Going to the Park

Today we went to the park ... kind of.

D&R came home around six, and we decided we'd go to the park: they, to check out their mountain-bikes, me to check my brother's motorbike.

We got to the parking lot, mounted the MTBs on the car, I got the motorbike out, then we exited the parking lot and the rain started. We turned around, parked again, got the MTBs off the car and ran through the rain, back home.

D's comment: Welcome to Belgium!

In Blegium

I am in Belgium. I arrived yesterday after a tiring flight, and was half zombie for the whole day.

Things are a bit different here, but it's welcome change and I was looking forward to it:

The closest shop is a Carrefour. It's bigger than I was used to, and the product quality and range differs greatly. I am not one to spend my days in Carrefour or anything, but it was familiar and strange at the same time ... Also, food kiosks and non-stop shops are non-existent here (to the degree I was able to determine) as people buy food in bulk around here (cheaper to do so). As I said, it's welcome change.

When we landed, I was lucky to have packed a rain jacket with my cabin luggage, otherwise I'd have frozen. Now it's sunny outside, but not warm (I had forgotten this combination), and it's been raining for a while yesterday, for a while last night, and for a while today.

Otherwise, it's all good. I got a local simcard and I'm posting stuff on the net.

One last thing: Hoegaarden rocks!

An Interesting Drugs Report

It seems that a while ago, the World Health Organization performed a study on cocaine use (the source said it was the largest ever indepth study). Then, the results got dimissed and the report was never published, as it didn't conform with the myths propagated by the US anti-drug campaigns and political interests.

The report touched on unjustified stigmatization/vilification of cocaine users, exaggerations of the health damages cocaine produces and the fact that current approaches to stopping the use of cocaine are naive at best (among other things).

The US apparently threatened to withdraw funding from the WHO if the report was published (in the end it seems it was leaked[PDF], not published).

Disclaimer: This post is in no way an endorsement for the use of cocaine (or any other drugs for that matter). I am more interested in writing about the conclusions and the supression of the report, than drugs in general. Besides, IANAD.

Chopin and ... Djembe drums

I was just talking to a friend about playing Chopin on a Djembe drum.

We figured that, if we were to manage it, Chopin would be spinning in his grave to such a degree that if you were to put a magnet in his mouth and wrap the coffin in copper wire, you'd solve the energy needs of the whole of Europe for the next fifty years.

On Moving, and the 90-90 Rule

My blog is in danger of becoming stale, as I haven't taken the time to post in a while. Here are some highlights:

• I'm moving to Belgium

So, there!

Also, here are some ramblings on changing country: When moving your stuff from Cyprus, you can choose between plane and cargo.
I opted for cargo, because I absolutely hate going through airports with everything but the kitchen sink.
Even so, I couldn't get everything through cargo. It's the 90-90 rule:

When moving house, after you gather 90% of your crap lying around, you only have to gather the remaining 90%!

After I shipped my cargo with orbit I had the feeling I had an empty room. Once I started actually packing everything that was left (the small stuff), I couldn't believe how much I had left (the remaining 90%).

The good part is I should be in Belgium by the end of the week.

"Miles per gallon" to "litres per 100 km" conversion

I'm tired of reading(or watching) mpg comparisions, when they don't give me a frame of reference. As such, I'd decided to write my own online convertor for it.

This is the algorithm (in python):

def mpg2lpckm(mpg):
    one_mile=1.609344
    one_gallon=3.78541178
    kmpg = mpg * one_mile # km/gallon
    kmpl = kmpg / one_gallon # km / l
    lpkm = 1. / kmpl # l / km
    return lpkm * 100.

and here is the online conversion:

two more pictures from Kaunertal

on mindfulness

For a while now, I've told people that "I don't really meditate, but I practice mindfulness". It sounds good, which makes it the perfect excuse.

I realized this while I was reading Being and Mindfulness, by Judith Warner. She says:

It has dawned on me lately, meditating on the Metro, thoughts silenced so completely that I can hear every page being turned by passengers up and down the car (I am above reading — I am present to myself) that being fully in the moment, all senses turned on, feeling your hands in your lap and the ground under your feet, is a very good way of not being there at all.

That there was my mistake also: in my rush to be present, I ran off after "presence", after "being present" and "practicing mindfulness". In that rush, I lost what I was actually running after (and ended up taking myself too seriously).

Maybe I need to meditate more.

Happy StarWars Day!

May the 4^th be with you!

Playing for Change

I found this via reddit - via inspirationlounge - via movingpicturesmagazine. The site is playingforchange.

Mark Johnson describes how he was inspired to create it, while listening on a singing street performance by two monks, ten years ago.

In the videos, various people from around the world listen to the music (negative?) and contribute to it in various ways.

Stand by Me

Original lyrics:

When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we'll see
No I won't be afraid, no I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh now now stand by me
Stand by me, stand by me

If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
And the mountains should crumble to the sea
I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me
Stand by me, stand by me, stand by me-e, yeah

Whenever you're in trouble won't you stand by me, oh now now stand by me
Oh stand by me, stand by me, stand by me

Darlin', darlin', stand by me-e, stand by me
Oh stand by me, stand by me, stand by me

No More Trouble

Original lyrics:

Until the philosophy which holds one race
Superior and another inferior
Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned
Everywhere is war, me say war

That until there is no longer first class
And second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man's skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes
Me say war

That until the basic human rights are equally
Guaranteed to all, without regard to race
Dis a war

That until that day
The dream of lasting peace, world citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion
To be pursued, but never attained
Now everywhere is war, war

And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes
That hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique,
South Africa sub-human bondage
Have been toppled, utterly destroyed
Well, everywhere is war, me say war

War in the east, war in the west
War up north, war down south
War, war, rumours of war

And until that day, the African continent
Will not know peace, we Africans will fight
We find it necessary and we know we shall win
As we are confident in the victory

Of good over evil, good over evil, good over evil
Good over evil, good over evil, good over evil

back in office

I'm back in office, dizzy and dreaming of snow.

