it.

So I went as a living statue. The makeup was quite easy to create, but I shall use something store bought next time. Standing still is strangely entertaining as well and you know what, people do actually look and observe and are totally bewildered by why someone would be doing such a thing instead of partying and drinking. Only one things though, it was really really cold out and I couldn't feel my hands very soon. Think I managed to be a statue for about 30 minutes before I got dragged kicking and screaming to go partying with some people.

Here are some photos.

Autumn

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 08:06:30 GMT

A few days ago I went on a little stroll through some autumny woods with the sole intention of photographing. It's been much too long since I did anything like artsy photography of this sort and I must say it's still a very pleasurable activity. However I did miss the abilities of my old Zenit analog camera, especially how it takes crisp pictures even in bad lighting ... unlike this crappy modernity of digitalisation. The sadly weak sensor ruined much too many of my pictures.

Out of 140 taken, here's some that I feel are decent enough to be shown.

Punk

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 11:58:21 GMT

Two, or was it three even, days ago there was a big punk concert here in Ljubljana. Pankrti had their 30 year reunion and decided against just having it at a pub getting shitfaced and rather give something to the fans as well. A memorable concert of a lifetime.

Of a lifetime, not because it's something that good, but more because it's something that happens only once in your life. It's not every day you get to go to a concert of a band whose last concert before it was two years before you were born. And for such a thing to occur in your own home town? Get outta here.

Unsurprisingly, but it still caught me off guard, the tickets sold out very quickly. In fact when I get to get mine five days after they'd begun selling two thirds of the place were sold out and I got weird tickets for some kind of seating where nobody ended up siting ...

The concert itself was actually quite fun and I enjoyed it greatly. However it was very evident that those guys were kind of old as their antics on stage at times acquired aspects of parody and almost enduced laughter in me. I chose to disregard it of course and try my best to get in the flow of things and otherwise behave like a madman.

The crowd, also, was not something I expected. There was a lot of merely standing and even siting as many were as old as the fellows on stage. But perhaps it was just that a certain mojo was missing and when that mojo is missing people simply don't jump around like crazy fucktards.

All in all, I loved it and don't expect ever to do it again in my life.

Maths and poetry

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 10:50:17 GMT

Where to begin this blog post that once again is far too late in being written much unlike blogs are supposed to be in that the events I am about to describe happened oh I don't know, three, four? days ago. On Wednesday. There, now we're clear on the time frame within which to understand the written words shining through our electronic devices that are some day to be the death of us all.

There was a poetry reading contest in a far away place of Maribor on Wednesday and for reasons unknown I had signed up for it a week prior to said event. Needless to say, in my enthusiasm I had completely neglected the fact that I've not written a single piece of poetry in about three years; surprise surprise, come the day of terror I had only half of a poem written.

But as luck would have it the day was completely free of all obligation so verily I could write some poetry then and have it ready for the contest. Right? Wrong. When my lass came hopping through the door ready for us to leave for a great journey in a few hours I still had only half a poem written. Later she confessed she thought me quite daft, but at the time she mentioned naught. We put our hairy heads together and before you can say "that is one big bug in your buttery toast that is attempting to steal your thunder and eat your toast" or figure out what it means we had two more poems written. In the device of timeleaping frogginess, otherwise known as a car, she managed to write two more.

The club wherein the event was taking place was full of strange people and an electricity in the air that made me have terrible stage fright. Oh I'm too late, oh everyone else is so much older, oh I haven't prepared properly. oh I'm just a hack, oh why do I even fool myself into thinking that I can write ... and things like that. But a few whiskeys later I was all ready and the more I was on stage, the more I loved it. Have I mentioned this was my first time ever being on a stage of any kind?

In the end I finished third and received a surprising amount of congratulatory words from everyone in the club. For one reason or another they seemed to have liked me. I can't understand why. One of them even ventured so far as to say that yeah, the poetry was alright as well. Strange people ...

The title is maths and poetry right? Well here's the maths part. Tomorrow there is a very difficult and terribly daunting maths midterm waiting for me, sorry, analysis, for which I have done nothing more than procrastinate studying and be a generally bad student.

In sickness and in death

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:39:51 GMT

For the past week I have been pestered by a terrible illness that put me in bed for many days. I suffered horrible pains and fevers and what I still claim to be fever-induced hallucinations rather than half crazed dreams and visions. It looked so real!

