fulfilment

If you want to know who you chose to be in the past, look at who you are now; It is in the present moment that the consequences of the past become real;


For the second time in three days, I found myself doing something completely fulfilling; something that leaves me with no desires, no wants and needs, and completely content; at peace;

One could say it's not complicated; NDW would say it's saying 'hello' to your soul; I see it as choosing fulfillment;
Choosing "to be" from "to be or not to be".

For me, this time it was a walk on the beach; last time it was a massage I gave to someone ... and I belive it is important for me to remember that it is not the other doing that: not the beach and not my friend and not the massage, but who I am and what I chose to feel when I was doing that.

May I choose fulfilment in the next moment and I will need nothing else.

This is my statement.

ICE basketball event

here are some pictures I took yesterday at the ICE basketball event organized by the company.

japanese drums

It's about Zen and the art of flash animations ... or something sounding cool and spiritual like that.

Anyway, here's what I'm talking about.

The ultimate resource for BS Bingo

For those really productive Board meetings, Staff meetings, and Company All-Hands Meetings, I have the Official Corporate Buzzword Bingo card.
Just print this page out, and take it to the next meeting and let the fun begin. Click the Generate button to get another unique card and pass them out to your coworkers.

Buzz Word Generator.

does being locked in an elevator count as an adventure?

Today is a busy day for me: this morning I got my learner license, for lunch I went with B, L and E and had some grilled champignons (with garlic and stuff) and some pasta (made by Chef Utnapistim himself), then we got stuck in an elevator for some time.

Now I'm back in office, testing for a possible solution to my old (by now) problem, and this evening I want to go skating with L.

Anyway, here are some pictures I took at B&L, of L's new static discharge ball









There's one thing I don't understand about today though:

Does laughing and cracking lame jokes in a blocked elevator count as living an adventure?

I got my learner license

There's one thing I don't understand though: Who's the ugly guy in the photograph, and why is he staring at me?

deep reflection

I got this through email from B and thought I might share it:

• SAVE THE WHALES
• COLLECT THE WHOLE SET


• A DAY WITHOUT SUNSHINE IS LIKE...NIGHT


• ON THE OTHER HAND, YOU HAVE DIFFERENT FINGERS


• I JUST GOT LOST IN THOUGHT. IT WAS UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY


• 42.7% OF ALL STATISTICS ARE MADE UP ON THE SPOT


• 99% OF LAWYERS GIVE THE REST A BAD NAME


• I FEEL LIKE I'M DIAGONALLY PARKED IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE


• HONK IF YOU LOVE PEACE AND QUIET


• REMEMBER, HALF THE PEOPLE YOU KNOW ARE BELOW AVERAGE


• HE WHO LAUGHS LAST, THINKS SLOWEST


• DEPRESSION IS MERELY ANGER WITHOUT ENTHUSIASM


• THE EARLY BIRD MAY GET THE WORM, BUT THE SECOND MOUSE GETS THE CHEESE


• I DRIVE WAY TOO FAST TO WORRY ABOUT CHOLESTEROL


• SUPPORT BACTERIA
• THEY'RE THE ONLY CULTURE SOME PEOPLE HAVE


• MONDAY IS AN AWFUL WAY TO SPEND 1/7 OF YOUR WEEK


• A CLEAR CONSCIENCE IS USUALLY THE SIGN OF A BAD MEMORY


• CHANGE IS INEVITABLE, EXCEPT FROM VENDING MACHINES


• GET A NEW CAR FOR YOUR SPOUSE. IT'LL BE A GREAT TRADE!


• PLAN TO BE SPONTANEOUS TOMORROW


• ALWAYS TRY TO BE MODEST, AND BE PROUD OF IT!


• IF YOU THINK NOBODY CARES, TRY MISSING A COUPLE OF PAYMENTS


• HOW MANY OF YOU BELIEVE IN PSYCHOKINESIS? RAISE MY HAND


• OK, SO WHAT'S THE SPEED OF DARK?


• HOW DO YOU TELL WHEN YOU'RE OUT OF INVISIBLE INK


• IF EVERYTHING SEEMS TO BE GOING WELL, YOU HAVE OBVIOUSLY OVERLOOKED SOMETHING


• WHEN EVERYTHING IS COMING YOUR WAY, YOU'RE IN THE WRONG LANE


• HARD WORK PAYS OFF IN THE FUTURE
• LAZINESS PAYS OFF NOW


• EVERYONE HAS A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY
• SOME JUST DO NOT HAVE FILM


• IF BARBIE IS SO POPULAR, WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BUY HER FRIENDS?