Anyway, I started processing pictures from the trip.






Edit: Three more:

In Kaunertal

I'm in Kaunertal. It is a small town in the middle of nowhere, 30 minutes by car from some nice slopes, on top of a permanent glacier, near Innsbruck, Austria.

We are staying at FeichtnerHof, a pretty impressive 4 star hotel, and the food is to die for.

Other impressions ... let's see:
The ski slopes are good, except their color coding is wrong: there is one black slope which should be red, a couple of blue ones that should be red also, and no slopes that should be black at all.

The snow started melting on the lower slopes, but each night it freezes again, each day it snows and the guys there take great care, so the upper slopes are good every morning.

I got mysself a pair of skis (atomics). The ones I had been using were crap (vibrating like crazy once I got any amount of speed to speak of).

The Alps are great to see, great to drive through and great to capture in pictures (I'll post some once I get home and make the time to process them).

My brother is a maniac behind the steering wheel (though luckily he seems to generally know what he's doing).

I haven't fallen yet on the skis and my favorite slope is the black one. I've had a few close calls though.

Weissbier (usually Edelweiss) is great to have at the restaurant on the slope, but it tends to rouin skiing afterwards).

Sonya

I don't usually laugh at "cute animal" movies but this takes the cake.


And now... at last - Sonya!!!!(slow loris) from Dmitry Sergeyev on Vimeo.

Pancakes anyone?

From time to time, I do all kinds of things to get back in touch with my spirituality. Today I figured something out:

I am always in touch with my spirituality in various forms, but I only recognize this in certain specific forms.

Pancakes anyone?

Blind, blind.

Selling Bike for Peanuts

I'll be selling my bike these days. It's an orange 1996 Yamaha DragStar, at 400cc. Since I only have two weeks to get rid of it, it will go for peanuts.

Here are some (older) pictures:










So ... if you have anyone who has a brother who has a neighbour who's cousin wants the bike, tell them to drop me a message, or leave a comment with some contact information.

dan.barbus resides at gmail.com.

Extreme Sheep LED Art

quote

When you bow deeply to the universe, it bows back; when you call out the name of God, it echoes inside you.

The Art of Peace
Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido.

Daniel Hannan MEP: The devalued Prime Minister of a devalued Government

I have nothing against the British Prime Minister. Still, this is an eloquent discourse/accusation with powerful arguments*.

The again, who am I kidding?

Yeah! Bring him to task!



M., thanks for the link. I hope it gets a wider distribution.

* - And the British accent thing is cool also.

One Year

At a police unit advancement exam, there were three candidates. To test their detective skills, the first one was presented with a profile picture of a suspect and asked to state what he noticed, immediately after.

He said "The suspect has only one year." Of course, the examiners got angry and he was disqualified from the exam.

The second candidate was presented the same picture and he said "The suspect has one year." The examiners got even angrier and he was disqualified also.

The third candidate looked at the picture and he said "The suspect wears contact lenses." The examiners looked at each other, then one of them ran to the desk, got the suspect's file and looked through it. Then, he turned to the candidate and said:

"That was amazing! You were able to deduct from a small, unclear lateral picture of the suspect that he wears contacts. How did you do that?!"

"Well, it was easy." said the candidate. "The suspect can't wear glasses because he only has one year."

poppy

almost boycoting experts-exchange (rant)

I have started a personal movement of (almost) boycotting experts-exchange.com.

Here's why: Let's say I have a technical problem and am looking for a solution.

I hit a Google search, find a description of my problem within the first page of results, then open it, only to have to scroll down and get a screen like this:


Here's what's wrong with this err ... picture:

First, I don't want to have to create create an account to view the solution.
Second, I don't want to create an account that will expire in seven days, unless I pay for it.
Third, I don't want to pay for it.

Due to this, I just wasted time (and bandwidth) opening a link, to read again the description of my problem, and get a message that basically said a solution to your problem exists.

experts-exchange, stop wasting my time!

So, what will I do with this?

Nothing much.

I will delete all experts-exchange results from my google search results. To the degree google adapts the search results to user modifications, I will either stop seeing them altogether, or see them less often, or (maybe even) cause others to see them less often.

If I have the time, I will also create a grease-monkey script that does that "automagically".

poppy

straw pattern

Victor Borge, on Phonetic Pronunciation

Mr. I, waiting for the rain to pass

just a flower

In-camera IR processing experiment.

Haiku

Silent balcony.
Through the branches,
Slow Moon gliding.

Religion

I found this funny. Apparently it was censored by youtube ...

Religion - watch more funny videos

About the Triangle of Disempowerment

This article is mainly about victims; Victims of destiny, victims of life, victims of circumstance, victims of serendipity or victims of their fellows.

When we see an abusive situation, we immediately split it between a perceived VICTIM and a perceived PERPETRATOR. In this, we have a binary situation (bad guy vs. victim) that is easy to see. The perpetrator may be intangible, something that nothing can be done about, like god/devil, destiny, whatever, or tangible, like an abusive relative or a violent person. It doesn't matter for my little article.

Looking from this point of view (bad guy vs. victim), there is one escape for the victim: become stronger than the aggressor (turning ultimately into another aggressor) and many times, the two change roles (unfortunately, victims of abuse often do this).

Many times though, becomming stronger than the perceived aggressor is impossible (as in, "It is my destiny to suffer for this" - who can go against that?!)