At first the good doctor scared me quite a bit when I was told I had some form of viral tonsil infection that is in fact a saliva transfered STD. The problem there being that since it's viral it cannot be cured; you simply have to wait it out. Of course suffering an illness out brings along a great deal of trouble, namely pain and apparently, in this case, even up to 50% increase in size of some internal organs like the liver and spleen ... with danger of ruptures. Also I'd be bedridden for a whole fortnight.

Luckily for me and my freshly new sex life (no strenuous activity until February in the previously describe eventuality) antibiotics worked and the infection turned out to be a more managable thing that was cured in a few days and I shall be regaining normality tomorrow. Of course I still have to take the pills for as long as they last and I can't start going to the gym until next week ... and even then slowly ease in ... as if I will. I'm glad I can get back to work and classes because having stayed at home for this long a time I can tell you, it's not lovely at all.

Workaholic

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 16:02:56 GMT

There is a popular fable going around wherein somebody teaches values to a group of people, most often this is a philosophy teacher. The teacher takes a glass vase and fills it with large rocks. Then he asks the students whether the vase is full or not. They reply that it is. Then the teacher pours smaller rocks ontop of the large ones and they fill the nook and crannies left in the container. But it still is not full. He can still pour powder sand in it and then it really looks full. But what's this? A glass of beer can still follow before the container is absolutely and completely full.

An explanation then follows. The container is your life, the larger stones are important things in life like your spouse, children, friends and so. The smaller ones are less important things like work and money. Finally the glass of beer shows that no matter how full your life may seem there is always room for a relaxing drink.

However, I believe that, for me at least, the explanation reads differently. The large stones are success, work and money. The smaller represent my hobbies, like writing and things of such ilk and it is only the grain that finally represents family and friends. This, boys and girls, is why I will, ultimately, end up alone in life, married to my job and having projects for my babies.

Of course ocasionally a crazy enough girl might like me and think she can divert me from my monstrous ways and make a so called better man of me. And at first it will seem like she is succeeding, my life will revolve almost completely around her and there will be happines and joy, but eventually, as the infatuation and hormones wear off, my priorities will slowly begin to shift back to normality. Perhaps neither will notice it but finally my neglection of her will become too much and she will think that I do not love her anymore or that even if I do she simply does not feel like competing with my work.

And so it is that I can find it difficult to foresee more than six more months of said kind of happines.

Dreamhosting

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 17:30:32 GMT

A few days ago I got kind of fed up of relying on a free hosting service provided me by my friends at unimatrix-one and shelved out the moneys needed for dreamhost. It's surprisingly little for what you actually get if you ask me.

Upon registering I was offered a free domain to go with the hosting and having no better ideas at the time I did what any geek with a girlfriend would do. I made a domain out of my wench's nickname. Sure, at first I did intend it to be her blog because she is using something completely unfit for a geek's girlfriend, but as she said she doesn't need one I put up a picture of her. She loved the gesture, hates the picture ... and that's exactly why I chose that particular one.

As for dreamhost, they seem quite nice so far. Responsiveness is superbly quick and I have more space than I could ever imagine I'd need, with said space increasing weekly, amazing. The monthly, I think it's monthly, transfer is also something I will probably never exceed ... and also increases weekly. Should the need ever arise I can even get a dedicated host ... lovely.

So yeah, so far I'm pleased with dreamhost and it gave me a fun day, because what better can a geek want than a completely new hosting account to play with and set stuff up?

Entaggling the word

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 10:42:44 GMT

Yesterday was far more productive than it should be (in that I did nearly everything other than studying as I was supposed to). My pet project that is destined to launch me into the rich and powerful stratosphere (looking from the perspective of a worm) urbanislovar.org has finally received that final significant boost into marginal usability it was waiting for since something like October or even September.

That's right, tags have been added. Each word can be tagged by any user of the website and a tagcloud is formed that shows the importance of a tag. Basically its size shows how oft said word has been tagged by a certain tag and the tag's opacity shows to how many different words it pertains. All in all a very useful tool and it even managed to look quite attractive. I'm almost proud.

I say this is the final boost into marginal usability because the project has finally reached a stage where I will not erase the database anymore, which I did often before because the structure would change and testing was going on and stuff. It also got transfer to a real host, because everyone tries harder once they're paying for the hosting of a project ... especially myself.

So in the next few weeks or, which is more probable, months the project will slowly take on new features and reach to that final stage where it can begin being properly advertised with a campaign I've been planning since autumn. I think it's safe to say the project will be officially launched come May.