• HOW MUCH DEEPER WOULD THE OCEAN BE WITHOUT SPONGES?


• EAGLES MAY SOAR, BUT WEASELS DO NOT GET SUCKED INTO JET ENGINES


• WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU GET SCARED HALF TO DEATH TWICE?


• I USED TO HAVE AN OPEN MIND, BUT MY BRAINS KEPT FALLING OUT


• I COULDN'T REPAIR YOUR BRAKES, SO I MADE YOUR HORN LOUDER


• WHY DO PSYCHICS HAVE TO ASK YOU FOR YOUR NAME?


• INSIDE EVERY OLDER PERSON IS A YOUNGER PERSON WONDERING WHAT HAPPENED


• JUST REMEMBER--IF THE WORLD DID NOT SUCK, WE WOULD ALL FALL OFF


• LIGHT TRAVELS FASTER THAN SOUND, WHICH IS WHY SOME PEOPLE APPEAR BRIGHT UNTIL YOU HEAR THEM SPEAK.

reluctant to sleep

It's close to five AM, Saturday morning; I've been awake since two, reading and for some reason I'm reluctant to sleep.

Instead, I've been downloading the SUSE 10.1 installation images because I want to play with XGL, a window manager only available on the latest release (kids these days!)

In other news ... well ... as it happened before, I have a feeling something new happened lately (on many different levels actually) but don't quite know how to put it in words;
I finally found out what data gets corrupted in my investigation at work ...
... and I felt I made a good step forward in something that's been keeping me busy on a personal level ...
... M is also comming for holidays in Cyprus at the end of next month ...

Anyway!

To be consistent with the stream-of-consciousness style this post seems to have, it's not that I cannot sleep; I know it's a matter of two minutes of reiki at this point to sleep like a log;

I'm also tired enough but ... I'm just reluctant somehow.

El Bladeo

El Bladeo is one of those silly, addictive office games, for people who have mostly nothing to do in office.

Unfortunately I have stuf to do, so I abandoned it at level 3 :(

busy day

Today was just like any other, yet I've felt more .. . busy somehow. I'm not sure why this happened, but I belive it's because our GL (that's Group Leader incase you didn't know) will change project soon; In light of this I started feeling more ... responsible for my part;

All in all it's a good change of pace for me, although things ar stil going slowly (stil connecting to a server half-the-world appart, stil not being able to run the load-tests from here and so on).

The guys in India promised to make a machine available for me to connect remotely and I haven't seen anything yet; I also had a strange error working against me all day and this stopped me from progressing, but it gave me a pretext to look into the actual data and algorithm more in-depth;

I needed to do that at some point anyway, and at the moment I'm (slowly) getting past it.

Anyway, it's back to work I guess ...

newsbleat

newsbleat - episode 1, brought to you by AlbinoBlackSheep.com :)

How the West wasn't won

I found a fable on the failure of NASA ... errr .... I mean NAFA, the National Agricultural Frontier Administration.

From the fable:

Once you set up a government monopoly, particularly a large one, it rapidly becomes extremely difficult to control. The monopoly immediately develops its own objectives, the FIRST one being survival, so it NEVER FINISHES ITS TASK, which becomes more and more complex and expensive. It also creates interest groups; crushes incipient competition in order to protect its prestige; and develops power to influence the government, the behaviour of whole industries, and eventually the perceptions of the whole population - particularly if it's allowed to use public funds to campaign for itself. So it can waste ANY amount of taxpayers* money; FAIL to achieve the task it was designed to achieve; and waste DECADES of time in the process.

weekend activity

It's been a good weekend;

Yesteday I went to S&C's place for the evening and we (sort-of) played bridge. All in all it was a fun evening :)

treetrunk in the sun

Tree trunk in the sun (while camping at Fontana Amorosa, Cyprus)

thank you

Apparently, you deserve a million "thank you"s.

Thank you :)

I'm famous ... or something

so ... one of my pictures appears at the moment on the cover of the WBGU Special Report for 2006.

I'm famous! Well ... no, not really. But it's a nice feeling.

Anyway, I spoke to TH (he chose the picture for the cover) and he should send me a hard-copy of the report through normal post.