---

To widen the bad guy vs. victim model, let's introduce a new element, the good guy, the RESCUER. Our model now turns into a triangle, with the victim having three choices: suffer, become a bad guy, or become a good guy (and ultimately help others deal with abuse).

I am not smart enough (or thoughtful enough) to have come up with this model by myself. This model is called "Low Drama", or the "Triangle of Disempowerment" and people play it (more or less) whenever they interact with ... well anything really.

It looks like this:
I hope you can appreciate my great MS Paint skills.

Basically, this is a cycle we go through, with no apparent escape from it.

Here are the roles, in detail:

The Victim

"I'm not OK, both the Perpetrator and the Rescuer are OK."

The victims try to escape their roles by becomming either a Rescuer or a Perpetrator, usually at different levels (in different triangles, with other players, they will play different roles).
They blame the Perpetrators (direct abuser/life/destiny/partner/friends/relatives/whoever is available), and in extremis, everything bad that ever happens, happens to them.
As the perfect example of a victim, see the definition of a Drama Queen.

Ironically, the victim is the most powerful player of the game: a skilled victim can turn a Rescuer into a Perpetrator ("It's your fault for not getting me out of my situation"), it can turn an innocent bystander into a Perpetrator ("I can't believe you're doing this to me"), and it can even stop the whole triangle completely, by becoming aware of the triangle/pattern.

The Perpetrator

"I'm OK, you're not OK, so I'm justified in hurting you".

Usually somebody who is a victim for others and has a need to prove his strength will become a perpetrator. At a certain level, the internal need to be a perpetrator is perceived weakness and the need to compensate for that. From this point of view, a perpetrator is a distorted victim.

As the perfect example of a perpetrator, take your pick, as we are all full of them; just take your pet peeve and see who's doing it to you (yes, you are practicing your low drama also). I do not mean necessarily, that you are a drama queen, merely that there's no escaping the game, and it's a good thing to acknowledge that we actually do it).

The Rescuer

"I'm OK, the victim is OK, the Perpetrator is not OK".

On a first impression, there is nothing wrong with the Rescuer, he is the good guy, something to aspire to.
Except it's not. Sooner or later, splitting a situation in victim/perpetrator/rescuer makes you part of the game, propagates the problem further. The rescuer is all about getting into the problem, not about empowering the victim.

You can probably think of people you've seen getting out of an abusive situation, only to get into another one (I know I did).

Saving the victim (actually saving the victim) would mean breaking the low drama completely, helping the victim become aware of the triangle, and the first step in doing that is not to play the game, as tempting to help as that may be.

If this sounds like I'm saying not to help the victim, that's true, with a catch: Only help the victim if the victim asks for help. Mind your own business, or consider that you're actually joining the game. If the victim asks for help, you can provide help without participating in the triangle ... maybe :)

When they don't ask for help, you're just participating in the victim's play and you'll end up suffering for it sooner or later. The way not to suffer for it, is to see clearly that it doesn't involve you, it has no relationship to you, and any involvement you put into that is voluntary.

That was my insight into the dis-empowerment triangle. I hope you had your fun reading it.

Edit: A friend of mine gave me a perfect example of not being engaged in my drama, a few weeks ago.

I had had a quarrel with somebody and needed a way to vent.

I ended up meeting with my friend and as I was ready to begin ranting on what's been done to me and how my chosen perpetrator (yes, she was my chosen perpetrator) had the gall to do all that, my friend interrupted me and told me she refused to listen to me painting the other person with a "bad" brush, as my perpetrator was also her friend (in the end, that meant she refused to sit and listen to me being a victim).

In this case I was lucky: that was enough for me to realize my victim role and acknowledge that the "perpetrator" had just reacted to avoid being hurt (i. e. not to do all that to me as I had been telling myself). My victim role was just me being hurt myself (I guess on a level we hurt each other) and blaming someone else.

Sometimes though, when people don't want to participate in our drama we get angry, as the sympathy we get for playing a victim can be a strong emotional reward (that the listener denies us) and for a ... skilled victim that's just another way to become a stronger victim (they refuse to listen and show sympathy? Do they have no compassion? How can they do this to me?!?).

Bobby Mcferrin improvisation with Richard Bona

A., thanks for the link :)

sqrt(day)

Happy Square Root Day everybody!

Video Games Preparing Children For the Apocalypse

The Onion strikes again:

Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?


Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

Credit Crisis, Explained

I found this on Ţarălungă.ro.


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Face of the Moon

Lucky Charm

Reddit Reddux

Don't Wake Up the Programmer! is an interesting read for programmers, and (especially) for non-programmers.

The real cause of the financial crisis, and the real solution - An MIT Blackjack Team Perspective.

The Pauli Effect is the (mystical?) effect of borking things up by your mere presence, and it was named after Wolfgang Pauli.

Apparently Female hysteria was once a common diagnostic, that even lead to the development of the sexual toys (?); Either way, it's an interesting read.

That's it for now ... more to come later.

EA rant ... redirected...

Well ... it seems an apology is in order, for my post regarding Mirror's Edge: it turns out that the many many problems I've had with the game came not from EA's developers, neither testing nor bad karma, but from Windows Vista.
The game should not have had BETA plastered over it, just a disclaimer:

"This game is only partially working with Windows Vista. Use at your own risk."

I installed XP (details to come in a future post) and finished the game through the weekend. It was nice (though a bit shorter than I expected).

Don't talk to the police

... at least if you're in the States ...

Statue in Vienna

genius

Monique Marvez is a genius ...



... and funny.

karma, or why am I dressed in gray and black today

I am dressed in gray and black today, because they're the last clean clothes I have left, so I have no choice in the matter.

