Sunday, December 30

highly recommended

This movie came highly recommended; well ... not highly, but it was at number six in "11 Tips to Lighten Up The Compulsively Serious". I figured it was funny enough to share:

some pictures from last weekend's biketrip

D

A&A

lizard

a hot chocolate and a vegetable soup

I had a hot chocolate and a vegetable soup today ... on Trodos peak ( in Trodos mountains :) ). Me, N and D left Limassol around nine AM, and arrived there around half past ten, half frozen (all three of us) and searching for a bathroom (only me).

It was a perfect day for riding, but (as I usually do) I underestimated the cold, so by the time I finished my hot chocolate I was feeling my hands again, and by the time I finished the soup I was almost a warm-blooded creature.

Among the highlights (so to speak):
  • the day was perfect for riding (I know I already said that, but it really was a perfect day for riding)
  • there's no running water in the toilets at the sky renting centre on top of Trodos; instead, the pipes (and the water inside) are frozen solid
  • There's no snow; well ... there was a one-by-one metre patch of snow, but altogether too little to ski on
  • did I mention if was a perfect day for riding? (well ... it was!)


In other news (that is, not related to the vegetable soup at all), this evening I hope I'll get around to opening my bike apart as my speedometer is broken and I want to have a look at it.

Saturday, December 29

sad joke

What do you call a programmer who just finished downloading HL2 Episode Two?
a. obsessed (I actually finished downloading this morning, but had to go to office, so I had something to think about throughout the day).
b. sleepless (I just stopped playing for a bit and noticed it's 6 o'clock in the morning).
c. hopeless (I'll probably continue this tomorrow).
d. you don't call him at all, at least until he finished the game. He's hopeless :)
I for one, would choose option e. happy ... but maybe that's just me :)

Here's a trailer:

Thursday, December 27

mindless update

well ... Christmas came and passed. We had a gaming night on Saturday, a quiet dinner and a movie on the 24th and I had a pizza on the Paphos seafront on the 26th, with some of my friends (it was an excuse for the bike-trip really).

Regarding the 26th, R, happy birthday! and don't get drunk!

For once this Christmas, I didn't stuff myself with food until sick (thus, breaking a sacred Romanian tradition; Romanian guys and girls out there, I apologize!).

Hopefully, I will make the time to post some pictures in the following days, manly from the bike trip (I'm starting to get a backlog on unprocessed pictures again, and I don't like it).
Later edit: I actually managed to process and upload a few pictures.

Friday, December 21

a bug, a bug!

Yesterday evening, I re-installed Steam, as I already have an account and some bought games (I just haven't opened them in a few months).

Then, I left my computer turned on over night, just for downloading Team Fortress 2, as I want to play it tomorrow evening.

This morning, 80% of it were local (around 5Gb if I remember correctly).

Then, Steam asked me if I wanted to install an update from Steam; I chose yes, restarted Steam, and my download progress reverted to zero.

The only way I could find to make Steam download anything again was to remove all local game content and start over.

I just hope it gets here in time for tomorrow afternoon.

Reflection of Self

Some say everything in one's life is a reflection of Self.

Here's a painting on our wall, with it's reflection of my merry Self :)

reflection

Amigo

Amigo
Among the first experiments with a Samsung GX10 dSLR (+SMC Pentax-A 50mm) that I got from a friend, for playing around with it.

Friday, December 14

interesting nothings

I found a good explanation (or theory at least), on why men are more attractive, when surrounded by beautiful women (before reading it, I thought it's because they're in their natural environment).

Apparently, in our office, a lesbian network cable is a female-to-female connector network cable.

Also, in completely unrelated news, we have to stay away from Western Digital hardware. They have introduced a very powerful antifeature: any sound files on your HDD are, by decision of Western Digital, blocked from being shared (yes, even if you actually created the files or simply own all rights to them).

Regarding oil, it seems that Frank Pringle created a recycling machine that extracts raw oil and natural gas out of anything based on hydrocarbons. At least that's what the article said.

Another interesting thing is the best explanation on why we will never find intelligent life in the universe: We're made out of meat!

And that's it for now; I'll post some more, later.

Wednesday, December 12

It's all about the dress code

Lots of friends asked me (at some point or another) why I'm letting my hair grow long. Now that my hair grew to a (more or less) respectable length, I can tell them it's a dresscode:


I simply want to be among the best in the field.

P., thanks for the link    :)!

Friday, December 7

funny guy

This ubuntu fellow is a funny guy:
user@<machine_name>:~$ sudo reboot
Password:
molly-guard: SSH session detected!
Please type in hostname of the machine to reboot: user
Good thing I asked; I won't reboot <machine_name> ...

from the concert

from the concert

Thursday, December 6

Wednesday, December 5

From a Former President no Less

Francesco Cossiga is a former Italian president, having ruled Italy from 1985, until 2002.