This rocks!

sunglasses in a taxi, this morning

true purpose

This short movie explains in depth what the internet is really for.

after visiting

Last night after seeing Vozvrashcheniye (The Return) at a friend's place, I took a stroll on the seafront, to get some pictures.

It was close to twelve AM and I didn't feel like staying longer but I stopped for a few shots.

This is one of them:


... and by the way ... if you get the chance, see the movie :)

if you build it they will come

me

me, originally uploaded by utnapistim.

photo taken by O.

camping at Fontana Amorosa

Some pictures from Fontana Amorosa, this weekend:

a patch of sand


plants in the sun


and our camp fire


star trails over trees


a dragonfly


snorkeling gear


and the guys










It was a good weekend.

6:30 AM

It's close to six and a half and I'm - ofcourse - blogging :|

I am due to leave for a camping weekend around eight and maybe because of this, I slept lightly.

I stil have to buy some water, beer (I'm stil not sure I will want any, but it's the condom principle: better have it and not need it than the other way around), some haloumi and whatever picks my fancy, from a grocery store - or the like.


I wanted to try getting some star trails tonight (being away from the city and all that) and had decided to experiment a bit.

Wish me luck.
(Actually wish me a good time).

darkness, long exposures and a laser pointer

Yesterday night D insisted we got out of the appartment and on top of the building to take night shots.

I didn't want to go initially, since nowadays I try to avoid taking pictures with no plan in mind.

Anyway, at some point he mentioned what one can do with darkness, long exposures and a laser pointer (and we had all three).

I have no idea why I wrote "No personality" on the wall; Maybe "Der Herr Doktor Freud" would say I have sexual problems or something like that.

Who cares?

No personality


footsteps in the dark

early morning in Limassol

fisherman in the early morning, originally uploaded by utnapistim.

incase you are not impressed

Incase I failed to impress you last time, here's what I did yesterday:

First, I came to office having nothing at all with me: no security batch, no money, no home keys and no phone.

Then, I asked a friend to give me a ride home, to get my stuff;

So, here we were around 3 PM in his car two hundred metres from my apartment, everything fine, sun shining in the sky an all, when I realized I had also forgotten to get a key from one of my flat mates';

I had no means to get inside my appartment at all.


Instead, we came back to office.


... and that was yesterday; Today I left my camera home.


So Doc, is there something wrong with me?

some more hopefulls

On a request from a friend I passed once again through the shots I took on the Limassol pier two nights ago, and I found a few more hopefulls:

boat to meet the sunrise


looking under the pier




Lights on the old port of Limassol


and a bench on the pier, where a fisherman had left his fishing gear

my second visit to the pier, Limassol seafront

I woke at three AM, packed my camera and visited the pier again. This time, I was waiting for the golden hour before sunrise.

I should have gone at half past four, but never mind; I got some cool shots anyway (though I'll have to retake some of them).

moon at three AM


and over the old port


stairs at the pier


and the support structure


and the setting moon


morning star,


the mediterranean before sunrise,




... Limassol,


... the early fishermen


and finally, a rusty chain link

weekend update

so ... I hybernated for another weekend.

I wanted to visit the pier again for some pictures saturday and sunday (and postponed due to sheer lazyness), then I wanted to go last night to catch the sunset on the pier and postponed it again (for the same reason).

I also had some plans for visiting fassouri and those fell appart also, so in the end, I hybernated.

I finished HL2 Episode One again, with enabled comments (and they really give insight into the dev. effort and a lot of background) and I almost finished the latest book I've been reading.

That's about it I guess.
Actually, there's more: I'll try to catch the sunrise tomorrow morning on the pier, but I have to wake around 3AM for that.

lazily yours,
utnapistim.

Chardonnay on my office desk

Chardonnay on my office desk, originally uploaded by utnapistim.

this is ... most unproductive

As any half life 2 compulsive player out there, when I finished the game (for the third time methinks, but who's counting?) I bacame bored.

I tried to start it again several times but ... it got booooriiing! boring! boring!

So, I left it alone, until in Israel, when I found out that HL2 Episode One came out.

I tried getting it through Steam, but the Steam connection was cut by the hotel's ISP.


Anyway, long story short, yesterday I remembered it again, started Windows (I think HL2 is probably the single reason I stil keep Windows around on my PC), and set it to download ...

As 5 AM came around this morning it caught me playing ...


I think until I get bored with Episode One also my evening will be ... most unproductive.


Unproductively yours,
utnapistim online.

lunch break actvity

Kanasta during lunch break, originally uploaded by utnapistim.