This is logical, and it cannot be argued against (I really have no other clean clothes, I need to be clean and so on).

I can safely say I have little choice in the matter.

On the other way, the situation as it is is the reflection of my choices past. I could have made a different choice yesterday (perhaps), or the day before that would allow me different choices now.

This is karma.

People usually thinking of karma though, say I don't believe in karma. or I believe in karma. In that context, karma is predestination, the fact that some things "just happen to you", that you're a victim of circumstance destiny. If you put it that way, I don't believe in karma either.

In my context though, karma is just another word for responsibility: the fact that you can do whatever you want, but you will probably have to face the consequences of that sooner or later, in one form or another. It is not a matter of clearing your karma, getting a good or bad karma (though I think you may call it that if you really want) or having to pay for bad karma. It's just the fact that you 'lay your own bed' so to speak.

Maybe it's an invitation to pay attention.

Mirror's Edge A.K.A. Caveat Emptor ... for software

As the Good Google teaches us, "Beta" is the new "Release".

Nowhere is this clearer than in the new EA release, Mirror's Edge.

It works like this: you buy the game (for a mere 50EUR :(), wait for it to download and after a day and a half of waiting, it doesn't start.

You have to browse the forums (Google search: Mirror's Edge stuck at splash screen, Mirror's Edge crashes, etc.), then start playing with your settings:

• update drivers a couple of times
• read the forums again
• try a couple of hacks (rename a DLL, set the antialiasing manually in some config files to a low value, etc)

The game finally takes of and it's all good.

Except it's not.

It's crashed twice on me, and at some difficult parts in the game (usually where you are most immersed in the game) it started crawling, drawing the frames at one-two frames per second, and mainly became unusable.

Come on guys!

I know you had a deadline to keep, but what you did here is BETA QUALITY.

The game-play is great and looks polished-enough, but all that can't be enjoyed if you have to fight it to play it.

These are the kind of problems that should have gone away after beta testing, so it's either a problem with the testing, or with the bug-fixing, or it's a problem with management sticking their tails where they don't belong and forcing the deadlines.

I hope I don't offend anyone when I say that the only way I'll buy another EA game is if I download it first from torrents, and decide it's streamlined enough to be worth the money (as this one definitely wasn't).

For other potential buyers: if you want to buy the game, wait a few months until they get some patches out (if they do at all). Otherwise, only buy the game if you don't mind a few hours making it run.

Edit: It seems the game actually works after all. Just, not for Windows Vista.

History of the Internet

some more pictures

The weekend is over. I arrived back from Moldova on Friday night, and spend most of Saturday outside. Today I got my rest.

I don't have anything interesting to say right now, except that I finally took the time to process four more holidays pictures.

Enjoy:

11:23 in Chisinau Airport

I'm a busy bunny today - places to go and (no) people to see.

I'll be flying out of here by 12:25, to Istanbul. Then, I'll be on my way to Athens, then from Athens to Larnaca. I could have taken a more direct flight, but where's the fun in that?

Actually the "more direct flight" would have made miss the weekend, but fun sounds ... well ... funnier.

Instead, I'll be flying for close to twelve hours today (not really, but the breaks will be spent in airports, so there's no difference really).

I think I'll have enough fun today to get stuffed with it.

Moldova is ...

.. a bit of a culture shock, and familiar at the same time.

I've been here since Monday, so here are a few minute impressions:

• the food is great(like the good Romanian food I've been missing, though there are differences).


• Grigore Vieru (respected poet) died, and there was a national mourning day, declared by the president. It was a huge event and everybody kept talking about it for a few days.


• the hotel is nice (I remembered that since last visit, but that doesn't make it less nice)

That's it for now (or were you expecting something meaningful?).

about rebirth

I was reading a Buddhist discussion on rebirth (How do Buddhists deal with the idea of rebirth?) and found a comment I really liked (not quoting):
You don't survive death because the "you" that you think you are doesn't really exist. Why would a construct in your mind survive death?

Another good point in the discussion: the "rebirth" concept is mainly metaphoric - to really live every moment, you have to die every moment, and be reborn.

Icicles in the Sun, Red Mountain, Romania

Palinkopf Peak, Ischgl, Austria

lone tree, red mountain forrest trail, Romania

Back on Earth

I'm back in office, working.

We arrived at five in the morning and it was a pleasant change to walk outside in temperatures over the freezing point.

I'm in office now, muscles still aching from the skiing, tired and busy.
I'll post some pictures over the week, and try to answer my mail backlog.

back to work ...

in .ro

I'm in Bucharest.

I arrived two hours ago and just has something to eat.

Highlights from the trip:
1. Discussion with the stewardess:
"Excuse me, can I take pictures on the plane?"
"No" (smile) " ... but I might not see you."
I didn't take pictures on the plane though :(

2. Upon arriving I got reminded why I visit Romania so seldom: the luggage conveyor belt was very small (Baneasa Airport) and the first forty people (or so) to pass customs gathered all around it; they didn't let anyone else get close to the conveyor belt because they were in a hurry; still, their luggage wasn't on the belt, as the belt was full with other luggage, mainly from the people not willing to push into the crowd. People near the coneyor belt had nothing to take but were unwilling to leave their places, and people far from the conveyor belt were unable to approach at all. It was a stalemate that degenerated into shouting and cursing pretty fast.

All in all I found it funny ... in a sad kind of way.

Welcome to Romania!
Good night.

S.

angel

ornamental flower

50 mm

I received today the 50mm lens I got from eBay, and as far as first impressions go, it seems rock-solid.

I'm already impressed with the sharpness and bokeh (I'll probably post some pictures in a couple of days, once I've had the time to take it through it's paces).