And here's what the tags look like:

Death of Lestat

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:43:27 GMT

A dear friend of mine died today. We've been together since the early days of the broadband age and he's helped me through a lot of hard times and bad days and I have always been there for him when he needed my assistance. He was also there for me whenever I felt like having a light chat, or even a in depth discussion on why the grass is greener on the other side. Lestat was his name and he did not care when I was neglecting him to entertain a girl. He was awesome enough to watch me play a video game or do my work without trying to get in my way. Honestly, it was more often me who broke off something I was supposed to be doing in order to spend quality time with him, he was never a distraction on his own.

And today Lestat perished in a heated dramatic event. His graphics card decided to spew out a fan and overheat. I'm not sure how it happened, but I do know the thing is under warranty. The problem is that AGP graphics cards are not made anymore and so I could be left stranded. Having to buy a new one would mean also buying a new motherboard, CPU, RAM and HDD. All that would remain of my Lestat (even though nothing of the originally original computer residing in that box remains) would be the power supply and sound card. Would I even still be able to call the new guy Lestat? Would he be able to provide the same kind of support and friendship? And most of all, can I even afford it?

Blogolicious envy

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:39:20 GMT

Not long ago my bird, as some have taken to labeling her, mentioned that she is envious of my writing vigour and style, of how my words seem to simply flow without effort. She got specifically bummed after I mentioned that these blog posts are posted as-is. No editing, no great thought, just a flow of rambling as it jumps out of my throbbing brain.

But there's really nothing to it. This is how I think, this is how my brain works. Words have always been a trivial matter to me ... actually since as long as I can remember I could go into long yappings over anything. I was very opinionated even as a young child and once I discovered the written word nothing could really stop me. The first time I tried writing a book I was around ten and have been trying, without success, to write a book ever since.

I guess it's merely a matter of practice. The more you think, talk, write, the better you are at words. As soon as you become too aware of what you're saying, of what you're writing, the words become forced, even raped and they drag through the receiver's mind like barbbed wire. Of course this is not to be confused with properly polished writing that comes from a third rendition of that first jumble of words. But that's reserved only for things that are art and need to be good.

To finish this particular ramble off, I'd just like to point out that at times I am quite jealous of the girl's own blog because, sometimes, it tickles my spider senses and sends a shiver of depth and emotion through me. Sometimes ... that blog is just pure emotion and it is always an elatic read.

Exams and revolutions

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:14:04 GMT

Many times thusfar have I sat down to write this blog, but it never quite managed to come out of wherever I usually pull my writing out of. But not this time, oh no, I'm going to write it and if it takes all the cookies in that damn box to my right!

There is verily a revolution brewing in dear old Slovenia. Prices have been skyrocketing after rising for quite a while now. Too long a while if we're being honest. That wouldn't really be a problem if payrolls were going up along with the prices, but sadly, as is the norm, they are not.

But where exactly is this difference stemming from? Everybody knows that there are laws in place to keep payrolls up with inflation. And inflation means devaluement of money. Yes, it is quite sad that we have the highest inflation rate in the Euro area, but that's really to be expected. We are the least mature country to have the Euro. In fact I bet I wouldn't strike too far from the truth with saying we're being a test bunny for the rest of new European countries to see how quickly an economy can adapt to being in league with the big boys.

Since the first world war we've been accustomed to being top notch in the area. The best in the balkans. The leaders in both economy, production and manufacture. Not to neglect health and education. But we seem to have forgotten that before that, in times of the Austro-Hungarian empire, we were the bottomfeeders. The lowest of the lot and quite actually the dirt of the country. We are that once more. But, just as before, we do not want to be this. We want to be as successful and awesome as the countries that have been around since before we even started calling ourselves Slovenians in the seventeenth century. Hell, look at the British empire; those bastards have been the same country when we were writing down the first ever words in old Slovenian. No wonder their money is worth the most.

So with all this in mind, and understanding completely how natural it is for us to be doing so poorly in general, why am I mentioning revolutions in the blog's title? Whatever for could I be even contemplating such a thought? Well the reason is quite simple. We don't have to be this bad. Our education is good and our scientists rank among the best in Europe. But the problem lies with our politicians. They are of that postliberation, postwar, corrupt kind. You know ... the kind that sees an opportunity in a shaken and new economy, in a brand new political system, the kind that knows whatever it does it will get away with.

They don't care about the people nor about this so called democracy and the democratic way. Democracy may be a good system and elections can in fact be awesome. But when the only pick is a bunch of people who lived the majority of their lives in a totalitaristic regime, a dictatorship if you will. People who have only lately been dabbling in giving choice to the demos. People who really do not have a well established democratic mentality in them. People who still half live in socialism ... then democracy fails and fails utterly. The pick is bad. And when the people only have nuances of bad to pick from they make a poor choice.