He's also one of the few politicians considered to be more-or-less correct, as in his last two years as president, he started unmasking all kinds of overt moves made by politically-powerful people, in the Italian government. Those two years made him very popular with the Italian people, and very unpopular with the Italian parliament - which seems to be the reason he lost his presidency - I'm not sure, I haven't had much time to look into that.

That's not interesting in itself, unless you're into European history.

What IS interesting however, is the interview he gave in Corriere della Sera, where he stated (translated to English):
Palazzo Chigi [headquarters of the Italian government] circles, nerve centre of Italian intelligence, note that the video's falsity is proven by the fact that Osama Bin Laden reportedly confesses that Al Qaeda made the September 11 attacks against the twin towers in New York, while all democratic circles in Europe and America, above all those of the Italian left-wing, know that the disastrous attack has been planned and executed by the CIA and Mossad, with the help of the Zionist world, in order to accuse Arab countries and force western powers to intervene both in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is why there has been no word of solidarity to Berlusconi from the Quirinale [home of the Italian president of the republic], from Palazzo Chigi nor from members of the left wing coalition.


All this, is coming from a widely-respected former-president of Italy.

What is the most interesting of it all though, is that none of the mainstream media outlets (BBC/CNN/etc.) seem to see this as newsworthy (let me give you a hint: it's huge!).

Tuesday, December 4

Sunday, December 2

next holiday

And now, for my next trick, I'll be going to Brussels for a week ... in January.

letting go

From time to time, I found lots of sources, stressing about the importance of "letting go". This is healthy, not only from the perspective of spiritual development but, if you're not into that, also from the perspective of a balanced mental life (and in the end, they amount to the same thing).

What most sources almost never tell you though, is how you go about it.

So, here it is, in all it's apparent simplicity:
The secret to letting go, is realizing you don't need it.

Saturday, December 1

Life is Good

You wake up one morning and it's Saturday and instead of getting up, you decide to stay in bed and read some.


You read for a while and then look at the clock and you go oh my God, it's twelve o'clock! and you have to be at a friend's house on the other side of town, to get to a Romanian restaurant and eat Romanian food, as it just happened that on this particular Saturday, the sun rose and then it was the National Day of Romania for a while.


You jump under the shower and there's no hot water but you have no time to warm it up, so you suck it up and take a cold shower instead and while you're in the shower you remember that you have to bring the motorbike in service as the odometer and speed meter stopped working after the last rain and then you exit the shower (wet and cold and in a hurry) and see that you still have to lay the clothes you washed yesterday to dry (yeah, yesterday was a day of laziness for you) then you get out of the house and you're already late and your friend calls you and you end up speeding through traffic (and thanking the FSM for the relaxed traffic although it's a Saturday morning) and you get at the service-shop ten minutes later.


You're at your friend's and you're just five minutes late and everything is cool.


You're at the Romanian restaurant and you have a beer and Romanian whine and an unexplainable food ("bulz" is actually quite explainable, but you won't try to explain it, because you know people have to try it out to actually understand what it's all about) and you finally eat almost a whole bowl of pickles in brine, which you missed dearly for a while now.


It's late and you have to get to Ikea, because you said would and you go back to your friend's home and rest and it starts raining, but it's OK: you're inside and it's fun to watch the rain.


You're rolling on the highway and it's dark outside, because it's already five o'clock and still heavily raining, so almost nothing is visible and it's hot in the car so you fall asleep.


You wake up and you haven't had all the sleep you needed and you're groggy, but the rain stopped and you're almost there, so it's more or less OK and then you arrive and make some rounds through Ikea, picking up a strangely shaped red pillow, a computer table, rolls to mount under tables to make them mobile and a mini lamp.


You get to the car and start searching for the concert hall, to go to a concert you weren't sure you wanted to see anyway, but since you're there and didn't talk about it with the guys there's nothing better to be doing.


There are lots of cars on the highway and it seems that everybody is either going to the concert or just there to be in your way and you take a couple of wrong turns and go past the concert hall once or twice and then you turn around and the hall is just there.


You're impressed and you're taking pictures and the people are applauding and laughing and and actually singing along at all the right times (yeah, it's a good performance).


Everybody is sqeezing out the doors and they jump at the food laid around in waiting by the Romanian Embassy, and you stay there and socialize for a while (because there are all the people you stopped talking to, when you left your old job which you lost contact with). You decide you'll go home with somebody else than the guys you came with, then with somebody else still, and end up on the way back on the highway, chatting about dreams, relaxed artists, Oliver Shanti and Tamango, while sitting in the back seat of the car, in between two beautiful ladies.

Life is good.