Weekend

I had a full weekend.

I tried Osho's Kundalini meditation for the first time, with a group in Nicosia, lead by one of Osho's students. It was an interesting session and I learned a lot. I'm actually looking forward to my next one.

I also did some work on a soul retrieval with a friend and started clarifying some of my goals.

My schedule is starting to look busy.

meditation and parradox

Empty-handed I go; and behold, the spade is in my hands;
I walk on foot, and yet on the back of an ox I am riding;
When I pass over the bridge,
Lo, the water floweth not, but the bridge doth flow.

This is the gatha of Jenye, as found in An Introduction to Zen Buddhism by Daisetz Teitarō Suzuki. It is followed by an explanation into the illogical nature of Zen, that I don't care to remember right now.

What's important for me: after I understood these words, the nature of my meditation changed.

In a completely unrelated subject:
You can be happy at any time you like, but you might have to work at it.

magic

Usually, it's just light, annoyingly reaching your monitor and you can't see the screen properly.
At my current location it's easy to completely forget it though, as it doesn't even reach my screen.

Still, if you take a moment and go outside right before sunset, you see that everything is bathed by it, surrounded in beauty.

A moment of magic.

Nikon D90 on the L train

Nikon D90 on the L train from Mike Kobal on Vimeo.

Alice in Wonderland ... and zen

I enjoyed reading this today (because it's a perfectly good example of the rational way we make distinctions):

Zen master John Daido Loori of the Zen Mountain Monastery uses this in his teaching:

The caterpillar said, "One side will make you grow bigger and the other side will make you grow smaller"
"One side of what? The other side of what?" thought Alice to herself.
"Of the mushroom," said the caterpillar.
Alice looked at the mushroom, trying to make out which were the two sides of it, as it was perfectly round.

(taken from the wikipedia page on koans).

The Free Reiki sessions at the Body, Mind and Spirit Exhibition

We did it.

Through the weekend there was the Body, Mind and Spirit Exhibition in Nicosia.

On Saturday, we had a room for three hours, giving people free Reiki. We had chairs and people would come in and sit on them and wait.
When we finished with one person, we would move on to the next, asking a few questions, explaining what we are doing, then having a short Reiki session with them. In the end, we would talk about the experience, answer some questions, and give them some written material on what Reiki is.

At the end, I felt very tired (I think the others were too) but the sense of accomplishment was there.

I don't know how to describe it really.

My pleasure, my sense of fulfillment is usually a simple thing (do something, get satisfaction).

In comparison, this was amazing.

Five minutes before we started, somebody came and asked if they were in the right place to find out about Reiki ... and I thought 'Hey, somebody might be interested in this ... '; but the room was always full, so full that after three hours with six Reiki masters, we didn't have the time to finish with everybody.

Then, there was the fact that we had something to offer, something people wanted to receive, sometimes so much that they came back for more.

There was answering the questions, the dialogues that came out of it, the sense of accomplishment.

There was the smiles of the people receiving this, and the people not wanting it to end.

Maybe it was all of those, or something else.

Maybe it was simply Reiki.

Whatever it was though, I think it will bring a smile on my face for quite some time now.

Whatever it was, in the end, we did it.

DoTheTest strikes again

See here for more details.

randomness on the tubes

The most important thing I read yesterday was a small piece called Zen is Boring (spirituality).

L sent me a very interesting piece on regular expressions engine implementations (technical, with code in classic C).
Thanks L!

I also found a story on paying a bill with a spider drawing (funny).

Nike has some googles expanding the field of vision, called hindsight (weird).

Also, here's an article on improving your charisma (interesting).

And in completely unrelated news, I just found this comment in our code today:

        case WAIT_OBJECT_0:     // look ma' no brakes :-)

The Matrix Has You ... in Windows

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

M., thanks for the link :)

eeebuntu on Asus EEE PC 1000H

I received my eee late last evening and installed eeebuntu today. The process was relatively straightforward, once I had all the pieces.

The pieces:
- eeepc iso image (torrent)
- UNetbootin: A windows application for turning a Linux distro CD image into an installable setup to be used with a flash drive.
- A 1/2Gb USB flash drive. I used a U3 Cruzer Micro, so in order to get a bootable USB drive I had to remove the U3 smart application from it. I did that with the U3 Launchpad Remover.
- The alternate kernel image (a kernel having the eee drivers compiled within. You can get those from here, but if you download them separately (like I did), follow the instructions from here
- The software configuration. This is a script doing it's magic, after the HW support has been set. The script can be found here.

Installation:
1. Get the ISO for the eeebuntu system.
2. Download UNetbootin. Within the application, choose the second option (Diskimage), load the ISO, then plug in the USB device and click OK.
2.a. In my case, I was using a Cruzer Micro USB drive. The device is seen as a read-only CD, and it mounts an extra partition for random access. To disable this, I used the U3 Launchpad Remover from U3.com.
3. Plug the USB device into the eee PC and restart (keep pressing F2 for the boot menu), follow the ubuntu setup.

At this step, you should have a functional linux installation, that unfortunately doesn't do that much.
Congratulations!

4. Copy the specialized kernel image to the USB device and install them. This only takes a few minutes, and the instructions to do so are here. You should make sure the laptop is wired to the network for the second part (Setup the Repository). Wireless network should not yet be functional.

5. Install the SW settings. The instructions for doing so can be found here.

6. Reboot.

7. There is no step 7.

The instructions were put together based on the eeeuser forum.

zen story

A student went to his meditation teacher and said, "My meditation is horrible! I feel so distracted, or my legs ache, or I'm constantly falling asleep. It's just horrible!"

"It will pass," the teacher said matter-of-factly.