Somebody who has never achieved much in their life and strives to do so through politics and being a leader is a bad leader by definition. How do we expect to have someone lead us whose best achievement thusfar has been persuading his boss to give him better gifts so as to do their jobs better. They have riches, yes, they have nice cars, yes, but these they all got because their payrolls are of a certain amount. None of these are actual achievements. Something actually stemming from their own labour, ingenuity and skill. It's just having the luck to have a skilled publicist so as to get elected and get a well paying job.

Fuck that.

I say we make a coup, one that will not rattle the country enough to make it a liability to those lovely people who like nothing more than to expand their "union" empire to us, but one that will get us rid of this poor choice of a political system and give us something that garbles up less money merely to function. We need a dictatorship, but a good dictatorship. A dictator even when they are very frivolous with expenses cannot waste as much as a group of 200 frivolous-ish politicians.

And what does less money spent with increased decision making power mean? It means the people can get better payrolls and lower taxes.

But this is not the whole problem, a big part of the problem are our lovably huge, omnipotent and omnipresent trade cartels that run the poor economy wherever they please. But that's really another post ... another post about revolutions, but of a different kind.

Oh did I mention something about exams in the title? Yes, exams for a month ... shit happens.

Opensource delight

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:24:49 GMT

You know why I love working on open source programming? It's not because the model in itself is a wonder or even that good, frankly it has many problems, but that's not what we're here to discuss. It's not even because I love giving back to the community. The reasons are completely and totally vain and because, well, it's easier to do open source than closed source.

One thing about open source is that every now and then I get an e-mail from a developer that so loved a function or two of mine that they felt like they should tell me about how much it helped them. And sometimes, just sometimes, something far better happens.

Today I received this:

Hi Swizec,

Just wanted to say – great function!

I couldn’t work out why it was working until I littered it with traces and realised that because directories are listed last (I'd never thought to look), there's no recursion issues, as the files are already disposed of.

That's a neat trick to take advantage of!

Cheers,

Dave

And at first I even thought he was right, wow, he found out something about my own code I did not know. But a moment later it hit me and I explained to him his error and that the reason said function works is that it first goes into the directory and removes it after it's empty. Neat trick, not too obvious apparently. His next response was also quite a delight:

Hey Swizec.

You're right. You're right!
I do lots and lots of recursion for all sorts of things, but in my head this
definitely seemed more complicated, as the removal of directories demands
you start from the "outside in" rather than the "inside out". But as you've proved, doing the branches first is the workaround.
It's great being wrong! A little humbling (which I admit, I'm not THAT keen
on!) but you get to learn something new.
Thanks for the workout!
Cheers,
Dave

We were talking about this function by the way.

So thank you Dave Stewart, whoever you are, for making my day.

Appaling customer service at Harvey Norman

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 10:07:41 GMT

Harvey Norman Ljubljana has appaling customer service as I have often before been slightly aluded to, but in the past few weeks it was proven beyond a doubt.

As some of you might know, mostly because I shoved it down your throats, a fortnight ago my graphics card died in a blaze of hot glory and consequently I went to have it fixed at the place I bought it - Harvey Norman. At first I had to wait quite a while for someone to come and see me at the service counter where the neatly packaged card, original packaging and all, was checked in.

Then last thursday, that's two days ago now, I receive a call on my cell and a guy told me I can come pick up the card, so later that day I did. Once again i was faced with waiting quite a while before anybody came and they give me the packaged card and I sign the paper saying I got it. Something told me to look in the package and so I did. What do I find?

Not only was the card not fixed, it even contained the same few specks of dust at the same place they were before - and they ripped my lovely box a little. So I ask what the flying fuck is going on? Why the hell isn't my card fixed and how come it even looks completely untouched? The clerk gave me a compassionate response that he isn't one of the service people, that they work in the mornings and he can't tell me anything about anything. I should call or come next morning.

And so I did call next morning, well, at 2pm, but verily that's not very late afternoon even for a Friday, where I work we stay there until 6pm on Fridays, sometimes even later still. Needless to say I didn't quite manage to speak to any of the service people, as simple as nobody picking up the phone. I was told after the second redirect try that I'd be redirected to the computer section rather than computer service section, but talking to those clerks doesn't really do me any good so I hung up before the call went through.

I have a suspicion that if I call right now, being Saturday, there won't be any service people there. So I'm pinning my hopes on Monday to have this mess cleared up and told why the hell is my card still out of order.

Definitely never shoppping there again though ... never again.