Someone called “paulthewineguy” has created a collection “understanding art for geeks” where he fuses classic art with modern computer lingo and the latest memes.. resulting in something which I am not sure how to handle.. on the one hand it’s shameless on the other hand it’s just too funny (if you are of the geeky type, that is…)
some examples:
here is his page: paulthewineguy.com
and here his album: (flickr)
Finally I have been in the snow again… it has been.. years?
I don’t remember when I was walking through 1 meter snow for the last time but it feels (and looks) wonderful.
Above Sofia there is a low hanging layer of clouds, the only way to get away from it is to climb (or take the lift) up to Vitosha and look at it from above, which we did :)
Anna has two albums online, over there @Picasaweb. It also has pics of Vincent.
http://picasaweb.google.com/anna.m.georgieva/Winter2007Part1/
http://picasaweb.google.com/anna.m.georgieva/PurvaKoledaBg/
So, finally we went to see the “golden compass” movie, which turned out to be quite decent stuff. (if you forgive them for shamelessly copying from Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings)
For my personal feeling it was too fast-paced for a fantasy story, I mean, if you have read the Lord of the Rings and then watched the movie you probably know what I mean, it’s like watching a movie with the fast forward on all the time.
Afterwards I was thinking about the “Daemons” a lot.. call them Totems, call them your soul, call them whatever anthropomorphic personification of your personality, I loved the idea, being in the company of a cat spirit since I can think this really was a pleasure to watch.
However, they state on their website that you can “find” your own daemon by answering a couple of personality questions. Then others can confirm/change it if necessary by answering more questions.. why don’t you help me find my Daemon?
I absolutely dislike neglecting this website.. but finally I found something beautiful to post again!
How to make a beautiful christmas decoration from paper, post-it and a stapler (making it perfect for the office!)
the whole thing looks like this:
and the instructions are very simple to follow for such an amazing piece of decoration. :)
I just created one in my lunchbreak in the office, it is hanging above the entrance now… Next I’ll use silver paper or multicoloured paper for home.
Source: WikiHow
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Today my grandfather passed away. The last of my grandparents and the one that we all saw as the head of the family.
All his life he was a teacher, in school but also out of school – especially when dealing with his grandchildren. We hated him for that but this is also what made him so special. The one that was always right. Even if he wasn’t right he at least knew it better :)
Günther, Gott hab Dich selig! Und mach dem grossen Boss das Leben nicht so schwer, bitte. Wir sehen Dich schon da oben sitzen wie Aloysius, wie Du den Engeln zeigst, wie sie besser singen können…
Der alte Rüdel hat in seinem Leben so viel erlebt, eigentlich sollte man ein Buch über ihn schreiben.. bin gespannt, wer das macht.
So traurig wie ich auch gerade bin, so sehr sehe ich doch ein dass der Tod zum Leben gehört und dass ich die Verantwortung für die nächste Generation in mir trage.. Vincent, Du bist jetzt die Hauptperson. :)
…are the two things that make my day at the moment.
Apart from Anna and my job, that is.
Every free minute goes either to the small guy or to my studies for the CCNA.
Both are making progress at breathtaking speed and keep amazing me.
Anna is making a big effort and tries to provide as many “silent” minutes for me as possible to study – although it is almost a sin not to watch him play and “sing” :)
For the rest, I am feeling suprisingly good (for this time of the year when I usually get depressed and/or moody). It seems to work out that I switch all lights in the house in the morning. At least till I get myself a “wake-up light” that sounds like a great way to wake up instead of a beeping noise. 100 Watt lightbulb that slowly raises to its full power within 30 minutes to simulate dawn.
for the first time since I don’t know how long I had to call in sick today.. after all these years with “weekend-sickness” (meaning I get to work again on monday) this time we really cought something. Actually, we suspect Vincent having brought this home from the daycare (if you look at the children’s noses you should suspect that) ;)
Anyway, both Anna and me (and poor Vincent) have congested noses and can hardly breathe, cough a lot and have temperature. For Vincent this is even worse, as he can’t drink like this. (Try to drink a glass of water while you hold your nose closed… tricky!)
Germany (the government, that is) is actively pursuing the development (since 2005) and deployment (since 2007) of a trojan horse that they use to secretly search through computers of citizens. It is dubbed “Bundestrojaner” and its official description is “remote forensic software”
See more about it here: (wikipedia)
This is following the argumentation that (freely interpreted):
“If you don’t have anything to hide, you should not have a problem with this software”
By the way: The post of the CCC that the trojan was hidden in the tax software was a April fool’s joke meant to sensitize people, I absolutely fell for it.. teaches me to think before I panic in the future ;)
Recently, all “hacking tools” have been prohibited in Germany. What is next?
In a recent move, Angela Merkel has forced an amendment to the liberty laws through Der Bundestag. It is from now on prohibited to use any operating system that is non-trivial to break into.
German police have started to do house-to-house searches of Internet users reported to be not hackable by the Security Services (SS) of the Federal Government.More action is to follow soon, the Minister of Information of the Federal Government, who only wanted to be known by his initials, JG, confirmed:
“We have outlawed the use and ownership of any so-called security tool, to liberate Germans from FUD, Fear Uncertainty and Danger. We have outlawed any operating system that hinders the proper execution of the tasks of the SS.” He promised to follow up on speculations of setting up a re-education camp for deviant Internet users in Bergen-Belsen. He asked the reporter to supply his e-mail address, in order to deliver the adequate response into her mailbox as soon as that response was ready.
Somebody once said: “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” – I hope we won’t have to let it come to that.
Today I decided to listen to a CD – yeah, these shiny things that contain music… they were in use before mp3 took over the market and we all started downloading mp3 like crazy
Anyway, because I didn’t have a mp3 recording of Beethoven’s 5th symphony I played it from CD… and I got tears in my eyes.
The music, so crystal clear, so voluminous, so…. deep. It has been some time that my MB Quart speakers have produced such a sound.. the sound they were produced for.
I then went to my harddrive and began erasing all <192k mp3 files, making notes to replace them with either VBR mp3 files (see “how to make perfect mp3 files”) or converting straight away to OGG, AAC+ or even lossless FLAC. Never again do I want to listen to crappy mp3 sound without a “soul”
I have not been listening to a CD for.. I don’t know how long. Time to re-invent the wheel ;)