A week later, the student came back to his teacher. "My meditation is wonderful! I feel so aware, so peaceful, so alive! It's just wonderful!'

"It will pass," the teacher replied matter-of-factly.

(taken from here)

a new favorite word

I wrote about favorite words before (see cruft and Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia).

The new word of the day is Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. Wikipedia claims it to be the longest word in the English language, and it apparently means a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust causing inflammation in the lungs.

So ... can anyone make a phrase that contains this word three times?

The US Elections Are Over a.k.a. Pedros

In a bar in Mexico, there was a Mexican drinking Tequila (of course!). All of a sudden, he heard someone yelling from outside:

Pedros, Pedros, somebody is stealing your horse!

He dashed outside, then suddenly stopped and realized:
Hey, I don't have a horse! He went back inside and got a new glass of Tequila.

Ten minutes later, he heard another voice yelling outside:

Pedros, Pedros, somebody is robing your house!

He dashed outside again, then suddenly stopped and realized:
Hey, I don't have a house! He went back inside and got a new glass of Tequila.

Ten minutes later, he heard another voice yelling outside:

Pedros, Pedros, somebody is kidnapping your wife!

He dashed outside again, then suddenly stopped and realized:
Hey, I'm not Pedros!

So ... what does that have to do with the US elections? Nothing much ...

... except that I knew very strongly who I was going to vote for ... and I'm not American.

Damn media! :-(

Good thing it's over though.

More Chameleonic Than a Chameleon

(found via reddit, via ovablastic)

Utnapistim for President

So ... it seems there's a surprise move in the campaign for the president of the US.

Watch the news here.

bokeh

I Got a License ...

... to kill.

Pedestrians that is.

Though, I heard that if you actually kill pedestrians, you go to jail and the license is revoked; or so the story goes anyway.

To put it in uninteresting terms, I got my driver's license today; It only took me between ten and fifteen lessons, almost an accident, and stressing the poor instructor out.

Today, it took from twelve PM to five PM, driving through the town, first with the instructor, then with the examiner.

Pedestrians BEWARE!
... of the utnapistim

US Democracy is ... Not a Democracy

Papa Stalin said it doesn't matter who votes, it matters who counts the votes (or something like that).

This guy gives court testimony under oath that the US voting machines are rigged.

How comes this is not front page news?

on Humanitary Calls ... Through Email

Today I got an email from a good friend of mine, asking to forward an email to three persons, the idea being that for each forward, AOL and ZDNET will pay .39$. The description of this email is here.

Since this happens from time to time - I still remember the outraged email I received about bonsai kittens asking to protest in order to stop the practice - I decided to write a short ... piece of advice(?) on how to forward emails like that.

The first thing to know about these emails is that most of them are hoaxes.

I'm not saying all of them are false, because I've also gotten a genuine one, from a friend (also about a little girl in need of a transplant).

Still, forwarding hoax emails does nothing good: it is lowering goodwill for genuine calls for help and getting your address into the wild (don't be surprised if you start getting spam shortly after forwarding).

When you want to forward an email like this, follow the following steps:
- first, take a phrase from the original email and search it on google. The phrase should be unique enough that you don't get results for something else (in my case I took Just for this morning, I am going to smile when I see your face).
- second, open the first few results: there are websites gathering chain-letters and certifying their truth value (like truthorfiction and breakthechain).

If the message proves to be a genuine call for help, when forwarding it, send the links you found relevant also, and explain why you think it's not a hoax.

If the message proves to be a hoax, send a reply to the sender with references and explain why you think it's a hoax.

This was my contribution to the bettering of the internet today.
Enjoy!

Gutei's finger

Gutei raised his finger whenever he was asked a question about Zen. A boy attendant began to imitate him in this way. When anyone asked the boy what his master had preached about, the boy would raise his finger.

Gutei heard about the boy's mischief. He seized him and cut off his finger. The boy cried and ran away. Gutei called and stopped him. When the boy turned his head to Gutei, Gutei raised up his own finger. In that instant the boy was enlightened.

When Gutei was about to pass from this world he gathered his monks around him. `I attained my finger-Zen,' he said, `from my teacher Tenryu, and in my whole life I could not exhaust it.' Then he passed away.

Mumon's comment: Enlightenment, which Gutei and the boy attained, has nothing to do with a finger. If anyone clings to a finger, Tenyru will be so disappointed that he will annihilate Gutei, the boy and the clinger all together.

Gutei cheapens the teaching of Tenyru,
Emancipating the boy with a knife.
Compared to the Chinese god who pushed aside a mountain with one hand
Old Gutei is a poor imitator.

(Koan from The Gateless Gate, by Mumon)

My comment: What is pushing a mountain with one hand compared with Gutei's finger?

this morning ... on reddit

There are a few things I found on reddit today that I found cool ... or funny (or whatever), so I thought I'd share:
The most dangerous person on earth
Two logical fallacies to avoid
Rickrolled cake

I'd put some more, but my code just finished compiling :-\

Paranoid Scenario (a.k.a. nineteeneightyfour)

It seems to me that in UK, it's enough to have an electronic storage device (like a cellphone, camera, USB flash-drive or computer) for the police to be able to arrest you and throw you in jail, for two to five years.

Let me explain that in detail:

First, the UK appeal court decided that if the police ask you for your encryption key, you have to provide it (That is, not having it is not an excuse).

Second, they could always ask for the key to decrypt your TrueCrypt partition. (TrueCrypt allows you to hide information in seemingly unoccupied data of the storage device, in such a way that no traces remain that data was ever there).

Third, good luck explaining that nothing is actually hidden there (that the seemingly random data in unoccupied space is actually random data in the unoccupied space); remember, not providing the (non-existent) key doesn't get you off the hook.

I hope I can ascribe this scenario to incompetence; the alternative (malice) makes me shiver.

Later edit: I can also ascribe this scenario to paranoia methinks ... :-\

new year in Romania

So, it seems we'll be staying in Romania until right after New Year. On the second day of the new year we'll take a boat^(*) towards Western Europe, to go skying.

It feels like plans started to take shape finally.

I just finalized the holiday tickets today, and I get the feeling we'll have to start looking for shelter for the new year's night.


-----
^(*) - Well ... maybe not a boat

how to get the girl

Warning: Stick characters were harmed during the creation of this video.



Got her good!

(via FP)

I want to become a shaman

So ... I started with Shamanism. It's an interesting path, with interesting tools and a whole world to explore.

Last weekend we did a shamanic workshop in Tochni village, where we learned how to contact the ancestors and establish a link with them. It was a thrilling weekend, full of very interesting experiences, and I am left with a rich experience and some doubts (yes, they are still there).

This week we did a course in soul retrieval. Some things got healed, some were brought to the surface and we were left with lots of self-work to do, with homework.

As such, I wanted to get it into my head that I became a shaman. Then, I found out what a shaman actually does, and I'm far far away from that ...

I'd like to become one though ... someday ...

The Job

teardrop

Clinging to Pain

The mechanism that makes you pissed at the world is the following:

First, something happens - not necessarily bad, but enough to affect you somehow: stop you from enjoying yourself, keep you from what you want, annoying you, whatever. Either way, let us call the effect it produces in you, minor annoyance, or temporary pain.

Second, you (you unconscious mind mostly) creates a story around that. Something along the lines of "I never get to enjoy what I want!"

Third, when the same event happens again, the story kicks in and you cling to your temporary pain. You actually hold on to it, letting it block you, hold you back from the present moment.

So yeah, this is the mechanism ... and if you're upset remember that what you're looking at is actually You, holding on to pain!

It's an example of masochism.

I just wanted to write it somewhere so I'll remember my sudden ... understanding?

The internet seemed like a good place.

forest floor

backlog

I finally took the time to go over my photography backlog ...

Landing

Taken upon landing on Larnaca Airport, tonight at eleven.

Paying attention

A squirrel I shot in Moldova, on Sunday morning.

Last day in Budapest ...

... Hotel Budapest, that is.

We're still going in office today, still working, but today evening we'll be on the plane back to Cyprus.

It's been nice (with all the tension that being with customers usually brings forth for me): I've actually managed to squeeze some hours of light for myself and took some squirell pictures (of all things).

I will try to process them and post them online in the next few days.

Now, I'm waiting for J to come downstairs, for checout. My luggage is near me (well, my backpack and camera bag), in the hotel lobby, as I'm writing this.

The hotel was very nice and I had the opportunity to enjoy some "bad weather" that I started missing while in Cyprus; actually, it was enough that I no longer miss it :-\.

Other impressions ... other impressions ... the food is similar enough to Romania that it got me to miss it. It's weird: I'm not a patriot in any sense to speak of, but I got a sense of home here that I don't usually get when going in Romania: the climate is similar, the food is ... almost the same, and the air smells like rain; on the other hand, the people seem more open than in Romania. Maybe that's why I enjoyed myself (I find the people I usually meet on the streets in Romania to be usually tense, not smile enough and always focusing on the empty side of the glass).

All that aside, I can't wait to get back to Limassol.

On Mind and Suffering

Most human suffering comes from being trapped in the jail of the mind. We are confused by the map and can't find the territory. Like Alzheimer's sufferers, our brains missidentify our surroundings and we become lost and confused. We have concepts that don't fit reality and reality that doesn't fit our concepts. We get further into the soup by trying to explain why the pieces don't fit. Then we make matters worse by trying to get ourselves and others to straighten up and fit in. We end by telling some kind of story that builds a case for ourselves, and trying to put on our best face so we can convince others we are the model for what fits, good and not bad, right and not wrong, capable, adequate to the task and so on.

Brad Blanton, Practicing Radical Honesty

traveling again

Well ... I'm traveling again. Tonight I'll be on my way to another country, carrying a ton of hardware with me, to give to a client.

On the good side, I'll be taking my camera along, I'll have a pool in the hotel, and it's a new country to see.

On the ... other side, I might not have time to enjoy the hotel, no time to take pictures and probably not enough time to see the county.

TED: Jonathan Haidt: The real difference between liberals and conservatives

This is one of the most insightful speeches on politics and spirituality I've ever seen.

lenovo; now with more ... err ... something?

thinker vs. dreamer

When it comes to knowledge, there are two paths you can take: the one created in ancient Greece, and the one developed in ancient India. That's it. The rest of them, are either derived systems, or similar in nature to one or the other.

The Ancient Greece path to knowledge is the path of the thinker. It is that of logic and measurement, of deduction and step-by-step reasoning. It is about creating a cohesive mental model of the world and "running simulations" inside that model, then, adjusting the model (and deepening understanding).

The Indian school, is that of intuitive knowledge, the path of the dreamer. It is about contemplation and visualization, about looking at things without taking them apart, about sudden flashes of understanding, being in the now; about seeing the flow without interrupting the flow, about dismissing all mental simulations and seeing the world as it really is.

The two schools correspond to the types of knowledge controlled by the two hemispheres of the brain: you have the left-side of the brain, the logical side, and the right side, the intuitive one.

For us Westerners, it's difficult to grasp the oriental path, as our entire education process skips over the capabilities of the right side of the brain. When taught, you are given information, dates, numbers, sentences, the how-to of doing things, methods and rationales.

The intuitive side is completely ignored. You will have a chance to develop your intuitive side if you're arts-oriented as a career, but even then, intuition and intuitive knowledge is not explored as a path to understanding, but merely develops as a side effect.

More than that, some right-sided brain activities are seldom spoken of in polite company. You will get one reaction if you speak of the scientific process and a completely different reaction if you speak of the state of inner peace obtained through deep meditation; if you get to claim that this clearness of mind brings you closer to reality, depending on your audience, you might even find yourself in trouble.

I believe it is very difficult for us ("us" meaning westerners) to understand how far the intuitive mind can go; it is very easy to state that "well ... you can tell if your significant other is cheating on you", or to generalize this kind of statement to affirmations like "intuition is just the mind coming to a conclusion without being consciously aware of all the clues it has available". Unfortunately, that just a rationalization of intuition, and as far as understanding goes, it just scratches the surface.

To understand how deep the intuitive mind can go, one has to actually go with it. We don't do that though. We keep shunning it, dismissing it, even though clues to the abilities of the intuitive mind are there.

Out of the top of my head:

Wade Davis spoke of a people in the Amazon rain-forest, that were locating particular plants, "because the plants told them where they were". We have no idea what that means, but rush to consider such people "primitives".

Meditation has noticeable effects in people suffering from lots of things, from ADHD to epilepsy. It also has effects on attention span, and attention distribution and is among the most useful tools in reducing stress. Efforts to understand what is happening in meditation are being made, but it's a fringe effort, virtually unknown. Meanwhile, the stigma is there.

To pull an Argumentum ad Auctoritatem, here's a quote:

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

Albert Einstein

That's all I had to say about it.

For now.

I'll probably say more about it, later.

on drm aka spore failed

I've read all kinds of rants online about Digital Rights Management, or DRM for short. Two things I got impressed about regarding this, were a slashdot signature (that said DRM is managing your digital rights in the same way a jail manages your freedom) and the idea that DRM is basically an anti-feature (concept best explained here).
More than that, vendors endorsing it risk burning themselves by quietly selling DRM-embedded products, as potential customers automatically vote against it, with their wallets. You can bet your customers will not make an informed decision, but that only works for short-term gains, as customers have a long memory.

Today it's the first time I've seen an expression of the second part of that, in the amazon comments page for the game Spore; Spore was a much awaited game, promising the kind of game-play change brought forth by Black & White or Doom. Unfortunately, it comes with a DRM saying the game is not yours; you pay 50$ for it, then are allowed to reinstall it three times, before they pull the plug on you.

In short, you RENT it for up to three uses, for 50$. to give a comparison term, I bought The Orange Box online, through Steam, for less. That comprised three games, all of them excellent, that I'm still enjoying. More than that, I've reinstalled my system a few times, and whenever I reinstall Steam, the games are available to me (and already payed for).

On Amazon's page for the game, all comments I've read state clearly that paying 50$ for basically renting the game is not worth it, especially when you have no control over the renting agreement.

There may be comments I haven't read on the site, but still, the message is pretty clear:

EA, stop treating potential customers as pirates!

First, you will loose sales.

Second, locks are there to keep honest people out. Using the DRM conditions you use, is just bringing pain to potential customers.

If you really want to use an online distribution platform, for heaven's sake, use Steam (or something similar).

Third, if you're hell-bent on renting the game instead of selling it, state so clearly on the box.

I'm tired ranting ... back to work :)

a commercial about nothing?

smile

the same

Each perception is unique and we often perceive others through the prism of their projected qualities and defects.

That is, we have a (more or less) clear idea of things we like and don't like, and use it to look at other people, through it. We don't see what others are, just the things we admire in ourselves - reflected in them, and things we are afraid to admire in ourselves - reflected from them back to us. We call these qualities and defects, and the process of doing so, is usually called judgment.

I've been struggling with this as of late, as there is one person that causes a somewhat strong reaction in me. That is, there is one person I keep having a mental dialog with, one person I keep seeing as twisted, one person I cannot bring myself to accept, to let them be.

I've been trying to stop this, repeatedly with little or no success, as (in the abstract) I realize that nobody can be that evil;

I've told myself for a while now, that any issues I have with others, I have with myself, that any conflict I have with another, I must first deal with within myself. yet this only lead me on a fast road, to nowhere.

Then, yesterday I realized that there is no fundamental difference between us. He's not stronger, cannot dominate, cannot impose, cannot lie, cannot give me my reality, unless I allow him to: whatever he does I can undo, whatever view he has is his view and not mine, whatever power he has I also have.
On the other side, whatever quality I have he also does, whatever deeply-human issue I struggle with he also encountered, or if he didn't he will. Just give it time.

I was just demonizing him somehow.

In the end, we just deal with it differently and that's all there is to it.

We are all the same.

100 years forecast

I found this linked on reddit and thought it humorous (if maybe plausible). If someone wants credit for it, drop a comment.

through the weekend

Some impressions from the weekend:
- it's easy to enter the Alpha and Theta frequency bands of the brain;
- extra-sensory perceptions use the right side of the brain; as such, you cannot look for (worded) information while in a trance (doing that usually yields false information - things from your subconscious); instead look for sensory perceptions: taste, images, smell, noise and so on;
- it's nice to take a bath in the sea in the evening;
- you can use subtle, unconscious changes in your body's behavior to get answers you don't consciously have; a pendulum works by exploiting this.
- visualization can prepare you for facing a new situation and preparing to go through it, almost as well as going through it for practice. This is one of the roles dreaming fulfills.
- it's easy to analyze the symbols in your own dreams, but that interpretation doesn't apply well to others.
- if you do too many things through the weekend, you miss the opportunity to rest.